Your Inner Strength

A few months ago, I entered the darkest time of my life. This was before the pandemic, and had been building for a while but I hadn't realized it was coming. I don't want or need to go into details, for while the finer points are unique to me, the overall situation is universal: we enter the Darkness and face our deepest self. We face our mortality, what we care most about, and who we truly are in the network of our community. 

In the midst of this I encountered a defining moment. I felt and connected to a glowing energy deep in my core that said, "No matter what, this is your Strength. This is part of your True Self, deep, directly connected to God/Spirit. Center in this space and all is well."

Imagine you have a cave system, like a cenote that goes deep into the earth. Now imagine it is seen as the ancestors no doubt regarded these seemingly endless cave systems - a cenote that ties into the Spirit realms. That is how this space feels. Deeper than Spacetime. Accessible through my core. Strong, warm, whole. Unconditional.

I go here to meditate, to sit in the space that says: Be Still, and Know that I am Here. It's a space to inhabit when I'm feeling afraid, or getting triggered. For part of this phase of life is that I am being shown the trauma of my past and helped to release it. I need that deep, unconditional Presence to help me through. It does help, for it shows me the bigger energy of unfolding and lets me know I will be okay, although I don't know really what "okay" means anymore.

Have you found this space in you? If you get quiet, deeply still, and open to your core, what do you find? It is Joy, Light, Strength, Solid Authenticity, Your Soul.  Can you inhabit it? It will get you through anything. What if we were all able to center in this True Self and relate to others through this lens? Can you imagine a world like that? I believe miracles come from there, for it is our conscious connection with Creation, Christ, the Creator, Spirit, the Goddess. It's also how we relate to others' true selves, which many people are unable to do. We're all so wrapped up in our fears, projections, and avoiding vulnerability at all costs.

I invite you to enter the cenote with me.

I hold a vision of a world where we See each other's Strength and Truth in all we do.

So mote it be.

She Thought He was the Gardener

According to John 20, Mary Magdalene didn't recognize Jesus when she first saw him return to his empty tomb. She mistook him for the gardener. Why did he look different? Much of this story is metaphor, but not all. We are left over 2000 years later to figure out what is most likely historical and what is a metaphor. Both interpretations teach us about the nature of reality and also of Christ.

I am sitting with two questions about this story. Why a gardener? In Hebrew it means the same thing it does today. And why do we not hear of Him related to as the Gardener more? Potter, carpenter, bridegroom, shepherd. But not gardener! Yet this is in many ways what He is: One who tends His world. Who follows the seasons of death, Resurrection, and New Life. Of Hope and Faith and Promise. That's what we gardeners do. One can be all those things, but I think the gardener aspect is intriguing and powerful, especially at Easter.

My other question is why did Mary not recognize him? Why -- when He had the power to look like or be literally anything, was he unrecognizable? What had he been up to in the time he cast off his shroud and the napkin on his face? Did he watch the sunrise and take in his own Body of Light? What was he thinking?

So then she "turns around" twice. Is this literal, as anyone would when her best friend has just been brutally murdered and then his tomb is empty? Or is this more like a "turning around" that is happening in her mind, like shifting her thinking, as in, woah, all these things he's been telling me are real, and he has triumphed over death? In some way it helps to prepare her for His speaking to her.

So he calls out her name, "Mary!" and then she knows it is He. What was his tone? Loving? A whisper of hope and wonder? Exasperation because she could not see it was he? But then he apparently didn't look like Himself. Then he says don't touch me. She wanted to hug him, no doubt. Did he say this because his new Light Body was too "hot" to touch? Too incorporeal? Or some other reason? I suppose because she can't touch him. He's between the worlds. And yet he does very physical if miraculous things over the next few days, breaking bread with his frightened disciples and filling their fishing nets with a huge catch.

