Nov 18, 2016

Alchemy

Beth Thomas Uncategorized Alchemy, Autumn 0 Comment

Our altar with paintings of the alchemical process, a figure of a refugee created by group member Helen, and gifts from the natural world (as well as our loyal long eared companions)

Last month, students of Wild Wisdom School reunited on a stunning autumnal morning in the vessel that has held our journey and now continues into year 3. Our theme, aptly so, was alchemy. At the heart of Wild Wisdom School is the intention to restore the sacred marriage that has become divorced in our dualistic culture. The fragmentation has divorced masculine from feminine, spirit from matter, rational from intuitive; one typically being favoured over the other. To those seeking only the mind of reason, alchemy is the primitive forerunner of chemistry, however to others seeking a more integrated path, chemistry is a bereft fragmentation of alchemy. In alchemy the rational mind is in union with the intuitive, and matter in union with spirit. Alchemy, from the Arabic ‘al kimia’ (which translates as the art of the black soil) is the art of inner and outer transformation.

The talking stone that carries the prima materia through the sharings of the group…

…and flowers of blossoming life

We experienced alchemy through meditation, history, imagination, reflection and creativity. Through the portal of history we travelled back to its roots in Ancient Egypt, through to its presence in culture today. Unlike other parts of our western heritage, we didn’t have to dig deep for the voice of the feminine since it is already very strong with many of the famous alchemists being women, including Maria Hebraea (or Maria the Jewess) who created the Bain Marie, an apparatus for distillation still used prolifically in labs today. Through the portal of the imagination we delved into our own experience of transformation and with this memory moved through the 4 stages of the alchemical process guided by Sam.

The following is a reflection from Christine:

The sacred task suggested by Sam of reflecting on a recent transformative experience before our day together was for me the perfect first step into this alchemical journey. Seeking the Green Lion in this quiet and reflective way allowed me to discard the expected and discover (yet again) the extraordinary in the ordinary. So rather than an apparently much more dramatic transformative experience, I found myself sitting beneath ‘my’ Ash tree on the hill over the course of the past year, as seasons changed and bare branches and black buds slowly turned to feathery green – and my sense of connectedness at a time of sometimes dramatic disconnection (personally and in the world).

Blanket of mist rising as the earth woke up that morning

Leaf and cobweb in the morning dew

The significant insight for me was in acknowledging the irreplaceable role of separation in the journey towards integration, but this only becoming material for the alchemical vessel when the will is there to see it with honesty. Only when we step out of the running, when we stop deceiving ourselves and instead opt for truth, regardless of how ugly the truth is, can things begin to change.

Last week the US got a new president in the form of Donald Trump. At first, I was in total disbelief, I looked at all those who voted for him with disdain, and I feared for our future. However, standing within the field of alchemy I feel a different response brewing. Trump represents something very ugly to me, but he also represents a yearning for truth. I still fear our future, and I feel very uncomfortable about such a person in the most powerful seat in the human world. However, I also feel a sense of something bigger, perhaps a vessel holding the darkness that we seem to have fully stepped into now. Knowing the process of transformation as alchemy lays out, and also from my own experience of transformation, I can feel a sense of trust that the powers of alchemy are at play. Alchemy is a process uncontrollable by human hands. What we can do is to create conditions, to tune our spirits, and to surrender ourselves to the movement. Control and certainty are the very things that prevent transformation.

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Through this journey into alchemy, which began in our Wild Wisdom weekend together, I have started to see that the Universe itself is the ultimate alchemical vessel, and transformation through life, death and rebirth is its primal dance. Humans cannot choreograph the dance, but we can learn the moves, and through the willingness to participate and the strength to surrender control, we can learn to dance well.

Knowing the process of alchemy, knowing this fundamental process within life, I trust the darkness will give way to light.

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Words and photos by Beth Thomas

Aug 8, 2016

Franciscan Spirituality and the Practice of Gazing

Beth Thomas Summer Franciscan Spirituality, Gazing, Icons, Monastic, Spiritual Community, Wild Wisdom 0 Comment

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The first year group of Wild Wisdom School – the pioneer group – has now reached the end of its 2^nd year in the journey of the Western Mysteries. We started our day together looking back over this 2^nd year, noticing any memories that stand out and sensing where the journey has taken us today. Sam asked us to name a few words that came to us; the words that came very strongly to me were community, friendship and love.

We witness each other as we ride the ups and downs of life; we cry tears of sorrow and joy for each other’s sharing as much as our own; and we hold each other in a space that welcomes, grieves and celebrates life.

Scrumptious treats in the middle of our day – meringue made by Helen and raspberries gathered from Sam’s garden

Brought with us today was also a shared disturbance from the very conflicted human landscape that ills our country and our world. One person echoed something Sam said a while ago that “our society doesn’t know how to love”. There was a shared feeling of gratitude both for the sensitivity of the heart to feel the disturbances of our world, and for the small expressions of humanity such as this one; a small society that does know how to love and the importance in keeping these spaces alive.

Our altar created for the day

Our theme today is Franciscan Spirituality, and our story is that of Clare and Francis who are the founders of this wild and beautiful stream within the Christian tradition. Sam told us their story, but in keeping with our intention of restoring the Divine Feminine, we heard it through the perspective of Clare. Through icons and images, history and imagination, we travelled to 12^th century Assisi in central Italy’s Umbria region. Theirs is a story of choosing simplicity over wealth, knowing that in this choice there is a greater abundance to be discovered, and much greater riches than those the Catholic Church had become corrupted with.

While Clare is still a child, Francis is busy rebuilding a dilapidated church outside of Assisi, on the words he hears from Jesus to ‘repair His House’. Taking these words literally, Francis begins with the rocks on which he stands. I felt moved and driven by this image of humility and pragmatism. He didn’t set about ‘changing the world’. What he set about doing was building a church in which his spirit could find inspiration alongside his brothers and sisters, and from which they could serve the poor and vulnerable. It just so happens that in this authentic dedication to the teachings of Jesus – to love and service – they started a movement that spread across the world. To me, the Franciscan way feels true to the lineage of Jesus. They carved out a new stream, or perhaps unblocked an old stream, in which living waters did and still do flow.

An icon of Clare and Francis.

The cross St Francis was gazing upon when he heard Jesus ask him to repair His House.

For our quiet time today, Sam shared with us the practice of ‘gazing’ and invited us to choose an icon we’d like to gaze on – either a traditional painted icon, or simply an image, or something in the natural world. This is an ancient spiritual practice, which was particularly strong before access to scripture was made widely available, when icons were the main access point to the Divine. It is a practice of setting one’s eyes onto an icon and lingering there, perhaps for half an hour or more. Here is Kengo’s reflection on this practice:

There’s something about that wide-eyed gaze that opens me up to connecting deeper.

I use it in my Nature-connection practice, softening my eyes, letting go of the specific or the intellectual, allowing the full richness of the world to flow through me.

Now, I gaze into the eyes of a human figure, lovingly depicted, her head tilted to one side, dressed in exotic robes and a gilded aura around her head. These images are familiar, yet unfamiliar to my personal spiritual practice. But as I gaze on, her robes, the iconography, even the iridescent gold falls away, leaving only those eyes, looking back at me.

And there, came the connection; with all the feelings and emotions I have felt through someone’s eyes. The pains, the love, reflected back.

And in this ancient image from a far away land, I touch something universal, unbound by time.

Words and photos by Beth