Humanity, by Hildegard of Bingen

"Humanity finds itself in the midst of the world. In the midst of all other creatures, humanity is the most significant, and yet the most dependent upon the others. Humanity is small in stature, but powerful in strength of soul. With head directed upward, with feet firm on the ground, humanity can set all things in motion; things above as well as things below."
- Hildegard of Bingen

Unfinished Business

UNFINISHED BUSINESS Quietly, she got in her limo and rode to the morgue. She was going to visit her dead son's body. She went every day for a month. Sitting beside him, she prayed, asking all right the questions she never bothered to question before... The main one being "why?" She sat in silence, weeping and waiting. Then, when it was time, the coroner, the funeral directors and the state took all his paperwork. They stamped it "EXPIRED".

Loving Is the First Potential

My vow of silence lasted 14 days. Thankfully, I had plenty of friends to support me in the process, while I was able to review my needs.

The time was useful for everyone involved. We all realized we were not wanting to be judged. In this instance, it's really better for people to start asking questions. If you love someone and are feeling hurt? It's by far better to inquire into the situation. I was not being given this chance. So, I felt it was better for me to sustain silence, especially as there were several people involved.

Everyone had a chance to review their priorities. A period of silence will do this. It has the power to make or break friendships, depending on how it's handled. The point is to deepen our connection to one another, or let go.



Relationships are not static things; our boundaries, needs and desires change constantly. Fine-tuning these issues has everything to do with reaching for qualities in our spirits, like more trust, more honesty, deeper loving. Most people are not finding this in their lives. They are only encountering potentials. They don't know how to go about sharing their light. It becomes an attitude - my way or the highway. And all of us on this planet right now, are undergoing changes to our light-bodies (spirits).

Love and trust sustain themselves as spiritual qualities for the duration that we work on ourselves, keep our hearts open and aim to be as honest and as real as possible. Then perhaps there's an opportunity to establish more than a bond with someone. Bonding happens emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually. All these rays of light meet in the heart. They are not going to get into a heart that's been hardened.

Different people have different ways of going about creating bonds. Men and women are different; we have to keep our minds and hearts open. We have to be willing to understand that each person and each situation is going to be unique.

Personal boundaries are important; but it's also important, to be mindful that, if one is too rigid, it will put a relationship in limbo. This is always dangerous. Because this is where the judgment and bigotry happen (usually behind someone's back). Limbos keep people locked-up in the past, or in the dark.

Seeing and knowing this, I hope to deepen my love with you. I appreciate you as you are; but I also want you to be honest with me. If you can't be yourself, or if I am holding back on you in some way, where you can't see me as I am? Our love will remain a spiritual ideal. It will not be grounded here, in this reality... Which is what I want. And which is what I hope for you as well!

The love I hold for you will never change.

Why Take a Vow of Silence?

I am taking a vow of silence today, for the second time in my life. For me it is all about trust, establishing the heart connections I need in my life to keep my integrity intact. If someone cannot meet me here, then we will simply have to meet in spirit, however that works.

The first time I ever took a vow of silence many years ago (1993) on the job. There was a lot of tyranny going on in the workplace that was dividing and oppressing people. Since I was in a central position (the receptionist for the institution!) I informed everyone I’d be taking a vow of silence. I let them know I would be mirroring their oppression right back at them… Until we got some procedures in place to give people a voice.

It took about 3 days to let everyone know (with notes) I was taking this vow. Of course they all laughed. As I was working the front phones and the desk, I still had to do my job, but only spoke as it was necessary. People stopped by my desk, trying to provoke me into conversation. Each person presumed they were an exception. I would just look at them. After 14 days (which was a strain, and extremely difficult for everyone) people were irate. It was difficult, because it seemed somehow I was adding to their suffering.

Looking back, I now know I was just mirroring and reflecting their “stuff”. I was no longer participating in the game of searching for approval, or people-pleasing. I saw into their lack of courage to speak up for themselves; to take a stand in who they are. To stop being superficial, self-absorbed, narcissistic. To quit returning to their words like a puppy returns to its own vomit.

