We are considering the Universe Story as proposed by the theologian Father Thomas Berry. He suggests humanity, particularly in the Western world, needs to upgrade its cosmology to regain our sense of connectedness to all things. As E.O.Wilson says, 'To know where you are is to know who you are.' We are standing on a planet shooting through space and it's time we started acting like it. Joseph Campbell said the next myth will need to embrace the whole planet. The Universe Story is an attempt to do just that.
The modern world sits in-between stories. We haven't had a cosmology since the 13th century, unless you count the rise of scientism,
Where do we find the threads of a new story? Through deep listening, reconnection, grief work, creativity ... and the list could go on. Even in our genius we can barely imagine what is to come. It's our imaginal cells that hold the vision.
I am a Russian tailor
I was born from the south of a whale travelling the Chinese seas
A star once followed me for a whole year
Not once did it leave my side
In the mornings I eat 10 juicy Spanish oranges that I grew
Myself on the Steppes of Georgia
I am a Russian tailer
By night I make jackets only for American mice
By day I am a jukebox maker, some call them MP3's
The name keeps changing
I don't much care for names and labels
I am a Russian tailor
With no other name than the sound of wind
One day I will fulfil my dreams
When I build the most magnificent boat
That flies away to magical unseen places
Strangers ask me, 'why?'
And I answer, 'how?'
I smile a rainbow of love and butterflies until
We embrace and become friends
Some say I move too fast
But that's because I am Russian!
Seriously people what did you expect.
Haiku
one day
we will talk
as herons flap their wings
leaves like palms
strike upwards to blue skies
tides follow the moon
please flow
into the
unknown unseen places
patience is the
gift of the black panther
do not look away
Mythologists are interested in cosmology, about stories where the earth is speaking through us - the dream tangle. Health is to be founding paradoxes, in the wild land dreaming. A story is more than a map. It does not give us the abc. Story is alive. It is a living wild beast.It is time to move from a shameful darkness to a fruitful darkness. We need to annihilate all our defences against receiving beauty. To restructure and reorientate ourselves in this way requires a lot of whittling away, being opened up even until death comes knocking on our door. A grace from beyond can only enter when everything else has gone.
Who is going to show up for the 'becoming indigenous' tribe?
Stories are psycho-active. They are like stepping into a waking dream. Secret information is waiting to be revealed if the conditions are just right.
WHAT DID YOU DO WHEN YOU KNEW?
Connection and relationship is about trust
You are therefore I am
Martin Buber 'I Thou'
Everything is thou
Everything is living
Life is sacred
Division is transformed into diversity
Divison equals power over and conquering the other
Diversity is about participation and celebration
We connect through love, compassion, service
Friendship, generosity, nurturing and care
Spirituality is all about relationship
It is not about belief
Matter is inside life and consciousness
How do we respond to paradox?
What happens in conflict?
When online sacrifices to another
The mysterious collaboration of life feeding life
Mutuality and reciprocity
Difference is complementary
Polarity is complimentary
It is natural to feel sorrow, sadness at difficult times
And yet we cannot control nature
Can we transform human consciousness?
Live with less attachment
Reward is in the action
Let go of aspiration
Enjoy the way
Know you are special
Everything is special
Stop judging
Be Natural
Be yourself
And don't compare
Kaliedescope
In the myriad kaleidoscope of all the seen and unseen
Can we ever know what truly brings us all into oneness
A brightly coloured toucan soars above
Earthworms keep munching in their darkened moist lair
A peacock struts its stuff feathers proudly on display
Camels kneel front legs then back as humans disembark
The mid-day sun scorches parched ground
As water fall and tumbles below into the lagoon
Monk-jack deer nestle in a glade to sleep
Microbes gather, divide and regenerate
Algae spawn and spread
Oceans swell as the moon circles our blue planet
Hydrogen collides with oxygen
Granite slowly dissolves, erodes and moves cross the surface of rock
Seasons change
Comets blaze and burn their way through the universe
Black holes spiral drawing everything near
Acorns sprout shoots and grow towards the light
The sound of children playing carries down the valley
Rivers flow to the source
Are these connections seen or unseen
Know or unknowable
A beautiful mystery to behold
To thine own self be true, then you can't be false to any men.
With your will activated and fear released our love blossomed and was ready to go into the world.
We are taking the threads and weaving it into expression that can be seen, felt, inspire and impact others. We are born into the gift of life, a body as manifestation and expression of the cosmos. We can't repay that gift in a transactional way. There is no way we can repay the sun for its generosity. And yet there is a way. The way to repay the gift is to be fruitful.
Going back to the circle or wheel of the four directions the cosmology of air, fire, water and earth - things move from the least manifest to the most manifest then disintegrate and start all over again. A endless cycle of death, birth, life, death, birth, life and on and on.
We can find new human meaning by connecting ourselves to this cosmological order. Traditional music is often polyrhythmic and in participating it creates interdependence between the players. there is a subjective beat, a hidden rhythm if you will, a groove, a participatory consciousness. That is what we are now seeking to hear and to be a part of. The universal groove.
In the universal groove everyone plays a part and everyone is welcome. To do that we all need to follow our own unique path, our own bliss within the collective groove. In order to make this change we need to own up to denial and do our grief work. Within the linear, take culture that dominates in the west sits a deep well of sadness and many of us find ourselves at the bottom of this well combing the hair of the dragons asleep on our knees. It is time for the dragons to go.
It doesn't matter if others do not have the same awareness. Devote yourself to a cause that is meaningful too you. There are many to chose from. Shake of the disfunctionality. Awaken your will. Activate the pendulum swinging between being and doing. This is called creativity. Take your creativity seriously. Your life is a poem.
NOW IS THE TIME ... to step up.
I am sitting here and I get a huge blank.
My time now is preoccupied with 'other'.
My generative adult is seeking the wise sage and the wild one
To be with what's needed now and what's coming soon - our son.
Now is the time to turn to home, to our son and welcome him into his manifestation.
Now is the time to prepare ourselves, to be mindful of his coming.
Now is the time to be present to the becoming indigenous programme,
The group, the teachers, the college and my place with in all of that.
Now is the time to BALANCE participation and stillness
So I can feel the creativity of birth, death and transition.
Now is the time for TRANSFORMATION.
It's liminal. It's deeply mysterious and I don't know.
Now is the time to learn to be and to do in liminal transformational energy.
Now is the time to invoke and activate my imagination.
To LET GO of fears no longer serving me or others.
If not now WHEN?
Now is the time to step up onto the field of PLAY.
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