Pakistan’s newspapers regularly reported on overcrowded buses that had “turned turtle” on dangerous and curved mountain roads where pass lines or guardrails rarely existed. The driver would lose control, and the bus would roll down the rocky and steep hillside.

Jeffrey J. Kripal, in his book, The Flip (1), uses the flip analogy to explain a reversal of perspective, a change in what one thinks about reality, one’s personal assumptions. It’s when your world picture has turned turtle—you’re on your back, upside down, and the world around you takes on a different perspective.

Humanity needs a flip. Our current way of seeing the natural world is killing our planet and, consequently, killing us.

From What, to What?

Characteristics of our non-sustainable economic status quo include:

• Infinite economic growth with no concern about the consequences
• Competition of free-market capitalism driven by self-interest and the accumulation of wealth by the very few of our species with little care for the natural environment in which it is embedded
• Irresponsible transportation systems dependent upon automobile and gasoline industries. We have freedom to pollute with no responsibility to whom we sicken or the ecosystems we destroy creating ribbons of concrete

Scientific Materialism Includes the Presumed Truth that Nothing is Real that Cannot be Established by the Scientific Method

The scientific method restricts an inquiry to objects or processes that can be measured—that is, measured by a third person. One of its “truths” is that not only is the universe composed of matter, it’s mindless matter—dead matter—which is how we justify our above-noted economic system. And here’s the rub: We are destroying our planet, our home, because of our unquestioning belief that scientific materialism is the only truth.

A materialist explanation isn’t wrong, it’s just incomplete. It consistently leaves out everything that it cannot explain, such as any subjective experiences.

To WHAT? A Worldview that Includes our Interconnectedness with Everything

A flip in one’s reality can be sudden or happen slowly—mine happened slowly, punctuated with “ah-ha!” moments. What truly flipped my world picture was quantum mechanics, in particular its interconnectedness as shown through what is now known as the EPR Effect, commonly referred to as entanglement. Empirical tests have shown that particles that have once interacted become entangled. They form an indivisible whole and cannot be treated as if they were separate (2).

When we harm the planet, we harm ourselves. When we pollute our streams, ground, air—we harm ourselves.

As conscious humans, we can reflect on our cherished beliefs—and change them. We don’t need to defend and preserve unjust social structures and practices.

Sit mindfully with some options I’ve listed below, and see if any resonate with you.

• The mystics of all religions speak of an interconnectedness, a oneness, with the cosmos. And it doesn’t have to be a religious mystical experience. My studies in quantum mechanics gave me the gift of knowing that joy of oneness, outside of any religion.
• Deep Ecology (3). Its basic premise is that humans are an intimate part of the larger ecosystem, and we should care for it as we would our own body. There is no external deity pronouncing commands or a moral system. Deep ecology is one of self-care.
• Dark, Green Religion (4). Taylor says that the natural world is sacred or meaningful in its own right. He disagrees with various sectors of established religions in their greening efforts, as these traditions still maintain that human beings are above nature and, therefore, have the divine right of dominion over nature.
• Panpsychism says that matter is alive and conscious. The world is awake all the way down. It’s an old tradition and recognized as the fundamental worldview of most indigenous cultures. It doesn’t mean panpsychism has all the answers to our planet’s woes. It’s a way of thinking that can set our imaginations free from slavish devotion to what’s destroying our planet.

Live “As-If”

Turn turtle. At a minimum, see the world as alive. Live with the “as-if” function. We can hang our actions on beliefs based on interconnectedness. Start there. We don’t need absolutes at this point—we need to see potentialities and possibilities—another implication of quantum mechanics.

This blog only asks that the reader use their creative imagination to think outside the status quo fed to us repeatedly by our politicians and CEOs. After all, they are the ones who financially benefit from the rest of us when we live as mindless consumers.

Notes & Sources:

1. Kripal, Jeffrey J. The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge.
   
2. For more details on these topics, see my book: To Travel Well, Travel Light: An Adventure Memoir of Living Abroad and Letting Go of Life’s Trappings: Material Possessions, Cultural Blinders, and a Patriarchal Christian Worldview (https://www.amazon.com/Travel-Well-Light-Possessions-Patriarchal/dp/B0B7QH8DQR). SBNR Press, 2022.
   
