Feminine/Flesh vs. Masculine/Spirit..?

Looking back in history, I'm astonished to realize just how long everything feminine has been deeply associated with the body/flesh/sensuality/earth/nature (& considered "evil").. while everything masculine has been associated with spirit/heaven/conquering nature (& considered "good"). I mean, it's so very stark.

Why the divide?

Why can't women be spiritual ... why can't men be connected with nature?

The word "matter" comes from the Latin word for mother - mater. Mother Earth, aligned with femininity ... and women ... have both been long devalued, abused and disregarded. In the Christian tradition, we see a hugely embedded divide between spirit and nature ... for patriarchy has long seen the earth as a fallen creation (& it's woman's fault), and matter as inherently evil. So, we don't allow nature to show us the revelation of the divine ... and we see ourselves (humans) as superior to the rest of the planet ... we no longer empathize with it, or with the rest of life (or even with most "other" humans!).

We've been trained to see the earth as a temporary holding place ... one we're meant to despise ... one we long to escape ... with our real goal being a Utopian afterlife.

It's not a far stretch to see why Christianity has extended this mindset to deny and despise the body ("flesh"), along with it's desires, instincts, and sexuality. We give shame messages to menstruating women, pregnant women, lactating women ... as if women doing what women naturally do (thanks be to God) are somehow dirty, and need to be separated from men. As if women are in continual need of cleansing and sanitizing. As if women cannot be both holy and sexual ... as if celibacy was more holy than sexuality ... and so Christianity has become a "body-fleeing, world-negating spirituality" that "projects upon the female all its abhorrence, hostility, and fear of the bodily powers from which it has arisen and from which it wishes to be independent" (according to Thealogian Rosemary Radford Ruether) ... ignoring God saying "very good" about all of creation (and never once taking it back).

Now, interestingly, there's evidence that prior to the year 200AD, women were considered to be equal ... they had full participation in early Christianity ... women were on a par with men. However, once Christianity became the domain of patriarchy, women were again considered to be the property of men, and "unfit" for a spiritual experience. This was cemented further, once Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.

Being betrayed by one's own religion is excruciating ... and the energy from this wound will come out either as hostility, or love. We must resist letting this energy be channeled into bitterness (which will eat at us, and poison others as well). We can choose to point it in the direction of compassion.

And, perhaps that's the point and intention of awakening.

Shalom, Dena

Not Victims

Why do I sometimes feel tentative and self-doubtful? Why do I silence my real self? Why do I fall into driven and perfectionistic patterns? Why do I occasionally lapse into passivity, afraid to rock the boat? Why do I work so hard to fulfill outward expectations? Why does it matter that I please everyone? Are these things emanating from the feminine wound? And how can I keep ignoring them

(Quoted from Sue Monk Kidd, in "The Dance of the Dissident Daughter" ~ and echoed by me!)

It's important for women (& men) to recognize the "feminine wound" that is our reality ... this wound is caused when we internalize the experiences and voices that tell us (overtly and covertly) that we are "less than" because we are female. Humans cannot hear negative messages, over and over, without believing them, to some degree.

I believe that no woman reaches adulthood without a significant sense of inherent inadequacy.

Not only do we feel the impact of what we've personally experienced, but we also carry the weight of the inherited wounds, those experienced by our mothers, grandmothers, ancestors. Sue Monk Kidd says, "thousands of years of feminine rejection reside there [in the collective consciousness], and it can rise up to do a dark dance with our conscious beliefs."

So, we must acknowledge this pain ... it exists, and it affects us. To deny it is to be complicit enablers -- and to allow the pain to encourage to do damage to us, and to successive generations (and we women *must* face that we have indeed been complicit in this! women actually condition their daughters to serve the system of patriarchy ... if a daughter questions it, the woman will usually defend the *system* rather than her own daughter -- we perpetuate the wounding by training our daughters to accept, and even embrace it!).

BUT - it's important to avoid the danger of victimization. Victimization paralyzes ... and perhaps it's unavoidable to feel the effect of the devastation that we've experienced as women ... it can be overwhelming when we first begin to see what we've long ignored.

This subjugation of women must be changed ... our survival as a species depends on it ... and we cannot change anything until we acknowledge and face it. We name the truth, so that we can see it ... so that we can move out of the victimization ... Kidd writes, "if women don't document and protest the harm done against us, who will?"

