Anamchara • The Website of Unknowing

Trish Deneen, an editor at Bella Online, has written a very fair and balanced review of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Paganism. What I find particularly wonderful is her frank acknowledgment that I am no longer a practicing pagan myself (”Much internet buzz had been made about Carl McColman’s conversion from Paganism to Catholicism in the last few years”), nevertheless she felt this book needed to be reviewed on its own merits. I couldn’t agree with her more. As I’ve said myself, when commenting on my books, “Even though most of them are written from a neopagan perspective — a spiritual path I no longer identify with, since being received in the Catholic Church in 2005 — I’m still proud of every one, and I hope that neopagans and people interested in neopaganism will continue to find my work in that area useful.” Trish Deneen gives me reason to believe that my hope is not in vain.

If you’re interested in attending the “Writing and Journal Keeping” Retreat at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit, you’ll need to register now. I spoke with the registrar yesterday who informed me that the retreat is almost full. The retreat runs May 23-25. The leader of the retreat is Fr. James Behrens OCSO, and I’ll be there at least part of the time as his assistant, and it is likely that I will be giving a talk at some point over the weekend (but frankly, forget about me; Fr. James is an amazing, talented man so you’d rather hear him talk than me anyways!).

Here’s the blurb about the retreat from the monastery’s website:

Explore your personal connection between the inner life and the written word. This weekend includes time for silence, for journaling, and for reflections on the relationship between writing and the spiritual life. Suitable for professional and amateur writers at all skill levels, this weekend does not include personal criticism or feedback. Instead, it simply creates a space where you can write, you can pray, and perhaps even combine the two into a unified spiritual practice.

Suggested donation for the retreat weekend is $120-$200 (sliding scale), which includes room and board (once the retreat house is full, it is possible you could still attend the retreat as a commuter, if you live in Atlanta or are willing to book a nearby hotel. Ask the registrar for details). To register, call the retreat house at (770) 760-0959 or email retreat@trappist.net.

… do not give up the form of prayer that comes naturally to you; and do not be disheartened if it seems at first a barren and profitless performance. It is quite possible to obtain spiritual nourishment without being consciously aware of it.

— Evelyn Underhill, The Letters of Evelyn Underhill
(also in An Anthology of the Love of God)

What happens to us when we come together to worship God is that the Holy Spirit swoops in and out among us, knitting us through the songs we sing, the prayers we pray, the breaths we breathe … We breathe the air that circulated through the rain forests of Kenya and the air that has turned yellow with sulfur over Mexico City. We breathe the air that Plato breathed, and Mozart, and Michelangelo … Every time we breathe we take in what was once some baby’s first breath or some dying person’s last.

— Barbara Brown Taylor, Home By Another Way

This morning, while praying, I recalled two conversations I had years ago, one with an Episcopal priest here in Atlanta, the other with an Episcopal seminarian in Sewanee (whom I assumed went on to become a priest). The priest and I were talking about the boundaries between Christian and non-Christian forms of spirituality; i.e., what are the limits when it comes to exploring such practices as zen or yoga, or the teachings of Vedanta or Mahayana? She had an interesting insight:

“Most Christians operate under the assumption that if something is not explicitly commanded in the Bible, then it is forbidden. But it makes just as much sense to say that unless something is explicitly forbidden in the Bible, then it is acceptable, at least under some circumstances.”

This was an “Aha!” moment for me, as it helped me to let go of the notion of God I had been taught as a child: — the wrathful, distant God who is quick to condemn — into a more truly Christlike understanding of the graciousness of God, who overflows in his abundant love and joyful forgiveness. And it ties in with the conversation I had a few years earlier with the seminarian. We were discussing a vocational issue in my life, and he said something to the effect of,

“God will call you to a place of freedom. Your responsibility is to find that place.”

