Science and Spirituality Discussion Group

Animism International hosts a reading and discussion group for inquisitive thinkers on the North Coast of California. Interested parties in Humboldt County are invited to a bi-weekly meeting held on the first and third Sundays of each month from 4 to 6 p.m. The next meeting will be held June 16 in the community room at the Northcoast Co-op, 25 4th St., Eureka. The book club is currently reading “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” by Joseph Campbell, and a presentation on the book will be given at the meeting.

Topics of discussion include the ongoing merger of science and spirituality; the non-local nature of consciousness; the use of entheogens and psychedelics in spiritual practice; the role of humanity as caretakers of the Earth; permaculture principles and sustainable food systems; trance states, shamanic journeys and much more. Meetings are free and open to the public, and people of all faiths or no faith are welcome to attend.

For more information about locations and topics, call 707 382 7566, email AnimismInternational@gmail.com or search for the group on Facebook.

Happy Easter!

Courtesy of Wikipedia

“Ostara” (Eostre) by Johannes Gehrts/Courtesy of Wikipedia

Dear Friends,

Hello and welcome to an Easter message from Animism International.

As we gather this spring to celebrate this joyous festival, let us remember exactly what it is we are commemorating.

For millennia, the Easter season has been celebrated by people all over the world as a time of rebirth and renewal. It is a celebration of the coming of Spring, as the word Easter itself reminds us.

The name is a derivation of the name Eostre or Ostre, the ancient Germanic goddess of the dawn and springtime. She symbolized the return of the light that brings life back to the world after the cold, darkness and symbolic death of winter.

Over time, as Christianity spread across Europe, church leaders co-opted the festival and associated its rights and rituals with the death and rebirth of Jesus. They even borrowed the name of the Goddess, which had become associated with the month now known as April.

Indeed, the symbolism contained in the story of the crucifixion is identical with the symbolism of earlier pagan festivals. The figure of the Year God who sacrifices his life for the sake of the world is a familiar one. Whether he goes by the name Jesus, Attis, Mithras, Dionysus, Krishna or any of a hundred others, it is his willing sacrifice that renews the world for another year.

In many stories, this figure is literally torn to pieces and his body parts are scattered to the corners of the world, only for him to be resurrected again after a period of descent into the underworld.

As Joseph Campbell, the famous professor of mythology, made clear in his groundbreaking book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces,” the message we are to take away from all this is both a psychological and a metaphysical one.

Psychologically, the death and rebirth of the Christ figure is a metaphor for the destruction and re-creation of the self, as represented by the ego. In order for a person to become whole and actualized as a being, that is to say, for us to reach our full potential and become everything that we are capable of becoming, it is essential to do away with the ego-self that limits our understanding of the Oneness of all creation.

To quote Campbell:

“Jesus, for example, can be regarded as a man who by dint of austerities and meditation attained wisdom; or on the other hand, one may believe that a god descended and took upon himself the enactment of a human career.

“The first view would lead one to imitate the master literally, in order to break through, in the same way as he, to the transcendent, redemptive experience. But the second states that the hero is rather a symbol to be contemplated than an example to be literally followed.

“The divine being is a revelation of the omnipotent Self, which dwells within us all. The contemplation of the life thus should be undertaken as a meditation on one’s own immanent divinity, not as a prelude to precise imitation, the lesson being, not ‘Do thus and be good,’ but ‘Know this and be God.’” (pp. 319)

 Following this avenue of thought, it becomes clear that the sacrifice represented in the death and rebirth of Jesus, Attis or any of the others, is the sacrifice of the personal self for the cosmic self.

The great sages and mystics of history are renowned for their willingness to put aside the usual distractions of money, property and material success in order to transcend the limitations of ego-consciousness and assume the mantle of cosmic consciousness.

