Witnessing the Magic of Life 

 

This morning I fell in love with a cherry blossom.

The Magic of Life – does it exist if we do not witness it?

If no one in the world looked at the starry sky in the night, if no one on earth woke up by the airy song of an early bird in the morning, if no one felt the cool breeze stroking their hot cheeks after a long summer’s day, would there be magic in life, could it fulfil its purpose to awaken us from our sleepy existence?

If there were no child anywhere in the world discovering the sparkle of thousands of lights in a handful of sand, and if there were no one to see then the shining eyes of the child playing with the light in the grains of sand, could the magic of life still unfold its power? Would it still exist?

Would we be able to bear what is so human in us without the Divine? Could we cope with our fears and anxieties that at present times seem almost to eat up humanity, as we are being driven further and further into the dark places of separation?

Without a meaning in life, a deeper meaning, that carries us through the waves of our existence, through both birth and death, sorrow and joy, pain and delight, without separating them, we are just lost, even if we do not notice what we are missing. If there is no meaning, no spark we recognize in creation, creation cannot reflect the light to us; life cannot carry our souls to their destination.

Life is sacred.

And the sacredness speaks to us through its magic. The lights playing on the water remind us of the eternal spark of light within the world. Magic is something we cannot control, because it belongs to the moment, it was not created, not even a thought before, it is not part of a schedule. A moment is magical because it is unpredictable, because it is being born for the very first time. The magic of life touches us, surprises us, and gives rise to the feeling of awe and wonder and of a meaning far beyond our own concepts. The magic of life allows for life playing with us, also to fool us, and then surprisingly, if we are able to laugh, it presents us with the most beautiful solution of what we before have considered a permanent problem.

Yet we need to embrace the magic of life. The spark in creation needs to be witnessed, and this happens through our hearts. With the light in us we recognize the light in creation. Light finds light.

 

So why not step out of your door and look, listen, sense, feel with your heart? Yes, right now.

There is always something magical that is waiting to be witnessed. Waiting to be seen, to be heard. Waiting to touch us, to touch our skin, our heart or both.

Even if the spark has almost vanished, buried by our forgetfulness, it is waiting to be witnessed and thus to be reawakened again.

And then … if you feel it, if you recognize the divine spark in the small thing you are relating to, just at this moment, you might find yourself immersed in prayer. You realize you are the prayer.

“Those of us who have been given a knowing of the sacred within ourselves and within the world have a responsibilityat this time. We may ask ourselves, ‘What can I do?’, but the inner world primarily requires consciousness rather than action. It is the lack of an awareness of the sacred that is at the root of this crisis. Therefore we first need to bring the light of our spiritual awareness into the present predicament.”

 -Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

 

DANCING WITH LIFE

 

 

“I was a hidden treasure

and I longed to be known.

Thus I created the world.” 

- Hadith

When I was old enough to walk on my own feet with my mother outside our home, she began teaching me to say a prayer in my heart each time we came across a pregnant woman. A prayer for a happy birth and for the well being of the child and the mother. So quite early, from the particular way by which my mother passed on a certain understanding to me, a deep respect developed in me, an attitude of awe before every woman who was pregnant, no matter if I knew her or not. I felt that there was something utterly sacred permeating her, and at the same time I sensed that the grace of God was needed to make it happen, to really manifest what is sacred. That is why prayer was important for me.

 Women with their round bellies were radiating a certain light that already in my childlike perception gave them the appearance of being infinitely vulnerable and tender and at the same time being conspired in a secret bond with God. Only a few years later did I become confused, because for other people these women were “in other circumstances” (literally translated German expression of “being expecting”) – something that in those times and in the culture in which I grew up was only mentioned covertly. Why was the source of life something that people did not talk about, or just in a rather complicated way (via “circumstances”), that one was noticing or watching only abashedly from the corner of an eye? Why didn’t  they celebrate this, and why did those women sometimes look so sad? Yes, it seemed to be a mystery, yet so full of life and promise – and so palpable.

 I felt a silent bond with my mother that was going beyond the mother-child relationship. We shared a wisdom that despite the seemingly few members in this alliance, without any doubt, was very real and authentic. We had direct access to something that was absolutely holy, to life itself!

Somehow I knew that I was taking part in the magic of creation, I sensed a familiarity with the enchantment connected to the possibility of a child coming into the physical world.

