My one job as a monk is to live this hermit life in simple and direct contact with nature . . .

"My one job as a monk is to live this hermit life in simple and direct contact with nature, primitively, quietly, doing some writing, maintaining such contacts as are willed by God and bearing witness to the value and goodness of simple things and ways, loving God in all of it."

Thomas Merton

Photo: Aspens, Rawah Range, CO, September 21, 2015

- - - - - - - - -

I am available for one-on-one spiritual direction / mentoring via phone or Skype. You can contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com if you are interested. The rate is $65 per hour-long session. You might also want to check out my Spiritual Direction with Stephen Hatch Facebook page.

Wilderness Mysticism Affirms the Utter Magic of Life

Wilderness Mysticism affirms the utter magic of life. It stands in amazement at the poetic realization that each being and each event is - at its deepest core - an echo of an eternal love-word that The Beloved was just about to speak into the world. A love-word that never quite had a chance to be "spoken" on account of the fact that The Beloved lost himself in blissful self-emptying before the word could ever be "uttered." And yet - surprise! - ECHOES of that unspoken word appear anyway and resound with new and unexpected "words" and in a different "voice" - in that of a beautiful feminine Lover, a Goddess!

Photo: Alpenglow sunrise at Sprague Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, September 19, 2015

- - - - - - - - -

I am available for one-on-one spiritual direction / mentoring via phone or Skype. You can contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com if you are interested. The rate is $65 per hour-long session. You might also want to check out my Spiritual Direction with Stephen Hatch Facebook page.

We are called to highlight the beauty of one another.

We are all called to highlight the beauty - both external and internal - of one another, thus enabling each one to glow in his or her own radiant loveliness. In doing so, we fulfill our calling to mediate the presence of our Beloved Source, which never calls attention to Itself but continually explodes outward in adoration and praise :)


Photo: Golden Aspen trees, Bierstadt Moraine, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, September 19, 2015

- - - - - - - - -

I am available for one-on-one spiritual direction / mentoring via phone or Skype. You can contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com if you are interested. The rate is $65 per hour-long session. You might also want to check out my Spiritual Direction with Stephen Hatch Facebook page.

The Importance of Having Our Physical Attractiveness Recognized

While spending time this past weekend hiking and meditating in the golden glory of the changing aspen, I found myself reflecting on the importance - in ALL of us - of knowing that we are physically attractive. Although there is a tendency in traditional spirituality to focus on the passing nature of the body and a corresponding recommendation to focus on the reality of the spirit instead, one of the gifts of our present era is a newfound delight in the beauty of the human body. Speaking personally, I realize that the only way I can experience union with the Goddess - with Gaia, Sophia, Mother Earth - is through my body. And I cannot begin to do this unless I believe my physical being is attractive. Archetypal psychologist James Hillman puts it this way: "Phenomena need not be saved by grace or faith or all-embracing theory. They are saved by our simple gasping at their loveliness. The ahh of wonder, of recognition. The aesthetic response saves the phenomenon, the phenomenon which is the face of the world . . . This is truly the sole and perpetual question every living creature is asking every other: Do you find me beautiful?" In this connection, I recall a passage in one of Richard Rohr's books in which he says: "God is head over heels in love with how you look!"  How amazing!

Rohr also reminds us that "WE human beings carry God's feeling." It is amazing, therefore, how much we NEED each other to appreciate and mirror our own physical attractiveness - and vice versa. In my own case, my mother never really told me I was handsome, and so I've spent the rest of my life trying to deal with that lack. I've encountered many others who struggle with similar frustration, and I believe I probably fell short in this regard in the raising of my own children. I hope now, however, that I can make up for lost time in my previous failures with them.

Physical compliments are so very important to the building up of one another. Somehow, we must begin to set up a society where we can feel free to compliment one another - even physically - in tasteful ways, without the fear of thinking the one offering the compliment is trying to "come on" to the other person. I know my own compliments of others have been mistaken in this way quite a few times during my adult life. I wonder how we might set up a safe container for physical compliments to be given and received? I think this is something we should all consider.

