Community Planning Journal
Dec. 5th, 2001 03:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
novapsyche12/4/01, 8:59 a.m.
I'm going to describe what I see as my path. Then I'll try to differentiate between my path and the Ecclesia's general mission.
The Path of New Breath
Years ago, I had the idea of making a name book for a specific audience. To research names, I checked out a handful of baby name books. There was one book in particular that had chapter sectioned by nationalities. In this book, I found two names: Nova, which meant 'chasing', and Psyche, which meant 'the soul'. For some reason, this name stuck with me; it just felt right. For years since, I've always thought of nova psyche meaning "chasing the soul" [hence the name in my user info].
Recently, through current research into name etymology, I've been illumined as to other possible meanings of nova psyche. Respectively in the Latin and Greek, the name could mean "new breath". So, if it's not too narcissistic of me, I'd be happy to know my own path as 'The Path of New Breath'.
For me, breath has always held special significance. In several of my poems, the concept of breath has been a significator of the erotic, the inherently sensual. Morally, I believe life begins with one's first breath, and ends with one's last. Breath is forever an oscillation, the pull of our lungs; with that, we are gently anchored to a current of oxygenated atmosphere. By our breath, we are always innately connected with the "external" environment.
I was delightfully excited to learn that, in the Greek, psyche was related to pneuma, which means "breath" or "spirit". That is to say, "breath" and "spirit" are equivalent terms; they are different words for the same thing-in-itself.
Our spirit, our entire existence is dependent upon the breath. Breath is life. It also sustains life. It sustains itself.
But stagnant air nourishes little at all, and less and less as time passes, until finally the life-sustaining element of breath is extinguished. We need fresh air--new breath--if we are to continue to grow.
Ezra Pound insisted: "Make it NEW!" This has always been the task of the artists, the thinkers, the architects, the providers; indeed, the task of the whole of the human race. Our species' greatest gift is that of innovation. We are propelled by the energy of knowledge; our discoveries urge us to learn more.
Make it new! We in this postmodern world have endeavored to do just that. Postmodern thought is epistomological in nature: it questions the structure and form of knowledge itself. In the postmodern, thought questions thought.
* * *
New breath. Fresh air is a cure-all, after a fashion. Fresh air carries with it not only oxygen, but also negative ions and nitric oxide. These three components of air make it a blessing and a relief for several ailments. Ocean air is known for particular restorative qualities.
If spirit is breath, and our own spirits similarly are breath, what we need to keep growing and progressing is new breath, new spirit. This everpresent, renewable, self-renewing reservoir of breath--for this pool I have three names: the Breath of Life, the Lifestream, the Holy Spirit. [Cosmologically, I call it the Universe.]
I believe we can sanctify our own breath, to create in it a special resonant quality so that our breath is especially restorative. There are several ways in which one can do this. I have found, for myself, what works well is a regimen of meditation, music, and breath-focused gnosis.
There is, I believe, a Hindi tradition that instructs on the value of 'fourfold breathing', a type of meditation that brings about a state of pure insight. This to me suggests the breath that truly sustains itself, the spirit in a state of perpetual renewal. Privately, I refer to this as 'refreshing from the Lifestream'. It is a process of replenishing one's spirit with the selfsame substance.
The above meditation (fourfold breathing) facilitates gnostic communication with one's self, and as it seems to be an almost natural subsequent event, I utilize gnosis as a way of deepening my present connection with the Lifestream. Gnosis invites insight. Self-knowledge brings about an intensely nourishing aspect to the healing quality of the Breath.
Also, as gnosis deepens healthful Breath, it as a practice shows us that our own spirits are also Breath. Our bodies have localized centers of breath, and we are forever replenishing it with that from the Lifestream. We are forever locked in exchange with the external atmosphere. It is as if breath becomes a new umbilical cord (or chord, as the case may be). And, in that sense, we are always connected to the Divine, to the Holy Spirit.
So, what do I mean when I say I follow The Path of New Breath? I am saying that breath is life, and new breath is eternal life, eternally self-sustaining life. Consciousness is the child of breath and spirit; and all forms of consciousness are borne of the combinations of renewed breath interacting with sustained spirit.
Deliberate generation of sanctified breath can lead one to what Bucke termed cosmic consciousness, a seemingly extratemporal space where the alpha and the omega meet. This is bliss. This seems to me a Christianized form of nirvana. If Christ is the alpha and the omega, then cosmic consciousness is a place where one's own spirit comes to meet and be intimately linked with the Christ spirit. It is as if one's spirit and the Christ spirit are twins in the womb, fed from the same placenta.
The Christ spirit and the Holy Spirit are reflections of each other. Becoming filled with the Holy Spirit (i.e., the Breath of Life) engenders the Christ spirit--that of loving kindness, compassion, wonder, and commitment to peace.
10:40 a.m.--Differentiating the Ecclesia
The Ecclesia will hopefully in time represent and offer a diverse array of paths from which one may choose. Each path will be taught in the style of the ancient Greeks: one mentor, and a handful or fewer of pupils.
I hope there will be as many paths offered by the Children of the New Sun Ecclesia as there are rays of the sun in our daytime skies. I hope my path will be merely one in a sea of plenty.
[For an example of a Neo-Christian spiritual movement that has a similar design for individual churches, visit Vivian Gardens.]
I'm going to describe what I see as my path. Then I'll try to differentiate between my path and the Ecclesia's general mission.
The Path of New Breath
Years ago, I had the idea of making a name book for a specific audience. To research names, I checked out a handful of baby name books. There was one book in particular that had chapter sectioned by nationalities. In this book, I found two names: Nova, which meant 'chasing', and Psyche, which meant 'the soul'. For some reason, this name stuck with me; it just felt right. For years since, I've always thought of nova psyche meaning "chasing the soul" [hence the name in my user info].