3. Norwegian activist and philosopher Arne Næss coined the term deep ecology. He was a student of Mahatma Gandhi.
   
4. Taylor, Born. Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future. University of California Press, 2009.

About the Author: Rev. Mary Coday Edwards is a Spiritual Growth Facilitator and People House Minister. A life-long student of spirituality, Mary spent almost 20 years living, working, and sojourning abroad in Asia, Southeast Asia, East Africa, and Latin America before finding her spiritual connection at People House and completing its Ministerial Program. Past studies include postgraduate studies from the University of South Africa in Theological Ethics/Ecological Justice, where she focused on the spiritual and physical interconnectedness of all things. With her MA in Environmental Studies from Boston University, abroad she worked and wrote on environmental sustainability issues at both global and local levels. In addition to working in refugee repatriation, she was an editor for international, English print, daily newspapers in Indonesia and Mexico.

How will you navigate what’s next? We’re more than six months into a pandemic with more months to come, even with the promise of a vaccine. 

Anger: A secondary reaction to pain, not good or bad—but what you do with it

1-TURN OFF THE NEWS. I cannot stress this enough. We as a species come packaged not only to love, but to grieve loss. We are equipped to mourn. But we are not equipped to take in all the pain that comes from a continual exposure—visual and verbal—to what we hear and see nonstop through television, print news, and social media. Turn off or silence updates for your phone, tablet, and laptop. I recommend checking news feeds once in the morning, and then again once in the afternoon—not late at night before you go to bed. Anger, tension, and anxiety are formidable bunkmates to a good night’s sleep.

We grieve RBG’s death. Many voice extreme anger at where our current administration is taking the country. Anger is almost always a secondary reaction to pain—physical pain (a stubbed toe), emotional pain, and pain of injustices—either toward oneself or toward others around you and the physical world. And now we have a sitting president whose out-sized debt may possibly compromise our national security.

Are we puppets of the media world? Stooges? Roger Ailes, former chairman and CEO of Fox News, used repetition, “the oldest and most effective propaganda technique.” In that sense, he created the news of the day. His listeners believed nothing else mattered in the world or in their lives. Ailes attracted viewers who “did not want television to tell them what happened in the world. They wanted television to tell them how to think about what happened in the world—the news itself would be secondary” (1).

Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved.

2-WHAT GIVES YOU LIFE? What gives you peace and contentment? Search out what interests you—it might take some digging. Visit on-line art exhibits. Some have taken to gardening, others cook or bake, and others develop musical skills. Just because someone raves about how gardening has opened up a whole new way of living for her, that doesn’t mean it’s your way—I have personally sent far too many plants to an early death. I do pull invasive species, however. I know I’m contributing to the greater good of the planet by allowing our native species the space and moisture to flourish, along with the bees, butterflies, insects, and birds that exist symbiotically with the native plants.

3-PRACTICE MINDFULNESS. Or any kind of spirituality that brings you comfort. No right way exists for meditation. You can sit on or off a cushion, use a kneeling bench, walk, recline on the floor. A point of mindfulness is to accept your current situation, your path, your Dao, your emotions, without judgment, and to quiet your monkey brain from all its chatter. 

Check in with yourself on a regular basis. What keeps you connected to your soul? This requires paying attention to the wisdom from our bodies. When emotions fill our chest, head, shoulders, heart—stop and pay attention. Ask yourself, “What do I need?” And be prepared to live with mystery, to live that question. Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved.

Have the hard conversation: “Are you socially distancing? Do you wear a mask?”

4-CONNECT. And after you ask those difficult questions, make decisions based on protecting your own health and those around you. Even the most introverted need some community—some interaction with humans. Talk with friends or family on the phone; connect through Zoom or Google Hangouts. Technically savvy people use Zoom and play games with others, using apps such as jackboxgames.com. 

5-EXERCISE. MOVE. What gets your energy jumping? Dance videos? Karaoke? Move to what gives you joy. Plan how you will be outdoors for those facing an onset of colder weather. 

6-EXTEND COMPASSION—to yourself and others. See my August People House blog for ways to train in compassion.

