I saw Him—yet the more I saw the more I needed to see. I had Him –and the more I had of Him the more I knew I lacked [wanted].”
Julian of Norwich: Showings. Translated by Edmund Colledge and James Walsh. New York: Paulist Press, 1978.
Julian of Norwich (England) is perhaps the best known and most loved mystic in the history of spirituality. Her understanding of God was one of extraordinary and loving intimacy. She was the first woman to write a book in English and is still being read 700 years later!
Julian grew up in Norwich and moved only a short distance from home to a convent. She became an anchorite nun, meaning she was walled into a cell built on the side of the cathedral in Norwich. She entered the cell, it was bricked up and there she stayed for over forty years. She had a window into the church to receive the Eucharist and a window onto the world from which she offered spiritual direction. But she remained in this cell with her cat for the purpose of devoting her life to prayer.
Astonishing then, that we would ever hear of her life seven centuries later.
Her primary contribution to spirituality was a series of ‘showings’ or revelations she received from God through prayer. She was in a comatose state for a couple of days during an illness. When she awoke, she began writing her messages of God’s tender love for us. She wrote it out immediately and then spent the next twenty years expanding her ‘revelations of divine love’.
For a look at five women saints including Julian, see Under Her Wings: Spiritual Guidance from Women Saints, Kathy Bence , Nashville: Upper Room Books, 2001. (The others in this book include: Catherine of Siena, Madam Guyon, Therese of Lisieux, and Teresa of Avila.)
URL Websites on Julian
For a website with links to writings on and by Julian, click here.
For a collection of Julian's writings, click here.
Fatherhood, Motherhood, Lordship – Julian’s ‘Take’
An excerpt from Under Her Wings: Spiritual Guidance from Women Saints by Kathy Bence. Nashville: Upper Room Books, 2001, p. 170-172.
And I saw the working of all the blessed Trinity: in which I understood these three properties: God as Father, God as Mother, and God as Lord, in one God.
In our Father Almighty we have our keeping and our bliss as part of our God–given nature. This is what it means to be made in the image of God.
And in the Second Person (Jesus), by skill and by wisdom, are we restored and saved: for He is our Mother, Brother and Savior.
And in our good Lord, the Holy Ghost, we are rewarded and given mercy for our living and our troubles, endlessly surpassing all we could desire by His marvelous courtesy and His high plenteous grace.
For all our life is in three: in the first we have our Being, the second we have our Increasing, and in the third we have our Fulfilling. The first is Nature, the second is Mercy and the third is Grace. Showings, Ch. LVIII, p. 144-145
How could a fourteenth century woman come up with the idea of the motherhood of God? She was a nun of the Catholic faith, where men ruled, in an era when men ruled. Yet Julian conceives of God as parents: father, mother and Holy Spirit.
Julian, in grappling with the concept of the Trinitarian nature of God, chooses a familiar concept to aid our understanding of the fullness of the nature of God.
The Fatherhood of God is most familiar to us, but, as usual, Julian adds a new twist. She sees in God’s Fatherhood our keeping and our bliss. “Keeping” in Julian’s day referred to provision; in this case, God’s providential care of us. God, the Father, provides for all our physical needs: food, shelter, clothing, family and all the other essentials. He is the Ultimate Father, tenderly providing for His children’s well being.
But Julian also describes God’s Fatherhood as our ‘bliss’. What does she mean by bliss?
For her, God was her life, her joy, her bliss. She was first a spiritual person, and oh, by the way, a physical being as well. For her, life, bliss, was her relationship with God.
She implies here that our real purpose on earth is this relationship with God. This is our bliss. This is our dessert, we might say and the rest of the life is vegetables.
So while God is clearly Father for Julian, He is also Mother. (Note how she still uses masculine pronouns even when discussing God as mother.) What does a mother do? She (He?) restores and saves us. Restoring sounds very much like nurturing. Mothers often restore skinned knees, sagging spirits and energy levels. All of those tender characteristics we associate with mothers caring for our ‘little’ needs in life, fit well into this picture of Christ as mother. Jesus takes time to listen to the “little people” in the Gospels, makes lunches, and calms the fears of His (Her) children. Restoration is my favorite word for what Jesus came to do.
But Jesus the Mother also saves God’s people from their sins. We couldn’t do that for ourselves and Jesus lovingly takes our punishment on the cross for our sins. Doesn’t that sound like something a mother would do—give her life to save one of her children? Julian seemed to think so. She calls Jesus “our Mother, Brother, and Savior”.
And to the Holy Spirit, Julian assigns rewarding, giving mercy for daily living, and continually surpassing our expectations in giving grace for our every need. I would love to hear more of how Julian understood the Holy Spirit to be rewarding us in this life. Did she mean rewards for faithfulness, crowns in heaven or simply, blessing? Any or all of these definitions please me. I think she meant that the Holy Spirit is intimately involved in our lives, giving us whatever we need at just the time we need it.
I like to think of the Holy Spirit as the personality of Jesus left behind in spirit form. His body was gone but His spirit remained in some mysterious form to guide and bless us. For the Holy Spirit’s job is helping us with daily living—giving mercy in our troubles, says Julian.
“For our life is in three” says Julian. In God the Father we have our “Being”. Whether or not we acknowledge God, it is still God that gives us our life and breath and our image mirroring the image of God. Colossians says our life is “hid in God”. I think this is precisely what Julian wants us to remember. Our real life, our real selves are birthed and sustained by our relationship with God. This is our nature, who we are meant to be.
Our Being is in God and our “Increasing” comes through Christ, our mother. Our well-being and our spiritual growth comes through the nurture of this Christ-mother who tends and nurtures us. And it is mercy that nourishes and ‘increases’ us.
Our “Fulfilling” then, is completed by the Spirit. Our desires and ambitions, both spiritual and temporal are supervised, no fulfilled, by the Spirit. And this is accomplished by the abundant grace of God. Grace comforts in time of need and refines us when we need reining in.
