Sunday, June 1, 2008

Call to Silence & Opening Meditation

“Who looks outside dreams. Who looks inside awakens.”
Carl Jung, as quoted by Glynda-Lee Hoffmann, page 7
The Secret Dowry of Eve: Women’s Role in the Development of Consciousness

Readings

Mythologically, Genesis is about our neurology, not our history, and its depiction of human neurology can now be verified by solid scientific fact. Rather than depicting outer events, the imagery of Genesis depicts the inner realm of neurological structure and function. What is more, it may be telling us that the power of our own awareness can affect, alter, and even enlarge our neurology.
This is the power of personal transformation. It is determined not by events observed in a laboratory, but by events observed within one’s own mind. It is quantum mechanics at the personal level, because it involves observing the behavior of light – inner light – in the processing of information. “Man, know thyself: were the words chiseled into the Delphic Oracle. How can we know ourselves if we do not observe our inner world? Ironically, for “man,” the inner world is the realm of the feminine, and it is the woman in Genesis who imitates the journey into this inner world. On our own journeys we must not allow ourselves to be put off, diverted, or deluded by interpretations from various authorities. Remember: There is no better authority on your inner world than you.

The Secret Dowry of Eve, page 26


A reading from Genesis, 1:1-3

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void;
and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light –
and there was light,
And God saw the light, that it was good:
and God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.
And the evening and the morning were the first day.

As quoted in The Secret Dowry of Eve, page 36

A Reading from Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

The woman and the man ate of the tree: While the man is passive, the woman actively seeks knowledge and tests the limits.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you shall die.”
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die, for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

As quoted in Remembering the Women, page 33

A Reading form the Gospel of Mary – (Karen King translation, as quoted in The Magdalene Mystique)

When the Blessed One had said these things, he greeted them all, “Peace be with you!” he said. “Acquire my peace within yourselves! Be on your guard so that no one deceives you by saying, ‘Look over here!’ or ‘Look over there!’ for the child of true humanity exists within you. Follow it! Those who search for it will find it.

A Reading form the Gospel of Mary – (Esther de Boer translation, as quoted in The Magdalene Mystique)

Mary answered and said, “What is hidden from you I shall tell you.” And she began to say to them these words: “I”, she said, “I have seen the Lord in a vision and I said to him, ‘Lord, I have seen you today in a vision.’ He answered, he said to me, ‘Blessed are you, because you are not wavering when you see me. For where the mind is, there is the treasure.’


Call to Conversation


Closing Meditation

The secret dowry that is buried within each of us is the psyche’s germ that has the potential to grow indefinitely until we discover all of life’s riches, especially happiness, healing love, and wisdom. This germ is the power to see and recognize the integrative pattern of life as the interplay between opposites. Like Adam and Eve, each of us must eat and digest the fruit of the tree of knowledge …, transforming its misbegotten interpretation of good and evil. In that transformation we discover that it is actually the fruit of the tree of knowledge of sacred opposites, the basis of wholeness. This is the truth that opens our eyes and sets us free to view life in a whole new way.