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Practicing Her
Presence
by Barbara Ardinger, Ph.D. |
Worship
As we live in our everyday lives, we find ourselves
engaging more and more in worship. Before it becomes
action, worship is focus; it is what is called
mindfulness. To some people worship means keeping an
"attitude of gratitude," and to others worship
is seeing the "worth-ship" in life. It’s
creating altars and making music. It’s saying, I
love and cherish all forms of life because I recognize
something of which I am a part, and I want to celebrate
my recognition.
We can worship in a specifically demarcated holy
place or you can worship just about anywhere on our
planet, which is itself a holy place. We can sit or
stand before our own altar and understand how an altar
is a miniature earth that embodies all the earthly,
earthy powers. We can worship with silent prayer, do a
private ritual in our bedroom first thing in the
morning, or gather and hold hands with like-minded and
like-hearted people to strengthen our connections with
one another and with all our kin on earth.
Since we don’t know, however, exactly how people
living as far back as Stone Age worshipped the Goddess,
we who live today have to use our best guesses about the
ancient forms of worship. We use our intuition, our
vision, and hints and suggestions from many sources,
including archaeological discoveries and evidence from
books in which the old ways were described in order to
anathematize them.
This makes us a very eclectic bunch, and when we
worship we often make it up as we go along. That’s one
reason why there are so many traditions and processes,
so many ways of doing rituals (which all seem to work),
and so many books that seem to contradict each other. I
believe that they really complement each other. I
believe that Witchery, or Wicca, is catholic in the
original sense of the word: general and all-inclusive.
Whatever our method of worship, what we’re doing is
practicing the presence of the Goddess.
As we dance with our Mother Earth to welcome the Age
of Aquarius (or the New Age or the New Millennium),
therefore, more and more people are wondering if the
things we measure only with our minds and machines are
enough to nourish our lives. We’re asking if the
things we buy and sell are what we really want, after
all. We’re looking for the invisible, nourishing
dimension of life that hasn’t been really accessible
since the Industrial Revolution lined us all up and
started whirring, cranking, and belching at us.
We’ve been reaching forward to new and improved
technology or backwards to the phony "traditional
family values." But I wonder . . . have we been
reaching in the right direction?
What would happen if we reached inward instead? If we
laid our hands on the small, dark, precious seeds of
creativity and love that rest deep inside us all?
Instead of focusing on outward things to help and heal
us, what would happen if we focused inward?
Re-creating the Sacred Dimension
Whatever form our worship takes, our intention is to
do what more and more people are doing: re-creating the
sacred dimension in their lives, in life itself. We are
renewing our personal connection to the divine.
As far as we can tell from the archaeological
evidence, the Neolithic Civilization of the Goddess
lived closer to the earth than we do today. They called
her Mama back then and lived in harmony with the light
and the dark, observing and celebrating the phases of
the moon and the year. We who are creating the new
earth-based religions—we who are their modern children—are
inventing modern versions of ancient observations and
celebrations.
We’re observing and celebrating the re-emergence of
open worship of the Goddess after at least 5,000 years
of underground worship. To use the current jargon, we’re
seeing new patterns and changing our paradigms. We’re
merging the sacred with the secular. We’re recalling
our true essence, which is both immanent and
transcendent. We’re engaged in life both as it is and
as it can be.
Have we come back again to paradox? Yes, indeed. It’s
difficult to write about the sacred dimension because
words are intrinsically inadequate to the job. In
writing this book, I’m using a left-brain medium to
approach a right-brain process, and what comes out are
paradox and extravagant language. But you’ll also find
paradox and extravagant language in books on Zen and
yoga and the Qabalah, in Sufi and Hassidic mysticism, in
the words of the Christian and New Thought mystics, and
in the Course in Miracles books.
I think this fact helps to explain why most of the
books on Goddess ritual are like cookbooks: it’s
easier to give a recipe than to wander around in the
batter. How do we describe the indescribable? How do we
visualize the unseeable, apprehend the impalpable,
ponder the unthinkable?
As simply as I can say it, the practice of the
presence of the Goddess is a way to get centered in your
own center. Other people have other names for this
center: God, Christ Consciousness, Higher Self, Nirvana,
Unity With All, Reverence For Life. I call this center
the Goddess.
Of the many paths that lead us to the Goddess, I
believe that the following are two of the most familiar and relevant.
