The Power of Divine Feminine and the Great Awakening

Shekinah: Mystic Lens / Sadiq Alam

By: Kiernan Antares

Are you hearing talk of 2012 and wondering what all the hype is about? Are we on the verge of Armageddon as doomsday sayers are spouting? 2012 movies are starting to come out and many of them will support this theory to strike fear in the hearts of many or just for the sensationalism to attract people’s attention and dollars.

When I started to write my book Phoenix Star in 2004, I was struggling to understand what I believed surrounding the prophecies of 2012 and the end of the Mayan calendar. My research had revealed that there is a rare astronomical alignment known as the ‘Dark Rift’ that is predicted to occur on December 21, 2012 but the logical part of my brain couldn’t seem to grasp its meaning. What exactly is going to happen?

Did it mean the planet would implode or explode? Would humans as a race simply disappear as the planet travelled through the Milky Way Galaxy? Or would some, who had attained a certain level of enlightenment, survive and then exist on a higher plane?

Inspiration led me to craft a story weaving in elements of transformation, divine spirit, and magical gifts that culminated in a moment of time that stood still on the planet. When I completed writing the final scene something extraordinary happened to me. Something more mystical and divine than my imagination could conjure up.

I experienced an awakening of light and sound and spirit radiating throughout my entire being. I experienced the power of the Divine Feminine.

The sound of angels singing within, through, and around me was almost deafening.

It left me sobbing, shaking, and vibrating with intense divine love.

There were and are no words to describe this experience that I still remember as vividly as when it happened in 2006.

Since being touched with this power of the Divine Feminine my life has changed irrevocably. The process of transformation has been deep at work, awakening and healing my heart to what feels like back to the source of my creation.

Spirit gifted me with inspiration and a vision for all that could be that is being validated with each passing day, in my life and the world at large.

Getting back to December 21, 2012 for a moment, let’s contemplate what the ‘Dark Rift’ is and what I believe it may mean. The Mayan long calendar ends on this date, marking the end of a period of 5,200 years and it also happens to align with a rare astrological alignment that only occurs once every 26,000 years.

The scientific community has concluded that our planet, sun and our entire solar system originated in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. They are also now convinced that at the center of the Galaxy is a massive black hole. The ancient Maya believed that this black hole is the ‘birthing place’ for all life and the bulge in the center of the Galaxy was termed the Cosmic Womb. Within the center of this womb there appears to be a dark corridor and it is this place that has been named the ‘Dark Rift’.

The December Solstice Sun of 2012 is expected to align with and arise out of the back side of the ‘Dark Rift’, passing through the Galactic Equator as if it is being birthed anew. This period marks the end of the Fifth Mayan Sun and the dawning of the Sixth; a New Galactic Cycle and the transformation of our world or what I call the Phoenix Star.

What is not widely known, however, is according to recent astrological calculations the Solstice Meridian began aligning with the Galactic Equator between 1998 and 1999. The Sun because of its size moves very slowly and will not fully cross the Equator and emerge onto the other side until 2018?a full 20-year cycle.

Meaning, that we are already smack in the middle of this birthing process and need not wait until 2012 to see that the world is changing and urging us to let the power of the Divine Feminine energies of love transform our lives.

2012?will it be death or the midway moment of our journey through the Center of the Cosmic Womb?

I believe it is the latter and I believe we have the power, strength, and fortitude to ride the waves of labor pains and raise our collective consciousness to witness the birth of a New World, if we embrace the power of the Divine Feminine now and let it reawaken our hearts.

Whether or not you believe this is real, something is going on. Millions of people around the world are meditating, participating in world peace initiatives, turning to healers, coaches, spiritual teachers and holistic or alternative modalities to help them find greater health, more meaning and purpose to their lives?an awakening is occurring on a global scale.

We are living in these times to experience and master what is known as the Hero’s Journey?or rites of passage, something every single one of us must endure, in one form or another.

Some of the elements of the Hero’s Journey include experiencing and transforming:

• Lack of self-worth and self-love
• Lack of courage and focus
• Pain and patterns of illusion and programs from past lives
• Overwhelming guilt and shame that suppresses our gifts
• Taking responsibility for one’s life and actions
• Healing our wounds
• The Dark Night of the Soul
• Finding our ‘voice’ and purpose
• Reclaiming and standing in our power

As we clear the layers of the past we become open and receptive to heart and soul activations which translate into feeling great love for ourselves and humanity. We are able to experience true freedom, become leaders, and step into our divinity that is waiting for us as our birthright.

This may seem overwhelming, but if you have the desire and invite the Divine Feminine into your life miracles can and will happen.

Watch for signs, listen and act on inner guidance and you will be shown the way. Pay attention to what you are resisting because this is often the very thing you need to do to master the next step on your path. Explore new avenues previously feared or ignored.

No one knows for certain what is really going to happen but I’d rather live each day as if it was my last and treasure each moment in the eternal bliss of my heart.

SAY YES! To life and let the Divine Feminine awaken, bless and activate your heart and soul.