 Every child has a certain remembrance of where it comes from. The knowledge, the perspective that we enter this world from the light, from a different world, and that this physical world is not the only one that exists, is not uncommon for children. However, beyond this kind of remembrance my eyes had been opened for the simple, but forgotten truth that life is a feminine mystery in which women participate in a particular way. They are the ones who know about the mystery and who live it.

 Women know about the light that pervades all of matter and penetrates it from within.(*) They have it in their blood, even when they are cut off from a consciousness that embraces the wisdom of the oneness of life. They know how the light in matter communicates with all that is created. They know about the interconnectedness and the interrelatedness within all of life. Deep in her innermost a woman has the knowledge of the real language, the movement, the dance of life and its wholeness.

 Now is the time we can give back to life the music to which it wants to awaken and to dance again. If women give back the wisdom of oneness that they carry within the cells of their body to the whole consciousness of creation, life can heal again, can begin to sing again. We will recognize again how to dance with life rather than fighting against it.

 The energy of life is flowing through a net of infinite connections of infinite number, and human beings can get in contact to these connections and affect them so that the life energy is able to flow freely, and every part of the whole can be reached through this web of energy.

If we give back to life the consciousness of oneness and if this consciousness reveals itself through the living web within creation, life itself can unfold its inert wisdom and its healing powers. Women carry within themselves the instinctual knowledge of this web, of the interconnected relationships within life, of the oneness of spirit and matter. They are the ones who can make a vital contribution so that a new era can unfold in the consciousness of humanity and our world can regain a new balance.

 What has been violated in the feminine has also been violated in life. Both of them can heal, they heal together, and women are at the center of a certain work, to which everyone can contribute through the power of consciousness.

 Women are able to remember, women are allowed to remember. The world is calling for it. But they need to do it on their own, no one else can do it for them. They need courage and confidence which they will find in their own hearts in order to detach themselves from old patterns and to leave the refuges, the valleys of tears and the battle fields of competition and self-assertion. Their real liberation is the liberation from a haze that has enclosed them for such a long time, has locked them up and separated them from the light of the feminine in creation. To step back into this clear light, to remember again and to be upright and carry the dignity of the feminine is a big step in the contribution that women offer for the healing of the world.

 If women remember again the magic of life and the secrets of the divine feminine, they begin to take this consciousness with them wherever they go, wherever they stay. We reflect this light. We can live it alone in silence, and we can carry it outside weaving it into our daily work, be it in our professions or in our families. The most important step, however, is to reconnect ourselves with this light.  All those feminine qualities like caring, creativity, being in relationship, interconnectedness with the earth will automatically unfold, when a woman physically and spiritually reconnects herself with her potential by remembering the divine in herself and in creation.

Although every single woman needs to find this wisdom in herself, it is very helpful to seek out a common feminine space. This can happen in the inner as well as in the outer realms. The feminine in us also knows that inner and outer are not really separate, they belong to the same Reality. Life is dancing between both spaces, and it needs both spaces.

There is an inner net of connections between all women, through which the feminine wisdom is flowing, a wisdom that is so much desired by life itself. Women can learn again to be with this inner net und to tune into its inherent constant flow.

 Yet this is only possible if women break down the artificial dividing walls that they have accepted or even built to stand between them and other women. Only if women leave behind rivalry and competition which is more coherent with the masculine, yet for women, rather based on the adaptation to the masculine, can take on a very destructive quality when combined with feminine power, only if they leave behind this attitude, can they find access again to the inner streams of energy that flow between women.

 - Angela Fischer

 ’Dancing with Life’ is an excerpt from the book: “Frau sein – sensibel und stark. Mit der Kraft weiblicher Spiritualität das Leben neu gestalten” , Chapter: Der Tanz mit dem Leben, in German.  (Copyright Crotona Verlag, Germany)

This is a private translation.

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(*) The inner light of the feminine, her wisdom and connection with the light in creation, is not dependant on actually giving birth. All women carry it within, no matter if they physically give birth or not. This is not explicity mentioned in this section but in other parts of the book.

