As I was exploring the spirituality/religion connection, I came across a buried nugget--Charles Darwin’s Theory II. The part of his theory that got traction in patriarchy was, of course, human evolution occurring through the survival of the fittest, the masculine principle aspect of his theorizing. Interestingly enough, at the same time of “Survival of the Fittest” Charles Darwin put forward his “Heart/Mind Connection” theory, but it didn’t get the same attention. He did have a balanced view included a feminine principle theory that postulated that evolution would not take place unless there is a Heart/Mind connection made in humanity along with survival of the fittest. Darwin felt that Compassion is the second human evolution principle of equal importance to the Survival of the Fittest principle. (I can just hear his editor saying, let’s just skip Part II for now!)
We are now in a critical stage to bring Charles Darwin Theory Part II forward with alacrity and force! When “Compassion is King,” sympathy will rise up through natural selection causing those communities that include the greatest number of the most sympathetic members to flourish and rear the greatest number of off-spring. Both Survival of the Fittest, Competition AND the Heart/Mind connection (Compassion), are rooted in the brain. Some individuals have it more consciously than others, but all humans have the potential for it. (Remember both/and?) Both are innate and essential to develop for evolution to proceed.
“You know, your way of showing compassion might look different from another’s personal expression of it. For example, you might want to protect people rather than cuddle up with them. People are inherently compassionate from the get go. Some just haven’t developed it or the culture/family haven’t encouraged it.” (Charter for Compassion.org.)
Compassion has the effect of improving our health by increasing our connection with others. One study showed that a lack of social connection is a greater detriment to health than obesity, smoking and high blood pressure. In addition, strong social connection leads to a 50% increased chance of longevity. “Social connection strengthens our immune system, helps us recover from disease faster and may even lengthen our life.” (Seppala, Charter for Compassion.org.).
It would be a revolutionary idea under patriarchy if we activated this feminine energy principle of evolution and figured out ways to teach compassion to everyone, thereby activating that innate survival impulse in a way that makes this natural, healthy, happy state much more accessible to all. I know that Mindfulness Meditation and Practice has that intent and Garner’s Multiple Intelligences includes Compassion or sensitivity intelligence as one of ten intelligences that are in potential within human beings.
There is a biological basis for the development of the Heart/Mind Connection that Joseph Chilton Pearce writes so clearly about in “How the Heart Can Teach the Mind New Ways to Think,” as explained in his book, The Heart/Mind Matrix. He also recommends two other books by Robert Sardello: Love and The World and Silence: The Myster of Wholeness as well as The Heart Math Solution by Childre and Martin for those who might like to explore this subject more fully. The following is a quote from The Heart/Mind Matrix that gives a nutshell explanation of the implications for Darwin’s Part II (feminine principle) Theory:
“The heart provides the balancing intelligence to the brain’s calculating intellect, an innate system of emotional-mental coherence lost generations ago through a breakdown of the nurturing culture of our ancestors. By severing ourselves from our heart intelligence, we are left with our selfish survival-oriented reptilian brains….leading to our modern world’s endless cycle of self-inflicted disasters and societal crises….in order to break these cycles and transcend a life focused solely on the results of our own reactive patterns, we must reconnect with the compassionate intelligence of the heart.”
Marghanita Laski, a philosopher and writer known as Eureka, presented another “found” feminine principle, the theory of Insight. She describes it as: “the discovery or insight occurring continually in science, philosophy, the arts, spiritual paths and other realms of human experience.” (Pearce, p. 35). Has anyone ever (besides Oprah) had an Aha! Moment? It is the simple form of the bigger Eureka! I believe.
The following five steps demonstrate the pattern of the Eureka! function as described by Laski:
Step 1 - Asking a Question. We are first seized by a passionate question or quest of such intensity that it overrides all other issues or considerations and becomes our focus and principal concern. The nature of this quest is immaterial. Laski’s formula is as applicable to an American Indian vision quest as it is to modern science, art, spirituality or creativity in general.” (Pearce, p. 37.) I will use an experience in my own life to illustrate these steps.
When I was about 30, I started researching the Feminine Principle within Christianity and my question for years was, “What happened to the feminine principle at the arrival of Christianity?” I subsequently had an enigmatic dream in which a giant fish with its giant fin sticking out of the back of a large wooden cart was being pulled away by a horse. In the background, a loud voice called, “Take it away!” I mulled over the dream and came to the conclusion that I should pursue a path of inquiry that was an alternative to the traditional story of Pauline Christianity. This dream was a Eureka! It gave me a push to pursue an alternative, underground path within Christianity which has since become a life-long quest.
The primary symbol for this alternative search was the Black Madonna and her mysterious meaning. It became a complex, many-layered story that I felt compelled to uncover because it was key to my understanding of what happened to the Feminine Principle within Christianity.