About the Author:

Kiernan Antares is an author, healer and spiritual teacher dedicated to awakening the hearts of humanity. Whether through the written and spoken word or through her healing touch this modern day mystic and visionary is becoming widely known as a pure source of Divine Love. She has an uncanny ability to get to the core essence of any matter and transform it into an expression of infinite love, beauty and wisdom. Contact:
Email: kiernan@kiernanantares.com
Website: www.kiernanantares.com
Website: www.divineblessings.ca

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – The Power of Divine Feminine and the Great Awakening

Review – The Trickster and the Paranormal (Hardcover Book)

Title: The Trickster and the Paranormal
Author: George P. Hansen
Media: Hardcover Book
Publisher: Xlibris (564 pp. with endnotes and index)
Date: 2001

George P. Hansen’s The Trickster and the Paranormal offers a variety of paranormal considerations around the psychological, anthropological and literary image of the trickster. Hansen’s exposition of Max Weber and Claude Lévi-Strauss is competent while reflections on Emile Durkheim are thought-provoking.¹

The Trickster provides a clear account of some of the main trends in semiotics and critiques classical notions of so-called primitive and advanced religion. It also looks at contemporary cross-currents in psi and psi research. Considerable focus is given to the American psi scene but not at the expense of the rest of the globe. References made to leading international figures, particularly European, are usually accompanied with brief but telling biographical sketches.

My main reservation with The Trickster is its reliance on the structuralist notion of binary opposition. In fairness, Hansen provides reasons for using binary opposition as the methodological backbone of The Trickster. He says a structuralist approach stimulates thought in areas which otherwise might be ignored. And he rightly notes the need for structure and limitation in any inquiry and exposition. The issue, I suppose, is what type and degree of structure is best.

It seems reasonable to accept a binary opposition of good and evil.² But a master opposition in ethics doesn’t justify generalizing the notion of binary opposites to every modality of “our current Western worldview.”³ Hansen does say that the trickster mediates and collapses binaries, and that this process involves numinosity. But, again, he seems to firmly believe that Western culture is predicated on binaries (pp. 31, 62).

Another analytical consideration emerges when Hansen acknowledges uncertainties arising from the so-called emic/etic debate yet applies anthropological data in support of the trickster theory as if the debate were fully resolved. This is one aspect of the The Trickster that just doesn’t make sense. Hansen periodically upholds the trickster as if it weren’t a device designed – or constructed as Foucault said – to stimulate thought. Instead of insisting on universal binaries and a mediating/collapsing trickster, wouldn’t it be simpler to just say that the numinous compels us to reevaluate our current assumptions and opinions?

With regard to ethics, Hansen says the Godhead contains both good and evil, and seems to advocate a type of pantheism where the dyads of creator/creation and good/evil are respectively taken as one and the same—perhaps something like the “warp and the woof” of the Upanisads. Not much mention is given to monotheistic theologies where an entirely benevolent creator/God endows human beings with free will and thus permits evil for a greater good. A discussion of St. Anselm’s faith-based view, “I believe in order to understand,” along with the propositional statement, “reason follows revelation,” might have been useful in rounding out The Trickster.

This leads to another aspect of The Trickster that I found dissatisfying. Different mystics from various world traditions are presented as if they experience the same type of numinosity, when in fact we can’t be sure^.4 Freud’s so-called ‘backward-looking’ theories and Rudolf Otto’s rather basic distinctions regarding the numinous are treated in some detail, but The Trickster doesn’t probe too far beyond these standard reference points for numinosity.

To its credit, however, The Trickster questions current thinking on mysticism. Mysticism may overlap, Hansen says, with other paranormal abilities.⁵ Other positive aspects of the The Trickster can be found in the discussion of UFOs, frauds and hoaxes. Hansen’s treatment of lab research on psi and its practical implications is useful except, perhaps, where he notes confounding variables with retroactive PK yet proceeds to suggest certain research directions as if these indeterminable factors are “not too severe.”⁶

The section on literature and literary criticism offers some pointed observations on French rationalists. Thoughtful and mature reflection can be found on the oft diffuse relations among imagination, reality, paranoia, mythology, ontological boundaries, space, time, life, afterlife and the self. Still, and at the risk of sounding like an old-school theologian, I didn’t see too much on the idea of a created self, humbly existing in an “I – Thou” relationship with an omnipotent yet perfectly loving Creator.⁷

On the whole, The Trickster is an engaging and intelligent book. And it would be entirely unreasonable to expect a bona fide innovator like Hansen to create a slick, seamless work in largely uncharted areas. The Trickster should help readers to better understand psi in relation to the socio-political world of the 21st-century. As cutting-edge material, one might encounter a few bumps along the road. But for its considerable scope and heuristic value The Trickster and the Paranormal is certainly worthwhile.

Notes

1. For instance, Hansen argues that Durkheim has been largely misunderstood by sociologists. For Hansen, Durkheim does not reduce the idea of the numinous to non-mystical origins. This is an interesting if debatable claim. Consider, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, trans. Joseph Ward Swain (London: Allen & Unwin, 1964), pp. 218-22, 427, 439-440, 442-443, 444.

2. I would suggest that heaven and hell exist independently of whatever relativistic language games we might play with the terms ‘good’ and ‘evil.’ When viewed from the perspective of everlasting life, this is supremely practical.

3. (a) See p. 62. Among other things, Hansen notes the binary code used in computing; but are human beings computers?

4. See p. 78. Along these lines, William James, Evelyn Underhill, Joseph Campbell, C. G. Jung, Mircea Eliade, John Milton, Sri Aurobino and St. Teresa of Avila each suggest that numinous experience may exhibit radically different qualities and textures.

5. We must ask whether paranormal abilities are in every case equivalent to divine gifts.

6. See p. 330, 342-43. It is assumed that visible subjects (or “social groups” consisting of human beings) and not some invisible external agent largely influenced pre-recorded trials. The latter possibility would still involve a reevaluation of space and time. However, it is conceivable that if a destructive supernatural power did exist, it could dupe people into believing they’re producing a retroactive PK effect when they’re not. See my discussion on discernment in ETs, UFOs and the Psychology of Belief.

