Spirit
This is part two of this past Sunday's message to the students of Reflections. For part one, go here.
It is amazing how when we think about the season of fall, we, especially in the Northeast, often think of all the splendor of the trees. It is a little odd since at some level the trees are experiencing a form of death with their leaves changing colors before they fall off ... and become compost. But in their decline they have that last bit of glorious color. I think of it as a reflection of the promise of spring; that the colors of fall are a reminder that spring is still ahead. So yeah, this is where things start their journeys toward repose, but do not lose hope.
And so the splendor of the second harvest is that little reminder that it is still safe to hope … it is not over. Then of course there comes the final harvest, which can be read in many ways. For those of us approaching the later phases of our life, not knowing how much time is left, it says “You know you need to start getting things done.” But it also traditionally means, “You need to start putting things away and restocking -- start preparing for winter.” For as sure as spring, summer and fall comes around, winter is not far behind.
And so the three harvests, not only to allow us to reap, but they also teach us. And I know I have said it many times, that if you want to understand spirituality, look at nature. All the lessons are there.
And we celebrate fall’s foliage by understanding what the harvests are about at all stages. That it is an urging to prepare but it is also a promise of what is to come.
The Wealthy Ones
In many cultures, when they have the harvest – not always at the same times of the year as ours -- there is the usual practice of taking the bounty and piling it up somewhere and just looking at it. Like all the apples from the orchard piled up. Or all the corn piled up or all the wheat gathered together. Just piling it up …because we need to be reminded of how well we have been treated by the earth. We need to remember how much we have received from all the work we put in. And it didn’t matter if your farm did poorly and another farm did well. Often that same table or spot was used to display all the fruits of the collective labor. It was like a statement of “We have reaped!”
Sometimes, it is hard for us to imagine what is on our harvest table. When we only look at that one underperforming patch, or something newly planted that did not grow quite right. Or something that is maybe on a two-year cycle and it is not ready yet. Sometimes we need to be reminded of all we truly have. And this is especially true now in our current economic climate. We need to be reminded of all we have in our western society where we take so many things for granted. We need to remember that all of us, every single person in this room, if we were transported to another country, a second or third world country, we would be the wealthy ones. Not that our difficulties are not real, but that difficulty is not all there is and we need to be reminded of that.
There is a beautiful song by Starhawk called Demeter’s Song. Demeter is the Greek Goddess of Agriculture. Especially for those of us living in this time, we do not get how phenomenal it was for humans to discover agriculture. Just imagine if you had to keep moving in order to find food. That you could never settle anywhere because once you ate up the food available, it was gone. And then you would have to just keep wandering in the pursuit of food, never being able to put down roots.
So can you imagine the faith, the leap of faith, it was for someone to actually put something in the ground and then wait for it to root, sprout, blossom and later produce what could be eaten. The gift of agriculture was a fundamental gift of life, and the gods of agriculture was looked upon as not only the givers of food but also the givers of laws and civilization. The entire human species changed when they were “given” agriculture. So Demeter was a pretty big deal to the ancient Greeks. And every culture that had an agricultural deity, that god was pretty central.
[I sing Demeter’s Song]
We are the wealthy ones. We have been given so much. The promise of Demeter has not ended. The promise has not been taken back. We can learn to live in a more sustainable manner. We can learn to live in harmony with others on this planet. But we need to remember always what we have already been given because we are the wealthy ones -- maybe not in coin, but in community, in education, in comfort and in safety. In spirit and in flesh, we are the wealthy ones.
There was a way I was taught, and it is also in the The Intuitive Body: Aikido as a Clairsentient Practice by Wendy Palmer, if you ask for something as if do not already have it, you cannot receive it. You can only receive more of what you already have. So whenever you ask for something, you always ask, “May I have more” of whatever it is. Because that means that you acknowledge what you have already been given.
For example, I often joke about my lack of patience. Apparently I had to admit that I have a great deal of patience, because now I always ask for more patience, …. and more balance … and more rest/recovery. We need to acknowledge what we have received. We need to be able see ourselves, even in our stories about our loss, sacrifice, and devastation, that we are still the wealthy ones.