Get your affairs in order

7-And one more item to bring peace of mind and contentment: get your affairs in order. And age doesn’t matter. As an ordained minister, I’m called upon to assist when people begin thinking of passing, how they will write this next chapter of life. The National Institute of Aging lists four components of end of life planning: 1) completing an advance directive (AD) or living will, 2) appointing an individual with durable power of attorney for health care, 3) having a document for distribution of assets, and 4) specifying preferences for type and place of care (3). These apply to younger adults also, with the addition of providing for any dependent children.

No one likes to think of death and dying or discuss this with loved ones. But make it easier on everyone concerned by being a responsible adult. Take control of these decisions as much as you can.

If we’ve learned anything from this sudden upheaval of our lives, it’s that life is unpredictable. It is indeed a mystery to be lived.

Notes & Sources: 

1. Gabriel Sherman, The Loudest Voice in the Room: How Roger Ailes and Fox News Remade American Politics. 2014. Random House.
2. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/magazine/fly-casting-on-city-streets-is-weird-thats-why-i-love-it.html
3. https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/getting-your-affairs-order

About the Author: Rev. Mary Coday Edwards is a Spiritual Growth Facilitator and People House Minister. A life-long student of spirituality, Mary spent almost 20 years living, working, and sojourning abroad in Asia, Southeast Asia, East Africa, and Latin America before finding her spiritual connection at People House and completing its Ministerial Program. Past studies include postgraduate studies from the University of South Africa in Theological Ethics/Ecological Justice, focusing on the spiritual and physical interconnectedness of all things. With her MA in Environmental Studies from Boston University, abroad she worked and wrote on environmental sustainability issues at both global and local levels, in addition to working in refugee repatriation.

People sense that when this global covid-19 pandemic abates we won’t be returning to normal—normal’s what got us here. No longer will a sneeze or cough in public be only background noise. We will move to dodge those droplets. What will your new normal look like? 

The world has given us so many signs that we must stop only taking from the earth and treasure her for the sake of our future. Femke den Haas, Co-Founder Jakarta Animal Aid Network and Wildlife Watch Dogs

Start with interconnectedness as an underlying ethic. As you go about your day, make that part of your brain’s background music and decision-making process. Interconnectedness says that if you tweak one part of a system, it reverberates throughout, making adjustments and changes to the system.

“Scientists believe that about 75 percent of the newly emerging infectious diseases, such as covid-19, HIV/AIDS, SARS, avian influenza, and swine flu [H1N1], started in wildlife animals,” said Natalie Stewart, co-founder of Jakarta Animal Aid Network and Wildlife Watch Dogs (1, 2).

It appears that humans are primarily responsible for this emergence through our socio-economic, environmental and ecological practices (3). Wild animals have always carried viruses, but there used to be little contact between humans and these animals. Indonesia, for example, has about 34,000 miles of coastline, and fishing was a primary means of providing food and income for its populace, 25 million of which live in poverty. Not so anymore, as industrialized fishing, a burgeoning Indonesian and world population that needs fed, and polluted oceans and freshwater supplies have negatively impacted a villager’s daily catch who’s only trying to feed his family.  

This forces more people into the jungles and forests and into increased contact with wild animals, where they are harvested, brought into city markets, cruelly packed into cages or containers and sold and slaughtered in close proximity to each other and to the humans handling them in these markets—a perfect environment for disease emergence amongst virus-laden animals and disease crossover into humans. These jungle excursions feed both the local population and provide an income to these villagers for export. Countries throughout Asia and Africa supply animals to the illegal wildlife trade, the value of which ranges up to $23 billion annually.

We’ve got to get away from this consumerism, materialism that puts economic development ahead of environmental protection, which is damaging the future generations of humans and animals. Jane Goodall

“The destructive behavior of people worldwide and governments not paying enough attention to deforestation, wet markets, illegal wildlife trade, and the dangerous dog and cat meat trade will continue to cause more catastrophes,” Ms. Stewart added.

Some of you might think, well, let’s kill off the wild animals then to keep humanity safe—the height of hubris. With the Enlightenment came many significant thinkers who believed that humans could use science and technology to bend nature to the will of humanity.  René Descartes, a mathematician of the seventeenth century, wrote that with science, “we can . . . render ourselves the masters and possessors of nature.”

