Yesterday I shared with you a beautiful photo taken from a friend who is currently walking the Camino, a Christian pilgrimage walk. My friend is indigenous (Mien), Buddhist, Laotian, Thai and American.
It is an amazing picture, isn’t it?
Notice the sun in the picture, what an unusual light it is giving us. And on the far right is the moon looking on. The sun is blessing a church, a symbol of people gathered to pray whether that be in a church, temple, outdoor Sun Dance circle or mosque, etc.
The occasion is a Camino walk, a traditional Christian pilgrimage being executed by an indigenous Mien refugee in two countries who is a Buddhist (and hopes to be reincarnated some day as a monk) and who teaches youth mathematics.
We have certainly left the age of Pisces and dualisms behind haven’t we? Or are trying to. And we are learning to get settled in an age of Aquarius, of water, of Yin that is equal to Yang, of mysticism and spirituality more than religion, of feminism and masculinity in balance, of acceptance of diversity and difference. My friend and his partner are gay.
Does this scene and story say something to you about deep ecumenism? About how the sun shines on all of us, and the moon too, and Spirit and God-by-whatever-name is so much bigger than our religions and ideologies and how Spirit works through all traditions and none?
We are all on a pilgrimage of some kind, moving our bodies, souls, breath, cares, concerns, loves and losses along our sacred paths. And the sun blesses, and the moon rises, and the Earth keeps on giving. And here we are.
And we all face climate change together—excessive heat and draughts and floods, rising oceans and extreme temperatures and disappearing species by the millions, and possible extinction—we face them together too. They are not respecter of persons. Or of religions. Of gender or gender preference.
Surely it is time to pool the wisdom of all our spiritual traditions and to stand together in common Awe and Gratitude with a sense of the common good and a common sacred such as this picture records.
Can we rejoice that we are here on this 13.8 billion year pilgrimage together? And can we pray that we develop the vision and courage, determination, hardiness and flexibility to make the hard choices to carry on? And do it together?
See Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a New Renaissance.
And Fox, Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image: Pilgrim walking the Monumento de Monte do Gozo, Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Photo by Jorge Luis Ojeda Flota on Unsplash.
Queries for Contemplation
What pilgrimages have you undergone and are you on today?
Recommended Reading
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
In what may be considered the most comprehensive outline of the Christian paradigm shift of our Age, Matthew Fox eloquently foreshadows the manner in which the spirit of Christ resurrects in terms of the return to an earth-based mysticism, the expression of creativity, mystical sexuality, the respect due the young, the rebirth of effective forms of worship—all of these mirroring the ongoing blessings of Mother Earth and the recovery of Eros, the feminine aspect of the Divine.
“The eighth wonder of the world…convincing proof that our Western religious tradition does indeed have the depth of imagination to reinvent its faith.” — Brian Swimme, author of The Universe Story and Journey of the Universe.
“This book is a classic.” Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work and The Dream of the Earth.
Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
Because creativity is the key to both our genius and beauty as a species but also to our capacity for evil, we need to teach creativity and to teach ways of steering this God-like power in directions that promote love of life (biophilia) and not love of death (necrophilia). Pushing well beyond the bounds of conventional Christian doctrine, Fox’s focus on creativity attempts nothing less than to shape a new ethic.
“Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow. Countless numbers will be happy to follow his lead.” –Bishop John Shelby Spong, author, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Living in Sin
7 thoughts on “A Solstice Photo and Story Shared from the Camino, Part II”
What is not hope? Living in exclusivity and shutting others out for a host of reasons? No longer seeking what has been ‘lost’, our lost realization of what is ‘the better Way’? So, is ‘true’ hope, and not false hope, not our actively walking the path, the journey of ‘the Way the Truth and the Life’?
