Thursday, June 10, 2010

Reindeer Goddess & the Imaginal Realm

Communicating with the anima mundi, Psyche, the Soul of the World--- whatever you call her, requires a different perception than our everyday way of seeing. To quote human ecologist Tom Cheetham; "To keep our internals open, we have to learn to read or write ourselves out of ourselves, and uncurl ourselves back into the world." (1) 
He also talks about "reading the world" (2), as the Sufi's have in their dialogue with  Khidir- the Green Man, the Angel of the Earth. Khidr, says Cheetham, is a "messenger from far beyond". (3)  This realm, this "beyond", is the Imaginal Realm or mundus imaginalis. "If we recognize the realm of the imaginal as the  mediating world between the purely physical and the purely spiritual, the  schism between them can begin to heal".(4)  The outward manifestation of the this schism manifests in the battle between technology and nature. (There isn't a clearer example of this schism than the current situation in the Gulf of Mexico. Man's titanic egoism (man acting as a god) has destroyed an ecosystem crucial to the Atlantic Ocean, perhaps crucial to the World, by building a proverbial Tower of Babylon.(5))

         My own experiences with the Reindeer Goddess seem to reflect Tom Cheetham's ideas.  She is from the Imaginal Realm. She is an aspect of the World Psyche which is the matrix for our own reality. We humans don't   "have a psyche" (she is not a "thing"),  we are immersed in Psyche. This is an living energy field. The modern world is in danger of losing it's very lifeline by disconnecting itself from our very source and matrix. This is what the prophecies (6) that the Reindeer Goddess left with the people of Lapland were warning us about. In those communications from the Reindeer Goddess, it is clearly stated that she is the "heartbeat of the world".(7) 

An ancient , primordial deity has reached out to modern humanity to help them help themselves. I am  not the only person she has contacted, and she is not the only primordial deity to contact the modern world. Anyone who hears the messages, and listens, enters upon journey of the heart. They become an alchemist, a poet, a visionary, a prophet, an ecologist, an artist, a musician -- one who speaks, and hears, the language of the heart. The journey of the heart is a path to authentic living, being real. This is not at the same as being literal. Literalism is materialism. Materialism is the worship of man as god: the worship of man-created things.  
I choose HEART. 

Notes:
Painting of Deer Woman by Susan Seddon Boulet
(1) Green Man, Earth Angel, by Tom Cheetham, page 113
(2) IBID, page 114
(3) IBID, page109
(4) IBID, page113
(5) my blog post here
(6) my blog post here
(7) IBID

6 comments:

  1. Beautiful! I especially love the wisdom in those last 3 lines.

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  2. it's been way too long since i visited here! loved this post - and the truth it holds - it's especially interesting that my post yesterday contained the following quote:
    i live in truth...
    i have my being in truth...
    I LIVE BY SAYING WHAT IS IN MY HEART.

    saw your EQ comment today at synchronicity and left a little response about my own physical symptoms the past few days, including migraine that has ended - anyway, sorry to have been away so long but will be back soon! have a great weekend!

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  3. I choose HEART too! Thinking of Sophia as I read this post.

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  4. Followed your lead and got one of those live feed widgets. What fun!

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  5. I was glad to find one that was easy to install. They are fun!

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  6. Great information - and warning for our species.

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