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Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox
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Why Webb Telescope is Much More than “Pretty Pictures”
Rumi tells us that “the spark of the soul is not easily lit.” When one hears scientists express ecstasy and cry tears of joy and wonder, when one listens to the new creation story which is
universal becoming more real and visible on our computers and in our living rooms, there is a chance that a spark is being lit in many souls around the world. Not unlike what humanity’s first steps on the moon produced: A collective experience of awe and awakening of sparks.
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To seek to stifle those sparks is a sin against the first chakra for the first chakra is about relating to the whole and moving beyond our tribal worlds to connect to vibrations everywhere, therefore to the cosmos itself since every atom in the universe is vibrating.
| “Light of Inside.” Photo by Manouchehr Hejazi on Unsplash
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The “misdirected love” (Aquinas) against the first chakra is acedia, the “lack of energy to begin new things,” as Aquinas defines it.
If Webb Telescope’s findings can assist us to begin new things—such as “reinventing the human” (Thomas Berry) and therefore all our institutions from education to religion to diet and ways we do energy to politics to economics to media to art to business—then Webb is ushering in a very important moment indeed.
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“Apathy.” Photo by Parker Whitson on Unsplash
| Those who refuse to see this and choose denial instead are opening the
door of the first chakra to evil spirits such as acedia and cynicism that accompanies acedia. Cynicism, we recall, comes from two Greek words, not caring and sour. There is a not-caring aspect to dismissing the work of Webb Telescope put together by 20,000 scientists from 29 countries over decades in order to learn more about the origins of our universe, which is to say, our home.
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Just today NASA reports that Webb has discovered the two oldest galaxies in the universe that date from just 300 million years from the big bang.
A non-caring aspect to acedia results in a lack of passion and therefore an attitude of sourness or cynicism toward life. It is said that acedia “consists in loving a great good with less intensity than it deserves; it is ‘slow love.” This is Dante’s definition for acedia. A ‘slow love’ is presumably one that fails to connect to the cosmic
love. The cosmos deserves our gratitude.
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When healthy, the first chakra takes in the sounds of the universe and therefore it is about cosmology and ecology. It is about listening to the vibrations and music of all that is, to all that is holy.
Its color is red—the color of blood and excitement and eros.
Hildegard: “O human, why do you live without passion, why do you live without blood?”
| “Jacob put back his frowns and sighed and walked/Back down the hill….” Judy Collins sings “Nightingale,” from “Whales and Nightingales, 1970” NightingaleLark
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New truths about the universe can light the spark of our souls and, with all the darkness facing humanity today, we do need our souls lit. And fast.
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Queries for Contemplation
Do you agree with Rumi that the spark of the soul is not easily lit? Do you feel your soul lit up when you invite the cosmos inside? Does that grow and stretch your
soul?
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society, pp. 189f.
Banner Image: “Through it all, somehow…” Photo by Taylor Wright on Unsplash
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Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about
our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the new Physics
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See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE
Join Matthew Fox and special guest Caroline Myss for a 6-part Reflections Parallel course, “Beyond Patriarchy: Recovering the Divine Feminine and Sacred Masculine and
Why it Matters Today,” hosted by the Caroline Myss Educational Institute. July 11, 13, 18, 20, 25, 27 (Mondays & Wednesdays) 4:00pm-5:30pm PT (GMT/UTC-7) Register HERE.
Join Matthew Fox for the monthly Our Lady of the Prairie virtual retreat, discussing One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths. Thursday, August
18, 4:00-6:00pm PT. Learn more HERE.
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Creation Spirituality in Conversation.
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Victor Fuhrman of Destination Unlimited on OMTimes interviews Matthew Fox on Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality. Navigate to the podcast page by clicking the image on the left.
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Announcing Matthew Fox's Newest Book!
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Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality
Selected with an introduction by Charles Burack
“This collection of Fox’s most life-giving insights blesses the connection between caring for our Mother-the-Earth and lifting up marginalized voices, between waking up from the dream of separation and stepping up to mend the net of creation.”
—Mirabai Starr, author, God of Love and Wild Mercy
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