Neque enim omnia deus homini facit.
(Seneca, Naturales Quaestiones 7.30.3)

For the divine does not do everything for humanity.

(Pron = NEH-kweh EH-nim OHM-nee-ah DAY-oos HOH-mih-nee FAH-kit).

Comment: The notion of a “god” out there is one that I have become very
suspicious of, and it is a suspicion that I have developed very carefully over
the years.
I have been very religious and spiritually inclined all of my life, even as a
child and teenager, and in ways that are probably not “normal”. In other
words, I’ve done a lot of time with the idea of “god” and have two degrees to
go with it!

I have come to the conclusion that belief in a “god out there” is, for me, very
unhealthy. The word “god” is used, in English, to create the belief in a power
that is up, over, above and beyond us, and, most importantly, SEPARATE, from us.
It is this separation that is most harmful. I could write chapters on the
damage done by various religionists who capitalize on this notion of the
separation of that which is supposed to be the ALL-GOOD and ALL-KNOWING from us
as human beings. The result, in my own life and observations, are disastrous.

If there is a divinity that is the core and essence of what is, then it is shot
through everything that exists—trees and rocks, streams and oceans, the wind
and air and storms, lightening and fire and volcanoes, AND you and me.

Seneca’s stoicism participated unwittingly in this Great Separation. He had to
affirm that god did not do everything for human beings in order to get
followers to follow the Stoic Rules. In so doing, he also had to add to this
western perversion of spirituality that the divine was separate from being
human.

I’d write it another way: we do everything. And we are one of millions (or
billions or trillions) of beings through which the Great Divine flows, moves
and works.

For me, it is a good time of year to reflect on this Great Separation, and to
acknowledge that I don’t accept it anymore. If we can allow that the divine is
shot through all that is, then the tree in my living room (and the forest in my
back yard), the baby in the manger, the stars in the sky, the full moon that is
about to blossom over the next few nights, the kindling of new fire at the
Winter Solstice next week, the lights of Hanukah, the candles and virtues of
Kwanza, the wonderful, smiling and laughing faces of those who gather at
parties with us—all reveal the same thing. The divine is in us, with us,
through us, around us and is us (pardon the grammar!). And it always has been
here. Not out there. Nothing to seek. Only something to accept, be,
participate in.