• About

The Wilderness Road

The Wilderness Road

Category Archives: Saint Augustine

Quid es ergo, Deus meus?

27 Sunday Oct 2019

Posted by victoriaperpetua in Evelyn Underhill, Mystic, Mysticism, Saint Augustine

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Mystic, Mysticism, Saint Augustine

The Mystic, the Mourner, magnetic and strange
But, be realistic, he isn’t sadistic.

It was somewhat cryptic, particularly to a ten-year-old (or was I eleven?). Either way, I was completely fascinated by this description of my birth sign—Pisces. I found this “definition” of myself on a colorful book of matches and never forgot it. I liked the idea of being mystic (whatever that actually meant) and a mourner and magnetic and even strange. It is true that I am not sadistic but I never really liked the rhymey-ness of that second line.

As the years passed, I continued to be drawn to the mystic aspect of my sign, and, eventually, to the mystics themselves: Saint John and Saint Paul, Hildegard von Bingen and Teresa of Avila, Julian of Norwich and needless to say, Saint Francis.

Evelyn Underhill, in her book, Mysticism, wrote: “Of all those forms of life and thought which humanity has fed its craving for truth, mysticism alone postulates, and in the persons of its great initiates proves, not only the existence of the Absolute, but also this link: this possibility first of knowing, finally of attaining it.

Attaining knowledge of, and finally, union with, the Absolute is a journey along a different wilderness road. It is a long, and often arduous, pilgrimage and not everyone who undertakes it will reach their final destination.

“Quid es ergo, Deus meus?” asked Saint Augustine.

What art Thou, then, my God? He proceeded to answer with both the vision of the mystic and the genius of the philosopher, which, according to Underhill “combined to hint something at least of the paradox of the intimacy and majesty in that all-embracing, all-transcending One.”

“Highest, best, most potent [dynamic], most omnipotent [transcendent], most merciful and most just, most deeply hid and yet most near. Fairest, yet strongest: steadfast yet unseizable; unchangeable yet changing all things; never new, yet never old. . . . Ever busy yet ever at rest; gathering yet needing not: bearing, filling, guarding; creating, nourishing and perfecting; seeking though Thou hast no wants.  . . . What can I say, my God, my life, my holy joy? Or what can any say who speaks of Thee?”

Underhill said that the mystic knows his task to be the attainment of Union with God; that is, the Unitive Life, which, while it is often lived in the world, is never of it. The self is remade, transformed and has finally unified itself. As Carl Jung might say, the process of transforming one’s psyche by bringing the personal and collective unconscious into conscious being has been completed.

This is clearly not an easy task yet one infinitely worth aspiring to.

The Lost Coin

30 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by victoriaperpetua in Dream Work, John A. Sanford, Saint Augustine, Shadow work, Soul

≈ Leave a comment

lost coin

Once you realize the relationship of the consciousness to the soul, your inner world is available for recognition and integration. The process involves the inclusion of what was once unrecognized and unknown.

This, unfortunately, is not always a pleasant experience, because, as Sanford says, some of what must be included appear at first to be objectionable, inferior, unwanted and perhaps, even “devilish.”

But, without these “lost” aspects of ourselves, the “perfection” or wholeness of the kingdom cannot be established as they represent our unredeemed humanity, which must now be found.

Our early identification with the mask, he says, effectively excludes a large portion of our personality. And, our identification with our masculinity or femininity, depending on whether we are men or women, will also exclude much of our potential.

The undeveloped side of our personality often appears in our dreams. It could be a beggar, a man or woman we see as inferior, a crippled or handicapped person or even a child that has not yet developed. The need to reclaim this part of ourselves is often seen in dreams as a great descent, or a dream figure that cries for help or even in a scene that resembles the realm of hell.

Sanford says the unlived life may “seize the initiative and make a great bid for freedom, in which case there is a turbulence of personality, a violent inner upheaval as the unused portions of ourselves stage a revolt.”

