The Words of the Goddess 2: Beauty

Today, I feel completely not up to the task of exploring "beauty", yet I think that is why it seems necessary to plow ahead. The news of the world is so distressing and potentially distressing, and there is a little "Greek chorus" within me saying, how can you possibly think beauty is important on a day like today? For that matter, from the world's standpoint, when is it ever important?

Interestingly enough, on the list of "Words of the Goddess" that I compiled many years ago, "beauty" was around the twentieth. In other words, it wasn't near the top of my list. It didn't come to me immediately. And yet now, I think it is almost on a par with Love. If I were the Goddess, it might be co-equal. Once again, dictionary definitions are absolutely no help whatsoever. Phrases such as "pleasing to the eye" don't begin to capture the essence of beauty. There must be as many standards of beauty as there are people on the planet, although my current hunch is that there are many people for whom beauty is invisible or genuinely unimportant.

So why do I think beauty would be honored in a construct that also honored the divine feminine? Am I falling into a trap...beauty is important to me, and my life seems to have been singularly off the patriarchal radar screen, so therefore by default, it must be important to the Goddess? That's possible. Truly, I don't know what to say, because this is such uncharted territory. I've been mulling over my experiences in the Old Paradigm/church (almost exclusively the Episcopal Church and Church of England). In baptism, confirmation, catechisms, Bible readings, sermons...how often were we in the congregation invited to create works of beauty? How often did we hear the words "beauty" or "beautiful"? In my experience, in discussions of religion, almost never. There were admonitions against sinning, and for honoring God, His laws, His traditions. Various people were considered blessed: those who were pure in heart, those who were poor and sick (and those who helped them), those who were persecuted for God's sake. Unique and powerful expressions of beauty were borne out of the Anglican tradition, of course, from the cathedrals and all their artwork, the choral tradition and musical compositions, and the extraordinary poetic beauty of the original Book of Common Prayer. In the church of my childhood, this tradition was, to a certain extent, "worshipped" in its own right. But that made it even more devastating to be a girl who, in the early 1960's, knew that she wanted to work in that milieu and that she never would or could. Beauty would never be my "workplace". So many artistic people have been similarly deprived, so discouraged early on that they couldn't catch up later in life even when norms started to change.

This is a subject that there is no way to cover in one post. I feel like a fool for trying. All I can say is that I believe that all forms of beauty -- so-called natural, and so-called human-made (in theory there is no schism here) -- are "divine", in whatever sense you want to take that. Integrity-filled efforts to create beautiful works of art, or to work with rather than against natural beauty, are far more valid than our culture acknowledges. Looking back, I didn't understand how crucial beauty (and expressing beauty) was to my well-being. I suppose it was a combination of factors, both personal and cultural; living apart from my preferred kinds of beauty has left me only half alive. Perhaps our world's focus on almost everything but beauty has left all of us half alive. 

Love and beauty are my litmus tests. Now I gauge the alignment of everything I experience to love and beauty. The only things that seem real are things that are loving, lovely and beautiful. That's all I can say today. 

Here One Minute...

When you have basically anticipated an era for decades, and have a contemplative/observer/figure-it-out kind of bent (not to mention my unfortunate family heritage!), it can be a little too easy to keep some of the emotions of the time at bay. But for the last few days, I've often been either in tears or on the verge of tears because the suddenness of events has cut to the quick. 

The story of the four young siblings floating away in Kentucky's floods was just beyond heart-wrenching. Trying to get into the shoes of the adults minding the children was just as distressing as imagining being a child swept into a river. (The philosophy that there is really no such thing as "death" isn't helpful at certain moments...) And much as I "get" owning next-to-nothing, trying to imagine owning a home one minute, and watching it (and all the contents) succumb to a flood or fire the next minute, is, again, nearly impossible. These brave people have much to teach us right now. None of us can assume that it will not happen to us.

And sudden change filtered down to day-to-day life here in the north country. An extraordinary woman who helped untold people in the community was "here" Saturday (and I happened to see her long enough for a quick wave hello and "keep cool!"), but had left this earth plane by Sunday. Then late Sunday, I was on a video call online, when a huge thunderstorm came up, and I had to quickly exit and deal with closing windows, etc. So it's not just about loss, it's about that "here one minute, gone the next"-type of energy shift. It breaks through one's emotional reserves, one's ability to plan, and (perhaps a good thing) one's tendency to "assume".

