The 10 Commandments were a thing of confusion and disparity for me. I never could quite make sense of them. When I went commandment by commandment they did not speak to me with the power that they were presented to me.

Over the years I have come to a place of Commitment in my Faith and THAT word made more sense to me than Commandments. So, in this article I’ll explore the Commandments and how in my journey they have transformed into Commitments.

First Commitment: Make Source your Higher Power

The first Commandment is you shall have no other gods before me.

In Shamanism we call ‘Great Spirit- you who go by 1,000 names. You who are the unnameable one.” Whether that is the Christian God, or the Muslim Allah, the many Hindu gods and goddesses, or any of the other dieties of other religious beliefs, let SOURCE be your Guide. All of these are the SAME God. There is no God of one religion that supersedes any other. Same God, different names.

So, from my perspective then, what is this referring to?

In our modern day society there are many gods: gods of power, materialism, money, capitalism, consumerism, not to mention politicians, members of the clergy, and doctors. These gods are the gods that Spirit warns us against. They are FAR more dangerous and damaging than the loving expressions of God in belief systems such as Hinduism and Paganism, for instance.

HOW we connect to Source is not an issue. “One Mountain, many paths” speaks to this clearly. One path is not more right than others. No path is wrong. Making the connection to Source – by any name you choose – is what is being spoken about.

12 Step programs use the term ‘Higher Power’ and that works for our Commitment as well. It is open ended and welcoming to all versions of God. We don’t have to agree on what to call a Higher Power. We simply have to honor the spiritual connection of others and their expressions of those connections.

This is why my first Commitment is make Source your Higher Power. Making Source your Higher Power puts you in right alignment for flow to enter your life. When Source is your Higher Power you are not apt to stumble into the modern day society trap of worshipping money, fame, authority figures – or other such gods.

Second Commitment: Don’t Create Idols

The second Commandment is you shall not make idols.

When I was young, it was presented that this Commandment was made because people were running around making golden calf statues and pledging their allegiance to that golden calf.

As a child and young adult in the Catholic church this was confusing to me. First of all, I saw so many statues adorning every church I entered and those statues were revered quite highly. In fact, I witnessed people praying to statues for something specific. “That’s different,” it was explained to me. But no one could make me understand how it was different.

Given as ‘that was different’, then it seemed to be an irrelevant Commandment to modern times. No one was creating false idols…were they? How could a COMMANDMENT become outdated?

As I grew up and learned discernment I saw a society that created idols everywhere. We call them celebrities, priests, ministers, self-help gurus, politicians, evangelists, influencers, etc. Pretty much anyone with fame, fortune or perceived power.

Make no mistake, elevating others above yourself is making them into idols. Revering flesh and blood human beings as godlike and then comparing our lives, bodies, bank accounts, and material possessions against them as if their image is the image we were made in, is in fact ‘making false idols’. Far more dangerous than any golden statue could ever be. So much suffering is created by these false idols because they create unrealistic expectations we use as measuring sticks of success, finding ourselves usually lacking.

So, my Commitment is to remember that I am Source’s child. What she has, I have. What is for me, finds me. I am not to compare myself to false idols of society’s making.

Third Commitment: Use God’s Name Intentionally

The third Commandment is you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain

When using God, Yahweh, Spirit, Allah, or any other of God’s 1,000 names, be careful. Don’t let it be in ‘vain’. Vain has many definitions but two are ‘useless’, ‘no meaning, or ‘disrespect’.

Adding Source’s name (whatever name you call your HIgher Power) gives any intention more power. This is important. To exclaim ‘Oh my God’ is not using God’s name in vain. It is not useless nor disrespectful. That particular phrase is often used to exclaim joyous surprise or horrific grief/fear. Both of which are situations I think Source doesn’t mind being called in for.

Exclaiming, ‘God DAMN IT’ when your car breaks down would be counterintuitive. Not because God really cares how you use the name, but because the broken down car is already damned, you don’t want to accidentally damn it more. Get in the habit of proclaiming a blessing of ‘God BLESS IT’ to change the course of future events.

