Thou Art Goddess Thursday

Thanks to Grian/Lee for nudging me back into remembrance of this important day of the week.

The Upanishads contain a brilliant imagery of the transcendent/immanent nature of the soul:

Two birds are sitting in a tree. One eats of the sweet fruit and the bitter fruit. The other looks on, not eating, but observing it all.

That's in my own words of course. The two birds-of golden plumage, if I remember correctly-are ourselves. The tree is either the body or the world-cosmos in which we find ourselves right now.

The one eating of the bitter and sweet fruit represents our immanent selves-engaged in the world, dealing with it. The other is our 'higher' or transcendent Self, watching it all without engagement but missing nothing.

I have sometimes railed against the silly notion that this world is maya, nothing but illusion - and I will continue to do so, for this place we call home is real, solid, and bloody important. It's our Being and our Body, on many levels.

But also, I believe - and it's not often I use that B-word - that we have a component of our Selves -not always accessible to consciousness, and never accessible to some people at all - which is the supreme observer.Which stands outside of time and space, looking on, recording, learning.
It is for reason of this belief, partly, that I call myself an Integral Pagan.

I am thoroughly and emphatically engaged in this world. I love being incarnate, with all the pain and all the joy this brings.

But sometimes- in meditation, just before falling asleep, or on those rare occasions when I'm awake but actually engaging my intellect -I can feel the presence of that other, less-engaged part of my Self. That part which gazes with calm eyes at all the interesting, tragic and ultimately hilarious goings on of the Soul Below.

This Thou Art Goddess Thursday, I celebrate my Immanent Self. Rolling in the dirt of Gaia, worshipping it along with all my other earthly incarnates -you, and you, and you. I adore being among Us All.

But with that adoration comes a realisation that my Transcendent Self is still present, although disengaged-and that this Self will, in the end, be the part I query to make sense of it all.

In the words of the incomparable Sarah: "Grok Earth. Pray without ceasing" for Thou Art Goddess, Beloveds.