It's a powerful few days in the history of the planet. Over 2000 years later, we are still called to Rise and share the Light with others. In my theology this has nothing to do with "saving" someone from sin, but from guiding our souls into the Darkness of transmutation and into the Light of Awakening. We can be pulled from the sludge of our own internal Hells. Perhaps there is a Gardener in you that is as yet unrecognizable. What parts of you are you watering, germinating, and dreaming about?

November 30 - Grounding

In Living Earth Devotional I discuss grounding by imagining your body's energetic roots growing deep int the earth. I am leading a Bible study at The Land, an ecumenical Christian faith community in Aurora, Colorado. This is leading me to look up Bible verses, something that hasn't been a huge part of my faith until now. I'm actually loving seeing how Bible scripture supports my mystical, liberal, deeply ecumenical spirituality. It's beautiful to read the Bible from a Christ Consciousness perspective. So let's see what the Good Book has to say about roots and grounding.

Ephesians 3:17
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love...

"Christ" to me is Christ Consciousness or the Cosmic Christ, which can be found in all of us, and is awaking in all of us. And the nature of Christ Consciousness and the Universe is Love. So this passage speaks about how being grounded, or putting your roots deep into the Earth, is about reaching ourselves into Love. We are established on Earth through Love. 
 
                                  ~~~

Colossians 2:6-7  Therefore, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. 

When we are rooted in the blessings of this life, and in the bigger picture of Christ, we overflow with gratitude. 

                                  ~~~~

Matthew 15:3 But He answered and said, "Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted."

Jesus speaks in parables about the Earth a lot. This passage is usually interpreted as people who aren't good Christians will... I'm not sure - go to "hell"? I don't see it this way, for God planted us all, and planted all the plants, "planted" everything. So what is Jesus saying here? I think he is saying that the darkness that we carry within, the belief that we are no good or that we are not loved (what hell truly is) - those beliefs were not planted by God, and those will eventually perish when we come to know that we are also Christed ones. 


Blessed be!

Study on Creation Spirituality at The Land, Week 4

At the study I am leading at The Land, a church without walls in Aurora, Colorado, we focused this week on chapter 4. Here are my notes from class.

Cosmology, Liberation & Wisdom

Fox makes the case that these are all aspects of the unified God, expressed in different ways, and with which we can participate.

Trinity: Creator (God)

“God the Creator is the Heart behind the heart that is opened by awe and by suffering to infinite compassion.” – p57

God is an artist.

Liberator (Jesus)

Richard Rohr - : “Jesus is a map for the time-bound and personal level of life; Christ is the blueprint for all time and space and life itself.” https://cac.org/another-name-for-every-thing-2019-02-12/

“Before the world was made, we have been chosen in Christ . . . claimed as God’s own and chosen from the very beginning . . . so that God could bring everything together under the headship of Christ” (Ephesians 1:3, 10, 11)

What is Jesus liberating us from? If not from sin – in the theology of original blessing – then from the darkness discussed in the Beatitudes. P60-61

Jesus is a guide, a prophet, who shows us how to live, how to evolve closer to God.

Luke 4:18 18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;

Wisdom/Sophia/Inspiration (Holy Spirit)

Grace of Wisdom

The grace of Wisdom also expresses itself through the experience of personal revelation. The grace of Wisdom comes to everyone, not only to highly evolved souls with big followings. Wisdom dictates that the more you are seen, the less noise you should make.

Wisdom is the choice that recognizes pain and suffering as part of the human experience. It is inevitable that we will cause each other to suffer in some way. It is wise to recognize yourself in everyone else. Seek the wise response in all events in your life. – Carolyn Myss https://www.myss.com/the-seven-graces-knowledge-2/

Proverbs 3:18 Wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace her; happy are those who hold her tightly.

An undivided unity; the feminine face of God

From the word “womb” (rehem) comes the verb “to have compassion” (raham).

– Deuteronomy 32:18 You neglected the Rock who begot you, And forgot the God who gave you birth.

Closing prayer: Thank you God, for guiding us to understand your great mystery a little better, to grapple together with these deep questions, to not assume we know you, but to help us be open to what you reveal to us. Help us to bring wisdom into our own lives and into this community to live ever whole and closer to our divine selves.