And yet ... as this is still operating as a "man's world" -- it will take enlightened and aware men, speaking out about this, in order for other men to hear (for they are predisposed to not listen to women in the first place).

I shared some of what I was learning on a discussion forum ... and I was told directly that I was "exaggerating" ... that I really needed to "get over it" ... one man said that I was a "Femi-Nazi."

Diminishing the pain of another, ridiculing the pain, and name-calling is just another form of discounting a person. Trivialization is yet another tool of patriarchy. It smacks of "you slaves don't know how good you've got it!" More of the same ... those who've put themselves in charge quelling those who would question their subservient status ...

BUT ~ it serves no one to blame the men in our lives (who are just as much at the mercy of patriarchy as are women). If men are resisting this awakening, it's because they are afraid that everything is going to change ... that we're competing, and if women "win" then they will "lose" ... they don't see that women "win" via collaboration, that women seek a win/win solution. If we are wise, we women will invite men *into* our struggle, and make them co-adventurers in our quest for truth & equality ... for then everyone truly *does* win...!

Seeing this truth, about how women have been wrongly side-lined, is dangerous. It's not prudent for us to see this ... it means that everything changes ... it means that all of our old, taken-for-granted securities are gone -- or at least that they seem to be, during the transition process.

The question, for any of us is: can we let go of security, in favor of courage...?

Until we've looked from the bottom-up, we've seen nothing.

Perhaps it's time that we, who have long-viewed from the bottom, be heard...?

Women -- we can no longer allow silence to be our "drug of choice." It's time to find our voice, to hear it, and to speak it ... the world may one day owe its survival to outspoken, subversive women.

Shalom, Dena

Once You Wake Up, Can You Wake Up Any More...?

This provocative question was asked by Sue Monk Kidd ... in her shift-inducing book, "Dance of the Dissident Daughter".

It's quite providential, and no accident, that I read this book on the heels of "The Fall." What Steve Taylor laid out due to his research, Sue Monk Kidd unfolded out of her own personal journey ... as she questioned the "Male Sky God" and discovered the latent, historical, and personal Divine Feminine.

(& if this hits you in the solar plexus, in a way that says, "oooooh, this can't be right", then you, too, like me, like so many, have been affected by the patriarchal traditions of man ... which have colored all things, including our view of God.)

Because I long to move on to other things I've been exploring and pondering, I just want to briefly touch on some of the things that I discovered, in the reading of this (marvelous and highly recommended) book. And -- if you desire to read it for yourself (it's likely in your public library), and if you would enjoy being involved in an online book-study, write to me privately (brehmites @ aol . com - remove those spy-bot thwarting spaces first!), and I'll send you an invitation. An intimate little group I belong to is about to launch this study, starting Monday ... and if you feel so led to enjoy, then en-join!

Back to Sue Monk Kidd ... her name may be familiar to some ... she was a prolific Christian writer ... crafting articles for numerous Christian magazines, speaking at women's events ... married to a college minister, Southern Baptist and quite traditional. Then God mucked her up.

She opens her book this way:

I was listening to National Public Radio the other day when someone asked the question, "Once you wake up, can you wake up any ore?" Yes, I thought. In a way my whole life has been about waking up and then waking up some more.

This book is about waking up some more.

The book is her journey, out of Christian Tradition, into the Sacred Feminine.

It's a journey I've also launched into ... as it feels as though I was gently led here, and then pushed over the edge.

It's about throwing away every assumption, and starting at zero ... open, receptive ... willing to receive truth, no matter how it's packaged ... willing to let go of everything that is revealed to be a hindrance -- even if that hindrance was long cherished, and is still worshipped by most everyone else you know.

The truth really does set us free ... but first it must pull the run out from underneath you ... first it must shake everything you think you know. At first, it feels like a free-fall.

Much of this book is about questioning the assumptions of male "in-chargedness" ... the entitlement mentality that gets handed down to those humans who happen to be born male ... the privileged status of half the world ... which seems to need to suppress the other half, in order to maintain their supremacy.

