"The Inner Eye"

The Inner Eye

Awakening Self

Continually changing as it evolves in the delight of every new moment

~ The Inner Eye ~


Oil on canvas 36 x 48, 1980
Private Collection of Hazel Westwood
Victoria Island BC

Great Pyramids of Giza

http://www.airpano.ru/files/Egypt-Cairo-Pyramids/2-2

The Inner Eye

Work on The Inner Eye came from a meditation on the Kundalini, the Awakening Self.

On the night my father passed I had a dream about the Lost City of Atlantis falling into the ocean.

I was there when the ancient ones fount Egypt.

The God Horus appeared in a crystal pyramid of the palest green peridot while directing the elders to the new land.

When I awoke the vision of  Inner Eye was forever planted in the centre of my forehead.

~ King ~

Oil on Masonite  25 x 36, 1982
Private Collection of Brye Briggs
Oshawa Ontario

In 1982 I had another dream where I had met myself during an initiation of the Ancient Ones.


Cleansed from head to foot was I, the young girl with the dark hair ~ in love with the memory of patchouli oil.

Light of the full moon shone its ray through the inner passage of Great Pyramid.

*\

###

#



 ~*O*~


Most handsome


  King



Prepared and Cleansed as I was He 



For this very moment




 ~*Initiation*~



Bare we were



Aware


Humbled in our Existence








He trembled  ~  I trembled


Senses all


~*Alive*~



Yet


Thought


Was no more









Enter each other we did

Equally beautiful

 
My male ~ his female





Complete Conscious Being 

 
Self

God Divine




 ~*ONE*~

~* I AM PRESENCE *~


Full Fold



~* Within *~


 
HIS GIFT



~* Existence *~



Prime Reality


Prsq

```
/\/\/\


*
O
N
E

8
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.
 .

\X  X `~A~` X X/ 

Whole Worth of Life 
Z/ Z/ `*Z/*` Z/ Z/
=
=
=
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Transformation


~*0*~

`
Unfolded

  
For all of Eternity



###
##
#
*




`

ELIZABETH



I asked Father


~*LAMB*~

HE Said


`*/~


~* LOVE KNOWS NO BOUNDS *~ ~ ~

HUMANITY IS BORN FREE


 `

``
xz

xz

XZ

`~/*


X

~*0*~

`
Z

`~~/*

`
NEW SUCCULENT

GROWS IN YOUR GARDEN

`
XZ

`/

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~ My Egypt ~

Oil on canvas 24  x  24, 1982
Private Collection of John Manning
Curtis Ontario

The very haunting image of the above oasis came from a dream that forever pleasantly filters through the conscious mind.  There are days while walking planet earth that an overwhelming sense of homesick euphoria fills that waking moment.


What remain are enchanting memories of days gone and those yet to come that are full of images of fantasy and wonder of a brighter life and another time.


Every once in awhile one can catch a glimpse of the self looking back through a great void and wondering why things happen the way that they do on that dark night of a soul?  


Look back? Yes indeed, look back ~ but for only a quick glance, mindful of a lesson learned, then set that memory free forever. When you catch that thought again, look  ~*then*\~~~ eagerly ahead to all the wonders yet to unfold in this lifetime.


It seems a brighter essence when one is lost in the healing of timeless moment.

~ Pyramid and Rock ~

Bronze casting, lost wax process
 11" H, 8.5" W, 9" D

 1989

Artist Proof

 Memorial

Timeless Expression by Maguire

 ~ Family Scarab ~

 Oil on Masonite, 16.5  x  15  x  4  1982
Private Collection of Brye and Leah Briggs
Oshawa Ontario

The Scarab

The Scarab was used as a symbol to produce jewelry mainly rings and bracelets for Egyptian Kings to place on the servers of their households.

Should a slave be hurt or lost the color or type of the stone would stand as testament to all under his kingdom that the bearer of the Scarab indeed did belong to his household.  Receiving the Scarab insured that the message was surely from the Royal Chamber.  

Great Honor bestowed to the bearer of the Kings Ring.

The Symbolic Meaning of the Scarab Beetle – Egyptian Symbolism

The young scarabs emerge from a ball of dung. Then, all of a sudden some of them discover they have wings, and fly away towards their true nature...

 Scarabeus sacer

The Scarabeus sacer ~ a species of scarab beetle that is found in North Africa, Europe and some parts of Asia has been used in some cultures as a symbol of resurrection, transformation and protection.  The scarab appeared in amulets and in the tombs to help the deceased ones on their journey through the afterlife symbolizing the transformation that they were about to experience.  When one dies in the physical world, it means that one is born into the spiritual realm.

The Symbolism of the Dung Beetle