There's a silver lining, of course, which is that things can suddenly shift in a good or surprising direction. I felt teary with happiness, seeing a video clip of Joni Mitchell singing "Both Sides Now", five years after a stroke or aneurism left her unable to sing. It was inspiring, but also so wonderful that she chose that, of all songs. I didn't understand back in the '60s how much wisdom I was soaking in from the lyrics of the time. That era's message of peace, love and balance may help some of us keep going in the shaky present, over fifty years on.

A Deer Moment

Early yesterday morning, I finally saw the deer that I suspect has been eating the flowers and vegetables I've been trying to grow. She (I think it is a doe) meandered down the sidewalk, and stopped to munch on the hostas that are in front of the house I've been living in this year. As she started to amble into the side yard, I quietly opened the front door and walked out onto the porch, and she turned toward me. Her limpid black eyes were completely unruffled; we just looked at each other appraisingly. I smiled, and greeted her, but then made the gentle request (yes, aloud!) that she not eat any of "my" flowers and vegetables. As I did so, I could feel the energetic dissonance -- if this is a "yes"-based universe, as I believe it is, then asking anyone not to do something is the same as inviting them to do something. Sure enough, she turned to go further into the yard. I went through the house to the back porch, and saw that she had meandered around, munching here and there. The loud back door hinge finally spooked her, I guess, and she ran off. When I walked the circuit a little later, the tops of two tomato plants had been eaten off. In previous weeks, a geranium and an impatiens had lost their flowers...I've relocated them and they seem to be coming back, but the tomatoes are a goner.

It's funny, I'm very sensitive to some criticism I've received about not being "into" gardening or the out-of-doors generally. How can I claim to be about the Goddess/Gaia/Mother Nature if I don't like getting my hands into the dirt or taking long hikes? Well, I don't know the answer to that. She takes many forms. I'm a Goddess-oriented American woman who would prefer to live in an English abbey or cathedral town, studying medieval manuscripts and singing choral evensong. I don't get it any more than anyone else, but that's the way it is, the life I haven't yet been able to create. The dozen or so flowers and vegetables I bought at the farmer's market were gardening on my terms, on a tiny scale, near the back door of the house. Spots of brilliant color, and a few veggies and herbs for later in the summer. These plants were pricy this year...they were only "mine" to the extent to which I spent money on them. But in the end, I wasn't surprised that my efforts to control Nature (in the form of this gentle but hungry doe) were unsuccessful. If I say that Mother Nature needs to do Her thing, then I need to walk my walk and talk my talk. I don't own the house I am in, or the ground under it, or the plants around it (whether I "bought" them or not) or the air around it, or the rain that falls on it, or the sun that warms it. This doe has as much right to these lush plants as I do, as does the little bunny out there this morning, eating the weeds between the sidewalk stones.

I know how fortunate I am...Nature doing Her thing has upended the lives of the people of Kentucky, say, in a far more extreme manner, and more and more of us are facing such cataclysms. As they take place, there is no time for philosophizing. But it will be interesting to see whether there will be a tipping point, where we all start to give the natural world the respect it so richly deserves. Where we stop trying so hard to be in control.

The Words of the Goddess 1: Love

I mentioned last time that I had come across a list I compiled many years ago of Goddess words/Words of the Goddess. I have no idea when I compiled it, and, unusually for me, I didn't date it. My impression is that I wrote it back in the early 2000's. It's on a piece of heavy cardboard in my own handwriting; I think I wrote the list over a day or two off the top of my head, an early effort to define, in my own mind, a divine feminine "energy". It's interesting, because starting around 2010, my focus shifted to a series of efforts to return to England and become involved in the cathedral choir world. Doing that required putting my Goddess list (and inner leanings) into a literal and figurative storage box for a few years.

It's very humbling to start presenting the words on this list. Some might see me (with my family background, my not having been a mother in this lifetime, etc.) as the most spectacularly inappropriate person to articulate what the energy of the Goddess is all about, particularly, the word "Love", which is the most important and overarching of them all. A case could be made that I know more about what love isn't than what love is. And there may be dozens of writers out there doing the same basic thing. This series of love-related words can undoubtedly be found in other spiritual traditions and many secular contexts. But increasingly, I feel led to speak for Her, to the best of my ability, or at the very least, to imagine what She would say or do. So here goes.

Dictionary definitions for the word "love" are almost ludicrously inadequate. Affection, caring, attraction...yes, those words are facets of love, but only facets.