It was just a matter of days before they were all complaining. They eventually went to the management to make it stop. There was really nothing management could do. Eventually they called a meeting, and gave everyone a voice.

There are a lot of people out there who are in pain, and who aren’t dealing with it. They just go on to treat situations and other people as being “disposable”. I am sorry for the younger generations… Because I know you all feel this more acutely in your lives. Now it’s just exaggerated to extremes via our technology – the internet, texting, facebook, etc.

Let people clearly know about your vow. (This may take a few days.) You may also invite people to leave messages for you, but inform them you will not be responding until you are able to FEEL the investment on your commitment to keep silence until the energy is balanced. Divest yourself of the technology; boycott it, if necessary. Stop pouring your money and resources into dead-ends.

We all need something more in our lives… Some of the Buddhist values a vow of silence is going to teach you: more patience, more compassion; deeper connections in person, and at the level of the heart. And until I start feeling that, I’m kicking in with a new vow of silence, today. It may be the only way to gain someone’s trust, when they are too busy, you know, acting-out as a human-doing...? And not a human being.

The Muse Who Came to Stay, by Erica Jong

The Muse Who Came to Stay

You were the first muse who came to stay.
The others began and ended with a wish,
or a glance or a kiss between stanzas;
the others strode away in the pointed boots of their fear

or were kicked out by the stiletto heels of mine,
or merely padded away in bare feet
when the ground was too hard or cold
or as hot as white sand baked under the noonday sun.

But you flew in on the wings of your smile,
powered by the engine of your cock,
driven by your lonely pumping heart,
rooted by your arteries to mine.

We became a tree with a double apical point,
reaching equally toward what some call heaven,
singing in the wind with our branches,
sharing sap and syrup,
which makes the tree grow thick.

We are seeding the ground with poems and children.
We are the stuff of books and new-grown forests.
We are renewing the earth with our roots,
the air with our pure oxygen songs,
the nearby seas with leaves we lose
only to grow the greener ones again.

I used to leap from tree to tree,
speaking glibly of Druids,
thinking of myself a latter-day dryad,
or a wood nymph from the stony city,
or some other chimerical creature,
conjured in my cheating poet's heart.

But now I stay, knowing the muse is mine,
knowing no books will banish him
and no off-key songs will drive him away.

I being and begin; I whistle in and out of tune.
If the ending is near, I do not think of it.
If the drought comes, we will make our own rain.
If the muse is grounded, I will make him fly,
and if he falls, I will catch him in my arms
until he flies with me again.

-Erica Jong
Old photo, I believe is by Duffy,
and had to be retouched by me!

Coming Into the Light

I would love to have this standing statue of Ma'at for my altar here at home... It's generally understood, when you find a statue of a god or goddess holding a "form", they are aligning themselves with the cosmos. In regard to images that you find standing, such as this one, the god or goddess (or Buddha) is more or less establishing a final order. With standing Buddha's for example, the view is that the standing position means it is the Buddha's choice to make it his or her last lifetime. The standing position represents the final judgment, and the ability to come into the light.



The kneeling position of Ma'at is very similar, if not the same, to many statues of Isis. This "form" is showing Ma'at going into a contemplative position of giving birth or new life to a situation. The sitting position represents the ability to go inward, to look into a glass darkly and come out the other side, where everything is eventually revealed to the light.

An Order to Chaos? The Egyptian Cosmology

Ma'at, the Divine Order, was an ideal world established at creation, summarized as "right order" and personified by a female goddess.

Ma'at was in control of differences, rather than their elimination.

On a cosmic order, creation itself was seen as order amidst chaos. Pharaohs had the responsibility of maintaining this order and keeping enemies at bay.



Humans were seen as being the primary reason for unrest in the world... "Because their hearts break". For Egyptians, the "need to act in accordance with Ma'at" came out of a practical realization, that any other action would result in disorder. So historians believe this is the main reason ancient Egypt never developed a codified system of either civil law, or religious commandments.