Dear Contemplative Friends,
This has been a year of momentous change and uncertainty!
Here at The Contemplative Society, we have been prayerfully discerning our future path through the challenges and opportunities during this tumultuous time. The Board has made some difficult decisions to reduce administrative costs and bring expenses into alignment with income…..
In Eye of the Heart, Cynthia Bourgeault investigates the imaginal realm–an energetic realm well known to the mystical traditions but often forgotten in our own times. It is invisible to the physical eye, but clearly perceptible through the eye of the heart. The imaginal realm has long been associated with the personal world of dreams, prophecy, and oracles, and it also points toward a higher vision of our human purpose that is both evolutionary and collective…
MARY-CLARE CARDER is a piano teacher by profession with a
BMus from the University of Victoria. She is a lifelong
Anglican and has participated in dozens of silent retreats and
contemplative workshops over the last 30 years. She has led
several contemplative workshops and quiet days.
My journey with the teacher named ‘covid’ began with odd symptoms that I did not connect and so for a couple of days worsened until the telltale cough put the lights on and my doctor sent me for a test… In my Centering Prayer sit that day I decide to explore the fear. Is it fear of dying, fear of illness, fear of dealing with this living alone? Going deeper I think of wisdom school teachings around kenotic release and that we practice this ‘letting go’ and I find myself doing the physical hand gesture.
The day before Islam’s holiest month Ramadan was set to begin, I received an email from The Contemplative Society. I was logistically and mentally preparing for my fourth decidedly non-traditional foray into this time of fasting and spiritual recommitment. While I am not Muslim myself, I occasionally take advantage of the opportunity to participate in […]
Posted on Facebook April 14, 2020 Going Forward…. For the past four weeks, as many of you know, I have been hanging out here on the edge of the known universe on Eagle Island, taking the time to renew my flagging hermit skills. What little technology I have access to on my two-panel, four-battery solar […]
This meditation on the Stations of the Cross during the Pandemic has been provided by Rev. Dawne Taylor of Kamloops, British Columbia. We thank her for allowing us to share this beautiful teaching. She suggests this Good Friday service at Kamloops United Church. GOOD FRIDAY STATIONS OF THE CROSS In the Roman Catholic traditions, churches […]
Letter from Cynthia Bourgeault: I am very grateful to Joseph Azize for his willingness to make five of the Gurdjieff exercises available to us within the cyber confines of our Wisdom School Community. These exercises are powerful tools of healing, cleansing, and clarity, and even when practiced individually or in small groups, they have […]
(Posted by Cynthia Bourgeault on Facebook, March 24, 2020.) As I expected, I am receiving plenty of raised cyber-eyebrows about my instruction 3 in yesterday’s posting, to “radically decrease or discontinue altogether your use of internet technology to support social distancing.” Please don’t jump to the conclusion that I am calling for an immediate […]