June 7 / In a time of unprecedented chaos and paradox, both personal and cultural, our lives depend on our capacity to remember the beauty way and to open ourselves to the great mystery that surrounds us with its immaculate ways. However flawed human choices and actions may be at this time, the song of an intelligent universe precedes our evolutionary struggles and guides us to a higher order when we listen deeply:
How can we go through this initiation we seem so destined to experience?
How will we dance with the great unknown and the mysteries of death and rebirth?
One way we can sanely relate to mysterium tremendum et fascinans (term coined by Rudolf Otto describing the numinous as “the terrible and fascinating mystery”) is by courting and praising beauty, which helps to keep the song of our hearts alive. In this session, we will explore: Beauty as medicine and a sacred act in our lives; and our relationship with beauty as part of the great remembering of the everyday mystery we are each a part of. We will also look at different forms of praise as the foundation of gratitude and in particular, the poetic form. We will appreciate poetry as a vibrant form of praise which directly speaks to and touches our hearts and minds in the darkest of times.
