Pendle Hill Pamphlet Impressions (Selections from #201-260)

Pendle Hill Pamphlet Impressions

by Daniel M. Jensen

202.  Quaker poets: past & present (by Mary Hoxie Jones; 1975)

       Where each is at its best, Quakerism and poetry have something in common; the worshiper and the reader . . . may perceive the likeness without putting it in words.  Dorothy Gilbert Thorne

Quakerism is poetic.  Actually the heart of Quakerism is the quick of sensitivity.  E. Merrill Root

 About the Author— Mary Hoxie Jones was a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and is presently Research Associate in Quaker Studies at Haverford College Library and the author of several books including 2 volumes of poetry.  Mary Hoxie Jones was president of both the American and British Friends Historical Societies.  This pamphlet is from an address given to the latter Society. 

I—Where does worship end and poetry begin?  The experience of worship, or the experience of trying to worship, & the experience of writing a poem can complement each other. [Doris Dalglish believes that Quakers look at poetry as a tool & not at its intrinsic value]. Clive Sansom says the Friends have allowed “good works to push aside the writing of poetry; [they see it taking] up too much time & energy from the “development of inner life.” [Sansom said]: “It can be a part of the spiritual life, even when the poem is not concerned . . . with religion.” 

 Charles Kohler writes: “Poetic experience & the heightened awareness experienced in worship both derive from similar roots:  they have their mysterious being in the Kingdom of Eternity... When the mind is quiet & distractions fade, the inward ear & eye apprehend new dimensions of self-knowledge ... In poetry, contemplative spirit is embodied in words.”  John W. Harvey writes:  “Poetry is not vision.  It is the intent gaze of an eager mind.”

 II—The Society had its bleak era, when there were restrictions and inhibitions in the “reading of books and papers that have any tendency to prejudice the profession of the Christian religion.”  Robert Barclay believed that “all the imaginations of the natural man were ‘evil perpetually in the sight of God.”  William Penn wrote:  “There is truth and beauty in rhetoric but it more often serves ill turns than good ones”; Penn had a low opinion of poets. 

 In spite of this attitude, at least 6 volumes of verse were published from 1661-1772. [In the late 19^th century, the older generation of Quakers took steps to ensure that the younger generation did not] read anything that was not true. Luella Wright says: “The failure of early Friends to realize that the intellect might be a determining factor in conduct, an aid [to] conscience, and a source of material for preaching and writing, led to a thinning of literary quality in Friend’s writing.”  There is a story, perhaps apocryphal, of an elderly Friend saying:  “Thou shouldst not have been thinking [during meeting].”

 III—Fred Nicholson says that early Friends wrote Elegies, Epitaphs, Satires and even love lyrics.  Doris Dalglish names Thomas Story as the 1^st Quaker poet.  In 1690 he wrote “A Song of Praise to the Saints in Zion.”  I am tempted to call Margaret Fell the 1^st Quaker poet; she wrote an Elegy to Josiah Coale who had just died.  William Penn also wrote an elegy to Josiah Coale, a much longer poem, also in rhyming couplets. 

Thomas Ellwood (1639-1713) did not claim to be a poet, but wrote “for common readers, in a style familiar & easy to be understood.” A collection of Ellwood’s poems was published before 1770; the 1^st poem fills 9 pages.  Thomas Ellwood’s long epic, The Davideis, in 5 books, was started in 1688 but not published until about 1712. John Greenleaf Whittier referred to it in Snowbound (1862). Ellwood said to Milton “Thou hast said much here of Paradise Lost, but what hast thou to say of Paradise Found”; Milton later wrote Paradise Regained (1671).       

 IV—John Fry (1701-1775) was a minister of London Yearly Meeting.  His poems are of a most moral & didactic sort. [He has no use for poetry that] “conveys no instruction in morality, no encouragement in virtue . . . & is destitute of real Truth.” He wrote “in as plain & explicitly a manner as I could, avoiding every imaginary & flighty mode of expression.” Catherine Phillips of the next generation, had similar concerns. Perhaps the best known poet of the end of this century is Bernard Barton. While The Edinburgh Review expresses delight at finding Barton a Quaker poet, they saw a real danger since “the gifts of imagination ... may be abused & misapplied … The sober-minded . . . will scarcely permit him to deal very freely with the stronger passions.”  Bernard Barton wrote:  “But I contend the Quaker creed,/ By fair interpretation,/ Has nothing in it to impede/ Poetic aspiration.   

 Many verses have been written which have enabled Friends to look at their foibles and to laugh at themselves.  James N. Richardson (1846-1921), an Irish Friend wrote such verse.  They were inspired by the heated discussion on music and the conditions of Northern Ireland.  He wrote to elders in The Quakri at Grange: 

  “But O ye mighty Elders/ Who guard the ancient Way,/ Who cannot plead the fire of youth,/ To you what can I say?/ Are your own rules forgotten?/ And have ye still to learn/ The seriousness of hindering/ A Quakor ‘neath concern?/  With strange and varying Quavers/ Your accents oft time ring./  Why is it right for you to chant?/  And wrong for him to sing?” 

  There is an American counterpart to these verses in Quaker Quiddities or Friends in Council, probably written by James B. Congdon (1802-1880), in blank verse, between 2 fictitious Friends, 1 liberal, 1 conservative.  On the subject of a piano in a Quaker home, my grandmother could not agree to allow a piano in the home and compromised by allowing her son to have a flute; my uncle later found a piano at Haverford College.  I went to a non-Quaker school rather than grow up without music or Shakespeare. 

  V—James Bunker Congdon said of John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892): “Whittier, the gifted son of song, whose lays/ Have the true lyric ring . . .  For the 1^st time in its history, the Society of Friends has produced [& pardoned] a poet.” Whittier was a better poet than most of those already referred to but perhaps he was not as good as many thought. He was dubious about the prevailing Quaker tendencies of the day & urged young men to stand for the great primitive lines of our faith.”  Margaret Harvey calls him a great Quaker and a sensitive spirit no matter now people feel about his place as a poet.  She believes that “he made a great contribution . . . by the remarkable balance he kept between Christian essentials and their expression in Quakerly emphases.”  Whittier’s hymn “Dear Lord and Father of mankind” is the last 6 verses of the much longer The Brewing of Soma.  In the poem Whittier is making the contrast between the wild orgies connected with Soma and “the still small voice of calm.”

 VI—Do I include Walt Whitman in this discussion Quakers and poetry?  “The good gray poet” was not actually a Quaker, although his mother had been.  Elias Hicks, a neighbor, said “the fullness of the godhead dwelt in every blade of grass,” and Whitman called his book of poems, Leaves of Grass.  Henry Bryan Binns refers to Whitmanas as a prophet-mystic who would not bear arms, who had many of the Quaker traits, including love of silence and goodwill to men.  His poetry was greeted with approval and enthusiasm at a Philadelphia Meeting.  [Ed. Note:  For an example I use the closing verses of [Song of Myself] in honor George and Elizabeth Watson]:

  I depart as air. . . I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,

  I effuse my flesh in eddies and drift it in lacy jags.

  I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,

  If you want me again look for me under your bootsoles.

  You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,

  But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,

  And filter, and fibre your blood.

  Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,

  Missing me one place search another,

  I stop somewhere waiting for you.

 VII—Friends are now showing an increasing amount of interest in poetry and arts in general.  Dorothy Gilbert Thorne wrote Pendle Hill Pamphlet #130 Poetry Among Friends.  I belong to a Quaker poetry group in  Philadelphia called “Poets Walk In.”  Laurence pointed out that “The full values of Art and Religion cannot be separated without loss to both alike.  In the early days of the Society . . . the rejection of the sense of beauty as one of God’s true gifts to man, did the Society no good.”

Modern-day poets include:  John H. McCandless (Yet Sahll we Kneel; 1972); Kenneth Boulding (There is a Spirit: The Naylor Sonnets (1945)).  75 years ago an English Friend, John Wilhelm Rowntree, spoke for our age as he spoke for his:  “Give your soul room to grow.  Seek the reality which others have won before you, and make it your own . . .  The soul’s true life . . .  The soul must know itself and the battle of life must be fought within.”

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204.  William Penn, 17th century founding father: selections from political writings (ed. Edwin Bronner; 1975)

 About the Author—Edwin Bronner is Librarian, Curator of the Quaker Collection, & Professor of History at Haverford College, a former member of Pendle Hill’s board of directors & has served as Chairman of the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) since January 1974.  His special knowledge of the great Founder of Pennsylvania concerns us here.  He is currently working on a list of Penn’s printed works.  The present pamphlet contains a biographical introduction, selection from the Founder’s political writings, and comments.

 Introduction: Penn’s Life and Achievements—William Penn is honored as one of the founders of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, & Delaware. He was active a century before the beginnings of our nation. He offered a plan for the colonies’ union 60 years before Ben Franklin. He wrote An Essay Towards the Present & Future Peace of Europe; his ideas on education, prisons, race relations, city planning, & the nature world were ahead of his time.

Having been imprisoned, he made a special effort to provide justice for those accused of crimes. He reduced the list of 200 capital offenses to 2. The most familiar image of Penn is him making a treaty with the Lenni Lenape Indians, paying a fair price & providing for equal justice before the law. In Pennsylvania, he made provision for schools that taught reading, writing, & a trade. He advocated acting according to nature.  He created Philadelphia as a planned city, and urged settlers to build their houses on relatively large plots of land with large gardens.

William Penn was born in London in 1644, during the Civil War; Penn’s father was a prominent figure on the Parliament side. He changed his allegiance to the exiled King. A close relationship between the royal family & the Penns continued for the next half-century. He was tutored privately & entered Oxford at 16. Expelled from Christ Church for his religious beliefs, he spent 2 years on the Continent, studied law at Lincoln’s Inn, & went back to Ireland to supervise his father’s estates. He made the decision to embrace the Quaker movement in 1667.

   As a despised Quaker, Penn was persecuted and imprisoned in an era when religious tolerance was unknown.  Because he studied law, Penn was chosen to attempt to settle a dispute over control of West New Jersey.  He defended the fundamental rights of Englishmen, and insisted on proper elected representation. 

  In 1681 the Crown granted him the province known as Pennsylvania, as a means of settling the King’s debt to the Penn estate.  He arrived in Delaware Bay in the ship Welcome in late October 1682.  [He spent 2 years getting Pennsylvania off to a progressive, tolerant, and prosperous start].  He spent 15 years in England, was imprisoned a short time and returned to Pennsylvania for 2 years.  Penn married, first Guliema Springett (1672), and then Hannah Callowhill (1696).  In 1712 William Penn suffered several strokes, and was severely limited his last 6 years.

  The People’s Ancient and Just Liberties—Liberty of conscience was one of the most important issues for which Penn fought as a Quaker.  At 26 Penn became involved in a court trial which vividly dramatized religious and civil liberties.  He was arrested for preaching in the street after being locked out of the meetinghouse.  The transcript of his trial was hawked on the streets as a bestseller.

  [This selection will be limited to Penn’s word’s, with the responses paraphrased]  “We believe it to be our duty . . . no power on earth shall be able to divert us from reverencing and adoring our God.  [You are here for breaking the law]  I affirm that I have broken no law. I desire to know by what law you prosecute me & on what law you ground my indictment. [Common law] If it is common, it should not be hard to produce.

  [Plead to the indictment] Shall I plead to an indictment that hath no foundation in law? Unless you show me the law, I shall take it for granted your proceedings are merely arbitrary. [Are you guilty] The question is whether this indictment be legal.  [I can’t explain it briefly]  If common law be so hard to understand, it’s far from common.  [You will not be permitted to go on]  I have asked but one question, and you have not answered me, though the rights and privilege of every Englishmen be concerned in it.  [We will not hear you talk all night]  If you deny me evidence of the law I have broken, you show the world your resolution to sacrifice the rights of Englishmen to your sinister and arbitrary designs.  [Take him away]  Is this justice or true judgment?  If these ancient fundamental laws are not maintained and observed, who can say he hath right to the coat on his back?”  The Lord of heaven and earth will be judge between us in this matter.” 

 Preface to the First Frame of Government—The preface to the 1^st constitution for Pennsylvania reflects Penn’s philosophy about the nature of government.  Penn places his faith in “men of wisdom and virtue.” 

 [When God chose man to rule the world], He did qualify man with integrity to use it justly. The precept of divine love & truth in his own bosom was guide & keeper of his innocency; lust made a lamentable breach upon it. Whosoever resisteth the powers that be resisteth the power of God. [Government’s 2 ends] are to terrify evildoers, & cherish the good. This makes the government as durable in the world as good men shall be; government seems to me part of religion itself, a thing sacred in its institution & end. They weakly err that think there is no other use for government than correction; that is the coarsest part of it. Government, like clocks, go from the motion men give them. Let men be good & the government can’t be bad. Good men never want good laws nor suffer ill ones. 

 Plan for a Union of the Colonies—Penn’s proposal to bring the English closer together under a royal commissioner and a continental congress was 1^st made to the Board of Trade in 1696.

 1 & 2.  That Boston, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, the New Jerseys, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, & Carolina may each appoint 2 persons to meet once a year or oftener to debate & resolve measures for the public tranquility & safety [of the 10 colonies]. 

 3-5.  The King’s High Commissioner shall most likely be the Governor of New York, have the chair and preside in the said Congress, most likely meeting in New York as the most central colony.

