At the River
When I sit at the bank of the river, and drag my fingers through the waters, are they cooled by the flow or do they offer their heat to it? Which is refreshed, me or the waters?
I offer my warmth to the waters, and they refresh me. In the life of the river, the little heat I offer may seem very small, but they change the waters and they will never be the same after. The waters also change me, cooling my hand and refreshing my spirit.
The river speaks of change and flow, as she cradles so many lives within and around her. “Blessed Mother,” the waters sang over the stones, “You know and you are known. Blessed and blessed are those who live in accord with the flow.”
I smiled. “You know and are known. You are a person, though not human. You are someone, not something.”
So it is with all the cosmos. Personhood is born in relationship. When only humans or animals are treated as persons, the world suffers. Do not judge a person by their sameness to you. It is easy to respect and honor those who are not different from you. Too many only honor and respect themselves for this reason. Difference and diversity are the nature of life and the cosmos itself. To disrespect and dishonor it is to do the same to yourself.
A being is a person when they can be spoken to and listened for, when they can be honored or wounded, thanked or offended, approached with reverence or violated by neglect. Do not expect them to speak the same language or way that you do. Do not expect them to listen to words alone. In nature and life, actions speak louder than words. Learn to listen and to speak to the multitude around you. Only then can you be faithful to life.
To call a being a person is to confess that we are not alone before them. We are responsible to them, and they are responsible to us. When we care for the river, she gives us life, water, and sustenance. When we neglect our responsibilities to the river, we lose touch with what gives us life. The same is true for the mountains, the valleys, the forests, and the plains. Each relationship is different, and it grows over time.
We are invited into reciprocity, into kinship, into the sacred work of right relationship with all that is. Together, we live life more abundantly.
The Soil Beneath, the Surface Where It Breaks
The soul is a vast field that can be cultivated into a garden of life, left fallow through neglect, or given over to the weeds that choke out the fruit of life.
Scattered throughout this field are many seeds, shining sparks of the light of God spread throughout the world and the soul from the beginning. These seeds are holy and good, born from the original blessing of creation.
The seeds we tend and water grow and bear the fruits of the Spirit and the fruits of Life. Untended, they never sprout, nor do they grow.
These seeds sleep in the soil of the soul and life until they are awakened. Once awakened and freed to grow, they enter the living mind where, when tended, they flourish.
When we tend to this soil and these seeds, we prepare ourselves to live in the Life of God as the Divine Powers flow through us.
Every Spark Is Blessed
The Divine Image is within all things. We are partakers of the Divine Nature. The Light of Life shone into all things and nestled into the fabric of all that is, was, and ever shall be.
Every spark is blessed and holy. Some call them virtues, others energies, but they are all the power of Life to grow, change, make space, and transform the cosmos until all is restored to the unity of God.
These greening powers of viriditas live in all things, including the souls of all living. When they are nourished, peace, joy, wisdom, and justice prosper.
The Shell That Grows Around the Wound
If the seeds of life are sown in all that is, why is there evil, oppression, and suffering?
Pain is a real part of life. It is not punishment or retribution, it is a way of knowing that something is wrong or needs correction. Often, pain is a warning. It can leave wounds, and trauma, and these can grow over the seeds and encase them so they cannot grow.
Not all pain does this, but the kinds that wither, wound, and scar can. These wounds, if left untended, dry out the soil of the soul, drawing the resources and waters of life away from the other seeds that could grow.
This is the grasping power of Siccitas to attach itself to what it should not grasp. When the soil becomes too dry, when the rains come, they cannot soak in.
Shells grow around the seeds, locking the light away so all appears dark and grows dry. They consume the waters of life and pretend they are life.
This dryness is not the sign of a bad root. It is water spent on a husk rather than a seed.
Some of these shells are passed down from generation to generation, and are in some ways cherished as seeds of life. In truth, they are untended wounds that continue to harm the people long after the original wound is forgotten or long passed.
Who Has Come to the Door
When we meet the seeds of graces or shells of temptations within and around us, they are no different from the mountains or the rivers. Just as gold in a stream is a temptation to greed, one of these shells arising within us is a temptation to see it as a grace rather than what it truly is.
These graces and temptations live within us, whispering in our ears like an angel and demon on each of our shoulders.