In the meantime, given the fact that we all need positive mirroring, physically as well as spiritually, I've discovered that one way to enhance our own awareness of our attractiveness is to spend time with beautiful things in Nature. Even though many of us may not be known for stunning physical beauty, when we spend extended time with the beauty of the natural world, we begin to absorb that beauty and then carry and radiate it within ourselves, as part of our personality. For myself, that is one of the chief side benefits of photography. As cosmologist Brian Swimme puts it: "Drawn into life by allurement in a thousand different ways, we ourselves then become alluring. Stunned by the fascination permeating the world, we in turn fascinate." What an amazing mirror the beauty of Nature truly is!

May each of us find ways to celebrate the beauty of each other, and so fulfill our part in helping bind together this amazing universe  :)

Photos: Aspen groves in the Rawah Range and in Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, September 18 and 21, 2015

 - - - - - - - - -

I am available for one-on-one spiritual direction / mentoring via phone or Skype. You can contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com if you are interested. The rate is $65 per hour-long session. You might also want to check out my Spiritual Direction with Stephen Hatch Facebook page.

Sexy Instagram Spirituality

Instagram, I've found, radically shatters common societal stereotypes about people who focus attention on their own physical attractiveness and then share it with the world in photos and videos. Yesterday, while walking amongst the beauty of the changing leaves, I found myself reflecting on the fact that the conventional wisdom would claim that those who give a surplus of attention to their own beauty are superficial, narcissistic and possess very little spiritual depth. However, I've discovered that if I post one of my "beautiful" landscape photos and add the hashtags ‪#‎beauty‬ or ‪#‎beautiful‬ together with ‪#‎inspiration‬ or ‪#‎inspirationalquotes‬, I get a whole group of people "Liking" the post who are either associated with the beauty industry or who regularly post photos with the "beautiful' hashtag referring not to Nature but to their own beauty and loveliness! And these very same people also post a surplus of inspirational quotes, many of which are really quite profound.

Interestingly, many of these Instagram users make a regular practice of posting a somewhat provocative picture of themselves, together with a quote from a prominent spiritual master. Most of these are women, many of whom also associate with Goddess Spirituality. I suppose it makes sense that my Photo-Quotes would find this sort of person, since I often add the hashtag ‪#‎goddess‬ or ‪#‎sacredfeminine‬ to my posts that include a reflection about the feminine aspects of "Mother Earth." Many of these women, I've discovered, are actually profoundly in touch with the fact that their own physical attractiveness is NOT an end in itself, but is - like beautiful landscapes - simply an incarnation of the larger presence of the Sacred Feminine. Based on my experience with Instagram, I'd say that "Goddess Spirituality" and a spiritual perspective on human physical beauty is currently alive and well :)  How fascinating is our postmodern era!

 

Photos: A Wild Geranium leaf and Aspen groves, Rawah Range, CO, September 21, 2015

- - - - - - - - -

I am available for one-on-one spiritual direction / mentoring via phone or Skype. You can contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com if you are interested. The rate is $65 per hour-long session. You might also want to check out my Spiritual Direction with Stephen Hatch Facebook page.

A Spirituality of "the Selfie"

The phenomenon of the "Selfie" challenges the traditional notion of a humble, unselfconscious spirituality like almost no other element invented by modern technology. What are we to make of this, and how might it contribute rather than hinder the spiritual journey?

One of my wise thirty-something daughters told me the other day that she sees the Selfie as a major way the members of her generation seek to discover who they are. Out of touch with any deeper, more stable identity, they use closeup cell phone self-portraits to offer a window into their own selfhood. Those Selfies taken in a mirror seem especially to justify this kind of interpretation. You can almost see the exploratory "Who am I?" expression on the person's face in the midst of taking the shot. However, I don't think this interpretation is the end of the matter. For I believe there is also a real and genuine spirituality lying behind the phenomenon of the Selfie.

Growing up near Amish country in Pennsylvania, I accepted as gospel truth the idea that one should avoid giving too much self-conscious attention to one's public persona or image. The Quakers on my mother's side of the family supported this move toward humble self-forgetting, as did the Christian contemplatives with whom I studied for over thirty years. However, since I've gotten on Instagram, I've been introduced to a huge culture of Selfies, including photos in the outdoors taken with the help of "Selfie Sticks," and lovely models who aim the phone video camera at themselves, taking a movie from every possible seductive angle. In fact, I've gotten to where I look forward to Instagram outdoor pictures with people in them, especially since there are so many health-conscious, beautiful people recreating in the Great Outdoors these days.
As you might expect, I like to employ myth in trying to understand the spirituality of what traditionally would have been regarded as evidence of narcissism. Tibetan Buddhist Rinpoche Chogyam Trungpa once used the playful image of "Empty Space putting on makeup" to talk about how spacious awareness "dresses up" as the individual egoic self and as all worldly phenomena. Poet Anne Waldman, one of Trungpa's students, actually wrote a whole poem employing this image, called "Makeup on Empty Space."  Here, "empty space" refers not to a mere nothing but to the spiritual reality of spacious awareness, "Dharmakaya," which is also filled with creative potential.

