Ever since Jesus Christ died on the cross, sacrifice has been touted as the way of true love and followed by billions of people in their striving for goodness. Today sacrifice is ubiquitous in relationships, yet its implications are not well understood.

Whenever we opt to do anything other than fulfill our desire, for instance help a sibling move though we’d rather be reading a book, we are sacrificing our connection to Spirit and potential. And when we choose the opposite, refusing to help for no socially acceptable reason, we are sacrificing our power, for the failure to support will surely put a strain on our relationships with others to the point of losing their affection and assistance. In this hideous scenario of ‘doomed if you do, doomed if you don’t’, sacrifice leads to deprivation in either case and is, in Truth, the very works of evil. Only when our loved ones are truly loving, i.e. when they prefer us to fulfill our desires rather than their needs, can we ever escape the trap of sacrifice.

The standard model of social behaviour sees women sacrificing the fulfillment of their desire for the sake of their connections to others, thereby ensuring love and support from a partner, friend or family member; and men forming connections for the sake of pleasure or comfort and rejecting commitment to ensure sexual freedom, mistakenly seeking fulfillment in the consumption of matter. Such behaviour of man and woman as two parts of the same Soul has dire implications for the Soul’s existence on Earth: as the woman’s desire always leads to the Soul’s connection to Spirit and to potential, her sacrifice of fulfillment out of lack of power/love implies a disconnect from Spirit, and thus impotence for both male and female.

This impotence manifests as a lack of wisdom: in woman as the power to channel potential to the man and be valued by him for this, rather than for pleasure-giving services; and in man as the ability to embark on conquering the right mountain and experiencing potency and meaning, instead of exhausting himself in fighting windmills and suffering failure and a loss in self-worth. The resulting state is women lacking protection, love and matter, and men lacking purpose, potency and fulfillment.

Upon sacrificing its connection to Spirit, the Soul is left with no way to abundance and power other than via matter, keeping itself in the loop of impotence indefinitely. At the root of this loop is the man’s preference for pleasure over potential, of feeling good over being worthy, and of matter over Spirit. This preference deprives the woman of his commitment and appreciation, forcing her to supplicate it from others by fulfilling their desires at the cost of her own, whether in a friendship or employment. The only way for the Soul to escape the loop of impotence is for the man to forgo pleasure at the cost of the woman’s safety and power, extending his commitment and support unconditionally in an effort to ensure her fulfillment. His commitment frees the woman from sacrifice to others and allows her to follow her desire, thereby connecting the Soul to Spirit’s wisdom. From that moment on the connection becomes the woman’s responsibility, in the form of growing in sensitivity and wisdom to discern emotional needs from true desires, and avoid sacrificing.

The fulfillment of woman’s desire is the man’s responsibility, and the driving power behind the Soul’s progress into empowerment, or the receiving of wisdom from Spirit. Without fulfillment, the Soul is doomed to repeat the same experiences, like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day, trapped in a state of stagnation and deprived of the power to leave until its lessons are learned. The sacrifice of the woman’s desire is therefore an act of self-sabotage, while her unconditional fulfillment an act of empowerment at the Soul level.

At the level of God and humanity, Jesus’ crucifixion constituted humanity’s sacrifice of Spirit, namely of Jesus’ desire for the Soul’s salvation by means of ascension in consciousness. It allowed humanity to exist in a state of evil, forcing the Holy Spirit to remain connected to the human Soul and exposed to its force and greed with no recourse to safety and protection. Spirit’s wide availability and easy access via sensual pleasure devalued and depreciated it in the Soul’s eye, bringing about a decline in values, wisdom, integrity, nobility and love across the globe.

Today’s worldwide manifestations of the depreciation of Spirit are poverty and lack (Africa), reactivity (Middle East), force (US), addictions (South America), waste (Asia), unlovingness (Europe), and disconnect (Australia), giving rise to extreme Spirit abuse in the form of the desolation of nature and animals, and the rise of Sodom-and-Gomorrah-type cities at all levels of depravity. Also matter is defiled as humanity’s respect for its own manifestation has fallen greatly: the greed for power has cut off the desire for abundance, quality and beauty, yielding waste and lack everywhere, and especially in societies oversupplied with cheap goods and undernourished in appreciation and meaning.

The Soul’s depreciation of Spirit also played itself out in human relationships. As women have, throughout history, sacrificed their desires to fulfill their existential needs, men’s appreciation for femininity plunged deeply, bringing about a lack of female protection and safety in relationships, and consequently an increase in women striving for power all over the world. Both men and women are impoverished as a result of such sacrifice: men lost the love, warmth, sensuality and grace of a blooming femininity, victims of women’s necessary self-protection and rise into power, independence and achievement. Women, having become powerful, found themselves fighting it out with men rather than being loved by them. Women everywhere are deprived of heroes in their lives, good, loving men with a noble purpose and of high potency and integrity. And men everywhere have lost all reason and desire to be noble heroes, deprived of a sense of purpose and sacredness as sources of self-worth. As result, fewer marriages are formed and falling apart almost as soon as formed; and many are based on prenuptial contracts, defining the bond as one of business and power, rather than love and abundance.

The same loss of appreciation and rise of abuse of Spirit is also shown in the relationship of humanity to nature and animals. Animals are in fact souls on their path towards humanity, much like humans are on their way towards divinity. The difference between an animal and human Soul is in the absence of will: lacking the capacity to chose an action contrary to Spirit desire, animals are always in Spirit and thus a representation of Spirit on Earth. Without will power, animal souls ascend in consciousness via physical experience only. In this sense, human is to animal a source of protection, love, aspiration and learning, a dominant being placed in a position of power. Yet humanity has chosen to abuse this power and deprive animals of their home, safety, freedom and abundance, forcing them into servitude and severe abuse. The rape of animals by humanity is the deepest and most painful wound of Spirit as it reflects the Truth of the human Soul, best measured when it is given all power and no accountability. Humanity’s cruel treatment of animals as matter to be used and discarded is proof of its extreme unlovingness, and represents a collective mortal sin of Spirit killing.