Jesus said, “You will know the truth and it will set you free.” But it seems to me that often we Christians approach our faith not as a force for liberation, but rather as some sort of anxiety-producing program for achieving purity, presumably to please the wrathful God. But when the striving for purity overshadows the experience of grace, haven’t we unwittingly undermined the very heart of the gospel? Read the rest of this entry »

This link looks tasty: Finding the Celtic: A Digital Studies Collaboratory

From the home page:

Finding the Celtic is an experiment to create an online digital humanities collaboratory for Celtic Studies funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. It will enable users to locate, access, and annotate resources for Celtic Studies, to share their work and research, and to enable digital publication.

And from the “Celtic Studies Online” page:

The Finding the Celtic Project is intended to serve as a catalyst to the development of Celtic Studies in the United States by providing a low-barrier means of publishing primary sources (representations of material artifacts, textual documents, etc.) and the latest interpretations of these sources. FtC will enable users to access little known resources and to participate in “virtual” dialogues with experts engaged in this and related fields.

If you’re not familiar with Ken Wilber and would like to know what all the fuss is about, here’s a recent interview that would be worth reading, from Salon.com’s “Atoms & Eve: Conversations about science and faith”:

You are the River: An Interview with Ken Wilber.

When I was a teenager hanging out with the charismatic community, I fell in love with the music of Phil Keaggy, a gifted guitarist and a vocalist who sounds like the contemporary Christian answer to Paul McCartney. In 1978 he released a lovely album of instrumental music called The Master and the Musician.

It’s 30 years later and Phil is on tour, doing a series of concerts in which he will be playing The Master and the Musician in its entirety, along with selected other songs from his career. If you’re the kind of person who normally is allergic to “contemporary Christian” music, check out Phil Keaggy: his lyrics are (mostly) not preachy, and his instrumental music simply shines with a luminous virtuosity that is all too rare in contemporary music, whether religious or secular.

Phil Keaggy is bringing The Master and the Musician to Atlanta on June 28, doing a benefit concert for Gwinnett County Special Olympics. Since Rhiannon has participated in the Special Olympics, this makes the evening even more special for us. Yes, we’ll be there. If you live in Atlanta, maybe you will be, too? And if you don’t live in Atlanta, visit Phil Keaggy’s website to see where else he’ll be playing this summer.

Today — May 8 — is one of two possible dates for commemorating the anniversary of Julian of Norwich’s revelations. They took place on either May 8 or May 13, 1373. We’re not sure which, because the oldest manuscripts contain both dates. Obviously, at one point a scribe mis-copied the date, and of course we have no way of knowing which of the dates was originally recorded in Julian’s own hand.

The error makes more sense when you recall that in the fourteenth century, numbers will still written using Roman numbers; so the conflict is between May VIII and May XIII. Somebody at some point was a little sloppy in making a V look like an X (or vice versa), and then the error crept in — to at least some of the manuscripts.

As far as I’m concerned, all this means is that we may as well honor Julian’s visions on both the 8th and the 13th!

My dear friend Phil Foster forwarded me this link to a wonderful article by the late Gerald May, called Trying to Be Contemplative. It’s built around one of my favorite Zen sayings, “Quit trying. Quit trying not to try. Quit quitting!” Here’s a taste:

This summer I’ll be going into the desert alone again. I’m sure I’ll want to be contemplative. I hope and pray that I won’t impose my ideas and efforts about contemplation on whatever God has in store for me there. If my eyes seek the beauty of the sky, if my limbs want to move over the land, if my thoughts want to roam, I hope God will save me from the arrogance of calling such things distractions.

Amen!

Here’s a photograph of Fr. Tom Francis, OCSO, with yours truly and Fran. This picture was taken at a reception honoring the lifetime promises of four Lay-Cistercians who made their profession this past April.

Fr. Tom is the author of an interesting booklet on the connection between angels and contemplative prayer, called Angels: Our Guides to Contemplation for the Third Millennium. The photo, incidentally, was taken by Fr. James Behrens, OCSO, author of several books, the most recent being Portraits of Grace: Images and Words from the Monastery of the Holy Spirit.

I am trying something new here, I have just learned that I can use Jott to post to my blog using my cell phone. So this is a test run of that service, we will see how it goes. Hopefully, it will go really well and this will become a new way that I can continue to blog. listen

Powered by Jott

In a far-off land the LORD will manifest himself to them.
He will say to them, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.
That is why I have continued to be faithful to you.”

