Last night, I attended Brian Swimme’s presentation at OISE. “Wow!” barely expresses it. He’s a mathematical cosmologist who’s totally in love with the universe. Swimme is vibrant, intelligent, witty, and engaging. “Inspiring” barely expresses it.
The opening chant — “Come, come, come, unity” — was simple and set the tone for the evening. Brian Swimme said that one of the reasons we humans exist is to fall in love with the universe, then he asked, “What does it take to fall in love?”, and proposed a two-step process (we chuckled):
- Identify and remove the obstacles, all of which are human-created. The biggest of these is thinking of the world as resource or as “stuff”.
- Spend time with your beloved, in this case Gaia in all her manifestations. Learn about that One which gave birth to us, spawned us. Move from resource to source, or from resource to relative.
He says that we’re not just in the Milky Way galaxy, but rather we have been invoked into life by it. This is creativity without hands. Powerful! The miracles of earth far outshine the miracles in any religious text. Lava becoming red monkey is far more miraculous than walking on water. The sun is always transforming itself into light. It’s on a course of irreversible giveaway, a cosmic generosity that inspires our own generosity. The role of the human is to have care and compassion beyond our own species. We are the universe in awe of itself.
Brian enhanced his talk with delicious images projected large onto the wall behind him. One of the most beautiful sights from my front-row vantage point was of Brian on stage, arms outstretched, haloed by an immense spiral galaxy. Wow!
The whole event awoke a sense of wonder in me. In the words of poet Drew Dellinger, “I want to write a love letter to the Milky Way”. As Carol Kilby of the Gaia Centre said, “Brian is an awe-freer.” Blessed be, sister!
Here’s a short tarot reading inspired by the evening:
- What obstacle prevents me from falling fully in love with the universe? STAR, reversed. My greed. My desire to be the recipient of good things no matter what. My inner belief that “it’s all mine”.
- How can I remove that obstacle? PAGE OF PENTACLES, upright. Dare to be out on the earth more often. Recommit to the body and to the soil and all its inhabitants. Dive into what’s physical and real.
- How can I best spend time with our beloved universe? 4 OF CUPS, reversed. Act as if it’s a deep, intimate love relationship. Act on dreams and intuitive promptings that the universe floats to me. Be Spirit made manifest on earth.
Greetings, James!
How wonderful and sychronistic to read about your experience with Brian Swimme. I was just this morning meditating on his beautiful words: “Everything in the universe radiates light. This radience is the primary language of the universe. … We find peace in our proper place in the universe. We are at home in magnificence.”
Thank you, too, for the wonderful card you sent after the Readers Studio. I hope some day to make it up to Toronto.
Be well,
Carolyn
Hi Carolyn,
Nice to see you hear! It’d be fantastic if you visited us in our fair city, especially at this glorious time of year.
My favourite phrase of Brian Swimme comes from The Universe Is a Green Dragon: “We are the place where the earth dreams itself.”
Hugs,
James
I knew immediately when I read about Brian Swimme in your inspiring post about him, that he would have something to do with integral consciousness – and when I looked him up at Wikipedia it says “director of the Center for the Story of the Universe at the California Institute of Integral Studies”.
Think I will look further into the work of him. I really love the integration of science and spirituality. Never understood why it had to be seperated.
Thanks for the inspiration, James.
Hi Kristine,
If you met Brian, you’d say that science and spirituality are one and the same. He’s part of the new paradigm that, in many circles I move in anyway, is modifying, changing, and in some cases replacing outworn religious thinking. He has videos on YouTube, btw. So do Matthew Fox, Starhawk, Joanna Macy, and many others who are engaged in helping us remember our love for the Cosmos.
Hi James — Thanks so much for pointing me to your blog, and for your reflections on the evening with Brian. I know it will be no surprise when I say the following morning was fully as energized and inspiring as the previous evening. For someone who has been unpacking this story and guiding others into it for several decades now, Brian’s continuing enthusiasm and ever-present awe are an inspiration.
For those who may not have yet read his materials, I highly recommend ‘The Universe is a Green Dragon’ (very accessible, and deceptively simple — it can be read again & again, discovering new layers every time), and ‘The Universe Story’ (co-authored with Thomas Berry). Both are marvelous reads.
All the best in your continued explorations, James.
Bob
Hi Bob-
I second your recommendation of those two books. They’re informative AND gorgeously written. May the story you unpack be that of your own divinity!
Cheers ‘n’ Blessings,
James
thanks for sharing this —- so, so helpful!
any chance you can say a little more on moving from ‘resource to relative?’
Gaia and all upon her are part of the interconnectedness of all of existence, not just a warehouse to build more “stuff” or a dumping ground for “stuff” that no longer makes us happy. So, there’s an invitation here to leave behind the notion that all that’s around us is a supply room or a sewer and to embrace the notion that all around us is related to us. The term used by many of the First People of this continent, “all our relations”, fits here.
thank you for the clarification — i was pretty sure that was where/what/how/why the word ‘relative’ was being
oh yeah – forgot this — a new guardian came to me recently in a dream —- a goofy green dragon named harvey