NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANITY: An Integration of East and West
“The real religion of humankind can be said to be spirituality itself, because mystical spirituality is the origin of all the world religions…” Brother Wayne Teasdale, The Mystic Heart
FYI: Yin/Shakti/Mother Earth is feminine: the wisdom-filled, dynamic, mysterious stillness that holds the ground of everything and appears passive. Yang/Shiva/Father Sky is masculine: the dynamic, active, outward expression of the Mother’s inherent creativity. Society has interpreted these masculine/feminine traits literally as gender, and this misinterpretation gave rise to the idea that women were passive supporters of men, who were the “doers” — patriarchy and inequality followed. In truth, we are each made up of the authentic power of yin and yang, masculine and feminine, the two poles of the psyche, and when these are balanced wholeness can be achieved.
All Life is balance. Mary as The Ground of All Being (symbolizing yin) is the incubation, birthing, and nurturing of all creativity. Jesus (symbolizing yang) is the outward dynamic expression of that creativity. There cannot be one without the other. There is circular movement between the two visualized as the infinity symbol.
This world consists of the constant jockeying and tension of duality, i.e., good/bad; right/wrong; giving/receiving; me/you; question/answer, male/female; and heaven/earth. Yet Divine Love is the absence of struggle; there is nothing that is not “of Spirit,” so there is an inner desire for the peace of unity. That desire is fulfilled when all elements of yin and yang balance and coalesce through love and acceptance of ourselves and each moment as it is. This is an all encompassing act of forgiveness, and includes forgiving Life, ourselves and others for the suffering inherent in duality. We say “Yes!” and embrace what is, and that embrace is the mortar of integration facilitated by the unifying Spirit of Holy Wisdom.
It was no accident of storyline that Mary (yin, Dynamic Ground) was at the foot of the cross. Jesus (yang, Dynamic Expression) died completely to the Divine (represented by the center-point, the zenith of the four directions of the cross), meaning he transformed via surrender of ego-self and transcended duality, joined the Mother (Ground of All Being) and became a catalyst for the Holy Spirit. Jesus as redeemer is Christ energy that transforms our suffering by liberating us from ego-bound captivity, and acting as a bridge to the Mother. Struggle ends: the ego, and its sense of separation, surrenders the lead to the Higher Self.* This opens the door to a compassionate life, altering our perceptions and culminating in a personal transformation that brings us inner peace and the bliss of being at one with All That Is. The Christ story provides an archetype for our psyche – “Be as I am” – and a path for transformation.
From this viewpoint, four elements stand out as different from literal Christianity: 1) rather than focusing on the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, often leading to the self as worthless sinner, the focus is on the resurrection of Self as a joyous expression of Divinity; 2) rather than negating the joys of the earthly or physical, the focus is on heaven and earth as a dynamic of balance—the practical, scientific, the Earth herself, as part of the holy and ethereal; 3) rather than focus on any one aspect of the Trinity, the focus is on the dynamics of transformation; and 4) the nature of the Trinity itself is different—the Trinity not as Father, Son and Holy Spirit; rather as Mother, Son and Holy Spirit. Through transformation of self, the Son integrated and became One with the Mother (the Ground of All Being) igniting the third aspect, the light of the Holy Spirit. That ignited Spirit of Holy Wisdom (Sophia) sparks us, fills us with light, and guides us through the pitfalls of our mis-perceptions to unity with Self (inner Christ) triggering a sustained inner peace as we live in the moment with All There Is. Here we join the Mother and transformed Son and in that joining kindle the light of Spirit, adding to it and becoming a conduit of Light to the world.
The incredible gift we share is our power to choose. Yet, ultimately, there is but one choice from which all else flows: each of us stands in the power of Mary, the Ground of All Being. As co-creators our purpose is to awaken to this Truth and, with the power of forgiveness and redemptive grace, yield to the birthing of the Christ Light—our individual, spontaneous Creative Expression of All There Is.
* An expanded state beyond unity where, through no effort of our own, ego-self becomes so completely diluted in the Divine we no longer look to it for identity; it’s now in service to the Transcendent. Self loses its reference and blossoms into the state of non-separation – a kind of no-self. Here one lives at peace in the present moment responding with spontaneous right action, still experiencing growth, but without struggle. This is Being.
© 1999 * Barbara Atkinson
