The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
"Thou Shalt Dare the Dark" (Via Negativa) |
07/31/2023
by Rick Reich-Kuykendall |
Today we will begin to explore the Via Negativa. The Via Negativa is the way of darkness, silence, and
solitude, but also pain, letting go, and letting be. Meditate on what Matthew’s words have to say to you at this point in your life. |
In his book, Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality, Fox refers to the Four Paths
as Four Commandments. For the Via Negativa, he says the commandment is: “Thou Shalt Dare the Dark.” He writes: Meister Eckhart says | Meditating with low-pitched Solfeggio frequencies, assists in entering the dark. Video by Source Vibrations. |
that “the ground of the soul is dark.”
This implies that there is no moving from superficiality to depth without entering the dark—and every spiritual journey is about moving from the surface to the depths. Eckhart calls God “super-essential darkness”--so there is no encountering divinity merely in the light. The divine is to be
met in the depths of darkness as well as in the light. We call this the apophatic divinity. “Daring the dark” means entering nothingness and letting it be nothingness while it works its mystery on us. “Daring the dark” also means allowing pain to be pain and learning from it.” God is experienced through darkness, chaos,
nothingness, suffering, silence, and in learning to let go and let be (via negativa). |
| When one has suffered deep pain, and allowed the pain to be pain, one can visit the Grand Canyon, and learn that it has nothing on the human person who is even deeper and more powerfully carved over millions of years, by the flowing tides of
pain. |
Pain is the most legitimate school for compassion that I know of. There is no way to let go of pain without first embracing it and loving it—not as pain, but as a sister and brother in our dialectical living of both pleasure and pain. Eros does not come without a price. |
See Matthew Fox, Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality, p. 56.
And Fox, A New Reformation, p. 86.
And Fox, Original Blessing, p. 130 and pp. 142-43. Banner image: Entrance to Bulalakaw Cave in the Philippines. Photo by Kyrpatria082102. Wikimedia
Commons. |
Queries for Contemplation Matthew says that the Commandment for the Via Negativa is: “Thou Shalt Dare the Dark.” When have
you “dared the dark?”
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Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality
To encapsulate the life and work of Matthew Fox would be a daunting task for any save his
colleague Dr. Charles Burack, who had the full cooperation of his subject. Fox has devoted 50 years to developing and teaching the tradition of Creation Spirituality and in doing so has reinvented
forms of education and worship. His more than 40 books, translated into 78 languages, are inclusive of today’s science and world spiritual traditions and have awakened millions to the much neglected earth-based mystical tradition of the West. Essential Writings begins by exploring the influences on Fox’s life and spirituality, then presents selections from all Fox’s major works in 10 sections.
“The critical insights, the creative connections, the centrality of Matthew Fox’s writings and teaching are second to none for the radical renewal of Christianity.” ~~ Richard Rohr, OFM. | |
A New Reformation: Creation Spirituality & The
Transformation of Christianity A modern-day theologian’s call for the radical transformation of Christianity that will allow us to move once again from the hollow trappings of organized religion to genuine spirituality. A New Reformation echoes the Reformation initiated by Martin Luther in 1517 and offers a new vision of Christianity that values the
Earth, honors the feminine, and respects science and deep ecumenism.
“This is a deep and forceful book….With prophetic insight, Matthew Fox reveals what has corrupted religion in the West and the therapy for its healing.” ~Bruce Chilton, author of Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography | |
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar
HERE |
Join Matthew Fox and Brian Swimme in a new 7-week online course hosted by The Shift Network: "Science, Spirituality & the Noosphere: Deepen the Meaning of Your Life & the Power You Hold to Create Fulfillment & Happiness," beginning August 8. Register
HERE and receive access to a free introductory video. Join Matthew Fox for a Cosmic Mass and Panel Forum at the 2023 Parliament of the World’s Religions - A Call to Conscience: Defending Freedom & Human Rights, August 14-18 in Chicago, IL Wed., 8/16, 7:00pm CT - The Cosmic Mass - Honoring Gaia, Solidarity for Our Earth Thurs., 8/17, 1:00pm CT – Panel and Response to The Cosmic Mass Register HERE. |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Aaron Perry hosts Matthew Fox on the Y On
Earth podcast, on “Hildegard von Bingen & Her “Viriditas,” sharing profound wisdom and deep insights about the essential importance of our relationship with Mother Earth, our celebration of the Divine Feminine, and our connection with Creation Spirituality, drawing upon centuries
of knowledge and wisdom from indigenous and mystical traditions world-wide… particularly from the Rhineland Mystic Movement of the medieval European Renaissance, and a most extraordinary woman at its helm: Hildegard von Bingen. | |
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