Study on Creation Spirituality at The Land: Part Two

I've recently found a faith community called The Land,  a Methodist-based outdoor church dedicated to social justice and the Earth.

I have been leading the morning study using Matthew Fox's book Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth. I am sharing the class curriculum plus a few notes here. Read class one here.

Here is class two.

Creation Spirituality at The Land, Class Two

In the beginning was the gift.

…All shall be called children of the gift,

Sons and daughters of grace,

For all generations. (from pages 1, 4 of Creation Spirituality by Matthew Fox)

The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. (Psalm 19:1-4)

Essential question: How would we behave differently if we regarded life and the Earth as a gift? Why don’t we?

Definitions:

Mystic: One who responds with joy and awe to the Universe, who finds God through and in all things – not pantheistic but panentheistic. One who sees the Christ in all and seeks to awaken the Christ in themselves. 

Part of the reason mysticism is seen as "crazy" in Western mainstream society is that we have what is known in psychology as an intensity tolerance. Our culture often scorns a sense of wonder. It's just "too much."

Panentheism: We are in God, and God is in us.

Theologically, God is understood to be both “transcendent” and “immanent”—transcendent, meaning above and beyond all that is, but also immanent, meaning “indwelling” or abiding within and pervading all of creation. Some people may feel uneasy about thinking of God as being present in all creation. However, such an awareness of God’s presence is not to be confused with “pantheism”—the worship of natural items or entities as God, or gods. Another term that some have used in recent years to help make that distinction, is “pan-en-theism,” an understanding that God is in (“en”) all that is, as well as above and beyond all that is. God’s indwelling love and grace inspires and calls forth what we might think of as the “hymn of all creation.” (from “Awakening to God’s Call to Earthkeeping,” session 2)

Cosmic Christ: The archetype of Christ – God’s love, the Christ in all – found in all of Creation. The sense that the Universe is an expression of the Christ. The Christ was present in the Universe before the Big Bang, and was expressed through Jesus.

We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning God had meant us to live it.”–Ephesians 2:10 (92 of CC) (for other translations, see https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Ephesians%202:10)

He is the image of the unseen God, and the firstborn of all Creation. In Christ were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and invisible… before anything was created, Christ existed, and Christ holds all things in unity. – Col. 1:15-17   

“a pattern that connects.” – subatomic particles…..

Prophet: the prophet is the mystic in action – they struggle with inertia and injustice. They act, teach, bring their compassion into the world.

The Four Paths (to God, to awakening)

Via Positiva – awe, falling in love

Via Negativa – darkness, suffering, letting go – Dark Night of the Soul

Via Creativa – joyful co-creation with God

Via Tranformativa – justice and action as praise, compassion

“An impoverishment of the soul exists within ‘First World’ countries: the means for a just existence are within our grasp, but our wills, our social structures, and our imagination have yet proven adequate for that struggle.” – xiii

What does a just existence look like? Why do we struggle to create that for all? What can we do individually or as a community to promote that?

“We cannot have authentic human justice without engaging equally in the struggle for justice toward our home, the planet earth. There is no need to choose… we are too interdependent for that.” (35)

“Compassion is the working out of our interconnectedness; it is the [action taking, practice of] our interconnectedness.” (36)

-         What about when the wolf eats the deer? Is that compassionate? What about when we extend that argument to humans? (timescale – the deer is the mountain)

People will not say, ‘Look, God’s kingdom is here!’ or, ‘There it is!’ No, God’s kingdom is within you.” – Luke 17:21

If the kingdom of God, or the Cosmic Christ, is within us, and we are within it, and all things are held in unity through Christ – not because we believe or “accept” anything but because it is just SO – and all things are interdependent, then God’s Kingdom is all of Creation, including us, the land, the geese, the beetles, the snakes, etc. How does or could this inspire our choices, our actions?

