Vengence is not mine

"Now it is time that gods came walking out
of lived-in Things...
Time that they came and knocked down every wall
inside my house...

                                                       O gods, gods!
who used to come so often and are still
asleep in the Things around us, who serenely
rise and at wells that we can only guess at
splash icy water on your necks and faces...
once again let it be your morning, gods.
We keep repeating.  You alone are source.
With you the world arises, and your dawn
gleams on each crack and crevice of our failure."

~Rainer Maria Rilke

After all

"Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."

~Romans 12:19

And

"Surrounded by artifacts, by illusory and seductive sirens of popular culture, our task is to intuit the presence of the gods, to lift soul up and out of that delusory surface texture."

~James Hollis

Many of you who have experienced the desire for vengence know the significance of the words posted herein.  Some of us will pay a high price to get it.  Others will know that lived-in things rumble with the energy of the gods and will make a beautiful place to house their wrath. 

...blessed are those who stay put with the gods in beautiful lived-in Things?  Can you hear the rumble of their energy knocking down the walls? 

The Exchange of Gold

How much of your gold have you given to others to bear?  Did they keep it for themselves, throw it away or reveal their own gold by encouraging you to take yours back so you might dare to radiate your own brilliance?  

 

"The exchange of gold is a mysterious process. It’s our gold, but it’s too heavy for us, so we need someone to carry it for a time, and he becomes synonymous with meaning. We follow him with an eagle eye wherever he goes. His smile can raise us to heavenly heights; his frown hurls us to hellish depths, so great is the power of meaning."

From Alchemy and Inner Gold, a post at the blog Inner Work by Jungian speakers and co-authors Robert A. Johnson and Jerry M. Ruhl, who invite us to "gather round the cyber campfire, share a dream from last night or your waking dreams for a more meaningful life." 

Spiritual Gender

 

Think about it... 

Lux Mundi

Light transforms so that even rust glitters when overlayed with light. My wish expressed as prayer and made visible in image is that the Light of the World will continue to overlay the rust of my life and once more transform ruin into vibrant glitter.

The "candle" in this image is a mirror image of the word Lux Mundi.

Winking In the Midst of Melodrama

"Despite all of these inner fears of removing the mask, it should be clear that when someone loves your personality and merely accepts you for the roles you are playing - it is not the real 'You' who are receiving the benefit of this acceptance.  There is always the fear of failure and the tensions created due to not being yourself fully at all times.  Nevertheless, as hard as it may seem for some to believe, there does exist a love in which one can love 'You' directly.  That is, one can love 'You' regardless of how you look, what you say, or what you do.  When a person loves 'You,' they understand the meaninglessness of how you externally express yourself.  It becomes a standing game between you to watch your lower selves 'do their thing,' while a part of you remains detached, winking at one another in the midst of the worldly melodrama.  This is true acceptance.  With it comes the absolute sense of freedom in knowing that the relationship is an eternal one.  There is nothing that can come between you, because you know each other as you really are."~Michael A. Singer from Three Essays on Universal Law, The Laws of Karma, Will and Love

Hovering Healing Wings

The meaning of love is lost in any relationshiop that looks to weakness, and hopes to find love there.  The power of love, which is its meaning, lies in the strength of God that hovers over it and blesses it silently by enveloping it in healing wings. ~ A Course In Miracles

A Light So Powerful

The only judgment involved is the Holy Spirit's one division into two categories; one of love, and the other the call for love.  You cannot safely make this division, for you are much too confused either to recognize love, or to believe that everything else is nothing but a call for love.  You are too bound to form, and not to content.  What you consider content is not content at all.  It is merely form, and nothing else.  For you do not respond to what a brother really offers you, but only to the particular perception of his offering by which the ego judges it. 

The ego is incapable of understanding content, and is totally unconcerned with it.  To the ego, if the form is acceptable the content must be.  Otherwise it will attack the form.  If you believe you understand something of the "dynamics" of the ego, let me assure you that you understand nothing of it.  For of yourself you could not understand it.  The study of the ego is not the study of the mind.  In fact, the ego enjoys studying itself, and thoroughly approves the undertakings of students who would "analyze" it, thus approving its importance.  Yet they but study form with meaningless content.  For their teacher is senseless, though careful to conceal this fact behind impressive sounding words, but which lack any consistent sense when they are put together. 