This is cemented in place by the added assumption that God "Him"self has ordained this to be so ... that God, being male, prefers men. That this is the created order of things ... that the hierarchy just IS: God, Men, Useful/Subservient Women, Children, Cattle, Uppity Women (Ok, so I made that up ... but it's sure 'nuff been my experience -- particularly within the church realm).

Ironically enough, many women (perhaps those useful/subservient ones) help to keep this in place ... passing on this message to their daughters.

However it is learned, in the life of each woman ... at some point in her life, usually not before she gets out of childhood, a woman will run smack-dab into the notion that "God made men the boss." In charge. Primo. Superior. Don't question it, just smile, nod, and keep to your place, woman. You'll be happier that way.

Well, as my favorite bumper sticker declares, "Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History."

At some point, each woman has the horrifying, dawning awareness that she is, by virtue of who she IS, less-than. Intrinsically, and inherently inferior. At least, so says those who deem themselves to be "in charge."

As a result of the unrelenting messages (covert and overt), that we are "less than", many (most?) women live without any sense of their own inner authority ... no sense of autonomy. We often carry a fear of dissension, confrontation, retaliation for "not staying in our place" ... believing we need to seek permission for our choices and actions ... deferring, always, to those "above" us ... learning early to manipulate in order to get our needs met ... learning to trade, to go around, to appease ... living in fear of not pleasing, not measuring up ... fear that there will be reprisal, some form of disapproval ... and for some, even a violent back-lash.

We are born into this culture that men have created, named and defined ... and most of us unquestioningly accept that "this is how it is - deal with it." Women have given away our power ... and this power is rarely used to liberate women, or to restore value to us. It's most often used against us ... disguised by the patronizingly, seemingly-benign means of "protecting" us. And so, many of us turn into "Stepford Wives" ... going along, accommodating this culture, fitting in, cramming our lives into the preordained boxes ... much like how Chinese women's feet were bound, in order to fit with the crippling notions of beauty and acceptability.

I was shocked and horrified to realize that the "early church fathers" debated whether women had souls..! Then, they debated whether we could be saved. "Women were the first to sin, and the second to be created," they intoned. Women, they said, were created to benefit man ... but woman is more easily deceived, weaker-willed, unworthy, and will lure men into sin." When we, as women (or as young girls), first take in this message, that we are less-than, that we are inferior, something vibrant, alive and hopeful, gets destroyed.

I remember when it dawned on me ... I remember thinking, "God, how could you make it this way? Why would you make half of us less-than?" I howled inside, wondering why I had to "dumb-down" in order to be accepted, wondering why the worst-possible insult that a boy could give another boy, was to call him a "girl." Why did I embody the worst-possible insult...?!?

And this message is not confined to the church ... we have imported it throughout the world ... and the effects are deadly.

Here are a few statistics:

- Four times as many girls as boys die of malnutrition -- as boys are preferred, and given more food.

- Women do 2/3 of the work, world-wide, and receive 1/10 of the world's wages.

- Even in the US, women still earn only 75-80% of what men earn, for the same work.


Florence Nightengale put our choice this way: we choose between pain and paralysis. Far too many have chosen the latter ... and all of their (forbidden!) anger, is turned inward, into depression ... so many have just given up. We resign to sleep-living.

And yet ... it's this very thing, this sense of sleeping, that leads to awakening ... for as nature demonstrates, that which sleeps, does awaken. As feminist theAlogian Carol Christ describes it, a woman's awakening begins with an "experience of nothingness" ... a vacuum of emptiness, self-negation, disillusionment ... a profound awareness of the limitation put upon women -- especially her OWN limitations...!

We come face to face with the "original sin of being born female."

Psychotherapist Anne Wilson Schaef describes it this way:

To be born female in this culture means that you are born "tainted," that your birthright is one of innate inferiority. I am not implying that this must remain so. I do believe that we must know this and understand it as a given before it can be worked through."

Yes - we have to notice where we are, in order to begin any journey. And, as women, for the sake of all humanity, we *must* take this journey. May I suggest that men can also explore how they've been affected by patriarchy ... more on that to come.

Shalom, Dena

You are HERE - Mid-Shift...!

This book-study has been quite the adventure for me, trekking through history, lifting up the veneer of the status quo explanations, and seeing what's been going on ...

Today we come full circle ... with the story, and as humankind.

