Neptune's Dolphins

In “Birthing the Holy,” Christian Valters Paintner shows how a person can have a sacred retreat in their daily lives. To engage the Holy, a person needs to have two main elements – time and space. Emphasizing this, she writes in her on-line “Monk Manifesto:” “I commit to find moments each for silence and solitude to make space for another Voice to be heard.”

 

Paintner says that people hold inner multitudes. According to her, inner conflict arises when people refuse to make space for the multiplicity that they contain. Referring to this multiplicity as archetypes, she matches them to the various Titles of Mary, the Mother of God. (Note 1) For Paintner, each of the names of Mary is something for a person to encounter and experience. (The Names of Mary Mother of God: https://neptunesdolphins.wordpress.com/2022/08/10/the-names-of-mary-mother-of-god-a-polytheistic-view/)

 

My Polytheistic antennae perked up. Then I realized that the Gods match the inner multitude of myself during my encounters with Them. For that to happen, I prepare for my journey to Them by retreating to the quiet of my in-between place. There, my multiplicity reaches out to Them.

 

Before starting a sacred journey, I ask for support. I call upon my Ancestors and Holy Beings that I feel close to. For me, it is the Squirrels, Who are more than squirrels. Since Paintner is Roman Catholic, she says to call upon the “Communion of Saints and Cloud of Witnesses.” (Note 2) She also suggests saying the many names of Mary, the Mother of Christ. As a Polytheist, I ask the Ancestors of the Heart and Place, and Heroes (such as the Divine Julius and Hercules).

 

Asking for support can be done in various ways depending on the person. I write. However, other people employ sitting in silence, creating art, dancing, playing music of simply using gestures. Each activity prepares us and transports us to the liminal spaces and times.

 

While we wait for the Call to journey, we listen and reflect on the Holy Powers. Jung said, “If you put yourself into the icon, the icon will speak to you.” As we step into the unknown, we let go of controlling the encounter. When we crossover the threshold, we give our consent to the invitation of the Gods to enter the Sacred. To navigate the Unknown, we do divination.

 

Then we wait and incubate the Holy. What does this mean? By welcoming what we have been given by the Gods, we practice hospitality. We now have their seeds to attend to in our fertile soil. Through dreamtime, meditation, dance, and other holy arts, we tend to the moments of unfolding and ripening of these seeds. Of course, divination will guide us in the spiritual alchemy that is occurring.

 

As Paintner points out in “Birthing the Holy,” we are given expression to the Sacred through co-creating. Relying on the Divine Graces, we can give birth to a new dream. Our inner mystic takes us to where we need to go, and to what we need to do. We co-create with the Divine Energy that flows through us. In the end, we aid the ecosystem of the community of humans, Gods, and Others.

 

During this alchemy, we must remember that things do not unfold linearly but in circles and spirals. Since we are engaging in mythic time, many things do happen simultaneously. While this is occurring, we do our daily devotions. This is how the Gods sustain us.

 

Notes:

Note 1. While Roman Catholic, Paintner sees meditation on the Titles of Mary to be embracing the Sacred Feminine during meditation.

Note 2. The “Cloud of Witnesses” are all of the believers who have gone before including those of the Old Testament.

 

Source:

“Birthing the Holy” by Christine Valters Paintner, Sorin Books, 2022