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| A Home for Modern Mystics | ©2001 CNR | Vol. II, Summer Solstice Issue |
| Contents | |
| Director's Report | A report from the Board of Directors |
| A Word of Thanks! | For all the help! |
| Breaking the Chains | Final entry in the Orthodoxy Series |
| America'sFlatland Religion | Wisdom from philosopher Ken Wilber |
| Coinspiracy Against Mary? | From the National Catholic Reporter |
| Workshops and Energy Therapy | It's what we do! |
| Spirit Surfing | Some cool links for the soul |
| Life Poem | The last words of Gabriel Garcia Marquez |
| Contact Info | Look here for more information |
I'll bet you noticed right off: We've a new look for the electronic edition of CNR News. That wasn't exactly planned, which is why this edition is so very, very late. It happened something like this:
When we went to distill the newsletter into its usual PDF format to send out, the file ended up being 1.8 megs! in size. Way too big for email distribution. Why? Well, because unlike previous editions this one was in color.
Obviously we were getting some guidance. The PDF version was also unhandy for displaying on the web page. So, since we've got the ability to produce both an HTML and a paper version of the newsletter at the same time, we began the process of making that a reality.
If you'd like to receive this quarterly newsletter in your mail
automatically, email us at cnr@vetl.org and we'll add you to
our mailing list. For more contact information see here:
Enjoy!
Yeah, yeah! We're late with this issue. So what else is new? The simple fact is, we've been rather busy, and well ...getting this issue out kind of slipped down the priority list; getting last issue out went completely by the way-side. So what have we been up to for the last nine months? Lots, actually. Not always the things we might have thought we'd be doing, but isn't that the way it's supposed to be?
Though we've completely given up any idea of paying them for their time, the Revs. Matson have been as busy as little bees. They put in three-hundred odd hours of one-on-one counseling, researched a project to assist the working poor (which proved in the final analysis to be impossible given the way the whole non-profit industry works), and have had articles published under the auspices of CNR in five publications: four western US periodicals and one in Australia. Yup! Ladies and gentlemen, CNR has been introduced over-seas.
Alesia has been holding classes. In January she was even shipped off to Nashville to teach her class on the Dark Night of the Soul. In fact, as many of you found in your paper copies of the last newsletter, we're offering a total of five classes plus labyrinth walks and crisis intevention.
Which reminds me: Along with everything else that's been going on, we've also had three official cries for help and one unofficial one from a minister in Australia.
The Canon has been revised. Not a major revision, but it did occur to the Board that several items needed fixing. Among them a change in our accounting year, originally set to end at the calender year -- when we thought we'd be approved by the State of California six months earlier than actually happened. Handfasting was also made official to help those who wish to marry, but need some assistance in learning how to engage in that sacrament in a healthy and positive way. Handfasting, as included in the Canon lasts for a year and a day (non-renewable) and binds both the marriage party and the cleric to creating a healthy, marriageable, relationship for the parties. The revised Canon was made official during the February board meeting.
We are also pleased to report that three individuals stepped forward over the last nine months to enter the ordination program. Unfortunately, two have since stepped down from that commitment, but the one candidate remaining is fully committed to seeing it through and is doing very, very well. So we're one for three. Better retention odds than might have been expected, actually.
On a lighter note, as you'll see here , we've been asked to gives some classes a
bit on the erotic side. Who says mysticism can't be fun? (Even
Deepak Chopra says we can't be good all the time.) So
speak up, I dare ya!
The only thing that has not gone well is funding. With the collapse of the high tech sector the expected funding vanished right along with the Dot Coms; remaining funding has fallen so low we're juggling bills just to keep basic things going -- like the phone and pager.
But all in all we're pleased at how well things have gone. A lot of
work has been done to get CNR off the ground; a lot still needs to
be done. But considering the opportunities presented, we feel like
we've been blessed indeed. We've already touched lives for the
better and helped others reach their spiritual
goals. Which is, of course, the point.