When these arise, welcome them and grant them the etiquette owed to them, which does not mean that you give in and succumb to them. Temptation does not arise for no reason. It is incumbent upon us to learn to discern between the grace and temptation, and to discern the roots of the temptation.
Once we learn to discern the roots of the temptation, we see the husk for what it is and can then uncover the seed of light it grew around to obscure.
Testing the Coin
“Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world (1 John 4:1).” Once you have greeted what has arisen, it is time to discern the power that is speaking.
Saint John Cassian records Abbot Moses’ thought on a saying of Jesus that mattered to their community, “Be skillful moneychangers.” This quote is not found in the canonical Gospels, but in the early church many sayings circulated that were not retained in the Gospels themselves.
To Abbot Moses, this saying taught us a simple discernment practice. We should not accept a false currency and exchange it for a genuine one. O, how many souls have laundered the false coins of temptation and rendered them in the semblance of virtue and grace.
Augustine traded the pacifism and original blessing taught by Christ for the temptation of power offered by the empire which needed a military and a means for controlling others. He and others welcomed in the temptations of Babylon, clothed them in grace, and taught them as virtues.
So how does Abbot Moses show us the means of discernment?
First, recognize if something is truly valuable. This is the beginning of wisdom, that we revere the One who is life, so value is only that which supports the living. Note that it is not a value to an individual life, or that of an insulated, isolated group, but to life in general. If it harms life through division, cruelty, greed, or domination, then it has no value. It is nothing, worthless to the world and to life, and not from the One who sustains all things and holds all things together. Should it pass that test, then we apply the next test.
Second, check if it’s genuine, not a counterfeit. What is a counterfeit grace or virtue? It is one that inflates the ego and puffs up the chest, but that does not invite a turn toward living in the blessed unity of the life of the world. It is not wrong to feel good, but to confuse simple feelings for grace and virtue lessens both of them. Should it pass this test, then we apply the next test.
Third, verify it bears the right image or intention. Our intention, our kavanah, is always rooted in equity and love. These are the very image of living God. Love, which includes and requires equity, is the one grace and virtue against which there is no law. So if the love it bears requires us to hate, look down upon, or withhold love from any, then it does not bear the image of the Living God and does not lead to life more abundantly. Should it pass this test, then we apply the final test.
Fourth, ensure it has the proper weight or substance. True love interferes with injustice with patience, hope, and joy. This is the proper weight or substance. If it teaches you to turn a blind eye from the suffering of others and not bring them relief without condemnation, then it is too light and does not pass the test.
These steps help distinguish truth from deception in various aspects of life. Through this method, we can see the difference between the shell and the seed, the grace and the temptation.
Soulcraft
This greeting of the seed that rises from the root consciousness that makes soil beds of the soul to the living consciousness of the mind or the community, is the beginning of Soulcraft. Soulcraft is the disciplined tending of the soul. This is the Discretio, discernment that gives life its shape and character. It is the tending of the garden within so the tree of life may grow and prosper so fruit of life may be more abundant.
Through the discernment of Abbot Moses, we learn to see the difference between the seed and the shell, but soulcraft does not stop there. The shell is one of the sources of the dryness that robs the greening from the world, claiming it all for itself.
Jealousy is the shell that entraps the seeds of love, community, and fellow feeling. It robs the life from the world and distances the soul from life. The hospitality offered to the shell is rooted in witness and testimony.
Once the shell is recognized, it cannot be destroyed by force, and we don’t indulge the shell for its desires. The shell is tended until it breaks open through enough gentleness so the shell opens to release the seed.
How do we do this? We identify the encrusted seed and feed it until it has the strength to break through the shell and be liberated from the husk. This is a tender task that allows us to green the world and restore the Light of God to the world and heal the wounds and scars of life.
Sent to the Vine
The Christ is the vine and we are branches, and the soul is the great garden of life. When the shells rise, they can come from the wounds of our own lives or those carried in our families or the community in which we live.
Living in this hospitality prevents us from adopting the management or suppression all too common in the dry fields of this world.
Trusting the Spirit, we follow the great flow of life to bring the greening to the sparks and healing to ourselves and the world.
Tend the garden of your souls so the seeds may prosper and the life may be ever-greened.
Some people pray to a God they no longer believe in because they have not yet found language for the God they do. Creation’s Paths: A Creation Spirituality Primer is that language, grown from twenty years of walking the Four Paths.
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