 6. Their business shall be to hear & adjust all matters of debt, justice, commerce, & defense of the provinces.

 7.  In times of war the King’s High Commissioner shall be chief commander of the [provinces’ militia]. 

 Essay Toward the Peace of Europe—Written by Penn in the period he withdrew from public life, it appeared 1^st in 1693. Penn gave credit to Henry IV of France for many of the ideas advanced. The Sultan of Turkey & Czar of Russia were included in union. This document has been quoted more fully than others in this pamphlet.

 I have undertaken a subject that requires one of more sufficiency than I am master of to treat it as in truth it deserves.  It is the fruit of many solicitous thoughts for the peace of Europe.  Let them censure my management, so they prosecute the advantage of the design. 

 SECTION I—It becomes prudent men to consider the vast charge that has accompanied the blood in [Europe], and which makes no mean part of these tragedies, and to deliberate upon the uncertainty of war.

 SECTION II—As justice is a preserver, so it is a better procurer of peace than war.  If we look over the stories of all times, we shall find the aggressors generally moved by ambition, the pride of conquest and greatness of dominion more than right.  The aggressors seldom get what they seek, or perform what they promise. Embassies [can] hear the pleas and memorials of justice [from] the wronged party.  That which prevents a civil war is that which may prevent a war abroad [i.e. justice].  Peace is maintained by justice, which is a fruit of government, as government is from society, and society from consent.

 SECTION III—Government is an expedient against confusion, a restraint upon all disorder; just weights and an even balance, that one man may not injure another nor himself by intemperance.  It is certain the most natural and human [government] is consent, for that binds freely, when men hold their liberty by their true obedience to rules of their own making.  But so depraved is human nature, that too many would not readily be brought to do what they know is right, or avoid what they are satisfied they should not do. 

 SECTION IV—If the sovereign princes of Europe would [have] their deputies meet [periodically], & there establish rules of justice [they would] observe one to another. [Differences not solved by private embassies] should be brought before this sovereign assembly. If any sovereignty should seek their remedy by arms or delay [too long] their compliance, all other sovereignties, shall compel submission and performance of the sentence.

 SECTION V—There appears to me 3 things upon which peace is broken: acting to keep; acting to recover; acting to add. The first 2 may find justice in that sovereign court.  The last will find no room in the imperial states.         

 SECTION VI—[The title of sovereign states] is either by long and undoubted succession, by election, by marriage, by purchase, or by conquest.  The world knows the date of the length of empires of conquest; they expire with the power of the possessor to defend them.  When conquest has been confirmed by a treaty, being engrafted, it is fed by that which is the security of better titles, consent.

 SECTION VII—[There is the] difficulty of what votes to allow [because of] the inequality of the princes and states.  The least inclination to the peace of Europe will not stand or halt at this objection.  [My estimation is that] Germany will send 12; France, Spain, Turkey, Russia, 10 each; France, 8; England 6; Sweden, Poland, Netherlands 4 each; Portugal, Denmark, Venice, 3 each; Switzerland 2; Holstein and Courland 1 each.  The fuller the assembly of states is, the more solemn, effectual, and free the debates will be. 

 SECTION VIII—If the whole number be cast into tens each choosing one, they preside by turns, to whom all speeches should be addressed, and who should collect the sense of debates and state the question for a vote by ballot.  It seems to me that nothing in this imperial parliament should pass but by ¾ of the whole.  If there were a clerk for each ten, one out of each ten were appointed to examine and compare the journals of those clerks and then lock them up.  I should think it necessary that every sovereignty should be present under great penalties, and that none leave the session without leave till all be finished.  The language must be in Latin or French. 

 SECTION IX—[As to the strongest and richest opposing this arrangement], he is not stronger than all the rest, so you should point this out and compel him into it.  If men of sense and honor are chosen, they will either scorn the baseness or pay for the knavery.  There can be no danger of effeminacy from disuse of soldiery; each sovereignty may introduce as temperate or severe a discipline in the education of youth as they please. 

The knowledge of government in general, the particular constitutions of Europe, and above all, of his own country are very recommending accomplishments.  This fits him for the parliament at home and courts abroad.  [The keeping of] a small force in every other sovereignty will prevent one from building up a formidable body of troops with which to surprise their neighbor.  As to the want of employment in soldiery for younger brothers of families, education [and peace will produce] more merchants and husbandmen [which will produce more jobs.]  [With such a body overseeing Europe], the sovereign princes will be as sovereign at home as they ever were.  If this be called a lessening of their power, it must be only because great fish can no longer eat up little ones. 

 SECTION X—It will not be the least benefit that it prevents the spilling of so much human and Christian blood.  The cries of many widows, parents, and fatherless are prevented.  The reputation of Christianity will be in some degree recovered.  This proposal saves the great expense [of armies] and the expense of frequent and splendid embassies.  The towns, cities, and countries that might be laid waste by the rage of war are thereby preserved, [the blessings of which the history of each country will no doubt confirm]. 

 There will be an ease and security of travel and traffic, a happiness never understood since the Roman Empire.  No Christian monarch will adventure to oppose or break such a union.  The treason, blood and devastation that war has cost in Christendom for these last two ages must add to the credit of our proposal and the blessing of peace thereby humbly recommended.  The final advantage is that it will beget and increase personal friendship between princes and states, [which will plant] peace in a deep and fruitful soil.  [On a personal note, princes would be free to] choose wives for themselves, such as they love, and not by proxy merely to gratify interest, an ignoble motive that rarely begets or continues that kindness which ought to be between men and their wives.  [Loving parents] have kind and generous influence upon their offspring. 

       By the same rules of justice and prudence that parents, magistrates, estates, and princes govern, Europe may obtain and preserve peace among her sovereignties.  It will not be hard to conceive or frame, or execute the design I have here proposed.  Something of the nature of our expedient was to the wisdom, justice, and valor of Henry IV of France.  I have very little to deserve, for this great king’s example tells us it is fit to be done.  My share is only thinking of it at this juncture, and putting it into the common light for the peace and prosperity of Europe.        

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206.  Margaret Fell Speaking (by Hugh Barbour; 1976)
        [About George Fox’s testimony]:  I saw it was the Truth, & I could not deny it . . . And it was opened to me so clear, that I had never a little in my heart against it.  Margaret Fell  

       About the Author—Born in Peking, he left the Orient at 10 and graduated Harvard in 1942.  He acquired a doctorate from Yale.  At Earlham College he teaches subjects from Church history to Asian Religion.  He has published The Quakers in Puritan England and Early Quaker Writings.  This pamphlet presents selection from the writing of the dynamic figure sometimes called the “Mother of Quakerism.”
       I:Introduction—Margaret Fell’s writings, like her acts and words in her lifetime, were graceful but forthright, with strong emotion yet sensitive to others’ feelings.  She was born Margaret Askew in 1614.  Her husband as of 1632, Judge Thomas Fell, inherited Swarthmoor Hall, the manor house for the market town of Ulverston.  Margaret Fell administered the farms in his absence and after his death in 1658.  She and her daughters managed things with unquestioned independence, often traveling alone on horseback rather than coach.
       As a Quaker, Margaret Fell faced 3 long imprisonments & the seizure of her livestock & funds. Charge over Swarthmore including supporting the parish church & its visiting ministers. [From the 40s to the early 60s], parish churches became increasingly autonomous. It was Margaret Fell’s responsibility to give lodging to George Fox in June 1652. Thomas Fell trusted his wife’s faith & judgment enough to allow his home to become the base for a regional religious revival.  Despite a rapturous letter from the whole household after Fox’s first visit, there is little evidence about the personal relationship between Fox and Margaret Fell until long after Judge Fell’s death.  Margaret Fell’s roles in the organization of Quakerism must always be read between the lines.  She did travel to promote the setting up of Women’s Meetings; her daughters, as clerks, wrote guidebooks for their functioning.  She made 10 trips to London, and died at Swarthmoor in 1702, at the age of 88.
       II: Margaret Fell’s Own Accounts of Her Life—“I was born in the year 1614 at March-Grange in Lancashire.  I was 17 or 18 when I was married to Thomas Fell of Swarthmoor, who afterwards was a Justice of the Quorum in his County, a member of Parliament in several Parliaments, and Chancellor of the Duchy Court in Westminster. He was much esteemed in his county, and valued and honored for his justice, wisdom, moderation and mercy.  We lived together 26 years, in which time we had 9 children.  I hoped I did well in prayers and religious exercises, but often feared I was short of the right way . . . I was inquiring and seeking about 20 years.  
       We had not so much as heard of Quakers till we heard of George Fox coming.  One of George’s Friends brought him hither.  When he came among us at Ulverston Steeple-house, he opened us a book we had never read in . . . to wit the Light of Christ in our consciences . . . & declared that this was our teacher. He said: “You will say, ‘Christ saith this, & the Apostles say this’; but what canst thou say? Art thou a Child of Light? And what thou speakest, is it inwardly from God?  And G.F. spoke on a great while till Judge Sawrey caused G.F. to be haled out. He spoke in the house among family & servants, & they were all generally convinced. I saw it was the Truth, & I could not deny it . . . And it was opened to me so clear, that I had never a little in my heart against it.  
      When my husband was informed that we had entertained such men as had taken us off from going to Church, he was very much concerned [& troubled]. Richard Farnsworth & other Friends persuaded him to be still & weigh things before he did anything hastily.  Whilst I was sitting with him, the power of the Lord seized upon me: & he was stricken with amazement. George Fox [came in later], & spoke very excellently, as ever I heard him; & open Christ & the Apostles’ practices in their day. Lampitt, the Ulverston priest spoke to Judge Fell, but got little entrance upon him. [My husband said to diverse Friends] “You may meet here, if you will.”  There was a good large Meeting the 1st Day; Meetings continued [at Swarthmore] from 1652, till 1690. And he became a kind friends to the Friends, & to the practicers of the Truth on every occasion.  It was in the 8th Month, 1658 that he died, leaving 1 son & 7 daughters.  Priests and professors began to write against us.  I was but young in the Truth, yet I had a perfect and pure Testimony of God in my heart for God and his Truth and could give my life for it.
       The King and the Prisoners—And in the Year 1660, King Charles the Second came into England.  There was then many hundreds of our Friends in prison in the 3 nations of England, Scotland, and Ireland.  I writ and gave papers and letters to every one of the Royal Family several times.  We could never get a meeting of any sort of them with our Friends; nevertheless they were very quiet.  About a quarter year after their first taking Friends to prison, a General Proclamation from the King and Council was granted for setting the Quakers at Liberty.
        I [returned home &] stayed about 9 months, & then was moved of the Lord to go to London again, [not knowing why].  [There was] an Act of Parliament against Quakers for refusing Oaths, & Friends Meetings at London were much troubled with soldiers pulling Friends out of Meetings & beating them. [I wrote to the Royal Family, informing them of these events]. I came home again, having spent 4 months in & about London. I & other Friends visited [Southwest England & then Northern England], back to Swarthmoor. George Fox was committed to Lancaster Castle. The same justices sent for me to Ulverston. They said to me they would not tender me the Oath of Allegiance. I told them I should not deny my faith & principles for anything they could do against me.  
       When I was indicted for denying the Oath of Allegiance, I said I would rather choose a prison for obeying God, than my liberty for obeying men. [The judges put me out of the King’s Protection], I responded, “... Yet I am not out of the Protection of the Almighty God.” When I had been a prisoner about 4 years, I was set at liberty by an order from the King & Council in 1668.      
       Marriage to George Fox: 1669—[After George Fox went into Ireland], and I went into Kent, Sussex and the West we met at Bristol.  There, he declared his intentions of marriage: and there also was our marriage solemnized.  Soon after I came home, the Sheriff of Lancashire had me prisoner to Lancaster Castle [on the old charges], where I continued a whole year.  Then I was to go up to London again: for my husband was intending for America; he was full 2 years away. [Right after he came back], he was taken prisoner by one “Justice” Parker, and sent to Worcester-jail. . .  [After a long and serious illness, and a long process involving the King, the Lord Chancellor, Judge North, the Attorney General, and an appearance before the King’s Bench], he was quitted.  This was the last prison that he was in, being freed by the Court of King’s Bench.  He stayed some time in London, went over to Holland, Hamburg, Germany, back to Swarthmoor, through several Counties, & back to London.  Meanwhile, I was fined for holding a meeting in my own house, for speaking once at a Meeting, & for speaking again; they seized 30 more of my livestock. In my 70th year, the Word was in me to go to King Charles & bear to him my last Testimony, on how they did abuse us to enrich themselves.  
        Therefore wait, for the Lord is doing great things for this darkness; and this heathenish ministry and dark power have long reigned.  The Lord keep all Friends that way in savoriness, to discern the voice of a Stranger from the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore look not at your liberty, nor at men, nor at time, but at the Lord who will be your portion eternally.  
        The Death of the Charles II—George Whitehead & I were going to one of the Lords to speak to the King for us.  But the King was ill & died 6 days later. Those persecuting Quakers promised more of the same after the King’s death. When the King’s Council heard Margaret’s letter about this, they said they could give no protection to a particular individual; [they gave a private caution to the persecutors]. I have been at London to see my dear husband & children in 1690, this being 9 times I have been at London, upon the Lord’s & the Truth’s account. 
       III:  Letters and Epistles—Except for one intense letter to Fox from the whole household, they were matter-of-fact; her love was expressed by acts and character more than by phrases.  She received more letters than she sent: from 1653-1660 it was evidently agreed that Friends would write to Swarthmoor Hall to report their successes, needs and imprisonments.  The style of formal epistles, including some phrases characteristic of Fox, were picked up by Margaret Fell and other Quaker leaders.  
       A Letter to Francis Howgill & James Nayler when they were Prisoners, 1653—Dear/Brother James & Francis, prisoners of the Lord, faithful & chosen, abiding faithful in the will of God, & there stand; you have peace, joy, boldness. . . The Lord is doing great things for this darkness; this heathenish ministry & dark power have long reigned. The Lord keep all Friends that way in savoriness, to discern the voice of a Stranger from the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look not at liberty, men, nor at time, but at the Lord who will be your eternal portion.  
       Living under the Light—All come down to the witness of God, & deal plainly with your own souls; let the judge pass sentence on you ... Beware of betraying the just & innocent in you . . .  Deal plainly with yourselves, and let the eternal Light search, try, [and guide you], for the good of your souls.  For to this you must stand or fall.  Dwell in love and unity in the pure eternal Light; there is your fellowship, there is your cleansing and washing.
       An epistle to North-Country Friends for Funds [used to support preaching and those in prison]—It is ordered by the providence of the Lord, and by his power to move in the hearts of some Friends that are poor in the outward, to go for New England.  You may see it just & equal that there be general help made for Friends in the North willing to offer up their bodies and their lives for the service and will of the Lord, and to answer his motion in their hearts.  The God of power enlarge your hearts towards God, his work and service. 
       IV. Margaret Fell on Women—Later generations acclaimed Margaret Fell’s tract on Women Speaking (1666) as a pioneer manifesto for women’s liberation. Women offering Quaker witness before & during Fox’s time include Elizabeth Hooten, Joan & Margaret Killam, Barbara Pattison, Jane Holmes, Agnes Wilkinson, & Sarah Tomlinson.  Margaret Fell shows women’s ability to respond and take full part in all aspects of religious life.
      “Women’s Speaking Justified, Proved and Allowed of by the Scriptures—It hath been objected by clergy against women speaking in Church as taken from I Corinthians 14:34,35 and I Timothy 2:11,12.  When God created men in his own image . . . male and female . . . God joins them together in his own image and makes no distinctions as men do.  Those that speak against the Spirit speaking in a woman, not regarding the Seed and Spirit and Power that speaks in her, such speak against Christ and his Church.  Jesus owned the love and grace that appeared in women, and did not despise it.  What had become of the redemption of the whole body of mankind, if they had not believed the message that the Lord Jesus sent by these women of and concerning his resurrection?  And thus the Lord Jesus hath manifested himself and his power, without respect of persons; and so let all mouths be stopped that would limit him.”
       V: Margaret Fell’s Other Writings—A Brief Collection of Margaret Fell’s works included 49 items & over 500 pages. She used the prophets’ words to call Jews to the same Light which they already knew. Margaret Fell’s 1st letter to Fox showed her religious dependence on him. She wrote her Epistle against Uniform Quaker Costume; April 1700 when she was 86. She warns: “Let us not be entangled again, in observing proscriptions in outward things, which will not profit nor cleanse the inward... This narrowness & strictness is entering in, that many cannot tell what to do, or not to do; poor Friends are mangled in their minds. They say we must be all in one dress and one color.  
       This is silly poor Gospel.  It is more fit for us to be covered with God’s eternal Spirit, and clothed with his eternal Light.  These silly outside imaginary practices are coming up, and practiced with great zeal, which hath often grieved my heart.  Now I have set before you Life & Death, & desire you to choose Life & God & his truth. 
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207.  A Quaker looks at Yoga (by Dorothy Ackerman; 1976)
       About the Author—Dorothy Ackerman has been a member of the Twin Cities Meeting in Minneapolis for 15 years. [Beginning with] her husband Eugene in the Conscientious Objector group at Brown University, [she became part of a family of Conscientious Objectors].  Having been addicted to creativity for 50 years she is curious about the source of it all.  She was fortunate to have 2 Yoga teachers—Swami Radha and Swami Rama—who were knowledgeable about modern psychology and meditation research.  This pamphlet developed out of a search for the “missing ingredient” and ideas presented during her year at Pendle Hill.
       [Introduction]—[I have been discontented] with the meditation in our meeting. Out of this a small worship group was born [that went for about 3 years]. I have wanted to combine Yogic wisdom with Quaker beliefs & experience. Only when the Yoga experience is sympathetic to Friendly tradition have I suggested Yoga’s use. I have learned to look at things upside down in imagination if not in posture. Getting in touch with the Still Small Voice should require at least as much effort as making [and participating in a meaningful] phone call. In accepting Yoga’s challenge to participate and experience the results, I have found it a helpful way, but not the only way.  
       Traditional Centering Devices—Religion has developed many ways of communicating with the Spiritual Source.  Are we today in danger of losing the experience because we do not reach out and knock on the door or make that call and wait expectantly? Early Quakers were clear that these souls seeking together in spiritual communion were the church with Christ in its midst. The spiritual intensity experienced in group worship comes partly from the artistry of the service and partly from the group’s reaching a strength beyond its own.
      Occasionally I nourish the artist in me by experiencing a high church service where all the arts join together in celebration. Early Friends [had much more Bible & prayer in their family life than most do now]. They met whenever they felt the need, & whenever a visiting Friend came to town. Children were an integral part of the Meeting.  Their spiritual bond was a personal experience of the Light. Lacking their intimate Christianity, we can use Yoga to help us contact the Spirit by whatever name we call it.  
       Yoga Philosophy—The aim of both Yogic and Quaker meditation is a mystical union which involves such a strong awareness of the Source of Life that action flow directly from the Spiritual Center.  Yoga says that contact with the inner divinity is blocked by our subconscious which casts its shadow in front of the Light.  Yoga is divided into 8 “limbs” or skills for overcoming obstacles [See chart] 

