For your listening enjoyment today:
Into the Mystic
Salvation Song
Gone to Fortingal
Bella's Fury
Little Talks
I Will Wait for You
Like Real People Do
Ho Hey
The Great Turning–Joanna Macy
Personal Guidelines for the Great Turning
Come from GratitudeTo be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe–to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it–is a wonder beyond words. Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art. Furthermore, it is a privilege to be alive in this time when we can choose to take part in the self-healing of our world.
Don't be Afraid of the Dark
This is a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty. Like living cells in a larger body, it is natural that we feel the trauma of our world. So don't be afraid of the anguish you feel, or the anger or fear, for these responses arise from the depth of your caring and the truth of your interconnectedness with all beings. To suffer with is the literal meaning of compassion.
Dare to Vision
Out of this darkness a new world can arise, not to be constructed by our minds so much as to emerge from our dreams. Even though we cannot see clearly how it's going to turn out, we are still called to let the future into our imagination. We will never be able to build what we have not first cherished in our hearts..
Roll up your Sleeves
Many people don't get involved in the Great Turning because there are so many different issues, which seem to compete with each other. Shall I save the whales or help battered children? The truth is that all aspects of the current crisis reflect the same mistake, setting ourselves apart and using others for our gain. So to heal one aspect helps the others to heal as well. Just find what you love to work on and take joy in that. Never try to do it alone. Link up with others; you'll spark each others' ideas and sustain each others' energy..
Act your Age
Since every particle in your body goes back to the first flaring forth of space and time, you're really as old as the universe. So when you are lobbying at your congressperson's office, or visiting your local utility, or testifying at a hearing on nuclear waste, or standing up to protect an old grove of redwoods, you are doing that not out of some personal whim, but in the full authority of your 15 billions years.
Principles of Creation Spirituality
1. The
universe is fundamentally a blessing. Our relationship with the Universe fills us with awe.
2. In
Creation, God is both immanent and transcendent. This is neither theism (God out there) nor atheism (no
God anywhere), but panentheism, God in all things. We experience that the Divine is
in all things and all things are in the Divine.
3. God
is as much Mother as Father, as much Child as Parent, as much God in mystery as
the God in history, as much
beyond all words and images as in all forms and beings. We are liberated from the need to cling to God in one
form or one literal name.
4. In
our lives, it is through the work of spiritual practice that we find our deep
and true selves.
Through the arts of meditation and silence we
cultivate clarity of mind.
5. Our
inner work can be understood as a four-fold journey involving:
·
awe, delight, amazement (known as the Via
Positiva)
·
uncertainty, darkness, suffering, letting go
(Via Negativa)
·
birthing, creativity, passion (Via Creativa)
·
justice, healing, celebration (Via
Transformativa)
We weave through these paths
like a spiral danced, not a ladder climbed.
6. Every
one of us is a mystic. We can enter the mystical as much through beauty (Via
Positiva) as through contemplation and suffering (Via Negativa). We are born
full of wonder and can recover it at any age.
7. Every
one of us is an artist. Whatever the expression of our creativity, it is our
prayer and praise. (Via Creativa).
8. Every
one of us is a prophet. Our prophetic work is to interfere with all forms of
injustice and that which interrupts authentic life (Via Transformativa).
9. Diversity
is the nature of the Universe. We rejoice in and courageously honor the rich
diversity within the Cosmos and expressed among individuals and across multiple
cultures, religions and ancestral traditions.
10. The
basic work of God is compassion and we, who are all original blessings and sons
and daughters of the Divine, are called to compassion. We acknowledge our shared interdependence; we rejoice
at one another’s joys and grieve at one another’s sorrows and labor to heal the
causes of those sorrows.
11. There
are many wells of faith and knowledge drawing from one underground river of
divine wisdom. The practice of honoring, learning and celebrating the wisdom
collected from these wells is Deep Ecumenism. We respect and embrace the wisdom and oneness that
arises from the diverse wells of all the sacred traditions of the world.
12. Ecological
justice is essential for the sustainability of life on Earth. Ecology is the local expression of cosmology and so we
commit to live in light of this value: to pass on the beauty and health of
creation to future generations.
The Four Paths of Creation Spirituality– a spiritual practice for communities and individuals
The backbone of the Creation Spirituality tradition is its naming of the spiritual journey in the Four Paths, which parallel the cycles of the four seasons. This tradition invites us to be participants in the circle of life—being filled with awe and wonder, feeling our pain and losses, exuding creativity, and persisting as justice makers. The Four Paths also address the question: Where will the experience of the Divine be found in our time? Creation Spirituality responds: the Divine will be found in the movement between these paths:The Path of Awe ( the Via Positiva) — in the awe, wonder, beauty, joy, blessing and mystery of nature and all beings, each of whom is as Hildegard of Bingen put it a “word of God,” a “mirror of God that glistens and glitters.”
The Path of Release (the Via Negativa) — in the beauty of darkness and nothingness, in mystery, in the silence and emptying, in the letting go and letting be, and in the pain and suffering that constitute an equally real part of our spiritual journey.
The Path of Creativity (the Via Creativa) — in our generativity we co-create with God; we trust our images (poems, paintings, inventions, ideas for peace and justice-making, businesses, creative parenting, etc.) as divine inspiration and courageously birth them into existence.
The Path of Transformation (the Via Transformativa) — in the individual transformation made possible through practice and grace, in the relief of suffering, in the combating of injustice, and in the celebration that happens when persons struggling for justice and trying to live in mutual respect come together to praise and give thanks for the gift of life.
