Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2010, Volume 29
The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2010, Volume 29
he
International Journal of
Transpersonal Feminism
Mothering Fundamentalism:
The Transformation of Modern Women into FundamentalistsSophia Korb
The Word, the Body, and the Kinfolk: The Intersection of Transpersonal Thought
with Womanist Approaches to PsychologyJuko Martina Holiday
The Wheel of the Year as a Spiritual Psychology for WomenValeire Kim Duckett
Eclipse (Poem)Judy Schavrien
War and Nature in Classical Athens and Today: Demoting and Restoring
the Underground GoddessesJudy Schavrien
A Reply to CaprilesJohn Abramson
Transpersonal Studies
he International Journal of
Table of Contents
Editors IntroductionGlenn Hartelius
iii
11
SPECIAL TOPIC:
Transpersonal Feminism
28
33
58
Mothering Fundamentalism:
The Transformation of Modern Women into FundamentalistsSophia Korb
68
87
The Word, the Body, and the Kinfolk: The Intersection of Transpersonal Thought
with Womanist Approaches to PsychologyJuko Martina Holiday
103
121
The Wheel of the Year as a Spiritual Psychology for WomenValeire Kim Duckett
137
152
War and Nature in Classical Athens and Today: Demoting and Restoring
the Underground GoddessesJudy Schavrien
153
180
Senior Editor
Harris Friedman
Coordinating Editor
Les Lancaster
Assistant Editor
Maureen Harrahy
Honorary Editor
Stanley Krippner
Editors Emeriti
Don Diespecker
Philippe Gross
Douglas A. MacDonald
Sam Shapiro
ii
Board of Editors
Publisher
Floraglades Foundation, Incorporated
1270 Tom Coker Road
LaBelle, FL 33935
Editors Introduction
iii
iv
This study investigated the experiences gained from a 20-minute shamanic-like drumming
session. Twenty-two persons participated and made written descriptions afterwards about
their experiences. A phenomenological analysis was applied which generated 31 categories,
that were organized into six themes: 1) The undertaking of the drumming journey, 2)
Perceptual phenomena: visual, auditory and somatic, 3) Encounters, 4) Active vs. Passive role,
5) Inner wisdom and guidance, and 6) Reflections on the drumming journey. A multitude
of detailed experiences were described such as visual imagery, hearing sounds, encountering
animals, as well as gaining insights. Participants generally appreciated the drumming session
and few negative effects were noted. The conclusion made is that shamanic-like drumming
can be a valuable supplement to other psychotherapeutic techniques.
International
Transpersonal
Studies, 29(2), 2010,
pp. 1-10 Journal of Transpersonal Studies
Altered
StatesJournal
DuringofShamanic
Drumming
International
Results
he Empirical Phenomenological Psychological
method (EPP; Karlsson, 1995) was used to analyze
the material. The analysis yielded 542 MUs from which
31 categories emerged. Each category illustrated a
special perspective on the phenomena studied and, when
considered as a whole, the categories can illuminate and
provide insight into experiences and meanings derived
from the drumming experience. The categories are
presented below (Table 1) in the approximate sequence
in which they emerged in the analysis. Each of the 31
categories provides interesting information, and even
more so if they are interrelated in a general structure. In
the last step of the analysis, the categories were further
abstracted and combined into six themes and will be
further discussed as such. The six themes are:
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
References
10
Chakra
ModelJournal
of Development
International
International
of Transpersonal Studies, 29(2), 2010,
pp. 11-27 Journal of Transpersonal Studies 11
12
Best
14
Best
16
Best
18
Best
Crown
Brow Upper
Throat Hemisphere
Heart
Navel
Lower
Sacral
Hemisphere
Root
20
Best
Root
Crown
Brow
Sacral
Throat
Navel
Heart
Root
Brow
Crown
Sacral
Brow
Navel
Throat
Heart
Sacral
Throat
Navel
22
Heart
Best
24
Best
In the foregoing quote, Kegan (1982) articulated
the core function and purpose of the chakra domains and
their relationship to chakra stage transitions. It is through
the defining characteristics of each chakra domain that
individuals work through the process of shifting from
subject to object relative to that corresponding stage.
That is, the developmental process of the chakra system
model finds the individual working from a position
of being so immersed in the tasks, challenges, and
identifying features of a stage so as to be embedded in
and thus unable to distinguish him or herself from the
those featuresto objectifying and thus transcending
that stage such that she is able to relate to, learn from
and incorporate these features into a newly evolved self
that begins the process anew at the next stage.
However, Kegans orders of consciousness model
offers even more insight relative to the crucial transition
from the lower to the upper hemispheres of the Self-sphere.
As the heart chakra is defined as a proving ground for the
surrender of subjective attachments, this stage transition also
represents the very mastery of the subject-object transition
itself. Beyond the heart chakra, the Self emerges as a form
that no longer needs to create objects to make meaning but
internalizes experiences as a reflection of the undifferentiated
whole to which all individuals belonguniversal
consciousness. When viewed in this fashion, the line of
demarcation between the lower and upper hemispheres
of the Self can be visualized as delineating the epic battle
between defining our experiences of self by our knowledge
of the world and defining our experiences of the world by
our knowledge of Self. In so doing, the perspective offered by
the chakra system model extends the accepted sequence of
lifespan development by augmenting the present conceptual
understanding of when, how, and under what circum
stances healthy adult development can truly be achieved,
and complements them with a model organized around the
chakra system.
References
26
Best
28
30
32
Unidentified Allies:
Intersections of Feminist and Transpersonal Thought
and Potential Contributions to Social Change
Christine Brooks
International
of Transpersonal
pp. 33-57 Journal of Transpersonal Studies 33
Feminist
and Journal
Transpersonal
Thought Studies, 29(2), 2010,
International
34
Brooks
36
Brooks
38
Brooks
40
Applied Feminism:
Psychology and Spirituality
eminist psychology, as a field, has been dedicated to
centering women and womens issues in psychological
research, theory, and treatment modalities. Utilizing
the strong analytical tools developed in academic and
activist strands of the movement, feminist psychologists
have served key roles in addressing gender as a crucial
locus of psychological health and development.
Accounts of the many feminist threads that inform
feminist psychology and psychotherapy are prevalent
in the literature, including Enns (2004) comprehensive
overview, Feminist Theories and Feminist Psychotherapies.
A core concept that informs many of the scholars
and researchers in feminist psychology is relationality, or
the theory that we, as human beings, grow and develop
through relationship and not in individual vacuums of
experience.Relational-CulturalTheoryisafeministconstruct
that has posited the need for and value of interpersonal
relationship in healthy psychological development; as a
theoretical model, it has become a keystone of efficacy
in the therapeutic process (Baker Miller, 1978; Jordan &
Hartling, 2002). Additionally, feminist psychologists have
highlighted the necessity of focusing on subjectivity, or the
actual lived experience of women in order to create valid,
verifiable data upon which to build theory and practice
that will serve diverse populations of women (Lerman,
1986), since the need remains to continually build diverse
theory that no longer speaks only to narrowly-defined
populations (Brown, 1994).11
In the past decade, Suyemoto (2002), for
example, has proposed a model of socially-constructed
self and identity as perpetually shifting and developing
rather than relying on rigid, step-wise, hierarchal concepts
of personality development that have defined personality
psychology as a field. Suyemoto asked of traditional
theorists and researchers: Who determines what
my...personality is or is not...what is or is not healthy or
pathological in personality? (p. 74) Additionally, Ballou
et al. (2002) created an ecological model of human
nature that includes community, ecology, and cosmos as
influences that shape the self and ones understanding of
identity. Similar to the earlier work of Bronfenbrenner
(1979; see also Bronfenbrenner & Ceci, 1994), the
Ballou et al. model extends a holistic model of identity
to include consideration of the sociopolitical realities of
intersectional identity as understood and interpreted
through a feminist lens (Crenshaw, 1991).