What can this say to us but that God is ALL? He knows our needs before we ask and has amply provided all in this amazing Trinity of Godhood.
? Reflection Questions:
1 – To which of the three persons of the Trinity do you best (most often) relate? Have you ever considered why?
2 – What does God as Father mean to you? Is this a positive connection for you or does it conjure up negative associations for you?
3 – How do you respond to Julian’s thought of God as Mother? Can you see feminine characteristics to God? If so, which ones?
4 – What is your mental picture of the Holy Spirit? Do you ever pray to the Holy Spirit? Why or why not?
5 – Have you ever meditated on the mercy and grace of God? Have you ever experienced them in a real way? When?
Related Scriptures
Psalm 131
Psalm 91
John 14
Matthew 23:37-39
Exercise
Take some opportunity to observe a mother and her child. Note her tender nurture and then mentally apply that mothering to Christ. Allow Christ to restore and save that in you which craves a mother’s tender, loving care.
· “Cloud of Unknowing”
“The works translated in this book belong to the devotional classics of the English church, and are among the greatest of them all. No one who reads them can fail to catch something of their splendour and charm. They spring from an age when English mysticism was in full flower…with such timelessness and reality that their influence is as great today as it has been since that remarkable, inexplicable [fourteenth] century.”
The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works, London: Penguin Books, 1978, p. 9.
The Cloud of Unknowing is a classic English mystical work attempting to describe contemplative prayer. The 1300’s were the height of an era of an emphasis on mystical (experiential) knowing of God. The anonymous writer attempted to describe how impossible it is to truly know God’s presence directly and yet, by God’s grace, we can encounter our living God.
URL For the text of The Cloud of Unknowing, click here.
Two ways of praying have been traditionally described as:
Kataphatic prayer – with images, words, imagination
Apophatic prayer – without images or words
The goal of contemplation or apophatic prayer is to still our minds sufficiently to experience God’s presence without our controlling or limiting God. It is NOT the same as emptying the mind to experience ourselves, as eastern religions suggest.
URL For a helpful article on these two types of prayer, click here.
Others (Some attribute this list to John Wesley.) see four ways of knowing God:
1. Scripture
2. Tradition
3. Reason
4. Experience
Many generations emphasize one or two of these over the others. others. Past centuries have held strongly to reason (mind) and tradition. Our current culture is much more like that of the mystics, who emphasized experiencing God. Perhaps the best combination is to experience God through Scripture, using both heart and mind. This was primarily the goal of the mystics.
?~~Questions~~ Mystical Way
à Dig deeper into the thinking (writing) of Julian of Norwich and wrestle with one of her radical thoughts (like the motherly aspects of God).
à How did Julian experience God—physically? Prayerfully?
à Read a short passage of the Cloud of Unknowing and meditate on the mystery (and invisibility) of God.
à Define kataphatic prayer in your own words:
à Define apophatic prayer in your own words:
à Which kind of prayer appeals most to you? Would you be willing to experiment with the other type?
URL Websites on Christian Mysticism
For a 'Who's Who' of mysticism, click here.
For a collection of links relating to Christian mysticism, click here.
Contemplative Prayer
The four stages of prayer described below are adapted from The Armchair Mystic by Mark Thibodeaux.
1 – Talking to God (or ready-made prayers)
Examples include: liturgy, Lord’s prayer, Psalms, other written or memorized prayers.
Advantages
Words from these prayers . . .
connect you with the historical and universal church.
help you when you don't know what to say.
give you appropriate words when you don't feel like praying.
Warnings
Don't see such prayers as magical.
Beware of pride in fulfilling a daily duty.
Try to move beyond mere mechanical repetition of familiar words.
Instructions
Pay close attention to the familiar words.
Ask yourself "How is God [How am I. . ., How is my world . . .] described in this phrase?
Envision yourself praying the words with others around the world.
Try singing the words.
2-Talking to God (or spontaneous prayer)
Pray in your own words. Say what you need to say.
Use this method when you need to vent, process, or make requests.
Don't worry about what you say or how you say it. Avoid censuring yourself for something you feel or pray.
Try journaling or drawing your prayer.
3-Listening to God (or meditative prayer)
How does God talk back? Not necessarily in an extraordinary way.
Hear God through:
1 – Scripture
2 – Stillness
3 – Journaling/drawing
4 –Being with God (or contemplation)
Prayer =
1 – recognition of God
2 – transformation by God
3 – union with God
Prayer = Transformation in me (more than what I can get God to do for me)
Exercise: Try praying each of these four types of prayer—one per day. Most likely you will feel most comfortable with the first two types. Try praying via meditation and then contemplation. See how you and your God like it.
What Can We Learn from the Mystics?
by Sara Miller
Sara Miller is a free-lance writer and an editor of Catholic publications for the Thomas More Association in Chicago. This article appeared in The Christian Century, March 22, 2003, pp. 22-28. Copyright by The Christian Century Foundation; used by permission. Current articles and subscription information can be found at www.christiancentury.org. This material was prepared for Religion Online by Ted and Winnie Brock.
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To think that that mystics are engaged in a series of private, transcendent encounters with God betrays a superficial understanding, says Bernard McGinn. Christian mystics, in particular, are not breakaway contemplatives who find their own way to God. They are bearers and interpreters of a common tradition built upon a concrete revelation: God became human so that humans might become God. Christian mystics do not dabble in altered states. They seek radically altered lives.
McGinn is widely considered the preeminent scholar of mysticism in the Western Christian tradition and a leading authority on the theology of the 14th-century mystic Meister Eckhart. He has also written extensively on Jewish mysticism. He is the author, most recently, of The Mystical Thought of Meister Eckhart: The Man from Whom God Hid Nothing (Crossroad), and he has co-edited and translated two volumes of Eckhart’s sermons, treatises and instructions for the Classics of Western Spirituality Series (Paulist Press). In 1991, McGinn published the first title in a projected five-volume work, The Presence of God: A History of Western Christian Mysticism (Crossroad), the first comprehensive history of Western mysticism in English. Three volumes have appeared to date. He has just completed work on a smaller project co-written with his wife, Patricia, a psychotherapist, titled Makers of Mysticism, an introductory guide to a dozen mystics.
