http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600152175,00.html
Mary Magdalene's Role Missing, Speaker Says
By Elaine Jarvik
Deseret Morning News
"There are a lot of people who want to debunk me and send me home," Margaret Starbird announces, standing at the front of a small lecture hall at a downtown Salt Lake Hotel on Wednesday afternoon.
"Not here," calls out a woman from the second row.
"No, not here," Starbird answers. "That's what I like about Salt Lake City."
Her audience are attendees of the annual Sunstone Symposium, the annual meeting dedicated to "independent Mormon thought." This is the symposium's 30th anniversary and the second consecutive year that Starbird has been among the invited presenters. For the second time, Starbird addressed an idea she is convinced of but is also the source of recent worldwide controversy: Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and had a baby with her, that Mary Magdalene was Christ's disciple and that the Catholic Church has kept this information under wraps for centuries.
The claims have gained worldwide exposure in Dan Brown's mega-seller "The Da Vinci Code." Brown cites Starbird in his bibliography and mentions two of her books — "The Woman with the Alabaster Jar" and "The Goddess and the Gospels" — in the body of the novel. Brown's and Starbird's ideas are also part of a larger debate about the role of women in the early church.
Starbird's conclusions about Mary Magdalene are part of a journey, she says, that began with her own skepticism about these radical ideas. The journey began in 1983, when she was what she describes as a Roman Catholic mother of five who taught Sunday school and a scripture studies class for women. That's when a friend suggested she read a book called "Holy Blood, Holy Grail," a book that postulates Mary Magdalene's role as Christ's bride.
Starbird says the dust jacket was enough to make her shun the book for two years. When she finally read it she says she asked God to help her discern whether the ideas in it were true. If they weren't, she told God, "I'll just burn this book."
She was looking for a sign. So she opened her Bible — to the page that read "New Testament, Revised Version." Revised was the word that jumped out at her. But she wanted to make sure. "I don't understand, Lord," she said, asking for another sign. This time she opened her Bible to a passage that read "Restore my wife, whom I am espoused to."
"Maybe he's talking about your inner bride," a friend suggested. So the friend prayed, too, for a sign. And shortly thereafter, on her hands and knees in her bathroom trying to find a leak in her toilet, the friend saw the name of the toilet manufacturer: Church.
"We didn't know whether to laugh or cry," Starbird remembers. "It was like my words had taken flesh in her bathroom."
Convinced now that this was her life's mission, Starbird enrolled in the Vanderbilt University Divinity School, where she devoted herself to answering four questions: could Jesus have been so human as to be married; if so, when; "how did we lose (Mary Magdalene); and how do we get her back."
Starbird says her research unearthed "mountains of evidence for the sacred union." To those who call her work heresy, she says, "We're not changing the gospel. We're just throwing new light on it. . . . I teach what the church taught in the beginning and then forgot."
Now living in the Seattle area, Starbird devotes her time to traveling around the country spreading the word and to continuing her research. A new book, "Mary Magdalene: Bride in Exile" will be published in November.
The importance of uncovering Mary Magdalene's role as Christ's wife, Starbird says, is that both Christianity and Christians need the "sacred feminine" that Mary provides.
"What we lost when we lost Mary Magdalene," she told her Sunstone audience, "was ecstasy, passion, a relationship with the body and with one another. We are earthen vessels filled with God."
Acknowledging Christ's marriage and Mary Magdalene's role as both a wife and disciple is a way of acknowledging the need for the feminine in both men and women, and in the church itself. "The feminine is a way of knowing and being," whereas the masculine is about "going and doing," she says. "That's why the self is a marriage of both."
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Mormon Connection to Masons Explored Ahead of 'Da Vinci Code' Sequel
Holy Mackerel! I was waiting for school to start this morning at 8:38 AM and I was running out of things to do on the Internet so I just plugged in "Da Vinci Code" on Google just to see what's up with "the Code" these days. Top of the page! Number one headline, posted just 9 hours ago:
Mormon Connection to Masons Explored Ahead of 'Da Vinci Code' Sequel
Mormon connection to Masons explored ahead of 'Da Vinci Code' sequel
Mason-Mormon ties: What's fact, what's fiction
By Peggy Fletcher Stack
The Salt Lake Tribune
Flanking the main entrance is a pair of sphinx guarding the Temple. They are comprised of a lion's body and a man's head, signifying great strength and master intelligence and are symbolic of mystery. Between the paws is a granite sphere, polished and inscribed to represent the Terrestrial Sphere (shown) and Celestial Sphere. (Chris Detrick/The Salt Lake Tribune)
Dan Brown clearly enjoys playing with legends, history, symbols and secrets. And readers' minds. In his best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code, Brown wove all these - real and imagined - into a breathless mystery about Christianity, Mary Magdalene and the Divine Feminine that has spawned an industry of de-coders eager to separate fact from fiction.
Now that he has turned his attention to the mysteries of Freemasonry, the centuries-old fraternal order, the new book also might deal with Mormonism.
But rather than announce the Da Vinci sequel in a news release, Brown embedded tantalizing clues to its subject on the book's jacket. Written in typeface that is slightly larger and bolder than the rest (it requires a magnifying glass to find them all) are the words: is there no help for the widows son.
"O Lord, my God, is there no help for the widow's son?" was used historically as a Masonic distress call, but when journalist David Shugarts plugged it into Google, the first hit was a 1974 speech given by an LDS Institute of Religion teacher, Reed C. Durham, at the University of Utah.
Joseph Smith, the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, reportedly began to utter the call as he fell from a second story window after being fatally shot by a mob in a Carthage, Ill., jail in 1844, Durham said.
In an electrifying presidential address to the Mormon History Association meeting in Nauvoo, Ill., he traced close parallels between Smith's account of digging gold plates out of a New York hillside and Masonic tales of Enoch and buried treasure. Smith wore a "Jupiter talisman," or what his wife called "his Masonic jewel," and LDS temple ceremonies bear a striking resemblance to Masonic rituals, he said.
The
The Winding Staircase, like all Masonic symbols, is illustrative of discipline and doctrine, and opens to us a wide field of moral and speculative inquiry. (Chris Detrick/The Salt Lake Tribune)
speech was so controversial that Durham's superiors in the LDS Educational System forced him to issue a public apology.
The speech was never published but was surreptitiously taped and has floated around on the Internet for years.
It may have also caught Brown's attention, Shugarts speculates, and may provide one plot twist in Brown's next book, tentatively titled The Solomon Key. Brown confirmed in a speech last year that the book's mystery will be set in Washington, D.C., where many architectural features were drawn from Masonry, and will feature the same lead character, Harvard-professor-turned-detective Robert Langdom.
Getting a jump on the novel's historical context, Shugarts has written Secrets of the Widow's Son: The Mysteries Surrounding the Sequel to The Da Vinci Code.
He provides a broad history of Mormonism, including its brush with Masonry in the 19th century. It also offers nuggets about Masonic history such as these: At least eight signers of the Declaration of Independence were Masons, as were 13 U.S. presidents including George Washington. A Freemason released Paul Revere from British custody on the night of his famous ride, after he determined that Revere was a Mason. Mozart's "Magic Flute" and Rudyard Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King were written as Masonic allegories.
The Washington Monument and a similar monument on Bunker Hill in Boston, were not just coincidentally shaped like an Egyptian obelisks, but intentionally designed to honor Masonic allusions to ancient Egyptian mystical wisdom.
Much of the symbolism is mathematical, even geometrical, which could explain why the fraternity has attracted rationalists such as Voltaire, Goethe, Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain.
"We've heard from Masons
One of the rooms in the Temple. The Salt Lake Masonic Temple was completed in 1927 and was built in 1 year, 3 months, and 22 days. The architect of the temple was Carl W. Scott and George W Welch. (Chris Detrick/The Salt Lake Tribune)
that they feel that [Brown is] going to do them justice," says Dan Burstein, who wrote the introduction to Shugarts' book. "He seems to be favorably disposed to thinking of Masons as an important historical underground movement, pushing the world towards democracy and enlightenment."
Today there are nearly 2 million Masons in the United States, with 2,250 members in 29 Utah lodges.
"We have a lot of Mormons who are Masons in this state, but we don't know exactly how many," says Ridgley Gilmour, Grand Master of Utah Masonic Lodge. "Anyone with a belief in God can petition to join but we don't ask what religion they are."
Gilmour was adamant the Masonry is not a "secret society," but a fraternal order with large-scale charitable giving built on deeply held American values of family, God and country.
"The only secrets we have are little signs and passwords which we use because it's an ancient custom, and, frankly, it's fun,'' Gilmour says.
It remains to be seen how much Mormon history will feature in the novel, (Brown's wife reportedly was raised in the LDS Church) but if the reaction to Durham's 1974 speech is any indication, any link between the two could be controversial in Utah.
For his part, Nicholas S. Literski, an active Mormon and Mason living in Nauvoo, thinks Latter-day Saints misunderstand the similarities. But they are significant.
"Everybody wants to obsess over supposed similarities in ritual," he says. "But that's just one aspect. Everything about Joseph and his family was tied into Masonic legends."
The Mormon connection: Smith's father, Joseph Smith Sr. joined a Masonic lodge when the family moved to Palmyra,
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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N.Y., in 1816. Later, Smith's brother Hyrum also joined. From them, Smith heard the story of a lost sacred word that was engraved upon a triangular plate of pure gold. The word was the name of God.
It makes sense that he would go searching for such treasure in the large American Indian burial mounds near his home, says Literski, author of the forthcoming book, Method Infinite: Freemasonry and the Mormon Restoration.
And when Smith reported finding an ancient record written on plates of gold, he used "distinctively Masonic language to describe the experience," Literski says.