Recently, through current research into name etymology, I've been illumined as to other possible meanings of nova psyche. Respectively in the Latin and Greek, the name could mean "new breath". So, if it's not too narcissistic of me, I'd be happy to know my own path as 'The Path of New Breath'.
For me, breath has always held special significance. In several of my poems, the concept of breath has been a significator of the erotic, the inherently sensual. Morally, I believe life begins with one's first breath, and ends with one's last. Breath is forever an oscillation, the pull of our lungs; with that, we are gently anchored to a current of oxygenated atmosphere. By our breath, we are always innately connected with the "external" environment.
I was delightfully excited to learn that, in the Greek, psyche was related to pneuma, which means "breath" or "spirit". That is to say, "breath" and "spirit" are equivalent terms; they are different words for the same thing-in-itself.
Our spirit, our entire existence is dependent upon the breath. Breath is life. It also sustains life. It sustains itself.
But stagnant air nourishes little at all, and less and less as time passes, until finally the life-sustaining element of breath is extinguished. We need fresh air--new breath--if we are to continue to grow.
Ezra Pound insisted: "Make it NEW!" This has always been the task of the artists, the thinkers, the architects, the providers; indeed, the task of the whole of the human race. Our species' greatest gift is that of innovation. We are propelled by the energy of knowledge; our discoveries urge us to learn more.
Make it new! We in this postmodern world have endeavored to do just that. Postmodern thought is epistomological in nature: it questions the structure and form of knowledge itself. In the postmodern, thought questions thought.
* * *
New breath. Fresh air is a cure-all, after a fashion. Fresh air carries with it not only oxygen, but also negative ions and nitric oxide. These three components of air make it a blessing and a relief for several ailments. Ocean air is known for particular restorative qualities.
If spirit is breath, and our own spirits similarly are breath, what we need to keep growing and progressing is new breath, new spirit. This everpresent, renewable, self-renewing reservoir of breath--for this pool I have three names: the Breath of Life, the Lifestream, the Holy Spirit. [Cosmologically, I call it the Universe.]
I believe we can sanctify our own breath, to create in it a special resonant quality so that our breath is especially restorative. There are several ways in which one can do this. I have found, for myself, what works well is a regimen of meditation, music, and breath-focused gnosis.
There is, I believe, a Hindi tradition that instructs on the value of 'fourfold breathing', a type of meditation that brings about a state of pure insight. This to me suggests the breath that truly sustains itself, the spirit in a state of perpetual renewal. Privately, I refer to this as 'refreshing from the Lifestream'. It is a process of replenishing one's spirit with the selfsame substance.
The above meditation (fourfold breathing) facilitates gnostic communication with one's self, and as it seems to be an almost natural subsequent event, I utilize gnosis as a way of deepening my present connection with the Lifestream. Gnosis invites insight. Self-knowledge brings about an intensely nourishing aspect to the healing quality of the Breath.
Also, as gnosis deepens healthful Breath, it as a practice shows us that our own spirits are also Breath. Our bodies have localized centers of breath, and we are forever replenishing it with that from the Lifestream. We are forever locked in exchange with the external atmosphere. It is as if breath becomes a new umbilical cord (or chord, as the case may be). And, in that sense, we are always connected to the Divine, to the Holy Spirit.
So, what do I mean when I say I follow The Path of New Breath? I am saying that breath is life, and new breath is eternal life, eternally self-sustaining life. Consciousness is the child of breath and spirit; and all forms of consciousness are borne of the combinations of renewed breath interacting with sustained spirit.
Deliberate generation of sanctified breath can lead one to what Bucke termed cosmic consciousness, a seemingly extratemporal space where the alpha and the omega meet. This is bliss. This seems to me a Christianized form of nirvana. If Christ is the alpha and the omega, then cosmic consciousness is a place where one's own spirit comes to meet and be intimately linked with the Christ spirit. It is as if one's spirit and the Christ spirit are twins in the womb, fed from the same placenta.
The Christ spirit and the Holy Spirit are reflections of each other. Becoming filled with the Holy Spirit (i.e., the Breath of Life) engenders the Christ spirit--that of loving kindness, compassion, wonder, and commitment to peace.
10:40 a.m.--Differentiating the Ecclesia
The Ecclesia will hopefully in time represent and offer a diverse array of paths from which one may choose. Each path will be taught in the style of the ancient Greeks: one mentor, and a handful or fewer of pupils.
I hope there will be as many paths offered by the Children of the New Sun Ecclesia as there are rays of the sun in our daytime skies. I hope my path will be merely one in a sea of plenty.
[For an example of a Neo-Christian spiritual movement that has a similar design for individual churches, visit Vivian Gardens.]
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2001-12-05 10:34 am (UTC)Another way of looking at postmodern spirituality is that it is a sort of salad bar of spiritual thought. Like an industrial song, ideas and thoughts are sampled and combined into something new. This, incidentally, exactly what the hermetic mystics of the middle ages and the Renaissance did. In some ways, postmodernism isn't all that new.
I have more to say, but not the time.
(no subject)
Date: 2001-12-05 06:53 pm (UTC)I'd like to know more about them, especially those of the Renaissance. (Unfortunately, I can only read so fast. I should put these on my list of things to research.)
I have more to say, but not the time.
Well, if you get the time, I'd like to hear what's on your mind.
(no subject)
Date: 2001-12-05 08:41 pm (UTC)ironically, it is made new because it is new to others once again.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-08 12:07 pm (UTC)