The Egyptian tradition taught that everything that happens in nature is a microcosm of universal truths, like imprints of the divine reflected in the physical world; therefore, they used the natural phenomena to understand spiritual phenomena.  Egyptians observed how newborn scarabs emerge from the dung, and how the adult beetles spend most of their lives rolling the feces in order to feed their offspring until mysteriously the scarab becomes aware of a pair of wings which had always been there and they courageously fly away to explore life outside the dung.

The brief life of the scarab, then reveals a beautiful message ~ just like the scarab beetle lives among the feces until it discovers it's hidden wings, the human soul is also trapped in the physical world (symbolized by the dung ball) until it discovers its ability to fly.  Death for the Egyptians, symbolized this moment in which the scarab finally abandons the dung ball to be born in another reality.

The Sacred Scarab in Ancient Egypt ~ God Khepri

The scarab beetle was also associated to god Khepri, who was regarded as an aspect of the sun god Ra.  Sun gods embody the role of the sun in a solar system; like the sun, which makes all the flowers in the planet blossom, sun gods make all wisdom emerge among humans in periods of intellectual darkness (they are considered humans who have reached the human ideal through many incarnations)  Khepri's head was sometimes depicted as a dung beetle because Egyptians saw an analogy between the scarab rolling the dung and the sun god rolling the sun; making it shine on Earth.  However, there is an occult message in this story that cannot be understood by everyone.

The sun spends half the day in the underworld, and half the day shining.  This movement symbolizes death (night) and rebirth (every new day), but it is interesting to note that the sun never really stops shining, since when it is night in one side of the planet, it is day on the other side.

As Egyptians believed the soul continued to live after death; only in another realm of existence, the sun's new rise represented the soul's rebirth in the physical plane after a period in the spiritual world ( symbolized by the night, when the sun shines on the other side).
So the scarab was placed in the tomb of the deceased in order to guide them in the afterlife, reminding them that physical death reveals their true identity ~ the part of consciousness that stores all knowledge and continues to be the same even when it incarnates in different bodies.

Egyptian Amulets and Talismans

It is clear that the symbolism of the scarab refers to transformation ~ transformation of the soul from physical to non-physical, from ignorant of its nature to wise.  Egyptian represented the concept of immortality and resurrection ( resurrection of the soul, not the flesh) through the image of the scarab beetle and therefore, they created seals, amulets and talismans, which served as tools to inform those who carried them about these concepts.

It is importand to point out that the real 'power' of the talismans and amulets was never the object itself, but rather the knowledge it contained.  A person who is imbued with the spirit of immortality and transformation does not fear death.  Since fear is one of the things that prevent people from achieving their ideals, those who do not fear are the ones who make history.  So it is the knowledge that protects the amulets and talismans are mere instruments through which the knowledge is revealed.

   

Sources and resources:

Ward, John. The Sacred Beetle: A Popular Treatise on Egyptian Scarabs in Art and History. London: John Murray Co. 1902

H.P.B, Isis Unveiled, Vol II. Theosophical University Press, 1886.

H.P.B. Theosophical Glossary, Theosophical University Press, 1892. published by the United Lodge of Theosophists, Phoenix, Arizona.

Wilkinson, Richard H. Symbol & Magic in Egyptian Art. London: Thames and Hudson, 1994.

Copyright Thais Campos

Bird in Paradise

 ~ Bird in Paradise ~

Oil on canvas 16  x  38,  1986
Private Collection of Shandy~Lynn Briggs
Oshawa Ontario

Beautiful Bird of Paradise flower is a superb representation of nature as an exotic bird in flight, not unlike the journey of the soul, continually lost in the senses that are stimulated by the memory of passion so deep within. 

While painting this particular work,  the feeling was like that of being a magnificent bird lost in a magical paradise of an ancient time, hence the title of Bird In Paradise.

This gorgeous flower will always be to me Queen of the Oasis. 

~ Bird of Paradise ~

Real fauna incurred in cement on plywood with oil patina
 16 x 38, 2002.

~ Bird of Paradise ~

Fauna incurred in cement on plywood with oil patina
16 x 38, 2002.