The church, which claimed to restore ancient truths of Christianity lost through the ages, attracted many members of the Masonic fraternity who traced their own roots back centuries and had similar esoteric teachings.
By the 1840s, many Mormon leaders in Nauvoo, including Smith and apostles Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, became Masons and organized a lodge there under the auspices of the Grand Lodge of Illinois. It wasn't long before nearly every male member of the church in the area had joined. At the same time, Smith introduced LDS temple rituals that included secret handshakes, signs and symbols like the all-seeing eye, the compass and square (tools of the mason's trade) and the sun, moon and stars that echoed Masonry.
Soon, though, other Masons felt that the Mormons were dominating the fraternity. In 1842, the Nauvoo Lodge was suspended. Many Mormons believed that Masons contributed to the murder of their prophet.
Antagonisms built up between the two groups. In Utah in 1860, Masonic lodges were established but they prohibited Mormons from joining. At the same time, Young forbade Mormons from joining and refused to allow any Mason to hold priesthood leadership positions in the church, Literski says.
It wasn't until 1984 that LDS President Spencer W. Kimball removed the prohibition against Latter-day Saints becoming Freemasons. Later that year, the Grand Lodge of Utah removed its own ban on Mormon membership so that, in the ensuing years, many Latter-day Saint men have returned to this part of their heritage.
In the novelist's mind: Shugarts says it was not his intention to be a plot spoiler for Brown's sequel. He couldn't do that if he wanted. But he did offer a primer on Masonry and Mormonism for those who will want to explore, as they did with Da Vinci, just how much of what Brown writes is really history.
"I had to push out in every direction possible," Shugarts said in a phone interview from his Connecticut home. "I read five books about Mormon history and thousands of Internet Web sites. I tried to be thorough and fair."
Though he only dedicated four or five pages to Mormons in a 200-page book, he's already heard from unhappy Latter-day Saints who accuse him of misreading or a biased approach to LDS history, a charge he rejects.
"Prior to embarking on my research, I had no particular opinion of Joseph Smith or the details of the founding of the [LDS ]Church," he wrote to one critic. "But I had met a few Mormons and they always impressed me as fine people. After delving into the story of Joseph Smith, I understood a lot more about LDS. I remain impressed that Mormons are fine people."
It will be interesting to see if Brown sees them that way as well. Literski isn't worried.
"He'll weave a good conspiracy," Literski says, "but no matter how inventive Dan Brown gets in terms of the connection, he will fall short of just how deep that story does go."
Even in Smith's day, there were Masons who believed the legends were historical truth and saw Freemasonry as a deeply spiritual, mystical quest. Other, more sophisticated members, discounted the old stories, wanting to refocus it along the lines of a charitable and benevolent institution.
The Smiths were about as far into mysticism as you can get, Literski says. "Joseph was rebuilding Solomon's temple with all the legendary baggage that came along with that."
Seeing the relationship between the two groups forces Mormons like Literski to revise his ideas about how God interacts with a prophet.
"You cannot understand what is going on in Joseph's mind unless you can know what he is seeing, hearing, feeling and touching," he says. "That gives me a stronger position of faith than would this idea that revelation is ex nihilo. Joseph was not a puppet."
---
Contact Peggy Fletcher Stack at pstack@sltrib.com or 801-257-8725. Send comments on this article to religioneditor@sltrib.com.
Mormon Connection to Masons Explored Ahead of 'Da Vinci Code' Sequel
Mormon connection to Masons explored ahead of 'Da Vinci Code' sequel
Mason-Mormon ties: What's fact, what's fiction
By Peggy Fletcher Stack
The Salt Lake Tribune
Flanking the main entrance is a pair of sphinx guarding the Temple. They are comprised of a lion's body and a man's head, signifying great strength and master intelligence and are symbolic of mystery. Between the paws is a granite sphere, polished and inscribed to represent the Terrestrial Sphere (shown) and Celestial Sphere. (Chris Detrick/The Salt Lake Tribune)
Dan Brown clearly enjoys playing with legends, history, symbols and secrets. And readers' minds. In his best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code, Brown wove all these - real and imagined - into a breathless mystery about Christianity, Mary Magdalene and the Divine Feminine that has spawned an industry of de-coders eager to separate fact from fiction.
Now that he has turned his attention to the mysteries of Freemasonry, the centuries-old fraternal order, the new book also might deal with Mormonism.
But rather than announce the Da Vinci sequel in a news release, Brown embedded tantalizing clues to its subject on the book's jacket. Written in typeface that is slightly larger and bolder than the rest (it requires a magnifying glass to find them all) are the words: is there no help for the widows son.
"O Lord, my God, is there no help for the widow's son?" was used historically as a Masonic distress call, but when journalist David Shugarts plugged it into Google, the first hit was a 1974 speech given by an LDS Institute of Religion teacher, Reed C. Durham, at the University of Utah.
Joseph Smith, the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, reportedly began to utter the call as he fell from a second story window after being fatally shot by a mob in a Carthage, Ill., jail in 1844, Durham said.
In an electrifying presidential address to the Mormon History Association meeting in Nauvoo, Ill., he traced close parallels between Smith's account of digging gold plates out of a New York hillside and Masonic tales of Enoch and buried treasure. Smith wore a "Jupiter talisman," or what his wife called "his Masonic jewel," and LDS temple ceremonies bear a striking resemblance to Masonic rituals, he said.
The
The Winding Staircase, like all Masonic symbols, is illustrative of discipline and doctrine, and opens to us a wide field of moral and speculative inquiry. (Chris Detrick/The Salt Lake Tribune)
speech was so controversial that Durham's superiors in the LDS Educational System forced him to issue a public apology.
The speech was never published but was surreptitiously taped and has floated around on the Internet for years.
It may have also caught Brown's attention, Shugarts speculates, and may provide one plot twist in Brown's next book, tentatively titled The Solomon Key. Brown confirmed in a speech last year that the book's mystery will be set in Washington, D.C., where many architectural features were drawn from Masonry, and will feature the same lead character, Harvard-professor-turned-detective Robert Langdom.
Getting a jump on the novel's historical context, Shugarts has written Secrets of the Widow's Son: The Mysteries Surrounding the Sequel to The Da Vinci Code.
He provides a broad history of Mormonism, including its brush with Masonry in the 19th century. It also offers nuggets about Masonic history such as these: At least eight signers of the Declaration of Independence were Masons, as were 13 U.S. presidents including George Washington. A Freemason released Paul Revere from British custody on the night of his famous ride, after he determined that Revere was a Mason. Mozart's "Magic Flute" and Rudyard Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King were written as Masonic allegories.
The Washington Monument and a similar monument on Bunker Hill in Boston, were not just coincidentally shaped like an Egyptian obelisks, but intentionally designed to honor Masonic allusions to ancient Egyptian mystical wisdom.
Much of the symbolism is mathematical, even geometrical, which could explain why the fraternity has attracted rationalists such as Voltaire, Goethe, Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain.
"We've heard from Masons
One of the rooms in the Temple. The Salt Lake Masonic Temple was completed in 1927 and was built in 1 year, 3 months, and 22 days. The architect of the temple was Carl W. Scott and George W Welch. (Chris Detrick/The Salt Lake Tribune)
that they feel that [Brown is] going to do them justice," says Dan Burstein, who wrote the introduction to Shugarts' book. "He seems to be favorably disposed to thinking of Masons as an important historical underground movement, pushing the world towards democracy and enlightenment."
Today there are nearly 2 million Masons in the United States, with 2,250 members in 29 Utah lodges.
"We have a lot of Mormons who are Masons in this state, but we don't know exactly how many," says Ridgley Gilmour, Grand Master of Utah Masonic Lodge. "Anyone with a belief in God can petition to join but we don't ask what religion they are."
Gilmour was adamant the Masonry is not a "secret society," but a fraternal order with large-scale charitable giving built on deeply held American values of family, God and country.
"The only secrets we have are little signs and passwords which we use because it's an ancient custom, and, frankly, it's fun,'' Gilmour says.
It remains to be seen how much Mormon history will feature in the novel, (Brown's wife reportedly was raised in the LDS Church) but if the reaction to Durham's 1974 speech is any indication, any link between the two could be controversial in Utah.
For his part, Nicholas S. Literski, an active Mormon and Mason living in Nauvoo, thinks Latter-day Saints misunderstand the similarities. But they are significant.
"Everybody wants to obsess over supposed similarities in ritual," he says. "But that's just one aspect. Everything about Joseph and his family was tied into Masonic legends."
The Mormon connection: Smith's father, Joseph Smith Sr. joined a Masonic lodge when the family moved to Palmyra,
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Advertisement
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
N.Y., in 1816. Later, Smith's brother Hyrum also joined. From them, Smith heard the story of a lost sacred word that was engraved upon a triangular plate of pure gold. The word was the name of God.
It makes sense that he would go searching for such treasure in the large American Indian burial mounds near his home, says Literski, author of the forthcoming book, Method Infinite: Freemasonry and the Mormon Restoration.
And when Smith reported finding an ancient record written on plates of gold, he used "distinctively Masonic language to describe the experience," Literski says.
The church, which claimed to restore ancient truths of Christianity lost through the ages, attracted many members of the Masonic fraternity who traced their own roots back centuries and had similar esoteric teachings.
By the 1840s, many Mormon leaders in Nauvoo, including Smith and apostles Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, became Masons and organized a lodge there under the auspices of the Grand Lodge of Illinois. It wasn't long before nearly every male member of the church in the area had joined. At the same time, Smith introduced LDS temple rituals that included secret handshakes, signs and symbols like the all-seeing eye, the compass and square (tools of the mason's trade) and the sun, moon and stars that echoed Masonry.