Closing scripture:

For what can be known about God is plain to [humanity], because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. --Romans 1:19-20

Study on Creation Spirituality at The Land: Class One

I've recently found a faith community that fits me like a gloves. That has always seemed impossible, as I practice what Matthew Fox calls deep ecumenism. I am primarily a mystical Christian, with a heavy dose of Pagan, and a healthy dash of Buddhist. This community is called The Land, and they are a Methodist-based outdoor church dedicated to social justice and the Earth.

I have been leading the morning study using Matthew Fox's book Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth. I am sharing the class curriculum plus a few notes here.

Class One of Creation Spirituality

I borrowed some of the material from ELCA's Awakening to God’s call to Earthkeeping. 

Read: The universe had been developing for some 8-10 billion years prior to Earth’s appearing.

The Earth was “born” nearly 5 billion years ago. It is part of a solar system, that is itself part of the Milky Way galaxy; and our solar system is in what you might call the “backwaters”—an outer arm— of our spiral galaxy.

Our Milky Way galaxy contains about 300-400 billion stars, many similar to our Sun, with planetary bodies of their own. Our home galaxy moves in relationship to a group of some 26 other galaxies, known as a “cluster;” ours is called the “Local Group.”

This so named Local Group cluster of galaxies is, itself, part of a group of over 1000 clusters, making up what is called the Virgo Supercluster.

Now try to imagine a single supercluster as a white dot—remember that it contains hundreds, if not thousands, of galaxies, themselves containing billions of stars …there are estimated to be something on the order of 10 million such “dots,” such superclusters, spread across the vast expanse of space.

[pause] It’s about more than our human minds can conceive of, isn’t it? Does this sort of knowledge shake our faith, or fill us with awe and wonder, or a sense of humility and gratitude?

We discussed our responses, and then read scripture that applied. I am new to using scripture to back up what I say, but I feel if I can find Bible passages that support what I am teaching, then it is less likely to be met with suspicion.

Scripture

Romans 8:38-39

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ephesians 3:18-19

I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may filled with all the fullness of God.

Psalm 104: 30

When you send forth your Spirit, they [the creatures, the earth, the heavens] are created; and you renew the face of the ground.

Psalm 8:1, 3-6a.

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the Earth!

When we look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established, we cannot help but wonder: what are human beings that you are even mindful of them, mortals that you so care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. You have placed us on this Earth and given us dominion over the work of your hands.

Questions

Read poem at beginning of book and discuss how society might be different if this was taught from the beginning.

·         When you consider our physical location within the universe, do you find it humbling? Frightening? Exciting? Other feelings?

·         How does your consideration of the vastness, mystery, and wonder of our universe influence your sense of the immensity of God’s love for us?

·         Knowing what we do of the universe, does it increase or decrease the significance of humans? Does it, should it, affect how we relate to one another and the natural world around us? How we relate to God?

·         What is your hopeful vision, as a child of God, for how humans should live on the Earth in connection with the rest of creation?

Sitting Dragonfly Vigil

Yesterday I stepped out back to pick a green onion for my breakfast, and discovered a dead dragonfly on the patio. I knelt down to pick him up and he began whirring his wings; he wasn't dead, just dying. I shooed the cat away and brought the beautiful blue and black creature into the house. I gave him a drop of water, which made his wings beat and his legs move. Clearly he couldn't fly anymore. I couldn't think of how to help him, and recalled that dragonflies don't live very long in their adult form. I could, however, make him safe from cats and other predators and give him a place of honor on my kitchen counter, holding the space for him as he passed into Light.

His eyes were like geometric blue opals. They had a depth to them, like a glass gem or a bead of water. My four-year-old remarked that the dragonfly's patterns on his body reminded him of a totem pole. I covered him with a bug-box lid so the cat wouldn't get him but he could breathe, and we left for our trip to the science museum.