I spoke with him at his office at the University of Chicago Divinity School about the nature of mysticism and about the contemporary interest in mystics and in spirituality.
In The Presence of God, you describe some of the great shifts that occurred in the ways people looked for God. In early Judaism, for example, God was traditionally found in the Temple, but in the Second Temple period a literature emerged in which God is sought in the unassailable heavens. And in Christianity during the Middle Ages, groups like the Beguines and the followers of Francis showed that the spiritual life need not be confined to the monastery and the cloister but could be lived in the world. Do you think we are in a new position today in the search for God?
I think we are. The spiritual traditions of the world are in conversation with one another in a way they never were before, and that is bound to create a dramatically different situation. There’s a worldwide ecumenism now, in which we try to understand other traditions because they’re no longer "out there," far away.
We’ve also seen a return within the various traditions to an emphasis upon the spiritual and mystical. Two generations ago Jewish mysticism, especially the Kabbalah, was thought of as kind of bizarre, kooky stuff. The work of people like Gershom Scholem and others has shown increasingly that mysticism is really essential to the Jewish tradition.
When I grew up in Roman Catholicism in the 1950s, mystics were out there -- Teresa and John of the Cross, for example -- but you weren’t supposed to read them because this was very strange, dangerous stuff. That’s changed dramatically in 50 years’ time. And "spirituality," which was a kind of technical Roman Catholic term then, has become not only generally used by all Christians but used by other traditions as well.
Why do you think there is this renewed interest in spirituality?
In describing religion I often use the model created by Baron von Hügel in his book The Mystical Elements of Religion, written in the early 20th century. He says that religion has three elements: the Petrine element, which is both authority and organization; the Pauline element, which is the intellectual side; and the mystical element, which he identified with the apostle John and which has to do with some kind of consciousness or experience of God. For von Hügel all of those elements need to be in balance if religion is going to be healthy.
One of the things that developed in the 20th century was an imbalance -- authority and sometimes intellect became more important than the heart. That’s why I think a lot of people are now finding tremendous resources in spiritual and mystical texts.
Mysticism is sometimes thought of as a dangerous pursuit because of the potential for self-deception or self-delusion. Is it any more risky than Christianity itself?
I don’t think so. One of the things that most spiritual traditions insist upon, though, is that at some stage a spiritual guide is very important. Sometimes that guidance takes places within a communal framework or in a mentor relationship. This is true in Islam, Judaism and Christianity.
The figure of the solitary sage on the mountaintop is really the exception. Even St. Anthony, who lived in the desert for 20 years, returned to form a community. And in the desert the notion of the father teaching the younger disciple is very important. So it’s rare, actually, that mystics are very isolated figures.
Reading through the Presence volumes, I couldn’t help seeing the mystics as distinct personalities. Do you see them that way?
Very much so. Each of them is very distinct. Of course, there are a number of themes that most Christian mystics will touch upon, like the role of love, the relation of love and intellect and of action and contemplation, the role of Christ, the understanding of mystical union, the trinitarian life and ascetical practice. But how the mystics understand and relate to these themes is going to differ.
The great Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, whose works are deeply imbued with his knowledge of the mystics, talks about truth as symphonic, and I think that’s a good way of looking at mysticism too. There’s a tremendous symphony of voices.
One of the things that really was unfortunate in the previous study of mysticism in Catholicism and elsewhere was that one or two mystics were taken as paradigmatic cases. If a mystical text didn’t agree with Teresa and John, it was like a theologian not agreeing with Thomas Aquinas! We’ve come to see in the past half century that no matter how great Thomas Aquinas was, he’s one theologian among others. And no matter how great Teresa was, she’s one mystic among others. It’s much more creative and attractive to look at the full symphony. We have all these different kind of instruments -- maybe playing together somewhere in eternity!
But the mystics are also playing within a tradition. We can look at these figures as individuals, but we will discover more about them if we look at them as part of a tradition in Christianity dating back to Origen in the third century, at least, and building upon scripture and enriching itself for almost 2,000 years.
When you get to the 13th century in The Flowering of Mysticism, the mystical encounter seems to take on a decidedly charismatic expression in which the individual is somehow visibly touched by the divine -- Francis being perhaps the prime example of the believer who so puts on Christ that he bears Christ’s wounds. What is the difference between the mystical encounter and what we think of today as charismatic experiences -- if in fact they are distinct? Is one an inward experience, the other an outward sign?
Well, I think that would be one way to put it, but charisms as described by Paul in First Corinthians, which is really the foundational text, can involve a whole range of things, from speaking in tongues, to prophesying, to being given gifts of wisdom, and so on. So it’s a very diffuse term. Sometimes the experience can be accompanied by a kind of inner, transformative consciousness of God, but not necessarily.
Some people use the terms visionary and mystical interchangeably, so that every kind of vision is a mystical vision, and I really don’t think that is the case. A good example would be Birgitte of Sweden in the 14th century, who has all sorts of connections with God but whose message -- 99.9 percent of the tune -- is a reformist and prophetic message, not a mystical message. I see her as a prophet of reform rather than a mystic.
The special kinds of experiences that we would call ecstatic experiences and visions and the like can be mystical, but they need not be. For long periods in Christian history, particularly in the Patristic period and the early Middle Ages, there was a kind of suspicion of these special charisms. With what I call the "new mysticism" that begins around the year 1200 there’s a return to these experiences in a wide variety of figures, and often the experiences do involve what I would call mysticism -- that is, the charism is transformative of the individual and puts them in the status of spiritual teacher.
It’s interesting that Francis never talks about his own experiences, not even the stigmata. But Francis’s hagiographers talk about him as an ecstatic, as a visionary. And of course a lot of the women in the 13th and 14th centuries also speak at great length about what we would call charismatic experiences, but so do some male mystics.