In any case, I like to imagine our Beloved Source emptied out in blissful, ecstatic love into the spaciousness of our awareness, and then playing a long, long game in which He or She masquerades as the constricted reality of both yours and my ego - acting "cocky," self-important, even arrogant - but always with a sense of playfulness and a "this-is-not-really-who-I-am" attitude underlying the entire game. Here each of us might embody a certain sexy, self-important, aloof, self-occupied attitude, yet KNOW we are putting on an act and playing a lifelong game! And that precisely is what a Selfie is: the divine self PLAYING at being self-preoccupied and self-important, temporarily forgetting that all of this posturing is actually a game, yet periodically waking up to the vastness of the True Self with a pleasant sense of shock and surprise :)

Photo: Sunrise on Sprague Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, September 19, 2015

- - - - - - - - -

I am available for one-on-one spiritual direction / mentoring via phone or Skype. You can contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com if you are interested. The rate is $65 per hour-long session. You might also want to check out my Spiritual Direction with Stephen Hatch Facebook page.

Backlight is the perfect analogy for seeing the Divine in ourselves and others . . .

The other day as I was sitting under a tree in the mountains, admiring a whole group of backlit Aspens glowing in the sunlight, it suddenly HIT me what an amazing analogy the phenomenon of backlighting really is. Although they can be difficult to photograph, I find myself seeking out backlit trees, flowers and seedheads as subjects that are absolutely fascinating and intriguing. In each of these cases, the sun shining from behind utterly transforms ordinary reality into magic!

Speaking allegorically, if each of the trees or plants represents another person we are attempting to know (which would include our own self when viewed as "other"), then the sun shining from behind stands for the Divine Source. What this means is that if we insist on observing both others and ourselves as isolated units, what we encounter is often going to seem quite mundane, and sometimes even distasteful. For each of us when viewed as a lone ego-self definitely have our flaws! However, if we instead look toward the loving, self-emptying Source who stands behind all things as a sort of enlightening Backdrop, then the other person (including ourselves) will appear completely transformed. For we will THEN see them as utterly beautiful and light-filled!

May each of us remember this day to view both ourselves and one another against the beautifying Backdrop of Divine Light :)

Photos: Backlit Aspens and Alpine Dryad seedheads; Rawah Range and Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, September 11-21, 2015
 
- - - - - - - - -
I am available for one-on-one spiritual direction / mentoring via phone or Skype. You can contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com if you are interested. The rate is $65 per hour-long session. You might also want to check out my Spiritual Direction with Stephen Hatch Facebook page.

Knowing the Great Beyond Through the Supereminent Image of Alpenglow

The three ways of knowing and finding union with the sacred Great Beyond can be exquisitely applied to light.

According to the kataphatic way (WITH image, the via positiva), our Beloved Source is a loving light that shines on all things, illuminating them with an awareness of their own innate divinity.
But according to the apophatic way (WITHOUT image, the via negativa), the essence of this divine light is far too vast and transcendent ever to be encountered and experienced. Therefore, our Source is more like nighttime darkness to the mind and to our human experience.

However, according to the supereminent way (the mythopoetic way of the via creativia) God is like alpenglow. Accordingly, the hidden sacredness of all things lights up in the ruddy light of divine love, yet the Source of that loving light is nowhere to be found!

But unlike the sunrise or sunset daystar, which CAN indeed be found if one travels far enough toward the eastern or western horizon, the essence of the Great Beyond - the Beloved Source, God - CANNOT be found no matter how far along the horizon of Being one travels! For "he" is somehow emptied out in loving bliss into the wide open spaces of mind and heart, hidden from view like a trickster. And yet - surprise! - all things somehow light up ANYWAY!