7. Granted, brief mention is given to the idea of ‘heaven’ and the ‘mystical marriage,’ and Otto runs throughout the book. But with regard to the latter, I felt that I was mostly reading Hansen’s Otto instead of Otto’s Otto.

–MC

Newsweek says “We Are All Hindus Now”

Sunset yoga: GrahamKing

Special to Earthpages.org

“We Are All Hindus Now”—headlines the article in the upcoming edition of prestigious newsmagazine “Newsweek”, saying “U.S. Views on God and Life Are Turning Hindu”.

Written by its religion editor Lisa Miller, it says, “…recent poll data show that conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, our selves, each other, and eternity.”

Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, commenting about the Newsweek viewpoint, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that community was glad that rich philosophical thought of Hinduism was being recognized and accepted widely outside the Hindu circles.

The article quotes a religion professor at Boston University who has long framed the American propensity for “the divine-deli-cafeteria religion” as “very much in the spirit of Hinduism…”

It further says: “So here is another way in which Americans are becoming more Hindu: 24 percent of Americans say they believe in reincarnation, according to a 2008 Harris poll. So agnostic are we about the ultimate fates of our bodies that we’re burning them—like Hindus—after death. More than a third of Americans now choose cremation, according to the Cremation Association of North America.”

Article ends with: So let us all say “om.”

Rajan Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, further says that religion is a complex component of human life and a deeper, more inclusive and broader understanding of religion is needed. We are all looking for the truth and in our joint s earch for the truth, we can learn from one another and thus come closer to the truth. Dialogue brings us mutual enrichment, Zed adds.

Newsweek, launched in 1933, is published from New York City in four English language and 12 global editions and has a worldwide circulation of over four million. Jon Meacham is the editor.  It is owned by The Washington Post Company with Donald E. Graham as chairman. Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about one billion adherents, including about 2.3 million in the USA. Moksha (liberation) is its ultimate goal.

Reincarnation: A New Look at an Old Idea – Part 2

Folklore by I'mBatman

Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4

Folklore and Reality

Believers in reincarnation sometimes say that many ancient cultures believed in some form of reincarnation.

A good number of ancient myths do point to some kind of reincarnation theory but, at the same time, many cultures contained figures opposed to these ideas.

For instance, the ancient Greek and Indian materialist philosophers of the Epicurean and Charvaka schools, respectively, forcefully argued against any kind of immortality of the soul.

Rarely was life so simple in the ancient world that everyone embraced just one philosophy or outlook on life. In fact, the better scholars of religion and myth say it’s doubtful that everyone believed in their prevailing myths, even if these myths did happen to involve reincarnation.

Just like today, people probably faked it by showing outward signs of belief to avoid the repercussions of being different from the horde.

But even if, for the sake of argument, we momentarily agree that reincarnation does figure prominently in the ancient world, this doesn’t tell us much.  It’s almost like saying

Easter Bunny by Michael Clark

Every Christian child believes in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, therefore these folkloric characters exist.

Most Christians would say that folklore enriches childhood and even adult years. But they would add that at a certain point in one’s spiritual formation fascinating stories are put in context and more insight is gained by allowing the intellect to follow faith–and not the other way around.

Accordingly, Christians tend to see reincarnation as a limiting theory one hopefully grows out of.

The words of Saint Paul illustrate this perspective well:

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.

1 Corinthians 13:11

Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4

Copyright © Michael Clark. All rights reserved.

Reincarnation: A New Look at an Old Idea – Part 1

Pretty sure I'm paying for some sins I committed in a past life, this week. Photo by J. Star

Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Reincarnation is the belief that the soul travels from one life form to another.

It is often understood as the soul leaving the body at the point of death and, not too long after, taking a new birth.

However, in most Asian religions the reincarnating soul may spend a considerable amount of time in astral realms before returning to an Earthly body.

Does reincarnation make sense?

The theory of reincarnation hinges on the notion of karma. Opponents say that karma theory is an easy way to create meaning out of a sometimes harsh and unjust world or perhaps to rationalize bad habits and personal weaknesses.

Meanwhile, believers say karma theory is rational–it makes sense and is based on knowledge instead of blind faith.¹

Statements like the above send up a red flag for those not adhering to reincarnation theory. Opponents to reincarnation say the immense and awesome workings of God cannot be reduced to human theories like karma and reincarnation, nor may the divine mystery be fully understood through reason alone.

In the Jewish and Christian prophetic traditions God’s workings are said to supersede our human psychological projections, imaginings and philosophical systems. Moreover, God is not understood as God’s creation, a popular idea in New Age circles where “The Universe” is synonymous with ultimate reality (philosophers call this perspective natural pantheism).

The voice of God (as Yahweh) speaking to the Jewish prophets illustrates the difference between natural pantheism and the belief in God as supreme Creator of the universe.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are my ways higher than your ways
And my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55: 8-9).

Likewise in the Book of Job, Yahweh poses a series of questions to emphasize Job’s human limitations.

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me if you have understanding?
Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades
or loose the chords of Orion? (Job 38:4, 31).

Job is a “blameless servant” who, nevertheless, undergoes intense suffering. While this is not the place for a theological discussion about this thought-provoking book of the Bible, it’s enough to say that Job is reminded of the inestimable value of humility.

—

¹ In some models of reincarnation God’s grace may override bad karma, which arguably is a faith position.

Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Copyright © Michael Clark. All rights reserved.

Mail Online: Scientists ‘discover’ source of wisdom in the human brain

NYC - Rockefeller Center: 30 Rockefeller Plaza - Wisdom by Wally Gobetz

Copyright © Michael Clark. All rights reserved.