To try to grasp the enormity of love, I envision those ancient sculptures of a woman giving birth to the whole world...and then on the other end of the spectrum, those astonishing new photographs of space taken by the Webb telescope. It's like, the universe began because of love, and every new (and old) form of life is a reflection of that love. It's an eternal river of the passion for creating; it is a painting where every color is love; it is a song of love, no matter what the key signature or instrument. I think we are already living in a world that is "only love", but in earlier times, contrasts were seen as evil, something to fight. That perception of duality is literally breaking up as we speak, and in a future unity/harmony construct, all of us will joyfully embrace the "other". We will have the capacity to love more often and more passionately, and when we cannot, we won't get stuck in fear or hatred, we'll just let go and move on, like drops of water in a powerful river.

The only viable path through the coming changes is love. Finding something to love every day, and finding the courage to align with love every day. In a sense, true, passionate, divine love is far scarier than "evil", and not fighting is scarier than fighting. It's so much easier to engage not-love. The habit of pushing back is hard to break. Very few of our institutions are centered around pure love, so on top of everything, the path is lonely. There seems to be no "there" there, yet...But it is there, within many of us, and emerging. 

I am trying not to get discouraged by what is visible in society, and in the environment, right now. Somehow, releasing the need to fight everything that is wrong has opened up a beautiful doorway which makes life worth living. It releases me from a sense of hopelessness, and maybe it will do the same for you. A universe of such spectacular beauty is out there (and at our feet). The throb and pulsation of love and life is in every atom, a gift from Her. 

 

Overheating

Except for a few short warm spells, Duluth has not been as hot as elsewhere in the country. And for a few more days it will be coolish and rainy before heating up; at this time of year, the "cooler by the lake" effect usually starts to fizzle out. All winter, I had dreamed of sitting outside with friends, and this weekend it was possible and comfortable. Even so, I had to remember that 75 degrees was a full 100 degrees hotter than common on a day in January, and that those frigid winter conditions are this region's "payoff" for summer comfort, you might say.  Looking across the pond, it has been hard to watch the death of my assumption that the UK would forever stay within temperate range (about 30 degrees F to 80 degrees F). The meteorologically unexpected can -- and will -- happen from now on. 

Scanning the various morning TV news programs this weekend, it seemed as if every aspect of our life was described in terms of "overheating" or fire. Yes, there are the literal fires around the world, a volcano in Japan, etc. But the metaphors referencing COVID and monkeypox, the economy, politics, Ukraine, gun violence, naming but a few, were also all about heat. If they weren't about heat, they were about "fighting". Al Gore was interviewed about the extreme weather conditions, and I honor his longtime efforts on behalf of the environment. But his focus is on what we need to do, and my gut feeling is that we have long since passed the point where such action, alone, will have any permanent effect. 

In the end, these ills are primarily manifestations of belief. In the environmental arena, we have believed it appropriate to abuse the earth for the sake of "free" resources. Earth has effectively been our slave, a worker with no pay and no say. We have insisted on flow with no ebb, progress with no periods of rest and reflection, profit at all costs. None of this reflects the values I believe to be of the divine feminine. What's challenging is that fighting the old mindset will only add to the heat. (I wonder if any scientists have studied that!) It's important to find a way to stay physically cool right now, but once we do, staying mentally cool -- or at least ratcheting down the Old Paradigm "fight or flight" impulse -- will help. Mother Nature needs to do what She needs to do to rebalance this precious jewel of a planet. Whatever the cost to myself, I'm going to allow Her to be Her whenever I can, because there is no doubt in my mind that She knows more about balance than we do. 

Many years ago, well before I consciously became so clear about my Goddess orientation, I wrote an interesting list of "Goddess Words". I came across it the other day, and in the spirit of articulating and grounding the building blocks of a potential future era, I'll start featuring these words from time to time. I've never had a job I loved, but oh, do I love this writing! 

Some More on Nonviolence

I woke up this morning with nonviolence still on my mind, so I'll continue this "thread".

In world arenas where armed conflict is possible or likely, nonviolence is a major step forward. I mean, leaders who espoused nonviolence in recent history were promoting a step in the right direction for humanity, and I honor them. They did shift the energy considerably, and started to open the way to less brutal ways of solving human disagreements. They shifted human consciousness.

But today, in 2022, there seems to be more violence than ever, at least it feels that way. And when I look at groups of protesters, say, on opposite sides of the street and any given divide, it is hard to distinguish them from one another. Faces are angry, voices are angry, the placards can be cutting and nasty. The "vibration" I feel as an observer (even when I am more supportive of one side) can be hard, confrontational and, yes, even potentially violent. The duality construct is still very much in place, as is the notion that sides are aligned against one another. Each group may hope very much that they will "win".