               Skill and its Elements                                                        Description
Abstinence: non-injury, non-lying, non-theft,       Ethical skill; “Non”=“absence of”; non-
     non-sensuality, non-greed                                 injury requires harmony;uninten-                                                                                            tional injury must be  avoided        Observance: cleanliness, contentment, body  Ethical skill; both physical cleaning and 
conditioning, self-study, God-attentiveness             ritual significance; Contentment is                                                                                         recognizing situation for what it is 
                                                                              and working it out; 
Posture: Hatha postures                                   Part of conditioning is the Hatha postures
                                                                              “Ha”=sun; “Tha”=moon; balance 
                                                                               polarities; link of body to soul; 
Breath: control                                                 energy= Life Force 
Withdrawl: 5 senses                                         tuning out everything distracting us  
                                                                              from meditation
Concentration: focus                                        skill of focusing 
Meditation: focus                                              act of focusing 
Contemplation: meditation                                where beauty, truth, & light are 
                                                                            experienced         
        Adapting Spiritual Practice; Practical Application; Centering for Meditation—In learning to know myself I have discovered my abilities and limitations [and what fits for me].  Hatha Yoga is feasible in the afternoon or evening, not pre-dawn.  I have not eliminated meat from my diet, but I enjoy it less.  Yoga considers reviewing the day passed or planning the day coming a necessary part of mental housekeeping.              Yoga suggest having a specific time and place for daily meditation and to be quiet and relaxed.  If I have been sitting most of the day I will need exercise before I can relax.  A leisurely walk will serve as well as Yoga, if I have a straight, tall back, and free-swinging limbs.  I reach out to walls, ceiling, and floor as a stretching exercise; I do neck-rolls.                                     
       When I am comfortably settled I focus attention on my breathing.  Yoga teaches me to close my mouth & breath through my nose, to filter & warm the air. Because slow breathing cools my body & calms my emotions, I deliberately slow down the rhythm for meditation; it sometimes naturally slows almost to a standstill. My hands sometimes relax in my lap. Sometimes my thumb & forefinger are joined. In Meeting I hold my palms open & up.  Finally I am ready to relax my mind.  [If I have trouble, I turn my closed eyes up so that they are pointed at the spot between my eyebrows while my mind is attending my breathing.  
       Gerald Heard said that meditation was the most important practice that we could use for the [evolution] of the species.  Teilhard de Chardin expresses concern that we must develop spiritually or face the fate of phylum extinction.  Gopi Krishna suggests that meditation can actually change our bodies.  In a person of genius or great spirituality the cells become irradiated with this energy.  EEG research suggests that in meditation we mentally shift gears to slower brain waves.  In this state there is a freedom from the past, an openness to new ideas.  
       Special Techniques for Concentration—Yogis express the difficulty of harnessing mind by referring to it as a “runaway drunken monkey.”  Of the ways for gaining control of a mind, chanting a mantra and gazing at a candle have received more publicity than understanding.  I was always clear that the candle flame reflected the Divine light and was a symbol for my subconscious mind.  I imagined that the flame was in me and filled me or that I became the flame.  
       If candle-gazing is auto hypnotism, it is better to establish a strong hypnotic relationship to the Divine Light than to TV heroes.  A mantra is a centering device. It should be used calmly. When it has stilled the mind and fades away into a meditative silence let it go unless thoughts distract.  For physical activity, Yoga uses the postures, Zen, the walking meditation, Sufis and Shakers, dancing; Early Friends walked.  We must not let ourselves be imprisoned even by silence, but remain open to the spontaneous moving of Spirit blowing as it will.
      Meeting for Worship: Preparation; Seating—Early Friends took daily spiritual practice for granted.  The potential of Friends’ Meeting is so great that it is worth taking time to do our homework: reading, problem solving, daily meditation, and prompt arrival.  Hatha Yoga and breathing exercises, or a quiet walk to Meeting will calm the mind.  Breath watching can be used effectively, for centering and for gathering the group especially if Friends feel that each is a cell in the larger body of the Meeting, [each sending and receiving Spirit].  A straight back is best for meditation.  Lanzo del Vasta said, “You must have a straight line between heaven and earth.”
       Meeting for Worship: Centering; Speaking—In Meeting for Worship a mantra can be used briefly at the beginning, or on the way to Meeting.  Latecomers are the greatest obstacle to gathering or centering. Meditation in Meeting for Worship can begin with a seed thought, or it can be an attitude of listening. [The seed thought needs to be brief]. The tree will grow; we do not need to begin with it. Intensity of spirit does not necessarily flow from a small group; while intensity flourishes under persecution, it isn’t absent when life is comfortable.  
       Preparation does not mean coming to Meeting with a prepared message or a program for personal meditation. A gathered meeting is relaxed and attentive, calm and expectant.  Early Friends did not believe in the power of silence so much as they realized the inadequacy of the spoken word to convey spiritual truth.  Too often we wait for something from God out there which cannot manifest unless we use the God within us.  Without God we miss our potential; without us God is not manifest.  Vocal ministry at its best can be the seed of Spirit which grows and flows through the Meeting.  A brief message leaves more room for growth than a sermon.  Stan Zielinski in Pendle Hill Pamphlet Psychology and Silence (#201) says that Meeting for worship is composed of silence, communion, and the message, [in that order].  Gathering brings us into spiritual communion. [A collective of vocal ministry] flows from the personality of that Meeting.  It cannot be contrived or programmed.  
      Initiation; New Members; Coming of Age—Early Friends did not lack initiatory experiences: upsurges of power; expanded awareness; personal awareness; personal revelation.  Can we again get in touch with a feeling of expectancy?  [Can we accept the unusual without analyzing or doubting it]?  Formal initiations recognized by our Society are: membership; marriage, and memorials.  The procedure of accepting new members into Meeting is not always straightforward; there is a tendency to say “yes” to anyone who asks.  It more appropriate to explain things like the spontaneity of unprogrammed worship and how consensus works in Business Meeting in clearness committee before membership, than as criticism after membership is granted.     
      Emotional preparation for adult responsibility & the physical changes of puberty were an important part of initiatory tradition. Many customs involved the initiate’s withdrawal into solitude. Our own tradition has much to offer but it fails to challenge when we do not witness to our beliefs. For several years Earlham has had a “solo” experience available as a retreat for incoming students. Friends might like to consider a variation of this solo to fit their own needs & abilities. I would expect that the personal experiences would range from ecological to mystical.
      Meeting Resources: Support Groups; Spiritual and Artistic—In an intimate group of 8-10 we can find sympathy for celebration of the daily initiation.  Without a minister, Friends can minister to each other.  As spiritual awareness expands, it can be shared with an intimate group of Friends.  A support group that chooses to be honest is helpful in warding off false humility, which takes pride in self-denigration.  A small ongoing support group can help in times of crisis because it has shared the hopes and fears.  
       Simplicity need not be sterile or ugly.  With our expanded view of world history and religion there is a wealth of spiritual nourishment available.  The artist in me is too strong to turn my back on beauty.  I stand at the crossroads of culture.  It can be a confusing place if I do not know where I’m going.  If I do, it is a convenient spot from which to make connections.  I have drawn from Yoga, Buddhists, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Quakers, Amerinds, Congregationalists, and Franciscans.  The therapist says: Be open; Don’t limit yourself; Know yourself; Recognize the blocks to meditation.”  The artist weaves all this together.  In Meeting for Worship I use all I have to tune in to the Presence which I call the Christ Consciousness or the Inner Light.  The challenge requires me to make wise use of all my skills and treasures.
       Questions for Quakers—Do we consider what physical arrangement help relaxed meditation in Meeting?  Do we provide instruction for new members and attenders who are beginners in silent meditation?  Do we have enough confidence in the Inner Light to take from other traditions without fear of endangering Quakerism?  Do we believe that a gathered Meeting depends on chance? On preparation? On Grace?  Do we apply Quaker practices of centering in our daily lives?   

