email: whitpresby@charterinternet.com
Spiritual readings "Greetings from Whittier Presbyterian Church"
June 2006
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Owning Your Own Shadow, pt. 2 |
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Owning Your Own Shadow, pt. 3 |
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Owning Your Own Shadow, pt. 4 |
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T.S. Eliot “Murder in the Cathedral” excerpt |
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O’Donohue’s “Anam Cara” on friendship |
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Moltmann & Bloch on “home” |
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Rumi “Be Melting Snow” |
Here’s another selection from “Owning Your Own Shadow – Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche”, by Robert A. Johnson, Harper San Francisco, 1991. The book is an exploration of our shadow with great spiritual insights from a decidedly Christian perspective. This selection deals with the issue of projecting our shadow.
“What happens to the left-handed side of the balance if one does not keep it conscious and give it honorable expression?
Unless we do conscious work on it, the shadow is almost always projected; that is, it is neatly laid on someone or something else to we do not have to take responsibility for it.
…It is a dark page in human history when people make others bear their shadow for them. Men lay their shadow upon women, whites upon blacks, Catholics upon Protestants, capitalists upon communists, Muslims upon Hindus, etc.
…We are advised to love our enemies, but this is not possible when the inner enemy, our own shadow, is waiting to pounce and make the most of an incendiary situation. If we can learn to love the inner enemy, then there is a chance of loving—and redeeming—the outer one.”
You can hear parts of the gospel in there, as well as some of the dynamics of the world around us. This language of the shadow helps us expand our faith-vocabulary and gives us more opportunities to integrate our faith into our daily lives.
May your faith expand as God’s grace expands in your life.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Another quote from “Owning Your Own Shadow – Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche”, by Robert A Johnson, Harper San Francisco, 1991. I continue to be amazed at the nuggets of insight within this short book.
“Isak Dinesen, the Danish author of “Out of Africa”, once wrote that there are three occasions for true happiness in human beings. The first is a surplus of energy. The second is the cessation of pain. The third is the absolute certainty that one is doing the will of God. The first is the province of youth. The second lasts only for a brief moment. The third is to be won by virtue of much work—inner work. If one has progressed past the duality of life, one has come to the absolute certainty that one is doing the will of God. This is the joy that every one of us knows to be our true heritage and that haunts us or inspires us as the goal of life.”
Absolute certainty about anything is hard to come by. But Johnson’s point of growing into the full dimension of who we are and what drives us is perhaps as close to a certainty as we might find. Can you find the places in your life where you believe you are doing God’s will? You might be surprised to find them also to be places of deep joy. May you find such a place in your life today.
Grace & peace
Geoff
One last quote from “Owning Your Own Shadow – Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche”, by Robert A Johnson, Harper San Francisco, 1991. There is a humorous edge to this one. Often humor is humorous because it points out a truth to us in a way that we can be more accepting of that truth. See if that works for you here.
“The shadow is very important in marriage, and we can make or break a relationship depending on how conscious we are of this.…I recently heard about a couple who had the good sense to call upon the shadow in a pre-wedding ceremony. The night before their marriage, they held a ritual where they made their ‘shadow vows.’ The groom said, “I will give you an identity and make the world see you as an extension of myself.” The bride replied, “I will be compliant and sweet, but underneath I will have the real control. If anything goes wrong, I will take your money and your house.” They then drank champagne and laughed heartily at their foibles, knowing that in the course of the marriage, these shadow figures would inevitably come out. They were ahead of the game because they had recognized the shadow and unmasked it.”
Though couched in the language of the shadow that Johnson is talking about, there is truth here no matter what system you might be perceiving things through. May you find some humor in the truth around you this day.
Grace & peace
Geoff
No emails next week, June 20 & 23, I’ll be at the IASD conference.
Some of my other reading put me in touch with this powerful prayer from T.S. Eliot’s work, “Murder in the Cathedral” about the death of Archbishop Thomas Becket. My copy comes from “T.S. Eliot – The Complete Poems and Plays, 1909-1950” Harcourt, Brace & World, 1971. These are the concluding words to the play.