Thousands of years after experiencing the collective insanity of the Ego-Explosion, it appears that we are returning to sanity. Slowly, incrementally ... and yet, we are picking up speed. Have you yet noticed?

Really though, this isn't about "going back to the Garden" ... this is about moving forward -- transcending includes the positive things we've learned along the way. The ego itself isn't the problem ... it's just a tool that lets us know what we need to look at. The problem has always been the skwewy perception of *separation* ...

We don't need to slaughter the ego ... we need to die *to* it -- to not let it rule us. It belongs to us -- we do not belong to it. It's not us ... it's the impostor, pretending to be us. We don't have to be fooled anymore.

We need to become Trans-Fall people ... to embrace all that is good, from our experience. The emergence of the logical mind, a gift of the ego, is to be appreciated. We needn't return to an immature/superstitious mindset ... we get to keep our rational minds, AND recapture our ability to invent, create, imagine. In short, the Trans-Fall psyche is a marriage of the positive aspects of both the unfallen and fallen psyches. We get the good stuff!

Our home, our survival as a species, depends on the majority of mankind awakening ... and becoming empathetic/respectful toward all life, all people, all nature. With this will come less materialism, less greed, less dominance, less superiority, more cooperation, less competition, less hostility, less oppression, more a sense of "we're all in this together." And we are.

We really don't have time to sit around waiting for this to fix itself ... the process of evolutionary change is too slow for the luxury of waiting. At the rate we're self-destructing, time is of the essence.

But here's the good news: WE, the folks created in the image and likeness of the Divine Mind (God), are *able* to add our own conscious intentions/efforts to the collective transformation, which is already occurring, thus speeding up the rate of transformation.

Not only can we -- we *must*. We were born for such a time as this. THIS is or life's work. For this, we have come here.

How do we do this? The ways are myriad.

Think back to the "first wave" of enlightenment ... the mystics individually discovered that they could consciously transcend their perceived reality, and tap into the GREATER spiritual reality around them (the Kingdom of God/Heaven, which is at hand, in our midst, within us). We can intentionally do this as well ... via meditation, visualization, education, re-thinking, questioning what we believe ... even *wanting* to see beyond what we've been told about reality. We can *wake up* ... and be agents of contagion!

Here's a fun new definition to embrace: Morphic Resonance - a theory that suggests that once a large enough number of a group or species show a particular trait or characteristic, it is naturally taken on by all members of the species. (Read here about "The Tipping Point".)

And ... even if we don't experience the Big Shift ourselves, this way of life is beneficial for us ... becoming more peaceful, less egoic, more compassionate, more connected to Spirit -- is just a great way to live...!

As Steve Taylor sums up his book,

One day, perhaps soon, "we'll look at the world with fresh, non-automatic perception (caused by a higher level of consciousness-energy) and see it as a radiant, beautiful, benevolent and meaningful place. We will see the presence of Spirit-Force in everything, in all things and in the spaces between things, and be aware of it as the Source of all things, the ultimate reality of the universe. We will be aware that Spirit-Force is the essence of our own beings as well, and feel a sense of communion with the world, a sense of belonging and participating in it rather than being outside of it looking in.

"We will no longer be separate, and so we will no longer be afraid - afraid of death, afraid of the world, afraid of God, afraid of our own selves, afraid of other people. The disharmony of the human psyche will be healed, and the insanity which it gave rise to will fade away.

"The choice is yours."

And I have to ask: Why Wait?!?

Shalom, Dena


P. S. And YES, this book is very much worth the read ... I let out SO much, that's so worth reading and contemplating!

The Re-Awakening of Compassion ...

Take a little trip back in history with me ... not all the way back to 6,000 years ago this time ... just a wee bit back (relatively speaking), into the early 18th century ... the early 1700's. Let's pick England, as it was considered to be "quite civilized" at that time.

You and I would be utterly shocked at the utter void of compassion that was displayed at that time, in that "advanced" place. Executions were spectator sports ... "hanging day" was a banking holiday, with people showing up in droves, to witness the killing of another person (who had committed such petty crimes as pickpocketing, vandalism, or indebtedness). People were branded on their cheeks, to indicate what crimes had been committed ... including begging, or starting fights. Children were treated beyond-cruelly ... infants who were unwanted were thrown into open drains and sewers ... parents would even maim/cripple their children so that they could be better beggars. Animal torture was prolific, with cock-fighting, and ratting. People with disabilities were considered to be "possessed with evil spirits" ... babies with deformities (as well as their mothers!) were often killed, or exiled. Charity was rare .... seen as absurd.

