“It is like liquid gold, but much finer, it’s a very, very beautiful substance.

It exists, it is not an idea, it is not abstract, it exists.

It is in a way the light of God made manifest in the world.”

-Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

 

Video-clip from Sufi teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee. From the series: The Feminine and the World Soul, by Working with Oneness, on Vimeo

Honoring the Sacred Substance in Creation.

This is part of a transcription of an excellent video-clip, a short and very precise talk about the sacred substance in women and in creation, and why it is so vitally important to become aware of this sacred substance, not only for the sake of women themselves but for the whole of creation – for our world that needs the return of this consciousness.

From my experience with circles of women I know that there are many questions and uncertainties about this subject, but also a hidden wisdom and inner knowing that seems to be encouraged to be lived. I also have experienced that it is very helpful to share what we feel with other women and to help each other to remember, to reflect to each other in order to get a deeper sense of this potential. What is often not really recognized is the fact that is given to us for the sake of the whole of creation. I would like to encourage you to ask your questions and share what you feel about this, in circles of women, or in your comments on this blog. Thank you!

Honoring the Sacred Substance in Creation

by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee  (Transcription)

“Women have in their cells the light of God or the spirit present in the way that men don’t.  And this is because, wether or not they become physically mothers, they have the potential to give birth. What is giving birth means, it means esoterically to bring the light of a soul, that divine light into the world of matter.

So in women spirit and matter can never be separate.

In a man they can be. Men spiritually are made differently. It is something that is not really understood in the West, men are made differently, spiritually. They have to do certain practices and transmute something, before they bring spirit into matter within themselves.

A woman is the matrix of creation.

And if a woman honors that within herself, she honors it for the whole of creation. Because she is part of creation. Remember, nothing is separate. Separation by nature is actually a masculine idea. “I am separate from you.” A woman feels the connections in life rather than the separation in life.

And so if a woman honors that in herself, honors the sacred light of creation in herself,  she autimatically honors it for the whole of creation. And that nourishes creation. Women can experience how that nourishes them. What they don’t realize that it also nourishes the whole of creation, because it is like the catalyst of life, the sacred connection between humanity and life, and the earth. And this of course has to do with the ancient feminine mysteries (…)

There is the spiritual truth that the world is dying because of the lack of a certain spiritual nourishment, a certain sacred substance. I said, the Sufis call it the secret of the word kun, to be.

It is like liquid gold, but much finer, it’s a very, very beautiful substance. It exists, it is not an idea, it is not abstract, it exists. It is in a way the light of God made manifest in the world.

And every woman carries it in the cells of her body. And if she honors it, then that substance begins to flow back into life.

You see, consciousness, human consciousness is very powerful. And again, this is something that has been taken away from us – it’s beginning to come back in subatomic physics – the power of human consciousness. If you say, I am separate from you, and you bring that into your consciousness, that is the experience you give both to yourself and to the other person, or and to life. Your consciousness separates you from life. Which is why for example holistic medicine is so important. If you carry the consciousness that you are one whole, then certain parts in your body can nourish other parts in your body. The energy can flow, the healing can flow. And if you have a bigger consciousness, you can actually allow life itself to heal you, to nourish you, to take yourself out of your isolated being, that certain energies of life can come into your body and heal you.

If you consciously say, I am separate from life, you cut off, you close the door to that substance within you going into the matrix of life. Which is why Jung (C.G.Jung) said, one of the great tragedies of our present time is that we have ceased to believe that the spark of our soul is a spark of the world soul. And because we’ve ceased to believe it we stopped it from happening. That is why when I talked about the inner worlds receeding, about the light in the inner worlds becoming more and more inaccessible, because we stopped believing. It’s like, if you don’t believe, it isn’t there anymore. It is something so simple and so fundamental, you can’t have a relationship with it anymore.

And women carry this substance in their own body.

What the patriarchy has done so effectively that the level of this empowerment has been so fundamental, because  they have actually stopped women from being even aware they have this sacred substance in their own bodies. So  because they are not even aware of it, they can’t use it.  A certain feminine magic has been denied life.” (…)

-Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

 

 

Simplicity and the Black Cat

 

“Return to the state of the uncarved block“

 -Lao Tzu

 

She was real. Not a concept. Not a symbol. Nature. Just there.