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210.  The psychology of a fairy tale (by David L. Hart; 1977)
      About the Author and Editor—David Hart is a Jungian analyst practicing in Swarthmore, PA.  He has a special interest in the spiritual and psychological meaning of fairy tales.  The Editor, Harriet Crosby, is a former PH student and Clerk of its community meeting; she is a member of Friends Meeting in Washington D.C., and is active with Friends Committee for National Legislation.  She has done training analysis with David Hart.  
      Introduction—The fairy tale Ferdinand the Faithful and Ferdinand the Unfaithful (FF&FU) from the Grimm collection is a wonderful example of evil and its integration into life.  In modern life, there is an assumption that evil need not happen; we are out to correct evil.  When we think we can see evil and who ought to stop doing it, we have not integrated evil into our own lives.  The fairy tale is remarkable in that it can contain good and evil, [and is rich in symbols for different parts and qualities of our Self, some of which I will explain].  
       (FF&FU)—Once upon a time lived a rich man and woman.  Once they became poor they had a little boy.  Ferdinand the Faithful. (FF) They had to have a beggar stand as godfather for him.  The beggar gave the midwife a key to a castle that the boy would receive when he was 14; the boy looked for the castle at age 7, but did not find it.  At age 14, the boy found the castle, opened it, and found only a white horse, on which he resolved to travel.  He 1st saw a pen; he was going to leave it behind, but a voice told him to pick it up.  He then saw a fish out of water on the lakeshore.  He put the fish back and the fish gave him a flute to call the fish with.  Later he met Ferdinand the Unfaithful (FU) and traveled with him.  
       At an inn, a young girl fell in love with FF and got him an audience with the King. Rather than be a court servant FF became an outrider. The girl got FU a job as a court servant. The King kept saying, “Oh, if only I had my love with me.” FU told the King to send FF to get the sleeping princess or die. FF lamented his fate, & someone asked “Why?” FF realized his horse was talking to him. The horse explained how to get her & what to ask the king for. FF took 2 ships, one full of meat for the giants of the lake, one full of bread for the large birds. He was to say to the giants and the birds:  “Peace, Peace, my dear little giants [birds]/ I have had thought of ye,/ something I have brought for ye.  The giants fetched the sleeping princess out of a castle, and carried her to the King.  
      The princess awoke & said she couldn’t live without her writings; FF went back with 2 ships & got them. He dropped his pen in the lake; his horse couldn’t help him, so he used the flute to call the fish, who brought back his pen. The princess married the King, but didn’t love him, because he had no nose. She offers the skill of cutting off a head & putting it back on; the king does not volunteer. FU encourages FF to volunteer; the beheading leaves a mark like a red thread. She cut off the King’s head, but pretends she couldn’t put it back on; she marries FF. His horse told him to gallop 3 times around the heath. FF did so; the horse turned into a King’s son.          
       Poverty and the Godfather—When everything is sufficient, nothing is born or conceived.  It takes a state of poverty to create a new life.  [In the impoverished state] whatever comes has to come from beyond me, because it is not my own doing any longer.  Not knowing where support is coming from also means that one is forced to meet the unknown which has a somewhat ominous face.  
       [The godfather found in this state is no] ordinary godfather. He doesn’t supply anything of a material sort; he gives no gifts & he requires none.  What he has to give is spiritual development. Taking pride in his accomplishments is foreign to FF’s nature; he has nothing [of worldly worth to show for himself].  The thing that is coming to him has to be waited for.  It is a matter of waiting for his maturity, for his is a different kind of endowment.  
       Supernatural; White Horse; Pen and Fish; Outrider—When FF the boy finds the castle, we enter into the supernatural. The more we experience psychic development, the better we are able to perceive [our own] fairy tale. The fairy tale shows the impact of the supernatural or inner world on what we think of as the real world. To FF the white horse means travel. A horse is a perfect image of unconscious carrying power with its own design. 
       The voice saying “Take the pen with you,” is saying “You need this kind of awareness as you go along.” The fish on the bank, out of water is life out of its elements gasping and panting for breath.  In returning the fish to the water FF is differentiating consciousness from unconsciousness.  The fish offers the hero a flute, the means of calling on it, [the subconscious] for help which later on proves invaluable.  Only as I take up conscious responsibility for my life can I re-establish a vital contact with the life that extends beyond me.  The sign of this reordering is the flute, speaking the language of the unconscious life.  It is a link between the 2 worlds.
       FF is accepted, loved, & honored everywhere.  Rather than be in the court, he decides he wants to be outrider, on the periphery of the known, conscious world of the king; he is following his nose, trusting the unknown.  [The king has no nose, no awareness of what experience has to teach us]. The hero’s position is between the two worlds, but embraces both, and is soon to be forced beyond the edge.  
       FU: Individuation and Shadow; Place in Court; Evil Impulse—FU’s name is the very negation of virtue; FU takes his place in the center of that world.  He brings a secret knowledge which increases the awareness embodied by the hero.  He adds a dimension which is essential to the hero’s further development.  He also has uncanny knowledge and the purpose of using it to destroy the other.  It is clear that he has power, but not until he and the hero are working together is it harnessed to solve the king’s problem.  It is convenient to think of the two Ferdinands as “ego and shadow,” as long as we are not rigid about it; the shadow is a necessity.  
       While FF is loved & honored, FU is passed over, & he makes a point of asking why. This question, the turning point of the story, is most instructive for our own attitudes. [By approaching the king on FU’s behalf, the girl at the inn (the unconscious, inner, feminine personality), paves the way for all the future developments of the story]. Admitting an uncomfortable memory, a bad impulse to our consciousness are ways of allowing FU a place at court. Admitting them prevents them from taking over & influencing our unconscious in destructive ways. 
      We have to see, accept and care for ourselves even as we do things for others.  [We need to befriend the negative things in our lives, rather than turn our backs on them].  [Those who turn their backs wind up being] possessed by the evil which they are trying to reject.  Befriending the evil impulse is the equivalent of what Jung designates as the religious attitude, namely ‘careful consideration of the superior powers of life.’             Accepting what could not be accepted before is a redemptive act.
       King’s Distress Pattern; FU’s Response—[When the king kept saying] “If only I had my love with me,” it is what we would call a distress pattern, something that was endlessly wrong, & nothing is done about it. The pattern is habitual, & we may not even be aware of it. It’s as though the entrance of FF & FU throws a spotlight on what had been an unconscious pattern that was hard to face. The saving possibility has to enter before we can consider any kind of change. If the king, the center of conscious says “There is no hope,” then there isn’t any.  
      The point about our evil Ferdinand is that he stops the broken record and sets the redemptive process in motion.  The shadow is truly a liberating force when the person concerned understands something of the great purpose of the negative.  FU is an intrusion of the negative impulse which refuses to accept the limits of a resigned consciousness.  We have to pay serious attention to these impulses and the things that won’t let us rest.
      Hero’s Quest: Life; Death; and Desperation—There are 3 challenges which lead to the transformation.  [It really is a matter of life or death].  The threat of death seems to be the border between this world and world of new life. So it has to be faced with all one’s resources.  The challenges reduce the hero to despair.  His helplessness evokes another power, the voice of his white horse.  When the hero abandons hope, the horse arises as a spiritual being.  The Unfaithful will accept nothing less than true life.  The Faithful is that part which lets itself be led, carried, tested, and broken by the same demand.  As FF accepts his fate, new powers come to him.  I think one purpose of this fairy tale is to demonstrate that we all have this faithful complex within.  
      The Giants and Birds are Elemental Passions—He has to load two ships of meat and bread to feed the giants and the birds.  The hero is to say “peace” to them, speak softly and feed them well; then the giants will help.  If we are in the grips of these elemental passions, we become scattered and totally ineffective. We also become blind.  It’s extraordinary, amazing, to bring a spirit of affirming and loving recognition towards these elemental, devouring, rapacious, passions.  
       Plucking out the eyes symbolizes the loss of awareness that is involved when one is attacked by a drive.  What is wrong is not the feeling itself, but one’s attitude toward oneself for having it.  The inner passions need acceptance and recognition.  Then the so-called evil powers become great powers for life.  The whole point of fairy tales is bringing the unconscious life into consciousness.
      Sleeping Princess/Anima—The sleeping princess expresses the unredeemed state of the feminine component of the man’s psyche and the soul.  The princess says she cannot live without her writings; she cannot be truly revealed and meaningful without them.  FF makes a second perilous journey to retrieve them.     In your life or mine, it may mean following a mood past the point that has always seemed to promise disaster and eventually finding that it leads into a new basis of life, transforming everything with an altered meaning.  
       Fetching the writings gives the soul a voice of her own. When the soul begins to speak through a person, she carries authenticity that doesn’t depend on appearance. How do you bring the voice of your soul into your conscious life? Whenever true life is at the threshold, we are in danger of its being taken over. The pen becomes lost; this means that life cannot be made articulate or real. The only guarantee of true life’s continuity arises from continuing encouragement of what is unconscious in ourselves. [Then], when the conscious fails, the unconscious arises to meet & support it. Another being seems to find a voice & thought begins to reshape itself. Bringing the princess away from the castle signifies a transformation of life & the emergence of new truths. The process of growth is primarily an inner one & must gradually penetrate into conscious awareness in a slow, gentle way. 
       Now that the princess is coming into consciousness, there is a chance to catch up with all that backlog of feelings and inner awareness represented by her writings.  Her secret life, kept underground for too long, needs to be brought out into the world; otherwise she can’t live.  The fairy tale is faithfully trying to show the effect of life in abundance on what we regard as normal life.  
      The King: No Journey; No Nose—The old king hasn’t made the journey that FF made to the enchanted land, yet he grabbed the princess for himself.  This is the inflation of the ego which is inevitable when the new comes in and we haven’t the mind to encompass it.  In the fairy tale, the nose has to do with the totality of experience, a sense of the whole.  Thus the faculty that the king lacks is intuition; he is limited to the ego world, and not able to progress beyond his limits.  The king’s mistake is to think that spiritual reality is subject to human calculation and measurement; he takes literally what in truth exists spiritually and symbolically.  So, the new life is there, but in the wrong hands.  [The king is offered a chance at beginning a new life, and to take a leap of faith, but he plays it safe instead].  He is allowed to express his own limits and thereby destroys himself.
       The Queen’s Magic—The queen possesses magic, the power of life and death, [destruction and re-creation].  The head has to do with central control, ego consciousness and deliberateness.  [The princess/anima asks: “Are you really going to put yourself in my hands or not?”  The redemption of the anima has led to the point where the hero must sacrifice himself.  FF has taken his life and given it to her.  
       Is it not strange that Ferdinand the Unfaithful drives the faithful one to an act of faith?  The shadow [is uncompromising, and] drives us to take risks.  As long as we can remain open to the latent evil in our unacceptable, difficult, dangerous natures, we have the truest guide to what can make us more whole.  
       The white horse makes the final transformation, [progressing from] faithful, speechless servant, to intelligent, articulate guide, to a king’s son, separate from and equal to the hero.  His development parallels the transformation in the story, until at the end we have a state of equality and freedom, where evil and the distortion of power have been overcome.   

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211.   Seeking Light in the Darkness of the Unconscious (by John Yungblut; 1977)

The God who has chosen to tabernacle with me in the mysterious within of my skin-encapsulate body has chosen to whisper [of sin and evil] to me in the darkness. John Yungblut                                        
About the Author—John Yungblut is a graduate of Harvard College and the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA.  He became a member of the Religious Society of Friends in 1960.  He worked with AFSC, Quaker House, International Student House, and as a Pendle Hill teacher for 4 years as of this pamphlet.  His own nervous breakdown in college aroused an interest in depth psychology.  He did counseling along Jungian lines.  This essay represents a recent outgrowth of his personal synthesis of psychology and mysticism.

 Introduction—Most of us would confess that we suffered from the fear of darkness.  [Does] even matter [have a] memory of the darkness on the face of the deep while chaos yet prevailed?  But darkness also has an irresistible fascination for some of us, beginning in early childhood. 

Darkness in the Bible—Whatever their ultimate source, the fear & the longing are immemorial & universal.  The Bible offers the darkness of ignorance, of sin, & of the unformed void. [We are fascinated & even long for the darkness of ignorance that primitive people dwell in]; but there is no going back. If we have lost a [primitive] kind of innocence, we may yet find a nobler innocence that awaits us on the far side of obedience to a new light.   

  Meantime, scripture has assigned [the labels] “sin and evil” to another form of darkness.  The God who has chosen to tabernacle with me in the mysterious within of my skin-encapsulate body has chosen to whisper [of sin and evil] to me in the darkness.  Martin Buber said: “If you ask me what sin is I know instantly with reference to myself.  I haven’t the slightest idea with reference to anyone else.”  Only the solitary man knows the judgment under which the light, revealed to him in secret, places him in terms of aspiration and commitment.  God required that the solitary mystical experience finds outward expression in social codification, [written in stone].