Brooks
42
Brooks
44
Brooks
Building upon her theoretical constructs, Wright
(1998) further suggested alternative visions to Wilbers
assessment of how contemporary Western culture must
undertake its own healing. Drawing upon the self-inrelation models of female development, Wright (1998)
suggested that we, as people, must heal the splits between
mind/body and culture/nature not as individuals only,
but also in community. In addition, she disagreed
with Wilbers conception of the differences between
transcendence and regression, insisting that, at times, one
must regress in order to heal. Wright posited:
A diagnosis of what needs to be healed in our
culture and the process of healing can be clarified
through theoretical models, but the healing itself
requires lived experience. This healing is sometimes
an exceedingly difficult and unpleasant process.
Coming back into the individual and collective
bodies to heal trauma often means reliving our
suffering. Without healing, we may ascend, but
we cannot be whole. Healing the split at times
requires messy, emotive, and nonrational regressive
experiences. In addition, it requires developing
personal, empathic relationships with the elements
of the biosphere and with each other, as well as with
Spirit. Ultimately, individual and social healings
facilitate our spiritual development. (p. 225)
Wrights theoretical stance (1995) called for multiple
approaches to transpersonal development that may
be needed to keep a balanced perspective (p. 10). Like
Ferrer (2002), Wright (1995, 1998) brought into question
the rigid adherence to perennialist models that may not
adequately represent the experience of non-dominant
groupsin Wrights case, the category of women.
However, Wright did not address issues of
essentialism, and her work is now more than a decade old.
A contemporary development of her critique into theory
would be of value in order to explore how a feminist
critique of essentialism, as well as of other developmental
46
Brooks
In the transpersonal camp, Elgin (1993) wrote
that the evolution of our consciousness (and supportive
social forms) is not a peripheral concern; rather, it is
of central importance to our human agenda (p. 249).
Rothberg (1999) spoke of the need for a socially-engaged
spirituality that is concerned with ethics and action
(p. 41). Thus, in the transpersonal world there exists a
call for social engagement and the recognition that one
cannot stop change at the personal growth stage, and also
that one must use that change to transform the world
(thus, back to Gandhis exhortation be the change).
However, feminist expertise in social organizing and the
long history in feminism of critique, analysis, and personal
reflection as social action (e.g., Hanischs (1969/2006)
the personal is political) would serve as a rich model for
the applied ethics and action Rothberg (1999) sought.
Conversely, transpersonal studies may offer new
insights into conceptualizations of spiritual development,
novel approaches to integrating spiritual interventions
into clinical practice, and reminders that psychology
encompasses the beauty and richness of the full range
of human experience in each client seen and each
student educatednot to mention in ones own lived
experience. As early as 1994, Laura S. Brown saw feminist
psychological theory moving toward considerations of the
spiritual or existential realms (p. 233). Leela Fernandes
(2003) and others (Flinders, 1999; Klassen, 2009) have
demonstrated the deep hunger in academic feminist
circles for a more spiritually-infused form of activism. The
conversation between the two fields has barely begun.
Readers who seek to integrate the sacred, the mundane, the
social, the personal, and the righteous into a holographic
understanding of psychology and human consciousness,
are invited to contribute their efforts in forging paths
that lead to further intersections of thought and practice
between transpersonal studies and feminism.
References
Ahmed, S. (2006). Queer phenomenology: Orientations,
objects, others. Durham, NC: Duke University
Press.
Alpert, J. (1973) Mother right: A new feminist theory.
Ms., 2(2), 52-55, 88-94.
Anderson, R. (2000). Intuitive inquiry: Interpreting
objective and subjective data. ReVsision, 22(4), 31-39.
Retrieved from: <http://www.revisionpublishing.
org>
48
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50
Brooks
52
Brooks
54
Brooks
Notes
56
pewforum.org/The-Stronger-Sex----SpirituallySpeaking.aspx).
17. This is one of two programs in the San Francisco
Bay Area of California dedicated specifically to
the study and practice of womens spirituality. The
other program is housed at the California Institute
of Integral Studies in San Francisco.
18.Woman-centeredness does not denote gender or
sex exclusivity with regard to those invited to study
the field. Rather this perspective is grounded in
transformative teaching practices and feminist
theory: through de-centering norms (such as malecenteredness, or the primacy of male experience, in
patriarchal religious structures), new vantage points
of understanding and shifts in frames of reference
may create opportunities for profound personal,
social, and intellectual change through viewing ones
self or experience as centered rather than othered or
non-normative.
19. With the comprehensive indexing of dissertations
and theses on databases such as ProQuest, access
to this rarely considered literature is now widely
possible. As noted elsewhere in this piece, the politics
of why these dissertations have not been published to
date as articles or books in the professional literature
continues to go unexamined.
20. A nother early self-identified feminist author in the
field who utilized gender as a locus of psychospiritual
exploration (notably through the lens of selfpsychology) is Judy Schavrien (1989; 2008). Her use
of classical Western drama as a tool to explore the
rise of (her term) The Feminine in the development
of a mature psyche is further explored in an article
in this special issue.
21.Tarnas (2002) encapsulated the unfolding of trans
personal theory based upon inherited principles that
revealed themselves to be acutely problematic
(p. viii). He continued:
With modernitys focus on the individual
Cartesian subject as the starting point and
foundation of any understanding of reality, with
its pervasive assertion of the knowing subjects
epistemic separation from an independent
objective reality, and finally with the modern
disenchantment of the external world of nature
and the cosmos, it was virtually inevitable that
transpersonal psychology would emerge in the
Brooks
58
Grahn
60
Grahn
dust into his eyes; he could not wipe it all out; he had
sand in his eyes. He looked and saw the exalted gods
of the plains and of the mountains, the wind and the
sky. And then he saw flying toward him a single god,
I saw someone who possesses fully the divine powers
(para. 262-281). He saw her divinity. In the middle of
the plot stood the Tree whose roots entangle with the
horizon, a Euphrates poplar, so large its shade remains
the same all through the day. Under this tree the lady
had laid down to rest after she had flown around heaven
and around earth, from Elam to Subir, and she was very
tired. He noticed her; he approached, had intercourse
with her, and kissed her. Afterwards, he went back to
the edge of his plot. Having heard his testimony, she
then determined his destiny (para. 290-310). Holy
Inanna said to u-kale-tuda: So! You shall die! What is
that to me? (para. 290-310).
But his name, she continued, would be
remembered; his name would exist in songs and make
the songs sweet (Black et al., 1998-2001a, para. 290310). The songs would be pleasingly sung in the palace
of the king; shepherds would sing them in their work of
churning butter, and in the meadow where they grazed
their sheep. As for u-kale-tuda himself, the palace of
the desert shall be your home (para. 290-310). Such was
his destiny. The myth ends with praise to holy Inanna,
who decides fates.
An Interpretation
with an Ecofeminist Perspective
hat is that blood? This myth has elements
that are mysteriousat first reading. What is
this about her blood? Why are the cosmic powers in
a loincloth across her thighs? Why doesnt the myth
tell us his motivation? And why, if she has the power
to declare the criminals death as her retribution, does
she then say that his name will be remembered, sweetly
sung even in the kings palace? And what, exactly, was
his transgression, given that she is a divine shape-shifter
and he a mortal callow youth? The myth doesnt call it
a rape; should we?
