Category: Misc

Yeah. I agree with Ken Wilber here (below). I have always thought we can be both spiritual AND religious. Why does religion get a bad rap — well, we all know why, because “sellers” and “enforcers” of organized religion have abused humanity.  But religion, RELIGION itself is way cool. It’s my field, so okay, I am biased. In our seminary application process we always require new minister candidates to write the story of religion AND spirituality in their life from childhood to present.

From philosopher Ken Wilber’s forum:

It’s become quite a trend in the integral community to describe oneself as “spiritual but not religious.” In light of our shared integral spiritual vision, It certainly makes sense that folks like us would define ourselves in a way that is opposed to folks like them. Who’s them? Well you know, those mythic literalists with their fundamentalist religion. But, from another perspective, don’t you think it’s a bit awkward for us so-called integral types to describe what we are by disaffirming an opposite? And, what’s with all this us and them talk? Is that not a hallmark of absolutistic thinking? Doesn’t this reek of the same conformist cognition that fuels the fundamentalist fervor we’re so sure we have nothing in common with? Instead of so strongly insisting that we’re oh-so-spiritual–but oh-no religion!–what would it mean to be both spiritual and religious?

In this talk, Ken outlines two required steps for bringing religion and spirituality into greater accord. He’s guided by a vision of a fully functional and healthy religion—one which institutionalizes a care and concern for spiritual intelligence that grows in two directions: waking-up and growing-up. On the waking-up side of the street, he envisions the return of state-stage cultivation, accomplished by resurrecting and re-engaging the contemplative practices of the early christian fathers. And on the growing-up side, he calls for a busting of the mythic ceiling—a move that loosens and lubricates development along the spiral of spiritual intelligence, and which results in 2000-year-old myths being reinterpreted at higher levels. If these steps are acted in consort, Ken foresees religion as regaining a functional capacity to address human development through states and structures. And if not, folks like us—folks who deeply yearn for a post-mythic approach—will likely retain our status as “spiritual but not religious.”

http://integrallife.com/node/87135

Passover begins tonight and we are thinking of Holy Week events 2000 years ago when Mary Magdalene and Yeshua were alive and in Jerusalem for Passover, the ominous clouds rising.

Margaret Starbird writes:

As some of you know, I believe that the “Passion of the Christ” begins –not at the Last Supper and the Agony at Gethsemane– but with the anointing at the banquet at Bethany that occurred shortly before the Passover.

All four canonical Gospels include the story of the anointing of Jesus by a woman. Only Luke removes this event from Holy Week, placing it early in Jesus’ ministry and calling the woman “a sinner from the town.”
The other Gospels agree that the event occurred during Holy Week and at a banquet held in Bethany. John’s Gospel explicitly states that Lazarus reclined with Jesus at the table, while Martha served the dinner. It was their sister Mary who anointed the Lord with precious nard and “wiped her tears from his feet with her hair”–a detail mentioned also in Luke’s version. It’s clear that John was trying to correct Luke’s spurious version of the story, reclaiming the reputation of Mary, the woman with the Alabaster Jar. And her fragrance filled the house! (John 12:3).

This line links the anointing to the Song of Songs (Solomon) where the nard of the Bride wafts about the Bridegroom at his banquet table (SoS 1:12). And “The king is captivated by your tresses.”

John’s Gospel goes on to record that Judas complained of the wasted value of the perfume, which could have been sold and the money used to feed the poor, to which Jesus responds, “Let her keep it for the day of my burial….” This is significant because in John’s Gospel, Mary Magdalene goes alone to the tomb on Easter morning to mourn the death of her Beloved and finds him resurrected in the garden.

The importance of this anointing of Jesus by a woman is huge! “Messiah” means “anointed One.” She was proclaiming him King and Messiah of Israel in his role as the “Sacrificed Bride-groom King.”

The anointing of the “Bridegroom King” was an ancient rite in the Middle East, in the fertility cults of the “Sacred Marriage” (hieros gamos). The royal Bride represented the land and people and was a surrogate of the Goddess. She anointed her Bride-groom in a nuptial rite, a prefiguring of the anointing by the feminine during coitus. She then led him to the Bridal Chamber to consummate their union. The joy and blessing from their love-making spread out into the crops and herds and into the people of the land — and everyone lived happily ever after — just like Cinderella!