When we returned, I thought he had passed, but when I touched him one leg moved. His opalescent eyes had turned a dull black from the top down, with just a crescent of blue at the bottom. I gave him Reiki, hoping it would ease his transition. While he was "just" a bug, he was fierce and beautiful, and I at least wanted to honor his slow death.

When he died, his eyes were completely black. You could literally see the life force leave him through his eyes.

I set him on my altar. Dragonfly is about illusion, and I am writing a book about Zen right now, which is all about the illusions we carry in our heads about life, about each and every thing we encounter. The problem is not that we live in illusion, it is that we think the illusion is "real." Dragonfly teaches us to hold the dichotomy of illusion and what we call reality. He teaches us about the illusion of life and death, and the dichotomy of death being real and final, and not.

I give thanks to the Universe for gifting me this honor of holding vigil while a beautiful Blue Eyed Darner. Aho.













~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For more ways to live in harmony with the living earth,
check out my book Living Earth Devotional by Clea Danaan

The Power of Image in Knowing the Self

Last year my adrenals crashed - panic attacks, hypoglycemia, heart palpitations, and extreme
sensitivity to dairy and gluten. I've been getting care from my doctor, chiropractor, and acupuncturist, all of which has really helped. I've been clear, though, that underlying the physical aspects of this healing has been spiritual rebirth. That work I have had to do myself.

When I was really sick, phases of my life would come up in dreams, images, and synchronicities. They began with my youngest days and moved forward in time. This wasn't something I consciously called in; it just happened. I cleared emotional stuckness from each of these periods by feeling old emotions, crying, and letting go. I did a lot of forgiving things I hadn't realized I was even holding onto. Carolyn Myss talks about the power of forgiveness in healing in her book Defy Gravity. I recommend it to anyone dealing with healing. I also gained insights into these periods of time from my perch in the present. Reframing also helps me release and evolve.

Then recently, after being carried into the present in this life review, two images came to me. One is a photo of myself at age two or so. It's black and white, and it's a close up of my face. I had it on my mirror when I was in high school. I love it because it is a picture of Me. You can see my soul in my eyes. They are centered, relaxed, and wise. When I feel disconnected from myself, I recall this image (I don't have a copy of the picture but remember it clearly). I instantly settle into my body and my soul. I re-inhabit myself, no longer pulled in the directions my ego thinks I should be to make everyone else happy. Which is purely illusion, based on old fears. I am ready to let these illusions go. I need this image to help me do so.

The second image actually came from reading a young adult novel called Seaglass Summer by Anjali Banerjee. In this book a girl stays for a month with her veterinarian uncle on an island in Puget Sound. When I was nine, that's what I wanted to be, a vet on an island in Puget Sound. I enjoyed the book, but also what came out of it had more to do with my soul journey. The image that arose was me as a young girl peering into tide pools. Not a memory, but more a sense of my soul, sort of the me that might have been. The me that is inside, unbound by the limitations of real life. Don't get me wrong - my childhood was actually spent peering in tide pools. And it really wasn't horrid. But we all have limitations from the outside, and from the ways our egos interpret these limitations. As we grow older, part of healing and becoming whole is to see who we really are underneath the surface, and work to live that authenticity. That image of soul-child-me playing at the beach, my hair whipping around my face, barefoot, smiling and unrestricted - that is part of my authenticity. My Real Self.

Holding both of these images in my heart helps bring me back to myself. What images have come to you in dreams, while reading, or in old photographs of yourself that remind you of your connection to Spirit, Earth, and Authentic Self? Or perhaps for you it is a song, a phrase, or even a movement? What path returns you to You?

Announcing Living Earth Devotional by Clea Danaan

Nature Mysticism in Children's Books

I'll update this blog post as I come across more books that express nature mysticism or a sacred connection with nature in children's books. Bonus points for beautiful illustrations!

If you have any suggestions, please let me know in the comments!




Singing Down the Rain by Joy Coley


Step into a small town where all the children are friends, but a brought has made the adults so grumpy they can't stop arguing! Only a miracle can heal this divided town. People are so hopeless, they almost don't recognise that that miracle when it appears as a women who specialises in rainsongs, Yet slowly the townspeople realise that with this faith they can sustain each other during the dry times, and then sing down the rain together.