You’ve edited and translated a number of collections and editions of Meister Eckhart’s sermons and theological writings over the years, and you’ve just written a full-length study of him. Why is he important to you and perhaps to anyone seeking a deeper spirituality today?
He certainly is very important for me. He’s fascinating historically because he was a very prominent scholastic and Dominican administrator who was charged with heresy and condemned posthumously. So he has this whiff of danger about him. Of course, I think the condemnation was incorrect in every possible way. Even the Dominican order has petitioned the pope to revoke this judgment.
We think of the medieval people as very simple -- many of them were illiterate and so on. But Eckhart preached very difficult sermons to general audiences, not just to clergy. And even today, despite the complex nature of his preaching, he has a powerful impact on people. In fact, the Eckhart Society, which began in England in the 1980s, was founded by an Anglican man and Catholic woman who previously had been very attracted to Buddhism. Their spiritual director, a famous Buddhist scholar, told them not to become Buddhists but to go read Eckhart! And so they remained Anglican and Catholic and were able to find in Eckhart what they had been missing in some forms of Christianity.
That arresting subtitle, The Man from Whom God Hid Nothing, suggests that Eckhart had an elevated kind of insight or status.
That phrase is actually from a contemporary description of Eckhart, and one of the reasons I used it is that it’s profoundly ironic and paradoxical. It seems to single him out, but if you put it in Eckhart’s framework of thinking about God, it shows his commonality, because God hides his nothingness from all of us. We’re all essentially in flue same boat. And of course the mystical life, the mystical search, is the search for the God who is nothing. It’s the realization that God is a hidden god.
You say in The Presence of God that mysticism is an original, essential element of Christianity -- is this because of the "hiddenness" of God?
I think the fact that God is a hidden God puts mysticism at the center of Christianity, but what I emphasize is that mysticism is one element of religion. I’m profoundly dissatisfied with the notion that mysticism is a kind of true religion, or the hidden core of the true religion, while institutions and teachings occupy some kind of periphery. I think it’s much better to see religion as a complex of beliefs and practices in which mysticism plays an essential role. Mysticism doesn’t float free of religion -- with the exception of the past hundred years, when the dissatisfaction with organized religion has led some people to turn to mysticism as a kind of private religion.
The idea that mysticism floats free is something that Christianity, Judaism, Islam and other religions would react against because their mystical teachings are a part of the complex of being a Christian, Jew or Muslim, and they coexist with practices, beliefs, institutions and so forth. Even Eckhart’s notion of inwardness and detachment didn’t lead him outside the framework of medieval Christianity. That’s why he’s so terribly upset when he’s accused of being a heretic. I cannot be a heretic, he says, because being a heretic is a matter of the will, of wanting to persist in an incorrect view. I can be mistaken intellectually -- show me where I’ve made a mistake and I’ll retract it.
Despite Eckhart’s emphasis on detachment from the self and the will, his account of the soul’s pursuit of God makes the soul seem decidedly willful and forceful -- it’s the soul that compels God, that calls the shots, that conquers. Eckhart even says of God, "He cannot shut me out."
Eckhart does talk about compelling God, but you compel God by your emptiness and by getting rid of all your selfishness and by total detachment. Eckhart and his followers often use what we would call a gravitational model -- that is, water has to flow downhill, but it can only flow into what’s empty. So it’s in the process of emptying yourself of your self-will that you compel God, because God can’t come in if there’s something else there, meaning yourself.
And the self here means the selfish self. Eckhart and his disciples are always preaching to get rid of the self that’s concerned with its own desires, wishes, characteristics, success, fulfillment -- everything that centers on us. That’s what they’re talking about when they talk of detachment, which is the cutting off, or of a "releasement." Eckhart uses both those terms.
Other mystics talk about reaching God through purification, or an attitude of humility. Are detachment and releasement just different terms for these traditional notions or are they new concepts?
Here’s the way I would summarize Eckhart and his followers’ preaching: People think they know what humility is -- acting humble. People think they know what purity is -- avoiding this, avoiding that. But those are practices, whereas detachment and releasement is something much, much deeper. It is ultimate humility and total purification. It involves a much deeper annihilation of the self. And then, paradoxically, if you can do that, the self returns to you, but it’s no longer the selfish self. It’s the purely spontaneous good self.
This is the notion of Eckhart and some other 13th-century mystics of living "without a why." "Living without a why" means that you don’t ask, What’s in it for me? or Why am I doing this? You just do the good spontaneously, the way that God acts. God doesn’t act because of the why or for any interest of his own.
Many of the mystics start with small practices, like prayer, or ascetic habits, or meditation on a passage of scripture, and gradually work their way up to a transcendent state or a God-consciousness. With Eckhart it appears to go the other way. Is that correct?
There are not a lot of concrete things that you do in Eckhart’s form of mysticism. What Eckhart is most concerned with is this change of attitude, which he says can happen instantaneously if you can just get into the frame of mind in which you give up the self. Eckhart is in some ways pretty impractical, and that’s evident in his constant speech about how if you’re using ways to find God you’re finding ways and not God.
To some people, of course, this sounds extremely challenging -- and it is, in a way. But Eckhart was not a radical. He lived as a group monk, prayed his office and practiced penance, and did all the things he was supposed to do. But his point would be that these things in themselves mean absolutely nothing. They have meaning only if the attitude in which you do them is the attitude of detachment.
In his treatment of the Martha and Mary text (Luke 10:38-42), Eckhart defends Martha’s focus on the tasks of hospitality. Is that a striking departure from the traditional understanding?
Yes, Eckhart is the first commentator to elevate Martha above Mary. The earlier commentators tried to show that both Martha and Mary were necessary, though Mary’s approach is higher. Eckhart says that Mary is the one who’s still learning, whereas Martha is the one who has learned perfectly because she combines contemplation and action -- though Eckhart doesn’t use those words -- in an unselfish, detached way She can now operate as the soul "without a why" and be effective spontaneously without losing that contact with God. Mary’s just on the way to that. She needs to learn life.