Photos: (Top and Middle) Sunset alpenglow in the Never Summer Range, near Cameron Pass, CO, September 21, 2015; (Bottom) Sunrise alpenglow on Long's Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, September 20, 2015. No, these images are NOT photoshopped. This is how the alpenglow really appeared on these occasions :)

 - - - - - - - - -

I am available for one-on-one spiritual direction / mentoring via phone or Skype. You can contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com if you are interested. The rate is $65 per hour-long session. You might also want to check out my Spiritual Direction with Stephen Hatch Facebook page

The Joy of Wild Country Helps Us Forgive

"When you find a heaven on earth, as John Muir had found in the mountains and forests of wild America, it is easy to forgive."

Kim Heacox
"Visions of a Wild America"

On Monday, I spent an afternoon in an aspen grove meditating, journaling and pondering these words. As human beings, we frequently struggle with reconciling ourselves to a challenging situation, especially those in which we've been slighted or opposed by someone we care about. We try persistently to find a way to forgive them, but nothing seems to work. However, Kim Heacox's words on wilderness and forgiveness offer a powerful solution. Speaking personally, whenever I focus attention on the excitement I feel while traveling in the wilds or practicing the spaciousness of Wilderness Insight Meditation, whatever ways I've been wronged don't seem to matter much anymore. I find this form of meditation especially beneficial because it encourages the use of wilderness images within each session to help us remain in the joy of spaciousness and silence. Here I'm also reminded of the verse in the Book of Hebrews which tells us that "Jesus endured the cross for the JOY set before him." What a powerful principle for ALL of us to practice!

Photos: Aspens, Rawah Range, CO, September 21, 2015

- - - - - - - - -

I am available for one-on-one spiritual direction / mentoring via phone or Skype. You can contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com if you are interested. The rate is $65 per hour-long session. You might also want to check out my Spiritual Direction with Stephen Hatch Facebook page.

Practicing Wilderness Insight Meditation Among the Autumn Aspen Trees

"A little noiseless noise among the leaves,
Born of the very sigh that silence heaves . . . "

John Keats

The other day, I spent an afternoon having a retreat in an aspen grove up in the Medicine Bow Mountains, about an hour away from my home. What a glorious time it was! Sitting with my back against a tree whose lowest branches spread out fifty feet above me, journaling while enjoying the nostalgic yet invigorating autumn scent of all of those golden leaves lying on the ground, coating my fingertips with the white powder of the trunks and then rubbing it on my face - ah, how wonderful! When it came time to meditate, the forest seemed to practice along with me. The spacious blue sky visible through a clearing in the trees embodied the vastness of my own awareness, made more prominent through attention to each outgoing breath, enabling me actually to BECOME that vastness. "Mixing mind with space," the meditation teachers would call it, and that is exactly how it felt. The sound of the fluttering leaves, eventually dropping off into silence before arising once again, signaled the same rhythm occurring in my own thoughts. Crow caws resounded now and then in the distance as Some Presence LOST in bliss within me nevertheless found a way to label each thought, feeling and perception "Echo, Echo" - amazed at the way they seemed to arise out of nowhere before melting back into spacious silence once again . . . Ah, how wonderful that afternoon truly was  :)

Photos: Aspen trees, Rawah Range (Medicine Bow Range), CO, September 21, 2015

- - - - - - - - -

I am available for one-on-one spiritual direction / mentoring via phone or Skype. You can contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com if you are interested. The rate is $65 per hour-long session. You might also want to check out my Spiritual Direction with Stephen Hatch Facebook page.

Masculine (Spirit) and Feminine (Soul) Ways of Identifying Our Spirituality

The masculine aspect of our true self - our spirit or animus, in Jungian terms, is a solitary, singular reality. This, of course, is how we in patriarchal societies generally conceive of ourselves. Here, we think of our identity as an "I." However, this is not the entire story. Just as we live embedded in a social and ecological web of relations, so our soul or anima - the feminine aspect of our true self - is multi-faceted as well. Following James Hillman and others, we might say that the "God" (spirit) dimension of our identity is mostly monotheistic, while the "Goddess" (soul) dimension of our identity is innately polytheistic.

I find this distinction very helpful when thinking of my own religious identity. When people ask: "What ARE you?" they are generally thinking in masculine terms of a singular religious identity. Here, I could answer with the label "Christian Mysticism" or simply say: "My religious identity is a singular Universal - a Oneness - that can't be adequately defined," and that would definitely be true. After all, Gautama Buddha was not a Buddhist; he was simply "Awake." And Jesus was not a Christian; he was simply "I AM."

