The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
Some of the Ways We and the Earth
Experience the Via Negativa |
08/03/2023
by Rick Reich-Kuykendall |
Today we will consider some of the different ways we and the earth experience the Via
Negativa. In his book, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, Matthew says that once on a lecture tour he had a dream, and it was what the Native Americans call a “Big Dream.” He said in Part I of the book that the “climax of the dream contained this refrain: ‘Your mother is dying.’” And while he found nine different meanings for this phrase, the first one that he saw was “Mother Earth is Dying.” With this in mind, read the following quotation: THE EUCHARIST AND THE WOUNDED EARTH |
If Jesus Christ is Mother Earth crucified, then eating and drinking at the Eucharist is the eating and drinking of the
wounded earth. The ingesting of the sacrificial victim brings about an awakening of consciousness to the sufferings of Mother Earth and all her children. | |
MORE ON THE VIA NEGATIVA
(Four more quotations from Matthw Fox.) We are the species that sins. There’s no evidence that any other species does. |
Trees continue to serve the Earth even when they are decaying, offering homes to countless insects and other animals, as well as providing rich humus which will nourish new life. Photo by Maddy Weiss on Unsplash | In some way I see death as a recycling process. In some way we get recycled, it seems to me, into the pool of being. Laughter is often our sole outlet for responding to the incongruities of life’s paradoxes and
contradictions. An institution is a home for evil spirits just as a dog’s fur can be a home for the tick and the flea. |
See Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance, p. 214. See also Fox and Rupert Sheldrake, Natural Grace, pp. 62, 156. See also Fox, Prayer: A Radical Response to LIfe, pp. 87-137. Banner image: Reflection. Photo by IvanBE pratama on Unsplash |
Queries for Contemplation What are some of the ways you experience the Via Negativa in a positive way—such
as in times of meditation, etc. |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance In what may be considered the most comprehensive outline of the Christian paradigm shift of our Age, Matthew Fox eloquently foreshadows the manner in which the spirit of Christ resurrects in terms of the return to an earth-based mysticism, the expression of creativity, mystical sexuality, the respect due the young, the rebirth of effective forms of worship—all of these mirroring the ongoing blessings of Mother Earth and the recovery of Eros, the feminine aspect of the
Divine.
“The eighth wonder of the world…convincing proof that our Western religious tradition does indeed have the depth of imagination to reinvent its faith.” — Brian Swimme, author of The Universe Story and Journey of the Universe. | |
Natural Grace – Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake Natural Grace, a 208-page inspired dialogue between theologian Matthew Fox and scientist Rupert Sheldrake, unites wisdom and knowledge from unconventional angles. Considering themselves heretics in their own fields, Matthew and Rupert engage the conversation from postmodern and post-postmodern perspectives, deconstructing both religion and science—while setting the foundation for a new emerging worldview. Having outgrown the paradigms in which they
were raised, both Fox and Sheldrake see it as part of their life missions to share the natural synthesis of spirituality and science rooted in a paradigm of evolutionary cosmology. | |
Prayer: A Radical Response to Life How do prayer and mysticism relate to the struggle for social and ecological justice? Fox defines prayer as a radical response to life that includes our “Yes” to life (mysticism) and our “No” to forces that combat life (prophecy). How do we define adult prayer? And how—if at all—do prayer and mysticism relate to the struggle for social and ecological justice? One of Matthew Fox’s earliest books, originally published under the title On Becoming a
Musical, Mystical Bear: Spirituality American Style, Prayer introduces a mystical/prophetic spirituality and a mature conception of how to pray. Called a “classic” when it first appeared, it lays out the difference between the creation spirituality tradition and the fall/redemption tradition that has so dominated Western theology since Augustine. A practical and theoretical book, it lays the groundwork for Fox’s later works. “One of the finest books I have read on contemporary spirituality.”
– Rabbi Sholom A. Singer | |
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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