 What enables some children to know that making sport of taking life is evil, & what conceals this knowledge from others? I suppose the difference is a more developed mystical faculty of identification. The darkness of ignorance is transformed into the darkness of sin when one does perversely what one’s better self knows is wrong. [The result of Jesus being] “the light which enlightens every man” was that he rescued us from the darkness and brought us to the kingdom of light.  Darkness is both the evil & a place to which evil men are consigned.

Darkness is also the stuff of primeval chaos on which the act of creation can play, producing order & light.  The Psalmist, among others, tells us “He made darkness around him his hiding-place & dense vapor his canopy” (Psalm 18:11) & “clouds & thick darkness are round about him” (Psalm 97:2). It is not only that God may over-take us in the darkness. He may even whisper there a word which we must proclaim in the light (Matthew 10:27).

Our New Perception of a Continuing Creation—The very “within” of matter has contained man and life has cradled him through the entire process of evolution until he has arrived at his present estate; [there is still more “humanizing” left to do].  The New Adam is just beginning to emerge.  The individual man [may face] his own unconscious, and say:  “I am, indeed, still in the dark, the same dark that covered the face of the deep.”  Out of the thick darkness of our unconscious God Speaks or whispers the word that will mean new life to us if we but attune our ears to hear it.  The vast unknown [within us] can produce in us a paralyzing fear.  Loren Eiseley says, “Man is not Man.  He is elsewhere.  There is within us only that dark, divine animal engaged in a strange journey—that creature who, at midnight, knows its own ghostliness, and senses its far road.”

The Darkness of the Unconscious—Carl Jung has arisen in our New Israel as a prophet. [Beyond Freud’s description of the unconscious, Jung saw it as] darkness from which new light might be wrested, “thick darkness” out of which God might speak anew.” Jung summons contemporary man to be “willing to fulfill the demands of rigorous self-examination & self-knowledge.” This was Jung’s Holy Grail, because the quest of the true self, was also the quest of the Self, God within. “The archetype for the self & the archetype for God are indistinguishable.”     

[Just as] George Fox believed in the inner light’s capacity to guide him, Carl Jung believed that the daemon in the unconscious was the Spirit that could lead him into all truth. When the Lord showed Fox “the natures of those things within the hearts and minds of wicked men,” Fox protested that [he had no desire to do those things]. The Lord explained that it was needful that he “should have a sense of all conditions,” [that he might speak to them].

As a child Jung had wrestled with and rejected the notion that God was all good and loving.  Laurens Van der Post described Jung’s reasoning as “Somewhere and somehow God was terrible as well and stood in a relationship with darkness and evil, indeed perhaps had need of them as an instrument of grace and redemption.” If one could but wrestle with the evil urge in man, it would yield its own peculiar blessing.

 Carl Jung’s Journey into Darkness—He had lived and worked for 8 years in the Burghölzli mental institution.  The dynamics of his own unassimilated anima (feminine side of his unconscious) required understanding and integration [before he could] heal others in a more creative way.  [He fell into, delved into these dynamics], and as Laurens Van der Post said:  “This was the greatest of his many moments of truth and so far did he fall, and so unfamiliar and frightening was the material he found, that there were many moments when indeed it looked as if insanity might overcome sanity.”  It was a great relief to Jung to discover that part of his interior suffering in dreams and fantasies was a purely psychic response to [the world war that] was about to happen.

 The other and larger part of his psyche’s unrest had to do with arriving at mid-life, and with the unresolved conflict of his own anima and animus.  It was like plunging into an ocean of darkness.  He had no inner assurance when he let himself go and undertook the terrifying journey.  When he reached the point where he could go no further in self-analysis, Van der Post suggests that he found “a positive and integrated feminine self” to assist him. 

Toni Wolff, a former patient, served as physician of Jung’s tortured psyche in the most critical period of his search for individuation.  Perhaps the greatest credit is due to Jung’s loyal wife, Emma, who not only tolerated this intense relationship between her husband and Toni Wolff, but encouraged it, [recognizing her own limits].  Toni Wolff taught him about the rejection of the creative masculine element in woman herself.  The interaction of the 4 components in the man-woman relationship—the man, his anima, the woman, her animus—constituted the final complexity with which he had to deal if he were to understand the human psyche in depth.  So, he must face in himself the darkness of the shadow, the mirror of his anima in woman, and the animus in woman that mirrored and threatened his own masculinity.  [Such was] the infinite darkness of his own unconscious. 

 Finding Light in Darkness—In the great confluence of the darkness of the unconscious of 2 persons, provided there is the mutual will toward a new creation between them, an ocean of light can come atop the ocean of darkness.  The new light does indeed well up from the very darkness itself.  Both persons become comparatively whole for the 1^st time, [and yet] they experience at the same moment the most clearly etched and engraved “total otherness.”  As in the experience of mystical union with God, the paradox asserts itself: “Never was I so much myself nor so completely out of myself.”  

Jung 1^st used a Black book for recording the early episodes of this journey into the darkness of his unconscious.  As he gained in confidence, he began to use a Red Book, which represents the [transparent epiphany] of light from darkness.  After the awesome and terrifying withdrawal into the darkness he has made his dramatic return to the light, a new light wrested in part from the darkness itself.  [He has created a castle within and has donned scarlet armor].  He proclaimed: “unconscious is the only accessible source of religious experience.”  He designated as “shadow,” [the new thick darkness], all that man had despised, rejected and repressed in himself.  Within the mystery of the conjunction of opposites, [in the darkness from which God can speak], their sting can be drawn, their poison drained, and their very energy harnessed to realize a more profound individuation.  Jung learned how to seek in this darkness a light that could heal and save.

 On Dealing with Darkness—What response do we need to have with reference to the darkness of ignorance, evil, and the unformed void. Our response to ignorance needs to be an abiding awareness of our poverty in the possession of property, knowledge, and wisdom.  Our response to evil needs to be chastity, reinterpreted to mean a sustained, committed pursuit of moral purity, a disciplined quest for wholeness and holiness [in our whole life]. Our response to the unformed void within us needs to be obedience to both the known light and the quest for light in the darkness which is the inner abyss of the unconscious.  And if the light one has becomes temporarily dimmer, the light one seeks is brighter still and is to be found at the very heart of the darkness of the unconscious.

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212.  A place called Community (by Parker J. Palmer; 1977)

  About the Author—As of April 1977, Parker J. Palmer is Dean of Studies at Pendle Hill. He holds a Ph. D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkley, & before Pendle Hill spent 15 years in research, teaching, college administration, & community organization. He said that [in writing this pamphlet]: “1^st, I wanted to sort out my experience at Pendle Hill, where I have learned something about what a community is & is not, should & should not be.  2^nd, I thought there was a need to write about community [to include more than just communes].

   Introduction—How can I participate in a fairer distribution of resources unless I live in a community which makes it possible to consume less?  How can I learn accountability unless I live in a community where my acts and their consequences are visible to all?  The popular image of community, on the other hand, is distressingly sentimental and romantic.  The problems of our age will yield neither to personalism nor romance.  I write because the religious basis of community is at the heart of every great religious tradition.  The Book of Acts reports that the formation of a community of goods was among the first fruits of Pentecost.  The call to community was clearly a vital part of early Quakerism.  At Pendle Hill, George Fox was shown “a great people to be gathered.”  Most of what follows is meant to amplify the meaning of the “community” testimony for our time. 

  Quest for Community/Resurgence of Individualism—Much has been made about the quest for community in our day, but our rhetoric is not reflected in our actions. For 3 generations Americans have been in conscious flight from family and town communities.  We have been drawn to large cities, and small (disposable) families.  As much as we yearn for community, we yearn more for social and economic prizes individual mobility can bring. [We must 1^st realize that community] is a value in conflict with other values we hold.  Our verbal homage to community is only one side of a deep ambivalence in American character.

 The settlers of the American frontier had to possess both strength of individuality & capacity for community. [In the meantime we have lost our focus on community and are in danger of too much autonomy and isolation].  In community one could find the confining but comforting role which brought life back together.  With the break-down of community, new therapy developed, aimed at creating individuals who could get along without others. 

Education has become a training ground for competition, rooted in the assumption that we must learn to stand on our own 2 feet. Their function is providing the means by which society can decide who gets what, & how much. In religious life too, community has disappointed & failed us. The new religions with their emphasis on the solitary journey of the inward-seeking self, have found many followers.  At their worst, these new religions have made the self the vehicle [and] the object of the religious quest.  “Getting in touch with one’s self” has replaced “seeking the face of God,” because we have lost confidence that anything beyond the self exists or can be trusted.

The Risks and Politics of Community—The assumption that community is increasingly hard to find is well-founded. The assumption that community cannot be counted upon is a self-fulfilling prophecy. We will find the courage to assert [community’s value] and seek it only as we come to a new understanding of what it means to seek self-health.  For self-health is one of those strange things which eludes those who aim directly at it, but comes to those who aim elsewhere. The ultimate therapy is to translate our private problems into corporate issues.  Some of the truly private ones will fall away, and as we learn to see our own plight in others’ lives, we will begin to find health.  What a curious conception of self we have! [Rather than lose ourselves in community, we will gain a] larger and richer content of the self.  Once in community, the pain of losing one’s fantasies is fierce.  On the other side of all that there is no risk at all, only the confidence that life was meant to be lived together. 

Both the ultimate therapy and the ultimate politics is to build community.  We are lonely because a mass society keeps us from engaging one another on matters of common destiny.  Loneliness makes us prey to a thousand varieties of political manipulation.  Political scientists have long known that community in all its forms plays a key role in the distribution of power.  It amplifies the individual’s small voice so it can be heard by the state.

In mass society, on the other hand, individuals in it do not have organic relations with one another, only a common membership in the nation-state.  In a democracy, as community begins to wither, the conditions are ripe for totalitarianism to take root.  Without [community and a sense of relatedness], people will have no interest in government at all, except as it impinges directly on their self-interest. 

The American condition seems to be one of deepening privatism.  We are more anxious to protect our roles as consumers [and to buy our autonomy] than to develop our roles as citizens.  In truth of course we are inter-dependent, despite our expensive efforts to construct a façade of autonomy.  It will be some time before the worldwide pressure to share becomes great enough to make community the only sensible option.  Community means more than the comfort of souls.  It means the survival of species.

Communities: True, False, & Myth—A notable example of false community is the totalitarian society to which the decline of true community leads. Any brand of nationalism or racism is community run amok.

              False Community:                                        True Community: 

Tends to be manipulated by the state,        Is independent of governmental power. 

Holds the group to be superior to the         Individual and group both have a claim 

      individual,                                                 on truth.
     Tends to be homogenous, exclusive,          Strives to unite persons across socially 

      and divisive                                               fixed lines
     Idolatrous; their power is God’s power;     Takes the form of a covenant; self-critical

            demonic
These categories are not fixed, for a false community can turn true, and a true community can turn false.  Not all transcendent power is creative or benign. What the power is, and what it demands are factors that determine the quality of a community’s life. 

The 1^st myth to deal with is that community is a creature comfort which can be added to a life full of other luxuries.  Community is another of those strange things which eludes us if we aim at it directly.  It is a byproduct of commitment and struggle.  We cannot have it just because we want it—because the foundation of community itself goes beyond selfishness into life for others. 

The 2^nd myth tells us that community equals utopia, that in easy access to one another [there will be universal brother- & sisterhood]. In learning about ourselves & our need for others, there is the pain of not getting our way, but the promise of finding the Way. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is right about the destructive potential of being in love with one’s dream of community. We can begin to know the fullness of truth only through multiple visions.

Community’s 3^rd myth is that it will be an extension of our own egos, a confirmation of our “reality.” In a true community we will not choose our companions, for our choices are so often limited by self-serving motives. If our companions are given to us by grace we can avoid the trap of “the purified community.” [Likeness brings harmony; it also brings stagnation]. Community reminds us that we are called to love. Community can break our egos open to a God who can’t be contained by our conceptions. Community will teach us that our grip on truth is fragile & incomplete. Commit yourself to God; in that commitment you will find yourself drawn into community.

Forms of Life Together—Martin Buber says: “We expect a theophany of which we know nothing but the place, and the place is called community.  Communes assume that the small intentional, withdrawn community is the only worthy form of the common life.  But they are out of reach for many people.  For some of us, the community to build is the family, but we will rebuild the community in the family only if the lure of achievement can take 2^nd place to the cultivation of relations between the generations.  If it seems idealistic to suppose that many people will place community of any sort ahead of financial gain, the prospect of shrinking world resources may force us to do just that.  As women lay claim to their economic rights, it becomes clear that men must more fully share the tasks of family nurture if the family is to be a model of community.  Perhaps we can move toward larger expressions of community by asking how to enlarge our sense of who belongs to the family. 

 For others, the community to build is in our neighborhoods—which tend to be held together more by mortgages & zoning laws than by love of neighbor. Without local communities, it is impossible for people to have true community nationally. In our mobile metropolitan life, it takes some external force to make a neighborhood become aware of itself as a community. Racial & economic factors have caused false, exclusive communities to form. People in a Washington D.C. neighborhood seminar set out to build community in small but concrete ways. [The very act of organizing neighborhood resources] was itself a community-builder. Others among us may be called to build community in the places where we go to school & work. When we destroy the community of work [through hierarchy & competition] we get unethical products, degrading service; in education we get dehumanized teaching & learning. [A change in attitude will be necessary], because most of us are dubious of the benign assumptions about human motivation which lie behind group projects where everyone is “wins,” & no one “loses.” There is evidence that the group really is more intelligent & perceptive than any single member of it.     