CNR's Board of Directors
From all of us at CNR
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In the days of late summer, 1914, English poet, novelist, and perhaps one of the most influential and best known mystics of the Victorian era, Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), set down to pen the forward to her new book Practical Mysticism. The Great War (World War I) had just started; Archduke Franz Ferdinand had been dead only three months, assassinated by a Serbian. ``Many will feel,'' she opens her forward, ``that in such a time of conflict and horror, when only the most ignorant, disloyal, or apathetic can hope for quietness of mind, a book which deals with that which it called the `contemplative' attitude to existence is wholly out of place. So obvious, indeed, is this point of view, that I had at first thought of postponing its publication.''
And yet, as she contemplated her dilemma, a greater wisdom came to her. A wisdom as applicable to us today with our hectic, high-stress lives, as it was to a world entering its first global conflict with totalitarianism.
`` ... the title deliberately chosen for this book--that of `Practical' Mysticism--means nothing if the attitude and discipline which it recommends be adapted to fair weather alone: if the principles for which is stands break down when subjected to the pressure of events, and cannot be reconciled with the sterner duties of the national life. To accept this position is to reduce mysticism to the status of a spiritual plaything. On the contrary, if the experiences on which it is based have indeed the transcendent value for humanity which the mystics claim for them--if they reveal to us a world of higher truth and greater reality than the world of concrete happenings in which we seem to be immersed--then that value is increased rather than lessened when confronted by the overwhelming disharmonies and sufferings of the present time. It is significant that many of these experiences are reported to us from periods of war and distress: that the stronger the forces of destruction appeared, the more intense grew the spiritual vision which opposed them. We learn from these records that the mystical consciousness has the power of lifting those who possess it to a plane of reality which no struggle, no cruelty, can disturb: of conferring a certitude which no catastrophe can wreak. Yet it does not wrap its initiates in a selfish and otherworldly calm, isolate them from the pain and effort of the common life. Rather, it gives them renewed vitality; administering to the human spirit not--as some suppose--a soothing draught, but the most powerful of stimulants. Stayed upon eternal realities, that spirit will be far better able to endure and profit from the stern discipline which the race is now called to undergo, than those who are wholly at the mercy of events; better able to discern the real from the illusory issues, and to pronounce judgment on the new problems, new difficulties, new fields of activity disclosed.''
And in so doing, the mystic often puts herself at odds with the orthodox minds of her day. Who, pray, dares to stand up to the social programming of our modern world: to observe that (as some scientists themselves are coming to understand) science, by the very asking of its questions, changes the nature of the answers it receives; to notice that, by selectively informing our children, we chain them to a world comprehensible to us, not to the world as it really exists; to perceive that by serving the monetary taskmaster, we make ourselves a slave to the very energies that inform our universe.
Breaking the chains of the orthodoxy can best be described as achieving a state of consciousness wherein we remain aware of the illusory nature of the physical world, but remain focused on the sublime reality that informs it. We live, as Jesus put it, in the world, but are no longer of the world.
So how do we get there? How do we break the chains of the orthodoxy? It isn't easy! Chuang Tze observed that: ``Great truths do not take hold of the hearts of the masses.'' Siddartha Buddha once grumbled: ``Why should I attempt to make known to those who are consumed with lust and hate this which I've won through so much effort! This Truth is not a truth that can be grasped; it goes against the grain of what people think; it is deep, subtle, difficult, delicate.''
And so it is. Consider the following questions, each one a manifestation of our modern day orthodox programming; a model of thinking so automatic most people do not even realize its there:
Still reading along? Good. Were there items on that list that upset you? Were there items you wanted to defend? How many initial gut reactions did you reject? How many did you try to rationalize as being okay? ``Well, I do this but ... ''
So pervasive is our social programming, so out of touch with the realities of our internal landscape have we become as a culture, that many people (most, some would say), will not even be able to answer those questions honestly.
Is it any wonder Siddhartha got a bit grumpy?
So, assuming we really want to, how do we change this? How do we break free of this social conditioning and become an external observer, rather than an internal participant? There is only one way: Grab yourself by the bootstraps; ``let all else go,'' to borrow from Plotinus, and focus your attention on that and that alone.
Does this mean you must give up your job? No. But don't be surprised if your present job disappears sooner or later.