If we identify with that rebellion, it will be a frightening experience for those around us as they see sudden changes taking place in our personalities. If we do no identify with these surging forces, the fear will be our own; we will become deeply frightened of ourselves, fear insanity, or feel forced to quell the rebellion in drugs, alcohol or some other form of escape.

Jesus has many sayings that speak of the need to reclaim what has been denied, such as, “The Son of Man has come to seek out and save what was lost.” Luke 19:10

This has come to mean those people “out there” who have not heard the Gospel, but Sanford says the meaning is also internal. Jesus came as the archetype of human completeness in order to save all those parts of the human personality, wherever they exist, that are lost to consciousness.

“When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not ask your friends, brothers, relations or rich neighbors, for fear they repay your courtesy by inviting you in return. No; when you have a party, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; that they cannot pay you back means that you are fortunate, because repayment will be made to you when the virtuous rise again.” Luke 14:12-14

This another of the sayings of Jesus that refers to both the social and psychological attitude the Christian is to cultivate. Says Sanford, “Psychologically they are to . . . include those parts of themselves that have hitherto been denied development. At first this seems futile, as though we must accept in us what is unacceptable, useless, or actually defeating to our conscious purposes. Where is our reward in this? But when the kingdom comes . . . we shall have paved the way for totality.”

Many parables also speak of the necessity of including the inferior element, including the parable of Lazarus and the rich man that appears in Luke 16:19-31. In this parable, the rich man from hell begs Lazarus, who is in heaven, for relief and Lazarus denies him any help for either himself or his brothers. The only thing that is offered is: “They have Moses and the prophets.”

“If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.”

This may look like a story created to put Jews in their place for not believing in the resurrection, but taken inwardly, the rich man is the ego, which “has everything its own way and falls prey to a hubris so that it unfairly dominates the entire psyche.”

“The poor man,”Sanford says, “is the rejected one, a personality shoved aside by the ego into the unconscious where it longs for acceptance and for nourishment from consciousness but is denied it.”

Sooner or later such an ego is plunged into the hell fire of the unconscious, which is the only way this hubris can be overcome. But the inferior personality (Lazarus) is elevated by God, which shows that what people have regarded as inferior, unworthy, and to be scorned is actually favored, loved and elevated by God.

The great gulf between heaven and hell in the parable is the inevitable result of the refusal of the ego to acknowledge inner reality.

The parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin also illustrate this:

“Tell me. Suppose a man has a hundred sheep and one of them strays; will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hillside and go in search of the stray? I tell you solemnly, if he finds it, it gives him more joy than do the ninety-nine that did not stray at all.” Matthew 18:12-14/Luke 15: 4-7)

Sanford claims there is a reason, an inner meaning, for the precise total of 100 sheep. Numbers for the early Christians, he says, all had a mystical, or psychological, meaning.

“Ignorance of numbers prevents us from understanding things that are set down in Scripture in figurative and mystical ways,” Saint Augustine said.

Thus it is that 10, with its multiples of 100 or 1000, was known as the divine number. It represented unity (as the total of the four primary numbers: 1, 2, 3 ,4) on a complex level. It was the number for totality, or God.

Which explains why the loss of one sheep is so important, without finding the one lost sheep to bring the total back to 100, there is no completeness. So, psychologically, that lost sheep is the lost part of ourselves, the part of our total personality that is submerged in the depths. And, this part must be recognized and brought into expression if we are to be complete.

“Or, once again, what woman with ten drachmas would not, if she lost one, light a lamp and sweep out the house and search thoroughly till she found it? And then, when she had found it, call together her friends and neighbors? ‘Rejoice with me,’ she would say, ‘I have found the drachma I have lost.'” Luke 15: 8-9

A drachma is worth only about 6 cents so it is not particularly valuable, but according to K.C. Pillai, at that point in history, a woman was given 10 coins by her husband at the time of their betrothal as a pledge of love and loyalty. She was to keep them her entire life and losing them would be a terrible disgrace and a bad omen for the marriage.

So, like the lost sheep, the lost coin is a lost part of ourselves, the inferior part that must be recovered if we are to be complete. The lighting of a lamp and the sweeping of the home are also symbolic as we light the lamp of our mind, do a thorough searching of our souls, and a sweeping of our inner world in order to become whole.