Compassion was scarce, if in evidence at all ...

Compare that with today. Now, by no means am I claiming that we don't still have cases of cruelty happening ... but it's seen as abhorrent by most ... and we speak out. We no longer hang children for stealing ... we don't allow for animal cruelty, and a large number of people give regularly to charity. We have compassion. We've got a long way to go, to be sure, but we've come a long way in just under 400 years.

So, what happened? What changed, between 1700, and now..?

What is compassion? It's a product of the imagination -- being able to "put ourselves in another's shoes". Feeling what another feels ... feeling *with* them. Compassion is transcending ego-isolation -- connecting with another. Tapping into a shared identity with others.

As Steve Taylor eloquently puts it:

"... this new spirit of compassion can be seen as the expression of a collective psychic change that seems to be taking place within human beings: a gradual movement beyond ego-separateness. The first wave was something that individual human beings made happen, but this -- the second wave -- is something that seems to be happening to us... Whereas the first wave was a tiny undercurrent,the second wave is a mass movement, involving a sizeable proportion of the human race."[emphasis mine]

Going back to our portal into the 18th century ... from 1750 or so on, it was a tremendously transitional time to be alive ... for 6,000 years, slavery had been taken for granted, as a human "right". But in the 1700's, it began to be questioned ... is this good? And the anti-slavery movement was born. So too, it was unquestioned that some humans were *better* than others ... but it was being re-thought ... is it true? And a new model of democracy began to spread. For almost 6,000 years, it was unquestioningly assumed that men were superior to women -- that women were vastly inferior and fit to be beaten. But during this transitional time, the women's rights movement was birthed. The question of the rights of animals to live free from cruelty was pondered ... and the SPCA was formed. The treatment of criminals was reformed ... branding was outlawed, stocks/pillories were abolished, along with flogging and the rack, along with all forms of torture. Corporal punishment of children was opposed ... a sense of empathy for the suffering disabled children grew ... with a growing realization that we needed to care for everyone, including the very young, and the very old.

It wasn't perfect - not by a long shot (for instance, the "enlightened" founders of the USA only considered while male landowners to be free to vote ... and certainly the abysmal treatment of the Native Americans attests to the prevalence of the egoic/separate psyche). BUT ... something was happening ... transformation was observable.

Also during this era, the artists, authors and musicians began to demonstrate a profoundly new attitude toward nature, including the body. Romance literature emerged ... with poetry reflecting the inner life, not just the brute/logical conquests of conquerors. The artists were becoming aware of Something More than meets the senses. Catch the beauty of Wordsworth's poetry:

And I have felt a presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:
A motion and a spirit, that impells
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.

This newfound (remembered!) sense of empathy extended to all living things, and to all of nature ... rather than being merely detached observers of the world, they participated in it..!

War also changed ... rather than being merely a conquest for land ... it became more about liberating others from oppression. WWI was the last war to be openly welcomed by those who participated in it ... and because it was so devastating, the League of Nations was established, to ensure that nothing like it ever happened again. Unfortunately, such harsh punitive measures were taken against Germany, this led to them instigating what led to WWII.

(Shame never helps -- it always harms.)

It's interesting that Europe has been peaceful for the past 60 years ... after centuries and centuries of previously ceaseless fighting ....

Obviously, we have a long way to go regarding war..!

What else has been changing, in this "second wave" of compassion...?

- Attitudes toward sex and the body - our sense of shame has been fading.

- Gender boundaries ("what men do" and "what women do") have been blurring ... giving rise to empowered women, and "new men" (those who seem less influenced by the power of the fallen-ego, who are more sensitive, more empathetic, and less aggressive -- more secure in being, than in doing).

- More empathy toward nature ... a growing number of people becoming vegetarian/vegan ... animal rights ... a connection to all life, a reverence for life ... and a growing sense of responsibility/stewardship for the planet we all share.