I get the feeling that living spontaneously in God, or living without a why, is a lot like living the Christian life generally. At some point it becomes second nature, and goodness and holiness seem effortless. But getting to that point is the hard part.
Eckhart’s radical formulations are sometimes found to be impossible. But he very deliberately tried to wake people up out of a kind of moral and dogmatic slumber, to wake them up to the possibilities of recognizing that the union with God already exists in the soul -- and recognizing it in order to live it out. When you reach that realization, the things that seemed impossible, paradoxical and outrageous somehow take on a new light. I think Eckhart felt that the kind of shock therapy of his preaching was the only way to wake people up to that message, because it was so easy to get lost in the ordinary round of pious activity and to think that through this activity we are pleasing God. That’s why we get those famous phrases of his like, "Well, if you think you’re finding God better in the church than in the stable, you’re wrapping God in a towel and stuffing him under a bench!" The point is not that God isn’t in church, but that he’s also out in the stable -- if you learn to live in the proper way.
Eckhart’s preaching style seems to have a lot in common with that of Jesus in the New Testament, who appears contradictory and paradoxical.
Who challenges, yes. Eckhart’s preaching is deeply scriptural in that sense, and in fact he says at the end of his Commentary on John that you have to speak excessively when you preach or talk about scripture because scripture speaks excessively -- that’s the nature of speaking about God. God is always beyond anything that we can understand or say so excessive speech both in scripture and in the scriptural preacher should be the norm. Of course, the mystery is hidden underneath this tremendous rhetorical flourish.
How do you answer the charge that Eckhart’s theology of mystical union, in which the soul achieves "indistinction" and becomes one with God, is really a form of self-deification?
I think that’s looking through the wrong end of the telescope. I would put it the other way and say that God deifies himself in us when we become perfectly detached, and that’s the nature of God’s creation of humanity as the image and likeness of God -- imago Dei. I think Eckhart would say no, we don’t deify ourselves, but if we totally negate ourselves, then God deifies himself in us.
Metaphysical Discussions, Articles & Pagan Philosophy
Step up to the Pagan Porch at Mystic Griffin & visit for a spell!
Grab a seat on the steps of the porch & talk about all sorts of ideas from the darker side of life, or the lighter -- depending on your view. Pagan & Wiccan ideas, metaphysical how-to's, philosophical inquiries, mythological & occultic information. NOTE: Here at our home we define WITCHCRAFT as a system of folk magick & home remedies. It is seen as a system to utilize universal energy & law. Where as, WICCA will here be considered a religious method used to connect with the dual Divine energies. PAGANISM to us is considered the belief in a polytheistic point of view -- multiple Deities. One may believe these Deities to be real, physical, beings, or viewed as archetypes of the collective unconscious -- symbols buried deep inside --that all persons share.
"Mysticism isn't a religion -- it's a way of life -- it's spirituality through all aspects of living." - Richard Francis
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INDEX OF TOPICS
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1. Not Such A Mixed Up World; Coven of the World?
2. Mystic Thoughts & Energy Transference
3. Spiral Lessons
4. What's in a Book of Shadows, & why do I need one?
5. Altar Basics, List of Elementals, & Making Offerings
6.What do I need Protection from Within the Craft?
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Not Such A Mixed Up World; Coven of the World?
In the modern spiritual society in which we live today, the pool of knowledge for us to dip our roots into is vast. Our explorations throughout the world have given us all the widest variety of myths & spiritualities to choose from ever known to mankind! The stories of many cultures overlap and speak from a "Group Knowledge" -- a combined human mind. So, it's only natural for us of seeking minds to pick & choose the bits that speak to us personally, making many into spiritual mutts of a sort ( for those who may not know, a "mutt" is a dog whose blood is of mixed/questionable heritage).
More & more often the word, "ECLECTIC", is being used these days. A wider base requires a wider view. Our world has grown. As a society, we've developed the habit of breaking things down to their smallest category. Perhaps this is a symptom of the so called Nuclear Age -- the search for the smallest particles. No longer do we have just SCIENTISTS. Each field has been broken down to the most finite category resulting in the loss of "looking outside the box", and narrow thinking. Now, the box may likely hold us inside its walls! Our attentions cannot continue to be narrowly focussed on individual categories - in all matters of life. This world requires us to broaden our view. Everything is so specialized today that one scientist is likely to miss a cure, or answer, because the answer is found within another field of research! How many past discoveries were made in one field by researching within another? Quite a few -- I mean who planned on healing coming from MOLD! :) It's time to open communication's lines more fully -- broaden our understandings. We search, explore & discover. We are an eclectic society by nature.
Try not to limit your views & your growth personally, spiritually, worldly. Search outside the box & you'll be rewarded. One cannot sit around waiting for a teacher to show one the way. We must be our own teachers by seeking, and sharing with each other, as surely humans must in days a-fore. Your growth as a Pagan can only be enhanced by reading things such as Hindu texts, the Bible, alchemical texts,Joseph Campbell, and even popular science magazines. Be open. The child outside your door may hold more wisdom than any Elder you seek to meet! Don't under estimate unlikely sources of growth and pointers along the way. Spirit speaks in many voices. If you find you're using the word eclectic to describe yourself, then perhaps you have become a member of a coven of the world -- a space where we all come together with a broader view.
