Exploring Different Ways of Being Me

by Michael S. Rose

CINCINNATI — The New Age/neopagan direction of many of the religious orders in the tri-state area of Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana was evident in the abundant literature on eco-feminism and alternative spirituality displayed at the EarthSpirit Rising conference.

General-interest organic gardening books and practical manuals on passive solar heating were far outnumbered by books and pamphlets on Jungian psychology, eco-radicalism, pantheism. Native American spirituality, and the New Age-feminist quasi-hybrid.

One of the most popular exhibitors was Grailville, a pillar of the national eco-feminist movement. Grailville is an adult conference and education center in Loveland, 0. (20 miles from Cincinnati), that draws visitors from across the country. Owned and operated by the Grail, an international women's movement founded in 1921 in the Netherlands, it is a popular spot for women religious to make their annual retreat. Its educational center offers residential programs, weekend and daylong workshops, and courses such as "Springboard for Woman-Defined Theologies" — which was heavily promoted at the Cincinnati conference.

According to Grailville literature, participants in the courses don't just learn, they "co-learn." The Woman-Defined Theologies brochure — which mocks the Last Supper by placing famous women such as Dorothy Day and Ruth Fitzpatrick around the Upper Room table sans Christ — states that "you, as a co-learner, along with the 16-member resource faculty (conversant in the fields of theology, religious studies, ethics, pastoral ministry, liturgy/ritual, scripture, educational psychology, literature, sociology, history, gender studies, and art), will be able to situate yourself as a wo/man in American culture."

Residents at the Grailville "womanspace" will "grow personally" by experiencing "woman-defined rituals." According to its May, 1998 newsletter, "the 1997 gathered community of co-learners offer the following reflections which describe their collective experience together":

Many doors have been opened
Connections have been made
Light shines and is dawning
In transition and grateful for the succulence we have shared
Ready for s 'mores
Courage to be me
Moving from fear and trust, to confidence in God
The wisdom to hear the God within me
The freedom to BE
Following wolves down the shadowy paths of mystery
Bless Sophia
Thanks for the collective spiritual journey
Our hearts are full.
I love you sister,
Healing is here
Beauty is here
I'm strengthened
What can we say about our stitching, our creation?
Phenomenal women that's us
Awesome, delightful, beautiful
We are our quilt
DO IT AGAIN!

Another workshop promoted by the Grail is "Inhabiting Our Bodies." According to the Grail newsletter, "many of us become alienated from our bodies and thus from our deeper selves. If your body sometimes feels like a stranger or an enemy, this daylong workshop offers the opportunity to befriend your body and discover its wisdom.

"By exploring our own bodies and developing a sensate or felt perception of our experiences, we can move into a place of greater ease with ourselves and everything around us." The workshop is being led by Theresa Horan-Sapunar, "who has spent the last 20 years as a body-oriented psychotherapist and teacher of women's spirituality."

Lesbian couples are offered a workshop called "Creating True Partnership."

The promotional advertisement states, "Rekindle the flames that brought you together so that you may create the partnership for which you long. By learning new skills, you can experience the synergy that emerges from a true partnership and bring more loving-kindness into your relationship. Join other couples committed to creating truthful, vital, and tender relationships, and experience the support of couples on a similar path."

Disciples Of Jung

Another EarthSpirit exhibitor, the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), was promoting its "Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness" program, which is designed to "formulate new understandings of the cosmos and of the human being" by exploring the "history of ideas, evolution, archetypal studies (Platonic, Romantic, Jungian), esoteric thought, transpersonal theory, mythology, eco-feminism, new paradigm studies, and the changing relationship between science and spirituality."

CIIS students are immersed in the archetypal theories of Carl G. Jung and the consciousness evolution science of Teilhard de Chardin. Available courses include:

"The Evolution of Consciousness," which investigates "theories concerning the evolution of human consciousness" a la Sri Aurobindo, Teilhard de Chardin, and Rudolph Steiner;

"Jung and Myth," which looks at "the Christ-Myth, the central myth of Christianity";

"Perspectives on the Paradigm Shift," which is taught by 12 disciples of Jung;

"Ecological Postmodernism," which aims to discover an "awareness of embodiment, ecological/ cosmological embeddedness, and nonduality";

"Gnosticism, Hermeticism, and Neoplatonism," which investigates the foundation of the "Western esoteric tradition";

"Ancient Mystery Religions," which studies Eleusinian, Orphic, and Pythagorean mysteries, the mysteries of Isis, Cybele, and Mithras;

"Psyche and Cosmos: Transpersonal Psychology and Archetypal Astrology" which dives into the study of "extended cartography of the human psyche, experiential therapies, analysis of birth charts and planetary transits, archetypal and perinatal patterns in art and culture, and depth psychology based on observed correlations of the timing and archetypal character of various psychological conditions and transformations with specific planetary positions";

"The Emerging Paradigm in Western Science," which explores "modern consciousness research (such as experiential psychotherapies, study of psychospiritual crisis, thanatology, lucid dreaming, biofeedback, and psychedelic therapy)" and "metaphysical insights from nonordinary states of consciousness";

"Synchronicity and the Science of Wholeness," which investigates "the implications of accepting the reality of synchronicity. Since Carl Jung first recognized and named this phenomenon, a number of theoretical explanations have been offered";

"Healing Potential of Nonordinary States: Holotropic Breath-work," which integrates the "insights from modern consciousness research, transpersonal psychology, anthropology, and Eastern spiritual philosophies," forming the basis of "holotropic breath-work." It "utilizes the spontaneous healing potential of the psyche that becomes available in nonordinary states of consciousness";

Students also study the works of Sigmund Freud, William James, Stanislav Grof, Emesto Cardenal, Alfred North Whitehead, Henri Bergson, Teilhard de Chardin, John Dewey, Charles Darwin, Loren Eisley, David Bohm, Edgar Morin, Ken Wilbur, Enrich Neumann, Jean Gebser, William Irwin Thompson, and Riane Eisler.

Planetary Dance

Another exhibitor, the Institute for Deep Ecology (IDE), was promoting its "Action for the Earth" programs. Its "Embodying Nature" workshop "aims to reawaken our true identity as an integral part of the natural world," culminating "in the famed Planetary Dance, an annual public ritual celebration on Mt. Tamalpais dedicated to personal and planetary well-being."

The IDE workshop on "Renewing Our Connection" brings participants together under the giant Douglas firs, using an "open space process to learn from each other" and to "draw sustenance from each other."

An "Interfaith Deep Ecology Wilderness Quest" brings IDE participants into the desert wilderness of southeast Utah for ten days to "learn contemplative ways of being in nature."

This item 391 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org