- The decline of theistic religion ... more openness to what the Eastern/mystical religions/mindsets have to offer ... less focus on "consolation" and more emphasis on "transformation."

- A desire for reparation ... repairing the past harms done against indigenous peoples ... a desire for correcting injustices.

None of this paints a false picture of a Utopia. That's not even the goal (really - think about it -- it would bore the snot out of all of us). We have much work to do, much awakening to experience ... we're still in the "pig sty" coming to our senses ... never before have we seen such rampant materialism/greed being manifested ... never before have we seen such damage done to the environment ... and every day we hear of atrocities committed by humans, against humans.

And YET -- for the first time in the past 6,000 years of history, we are experiencing a growing movement away from the pathologies of the fallen/egoic psyche ... even if it is still, admittedly, a minority. We appear to be experiencing a shift -- moving from a "dominator" society into a "partnership" society ... a clear indication that humans are changing *on the inside* ... just as they first changed on the inside, 6,000 years ago. The signs of increasing empathy strongly suggest that the "walls of separation", borne of the egoic fall, are coming down...!

Why is this happening to us?

It appears that, in order to survive (even ourselves), we are becoming *more alive* ... that we are evolving into a higher consciousness (yeah, I'm well aware of how "woo-woo" this may sound -- stay with me!).

It may be happening because it *has* to ... otherwise, we may destroy ourselves. The built-in capacity for survival, built into this universe, may be kicking in ... doing what needs to be done to keep life itself going.

It almost seems as if a Plan were unfolding ...! ;)

Next ... I'll wrap up this book-study ... looking at how we've come, in a sense, full circle ...

Shalom, Dena

The GOOD News: The "Trans-Fall" Era...!

Been waiting for this part..! :)

A funny thing happened on the way to survival ... some humans began to "wake up"...!

Now, the "normal" way that humans have dealt with pain (inner or outer, but predominantly inner), was to either escape it, or to console themselves for it. So, we distract ourselves, or focus on an idyllic afterlife (or a soon-coming utopia).

BUT -- starting around 1000 BC, a small number of folks came to see that there was another, more fulfilling possibility -- that they could heal the discord, rather than to escape from (or manage) the symptoms. They actually discovered that they could *transcend* their egoic sense of separation, and as a result, transcend the suffering!

We see this happening with the Upanishads of ancient India. They declared that our perceived sense of reality (based on our five senses), is not the true reality. That our sense of separation is nothing but an illusion. That everything in the universe is permeated with Brahman, or Spirit ... and that THIS is the ultimate reality.

"Shining, yet hidden, spirit lives in the cavern.
Everything that sways, breathes, opens, closes, lives in Spirit ...
Spirit is everywhere, upon the right, upon the left, above, below, behind, in front.
What is the world but Spirit?"

Of course, this wasn't really *new* - this was just a rediscovery of what the earlier ancestors knew. The sages and mystics have merely discovered a way to reverse the psychological consequences of the Ego Explosion ... they found-again the Spirit-Force, whether they called it Brahman, Maasauu, Wakan-Tanka, Tirawa, Kwoth ...

These sages and mystics realized that who we THINK we are, the ego, is just an impostor ... giving us a false sense of our identity ... we are suffering from a case of mistaken identity!

Around 600 BC, Buddhism and Janism emerged ... Buddhism showing the way to rise above suffering, by releasing craving (the ego is the craver, wanting, wanting, wanting). Janism tells us that we can find liberation through meditation, renunciation, and following a moral lifestyle -- including non-harming of any living being. Taylor writes,

"The adept reaches a state in which, according to one ancient Jain text, 'The Self is free from punishment, without opposites, without me-sense ... free from defects, free from delusion, and fearless'."

In China, around this same time, Taoism emerged ... Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu were aware that there had been a previous harmonious time ... and that we had fallen from it. That we fell from the "Tao" (the Way), and instead came into the "way of man". We became aware of distinctions, aware of right/wrong, and became proud and selfish.

It's interesting ... if morality (adhering to a code of conduct) was *able* to correct the fallen psyche ... if conformance to a code of right and wrong could enable us to show a greater ability to empathize with others ... if it were able to change us, so that we could overcome our inner pathologies -- then we would've done so by now.

But this is not the case.

Morality has been preached, enforced, and mandated into laws, for millennia.