______________________________________________________

Originally in German / Original in deutsch:

Der Tanz mit dem Leben

„Ich war ein verborgener Schatz

und ich sehnte mich danach,

erkannt zu werden,

und so erschuf ich die Welt“

Hadith

 

Als ich, in den späten fünfziger Jahren, alt genug war, meine Mutter auf meinen eigenen Beinen auf Wegen außerhalb des Hauses zu begleiten, begann sie mir beizubringen, jedes Mal ein Gebet im Herzen zu sprechen, wenn wir einer schwangeren Frau begegneten. Für eine glückliche Geburt, und damit es dem Kind und der Frau gut gehe. Durch die Art und Weise, wie meine Mutter mir dies näherbrachte, entwickelte sich in mir schon ganz früh eine besondere Achtung vor jeder Frau, die schwanger war, gleichgültig ob ich sie kannte oder nicht. Ich spürte, dass es etwas ganz Heiliges war, was sie umgab und fühlte gleichzeitig, dass es Gottes Gnade bedurfte, damit dieses Heilige tatsächlich geschehen konnte. Darum war das Gebet wichtig.

 

Die Frauen mit den gewölbten Bäuchen leuchteten in einem besonderen Licht, das sie schon in meiner kindlichen Wahrnehmung als einer- seits unendlich verletzlich und zart, andererseits aber als sehr kraftvoll und wie in einem geheimen Bund mit Gott verschworen erscheinen ließ. Einige Jahre später wurde es dann sehr verwirrend für mich, dass für andere Menschen diese Frauen sich „in anderen Umständen“ befanden – etwas, das man zu jener Zeit fast nur hinter vorgehaltener Hand aussprach. Warum war die Quelle des Lebens etwas, worüber man gar nicht oder nur „umständlich“ sprach und was man nur verschämt aus dem Augenwinkel bemerkte oder betrachtete?

 Warum feierte man das nicht, und warum sahen diese Frauen manchmal so traurig aus? Ja, es schien ein Mysterium zu sein, aber doch so voller Leben und Versprechen – und so konkret.

Ich fühlte ein stilles Bündnis mit meiner Mutter, das über das Mutter- Kind – Verhältnis hinausging. Wir beide teilten ein Wissen, das für mich trotz der scheinbar wenigen Mitglieder in unserem Bund ohne Zweifel sehr real und authentisch war. Wir hatten direkten Zugang zu etwas absolut Heiligem, zum Leben selbst!

Irgendwo wusste ich, dass ich Teil hatte an der Magie der Schöpfung, fühlte mich vertraut mit dem Zauber, den es bedeutete, dass eine Seele in die Welt kommen und physische Gestalt annehmen kann. Jedes Kind hat zunächst eine Erinnerung daran, wo es herkommt. Das Wissen um die Tatsache, dass wir aus dem Licht, aus einer anderen Welt in diese Welt treten und diese physische Welt hier nicht als einzige existiert, ist für Kinder nicht außergewöhnlich.

 Doch darüber hinaus wurden mir damals die Augen geöffnet für die einfache, aber vergessene Wahrheit, dass das Leben ein weibliches Mysterium ist, an dem die Frauen in besonderer Weise beteiligt sind. Sie sind es, die um das Geheimnis wissen und es leben.

Frauen wissen von dem Licht, das alle Materie durchzieht und von innen her durchdringt. Sie haben es in ihrem Blut, auch wenn sie abgeschnitten wurden von einem Bewusstsein, das die Weisheit über die Einheit des Lebens umfasst. Sie wissen, wie das Licht in der Materie mit allem Geschaffenen kommuniziert. Sie wissen um die Verbundenheit und Bezogenheit innerhalb allen Lebens. Tief in ihrem Inneren hat die Frau das Wissen um die wirkliche Sprache, die Bewegung, den Tanz des Lebens und um seine Ganzheit.

 Nun ist es an der Zeit, dass wir dem Leben die Musik zurückgeben können, nach der es aufs Neue erwachen und tanzen möchte. Wenn die Frauen das Licht jenes Wissens um die Einheit, das sie in ihren Zellen tragen, dem gesamten Bewusstsein der Schöpfung zurückgeben, kann das Leben wieder heilen und kann wieder beginnen zu singen. Wir erkennen erneut, wie wir mit dem Leben tanzen können, statt gegen es zu kämpfen.

 Die Energie des Lebens fließt durch ein Netz von unendlich vielen Verbindungen, und der Mensch kann zu diesen Verbindungen einen Kontakt herstellen und darauf einwirken, so dass die Lebensenergie frei strömen und über dieses Netz jedes Teil innerhalb des Ganzen erreicht werden kann.

