Divinity is Within
Entheism = En (within) + theism (belief in God)
Divinity is Within
Entheism = En (within) + theism (belief in God)
Foundations of our faith
Entheism affirms that the true basis of spiritual authority comes from within. Entheism aims to encourage the free and open construction of personal systems of existential meaning which complement human rights and our symbiosis with the Earth.
Spiritual sovereignty requires recognition of the fact that our religious identities are socially constructed. True freedom of religion is only possible where the social construction of rituals, symbols, and beliefs is acknowledged as participatory and interactive, and thus not constrained by the orthodoxy of conventional faiths and traditional authority.
By acknowledging ideological discourse as semantic constructions, we can understand how truths may be found in many, if not all religions.
Entheism, while being a syncretic religion in practice, may also serve as a meta-religion; a framework for synthesizing religious ideologies.
There need be no intermediaries as in traditional organized religions. Any Being may engage in deep questions of existence and direct experience of the Divine through education, reflection, meditation, embodiment, and entheogenic practices.
In Entheism, spiritual hierarchies are nullified. There is no dogma. All individuals have the power to say “I am,” which potentially carries the same profundity with which all prophets meant. With this deep revelation of humanity’s inherent Divinity comes personal responsibility.
Our mission is to encourage the spiritual sovereignty of individuals all over the world.
How we understand the Divine
We recognize the inherent Divinity of all Beings, the truth that we are God with omnipresence in our duality. We remember that in all faiths there is wisdom.
We acknowledge that the gods of ancient texts can be understood as products of mystical revelation and are subject to the synthesis of the prophets’ psyches who came before.
We hold no claim to the affirmation or denial of the existence of the pantheon of deities, spirits, entities, gods, angels, or demons. That is a transpersonal exploration relegated to each individual on their sovereign path.
Without awareness of our infinite, loving consciousness, the unawakened being may not realize there is no Other. Even for the most divergent of moral incarnations, we may be grateful that they live their permutation of reality so that we do not have to. This recognizes the purpose of such beings from the seat of empathy. It does not excuse malevolence, but it allows the awakened to release judgement of moral aberration.
In recognition of our inherent Divinity we recall in Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.” We understand that “I” has always been intrinsic. Misunderstanding can only occur where there is division. When our oneness is recognized there can be only understanding.
God looks through all eyes. “I am you, you are me, we are One. What I do to you I do to myself.” This is the basis of empathy. Yet not all Beings act in accordance with empathy.
"I am that, I am."
Individuation
"The moment a child comes into this world they know no differentiation between themselves and the light, the cool air, their mother or father’s face. To the child they are that: awareness without boundary or definition." —Rev. Alex Himes
As we progress from birth through life we are taught to identify with separateness. Our ego, or constructed sense of self, is an emergent property of socialization. It is necessary to navigate duality. Difference is inherent to life and is cause for celebration. It is human nature to express individuality.
We condemn no Being based solely on divergence of ideology. Tension at the borders of difference need not resolve through domination. Conflict can be metabolized through creative encounter: dialogue, ritual, art, movement, and shared nourishment.
Through creative and peaceful reconciliation we may broaden understanding. Diversity becomes a source of strength when it is organized with intentionality, then it becomes harmonized plurality.
Embodiment
The body is a living temple. Each Being may consecrate their temple according to their own path. Sensory pleasure is part of the gift of contrast within duality.
The seeking of sensation can enrich experience, yet it can also disrupt balance and harmony when it becomes compulsive or dissociated from presence. There is no inherent moral failing in hedonism. Some hedonic patterns, however, can lead to self-imposed suffering and deeper entanglement with egoic reactivity.
Certain sacraments and entheogenic medicines may catalyze awakening and expanded awareness. Other substances can dampen luminosity, fragment attention, and amplify egoic fixation.
Examples often observed include alcohol, cocaine, opiates, and some pharmaceuticals when misused. Engagement with such dampening substances is not a moral failure. It more often reflects wounding and unmet pain.
For the unawakened the most elusive realization is the gracious and loving nature of the Divine self, the “I Am.”
Free Will and Divine Agency
Every conscious Being, regardless of kingdom, class, or creed, is an expression of the Divine and holds inherent cognitive liberty and bodily autonomy. Agency is violated when consent or sovereignty is breached, whether physically, sexually, psychologically, or structurally.