Soon, though, other Masons felt that the Mormons were dominating the fraternity. In 1842, the Nauvoo Lodge was suspended. Many Mormons believed that Masons contributed to the murder of their prophet.
Antagonisms built up between the two groups. In Utah in 1860, Masonic lodges were established but they prohibited Mormons from joining. At the same time, Young forbade Mormons from joining and refused to allow any Mason to hold priesthood leadership positions in the church, Literski says.
It wasn't until 1984 that LDS President Spencer W. Kimball removed the prohibition against Latter-day Saints becoming Freemasons. Later that year, the Grand Lodge of Utah removed its own ban on Mormon membership so that, in the ensuing years, many Latter-day Saint men have returned to this part of their heritage.
In the novelist's mind: Shugarts says it was not his intention to be a plot spoiler for Brown's sequel. He couldn't do that if he wanted. But he did offer a primer on Masonry and Mormonism for those who will want to explore, as they did with Da Vinci, just how much of what Brown writes is really history.
"I had to push out in every direction possible," Shugarts said in a phone interview from his Connecticut home. "I read five books about Mormon history and thousands of Internet Web sites. I tried to be thorough and fair."
Though he only dedicated four or five pages to Mormons in a 200-page book, he's already heard from unhappy Latter-day Saints who accuse him of misreading or a biased approach to LDS history, a charge he rejects.
"Prior to embarking on my research, I had no particular opinion of Joseph Smith or the details of the founding of the [LDS ]Church," he wrote to one critic. "But I had met a few Mormons and they always impressed me as fine people. After delving into the story of Joseph Smith, I understood a lot more about LDS. I remain impressed that Mormons are fine people."
It will be interesting to see if Brown sees them that way as well. Literski isn't worried.
"He'll weave a good conspiracy," Literski says, "but no matter how inventive Dan Brown gets in terms of the connection, he will fall short of just how deep that story does go."
Even in Smith's day, there were Masons who believed the legends were historical truth and saw Freemasonry as a deeply spiritual, mystical quest. Other, more sophisticated members, discounted the old stories, wanting to refocus it along the lines of a charitable and benevolent institution.
The Smiths were about as far into mysticism as you can get, Literski says. "Joseph was rebuilding Solomon's temple with all the legendary baggage that came along with that."
Seeing the relationship between the two groups forces Mormons like Literski to revise his ideas about how God interacts with a prophet.
"You cannot understand what is going on in Joseph's mind unless you can know what he is seeing, hearing, feeling and touching," he says. "That gives me a stronger position of faith than would this idea that revelation is ex nihilo. Joseph was not a puppet."
---
Contact Peggy Fletcher Stack at pstack@sltrib.com or 801-257-8725. Send comments on this article to religioneditor@sltrib.com.
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Joseph Smith FOUGHT Polygamy ?
In the wake of Joseph's 200th birthday, why not give the poor guy a break and give him the benefit of the doubt for once...
Joseph Smith Fought Polygamy
Joseph Smith Fought Polygamy
Monday, December 05, 2005
"I want to dare to speak..."
"I want to dare to speak the language women speak
when there is no one around to correct us."
Terry Tempest Williams, Mormon Bioneer
when there is no one around to correct us."
Terry Tempest Williams, Mormon Bioneer
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Women's Spirituality at Sunstone
Here is a list of Women’s Spirituality-related sessions available at the Sunstone Symposium over the last few years. There may be more but I compiled a list of the most prominent sessions. If you missed the symposium this year, or in the past, you can download sessions in MP3 format via the Internet. Cost ranges from free - $4 per session:
2005 Salt Lake Symposium
This year Sunstone introduced workshops to the symposium! The highlight of which was the return of Margaret Starbird, whose workshop was entitled
MARY MAGDALENE: THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD.
Program excerpt:
Was Mary Magdalene the wife and Beloved of Jesus? What became of her after the Crucifixion of Christ? Why did the Church Fathers suppress her story, and why must we now retrieve it? This workshop will explore the legends and mythology of the Sacred Union that was once at the very heart of the Christian faith. Reclaiming Mary Magdalene as the “Sacred Bride” helps to correct the tragic “design flaw” in Western civilization—the devaluing of the Feminine—that has become painfully obvious at the threshold of the third millennium. –end of excerpt.
Unfortunately, there were technical difficultues during this session and they were unable to post an MP3 to the website. They did catch it on video however, and I emailed Sunstone to let them know that they could make some money if they decided to sell the tape, since Starbird is such a popular speaker.
SL05171, Joseph Smith, Women, and The Feminine - speakers: Margaret Toscano, Lavina Fielding Anderson, Linda King Newell - This panel examines Joseph Smith’s life and teachings in relationship to women. How did Joseph treat women? What influence did they have on him? What role did they play in his life and theology? In ushering in “the restoration of all things,” what did Joseph restore about women and the feminine?
SL05273, Advancing Feminist Sensibilities Among Mormon Men
The following session was in the preliminary program but not on MP3, does anyone know if this session took place?
This session was sponsored by the relatively NEW Moonstone!
excerpt:
PANEL. EXCAVATING THE SACRED FEMININE
In western religious cultures, female roles are often suppressed, disguised, or diminished in a variety of ways. Yet gender is central in the construction of religion, theology, texts, and culture, and women are present or integral to the formation of a religion. Panelists will discuss how their work excavates female or feminine roles from obscurity in religious contexts where they are embedded.
• MARGARET STARBIRD, author, The Woman with the Alabaster Jar and The Goddess in the Gospels (key sources used and cited by Dan Brown), also The Feminine Face of Christianity and Magdalene’s Lost Legacy.
• MAXINE HANKS, writer, lecturer, feminist theorist, Gnostic; editor, Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism, editor Moonstone column; author of numerous articles and essays on feminine theology
• Additional panelists to be announced
2005 Sunstone West - California Symposium featured:
SW05051, PANEL. MORMON FEMINIST LITERATURE REVIEW - speakers: MARY ELLEN ROBERTSON, CAROL LYNN PEARSON, LAVINA FIELDING ANDERSON, NADINE HANSEN - Join panelists for a lively discussion of our favorite, provocative, thought-provoking, revolutionary, inspirational, and faith-enhancing books in the field of feminist spirituality. Re-discover the classics, and hear about newer volumes too good to keep to ourselves! A list of our top picks will be available for the audience.
2004 Salt Lake Symposium
SL04091, RECLAIMING MAGDALENE: THE LOST BRIDE IN CHRISTIAN MYTHOLOGY - speakers: MARGARET STARBIRD - excerpt: In this second Smith-Pettit lecture, Margaret Starbird will discuss the partnership of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, providing evidence from the Hebrew and Christian sacred texts that the Sacred Union was originally at the heart of the Christian mythology. The loss of the 'Bride" in the Christian story has had tragic consequences. Restoring the holy mandala of the hieros gamos--the sacred marriage tha...
SL04271, REAL GODDESSES HAVE CURVES (AND IDENTITIES) - speakers: HOLLY WELKER, DOE DAUGHTREY, MAXINE HANKS, JANA BOUCK, REMY, MARY ELLEN ROBERTSON, MARGARET M. TOSCANO - symposium: 2004 Salt Lake Symposium - excerpt: This panel invites Mormon women to talk about how they find meaning and inspiration in images of divine female power drawn from other religions and traditions. What do we learn about ourselves as women and as agents of the divine by studying the stories or representations of goddesses such as Shakti, Kali, Rhiannon, Venus, Athena, Spider Woman, White Buffalo Woman, Isis, Kuan Yin, and so forth? Es...
SL04132, WOMEN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING: SPIRITUAL PRACTICES THAT HAVE ENRICHED MY LIFE - speakers: LISA HANSEN, DOE DAUGHTREY, WENDY DUTSON, JANA BOUCK REMY - This panel will explore the contribution of spiritual practices to our connection with “that which matters most.” Panelists will discuss the way prayer, meditation, temple worship, yoga, spirit world journeys, lucid dreaming, symbol and energy work, Native American sweat lodge ceremonies, and other contemplative activities have helped them find meaning in crisis and in everyday life.
SL04153, MOTHER EARTH, FATHER PATRIARCHY: EMBRACING A MYTHOLOGY OF RESPECT, EQUALITY, AND HARMONY - speakers: JENNIFER CHANDLER JONES, KERRY SHIRTS - Deep within human consciousness and throughout mythology, we observe the earth symbolizing the feminine energy of the cos-mos. In much of the world, human beings have inherited a mythology that promotes men’s authority and dominance over the earth and over women. This core belief has left a legacy in which women are subjugated and our planet is being destroyed. As we enter the 21st century, we are...
SL04215, PERSEPHONE AWAKENED: A POETRY READING AND DISCUSSION OF NEGOTIATING FEMALE POWER WITHIN A PATRIARCHY - speakers: DANIELLE BEAZER DUBRASKY - By contrasting the traditional Demeter/Persephone myth with a contemporary interpretation, this session will explore how LDS women negotiate power within patriarchy and the possibilities of creating more balance. Persephone Awakened is a book of poems written in a contemporary voice of Persephone as she addresses a childhood companion whom she loses after her abduction. The poems are accompanie....
SL04371, WHAT’S BEHIND THE DA VINCI CODE CRAZE? UNCOVERING THE DIVINE FEMININE - speakers: PAUL TOSCANO, JANICE ALLRED, JODY ENGLAND HANSEN, MARGARET M. TOSCANO - This panel will be a roundtable exploration of important questions raised both by Dan Brown’s book, The Da Vinci Code, and by its enthusiastic reception in the national and LDS markets. What makes the book so popular? The desire for the divine feminine? The pos¬sibility of Jesus being married? The connec¬tion between Mary Magdalene and the holy...
