Dwelling in the Liminal Mansion

Dear friends,

For the past several weeks, I have found myself moving, at times uncomfortably, into liminal space. This culminated and came to a particularly unique state in my most recent Master’s program class on “multi-religiosity amidst the blessings of our ancestors.”

This journey into the liminal began in early August with our yearly Northwest Sufi Camp, followed by a week of Spiritual Direction training at the Interfaith Chaplaincy Institute in Berkeley. Then I had a moving evening of Shamanistic ritual, movement, and sound with Ecuadorian teachers Susannah and Adriana and finally a week in the Master’s class.

I have very much wanted to somehow relay the sense of these weeks yet find it hard to put into words cogently.

So, I share the following two poems with you. The first expresses the feeling of oneness and divinity as I stepped into the liminal spaces of Sufi camp. The second describes the entire journey with the allegory of entering and dwelling in a liminal mansion.

Enjoy!
*********

The Veils Unraveled

Each radiant face,
Each majestic tree,
Each trembling leaf,
Each soft breeze,
Each watery whisper,

Each drum beat,
Each moving tone,
Each loving touch,
Each squealing laugh,
Each sorrowful lament,

Each whispered prayer,
Each rooted connection,
Each touch on my heart,
Each tingling energy,
Each pulsing warmth:

The veils unraveled
and unraveled until
I stood naked, weeping
resplendent, redeemed
No longer separate.

Divine
*********

Dwelling in the Liminal Mansion

From the world of ticking, insistent time
From the world of sirens, buses, restaurants
From the world of hurry, worry, scurry

Appears the mysterious, glowing, throbbing door
Into the in between spaces – do I enter?

Trembling
With fear,
Excitement,
Apprehension,
Doubt… I answer:

Of course! Hineni! Here I am Divine One!
I turn the golden, resplendent, knob –
Stumble over the threshold with a bow.
What’s up? Where are we? Which way from here?

I’m in a grand ballroom
Bedecked with prayer flags,
Sufi heart and wing symbols,
My dear friend and guide, Ganesha,
And goddesses and gods of every stripe
Both embodied and illustrated.

We dance,
We sing,
We move together,
We pray.
We spin.

And spinning, I find myself at a new doorway
Smaller, but pulsing, warm, cracking open as I fall through.

In this library room
We sit in circle
Blessing one another
Sharing joy
Sharing sorrow
Sharing love
Sharing fear
Finding hope
Finding light
Finding beloved community.

As we embrace in remembrance and farewell
With promises of companionship and compassion
I dissolve into tears and fall into dreams of sound and movement.

When I open my tear blurred eyes
And wipe my wet cheeks
Yet another door stands before me.

It is round and open
Warm light streams from within.
With a deep bow – I step over this new threshold.

In a cave-like, dome-shaped chamber,
encrusted and sparkling with jewels,
beloveds alive and dead await.
There is a space in the circle
The size and shape of my soul
Into which I slither and slip
Like a wisp of smoke
The keystone that completes the arch.

In this place of soft prayer
And sweet, chanting song
And deep, loving sharing,
In the spirals of spirit and mystery
We expand to include all
We contract to become the original singularity
We explode to create worlds and worlds
We dissolve into One.

And finally,
I fall through the center
Into the Holy of Holies
The pulsing,
Divine,
Inclusive,
Mystery of the Mystery of the Mystery.

I am that I am
Hallelujah!

Huuuuuuu