Under the Lemon Moon by Edith Hope Fine

One night Rosalinda is awakened by a noise in the family’s garden. She is astonished to see a man creeping away with a sack of fruit from her beloved lemon tree. Rosalinda seeks out La Anciana for advice. The wise old woman offers an inventive way to help the tree and the man driven to steal her lemons. Set in the Mexican countryside, this charming story explores how it feels to get gifts — and to give them. 

 The Secret Place  by Eve Bunting

A small boy finds a secret place in the city that he shares with a white egret, mallards, and even ducklings. A book about finding nature in the heart of the grunginess of the city, and a child's connection with that sacred discovery.

What Does the Sky Say?  by Nancy White Calstrom

"What does the sky say?" a child asks. What does it say on a winter day, or on a Saturday night, or when the rain beats on its chest, or its mouth is full of moon? A child watches the sky in changing seasons and in all kinds of weather and learns to listen to its voice. In "What Does the Sky Say?", author Nancy White Carlstrom's imaginative and poetic text encourages all readers, both very young and older, to wake up to and participate in the opportunities for joy and learning each day offers. And Tim Ladwig's extraordinary illustrations perfectly capture the moods of weather and season, the magic of childhood, and our deep connection to all creation and its Creator.

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen

"As expansive as the broad sweep of the great owl's wings and as close and comforting as a small hand held on a wintry night . . . The visual images have a sense of depth and seem to invite readers into this special nighttime world."--School Library Journal, starred review. Full color. 1988 Caldecott Medal Book.

Nature as Master Work, Nature as Path to God

By Clea Danaan 

There has been a perceived rift for thousands of years between the sacredness of nature and the holiness of higher realms, be that from a Christian perspective (heaven, the soul, etc. being better, pure, vs. nature and humanity being sinful/fallen) or a New Age perspective (the elevation of "spirituality" over matter). Pagans know the earth as sacred, but some reject the notion that there is anything beyond the material realm, flipping the Christian and New Age approaches (sometimes in response to a sense of emptiness and vagueness felt in a Christian upbringing).

I believe, as a Christian and a Pagan (if we need labels to get where I'm coming from), that both are true and not mutually exclusive: both "heaven" and earth are sacred and of God/dess. Furthermore, it's not a dichotomy at all, but a continuous, dynamic, intertwined relationship of sacred creation. But I haven't yet found original spiritual teachings that offer real language for this wholeness and support what I am trying to say. And certainly not from a Christian perspective. Green Christians don't tend to regard the earth as sacred of it's own merit, but simply as something to steward out of duty to God. But as a practitioner of what might be called Dark Green Christianity, I see the land as sacred by it's very existence (please see Dark Green Religion by Bron Taylor for a discussion of dark green religion, the notion that earth is sacred from within).

I'm reading Cynthia Bourgeault's The Meaning of Mary Magdalene, where she offers, via the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, Jesus' teachings on this very subject. The Gospel of Mary Magdalene is a 5th century text discovered in Cairo in 1896. It was hidden when, in 594, the church determined which texts should and should not be a part of the canonical Bible (what we consider to be the Bible today). It is the teachings of Jesus after his crucifixion, much like Acts in the canonical Bible. The teachings, presented in a dialogue form, fly right over the heads of many Christians, in both the early days of the church and now, so it was distrusted and discounted. Contemporary scholars like Bourgeault are just now beginning to understand it and share it's meaning and significance.