Whatever you add “God” to, God enhances. So, IF you are going to use Spirit’s name, don’t use it in vain. Make it mean something. Invoke God’s name – any of the 1,000 names – when you want to enhance any situation. Use God’s name intentionally.

Fourth Commitment: Keep one day HOLY

The fourth Commandment is remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

I was taught that keeping the Sabbath holy meant I had to go to church for one hour every Sunday, to keep this Commandment. I could not understand how that was keeping the Sabbath holy, when it felt more like punching a time clock. I couldn’t understand how that was so important to God.

On the seventh day God rested.

But did He? Does God NEED rest? Since he is not human and not made in human image, the answer is likely no to that. It’s a nice story though. What I do see, with my third eye, is a God who sat back to admire her creation.

God created a magnificent playground for humans to play out their dreams and then She sat back, watched and enjoyed.

The Commitment to keeping Sabbath holy, is about remembering to take care of your most important creation….yourself. In the Toltec tradition we are seen as artist’s – creators of our life.

Taking care of ourselves is not something we are taught in our society. Women especially are pushed to their outer limits requiring them to sacrifice more and more of their self-selected quality time. Not to mention there are many many professions that require someone to work on Sundays or Saturdays. So where did God stand on that?

This Commitment is about dedicating one day out of seven, to connect with Spirit in any way. Whether it is by getting out in nature, gathering with loved ones, or indulging in your hobbies – anything that feeds your Soul, JUST DO NOT WORK. There has to be balance and dedicating one day a week as HOLY (Healing Or Loving Yourself), well that is the bare minimum.

It’s fine to make that connection however you wish – going to church, walking in nature, a picnic with family. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you CONNECT with your Higher Power. While your work may well be your calling, and it might feed your Soul, it is necessary to take a break from it, to simply connect with Source and replenish in a way that is purely for that intention alone.

What this does is strengthen our connection with our higher selves and keeps us in mind that we are spiritual beings having a human experience…and not the other way around.

Fifth Commitment: Honor the Masculine and the Feminine

The fifth Commandment is honor your mother and father.

This one never made sense to me. Why be so specific? Who was going around dishonoring their parents? Why did this make the 10 commandments but not ‘love thy neighbor as thyself’? Also, what about those parents who were dishonorable? Were we truly meant to honor them as we would a loving and nurturing parent?

Then it dawned on me.

It means to honor the Masculine and the Feminine.

Honor Mother Earth and Father Sky.

What an absolute craptastic job we are doing at that! As far as honoring Mother Earth: The ‘seeding of clouds’ etc to weaponize the weather will have repurcussions. Exploiting human resources to mine lithium and other precious minerals for the latest cell phone technology will have repurcussions. Chem trails – repurcussions. Plastics- repurcussions. The list goes on and on.

Regarding honoring the Feminine and Masculine, well we all are aware that we live in a patriarchy in the US, and that women’s rights are seen as privileges with politicians governing what we can do with our bodies. In addition, women are not even recognized as equal in the constitution.

Proposed in 1923, the Equal Rights amendment sought to end legal distinctions between men and women in areas such as employment, property, and divorce. It would also prohibit discrimination by the government in employment, law enforcement, regulations, and statutes. The ERA was never ratified. Ask yourself why that would be. Doesn’t it seem like a no brainer?

The Feminine is not honored in our society in any way shape or form. Not women, not girls, not Mother Earth.

Even the Masculine is not honored in modern day society. What they teach as masculinity is not masculinity at all; It is dominance.

Honoring the Masculine and the Feminine is recognizing the value in the balance between the two and of each individually. One cannot, in fact, exist without the other. It is most beautifully illustrated in the Chinese philosophical concept of Yin and Yang, that describes two opposite but complementary forces interacting to create a dynamic system.

Sixth Commitment: Do No Harm

The sixth Commandment is you shall not kill.