So what was on my mind this morning was semi-humorous (if there is such a thing!) Have you ever heard of a musician described as "nonviolent"? A visual artist? A sculptor? A choreographer or dancer? A creative writer or poet? A basket-weaver or potter? I mean, the whole context of creating art is to create beauty -- there is no "presumption of violence" that creative people have to differentiate themselves from. And the inevitable contrasts that artists deal with are just that, contrasts. They are not sides to be pitted one against the other. I've said this before -- in a choir, it is not the job of the altos to attack the basses, or the tenors to attack the sopranos. The various sections don't fight to be louder or more dominant, they work together to blend. Visual artists don't set red against green, or clay against metal. Dancers don't pick up their partners only to throw them violently to the ground. Knitters don't purl in order to attack their previous row of knitting, they do it to create beautiful and hardy rows of stitches.

Now, this isn't to say that in our competitive economic construct, there isn't stressful effort to perfect skills, to get grants, to survive, and to be seen/recorded/sold. But that is more a reflection of how we have chosen to operate, financially, than the arts themselves. And artists in various media often comment on or illustrate societal ills, wars, and injustice. But what they do creatively in that effort is fairly unlikely to be violent, per se. 

I guess all I am saying is that there is a realm of human effort that is, to its essential core, beyond "nonviolent". I'm still struggling for the right word on this Saturday morning, but it's helpful to remember that violence isn't the only human condition, and not all human activities have to reference it. Those of us who are just "done" with violence and conflict can turn to artistic expression, not so much as a refuge, but as a valid larger model (completely outside the violence orbit) for society's future. 

Nonviolence

It occurred to me that what I said last time -- about the spread of mass shootings changing my reading and TV watching -- could possibly make it seem like I am trivializing the shootings and their effect on society, individuals and families. That isn't the case. In fact, I find all these events utterly horrifying, as I do all forms of violence, including war. It literally breaks my heart.

I mean, there's a point where you are so "nonviolent" that you don't even like that term, since it contains the word "violence" and implies opposition to violence. The term itself, then, is very mildly violent. On some level that I don't even fully understand, I've come to see most forms of struggle, protest, opposition, competition -- even unarmed -- as too "violent", and not unified in the way I think we will need to operate as the future unfolds. It implies duality, one side v. another.

So what I was getting at (and I'll leave the previous post as is for now) is that, when you are too "nonviolent" to "fight" the upsetting trends in our world, the only thing left to change is yourself. That has led to constantly scanning my own life, to see ways in which I act violently, think violently, or "consume" violent or conflict-rich entertainment or pastimes. 

The first two, I am pretty sure have not been part of my life, although I guess I will always need to stay alert to the possibility. It's been completely frustrating, trying to operate in a world that is largely on such a different wavelength from me, and I know that at times, frustration has equated anger, or brought me close to the potential for anger, particularly in my words. But actual violence? Hurting other people? I know on occasion I've wanted to express my own hurt, but I have no conscious memory of ever having deliberately wanted to cause others any pain, physically or emotionally. I hope I haven't, anyway, and I hope that I would have the courage to own it if I did...

So my biggest "relationship" to conflict has been in the area of entertainment, and there is where actual change is clearly happening. I used to enjoy watching pro football. My dad was a NY Giants fan, and I became knowledgeable about the sport in order to have something to share with him. In the 70's and 80's, I knew more about the teams and watched more games in the fall than any of my female friends. But in the last ten years, it has reached the point where I cannot stand football any more. It's men violently tackling each other, and there is nothing enjoyable about that. I grew up playing tennis, and until very recently, I loved watching the major events: French Open, Wimbledon, U.S. Open. But now, I find even tennis matches too painful to watch. Those 100-mph serves almost look like bullets. Singing competitions like "The Voice" are great in the early stages, but once the contestants are pitted against one another, I don't watch any more. I can still tolerate "Jeopardy", in part because at my age, I need to keep challenging my brain. But a year from now...?

And it's not like any of this is a conscious choice, as in, "I'm going to stop reading certain kinds of books, or watching certain TV shows or movies". A number of months ago, I took some murder mysteries out of the library, made my way a few pages into one of the books, and just went, ugh. I tried another, and the same thing happened. So it isn't a boycott or protest. The energetic match simply is no longer there. And I'm further than ever from understanding why any human being picks up a gun, for any reason. It's a little scary to realize that I'm even struggling with public television staples about history, antiques, and genealogy, because war inevitably factors into them. I honor the people who served in the military, but I just can no longer "embrace" guns, uniforms, and death.

Well, that's enough for today. I guess all of this is the inevitable discomfort of moving into new spiritual territory. I'm trying to come up with a better word or phrase for "nonviolent", and I'll check in when I come up with one.