Respect
I'm going to revisit coifi's Druid Prayer at Ancient Places that I referenced for a pre-Samhain post. The opening lines,
You who made these ancient monuments,
You who raised these ancient stones,
We acknowledge you
We honour you
We respect you.
lay out the core of my own spiritual beliefs. It does not matter who that Spirit is, but the first step is acknowledgment. I am not alone, but float in a sea of Spirits. The very act of that acknowledgment opens doors that would otherwise be shut.
Honor is a paying of attention and expressing what you sense- like noting the beauty, strength, accomplishment and/or power of a Spirit. It is the beginning of an exchange, like the poet honoring his/her muse, or the beginning of an invocation. In a Catholic sense it might be "Hail Mary, full of Grace." In a pagan sense, it might be recognizing the elements by their attributes like "Hail Fire, Brighid's forge." In the broadest term of the word, it is worship - to make worthy.
Respect means that there is a place in our hearts for a Spirit - that we recognize that Spirit's importance in our lives. Acknowledgement and honor can be achieved without any inner work, they are objective statements. Respect builds upon acknowledgement and honor, but adds subjective meaning. Respect implies an interactive relationship with Spirit.
Milton Erickson used to say that the unconscious was a treasure chest. But there were steps to open that chest. The first step was to demonstrate to the individual that they were not alone, that there was a separate force somewhere in their psyche that was not under ego control. Erickson used trance to demonstrate this and force an acknowledgment..
Erickson also used to say that the unconscious was really in control of most of what we did. He used trance to demonstrate this power - for example, putting a woman's daughter in trance and striking her across the shins to demonstrate to the mother that pain was controllable by the unconscious. This belief, and I'm using this term with some trepidation, was an honoring, internally expressed.
The last step, while within trance, was to allow the unconscious to solve the problem at hand, whether it was intractable pain or a phobia. To allow this, one had to drop defenses, listen to what was said and then act upon it. It meant accepting a gift and respecting the giver.
Does this mean that my understanding of Spirit is "all in my head?"
Sometimes, the world of Spirit seems like a lens peering into another world and sometimes it seems to be a mirror, reflecting back the soul and sometimes it seems both simultaneously. What is "real" here probably is unknowable - does implanting an electrode and causing a religious experience mean that spirituality is all in your head or does it mean that an electrode might stimulate a latent second sight? From the standpoint of having a spiritual life, it does not matter, so I can mix Erickson with druidry with Fiona Macleod and not hear a dissonance. For me, the examples from a deeply spiritual psychiatrist (by my definition) are supportive of the claims and methods of a mystery religion. Instead of being antagonists, I see two views of the same universe.
Effectiveness is another issue. R J. Stewart and others have written that you can understand spiritual phenomena psychologically or in the context of a spiritual tradition, but that you will get different results and you will only truly progress within a spiritual tradition. For me, the psychological explanation was necessary, but not sufficient. It got my attention, proved its worth and laid out a challenge. But, in and of itself, it does not have a destination. Erickson's purpose was to heal others (and himself) not to develop a permanent relationship with Spirit. Building an interactive world of respect with Spirit, in the context of tradition, seems the only way forward for me.
peace and health,
david
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You who made these ancient monuments,
You who raised these ancient stones,
We acknowledge you
We honour you
We respect you.
lay out the core of my own spiritual beliefs. It does not matter who that Spirit is, but the first step is acknowledgment. I am not alone, but float in a sea of Spirits. The very act of that acknowledgment opens doors that would otherwise be shut.
Honor is a paying of attention and expressing what you sense- like noting the beauty, strength, accomplishment and/or power of a Spirit. It is the beginning of an exchange, like the poet honoring his/her muse, or the beginning of an invocation. In a Catholic sense it might be "Hail Mary, full of Grace." In a pagan sense, it might be recognizing the elements by their attributes like "Hail Fire, Brighid's forge." In the broadest term of the word, it is worship - to make worthy.
Respect means that there is a place in our hearts for a Spirit - that we recognize that Spirit's importance in our lives. Acknowledgement and honor can be achieved without any inner work, they are objective statements. Respect builds upon acknowledgement and honor, but adds subjective meaning. Respect implies an interactive relationship with Spirit.
Milton Erickson used to say that the unconscious was a treasure chest. But there were steps to open that chest. The first step was to demonstrate to the individual that they were not alone, that there was a separate force somewhere in their psyche that was not under ego control. Erickson used trance to demonstrate this and force an acknowledgment..
Erickson also used to say that the unconscious was really in control of most of what we did. He used trance to demonstrate this power - for example, putting a woman's daughter in trance and striking her across the shins to demonstrate to the mother that pain was controllable by the unconscious. This belief, and I'm using this term with some trepidation, was an honoring, internally expressed.
The last step, while within trance, was to allow the unconscious to solve the problem at hand, whether it was intractable pain or a phobia. To allow this, one had to drop defenses, listen to what was said and then act upon it. It meant accepting a gift and respecting the giver.
Does this mean that my understanding of Spirit is "all in my head?"
Sometimes, the world of Spirit seems like a lens peering into another world and sometimes it seems to be a mirror, reflecting back the soul and sometimes it seems both simultaneously. What is "real" here probably is unknowable - does implanting an electrode and causing a religious experience mean that spirituality is all in your head or does it mean that an electrode might stimulate a latent second sight? From the standpoint of having a spiritual life, it does not matter, so I can mix Erickson with druidry with Fiona Macleod and not hear a dissonance. For me, the examples from a deeply spiritual psychiatrist (by my definition) are supportive of the claims and methods of a mystery religion. Instead of being antagonists, I see two views of the same universe.
Effectiveness is another issue. R J. Stewart and others have written that you can understand spiritual phenomena psychologically or in the context of a spiritual tradition, but that you will get different results and you will only truly progress within a spiritual tradition. For me, the psychological explanation was necessary, but not sufficient. It got my attention, proved its worth and laid out a challenge. But, in and of itself, it does not have a destination. Erickson's purpose was to heal others (and himself) not to develop a permanent relationship with Spirit. Building an interactive world of respect with Spirit, in the context of tradition, seems the only way forward for me.
peace and health,
david
/|\