Does this mean you must give up your present relationship(s)? No, but don't be surprised if they go away too. Or, if they survive, that they are dramatically changed for the better.
But the one thing you must give up: let me repeat, you must give up, is your arrogance. This cannot be overstated for western readers. In the East the value of the guru is still appreciated; they still understand the humble symbiotic relationship between mentor and pupil. In the West everyone is an `equal', and because everyone is an equal there no longer exists any respect for the experiences and wisdom of our teachers.
The problem is exacerbated by a) the proliferation of self pronounced masters who hold workshops and seminars by the score (all for profit, of course), but who have no experiential understanding of sublime Truth; and b) the desperate need any true student on a spiritual path has for a teacher. Indeed, we all must have a mentor if we are to succeed. Some small few may find their way without a physical teacher (like Ammachi), but for most of us, a mentor with a physical body is essential to our success.
So, for those of us born in the West, we must learn the value of the mentor-student relationship. We must turn our gaze away from the handful of unreachable world famous teachers to the equally wise but completely unknown mystics quietly going about their lives right in our local communities. They may be sweeping floors, driving trucks, working on farms, cashiering at grocery stores, stocking shelves, or living in a cardboard box on the street, but they do exist.
So how does one choose a teacher? As with most things, we must begin inside ourselves. ``When the pupil is ready,'' the yogi teaching goes, ``the teacher will appear.'' In some cases, the teacher has been there all along, unnoticed by the pupil who gave no credence to what the teacher knew. The wisdom of the teacher was `` ... cloaked in the murky ignorance of those slaves of passion who have not seen It,'' as Siddartha put it. Though, to say that the student was not looking for it would probably be more accurate. The seductive subtlety of the orthodoxy's illusion is simply that powerful.
The next step is to observe: Having asked for a teacher, who suddenly begins to see into your soul? Not in a rude or egotistical way, but a helpful, yet uncompromising one. Who seems to know just exactly where your largest bleeding wound is at any given time and subtly points to a way it might be healed? Pay attention! Your prayer might have just been answered.
Or, your mentor might turn you on, jazz you up, shift your consciousness by simple proximity. Pay attention! Examine this special person a bit more closely:
Assuming your prospective mentor checks out, then what? What can you expect from him? Do you have to pay him?
This naive notion of one-step transformation has now hooked up
with a very flatland worldview, so that ``cosmic consciousness''
has come to mean simply that we got from the nasty newtonian ego
to the new-physics web-of-life one-with-Gaia self. We bcome one
with flatland and we are enlightnened and that saves the
planet. . . Alas, it is nowhere near that simple. . .
Many Americans don't like the idea of stages of anything,
because we in America don't like th notion of degrees of depth.
We are the living embodiment of flatland [religious/spiritual
practice]. The thought that somebody, somewhere, might be higher
or deeper than me is simply intolerable.
So we prefer a ``spirituality'' that takes whatever level we are
at and gives us a ``one-step'' process that will get us straight
to God, instantly, like a microwave oven. We deny stages
altogether and end up with a very flatland notion.
So various flatland paradigms are embraced, percisely because
they do not demand actual transformation, just the ``one-step''
learning of the new paradigm, a sort of one-stop shopping. You
just repeat that your being is one strand of the great web [of
life, or Gaia], and all is saved. And you aggressively deny
there are any stages!
The thing is, many of these ``new paradigm'' theorists have the
same general goal: namely, the expansion of consciousness from the
isolated and alienated individual to a type of global Kosmic
consciousness, which includes the physiosphere and biosphere and
noosphere all in one. So we can be very sympathetic with that
overall goal. But these theorists are often unfamiliar with the
numerous \emph{interior transformations} that are necessary to go
from an isolated bodyself to an all-inclusive Kosmic
consciousness. They have a fine goal, but not much of a path.
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Well, probably not, but it wouldn't be a bad idea. It is rather ludicrous, don't you think, that we're willing to pay hundreds of dollars per hour to be validated by some person with a Ph.D, but get incensed when asked to compensate the one person on the planet capable of helping us elevate ourselves above any further need for such validation? So by all means, if your mentor doesn't bring up the subject of compensation--or more accurately, dana--you should. Even if it's not money, there may be something you can do to help balance the energetic exchange between the two of you, and that will help keep the relationship healthy.