As Richard Bucke wrote in his landmark volume of that name:

“[Cosmic] consciousness shows the cosmos to consist not of dead matter governed by unconscious, rigid and unintending law; it shows it on the contrary as entirely immaterial, entirely spiritual and entirely alive; It shows that death is an absurdity, that everyone and everything has eternal life; It shows that the universe is God and God is the universe, and that no evil ever did or ever will enter into it; a great deal of this is, of course, from the point of view of self consciousness, absurd; It is nevertheless undoubtedly true.” — Cosmic Consciousness

 And so, this Easter as you contemplate the coming of Spring and watch life burst forth from the Earth, remember that it is an outward expression of the same eternal energy that animates and dwells within you.

Through gratitude, reflection and meditation, we can all transcend the boundaries of the physical self and become aware of the interconnectedness of the universe.

To do so we must “die” to our former understanding of ourselves as limited beings, and be reborn with an understanding that divinity dwells both within and without. The fruits of this understanding are joy beyond bounds, peace that surpasses understanding and compassion for all beings.

And it is with those things in mind that we wish all of you a very Happy Easter.

The Simple Way

“The Simple Way”

By David L. Salyers

1. Observe Nature with awe and gratitude. Allow a sense of love and respect for all of the Universe to grow within you.

2. Learn to trust, accept yourself, and grow in your circumstances, knowing that you are part of the Universe.

3. Seek for truth within yourself, that you may remove hypocrisy and evil intent from within your heart.

4. Be in awe of the Universe and know that All is One.

5. Communicate with the Universe from your heart and then listen, and live the insight you receive.

6. Knowing that All is One, serve others with an attitude of loving-kindness to create a flow of Living Waters which will purify your heart.

7. Seek joy and peace.

Morning devotion – Face east and thank the Universe for another day. Ask for the strength to walk worthily this day so that when you lie down at night you will not be ashamed.

Evening devotion – Face west and thank the Universe for all of the things that happened today, both good and bad. If “bad things” happened, rather than trying to change the Universe, figure out how you are out of tune with the flow of the interdependent forces of Nature.

“The Elegant Universe” with Brian Greene

Elegant Universe graphic“Eleven dimensions, parallel universes, and a world made out of strings. It’s not science fiction, it’s string theory.”

In this outstanding series available for free from NOVA, physicist Brian Greene illustrates the bizarre and fascinating world of string theory. If you, like me, find spiritual ideas more appealing when they have a scientific framework, give these videos a look. The purely mechanical worldview that was a fad in scientific circles throughout most of the late 19th and 20th centuries has gradually been giving way to a worldview that recognizes the role of consciousness and the observer in the creation of the reality we perceive.

Here is the first segment on YouTube. You can watch the full series free on NOVA’s site here.

Carl Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot”

Another really excellent video that highlights our beautiful and fragile home: Carl Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot”

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

Animal Odd Couples

Here is a wonderful video posted by a member to our Facebook page: Animal Odd Couples

 

Watch Animal Odd Couples on PBS. See more from Nature.

From the website: “Despite the odds, there are countless stories of the most unlikely cross-species relationships imaginable: a goat guiding a blind horse; a doe who regularly visits her Great Dane surrogate mother; a juvenile gibbon choosing to live with a family of capuchins, and so on. Instincts gone awry? The subject has mystified scientists for years. Now, NATURE investigates why animals form these special bonds. Informed by the observations of caregivers and noted scientists Temple Grandin and Marc Bekoff, the film explores what these relationships suggest about the nature of animal emotions.”

‘Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life…’

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity. … It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” — Melody Beattie

‘A vast system of exchange’

“The universe is a vast system of exchange. Every artery of it is in motion, throbbing with reciprocity, from the planet to the rotting leaf. The vapor climbs the sunbeam, and comes back in blessings upon the exhausted herb. The exhalation of the plant is wafted to the ocean. And so goes on the beautiful commerce of nature. And all because of dissimilarity — because no one thing is sufficient in itself, but calls for the assistance of something else, and repays by a contribution in turn.” — E.H. Chapin