These days, however, I find that the feminine (soul) aspect of my religious identity has come to the fore. As such, it is much more multi-faceted and pluralistic than my masculine (spirit) side. This makes sense, since the post-modern self we all manifest these days is incapable of being defined in any one way. Like a multi-hued grove of aspen trees, it contains many different elements. Accordingly, I can define the soul-aspect of my religious identity in three important ways. First, I would say that I am "Interspiritual." That is, my filter for looking at reality tends to be contemplative Christian, but it is interwoven heavily with elements from Native American spirituality, Buddhist (especially Vajrayana) theology, and the spirituality of American Nature writers. In addition, aspects of Hinduism, Sufism, Taoism, mystical Judaism, transpersonal psychology, Enneagram spirituality and eco-spirituality are woven into the interspiritual mix as well.

A second way I can define the soul aspect of my faith is to say that I am a "None." In other words, I am unable to identify myself with ANY of the traditional formal religious traditions. Or rather, I resonate with the best elements of ALL of the faiths, while setting aside the more rigid, dogmatic elements. Here, I really like the "spiritual, not religious" label. I find that this aspect of my faith is prevented from lapsing into superficiality because I practice a regular set of spiritual disciplines which lend a sense of stability, even though my theology may go through periodic shifts.

A third way I can define the soul aspect of my spiritual identity relates to the fact that I have been developing a new faith over the past three decades which I call "Wilderness Mysticism." If one has to use a label, this one fits me perhaps most adequately. Accordingly, I've developed a theology and set of practices that highlight the Nature-based dimensions of all of the traditional faiths, and which also goes beyond them in new and as yet undefined ways. I embrace fully the chief tenet of Process Theology, which is the fact that even the DIVINE evolves! This is DEFINITELY true of Wilderness Mysticism!

I find that any of these four aspects (one masculine and three feminine) might be expressed at any given time, depending on the person with whom I am interacting and what their specific needs are. Actually, I LOVE the fact that I am never completely sure WHICH element will arise at any given time. Here, the SHAPESHIFTING aspect of spirituality definitely rules!

Photos: Various Aspen groves in the Cameron Pass area, CO, September 14, 2015

- - - - - - - -

I am available for spiritual direction / mentoring sessions via cell phone or Skype. The fee for each hour-long session is $65. If you are interested in inquiring about this, or would like to host a talk or workshop in your area, please contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com .

Wilderness Insight Meditation

In Wilderness Insight Meditation, we let go of every thought, emotion and perception in order to melt into and identify ourselves with the vastness of divine awareness. As many spiritual teachers both East and West have realized, this awareness can be envisioned as a wide-open sky. As non-conceptual and image-free, we might say that it appears like a nighttime or storm-blackened sky - or as a dark, unlit backdrop of mountains. However, as crisp and sharply aware, it seems alternately like a daytime autumn or early-winter sky.

In any case, experience has taught me that this emptiness - even though it is brim-full with the vastness of Divine Love - is never meant to be considered as an end in itself. Detachment from the particularities of life as expressed in thoughts, feelings and perceptions is simply a stepping-stone into a magical world in which open awareness - filled with the blissful, self-emptied presence of the Beloved - gradually manifests itself as the humble BACKDROP out of which those same thoughts, emotions and perceptions can then arise and shine in all of their magnificent glory! Thus, detachment and union with open, empty awareness become the vehicle for watching IN UTTER AMAZEMENT as all of the particularities of life arise and shine - highlighted by divine love - as though out of NOWHERE!

Photos: (Top) Ruddy Alpine Avens leaves, with Long's Peak in the background; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, September 11, 2015; (Middle and Bottom) Aspen trees against a backdrop of an overcast sky or storm-darkened mountains, September 14, 2015

- - - - - - - -

I am available for spiritual direction / mentoring sessions via cell phone or Skype. The fee for each hour-long session is $65. If you are interested in inquiring about this, or would like to host a talk or workshop in your area, please contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com .

What is Spiritual Direction, and Who is Stephen Hatch?

What is Spiritual Direction, and Who is Stephen Hatch?