But nature fights back against reductionist thinking—we’re interconnected. Remember ticks, mosquitoes, and fleas—it’s impossible to eliminate them and the diseases they carry harmful to humans. We need to coexist with nature: reduce our consumption habits and their accompanying destructive, life-destroying pollution. Our population growth is unsustainable—another reason for our emerging infectious diseases. Animals and humans crowd into the same spaces, resulting in increased contact and greater risk.

And it isn’t as if we humans then stay put. We carry these infections with us on planes and in cars and then plant them in the fertile ground of our swelling megacities. 

And thus end up homeschooling our children.

What can you do?

Nature writer and environmental activist Terryl Warnock says this is a time to “reclaim our food from the predatory megacorps” (4). That means we eat locally grown food, support our local industries, and support sustainable agricultural practices. Benefits include reducing our carbon footprint by decreasing pollution from transporting our food from long distances while working to break up these predatory food industries. We lobby our state legislators for laws that protect our environment and support our communities.

JAAN co-founders Ms. Stewart, Ms. den Haas, and Karin Franken have been fighting for animal rights for more than ten years. I was living in Jakarta and friends of theirs at the inception of JAAN. JAAN has worked tirelessly on behalf of Indonesia’s animal kingdom, including birds of prey, sharks, monkeys, orangutans, horses, dogs, and cats. One way to change our normal is to donate to JAAN online at https://www.jakartaanimalaid.com/ or other groups you’re affiliated with.

As I mentioned, focus your thoughts, beliefs, and actions on our planet’s interconnectedness and see where that leads you. Discover where your food comes from. Join community groups that actively support and encourage one another to promote environmental rights. 

There’s no returning to our former normal. What ethics and morals will guide your behavior and actions as we as a planetary society move forward? What will you do to create a healthier planet?

Notes & Sources: 

1. Email correspondence, April 20, 2020. https://www.jakartaanimalaid.com/
2. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0293-3; https://www.nature.com/articles/nature06536#Fig1; https://www.ecohealthalliance.org/program/predict; https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/environment/story/2020-04-06/ebola-sars-zika-and-now-covid-19-why-deadly-outbreaks-are-likely-on-the-rise
3. Generally speaking, environmental science is a broader field that incorporates many elements of earth and life sciences, whereas ecology is usually more focused on how organisms interact with each other and their surroundings, and often on a very specific population of living things. The term socioeconomic refers to the interaction between the social and economic habits of a group of people. The word economic refers to the economy, such as people’s income and finances. Socioeconomic links financial and social issues together.
4. Email correspondence, April 20, 2020. Terryl Warnock’s Miracle of the Day can be purchased at: 

5. https://wild11.org/charter/

About the Author: Rev. Mary Coday Edwards is a Spiritual Growth Facilitator and People House Minister. A life-long student of spirituality, Mary spent almost 20 years living, working and sojourning abroad in Asia, Southeast Asia, East Africa, and Latin America before finding her spiritual connection at People House and completing its Ministerial Program. Past studies include postgraduate studies from the University of South Africa in Theological Ethics/Ecological Justice, focusing on the spiritual and physical interconnectedness of all things. With her MA in Environmental Studies from Boston University, abroad she worked and wrote on environmental sustainability issues at both global and local levels, in addition to working in refugee repatriation.

“Once there was a poor motherless child who had no shoes. But the child saved cloth scraps wherever she found them and over time sewed herself a pair of red shoes. They were crude but the child loved them. They made her feel rich even though her days were spent gathering food in the thorny woods until far past dark.

“But one day as she trudged down the road in her rags and her red shoes, a gilded carriage pulled up beside her. Inside was an old woman who told her she was going to take her home and treat her as her own little daughter (1).”

The little girl climbed into the carriage and went home with the rich old woman. The gilded carriage looked comfortable and less stressful, but it was a trap. To the child’s sorrow and horror, along with the child’s ratty clothes, firstly the old lady burned the child’s beloved red shoes. 

And life for the child slides painfully downhill from there. 

Her Red Shoes Represent Her Creative Life; the Trap is the Price

Jungian analyst Pinkola-Estes compares that loss of the red shoes to a woman’s self-designed life and passionate vitality. They represent a step toward integration of her deepest self into everyday life. 

