Carmel Reflections

30 - Are we human or are we dancer?-Mechtilde of Magdeburg

We are all made of stardust. It is not a wafty gentle twinkly thing. We come from the vast tumultuous explosions of the Milky Way and beyond, from the forming of solar systems and planets, and the massive volcanic processes of the making of earth leading to our own recent evolution. We all share the elements of deep space.

On Ash Wednesday ash is crumbled onto our forehead:

'Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you will return.'

It is so profound, so simple and so humbling sometimes I almost miss its meaning. Or miss the rest, the unsaid: that we are dust, but not that we are only dust.

I grew up where rivers ran red, and the pebbles were of iron ore and hematite, one of the only gem stones that's magnetic due to its iron content, which makes the streams flow red like blood. My land. My blood.

They say hematite brings higher energies down to the root, helps to bring the dreaming down to earth to enable practical action; in Carmel terms to clear a path down from the mountain top for the deer. We cannot stay on mountaintops forever. We cannot only gaze at stars, we need at some point and in some way, to follow. 

The wise men followed their star, an unspeakably beautiful meeting of the elements and the spirit, a demonstration in great scale of the harmony of heart and space, through safety and through danger, because reverence must be expressed.

We will find what we need around us to live in reverance. That is the open secret of creation. 

Soon I will live near the Whinn Sill, the volcanic fault line whose history reaches all the way back to the formation of the earth, from the time of Pangea, running underneath the ocean through the lost land of Atlantia. I'll move from hematite to Peridot. Olivine. Sea green. Volcanic. Produced on basalt, where magma from the earth's core explodes out, as on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, and the mystical and fantastical Giant's Causeway at the fault's western end in Ireland.

Peridot is said to be in the book of Revelation as a foundation for one of the twelve walls named after each apostle. It is really one of the invisibles, which feels right to me, considering its deep deep origin. It stands for love, truth, faithfulness and loyalty, fame, dignity, and protection. For me, it is a reminder of the massive force of creation, the energy of being, the tininess of self and the majesty of the dance.

I can't dance, Lord, unless you lead me.

If you want me to leap wild as the deer,

You must intone the song.

I'll leap into love,

From love into knowledge,

From knowledge to deep joy,

And from joy to beyond all human sensations.

That's where I want to stay, but yearning to circle higher still. 

(Mechtilde of Magdeburgh) 

I had never read Mechtilde of Magdeburg's poetry until this week. It's been a beautiful find, like a pebble on the shore. Such a gift. 

In the thirteenth century, the convents got overfull, and turned women away. So many were left single as men died in huge numbers in the wars. An opportunity and a necessity emerged for women to find new ways. Mechtilde moved down from the castle end of town to join the independent poverty movement. 

Beguines sometimes built towns, organising simple co-location, like the hermits on mount Carmel, or managed and protected spaces, where they worked as mendicants in a spirit of prayer. Beguines were not nuns though. They had no vow, and could leave and marry, or join with their children. The key feature, it seems to me now, was their independance from men, including priests.

Mechtilde chose not to be a nun then. She sang of earthly and heavenly love. Mechtilde's homely approach to the love of God produced songs of courtly love with bridal mysticism in a new poetic form. She was  also the first mystic to write in German, using the local dialect, which was interesting. She had to create the language to share a spiritual conversation. Some passages describing visions of hell  are so dramatic in The Flowing Light of Divinity, they are thought to have influenced Dante's Divine Comedy. Some people even think she was included as his character Matilda. Mechtilde deserves much greater recognition. 

Using a German dialect could only keep her out of danger for a while though, her work being so vivid and effective. Her criticism of the church and her 'claims to theological understanding' caused such trouble for her she had to take refuge with the Cistercians at the end of her life. She completed the seventh and final book under their protection, in her sixties, going blind. 

Mechtilde is a magnificent woman who moved through dramatic changes in earthly fortunes holding onto faith. We all face change, and challenge. And the transformation of ourselves as we age. Mechtilde would have been here with us on Wattpad, adapting to a changing world, reaching out to us in poetry and song. I suppose she would have been on YouTube.

So here am I, moving home again. I have let go of hematite, and taken up peridot. I must embrase this change. 

You can hold the stone vibrating still from the creation of the earth, but you can't hold onto moments in life, the leap, or the dance. 

You can't freeze the frame. You can't stop the world and get off.

You just have to hold fast to right intent, and live.

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(1) http://www.physics.org/article-questions.asp?id=52

(2) Poem 'I can't dance,' Mechtilde of Magdeburgh, 1207-1202, from: The flowing light of the Godhead ; translated and introduced by Frank Tobin (The classics of Western spirituality; #92). New York: Paulist Press, 1998 taken from "Other Women's Voices". Translation adapted to my own version.

(3) Are we human - fascinating insight https://www.quora.com/What-is-meant-by-the-lyrics-%E2%80%9CAre-we-human-or-are-we-dancer-%E2%80%9D-in-the-song-%E2%80%9CHuman%E2%80%9D-by-The-Killers 

http://www.catholic-saints.info/catholic-symbols/symbolism-precious-stones.htm