"Spiritual Direction" is a term used in the classic contemplative traditions for a one-on-one session in which a mentor listens for the unique "direction" in which the Divine is already working in a seeker's life, and then gently encourages them on their own path. As such, it is not a form of therapy. "Spiritual Mentoring" is often used as a modern synonym for Spiritual Direction. "Spiritual Coaching" is sometimes employed as well, although some may feel that the term contains a focus on "image," which is the antithesis of Spiritual Direction.

When I'm doing spiritual direction, I serve as a mirror or sounding-board in which the seeker can more readily discover the ways in which The Creative Source is working in their life. Intentional practices such as meditation, silence, solitude, reading, reflection, journaling, and outdoor contemplation are encouraged. If the seeker is interested, I also use the Enneagram Personality Typology as a tool for discerning their basic stance toward life and chief motivations. Since I have a background in theology and philosophy, I enjoy helping seekers develop their own theology or philosophy of life. As such, my work somewhat resembles "Philosophical Counseling," although in an informal way. In recent years, I've developed a theological stance called "Wilderness Mysticism," which is both contemplative and Earth-based. The goal is union and communion with both the "God" and "Goddess" aspects of Ultimate Reality.

I consider myself "Interspiritual," drawing on contemplative insights from many different traditions. My background is in Christian Mysticism, but I draw heavily from Buddhism and Native American Spirituality. All of my work is permeated by the open-ended philosophy of Process Theology, especially as developed by A.N. Whitehead and John Cobb. Hinduism, Sufism, Taoism, Contemplative Judaism and the works of American Nature Writers have also influenced my worldview. I might also be considered a "None" - one who resonates with the current "Spiritual, Not Religious" movement. However, I believe firmly in living a disciplined life, and in developing a set of spiritual practices that help form the "container" or "lens" through which the Sacred can be more readily experienced.

I have a B.A. from Colorado State University in Philosophy and Religion, and an M.A. from Iliff School of Theology, specializing in Mysticism. In the 1980s, I trained with Thomas Keating and then worked for several years with Contemplative Outreach, the organization he established. Most recently, I have taught Contemplative Christianity at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. Since 1976, I have lived in Fort Collins, Colorado. I am married, and have two daughters, both in their thirties.

Three Ways of Knowing the Ultimate

Wilderness Mysticism holds that, with regard to images, there are three ways of knowing the Ultimate. The first way is the kataphatic path. Kataphasis is a Greek word meaning "with image." The second is the apophatic way, meaning "without image." In most Christian mystical schemes, these are the classical - and only - ways. Matthew Fox calls them the "via positiva" and the "via negativa." However, there is also a little-known third way, which I've termed the "supereminent" way. This partially corresponds to the "via creativa" of Matthew Fox. It is a middle way between the other two, one that is both poetic and paradoxical in style.

For example, in the kataphatic way, we might say that the Divine Source "speaks"; that is, communicates an eternal "love-word" to the world, revealed through verbal expressions and images. This is the sort of thing we feel when we have an epiphany or revelation. However, the apophatic way then comes along and says: "Wait a minute; the Divine is a mystery beyond words and images, best accessed through silence. Therefore, we need to realize that ALL words and images are mere approximations created by human language and perception. In actuality, therefore, the Divine does not 'speak.' ! " Here, the Source is more like the vast and empty night sky out of which all words, images and revelations (the "stars") may or may not appear and then die.

Finally, however, the supereminent path comes along with a playful, mythical, trickster-like image which combines and explodes the other two ways. "All revelation and verbal-imagistic expressions are like ECHOES," it says. "Echoes, that is, of a Divine love-word which never had a chance to be spoken because the 'Speaker' - the beloved Beyond - lost 'Himself' in ecstatic bliss and emptied Himself out into the vast spaces of mind and heart! Nevertheless, echoes of that never-spoken word somehow manage - surprise!!! - to resound throughout the vast apophatic night-sky of the cosmos!"

Thus, Wilderness Mysticism uses images, but in a mythical, paradoxical, playful way that leaves us scratching our heads, and forever FILLED with awe and wonder!

Photos: (Top) Ruby-red leaves of Queen's Crown / Rose Crown and a pond; (Middle) Seedheads of Alpine Dryad, backlit in late-day sun. These two photos were taken in Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, on September 11, 2015; (Bottom) Changing Aspen trees, Rawah Range, CO, September 14, 2015

- - - - - - - -
I am available for spiritual direction / mentoring sessions via cell phone or Skype. The fee for each hour-long session is $65. If you are interested in inquiring about this, or would like to host a talk or workshop in your area, please contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com .