Even though encased in cement when dried the fauna continued to bloom in it's search for water and light, the most basic needs of all life on earth ~ free it was from its confinement within the dense man made hardened cement.

Peacock

~ Peacock ~

Oil on Masonite, 22 x 48, 1981.
Private Collection of Shandy-Lynn Briggs
Oshawa Ontario

The Peacock was known to be one of Tutankhamen’s favorite pets.

It is in the haunting call of this magnificent species found deep within deep dream, where echoes a magical stream of musical memory flowing forth from within the core of the original self.

~ A Touch of Old ~

Oil on canvas, 12 x 16, 1977
Collector not recorded

Liquid Gold entered with the dark matter

Upon the crust of New Earth

Castle on the Wye

~ Castle on the Wye~
 1975

Dance of the Peacock ~ Castle on the Wye 1980

In love with old castles, I came upon the roaming romantic grounds of Castle on the Wye in England in the Spring of 1980.

What memory lingers then rises from deep in the soul of the ancient garden of Castle Wye where the majestic love dance of the Peacock with shivering eyes echoes from far away a haunting call. 

In all his glory, from the top of his crown to the beautiful robe of plumes with regal gesture did he so gallantly offer his soul his irresistible Cry for Love.

How fascinating that each feather does dons its own inner eye!

Shiver and shook he did

A possible courtship arrives with curiosity in strut before the handsome Lord. 

Up came those beautiful glorious plumes as they shook and shivered with a sound like fall leaves accompanying a throbbing soul cry.  In gallant pursuit alas, he did indeed reach out into the vast cool breeze to the sound of his own lonely heart.  Slowly one foot, then the other again and again, all in vain.

How the lady resisted the love of that unchained timeless melody of this grand and Royal Lord that surely commanded attention I will never know, he certainly had mine. 

With a giant soaring leap the beautiful fan tail collapsed in speedy retreat. His melancholy heart landed him onto a broken ledge of old castle wall, leaving him to beckon to the world beyond the Wye for another lover to come and comfort his broken heart.

This tale of the shivery male Peacock in dance I shared with a friend who at that time raised Peacocks. One morning he showed up in great dismay, his favorite Peacock was taken by a ferret bite to the side of the neck through the dismal of frosty cold night. 

To pay due tribute to the loss of his favorite pet, the Peacock was embalmed by the local taxidermist.

Upon the arrival back from the embalmer, we all realized with great humility and sadness that the soul and life of a free spirit is not something gracefully captured by man.  Such love for another is best left sweetly embedded into the heart to fill our memory of the dearest tenderness.

~ Peacock Feathers ~

Pen and ink study, 1980

~ Peacock Fountain ~

Pen and ink study, 1983

Phoenix Rising

Unfolding Prophecy

~ Phoenix Rising ~ Night of Second Moon Lunar Eclipse Summer Solstice  2009

A VISION ~ AN EXPERIENCE

~ Phoenix Rising ~

Night of Second Moon

Lunar Eclipse

Summer Solstice

 2009

During the wee early hours of the morn on Sunday June 19, 2009 I had been working as an administrator on a website known as Healing by Natural Touch.  The founder Dennis Akpan I had met on a iPeace while I was posting artwork there.  Dennis was advocating for the hungry children of Calabar in Nigeria where he indeed was participating in feed the poor every month.


Intense work indeed it had been for quite some time.  As this one particular night passed into the early hours of morn, the night of a double eclipse,  then ~ a strange feeling washed over my entire being.


 I rose from my chair to take a wee break from the computer to stretch and rest my neck and spine when all of a sudden I was sucked up into an all-consuming energy of fire rising at great speed out into the indescribable vastness of cosmic universe.  Fused I was to a blazing defined being on a fierceful destination beyond all earth reality.

Trembled I did, coming to awareness as to what had just transpired.  Moments later I found myself on the floor in front of my desk curled up in a little shivering ball feeling not unlike a wee chicken who had just escaped the burning fires of a barbecue. The image of a giant black phoenix with sad and apologetic eyes gazed at me from out of the reflection of it's soaring flames as it placed me by gentle wing on a rock cliff ledge on the side of a green crystal mountain.

This experience is forever transfixed in my inner eye as was his message to all of humanity.

The message of the Rising Phoenix was very clear;

Earth 

Rebirth

Humanity Awaken

Truth of who you really are

Why you are here

NOW