Here’s a quote from a brain imaging story in Mail Online that seems to overstep its bounds.

Professor Jeste admitted the possibility that wisdom and free will are based on the make-up of someone’s brain rather than metaphysics is unsettling (Full article » http://tr.im/irbJ).

Not that we should overlook our bodies and our brains. But there are so many problems with this story that it’s hard to know where to begin.

First, assuming the article accurately represents the published research we’d do well to remember that any observed links between brain activity and wisdom are correlations. And any good high school science teacher will note that correlation is not the same thing as causality.

This is so basic to science yet so often glossed over or completely ignored in brain imaging stories that sometimes it seems overzealous researchers get a bit too excited over flashy, photoshopped looking brain images instead of being primarily concerned with doing sober and responsible scientific research.

But not only that. Sociology or Philosophy 101 professors tell us, rightly so, that the whole definition of science is still wide open to debate. There’s no single definition. How easily we forget that ’science’ is a manmade word and a diverse human enterprise, one rooted in and influenced by a myriad of cultural biases.

In fact, some argue that a truly scientific perspective would also allow for the possibility of spiritual factors in human thought and behavior. And some theologians, like Hugh of St. Victor, even go as far to say that theology is the purest and noblest of all the sciences.

The debate goes on. But one thing seems certain. When it comes to reductive interpretations of brain imaging studies and their dazzling high-tech pictures, we’d be wise to realize that seeing is not necessarily believing.

Krishna, Buddha and Christ: The same or different? (Part 2)

Reclining Buddha

Copyright © Michael Clark. All rights reserved.

Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Violence and the Just War

With so many different schools, scriptures and interpretations of scripture within Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity, one might wonder how anything meaningful can be said about Krishna, Buddha and Christ.

There’s always a counterexample, it seems. If we say Jesus is about love, one could cite the Catholic Church’s teaching about the so-called Just War. If we say Krishna is all about killing as outlined in the Bhagavad Gita, one might refer to the Mahabharata, the massive epic in which the Gita appears:

This is the sum of duty; do naught onto others what you would not have them do unto you. (Mahabharata 5, 15, 17)

One should not behave towards others in a way which is disagreeable to oneself. This is the essence of morality. All other activities are due to selfish desire. (Mahabharata, Anusasana Parva, 113.8)

And a popular Hindu myth has Krishna sporting with milkmaids, symbolizing the playfulness and love through which God enters the soul.

Buddhist scriptures speak of peace and non-violence, and Buddhism is often hailed as a non-violent path. But Moojan Momen points out that scriptural, philosophical and folkloric justifications for violence are found in the Buddhist tradition.† Bernard Faure also says that Buddhist doctrine has been adapted to justify war.

While there’s theological overlap among Krishna, Buddha and Christ and their respective religions, differences are also present.

I don’t intend to outline a comprehensive, detailed analysis of these three religions. This would take several volumes and even then would be incomplete. But a few salient points can be made.

Let’s begin with Krishna as he appears in the Bhagavad Gita.

The sacred scripture of the Gita is often hailed as the Hindu Bible, located, as I’ve noted, within the larger epic of the Mahabharata.

Some scholars see the Gita as a later addition to the Mahabharata, although nobody knows for sure just how or when the Gita originated.

Hindus and other people around the world love and admire the Gita because it’s said to synthesize all previous aspects of Hinduism within a coherent system, like a jewel set in the crown of this ancient religion.

It would be misleading to say that the Gita epitomizes a religion as vast and multifaceted as Hinduism but it certainly represents an important part of it.

Various attempts have been made to define Hinduism. While some say Hinduism has no dogma nor creeds, this is questionable.

The Himalayan academy summarizes three leading definitions of Hinduism:

In all definitions, the three pivotal beliefs for Hindus are karma, reincarnation and the belief in all-pervasive Divinity.

Again, this article is addressing Krishna as depicted in the Gita and not Hinduism as a whole. Along these lines, one definition of Hinduism, a judicial one drafted by the Indian Supreme Court in 1966 and affirmed in 1995, asserts the necessity of believing in the sanctity and truth of the Vedas, not the Gita.

While aspects of the Vedas affirm the ancient caste system and animal sacrifice, they’re intrinsically non-violent when it comes to human affairs.

The Gita, on the other hand, is mostly about good people being cheated by bad and the restoration of political, ethical and cosmic balance through the notion of sacred warfare.

If we focus on the Gita it might appear that, in some instances, killing for God is acceptable. After all peaceful attempts to resolve a disagreement have failed, the deity Krishna urges the reluctant hero, Arjuna, to fight. And Arjuna eventually becomes a slayer, par excellence.

But it’s not quite that simple because psychological interpretations of the Gita emphasize interpersonal dynamics and self-growth instead of physical violence.

The non-violent hero, Mahatma Gandhi, for instance, said the Gita could “untie any spiritual knot.” Here, the warfare depicted in the Gita is really about the struggle between light and dark, good and evil, superior and inferior.

This is a healthy interpretation that doesn’t advocate violence but addresses the realities of developmental struggle.

The psychiatrist C. G. Jung had a similar perspective in an entirely different context with his intensive psychological study of alchemy. For Jung, the inferior parts of the self are purified through suffering, symbolized by the intense heat applied to raw materials as the alchemists searched for the so-called “philosopher’s stone,” the alleged eternal aspect of the self.

A non-violent, psychological and holistic interpretation of the Gita and Jung’s take on alchemy both point to the idea of purification through suffering. However, the Gita could also be regarded as a text that legitimizes Holy War (or in Catholic terms, the Just War) but the idea of alchemy could not be twisted into a justification for physical violence. So this analogy only goes so far.

