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Father Sky and the Cosmic Christ
Meditation #24, June 4, 2019     Balancing Gender, Reinventing Culture

Talking about Father Sky means talking about the cosmos.  Thanks to scientific discoveries of the past 100 years launched by the seminal breakthroughs of Albert Einstein and Ernest Hubble, we now know that we belong to a universe that is vast and expanding, full of creativity (a star is being born every 15 seconds!) and deeply mysterious (96 percent of matter is either dark energy or dark matter and thus very difficult to see and full of mystery). 

The universe we dwell in, our home and matrix, is 13.8 billion years old and all its “stuff” is related, since it began smaller than a pinpoint and has developed and expanded ever since.

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In the crowded hall of Bellingham’s Village books, I listened with growing enthusiasm and emotions as my friend Mirabai Starr introduced us to her latest book, ‘Wild Mercy.’ (https://g.co/kgs/Ew4FCi) I knew at that moment that a deep yearning I had felt for a long time was being addressed. And as a white cis-gendered male perched uncomfortably on the pinnacle of privilege, I also knew this was another important call to action. 

My friend Aziz Gary Guest and I were working on the facilitation of a men’s group for our spiritual community’s gathering over Memorial Day and this was obviously the subject that we needed to address. As men in this patriarchal society, it is often hard to recognize the ocean of privilege we swim in and the consequent woundedness that we have suffered along with our marginalized siblings. With the Shekina prayer as our compass (we read it over many times during our time together) – the men found the beginnings of guidance toward a different way to envision the culture, the planet, our siblings, and the world we walk through each day. We were inspired to find new ways to be in that world and to pray Hineni (Hebrew: “Here I am”) each morning for the Divine One to guide us toward the “purpose Thy Wisdom (Shekina!) chooseth.”  (from a prayer by Hazrat Inayat Khan a Sufi master who brought Sufism to the West in the early 20th Century). 

This is work that not only begins to heal our own wounds but has the potential to lift us all into the birth of the new humans we can and must become if there is to be a future at all. Aziz and I, Wakil, hold deep gratitude to our dear sister Mirabai and to the many feminine icons and teachers to whom she has pointed us for guidance in ‘Wild Mercy.’ May we walk this path together, hand in hand, heart to heart, in love, harmony, beauty, compassion, empathy, and remembrance.

Amen.

This is a subject I have been working with for some time. I very much treasure the work of folks like Carolyn Baker, Andrew Harvey, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Joanna Macy, Matthew Fox, Thomas Berry, Wendell Berry, and many others who have been so deeply engaged in this work.

This is another excellent article from an author new to me but with some inspiring ideas about how we navigate this challenging reality and what it means to embody mystical activism.

Some excerpts:

“To call these “end times” is hardly hyperbolic. We are in trouble and the signs are everywhere: extreme political divisions; xenophobic violence; enormous wealth inequity; poverty and homelessness; sexism and ageism; arms buildups and unending wars; and, most frightening of all, escalating climate disruption.”

“Driven by left-brain beliefs, illusions, addictions, and obsessions, we race headlong toward the collapse of civilization. Fortunately, the solution to these mounting crises also lies in the human psyche, arising from a most surprising source: the right-brain’s natural mystical consciousness. But our survival depends on whether we understand and resolve this paradox in time.”

“Humanity’s renewal is less a matter of faith than of transformed vision. Just as the divine world is never finished, neither is mystical revelation—we will be divinely guided through the death and rebirth of civilization if we pay attention. As the mind clears, so too does the path.”

Here’s the link to the full article:

In the Sufi world, we would call this Wali – that entity that walks with us and has always been there. What Fr. Richard Rohr might call the Christ Energy.

“Guardian Angel”

By Rolf Jacobsen

I am the bird that flutters against your window in the morning,
and your closest friend, whom you can never know,
blossoms that light up for the blind.

I am the glacier shining over the woods, so pale,
and heavy voices from the cathedral tower.
The thought that suddenly hits you in the middle of the day
and makes you feel so fantastically happy.

I am the one you have loved for many years.
I walk beside you all day and look intently at you
and put my mouth against your heart
though you’re not aware of it.

I am your third arm, your second
shadow, the white one,
whom you cannot accept,
and who can never forget you.

Let Evening Come

Let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn, moving
up the bales as the sun moves down.
Let the cricket take up chafing
as a woman takes up her needles
and her yarn. Let evening come.
Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned
in long grass. Let the stars appear
and the moon disclose her silver horn.
Let the fox go back to its sandy den.
Let the wind die down. Let the shed
go black inside. Let evening come.
To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop
in the oats, to air in the lung
let evening come.
Let it come, as it will, and don’t
be afraid. God does not leave us
comfortless, so let evening come.

— Jane Kenyon

I’ve seen this referenced a couple of times recently and I love the concept. This is my self-care mode of choice, so I totally understand how it can be one of the most restful and restoring practices.

I love the idea of doing this in groups as a silent practice as well – and I heartily recommend finding ways to share this within your communities.

Here is an article: http://time.com/5259602/japanese-forest-bathing/?mc_cid=cd41b60036&mc_eid=aba969cd81