Good day good people,
Creating moon in ourselves is ongoing work. As we continue to engage this practice we will stay with the one specific way we go on automatic pilot in our false self system that we have chosen to take on directly and engage with. Even if what you picked is relatively easy to work with, you likely discovered the complexity behind this deeply rooted pattern as well as how difficult it can be to remember we are struggling for not against something, not try to change what we see, and not judging ourselves. So what are we to do?
When speaking of creating moon in ourselves, Cynthia often comes back to these words from Jacob Boehme, “Here, now, is the right place for you to wrestle before the Divine face. If you stand firm, if you do not bend, you will see and perceive great wonders. You will discover how Christ will storm the hell in you and will break [or tame] your beasts.”
Upon first encounter, these words can sound extreme and even a bit outdated so they take a little unpacking. In her Wisdom School on Rebuilding Trust she broke this passage down into a process of a willingness to wrestle in the Presence. She said “if you stand firm” can sound like the opposite of surrender but it means to stand firm in our own being, that deeper Self we have been talking about that is standing firm on the vertical axis. This standing firm is the opposite of fleeing and the paradox within it is that we can’t stand firm unless we are surrendered to a higher possibility, a higher intelligence. “If you do not bend” is about not caving into the false self programs but holding ourselves in that deeper center of gravity within and collected within our atmosphere. In this way we trust that something will kick in, and that it is not us who does the work. “Christ will storm the hell in you and break [or tame] your beasts” is about acknowledging that our task is to stay present to and in the struggle and to allow Christ to do the work. We don’t need to develop a defeatist attitude towards our shadow. We can trust Boehme’s formula and have the courage to work with it, knowing that just like in centering prayer there is something that calls us back.
Take a moment right now to meditate on the words of Jacob Boehme, and Cynthia's interpretation of them, reflecting on what they might mean for you. See if you can establish an embodied impression of standing firm in the midst of whatever specific false self pattern you have identified with all of the many selves/little i’s and parts (as they act out automatic reactivity, habits, conditioning, inner commentaries, negative states, and instinctual drives). Ponder examples of when you have been able to stand firm and when help came to assist you in doing so. Take some notes that you can come back to as we continue on with this work together.
With love, Heather
Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses
Monday, September 16th with Joy
Reading: “I who am Divine am truly in you.I can never be sundered from you:However far we be parted,never can we be separated.I am in you and you are in Me.We could not be any closer.We two are fused into one,poured into a single mould.Thus, unwearied,we shall remainforever.”— Mechtild of Magdeburg
Chant: I am here, here with you, rest in me, I in you, you in me, all is well (by Joy Andrews Hayter)
Tuesday, September 17th with Joy
Reading: 'THE NIGHT OF SELF' by Thomas KeatingWhen the self relativizes And the "me" disappears,There is not much left of time.There is only the present moment.Time which once was most of me,Like "me," is now no more-Just a memory.When all anxious seeking stopsUnity begins.But every time I actEven if to prayUnity dissolves.When all striving ceasesI awaken to beholdEver-present AwarenessKeeping silent watch.
Chant: Purify my heart, purify my heart, let me rest in you (by Joy Andrews Hayter)
Wednesday, September 18th with Joy
Reading: “I am the light shining in all things. I am the sum of everything: For from me everything has come, and toward me everything unfolds. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Pick up a stone, and you will find me there.” — Gospel of Thomas, Logion 77
Chant: In your light may we see light, in your light may we be light (by Joy Andrews Hayter)
Thursday, September 19th with Tom
Reading: 'The Moon of Your Love' by Mohammed Shirin Maghribi
Not a single soul lacks
a pathway to you.
There's no stone,
no flower…
not a single piece of straw…
lacking your existence.
In every particle of the world,
the moon of your love
causes the heart
of each atom to glow.
Friday, September 20th with Heather
Reading: “Along the whole spectrum of consciousness, from the “endless unity” of divine Oneness down to the solidity of matter…things are in a state of perpetual motion, a dance of becoming. There is always a kind of cosmic ‘downloading’ going on, as the divine qualities seek new streambeds to flow through, the imaginal realm presses against our physical one in an alchemy of transformation, aching, it seems, to come into finitude. And from our end, we live in the cosmos not as exiles yearning for the absolute but as alchemists and artists teasing the shape of the divine emerging out of the eternal and into the now.” — Cynthia Bourgeault, Wisdom Way of Knowing, p. 82
Chant: open my heart, open my heart (by Ana Hernandez)
Saturday, September 21st with Heather
Body Prayer:
Here I am, as I am
Holy, Human
In this world, as it is
Sacred, Profane
Ever connected, in this wondrous luminous web
Ever abiding, in the Heart of God
— You can find a video of the prayer here composed by Heather Ruce, first and third line words are from Babette Lightner
Chant: be right here in the heart of God (by Henry Schoenfield)
Sunday, September 22nd with Heather
Reading: 'At The Tipping Point' by Leslie Walker
Ill. Half & Half. I|l
III. Balance. |||
Ill. Not held. Ill
IlI. Just passerby. I|l
III. Look!. I|l
III. There it is! Ill
I||. Blink of equality. |||
III. .Sun and Moon. Ill
IlI. In Balance. I|l
III. Hold your breath. I|l
Ill. Not too long. I|l
III. Observe. I|l
Ill. Surrender to change. Ill
Chant: Blessed is the one who turns around and awakens, blessed is the one who opens blinded eyes (by Epiphany Today)
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