She says to imagine traveling down the road of our lives, in our homemade red shoes, and a mood comes over us, something like: “Maybe something else would be better; something that isn’t so difficult, something that takes less time, energy, and striving.” She calls it a trap. But the gilded carriage isn’t the trap, as that’s normal for the ego to want life easier. 

No, the trap is the price. The price is soul famine for the creative spirit. The price is a starved soul. The price is aridity. The little girl has to give up her creative soul life. The child must remain proper and silent. The senescent woman allows for no yearning, and definitely no fulfilling of any yearning. 

It’s devaluing your soul life, and letting others be complicit in that devaluation. It’s like having a loved one but yet you do nothing to show that love or commitment. You ignore what’s of value to him/her. “Later,” you say. “Later, I’ll do what you want, later I’ll pay attention.”

Honor Your Soul

Your soul’s disappointment and subsequent pain is no different, knowing it’s not important to you as you plan your day ignoring its silent urgings.

I’ve seen it happen to both women and men. They’re going along with their lives, honoring their passion to be a masseuse, a parent, a gardener, an artist, a writer, a meditation teacher—fill in the blank. Along comes something—anything, a partner, a job—a distraction so he/she doesn’t have to work so hard. Or perhaps it’s guilt: “This isn’t what my family wants me to do.”

And before she knows what’s happened, she’s middle-aged and doesn’t know who she is anymore. A deep sadness sets in. The ennui has seeped deep into her psyche. Maybe she’s depressed and sees no reason to live. She watches TV all day eating Bonbons. Life has lost its luster, its joy. Her doctor prescribes anti-depressants for her, which cut her off from her truth-telling emotions and their wisdom.

6 Steps to Hasten Your Creative Soul’s Return 

1-Welcome the dullness, the ennui, the weariness. Your body and psyche are trying to tell you something.

2-Sit with it mindfully, as Jon Kabat-Zinn taught: Mindfulness is paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally, to the unfolding of experience moment to moment. 

3-Watch what surfaces. Watch for excesses and their costs to soul, psyche, and instinct.

4-If possible, find a supportive counselor/therapist who understands life’s journeying. Find a person who encourages your process of coming to wholeness, who tells you this is normal. If you’ve pushed your psyche into a soul-famine, begin to respect its desires. Surround yourself with people who support you.

5-Every day upon awakening make the choice to do—and be—something that celebrates your creative soul. If a poet, spend a few minutes reading poetry or writing down those few words running through your head that won’t leave you alone.

6-It DOESN’T mean you ignore and/or abandon your sacred commitments to family. It means you resolve to honor your soul, that life-giving force within you. It isn’t either/or; it’s and/both.

What Gave You Life Today and What Brought Death to You?

In the 1500s, Catholic priest Ignatius of Loyola co-founded the Jesuit Monastic Order, at the heart of which was self-examination. Ignatius developed an entire monastic practice around these questions: “At the end of the day, what gave you the greatest joy today? And what brought you the greatest sadness? What brought death? And what brought life?” 

That which gives one joy and life is encoded in your DNA, it’s what gets your DNA wiggling around with joy, what you’re created to do—your “marching orders,” as it is sometimes called.

I stepped into a gilded carriage as a lost and confused 18-year-old when I fell into the Jesus Movement in the 1970s. At the time it seemed the right way to go, as my choices didn’t seem to be getting me anywhere. The movement quickly morphed into a patriarchal authoritarianism which told me I had to remain “proper and silent,” and follow the injunctions of the Apostle Paul and submit to the male leadership. 

It offered me an easy way to live, as I was rescued from making decisions, from uncovering myself. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my soul had gone deep into hiding in order to protect herself. Over the decades I’ve slowly coaxed and drawn my creative soul out of its cave.

In 2020, resolve to honor your soul, especially so if you’re experiencing a soul famine by neglecting your passions through devaluation. Listen, look, and act—until calling yourself back becomes a habit. Be the gift to the Cosmos you are designed to be!