In return, your mentor is agreeing to guide you along your spiritual path. He is your lamp holder, lighting the way along your path. Not his path -- that's his! Your path, fraught with dragons and challenges which will be very different from his, because they're yours.
Your mentor will point out your dragons, don't expect her to slay them for you. That's your job. Your mentor will tell you things about yourself you won't want to believe, and probably won't like. ``On the dragon are many scales ... '' Its your mentor's job to point out each one--whether you like it or not! If she does any less, she's doing you a grave disservice. On the other hand, she'll not judge you. If she does, she's not the person you want for your mentor; she's got some more work to do on her own. She's there to tell you you're okay when you feel so spiritually parched you'd die for a moment's contact with the divine. And she's there to savor your victories with you when they come--and rest assured, they will.
All of which should make it clear: your mentor is not there to be your friend, your lover, your spouse, though he'll probably know as much about you as a spouse--or more! As you progress down your path, breaking the chains that hold you bound to the orthodoxy one by one, you can be sure that all the skeletons in your closet will be dragged out and aired, all in front of your mentor. You'll have highs you never thought possible, learn more about yourself than you ever dreamed, and suffer lows from your spiritual battles that will leave you broken and bloody. Your mentor will be there to pick up the pieces, then send you back to face that same, terrifying dragon again.
Until one day the dragons don't seem scary anymore. The universe suddenly makes a great deal of sense, in a way you never dreamed it would. You see the energy moving behind the words and agendas; you see the subconscious creations in process all around you and gaze in wonderment at the awesome power and beauty of it all. You feel the energy of the universe moving within you like a great tide, pulsing like a titanic heartbeat; and you know it's all you. You know that secret mystery that your mentor has been talking about for years: you and she are one; powerful beyond imagining, beautiful beyond describing, majestic beyond conceiving, and wise beyond all knowing. You find you have discovered `` ... that that which is the subtle essence--in that have all things their existence. That is the truth. That is the Self. And that, Svetaketu, THAT ART THOU.''
by Rev. Michael Matson, co-founder and President of CNR's Board of Directors.
In recent years there has been a great reclaiming of the figure of Mary Magdalene as a patron of women's preaching and ministry. The new popularity of this New Testament figure has come about through the recognition that Mary Magdalene has been the victim of a historical defamation of character. She has been identified in the historical tradition as a repentant prostitute, her image fixed as weeping sinner, wiping Jesus' feet with her hair. New Testament scholarship has shown that this picture of Mary Magdalene is false.
There are four stories of the anointing of Jesus by a woman in the New Testament, none identified with Mary Magdalene. In the earliest versions (Mark 14:3-9; Matthew 26: 6-13) an unnamed woman, not called a sinner, anoints Jesus' head as a sign of his impending death and burial.
John (12:3) names the woman as Mary of Bethany and has her anoint Jesus' feet, but the story is about his impending death, not forgiveness of sin. It is Luke (7:36-50) who changes the story and places it early in Jesus' life, naming the woman as a repentant sinner who weeps, dries Jesus' feet with her hair, anoints them with perfumed oil and is forgiven. Again the woman is unnamed.
Mary Magdalene appears in the New Testament as one of the followers of Jesus throughout his ministry who is cured of ``seven devils'' (Luke 8:1-3), a concept associated with healing from illness, not forgiveness of sin in the New Testament. She is the leader of a group of women disciples who are present at the cross, when the male disciples have fled, and at his burial. They arrive later to anoint the body and find that he has risen from the dead. They are commissioned by Jesus or an angel to tell the disciples he has risen.
John's Gospel depicts Mary Magdalene in a personal encounter with the risen Christ, followed by her testimony to the other disciples. Thus Mary Magdalene stands in the New Testament as first witness of the resurrection, the one who testifies of the risen Lord to the male disciples.