An appropriate place to search for answers is
Inannas favorite site: her sexuality. The seven cosmic
powersin some myths she wears them in her cloak,
however in this myth the image is of a girdle or loincloth
with the powers woven into it, that lies protectively and
provocatively across her vulva, drawing a connection
between the cosmic laws and her place of eros. What
is it about her vulva that has anything to do with the
62
Grahn
When I have bathed for the king, for the lord, when
I have bathed for the shepherd, Dumuzid, when I
have adorned my flanks (?) with ointment (?), when
I have anointed my mouth with balsamic oil (?),
when I have painted my eyes with kohl...(Black,
Cunningham, Fluckiger-Hawker, Robson, &
Zlyomi, 1998-2001c, para. 14-35)
64
Grahn
she adds what for him must have been a bitter, ironic
twist. His name alone will live on, she will make sure of
this. But not as a great or crazy criminal, or a contrite
sinner, or a thief in the night, rather his name will be
used to sweeten a song, and the song will be sung by a
shepherd, not by a farmer. The song, in other words, will
further the goddess, and her enterprise of sexuality as
joy and celebration. Since in the myth of her courtship,
the goddess had rejected the farmer as a suitor while
accepting the shepherd, she is condemning Su-kale-tuda
to be misrepresented by his rival, and not celebrated as
antihero by his own farmer people. The song will be sung
even in the palace of the King. As for u-kale-tuda, his
palace will be the desertthe lifeless place, infertile and
dry, from which he will never return.
Reconstructing Gender and Sexuality
eadors (2000) archetypes are effectively guiding
the way through this myth. As a warrior, Inanna
halts all activity and demands redress; as a lover, her
sexuality brings joy and abundance to all; and as priestess,
she affects life, death, and afterlife. Yet what of the
archetype, androgyne? As noted, the blood that Inanna
sends through the waters of her lands indicates that this is
a myth of transformation, a recipe for handling a certain
form of insanitymisuse of the Land, and misuse of
the Lady of Heaven and Earth, whose holy sexuality
must be held sacred in order to maintain joy, and the
abundance of life that accompanies joy. In addition to
the menstrual blood signs, another indication that this
myth is a transformative object lesson is the presence not
only of the dust storm following the goddess and a flood
proceeding her as she searches for her transgressor: she is
also accompanied on her justice quest by a pilipili. This
temple office is held by lamenters, mourners, singers,
and those who go into ecstatic trance in behalf of the
goddess. The office is highly shamanic, artful, and
emotional, unlike a more staid temple function such as
scribe, libation-pourer, or lamp-lighter.
The pilipili drum and dance while going into
deep states of ecstasy or grief, and they are transformative
in character. At least some of them are the headoverturned (Meador, 2000, p. 124) men and women
whose gender has been changed by the goddess. In
the section of a longer poem describing her process of
switching the genders of a particular woman and man,
Inanna names them reed marsh woman [and] reed
marsh man (p. 124). Thus they are, metaphorically,
geographically positioned as a combination of sweet water
66
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68
Korb
Mothering Fundamentalism
70
Korb
Mothering Fundamentalism
72
Korb
Mothering Fundamentalism
74
Korb
Mothering Fundamentalism
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Korb
Mothering Fundamentalism
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Korb
Mothering Fundamentalism
80
Korb
Mothering Fundamentalism
82
Korb
Mothering Fundamentalism
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Korb
Mothering Fundamentalism
Notes
1. Some non-fundamentalist scholars have suggested
that the movements true beginnings lay with the
Engel v. Vitale (June 25, 1962) Supreme Court
case, which addressed prayer in public schools
(Dierenfield, 2007). Still others, including
Jerry Falwell, a televangelist and conservative
commentator and founder of the Moral Majority,
an evangelical Christian-oriented political lobbying
organization, have pointed to a history beginning
with Bob Jones University v. US (May 24, 1983),
which addressed the tax-exempt status of a private,
86
Korb
International Journal
of Transpersonal
Studies,
29(2), 2010,
pp. 87-102
Psychospiritual
Development
of Female
Adoptees
International
Journal of Transpersonal Studies 87
88
Topfer
90
Topfer
In her landmark interviews with women
who surrendered their children between the end of
World War II and 1973, Fessler (2006) illustrated how
these women were not ultimately given a choice and
consequently denied their right to keep their children.
Many of these women did not make a decision to
surrender but instead were rendered powerless10 in their
ability to choose what was best for them and for their
children. The only choice presented was the one that was
available to them: living in an unwed mothers home,
immediately surrendering their child, and legally signing
away their right as a parent. It was the only option
prescribed within the patriarchys11 definition of what
it meant to be a mother. According to authorities and
those who enforced the closed adoption systems extreme
polices, such as social workers and parents, these nonmarital pregnancies were treated as evidence that young
women were unfit to be mothers. It marked them as
bad choice makers and poor prospects for becoming or
raising good citizens (Solinger, 2001).12 Motherhood was
not determined by biology or by giving birth. Rather, it
was determined by marriage and the commodification
of their babies (p. 78). Solinger explained that adoption
is rarely about mothers choices; it is, instead, about the
abject choicelessness of some resourceless women (p.
67) and about the economic resources of other women.
It is typically overlooked that economic and
cultural degradation can cancel a womans ability to assert
the biological claim to motherhood (Solinger, 2001,
p. 75). Young pregnant girls were not given a realistic
picture of the responsibilities and costs of raising a child.
They were denied information that could have saved
them and their motherhood, thus preventing them from
participating in making an informed choice. Despite
the fog of their despair and helplessness, some women
recognized that when adults denied them motherhood
and their babies, it was about power over one who is
less socioeconomically and sociopolitically influential
in society. As a result of their lack of status power, the
only choice was to conform to the enormous societal
pressures of the middle-class values of the time. Middleclass parents were quick to agree that the only choice for
their young daughters problem was relinquishment and
adoption. Solinger added:
When daughters became objects of their own parents
terror in the era of family togetherness, they felt
absolutely resourceless. Mothers and fathers worked
92
Topfer
Due to this lack of privilege, a birthmothers
grief becomes exacerbated, and sometimes chronic.
In her qualitative study, Davis (1994) found that all
94
Topfer
Only then can a woman provide her adult self with the
essential qualities that she may have missed as a child.
Those qualities will nourish and sustain her feminine
embodied growth and development.
A female adoptees process of retrieving an authentic
relationship with her feminine body or what Woodman
(1990) called a womans embodied spirituality (p. 98)
can unfold as a female adoptee makes her own identity
distinct from her birth mother, from her adoptive mother,
and from the closed adoption system that holds the
virgin, crone, and mother unconscious. It is essential that
a female adoptee re-mother herself (Zweig, 1990) and
develop the mature feminine and the conscious virgin
(Woodman, 1990, p. 105). Part of this re-mothering is
consciously working through and owning responsibility
for her mother projections and fantasies in order to arrive
at what Woodman referred to as a females embodied
conscious virgin. Woodman described the conscious
virgin:
The virgin lives her own essence. Like the virgin
forest, she contains the seeds of countless possibilities.
She reflects the Divine Feminine that resides in and
resonates through all the senses of our body so long
as we live on earth. She is the maturing and mature
soul child, the feminine container, strong enough
Woodman (1990) stated that a womans journey
to find her embodied spirituality and to bring the
birth of the virgin in her life entails finding those lost
parts, standing to their truth, and living them in our
everyday life (p. 99). Upon the adoptees realization of
her biological heritage, also named by Lifton (1994) as
her Forbidden Self (p. 56),18 the conscious mother and
virgin can embark upon a more authentic relationship.
The conscious crones voice is thus heard, understood,
and embodied.
A female adoptee can differentiate her feminine
nature from the closed adoption legacies of secrecy
and silence when she discovers, listens, celebrates, and
connects to the internal rhythms of her forbidden
body. She had not grown up connected with the bodies
of her biological mother, and any other biological
feminine family members such as her sisters, aunts, and
grandmothers. Thus, how can a female adoptee begin
her psychospiritual journey that is necessary to retrieve
her conscious feminine body when her biological body
and its rhythms were not reflected and mirrored back
to her by her biological feminine ancestry? Feminist
writer Thanas (1997) claimed that women in general do
not know how to listen to their own natural bodies. An
adoptees task of deeply listening to her biological body
and aligning with its natural rhythms is challenged with
her Forbidden Self trapped within the closed adoption
system. Considering this, what are the tasks that a female
adoptee needs to accomplish in order for her to be able to
deeply listen and connect with her biological body when
she never had it reflected back to her?