 Wenn wir dem Leben das Bewusstsein der Einheit wieder zurückgeben und dieses Bewusstsein sich durch das Netz des Lebens offenbart, so kann das Leben selbst wieder seine Weisheit und seine heilende Kraft entfalten.

Frauen tragen in sich das instinktive Wissen von jenem Netz, von den wechselseitigen Beziehungen innerhalb des Lebens und von der Einheit von Materie und Geist. Sie sind es, die einen wichtigen Beitrag leisten können, damit sich eine neue Ära im Bewusstsein der Menschen entfalten und unsere Welt ein neues Gleichgewicht finden kann.

 Was wir dem Weiblichen angetan haben, wurde gleichzeitig dem Leben zugefügt. Beides kann zusammen heilen, und die Frauen stehen im Zentrum einer bestimmten Arbeit, zu der jeder mit Hilfe seines Bewusstseins beitragen kann.

Die Frauen können, die Frauen dürfen sich erinnern. Die Welt ruft danach. Doch sie müssen es selbst tun, niemand anders kann es für sie tun. Sie benötigen den Mut und das Zutrauen, das sie nur im eigenen Herzen finden können, um sich von den alten Mustern zu lösen und die Rückzugsorte, die Täler der Tränen und die Schlachtfelder der Selbstbehauptung zu verlassen. Ihre wirkliche Befreiung ist die Befreiung aus dem Nebel, der sie so lange Zeit schon bedrückend umhüllt, einsperrt und vom Licht des Weiblichen in der Schöpfung trennt.

In dieses klare Licht zurückzutreten, sich wieder zu erinnern und wieder aufrecht die Würde des Weiblichen zu tragen, ist ein großer Schritt innerhalb jenes Beitrags, den die Frauen für die Heilung der Welt zur Verfügung stellen können.

Wenn Frauen sich der Magie des Lebens und der Geheimnisse des göttlich Weiblichen wieder erinnern, beginnen sie, dieses Bewusstsein überallhin wo sie sich aufhalten mitzunehmen. Sie reflektieren dieses Licht.

Sie können es für sich in der Stille leben, und sie können es mit sich hinaustragen und in ihre Arbeit einweben, ob im Beruf oder in der Familie. Der wichtige Schritt aber ist, sich selbst wieder damit zu verbinden. Alle weiblichen Qualitäten wie Fürsorge, Kreativität, in Beziehung stehen, Vernetzung und Verbundenheit mit der Erde, werden sich von selbst weiter entfalten, wenn eine Frau sich körperlich, seelisch, geistig und spirituell wieder mit ihrem eigenen Potenzial in der Erinnerung an das Göttliche verbindet.

 

Obwohl jede Frau diese Weisheit in sich selbst wiederfinden muss, ist es hilfreich, einen gemeinsamen weiblichen Raum aufzusuchen. Dies kann auf der inneren Ebene genauso geschehen wie auf der äußeren. Das Weibliche in uns weiß auch, dass Innen und Außen nicht wirklich getrennt sind und letztlich zu derselben Realität gehören. Darum ist es auch nicht verschieden zu bewerten, es schwingt einfach nur in unter- schiedlichen Frequenzen. Das Leben tanzt zwischen beiden Räumen, und es benötigt beide Räume.

Es gibt ein inneres Verbindungsnetz zwischen allen Frauen, innerhalb dessen die weibliche Weisheit, nach der das Leben verlangt, fließt. Frauen können wieder lernen, dieses innere Netz aufzusuchen und sich auf den beständigen Fluss darin einzuschwingen. Dies ist allerdings nur möglich, wenn Frauen die künstlichen Trennwände wieder abbauen, die sie zwischen sich und anderen Frauen akzeptiert oder selbst errichtet haben. Nur wenn Frauen Rivalität und Wettbewerb, was für das Männliche stimmig und wesensnah, für Frauen aber eher einer Anpassung an das Männliche entspringt und gepaart mit weiblicher Macht eine sehr zerstörerische Qualität annehmen kann, hinter sich lassen, können sie den Zugang zum inneren Energiefluss zwischen Frauen wiederfinden.