Gregory of Nyssa writes of this parable that the lamp/light is “doubtless our reason which throws light on hidden principles” (i.e., consciousness that perceives hidden unconsciousness).  The coin, he says, is to be found “in one’s own house, that is, within oneself.” Then he observes about the lost coin, “By that coin the Parable doubtless hints at the image of our King, not yet hopelessly lost, but hidden beneath the dirt.”

This dirt, he says, “is the impurity of our flesh, which, being swept and purged away by carefulness of life, leaves clear to the view the object of our search . . . Verily, all those powers which are the housemates of the soul, and which the Parable names her neighbors for this occasion, when so be that the image of the mighty King is revealed in all its brightness at last, that image which the fashioner of each individual heart of us has stamped upon this our Drachma, will then be converted to that divine delight and festivity, and will gaze upon the ineffable beauty of the recovered one.”

To recover the lost coin within us, our unredeemed humanity, is to recover Christ himself, the psychological equivalent of which is totality.

The paradox of the kingdom is that the very things in life that hitherto have given us such support may now have to be sacrificed, Sanford says. Jesus puts it this way:

“If your right eye should cause you to sin, tear it out and throw it away . . . for it will do less harm to lose one part of you than to have your whole body go to hell.” Matthew 5:29-30

Obviously, literally, this is absurd. Psychologically, the “right” side represents the side of ourselves that is consciously developed; the “left” side is the side of ourselves of which we are unconscious. In other words, we must at times sacrifice what has been psychologically developed if it so takes over that it excludes our totality.

The final paradox, Sanford says, is that it looks as though consciousness, from its superior development and vantage point, must stoop down to lift up the inner beggar, to rescue the undeveloped inner person, or go in search of the lost sheep/coin. But, at the same time it is the lost part of ourselves, the despised “Samaritan” that rescues us. We are saved when the lost part of our personality is recovered.

“With the removal of the hubris of the ego and the inclusion of the inferior, hitherto unconscious parts of our personality that our connection to the soul has made possible, we are now in a position to receive the kingdom of God, he says.

Next Week: The Coming of the Kingdom

Recent Posts

  • Fascicle Three, Sheet 1f
  • Fascicle Three, Sheet 1e
  • Fascicle Three, Sheet 1d
  • Fascicle Three, Sheet 1c
  • Fascicle Three, Sheet 1b

Archives

  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • January 2021
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012

