Tag: Spirituality

Rebirth and colored eggs?

 

colored eggs
colored eggs

Today, I helped another mom guide 40 kindergartners in coloring 4 eggs a piece. One child was allowed to do the activity if the project revolved around the curriculum of dinosaurs, and was a dinosaur egg project, (that is, it wasn’t not related to Easter, or pagan rebirth symbol in some way.)

Spring is a time of rebirth. Easter is the only holiday Christians celebrate that retains its pagan name, and keeps certain pagan traditions (rabbits, eggs, feasting, gifts, candy, much of which references futility.) “Easter” (Ishtar) is a pagan Spring fertility Goddess. “Death and Resurrection Weekend” is probably too wordy for Christians to deal with, so it’s stayed “Easter”.

However, here it is important to see where some spiritual truths reverberate in and through multiple cultures in time and space. Like it or not, they reflect Truth, (a Being) and too, they carry with them the power of spirituality in symbols that reveal that which is universally true.

Sometimes the simplest reminder that spring brings new life can awaken us to the spiritual. God wants to redeem. The pictures are everywhere, once we start looking. God whispers through the workings of his world, and into the desires of our hearts to be re-created and refreshed. Is it any wonder that new life would be celebrated in Spring? I, for one, am happy to decorate some eggs, and chew on some chocolate rabbits.

When it comes to this time of year, what is the most spiritual thing for you?

Creator

 

_andrew_wyeth_paintingWinter, 1945

We’ll soon be making a trip to Chadds Ford, PA, the homestead of artist Andrew Wyeth–great American treasure, and recently deceased. The Brandywine Conservancy features a museum, and several home tours, gardens, artistic exhibitions, and events. 

The ability to create, not out of necessity, (as in a nest, den, or hive) but out of desire, touches on the spiritual side of humanity. It is a portal into the “unreasonable” parts of us–the beautiful mysterious.

For those of us who are creative or artistic, or even for those who can at least appreciate those ventures, there is something that lures us about creative pursuits. They are life-giving, both in the pursuit of them, and in the joys of the new experiences, and successes. It seems expressions of creativity point off the map to an even more solid Reality that transcends time and space, and envelops every culture in its realness.

A completely rational, sensible person would tell you there is no need for art perhaps. That it is a waste of time, effort, or money. Though, in a sense, there really is not enough reason for beauty qua beauty, yet, we see how much so many do care about it, at least in some form. (Film, fine art, sculptor, design, etc.)  See how much it moves us, and speaks to us, in language of its own, like nothing else can.

In every way in which we try to be creators we participate in something spiritual.

A question for you:

What have been your most life-giving creative pursuits?

Photography (art and the spiritual)

I’ve been drawn into visual images recently, both fine art creations such as paintings, drawings, etc. and also photography. Beauty is really a calling from the Divine. God is Beautiful. Also the epitome of beauty and perfection. For all people beauty is one of those eternal ideals we all are drawn to on some other level. Every culture prizes it. It harkens to something more, something off the map. Art may bring us in contact with our longing, and our connection to this great mystery.

I’m going explore it a bit more with photography. Perhaps with nature and portraits. It is not the external, surface of beauty, I will seek, but the essence, really the Socratic form of it.

Awakening to the Power of Dreams

(Excerpts/edits, and reflections from my reading, “Dreams: A Way to Listen to God” by Morton Kelsey, Paulist Press, 1978. ISBN: 0-80911-2046-1)

• 99% of the time when you dream about others, you are really dreaming about some part of yourself (whether positive or negative).

• Dreaming about war or fighting nearly always has to do with inner conflict.

• Certain universal themes/plots like being chased by a shadowy figure, or finding a new area in a house, have to do with reconciling issues of the inner person, or self-discovery.

• Dreams abide in the realm of symbols. Watch for repetition, patterns, and the associations you have to the symbols in waking life to start to better understand them.

• Dreams can carry both personal and universal symbols, and point out places for personal growth, increased harmony, and prosperity (on all levels).

• If you feel your dreams are important, and take care to begin logging them, you will harvest much personal growth, (including interpersonally) and can experience added spiritual awareness.

• Whether we remember them or not, we dream 5-7 times per night. In studies, animals and humans deprived of dreams develop mental health issues.

If you would like to share comments on dreams or share a powerful dream here, go right ahead.

To discuss your dreams and their potential meanings privately, you may contact me through my website.

The Dark Night of the Soul- Part II

The Dark Night of the Soul, says  Dr. Gerald May, sounds different in his patients when they speak. There may be (felt) discouragement, and silence from God. There may be a confusion, and a lack of spiritual “experience” or lack of sensation of the spiritual as there had been before. But, compared to his patients who have symptoms of depression, these folks do not have despair like those who are depressed do. They do not have the same cynicism, even though they may feel alone.

In the dark night times one knows transformation is underway. During times of depression, one hopes to return to normal.

Because God is not a “thing” but rather Spirit-all places at once-as we progress spiritually, invitations come to rebirth and journey closer to union with him as Spirit. What I speak of here is not a journey to a physical spot, but to an awareness of God, in a deeper, richer way. One that involves faith, not sight, or even the crutch of sensation, which may confused for God, but also cannot be God, in actuality.

We can leave behind the old methods of tapping into the spiritual that are like outgrown child’s clothing–too small for us. Ultimately, we move toward union with God in this way.

Some dark nights take years to move through. We must not fear them because they involve a greater revelation of God’s amazing grace and love. The end always results in greater insights of God’s love, and greater union with the Divine, in a brighter day.

In Part III, I will talk about the “Dawn” from the Dark Night.

Some information taken from my reading: Gerald G. May, M.D. The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth. Harper San Francisco, 2004.

 DID you read PART I ?