Quakerism and Community—Some of us may be called to build community in our churches, but the church is a human reality and has failed to be the kind of community God (and some of us) had in mind.  [If the church could] learn to deal with its secondary differences in the context of its ultimate unity, the church would be the most compelling model community on the American scene. 

The core of the Quaker tradition is a way of inward seeking which leads to outward acts of integrity and service.  The Society of Friends can make its greatest contribution to community by continuing to be a religious society and centering on the practice of a corporate worship which opens itself to continuing revelation.  Community happens as that of God in you responds to that of God in me.  It is my joy in silent meeting to seek with those who find different ways to express the inexpressible truths of religious experience. 

The mystical experience of unity is not often manifest in the realm of human relations; those who seek inward unity may be tempted to flee the imperfections of outward life. The quest for truth among Friends is meant to be corporate, not a private reverie. Friends can contribute to community by refusing to follow the religious individualism of our times. Friends also have an important contribution to make in the individual’s growth. It is a Quaker principle that the individual must be empowered, not overpowered or outvoted in the meeting for business.

The truth Friends have been given has led them into some of the hard places of history, places where truth must speak to power.  In these places the living experience of community has been found.  [For the persecuted early Friends,] “their necessities kept them together” (e.g. caring for Quaker prisoners and their children; sharing the few animals not confiscated; witnessing to the need for justice).  [If we can] abide in faithful living, then we will contribute to the creation of a community both human and divine. 

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213. The Triple Way: Purgation, Illumination, Union (by George Terhune Peck; 1977)

  About the Author—George Peck took his doctorate in Italian history at the University of Chicago in 1942, and served in the Italian section of the Office of Strategic Services in WW II, was a POW for 6 months, and received a bronze star.  For the past 15 years he has been a member of the Stanford-Greenwich Meeting, CT.  He has served for more than a decade on the Executive Committee of the New York region of the A.F.S.C.

   [Introduction]—[Are experienced and weighty Friends bored with meeting when they go away]?  Can it be that those who have left us are stuck in a pattern?  Teilhard de Chardin writes: God . . . waits for us every instant in our action and in the work of each moment.”  So important is this concept of growth that it is voiced again and again.  3 levels of spiritual progress are [an important part of] the thought patterns of the ancient world. 

 The 3 levels correspond to 3 stages of purgation, illumination, & union. Teresa of Avila writes: “The beginner must think of oneself setting out to make a garden in which the Lord is to take his delight, yet in a soil unfruitful & full of weeds... The garden can be watered 4 ways: drawn up by hand from a well; drawn up by water-wheel; from a stream; from heavy rain. [The last,] when the Lord waters it with no labor of ours is incomparably better [than the other ways].” One can adopt these 3 stages or categories as a kind of map, which is needed to understand the journey. [The map lets me] explore where I have been, tell of whom I met there, & to peer ahead.

Purgation—In Jewish and Christian experience, purgation has meant the attainment of moral purity.  50 years ago I was brought up guilty.  The preparatory school I went to was dedicated to Achievement through solid and largely unaided human effort.  Acceptance in the community meant being popular.  It is easy to feel guilty, easy to get stuck in the pattern of driving out evil and striving to be good.  [Any number of social groups will try to induce guilt]. Incitements to status preservation advanced by advertisers are based on pervasive social anxiety.  [George Fox’s answer was]:  “Mind the Light and dwell in it . . . it will keep you atop of all the world.”

Spiritual growth comes not through the denigration of humanity but its divinization.  But one cannot shed a lifelong burden of guilt in one day, especially in a world that encourages guilt.  I discovered Freud, who changed the shape and terminology of Judeo-Christian moralism.  The guilt was no longer mine but Dad’s and Mom’s.  People were led to normality [but not blessedness].  Freud added the dimension of the unconscious, and revived the status of the dream world.  Freud proclaimed that the real nature of inner man and woman was erotic. 

 I and many others quickly accepted Jung’s modifications of Freud; [he introduced archetypes and] cured many.  In Jung’s unconscious, the sinner is likely to run into the dangerous other sex, and the soul becomes the battleground between sexual natures.  But additional reflection reveals that every human consists of a natural mixture of the 2 natures, which need not be in conflict, but only accepted.  [Since] Jung did not accept the omnipotence of God, his thought is not of much value as one progresses to the higher stages of illumination and union.

I did not realize how important asceticism was.  My ascetic period was involuntary as I became a prisoner of war in October 1944.  I spent 6 months in prison, 5 months in solitary confinement, and learned a lot.  The 1^st lesson of extreme deprivation taught independence of the things of the flesh.  The 2^nd lesson was realizing that I did not deserve all this, and through my dreams (Phillippe Souppault’s “theater of prisoners”), that my unconscious could be full of fun rather than dangerous and dirty.  The evil that is so magnified by Freud and Jung is in reality irrelevant—a strange and aberrant accident for one who knows God.  Joel Goldsmith has taught how the appearance of evil can be overcome by the inner conviction of the omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence of God.  The illusion of evil must be daily confronted with the reality of God.  The dogmatic disbelief in spiritual reality in America is supported by the heresies of determinism and humanism. 

 [Economic, sociological, & psychological] determinism makes human beings slaves of external circumstance and infects all social science.  I am angered by the determinist who [label] the Society of Friends as “white, middle class” and because socio-economic categories are so widely accepted.  God is no respecter of status or persons; [labels inhibit God’s love].  Love can operate only if we realize what unites us and not what separates us.

 Humanism denies God.  One of the greatest dangers we face as Children of God is to think we are so by our own efforts and merits.  The proposition that health + wealth= happiness is drummed into us daily on TV.  When humanism leads one into thinking of oneself as a good person, problems arise.  Perfect joy lies in the complete rejection of individual personality and the complete acceptance that all good comes from God.  Identity is not defined by a name or a body or a set of habits, but by one’s relation to the eternal. 

 Illumination—It seems to me that during the course of life, moments of both illumination and union occur during the process of purgation.  I do not think the human being has ever existed who has not experienced some form of illumination.  Since illumination can come to all people, Quakers maintain that God is in fact in all people.  Light comes in a completely unpredictable way, beyond human will, reason or imagination. 

 Anna in Mister God, This is Anna complains that thinkers are forever putting God in boxes.  The imagery or box [that one puts God in] is a matter of taste, and one cannot argue about tastes. Through the experience of Quakerism and the teachings of Joel Goldsmith, I have come to see illumination is an every day commonplace affair and that one must set aside periods of each day to be open to it.  [Spending time in nature reveals many of earth’s marvels].  Many companions can be found in this exploration of God in nature, such as Rousseau, Wordsworth, Goethe, Thoreau, Whitman, Muir and Jefferies.

Visions are very common in the Roman Catholic tradition [e.g. Narciso Tomé, Joan of Arc, St. Francis, Teresa of Avila].  Among Protestants visions have always been suspect.  Churchmen who are more involved in doctrinal definitions, social work, moral teaching and organizational power have denigrated mysticism.  For years I found God in churches on a regular basis.  Among the Children of Light I came to think of God as light.  The “dark night of the soul” of St John of the Cross [led me to find that] God was in the darkness, too.  St. Augustine says that God is a Way beyond ways, A Good beyond goods, Power beyond powers. 

 Among the forms in which I find a rich God experience is that of music.  Dance, as Ram Das illustrates, provides an analogous form of divine expression.  The structure of the meeting for worship does not allow dance, and permits only single melody sung by one voice.  Another and quite different form of illumination comes through confrontation, the overcoming of threatening danger by the power of God.  God’s power comes when the individual sees the threat as an illusion.  Illumination also releases us from threats other than those of violence.  I have spent most of my life worrying about money and jobs and only recently have begun to receive the illumination that exposes want as illusion.  On the inside I am beginning to see that it is not my efforts that produce the supply, but God’s grace.  It is not my harvest, but God’s bounty. 

 Clare of Assisi, Julian of Norwich, and Teresa of Avila overcame the fear of illness, and Paul, Ignatius Loyala, and Fox survived incredible physical injuries through spiritual power.  The fear of death is perhaps the ultimate evil overcome by illumination.  Death transforms that precious little human personality that we have been coddling all our lives.  To renounce that personality and see it fused in God is the ultimate illumination. 

 April 1945, I thought I was going to be shot.  After a time of solitary, agony, and prayer, the spirit of God came to me.  A great peace descended upon me as I told God that I had done all that I could as human being and that I was ready to go if that was God’s will.  Suddenly I felt free and the great peace was filled with joy.  God did not take me then, but he taught me a great lesson.  Sometime death will come and it will be all right.     

Union—Just as the processes of purgation and illumination run along at the same time, so illumination merges into the experience of union with God or ecstasy.  Ecstasy is not limited to Christian and Jewish channels; philosophers from ancient Greece reported trances.  Teilhard de Chardin developed a cosmological vision in The Phenomenon of Man of evolution toward a future “omega point” of union with God.  Abraham Maslow studied ecstatic trances or “peak experiences.”

 Joyful & invigorating as these experiences of union are, they present the danger that the individual may take to investing human notions with divine purpose. The early Quaker James Nayler so identified himself with Jesus that he allowed himself to be led in a procession aping Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Though far from infallible, the testing of an opening by the group experience can often distinguish notions from truth. In meeting the universal spirit enters in the same way into the universal consciousness of each of us. A heightened awareness of the union of the group with God comes with practice. The gathered meeting as an expression of union with God is the rock upon which the Society of Friends is built. It is a revolutionary doctrine which in Howard Brinton’s analysis transcends the bounds of both Roman Catholicism & Protestantism in 2 important respects.

The 1^st is that God speaks directly to us. His revelation is continuous & not limited by the tradition of saints, or by the letter of the canon of Scripture. Fox clearly states that Friends deny tradition & Scripture only when these are dead & that both are aids to our primary goal of direct union with God. The 2^nd revolutionary element is that God’s role in our lives is a daily experience. Friends are plain people of all shapes & sizes. If revelation has come to them, it can come to any one—not just to the heroes of Christian and Jewish history. This is so every day.  If we do not “pray without ceasing,” if we do not carry the sense of the presence of God with us always, God’s grace does not operate in us; it is dormant unless we open ourselves to it. We set aside an hour or even a minute during the day in which we each turn to God. Then, when 1^st Day rolls around, we can come to meeting for worship rich in grace & be surrounded by God’s presence in all our friends, by the love that passes understanding.

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214.   Jacob Boehme: Insights into the Challenge of Evil (by Ann Liem; 1977)

“I had long been undergoing an intense effort to find the heart of Jesus Christ and to be freed … from everything that turned me from Christ, when suddenly the gate opened.  In ¼ hour, I saw and knew more than if I had been many years at university… I knew and saw in myself all 3 worlds: divine, angelical; dark world; external, visible world as outbreathing of the internal, spiritual worlds.”

  About the Author: Ann Liem majored in philosophy at Berkley & explored Zen for 21 years, 2 of which she spent in Tokyo studying Buddhism. An overwhelming conversion experience led her to Christianity, Quakerism, & Boehme in 1970. She gave a brief talk on Boehme at Pendle Hill, which has developed into the present pamphlet.  She writes:  One of the most important tasks of our time is to reconcile East and West in order to understand how they supplement and support each other.”

 Introduction—Quakerism is founded on the belief that the mystical encounter is central to religious life.  Holy Scripture itself, we never forget, is the result of the mystical experience.  Jacob Boehme—cobbler, mystic, visionary, illuminate, clairvoyant—was born in 1575, 49 years before George Fox, and died the year Fox was born.  [All the similarities between their lives suggest a profound spiritual kinship].  Were they linked somehow by the revelation of truth, and the converting of a people to follow it? 

Yet in personality and accomplishment differences were abundant.  It is not likely that Boehme was an influence on Fox, as Fox put small value on the findings of other men, and was never a great reader.  William Law claimed that his life was changed entirely by Boehme’s influence.  Other supporters include Newton, Hegel, and Goethe.  Poets inspired by him include Novalis, Milton, and Blake.  The Quakers Howard Brinton and Rufus Jones sought to generate appreciation for the mystic.  [Following in the spirit of this mystic] evil is neither something to deny, nor something to live with comfortably, but it is also no cause for despair.

 The Life of Boehme—He was born to Lutheran peasants in a village near Goerlitz, a Bohemian possession.   We have a picture of a serious, shy, withdrawn youth, a shepherd for his parents. His formal education was a few years of elementary school. Abraham von Frankenberg, says: “he was modest, patient, & meek of heart.” He seemed to have an innate awareness of reality’s invisible dimensions & a deep sense of divinity’s presence behind the physical world. A stranger came into the shop one day & foretold his future of greatness, poverty, anguish, & persecution. A short time later Boehme was rewarded with an illumination that put him in a 7-day state of ecstasy. 

 In 1600 he had the supreme visionary experience of his life, which established all the major themes upon which his many works were based.  After gazing at a pewter plate reflecting the sun, he felt himself in the presence of God and was aware of being inducted into the very heart of the universe.  Boehme stated:  “I had long been undergoing an intense effort to find the heart of Jesus Christ and to be freed … from everything that turned me from Christ, when suddenly the gate opened.  In ¼ hour, I saw and knew more than if I had been many years at university… I knew and saw in myself all 3 worlds: divine, angelical; dark world; external, visible world as outbreathing of the internal, spiritual worlds.  He waited 10 years to write it and another illumination in Aurora (Glow of Dawn); he produced 30 books and treatises during his lifetime.        

