Good day good people,
As we talked about last week, our ongoing work with creating moon in ourselves is about shifting from a mechanical center of gravity, in which the “moon” outside of us acts on us psychologically, to a conscious center of gravity, in which we have an inner moon that helps to balance all our movements. Understanding our task of creating moon in ourselves, can gain further context within the Ray of Creation or Map of the Worlds (another way of understanding the Great Chain of Being) that Cynthia Bourgeault has laid out in her book Eye of the Heart. Here it is:
(If you are not familiar with this map, you might want to listen to this podcast where Cynthia gives a helpful summary of it).
We begin to see that the Ray of Creation or Map of the Worlds, exists not only externally as a symbol but is also represented internally on the psychological scale. Nicoll says, “The external Universe, represented physically by visible Sun, Moon, Stars, etc., is also within us—not physically, but psychologically…Can you grasp that the external, visible represents the internal invisible? As within—so without… There are scales in the visible Universe—and scales in yourself, corresponding” (Psychological Commentaries, p. 1089).
Along the Ray of Creation, the Work says that the number associated with each World (1, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 96, 192, etc), corresponds to the amount of laws that World is under. For example, the Earth is under 48 orders of laws and the Moon is under 96. Nicoll reminds us, “To be under the Moon [World 96] is to be under the greatest possible mechanicalness, and as you know, this is the case in a [person] who is fast asleep, governed by every form of negative [state], hate, internal considering, and so on.” When we are operating under the influence of World 96, we then participate in what we might call the mechanical circle of humanity. As we make moon in ourselves, psychologically speaking, we “can come under fewer and better influences or laws” (p.1090), and become more available to the corresponding less dense Worlds, namely World 24 (the Imaginal Realm or Kingdom of Heaven), and at times touches into World 12 (the Christic). We then have a chance of participating in the conscious circle of humanity.
May we continue to engage this work, trusting that our honest individual and collective effort regardless of outcome, is an offering to the Holy Absolute.
With love,
Heather
Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses
Monday, September 30th with Tom
Reading: "Every time we stand firm and are able to welcome the mechanical habit from that deeper center of gravity inside, we are strengthening that center.
"The moon we are creating, or perhaps discovering and developing an awareness of, is a center of gravity within that can influence our movements, actions, and manifestations in such a way that they are not as subject to the many little i's and parts of ourselves that are controlled by the power of the moon outside of us. Our aim is to see that we are many, and yet to allow the many to become organized around an inner moon, that can bring us into oneness.
"The moon is a permanent centre of gravity which balances our physical life, but in ourselves we do not have such a balance, so, when we create this balance or centre of gravity in ourselves we do not need the moon [outside of ourselves]" (Ouspensky, The Fourth Way, p. 264-265).
"As we tune in even more to cultivating our relationship to this center of gravity within getting to know the experience of it in all three of our centers- intellectual/thinking, emotional/feeling, sensation/moving-let us take some notes about what we observe. How does the moon's function of balancing organic life-all external movements-speak to the function of an inner moon? What does it mean to you to become one? How would you describe your relationship to the moon within you, this permanent centre of gravity which can balance your life?" — from Heather on Creating Moon Collective Contemplative Pauses 09/29/24
Chant: Inner Life of Being, bearing Christ within me, come (music by John Tavener, lyrics by Alan Krema and Darlene Franz)
Tuesday, October 1st
Reading: “It is precisely because the application of the concept of the many selves helps with the "naming" that it offers new possibilities for self-understanding. As it is now, we see ourselves as one. If we identify with a lovely, gracious self, then we will tend to resist any knowledge that threatens that image. If it is a dark self we are identified with, our light components are cast into outer darkness, which is to say into unconsciousness. Whereas if we understood our plurality we would not be so menaced by the possibility of being swallowed up by any one of our many selves. The recognition that we are more than one person allows us not only to better identify various aspects of ourselves, but to gain the objectivity or distance that is needed to be in real communication with them. It is not unlike the psychological space that is needed in our relationship with others if we are to have any meaningful encounter.” — Elizabeth O’Connor, Our Many Selves, p.47
Breathing: I love you, I love you
Wednesday, October 2nd
