This Sunday, we continue with the second week of our 4-week series called “Unity and Creation Spirituality.” The lesson title for this week is “Via Negativa—Mystery and Silence.”
Theologian and Author Matthew Fox “rediscovered” Creation Spirituality in his long spiritual search through both Eastern and Western mystical traditions. He teaches that we can name our journey to wholeness in four paths—Via Positiva, Via Negativa, Via Creativa, and Via Transformativa. While last week’s lesson on the Via Positiva spoke of the cosmic breadth of living, the Via Negativa opens us to our divine depths. We learn that we are cosmic beings not only in our joy and ecstasy but also in our pain and sorrow.
The Via Negativa, unlike many other spiritual frameworks, includes the feminine. It teaches us about darkness, mystical depths, emptying, letting go, pain, suffering, and silence. It brings us the dark night of the soul and the mysterious power of Grace.
We are seeing the Via Negativa in our world in many ways: the devastation left by Hurricanes Helene and Milton in the southeastern part of our country, the destruction in Gaza and Lebanon, the increasing conflict between Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, and now Iran.
We are also seeing it in the threat of authoritarianism throughout our country and our world. The loss of women’s rights and the patriarchal battle playing out is what Matthew Fox calls, “fear of the chaos of the Goddess.” Why chaos? Because the Goddess, the Feminine, is creative, unstructured, spontaneous, intuitive, and does not comply with the patriarchal paradigm of obedience, rigid structure, male domination, etc. She places the value of the earth, the air, and the environment over that of greed and power.
When we feel our feelings about what is going on, we allow ourselves to dive into the Via Negativa, letting pain be pain, discovering silence, comfort, peace, and finally, grace and understanding. The “commandment” for this path is, “Dare the Dark.” That is where gestation and birth occur.
Please join us for the follow-up class to this week's lesson on Zoom at 6:30 pm CT this Wednesday, October 16.
If you have not yet registered for the class, you can register by sending an email to Brande at Unity@UnityNorthMN.org.
Love and blessings,
Rev. Kathy