Sometimes  we need to talk. We need to express things, need to tell our stories, or there is a need to listen to talks or stories. We need to share as it is part of our human nature. Words are deeply nourishing if they carry a true essence that has taken on colour and music through human experience.

 There are lots of words being spoken, maybe even more are written, and through the media that connect us around the world every single day their number is being increased by billions. We have access to reading and hearing a flood of words, stories, quotations of all sorts.

 Yet underneath this stream of words there is a deeper current that resonates in the many and yet is just one. There is one word within all words that can only be heard when we listen deeply, that can only be spoken in silence. Without that one word there is no meaning to any word ever spoken in human history, no meaning to the elaborate and eloquent speeches either, no meaning even to all the words of wisdom that have ever been uttered.

 Sometimes we are tired of so many words and thoughts. And this is maybe not because we are lazy or not capable to grasp them or refuse to think, rather that we have a deep hunger for the one word that resides in silence. For we long for the sound of stillness,  we long for the pure, real meaning.

We are living in a multi faceted world with countless possibilities. To get a taste of life, we in the West are surrounded by an overwhelming variety of things – so many spices, so many sounds, so many places to travel to, so many pictures to entertain us.

We are hungry for experiences, not only when we are young; we need experiences in life. It is the soul who comes into this world and wants to have experiences, and this is reflected and needs to be lived on all levels – in a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual way.

 However, this hunger for experiences can be both, a natural hunger that dies, when the nourishment has been given, making space for rest and stillness and time to digest, or it can be a hunger that is never satisfied and so remains without being integrated and transformed. This kind of hunger does not die and therefore never transforms. Everything that is being transformed needs to die before the new can be born. If it does not die for something new, it has lost its purpose. When there is no real nourishment, the hunger does not die, and disconnected from a real meaning it turns into addiction. The result is what we see everyday: incessant consumerism in one part of the world, real physical hunger in the rest of the world.

Our world is filled with stuff. A little spoon full of good stuff, amounts of less good stuff and lots of useless stuff. We are living in a world of stuff and calling it freedom only because we are always forced to make choices, we have made ourselves slaves of stuff. Even when we want to get rid of some of it we do not know where to leave it.

Distracted and almost disconnected from real values there is a deep need rising from within. Like an invisible seedling in the earth a deep longing for simplicity is growing from beyond the shadows of the world of stuff.

It is a longing for less and less. For real freedom.

 The longing for simplicity is not an attitude against life, not a denial of being in the world of creation, not even the wish to lead an ascetic life. Yes, materialism is rooted in the Latin word mater, mother, which reminds us of the Great Mother. But it is crystallized in an “ism”, like fundamental-ism. It is something being lived to its extreme, at the place of only one single pole of two sides which together would make it whole. Materialism is seeing matter as without spirit, creation without light. Materialism is attachment to matter when we deny the light within, and when we do not honour matter as being sacred anymore.

 Longing for simplicity is the longing for the sacred in life, is the longing for being related to what we receive and give, what we share with the earth and with our fellow humans.  It is a longing for cleansing what is distracting us from the essence.

 Longing for simplicity is a longing for the truth. It is said that truth is always simple. If something is complicated it cannot be truth.

There are many thoughts in the world about truth, the Truth with capital T. There are still so many people struggling and having arguments, even fights and wars about the “right” truth neglecting the fact that on the level of thoughts there are as many truths as human minds, and that thoughts can never be the truth. Yet we are attached to thoughts and words … We do not live only in a materialistic world of things, there is also a materialism of words, and like a consumerism of emotions and feelings there is a certain consumerism and materialism of thinking.

Recently I have been at a place of many thoughts. Just as we were departing my friend and I were pulling our suitcases over the slightly snow covered cobblestones heading towards the parking lot. I was very sad. I was not thinking, just sad. There had been so many thoughts, so much thinking, so many words that cover and veil the beautiful living natural spark in the heart. The noise of the wheels on the pavement sounded harsh into the wasteland that I felt inside. I was exhausted, I did not even long for anything, there was just nothing, like a barren land.

And then out of the blue, as if she had beamed herself right in front of my feet, there was a black cat, just there. A beautiful velvety black cat in the white snow. She touched my heart. And my heart responded, right away. For a moment she snuggled against my legs and then did the same to my companion. We walked on, she came again. She did it three times following us for quite a distance. She was not hungry, she looked well fed, she did not want anything from us.  She was just there, just a light in creation. And this was tremendously comforting and healing.