Catholic and other Christian women have seen these roles as making Mary Magdalene a unique apostle, the apostle to the apostles. They have assumed that a patriarchal hierarchy, shortly after the death of Jesus, falsified her identity in order to remove her as a `role model' for women's ministry. This conspiratorial view of church tradition makes a sharp contrast between a positive view of Mary Magdalene in the New Testament, and a deliberate defaming of her in church tradition. This juxtaposition of `good' New Testament and `bad' church tradition loses the actual complexity and richness of church tradition about Mary Magdalene.
For the first five centuries of the church no writer misinterpreted Mary Magdalene as a prostitute. Rather she was seen as a leading disciple and image of the church. Several Gnostic gospels, such as the Gospel of Mary, written in the early second century, see Mary as the special disciple of Jesus who has a deeper understanding of his teachings and is asked to impart this to the other disciples. Some contemporary Christian women have assumed that the defaming of Mary Magdalene came about as an Orthodox effort to counteract the high role played by Mary Magdalene in the Gnostic communities. But there is no evidence that the Orthodox church leaders knew these gospels. Although several church fathers have some notion that Gnostics claimed Mary Magdalene as a leader, that does not cause them to disregard her. Rather they, too, share a view of Mary Magdalene as a leading disciple.
The second century church father, Hippolytus, for example, sees Mary and the other women disciples as symbolizing the New Eve, the faithful women who reverse the sin of Eve. They represent the Bride of Christ, the church, a role given by other church fathers to Mary, Jesus' mother. Hippolytus, in his commentary on the Song of Songs, is the first church father to give Mary Magdalene the title of ``apostle to the apostles.'' He sees Christ as making a special appearance to the male disciples to tell them they are to accept and revere the women's witness to the resurrection: ``Truly it is I who appeared to the women and who desired to send them to you as apostles.''
This high regard for Mary Magdalene continues in the fourth-and fifth- century Latin fathers of the church. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, associated Mary Magdalene with the New Eve who clings to Christ as the new Tree of Life, thereby reversing the unfaithfulness of the first Eve. Augustine maintains this view, pairing Mary Magdalene with Christ as symbol of the New Eve and the church in relation to Christ as the New Adam. Her faithfulness reversed the sin of the first Eve.
It is only at the end of the sixth century that Pope Gregory I confuses the sinful woman of Luke 7 and Mary Magdalene in Luke 8 and identifies her as a repentant prostitute, whose former sinfulness is contrasted with that of the Virgin Mary. But there is no evidence that he makes this mistake in order to remove her as a `role model' for women's ministry. Such an idea is unknown to him. The misinterpretation seems to come about primarily from a rhetorical tendency to reduce the complexity of ``Marys'' in the New Testament to a simple dualism: the ever virgin mother and the repentant sinner.
This view was never followed by the Eastern Christian church tradition, which continued to see all these women disciples as representatives of the New Eve,the church. While Pope Gregory's misinterpretation was passed down in the medieval church tradition as normative, this did not cause Mary Magdalene to become less popular. Rather new legends of sanctity were associated with her. In the Eastern tradition it is believed that she joined with Mary, Jesus' mother, and John in Ephesus to become martyrs. Other legends see her going into the desert as a hermit, role model of women's hermetic life.
Western Christians give Mary Magdalene further adventures. French medieval tradition believed that Mary Magdalene (conflated with Mary of Bethany) fled Palestine with her brother and sister, Lazarus and Martha, and arrived by boat in Aix, in what is now France. Lazarus became the first bishop of Marseilles, while Martha overcame a dragon that was ravaging the region. Mary Magdalene converted the king and queen of Southern Gaul and thereby became the apostle to the Franks. A widespread cult of Mary Magdalene arose in medieval France, and relics of her body were claimed at various churches. Although the medieval church assumed that she was a former prostitute, the focus was on her converted sanctity. Preachers even exalted her as a preacher whose evangelizing career was foundational to the faith of the Western church.
Medieval images of Mary Magdalene do not picture her as the disheveled, weeping sinner. Rather they imagine her primarily in the context of her witness to the risen lord, bringing the glad tidings back to male disciples. It is in the Renaissance that this image changed. Renaissance art delighted in picturing the erotic, half nude female body. Images of Mary Magdalene weeping, with long hair partly covering her naked breasts, was a way of exploiting this artistic type. This is the image of Mary Magdalene that has come down in our own cultural imagination.
