Images of the Divine
God is a spirit, a mystery beyond human understanding, and therefore we can only approach that mystery through metaphor. Four metaphors come, of course, from human and cultural understandings of the good, the loving, the just. The problem is that in the formulation of the religious metaphor we live by, women’s experience has once again been largely discounted. God has been king, prince, lord, father, conqueror, judge.
–Marilyn Sewell, in Cries of the Spirit, A Celebration of Women’s Spirituality.
I cannot walk an inch
without trying to walk to God
I cannot move a finger
without trying to touch God.
Perhaps it is this way
He is in the graves of the horses.
He is in the swarm, the frenzy of the bees.
He is in the tailor mending my pansuit
He is in Boston, raised up by the skycrapers
He is in the bird, that shameless flyer
He is in the potter who makes clay into a kiss
Heaven Replies
Not so! Not so!
I say thus and thus
and heaven smashes my words
Is not God in the hiss of the river?
Not so! Not so!
Is not God in the ant heap,
stepping, clutching, dying, being born?
Not so! Not so!
Where then?
I cannot move an inch
Look to your heart
that flutters in and out like a moth
God is not indifferent to your need
You have a thousand prayers
but God has one.
—Anne Sexton
Female face and hood in Leather.
Blessed be the Night
Twilight is a time for sharing — and a time for
remembering — sharing the fragrance of the
cooling earth — the shadows of the gathering
dusk —
Here our two worlds meet and pass — the
frantic sounds of man grow dimmer as the light
recedes — the unhurried rhythm of the other
world swells in volume as the darkness
deepens—
It is not strange that discord has
no place in this great symphony of sound —
it is not strange that a sense
of peace descends upon all living things —
it is not strange that
memories burn more brightly — as the things of
substance lose their line and form in the softness
of the dark —
Twilight is a time for sharing — and a
time for remembering — remembering the things of
beauty wasted by our careless hands — our frequent
disregard of other living things–the many songs
unheard because we would not listen —
Listen tonight with all the
wisdom of your spirit–listen too with
all the compassion of your heart–
lest there come another night —
when there is only silence —
A great
and
total
silence —
–Winston Abbott
The world around us is beautifully filled with the richness of nature which is a gift from the goddess/god. The world is also full of the various forms of art which artists have created over the millennia. We create beauty and music and writings that uplift humans, that enhance our journey in this life. Your poem might be what keeps a soul firmly in this life. Your sculpture may make a heart open up. Your music may help a couple find love in their lives. Our writings may allow people to find ways to make the changes in their lives and their world. The garden you create might give a person who walks by it a smile on a very terrible day. Photographers can capture a moment in life and immortalize it. The photograph may be beautiful or ugly or reality. All of these can change the world. Your painting may help a person you care about to remember a happy experience in life. A painting can help someone to see life through different eyes and change their perspective forever.
There is much that makes the gift of Mother Earth ugly. There is much that keeps it a mystery, and much that makes it a thrill and a joy. Stand up and work to change the things you feel are unjust, hypocritical and bigoted. If you are an artist you could use some of your art to change your world and the world at large. Don’t become discouraged, you are a unique creation of the Beloved. And as such you are a child of the Universe.
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