Engaged Spirituality & Mystic Activism

Healing Nature

It has been an intense Venus Retrograde timeframe for me, with some very major completions, closures, and releases over a six week period.

Even when completions and closures are natural, even when they're in our highest good, and even when they're graceful, if we've opened ourselves and invested ourselves and been present to the person or place or experience at all, their passing will be painful, and will leave us raw even as they may leave us richer to continue on our Way.

I delayed my return from New York to San Francisco for another week, for once heeding my inner-Wisdom that I needed a bit more time of healing and nurturing before heading back home.

And then I found my way to a wonderful riverside trail, where the ever-flowing waters, the tall oak and maple trees, the lush and verdant ground-cover, and the creatures that live within that ecosystem reminded me of the continuity, gracefulness, and healing power of Nature. I walked and prayed and listened and watched for responses all around me.

During two walks, several powerful animal totems made attention-getting appearances to give me their 'medicine' and Wisdom. Hawk, groundhog, frog, chipmunk, butterfly, grasshopper, and crane were the voices of Spirit responding to the questions and requests that I prayed.

The trees spoke as well. After I'd veered off on one path and right at that moment, a large, dead branch fell from its place high on a tall Maple tree in the woods to my left, just 15 feet away. The message? In Nature, that whose time has come is released. And I twigs in a particular shape continued to beckon for my attention, until I recognized the shape as a Rune sign -- this one a sign of protection.

When we remember our practice, and remember to blend prayer, inquiry, presence, and time in Nature, we open ourselves not just to powerful and empowering healing -- and a strengthened connection to our own healing natures -- but also to Wisdom and inspiration that will guide us on our path and over any perceived obstacles along the way.

With love and blessings,
Jamie

Are you an old-era or new-era activist?

There is a story told that, shortly before her death, Mother Theresa of Calcutta was asked to attend an anti-war demonstration against the U.S. war on Iraq. She declined, saying that she couldn't attend an anti-war rally, but would gladly attend a pro-peace rally.

This highlights one of two key distinctions between 'old-era' activism and 'new-era' activism: old-era activism was, and is, often focused on demonstrations against something. New-era activism, on the other hand, may be clear on what needs to be changed, but is focused on a clear alternative vision of what it is for.

This is not a small difference. In many martial arts paths, as well as in New Thought and in some interpretations of Quantum Physics, opposition -- or strong momentum against -- only serves to give more power and momentum to one's opponent or the force against one acts. Mother Theresa's very clear decision was also a very clear teaching about where we allocate our energy and what we empower with our thoughts, energies, and activism. If one is rallying against war, one is likely contributing to the very forces that feed hostility, separation, and violence.

The second key distinction between old-era and new-era activism -- perhaps because of the 'anti' or 'against' orientation of old-era activism -- is that new-era activists place a high priority on 'being the change', not just demonstrating and fighting against what needs to be changed. If an activist is 'against' war, one might conclude that they are 'for' peace, and thus might embody peace as one powerful demonstration of activism. One who is 'against' conflict might embody civil, dignified, skillful communication, among other qualities. And so on...

However, with many old-era activists, those fighting 'against' war are often quite passive-aggressive and overtly aggressive, and even hostile, hardly embodying traits that cultivate or foster the opposite of violence and its offspring.

With new-era activists who intend to embody or be the change, one who sees violence and war as core problems in our culture would not just act externally for peace and for shaping ways of being that allow peace, but also seeks to embody those very values and traits.

This extends to the variety of 'anti' and 'for' issues -- protesting illness or cultivating wellness (breast cancer vs. breast health, for example); cultivating peace vs. protesting violence; demonstrating and calling attention to respect of all beings vs. demonstrating against harmful treatment of beings; being tolerant vs. protesting intolerance while acting passive-aggressively or aggressively when you don't get your way; etc.

Being the change is a far more powerful demonstration for cultivating a more harmonious, healthy, whole world, in which human beings are being the same.

Being a prayer for peace

Marianne Williamson's blog message for today included a passionate and heartfelt call for all who have 'ears to hear' to pray for peace, given the intensifying violence in the world. It is a very worthy and timely request, and one that has merit every day, not just when violence has flaired to the point of bursting out into higher and more forceful levels, with bombs flying and people dying.

Marianne mentions a quote from Gandhi, "The problem with humanity is that it's not in its right mind."

In addition to praying for peace, the Mahatma would also say to 'BE' the peace, if peace is the change we wish to see in the world.

During the average day, each of us has many small choices to choose peace in the way we think, the way we hold our bodies, the self-talk we utter (or mutter), our actions, and our interactions with others. In that way, each day is practice and each activity is a prayer for peace. May it be so.

Read Marianne Williamson's full message here.

Wishing you all very well.

Sincerely,
Jamie

How do we not despair?

Recently, I had the privilege and pleasure of joining Virato on the June 17, 2006 "ViratoLive!" radio show, which broadcasts to over 200,000 listeners.

