Journey to Ixtlan

We are all outsiders in our own special way. The appearance of a normal group, with their dogmatic rules, invites the role of the outsider. How to react? What does the group want? This is a poem on that subject.

Outsider's Strife
Poem for Day 83 – 20141215

So speaks the outsider with an inner critique:
I am a stranger among you, can you handle me?
By action I am foreign, ways not your own.
By identity I contrary, an abnormal quantity.
By beliefs I am different, a puzzle to you.
Standards of relating fail when you meet my face.
Friction will be the outcome if realize my place.

What would you name this disconnect?
outsider, heretic
maverick, eccentric
dissenter, bohemian
pervert, abomination

So speaks the group in a voice to shriek:
We are the group, seeking continuance of sanity.
We are to connect in a very certain way.
Rigid adherence is needed to continue the norm.
We hate your difference, but we love you.
Change you way and find shelter in our arms.
Shuck the sin and find the sacred path.

We have our ways to reinforce the path:
philosophy, law
dogma, tradition
morals, rules
ethics, beliefs

The outsider hears the voices: inner and outer.
How will they react with a deck so stacked?
To be true to themselves is fraught with peril.
The outsider speaks of a plan and seeks a path unwise.

So I could break the laws and garner your hate.
I will violated your morals so sin is my fate.
Your traditions are foreign, a creation of your kind.
Your dogma and morals are from your institutions.
None of these things are who I truly am.
None of this matters, for I am a stranger in your midst.

In the end I will hide in your teaming hoard.
A stranger to wear the mask of the scaremonger.
Your traditions I will wear as a cloak not my own.
Morals I will parrot while I go on covert.
I die a little each day in this sham of a life.
To do so is the way of the outsider's strife.

© 2014. Sean Green. All Rights Reserved.

I feel truly sad when I observe the behavior of those who act for groups. The irony is that the individuals are doing nothing wrong themselves. Their intentions are pure (enough). Somehow the good intentions are subverted and end up harming others as little evils are perpetrated by a larger group dynamic. I can expect this from groups as a whole. My heart is pained when I see people in spiritual groups acting the same way.

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Once upon a time I hoped that spiritual groups could do something to keep the shadows at bay. Maybe some quality of personal or group character could be attained that other groups don't have. Sadly, I see spiritual groups as much at risk for succumbing to the shadows of the group dynamic.

I ask my LJ friends these questions... do the spiritual groups have any moral/character advantage over other groups, or are they merely an imperfect but serviceable vehicle for discovering the divine? If you are or were a member of a spiritual group, what drew you to membership? How did the spiritual group improve your life?