SL04362, 'THE GODDESS IS ALIVE AND MAGICK IS AFOOT': MORMON PAGAN WOMEN IN THE 21ST CENTURY - Reviewed separately in this BLOG!!!
2004 SUNSTONE WEST
SW04001, IN SEARCH OF HER: WOMEN AND DIVINE FEMININE - speakers: Carol Lynn Pearson, Carol P Christ
SW04041, WHERE HAVE ALL THE MORMON FEMINISTS GONE? - speakers: Peggy Fletcher Stack, Maxine M Hanks
SW04071,PANEL. FACT IN FICTION? CRACKING 'THE DA VINCI CODE' - speakers: Maxine M Hanks, Dennis McDonald, George L Gorse, Bradley A Tepaske, Kristy Coleman
2002 Salt Lake Symposium These sessions are FREE to listen to online
SL02161, Our Greatest Challenge: Why Women's Priesthood Needs to Be Recognized in the LDS Church Today - speakers: Todd M Comptom, Vicke Stewart Eastman
SL02-212, Moonstone/Sunstone Dyad as Metaphor of Wholeness - speakers: Maxine Hanks, Linda P Wilcox
SL02254, Body, Parts, and Passions: Representing the Divine Feminine in the Mormon Church - speakers: Doe Daughtrey, Margaret Toscano - This paper examines why Mother in Heaven has been progressively eliminated from institutional discourse. Viewing Mother through the lens of iconography, I suggest that the Church’s move to designate her as “sacred” is an iconoclastic act that dissociates her from Mormon collective memory. Given Mother’s significance in Mormon cosmology, why has she disappeared from our discourse and become so “sac ...
SL02336, Anniversary Looks at Two Feminist Books - speakers: Maxine Hanks, Mary Ellen Robertson, Sonja Farnsworth, Judy Dushku, Nola Wallace, Rodello Hunter
2001 Salt Lake Symposium FREE SESSIONS
SL01123, Mormon Women in the 21st Century - speakers: Lynn M Anderson, Molly M Bennion - Six years ago, I presented 'Issues in Contemporary Mormon Feminism" at the first-ever Mormon Studies Conference at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. This paper, revised since I presented it initially at the second Mormon Studies Conference (University of Durham, UK, 1999), takes an updated look at official, quasi-official, and unofficial views of Mormon women--especially of their role...
THE ONE BELOW WAS AWESOME!!!
SL01275, Women in Religious Studies - speakers: Maxine Hanks, Janet Kincaid, Jana Riess, Mary Ellen Robertson, Cherie Woodworth - More women are pursuing advanced degrees in religious studies than ever before and a number of Mormon women seem to be following suit. This panel is comprised of Mormon women who are doing work in religious studies and/or Mormon studies. They will describe how they became interested in studying religion, what their areas of specialty are, what work they have done in these areas, and how the...
1999 Salt Lake Symposium FREE SESSIONS
SL99276, IS THERE A FUTURE FOR MORMON FEMINSM? - speakers: Sarah R Allred, Stacy Burton, Jayne Clifford, Margaret Toscano, Cherie Woodworth
SL99313, WAS JESUS A FEMINIST? - speakers: Kent E Robson, Todd M Compton
SL99331, THE EARTH AS SACRED GROUND - speakers: Larry Stammer, Eric L Jones
SL99337, WHAT NEXT? Mormon Women in the Twenty-First Century - speakers: Christine M Durham, Jill Remington, Kathy Wilson
1997 Salt Lake Symposium FREE SESSIONS
SL97165, Sarah and Her Sisters Are Alive and Well In Non-Mormon Bookstores - speakers: Molly Bennion
1993 Salt Lake Sympoium FREE SESSIONS
SL93225, If Mormon Women Have Had the Priesthood since 1943--Why aren't They Using It? - All particpants: Linda King Newell, D Michael Quinn, Margaret Merrill Toscano, Maxine Hanks.
2005 Salt Lake Symposium
This year Sunstone introduced workshops to the symposium! The highlight of which was the return of Margaret Starbird, whose workshop was entitled
MARY MAGDALENE: THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD.
Program excerpt:
Was Mary Magdalene the wife and Beloved of Jesus? What became of her after the Crucifixion of Christ? Why did the Church Fathers suppress her story, and why must we now retrieve it? This workshop will explore the legends and mythology of the Sacred Union that was once at the very heart of the Christian faith. Reclaiming Mary Magdalene as the “Sacred Bride” helps to correct the tragic “design flaw” in Western civilization—the devaluing of the Feminine—that has become painfully obvious at the threshold of the third millennium. –end of excerpt.
Unfortunately, there were technical difficultues during this session and they were unable to post an MP3 to the website. They did catch it on video however, and I emailed Sunstone to let them know that they could make some money if they decided to sell the tape, since Starbird is such a popular speaker.
SL05171, Joseph Smith, Women, and The Feminine - speakers: Margaret Toscano, Lavina Fielding Anderson, Linda King Newell - This panel examines Joseph Smith’s life and teachings in relationship to women. How did Joseph treat women? What influence did they have on him? What role did they play in his life and theology? In ushering in “the restoration of all things,” what did Joseph restore about women and the feminine?
SL05273, Advancing Feminist Sensibilities Among Mormon Men
The following session was in the preliminary program but not on MP3, does anyone know if this session took place?
This session was sponsored by the relatively NEW Moonstone!
excerpt:
PANEL. EXCAVATING THE SACRED FEMININE
In western religious cultures, female roles are often suppressed, disguised, or diminished in a variety of ways. Yet gender is central in the construction of religion, theology, texts, and culture, and women are present or integral to the formation of a religion. Panelists will discuss how their work excavates female or feminine roles from obscurity in religious contexts where they are embedded.
• MARGARET STARBIRD, author, The Woman with the Alabaster Jar and The Goddess in the Gospels (key sources used and cited by Dan Brown), also The Feminine Face of Christianity and Magdalene’s Lost Legacy.
• MAXINE HANKS, writer, lecturer, feminist theorist, Gnostic; editor, Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism, editor Moonstone column; author of numerous articles and essays on feminine theology
• Additional panelists to be announced
2005 Sunstone West - California Symposium featured:
SW05051, PANEL. MORMON FEMINIST LITERATURE REVIEW - speakers: MARY ELLEN ROBERTSON, CAROL LYNN PEARSON, LAVINA FIELDING ANDERSON, NADINE HANSEN - Join panelists for a lively discussion of our favorite, provocative, thought-provoking, revolutionary, inspirational, and faith-enhancing books in the field of feminist spirituality. Re-discover the classics, and hear about newer volumes too good to keep to ourselves! A list of our top picks will be available for the audience.
2004 Salt Lake Symposium
SL04091, RECLAIMING MAGDALENE: THE LOST BRIDE IN CHRISTIAN MYTHOLOGY - speakers: MARGARET STARBIRD - excerpt: In this second Smith-Pettit lecture, Margaret Starbird will discuss the partnership of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, providing evidence from the Hebrew and Christian sacred texts that the Sacred Union was originally at the heart of the Christian mythology. The loss of the 'Bride" in the Christian story has had tragic consequences. Restoring the holy mandala of the hieros gamos--the sacred marriage tha...
SL04271, REAL GODDESSES HAVE CURVES (AND IDENTITIES) - speakers: HOLLY WELKER, DOE DAUGHTREY, MAXINE HANKS, JANA BOUCK, REMY, MARY ELLEN ROBERTSON, MARGARET M. TOSCANO - symposium: 2004 Salt Lake Symposium - excerpt: This panel invites Mormon women to talk about how they find meaning and inspiration in images of divine female power drawn from other religions and traditions. What do we learn about ourselves as women and as agents of the divine by studying the stories or representations of goddesses such as Shakti, Kali, Rhiannon, Venus, Athena, Spider Woman, White Buffalo Woman, Isis, Kuan Yin, and so forth? Es...
SL04132, WOMEN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING: SPIRITUAL PRACTICES THAT HAVE ENRICHED MY LIFE - speakers: LISA HANSEN, DOE DAUGHTREY, WENDY DUTSON, JANA BOUCK REMY - This panel will explore the contribution of spiritual practices to our connection with “that which matters most.” Panelists will discuss the way prayer, meditation, temple worship, yoga, spirit world journeys, lucid dreaming, symbol and energy work, Native American sweat lodge ceremonies, and other contemplative activities have helped them find meaning in crisis and in everyday life.
SL04153, MOTHER EARTH, FATHER PATRIARCHY: EMBRACING A MYTHOLOGY OF RESPECT, EQUALITY, AND HARMONY - speakers: JENNIFER CHANDLER JONES, KERRY SHIRTS - Deep within human consciousness and throughout mythology, we observe the earth symbolizing the feminine energy of the cos-mos. In much of the world, human beings have inherited a mythology that promotes men’s authority and dominance over the earth and over women. This core belief has left a legacy in which women are subjugated and our planet is being destroyed. As we enter the 21st century, we are...
SL04215, PERSEPHONE AWAKENED: A POETRY READING AND DISCUSSION OF NEGOTIATING FEMALE POWER WITHIN A PATRIARCHY - speakers: DANIELLE BEAZER DUBRASKY - By contrasting the traditional Demeter/Persephone myth with a contemporary interpretation, this session will explore how LDS women negotiate power within patriarchy and the possibilities of creating more balance. Persephone Awakened is a book of poems written in a contemporary voice of Persephone as she addresses a childhood companion whom she loses after her abduction. The poems are accompanie....