Blessings All! )O(
*Note: I've recently discovered the book, "Progressive Witchcraft", Farrar & Bone, New Page Books. This one should be a standard on the book shelf, I think. Not through with it as of yet, but it's good content folks! - Tree
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Mystic Thoughts & Energy Transference
The relationship between microcosm & macrocosm is a favorite topic of mine. I would have to say that we live with it in mind daily, James and myself. Going far beyond just seeing the big picture, we try to hold an understanding of this principle with us. This is the basis for our beliefs in Paganism, for the God and the Goddess may be viewed in a similar manner. The Goddess, to us, may be seen as the microcosm; the FORMATIVE energy giving shape to all. The God then would be viewed as the macrocosm; the FORCE of pure energy. Taken from a symbolic point of view one could say that SHE takes into Herself the raw, untamed energy from HIM and gives shape, form; birth to structured existence. This is the Sacred Marriage. We see this in the vast amounts of solar radiation that bombards our planet and the ephemeral layers of atmosphere that shield us yet nourish life. Within each particle of being both Force and Form are found. A cell wall (Goddess, Form) gives shape and structure to the contents within (God, Force). The two combine in a Sacred dance to create the entire cell, which would then be considered as the Source. They are both created by the Source and creating it at the same time, yet are also individuals. Nature's dichotomy -- macrocosm exists separately from microcosm, yet still the two together create the whole. I believe this theory is why the sun is considered masculine and the moon feminine. The sun puts forth raw energy and the moon reflects that energy making it into a light of it's own.
After deep contemplation on these theories it was as if my eyes were first opened. It became easy to see the duality in all things. In truth, all things contain the Trinity of Source, Force, and Form. With this way of thinking , the earth, the sky, mountains, rivers, the trees, all creatures and mankind alike are my relatives. We strive to recognize that what is in that person is also within ourselves. There fore, if you hate or destroy, you are only doing damage to yourself. As with any theory this is easier to speak of than to put into constant practice. But awareness brings us closer to tolerance, kindness, and a greater understanding of our responsibilities to our selves and our world. The relationship between macro and microcosm IS the relationship of all of existence.
-- Aho Mitakuye Oyasin -- (Hello All My Relations) Lakota, Native American
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Spiral Lessons
The spiral has long been a symbol of importance to humanity. Ancient humans went to great effort to carve this image into stone for us to contemplate to this day. Unlike the circle, which has no beginning or ending, the spiral starts at a definite point and progresses to an eventual end. The spiraled journey of an individuals life is contained within the circle of all being; micro/macrocosm. If it could be viewed in 3-D we would see a coiled spring within a sphere. Rather than just traveling in an endless circle chasing our tails we progress to higher and higher levels of the coil. So one may continually pass the same point but should be on a new level. In a microcosmic perspective the spiral begins at an individuals birth and advances upwards with age until the end. One may go to an even smaller frame of reference to look at one's personal development in this manner. Are you not at a more advanced state of understanding life and your role in it then you were, say, at the age of 10? If you had not progressed up the spiral you would still have the understanding of a child.
* From the child of five to myself is but a step. But from the newborn to the child of five is an appalling distance. -- TOLSTOY (1)
As we round the spiral we'll find ourselves encountering situations or events similar to those of the past or lower levels. If we've learned and allowed ourselves to grow the last time, then we'll experience a whole new level of understanding. This will allow us to progress to the next layer. When we refuse growth we encourage our motion to become stagnant. Then we truly are chasing our own tails! Round and round, without moving up, moving on. We can become comfortable in this pattern of behavior simply because it's what we know. Sometimes a bad situation will be preferred to a new one because what is known seems safe. Refusing to deal or living in denial only forces us to continuously be faced with that which we are running from. It definitely should be a goal of each human to examine one's own journey and learn to recognize one's own patterns, or spiraled path. That is how we can learn to see where and how we are likely to make the same mistakes or where we see how much we have grown. Also by looking at the patterns of behavior of our parents or influential figures we are given the opportunity to learn and not perpetuate negative behaviors within our selves, such as addiction and abuse. We may look upon the lower levels of our own spirals and smile with the understanding of maturity. With awareness, we may look forward to new opportunities for growth in the layers to come.
The macrocosm of the spiral, or The Big Picture, may be the journey of the soul, or spirit. We begin in one life time with the goal to progress up the Spiral of rebirth. Patterns of being may here be seen too. Just as in an individual life span, our goal is to advance and not get caught up in negative cycles. We will continuously be confronted with unresolved issues within the life span spiral. If we deny these issues until the end of this spiral they will hold us in a circle. The next life span will pick up where the old one left off. On and on, round and round, until we finally, if ever, get the point and move on.
But how do we stop chasing our tails? There are untold numbers of tomes full of wisdom's and techniques. By all means, please do explore and learn. But personally I feel that the answer lies in three simple things ... truth, honesty, and strength. Open your eyes to see the truth. Be honest with yourself about what you find. And know that you have the strength to face it. I'm no expert. I make no claims to solve anything. This is just what I see; what I believe.
Written by Tree Pruitt
"The wise man through earnestness, virtue, and purity, maketh himself an island which no flood can submerge. "
from the " Udanavarga", based upon W.W. Rockhill's Translation. (2)
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A Member Asks: What's in a Book of Shadows, & why do I need to have one?
A Book of Shadows, or BOS, can be created by using any kind of blank book. Many people spend big bucks to get fancy WITCH looking books in which to write. But they're just not practical. The best BOS is a 3 ring binder. Wal-mart usually have Avery binders that you can slide a picture into a sleeve down the cover, and even the spine, to make it look fancy and magickal. Your BOS is a journal, a place to store your spells, and a most importantly -- a WORKBOOK. You can't possibly remember all the words to every spell and/or ritual you'll want to perform. You'll be working from this book. It can be quite awkward to stay open to a page when laying a book on an altar. By using a binder you can open the prongs and take out only the pages you need for the task at hand. In addition it allows you to move things around so that it's easier to keep track of all your bits & pieces of knowledge.
As you find new spells, and try them out, you'll want to keep track of how the results and any changes you might need to make to the spell. Keeping track of this in a journal section, or chapter of your BOS, keeps everything right together and you'll be able to see how you've grown in the craft and as a spiritual entity. It's a record of your life as a witch, Wiccan, pagan -- whatever. That's why they are often referred to as witches bibles. You might also choose to create a separate book for everything and only put spells & rituals into a BOS. Such a book of everything is, in truth, a grimoire. Personally I prefer to keep things as together as possible so my form of a BOS is actually a grimoire.
