The Mystic View
To anyone trained in conventional science, the mystic view of the world usually seems to be nothing more than flowery poetry. But to anyone who has actually experienced it, it is more “Real” than anything that you can learn from a textbook. It is simply a different way of knowing, and it can be as useful and practical as the objective methods of inquiry. And far more meaningful to the individual!
“Every tree and plant and mole beneath the earth may hear the Voice of God and, hearing it, obey. Every sound you hear on earth is an echo of His Voice, and every light in every color comes from the dazzling radiance of His Eyes.”
–Geoffrey Hodson (English-born New Zealand Theosophist, Mystic, Teacher and Author, 1886-1983)
Mirrors of the Self
“The point of archetypal images, like the point of myths, is not problem solving but imagining, questioning, going deeper.
Archetypal images free us from identifying ourselves with our literal failures and successes or from seeing our lives as banal, or trivial.
The aim in attending to these images is to awaken us to a sense of our yet unrealized latent possibilities, to save us from our sense of isolation and meaninglessness. It is to open up our lives to renewal and reshaping.
Attending to the images creates a new bond between our personal lives and the collective experience of humankind.”
–Christine Downing (American Scholar of religion, mythology, depth psychology and feminist studies, Professor of Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara and, in 1974, the first woman President of the American Academy of Religion, 1931-)
“Mirrors of the Self: Archetypal Images Shape Your Life” (Tarcher)
Two Eyes and One Tongue
I was just advising someone to remember the old adage about having one tongue and two ears. To listen twice as much as you speak…
This one also works!
“Men are born with two eyes, but with one tongue, in order that they should see twice as much as they say.”
–Charles Caleb Colton (English Clergyman and Author, c.1780-1832)
The Holographic Domain
“What is organism (with its component organs) is no longer sharply distinguished from what lies outside the boundaries of the skin. In the holographic domain, each organism represents in some manner the universe, and each portion of the universe represents in some manner the organism within it.”
–Karl Pribram (Austrian-born American Neuroscientist, 1919-)
“The Relevance of Bliss: A Contemporary Exploration of Mystic Experience” (Nona Coxhead)
Brain Wider Than the Sky
The Brain—is wider than the Sky—
For—put them side by side—
The one the other will contain
With ease—and You—beside—
The Brain is deeper than the sea—
For—hold them—Blue to Blue—
The one the other will absorb—
As Sponges—Buckets—do—
The Brain is just the weight of God—
For—Heft them—Pound for Pound—
And they will differ—if they do—
As Syllable from Sound—
–Emily Dickinson (New England Mystic Poet, 1830-1886)
On Christmas Day: An Expanded View
“The story of Christ is not only an account of a historical man but also a figurative representation of the path that each of us must follow to attain liberation.”
–Richard Smoley (American Philosopher, Editor and Writer, 1956- )
“Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition” (Richard Smoley)
The Net of the Universe
“The universe (is) a great spread-out net with at every joint a gem, and each gem not only reflecting all the others but itself reflected in all.”
–Joseph Campbell (American Writer, Editor and Mythologist, 1904-1987)
Sticking Your Neck Out
I started reading Arthur Koestler’s works before I hit my teens, and I’m sure that some of the things that he said left an indelible mark on me.
Like this, for example:
“If the creator had a purpose in equipping us with a neck, he surely meant us to stick it out.”
–Arthur Koestler (Hungarian-born British Writer and Philosopher, 1905-1983)
Inhaling the Sky
“Each time you inhale you are drawing into yourself an average of about one atom from each of the breaths contained in the whole sky.”
–Guy Murchie (American Artist, Photographer, Member of the Bahá’í Faith and Author, 1907-1997)
Knowing Woman
“A woman today lives in perpetual conflict. She cannot slay the dragon of the unconscious without severing her own essential contact with it; without in fact destroying her feminine strength and becoming a mere pseudo-man. Her task is a peculiarly difficult one. She needs the focused consciousness her animus alone can give her, yet she must not forsake her woman?s role of mediator to man. Through a woman, man finds his soul. She must never forget this. Through a woman, not through a pseudo-man. Through man, woman finds the animus who can express the soul she has never lost. Her burning need is to trust her own diffuse awareness, to know what she knows and to learn to speak of it, for until it is expressed she does not wholly know it.”
–Irene Claremont de Castillejo English-born Jungian Analyst who Specialized in “Feminine Psychology,” and Worked with Emma Jung and Toni Wolff, 1885-1967)
“Knowing Woman: A Feminine Psychology” (Irene de Castillejo)