SL04371, WHAT’S BEHIND THE DA VINCI CODE CRAZE? UNCOVERING THE DIVINE FEMININE - speakers: PAUL TOSCANO, JANICE ALLRED, JODY ENGLAND HANSEN, MARGARET M. TOSCANO - This panel will be a roundtable exploration of important questions raised both by Dan Brown’s book, The Da Vinci Code, and by its enthusiastic reception in the national and LDS markets. What makes the book so popular? The desire for the divine feminine? The pos¬sibility of Jesus being married? The connec¬tion between Mary Magdalene and the holy...
SL04362, 'THE GODDESS IS ALIVE AND MAGICK IS AFOOT': MORMON PAGAN WOMEN IN THE 21ST CENTURY - Reviewed separately in this BLOG!!!
2004 SUNSTONE WEST
SW04001, IN SEARCH OF HER: WOMEN AND DIVINE FEMININE - speakers: Carol Lynn Pearson, Carol P Christ
SW04041, WHERE HAVE ALL THE MORMON FEMINISTS GONE? - speakers: Peggy Fletcher Stack, Maxine M Hanks
SW04071,PANEL. FACT IN FICTION? CRACKING 'THE DA VINCI CODE' - speakers: Maxine M Hanks, Dennis McDonald, George L Gorse, Bradley A Tepaske, Kristy Coleman
2002 Salt Lake Symposium These sessions are FREE to listen to online
SL02161, Our Greatest Challenge: Why Women's Priesthood Needs to Be Recognized in the LDS Church Today - speakers: Todd M Comptom, Vicke Stewart Eastman
SL02-212, Moonstone/Sunstone Dyad as Metaphor of Wholeness - speakers: Maxine Hanks, Linda P Wilcox
SL02254, Body, Parts, and Passions: Representing the Divine Feminine in the Mormon Church - speakers: Doe Daughtrey, Margaret Toscano - This paper examines why Mother in Heaven has been progressively eliminated from institutional discourse. Viewing Mother through the lens of iconography, I suggest that the Church’s move to designate her as “sacred” is an iconoclastic act that dissociates her from Mormon collective memory. Given Mother’s significance in Mormon cosmology, why has she disappeared from our discourse and become so “sac ...
SL02336, Anniversary Looks at Two Feminist Books - speakers: Maxine Hanks, Mary Ellen Robertson, Sonja Farnsworth, Judy Dushku, Nola Wallace, Rodello Hunter
2001 Salt Lake Symposium FREE SESSIONS
SL01123, Mormon Women in the 21st Century - speakers: Lynn M Anderson, Molly M Bennion - Six years ago, I presented 'Issues in Contemporary Mormon Feminism" at the first-ever Mormon Studies Conference at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. This paper, revised since I presented it initially at the second Mormon Studies Conference (University of Durham, UK, 1999), takes an updated look at official, quasi-official, and unofficial views of Mormon women--especially of their role...
THE ONE BELOW WAS AWESOME!!!
SL01275, Women in Religious Studies - speakers: Maxine Hanks, Janet Kincaid, Jana Riess, Mary Ellen Robertson, Cherie Woodworth - More women are pursuing advanced degrees in religious studies than ever before and a number of Mormon women seem to be following suit. This panel is comprised of Mormon women who are doing work in religious studies and/or Mormon studies. They will describe how they became interested in studying religion, what their areas of specialty are, what work they have done in these areas, and how the...
1999 Salt Lake Symposium FREE SESSIONS
SL99276, IS THERE A FUTURE FOR MORMON FEMINSM? - speakers: Sarah R Allred, Stacy Burton, Jayne Clifford, Margaret Toscano, Cherie Woodworth
SL99313, WAS JESUS A FEMINIST? - speakers: Kent E Robson, Todd M Compton
SL99331, THE EARTH AS SACRED GROUND - speakers: Larry Stammer, Eric L Jones
SL99337, WHAT NEXT? Mormon Women in the Twenty-First Century - speakers: Christine M Durham, Jill Remington, Kathy Wilson
1997 Salt Lake Symposium FREE SESSIONS
SL97165, Sarah and Her Sisters Are Alive and Well In Non-Mormon Bookstores - speakers: Molly Bennion
1993 Salt Lake Sympoium FREE SESSIONS
SL93225, If Mormon Women Have Had the Priesthood since 1943--Why aren't They Using It? - All particpants: Linda King Newell, D Michael Quinn, Margaret Merrill Toscano, Maxine Hanks.
Monday, November 14, 2005
I WAS A REAL-LIFE SLC PUNK
The Sunstone Symposium is putting their past sessions online. I was just going through the program for the 1999 sessions and found out that my old friends from Salt Lake did a session on Salt Lake City's infamous straight edge scene!
Excerpt:
1999 Salt Lake Symposium SL99134, STRAIGHT EDGE: THE EVOLUTION OF A YOUTH MOVEMENT IN UTAH - speakers: Alex Beckstead, Paul Kreutz, Sean McClaugharity, Trent Nelson, Michael Van Wagenen - ''Straight Edge began as a philosophy that espoused a drug- and alcohol-free lifestyle among youth in the early 1980s. Deeply tied into the punk rock movement, the philosophy has always been suspect by outsiders. In the 1990s, Straight Edge is a favorite target of Utah and national media alike. How did Straight Edge develop, and why has it reached such extremes in Utah? Moderator Michael Van Wagenen . . .
Here are the chronicles of a real-life SLC punk:
I was at almost ALL of these shows at the Speedway, and the Word, and Reptile Records! As well as most of those old-school shows at 924 Gilman St. in Berkeley, like Greenday, at Operation Ivy's last show!
Click Here
Salt Lake City Weekly said, "SLC Punk! (Columbia TriStar, R) James Merendino’s rebel yell, featuring less actual SLC punk than an episode of Touched by an Angel." I thought that was hilarious.
Here's another review from Salt Lake City Weekly:
Click Here
It was quite an oversight to not include any of Salt Lake's actual legendary punk bands in the film. I'm a sucker for Magstatic myself - Click Here
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
A Snapshot in Space and Time
...So I'm listening to Glenn Kimball as I fold laundry on Coast to Coast AM...I am smoothing out a pair of pants on a hanger and Glenn says the word 'pants,' he's telling one of his legendary adventure stories to Ian Punnet. I put the hanging pants together with the hanging shirt and Glenn says, "shirt and pants."
Monday, August 15, 2005
Last BA Weekend of the Second Trimester
The synchronicity rolls on!
Over the last two semesters I spoke with my classmate, Julianne, about her senior thesis. She mentioned that she was doing it on Jeanette Rankin, the first U.S. congress-woman. We had talked about it a few times, but outside of that I hadn't given it much thought.
On Sunday,August 14, Julianne's presentation had morphed from Jeanette Rankin, to a full-blown, multi-media presentation of the History of Women's suffrage, primarily in the U.S., but also in Britain.
She gave each of our cohort members a card with a re-print of a Women's Suffrage poster from 1913. Attached to the card was a Susan B. Anthony dollar and the caption: " Spend this dollar when a woman is elected president "
I felt like something momentous was happening! During this time the Goddess felt like a tangible presence. For the next day or two I was overwhelmed with this presence!
Over the last two semesters I spoke with my classmate, Julianne, about her senior thesis. She mentioned that she was doing it on Jeanette Rankin, the first U.S. congress-woman. We had talked about it a few times, but outside of that I hadn't given it much thought.
On Sunday,August 14, Julianne's presentation had morphed from Jeanette Rankin, to a full-blown, multi-media presentation of the History of Women's suffrage, primarily in the U.S., but also in Britain.
She gave each of our cohort members a card with a re-print of a Women's Suffrage poster from 1913. Attached to the card was a Susan B. Anthony dollar and the caption: " Spend this dollar when a woman is elected president "
I felt like something momentous was happening! During this time the Goddess felt like a tangible presence. For the next day or two I was overwhelmed with this presence!
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Utah Women Were the First to Vote!
I have been reading a lot of books on gender and marriage and family and women's issues, etc. the last several weeks.
I completed Ashley Montagu's The Natural Superiority of Women a couple of days ago. I glanced at a turn-of-the-century book, Woman and Social Progress by Nellie Seeds and H.L. Mencken's 1917, In Defense of Women.
I was doing a book review of Montagu's book for my Social Construction of Identity class when I came across a passing, brief reference to Susan B. Anthony.
Suddenly, it came to my mind...something that I had heard once, that the first women to vote in the United States were Utah women. I decided to diverge from my paper for a bit and look into the matter. I did a search for "Utah" and "suffrage"
I read quite a few articles and biographies online about early Mormon feminism, and confirmed that Utah women were the first women in the United States of America to vote, 50 years before the 19th Amendment was ratified.
I am now doing some extensive research on and compiling an Amazon.com wishlist of books. The first list of books that I have compiled are diaries, ethnographies, historical writing by and about Mormon women, of the past and present, from Laurel Thatcher Ulrich to Terry Tempest Williams.
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Sunstone
For the last few weeks I have been listening to one or more graduate-level seminars in Mormon studies per day at the Sunstone Symposium, via the miracle of cyberspace!
Sunstone Symposium decided that the theme for this years conference was to be the Divine Feminine!
In 2004, they asked Maxine Hanks, the editor of Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism if she could help them find a keynote speaker for the plenary session.
They said they wanted someone was familiar with the Divine Feminine; had published research; was well versed in Mary Magdalene; someone who was known/had books, a popular speaker with accessible ideas, oh, and if there was some kind of connection to the Da Vinci Code that would great, and not just a scholar but some one spiritual as well....
Maxine just couldn’t stop thinking: you're describing Margaret starbird!!!
