Thinking About the Web of Great Mystery

Moses Shongo's 'Pathway of Peace' meditation invites us to place our being on a very specific path, and on specific stones on that path leading to the  summit of  Great Mystery.  The 'Web of Life' is Great Mystery's web, Creator's web, Creation's web.  Our personal webs are but one among many. Creation is a web of webs. Yes, we are all connected.  We are all interconnected on the bigger web of Creation.

Self-reflection: I am a human being. I have been placed on the infinite web of Creation.  I have a specific place here on this web. I arrived with a path for my unique 'being', with nearly infinite possibilities.  I choose the steps to take on my path.  As part of the greater Web of Life, I will get input along the way re 'my path, my web'.  How discerning am I as to the source of the input? What/who supports my being? What/who diminishes and harms my being?

Our Truth is Reflected in Our Relationships

Our Own Truth is reflected in how we relate to others. 

Our relationships can reflect the parts of ourselves with which we resonate--like attracts like.
Our relationships can reflect to us the parts of ourselves we reject, or that we need to learn to love-- finding ourselves repeating the same kind of relationships with the same kind of conflicts and challenges.

The gift of relationship is the gift of experiencing the truth of our own being through our interactions with others, as well as their response to us. It is a primary catalyst for our becoming our True Self.

All the cycles of truth are experienced through relationships.  This is true leading way back to the original gift of the Cycles of Truth relayed through the story of Hiawatha (also see the wolf clan teaching lodge ), with each teaching a necessary and cyclical precursor to the one that follows:

Learn Truth

Honor Truth

Know/Accept Truth

See Truth 

Hear Truth

Speak Truth

Love Truth

Serve Truth

Live Truth

Work/Walk (in) Truth

Share Truth

Thank Truth

Be Truth

Self Reflection: With what in my relationships do I resonate? What in my relationships do I reject?

Understanding the Power of Our Words

Carolyn Shares: "What others say to us need have no lasting impact on the flow of our lives. 
However, what we say to others may alter the course of their lives forever." 
I am not sure the author of this quote,  but it feels profoundly true.  
As adults we have choice over how other's words affect us.
As adults, we have a powerful ability to use our words to adversely or positively impact another's life.

The Season of Summer holds the space and energy of the June, July and August moon cycles: The three cycles of Speak Truth, Love Truth and Serve Truth.  These Truth Cycles teach us a great deal about how to be in relationship with others. Read the post on working with our relationships on the Circle of Self Muse; 

Self Reflection:  I will honor the words I speak, knowing that what I say to another has the power to alter the course of their lives. 

Awake Body, Tender Heart, Open Mind

It is no coincidence that the teaching of this cycle of "Learn Truth" has a focus on our senses and that the archetypal Clan Mother of this cycle is "Talks With Relations". Learning is really communication; taking in and processing stimuli from the outside world and from within ourselves, relating our perceptions to others and receiving feedback (and the cycle repeats).

Learning "Truth" occurs when we relate with presence.  When we are present, we suspend judgments, have full awareness and are in relation to all of Creation. In her book, The Five Keys to Mindful Communication, Susan Gillis Chapman teaches us that presence requires an awake body, a tender heart and an open mind. All three are required to fully take in and integrate the lessons being presented to us.

Sara shares: Multiple sources in the waxing parts of this moon cycle have been pointing (sometimes quite strongly) to my need to honor and balance body, heart and mind.  For me, this is a theme that runs through the teachings of the Moon Cycles.  My work for the waning portion of this cycle is to practice presence and awareness in how I relate. I will be aware of how I relate to my own self; body, mind and heart. I will bring that presence to my relationships with others and Creation.  In this way, I am best able to Learn Truth.

Self-Reflection:  What helps me stay awake to what my body teaches me? What helps soften my heart? What helps me keep an open mind?  Do I willingly receive these things?

To Learn Truth We Practice Through Relationship

Richard Rohr (Center for Action and Contemplation), in one of his morning contemplation posts writes "We do not think ourselves into a new way of living;  we live ourselves into a new way of thinking."

If we want a new life for ourselves, we must be willing to return again and again to that place where we learn and can practice tools for living in a new way. The place we return to is through our connection with All Our  Relations.  What we learn is Truth. What we experience is Love. We learn to live in relationship with all Creation. We learn to think in the language of love.

Self-Reflection: I commit to practice living in relationship with all of creation in the best way I know how. In this way I wil Learn Truth

We All Share the Circle of Connection and Relationship

Carolyn shares:  I'm writing this post just after saying "good night" to a group of women who joined me on this night of the summer solstice and the June full moon. This joining of solstice and full moon hasn't happened for 50 years.  It made the news and was an 'excuse' for a lot of partying.  On our end, These 8 women came all with different connections and from different places. We came to hold ceremony, to share about our current life-both the joys and the challenges, and to bear witness to each woman's request for the next step in her journey.  It didn't matter that some of us didn't know others, or that we came from different circles.  Neither did it matter that we all seemed to have different spiritual traditions. Songs were sung from different ancestries, even in different languages. In this small group, in a few short hours, new truths were spoken and old stories released to grandmother moon.  We committed to flourish and nourish others with the abundance of who we are, just as the solstice celebrations invites and reminds us all to do.
Hundreds, maybe thousands of women are gathering together for ceremony on this evening, and we are all connected. You, reading this post, are connected, too.  I am full of gratitude...and tired. It's near midnight, and way past my bedtime.

Reviewing Relationships as Offerings and Gifts

Every relationship in life is an offering and a gift to other from me; and to me from the other. Taking each element of the Relationship Self, what person first comes to mind when sitting with each of these elements: Friends and Colleagues, Partner, Family, Children.

What are the gifts and offerings between us?

As I move forward in my life, which of these relationships calls most strongly to me to pay attention to through the remainder of this year?

When I am able to Know and Accept Truth in my relationships, I am able to receive them as the life enriching Gift and Offering they are. 

Learning and Honoring Truth about My Relationships with Others, with Self, with Creator

What if all my relationships with others were reflections (mirrors) back to me of the truth about my relationship with myself?  What if my relationships with others were also mirrors for my relationship with Creator/Great Mystery/God? 

Now, change these questions to statements. 

My relationships with others—are a reflection of my relationship with myself.  How I treat others, behave toward others, believe about others, is a mirror of the same I do, have, and think about myself.

My relationship with others mirrors myself in attitude, behavior, relatedness, and belief toward God. 

Knowing this as Truth.  What would I, will I change in my relationships? 

Waning Moon: Reflecting on Our Relationships

We are spiritual beings residing in a physical body. Even during those times when it’s tough being human, our body is always a gift from Creator.  One of the gifts of having a body is…having relationships with other human beings.  Human beings fail to thrive and often fail to survive when they are deprived of relationships with other humans. 

Our relationships are what weaves the web of connection between all people, communities, and the world. Take time to visualize the interconnectedness of our relationships to those close to us, with those relationships where we are more peripherally connected. We will very soon see an intricate pattern of relatedness. Think not so much as 6 degrees of separation, but 94 degrees of connection! 

We are all connected. How we act toward others creates either more love and peace, or more hatred and violence. 

“Am I willing to face the Truths about my relationships with others?  Just sit, with compassion for your self, allow this question to incubate.