zoofence.com

This movie is about a child that learns about believing in more than we can see. He is reading a book in which as he seems to become a character in the story and very much envolved in the unfolding of the story The more he reads the more disbelief he has. He can't imagine that what is happening can have so much to do with him. But it does. All the way back to creation, the
Beginning. Where he has a choice to make. The two realities then mesh. And pretty much what he has done-- is that the story he was reading becomes a part of the world he already lives in. This world.
Anyhow, this is one of the movies, for kids, that I enjoy.
So many times I feel as though I just missed a connection. Knowing the
forest is there, but I cannot see it because of the trees. Whoever coined that phrase possessed wisdom.

Another thought---
I have a magnet on my fridge. It is of Mary the mother of Jesus. Now one of the children in our family first saw it about 10 years ago. He brought it to show me. And very matter of factly explained to me that it was his mother. He was three. A couple of years ago another three year old looked at it and informed me of the same fact. Now yesterday, the youngest family member, came to me while I was knitting, with the magnet in his hand, and asked,you guessed it, "why I had a picture of his mother on the fridge?"
Apparently these little ones remember something we don't. I can't quite get my sense of what it is other than the image is of a universal Mother.
That must be my own stubborn disbelief.

Help me out with your thoughts on this.

Christine

Christine,

When my daughter was four or five she did something similar to your children. She was talking in her sleep one night and crying out. I came to her and said, Mattie it's mom, I'm right here. She said, No! I want my real mom.

I was befuddled by this.

I told her the next day what she had said and asked her what she meant by her real mom. She said, Oh, YOU KNOW! Mother Nature.

Perhaps the Catholic image of Mary, and the images we hold in our own heads of Jesus, and of angels ... and even the image of Lucifer ... are one and all archetypes of something we knew, but have forgotten. Perhaps, even, chosen for the moment to forget. A Course in Miracles thinks so, and I tend to agree.

There is another story, related to the ones already posted. A new baby had arrived in the family, and was sleeping in a crib with a baby monitor nearby so the parents downstairs could hear any noises in the baby's room. Late in the evening they heard the door open, and the pad of small feet crossing the room -- the feet of their 2-year-old daughter. And then they heard the small 2-year-old voice say, "Tell me about God. I'm, starting to forget."

I don't know if that story is history or parable, but it could be history: my own son said things that indicated he remembered something he could not have experienced in "this" life.

For Catholics, Mary invokes memories of the Ancient Mother. I think for Pentecostals, and evangelicals, the Holy Spirit is the Mother image. And the resurgence of Wicca as a religion in the west shows the hunger of the human spirit for a Mother image, be it Mother Diana or Mother Kali. Perhaps that is the original intent of the concept of the Trinity: Father, Mother, Son.

Just my opinion, not the "word of an expert."

Art

In Hinduism, God without attributes -- the Supreme Non-Dual Absolute (was it not Alan Watts who put it, "that than which there is no other") -- is Brahman. Brahman with attributes -- that is, the Non-Dual Absolute as the dual, personal God of the world -- is Ishvara. But even in Hinduism these two are known to be One and the same One. Here, some may argue (indeed, some have argued) that Hinduism (among other religions and traditions) is polytheistic, and therefore anathema to monotheistic religions. It is true that Hinduism (among other religions and traditions) has many names and personalities and manifestations for God, but all of that multiplicity is there only because we need it, not because it is True.

Just so, even so-called monotheistic religions have their saints and martyrs and other representations, who – among other purposes and functions – help to fill the normal, natural human need for a personal, sometimes feminine touch.

Speaking for myself alone, it is clear beyond doubt – as I have written repeatedly across TZF – that there is no God but God and God is all there is. That said, as too I have written across TZF, I continue to want my Mother! I cannot imagine God, I do not want to imagine God, without the attributes of Motherhood.

Now, before the Freudians among us leap to make the case that I am clearly suffering from a basketful of psychoses, let me say simply, Yea, probably.

But I take comfort in (1) the reality that it works for me and (2) the awareness that I am in good company, including among many others –

Julian of Norwich: As truly as God is our Father, so truly is God our Mother.

Sri Ramakrishna: The primordial power is ever at play. She is creating, preserving, and destroying in play, as it were. This Power is called Kali. (Kali is female) Kali is verily Brahman, (Brahman is male) and Brahman is verily Kali. It is one and the same Reality. When we think of It as inactive, that is to say, not engaged in acts of creation, preservation, and destruction, then we call it Brahman. But when It engages in these activities, then we call It Kali or Sakti. (Sakti too is female) The Reality is one and the same; the difference is in name and form.

I find it remarkable how closely Ramakrishna's observations compare with those of the so-called "Athanasian Creed:"

5. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit.
6. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.
7. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.
8. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated.
9. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.
10. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal.
11. And yet they are not three eternals but one eternal.

So whether one says "Brahman/Kali" or "Father/Holy Spirit," "The Reality is one and the same; the difference is in name and form." Cool! I recall a song, by Carlos Anderson and Johnny Earl, that said,
"There is a God, He lives;
There is a God, She lives;
There is a God, It lives
in me."

I miss those guys

Art

For the information of TZFers who may not recognize the names, Carlos Anderson and Johnny Earl had a wonderful singing group (I say “had” because I seem to recall having read that one of them has died). I think their focus, if that's the word, was religious music; at least, that is the way I heard them. It was many years ago in Naples Florida where I had been invited to officiate at one of two services commemorating the completion of a new church. The group participated in song during the service, and they were truly inspired and inspiring.

Getting back to the topic. I have always liked the Hail, Mary (Ave Maria). (The English and Latin texts are at The Quiet Room, here.) And from time to time I find myself still repeating it. But over the years I have replaced the line "Mother of God" with "God as Mother". So far, no lightning strikes!

Here is what is at TZF's Definitions page on this general subject.