— Jeremiah 31:3 (New English Translation)

366 Celt is available again.

Originally published by Element in 2005, the book quickly went out of print in the US when Element closed their North American office literally weeks after publication. But the editor who originally acquired the book for Element now works for Hampton Roads Publishing Company out of Charlottesville, VA; he did the fancy legal footwork necessary to secure the rights to reprint the book in a new North American edition. So here it is.

If you are a bookseller, please stock it (yes, it’s available from the major distributors). If you frequent your local independent bookstore, please ask them to stock it as well. If all else fails, order your own copy here.

At least three times this weekend, both online and off, I got into conversations with people about the word metanoia. The link is to its Wikipedia entry, which provides a succinct look at the different ways in which this delicious Greek word can be understood.

Is metanoia about repentance (stopping doing things that are unloving, addictive/abusive, inimical to the grace of God), or is it about entering into a new mind: a heightened consciousness, a spiritual quantum leap?

I don’t think the answer to this question has to be either/or. In fact, I think Christian mysticism is all about how metanoia is a both/and proposition. Christian metanoia means both repentance and higher consciousness.

One of the persons I spoke with this weekend does a lot of dream work, and when I mentioned this idea that metanoia involved entering into higher consciousness, he asked “but what about the unconscious?” gesturing with his hands to show that he (like I) recognizes the body as the “location” of unconsciousness.

“The unconscious is still part of consciousness, it’s just consciousness at a different level of awareness,” I replied. “We need to get away from any dualistic ideas that separate consciousness from unconsciousness.”

“The Father and I are one.”

“Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one… But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves… As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world… I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

— Jesus (John 10:30; 17:11, 13, 18, 20-23, NRSV)

I was cleaning out some old files this morning and found these notes from a motivational seminar I attended back when I was working for New Leaf (which means sometime between 1997 and 2001). I don’t remember the name of the person who gave the seminar, but I did find these particular nuggets of wisdom inspirational… so I decided to archive them here.

• Whether you think you can or you think you can’t… you’re right! (are these Henry Ford’s words? I didn’t write down who originally said this)
• Failure is only absolute when you give up. Everyone gets knocked down. The question is, will you get up?
• Give back more than you take.
• What you think about is what you will ultimately become.
• Five keys to success in life:
  • What you watch
  • What you listen to
  • What you read
  • What you think about
  • Who you associate with

I know these little sayings are basic motivationalese. But as someone who at times gets wound up in my own “stuff” regarding ambition vs. perceived success, it’s helpful for me to keep these kinds of “mental hygiene” reminders in my consciousness. I’m not a sucker for the Law of Attraction, but I do believe that, in the words of Paul, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” — Philippians 4:8

In other words… what you think about, you will ultimately become.

The Mysticism: Theory and History book discussion group through the Christian Classics Ethereal Library will begin reading Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love this coming week. If you haven’t signed up for it already, please do so now - we have almost 500 members of a variety of religious/spiritual backgrounds, so I anticipate some wonderful conversation to come.

Of course, you can join the group anytime, as the discussion threads will remain on the bulletin board indefinitely - but if you want to be part of the action (or should I say, contemplation) from the beginning, now’s the time to sign up.

Just follow the link to learn more about the group and to sign up.

Forbes.com has just named Atlanta the worst city in the United States for commuters.

Here’s what they have to say:

Here, in the fastest-growing city in America, more people flood the roadways than the infrastructure can handle. Commuters spend 60 hours a year stuck in traffic, second only to those in Los Angeles. If that weren’t bad enough, Atlanta is so spread out that only 29% of drivers get to and from work in less than 20 minutes, the third worst rate in the country, and 13% spend more than an hour getting to work, the fourth worst rate in the country. The local train system doesn’t service the entire city, and thus fails to relieve the pressure.

Something for Atlantans to be proud of? Not!

Last night I learned of the death of two former business associates. Paul Scott and PJ Birosik, both prominent in the world of new age music, committed joint suicide in January 2006.

It’s a sad story with a horrible ending. Read the rest of this entry »