Lifton (1994) wrote that the task for adoptees
is to retrieve their Forbidden Self versus succumbing to
the Artificial Self (p. 50), who was created out of the
false messages and myths within the closed adoption
system. The retrieval of the Forbidden Self happens
when a female adoptee can distinguish, identify, and
pursue inquiry into her adoptive identity distinct from
her biological and Forbidden Self. From this practice
of deeply listening and being mindful of her Forbidden
Self and body, she creates more openness and receptivity
to the conscious feminine. The possibility of more
connection to her own internal rhythms arises when
she relates to her birth mother and adoptive mother
96
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98
Topfer
Topfer
Notes
Topfer
The
Word, theJournal
Body, and
the Kinfolk Studies, 29(2), 2010,
International
Journal of Transpersonal Studies 103
International
of Transpersonal
pp. 103-120
Holiday
Holiday
Holiday
Naming and having ownership over what we have created
is important in the African American community, and
I have deep respect for the black women who are the
roots that ground my work. I am not suggesting any
radical shift in the way anyone chooses to identify
herself. However, I am suggesting womanist values are
Holiday
Holiday
Holiday
Holiday
References
Holiday
Holiday
Keywords: multigenerational family systems, transpersonal, feminist, dreamwork, journaling, organic inquiry, creative expression.
Transpersonal
Approach
to Family Systems
International
Journal of Transpersonal Studies 121
International Journal
of Transpersonal
Studies, 29(2), 2010,
pp. 121-136
Lazarus
Lazarus
9.30
8.98
8.75
8.11
7.76
7.61
7.61
7.36
7.23
7.19
7.15
6.77
Lazarus
Jane commented: Presenting my family in that
empathic supportive environment allows me to see and
begin to drop some of those engrained defenses and
contact some of that wounding as well as the feelings
generated by that wounding. Here we see a beautiful
example of Jane making sense of her family history in
her own time, in her own terms. The interplay between
contemplating her dream through her journal and
contemplating her family history seems to promote
a deepening of understanding and a bridge beyond
the intellect to deep feelings that had previously been
unconscious.
Sunshines Family Investigation, Journaling,
and Listening to Classmates Family Presentations
Sunshine: I think it was a good experience in
that I had never really talked to my parents about their
childhoods. I mean we had talked a little about them,
but never really had gone into depth about them. It was
a good process in terms of me asking them questions
about their family life and childhood and getting them
to open a little bit more because they were closed about
disclosing their childhood experiences. They both had a
painful childhood in a lot of ways. So it was definitely
healing for me to talk to them and gave me insight into
what some of the patterns were.
It was really helpful for me in terms of getting
in touch with the unconscious. The journaling, really, is
like letting your unconscious take over. Theres space for
that. And theres something about the class that helps
to elicit it, I think. I never really journaled that much
outside of class. I never really got much out of it. The
space kind of allowed the unconscious to open. So I
think it is a great tool for getting in touch with your
unconscious. Hearing other people share is a great way
to build connections or intimacy. I saw sides of people
that I had never seen in other classes. And the family
presentations were really powerful tooI saw sides of
people I would never normally know about or see. [These
aspects] cannot really come out because there are some
norms or something. I dont really know what it is. Its
like a transpersonal thing.
The space is created for peoples whole self to come
forward, which I guess is what the transpersonal is. It is
a powerful approach because it does bridge the personal
family history with the transpersonal. Transpersonal is
not just focusing on your defects and pains and your
familys problems but it is holistic. I think it is a really
powerful approach.
Reflections on Sunshine. I was struck by
Sunshines words, The space is created for peoples
whole selves to come forward. This was something I
noticed as well, again and again, particularly during
students family presentations. I often noticed a sense of
students full presence and wholeness during their family
presentations and afterwards, when I observed students
relating to each other in class.
Sunshine reflected on the healing aspects of
talking to her parents about their childhoods, which
opened new conversations and avenues for exploration
and helped her understand family patterns. Many
students reported similar experiences.
She described helpful aspects of journaling
sessions in class, which particularly assisted her in
getting in touch with the unconscious. Sunshine said,
The journaling really is like letting your unconscious
takeover....The space kind of allowed the unconscious
to open. Some of the writing exercises I presented,
especially those developed by Ira Progoff (1992) and
Natalie Goldberg (1986), do have a quality of allowing
one to open to and listen to the unconscious. It was my
hope that journaling would also allow time and space for
integrating the information and insight that came from
the unconscious, as seen in Janes comments above.
Sunshine noted that the class atmosphere
allowed the unconscious to open. I believe this is
true. I believe the atmosphere of compassionate, nonjudging awareness of ones own words and of others
sharing fostered the openness. I further believe that the
presence of a group who are journaling together helps
everyone in the group move more deeply, just as a group
of meditators can support the depth of an individuals
meditation experiences.
Sunshine reflected on the community-building
aspects of ATFAFS: Hearing other people share is a great
way to build connections or intimacy. The opportunity
to hear classmates journal entries as well as family
presentations contributed to this sense of intimacy.
Marys Creative Expressive Prayer
and Genogram Work
Mary: One of the things I did was to make a
REALLY BIG CHART (genogram), and I lived with it
on my wall. So there was this corner I would slip into to
do my family work, and the three dimensionality of it
was important, the spatial aspect.
And lately what I have been doing is I have
been casting the faces of my family in plaster and then
Lazarus
and picking and finding and delving into. And its been
painful. Its been a really painful process. I got into some
of the Archives of Kentucky and found some of the court
hearings and where they would, a slave was trying to
run away, off a plantation, they would be caught and
sentenced to so many lashes, whippings. Reading this, the
pain and the torment, it sometimes feels overwhelming,
it feels a little much, and yet there is this push to keep
delving and trying to locate this information and trying
to make sense of it.
Im not quite sure what all this means, but its
been really important to share with the family. And
everyone wants me to bring home the big sheet that I
prepared for class, so I can hang it up. And everybody
wants to be on it. Its like we all want to find where we
are. Did you put this person in? Well yes, mom, of
course I put them in. Oh, we were hoping maybe we
could have a reunion when you come and everyone can
see this.
Theyre hoping that I have found some pieces of
information about my mothers grandparents, which has
been very difficult if you were African American. You
didnt go on a census; you went on as property. Its those
kinds of things, and peoples names changed. Oftentimes
you had to take the name of the family that owned you.
So its been that kind of holding thats been hard....I feel
a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. And I feel
this research is part of the big piece.
Reflections on Sweetness. Whereas Marys
family work drew her toward prayerful mask-making,
Sweetness was drawn deeply into family investigation. In
this transpersonal feminist approach to family systems,
students are encouraged to follow a particular direction
that has the most heart and meaning for them. Sweetness
found much benefit in her chosen direction. It brought
her closer to her family. She enjoyed sharing her work
with her father at every step of the way. In addition, her
family was interested in her ongoing exploration: And
everyone wants me to bring home the big sheet that I
prepared for class, so I can hang it up. And everybody
wants to be on it.
It also eased a burden she carried. Paradoxically,
though some of what Sweetness uncovered was extremely
painful (e.g., If you were African American you didnt
go on a census, you went on as property), she felt a sense
of lightening: I feel a weight has been lifted from my
shoulders. She attributed a part of this lifting to her
family work.