Opening the session, Maxine expressed that she has noticed increasing interest in the Divine Feminine coming from men, even BYU professors!
i.e. Dan Peterson’s paper on the Asherah:
http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=jbms&id=223
Maxine talks about her excommunication as the typical pattern of the exiled feminine.
Maxine says that Starbird's books contain close scholarly work into the scritptures but Maxine also realized that she was "reading the words of a mystic." Dan Brown and starbird share a common thesis:
There is a hidden concept of sacred marriage or the balance of opposites symbolized by Jesus and Magdalene and it’s the central mystery, or the underlying pattern of Christianity and western culture.
After the time was turned over to Margaret she began to illustrate how the Song of Songs, aka the Song of Solomon, is at the very heart of the Christian story.
Margaret reported the story of how she came across the Book Holy Blood Holy Grail and sought out to discredit the book. She then discusses the mystical, synchronistic experiences that led her to do a 180 and come to her current thesis.
Click on the link below to go to the Sunstone MP3 store. Many of the sessions are free. For the more recent sessions they are asking for a $4 donation.
Select the 2004 Salt Lake Symposium below:
SL04091
RECLAIMING MAGDALENE: THE LOST BRIDE IN CHRISTIAN MYTHOLOGY
http://www.sunstoneonline.com/symposium/symp-mp3s.asp
JUST IN!
Margaret Starbird's appearance at the 2005 Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium. Check the link above for the latest symposium.
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Moroni Olsen
I've been trying to get better at recording the synchronicity that seems to take place at an exponential rate in my life. Ususally there are just too many. But I thought I would record this one, just as a classic example:
My mom came over to my house to visit and spend the night. She wanted to watch some old movies and so we visited the indy video store here in town.
She really wanted to see A Place In the Sun with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift and also an old Jimmy Stewart movie that I was surprised I had never heard of. It was titled Call Northside 777
After the movie was over and the credits were rolling and I was looking at the floor thinking about something entirely different, in this case Joseph Smith,
I glanced up as the credits were rolling and right in front of my face appeared the name Moroni Olsen. With a name like that I immediately knew that if nothing else he was at least an ethnic Mormon!
When I looked him up on the internet I found out that we have the same birthday! But my birthday is already a great synchronicity:
it is the anniversary of Joseph's assassination.
Another synchronous person in my life has written a book on synchronicity:
Consider the Butterfly by Carol Lynn Pearson. I grew up hearing a lot about Carol Lynn, an internationally known poet and playwright, because she was a well known Mormon feminist and she appeared on Donahue, frequently, because of her famous autobiography about caring for her husband in San Francisco, while he was dying of AIDS. She was always part of the family legend cycle because my cousin had been a good friend of hers at a much earlier time in their lives. When I grew up and moved back to the place that I was born after not living there for over 20 years, I wound up in her ward. That was a number of years ago....
How interconnected this tapestry of life is. It's a small world.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Dream
This morning I had a dream. A woman walks into the room with a big, brown dog on a leash. She had blondish hair and was kind of shi shi and demanding. She asked me if she could use a phone book. I handed her a phone book that said BRITTANY. She said, "oh do you need it?" I said, "yes" and so she handed it back to me.
Later that day I spent some time researching Brittany, which I knew nothing about. I had heard the name and was vaguely familiar with the fact that it was somewhere in France but had no idea that it meant "Little Britain" and that it was a Celtic stronghold and former colony of exiles just accross the English Channel from England.
I did a search on one of my very favorite websites, answers.com, and came up with an amazing photo of the traditional regalia of these ancient people who speak one of the very oldest languages (a celtic dialect) in Europe.
Traditional costume in Brittany around 1900
Answers.com says:
"Brittany and the Breton people have retained many old customs and traditions. Breton, their Celtic language (akin to Welsh), is spoken in traditionalist Lower (i.e., western) Brittany outside the cities (see Breton literature). Brittany has remarkable stone calvaries, some built at the close of the 16th cent. to ward off the plague. Many megalithic monuments, formerly ascribed to the druids, dot the Breton landscape, notably at Carnac. These sights and the local traditions (old-fashioned peasant dress and high lace headgear, processions, and pilgrimages), which its inhabitants jealously maintain, have made Brittany an outstanding tourist attraction."
I read up on the Breton language and Breton music. But it was when I went housesitting and pulled a book off the book case a few weeks later that was really crazy. The book, Mysterious Britain, or something like that, said that the local legends in Brittany claimed that St. Anne, the mother of Mary and the grandmother of Jesus was from Brittany!
Later that day I spent some time researching Brittany, which I knew nothing about. I had heard the name and was vaguely familiar with the fact that it was somewhere in France but had no idea that it meant "Little Britain" and that it was a Celtic stronghold and former colony of exiles just accross the English Channel from England.
I did a search on one of my very favorite websites, answers.com, and came up with an amazing photo of the traditional regalia of these ancient people who speak one of the very oldest languages (a celtic dialect) in Europe.
Traditional costume in Brittany around 1900
Answers.com says:
"Brittany and the Breton people have retained many old customs and traditions. Breton, their Celtic language (akin to Welsh), is spoken in traditionalist Lower (i.e., western) Brittany outside the cities (see Breton literature). Brittany has remarkable stone calvaries, some built at the close of the 16th cent. to ward off the plague. Many megalithic monuments, formerly ascribed to the druids, dot the Breton landscape, notably at Carnac. These sights and the local traditions (old-fashioned peasant dress and high lace headgear, processions, and pilgrimages), which its inhabitants jealously maintain, have made Brittany an outstanding tourist attraction."
I read up on the Breton language and Breton music. But it was when I went housesitting and pulled a book off the book case a few weeks later that was really crazy. The book, Mysterious Britain, or something like that, said that the local legends in Brittany claimed that St. Anne, the mother of Mary and the grandmother of Jesus was from Brittany!
DFC Annual Meeting
Since we moved to Davis we have been members of the Davis Food Co-op. We've decided to get involved through weekly volunteering and attending the Annual Meeting. There were a number of people there that we also got acquainted with at the Whole Earth Festival.
One of the key speakers wrote a book on the topic of Cooperatives, which are very popular here in Davis. We got a slide-show and a talk on Coopertive movements and history. Best of all we got to drink beer while we participated and had a nice little dinner there. It was a very inspiring event for me.
One of the key speakers wrote a book on the topic of Cooperatives, which are very popular here in Davis. We got a slide-show and a talk on Coopertive movements and history. Best of all we got to drink beer while we participated and had a nice little dinner there. It was a very inspiring event for me.
Whole Earth Festival 2005 Report
Jose Arguelles was a former professor at UC Davis when he became one of the founders of Earth Day,(First Whole Earth Festival, Davis, California, 1970).
The WEF is cool because it is one of the oldest continuously running Earth Days in the world. The coolest thing about it is that it's FREE!!! So many festivals these days are just about making a profit. The best festival just also happens to be the one that my family can afford to go to! And it's within walking distance!
Unfortunately I didn't bring a camera but I got ahold of some pictures anyway and there's my little baby in the upper right hand corner with the yellow shirt, near the kids craft table.
The next best thing, well maybe it's a tie, is the sense of community. We got to see a lot of people that we knew from this blessed small town that also hosts one very effective natural foods CO-OP, also within walking distance. We also got to see a few old friends from Santa Rosa which was very cool. A mixture of old friends and new friends. Here's our new friend Morgan on a biodiesel tractor at WEF:
2005 Whole Earth Festival's Crowining Moment
HAMSA LILA!
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 | After a long Saturday, the sun began to set and the ecstatic dance began. Hamsa Lila bills itself as a sacred, even religious act, beyond mere entertainment, and they deliver! They set up an altar and sang some prayers. A truly devotional ecstatic performance for all of us that trance danced under the stars... |
Hot tears steaming in the rain
Sunday's Closing Ceremony at the 2005 Whole Earth Festival
 | Local activist, Sunny, inspires us with words and ritual to last us another year until we meet again. |
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After the festival, Tim and I went home, or tried to. We were so amped up we just couldn't go home. We realized that a number of our acquaintances would be working with Project Compost, going through garbage and recycling late into the night. We decided to get involved!
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Permaculture and its Application to Global Justice
Holistic Movements with Permaculture
Notes from a talk at the 2005 Whole Earth Festival, Saturday May 7th:
Picture the blackboard at the front of the inside of this giant yellow dome -
A circle is drawn in the center with the word forest within it. Five spokes of a wheel emanate outwards like the rays of the sun, containing the words: diversity, cooperation, stacking, cycles and evolution.
Erik Ohlsen, the facilitator of the workshop, co-founded P.E.A. Planting Earth Activation.
In two years the Sebastopol-based group has planted 100 heirloom gardens.
Erik asked the group to re-form in a circle and then asked us to say why we think it is good to sit in a circle. The conclusion was that it was non-heirarchical. Yes, heirarchy exists in nature at times, he said, but so does cooperation, and it's useful to use de-centralization in social organizations. It "brings us into a common place."
Erik founded P.E.A. and took it to World Trade Organization protests in Seattle where they began planting guerilla gardens. They began taking over traffic meridians. Eric said that he wanted to create a model, bringing solutions in a place of resistance, and not just shut down the streets. During the Battle In Seattle Eric saw mega-unity-in-diversity from punks to business suits.
Our host gave us a basic definition of Permaculture: Modeling nature, create a "forest" of perrenial plants, and create a permanent food-culture...it's basically "food forest" gardening.
Eric's thesis was that Permaculture model can be applied to every aspect of culture, not just gardening. We need to model a forest in how we design every aspect of society.
Diversity the diversity we find in nature and therefore Permaculture. We are currently experiencing a proliferation of monoculture and homogenization in both farming and western corporate culture.