This is characteristic of the ego's judgments.  Separately, they seem to hold, but put them together and the system of thought that arises from joining them is incoherent and utterly chaotic.  For form is not enough for meaning, and the underlying lack of content makes a cohesive system impossible.  Separation therefore remains the ego's chosen condition.  For no one alone can judge the ego truly.  Yet when two or more join together in searching for truth, the ego can no longer defend its lack of content.  The fact of union tells them it is not true. 

It is impossible to remember God in secret and alone.  For remembering Him means you are not alone, and are willing to remember it.  Take no thought for yourself, for no thought you hold is for yourself.  If you would remember your Father, let the Holy Spirit order your thoughts and give only the answer with which He answers you.  Everyone seeks for love as you do, but knows it not unless he joins with you in seeking it.  If you undertake the search together, you bring with you a light so powerful that what you see is given meaning (emphasis added).

~ Possibly the words of Jesus from The Equality of Miracles,  A Course in Miracles 

Full Feathers

Feathers

Feathers are a Native American symbol of the Great Spirit and the sun.  There's some kind of magic in a feather, that instrument of delicate strength that allows a bird to travel the sky while I remain bound to the Earth watching in awe.  My arms and legs are strong and brave, but they do not lift me from the Earth to soar in the face of the sun.   

Yesterday I found a bird in my bungalow.  The poor thing must have been accidentally shut in there when the cats were put up for the night.  Here I was dressed for court, letting out Cats Boomer and Randy, when I found this rather large bird who had bled out on the tiles.  He was still soft, and as I lifted him with the empty cat bowls, his head rolled over gently.  I was overtaken by the sadness of what the bird endured overnight as the cats ganged up on him and brought him down.  I'm sure he went higher and higher in an effort to avoid them, and I'll bet they were expert trapeze artists swinging off whatever they could to reach the terror stricken creature.  Alas, there was nothing I could do now to help him, and Boomer and Randy bounded out of the bungalow like children being let out to play.  Little monsters. 

If that bird could have freed himself from the barrier of the roof, he could have flown off into the silvery moon filled air, perched in the limbs of the magnolia and laughed at his tormenters.  But his feathers could not accomplish that for him. 

I can identify with that bird.  People get caught in bungalows, too, with accusers psychologically clawing at them to bring them down.  It has happened since the beginning of time, and it will continue to happen until the end of time.  Usually we do become soft dead things by morning, our heads rolling over gently in defeat.  But that isn't required because humans have an advantage in psychological battle that is better than feathers.  To keep from being a soft dead thing when morning comes a soul has to break out of the barriers of fear and disbelief that keep it in prison.  And that can be done through right thinking with the heart.  Only from the safe limbs of the magnolia tree can the soul choose to laugh or love again. 

As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.  ~ Proverbs 23:7  

...behold, the kingdom of God is within you.  ~ Jesus (Luke 17:21)

"Learn to think with your heart, and feel with your head."  ~ Native American saying

Soul Leading

In Alexander Carmichael's Carmina Gadelica the Celtic death blessing is described as a moving expression of love from the living for the dying.  Called by various names including Beannachadh Bais (Death Blessing), Treoraich Anama (Soul Leading), and Fois Anama ( Soul Peace), a slow song was sung over the dying, not led by any figure of clerical authority, rather  by the dying person's anam-chara (soul friend).  The song asked the Trinity and communion of saints to receive the soul preparing to depart this world while the anam-chara made the sign of the cross with the right thumb over the lips of the dying. 

The Soul Leading ritual reminds me of the Commendation in The Burial (rite) of the Dead found in the Book of Common Prayer:

Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant ,_____.  Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming.  Receive him into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light.  Amen.

Granted, it is a lovely prayer, but the Episcopal send-off is given by a priest.  No anam-chara need be identified in the bulletin.

In this world of seemingly unending breakage of dreams, fractured relationships and battered hearts one might wonder who her anam-chara would be to perform the Soul Leading.  Who might have known her soul best; whose hands most appropriate to share the mystery of delivery from life by drawing the cross over her lips; whose soul would be inevitably entwine with hers for eternity.  Alas, in this turbulent world would that modern man could have and name without flinching his anam-chara...only one who stands with him without profit, without pride, without possession...a friend of the soul forever.   To have an anam-chara that stands the test of time, even to eternity, would make not only bearable - but, yes, beautiful - abhuinn dubh a bhais (crossing the black river of death), cuan mor na duibhre (the great ocean of darkness), beanntaibh na bith-bhuantachd (the mountains of eternity).