How is hope to survive if it is not true to the heart, able to move from the consciousness to the subconsciousness? What can an enduring hope amount to if not having love, faith, courage and a journey of light seeking? Are we not meant to be ‘nomads’ of sorts or are we stuck with a family or church family lacking faith, an exclusive and fearful / hateful community, a dead-end job, a way of life that is not working? How do sparks of hope inflame our souls if not ignited by the ‘true and the real’ and not just the imagined. Hope, like faith, is ‘dead’ without works, is it not?
Hope is an active path. How do we see our circumstances becoming better if we are not open to change? To be open to change is the ‘real hope’ that in turn opens us to love, trust, courage, fortitude and ‘the Way through any suffering that we may encounter. If we find ourselves ‘in the fire of hell’, we might as well start walking through it and out of it. That is ‘the Eternal Promise’ we have been given. Let’s start walking ‘a healing path’ and leave behind all that ails us. Hope is a healing and transformative verb. — BB.
I see my life as a pilgrimage journey. Rather than a straight road, it’s been a long and winding path, a movement like a spiral, at times descending at other times ascending; circling inwards towards the center and then outwards to the expansive edges. Sometimes I walk in the light of the sun, at other times by the light of the moon and at other times in the darkness of the unknown, intuiting and sensing my way, with an inner light; the spark of the Divine essence that is present in presence within all movements.
As I journey on this pilgrimage, I weave together threads of what I discover and learn, that unfolds through what I experience and encounter, continuously evolving, emerging and converging; like a braid of sweetgrass woven, a basket carried that holds precious gifts and healing medicines, a mantle worn with the beautiful patterns and messy stains, which tells the story of it all. Sometimes there are knots in the threads that need to be disentangled, or a thread breaks and needs to be rejoined, or some threads that have become frared, no longer useful simply needing to be let go of.
Within this pilgrimage journey I often stop awhile, at the campfires of others. SItting in a circle, we share our stories. Learning from one another, we come to realize that we are all apart of a larger story, each contributing our unique song; diversley traveling sacred pathways that lead to the same place of oneness, wholeness and holiness.
Just outstanding, Matthew! Thank you.
Thank you Matt for today’s meditation- A Solstice photo.
Naming and celebrating our union in Spirit and the gift of Life within and among the sacred paths of each of us is such a wonderful gift.
Your Love and wisdom Matt for all Life, for its Source, Mystery and creative eternal Fire continues to permeate, radiate and inspire through these meditations and all your work. You are such a gift to me Matt through time and to so many of us. Abundant, loving blessings to you Matt,
This comes with ever renewable, virtual bear hugs as well. ????????????.
YES AMEN INDEED THANK YOU!
The spiritual pilgrimage I have been on the last few years, related to my more long-term mystical spiritual journey, is exploring our spiritual multidimensional-multiverse Cosmos. In at least the last fifty years there seems to be a growing awareness, consciousness, experience, and research of the non-physical spiritual realms by individuals who have had near-death experiences, out-of-body experiences, channelers and hypnotherapist psychologists who have experienced and written about these spiritual dimensions of the afterlife such as energy beings, spirit guides and angels. Two websites that have specialized in compiling past and present records and research of these spiritual multidimensions are eternea.org and noetic.org . Of course there is also modern quantum physics/science. It seems like in our post-modern world the traditions of mystical spirituality and modern quantum science are coming together. The mystical spiritual traditions of most our major religious traditions, including Indigenous spirituality of nature and ancestors, have included mystics, saints, prophets, and healers who have experienced spirits from the spiritual dimensions and Source who guide and serve their communities and humanity.
The universal multi-spiritual wisdom seems to be that our co-Creator~Source is a Living Loving Wisdom Presence with-in All our sacred evolving multidimensional-multiverse Cosmos of Loving Diverse Oneness, including our unique eternal Souls….
What an exquisite photo! I recently met someone who did the Camino & also a similar pilgrimage walk in Japan. What a great way to balance the christian & buddhist philosophies doing both walks & meeting other pilgrims.
Lovely insights into the astrological shift that is occurring and the need for rebalancing.