Rev. Shelley Griffiths, also known as Pastor Shells, is the Founder cum Director of Edenkind. She is an Edenist minister, social critic, and theorist. Additionally, she works as a life coach, artist, and writer. She is also a veganic farmer, a pioneer, an advocate for neurodiversity, and an Eco-property developer. She thinks that “dominion” in Genesis means to serve the animals rather than to exploit them, and that carnism, ego and trauma will block us from the Holy Spirit or the Supreme Consciousness:-
One of the things I think is important to know about me and the ministerial work I do is that I believe that we are here to protect Mother Earth, and that when we were given dominion over the animals, that dominion doesn't mean to control or eat or harm or exploit, it means to look after, and ultimately it means to serve (Note 1), it means to protect.
So I'm very much into animal rights activism, encouraging people to question their choices and to look at why they make the choices they do and why you might choose cruelty. One of the things I think that's important to mention is that for those that are filled with the Holy Spirit or if you're not a Christian and that's not your vocabulary, those that want to achieve higher consciousness, there are three things I believe that block this.
One is trauma. If you are leading a life where you have unhealed trauma, you are likely to be leading from the ego and until that heals, you will be constantly in a state of survival, which means you operate from your amygdala and it's fight or flight and compassion doesn't play a part in that.
The second thing that I think prevents you being highly conscious or the Holy Spirit coming to you is carnism (Note 2). If you're consuming death and torture, it's a block. It's a block to the Holy Spirit. You are what you choose to do. You are your choices.
And the third one links to trauma but isn't necessarily a trauma-based thing is ego. We live in an age which I call the era of the self where self-ease and looking after yourself is the most important thing and that no one can tell you you can't do things and that your happiness is all that matters. It bypasses compassion. You will not be filled with the Holy Spirit if all you care about is your own career, your own wants and needs.
There's something very beautiful and wonderful about surrendering your will and waiting to see what you're supposed to be doing rather than what you want to be doing. So those three things, ego, trauma and carnism. If you want to know what true higher consciousness is or the Holy Spirit, you need to tackle those three things.
Editor's Notes:
Note 1. ירדו (yirdu), the ancient biblical Hebrew word in consonantal form for "dominion" in Genesis 1:28 connotes both רָדָה (radah) (to tread down, subjugate, rule) and יָרַד (yarad) (to lower oneself, to descend). Rev. Prof. Andrew Linzey argues that "dominion" in Genesis 1:28 means stewardship rather than despotism (Linzey 1995:34), because it is immediately followed by a vegan diet prescription by God to humans (Genesis 1:29). He even contends that the human species has the unique potential to become "the servant species" able to work with God in liberating animals (Linzey 1995:45, 57). Ritenbaugh (1999) also notes that in Genesis 2:15, humans are particularly assigned to tend (עָבַד/abad) and keep (שָׁמַר/shamar) the garden—i.e., to be a caretaker of it. Thus, "dominion over animals" signifies that God commands humandkind to lower themselves and serve other animals as a servant. To interpret "dominion" as "servanthood" is safer than as "stewardship" and "caretakership" for "servanthood" involves least power and authority.
Note 2. “Now beware in yourselves that your hearts do not become heavy with the eating of flesh…that day will come up upon you suddenly; for as a snare it will come upon all of them that sit on the surface of the earth,” warns Jesus (Luke 21:34-35, the Old Syriac-Aramaic Gospel Manuscript: Evangelion da-Mepharreshe). Also, in Saying 87, the Gospel of Thomas, as translated and edited by Stevan Davies (2002), Jesus says, "Wretched is a body depending on a body". Now, how can a body be dependent on another body? Only if the body eats the other body. Hence, Davies (2002) comes to the conclusion that Thomas is not stating that all bodies are "wretched", just bodies which are dependent on other dead bodies, in other words, meat, for food.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbfbwb7qYGY ; https://www.facebook.com/pastor.shells/videos/842481324364076
References
Chen, Chapman (2024). “Dominion in Genesis 1:28 Means Servanthood to Animals.” HKBNews, Apr. 14. https://www.hkbnews.net/post/dominion-in-genesis-1-28-means-servanthood-to-animals-go-vegan-by-dr-chapman-chen
Davies, Stevan, ed. & trans. (2002). The Gospel of Thomas. Boulder: Shambhala Publications.
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