She was real. Not a concept. Not a symbol. Nature. Just there.

It was a sacred moment. Full of magic and wonder. 

A black cat in the white snow. 

No less, no more.

Simple.

 ————————————————————————————————————————-

Abridged version of an article by Angela Fischer

_________________________________________

“Will is of little importance, complaining is nothing, fame is nothing.

 Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything.”

-Rainer Maria Rilke

RECEPTIVITY

 

You might remember a certain experience in your life – or even more of them – when in a difficult and seemingly insolvable situation you were painfully approaching the moment, when you had to admit to yourself not to know how to go any further. We humans are stubborn and complicated, a strange species. We often need a long time to get to that moment. Although we tend to avoid pain, we sometimes seem to deliberately stretch the time of increasing pain, because the last thing we want to do is to give up.

Yet what happens, once we fully allow to not know? When we stop fighting and stop complaining, just because we are tired of it? When all at once we become still and give ourselves to the moment just as it is? When we stop doing anything and just are?

A space opens.

An open space is getting wider and wider.

How do we relate to this space and how does the space relate to us? Interestingly we do not think at that moment, we are not in our mind, we are beyond trying to make use of this space, making plans or creating concepts of what could be the right thing to do.

Sometimes you may just pray. It is not a prayer of asking for something, because prayer in this state is just being, being with all the need and vulnerability inside of us.

We are completely naked, and so is the space – empty. In our nakedness we are so human, so full of need, and we do not deny it any longer.

And then, very tenderly, an ear is opening, an ear in the heart, and we are listening into the silence of  just being. Listening here is not  stressful, there is no effort. It is infinetely relaxing.

This is the moment when the tide is turning.

There is room for something new that is waiting to arise, something you would not have thought of before. Sometimes it is through a clear thought, an answer that comes from within or an outer experience that lifts the whole situation to a different level of experience. We are truly experiencing a deep process of transformation, but this transformation could have never happened without the crucial point of allowing to become receptive. Like a woman can never attract a soul to come into this world without being receptive. Without her receptivity there is no conception, no pregnancy and no birth of a child.

The feminine quality of receptivity is what mystics know as the deep loving and longing in our relationship to God. So many mystics from all traditions contributed to the treasure of wonderful poetry about the most beautiful relationship that ever was, is and will be: The loving relationship between the soul and God. And in this relationship the soul is receptive.

There is a deep-rooted yearning in the soul for receptivity, to live it, to just be feminine, no matter whether we are women or men, to be as we are – naked human beings with this deep unfathomable need for the Love of God. As Meister Eckhard says, “God is the sigh in the soul.”

 

-Excerpt from a recent talk by Angela Fischer

(English translation)

 

 

 

 

 

What it Means to Be a Mystery

 

“If we could see the miracle

of a single flower clearly,

our whole life would change.”

~Buddha

The Feminine is a mystery, women are a mystery. This is what we hear from time to time. What does this mean, if we look more deeply, if we do not only perceive such a statement as a more or less helpless but friendly joke about the ‘irrational’ feminine?

Lately in the news we could find headlines like this: “The biggest mystery in the universe perplexing one of the world’s best known scientists is — women.” When asked what he thinks about most, Stephen Hawking, the famous professor renowned for unravelling most complex questions in modern physics answered: “Women. They are a complete mystery” (New Scientist magazine).

So we may conclude: Even to one of the most brilliant scientists of our present time who discovered so many secrets of the visible world one single thing remains a mystery — women. Maybe it makes us smile, or maybe we are reminded of Sigmund Freud  echoing a predominant masculine consciousness that does not understand the feminine psyche, sexuality and way of thinking, speaking of the “dark continent” that women are.

But what would happen if we went beyond such a perception and just looked at the serious question:  Is there a real mystery within women? What deeper truth is reflected by such statements?

And if there is such a thing as a mystery within women, what does it mean for women themselves? Do we as women feel to be a mystery, and how is this relevant to our lives?

Looking from a spiritual perspective it is creation that is a great mystery.

Creation is full of wonder offering humanity not only to participate in her wonders and to take part in her cycles of life and death revealing endlessly the secrets of the Divine, but also to play a certain role in her evolution – an evolution that unfolds the relationship between the Creator and his creation.