As I witnessed students of different cultures and
ethnicities share particular pieces of their family history,
I perceived greater possibilities for understanding,
empathy, and appreciation of differences. It was as if
we were each privileged to look through a very detailed
and private window of life and experience at times so
different, at times so similar, to our own. There was
something very powerful and illuminating about seeing
each person in the very deep context from which she or
he came. Several students reported that this process was
a start in the healing of past hurts that had happened in
their relationships.
Austins Somatic Response
to His Family Presentation: A Heart Opening
Austin: So it [my family presentation] was a very,
very touching experience. I didnt know how touching it
was, but I knew when I was asked how I was doing at
the end [of the presentation] I couldnt say. I didnt know
because I was so touched, too deep to really put a label or
name on what it was.
And then we did a Reichian experience [in my
next class]. We were lying on our backs and loosening
up the armoring in our bodies. I remember feeling a
ping in my left lung. I didnt know what it was. I just
remember feeling it go off, kind of like a small needle. I
went through the rest of the day. I did a drawing while
listening to class and it ended up being this drawing of
a person sitting cross-legged and having a swirl coming
out of the chest cavity. I did it completely unconsciously.
I wasnt paying attention to what my hands were doing
as I was listening to class.
Then I went home and came back the next day.
As I was pulling up to ITP a song came on the radio,
Elton Johns Candle in the Wind, the verse, youre
like the candle in the wind, youve been blown out
long before your legend ever did. At that instant my
grandmother on my moms side flashed into my mind
and I just saw so vividly my genogram and her children,
all my uncles and aunts and my mother and myself as
her lineage, and you know she was blown out so quickly
in the car accident. I just lost it.
I cried for the rest of the song. I had a little bit of
time so I was going to go in and meditate. I went into the
meditation room and my left lung started hurting again.
And so I did some concentration meditation on that area to
see what was going on. With every breath it started getting
worse and worse and finally I just stopped concentrating
on my breathing because it was hurting so much.
Lazarus
I thought I had a deflated lung and so I ended
up going to the hospital. The doctor said it wasnt a
deflated lung, that it was muscular, in between my ribs
up against my lung something had pulled, supposedly.
He was going to do an EKG on me because he thought I
was having heart problems. But after checking me out he
said he didnt think that was necessary because my heart
was sounding strong. I hadnt even thought about it
being over my heart. I just was thinking about my lung.
So that was the first indicator that maybe this
was heart related. Within two weeks I was back in Aikido
practicing and so that kind of ruled out strained muscles.
It didnt hurt after that. The only other time after that
was when I was listening to someone elses family
presentation, and I was being touched emotionally again.
So really for me that was an opening up of my heart to
my family and to myself and thats kind of my indicator.
When I feel that little ping I know, Oh, that must be
emotional. Something emotional is coming up.
I havent felt it in quite a while because I am
paying attention more now to my emotions. Its like when
Im not paying attention that it goes off. Its my indicator
light. It says, Pay attention to whats going on.
Reflections on Austin. Austin spoke to the
power of the experience of his presenting his family to
his classmates: I didnt know how touching it was, but
I knew when I was asked how I was doing at the end [of
the presentation], I couldnt say. I didnt know because
I was so touched, too deep to really put a label or name
on what it was.
The experience continued as Austin progressed
through his courses that day. A Reichian experience
in his next class focused on loosening body armor. He
reported feeling a ping and unconsciously completed
a spontaneous drawing of a person sitting cross legged
and having a swirl come out of his chest cavity. I am
reminded of Peter Levines approach to the healing
of trauma, which he has termed Somatic Experiencing
(Levine & Kline, 2007). Levine talked frequently about
the healing effects of the discharge of energy that has
been trapped in the nervous system after trauma. I
wondered if Austin was experiencing such a discharge of
energy, straight from his heart area.
Austins experience continued into the next day.
In response to a song on the radio, Austin reported, my
grandmother on my moms side flashed into my mind
and I just so vividly saw my genogram...and you know
she was blown out so quickly in the car accident. I just
Drawbacks
Four main themes of pitfalls or drawbacks
emerged from the data: possible hurts, class organization
issues, critiques regarding approach, and critiques
regarding the instructor.
Possible hurts. I discussed confidentiality issues
Table 2.
Students Perceived Drawbacks to
A Transpersonal Feminist Approach
to Family Systems
Possible hurts
Possible hurt from family members you contact/
are unable to contact
Possible cut off from important family relationships
Possible breach in confidentiality
Group not supportive
Possible physical repercussions
Process can be overwhelming
Not adequate support or container if someone has
a spiritual or psychological emergency
Process can take you to some very dark places
Unpleasant memories
Uncovering a family secret can create nervousness
in the family
Too much emotional processing for some without
enough balance of practical work in the world.
Class organization issues
Would prefer separating family systems and journaling
into two classes. More theory. More experiential
work. More time to present. More family systems
courses in curriculum for those who choose to go on.
Presentation time too rushed
Need more processing time
Would have liked a smaller class with more processing
time
Critiques regarding approach
Needs more information about the definition of a
transpersonal, feminist approach to family systems
Not easy to evaluate statistically
Lack of acceptance from the counseling world
Not enough emphasis on emotions/feelings
Takes a lot of time
Past oriented
Critiques regarding the instructor
April: My experience is that shes bringing back the
feminist side of her she had to push down in the
spiritual part of herself. In coming to terms with this,
I believe she is trying to integrate those pieces of
herself.
Mary to Irene: I question your relationship to your own
authority. Irenes own biases and blind spots
Lazarus
Table 3.
Students Perceived Benefits of
A Transpersonal Feminist Approach
to Family Systems
Healing
Healing/transforming of self
Nurturing the coming out of aspects of self not
yet been explored
Insight into self/self understanding
Seeing patterns
Broadening perspective/seeing people in context
Seeing self differently
Stronger sense of self
Creates an opening to the unconscious
Making the unconscious conscious
Emotional healing
Allows dropping of engrained defenses
Opening gates to emotional awareness and
expression
Being seen and accepted
Weight lifted from shoulders
Opening the heart
Healing the heart
Movement toward softer emotions (love, forgiveness)
Acceptance
Developing love and compassion
Access to forgiveness
Healing of important relationships
Being more fully ones authentic self in
important relationships
Process of forgiveness
Honoring people as they are
Holding all people in a loving way
Renewed appreciation for those who came
before
Appreciation for family members journeys
Insight into important others
Healing for other family members
Contributes to global healing
Empowerment
Finding voice
Strengthening voice
Discovering for one self rather from outside experts
Choosing ones own focus
Community building
Powerful
Lazarus
References
Lazarus
The Wheel of the Year is a name used to describe the cyclical progression of the seasons
through time and most often described as part of Pagan, Goddess, and womens spirituality
and/or Wiccan magical traditions. This article introduces the authors conceptual model
of the Wheel of the Year as an earth-based psychology for women, one that is inherently
feminist and also based in transpersonal psychologies. Women explore the turning points,
or holydays of the Wheel, on both spiritual and psychological levels through a wide range of
modalities that engage body, mind, emotion, and spirit. The Wheel provides an overarching
psychospiritual framework for recognizing, understanding, and responding to experiences
and processes that may occur over the course of a womans life.
Keywords: earth-based psychology, female development, womens spirituality, Wicca,
feminism, transpersonal psychologies, psychosynthesis.