How's it working for us so far...?

It would seem that all of the mystic teachers taught that we had to be transformed from within ... that we had to "shift" ... that we had to change our inner perspective. External conformity is a band-aid on a cancer ... doesn't work, except to utterly exhaust us.

Enter Jesus.

Jesus' teachings demonstrate the "trans-egoic" state of being. Look deeply at some of his statements: "The Kingdom of heaven is within you." "I am in my Father and my Father is in me." Some stronger statements are made in the gospels that didn't make the final cut ... in the "Oxyrhynchus" sayings of Jesus, Jesus is recorded as saying, "You shall know yourselves that you are in God and God in you. And you are the City of God."

Jesus teaches of an intensity of compassion, that can only come with empathy -- feeling with another ... that comes from transcending the sense of separation from another. Jesus so identified with others, that he said, "as you do to one of the least of these, my brethren, you do to me." And, "he who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me."

And so it was, throughout history ... in every culture, among every tribe and nation, a very small minority of folks discovered that it was possible to transcend the fallen psyche, and to know truth.

Ironically, these mystics arose out of the very religions that opposed, and often, killed them. Judaism gave rise to Hasidism and Kabbalahism; Islam birthed the Sufis; Christianity gave forth to the likes of Meister Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, Hildegard, Thomas a Kempis, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and Jakob Boehme.

While the mystics spoke of God, their concept of God was quite distinct from the religious concept of God .... God was not an anthropomorphic being, distant, up there, somewhere, looking down and controlling the world. Their God was Brahman, Spirit-Force ... the whole universe was impermeated with the radiance of God.

Religion declares that we are separate from God -- God is "other". Even unapproachable.

Mysticism declares that God is knowable, intimate, even within our own being. Sufi mystic Dhu al-Nun wrote,

"Their words are the words of God which roll upon their tongues, and their sight is the sight of God which has entered their eyes."

Are we not all God-breathed ... and thus inspired...?

When will we know this, trust this, and live this?

(Next: The "Second Wave" of Awakening! Or: You are HERE!)

Shalom, Dena

Other Effects of The Fall ...

Prior to the fall, people were "naked and unashamed" ... even as described, poetically, in Genesis. Even today, primal people have a profound lack of same, regarding their nakedness ... as well as an open attitude toward sex (some of their languages even lack a word for virginity). It seems that they had no sense of shame, or guilt, regarding sexuality. According to some anthropologists, a free and balanced sex life had a direct correlation to a lack of aggressive and war-like behavior ... suggesting that sexual tension can lead to fighting.

Along these lines, our prehistoric, unfallen ancestors had a healthy attitude toward menstruation, birth and lactation. They seemed to realize that while normal blood loss means death, menstrual blood signifies life... and so it was revered. The men were not disgusted, and menstruating women were not seen as "unclean".

However, after the Fall, the overly-developed egos caused a sense of separation from everything -- including their own bodies -- with minds being valued over the body. The ego declared war on the body. Just as men sought to dominate women, and nature -- they sought to dominate their bodies. In a twist of understanding, normal and natural human instincts became seen as "evil/sinful" and normal bodily functions became "unclean/obscene." And so it has been, ever since ...

Even today, in some cultures, women are forced to cover their entire bodies (often even their faces and eyes -- we've got women running into things in public, as they can hardly see!). This neurotically repressive attitude toward women and the female body has reached an insane mindset: a girl's virginity is so linked to "family pride" that girls are never left alone with boys or men -- the men so completely misunderstand female sexuality, that they imagine that girls/women will give in to lust at any opportunity. But, if a woman does lose her virginity, the family may "save honor" by killing her. In many cases, the girls are raped by family members ... who will then kill her if she becomes pregnant -- as her "shame" infects the entire family's honor...! How sick is that?!?

The three Saharasian religions (Judaism/Christianity/Islam) all have a dualistic attitude about sex and the body -- focusing on the "corruption of the flesh" against the "purity of the spirit/mind". Pre- or extra-marital sex was punished with the threat of eternal hell (sometimes "helping God out" by torturing them before dying) ... and even sex IN marriage was seen as sinful, if it was done for pleasure, rather than for procreation. Celibacy was seen as the highest calling. Some groups even recommended castration as a sure means of getting into heaven...!

