“If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.” Maya Angelou
Holy Week began with a shocking loss on Monday when Notre Dame Cathedral went up in flames. We watched the television coverage from Paris. People were staring in shock and horror and then grief as they realized they were losing the symbol of their spiritual heritage.
Construction of Notre Dame, Our Lady, was begun in 1163 and completed almost 200 years later in 1345. One could think of this period as the Golden Age of Christianity. Devotion to God and his savior son Jesus had risen into a fervor. Crusaders were spreading, and enforcing, the Word as they rode through all of Europe, into the Balkans, down into Egypt, bound for Jerusalem.
Concurrently architects were dreaming of buildings that rose to the heavens celebrating the Holy Spirit and the Holy Mother who had conceived and birthed the Son of God into the world. Gothic Architecture was their gift to humanity, a gift of the finest craftsmanship coupled with love and devotion to the Divine.
This is what the world seemed to be losing on Monday. Newscasters were saying that the cathedral was a total loss. They couldn’t stop the fire from spreading. Once the roof collapsed there was nothing to hold the flying buttresses in place, and once they went, the walls would collapse.
This was dire news. And then the French citizens began to sing. They stood in clumps, staring at the flames, and lifted their voices in prayer to the Divine of which the cathedral was only a symbol. I was moved to tears by the profound spiritual moment they were having together. After a while the news changed. Firefighters had moved ahead of the fire and blocked it. The roof and the spire were lost, but the walls, towers and the façade were saved. Precious art and artifacts had been removed to safety and three stained glass windows were intact. A few hours later Macron told the world, “We will rebuild.” It was a stunning moment of spiritual transformation. It was a triumph of collective will, carrying a mythic weight.
Many years ago on a Good Friday I had a revelation. I had gone to hear Patricia Sun produce her powerful sound vibrations. It was a beautiful day, and on the way home I stopped at a road side organic produce store. It was more like a small warehouse with a beautiful array of nuts, fruits and vegetables. I wandered through as if in an art gallery, appreciating the colors and richness of bounty.
I noticed a woman grazing as she poured over the bins. I moved on and seconds later heard choking sounds. I turned to see her bent over, red-faced, grabbing her throat. I had never had a CPR course, but I had once observed someone performing the Heimlich maneuver from across a room. In an instant, I slipped into a different Self. Calmly I moved behind her and grabbed her around her diaphragm. The choking object was ejected and the woman took a deep breath. She gasped for a few moments then turned away without a word.
I had saved her life and she walked away without the slightest acknowledgment. I shrugged and continued my shopping. At the check-out there she was again, standing in front of me. Suddenly I recognized her. Long story short, she was someone who had harmed me a few years earlier.
I drove home marveling at how this Good Friday had unfurled with such mystery. I realized that I had returned a good deed for a bad one. I had performed a spiritual act, instinctively. When I reached home I climbed the hill across the road and found a perch from which I could see the whole valley, a vista of spring green, bathed in slanting rays of gold. As I gazed I had a sudden revelation. I knew that we had never left the Garden of Eden. This is it! Earth is the Garden. We just stopped seeing it; stopped relating to it as the heaven it has always been. I also saw that the “Second Coming” wasn’t the return of a former avatar. It was the awakening and eventual enlightenment of human consciousness. The Second Coming is Us!
Holy Week is a time of awareness and recognition of our spiritual roots. I don’t believe the fire portends the end of Christianity, but it definitely signals change, as significant as 9/11 was to the USA. There is within this event a mystery for us to puzzle out. Perhaps enlightenment will come with the full moon on Good Friday, a Blue Moon – the second full moon in Libra – which carries the energies of balance and peace, beauty and love.
Passover begins on the full moon as well, and on Easter Sunday, Holy Week comes to fruition. The sorrow of loss and death is subsumed in the joy of rebirth and transcendence. This experience is available to all of us. It is part of our spiritual heritage, whatever our faith. We just need to open to it. The confluence of spiritual traditions and the full moon provide enormous energy to launch insight and propel our dreams.
Our dreams of peace, beauty, truth and goodness can have a profound impact on our future. Libra is ruled by Venus. Look for this luminous goddess in the early morning sky, a beacon of hope before sunrise. And take some time to imagine an ideal future for all of us. Cast a vote with your imagination.
In peace and love,
Diana
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