When I was young I learned the sixth Commandment as Thou Shalt Not Kill, but it has been updated to ‘You shall not commit murder’, which I find interesting. Why? Because it supports the war agenda. Just one more way that humans rewrite things to suit them. I do not believe that Spirit supports violence as a method to peace or for any other reason.

There is always another way if people were genuinely connected to their Higher Selves and Spirit. I am not talking about not responding with violence to violence, but we do not need to respond with violence to mere threats of violence.

And don’t get me started on the hundreds of wars started in the ‘name of God’!!! Talk about violating the 3rd Commandment and using the Lord’s name in vain!!!!

The other part that doesn’t make sense for me, is that this Commandment focuses only on the act of killing another. While important obviously, what about the acts of violence leading up to the act of killing? What about emotional, mental or psychological abuse that kill or steal pieces of the victim’s Soul? What about child abuse? What about violence against women? Just what about violence in general?

The Wiccan Rede is an ethical code stating, “An’ ye harm none, do what ye will”.

If that sounds famliliar, it may be because a similar statement, ‘first do no harm’ is often attributed to the hippocratic oath. Interestingly ‘first do no harm’ is actually not part of the hippocratic oath at all, but it appeared in Hippocrates other work, “The History of Epidemics”.

I think it makes a perfect 6th Commitment.

Seventh Commitment: Be Impeccable With Your Word

The seventh Commandment is you shall not commit adultery.

This is another one that I find odd to be in the commandments. Why was a married person having consensual sex with someone other than their marital partner so significant as to be mentioned in the commandments? Was the marriage vow so disregarded that God had to make a commentary?

Perhaps it was a metaphor.

The act of adultery is the violation of a sacred vow, thereby making it a dishonorable act.

So maybe that was the real intent…to instruct people to not make vows hastily and to honor them once they are made. Not just the marriage vow, but any vow you make.

From this perspective how much adultery takes place in the corporate business world? How much happens in politics?

Remember when agreements were made with a handshake? Remember when someone saying ‘my word is my bond’ was in fact binding?

In the Bible, it states ‘the Word became flesh’. Words are made of breath. In the Bible it also states that God gave Adam life by breathing into him. Breath is then Sacred, representing life. So our word too, must be Sacred.

One of Don Miguel Ruiz’s Four Agreements is Be Impeccable With Your Word. In fact, he calls it the first and most important agreement.

He goes on to explain that this means to be impeccable with your words to yourself as well. It means transforming that negative self-talk into words of loving compassion.

It means recognizing that the Breath of God is in you and you are meant to be a good steward of it. God is within you and when you speak poorly to yourself you are speaking poorly to God as well. It also means that because God is in each individual speaking poorly to others is also speaking poorly to God.

Be impeccable with your word is a natural seventh Commitment.

This Commitment eliminates the need for a ninth Commitment pertaining to the ninth Commandment, you shall not give false witness against your neighbor. If you are impeccable with your word you would not speak untruths about another either in public or in private.

Eighth Commitment: You Shall Not Steal

The eighth Commandment is you shall not steal.

As they are learning, children may have the impulse to take something they want that does not belong to them. We teach them to share. We teach them ownership. And we teach them to earn what they want, not simply take what belongs to others.

It is logical, yes? What isn’t logical is why God found it necessary to instruct adults in this concept.

We tend to envision armed robbery or shoplifting when we hear the term ‘stealing’, but stealing takes on many different forms and are often white-washed in our society. In fact, crime is divided into two different categories of blue-collar crimes and white-collar crimes and they are not punished the same. In a socio-economical discussion that would be worth discussing further. But this isn’t that.

Let’s look at how this country was founded (America) when Christian’s literally stole (using violence) the land from its inhabitants instead of seeking peaceful co-habitation!!!

Let’s look at governments. Let’s look at politicians who self-deal, who make laws that intentionally squeeze the poor and cater to the rich. Laws and policies that protect the interests of the few at the cost of the many. This is stealing, plain and simple, yet it is seen as ‘business as usual’ in our society.