[We paused to sing the chorus together.]
And that is Demeter’s message to us. That her ability to give to us depends on our ability to receive and acknowledge what has already been given. And that is the message from the rich foliage of fall. “I have already given you the spring and the summer, and now I give you the harvest”.
Posted in
Submitted by katrina on Wed, 08/05/2009 - 8:00am.
This is the first part of a mini-sermon I delivered on Sunday to the students of Reflections. I will post it in two parts, mostly because it was a lot longer than I realized. I had started our session discussing the mystery of unknowing. Maybe I will post that mini-sermon at some point. I hope you enjoy part one. I will post part two later this week.
I spoke earlier about the mystery of un-knowing, but now I want to talk about Fall’s Foliage. The previous rituals this year were Spring’s Sprouts and Summer’s Blossoms. And now we are at Fall’s Foliage.
I will admit that fall is my favorite season, spring is a close second, but fall …I just love it. It may seem too early to talk about fall now that we are entering what is normally the hottest month of the year.
But of course we are discussing the mythic realm, the realm of spirit. And so we have discussed the importance of patience that leads us to care for and nurture the sprouts of spring. And later we meditated on how the blossoms of summer were just the beginning of what was coming later – that the blossoms were not the final stage.
And here we are at our Fall’s Foliage ritual and it is being held on the Sabbath of the first harvest, which makes it all the more potent. It is about how, finally, we can begin to harvest. Not all of the harvest is ready however, not all of bounty you have planted is available to be consumed or ingested. But, we can recognize that the first harvest is the promise of more to come.
And that is the hard part, because just as people have no patience to allow the sprouts to continue growing. And often folks jumped the gun with the first blossoms. So it is often hard to figure out what is in fact a part of the first harvest.
In the physical realm, at least around these parts, the first harvest is traditionally grains and berries. But in the realm of spirit, the first harvest is all about those little signs that signal to you to let you know that all is not forlorn, that there is hope even in the midst of despair.
Everyone’s first harvest is different. Sometimes it is the little things that count. I use to read a twelve-step book of prayers and quotes, one for each day of the year. And one of the entries was about noticing the variety of shades of green in nature. Through all those years prior to that lesson, I never noticed that the green of nature came in different shades. It was just Crayola eight-pack green to me, because my world was very stark. And that little book said, “Notice the shades of the green, the variations of green.” And I am reading this book at the bus stop because that was when I read it each morning, and I look up and suddenly saw for the first time, all the different shades of green around me – I stood there frozen with my mouth open, in shock. And that new awareness revealed to me that there was more than I imagined in the world. That was the beginning of my first harvest.
Later I stood in the pavilion at my first witch camp being led through some exercises to aspect Aphrodite. And at the very moment when I felt her presence, suddenly I could once again see the variations of green, and it was a shock to me … just like the first time. And I realized that here again was another glimpse of my first harvest. And so over the years, I have used the shades of green and whether I can see them as a measure of how healthy I am, emotionally, spiritually, physically and mentally. It was such a gift for me that after a time I never lost the ability to see the variations of green, not once over all these years.
The first harvest can be the smallest thing. It can be something that everyone else around you takes for granted. Your first harvest will have a meaning just for you. It will be sustaining like the grain and it will be sweet like the berries. But it will be your first harvest.
Posted in
Submitted by katrina on Mon, 08/03/2009 - 9:10pm.
I have been reading several mystical texts in addition to True Love. Some are Yoga teachings, one is a Sufi text and still others are of Christian origins. (I will list them another day.) And I have also been working a lot with mantras and malas. Most of the mantras are in Sanskrit but a few are in English. I decided the other day, as my friend Ishtar created a mala as a gift, that I needed to make myself a special mala.
I stopped in my local bead shop with an idea of using the nine chakras colors for each of the 12 rounds, i. e. 9 * 12 = 108. (The seven becomes nine by adding in the white Transpersonal chakra above the head and as Pomegranate Doyle taught me, a black Ancestral chakra below your feet .)