It shouldn't come as a surprise to realize that female sexual pleasure was expressly forbidden. Good Christian women were expected to despise sex (& let me assure you, this sentiment still prevails for many!). Still today, there are cultures which go to extreme lengths to ensure that women will *not* enjoy sex -- including "female circumcision" (removal of the clitoris and labia majora), ensuring that she will have pain for the rest of her life, during sex, and when urinating.

Menstruating women have often been the "scape-goat of choice" ... being blamed for ruining crops, causing miscarriages, and bringing about sicknesses ... the old testament declares that a woman is unclean while menstruating ... and that she has to stay away from others for a long period of time after giving birth (longer if the baby is female, than if it's male).

A pregnant woman was long looked upon as shameful -- for she had obviously had sex... as late as the 17th century, pregnant women were called "sick with sin." In many areas, Christian teachers called breast-feeding "a filthy and swinish habit" ... requiring women to hire wet-nurses instead of feeding their own children.

All because the ego hates to be out of control, to be dominated ... the ego despises the body for controlling it, with biological urges and desires.

Another aspect of the ego-exploded life, is our anxiety-ridden concept of time. We see time as linear ... with a starting point, and a straight line to the ending point. But earlier people saw time as circular ... even as an upward leading spiral ... life was seen as evidencing cycles, which repeated, and we just flowed with it. But with a linear perspective, we see time as something that's always getting away from us ... we feel the pressure to make the most of time, for it's running out on us ... and if we don't DO something worthwhile with each moment, we're wasting a precious commodity! Stress!!!

But very few of the unfallen peoples have words for "time" or "past" or "future" ... they live in the NOW. The present moment. They seem entirely undisturbed by waiting ... while we fallen folks *hate* waiting! They enjoy "going within" and meditating, whereas we fear going within -- we crave (& will create) distractions.

Since the Fall, we are painfully aware of the passage of time ... each day bringing us closer to our own demise ... the fear of death hangs on us ... which sucks the meaning out of all that we do. Thus Solomon wrote, "vanity of vanities, all is vanity." This obsession with the passage of time stresses us out, and leads to pessimism and despair ...

Because of our focus on the past, and the future, we keep missing out on the only time we have: right now. And so we don't live fully ... we're always "somewhere else." For the most part, we humans aren't really living. Blaise Pascal wrote:

"We are so unwise that we wander about in times that do not belong to us and do not think of the only one that does; so vain that we dream of times that are not and blindly flee the only one that is ... Thus we never actually live, but hope to live."

One other result of the Fall, is our penchant for destroying our own planet. It would appear, to an outside observer, that we've signed an all-inclusive suicide pact.

Primal people had a profound sense of connection to nature, and so they respected, and even revered it. They saw the planet, and all that's on it, as alive. They were empathetically connected ... and lived in harmony with all else. They felt a sense of responsibility to all other things ... and a concern for long-term sustainability.

But since the Fall, we've had a sense of recklessness, of not caring, of short-sightedness ... and greed. What's in it for ME? We've lost that sense of connectedness ... and many would laugh at Chief Seattle, who said, "to harm the Earth is to heap contempt on its Creator." But when we invented "other-worldly" gods, the earth became "desacrilized" ... and even Christians believe that we have a mandate to "subdue the earth" ... since we're the only beings "with souls" (so they say). We look at the earth, and everything in/on it, as resources for our disposal ... Michael Perry, Archdeacon of Durham, England says this:

[this biblical view has given us license to] "take and take and never give back; to squander the fossil remains of forests which had taken a million years to build up, and burn them in a generation; to make dustbowls out of wheatfields and deserts out of fruitful ground; and to believe that, as lords of creation, we were not only allowed, but divinely commanded to do so."

We no longer see the earth, and everything on it as living ... we see it as dead matter.

So, are we doomed? Is our extinction inevitable?

We've been insane for 6,000 years. Our psyches have fallen. The solution, it seems, is for our psyches to change.

The good news is abundant. Historically speaking, we have been "waking up", becoming more empathetic and compassionate ... and generally changing *beyond* the sense of ego, for the past few hundred years ... let's explore that next, as a way of wrapping up this "book report"..!

Shalom, Dena