Cooperation it is a Darwinian myth that all is competition in nature. Competition does exist but there is also cooperation. Scientists couldn't understand how a strawberry plant was able to live and produce fruit in the understory of the rain forest with so little light available. They discovered that the tree whose leaves were high and able to reach the sun would produce the sugars and could bring them down to the mycorrhyza (fungi) which would deliver the sugar to the strawberries.
Stacking In nature and Permaculture "stacking" is an arrangement of plants to take advantage of all possible space, using tall and medium-sized trees with a lower shrub and herb layer. Care must be taken so that water and light compettion are at a minimum. The societal implications were not recorded in my notes on this one.
[Relinquishing Power] Another principle in Permaculture or a self-maintained, organized system (not listed on the board as one of the spokes). This is vital to understanding power dynamics, according to Erik.
Cycles Everything works in cycles. Time.
Evolution How can we evolve out of corporate empire?
IMHO, these last two seem more suited to being combined.
Erik asks: How can we apply Permaculture design to create communities that will last? It doesn't just take sustainability but "Resistance to Ivaders", using Starhawk's analogy to the pattern of historical patriarchal takover/military occupation. Erik works closely with Starhawk.
Permaculture is about webs/relationships/everything connected to everything else...
"We're a circle of designers!"
A group participation excercise begins:
The dome is divided into four quadrants: Yes, No, Effective, Not Effective.
We answer questions by moving to different quadrants and then we discuss our views. Why did we choose the way we did.
The questions include:
Is Peak Oil real?
Will solar power save the world?
Will biotech feed the world?
I went to the Yes quadrant for Peak Oil being real.
For "will solar power save the world" I went to No. Most people went to yes, except for me and Tim and Gabe. I spoke into the microphone and asked, "don't solar panels utilize some petroleum in their manufacture?" Gabe expressed concern over disposal issues.
The biotech issue was long and passionate, of course.
After the excercise Erik began to continue to inspire with more tales from the front lines. He started this organization, he said, to provide an alternative to the polarization rampant within the social justice community. He was tired of everything being "No" and "against." "The problem is the solution," he says. "Think whole systems."
In September of 2003, at the WTO ministerial in Cancun, they set up an eco-camp, utilizing rainwater catching, graywater, composting and rainforest gardening to create models. If you submerge enough oyster shells in acid rain it can neutralize the water.
"We don't have a water crises but a runoff crises! A consciousness crises!"
Every group of people contains all aspects of community for survival: you've got doctors, sewers, talents galore. We are each others resources.
The stories about geurilla gardening at the May, 2003 summit on genetic engineering in Sacramento were the most entertaining and inspiring. The homeless were able to harvest some of the produce, as one homeless woman who was present testified. She said the gardens are still being propagated through seed-saving.
Erik discussed the process of making seedballs and throwing them, in shell containers to protect from birds, onto degraded property. They include a diversity of seeds so that the plants that prefer to grow in that particular environment can choose to do so.
The seedballs were eventually charged with a crime and arrested by the local police. The police said they were weapons and put them in a box and hauled them off.
P.E.A. decided to host a workshop on the steps of the police station. They got a press-conference out of it. He said this is so much about "messenging." The cops got a press-conference out of it too. The police started lobbing seed-balls on film and called them weapons.
The conclusion of the day was: "We need sustainability and social justice woven together."
From the program guide: "Erik Ohlson is a Permaculture, Global Justice Organizer/Educator. he has spent the last six years building movements and nurturing campaigns that range from community gardens with ecological designs to global justice actions that confront Empire while modeling solutions to privatization. He tavels internationally, teaching permaculture courses and working with civil society movements in building soloutions and resistance at summit meetings of the WTO, G8, IMF, FTAA."
Notes from a talk at the 2005 Whole Earth Festival, Saturday May 7th:
Picture the blackboard at the front of the inside of this giant yellow dome -
A circle is drawn in the center with the word forest within it. Five spokes of a wheel emanate outwards like the rays of the sun, containing the words: diversity, cooperation, stacking, cycles and evolution.
Erik Ohlsen, the facilitator of the workshop, co-founded P.E.A. Planting Earth Activation.
In two years the Sebastopol-based group has planted 100 heirloom gardens.
Erik asked the group to re-form in a circle and then asked us to say why we think it is good to sit in a circle. The conclusion was that it was non-heirarchical. Yes, heirarchy exists in nature at times, he said, but so does cooperation, and it's useful to use de-centralization in social organizations. It "brings us into a common place."
Erik founded P.E.A. and took it to World Trade Organization protests in Seattle where they began planting guerilla gardens. They began taking over traffic meridians. Eric said that he wanted to create a model, bringing solutions in a place of resistance, and not just shut down the streets. During the Battle In Seattle Eric saw mega-unity-in-diversity from punks to business suits.
Our host gave us a basic definition of Permaculture: Modeling nature, create a "forest" of perrenial plants, and create a permanent food-culture...it's basically "food forest" gardening.
Eric's thesis was that Permaculture model can be applied to every aspect of culture, not just gardening. We need to model a forest in how we design every aspect of society.
Diversity the diversity we find in nature and therefore Permaculture. We are currently experiencing a proliferation of monoculture and homogenization in both farming and western corporate culture.
Cooperation it is a Darwinian myth that all is competition in nature. Competition does exist but there is also cooperation. Scientists couldn't understand how a strawberry plant was able to live and produce fruit in the understory of the rain forest with so little light available. They discovered that the tree whose leaves were high and able to reach the sun would produce the sugars and could bring them down to the mycorrhyza (fungi) which would deliver the sugar to the strawberries.
Stacking In nature and Permaculture "stacking" is an arrangement of plants to take advantage of all possible space, using tall and medium-sized trees with a lower shrub and herb layer. Care must be taken so that water and light compettion are at a minimum. The societal implications were not recorded in my notes on this one.
[Relinquishing Power] Another principle in Permaculture or a self-maintained, organized system (not listed on the board as one of the spokes). This is vital to understanding power dynamics, according to Erik.
Cycles Everything works in cycles. Time.
Evolution How can we evolve out of corporate empire?
IMHO, these last two seem more suited to being combined.
Erik asks: How can we apply Permaculture design to create communities that will last? It doesn't just take sustainability but "Resistance to Ivaders", using Starhawk's analogy to the pattern of historical patriarchal takover/military occupation. Erik works closely with Starhawk.
Permaculture is about webs/relationships/everything connected to everything else...
"We're a circle of designers!"
A group participation excercise begins:
The dome is divided into four quadrants: Yes, No, Effective, Not Effective.
We answer questions by moving to different quadrants and then we discuss our views. Why did we choose the way we did.
The questions include:
Is Peak Oil real?
Will solar power save the world?
Will biotech feed the world?
I went to the Yes quadrant for Peak Oil being real.
For "will solar power save the world" I went to No. Most people went to yes, except for me and Tim and Gabe. I spoke into the microphone and asked, "don't solar panels utilize some petroleum in their manufacture?" Gabe expressed concern over disposal issues.
The biotech issue was long and passionate, of course.
After the excercise Erik began to continue to inspire with more tales from the front lines. He started this organization, he said, to provide an alternative to the polarization rampant within the social justice community. He was tired of everything being "No" and "against." "The problem is the solution," he says. "Think whole systems."
In September of 2003, at the WTO ministerial in Cancun, they set up an eco-camp, utilizing rainwater catching, graywater, composting and rainforest gardening to create models. If you submerge enough oyster shells in acid rain it can neutralize the water.
"We don't have a water crises but a runoff crises! A consciousness crises!"
Every group of people contains all aspects of community for survival: you've got doctors, sewers, talents galore. We are each others resources.
The stories about geurilla gardening at the May, 2003 summit on genetic engineering in Sacramento were the most entertaining and inspiring. The homeless were able to harvest some of the produce, as one homeless woman who was present testified. She said the gardens are still being propagated through seed-saving.
Erik discussed the process of making seedballs and throwing them, in shell containers to protect from birds, onto degraded property. They include a diversity of seeds so that the plants that prefer to grow in that particular environment can choose to do so.
The seedballs were eventually charged with a crime and arrested by the local police. The police said they were weapons and put them in a box and hauled them off.
P.E.A. decided to host a workshop on the steps of the police station. They got a press-conference out of it. He said this is so much about "messenging." The cops got a press-conference out of it too. The police started lobbing seed-balls on film and called them weapons.
The conclusion of the day was: "We need sustainability and social justice woven together."
From the program guide: "Erik Ohlson is a Permaculture, Global Justice Organizer/Educator. he has spent the last six years building movements and nurturing campaigns that range from community gardens with ecological designs to global justice actions that confront Empire while modeling solutions to privatization. He tavels internationally, teaching permaculture courses and working with civil society movements in building soloutions and resistance at summit meetings of the WTO, G8, IMF, FTAA."
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Thursday Night Report - March 17
My Online Journal
I spent Thursday looking for a job. I could feel nothing but terror regarding my existence for no apparent reason. A friend that I recently got back in touch with, Jahn, (it turns out) has been studying Tibetan Buddhism for about as long as I have, on and off the last year or two. He Instant Messaged me. I was overwhelmed with tasks but I figured what the heck. We ended up chatting for a long time about life and I printed it out and titled it, "Buddhist Journal Entry." I told him how I felt. After we were done it was time to go to Shambhala center. As soon as I left the house I started having synchronicity with the conversation. Before our talk on life, spirituality and philosophy he inquired about my genealogical research. I told him that I was descended from the Le Strange family and also the Strangeways family, just to make him laugh, although it's quite true. On my way to Shambhala, Tim and I stopped at the burrito place and the guy standing in front of us in line had a Doors T-shirt on that said,
"When you’re strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you’re strange
No one remembers your name
When you’re strange"
Another synchronicity:
I told Jahn in the midst of our pep talk that I needed a friend but according to his logic a friend is a "crutch." His response was:
congruent_one says:
But I am just YOU
Ariel says:
yeah I know we are one
Ariel says:
I really do experience that a lot with people - that they are an extension of me
congruent_one says:
but you don't KNOW how expansive your ego is, do it is easier just to explain it as DEATH
congruent_one says:
the ONLY way out of ego/death is to NOT give fear any space
Ariel says:
well my ego is fighting its own demise harder then ever and its tearing me apart
congruent_one says:
Yeeeeeesssssssss
congruent_one says:
Have you ever had a dream neo.....
congruent_one says:
how would you know the dream world from the REAL one?