_____

Notes & Sources: 

1. Pinkola-Estes, Clarissa. Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype. Ballantine Books, 1992. 

_______

About the Author: Rev. Mary Coday Edwards is a Spiritual Growth Facilitator and People House Minister. A life-long student of spirituality, Mary spent almost 20 years living, working and sojourning abroad in Asia, Southeast Asia, East Africa, and Latin America before finding her spiritual connection at People House and completing its Ministerial Program. Past studies include postgraduate studies from the University of South Africa in Theological Ethics/Ecological Justice, focusing on the spiritual and physical interconnectedness of all things. With her MA in Environmental Studies from Boston University, abroad she worked and wrote on environmental sustainability issues at both global and local levels, in addition to working in refugee repatriation.

Ancient memories dance to life within us—if we let them. 

Like an empty vessel that still retains the fragrance of a scented oil, our DNA remembers our welcoming hopes for the returning light. Our Northern Hemisphere ancestors couldn’t lengthen their dark days by flipping a wall switch, but lit their way with dripping candles or smoky lanterns. They measured days left until the returning light by a decrease in coins spent on candles and whale oil.

History tells us they feasted and partied on the days surrounding the Winter Solstice. It reminded them of the promise of transformation: days WILL lengthen; the land WILL warm; the crops WILL grow—the light WILL return (1).

Winter’s Cocooning

My pagan friend, Terryl Warnock, dwells close to nature. In her book, Miracle du Jour, she chronicles the subtle means in which a spiritual relationship with nature and the world can touch our lives in miraculous and healing ways (2).

Ms. Warnock’s friends know that come seasonal apexes of the year, she’s unavailable. She retreats to her meditative solitude to honor her Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine traditions. Her cocooning gently reminds me of Winter Solstice’s spiritual symbolism. 

Spiritual Transformation: A fundamental change in a person’s sacred or spiritual life.

Dr. Raymond Paloutzian says that “spiritual transformation constitutes a change in the meaning system that a person holds as a basis for self-definition, the interpretation of life, and overarching purposes and ultimate concerns” (3).

Changing your meaning system is not like changing your red jacket for black. It’s a process of transformation, just as our long nights slowly shorten until June 21 when the sun reaches its zenith. 

Clinical psychologist William M. Schafer lists four elements of spiritual work leading to a spiritual transformation (4). Although he references Daoist philosophy, these four elements are not exclusive to Daoism, but are present in almost all spiritual paths which lead to metamorphosis. 

Number 1: The first is stepping onto the path, crossing that threshold. We can stare at the line for years, knowing change needs to come. Usually a catalyst of suffering pushes us over, onto this solitary path. We decide the pain of staying is greater than all the fears of stepping out into the unknown. Who will unfriend me? What’s my loss? Will the light return?

We Welcome the Observer

Number 2: As we walk on the path, we discover we’re not even sure what we’re walking toward, or what we might find. We’re walking and waiting and watching for something. This is when we find comfort in mindfulness/meditation practices, whatever our faith. We learn stillness, the second element. Our egos struggle against this nothingness, this cocooning. But we learn to be the nonjudgmental observer: Isn’t that interesting, we think, as we watch our emotions and thoughts scurry around us.

We locate those emotions and thoughts and their subsequent energy in our bodies, where we’re holding tension, pain, anger, or anxiety. We breathe into that space and relax into it. We don’t push the pain away, and it becomes our teacher. We examine our life’s assumptions driving this pain to determine if they’re still serving us.

Presence: A Nameless Space

Number 3: Schafer calls this principle Presence, the idea behind it is that we are not alone on this journey. He doesn’t call Presence a person, because that suggests something like us: “An individual who has a point of view and a certain way it wants the universe and all the beings in it to evolve.” I, too, stay away from that anthropomorphic position, as it gave me nothing but sadness and sorrow for many years. 

Presence can come upon us unawares. One day while sitting mindfully you notice that, unbidden—it’s just there. You sense a nameless Space around you. You don’t know why or how it’s there, it just IS. It’s a strange sense, after so long of feeling nothing, but it contains peace, comfort, and reassurance. It’s a stream you dare to name Love, and you step into it as if separate, but yet not separate from it. It’s like a bowl of mashed potatoes: where does the potato end and the milk begin?  

But it doesn’t mean your pain disappears in its entirety. 

Decades ago, Ms. Warnock fled to the Divine Feminine after a house break-in and brutal rape at knife point sent her bloodied and broken teen-aged body to the ER. As with many rape survivors, the confirmation hearings over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh triggered painful memories. 