Actually, NOT. Shortly after the celebration of the hieros gamos, the Bridegroom King was arrested. He was tortured, mutilated, executed and entombed at the Spring equinox. Then, on the third day, his Bride went to the tomb to mourn his death and discovered him resurrected in the garden! This ancient festival in the cults of numerous god-goddess couples in Near and Middle East was a celebration of the eternal return of LIFE in the springtime… and from their sacred RE-union, all blessings flowed–as in the “nuptials of the Lamb” in Revelation 21-22.

“Easter” is merely a corruption of the name of the Goddess Oestare, derived from Ishtar/Astarte. Christianity may have “new wine in new wineskins”—but the “Passion Story” is that of the eternal “Bride and Bridegroom” and beings with the anointing of the King: “She has done me a favor… She has anointed me in advance for my burial, and wherever this gospel is preached, what she has done will be told in memory of her” (Mark 14:7-8).

Mary Magdalene is clearly styled as the Bride of the Easter Mysteries. Picture her anointing Jesus at the banquet, following him as he carries the cross, standing with him as he endures the tortures of crucifixion, anointing his body for burial and returning at first light on Sunday to mourn him.
Before celebrating the liturgies for Palm Sunday, please contemplate the mysteries of the “Sacred Marriage” celebrated in the Song of Songs and the Anointing at Bethany (John 12:8).

In Memory of Her-
Margaret
“Mary Magdalene, Bride in Exile”
www.margaretstarbird.net

Our seminarians and I got talking about  different translations of the Gospel of Thomas (GoT). I realized I own about twenty different GoT’s. There are so many cool commentaries and several powerhouse translations-with-commentaries!  My faves are Tau Malachi, Jean-Yves Leloup, and Miller’s newish one. I have Elaine Pagel’s, the only GoT commentary by a woman, as far as I know. [UPDATE: Oops, forgot April DeConick’s GoT translation-and-commentary, see comments below…]

Here’s a list on Amazon of all the many Gospel of Thomas translations available. I own about every other one of these…<laugh> It has turned into a “collection”.

But you know a favorite I must mention doesn’t even have GoT in the title, yet is indeed Thomas with short pithy zen commentaries on each verse. ‘Tis a little hardback book, slightly bigger than pocket-size. I love it.  It’s called Christian Zen: The Essential Teachings of Jesus Christ by [Sophiologist] Robert Powell.

Being able to honor both genders in Deity, yet also realizing the beyond-gender nature of the Everlasting/Source may seem like a contradiction to some, but hey, it is possible to believe both.
+Katia

———-
Author Jennifer Reif wrote to our GoddessChristians Discussion Forum

God-Goddess, and the Sacred Balance

Hi All,
Every once in a while I go out on a limb, and here I go again. I do love Goddess-God, and view the Eternal through many wonderful myths that include gender-identified deity. At the same time I also see ‘That Which Created Us’ as without gender.

There are some who believe that “Feminine Consciousness” will save the world, but I think it’s individual caring and love that heals the woes of the world, person by person. The idea that only one gender, or the other, is will “save the world,” may not be the most helpful idea. It’s all of us, everyone who chooses to act with love and compassion, that can lend their blessings to what is a troubled world. Yes, we need to bring the Goddess back to Western Religion, and we have been doing that joyful work, but I think we need both Goddess and God, in balance, are needed together as iconic religious models.

We know that the Sacred Feminine was alive and present in ancient cultures: Celtic, Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and so on. In fact those of us who love the Goddess draw from these cultures. They had the Sacred Feminine, but this didn’t create the kind of justice that we seek today. It didn’t create a classless system, or eradicate poverty, or help the plight of the down-trodden. Her inclusion was wonderful, but it didn’t “save” the ancient world.

I think what saves the world is person-to-person compassion; acts of love, acts of charity, acts of kindness. Compassion is just an idea, unless good men and good women, apply it to everyday life. For me, God-Goddess, particularly Mary Magdalene and Jesus, most fully represent our humanity, our ability to act wisely with love and compassion. For me they are Goddess-God in Sacred Balance.

Love, Jen
Jennifer Reif
The Holy Book of Mary Magdalene: The Path of the Grail Steward