Deep Thought
The first path is largely intellectual. We need
intellectual content—facts, history, theory,
philosophy, theology—and intelligent discussion of
that content so we don’t fall into silliness or rote
repetition of practices handed down from some god or
guru or would-be highest of all high priestesses. We
need to think for ourselves. We need to think about what
we’re doing, not do it just because someone said we
should. When you adopt a mystical sensibility,
therefore, do not abandon your common sense. Keep your
wits about you and throw some healthy skepticism in the
mix.
A Ritual of Thoughtfulness. Take a few minutes
to find out what’s on your mind. What are you
currently reading? What are you thinking about these
days? What has been bothering you? What do you need to
learn? What questions do you hear yourself asking? If
you need to, sit down with a tablet and pencil and make
a list. From your list, select one topic that seem to
need resolution, or at least direction.
Set up your altar. If you have a figure of Athene,
set Her in the center. You can also set anything else
that signifies Deep Thought to you on your altar, but I
never put books on an altar where there are lighted
candles.
Holy Powers of Elemental Air, goddesses and gods of
the mind,
I seek intellectual understanding,
I seek to know [name your issue].
Holy Powers of Intellectual Understanding,
Come into my life, touch my every step, bless me with
your
Great gifts of reason, judgment, discrimination, the
fresh air of new ideas.
Great and generous Powers,
I need to know,
I need to think,
I need to understand.
Now put these thorny issues out of your conscious
mind. Read a mystery, watch your favorite video, play a
game. At the same time, know that the deities work in
mysterious ways. Remain alert for hints and leads and
suggestions. Perhaps you’ll overhear a conversation
that jogs your mind, perhaps someone will mention a book
or magazine to you—however it happens, you will
receive food for thought. Think about it.
Good Works
The second path is more active. No one I know is as
dedicated and selfless as Mother Teresa or Albert
Schweitzer, to be sure, but we can do good works where
we live on the planet. We can do them out of kindness
and the recognition that we’re all related, and not
out of fear that we won’t go to heaven if we don’t.
We can be courteous to our coworkers, yield on the
freeway, volunteer to feed the homeless on a national
holiday, or give money to a charity. Even our smallest
good works are beneficial. They’re not only mutually
beneficial, but they also add that much more kindness to
the aura of the planet. Believe me, kindness is more
important today than it was five or ten years ago.
A Ritual of Good Work. Homelessness and social
turmoil. Floods and tornadoes. World hunger and the
uncountable number of children living in poverty. It
seems as if there’s no end of calls for us to do good
works in the world. What issues touch your heart?
What causes would inspire you to actually do
something? Do you care about Tibet or seemingly
insurmountable problems in African nations? Wait—let’s
stay closer to home. Do you have a friend with cancer or
AIDS? Do you actually notice the homeless and hungry
people in your town?
Again, take some time to sit down with a tablet and
pencil and find out what you would like to better
understand. Perhaps you can sort through the appeals you
received in the mail this week. Select a cause you
really care about and are ready to do something about.
Set up your altar. Perhaps you will want to lay a
photo of a philanthropist or activist you admire on it,
or perhaps a figure of Aphrodite, not just a goddess of
love but the Divine Creatrix.
Holy Powers of Elemental Earth, goddesses and gods of
the manifest world,
I seek understanding of the purpose of charity, of good
works,
I seek to know [name your issue].
Holy Powers of Practical Understanding,
Come into my life, touch my every step, bless me with
your
Great gifts of groundedness in the Goddess, of survival
and prosperity.
Great and generous Powers,
I need to know,
I need to take action,
I need to understand.
Now go about your daily life. Put your yearning to do
good works aside and work in your garden, clean out
those overstuffed closets, sharpen and polish your tools
and hang them in their proper places. Opportunities will
come to you. Perhaps you’ll get a mail appeal that
inspires you. Perhaps you’ll get a phone call from a
politician who finally makes sense. Perhaps a friend
will invite you to a lecture or other event that make
you stand up and stand for something. Go for it.
From Practicing the Presence of
the Godddess © 2000. Reprinted with permission of
New World Library - www.newworldlibrary.com
Barbara Ardinger, Ph.D., author of Practicing
the Presence of the Goddess and Goddess
Meditations, Barbara lives with her cats,
Schroedinger and Heisenberg, in Southern California. She
is an initiated Dianic Witch and holds the Green Tara
initiations, given to her by Dagmola Jamyang Sakya. She
is currently at work on a book of humorous Found
Goddesses and looking for a publisher for her novel
about a vampire, a far-right extremist, and a coven of
witches who live in Orange Co., California. Barbara also
writes book reviews that are published in numerous
magazines, including SageWoman and PanGaia.
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