Categories

  • #MeToo
  • #ShareTheJourney
  • 7-Week Advent
  • A Sand County Almanac
  • A Spring in the Desert
  • Abrams Falls
  • Active Imagination
  • Acts 8
  • Advent
  • AdventWord
  • Albert Einstein
  • Alberto Ríos
  • Aldo Leopold
  • All Sinful Desires
  • Alvin C. York
  • Amma Syncletica
  • Amma Theodora
  • An Affair to Dismember
  • Anaïs Nin
  • Anastasie et Rémy
  • Angel Falls Rapid Trail
  • Angels
  • Animals
  • Anteater
  • anti-resolution
  • Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
  • Any Way the Wind Blows
  • Apache
  • Apache Trail
  • Appalachian Trail
  • Archetypes
  • Arizona
  • Art
  • Arthur Symons
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Ash Wednesday
  • Atlanta
  • August
  • Autumn
  • backpacking
  • Beach
  • Beastie Boys
  • Bhagavad Gita
  • Big Ridge State Park
  • Big South Fork NRRA
  • Biodiversity
  • Birds
  • Bishop
  • Blessing
  • Bonaventure
  • Book covers
  • Book of Common Prayer
  • Book Reviews
  • Book Trailer
  • Bookmarks
  • Books
  • Botany
  • Breathing
  • Brian Weiss
  • Bungalow
  • Burundi
  • butterflies
  • Butterfly
  • cacti
  • cactus
  • California
  • Camp NaNoWriMo
  • Camping
  • Canada Geese
  • Canticle of Brother Sun
  • Carl Jung
  • Carmel
  • Casco Viejo
  • Cats
  • Cemetery
  • Cherokee National Forest
  • Chickadees
  • Chihuly
  • Christ
  • Christianity
  • Christmas
  • Claude McKay
  • Coal Seam
  • Collect
  • Colombia
  • Conservation
  • Cordell Hull
  • Costa Rica
  • Covid-19
  • Culture
  • Daffodils
  • Davy Crockett
  • Deadline
  • Death
  • Death's Dark Shadows
  • Desert
  • Desert Botanical Garden
  • Desert wisdom
  • Desire
  • Devotional
  • Diocese of Georgia
  • Divine
  • Dominican Republic
  • Don Quixote
  • Dr. Suess
  • Dracula
  • Dream Groups
  • Dream Journal
  • Dream Work
  • Dreams
  • Dylan Thomas
  • Earth
  • Easter
  • Ecology
  • Edgar Allan Poe
  • Edinburgh
  • Egypt
  • Elephant Seals
  • Eliora
  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning
  • Emily Brontë
  • Emily Dickinson
  • England
  • Enneagram
  • Environment
  • Ephrem the Syrian
  • Episcopal
  • Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM)
  • Evelyn Underhill
  • Existensialism
  • Extinction
  • Faeries
  • Fall Creek Falls State Park
  • Fantasy
  • Fate
  • Faust
  • Fear
  • Fiction
  • Fishing
  • Flora
  • Flowers
  • Forgiveness
  • Forward Movement
  • Four-Dimensional Man
  • Four-step dreamwork
  • Fox
  • Franciscan
  • Francois Truffaut
  • Frogs
  • G.K. Chesterton
  • Garden
  • Gender Equality
  • Gene Keys
  • Generosity
  • geocaching
  • George Herbert
  • Georgia State Parks
  • Ger Duany
  • German Shepherd
  • Ghost Flowers
  • Gihembe
  • Gilbert Gaul
  • Glastonbury
  • Glendale Glitters
  • Gnostic Gospels
  • God
  • GoodReads Giveaway
  • Great Smoky Mountains
  • Greenwich Cemetery
  • Grow Christians
  • Haden Institute
  • Hallowed Treasures Saga
  • Halloween
  • Hamlet
  • Happiness
  • Hemlock
  • Henry Miller
  • Henry Vaughan
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
  • Heredia
  • Herrens Veje
  • Hieroglyphs
  • Hiking
  • Hiking Tennessee
  • Historical Fiction
  • history
  • Hohokam
  • Honey Creek
  • Hope
  • Horror
  • horses
  • Hunting
  • Hurricane Irma
  • Hurricanes
  • Hymns
  • I-Ching Hexagram
  • Iceland
  • Image Activation Dreamwork
  • In Lonely Exile
  • Indian Pipe
  • Infrared
  • Inner Work
  • Insects
  • Ireland
  • Israel
  • Jabberwock
  • Jalalu ’d Din
  • Jane Bald
  • January
  • Jeanne Moreau
  • Jekyll Island
  • Jeremiah 6:16
  • Jeremy Taylor
  • Jerusalem
  • Jesus
  • John A. Sanford
  • Joshua Tree National Park
  • Joshua Trees
  • Joyce Kilmer
  • Jules et Jim
  • Julian of Norwich
  • July
  • June
  • Junipero Serra
  • Katahdin
  • Kentucky Derby
  • Kenya
  • King Crimson
  • King of Peace