Setting up and supporting a system that benefits the wealthy minority, by exploiting the not so wealthy majority, is in fact stealing.

So this Commitment is worded the same as the Commandment, but is applied more thoroughly.

Ninth Commitment: Love Your Neighbor As Yourself

The ninth Commandment is you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, which as I stated above definitely falls under the seventh Commitment of being impeccable with your word.

I am confused.

Matthew 22:36-40 King James Version states

³⁶ Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

³⁷ Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

³⁸ This is the first and great commandment.

³⁹ And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Make it make sense. How did ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” transform into not bearing false witness?

I don’t know and cannot find it anywhere.

Regardless of their thought process I think this is important enough to be included in the Commitments.

Love thy neighbor as thyself is such a powerful statement and commitment. It outlines our behavior towards fellow human beings regardless of race, color, creed, nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs, religious beliefs, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, diagnosis, or disability.

While many recite this as ‘love your neighbor as you love yourself’ that isn’t quite what I believe the message is.

First, people don’t really love themselves very well. As bad as people talk to other people, the way they talk to themselves is often 1000% worse. Many people have been taught to put their own needs behind other people’s needs and wants. Women especially have been molded to deny their wants and needs almost completely.

I could go on and on, but I want to get back to the message at hand.

Love thy neighbor as thyself is talking about seeing us as not separate from one another. You are your neighbor and your neighbor is you. We are all connected. We are all One.

When we see each other as not separate from each other, we can take better care of one another. This is what Namasté actually means – The God in me recognizes and honors the God in you.

We honor the God in each other because we understand we are all little pieces of God walking around in human bodies.

The love thy neighbor as thyself Commitment means to love your neighbor as an extension of yourself.

Tenth Commitment: Practice Gratitude

The tenth Commandment is you shall not covet.

This was a simple transition for me to make into a Commitment. What is coveting but jealousy? What is jealousy but insecurity? What is insecurity but measuring one’s self or life to that of another? What is the best way to overcome all of that?

Practice Gratitude.

When you practice gratitude you are focusing on what you have. Whereas coveting focuses on what you don’t have that someone else does.

Social media is built on (and relies on) coveting and encouraging coveting, so much so that it has permeated into our very consciousness now. No one can even see this as a violation of a Commandment because it is so cleverly disguised.

Staying grounded with a practice of gratitude ensures that we are not putting any energy towards coveting anything anyone else has. We are content knowing that what is for us, finds us because Source is always conspiring on behalf.

We are all children of God. What She has, we have. What is there to covet then?

What is the difference?

What is the difference between a Commitment and a Commandment?

Maybe nothing. Maybe everything.

Let’s start with the difference between a command and a commandment. A command is an order or directive, often immediate and situational, given by someone in authority, that requires action or compliance, while a commandment is a more formal, often religious or moral rule that is meant to guide conduct over time.

Whereas, a commitment is the state or quality of being dedicated.

The difference is clear, Commandments were set upon the people by God due to their poor behavior to serve as a guide, and as far as I can tell, it did very little to curtail.

Commitments are something I make. There is ownership in a Commitment.

I commit to choosing Source as my Higher Power.
I commit to not creating idols.
I commit to using God’s name intentionally.
I commit to keeping one day HOLY.
I commit to honoring the Masculine and the Feminine.
I commit to doing no harm.
I commit to being impeccable with my word.
I commit to not stealing.
I commit to loving my neighbor as myself.
I commit to practicing gratitude.

Honoring my commitments keeps me whole, healed and complete.

It also acts like a checklist for operations. Before taking action I can ask myself, ‘will this cause harm?’ I can ask myself if I am giving my authority over to another because I’ve made them into an idol. I can ask myself if this candidate I am planning to vote for acts in a way that honors the Masculine and the Feminine. I know that accepting credit for someone else’s work would be stealing. I can treat a stranger no differently than an friend because I love my neighbor as myself.

Every religion has its own moral code.

These are just mine.

~Jade

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