Be Alive 

Work is to be done 

The next three days were spent in bed feeling as though I had suffered a sun stoke right though the centre of my eye to the brain.  Shiver I did until I thought my teeth would indeed surely shatter, every bone in my body hurt as if I had been hit by a speeding truck.

A few weeks before this encounter with Rising Phoenix, a high pitch ringing in the left ear seemed to escalate as the days went by. To this day that ringing remains to be present sometimes very high and piercing drawing the conscious mind within. 

The Phoenix found its way to the canvas as soon as I was able to gather composure where it remains on the easel unfinished; I have not been able to find it in myself to alter this narrative painting in anyway, lest the message be lost forever, at least not yet!

Often some messages are best left to sit in the truth of their original emotional expression unhampered to further aid in a complete personal interpretation over time.  Seems to me things just need to percolate for awhile in order to understand the true meaning to One`s  inner self.

It matters not to Rising Phoenix, who you are.

That same week of June 19, 2009 two new moons appeared in Cancer with a lunar eclipse.

As a full moon chaser I simply cannot resist surrender to the work under its magical healing glow, never mind the mysticism of two moons and an eclipse.



 

History Brief of Rising Phoenix

The image of the mythical phoenix is widely recognized, though perhaps not everyone is familiar with the story behind the bird. Yet the myth of the phoenix was immensely popular throughout the ancient world; even early Christians were quite familiar with it. 

Nothing more might need to be said about Christian involvement were it not for the fact that some early churchmen capitalized on the fable’s popularity as they shaped the developing Christian orthodoxy.  In what follows we will consider the basis of their teachings about the phoenix: a letter attributed to the man who is purported to have been the earliest of the Roman Catholic Church Fathers, Clement of Rome.

One particular passage in Clement’s writings spawned a set of ideas that on the face of it may seem innocent and even helpful to believers. As is often the case, however, things are not necessarily what they seem to be.

MYSTERIOUS MISSIVE 

Several writings have been attributed to Clement, though most are believed to be spurious. However, he did leave one epistle that is widely considered to be genuine, a letter to a church in Corinth. It begins by saying that the delay in its sending from Rome was due to “sudden and successive calamitous events,” which appears to be a reference to the persecutions of the emperor Domitian. The date of the message is open to some debate, but if we make the assumption that Domitian’s persecutions ended with the emperor’s death, then it seems likely that it was written somewhere around 96 C.E.

The letter seems to have been a response to a situation in which some members of the Corinthian church rose up and deposed certain of their elders. Clement’s exhortations to return to former behavior are derived from both the Old Testament and examples drawn from the early church. This places him in an era when the Hebrew Scriptures were still providing definitive instruction for the conduct of the church, rather than being relegated to secondary status as they were by later generations. The letter is also concerned with reinforcing the truth of Jesus Christ’s resurrection and the hope of a future resurrection for human beings.

It is in this regard that we encounter a puzzling passage. In chapter 25, Clement writes: “Let us consider the strange sign which takes place in the East, that is in the districts near Arabia. There is a bird which is called the Phoenix. This is the only one of its kind, and lives 500 years; and when the time of its dissolution in death is at hand, it makes itself a sepulchre of frankincense and myrrh and other spices, and when the time is fulfilled it enters into it and dies. Now, from the corruption of its flesh there springs a worm, which is nourished by the juices of the dead bird, and puts forth wings. Then, when it has become strong, it takes up that sepulchre, in which are the bones of its predecessor, and carries them from the country of Arabia as far as Egypt until it reaches the city called Heliopolis, and in the daylight in the sight of all it flies to the altar of the Sun, places them there, and then starts back to its former home. Then the priests inspect the registers of dates, and they find that it has come at the fulfillment of the 500th year.”