It’s not either/or: Pain OR Presence. It’s AND: Both coexist within us, and Presence keeps the pain from destroying us. 

We Dwell in Physicality as well as Transcendence 

Which leads me to Schafer’s Number 4: Living in Presence is an Eternal Process. Our human awareness of this Presence will come and go. We would like to have one life-changing enlightenment, to walk around with that beatific smile on our faces reflecting our constant and unflappable inner serenity. 

But we dwell in physicality as well as in transcendence. In our physicality, we catch glimpses of the light, like walking on a tree-lined path in the spring when the sunlight and shadows mottle the path through emerging leaves.

Most religions celebrating this time of year include light: Christians call Jesus the Light of the World. Jews light candles honoring Hanukkah. Kwanzaa celebrants light a candle in a special holder called a kinara. 

Wherever you’re at on this path, the Winter Solstice can bring comfort, knowing that the light will return, that there are times in life, when like winter, we hibernate in stillness and quiet, waiting for the next phase of life. 

If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, I encourage you to dip below the surface of these traditions and ponder how the light—and darkness—you’re given can inspire spiritual transformation. 

_____

Notes & Sources: 

1.In the Southern Hemisphere, Winter Solstice occurs around June 20 or 21.

2.Warnock, Terryl. The Miracle du jour, MoonLit Press, LLC; 2017. https://www.amazon.com/Miracle-du-jour-Terryl-Warnock/dp/0989469859

3.Paloutzian, Raymond F. (2005). Religious conversion and spiritual transformation: A meaning-system analysis. In Raymond F. Paloutzian & Crystal L. Park (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality (pp. 331-347), New York: Guilford. As quoted in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_transformation

4.Schafer, William M. Roaming Free Inside the Cage, A Daoist Approach to the Enneagram and Spiritual Transformation. iUniverse; 2009.

_______

About the Author: Rev. Mary Coday Edwards is a Spiritual Growth Facilitator and People House Minister. A life-long student of spirituality, Mary spent almost 20 years living, working and sojourning abroad in Asia, Southeast Asia, East Africa, and Latin America before finding her spiritual connection at People House and completing its Ministerial Program. Past studies include postgraduate studies from the University of South Africa in Theological Ethics/Ecological Justice, focusing on the spiritual and physical interconnectedness of all things. With her MA in Environmental Studies from Boston University, abroad she worked and wrote on environmental sustainability issues at both global and local levels, in addition to working in refugee repatriation.

In my last blog, I gave examples of personal myths, and wrote of how they largely operate unawares in our lives, like a puppeteer pulling the strings behind our unconscious screen. 

They are like a lens that gives meaning to every situation you meet and what you will do in it, answering the greater questions of life: Who am I? Where am I going? And why am I going there? The Enneagram also reveals unconscious personal myths that the nine types live their lives by.

We have failing cultural myths that give rise to personal myths. I gave the example of my mother, who although educated, fell under the spell of the 1950s cultural myth (1), that women are only fulfilled through a husband and children, focusing particularly on the need to have a man in one’s life. She couldn’t move on with life after our father was killed in a farming accident, leaving her alone with three small children. She lived out her years waiting for a man. Her personal myth froze her into that of a helpless female, a Cinderella story. Her personal myth converged with the dominant cultural myth and governed every aspect of her life. 

‘On one hand, there’s this, and on the other hand, there’s that. . .’

Continuing with Feinstein and Krippner’s book, Personal Mythology: Using Ritual, Dreams, and Imagination to Discover Your Inner Story (2), I’ll lay out the five stages they offer (3) that delineate a guide to personal transformation. The first three are similar to a gestalt, in that you have, “on one hand, there’s this,” and “on the other hand, there’s that.” The idea behind a gestalt is to create something new in the middle, a synthesis of the ideas represented by the two hands.

Stage 1 involves recognizing and defining one’s own personal myth and discovering to what degree this guiding myth is no longer an ally. This discovery often shows up in our dreams as we sleep, or of being stymied in our personal lives somehow, resulting in the gift of suffering that wakes us up. This is the, “On one hand ….” My mother lived her myth unknowingly and didn’t consider whether or not it still functioned for her, didn’t question its veracity. 

