In witness to the Angels in the Fire, in the Sun, on the Earth...
William Blake asked, "When the Sun rises, do you not see a round disk of fire... Oh no, no, I see an Innumerable company of the Heavenly host crying, 'Holy, Holy..." Original Sight is the intention to activate one's Sacred Imagination to see both the "within and the beyond" of "normal sight": you know, the sight that, first of all, divides our perceptions of reality into categories of differences: the sight that ultimately serves not wisdom but the pursuit of power... What if we were to deliberately practice this alternative way of seeing? What if we were to gaze upon the rising Sun, and see not a golden orb, but a vigilant chorus of Singers shouting out in praise of Mystery? What if the deliberate practice of "awe" were to become the gradual unfolding of our every-day consciousness? What if "awe" was to become our daily practice of mindfulness, economics, culture, religion, and politics? What difference would such a practice make? What if these questions were not shrugged off as "poetic" -- but were instead accepted for what they really are: an emphatic call to transformation and rEvolution! Of course, to deliberately cultivate a spirit of "irrationality" and "anarchism" is an affront to the purported rationality of the State and market-corner of its representative religions... But do we really have any other choice? The super-wealthy are willing to bet that they can continue to amass unlimited privilege and power until they pass on, and couple that bet with another: the rest of us won't really care... and the Dominator Paradigm will simply continue to roll on... Experiments with meditation, mindfulness, sensuality, expansive and unlimited orgasm, simple living, perhaps with LSD or bhakti ecstasy, might carry us to a visionary precipice... or perhaps not... But at the very least, our attention might be diverted from the vapid culture of consumption and politics of destruction, to engage, however briefly upon the wonder of possibilities inherent in an activated Sacred Imagination... Why should the possibility of lives of radiance be subordinate to the claims of politician or priest? Immense wealth serves power and privilege: whom, or what, do you serve? Isn't that the point? Every-day sight sees things in a certain order: that order is first of all, convenient and lazy: it takes great effort to break free from the general delusion that their "stuff" matters. So, what does matter? Isn't it people as persons and Earth as live-able? And further, isn't it of fundamental importance that our consciousness expand, just as it is important that everyone's quality of life also expand to its fullest potential, individual and collective? Secondly, every-day sight requires of us the cultivation of fear as opposed to love: ah, so there the Dominator Paradigm has you: if you can recognize only differences, fear will steadily erode whatever natural sources of empathy or compassion that you might have: and power will exploit your fear in order to complete your submission... but you might still "feel good" because your religion promises you access to a heaven: with your eternal pleasure increased because you will know that countless others are at the same "time" suffering eternal torment... Sacred Imagination is magical and visionary: it invites our expansion, not our submission... Our mundane collection of life experiences might very well become the means to a transcendental reality: more real than the trinkets offered for our purchase by corporate thieves... Sacred Imagination invites us into the drum-sounds of the mystic shaman that reverberate into the whirl of stars, planets, and atoms... Sacred Imagination is an awakening into horizons of radical abundance: there is enough equality, justice, peace, and beauty for everyone... Sacred Imagination is a remembrance of the Divine Feminine as the essential personality of Nature and the Mystery Divine... Sacred Imagination is an invitation to both see and hear the Voices of Creation: trees speak, water speaks, winds speak, animals speak, cosmic mysteries speak: everything, every existent being, and every moment is a Divine Pregnancy that Births endlessly the possibilities of a reality malleable by bliss and wisdom... Sacred Imagination understands everything to be a sacramental substance: everything and everyone is a full measure of sacrament: every task and every function is sacramental: how one votes -- and for whom -- is as holy as anything gets: how you make love, is how the Divine will be with you...and the really grand thing about Sacred Imagination is this: it is inexhaustible...
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorRobert Daniel Smith was privileged to serve the homeless and marginalized for 30 years in California. He is living now almost within shouting distance of the Twin Cities. He is a poet, artist, writer, and long-time Companion of the Way still dreaming... Archives
May 2022
|