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Stewards of the Earth
While Earth Day is in April, there's something about Autumn that awakens our awareness of nature. Caring for the earth and the environment is an important teaching in many spiritual traditions.
Judaism/Christianity:
Genesis 1:26: Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth,[b] and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” (NRSV)
Islam
The Earth is green and beautiful, and Allah has appointed you his stewards over it. The whole earth has been created a place of worship, pure and clean. Whoever plants a tree and diligently looks after it until it matures and bears fruit is rewarded. If a Muslim plants a tree or sows a field and humans and beasts and birds eat from it, all of it is love on his part. - Hadith
Hinduism
The Earth is our mother and we are all her children. - Ancient Hindu teaching
TreeSisters is a worldwide nonprofit organization based in the UK. They recently partnered with The Shift Network to hold the Visionaries and Music Festival online. The goal of the festival was to plant one million trees. You can go to the festival website and check out the list of presenters and musical artists.
Starhawk's Reclaiming tradition of Witchcraft works toward sustainability through permaculture.
There are a plethora of books and studies about environmental responsibility from a Christian perspective. You can find a list of recommended books here.
If you're interested in donating to ethical environmental charities, here is a list of groups that do good work. This list also includes some good advice for decision making.
Have children or grandchildren? The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has guidance for teaching children about environmental issues.
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"Action without vision is chaos
vision without action is fantasy"
Michael Beckwith
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"Carpo, Goddess of Autumn"
Carpo is one of the Greek Goddesses called the Horae. There were four Horae of the seasons and twelve of the Hours of the day. Carpo was the Goddess of the Fruits of the Earth, a harvest goddess worshiped alongside Auxo and Hegemone; that is, Growth and Leadership. Carpo may have originated as an aspect of Demeter. According to Theoi.com, Auxo was once an aspect of Persephone and Hegemone was a title for Artemis.
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Submissions Requested
We would love to share your original article, poem,
affirmation, artwork,
or short story here!
Submit Here
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Visionaries with Action ~ The Beguine*
The Beguine community was a small group of women who, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, redefined what it meant to be “holy women.” Theologian Justo González wrote that some of these women were those who attempted to join the established “feminine branches” of the Franciscan and Dominican orders, but were turned away. Others may have been women who wished to live independently of masculine caretakers such as fathers, husbands or sons. Whatever their inspiration, these women gathered into small communal groups to live devotional lives in poverty and prayer. The Beguine movement lasted about 200 years and was the only women’s community solely controlled by women, yet they did not take vows nor become nuns. These women who styled their lives after the apostles could be considered predecessors of modern feminists. They ran schools and hospitals, took part in the economic life of their urban centers and attended local parish churches. The Beguine were eventually declared heretic.
In a time period which was clearly divided between clerical and secular as well as between male and female, these women created a place for themselves that defied accepted gender roles within the religious world. During the Middle Ages in Europe, sacred spaces were the sole property of males. Specifically, in the church, only priests were allowed to approach the altar and the area around it. Besides that, women were separated from men in choirs and north ends of churches. Even in the convent, a place inhabited by women, the sacristy where sacred items were stored was accessible only to the male priest.
The medieval construct of the church building, with its male-only sacred space was also intended to keep Christ on the men’s side of the boundary between men and women – at the altar. However, the Beguine holy women would find themselves enraptured during public worship, speaking of visions before all who knelt with them at Eucharist or during the sermon. During these visions, they were privy to the most sacred space of all – heaven itself. In this way, according to Mary Suydam, Christ would leave the altar and make the Beguine women conduits of heaven even as they inhabited their traditional feminine space.
Most Beguine holy women did not write about their experiences; rather their visions were captured by those who wrote their vitae, or life stories. Some, however, did write their visions down. In doing so, they turned literary convention upside down, for they utilized the language of courtly love. This literary technique arose out of the codifying of social decorum for the courtier, or educator/statesman of the medieval court. Though these educated members of the court were clerics and often had religious duties, their service was first to the king, not to God. As such, the “poetics of conduct” was not the language of religion. The use of this language by the Beguine holy women to describe their love for Christ was a radical inversion of its original purpose.