So when I arrived at the Shambhala center, the first vehicle I saw had a license plate on it that said, "I AM U."
Once inside the center yet another synchronicity occured:
Usually the meditation is just a sitting meditation. For the first time since I started attending the center, at the end of the meditation, they performed a "walking meditation," after I asked Jahn to tell me what walking meditation is:
congruent_one says:
'free your mind' is not what most people think
Ariel says:
what is it then?
congruent_one says:
people normally think it means a shift in perspective - and in Neo's case, a huge one
congruent_one says:
NO MIND
Ariel says:
why is it a secret?
congruent_one says:
Free the mind from it's thinking
congruent_one says:
no thought
congruent_one says:
no form
congruent_one says:
no action
congruent_one says:
only BE
congruent_one says:
empty
congruent_one says:
receptive
Ariel says:
but its a paradox I've read a million books that say the same thing and experienced it at times so whats the big secret?
congruent_one says:
in the space of 'no thought' is NO TIME
congruent_one says:
this is a major theme of siddhis
Ariel says:
I am not surprised about the siddhis thing
congruent_one says:
these monks aren't even awake most of the time - not in alpha like we are
congruent_one says:
in theta, the limitlessness of dreamtime meets the manifest world
congruent_one says:
what do you suppose this would look like?
Ariel says:
I have had some success in treating waking life like a lucid dream
congruent_one says:
good
Ariel says:
I just wish I could stick with it more
congruent_one says:
walking meditation is closer to living a theta state 'waking life'
Ariel says:
hmmm so whats the big secret?
congruent_one says:
the problem with not being prepared or disciplined is the accidental creation of a run-away dream manifesting in our world
Ariel says:
how does one perform walking mediation?
Ariel says:
That's why I started going to Shamballa, to try to develop some self discipline and its the hardest thing in the world right now
congruent_one says:
That children are already living this life - naturally, already - and we 'Babylonize' then right out of what you and I are trying to get back into
Ariel says:
I feel so very very far from self discipline
Ariel says:
OK well children are not really self disciplined so that answers it
Ariel says:
I am like a child quite a bit I must say
Ariel says:
so I must be doing better than I realized
congruent_one says:
the mind has been on autopilot for 34 years. you'll need to break that habit.
congruent_one says:
the 'secret' is simply this:
Ariel says:
how? What do I do? I can't stand sitting meditation. What is walking meditation?
congruent_one says:
when you are willing to lay down your life for your fellow man....
congruent_one says:
...oh
Ariel says:
I like mantras. I need a good mantra these days. I read really cool ones in books but dont know how to pronounce.
congruent_one says:
walking meditation is taking the theta state successfully attained (typically via sitting meditation) and putting it into motion without disturbing the theta awareness - which is friggin hard
Ariel says:
Maybe I could ask at Shambhala
Lastly: When I heard Acharya David Schneider's talk on the Rigdens, many of the words and phrases that he emphasized had been spoken by Jahn earlier, especially the part about relaxing.
Ten pages of notes from Schneider's talk on the Rigdens to follow.
I spent Thursday looking for a job. I could feel nothing but terror regarding my existence for no apparent reason. A friend that I recently got back in touch with, Jahn, (it turns out) has been studying Tibetan Buddhism for about as long as I have, on and off the last year or two. He Instant Messaged me. I was overwhelmed with tasks but I figured what the heck. We ended up chatting for a long time about life and I printed it out and titled it, "Buddhist Journal Entry." I told him how I felt. After we were done it was time to go to Shambhala center. As soon as I left the house I started having synchronicity with the conversation. Before our talk on life, spirituality and philosophy he inquired about my genealogical research. I told him that I was descended from the Le Strange family and also the Strangeways family, just to make him laugh, although it's quite true. On my way to Shambhala, Tim and I stopped at the burrito place and the guy standing in front of us in line had a Doors T-shirt on that said,
"When you’re strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you’re strange
No one remembers your name
When you’re strange"
Another synchronicity:
I told Jahn in the midst of our pep talk that I needed a friend but according to his logic a friend is a "crutch." His response was:
congruent_one says:
But I am just YOU
Ariel says:
yeah I know we are one
Ariel says:
I really do experience that a lot with people - that they are an extension of me
congruent_one says:
but you don't KNOW how expansive your ego is, do it is easier just to explain it as DEATH
congruent_one says:
the ONLY way out of ego/death is to NOT give fear any space
Ariel says:
well my ego is fighting its own demise harder then ever and its tearing me apart
congruent_one says:
Yeeeeeesssssssss
congruent_one says:
Have you ever had a dream neo.....
congruent_one says:
how would you know the dream world from the REAL one?
So when I arrived at the Shambhala center, the first vehicle I saw had a license plate on it that said, "I AM U."
Once inside the center yet another synchronicity occured:
Usually the meditation is just a sitting meditation. For the first time since I started attending the center, at the end of the meditation, they performed a "walking meditation," after I asked Jahn to tell me what walking meditation is:
congruent_one says:
'free your mind' is not what most people think
Ariel says:
what is it then?
congruent_one says:
people normally think it means a shift in perspective - and in Neo's case, a huge one
congruent_one says:
NO MIND
Ariel says:
why is it a secret?
congruent_one says:
Free the mind from it's thinking
congruent_one says:
no thought
congruent_one says:
no form
congruent_one says:
no action
congruent_one says:
only BE
congruent_one says:
empty
congruent_one says:
receptive
Ariel says:
but its a paradox I've read a million books that say the same thing and experienced it at times so whats the big secret?
congruent_one says:
in the space of 'no thought' is NO TIME
congruent_one says:
this is a major theme of siddhis
Ariel says:
I am not surprised about the siddhis thing
congruent_one says:
these monks aren't even awake most of the time - not in alpha like we are
congruent_one says:
in theta, the limitlessness of dreamtime meets the manifest world
congruent_one says:
what do you suppose this would look like?
Ariel says:
I have had some success in treating waking life like a lucid dream
congruent_one says:
good
Ariel says:
I just wish I could stick with it more
congruent_one says:
walking meditation is closer to living a theta state 'waking life'
Ariel says:
hmmm so whats the big secret?
congruent_one says:
the problem with not being prepared or disciplined is the accidental creation of a run-away dream manifesting in our world
Ariel says:
how does one perform walking mediation?
Ariel says:
That's why I started going to Shamballa, to try to develop some self discipline and its the hardest thing in the world right now
congruent_one says:
That children are already living this life - naturally, already - and we 'Babylonize' then right out of what you and I are trying to get back into
Ariel says:
I feel so very very far from self discipline
Ariel says:
OK well children are not really self disciplined so that answers it
Ariel says:
I am like a child quite a bit I must say
Ariel says:
so I must be doing better than I realized
congruent_one says:
the mind has been on autopilot for 34 years. you'll need to break that habit.
congruent_one says:
the 'secret' is simply this:
Ariel says:
how? What do I do? I can't stand sitting meditation. What is walking meditation?
congruent_one says:
when you are willing to lay down your life for your fellow man....
congruent_one says:
...oh
Ariel says:
I like mantras. I need a good mantra these days. I read really cool ones in books but dont know how to pronounce.
congruent_one says:
walking meditation is taking the theta state successfully attained (typically via sitting meditation) and putting it into motion without disturbing the theta awareness - which is friggin hard
Ariel says:
Maybe I could ask at Shambhala
Lastly: When I heard Acharya David Schneider's talk on the Rigdens, many of the words and phrases that he emphasized had been spoken by Jahn earlier, especially the part about relaxing.
Ten pages of notes from Schneider's talk on the Rigdens to follow.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Quote for the Day
My Online Journal
"The universe is not a beautiful balance; it is a chaotic miracle."
From The Darkness Before the Dawn
http://www.elcollie.com/st/darkness.html
"The universe is not a beautiful balance; it is a chaotic miracle."
From The Darkness Before the Dawn
http://www.elcollie.com/st/darkness.html
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Intoxicating
My Online Journal
Great! Intoxiating? oh man......I can't wait to get off this fast and be 'normal' again. I want to eat organic cheese puffs.
Great! Intoxiating? oh man......I can't wait to get off this fast and be 'normal' again. I want to eat organic cheese puffs.
Fasting
My Online Journal
....or maybe its the equinox AND fasting........
woa, could this actually be the 7th day of my fast?
For about 2-3 days I have been eating seeds and pineapple and to a lesser degree apple juice w/ wheat grass powder and once in awhile a little oatmeal or plain cultured yoghurt or lentil dahl and lots of herbs and teas.
today I am doing a little tea and mostly water all day...
ITS THE NEW MOON
....or maybe its the equinox AND fasting........
woa, could this actually be the 7th day of my fast?
For about 2-3 days I have been eating seeds and pineapple and to a lesser degree apple juice w/ wheat grass powder and once in awhile a little oatmeal or plain cultured yoghurt or lentil dahl and lots of herbs and teas.
today I am doing a little tea and mostly water all day...
ITS THE NEW MOON
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