I love to do research and for some reason I hoard bits of information like a dragon on it's gold. I have Circle Network News clippings from when I was 13 years old, (I'm far from 13 now and let's leave it at that)! I can really get into research & study of a topic. So I got in depth with my Book of Shadows. The following is a list of sections in my personal BOS. Yours can be as simple or as complex as you like, but certain sections should always be included in a BOS, I feel.
1 Deity Concepts and Beliefs -
What ARE your beliefs? Do you worship the God and Goddess as a Wiccan in religious ritual, or are you more leaned towards the folk magic of the witch? Worship both God and Goddess, or do you favor one particular deity? What do you believe happens upon death? This is the place to define just what it is you are doing and what you hope to gain from your journey.
2 History, Myths, and Legends of the Gods -
How the world was created in your belief. Who ARE the Gods you'll be working with? Your favorite stories of the Gods can go in here.
3 Altars Diagrams, Decorations, and General Info -
Here you can have guides to remind you how you'll be setting up your altar for every day or holiday use. Your diagrams and notes in here should be a map to show you where to place things.
4 Circle Casting/ Dispersing -
How will you cast your sacred circle? How IS a circle cast. Here you'll store instructions for making a circle and also how to close one down safely.
5 Rituals, Sabbats, and Esbats -
This is where you'll keep notes on what the sabbats are and when. It's also a good place to keep the actual rituals you'll be using. Remember, with a three ring binder you can add new rituals as you come across them, or remove one's you may have out grown, (but don't throw them away! Tuck them in a file somewhere). When you are doing a ritual at the time of one of the spokes on the wheel of the year that is a sabbat. An esbat is what it would be called every other time you cast a circle and call to the Gods. If you're in a coven you may attend a monthly esbat at the full or new moon, say. Sabbats are times to praise the Gods not times to do heavy spell work.
6 Invocation/Evocation -
Here you'll put the definition and the difference between invoking a Deity and evoking an entity. Basically an invocation is an invitation. You politely invite the Gods to attend your rites. Evocation is a bit more forceful. When you evoke, you are pulling out, calling down, politely demanding the presence of a lesser being such as when calling the four quarters and the Elements.
7 Invocations to the Gods -
These are mini-rituals in themselves. Just what God are you inviting? Each Deity has it's own best way to help us, so each has it's own way of being called upon.
8 Prayers, Chants, & Poems -
Non-spells. Petitions and praise to the Deities outside of the sacred circle. Meal blessings, bedtime prayers, meditations, and or course, your favorite pagan poems. Collecting poetry can become a hobby in and of itself. And looking for more is a great way to meet fellow pagans!
9 Magickal Rites and General Magick Information -
Here's where you'll store your ritual, or rites, that you do for a purpose other than just to worship and commune with the Gods. Ritual to contact higher self, ritual for cleansing stones, rituals who's purpose is to cause growth and change. You may also have rites here to call up the Elementals to help you in a deed. In magickal rites the Gods are still called and the sacred circle is cast. These are still religious rites, like a turbo prayers.
10 Spells, Charms, and Other Folk Magick -
Generally in folk magick and witchcraft a Deity or higher power is not called upon. Instead of the higher key energies of the Gods, folk magic works more with the elements and charms. These should be non-religious acts intended to relieve a situation and/or cause personal well being. A formal circle need not be cast for these more casual rites.
11 Tools and Symbols -
In my own book I found it helpful to keep notes of what the tools to use in ceremony are called and how they are used. The more you use your tools and symbols, the more you'll learn them. Until you get the hang of all the terms it really helps to have it handy. The list of possible symbols to use in the world is infinite. But there will be certain symbols you'll use more than once and this is a good place to keep track of them. Don't be afraid to draw in your book. It's really meant for your eyes only, so the level of skill you may have is no matter. And, if you have no desire for doodles, you can always write out a text version. The point is to make a map for yourself. Something that you'll be able to quickly glance at to refresh your memory on subjects such as the arrangement of tools on the altar (see illustrations above).
12 Tables and Charts -
ie. color meaning and use, wheel of the year, stone characteristics, moon cycles.
So that's my BOS. I later added a section for recipes and home remedies. That brought the total number of sections to 13! This was unintentional, but very fitting as the number 13 is sacred within the occult. Eventually my book collection became a small reference library. You'll likely pick up a few books on the craft along the way too. Don't forget to check the shelves of your local public library! Many have nice collections of new-age & occult books to borrow. You won't want to write down everything you learn. But things you'll use on a regular basis, things that are special to you, and things that may be hard to remember, are things you'll want to be able to find easily. That's the main purpose of a book of shadows -- it's a recipe book, a journal, and a map -- a friend for the journey!
ALTAR BASICS, LIST OF ELEMENTALS, & MAKING OFFERINGS
An altar can be as simple or as fancy as you like. It can even be an image in your mind and not a real place. But the more you create the mental picture the more real you make it. You might even have a simple altar in the real world yet go to a fancy one in your mind. That's how a travel altar operates. The small tools in a travel altar, such as a birthday candle, a tiny pentacle, a shell to hold water, etc. are just tools. But if when you use them away from your home altar you imagine your sacred space in your mind you will tap into the energy built up at home. It's like using an Internet cafe' to sign on to your account that you'd use at home. Some say an altar should not have any metal in it because it throws off the energy. But our athames, or sacred knifes, are metal. And many of us have wands with stones welded on with - you guessed it - metal. So I see no problem with using an old end table with metal screws holding the legs. I think it's the connection you have that matters more than the construction materials.
See, the very spot your altar sits on will absorb energy and begin to charge up. The longer an area is used for energy work the stronger it becomes. It can eventually become strong enough with it's own energy that it acts like a doorway. That's why it's important to close down an altar sight if you move or change locations after a long time.
An unattended energy zone can allow unwanted or negative energies to come and go as they please. Elementals, spiritual creatures created by the energy of the individual Elements can also manifest into physical form through an unclosed circle and wreak havoc! Each of the Elements has a personality type ruler, or overseer, and also the creature associated with that individual Element. Those creatures are the elementals and they get their energy from the element that rules them.