Step 2 - Gathering Materials for the Answer. This is a passionate commitment--a focused search for an answer to one’s question that is pursued consciously and deliberately, as well as unconsciously and automatically. I became a dedicated learner and observer, always looking for the hidden clues and hints in the environment surrounding me wherever I was. I was supported by several others who also chose to join the quest. I proceeded to read voraciously and follow every avenue of discovery I could find related to my question. This involved a great deal of travel and experiences which an intrepid friend and I were determined to pursue in an experiential learning way that we hoped would lead us to the discovery of the true meaning of the Black Madonna.
Step 3 - Hitting a Plateau. In this step one feels as though they have exhausted all the possibilities without exactly fitting together all of the pieces of the puzzle. This feeling arrived frequently but then another possibility would reveal itself. Another trip? Yes! It also took a great deal of reading of mostly alternative sources starting with the book, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, written by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln in 1982. In truth, I remember these plateaus less well than I remember the Eureka! moments but I know they were there because this quest took over 20 years and I am still not finished!
Step 4 - Dark Preceding Dawn. This quest, as previously mentioned, enriched many years of my life with the help of several friends who assisted in the “pulling out the threads of the alternative story of Christianity.” Author Richard Smoley writes about these threads in his books, Inner Christianity and Hidden Wisdom. I discovered that the alternative story was always there to be found, but that it had been buried beneath many layers of suppression, duplicity, deception and destruction. It was not found in any traditionally-written history of Christianity.
Along my path, I followed the threads of Gnosticism, the Knights Templar, the Black Madonna and the Cistercians who were led by Bernard of Clairvaux. This whole process has felt like “grace or a gift”, which is emblematic of a Eureka! or Aha! moment either large or small. The answers that came over time arrived mostly from the right brain, the place of intuition, “the vehicle of perceiving novel information and stimuli for which we have no previously formed structures of knowledge.” That was me when I began this quest--a blank slate of receptivity. Laski postulates that the logical, left brain thinking (masculine principle) must be idle or on hold to receive a (feminine principle) Eureka! or Aha! moment.
I often get what I call mini Aha!s or intuitive hits in the shower or when I get into a daydream state going through my day. This frequently happens in nature or with the arrival of synchronistic events. I call it my “fallow mind time.” My friend and neighbor told me that she gets Aha!s often while riding her bike which puts her into what she calls a “fugue” state.
Step 5 - Translating the Answer. The times I was most successful in doing this was on experiential trips searching for the Black Madonnas in France. My first Eureka! took place in a cliffside cave attributed to Mary Magdalene in St. Baume, France. After viewing many traditional statue renditions of Mary Magdalene, I came across a simple, large pottery urn sitting on the floor “hidden” next to an altar. I was immediately drawn to it and holding on to its edges, I unexpectedly burst into tears over it. My feeling state was a profound sense of loss. I just let the feelings come while they were witnessed by a fellow traveler. Much later, my left brain was able to untangle the message from the cave. I was weeping for the deep loss to women (and men) of the Feminine Principle which was symbolized by Mary Magdalene. To my right brain, she was represented by that simple urn, not by all the complicated statuary, patriarchal overlay statuary. For a very long time she was labeled a prostitute which is as far from the truth as it can be. She was an apostle and equal partner of Jesus. I came out of the cave feeling as though I had released a heavy emotional burden and a picture taken of me at the time was one of lightness and delight.
Another time, as we continued our quest for hidden Black Madonnas, I was daydreaming on the tour bus and I silently asked how I should be looking for her. The words that came to my silent, receptive mind were “look under and behind.” The most Eureka! like moment that came using those words was when my friend and I visited the tomb of Louis XI which contained a Black Madonna. We went searching in the church where the tomb was located. The Black Madonna, as often is the case, was not easy to find. In one of the small rooms we looked behind a very large lectern that had been placed in front of an altar. This piqued our curiosity. Pushing aside the lectern, we found a large, raised frieze of Jesus with his arm around Mary Magdalene, with her head on his shoulder in a very loving embrace. All of our “finds” such as this became part of a much larger story symbolized by the Black Madonna that has come together over time, piece by piece.
I really had no idea that this story would come out in this blog post, but it did. I am very grateful and I have learned to assiduously follow intuitive prompts that just “arrive.” This was a trip filled with many small and large synchronicities and Eureka! moments. It is currently in the forefront of my mind because I have recently gone through my journal and pictures of that trip. In addition, out of the blue I received a phone call from my brother and sister-in-law (who is the co-creator of this blog). They wanted to tell me about a program they had been watching on St. Maxim, St. Baume and Mary Magdalene. I have also learned to pay attention to “out of the blue” moments. Synchronicities are everywhere if we “tune in.”
I will soon be getting together with my traveling friend and we will continue the story of our trip in more detail in the next blog post. I will have the collaborative help of another seeker. Namaste