The Aurora was circulated by a nobleman, and it immediately set in motion a long and bitter feud between Boehme and his Lutheran pastor, Gregorious Richter; Boehme was often unflattering to the established clergy.  Richter decreed exile; [it was lessened to a gag order, which Boehme abided by for 7 years].  Boehme was encou-raged by friends, and afraid that God would be disappointed [if he acted the coward].  He wrote in spite of persecution and the threat of severe punishment, and became a renowned figure throughout much of Europe.

The Nature & Manifestation of God—What was it that this gentle man saw which caused him to be despised by some & so venerated by some of the most spiritual men of his day? Boehme’s insights can be divided into [4 main] categories: the nature of God and creation; the Fall’s meaning; salvation; good & evil’s inter-relationship. The themes comprise a system; it is necessary to read most of his work to grasp it; he is also repetitious. 

Once the pieces are put together, we possess a marvelous illumination on the age-old problem of good & evil.  Reading [& understanding] him, we come to feel that the plan for mankind which God unfolds is a magnificent one. The core of Boehme’s doctrine, is a masterpiece of invention, arising from the Creator’s desire to sport or play. “Of the reason why the eternal & unchangeable God has created the world, it can only be said that he did it in His love. Man’s fall was inevitable, though freely chosen by him, i.e., he eagerly accepted the opportunity to eat of the Tree of Good and Evil, to participate in a world multiplicity.”  From early childhood Boehme was aware of manifold invisible realms. His visions demonstrated that man was truly & literally made in God’s image.  “The life of a man is a form of the divine will, and to do the will of God means to become fully godlike, realizing ones highest ideals. The abyss manifested itself through the drama of creation whereby God saw Himself in Himself. 

  Boehme’s 7 phases or “qualities” in God’s process are: desire; motion; anguish; conflagration [passionate fire]; light or love; sound & form; complete realization of 1^st 6 in nature. The 1^st mentioned here is a contracting force that brings the potential for being an individual. At the same time there is motion (2), an centrifugal, organizing force. Together they generate anguish (3). From the great tension, an explosive passionate fire bursts forth (4). Through this flash are manifested all the opposite pairs of the universe, i.e. the beginning of multiplicity.

 Boehme’s 5^th quality “is the love-fire which separates from painful fire; divine love appears as a substantial being… The soul in its substance is a magical gush of fire from God the Father’s nature. She is a passionate desire for light.” Boehme’s 6^th quality, “sound,” symbolizes sensory awareness. The 7^th quality is the complete realization of the 1^st 6. Rufus Jones writes: “God’s Word, & eternal Son [is] a visible realization of God’s eternal heart.”  Boehme writes, “We find everywhere 2 beings in one—1^st, an eternal, divine and spiritual being, and then one that has a beginning and is natural, temporal, and corruptible… God must become man in order that man may become God.”    Seen within the context of the harmonious interplay of the 7 qualities, conflict appears as an essential ingredient of an elegantly proportioned and balanced whole.  The divine will is one and undivided, stemming from the purest goodness and expressing itself in a vast plan of intricate design, interwoven with threads from the “dark source.”  Boehme writes, “All human beings are fundamentally but one man.  This [Adam] is the trunk, the rest are branches, receiving all their power from the trunk.  In Paradise, Adam was embraced by eternity.  God created him in His image and only when he fell did he become subject to the limitation of time.” 

 Central for Boehme’s thought was the insight that Adam was originally neither male nor female, but contained the qualities of both sexes within himself. The 7 qualities of God were originally in harmonious balance in man, as they are eternally within God Himself. The development of these qualities depends upon a free choice and experienced knowledge of good and evil, which can exist only in a world of paired opposites.  Preparing for the Fall of Man, God drew out the feminine qualities from Adam and formed Eve.  “When Lucifer saw his own beauty & realized his high birth, he became desirous of triumphing over the divine birth, & of exalting himself above the heart of God.” He wanted to be a God & to rule in all things by the power of fire. Each individual life reflects the pattern laid down by them & described in Genesis—a dynamic pattern eternally operative with the Godhead. 

Salvation & Regeneration—Reflection of the macrocosm of God, the microcosm of the individual soul contains a world of dark anger, as well as a world of sweet loving light; these 2 must always be in conflict. It is the primary intention of the Creator to reconcile these 2 impulses, as they are reconciled within Himself, & to bring the creature back to Himself. [Adam’s journey into the world & a self-centered existence of pride & materialism] carried him far from his creator; only God’s grace could rescue him.

 God’s great act of redemption was taken as the Christ Spirit, working through the body & mind of a fully human individual Jesus of Nazareth. Through the incarnation, a new opportunity opened for man, a giant step forward in spiritual evolution. Jesus redeemed us by making it possible for us to realize the same quality of life he had realized, to reach the same heights of spiritual perfection he had reached. Boehme writes: “I must clothe myself in Christ by means of the desire of faith. I must myself enter into his obedience.” We become children of God in Christ through an inward resident grace which regenerates us into childlikeness. This regeneration is a lifelong struggle & growth. “While I was wrestling & battling, being aided by God, a wonderful light arose with my soul.  It was a light entirely foreign to my unruly nature, but in it I recognized the true nature of God & man & the relation between them, a thing which theretofore I had never understood.” 

It follows from Boehme’s strong emphasis on free will that “election” & “predestination” were contrary to his convictions. Boehme emphasizes that Jesus “came to invite sinners.” For the soul that says “yes” to God, allowing the New Man to be woven within itself through the work of the resident Holy Spirit, the outer life changes drastically. The soul reborn is indifferent to prestige, wealth & worldly distractions; it is meek, self-effacing, concerned for the well-being of others, detests all wars & violence & conflict with its neighbor, acts as a peacemaker among men, & in all ways shows itself a submissive servant & God’s friend.  Not until man & God reach out to each other & the birth of the New Man is completed will the purpose of the universe be fulfilled.  [As a concert band must be tuned] so must the true human harmony be tuned, combining all voices into a love melody.

The Problem of Free Will—[After looking at Boehme’s insights on evil], we can see that they also illuminate the problem of free will. The decision for good or evil is made as an inevitable outgrowth of the individual’s deepest nature. [Why would anyone choose evil]? Boehme’s visions revealed 2 concepts: that each soul is a combination of good & evil forces; the human soul was the precious core of an evolutionary process. “Every fiery life was brought forth in its beginning to the light.” And God has willed for us a role of surpassing nobility [with] an attitude of abject humility, coupled with a singing, rejoicing exulting faith.

Every manifestation of Being is a product of the 7 qualities (desire; motion; anguish; conflagration [passionate fire]; light or love; sound & form; complete realization of 1^st 6 in nature), combining in a long & complex blossoming beyond our capacity to comprehend. Having begun its development before it enters the earth, the soul continues to evolve throughout its sojourn here, where it is offered the opportunity of articulating itself. Each decision that it makes is crucial, both for its next step in life & for its ultimate quality & destiny. The soul suffers many obstacles: physical pain & deprivation; disappointment; humiliation; loss of love; egotism; & sensuality. These distract or lead it away from God. The universe to Boehme is a vast evolutionary system moving on many dimensions towards the full crystallization of the Creator through His creation… Only how courageously & wisely the soul has met the challenge of evil, how enlightened it has become concerning the journey’s purpose, to what degree it has allowed itself to be used as the divine will’s instrument determines its quality in God’s eyes.   

Each soul is offered God’s love & opportunities to turn to God repeatedly. The challenge of evil is a thread woven throughout the structure of the universe; its mysterious patterns are not to be fathomed by man’s mind. If a soul becomes hardened & “darkened” by too many wrong choices, if it has become too deeply entangled in materialism, too self-centered, proud & unloving, it is in danger of losing its capacity to respond to the divine benevolence within itself, & is lost forever. For Boehme heaven & hell are not places, but states of mind & soul. 

God brought the universe into existence that we might have the opportunity of understanding good & evil & creating our own destiny.  Love must 1^st be recognized, through a contrast with hate, understood, then laboriously and painfully struggled for through a gradual relinquishing of the selfish will.  God dignifies [and respects] man by giving him autonomy in creating his own soul and destiny, and He respects man’s decision whatever its nature.

Practical Applications—Man [on his part] strives to achieve a middle ground between 2 dangerous possibilities; failing to develop his individuality sufficiently; or becoming self-willed & [going the way of Lucifer]. If God wants to differentiate Himself in us, His mirror, then we must develop our capacities to the utmost, discovering, imagining, creating on the intellectual level, & entering into a wide range of relationships.

 [If a soul is stuck in the battle between desire & motion, & there is no ignition into a passionate fire], the soul cannot find peace. Youth’s hostility & self-centeredness isn’t a stage that can be skipped. [The soul is taking stock of itself, who it is, what it can contribute]. No soul can move forward until it makes peace with itself. The more familiar & probably more difficult source of evil [—i.e. prideful self-indulgence—plagues those who] are en-chanted with themselves & their own games, & genuinely unaware of any purpose in the world beyond self-indulgence. Either of these 2 possibilities can open the soul to the spirits of evil, & result in the soul’s final “hardening & darkening.” A small amount of self-doubt [which translates into realization of one’s role as God’s servant], & arrogance [which becomes recognition of one’s power & worth], are necessary.

 Boehme’s thoughts avoid the following 4 unsatisfactory ways to explain or reconcile evil with an omnipotent and benevolent Creator: 

1.  The absolute denial of evil, [explaining it away as] an error or illusion.

2.  The despairing, resigned acceptance of evil because both God and man are partially and irrevocably evil.

3.  Creating God’s adversary of equal power, waging an eternal war with each other. 

4.  Attributing evil to man alone, [thus creating an unbearable and unnecessary burden of guilt.

The blueprint of the divine source, [the 7 qualities], being firmly rooted within every man and demonstrated by the life of Jesus of Nazareth, cannot be set aside without the risk of neurosis, illness and finally spiritual death. 

       Jacob Boehme predicted that his works would gradually fall into obscurity, and reemerge “in the time of the lily.”  Many signs point to the likelihood that that time is at hand.  It is to be hoped that Quakers in particular, will rediscover in Boehme an inspiring link with the spiritual currents upon which their own faith originally rested.  [This and other] mystical streams are once again bubbling to the surface throughout the world, offering nourishment, refreshment and a straight way to the Lord for all who have eyes to see and ears to hear.     

 

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215.  Art, Imagery, and the Mythic Process (By Dorothea Blom; 1977)                

 About the Author—Dorothea Blom, artist and writer, has been in several communities: Pendle Hill for several years, Woodbrooke in England, Vittakivi in Finland, Koinonia in Baltimore, Aurobindo Ashram near Pondicherry.  She has a special concern for the meeting place of art, religion and growth processes in our changing world.  She is a member of the Chappaqua Monthly Meeting (NY).

 Introduction—Each of us is a myth-maker. Dreams have been called the individual’s myth, & myth the race’s dreams. Myth, [in fact] does have reality, though it is very different from reality of the factual, functional, & practical. The mythic process is a fusion of history, parable, & event. Mythic reality has 2 possibilities: society [uses them to] indoctrinate the individual with its values; the individual becomes aware of the process & explores it. Art permeates community life, teaching it how to focus & what to live by. This process continues, especially in the use of mandala forms which range from sand paintings of Navajo Indians to Lippold’s gold wire creations. Social myth justify “what is” & make sense out of community expectations. They can be healthy or destructive.   

  Image of Inner & Outer Worlds/Individual Initiative—Visual artists are the magic myth-makers par excellence. Evelyn Underhill describes mystical experience in terms of the artist’s “new seeing.” Mystics have described the world reborn, as it calls up new life in them. The richer the assimilation of new impressions, the greater the possibility of personal evolution, involving the relationship of self and world. An artist can help us discover life lines between inner and outer world.

Blessed are the disillusioned, for they no longer live for the better tomorrow that never comes—this is the 1^st beatitude; [something important inside them no longer sleeps].  Certain works by that amazing mythic painter, Gauguin, present images of fate and personal initiative in combination, especially Two Women on a Beach and Moon and the Earth.  I do not mean to interpret these paintings.  A happening between each person and a work of art is unique.  And we must be wary of withdrawing defensively into “inner life.”

 Finding the Images we Need—A work of art may confirm life as I know it—or it can bring me into contact with something new, becoming “a shock to my knowledge.”  [When I am seeking images I am] careful not to be over-impressed with what I “like” and “don’t like.” [Likes and dislikes] may represent my particular inward polarization.  [When I have selected images I live with them for a while]. 

 A similar process can change our whole relation to museums.  We can discover cultures and artists that are our spiritual relatives by going through the history of art from cave paintings to now.  If a strong archetypal symbol is working in my life I watch for images of that archetype.  An archetype is a universal symbol for some aspect of human nature, helping to make it tangible and real.  [Some lives are lived] as if the person abdicated in favor of a mythic being.  The individual can eventually resolve the problem with watchfulness and patience.  Landscape, weather, seasons, and times of day become a language of the soul, expressing the kaleidoscopic range of human emotion values, and relation to life.