The teachings in this gospel refute the notion that "this world is an illusion, or fall, or error; or that its density places it at the tail end of the chain" of realms of being. "Rather, this world is good, worthy, and fully inhabited by the divine energies - 'the Good comes among you' - so long as it stays united with its root" (Bourgeault, 52). Jesus came to earth - "the Good comes among you" - "in order to reunite everything to its origin" (from the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, Bourgeault, 46). He teaches that sin arises when we fail to stay in alignment with this causal level origin (see Bourgeault, 48). About the causal realm, Jim Marion writes in Putting on the Mind of Christ, "This is the level of the Logos, the Eternal Word of God (John 1:1-3) through whom, as the firstborn of creation (Col. 1:15-20), all else of creation comes" (Marion, 184). The causal realm is the root of all, including the material world.

Jesus goes on to teach that we connect with the causal level - the root of all creation - through our heart, the organ of spiritual perception, an instrument of insight: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (From a non-Christian perspective on the heart as an organ of psychic perception, see The Secret Teachings of Plants by Stephen Harrod Buhner.)

Jesus states, "All of nature with its forms and creatures exist together and are interwoven with each other" (Bourgeault, 46). By nature, he means the material world.

An artist paints to bring into the world a material form of a sense, a feeling. We can know this sense, and the artist, by stepping back from the painting and viewing it not from within the paint, but from a little distance, in order to see it's real nature. And often we use our eyes and our heart to do so.

Matter - nature - exists because of this higher causal level. It is, in other words, an expression or creation of the causal level (or rather of God, through the causal level). And we are here on this material plane to step back from the art work, if you will, in order to see it more clearly.We know God better through the forms and creatures of nature. And through our heart sensing of God as well as of nature.

Nature is, therefore, the most sacred of all master works, and needs to be treated accordingly. It is all sacred - as long as we stay centered and rooted in Source.Doesn't that just make you take a deep breath, settling into God within and without? As above, so below. Aho.

If this jumble of thoughts intrigues you, I highly recommend Cynthia Bourgeault's The Meaning of Mary Magdalene: Discovering the Woman at the Heart of Christianity as well as her Wisdom Jesus. Also Jim Marion's Putting on the Mind of Christ: The Inner Work of Christian Spirituality. Many Christians will find the ideas uncomfortable; others will find a sense of Yes! Non-Christians may find that the Christian approach is uncomfortable at first. If you are drawn to mysticism and wisdom traditions, stick with it. These are powerful texts that bring you to your center.

Divinity Within

Don't you love it when you find someone who "gets it"? In doing research for my current project, I discovered Dianne Sylvan's nonfiction works. Dianne is a Wiccan author who has an urban vampire series. She is also the author of The Circle Within and  The Body Sacred. The first is about the deeper spiritual aspects of Wicca, and the second is about the sacredness of the body. Good stuff.

I am a follower of the teachings of Mystical Christianity, Buddhism, and Wicca. So I appreciate how Sylvan includes (briefly) the former two paths in her understanding of Wicca. I particularly wanted to share this quote:

The point of Wicca, the real mystery behind it all, is to remember the Divinity within ourselves and all things; to manifest our God and Goddess all the time, every day, every moment; to love as They love, to give as They give; to serve Them in perfect trust, and thus bring Their grace more fully into the world; to understand that we are the embodiment of the Divine love and nurture, and to express that love in the world; to walk as God and Goddess. (The Circle Within, p 5)

Which is, interestingly, the point of wisdom (or mystical) Christianity. In The Wisdom Jesus, Episcopal priest Cynthia Bourgeault writes:

What [Jesus] has in mind is a complete, mutual indwelling: I am in God, God is in you, you are in God, we are in each other. His most beautiful symbol for this is in the teaching in John 15 where he says, "I am the vine; you are the branches. Abide in me as I in you." A few verses later he says, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love." While he does indeed claim that "the Father and I are one" (John 10:30) -- a statement so blasphemous to Jewish ears that it nearly gets him stoned -- he does not see this as an exclusive privilege but as something shared by all human beings. ...There is no separation between humans and God because of this mutual interabiding which expresses the indivisible reality of divine love. We flow into God -- and God into us -- because it is the nature of love to flow. (p 31)

May your day be filled with the flow of love as you grow every closer to your own Divine self. Namaste!