Another beautiful morning, before a busy day.
When I stepped on the labyrinth, it was 8:20. Cool, but not as chilly as it has been, I forgot my sweater and was fine, really. I have had so many words in my head lately, today I wanted to walk as a meditation, where you clear your mind and try just to breathe and NOT think. Riiiight!
I kept wondering, as I looked affectionately at the rocks, if my powerful attachment to the natural world makes me a pagan, or a pantheist? Our word "pagan", which is loaded with negative connotations, comes from the Latin "paganus", which means "country dweller." And that I am.
Ooops- clear the mind. Walk. Breathe.
My understanding- perhaps erroneous- of paganism, is that "God", or the "Sacred", or the "Divine" actually abides in items in the natural world. So instead of marvelling at a rock and feeling connected to it through some strange twist of fate because it and I both find ourselves in this place and this time in this labyrinth.... instead I might actually revere or worship it as being itself A Holy Being. Which on one hand I do think all of creation is filled with holiness.... but maybe I'm not going to actually worship these stones, if you know what I mean? Though I would agree that even the stones can sing praise to that Creating God who put us all here...
Oh heck! Breathe! Walk! CLEAR your mind...............
Ommmmmmmmmm...but wait. So a pantheist, which I used to think was someone who "saw" the Divine in everything, is actually someone who believes that "Everything" and "God" are actually the same. Equivalent. "Pan" (all) "Theism" (god). Whoops. So that label's not working for me either.
All I know is I really love rocks. They speak to me of creation, strength, of prehistory and the future, and eternity. I love them. And I don't care WHAT that makes me!
Rock of the Day: This weird thing that looked to me like a barnacle on another rock.. yet it is actually one rock.
Today's Footgear: Looks pretty tame, Hushpuppies and gray socks
Well, tame until I stretch out my foot and you see the rest....!
Doesn't wearing argyle socks just make you smile?
Circuits of the Labyrinth: 2 Total: 5
Circuits of the Labyrinth: 2 Total: 5
Did you knit those socks yourself? They're so cute!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Margaret! No- these are store-bought, but they are favorites- Especially on a chilly fall morning!
ReplyDeleteNext time I am in in New London, will stop by to walk the garden, wonderful!
ReplyDeleteI know with all my being that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is related to how we honor the Divine. Divine to me meaning, where/what/whom we focus on to find our spiritual. strength.
ReplyDeleteI love the first part of this explanation of Paganism.
http://www.paganfederation.org/paganism.htm
Rocks are unique because they convey such time! Ancient, prehistoric, and more. The experience I had in Ireland two summers ago, is what did it for me.
Kendra and I spent the day with woman shaman named, Amantha Murphy. She took us to numerous ancient spiritual sites of worship. But the most momentous moment was as we were leaving the site below The PAPS.
The PAPS is were there is a place called the "CIty". After stopping at the Mother Well, now brackish as it is open to the elements, you cross over a wet gully and step across the threshold You feel the ground hum with power. Amazing!
We had to drive through a narrow, twisted dirt lane, walled by moderately high ancient stone walls. As we slowed to navigate the turn in the lane, I looked up and saw the most beautiful, animated face in the stone wall, it winked at me. It was magical. Amantha Immediately knew I had seen something. and we stopped. but the face was again just rock by then.
The long and short of this long comment, We all become who we are destined to be. But destiny is not prewritten.
I'm glad you love rocks!
Joyce- thanks for the link- it took me a few days to get over there! I agree with the definition too, that spiritual experience comes to some of us most powerfully through the natural world...
ReplyDeleteAnd having been to Ireland a few years ago too, I totally "get" your face in the wall story. Everything in that country seemed like magic to me... except driving on the "other" side of the road. That felt like sheer lunacy... though I admit it made me pray in a newly intense and passionate way!