Stage 2 requires the identification of an opposing personal myth, one that creates a conflict in the person’s psyche. The conflicting myths are brought into focus and examined to see how and/or if each is linked to the past. The person will soon recognize that the myths of childhood are rarely appropriate to serve the adult. This is the, “On the other hand ….” Again, my mother had an opposite myth, that of freedom and rebellion from her Catholic culture’s rules. She stopped attending mass and moved us three from the Catholic School into the Protestant—horror of horrors to her family in our small rural town. She lived with the unconscious tension of wanting independence but yet still needing a man to validate her existence. 

‘. . . and creating a new vision in the middle.’

Stage 3, the gestalt, a synthesis, entails conceiving a unifying vision. If my mother could have had People House counseling, she would have been led to see her two opposing myths operating unconsciously in her life. Instead of an either/or situation, she could have worked with these personal myths, and drawn out a new way of being. She could have moved into, “I am a competent woman, and if a man does come into my life, he will encourage my gifts and talents.” She would have chosen healthier responses to her widowhood at a young age.

Now what? You’ve identified your existing myth(s) and an opposing myth(s), and you’ve worked out a synthesis, or a gestalt, of the two. Now it’s time to rework those ruts, those grooves in your brain, those patterns and values of unconscious thinking and doing. A new inner reality needs built. 

Stage 4 is where your insights are tested and reinforced, where you begin creating that channel for your new way of being. You move from the realm of possibility and imagination into intention and action. My mother needed a support group of other women who experienced a failure of the existing cultural myth of feminine weakness and were taking concrete steps to change their lives. Rituals would have helped her in this, learning to honor her own strong, feminine intuition.

Stage 5 involves weaving a new mythology into one’s life. In their book, Feinstein and Krippner suggest practical steps whereby the inner transformation is manifest in the world. The butterfly emerges from the chrysalis. The process continues both as an inner work and as living in the world in a new way, more free of the restraints of unconscious beliefs and values. In my mother’s search for employment, she would have looked for that which fed her creative soul, vs. a job only as a means to meet a potential husband. She would have taken responsibility for her own healing process and happiness, instead of depending solely on outside sources for both.

The importance of a support group for Stages 4 and 5 cannot be stressed enough. Your past personal myths will usually have strong connections to our cultural myths, and your new inner reality most likely will butt up against opposing societal constructs. You will be tempted to slip back into those old ruts of familiar thinking and being. But the more you catch yourself through awareness of your emotions and tension in your body, the less of a hold that old inner reality will have over you and its grip will begin to loosen. New patterns and foundations of thought will be laid down in your being.

And practice mindfulness, as Jon Kabat-Zinn taught (4): 

Mindfulness is paying attention on purpose, 

in the present moment, 

and nonjudgmentally, 

to the unfolding of experience moment to moment.

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Notes & Sources: 

1.Women who were truly feminine would not want to work, have an education, or have political opinions, let alone participate in the political arena. Women’s magazines, women’s education, and advertising all contributed to this cultural myth—sanctioned by religion—resulting in widespread unhappiness and depression amongst women Betty Friedan first documented this cultural myth in her 1963 book, Feminine Mystique, a book widely credited with beginning second-wave feminism in the U.S As has been documented and written of, this cultural myth was particular to mainstream, middle class, white women.

2.Feinstein, David; and Krippner, Stanley. Personal Mythology: Using Ritual, Dreams, and Imagination to Discover Your Inner Story. Energy Psychology Press/Elite Books. 2008. 

3.Ibid, pages xxii and xxiii, Foreword, written by June Singer, Ph.D.

4.Kabat-Zinn, Jon. The founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, calls this practice mindfulness. 

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About the Author: Rev. Mary Coday Edwards is a Spiritual Growth Facilitator and People House Minister. A life-long student of spirituality, Mary spent almost 20 years living, working and sojourning abroad in Asia, Southeast Asia, East Africa, and Latin America before finding her spiritual connection at People House and completing its Ministerial Program. Past studies include postgraduate studies from the University of South Africa in Theological Ethics/Ecological Justice, focusing on the spiritual and physical interconnectedness of all things. With her MA in Environmental Studies from Boston University, abroad she worked and wrote on environmental sustainability issues at both global and local levels, in addition to working in refugee repatriation.