The Catholic Encyclopedia refers to this passage as “curious,” and most today would agree. What Clement actually understood about the existence of the phoenix is hard to know, though the first line of the next chapter suggests that he gave it credence. In itself that isn’t surprising; as noted earlier, the myth was popular and wide-ranging.

In order to better grasp the significance of Clement’s use of the phoenix story, we need to uncover some additional background. Let’s first examine the context. The preceding chapter speaks of the resurrection of Jesus Christ as a proof of a future resurrection for all humanity. This is followed by examples from the natural world that suggest to Clement “the resurrection which is at all times taking place”; for example, day and night (“The night falls asleep, and day arises”) and the sowing of seeds (“out of their decay the mightiness of the Master’s providence raises them up, and from being one they increase manifold and bear fruit”). Then comes the story of the phoenix in chapter 25. Clement’s question in all of this is why followers of Jesus Christ should find His resurrection so hard to believe when the creation itself and even the secular world provide imagery relating to resurrection.

But is that all there is to it?

LINEAGE OF A CONCEPT 

If the story of the phoenix was well known at the time Clement wrote his letter, where did it come from originally? According to 19th-century British theologian J.B. Lightfoot, “the earliest mention of the phoenix is in Hesiod,” a seventh- or eighth-century-B.C.E. Greek poet. From the Greeks the story passed to the Romans. In 47 C.E., a bird said to be a phoenix was exhibited at Rome, and Lightfoot suggested that the exhibit “may have been seen by Clement.” Although “no one doubted” that this particular bird was a fake, it seems that people nonetheless believed the stories concerning the existence of such a creature.

In 8 C.E., 88 years prior to the likely date of Clement’s letter, the Roman poet Ovid completed his Metamorphoses, an instantly popular work based on Greek mythology. In a section concerning the doctrines of Pythagoras, Ovid wrote of a similar mythical creature. In Ovid’s version, however, the phoenix built its nest in “a lofty swaying palm” before departing to “the Sun’s holy temple” in “the Sun’s great city.”

The palm may have held a combined significance with the phoenix in the pagan world. Dutch historian Roelof van den Broek notes that the ancient Greek word for phoenix sounds the same as the word for palm, a fact from which their classical association “seems to have been determined” (The Myth of the Phoenix According to Classical and Early Christian Traditions). Palms are evergreen, after all, a symbol of perpetual renewal that correlates with the imagery associated with the dying and reborn phoenix. In ancient Greece the palm tree was associated with the sun-god Apollo; his myth suggested that the goddess Leto had given birth to him under a palm. In ancient Assyrian mythology, the tree symbolized the mother goddess Ishtar. The Mesopotamian goddess Inanna, through her marriage to the fertility god Damuzi, was seen as the one who made the harvest of the date palm flourish. And to the Romans, the palm signified the goddess Victory.

Yet another version of the phoenix myth describes the bird combusting in flame, a concept that again links the bird to the sun. The fiery phoenix, just like the sun god, was associated with death and rebirth for the ancient Greeks and Romans.

However, it is specifically to Egypt that Clement’s curious example leads. Clement describes the reborn phoenix as taking its parent’s remains “into Egypt, to the city called Heliopolis.” Heliopolis, or City of the Sun, was located a few miles northeast of modern-day Cairo. Clement, like Ovid, provides the significant piece of information that the bird was supposed to deposit its parent’s remains “on the altar of the sun” for the inspection of the priests. The sun god at Heliopolis was called Atum, a god identified with Ra, who was revered as a creator bringing order out of chaos. Atum is often depicted in human form, seated on a throne, holding a staff and wearing the red and white double crown of Egypt.

The Egyptian sun god was believed to have risen from the chaos-waters as a benu (or bennu) bird at creation, and this lore appears to be the source of the myth of the phoenix. According to the Handbook of Egyptian Mythology, the word benu “probably comes from an Egyptian verb meaning to rise and to shine.” The same source notes that from “the Pyramid Texts onward, the benu bird was closely associated with the creator sun god.” David Fideler suggests that the benu bird was believed to be the “soul of Ra” (Jesus Christ, Sun of God: Ancient Cosmology and Early Christian Symbolism).

A FABLE TAKES WING 