International
Journal
of Transpersonal
Studies, 29(2), 2010,
pp. 137-151
Wheel
of the Year
as Spiritual
Psychology
International
Journal of Transpersonal Studies 137
Duckett
Duckett
Duckett
Duckett
Duckett
Duckett
Duckett
ECLIPSE
I
through frozen branches
the bright moon slowly darkens
must it be so?
dreaming across the ocean
as the moon and our last embrace
fade piecemeal:
even in Amsterdam
hearing her voice
I longed for Amsterdam
II
the sparrow alights
and the bare branch gives way
I am not resigned
losing both the friend
and the city I love
how dare she!
woke up this morning
mote in my eye
tearing and tearing
III
aap van n meid we called her
monkeyfacethis
no longer makes her laugh
should have kept up my Dutch
on the phone, first time ever,
too tired for English
shes doing it her way
full of grace and laughter
but now, less laughter
IV
and when youre gone
Ill refrain from what you call
my Jewish opera
no wailing, no
railing and rending of garments
but a true savoir faire
even the sweet moon herself
fades after all
utterly to black
For your sake, dearest,
Ill bow my head to it
these things happen
Judy Schavrien
Grahn
Dedication
study concerns itself with two matricides, Orestes
Much of this study was conceived during Spring
and Oedipus (the latter as the indirect cause of
of 2010, the time of the British Petroleum oil spill
h i s mothers
off the coast
suicide). On a
of Louisiana.
present-day col
The Furies are
l i sion c ou r se
said in Hesiods
w it h n at u re,
Theogony (ll 186the people of
7) to be daughters
the world risk
of Gaia, and are
our own kind of
often portrayed
matricide. Let
with the wings of
the Louisiana
birds. They bring
g u l l depic te d
on madness for
here serve as the
oaths foresworn
tutelary deity of
and the spilling
this study, stand
of kin blood. As
ing in metonymy
I watched with
for t he pre horror images from
Figure
1.
Laughing
gull
coated
in
heavy
oil
from
BP
spill,
June
4,
2010,
on
Olympian
the spill, pour
chthonic pan
ing through in East Grand Terre Island. (Wim McNamee/Getty Images News/Getty Images)
theonthe matristic network of the Furies, Gaia,
the day and revisiting in my dreams, I knew it
Demeter, Persephone, and moreand for the
was time to offer this homageto the Furies and
living beings of the planet.
to Gaia desecrated, in hopes of restoration. The
International
Journal and
of Transpersonal
pp. 153-179
The
Furies Demoted
Restored Studies, 29(2), 2010,
International
Journal of Transpersonal Studies 153
Schavrien
Literary Events
Dates
Written in 5th
century BCE
Written in 8th
century BCE
Historical Context
Myths refer to heroic figures (Orestes, Oedipus) in Founding
Times culture, 13th century BCE: Bronze Age
During 6th-5th century BCE: Golden Age
democracy solidifies
Athenian empire rises and falls
late 5th sees emergence and re-emergence of Mystery
cultsDemeter, Persephone, Dionysus: counters secular/
rational developments
Myths and pantheons have sources in pre-Bronze-Age and evolve
through 5th century BCE Golden Age. May be traced through
layers and eras:
Matrifocal religionVestiges from 15th century BCE
Minoan Crete and earlier, goddesses with a chthonic
emphasis, earth and underground; Hesiod later absorbs
them into his pantheon tales, acknowledging they created
the world
Patrifocal religion13th century BCE onward, Minoan/
Mycenaean syncretic religion forged by Indo-European
invaders; invaders absorb Minoan goddesses, and other
deities from East, to enhance the sky-congregating Olympian pantheon they bring with them into Greece; Olympians
divide up the world they conquered, but do not create it
Patrifocal religion extends into 5th centur BCE and
beyondIndo-European pantheon of Olympians, with contributions from Doric invaders (the latter disputed), jells
further during Homers 8th century BCE and carries over
into Golden Age writings of Aeschylus, Sophocles
Table 1. Chart of literary events with historical contexts, spanning Bronze Age through Golden Age
The Furies Demoted and Restored
Schavrien
Schavrien
Schavrien
BCE/1989, ll. 827-829, complete version; Greek, ll. 826828). All the appearances of rational persuasion pale
beside this veiled but decisive threat against them.
Beyond this, having set up a juried court,
Athena makes the rule that if the jury ties, she breaks the
tie. They do and she does. She explains her tie-breaking
vote in favor of Orestes as follows: I was born from Zeus
forehead and have no mother; except for marrying one,
Im all for the male. Therefore it matters less that Orestes
killed his mother than that he was taking vengeance on
his fathers behalf. I will vote for the male because that
is what I do.10
Apollo drives the nail home. He says: Further
more, the mother only nurses the seed; the real parent
of the child is the father alone. This purports to be
a presentation of the latest scientific certainties. It
establishes that the mother has no rights because the child
is not hers. In addition, he rebuts the Furies argument
that their job is to redress the violation of blood bond,
not marital bond. He pronounces that there must be
a primacy of the womans bond to her husband, the
marital bond, over her bond to the children (Aeschylus,
458 BCE/1989, ll. 657-671; Greek ll. 667-666).
The legal arguments are on the whole taking place
in abstraction: One might as well ask why Clytemnestra
should feel bound to Agamemnon, a man assigned to
her and not of her choosing, a man who, as myth had
it (though not one selected for The Oresteia), had killed
both her first husband and infant before claiming her
in marriage. Agamemnon is a husband who sacrificed
their virgin daughter, then went off to war for 10 years
at a time and returned with his war booty concubine
in tow. If one were to wonder what would attach her to
such a man more than to her child, one might end up
simply baffledunless one posited, as Freud (1924) did
with a scientific poker-face, that womans basic nature is
masochistic.
Apollos assertions ignore the fact that a woman
risks her life to give birth. Adding salt to the wound, he
maintains that the childs obligation, first and foremost
and without hesitation, should be to the father. Apollos
foundational argument for this is that the womb is no
generator, but a mere nursery; he purveys this notion as
if it were the latest incontrovertible scientific discovery.
In fact this argument, and its counter-arguments,
were a living controversy of the times, with different
philosophical and medical writers chiming in for or
against the mothers role in reproduction; at the heart
Schavrien
Schavrien
For instance, was the Peloponnesian War
necessary? As Thucydides portrayed in his best
approximation of deliberations between Corinthians
and their Spartan allies (411 BCE/1951, 3.36-50), the
Corinthians were arguing that the decision to make
war should not hang on minor Athenian provocations.
The decision should focus on the fact that Athenians
had become a people who gave neither themselves nor
anyone else any rest. Only from the outside could they
be stopped.
The question here of the Athenian character bears
centrally on my argument. I cite Thucydides and Sophocles
to demonstrate that the increasingly distorted notion and
embodiment of virility at the secular and sacred level, and
a deficit as well of a counterbalancing female perspective
and contribution, sent Athenians into a downward spiral.
They certainly did not appear to advantage in the dialogue
between their own envoy and the Melian rulers, as recreated by Thucydides (411 BCE/1951, 5.17). The rulers
of the little island of Melos were protesting as follows: You
never have had any claim on us; you cannot just barge in
and take us over; this would be unjust. The envoy replies
that justice plays no role whatsoever between a big power
and a little one; it barely plays a role between two big
powersonly when all other factors are equal. Melos must
surrender or be decimated. (There has been dispute about
how typical such a ruthless aftermath of conquest was
for the Athenians: Bettany Hughes [2010, pp. 223-224]
contended that the harsh treatment, either decimation
or enslavement of males, and enslavement of women and
children, was characteristic.) What is interesting about
the envoys argument is that it lacks the usual political
patina of respectability; it is bald-faced and brutal and
speaks to an Athenian realpolitik evolved, or devolved,
beyond all concern for appearance. This is reason taken
down to sheer calculation, without an ounce of alignment
with virtuevery much along the line of the most up-todate 5th century sophistic teachings, as glimpsed in, for
instance, Platos (380-360 BCE/2008) Republic.
It is important to view the breakdown in morals
as Thucydides (411 BCE/1951) examined it on Corcyra,
for he meant this breakdown to apply to what was
happening among Athenians as well. One can infer this
from reading the text as a whole. The reader will notice
that Thucydides himself gendered these developments.
