We have been meditating on Evil and its remedies for some time now in our DM (surely since Putin’s war in Ukraine began).
For the last two days we have been sharing how trips to the moon and outer space have awakened mystical experiences for both astronauts and cosmonauts, and in turn rendered them more concerned about the fragility of Earth.
I commented in yesterday’s video about how valuable their insights and conversions were, but that surely we all don’t have to travel to space to discover our mysticism. Do we?
Of course not. That is what creation spirituality is all about after all. Surely it praises the conversions that astronauts undergo in space and from their special perspective on “fragile” earth (their word invoked regularly) in a deep, dark cosmos, for space is a major part of creation after all.
Yet creation is very near and every day and utterly down-to-earth as well. Poet Mary Oliver share the mystery that arouses wonder in everyday things, from dogs to birds to flowers to wild geese and ponds, you name it. Other poets and musicians and visual artists do the same.
Meister Eckhart develops a rich theology of the theophany that creation is. Consider these teachings:
The entire created order is sacred. This sort of says it all.
The Father speaks the Son from his entire (creative) power, and he speaks him in all things.
Soundings of the Planet
God is constantly speaking only one thing. What is that one word? It is God and creation: In this one utterance God speaks his Son and at the same time the Holy Spirit and all creatures.
God pours out in the Son all creatures. Eckhart is speaking here of the Logos or Word of God or Cosmic Christ who is present in all creatures, all beings, from the universe itself to each particular being. God and creation are one utterance. Creation is an expression of divinity, indeed a kind of divinity….
Adapted from Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality, pp. 110f.
And from Matthew Fox, Passion for Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart, pp. 57, 60f., 70.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image; “An Astronaut’s View from Space, Just Past Sunrise Over the Ocean.” Photo by NASA/Reid Wiseman from the International Space Station
Queries for Contemplation
Spend time with Eckhart’s teachings here. How is Creation speaking to you in Eckhart’s words about the Cosmic Christ and the Sacredness of creation in these passages?
Recommended Reading
Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality
Selected with an Introduction by Charles Burack
To encapsulate the life and work of Matthew Fox would be a daunting task for any save his colleague Dr. Charles Burack, who had the full cooperation of his subject. Fox has devoted 50 years to developing and teaching the tradition of Creation Spirituality and in doing so has reinvented forms of education and worship. His more than 40 books, translated into 78 languages, are inclusive of today’s science and world spiritual traditions and have awakened millions to the much neglected earth-based mystical tradition of the West. Essential Writings begins by exploring the influences on Fox’s life and spirituality, then presents selections from all Fox’s major works in 10 sections.
“The critical insights, the creative connections, the centrality of Matthew Fox’s writings and teaching are second to none for the radical renewal of Christianity.” ~~ Richard Rohr, OFM.
Passion for Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart
Matthew Fox’s comprehensive translation of Meister Eckhart’s sermons is a meeting of true prophets across centuries, resulting in a spirituality for the new millennium. The holiness of creation, the divine life in each person and the divine power of our creativity, our call to do justice and practice compassion–these are among Eckhart’s themes, brilliantly interpreted and explained for today’s reader.
“The most important book on mysticism in 500 years.” — Madonna Kolbenschlag, author of Kissing Sleeping Beauty Goodbye.
8 thoughts on “The Down-to-Earth Mysticism of Creation Spirituality”
Matthew, Today you ask us in our Queries for Contemplation: “Spend time with Eckhart’s teachings here. How is Creation speaking to you in Eckhart’s words about the Cosmic Christ and the Sacredness of creation in these passages?” Eckhart speaks to me of the Cosmic Christ in words such as these: “The Father speaks the Son from his entire (creative) power, and he speaks him in all things.” Eckhart also says, “God is constantly speaking only one thing. What is that one word? It is God and creation: In this one utterance God speaks his Son and at the same time the Holy Spirit and all creatures,” and “God pours out in the Son all creatures.” All of this is Cosmic Christ language, but it also emphasizes creation and all creatures. In fact he also says that, “All creatures are a word of God and a book about God (now this part from memory) if I spent my time trying to understand the smallest creature, even a caterpillar, I would never have to write another sermon again, so full of God is every creature.” This is what Creation Spirituality means, and thus you titled your book on Eckhart: PASSION FOR CREATION. Another example of Creation Spirituality is ” poet Mary Oliver who shares “the mystery that arouses wonder in everyday things, from dogs to birds to flowers to wild geese and ponds, you name it.” And this site is for teaching Creation Spirituality and its implications and how it relates to the world and what is going on in the world. That’s why it is so important to understand the “Four Paths,” because our lives and the world itself moves through these four paths continuously, and because now is a time of war, the world is walking the Via Negativa, and we only hope that things will change, and the world will walk once again on the Via Transformativa.
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This is lovely, Jeanette. Thank you.
My heart shakes hands with this.
Matthew, I forwarded today’s DM to my “email friends” and also recommended your new book about Creation Spirituality which I’ve begun reading; and I’m glad it came out to help disseminate in an organized way your many books about our universal mystical spiritual tradition… Blessings of Our Loving Oneness….
Thanks for the ‘Earth as a Living Being’ video. She is not our spaceship. She lives and breathes. We must cease to be the fungus on her body bringing her to rot. We must become the nutrient that brings her back to health.
If we could only begin to see Mother Earth as the beautiful living, breathing blue jewel of the universe that she is. Maybe we could start to ‘protect and defend her as best we can.’
❤️