—

† Moojan Momen, The Phenomenon of Religion: A Thematic Approach, Oxford: Oneworld, 1999, p. 410. For more on world religions and violence, see Crosscurrents.

» Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Krishna, Buddha and Christ: The same or different?

Reclining Buddha

Copyright © Michael Clark. All rights reserved.

Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Introduction

The following is not about the Hindu, Buddhist or Christian person who integrates their religious beliefs within a peaceful and considerate lifestyle.

It’s about some of the scriptures, doctrines and beliefs that have emerged from the figures of Krishna, Buddha and Christ.

Moreover, this article is in no way a direct or indirect affront to entire religious groups or individual believers.

If any particular individuals or subcultures are singled out, it’s those who interpret aspects of these three noble traditions in a misguided attempt to legitimize unjust acts of violence.

And that is all.

Ideas and Perspectives

Back in graduate studies monthly colloquia afforded professors and students an opportunity to discuss ideas, mostly about methodology in Religious Studies. One issue that stood out was that of identifying one’s biases at the outset of a study.

Old notions of objectivity have pretty well gone the way of the dinosaur in the Humanities. Today researchers speak of subjectivity and inter-subjectivity–that is, personal perspectives which may in part be shared among groups.

In keeping with this idea, I should note that I’m writing as a believing Christian who tries to see God in each and every one of us – Christian or not – in the varying degrees and types of truth that may exist at any given moment.

Universal Salvation

Well-meaning individuals often say that all religions are the same. It doesn’t matter what path we choose because we’ll all arrive at the same heavenly place in the end.

Some even say that murderers and cruel tyrants will be seated in heaven along with the saints. I hope they’re right. It’s nice to think of God as so loving and merciful that even the nastiest among us eventually enjoy eternal, heavenly bliss.

Theologically speaking this is called universal salvation. Although an intellectually attractive idea, I’m still unconvinced, mostly from reading the diaries of Catholic saints who relate interior visions of lost souls in terrible hells.

Some critics of the belief in hell maintain that Catholic copyists or editors probably added and deleted certain passages in the saint’s diaries to fit with the official Church teaching that hell is real and eternal. Myself, I find this assertion doubtful, especially with regard to the more recent saints.†

But I digress.

Simple and Complex

In briefly comparing Krishna, Buddha and Christ, we should remember that religion is a complex topic dealing with the entire individual from birth to afterlife. Religion involves beliefs about cosmology (i.e. one’s working map of the universe), morality and soteriology (i.e. salvation).

Religion is made simple if we look to its endearing aspects such as cultivating goodwill, friendship and trying to make the right choices. It’s nice to reach out and discover similarities that hopefully will bring everyone together. In fact, most religions emphasize the The Golden Rule of ethical reciprocity to encourage interfaith dialogue and peaceful accord.

But clearly not all religions are identical in every respect. And to gloss over religious differences for the sake of sugar-coated political agendas might get you on TV but, put simply, it’s lousy theology.

—

† Others say the Catholic saints receive visions that match their innate predispositions and developmental conditioning. God reveals images in accord with and understandable to a saint’s belief structures. Another interpretation says the saint internally creates a unique interior perception and corresponding spiritual reality. According to this view, truth is whatever one believes in.

Another view combines the two previous: God reveals according to a saint’s belief structures, the saint then engages in a secondary, creative process of interpretation. Some believe that in all three of these instances it might be too disruptive for the saint to discover that other people’s truths are just as real as his or her own.

A further belief is that God reveals an absolute, immutable truth to a saint (e.g. the Holy Trinity). Catholicism stresses the need to carefully discern between interior perceptions from God and Satan. For Catholics, individuals are continually under attack by evil and in a constant state of spiritual warfare. But the Church also recognizes the possibility of mere imagination, hallucination and delusion.

Meanwhile, the Freudian would say that spiritual visions are fantasies stemming from the libido as the sex instinct attaches itself to an imagined object. Similarly, the materialist would say that alleged spiritual visions are hallucinations stemming from inner psychological states. There is no heaven, hell or afterlife for the materialist. Religion merely comforts weak-willed individuals thwarted by a mysterious and oftentimes harsh world. For a more detailed discussion of interior perception, see Mysticism, Interior Perception and the Idea of Sainthood.

Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

An Outline of Rudolf Otto’s The Idea of the Holy by Michael W. Clark, Ph.D.

Rudolf Otto’s The Idea of the Holy: An Inquiry into the non-rational factor in the idea of the divine and its relation to the rational was first published by Oxford University Press in 1923. A second edition appeared in 1950.

This brief outline follows a 1973 reprint of the second edition and does not included the more specialized Appendixes (pp. 179-229).

Those wanting more are advised to read the entire book to appreciate Otto’s scholarship, innovative ideas and the influence of his travels in North Africa and Asia.  John C. Durham’s thematic summary is also highly recommended.

The following quotations and paraphrasing are deemed most important to each chapter.† This outline is, by its very nature, selective and should be taken in no other way.

Critical comments appear [in square brackets followed by-MC]. Orange page numbers refer to quotations, regular page numbers to chapters and paraphrases.

