Coagulatio VI
Dearly beloved!
I have called you so often and you have not heard Me.
I have shown myself to you so often and you have not
seen Me.
I have made myself fragrance so often, and you have not
smelled Me,
Savorous food, and you have not tasted Me.
Why can you not reach Me through the object you touch
Or breathe Me through the sweet perfumes?
Why do you not see Me? Why do you not hear Me?
Why? Why? Why?
For you my delights surpass all other delights,
And the pleasures I procure you surpass all other
pleasures.
For you I am preferable to all other good things,
I am Beauty, I am Grace.
Love Me, love Me alone.
Love yourself in Me, in Me alone.
Attach yourself to Me,
No one is more inward that I.
Others love you for their own sakes,
I love you for yourself.
And you, you flee from Me.
-IBN
ARABI
Theophany of
Perfection
Friday,
April 8, 2011
Day
5 of Hyperbaric Dive
Last night’s imaginal encounter with the Queen of Death
has left me with the Kiss of Peace this morning. Outside, I’m acutely aware of the incessant drone of
construction in the distance.
Inside, there’s another construction at work, an endless alchemy of
being which, for the moment at least, has ushered in a quiet softness of
heart. If there’s anything I have
learned in the alchemical journey, this inexorable purification of body into
spirit, and spirit made flesh, is that it is ALIVE, DYNAMIC, always in motion,
even in the seeming stillness of death in a hermetically-sealed chamber.
A continual process of solve et coagula is at work – a dissolution of the disparate, often
frozen parts of myself, reconstituted and embodied into a greater
wholeness. “We must all hang
together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately,” declared Benjamin
Franklin, and I can’t think of a clearer clarion call to gather in all the
parts of my psyche, my body, my Underworld experiences, trusting that a deeper,
unifying consciousness is always at work.
It takes incredible courage to look with unflinching eyes into all
aspects of Creation, and witness the Oneness coursing through it, from the
devastating quaking of the Earth’s tectonic plates, to the ravaging of war and
conflict across the globe. As Rumi
so wisely wrote,
I said, O Love
I am frightened,
but it's not you.
Love said to me,
there is nothing that is not me.
be silent.
The afternoon beckons, and as I enter the hyperbaric
chamber for the 5th time, I feel a silent content, grateful to have
this time to rest and be nourished.
Today I feel the oxygen moving into my very bones, and I feel buoyed,
stronger in my core than I have in years.
The constriction I usually experience in my lungs has given way to an
expansion of breath now rising and falling fully, and smoothly. As I leave the hyperbaric chamber, my
first week of HBOT complete, I think to myself with amazement, “This could heal
me completely.” With all dozen
plus treatments I have been on over the past 8 years, this improvement feels
real, a foundation upon which to build a life again. I know better than to shout this prematurely to the high
heavens, but to feel a sense of rebirth, nascent and tender, is an enormous
gift to a heart that’s been beleaguered by the ravages of chronic illness.
I drive home feeling like the Bionic Woman, and stop at
a local nursery and buy a magnificent mermaid planter made out of concrete,
along with an assortment of petunias, sweet alyssum, lobelia and herbs. Somehow I drag this heavy rectangle of
concrete from my car in the driveway to our garden in the back, determined to
do some planting over the weekend.
That task complete, I enter our home and happily
prepare for our Shabbat meal and the arrival of the Shekinah at sundown, the
indwelling presence of God in the Jewish tradition, envisioned as the Sabbath
Bride and Queen. This is my
favorite time of the week, as we le go of our worldly concerns, and remember
what is really important – to celebrate life, love, and to give praise to the
Most High. It’s the time to “Let
go, and let God.” I’m always
grateful for this sacred time of realignment and remembrance, and thank my
husband every week for bringing this tradition into my life.
I light the Shabbat candles, saying the blessings, and
the holy time begins. My husband
blesses the wine, together we bless the black rice bread we use as our challah,
and feast by candlelight upon lavender roasted lamb chop, asparagus, and
muhammara, a walnut pomegranate dip we had made the night before. I marvel at the fragrant red roses on
the table – the first abundant offerings from our rose bush in the garden, and
at over 5” inches in diameter, an absolute riot of blossoming petals. The roses are giving their fullness to Life,
and so am I.
After dinner, my husband and I attend Shabbat services
at Shir Hashirim in Berkeley, a monthly minyan that features Sephardic music
and mystical poetry. I’m amazed at
how I’m able to dance and sing and praise with sustained energy, even after a
very full day. “I’m getting better!”
I exclaim to my husband as we dance the Hora.
Midway in the service, the Cantor Richard Kaplan stands
at the mike to sing the Chatzi Kaddish in a Sephardic melody. I know the tune and belt it out from my
front-row seat. Richard sees me,
and motions me to join him at the mike.
I jump up to join Richard, and with exhilaration sing this song of
praise to the Holy Name.
Towards the end of the service, the Rabbi, Michael
Ziegler, usually hands me the mike with an invitation to offer a poem from the
treasure trove I know by heart.
Michael’s not here tonight, so when Richard says, “Are there any
comments, or anything else someone would like to share?” my husband Raphael
gives me a nudge.
I get up, standing before a crowd of expectant faces: “This is a poem by Ibn Arabi, that
expresses the Shekinah’s longing for us.
I recite the “Theophany of Perfection” that came through in my Oracle of Alchemy divination for the
day, which ends with these lines:
Dearly beloved!
Let us go toward Union
And if we find the road
That leads to separation,
We will destroy separation.
Let us go hand in hand.
Let us enter the presence of Truth.
Let it be our judge
And imprint its seal upon our union
Forever.
“Coagulatio
VI,” 4x6” collage on paper from
The Oracle of Alchemy, ©2006-2011
by Colette de Gagnier. To order prints from this series, please visit Alchemy of the Divine and Colette's Visionary Art Gallery.
Excerpt
from “The Theophany of Perfection” by
Ibn Arabi, Alone With the Alone: Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn
Arabi, by Henry Corbin, pp. 174-175.
Rumi ode, translation © Shahram Shiva
To
learn more about ShirHashirim and
the wonderful music of Richard Kaplan and Michael Ziegler, please visit
ShirHashirim.net.
