This mouthful of a word (five syllables, no less!) is a word I learned in Art History class.
The Iconoclasts were a group of people who went around in about 300 AD smashing statues, statues of the emperor (who declared himself a god), and statues of demigods and gods in the Greek and Roman traditions. Some statues were completely demolished and others only had certain, uh, parts removed.
The word itself means "idol-destroyer." But those folks have been around for a lot longer than just 1800 years. The Pharaohs destroyed statues of their predecessors occasionally, if the person bucked the traditional Egyptian beliefs. They'd chip out the names of those people from the monuments or from the walls of the temples they had commissioned. Of course this would only happen after the offender had died. Examples are Ankhenaten (the guy who instituted the worship of only one god: the Aton) and Queen Hatshepsut (the only woman to make Pharaoh.)
Over the years, the word "iconoclast" has come to mean someone who bucks the status quo and takes an axe to established traditional ways of doing things.
I tend to be iconoclastic when it comes to relationships with God, the self, and others... always have been, but especially since early 2009, I have been known to challenge the well-established and traditionalist ways of viewing certain things. Family roles. Church. Self-love. These are the three chief ones. As I have become more comfortable in my own skin, I've been able to express these opinions and challenge some long-held traditional beliefs.
That's what this blog is about - at least partly.
But I also believe that iconoclasm is about removing barriers - barriers to relationships that should have existed from the get-go. Relationship with God. Relationship with the self. Relationship with others.
So that is what the rest of my posts are about.
I hope you are challenged by, sometimes even pumped about, or at the very least, intrigued by the ideas you read here. If you are, why not leave me a comment?
And if you really enjoy the site - do consider becoming a member.