His analysis portrayed virility gone wrong, associating
this also with the denigration of kinship ties (often
sanctified by the female divinities):
Schavrien
It offered a true archetypal grasp as does many
a late visionin this particular instance, it offered the
archetype of the hero in Oedipus and of the good leader in
Theseus. It also left in place the seemingly irreconcilable
threads in the fabric of life. In the Sophoclean vision,
there was Oedipus astounding precision and accuracy
in cursing his blood relations, who were nevertheless,
as he rightly guessed, planning treachery; there were on
the other side, the most intimate exchanges, with their
poignant details, between Oedipus and Antigone: Lean
your old body on my arm, says Antigone, it is I who love
you (Grene, 1954, ll. 200-201). Both the acerbic and the
tender gave naturalistic touches to the fairy tale, making
this, again, a peculiarly late vision, in which imagination
and daily reality mixed as almost equal partners. The
irreconcilables, expressed in Oedipus difficult character
and reflected in his terrible prior treatment at the hands
of the gods, intersected with a mood of sweet serenity
often found in late vision; Oedipus loving benevolence
toward his daughters and Theseus, and the great blessing
he bestowed on Athens, amplified a mystery attached to
the grove in which he died.
He died in the grove of the Furies, with
its nightingales that never stop singing, a grove as
timelessly beautiful as nature could ever be; he died
having seemingly outwitted a terrible outcome should
his trespassing have proven taboo, and having aligned
with the groves blessing instead. His alignment with the
Furies, and through this with the feminine. ushered in a
certain serene assurance for the Athens of the play.
The Athenians would identify: There were
strands in the play that put the imperiled Oedipus into
a parallel with the actual fin de sicle Athens; the latter
would die, soon after the play was written, as an empire.
As a city-state, when in 401 BCE the actual population
came to view the play, Athens would be enjoying a
momentary stabilization but would still suffer the threat
of an outburst from internal factionshaving recovered
its democracy after oligarchic takeover in 411 BCE and,
again, after the oligarchic installation by their conqueror,
in 404 BCE. Such parallels would surely have been
appreciated by those who sat to watch the Sophoclean
last testament.
In sum, as to the late vision of the play, personal
and cultural, it mixed the cantankerous with the serene:
It was not purely a serene vision, as some late visions are,
but did and does offer a potentially serene vision in which
to dwell, as one might dwell in the timeless grove; nor
Schavrien
A short and very selected version, of what
happens in the play is that Oedipus, old, blind from
his self-punishment, and in the midst of a long beggarly
exile relying on the guidance of his daughter, Antigone,
discovers himself in this mysterious setting. A local
citizen informs the pair that he may not stay where he
standsit endangers him and everyone; he stands in the
grove of those referred to as the Kindly Ones (for fear,
There is even an odd set of lines in a later
scene (odd as they are translated by Fitzgerald [1954],
though not by Grene [1991/1994]). The lines provide
provocative psychological insight. Fitzgerald (1954), as a
poet-translator, took telling liberties when he translated
this set of lines; they characterize the people of Athenian
Colonus, who honor the god of the sea, who loves forever
/ The feminine earth that bore him long ago (Sophocles,
441-406 BCE/1954, ll. 1070-1071; Greek ll. 1070-1073).
The rhythms suggest lovemaking: Note the waves-of-thesea rhythms, with accents on god, loves, and the ev
in forever, earth, long; the wave rhythms are also
the thrust rhythms of a graceful lovemaking. The poetry,
then, invokes the (not infrequent) incest among the oldest
gods, for whom the Mother pairing with son-consort is
standard, as are incestuous versions of the Poseidon/Earth
myth.15 (Sophocles used Rhea rather than Earth [Gaia]
as the goddess paired with Poseidon, but Rhea and Gaia
are often conflated). These lines juxtapose in a thoughtprovoking way with the drama at hand of purification
Schavrien
Finally, to home in on the political dimension:
Athens had certainly departed from its own charter
promises of respectful governance and compassion. The
extraordinary way in which the Erinyes were showcased,
however, and made beautiful while retaining their
potency, celebrating the fertile features of their grove
and surrounding land, accomplished the following: It
embedded the story in an intimacy with nature and a
gratitude for the land, offering antidote to the cynical
impiety and ambition of the times. There was, then, a
political significance to this grateful acknowledgement of
natural setting. The political seconded what was clearly
a personal significance as well. The play was a lovesong,
from a Sophocles facing his death, to Colonus, the land
of his birth. Personal and political motives dovetailed.
Although contemporary Westerners may owe
great cultural gratitude to Athenians for their questing
spirit, their actualized ambitions were just one side of a
double-edged sword: As the Corinthians warned their
hesitant Spartan allies, Athenians had to be stopped;
their ambition was unquenchable, as indicated by their
incessant imperial expansions. The contrasting drift of
Sophocles last play might be expressed in the words of a
Dorothy weary of Oz: Theres no place like home; theres
no place like home. Home was embedded in the dear
land and sea that gave host to Athens.
Finding Crete in Colonus:
The Significance of the Goddesses Lineage
or the purposes of this study, most crucial and
astonishing in Sophocles final play was the
reassertion of the sacred power and importance of the
Furies themselves. At the same time, there was the
reactivation of their chthonic Old Girls Network
that included most notably Demeter and Persephone,
central to the Eleusinian Mysteries and thereby to
Athenian well-being. But the Mysteries had demanded
utter secrecy from their many Athenian initiates; this
enabled the patriarchal Olympian pantheon to remain
in the limelight. The Athenian women were, in fact,
conducting many festivals dedicated to maintaining
fertility of land and womb throughout the seasonal
phases of the year (Zweig, 1993, p. 167). Still, given
the secrecy surrounding the Eleusinian Mysteries, this
relative invisibility bears on the feminist search for an
accurate and usable history (Gross, 1993, p. 19; cf. pp.
19-22). Sophocles offered some remedy by assembling
a myth that linked potential Athenian healing to a
foregrounding of the chthonic goddesses.
Schavrien
Most crucial are the gender modification and
rebalancing required, on the secular and divine levels.
Markatonatos (2007) framed matters without a gendered
reference. His insights, nevertheless, harmonize well with
my own view. He added that this play tutors Athenians
in returning to an old view that there can and should
be traits and tendencies such as moderation, decency,
and keeping ones word, even and especially in political
leaders. This rings a salutary change on Thucydides
(411 BCE/1951) description of virility gone wrong
(cf. 3.82-3.83). Theseus served, then, as a model for
the good leader. His mythical biography, interestingly
enough for the argument of this study, intersected him
with Minoan culture: Athenians, watching Oedipus at
Colonus, would have had Minoan Crete at some level in
their consciousness due to Theseus having encountered
Ariadne there. References then, to the various earthnetwork deities, the Furies, Demeter, and Persephone,
would have implied if not carried explicitly the long ago
and far away overtones, extending the temporal telescope
by yet another segment, from contemporary Athens to
its founding days, from founding days to the Minoan
pre-history of its chthonic deities (cf. n. 17).
To return to Athenian politics: In fact, the
democratic restoration (403 BCE), after an oligarchic
interlude, showed much more restraint than had the
previous administration; as if they were led by that
mythical exemplar of moderation, Theseus. Athens
herself managed to moderate, rebalance, and have her
own kind of continuity into the 3rd century BCE and
beyond. Perhaps Sophocles message, by way of the 401
BCE staging of the play, impressed itself on the citizens?
Perhaps he was simply prescient. In any case, Athens,
though dying as an empire, escaped death as a city-state
from fractiousness and faction.