For a mystic this relationship is a relationship of love. Evolution is an evolution of love, and humanity is endowed with a consciousness that is able to witness, to realize and in a certain way to live what is being revealed.

Central to living this simple connection with life, with creation is the awareness of the sacredness of creation.

Women have direct access to the mystery of creation, because they hold it in their very being. They give birth. And not only when women actually are giving birth do they embody the sacred power to give life and to nurture life. The mystery of creation is always reflected in the mystery of being a woman.

When the mystery of creation is acknowledged and valued as being sacred, women are acknowledged for what they are. Rumi said,

“Woman is the radiance of God, she is not just the earthly beloved.
 She is creative, not created.”     –Rumi, Masnavi, I:2437

So maybe to consider women as a mystery is one of the last traces of a human awareness of the fact that women are deeply connected to the mystery of creation. The last traces … As we sadly know, humanity has almost completely forgotten that creation is sacred. And as much as women have been denied their sacred nature and been treated accordingly, the earth has been treated as a lifeless and soulless piece of matter, having been tremendously violated.

We have lost the relationship to creation that is one of love and respect for the sacredness within. The consequences are visible everywhere, but what we consider as an outer crisis, an ecological crisis is – beyond that – a much deeper crisis. It is not only about physical survival. In a recent talk Sufi teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee said,

“The secret that nobody is saying is that the ecological crisis is founded upon a very deep spiritual crisis in creation. It comes from a very foundational attitude that we have in our culture towards creation.”  –Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, ‘Spiritual Ecology’ (See also The Great Unspoken Tragedy of the   Present Time)

Women are able to give something back to life that is vitally needed. They can contribute to bringing back to human consciousness an attitude towards creation that is rooted in the deep knowing of its divine nature.

We need to become aware again of the responsibility that comes with having access to the deepest mystery ever – the mystery of creation. We have lost so much of our knowledge, have buried it under the ruins of our history, protected from still unfelt pain, covered with resentment and anger.

And yet we still give birth to children, we care for them and we care about the future of our children and grandchildren.

So we are called to remember that a mystery needs to be witnessed, because it is there for a purpose. The mystery of creation is something that attracts us and leads us on the way home. Without it we, all human beings, cannot find the way home while we are stumbling through the density of this world.

We need to go back to the inner rivers of being that women can find within themselves, sit there and listen to the ancient song that brings everything into life. We need to sit down by the riverbeds and pray for the whole of creation and for every single being within creation, learning to sing that song again, sing it for the love that keeps the world alive.

How can we live this? The first step is to create a space within, to hold this space, a sacred space in which we become aware of this deep mystery of the feminine that we as women are allowed to embody. And once we hold this inner space we are able to share it with other women. So we are creating a space within the feminine and among women from which we can bring a certain vibration back to the world that can help to heal and transform life.

It is time to remember this ancient song and to sing it again. So that the masculine and the feminine consciousness can find their ways towards each other again and come together in a new way.

And should we be too shy to be “mysterious”, let us quote another great scientist, Albert Einstein who said,

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”

 

-January 2012,  by Angela Fischer

 

 

A Pure Moment

 

 

We are approaching the beginning of a new year while the past one has been slowly absorbed into the stillness of the previous days, passing by in the silent atmosphere of transition. Although it is only a cut by counting the years, a shift in numbers, a way to put order into the linear concept of time, there is always the feeling of a certain clarity and pureness at the moment, when the new year is just about to begin. For an instant we step out of our daily routine, out of our small worlds in which familiar patterns have been continuously repeated, many of them just unconsciously.

And now, for a brief moment, anything seems possible, any change …

The coming year is completely unknown, winged with horizons that our eyes may search but cannot find. Like a white sheet of paper that always holds so much promise for a writer – the joy emerging from emptiness, an emptiness that is receptive for a new seed.

This time of the year seems to offer a space in which there is a certain awareness that is not present at other times. For a very brief moment people seem to step out of their small confined worlds opening themselves to a wider perspective, maybe thinking about peace in the world or considering that the world could be different. For a moment there is an awareness of the possibility to leave something behind, to stop living in the past and at the same time to renounce those concepts of a future that just contain the endless continuum of what we already know. And so – as we might have heard it for many times – if we are able to live without past and future, at least for an instant, we are in the present moment.