Towards the end of the show, one of the callers phoned in to ask how one could avoid falling into despair, given the state of things and the fact that 'those in power' seem intent on disregarding any sense of humanity or respect for people, animals, and the planet. With evident feeling, he spoke about his frustration as a long-time activist who sees 'the machine' pretty much steamrolling over the sacred and mundane alike.

How does one fight that, he asked, without becoming similarly violent, desensitized, and dehumanized; or falling into despair?

This is a question that is enormously relevant, since so many people around the world feel a tremendous responsibility to do something to change the self-destructive, suicidal direction of the dominant way of doing. But it can seem so overwhelming, and for many, the past years have been challenging to the core and many did find themselves in the abyss -- whether through depression at the state of things, or extremely challenging circumstances, or a sense of growing hopelessness that coexisted with a deep knowing that the current dominant direction must be changed.

Though I wouldn't presume to have 'the answer', and indeed there may be more than one, but I can share insights from my own journey and an insight that Spirit spoke to me and through me during a discussion on this subject recently. The two 'jewels' relate to the dark night of the soul, or what in many cultures is known as spiritual initiation or symbolic 'crucifixion'; and the practice of deep, intentional, heart-centered presence.

With the 'dark night of the soul', which Jung referred to as 'the night sea voyage', there is context, meaning, and wisdom that is derived from the ego-stripping journey, in which the 'false self' and our limited self-concept are eroded away, and not always gently.

We in the West -- and anywhere there has been a systematic, institutionalized forgetting of the Sacred Feminine -- often find ourselves without guides, without context, in the 'walk through the valley of the shadow of death'. And so it's terrifying, and we resist, which increases our suffering, and we end up distanced from the meaning and the wisdom of it. As Marion Woodman wrote,

"Most of us are dragged toward wholeness. We do not understand the breakdown of what has gone before...we cling to the familiar, refuse to make necessary sacrifices, resist our growth. We do not understand rebirth, do not accept the initiation rites." (Coming Home to Myself)

We have been taught to value the false -- that which is transient, rather than eternal and ever-surviving -- and so often battle to keep what wants and needs to dissolve so that new growth can occur. We've forgotten that nature has an autumn and a winter, in addition to a spring and summer; that dissolution, fallowness, and rebirth are parts of the natural cycle. Their inclusion makes us whole; to avoid them makes us partial.

So perhaps to fall into despair is not such a horrible thing, if we have the strength of heart and the context and guidance to keep us from getting lost there. In ancient stories, the great guardian or Goddess or Face of the Mother who booted you into the depths, the Dark Night of deconstruction, could also be found holding the lantern to keep you from getting too lost, and welcomed you into a rebirth at the other side of the journey. To remember this Mother is to find context and meaning in the despair, and allow it to be a portal into a new way of seeing and understanding, and a deeper level of Wisdom that informs right action. We learn to see with new eyes and hear with new ears; we learn to see in the dark.

Context, guidance, Wisdom, connection. These are important words, particularly in our culture of disconnection and loneliness. But for those who seek, the lanterns, the helping hands, the compassionate hearts will always arise.

And this leads to the second 'jewel' of Spirit -- the practice of presence.

When overwhelmed by the sheer scale and scope of the Great Work, the challenge and invitation of our times, we can always find wisdom and guidance and refuge in the present, where we can 'be the change' we wish to see. Theoretical physics has confirmed our connection and given us a new way to understand how our 'being the change' can possibly have any import or impact. But the practice of presence also helps us to concentrate energies and attentions that have been, perhaps, too dispersed.

For example, when we despair at the degrading and dehumanizing treatment of some human beings by other human beings (from behind the shield of 'the corporation'), we can certainly find our way to right action in the greater world, but we can also mind our practice and be respectful and humane in our interactions throughout the day. We can connect with the sacred in ourselves and all things, and reflect that out to all with which we come into contact.

If we despair that people are not seen, heard or respected, we can intend and practice seeing, hearing and respecting others. If we despair at the cruelty that animals face in dehumanized, desensitized laboratories and agribusinesses (or just on the street outside), we can attend to the animals in our lives with deep respect, kindness and love. If we despair at the rape and poisoning of our Beloved and beautiful home, Planet Earth, then we can do what we can in our daily living to clean up and clear out, and not contribute to the cruelty or poisoning through our own lifestyle.

Our intentions and 'small actions' in this way become a prayer on behalf of all, as well as a practice that grounds, expands, and enriches us individually.

This can become a centering place for us, a place to avoid unnecessary despair or to regain a sense of the sacred connection that fuels us and gives us courage and clarity to continue. Our homes become our sacred temple, and our space -- our presence and energy -- becomes a mobile sacred temple. And connection to this wisdom and 'local being and action' can also give a sense of other, more broadly external right action -- a clarity to know what else in the world can be and is our work, and what work is done by our many brothers and sisters, seen and unseen, who work with us.

I feel so blessed to be reminded of these things, and to be able to share them with you.

Wishing you very well.

Love and blessings,
Jamie

*For more information and links to Wisdom practices and paths, and resources about Dark Night of the Soul & Spiritual Initiation, see the "Reconnecting to Spirit" portal at Ivy Sea Online.