Forgive us, O Lord, we acknowledge ourselves as type of the common man,
Of the men and women who shut the door and sit by the fire,
Who fear the blessing of God, the loneliness of the night of God, the surrender required, the deprivation inflicted;
Who fear the injustice of men less than the justice of God;
Who fear the hand at the window, the fire in the thatch, the fist in the tavern, the push into the canal,
Less than we fear the love of God.
We acknowledge our trespass, our weakness, our fault; we acknowledge
That the sin of the world is upon our heads; that the blood of the martyrs and the agony of the saints
Is upon our heads.
Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.
Blessed Thomas, pray for us.
One of the blessings of our Christian faith is the depth of truth and honesty it involves. That may be the second greatest part of our faith. The best part is the grace & forgiveness that comes after the honesty brings about our repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation. Thanks be to God.
May you find the honesty and the grace you need this day.
Grace & peace
Geoff
No emails next week, June 20 & 23, I’ll be at the IASD conference.
Friendship is an important concept in human experience. Here’s an excerpt about friendship from “Anam Cara; Wisdom from the Celtic World” by John O’Donohue, Harper Perennial, 2004. “Anam Cara” is Gaelic for “Soul Friend.”
“Friendship is the nature of God. The Christian concept of god as Trinity is the most sublime articulation of otherness and intimacy, an eternal interflow of friendship. This perspective discloses the beautiful fulfillment of our immortal longing in the words of Jesus, who said, Behold I call you friends. Jesus as the son of God, is the first Other in the universe; he is the prism of all difference. He is the secret aman cara of every individual. In friendship with him, we enter the tender beauty and affection of the Trinity. In the embrace of this eternal friendship, we dare to be free.”
O’Donohue is making reference to Jesus’ words in John 15:15ff. I’m struck by the connection between friendship and freedom. Friendship, particularly the friendship of God, gives us the freedom to be more fully who we are.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Here’s a double helping for today. In Jurgen Moltmann’s book, “God in Creation,” Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1993, this paragraph is found:
“The embodiment of the messianic promises to the poor and the quintessence of the hopes of the alienated is that the world should be “home.” This means being at home in existence—that the relationships between God, human beings and nature lose their tension and are resolved into peace and repose.”
At the end of this quote he gives a footnote, which quotes Ernst Bloch’s “Das Prinzip Hoffnung,” (The Principle of Hope) Frankfurt, 1959.
“The wish at the heart of religion is still that the human being should feel at home in the mystery of existence…”
It pays to read the footnotes! What a nice reminder about that drive in us towards God, and some of the emotional content of that drive. We want to be home. Moltmann reminds us how that drive is particularly acute in those who enjoy less material blessing than most of the people I know. As you continue to seek ‘home,’ may you be reminded of those more ‘home’ –less than you.
Grace & peace
Geoff
Here’s a poem from Rumi, that 12th Century Persian mystic, who, I’m told, is the best selling poet in the US these days. This comes from Coleman Barks’ translation, Harper San Francisco, 2004. This one is titled “Be Melting Snow”
Totally conscious, and apropos of nothing, you come to see me.
Is someone here? I ask.
The moon. The
full moon is inside your house.
My friends and I go running out into the street.
I’m in here, comes a voice from the house, but we aren’t listening.
We’re looking up at the sky.
My pet nightingale sobs like a drunk in the garden.
Ringdoves scatter with small cries, Where, Where.
It’s midnight. The whole neighborhood is up and out
In the street thinking, The cat burglar has come back.
The actual thief is there too, saying out loud,
Yes, the cat burglar is somewhere in this crowd.
No one pays attention.
Lo, I am with you always means when you look for God,
God is in the look of your eyes,
In the thought of looking, nearer to you that your self,
Or things that have happened to you
There’s no need to go outside.
Be melting snow.
Wash yourself of yourself.
A white flower grows in the quietness.
Let your tongue become that flower.
There are blessings that come from silence and from poetry. May some of them be yours today.
Grace & peace
Geoff