Maybe there is something dawning at the edge of our consciousness that this moment is always present, not only when we turn the calendar, when we begin counting the days, weeks and months from zero again. It is the moment when we are completely awake. Awake to life as it is – a divine revelation. A moment that we can offer our love, our prayers which are rising from the depth of our hearts. A moment to which we can give our breath, the inbreath and the outbreath, remembering the source where all life is coming from. 

 

 

If you ever had the privilege of being in the presence of a new born child, 

you know the unexpressible depth of feelings – the limitless awe before its divinity, the marvel before the purity of the soul who just arrived from afar, from the world of pure light.

And if you once gave birth to a child or witnessed a birth process, you might have experienced this outstanding moment: Regardless of any pain or dramatic feelings during the process of giving birth, once a baby is born there is always a tremendous moment of stillness, an eternal stillness. Maybe it is not felt in time or outer activities, but in the heart. The whole potential of a soul coming into this world and living a unique and full life here on earth is present at that moment, and yet this child is just pure being, naked in its radiating light. A space opens itself. The stillness holds a sense of fulfiillment within that moment, a stillness which at the same time is completely open and empty.

We easily forget about those deep experiences.

We also easily forget the role of women in this miracle – if ever we had given permission to ourselves to become conscious of this wonder. Women are able to give birth to a divine being. When the child is born it is pure. The soul has taken on form within the cocoon of pregnancy, and still is the pure soul when being born into this world. Her  divine nature is completely present.

The role of  women in this deep mystery that we so easily overlook is to offer our bodies, our hearts and our whole being so that the child’s birth can be given through us. Because in our bodies and our being we carry a sacred substance that enables this miracle to take place.

There is a capacity in the feminine to give the space and a certain energy so that something completely new can be born, a light that comes from emptiness into this world of existence, takes on form and earthly life but remains completely true to its divine nature. 

Given to women for the sake of creation this sacred potential is waiting to be recognized, to be valued and to be lived for the benefit of the whole of creation. Like the Aleut elder Larry Merculieff (Indigenous Elder Wisdom for Modern Times) says:

“There is a sacred vibrational field inside of the woman that we have forgotten to honour.  That is the place of all the things born, that nothing new can be birthed without woman.”

And Sufi teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee (Awakening the World: A Global Dimension of Spiritual Practice) writes:

“The feminine has deep understanding of the power of matter. Women carry the instinctual knowing of the divine substance in matter and of how to bring this substance into life, because this knowledge is fundamental in the process of giving birth, in bringing a soul into human form. Now this wisdom is needed for the regeneration of the earth, for the earth’s awakening.”

This is something that needs to be honored by both women and men, from the place of their inner connection to the feminine which is not only present in women but also in men.

Holding this awareness leads us into the deep moment of being present to the divine coming into existence – which is happening now and in every single moment. And this awareness connects us with a potential of  humanity, with the potential of the divine and human being who is here on earth to witness the revelation of God while taking part in the evolution of the world.

In the midst of the confusion and the darkness of the present world we can hold this light  -  the awareness of a purpose of creation, a purpose of humanity, a resposibility towards the planet we inhabit. Many people are wondering about this 2012 year – is it the end of time, the end of the world or the chance of a new era to begin? There are lots of fears and anxieties concerning the future, and also plenty of fantasies of a beautiful new world already arriving.

Yes, our world is waiting to be awakened, the previous era is dying, and the present darkness is very threatening. But the ways and directions of this deep transformative process and where it leads to is not something we can just project onto a date of time and then leave it as a matter of outer circumstances or a matter of prophecies.

Rather we are a part of this process. We are not separate. There is a need for our inner awareness. We take part, and this we do in the moment. Only in the moment, and in every moment.

Maybe now is a good moment…

A way to be with that moment is simply to hold a space, to go inside and to feel into the heart. Here we can feel the heartbeat of the world and the heartbeat of humanity. We take the world into the light of our deepest love, and we offer it to God.We breathe into this moment, into the new that is just being born.

This is a beautiful inner place to pray. Just to be wih God and to hold humanity in our hearts, a humanity that is so confused and still asleep and facing so much darkness, and to hold the whole world in our hearts and to allow it to be touched by our remembrance. And we remember that it is all about grace.

 

Happy New Year!

Ein gesegnetes Neues Jahr!