Translator’s Preface to the Second Edition	ix-xix
Translator John W. Harvey says the following quote from Pascal’s Pensees expresses Otto’s own attitude: “‘If one subjects everything to reason our religion will lose its mystery and its supernatural character.’”	xviii
Forward by the Author to the First English Edition (1923)
Otto says he wishes to study the non-rational or supra-rational but does not wish to promote “fantastic irrationalism.”
Chapter I – The Rational and the Non-Rational	1-4
“So far from keeping the non-rational element in religion alive in the heart of the religious experience, orthodox Christianity manifestly failed to recognize its value, and by this failure gave to the idea of God a one-sidedly intellectualistic and rationalistic interpretation.” [Otto was a Protestant. The Catholic tradition honors a rich variety of mystical writings from numerous saints. I refer the reader to The Life of St. Teresa of Avila by Herself among other titles which I would provide on request. See also Otto's own comments in Chapter XII-MC].	3
Chapter II – ‘Numen’ and the ‘Numinous’	5-7
“Omen has given us ‘ominous’, and there is no reason why from numen we should not similarly form a word ‘numinous.’” [Numen is a Latin word usually translated as the power, presence or manifestation of a deity-MC].	7
Chapter III – The Elements in the ‘Numinous’	8-11
The experience of the numinous requires one to feel creaturely and dependent on some kind of supreme, overpowering might. “The numinous is thus felt as objective and outside the self.”	10-11
Chapter IV – Mysterium Tremendum	12-24
‘Numinous dread’ or awe characterizes the so-called ‘religion of primitive man’, where it appears as ‘daemonic dread.’ “This crudely naive and primordial emotional disturbance, and the fantastic images to which it gives rise, are later overbourne and ousted by more highly developed forms of the numinous emotion, with all its mysteriously impelling power.”	15-16
Chapter V – The Analysis of ‘Mysterium’	25-30
“Mysticism continues to its extreme point this contrasting of the numinous object (the numen), as the ‘wholly other’, with ordinary experience.”	29
Chapter VI – The Element of Fascination	31-40
Lower levels of the numinous are evident in such works as the poetry of Sophocles. “It may mean evil or imposing, potent and strange, queer and marvelous, horrifying and fascinating, divine and daemonic, and a source of ‘energy.’”	39
Chapter VII – Analogies and Associated Feelings	41-49
Music feeling is something like numinous feeling in that “we attribute to it a spell, an enchantment.” But this is only an analogy. “We must beware of confounding in any way the non-rational of music and the non-rational of the numinous itself, as Schopenhauer, for example, does.”	49
Chapter VIII – The Holy as a Category of Value	50-59
We have both the light thrill of awe before the tremendum of the numen and also, and more especially, the feeling of this unique disvalue or unworth of the profane confronted by the numen…Here, then, comes in the felt necessity and longing for ‘atonement.’ One begins to crave the close presence of the numen so as to transcend one’s sense of unworthiness as “‘creature’ and profane natural being.” When we feel “guilty of a bad action…the evil of the action weighs upon us and deprives us of our self-respect.” And the negative effects continue into a second stage. “The same perverse action that before weighed upon us now pollutes us…The man feels a need, to express which he has recourse to images of washing and cleansing.”Christianity expresses the mysterious need for atonement or expiation more fully and effectively than any other religion. And in this too, it shows its superiority over others. It is a more perfect religion and more perfectly religion than they, in so far as what is potential in religion in general becomes in Christianity pure actuality…[teachers will have to demonstrate how] the Christian religious experience, how the ‘very numen’, by imparting itself to the worshipper, becomes itself the means of ‘atonement.’”	54-55, 56
Chapter IX – Means of Expression of the Numinous	60-71
“The magical is nothing but a suppressed and dimmed form of the numinous, a crude form of it which great art purifies and ennobles.” Otto says the Chinese landscape and religious painting of the classical T’ang and Sung dynasties confronts us with the numinous. He adds that the use of empty space – the void or emptiness – is a negation that allows the wholly other to become actual. [We cannot know for certain if this type of numinosity is qualitatively equivalent to others. To compound the problem, various individuals may experience this type of numinosity differently, not only in intensity but in character.-MC]	67, 69-70
Chapter X – The Numinous in the Old Testament	72-81
The numinous is found in all religions but is preeminent in the Bible. “The capital instance of the intimate mutual interpenetration of the numinous with the rational and moral is Isaiah.”	72 75
Chapter XI – The Numinous in the New Testament	82-93
Otto notes the power, majesty and goodness of God but also the presence of “weird awe and shuddering dread before the mysteries of the transcendent.” He then cites Matthew 10:28, “‘But fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.’” [Some translations of this passage use the word "him" and others "God"-MC]. Otto says that the idea of election (i.e. chosen by God for salvation in everlasting heaven) entails the experience of grace. [As with the term numinosity, we cannot know just what the so-called "experience of grace" means for different individuals. Even within ourselves, at one stage in life we may associate a certain experience with grace (e.g. an endorphin rush after jogging) and yet later in life come to experience something even more sublime, which we then designate as "grace," reformulating the former endorphin experience as something qualitatively different. It seems the healthy (and scientific) position would be to stay open to new experiences (and thus personal updates) with regard to the idea of grace, all the while realizing that we can probably never know with certainty what another person experiences nor means when using terms like grace and numinosity. This issue arguably throws into doubt Otto's claims pertaining to comparative mysticism, the superiority of Christianity, etc. Assuming, of course, that God didn't reveal knowledge to him directly or indirectly, which is also possible. Even if Otto's claims are correct, the argumentation would appear weak to hardcore rationalists, especially those biased against the idea of revealed knowledge. More creative and arguably advanced thinkers, however, would at least entertain the possibility of revealed knowledge rather than automatically dismissing it.-MC]	84 87
Chapter XII – The Numinous in Luther	94-108
