April 25, 2009 | 5 PM at Intersections, 274 5th Avenue
Prelude Music: Cat Stevens “Where Do The Children Play?”
Opening Song: “Dreamer’s Song” by Phil Robinson
Welcome & Family Time
Reading: excerpt from “The Moon Walk – the Outward Journey” by Joseph Campbell (Campbell, Joseph. Myths to Live By. Arkana, AR: Penguin Compass, 1993.)
Picture: Earthrise – William Anders, 1968
~~~
Context for Reading:
1543 – Heliocentrism! Copernicus advances theory of sun-centric system, displacing Earth
1968 – Earthrise! William Anders takes photo of Earth rising over moon during Apollo 8
1969 – Moonwalk! Neil Armstrong sets foot on the moon
~~~
The only really adequate public comment on the occasion of the first moon walk that I have found reported in the world press was the exclamation of an Italian poet, Giuseppe Ungaretti, published in the picture magazine Epoca. In its vivid issue of July 27, 1969, we see a photo of this white-haired old gentleman pointing in rapture to his television screen, and in the caption beneath are his thrilling words: "A different night from all other nights of the world".
For indeed that was "a different night from all other nights of the world"! Who will ever in his days forget the spell of the incredible hour, July 20, 1969, when our television sets brought directly into our living rooms the image of that strange craft up there and Neil Armstrong's booted foot coming down...? ..."All humanity," Buckminster Fuller once said..., "is about to be born in an entirely new relationship to the universe."
~~~
From the point of view of a student of mythology, the most important consequences of what Copernicus wrote of the universe in 1543 followed from his presentation there of an image controverting and refuting the obvious "facts" that everybody everywhere could see. All mankind's theological as well as cosmological thinking, up to that time, had been based on concepts of the universe visually confirmed from the point of view of earth. Also, man's notion of himself and of nature, his poetry and his whole feeling system, were derived from the sight of his earthbound eyes.
The sun rose eastward, passed above, leaning southward, and set blazing in the west. The Polynesian hero Maui had snared that sun to slow it down, so that his mother could have time to finish her cooking. Joshua stopped both the sun and the moon, to have time to finish off a slaughter, while God, to assist, flung down from heaven a hail of prodigious stones: "and there was no day like that before it or after it, when Jehovah hearkened to the voice of a man."
The moon was in ancient times regarded, and in parts of the world still is regarded, as the Mansion of the Fathers, the residence of the souls of those who have passed away and are there waiting to return for rebirth. For the moon itself, as we see it, dies and is resurrected. Shedding its shadow, it is renewed, as life sheds generations to be renewed in those to come. Whereas against all this, which had been confirmed and reconfirmed in the scriptures, poetry, feelings, and visions of all ages, what Copernicus proposed was a universe no eye could see but only the mind imagine: a mathematical, totally invisible construction, of interest only to astronomers, unbeheld, unfelt by any others of this human race, whose sight and feelings were locked still to earth.
~~~
However, now, in our own day, four and one-quarter centuries later, with those pictures coming down to us from the point of view of the moon, we have all seen-- and not only seen, but felt-- that our visible world and the abstract construction of Copernicus correspond. That fabulous color photograph of our good earth rising as a glorious planet above a silent lunar landscape is something not to forget...
All the old bindings are broken. Cosmological centers now are any- and everywhere. The earth is a heavenly body, most beautiful of all, and all poetry now is archaic that fails to match the wonder of this view.
Personal Reflection:
Guest facilitator Phil Robinson shares Joseph Campbell’s basic ideas about mythology and describes how a mythological perspective has been helpful in his own experience.
Questions & Answers (with Phil)
Small Group Discussion
Question 1. What role, if any, does the Earth play in your spirituality? What about the moon?
Question 2. Can you think of an example of a religion 'letting the times in' and adapting to the changing circumstances of life in contemporary times?
Question 3. Is there a particular story from a religion outside your own that speaks to you very deeply or inspires you? What is it?
Large Group – Sharing Insights
Litany:
from Poetry Chaikhana--
Ivan Granger’s Reflections on In Praise of the Earth by John O’Donohue
An Earth Day poem for you today.
There was a time when I lived on Maui, without much money but surrounded by stunning natural beauty. I stayed in a place half-way up Haleakala Volcano, at the edge of a eucalyptus forest. I fasted a lot in those days, and several times a week I would walk barefoot into the woods. Hidden among the trees was a small rock cave, just large enough for me to sit upright in meditation. To sit quietly in the cool, silent embrace of the Earth — a true blessing!
Though I now live in a small city, in a computer-powered world, I still carry that time with me in my heart. That memory continuously reminds me that, in spite of skyscrapers and the Internet, the world is not man-made. All the works of humanity are small accomplishments compared with the panoramic living miracle of the Earth.
The ground below us, sky above us, breath within us — all is the living Earth.
The Earth is the stage for our dramas.
Let us thank the Earth
That offers ground for home
And hold our feet firm
To walk in space open
To infinite galaxies.
Not only could we not act without the Earth, we could not dream. The images the objects, the colors that populate the human psyche, they are all of the Earth too. The Earth speaks to us, and gives us a vocabulary to speak back.
The Earth is the place of birth, the stuff of life, and rest in death.
The kindness of the Earth,
Opening to receive
Our worn forms
Into the final stillness.
The Earth is our everything.
While we as individuals live out the span of years alotted to us, the Earth is the full embodiment, the whole multiplicity of Life.
The tangible hints at the intangible. Matter expresses spirit. Earth gives form to heaven. How can we not honor that form? It is sacred. And it is us. You and I emerge to incarnate that form. Our challenge is to awaken and incarnate the secret light it suggests.
That we may awaken,
To live to the full
The dream of the Earth
Who chose us to emerge
And incarnate its hidden night
In mind, spirit, and light.
Take some time today to sit on the Earth. Run your fingers through the grass. Feel the quiet strength filling your bones. Know you are home.
Have a beautiful day!
Closing Song: “Moonshadow” by Cat Stevens
Dreamer’s Song Phil Robinson
I calm my thoughts and clear my mind
And leave the sunlit realm behind
I close my eyes that I may see
Beyond this world in front of me
CHORUS:
Beyond the world, beyond the mask
Beyond the questions that I ask
Are helping hands that I may heed
They come to meet me in my dreams
...in my dreams ...in my dreams
I listen for the hidden voice
In shadowed room and riddled choice
Through visions sometimes fraught with fear
The voice calls out and draws me near
CHORUS:
Beyond the world, beyond the mask
Beyond the questions that I ask
Are helping hands that I may heed
They come to meet me in my dreams
...in my dreams ...in my dreams
I rise and wake but still hold tight
To golden threads received at night
I pull them through by light of day
To hold me to my truer way
CHORUS:
Beyond the world, beyond the mask
Beyond the questions that I ask
Are helping hands that I may heed
They come to meet me in my dreams
...in my dreams ...in my dreams
~~~
* Phil Robinson is a
popular singer/songwriter, speaker and community builder active
throughout NYC, who often speaks and leads community events around the
topics of mythology, creativity and culture. Phil has been involved
with the Joseph Campbell Foundation for a number of years, helping to
continue Campbell's work by aiding the foundation in building networks
of local community groups based on the exploration of matters of
spirituality and culture. Phil is founder of Roomful of Sky, the
NY-based creative community, as well as the indie record label Roomful
of Sky Records, where he has most recently been working as editor and
release producer of the new Collected Lectures of Joseph Campbell.
Recent Comments