Having thus been carried from Egypt to the Greek and Roman world, the pagan phoenix-in-the-palm myth—symbolizing a mother goddess and a creator/sun-god consort—was easily absorbed into Christian symbolism and artwork.

Clement was the first non-pagan writer to find new meaning in the myth. In his retelling of it, he specified that the bird’s nest was “of frankincense and myrrh and other spices.” Whether this was a conscious effort to link the myth to Christ’s birth is impossible to say, but later Christian writers similarly limited themselves to naming only these two. Yet numerous spices, most often including cinnamon, are mentioned across various traditions of the phoenix myth. So the fact that two of the Magi’s gifts are among them can have no real symbolic value.

A century after Clement wrote, Tertullian (an early Latin Church Father) again used the example of the phoenix in connection with resurrection. The story also featured in another piece of writing that appeared about the same time: the Physiologus, a Greek work that described real and mythical animals and outlined their allegorical significance for the developing Christian orthodoxy. Its author added a new detail to the phoenix story—that the bird died and returned to life after three days. “The motif of the three days was inserted into the existing tradition by the author of the Physiologus as a means of bringing out the typological symbolism of the phoenix: the events in the life of the phoenix are meant to reflect those in the life of Christ,” says van den Broek.

Writing a little later, another early Church Father, Origen, also thought the pagan mythological bird might be real (see Contra Celsum 4.98). He spoke of it as an example of the variety and harmony to be found in God’s creation. In the fourth and fifth centuries, Church Fathers including Ambrose, Cyril of Jerusalem and Jerome were still repeating the myth, and some began offering it as a God-given proof of the reality of (Christ’s) resurrection. In the words of Cyril, “God knew men’s unbelief and provided for this purpose a bird, called a Phoenix” (Catechetical Lecture 18). And around the sixth century, an anonymous Coptic preacher wrote a sermon in which he claimed that the phoenix had first been seen at the time of Cain and Abel, and that it was last seen just after Jesus’ birth, “which now indicates to us the resurrection.”

Little by little, Christian writers began to read more into the various references to the strange creature. They noted its uniqueness (“the only one of its kind”) and began to interpret the phoenix of pagan myth not only as a Christian symbol of virgin birth, renovation and resurrection but as a type or allegory of Jesus Christ Himself. 

Other aspects of the pagan story have worked their way into Christian literature and iconography as well. For example, the Catholic Encyclopedia records that Origen dubbed the palm tree “the symbol of victory in that war waged by the spirit against the flesh.” This source further asserts, “In this sense it was especially applicable to martyrs, the victors par excellence over the spiritual foes of mankind; hence the frequent occurrence in the Acts of the martyrs of such expressions as ‘he received the palm of martyrdom.’” It’s hard to avoid making a connection between Origen’s words and the Roman view of the palm as a symbol of the pagan goddess Victory.

Van den Broek notes that “in early Christian art the phoenix was often shown on a palm-tree,” symbolizing “the triumph of Life over death.” For example, the Museo di Roma houses a fragment of a 13th-century mosaic from Old St. Peter’s in Rome, which shows the image of a phoenix. The mosaic decorated the basilica’s apse and depicted Christ enthroned with the apostles Peter and Paul on either side. Antonio Iacobini, in an essay titled “Est Haec Sacra Principis Aedes: The Vatican Basilica from Innocent III to Gregory IX,” relates that within the mosaic “the phoenix rested on the palm tree” behind the image of Pope Innocent III.

Van den Broek remarks on early Christians’ ability “to preserve ancient conceptions deeply rooted in Classical culture, adapting them to their new experience of faith and life.” In a sense, none of this should be surprising. After all, members of the dominant Christian sect based in Rome would have been eager to find common ground not only with their own roots but with the pagan masses they hoped to convert.

Still, though the adaptation of the phoenix myth may have appealed to prospective pagan converts, it is at odds with the divinely inspired Scriptures that Christendom claims as its own. The apostle Paul pointed out to a group of listeners in Athens that we shouldn't think of God in terms of “an image formed by the art and imagination of man” (Acts 17:29, English Standard Version); while the context here is carved idols, the principle surely applies to viewing Christ’s death and resurrection through the characters and story line of a pagan myth.