One Beguine mystic whose work is known was Hadjewich, who one writer has dubbed a “love mystic.” She was one of the earliest writers in the Dutch language, hailing from Antwerp in the 13th century. She crafted her descriptions of her visions and her love for Jesus in physical language that can be quite jarring if one’s expectation of things mystical leans more ethereal. Yet, from its earthy foundation, Hadjewich’s poetry can set the soul a-flight. Following is her Stanzic Poem V:
The noble heart must not be sad,
But ready to suffer for Love’s sake.
It must know and experience all:
Sweetness and cruelty,
Joy and pain,
All that belongs to the service of Love.
The proud souls who have advanced so far
That they can bear loving without satisfaction,
Must be in everything
Both strong and courageous,
The consolation or affliction
That Love deals out to them.
The ways of Love are strange,
As those who have followed them well know,
For, unexpectedly, She withdraws Her consolation.
He whom love touches
Can enjoy no stability
And he will taste
Many a nameless hour.
Though the Beguine were often mystics, like Hadjewich of Antwerp and Mechthild of Magdeburg, at the heart of the Beguine movement was service to the community outside the walls and restrictions of any monastic rule. They were lay women who often lived alone and served alone, though some in more populated areas chose to live together and support one another in their service and emulation of Jesus. They were strong, independent women whose dedication to service and to their spirituality was worthy of admiration.
*Much of this article was excerpted from a paper entitled, "Jesus, Lover of My Soul: Christ as the Beloved and the Masculine Ideal in the Beguine Writings" by Suzanne Jacobson, 2009
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This is at least the second issue of Brigid's Arrow to be late this year. Obviously, the goal is to have the issue arrive in your email sometime in the middle of the current month. Unfortunately, my work schedule and appointments have conspired to intervene in my best laid plans! Earlier this year I wrote about finding the rhythm of life. This is still something I'm working on; in spite of being a year into semi-retirement, I am not used to the rhythm of working part time. Perhaps there is a kind of melody to the rhythm of this work and the syncopation of interruptions. After all, this is an issue about Autumn, and you are receiving it just as the cool winds of the season have blown into the Phoenix area.
Along with Mabon this year I noticed an interesting resurgence of spiritual attention among my friends and associates. It's as if as the Wheel of the Year turns toward the liminal time of All Saints/Samhain, God calls us closer to our awakening. There has particularly been a renewed interest in the Divine Feminine. Perhaps this is a topic to be addressed in liturgy and discussion when we meet again in person.
Second Sunday in the Park is scheduled to return on November 14 at 11 a.m. The location is still Skyline Park at 655 S. Crismon Road in Mesa. Once we've started back up, we can discuss the possibility of finding a new location that is more central to those who want to attend. I am looking forward to that day. In the meantime, I'll be jumping right into the October issue of this newsletter!
Until then, go forth and " be excellent to each other!" Have a wonderful month!
Bright Blessings,
Rev. Suzy Cherry, Parish Priest/ess
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Brigid's Hearth is an outreach project of Brigid in the Desert UAIC. We seek to meet the needs of the poor and working poor who receive assistance from food banks and crisis organizations. While food banks are able to provide food staples to those who struggle to make ends meet, there are a number of items that are often forgotten. At Brigid's Hearth, we collect these items and provide them to local non-profit organizations for distribution. If you live far from the Phoenix area, please donate to organizations in your area. we do not seek any special recognition from the organizations; however, we would like to keep track of donations on behalf of Brigid. Please send a list of items donated to Pastor Suzy at the email below. To see what we collect and how to donate, click on the picture to the right.
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Statement of Ministry
Brigid in the Desert has its roots in progressive, inclusive Christianity. Into that, we bring complementary teachings and practices from other traditions. In this way, we seek to learn the teachings that bring us together across traditions while continuing to honor the rights of others to practice and believe in their own way.
We acknowledge the value of respectful and compassionate ecumenical, interspiritual, interfaith, and multicultural dialogue, and seek to live our lives according to the spark of the Divine within ourselves.
As a resource for Life Event Celebrations, Brigid in the Desert offers services to those who are spiritual as well as those who are not, because in our own spirituality, we recognize the value of each and every person on this earth. We value the lives of all sentient beings, and honor them as they are in this world. This includes the LGBTQIA, Autistic, and other Neuro-Divergent communities.
We invite you to join us in our online discussion on Facebook. If you prefer, you are welcome to simply follow along at one of the links below.
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