Reading: “To those of us who are too busy, the very least thing that wisdom tells us is that we can step back, not so much from our activities, but from our thoughts. When we try this, we may find a hint of the next step that we can take. In that space that appears when we try to see our thoughts instead of letting them frighten us or goad us, we may sense that our living body is there asking for our calm attention. No [human] can be too busy when there is even the beginning of a calm relationship between the mind and the body. When the mind and body quietly move toward each other, a [human] begins to become a grownup. And, whatever it may mean to be a wise [human], surely the first step is to become a grownup. A grown-up [human] may have to move very fast and do many things, but… is never in a hurry.” — Jacob Needleman, Time and the Soul
Chant: “Stillness, deep deep within us. From small beginnings it flows into the living water. The ocean of God, through our stillness, God moves.” (words by Gerard Guiton from Stillness, p. 23, put to chant by Paulette Meier)
Thursday, October 3rd
Reading: “There’s something about the body that’s absolutely essential to the development of [hu]man’s possibilities, of why we are on earth. If we are on earth for a reason, for a purpose, then the body must be there to serve that purpose. There’s an idea that God’s love, God’s creation, God’s purpose requires [human] – a being who is able to intentionally allow the purposes of the higher to go toward the world of matter and life. And, of course, if a human being can allow that, [they] can also not allow that. If we weren’t able to block it we wouldn’t be able to allow it. Here we are faced with the age-old drama of human freedom. [Human] is free, which means there’s a certain freedom that makes it possible to become what we were meant to be. To me, it has to do with the possible freedom of our attention, which is perhaps the only free element of human beings. Such as we are, the possibility of human freedom exists in the attention, and that can carry an influence down into our bodies and into the life of the earth. We become instruments of God. And in the process we become truly human.” — Jacob Needleman “The True Human Body” in Jacob Needleman (ed.) The Inner Journey: Views from the Gurdjieff Work
Chant: I am a whole in the flute, that the Christ breath moves through, listen to this music, listen to this music
Friday, October 4th
Reading: “Total concentration on the one thing necessary—a heart centered on the will and love of God—determines every action of your life. It will carry you through life as much as life carries you—only with more fulfillment. It is a beacon from the desert calling you yet to continue your own pursuit of the presence of God, to concentrate always on the purity of heart that seeks one thing only and always.
Your heart is the real compass of your life. The Desert Monastics knew that over fifteen hundred years ago and you know it yet: Purity of heart is the gift that guides you, leads you, shepherds you from one end of life to the other, always content knowing that you have done what you were born to do. What else could possibly be worth a life?” — Joan Chittister, The Monastic Heart via Richard Rohr’s meditation
Chant: purify my heart, purify my heart, [as I] rest in you (by Joy Andrews Hayter, words slightly altered)
Saturday, October 5th
Reading: "Metis basically means, if you look it up in the dictionary, it means cunning. It means a kind of shrewdness that knows, and it's often, almost typically, put in with a trickster or outlaw mentality. But it's the kind of person that all of a sudden does something that upsets the apple cart and turns the tables. And so it can be used for cunning, certainly but if you move it to the other level and look at it from the point of view of, if you wanna call it imaginal metis, what it really means is the quality to be able to act boldly, skillfully, and decisively out of three-centered awareness. Using only the materials available to you right under your nose in the moment. So it's a quality. The closest term out there is skillful means that the Buddhists provide. But the term skillful means for the Buddhists, at least as I've encountered it, lacks this element of panache. You see it, you take it, you grab it, you twist it. It's the ability to catch the turn, pick up the third force, move on a dime, and move rightly. Not out of impulse, but out of a very fast, attentional three-centered awareness that grasps everything that's there, and almost instantly can put them in a combination that works, into action." — Cynthia Bourgeault, Holding Our Planet
Chant: keep walking, keep singing, keep praying, keep trusting, keep on, letting go into love…I will let myself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what I truly love…I will let my heart break new world openings, I am guiding my mind (by Lyndsey Scott)
Sunday, October 6th
Reading: "It is true that contemplative prayer is often, even typically, presented in the language of personal healing and self-discovery: I enter stillness in order to purify my unconscious, heal the emotional wounds of a lifetime, find my true self, and so on. But there is a natural self-corrective mechanism built right into the prayer itself if we are willing to take it far enough: my true self is found only in communion with others. The personal can find its identity only in relation to the whole, which is the mercy of God." – Cynthia Bourgeault, Mystical Hope, p. 82
Chant: when we are with You, what fear of loss, could we possibly have...we swim in Mercy, as in an endless sea, we swim in Mercy, as in an endless sea (by Susan Latimer)
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