The wisdom of the young at heart . . .
It's Satyr's day . . . and the previews of Winter's coming attractions continues here in Northeast Okieland . . .driving West is not recommended today. . .
The necessary journey from an alienating duality to a reinimated awareness of our quantum interconnectedness is a repeating theme of this blog. Among the champions working with this theme is Sophie Strand. She is not alone. Dr. Sharon Blackie has been exploring stories, myths, fairy tales, and archetypes that illustrate the transformative potential of time spent in inner inquiry, and how doing so might help to shift the collective mindset. She recently shared some of her insights in a video “Developing Kinship with the Animate Earth” produced by the Garrison Institute.
Fairy tales can come true . . .
You can go to extremes with impossible schemes.
You can laugh when your dreams fall apart at the seams.
And life gets more exciting with each passing day.
And love is either in your heart, or on it's way.
Swallowing the Noosphere
It's Freya's day-after-2023-Thanksgiving with cold Northerlies providing a preview of coming Winter attractions . . .. . . and the mailbox brought yet more profound matters for digestion . . .
Today is the 391st anniversary of Benedict Spinoza's birth. The wide-ranging philosopher was born on this date in 1632 Amsterdam. He defined Creation, Creator and the laws of nature as one and the same. He was, as has been many if not most visionaries, excommunicated and marginalized even unto today.
Speaking of visionaries: Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection was published on this date in 1859. Many of my niebors here in Okieland still think “evolution” is an evil word without having tried to understand its meaning.
Without precedent in the history of life, we suffer from a collective psychic disorientation. More than at any other moment of history, Teilhard de Chardin argued, we are experiencing a fundamental anguish of being. Something threatening is opening up in front of us, and something seems more than ever lacking. Teilhard in his lifetime, like Spinoza, was wholly misunderstood and marginalized. Looking for a challenging read that explores our present circumstance? Take on de Chardin’s “Phenomenology of the Noosphere” in: Continental Philosophy of Technoscience. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology (2022). It's a long but IMO worthy read, quite ahead of present day Quantum theory's revelations of interconnectedness and the necessary interdisciplinary union of physics, evolution and philosophy.
The peace of a dark dawn . . .
It is Thanksgiving Day . . . a harvest celebration with ancient roots around the world . . .
At the table today, a pause and reflection from Poet Laureate and my native Okieland and TulseyTown sister, Joy Harjo
And in keeping with all indigenous traditions, my own gesture of thanks . . .
Peace
Black trees, intense blue sky dawn.
Jay, Woodpecker, and Cardinal singing
Thanksgiving for this moment of peace.
– jb
Thanksgiving
Great Mystery, we thank you for this life.
We know we protest much:
The pain of growing and knowing
that it is we who assess our own costs.
Great Mystery thank you for this life —
for all life.
And for death and renewal;
for seasons and the history that brings us
to this celebration.
It is hard to be thankful for the opportunity to grieve,
when those occasions come.
The pain of loss often leads to doubt
and may cloud the memory of your many names:
How easy it is to forget that you move in darkness too.
Forgive our bias toward the light of your abundance,
and accept these thanks for it. They are as sincere
as the majesty and mystery and beauty of your universe.
Great Mystery, thank you for life,
for our lives,
and this occasion to live it.
– jb