Otto says that in “less authentic forms assumed by legend and miracle,” in its Neo-Platonic influenced concepts, and in the “paradoxes and mysteries of Catholic dogma” there is an “intimate rapport of Catholic piety with mysticism.” He suggests that the Lutheran school has “not done justice” to the numinous aspect of God as understood by Luther himself and Christianity in general. [This chapter highlights Otto's independent thinking. Along these lines Otto originally aspired to be a minister but a very conservative German Lutheran Church hesitated to give him an appointment.-MC]. Otto also says that “the mysterious is much less in evidence in the official systems of doctrine, whether Catholic or Protestant.” [This may seem confusing in light of the above quotation but in Catholicism all dogmas are doctrines but not all doctrines are dogmas-MC] .	94,100, 104,108
Chapter XIII – The Two Processes of Development	109-111
Otto speaks of a two-step process involving the initial numinous consciousness followed by the rationalization and moralization of that experience. But Otto’s view is not a kind of postmodern, open-ended polymorphism. He posits an overall spiritual and moral development in this process. “And this process of rationalization and moralization of the numinous, as it grows ever more clear and more potent, is in fact the most essential part of what we call ‘the History of Salvation’ and prize as the ever-growing self-revelation of the divine.” Otto stresses that this does not entail a suppression or supersession of the numinous, “but rather the completion and charging of it with a new content.” [Today we would probably speak more in terms of how we 'conceptualize' an initial experience. Along these lines I often stress the role of interpretation, especially with regard to unusual experiences which supposedly prove the belief in reincarnation beyond a shadow of a doubt.-MC]	109-111
Chapter XIV – The Holy as an A Priori Category, Part I	112-116
Otto likens the numinous to Kant’s use of the term a priori. For Otto the numinous “issues from at the deepest foundation of cognitive apprehension that the soul possesses.” This means that the numinous “comes into being in and amid the sensory data and empirical material of the natural world and cannot anticipate or dispense with those, yet is does not arise out of them, but only by their means.” [Kant also makes a debatable distinction between (a) essentially unknowable noumena and (b) the world of phenomena. See discussion at http://earthpages.wordpress.com/contact/#comment-10037-MC]	113
Chapter XV – Its Earliest Manifestations	117-131
Otto discusses numinosity in ‘pre-religion’ in the following order: (1) Magic (2) Worship of the dead (3) The idea of power in objects, such as mana (Pacific Islands) and orenda (North America) (4) The idea of ’souls’ and ’spirits’ (5) Natural phenomena believed to be alive or animate (6) Fairy stories and myth (7) The rise of the daemon. With regard to (7) Otto says “to each numen is assigned a seer and there is none without one.” (8 ) The notions of ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’, ‘pure’ and ‘impure’ “already found in a purely natural sense, prior to their religious application.” (9) Otto discusses the relation between the numen and the natural. (10) He then says that the type found in (7) “the feeling of daemons,” is the purest form because the “‘religious’ emotion” isn’t being projected onto an earthly object but is experienced within the self. [Otto's use of the term "diverted" seems highly similar to fundamental instances of Freudian and Jungian projection-MC]. Otto then says that the natural psychologists of his day ignored the importance of the “self-attestation of religious ideas in one’s own mind.” Otto says theories which attribute the numinous to “historical traditions and dim memories of a ‘primeval revelation’” are as remiss as the natural psychologists because they too ignore the importance of “self-attestation from within.”	117-131, 122, 125, 130, 131
Chapter XVI – The ‘Cruder’ Phases	132-135
“The more developed forms of religious experience…and the ‘crude’, and rudimentary emotions of ‘daemonic dread’” are both a priori. Wild fanaticism is a crudity or primitive ‘religion.’ “Here the numinous appears as religious mania, possession by the numen, intoxication, and frenzy.” [Some of the so-called more developed religions still valorize this idea, as with the stories and legends of Catholic saints euphorically running about convents and doing seemingly 'crazy' things (e.g. St. Francis of Assisi standing naked in public) declaring the glory of Christ. Otto perhaps addresses this issue in the next chapter.-MC]. Otto says “to know and to understand conceptually are two different things.”	132, 135
Chapter XVII – The Holy as an A Priori Category, Part II	136-142
“By the continual living activity of its non-rational elements a religion is guarded from passing into ‘rationalism.’ By being steeped in and saturated with rational elements it is guarded from sinking into fanaticism or mere mysticality, or at least from persisting in these, and is qualified to become a religion for all civilized humanity.” Otto says the degree to which a religion unites the irrational and the rational in a healthy, harmonious way is a measure by which to rank religions. [This loosely parallels Einstein's views about religion and science and might have implications for discussions about religions and cults.-MC]	141-142
Chapter XVIII – The Manifestations of the ‘Holy’ and the faculty of ‘Divination’	143-154
Otto talks about several forms of ’signs,’ divination and inner impulses. “Beside the inner revelation from the Spirit there is an outward revelation of the divine nature.” [This is something akin to the assumptions underlying Jung's idea of synchronicity-MC] Otto says the divination of Goethe, the ‘pagan’, as he sometimes referred to himself, may be accurate but doesn’t involve the numinous as it would with a prophet. [A critic might ask how Otto is qualified to say what Goethe himself experienced. I discuss this issue in IX and XI, above-MC] Acts of divination that merely entail the daemonic experience of the numinous “not at the level of the divine and the holy may in a highly cultivated mind only stir emotional reactions of bewilderment and bedazzlement, without giving real light or warmth to the soul.” Goethe is being informed by an “a priori principle that is not explicit and overt, but dim and obscure.” [This calls to mind C. G. Jung's archetypes, particularly those pertaining to the shadow. Jung's archetypes exist as underlying, unknowable substances and in the genetic structures contained in the body-MC]	143, 153, 154
Chapter XIX – Divination in Primitive Christianity	155-161
Speaking of Jesus, Otto points out that “His own relatives take Him for a man ‘possessed’, an involuntary acknowledgement of the ‘numinous’ impression He made upon them.”	159
Chapter XX – Divination in Christianity To-day	162-174
“Whoever can thus immerse himself in contemplation [of Jesus without sin, suffering for others]…will find the ‘intuition of the eternal in the temporal.” The suffering of Jesus and the resultant Cross, which symbolizes the eternal mystery, is the completion of Job.	169, 173
Chapter XXI – History and the A Priori in Religion: Summary and Conclusion	175-178
Jesus is the highest stage of the ‘Spirit’ where person and performance is “most completely the object of divination [and] …holiness.” Next is the prophet, who has “the power to hear the ‘voice within’ and the power of divination.”	178