Angela Fischer

aus: Frau sein – sensibel und stark. Mit der Kraft weiblicher Spiritualität das Leben neu gestalten. (Crotona Verlag, 2010) Auszug aus: Der Tanz mit dem Leben

Über die Intensität eine Frau zu sein

Für mich hat dieses Geheimnis, das es bedeutet, eine Frau zu sein, mit dem Thema Intensität zu tun. Eine besondere Intensität und Kraft in unserm Sein als Frau. Lange habe ich es selbst so wahrgenommen, als wäre ich und auch andere Frauen „zu viel“, als wäre diese Intensität niemandem zuzumuten.

Mehr und mehr hat sich diese Wahrnehmung auch über meine langjährige Tanzarbeit mit Frauen verändert. Ohne nun weitläufig in meine Geschichte einzutauchen, möchte ich doch anhand einer Begebenheit aus meinem Leben verdeutlichen, dass es mit Mut zu tun hat, dieses Geheimnis wirklich zu leben und wach zu verkörpern.

Vor mindestens 10 Jahren hatte ich einen Traum, in dem es um die Tränen Mohammeds ging. Ich sollte herausfinden, was es damit auf sich hat. In einem Buchregister fand ich etwas über die Tränen Allahs, doch das war nicht gemeint. Ich teilte den Traum in verschiedenen Gruppen, erhielt jedoch keine mir einleuchtend erscheinenden Hinweise. Ich las sogar eine Biografie über Mohammed, aber auch das bewirkte nichts. Ich vergaß den Traum.

Im Herbst 2011 erhielt ich eine CD mit Sufimusik als Geschenk. Ich hörte kurz rein und merkte, dass mich ein Lied besonders berührte. Den folgenden Tag hörte ich die Musik mit meiner jungen Freundin zum Tanzen. Das Fenster des Tanzsaals war offen und die Musik laut. Da Musik dort wegen der Nachbarn nur bei geschlossenem Fenster gehört werden soll, ging ich zum Fenster, um es zu schließen. In dem Moment schaute ein eher orientalisch aussehender Mann zu mir hoch. Ich kannte ihn nicht, hatte aber den Eindruck, dass er wegen der Musik hinaufschaute. Es war nur der Bruchteil einer Sekunde, in dem sich unsere Blicke trafen. In dem Augenblick erinnerte ich mich an den Traum. Und verstand ihn in Folge auf dem Hintergrund der Musik. Sie verbindet feste, starke und eher heftige Klänge einer Anrufung Allahs mit der männlichen sehnsüchtigen Stimme, die das Leben Mohammeds beschreibt.

Heute sehe den Traum so, dass Mohammed in mir weinte, weil ich ihn nicht als Teil von mir anerkennen und leben lassen konnte und wollte. Er verkörperte den starken, für Gott kämpfenden männlichen Teil in mir. Dieser Teil ist mutig und geht „voran“, auch wenn sich Hindernisse zeigen. Und er weiß um das JA im Nein.

Der Tanz, der zu der Musik und der Geschichte erschien, hat eine große Kraft und positive Festigkeit. Natürlich ist es nicht der erste Tanz von mir, der eine solche Energie verkörpert, aber er hat eine besondere Note und Qualität. Er hält die Tanzenden auf eine besondere Weise, wie mir von anderen mehrfach mitgeteilt wurde. Und er macht auch anderen die Erfahrung des inneren Ritters zugänglich, der sie hält und den auch sie nach ihren Erzählungen oft verschmäht haben.

In diesem Tanz liegt auch eine bestimmte Intensität, die mit dem Weiblichen zu tun hat. Um sie und das Geheimnis leben zu können, brauchen wir einen starken männlichen Teil in uns, der den Raum hält. Nach meiner Erfahrung kann sich erst dann das weibliche Mysterium verkörpern, um neues Leben entstehen zu lassen. Es geht also um LIEBE.

Wer das Lied zum Tanz Mohammeds Tränen hören will, kann es auf Google finden: Irfan Gürdal Hikmet

Cornelia Freise

 

“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

 

Following is part of a transcription of a video-clip, a short talk describing 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.

The video-clip is from Sufi teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee. From the series: The Feminine and the World Soul, by Working with Oneness. You can watch it here:  Honoring the Sacred Substance in Creation.

 

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!

And here is the transcription:

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.

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Abridged version of an article by Angela Fischer

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