  • Kirkus Review
  • La Paz Waterfall Gardens
  • Lady's Slipper
  • Lao Tzu
  • Lao-tse
  • Laurel Grove Cemetery
  • Le Tourbillon
  • Lent
  • Leo Tolstoy
  • Lomo'Instant Wide
  • Lomography
  • Love
  • m
  • Macro photography
  • Madame Guyon
  • Magnolia Springs State Park
  • March
  • Mary Magdalene
  • Matter
  • meditation
  • Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park
  • Meister Eckhart
  • Mesa
  • Michael Drayton
  • Miguel Cervantes
  • Mindfulness
  • Mission Carmel
  • Missions
  • Mountain Laurel
  • Movies
  • murder
  • mushrooms
  • Music
  • Myers-Briggs
  • mystery
  • Mystic
  • Mysticism
  • NaNoWriMo
  • Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park
  • National Parks
  • Nativity
  • Natural arch
  • Natural Bridge
  • Nature
  • Nevermore
  • New Year
  • New York City
  • Newsletter
  • Nicolai Gogol
  • Nietzsche
  • Non-fiction
  • November
  • O Come Emanuel
  • Ocotillo
  • Okefenokee
  • Opposites
  • Osho
  • Palestine
  • Palm Sunday
  • Panama
  • Papago Park
  • Paradox
  • Parque Nacional Soberanía
  • Parque Natural Metropolitano
  • Parrots
  • Pentecost
  • Petroglyphs
  • Phoenix
  • Photography
  • Piedras Blancas
  • Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
  • Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge
  • Pines
  • Pocket Jamie
  • Poetry
  • Prayer
  • Prudentius
  • Quail
  • Quotes
  • R.H. Blyth
  • Rainer Maria Rilke
  • Rapids
  • rattlesnakes
  • Rémy
  • Redemption
  • Refugees
  • religion
  • Revolutionary War
  • Richard Rudd
  • River
  • road trip
  • Roan Mountain
  • Robert A. Johnson
  • Robert Browning
  • Rock Houses
  • Rocky Mountain National Park
  • Romance
  • Rose
  • Roslyn Center
  • Route 66
  • Rwanda
  • Saint Augustine
  • Saint Clare
  • Saint Columba
  • Saint Cuthbert's Way
  • Saint Francis
  • Saint John Chrysostom
  • Saint John of the Cross
  • Saint-Martin
  • Sancho Panza
  • Satan
  • Savage Gulf
  • Savannah
  • Savannah Film Festival
  • Scotland
  • Self-actualization
  • Serial Killers
  • Seven Deadly Sins
  • Shadow work
  • Shakespeare
  • Sheldon Church
  • Shepherd.com
  • Short Stories
  • Silphium
  • snakes
  • Snow
  • Society of Saint Francis
  • Song
  • Songs
  • Sonnets from the Portuguese
  • Soul
  • South Cumberland State Park
  • Spanish
  • spirituality
  • Spring
  • Spur Cross Ranch Recreation Area
  • St. Augustine's Prayer Book
  • Stabat Mater
  • stillness
  • Stone Door Trail
  • Summer
  • Sunflowers
  • supernatural
  • Superstition Mountains
  • T.S. Eliot
  • Television
  • Temperance Smith Alston
  • Tennessee State Parks
  • Termites
  • Terrorism
  • The Bird
  • The Cloud of Unknowing
  • The Devil's Beatitudes
  • The Donkey
  • The Favourite
  • The Garden of Love
  • The Little Prince
  • The Man of LaMancha
  • The Mule
  • The Night
  • The Path to Misery
  • The Raven
  • theater
  • Third Order
  • Thirteen Kingdoms
  • Thirteen Treasures
  • Three-Dimensional Man
  • Tonto National Monument
  • tortoise
  • Traffic
  • Travel
  • Treasures
  • tree frogs
  • Trees
  • Trout
  • True Confessions
  • True Love
  • Two-Dimensional Man
  • Tybee Island
  • Uncategorized
  • Unicorns
  • vampire hunters
  • vampires
  • Vegetables
  • Venetian Victoria
  • Violets
  • Virgin Mary
  • W.H. Auden
  • Walt Whitman
  • Waterfalls
  • Wave Cave
  • Wayne Dyer
  • Wendell Berry
  • Werewolf
  • Widow's Mite
  • Wild Goose Festival
  • wildflowers
  • Wildlife
  • William Blake
  • William Butler Yeats
  • William Cowper
  • William Wordsworth
  • Winter
  • Wisconsin
  • Wisdom
  • Women
  • woodcock
  • writing
  • Yoga
  • Zen

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • The Wilderness Road
    • Join 744 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • The Wilderness Road
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.