Already in the late 19th century scholars of the New Testament began to realize that there was no scriptural basis for the identification of Mary Magdalene with the repentant sinner of Luke 7. But this scholarship was popularized only recently, and Mary Magdalene claimed as a role model for women preachers and ministers. In this process of reinterpreting Mary Magdalene for today, church tradition should not be reduced to a hostile conspiracy against her. It has a richer tradition to offer.
by Rosemary Radford Ruether, a professor of theology at Garrett- Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Ill. Her e-mail address is Rosemary.Ruether@nwu.edu
This three hour workshop gives participants an
overview of consciousness, and how one can use one's daily
life as the canvas and palette for creating a conscious
style of living. Covered in the material: basic chakra
information, human energy field, conscious creation,
judgements, depression, chronic fatigue, guidance,
concluding with a Q&A
session.
From the time we're born to the time we die we live as slaves to the programing of the collective mind. Called the dragon of ``THOU SHALT'' by Joseph Campbell, it never occurs to most of us that ``the way things are,'' not only can be changed, but must be changed if we're to save our world. Join visionary mystic Michael Matson on an exploration of what our modern orthdoxies are and how to change them.
Spiritual depression resembles psychological depression, but there are differences which psychologists can't address. Join spiritual teacher, healer, and ``modern mystic'' Alesia Matson for solid, practical advice on surviving your own ``dark nights.'' This workshop is three to four hours in length, which includes a Q&A session afterwards.
Outside the northern California area, individual
counseling sessions are bundled together with workshop trips
where possible. Trips to deal with emergencies are, of course,
handled on an individual basis. Call for appointments, or to
arrange appointments for an entire group (more
economical!).
For
emergencies, don't hesitate to page! Pager: (707) 440-4823.
For those of you interested in expanding your spirit through telecommunications, we offer the following websites for your perusal:
http://www.digiserve.com/mystic/
http://www.continuum-magazine.com
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/Gateway2Consciousness
If you have a favorite website or mailing list you'd like reviewed and included in the next issue of our newsletter, please feel free to send your recommendations to:
While we may not include blatantly commercial websites, we'll certainly consider them for inclusion if they've got good information, readily available.
Thanks!
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Gabriel Garcia Marquez has retired from public life due to health reasons: cancer of the lymph nodes.
If for an instant God were to forget that I am rag doll and gifted me with a piece of life, possibly I wouldn't say all that I think, but rather I would think of all that I say. I would value things, not for their worth but for what they mean. I would sleep little, dream more, understanding that for each minute we close our eyes we lose sixty seconds of light.
I would walk when others hold back, I would wake when others sleep. I would listen when others talk, and how I would enjoy a good chocolate ice cream! If God were to give me a piece of life, I would dress simply, throw myself face first into the sun, baring not only my body but also my soul. My God, if I had a heart, I would write my hate on ice, and wait for the sun to show. Over the stars I would paint with a Van Gogh dream a Benedetti poem, and a Serrat song would be the serenade I'd offer to the moon. With my tears I would water roses, to feel the pain of their thorns, and the red kiss of their petals...
My god, if I had a piece of life...I wouldn't let a single day pass without telling the people I love that I love them. I would convince each woman and each man that they are my favorites, and I would live in love with love. I would show men how very wrong they are to think that they cease to be in love when they grow old, not knowing that they grow old when they cease to be in love! To a child I shall give wings, but I shall let him learn to fly on his own. I would teach the old that death does not come with old age, but with forgetting. So much have I learned from you, oh men...
I have learned that everyone wants to live on the peak of the mountain, without knowing that real happiness is in how it is scaled. I have learned that when a newborn child squeezes for the first time with his tiny fist his father's finger, he has him trapped forever. I have learned that a man has the right to look down on another only when he has to help the other get to his feet. From you I have learned so many things, but in truth they won't be of much use, for when I keep them within this suitcase, unhappily shall I be dying.
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