Parallels with Contemporary Challenges:
Retrieving a Home
here was a crucial female component in the syncretic
pantheon of the 5th century BCE; the pantheon
remained part Olympian, as imported by invaders, and
part chthonic. At the same time, the earth-based and
underworld figures absorbed by the Olympian pantheon
were defamed, as were the Furies, or downplayed, as
were Demeter and Persephone. The defamation and
downplaying contributed to a faux virility which turned
citizen against citizen, husband against wife, son against
father. The chthonic pantheon subsumed by Olympians,
then, stood to benefit Athens through being both
There would be, in addition, a psychospiritual
benefit to executing such good intentions: When
Oedipus is finally a healer rather than a polluter, he is
simultaneously healing himself. How so? The man cut
off from the womb that first offered him a home, through
his unwitting matricide, now finds his home in a healed
city-state and in the earthy cosmos as a whole. Ancient
initiates into the Mysteries, and modern-day mystics,
the grounded kind, seek intimacy with the whole. Their
feet walk the ground not as strangers on the earth but as
those who belong. They have both retrieved and returned
to a home. They have assuaged a longing to recover
what might be called the primal intimacy. A mystics
belonging need not be characterized as the opiate of the
people, regression, or a lesser level of experiencing, as
Marx, Freud, or Wilber (1995; addressing the indigenous
brand) would have it. It may issue instead from a long
and arduous healing, entailing commitment to the wellbeing of the whole.
May my voice join the chorusgardener,
citizen, artist, scholar, scientist, legislatorof those who
promise the earth and its inhabitants both to cultivate
and retrieve the sanctity of such a home. It is a cosmic
home, so far and yet so near, to be discovered not only
at the furthest reach of imagination, but also as the dear
ground underfoot.
Schavrien
References
Aeschylus. (1903). Agamemnon (R. Fitzgerald, Trans.).
New York, NY: Macmillan. (Original work
presented 458 BCE).
Aeschylus. The Eumenides (1908). (A.W. Verrall, Trans.).
Cambridge, UK: University Press. (Original work
presented 458 BCE).
Aeschylus. (1953). Aeschylus I, Oresteia (R. Lattimore &
R. Fitzgerald, Trans.). Chicago, IL: University of
Chicago. (Original work presented 458 BCE).
Aeschylus. (1989). The Oresteia (D. Grene & W. D.
OFlaherty, Trans.). Chicago, IL: University of
Chicago. (Original work presented 458 BCE)
Aeschylus. (1981). The OresteiaA trilogy by Aeschylus
in a version by Tony Harrison (Tony Harrison,
Trans.). London, UK: Rex Collings. (Original work
presented 458 BCE)
Alcock, S., Cherry, J., & Eisner, J. (Eds.). (2001).
Pausanius: Travel and memory in Roman Greece.
Oxford, UK: University Press.
Schavrien
Zeitlin, F. (1990).
Playing the other: Theater,
theatricality, and the feminine in Greek drama. In
J. Winkler & F. Zeitlin (Eds.), Nothing to do with
Dionysos? Athenian drama in its social context (pp.
63-96). Princeton, NJ: University Press.
Zweig, B. (1993). The primal mind: Using Native
American models for the study of women in Ancient
Greece. In Rabinowitz, N. & Richlin, A. (Eds.)
Feminist theory and the classics (pp. 145-180). New
York, NY: Routledge.
Notes
Schavrien
A Reply to Capriles
John Abramson
Ulverston, UK
Abramson
A Reply to Capriles
Abramson
This unfolding of Wilbers explanation of the
importance of stage development which happens in
samsara, and which therefore implies samsara has an
importance beyond that Capriles ascribed to it (i.e.,
primarily to see through the relative into the absolute),
gives no hint of its denouement. Based on Wilbers
theory of Kosmic habits, Wilber, notably in his quarterly
dialogues with Andrew Cohen,2 asserted that the creative
potential in emptiness can be actualised by practitioners
being in touch with the ground of being (emptiness),
and interacting together to co-create with Spirit, novel
structures of consciousness that if repeated often enough
lay down in the Kosmos new stages of consciousness
stages that did not previously exist. Wilber and Cohen
assert this process as a process in samsara that has a
Kosmic purpose (i.e., co-creation of novel stages of
human consciousness), and that pursuing this is as
important as pursuing a path to spiritual Awakening:
The real key to this discussion, I think, is when you
understand that the only way you can permanently
and fully realize emptiness is if you transform,
evolve, or develop your vehicle in the world of form.
The vehicles that are going to realize emptiness
have to be up to the task. That means they have
to be developed; they have to be transformed and
aligned with spiritual realization. That means that
the transcendent and the immanent have to, in a
sense, flavor each other....The best of a nondual
or integral realization is that we have to basically
work on both [the world of time and the timeless].
We have to polish our capacity, in a sense, to fully
realize emptiness, moment to moment. But its the
emptiness of all forms arising moment to moment.
So we have to have a radical embrace of the world
of samsara as the vehicle and expression of nirvana
itself. (Cohen & Wilber, 2002 FIND PP at ITP)
A Reply to Capriles
While Capriles correctly pointed out that the
nirmanakaya, the sambhogakaya, and the dharmakaya
do not fit Wilbers model, it is interesting to note that
Wilbers definition of the Subtle and Causal levels provide
a possible explanation for this being so. For example, in
Capriles critique of Wilbers inclusion of nirmanakaya in
his psychic (i.e., lower subtle) level, Capriles implied that
while nirmanakaya may manifest in the gross level (which
Wilbers psychic level relates to), it is also of the nondual
level in the sense it is Buddhas body. Similarly this applies
to the sambhogakaya, and the dharmakaya. Cosmic
consciousness is another example of a spiritual state that
Wilber asserts to be in his psychic level, but does not, for
the same reason as above, appear to fit there. This can be
deduced from Daniels (2005, pp. 200-202) discussion of
its apparent misfit where he pointed out that, although
cosmic consciousness may manifest in the psychic level
in the sense that it relates only to gross phenomena
and not to the subtle or causal domains, it is otherwise
indistinguishable from One Taste or Ultimate
nondual consciousness which is of the nondual. Thus
Capriles objection to Wilbers ascribing nirmanakaya,
sambhogakaya, and dharmakaya to the psychic, subtle,
and causal realms respectively can be reframed as a critique
of the inherent limitations of Wilbers definition of these
levels. But equally, Wilber might claim that most of the
spiritual states that he asserts belong to these realms are
correctly placed because they do relate to his definitions of
those realms; in other words, the above examples appear
to be the limited exception.
Wilber further cited Gyatso to support his
Ascending/Descending model:
Another issue that Wilbers note 1 illuminates
concerns Capriles argument that Wilbers 10th nondual
fulcrum involves the subject-object duality. There is
insufficient space here to discuss the merits of Capriles
argument but Wilber is clear in his note 1 and elsewhere
in his writings that subject and object disappear in the
nondual. For example,
Abramson
References
A Reply to Capriles
Notes
1. But not historical eras. Although Wilber has agreed
that people of previous eras can advance to spiritual
states irrespective of their stage of development, he
has continued to posit (as in Up from Eden, 1981)
that some of the most advanced spiritual states
were not attained in previous eras. That is, the
most advanced state increased from psychic in the
magic era, through subtle and causal in succeeding
eras, and only reached nondual in the current era.
This is clearly completely at variance with Capriles
degenerative view of evolution. Capriles would
apparently maintain that true Awakening/nondual
states were potentially available, in any era, to
anyone, at any stage of development, following an
authentic spiritual path such as Dzogchen.
2. EnlightenNext magazine (previously named what is
enlightenment) has featured 25 dialogues between
Ken Wilber and Andrew Cohen since the series
commenced in the Spring/Summer 2002 issue.
4. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso has been a practitioner
and teacher of Mahayana and Tantric Buddhism
for over 30 years and is described in one of his
books as someone who is born in Tibet and
is a fully accomplished meditation master and
internationally renowned teacher of Buddhism.
Resident in the West since 1977, he is author of 21
highly acclaimed [Buddhist] booksHe has also
founded over 1200 Kadampa Meditation Centres
and groups throughout the world (Gyatso, 2010,
back cover).
About the Author
Abramson