† Please reference the above quotations as follows: Otto, Rudolf. The Idea of the Holy cited in Michael W. Clark, “An Outline of Rudolf Otto’s The Idea of the Holy.” earthpages.org. 2009.

The Idea of The Holy by Rudolf Otto

The Idea of the Holy by Rudolf Otto

The spiritual and practical aspects of discernment

Mysticism by gianluca.nastasi

The following originally appeared as an entry at Earthpages.ca – Think Free.

One Aspect of Discernment

In Catholic thought one aspect of discernment is the use of reason and experience coupled with divine gifts to distinguish between true and false interior perception.

As Henri Martin P.S.S. puts it:

The charism of discernment is “a kind of supernatural instinct by which those who have it perceive intuitively the origin, either divine or not, of thoughts and inclinations submitted to them.” (J. de Guibert, Lecons, p. 306). It is to be distinguished from revelation of the secrets of hearts, properly so called, made directly by God. In such revelations, which is extremely rare, objective certitude is absolute. In the case of discernment the chances of error lie in the subjective interpretation and use of the supernatural light received. Lacking an infused charism, ordinarily “God will assist by special interior light a gift of discernment acquired by experience and prudence in the application of the traditional rules of discernment.” (ibidem). (Jacques Guillet, Gustave Bardy et. al. (trans.) Sister Innocentia Richards, Ph.D., Discernment of Spirits. Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1970, p. 104.)

On the need for seekers to be sincere, humble and rational in the discernment process, the scholar of mysticism, Evelyn Underhill, says:

Ecstasies, no less than visions and voices, must, they declare, be subjected to unsparing criticism before they are recognized as divine: whilst some are undoubtedly “of God,” others are no less clearly “of the devil” (Evelyn Underhill, Mysticism, New York: New American Library, 1955, p. 361.)

Likewise, the Protestant William James in The Varieties of Religious Experience, suggests that some lower forms of mysticism may have “proceeded from the demon” (London: Penguin, 1985, p. 423).

The Lutheran Rudolf Otto also talks about different types of mysticism. See, for instance, “An Outline of Rudolf Otto’s The Idea of the Holy,” Chapter XVI – The ‘Cruder’ Phases.

In Protestant and Catholic circles discernment is described as a gift and developed ability where a person learns to differentiate among (a) divine spiritual influences (b) evil spiritual influences and (c) one’s truest self.

But a problem arises in that many religious people claim to discern. And often different religious and New Age persons discern differently on the very same issue, citing the “Holy Spirit,” “Allah,” “Angels” or “Objective Truth” as their source of authority.

Discernment often seems to mean taking an alarmist, knee-jerk view of issues that one doesn’t understand, projecting bad habits and transferring the unsavory contents of the unconscious onto scapegoats. This can happen on an individual level or through a kind of institutionally reinforced hypocrisy, as we’ve seen time and again in the history of religions, cults and spiritual movements.

Indeed, unconscious anger, resentment and unresolved psychological complexes may color discernment. And it seems that psychological pain, immaturity and the potential influence of fantasy or evil influences are closely intertwined.

Another Aspect

Another related meaning of the term discernment is to discover what God wants a person to do in life. This relates to the former meaning because one cannot “do the right thing” if one is following imaginary voices, fantasy desires or the promptings of an evil power.

Thomas H. Green S. J. notes that in Catholicism this second kind of discernment – that is, finding out one’s calling – was once premised on sheer authority. A spiritual director would simply tell a religious what to do. Today, however, the relationship between discernment and spiritual directors has evolved. Emphasis is now given on “co-discernment” and in the larger sense, communal discernment. Authority figures only provide general guidelines, as plainly evident in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Ultimately it’s up to each individual to flesh out God’s will for his or her life (Thomas H. Green S. J., Weeds Among the Wheat – Discernment: Where Prayer and Action Meet, Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 1984, pp. 11-17).

A Synthesis

Father Edward Malatesta, S. J. defines discernment so as to combine the two previous aspects:

By the discernment of spirits is meant the process by which we examine, in the light of faith and in the connaturality of love, the nature of the spiritual states we experience in ourselves and in others. The purpose of such examination is to decide, as far as possible, which of the movements we experience lead us to the Lord and to a more perfect service of Him and our brothers, and which deflect us from this goal (cited in Green, p. 41).

Some believe that a higher power overrides personal biases and a spiritual gift enables an imperfect person to make perfect discernments. This dynamic may indeed occur from time to time but for the most part it seems that the development of accurate discernment is a life-long process. And, for all we know, we may continue to sharpen our powers of discernment in the afterlife.

Add to this, report errors, suggest edits or voice your opinion by posting a comment