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."

Albert Camus 

Photos: Changing Aspen leaves, Rawah Range, Colorado State Forest State Park, CO, September 14, 2015

- - - - - - - -

I am available for spiritual direction / mentoring sessions via cell phone or Skype. The fee for each hour-long session is $65. If you are interested in inquiring about this, or would like to host a talk or workshop in your area, please contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com .

Nature Can Help Spirituality Remain REAL

There is a tendency in religion for various aspects of human experience to be ignored or denied. For the fundamentalist wing of each faith, the tendency is to deny the unity of all things, the value of silence, and the goodness of another person's religious tradition. For the mystical wing of those same religions, the temptation is to deny the individuality of things, the fact that one possesses a relative perspective even when experiencing the absolute, and a denial of the importance of ideas, words and theology in the life of the spirit. Contemplatives like myself have a tendency to live in denial about our experience of anger, even when others can still feel it. And all religious and spiritual traditions succumb to the temptation to deny the reality and sacredness of sexuality. 

Fortunately, however, frequent contact with Nature helps counteract these deficiencies by keeping us "real." Intense beauty, suffering, individuality, unity, sex, male and female realities, personality, non-personality, cooperation, competition - it's all there. Oh, and mosquitoes, rocks to smack your knee on, sunburn, frostbite, overpowering sunsets, and the beautiful Nature writings contained in the book you stashed in your backpack. It's all there!

Photos: (Yellow Senecio, pink Fireweed, White Cowbane, Black Lake and various waterfalls, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, September 1, 2015

Those who are healed do not talk about it among themselves and spread the news . . .

"Those who are healed do not talk about it among themselves and spread the news. That is not the Lakota way. If a thing is holy and sacred, if it is a miracle, it is not talked about. It is too special for that. Visions we receive are in the same category. They are something personal between Wakan Tanka [The Great Sacred] and the seeker that affects the whole of his or her life. Even the person's family will not discuss it or tell their friends."

Frank Fools Crow
Lakota medicine man

What an interesting and welcome counterpoint this is to the attitude of our modern culture!

Photo: Alpine Bog Birch and McHenry's Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, September 1, 2015

Be not preoccupied with looking. Go not to the object; let it come to you.

"Be not preoccupied with looking. Go not to the object; let it come to you."

Henry David Thoreau

Photos: (Top) Alpine Bog Birch; (Middle) Waterfall, with Keyboard of the Winds and Pagoda Peak in the background; (Bottom) Subalpine Arnica and unnamed waterfall; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, September 1, 2015

The Sacred Flow of the Goddess

These unnamed falls - located just below Black Lake on Glacier Creek - are among my favorite in Rocky Mountain National Park. They remind me that one of the major qualities of the Goddess - the Sacred Feminine, Gaia, Mother Earth, Sophia, Shakti - is that of seamless FLOW. Each of us is like a water droplet that dances up into the air and out of the flow, and then returns to it once again. And this process doesn't just happen at birth and death, but during each moment of our lives! At each instant, we dance out of the flow and inhabit our water-droplet individuality, fall again into the sacred flow, and then emerge once again! Actually, to be more precise, I'm speaking here in terms of our EXPERIENCE.  On the level of our being, we never, ever leave the Flow :)

Photo: Subalpine Arnica and falls, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, September 1, 2015

The Lessons of Autumn . . .

Autumn has begun above timberline in the High Country, and I enjoyed spending time with the vibrant colors during my hike yesterday. It's always amazing to contemplate the fact that these yellow, orange and red hues reveal themselves when summer's chlorophyll drains away and returns to the roots, in preparation for the death of the leaves. This is a beautiful embodiment of the fact that in the life of each of us, every moment is a kind of autumn. The colorful manifestation of our individual personalities is also a participation in the passing away of that display, and this process happens during each and every moment of our lives! Autumn also teaches us to maintain a greater awareness of the root of our lives - lying within our Source in the Ground of Being - that is hidden but ever-present!

Photos: (Top and Bottom) Alpine Bog Birch leaves; (Top Right) Willow leaves; Glacier Gorge, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, September 1, 2015