The only moral ground for curtailing an individual’s freedom is the protection of other Beings’ agency. Actions that oppress or violate non-consenting persons constitute a forfeiture of certain freedoms proportional to the harm enacted.
Shadow
The shadow is the dimension of psyche in which disowned impulses, fears, wounds, and potentials reside. It is not solely malevolence but the full spectrum of rejected, repressed, or unacknowledged aspects of Being. Where empathy fails, shadow acts unconsciously. Where shame represses based on virtue, shadow seeks expression through a distortion of the repressive virtue. When communities deny shadow, it expresses collectively as scapegoating, persecution, or domination masked as righteousness.
Integration of shadow requires lucid self-honesty and compassionate witnessing. One must recognize their capacity for harm without collapsing into identification with a violent or harmful nature.
Entheism recognizes the shadow as the repressed self. It is the victim advocating for moral dominance, or surrendering to inflicting pain from a place of vindictive moral abandonment. Shadow is not a sin to be condemned. Shadow work is integration of darkness through validation of the emotions that guide the subconscious in reactivity. It brings unconscious patterns into awareness, allowing sensation and memory to surface, and processing them through somatic grounding. Rewiring each moment to be grounded in safety from within.
Violence persists where shadow is projected outward. Healing begins where projection is withdrawn and responsibility assumed. Each Being carries archetypal potentials for creation and destruction, care and cruelty. Thus integration restores agency. The integrated Being no longer requires domination or dissociation to regulate inner tension.
Communities grounded in shadow awareness cultivate accountability without exile. Harm is named clearly. Protection of the vulnerable remains priority. Restoration is sought where possible, containment where necessary. Such cultures reduce the cycles of repression and eruption that perpetuate violence across generations.
"Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is part of the individual's conscious life the blacker and denser it is... it may burst forth unexpectedly."
Carl Jung
Violence
Violence includes physical harm, sexual violation, psychological coercion, and systemic oppression that strips agency from passive or non-consenting persons. When a Being commits such acts, protective and corrective responses become ethically necessary, particularly in cases of repeated harm.
Corrective action must aim at restoration of safety and prevention of further violation. The guiding principle is the defense of agency, not retribution. These obligations arise from the moral imperative to protect the autonomy and dignity of all Beings. Malevolence is true devotion to harm and the absence of empathic accountability. To rise above patterns of violence we must integrate our shadow.
Leadership
Leadership is the stewardship of conditions in which others may remember their wholeness. A leader’s task is to cultivate environments of trust, clarity, and mutual respect while remaining accountable to the same principles they uphold.
If a leader’s moral imperative is exercise of power and grandiosity rather than stewardship of community and empowerment of more leaders, then it is not leadership but megalomania.
Where there is a gathering of many shared or diverse beliefs, organization will occur through self-selection of desired accountability to communal effort. Authority is justified only insofar as it protects consent, dignity, and agency of all beings.
Hierarchy must be self-aware in its purpose, and will emerge as a natural product of self-organizing systems. To deny it's inevitability creates circumstances in which community is susceptible to consolidation of power.
Ceremony
Stewardship of community will at times necessitate creating and holding space for Beings to integrate sacramental experiences, emotions, and trauma with a grounded and balanced presence.
To hold space without judgement or imposition is to release attachment to outcome and to honor the sovereignty of each Being’s unfolding. You must not peel the petals of a flower, simply let it bloom.
Those who steward spaces of awakening may at times need to disengage when safety or alignment is no longer present. Such disengagement is not failure. When separation is necessary, it should be conducted with clarity, care, and responsibility. Wherever possible, ensure that the journeyer has integration support beyond the facilitator.
Leadership is the stewardship of conditions in which others may remember their wholeness.
"Not only are we in the universe, the universe is in us. I don't know of any deeper spiritual feeling than what that brings upon me."
— Neil DeGrasse Tyson
"We are not forced to take wings to find Him, but only to seek solitude and to look within ourselves."
—St Teresa of Avila
"If I am to know God directly, I must become completely He and He I, so that this He and this I become and are one I."
—Meister Eckhart
"The Kingdom of God is within you."
—Jesus Christ Luke 17:20, 21
"I am in them and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one."
—John 12:23
"Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?"
— Corinthians 3:16
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