313AD

(In Jack’s early years he went to Uni and read Politics and Theology, as the fulfilment of his promise to his parents. Part of the deal was that after he had graduated, he would then devote his life to poetry. However, politics and theology have never really left him and so if there’s an axe to grind, this is where he gravitates to, as lenses to view the world through).

313AD - This date marks the aligning of the Church with Imperial Power. Christianity was born as an illegitimate child; a synthesis between the teachings of Christ with the Imperial passions of the Emperor Constantine.

 THE CONSTANTINIAN STANDARD

Those who have allied themselves with this power play have fallen, or having willingly complied with an Imperial Faith. Christianity is the ultimate form of Imperialism, as the Kingdom of God is extended through military conquest. If you are in doubt to the military aggrandisement, Constantine had a standard made for the Armies of Rome, in the form of a cross. This shows a lack of consciousness in the politically powerful of the day; as the Cross was a form of punishment for political transgressors and insurrectionists.

And yet, here we have the Emperor wanting, praying for a sign to ‘know’ that god was with him in his Imperial exploits. The vision he received was of ‘the Christ’, who strangely acquiesces to a political, military alliance.

Christianity was not the logical extension of, nor was it the rational or reasonable conclusion to the teachings of Jesus. Yes, I’ll say it again, Christianity was the ultimate form of Imperialism, because it does everything in an through Divine Power.

Whether an Imperial Power or Nation-State, this wedding is not out of love, but out of political necessity; namely fear of the enemy, of those who are not Us, but are Them. Anything with this label, ‘Other’, is seen as a threat, an enemy of the State, and when thinking in terms of Imperial Faith, a heretic, a child of the Devil, or the Antichrist to the Christ State. Here we have the ultimate inversion, or perversion of the teachings of Jesus.

 THE ANTICHRIST STATE

Today, in my stark reality, of Shula and Nic as victims, not of the Christ State as such, but the Antichrist State. Perhaps this is a return to sanity, in the light of my objections to Imperialistic Christianity. Here, the State has turned predator, on those who show any semblance of resistance to their authority and refuse its so-called benevolence. This word doesn’t stand with its usual definition, but it is a sop, a transaction, commensurate with Thirty Pieces of Silver.

What is being given up by the citizen or subject, but their freedom; because they have no voice, or no need of one; they are seemingly self-satisfied, even with their own destruction.

Even when, as a sign of this benevolence, the population in the cities are split between Professional and Menial Classes and within that bifurcation there are strata which, depending on hierarchies of profession, or for the Menial groups for workers. Each stratum has different resources attached to it, in terms of housing and education, along with the opportunities afforded by them.

In my case, and Shula’s also, she as a representative on the board of the Floran Fashion House, she had a higher classification of citizenship than I did. She was allowed, because of her status, to travel to Europe, but if I went along with her, she was restricted to Northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands. It meant, for a short while that I was able to venture to the Continent and meet with those who were offering resistance in their own countries; for the Antichrist State was not just a British phenomenon.

We had to be careful, as we knew I was being watched wherever I went. This after all, was the beginning of a new surveillance State. Shadowing through fear is a most pernicious development of Statehood.

 UNHOLY ALLIANCE

Let’s go back to this unholy alliance between Church and State, or the adoption of the Church by the State. Here we go, and so the very Powers that we are told Jesus overcame with his resurrection from his murder on the cross, are the very self-same Powers that the Constantinian Christians allied themselves with in 313AD. It is not then, an incredible leap of faith as to why in our world of Corpocracy, that the Church became the puppet of the State. What comes around goes around. The couple that went through the divorce courts, have become reconciled.

Or to put it another way, with an apocalyptic gloss; the false prophets lie down with the politicians and conceive a bastard child that keeps claiming legitimacy.

 THE PHILOKALIA

We can see why after 313AD, there were those who headed for the deserts of the Middle East, to free themselves from this diabolical religion. The lovers of beauty[1] became the mystics of the wilderness experience.

My diabolical situation was one of political reality and being someone who had a voice, the disproof of the benevolent State, was that it silenced anyone who disagreed with their grip on power.

Where then do you go, you may ask? Well, I found my own desert in a small community of ‘mystics’, those who had a voice and were not willing to collaborate with the dark spiritual Powers ruling over our world. But doesn’t a voice need to cry out, to be heard above the noise, the clamour of the political and ecclesiastical droning?

I am reminded of the saying “The truth needs only to be whispered to be heard.” And that is the voice of the subversive. Let’s whisper together!

Jack Stanza

[1] otherwise known as The Philokalia, which is a collection of writings by these desert dwellers.

A FOOTNOTE FOR AN AFTERTHOUGHT:

The reason you feel this disempowerment/disenfranchisement is because the System doesn’t recognise nor understand you or your gifts; and what it doesn’t understand, it marginalises - as a kind of quarantining - to minimise any threat of contamination that it may perceive as possible from your presence.

In the light of this, we should perhaps not react from our sense of frustration, but really take note of their objections. This System, be it political or religious, is not where your are supposed to be .

Shula* would call this soul-talk, of a deep inner sense that Spirit is leading us elsewhere.

Now, it should be said that it is easier to stay in that marginalised state and fight your ground - on their territory - or try to argue your cause through caustic language, but the Universe is trying to tell you to move; that there is a bigger landscape for you to discover. This believe it or not, is the harder option, because you have to leave a familiar place and take the opportunity to find out who the ‘true you’ is. It’s that exciting! The lessons for this will take you through difficult terrain, but you are not alone.

However, you have to decide how long you can stand being a slave to systems, even ones which operate, or so they say, by their appeal to a higher authority.

What I chose to do, was to walk away from the systems of oppression and control and this led to a much richer life in the company of like-minded people; rich not just artistically, but socially too. My imagination was wired day and night to a tremendous energy, a spiritual force that helped me discover this true-self and also discover that I was loved.

• Shula was Jack’s partner and mother to Strix, or Nic as they called him.