There is no way to prove that Clement—whatever he may have believed about the existence of the phoenix—intended anything more than to offer a well-known illustration of “resurrection” to point out the disingenuousness of those who rejected the very concept as strange and unknown and on that basis rejected Jesus Christ’s resurrection; yet his use of the mythical phoenix as a “sign” became the basis of a fable about the reincarnation of Jesus Christ as what amounts to the ultimate sun god. It exemplifies the eventually widespread rewriting of “the Christ story” in pagan terminology, a practice known as syncretism.

Clement’s letter provides an interesting historical perspective on the state of Christianity at the end of the first century. His extensive use of the Hebrew Scriptures is in keeping with the early New Testament Church, founded by Jesus Christ and based in the same Hebrew Scriptures—the only ones available to Him and His earliest disciples.

What emerges from this study of Clement’s letter and later forms of Christianity is the progressive reduction of the original teachings of the New Testament Church, founded on the ancient Scriptures, to pagan conceptions. This fact alone severs any meaningful link between what has come to be called “Christianity” and the teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles. In departing from a deep appreciation of the Hebrew Scriptures and often borrowing instead from pagan themes, Christianity in fact departed from the founding principles of the New Testament Church.

DANIEL TOMPSETT 

dan.tompsett@visionjournal.org

Learning to See as the Mystics See by Richard Rohr.

Richard Rohr the founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation, challenges religions to foster mysticism, nonduality, and the contemplative mind. Here is an excerpt on the spiritual practice of joy.

"Joy and mind. Those are not words that you would normally put together, but they inspired the eleventh-century Richard of St. Victor, a Scottish canon teaching in Paris, and became the themes of his two books on the contemplative mind, Benjamin Major and Benjamin Minor. The titles are taken from one obscure passage from Psalm 68:27, where 'Benjamin' is described as leading a procession into the temple in mentis excessu, which was translated as 'with a joyful mind' or 'with an ecstatic mind.' This made me ask:

What might a joyful mind be?

"When your mind does not need to be right.

"When you no longer need to compare yourself with others.

"When you no longer need to compete — not even in your own head.

"When your mind can be creative, but without needing anyone to know.

"When you can live in contentment with whatever the moment offers.

"When you do not need to analyze or judge things in or out, positive or negative.

"When your mind does not need to be in charge, but can serve the moment with gracious and affirming information.

"When your mind follows the intelligent lead of your heart.

"When your mind is curious and interested, not suspicious and interrogating.

"When your mind does not 'brood over injuries.'

"When you do not need to humiliate, critique, or defeat those who have hurt you — not even in your mind.

"When your mind does not need to create self-justifying story lines.

"When your mind does not need the future to be better than today.

"When your mind can let go of obsessive or negative thoughts.

"When your mind can think well of itself, but without needing to.

"When your mind can accept yourself as you are, warts and all.

"When your mind can surrender to what is.

"When your mind does not divide and always condemn one side or group.

"When your mind can find truth on both sides.

"When your mind fills in the gaps with 'the benefit of the doubt' for both friend and enemy.

"When your mind can critique and also detach from the critique.

"When your mind can wait, listen, and learn.

"When your mind can live satisfied without resolution or closure.

"When your mind can forgive and actually 'forget.'

"When your mind can admit it was wrong and change.

"When your mind can stop judging and critiquing itself.

"When you don't need to complain or worry to get motivated.

"When you can observe your mind contracting into self-preservation or self-validation, and then laugh or weep over it.

"When you can actually love with your mind.

"When your mind can find God in all things."

An Excerpt from The Naked Now

Phoenix Rising

October 22 10 2014

The Inner Eye

A Work in Progress