Here is a list of elementals....
AIR : Ruler - Paralda, a male energy that is the overseer of Sylphs, Zephyrs, and Fairies. Paralda will bring the breath of life to your circle when invoked.
FIRE : Ruler - Djin (dee-yin) , a male energy that is the overseer of Salamanders and Firedrakes. Djin will bring forth light and warmth to your circle when invoked.
WATER : Ruler - Niksa ( neek-sa), a female energy that is the overseer of Nymphs, Undines, and Mer-people. When invoked to your circle, Niksa will wash it fresh and clean.
EARTH : Ruler - Ghom , a female energy that is the overseer of Gnomes, Dwarfs, Brownies, Leprechauns. Ghom will bring the strength of the Earth to your circle when invoked.
When you invoke these creatures to a session at your altar, in addition to the God and Goddess, you need to dismiss them politely when your session is through ( close your circle). Otherwise a little Firedrake may decide to cause a candle flame to jump and ignite your altar cloth, or a a water nymph might get board and bust your water pipes! Energy left undirected will fall to chaos just as bored children will tend to get into trouble.
Just an interesting side note: In my opinion, Gremlins are Earth creatures with high key energy like a crystal. That's why they start out so sweet and cuddly -- good natured. But when they are fed after midnight, the witching hour, that good energy is grounded by the food causing them to become the opposite. They turn into ugly mischievous monsters. It's not good for your body when you eat too late. I think the gremlin is a symbol for our bodies. If we allow our energy levels to run low, as in when we don't eat or exercise properly, we turn into the monster. You've experienced someone getting grumpy when their hungry, right? When we take care of ourselves, and our energy is up, we are like the sweet, cuddly, smart creature.
Always remember to eat a bite of food after expending energy at your altar. You can think of it as a communion. Close your rites, kick back, and enjoy a snack. Invite the presence of the deities to remain with you. This can be as casual or as formal as you like. The Gods enjoy a good pic-nic as much as fine dining! Reserve a small bit of your snack as an offering. Then, when you're all cleaned up and your tools are stowed away in your magick box, take the offering outside. Find a special place to set your offerings each time and this too will store energy just like your altar spot. Remember, the Gods come to us in many forms. Don't put out bird seed as an offering and then get upset if the neighbors cat eats one of the birds! Even the larvae of the common fly performs service to the Gods by consuming an offering. Like attracts like, right? So if you make a sacrifice, one will be made for you in turn. There's that theory or selfishness through selflessness again!
5/4/5 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copy for personal use only.
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What do I need Protection from Within the Craft?
* Please note: The following was written as a response to a question at the forums boards on Cauldron Living. I must highly recommend this new site.
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How to protect yourself from unknown evil? Well, first we must consider what IS evil? If we take away the stereotypical definition of evil and turn to the dictionary we find that evil is simply "a source of sorrow or distress, a calamity". Now, I can think of several recent events that fall into that definition! But does that mean the hurricane meant to cause as much of a calamity as it did? Does a flood WANT to ruin your home? Is a cat being evil if it causes a calamity upon your sofa with its claws? Well, yes, actually. That which negates is evil, whether there is intention or not. We cause evil -- calamity -- upon the very ground our feet tread each day by crushing that which is underneath. The point is that "evil" is highly subjective. Hitler may not have thought himself "evil", but your dog may think that YOU are when its time to go to the groomer! There is, however, a general agreement of types of "greater evils" -- most of us instinctually know what is right and what is wrong.
Throughout the day we are bombarded with "little evils". Small calamities can bring you down and leave you feeling drained at the end of the day. This general negativity can accumulate -- like attracts like -- and is the sort of "evil" most Wiccans and Pagans will have to deal with on a regular basis. As you become more attuned to the cycles and energies, as one does when starting into the realm of magic, your sensitivity to negative energy can increase thus increasing how attractive you are to more negativity. To relieve this requires a little more than a hot bath after a hard day at work. There are many amulets and methods for general protection. Some, such as a naturally holed stone, don't require you to do anything as they just naturally perform. Obsidian is an excellent remover of negativity from your life. But because it absorbs the negative energy it must be rinsed occasionally to remove accumulations. I think a good old smudge with white sage, a small grounding ceremony, or meditation on a regular basis is sufficient for most folks to loose those little evils.
Unfortunately no mater where you go or what path you follow there will always be those who try to profit or "feed" off of another. Be the best person you can be and follow regular cleansing methods and you'll likely not have to worry about those folks often. How do you avoid becoming one of those people yourself?! Before beginning any spell or even a prayer, ask yourself what possible outcomes may this desire bring? Is this action going to draw the best for all parties involved? If the answer is no anywhere in there than you'd be wise to re-think your motives.
To some in the craft, though many may disagree, there is a GREY magic. If balance is that which we seek for ourselves from the craft, how can we ignore that which is evenly between black and white? This doesn't mean you get away with a little bit of bad. Use of magic and knowledge in general comes with high responsibility -- it's hard head work! It requires one to be aware of ones thoughts and actions on a higher level and taking responsibility for your own actions and emotional responses. For example, you have an irritating neighbor or co-worker -- this person really burns you up! Now, "Go jump off a cliff!" may be the sort of thing you WANT to wish for them, and in black magic you would do so or much worse. In gray magic you'd do a spell, or pray -- wish -- for that person to get a great promotion and move. You are still getting rid of them, but the best for everyone comes into play. This may also be considered white magic to some, but pure white magic is generally more passive, asking you to not take action upon another without his or her permission. In any shade the possible consequences of action taken must always be closely examined.
It's nearly impossible to draw a straight line between good and evil. It's also just as impossible to fully define the two. Walk your path with a balanced step and learn the best you're able for I believe that fear is the greatest source of evil. "Fear is the darkness that surrounds ignorance and only education will bring us into the light."
-- Tree Pruitt
Portfolio http://www.ArtWanted.com/JandTPruittArts
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