But as I browsed the aisles, another thought came bubbling up from deep within, I had tried on numerous occasions to create a mala based on the chakras. Endless unfinished projects littered my magick cabinet already. So while gently stroking some semi-precious beads, it hit me.
What I really needed was an elemental mala.
So I purchased enough beads to make two malas and home i went the first time, ready to string them in sacred space. After the second visit to purchase an entire spool of wire-- don't ask -- I realized that I wasn't quite sure what pattern to use. So being a card-carrying geek, I pulled up my trusty flow chart program and created pictorial representations of the two candidates. The pattern required was clearly evident on the screen.
So I went to work, returning to the bead store for their help in finishing and to purchase an appropriate "Buddha bead".
So here it is. I love it.
Now all I have to do is to craft an elemental mantra. Hmmmm ... wonder if there is anything in all these Vedic, Sufi and other mystical texts I am reading.
Well for now, I will be satisfied running it through my fingers as I freestyle my devotional prayers. Singing praises to the gods, one bead and one heart beat at a time.
Om.
Posted in
Submitted by katrina on Thu, 03/19/2009 - 6:06pm.
Sorry about how I have been silent for so long. Actually I have been posting like mad, living up to my moniker as the crazed mystic, but it has been exclusively on our private Reflections school forum. We selected True Love for our 2009 book study. We started reading the book together on February 5th. We turned the reading into a devotional practice by reading a single chapter daily for a week. We are at week three of the study and this petite book is shaking me to my core.
It is a heart opening practice because we are focusing on self-love and spiraling outward to our loved ones. This book is one in a long line of mindfulness books from the beloved Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh.
But the heart touching nature of his message reminds me of a similar reaction I had to bell hooks’ All About Love. One of her lines just shattered me, “There can be no love without justice.” Whoa!
I thought back to all those people who caused me such harm under the rubric, “…because I love you.” If that was not love … what the hell was it? It ripped open my eyes as delusions and denials fell shattering all around me. Looking out with new eyes, I began the slow process of disentangling myself from some unhealthy, often toxic, relationships.
And if hooks could shatter so many faulty fun house mirrors, Hanh equally rips away blindness and ignorance.
“In true love, you attain freedom.”
“Understanding is the essence of love.”
“The most precious gift you can give to the one you love is your true presence.”
I am practicing being mindfully present with everyone I meet. And I have to say it is more difficult than I had imagined. But when applied to myself it brings tears to my eyes every single time.
“If you are not there, how can you love?”
Anahata: A Bell waiting to be rungThis question haunted me through last week’s yoga class. We are working with chakras this session and last Thursday was all about the heart. I am no longer surprised when my yoga instructor, Carrie, starts emphasizing my current spiritual practice, crisis or insight. She spoke so eloquently about opening the heart that my eyes began to tear up.
And then we proceeded to do some of the hardest poses and movements, or maybe I should say the hardest ones on me ... in a very long time. How very difficult it is to open the heart, to open my heart. And so much of yoga is focused directly on this practice.
I invite you to join us as we explore this practice for 16 weeks. Maybe you can blog about it.
Are you willing to open your heart? Are you willing to be free?
Dear one, I am really here for you. And it makes me happy.
Love,
Katrina
Posted in
Submitted by katrina on Tue, 02/17/2009 - 1:21pm.
this post is giving me major chills.
Blessings.
A student of mysticism said to his teacher, "I'm confused. Yesterday you told me the way I should searchy. Today you told my friend a very different way. Which is correct?"
The teacher responded, "Some people veer off the path to the left and I tell them 'move to the right.' Others stray too far to the right, so I say 'move to the left."
I'm sorry to hear of Squeaky's passing. I know she and you had the very best that humans and their animal companions can have. May she live in your fond memories.
Love,
Macha
I'm so, so sorry to hear of Squeaky's passing. Much love and healing to you.
Hail Squeaky!
She was a very fine cat, indeed.