Celtic Cross, Book of Kells
"Behold, I make all things new!" (Revelations, 21:5)This is ecstatic speech, erupting from the vision of the living Cross, which is also the Cross-road of sincere spiritual paths, Eastern and Western, ancient and modern. This is
not systematic theology. I only utter what I see. Won't you enter the Cross-road with me?
The old Cross was a work of mediation: it was intermediate between God and Man. But the age of mediation is over. We settle for nothing less than the
immediate presence of God. The new Cross is a living intersection of God and humanity in the present moment.
The new Cross is never one moment old. The new Cross blossoms as Christ-consciousness in perpetual resurrection. Liquid gold, the new Cross is born from every atom of the blessed Mater, mother matter, radiance of Spirit from the sacred physiology of our bodies. All that we behold in stars and distant galaxies is reflected in our own electrons.
The center of the new Cross is
here, wherever we may be. On the horizontal of this Cross, past and future are crucified, giving birth to Now. On the vertical, spirit and matter unite. Heaven bows to earth as dust becomes God. Christ is here with us at the center, rooted in the earth yet touching the stars. He dies into each breath we breathe, pouring the Spirit into the core of our heart. And when we exhale, choosing to make our breath a prayer, we send that Spirit forth into nature.
As Jesus, Christ-consciousness appeared in history 2000 years ago. But as Spirit-Awareness, that divine Being wells up like a tear from inside us this very moment, flowing into the world through our senses. Each act of perception, offered in conscious wonder, incarnates God on earth. We meet Christ in a homeless woman's gaze, in the eye of a child, in a red berry on a naked twig, in the sound of a thrush on the still air of an Autumn morning. Why await his Second Coming? He never departed.
The four beams of the new Cross are not the old rugged beams of priesthood, dogma, judgment and war. The beams of the new Cross were described by the mystic poet, William Blake: "We are set on earth a little space to learn to bear the beams of love." The new Cross reaches out to every corner of the earth, embracing all whom Christianity once rejected.
The new Cross is unconditionally inclusive. One might object, "Is nothing condemned? Is there no judgment? " The answer is a resounding "Yes! There is condemnation. We condemn the violence of judgment itself." Are not the greatest crimes against humanity committed by those whose righteousness, whether political or religious, compels them to judge? Do they not imprison, torture, and make war in the name of Right? Do we ever hear such terrors committed in the name of Wrong? No, the most heinous acts of human violence are always committed in the name of Good: by the saved, the chosen, and the politically correct. But on the beams of the new Cross, judgment itself is crucified!
What are the four beams of this new Cross? To the left, the
Divine Feminine. To the right, the
Meeting of East and West. Below, the
Sacred Earth. Above, the
Winged Heart of Mystical Prayer. And at the center,
"Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Colossians 1:27)The Westward beam reaches toward the Great Mother, regaining the balance of masculine and feminine power in our culture. This beam reveals the Holy Trinity as a family: Father, Mother, Child. Through this beam of the Cross our Wiccan, African and Native American mothers suckle us with ancient Goddess wisdom. Through this beam, we find Spirit not above, but in the womb of matter. Matter is Mater.
The open-armed Cross welcomes all to participate in the divine dance of male and female energies. This is the dance of Christ and Sophia, Isis and Osirus, Attis and Cybele, Ishtar and Tamuz. But now the dance is heightened to a new self-awareness and a new responsibility. The marriage is not only an outward material wedding of man and woman, but an inner marriage of the masculine and feminine in each individual person. This Crossbeam bursts with blood-red buds of rose.
The Eastward beam points toward India, bearing twined opposites that blossom in words of reconciliation between East and West. Through this beam, with its vibrant ultra-violet buds, we honor civilizations that flourished long before there was ever a university in Paris or a government in Rome or a temple in Jerusalem. Through this beam we are bathed in a beacon of
metta, the compassion of Sakyamuni Buddha. We gaze into the countenance of Amidha Buddha to behold Christ's face, shining from the East. In the sparkling rays that dance from this beam of the Cross, Krishna plays. The breath of his flute is the living Word of creation vibrating over primal waters. When we follow this beam, we follow the path of Tao, for this also is the Way of Jesus.
Now what do we see in the vertical dimension of the new Cross? The beam that points downward, tangled with green vines, roots itself in sacred Matter, anointing the human senses. F0r it is through our enlighened senses that God delights in creation. This Crossbeam touches the earth and reveals it to be paradise. Earth is the only possible
eschaton, the goal of time already present. Earth is the sacral plexus of God's universal body. On this living trunk of Cross, twin petals of soul and body enfold one stamen, the Christic wand that heals a planet never again to be wasted. This pollen-covered Crossbeam is the human spine, sparkling axis of the cosmos in each body. For all of us, Cruciform, connect sky and earth.
The North-pointing beam of the new Cross is the path of mystical prayer. This beam radiates upward, and inward, into Wonder. This beam leads us beyond theology, into the nameless, boundless, primordial space of pure Being. For as it rises, this Crossbeam also points to the heart. The symbolic language of all scripture reveals that to climb up is to move within, the mountain top is the center, and ascending to heaven means entering deeper into the heart.
This Crossbeam is no sword of knowledge, but a ray of divine bewilderment which points beyond words. Tangled with golden blossoms, this ever-spiraling, widening path raptures us with delight. Through this wild path of love, we participate in Christ's yearning for Mary Magdalene, and the Magdalene's yearning for the Beloved. This love is an eternal current that ebbs and flows between longing and fulfillment. These waves of love move Winter to Spring and Summer to fall. For nature's cyclic journey is a reflection of the soul's inward pilgrimage to God. And whether we call this love-tide Radha-Krishna, Yahweh-Shekinah, or Christ-Mary makes no difference at all. We cannot let names suppress the actual experience of the living current of ineluctable delight that flows through love's winged heart.
At the end of this up-shining Crossbeam, Lover and Beloved meet in the bridal chamber. That mystical space transcends creation: yet it's entrance is the center of your heart. The doors of that secret bridal chamber are flung wide open. Yet no stairway of doctrine or dogma can come close to those doors. The radiance of the bridal chamber unlocks every gates from inside, rends the veil of all sanctuaries, and expels all patriarchal authorities who would parcel out or quantify the fullness of Union.
Follow this beam of mystical prayer. Enter the great simplicity of your heart, where faith sinks down in rhythmic waves of silence that give breath and beat to every mantra, wisdom breathes a peace that passes understanding, and God is the molten golden core of every electron in your body.
How long is the journey on this beam of mystical prayer, where to reach the outermost limit is to rest in the Center? It is but the length of a sigh, no further than the passage from the head to the heart. Breathe out and sink into Christ, your seed. Breathe in and blossom as "all in all."
(1 Corinthians 15:28)