 Traditional Mythologies/Black Africa—There are a few artists of our time who respond to Greek myths, sometimes with power.  One of my favorites is Lipchitz’s Prometheus Strangling the Vulture (1949) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  It is a somewhat abstract bronze sculpture, a highly original and expressive image charged with energy.  It gives new life and new implications to an old Greek myth.  [Instead of the vulture endlessly eating his liver, this] 20^th century Prometheus has taken the initiative in strangling this vulture, choosing to have done with useless and self-consuming suffering, what Berdyaev refers to as “black suffering.”  “White suffering,” as I understand it is a mourning over aspects of the human condition that move one to a new relation to self and life; this is the 2^nd beatitude. In their borrowings from Greek myth, artists of the 20^th century are likely to lift beings out of context [e.g. Reder’s sirens; Picasso’s minotaurs; Brancusi’s Cycladic intimations]. 

 In the US there has been increasing interest in the art & myth of Native America, Black America, & Eastern cultures.  Our process can be accelerated [beyond art’s access to another culture] by exploring its history, religion, & mythology. [For example], a dramatic influence on the West began percolating when African ceremonial masks were exhibited in Paris at the beginning of the 20^th century. African art’s “many point perspective” says the mountain has many shapes, a different one from every vantage point, instead of one constant shape.  The Black African masks also encouraged Western artists to abstract significance from their visual experience.

 One fascinating example of convergence is the recent work of certain Makonde artists who migrated to Tanzania; they combined their traditions with the local culture.  The Makonde carvings flow as if the life were poured into them.  A Family Group by Roberto Yakobo is the carving of a father, mother, and child with the mother on the father’s lap and the child aloft, seeming to flow out of the head of the father, and supported by the mother’s arms.  It has affected Henry Moore’s work. And the African-Western convergence continues, moving both ways [with unique results of the convergence of cultures].  [This is the transformation of a social myth from a few centuries ago, when feeling, intuition, mythic truth, and ever present mystery were regarded as inferior even dispensable, and Africans had to be regarded as a primitive culture. 

India—We cannot lump India, China, & Japan into 1 culture. However, all 3 tend to emphasize the universal at the expense of the individual. Each is at home in the present rather than living life [in the] past & future with little room for the present. India is still India, even though this last millennium has been a “tired” period in its 4,000-5,000 year continuity. There has been profound Moslem influence. Poverty & over-population is a product of recent generations. 

  For me the richest period of Indian art coincides [with the spread of Mahayana Buddhism during the 1^st 10 centuries A.D].  India then was to East Asia what Greece was to the West.  Much of the best surviving art of this period in India is live rock sculpture in artificial caves, made by Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains.  In a mythic sense a cave can signify a secret place, a hidden place, a dark and mysterious place, a womb in mother earth.  No other of the “great religions” has given so large a role to feminine aspects of divinity as Hinduism.  Nor has any culture used the nude more expressively.  Indians are surely the supreme myth makers of the human family. 

 China—In China a great proportion of the most vital art is animal & landscape, for here is a people with an ancient tradition in ecology. They are philosophical rather than mystical, practical rather than idealistic.  Confucius fared better than Lao-tse Chinese society. [I discovered from a Chinese professor] that only Westerners relate the Yin & Yang symbol to opposites, both inner & outer, finding relationships. Chinese think of Yin & Yang only externally.  Some of the Chinese animals of the Han Dynasty belong with the most vital animal art of all time. 

Full fledged landscape as setting for human activity began in the Han Dynasty.  In the Sung Dynasty we see the greatest landscape development of all time.  [These landscapes often trigger] a new visual response to nature in art class.  In the West one of our important needs is a new kinship with earth, [seeing it as a living thing and not a lifeless resource].  Within the small group of educated Chinese who refused to serve the bureaucracy, we find much of the most vital Chinese painting.

 Japan—As I scan the imagery of Japanese art, the words I think of first are nature, energy, drama and humor.  The Japanese relationship to nature is more open to the spiritual.  Their love of nature made them want to live close to it and they developed an architecture capable of breaking the boundary between inside and outside.  The energy visible in most periods of Japanese art also shows itself in the amazing ability to assimilate from others without losing touch with essential Japaneseness.  [Their painting of fire is full of energy,] and Zen monks supply us with a fair portion of humor and wisdom in the world of art.  Before Chinese influences made themselves felt in Japan, male and female aspects of human nature seem to have been well balanced.  [Afterwards, a military leadership known as Shogun arose, and lasted until modern times.  

Horrendous Gods in Asia tend to have positive intimations.  Nepal has Sarva Buddhi Dakini. There is a 16^th -17^th bronze statue of her at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Like most horrendous gods of the East, this strident, erotic goddess drinking blood from a skull and wearing a necklace of skulls is our friend.  She drives us to our wits’ end till we allow her to lead us to our true nature.  The early 19^th century painter and print maker, Hokusai, is responsible for Mount Fuji Seen Below a Wave at Kanagawa.

Mandalas—The mandala is an image representing both microcosm and macrocosm.  It is a device which makes it possible to work with intangibles.  “Mandala” has become widely used as a term for the whole species from classic Tibetan mandalas to Najavo sand paintings and Gothic windows.  Navajo Sandpainting by Millie Royce (1937) is actually a pen and ink drawing.  It features 5 stylized snakes, 4 of them spiraling outward from the center in shades ranging from white to black, and each pointing 1 of the 4 direction. The 4 are nearly surrounded by a 5^th black snake in the shape of a “C.”

 A prototype mandala is a circle with all parts finding their relation to a center which represents the Divine in the cosmos and within persons.  In cultures such as the Tibetan and Najavo, each mandala is unique, a spin-off of a specific event or worship on the part of the artist.  The classic mandala of the East began in India, evolved in Tibet, then spread through Asia.  Heaven is the generative center within and is also outside, encircling all the other symbols.  Mandalas can take a spiral or organic rather than mathematical shape, or can even be 3-dimensional, as in temples in many parts of the world.  The ideal mandala for each of us suggests our many selves and the possibility that they can find their place serving the center Self, through which new life comes. 

We of the West became over-impressed by “irreconcilable opposites.”  Now we begin to learn we must not settle merely for our strong endowments, ignoring or rejecting our lesser ones.  The many human aspects tend to polarize into semiconscious sets of “good self” versus” bad self.”  A “good self” becomes a curse as it mistakes itself for the Center.  Neglect of our own center makes that center seem unreal; we hardly dare hope it exists.  In the 20^th century West, the mandala principle grows in importance because more and more people long for an effective  religious base within themselves to help them become whole persons, deeply connected with life as a whole. 

 There is a 3-dimensional mandala in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Variations Within a Sphere, No. 10: The Sun (1953), by Richard Lippold.  Sun, star, and flower fuse as one in this modern 3-D mandala of gold filled wire. Our artists know instinctively that we of the West need to re-learn the spiritual significance of this archetypal image.  Photographs reveal mandala forms in nature, from microcosmic structures to spider webs and spinning constellations in outer space. As we ponder these images they become a part of our mythic process. 

  For the 1^st time in the human venture on earth we are beginning to experience the human family as one body, represented by many persons and cultures.  We need one another in order to know ourselves.  If I take the initiative in this process, aided by the non-verbal language of imagery, I discover my many selves.  I also discover the coordinating and unifying factors that works for me when I trust.  Like some 20^th century Janus, a strengthening part of us develops between inner and outer world.  Able to look both ways at once, and honoring the reality of each, this Janus mediates between the worlds, and helps us take part in continuing creation.

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216.  O Inward Traveller (by Carol R. Murphy; 1977):

Keep to that in thee, O inward traveler, that shuts the wrong eye and ear, and opens the right; then wilt thou be in the number of such as our Lord pronounceth blessed, saying, Blessed are your eyes for they see; and your ears for they hear.”        Job Scott’s Journal

 About the Author: Carol Murphy has written more Pendle Hill Pamphlets than anyone now living; this is her 13^th. [She went from approaching the waters of meditation (Available Mind), to 1 step beyond the shore (Sound of Silence); with O Inward Traveller she plunged in]. The discipline of inward travel provides a common measure by which her topics of religious philosophy, pastoral counseling & Quakerism, theology of Paul Tillich, comparative religions, and the meaning of death may be tested.

Approach—We live in an “occupied” world of nuclear threats, starvation in Africa & Asia, killer diseases lying in wait for one’s family & self. Yet we read in Julian of Norwich: “All will be well, & all shall be well, & all manner of thing shall be well.” After my skeptical college years, I was seriously challenged by the existence of an alternative mode of awareness, through St. Augustine, St John of the Cross, Evelyn Underhill, & Rufus Jones.  The great mystics’ experience of God’s presence was as real to them as God’s absence was real to me. If there were a Divine Reality, it had an urgent claim on me, & for a brief while I felt God’s call to live by this vision. This call was the impetus behind all my subsequent return to & study of religious belief. I [soon] saw how empty & “notional” religion could become when God is merely talked about or speculated upon. Oriental spiritual disciplines & “altered states of consciousness” sparked a renewed love affair with mysticism. What follows is the story of the encounter between various kinds of meditative approaches & my mind’s particular shape & personality.

 The Alternative Vision—1^st, we are dealing with an alter mode of knowing.  Then there is what is known, the ultimate, dynamic matrix of being-existence, a “field” in which we live, move, interact, and have our being.  Of the ways of knowing, there is the usual, thing-knowing, and there is the “mystical” way or field-knowing.  It is with this mode of knowing that the presence and glory of God is apprehended.  The field-seer (or knower) has developed his capacity for this field knowing, and aims at the unselfed life in which his ego is replaced by a deep center united to the Divine matrix.  The field seer has episodes of field-seeing, what George Fox called openings.  Field knowing is thought to be facilitated by the process of mind-stilling (meditation and contemplation).  It has always been a problem whether meditation causes field-knowing or is a response to it.  It is perhaps safest to think of meditation as cultivation and watering of a seed that grows by its own laws.  Openings come to the prepared mind as seed sprouts in prepared soil.  The deeper wisdom knows that we must still the verbal, thing-seeing half of the brain that the latent field-seeing half may be freed for inspiration. 

 The Way Inwards—Christians practiced “meditation” by thinking about God or picturing the life and work of Jesus.  The Oriental tradition is the discipline of mind-stilling.  The settling of the mind’s roiled-up waters seems neither very holy nor heroic; but it can have a healing effect.  You sit and stare into space and you don’t think about a damn thing, but something’s going on.  Sometime later you find out what it is. 

 Transcendental Meditation seems to be a concession to the anxious feeling that there is just one correct drill that only Teacher knows.  [“Needing”] a special, secret mantra is highly suspect.  The mantra has no particular meaning to the meditator.  Most of these relaxation methods lack the important ingredient, so important from the religious standpoint, of a disciplined regimen of life.  I have noticed that even a few minutes of this self-forgetfulness is tremendously invigorating.  [The early Quaker] Penington said:  “Lie low before the Lord in the sensible life, not desiring to know and comprehend notionally, but to feel the thing inwardly, truly, sensibly and effectively.”  Simone Weil said: “Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.”

Degrees of Attention: Absorption—I found that the traditional Hindu Yoga, Poulain’s degrees of interior prayer, Claudio Naranjo’s Outer, Inner, and Middle Ways of meditating sorted themselves out into absorption, insight, and dual-focus methods of training the attention.  My 1^st experience was with Lawrence Leshan’s How to Meditate.  He taught himself an altered state of awareness from his scientific research to explain ESP and spiritual healing by using Patanjali’s Yogic Aphorisms and Evelyn Underhill’s Practical Mysticism.  Leshan said:  “you strive to be aware of just your [breath] counting ... [Conscious] thoughts and feelings are a wandering away from the instructions... You are aiming at being totally involved from your head to your toes.”  Full of hope, I plunged into breath-counting and contemplating a pebble, and emerged months later sadly frustrated and self-divided.  Watching the World Series, I wondered why God was throwing me such a curve ball. 

A Wider Awareness—[God then guided] my hand to the writings of Nyanaponika Thera and Chögyam Trungpa, Buddhist teachers, one from the Southern school, one from the Tibetan. Chögyam Trungpa said:  Generally one cannot really concentrate . . . One should not try to suppress thoughts in meditation, but one should just try to see the transitory nature, the translucent nature of thoughts.”  The Buddha himself failed to find what he needed in absorptive yoga, and turned to self-clarification through insight. 

 I abandoned mechanical breath-counting for simple awareness of the drawing in & letting out of my breath, & prepared to watch my thoughts go by. In daily activities like T’ai Chi, the meditator can slow down, & become tranquilly aware of the beauty of the simplest task. [When successful] Sri Aurobindo says: “[thoughts] cross the mind as a flight of birds crosses the sky . . . it passes, disturbs nothing, leaving no trace. Zen meditation can be either wide-angled, or veer to the absorptive end of the spectrum. In my own insight meditations, thoughts still carried me away. I abandoned the expectation of an ideal tranquillity; meditation is a search for the real, not the ideal. [Perhaps vocal release of pent-up doubts & fears is necessary before] we can hear the still small voice. 

The Dual Focus—Complete single-mindedness is not essential all the time; what is essential is that the activity of the mind or body not distract from the central intent directed to the Ultimate.  Thomas Merton wrote:  “This state of attention to God certainly can co-exist with a simple kind of action. . . [Some people] may find that when they sit down and try to attend to God . . . they become tense and confused, too aware of themselves. . . It is better for a person to be somewhat active and not be aware that anything special is going on.”

[This then is a kind of active] “Martha” meditation or contemplation.  For Merton it is quite legitimate not to be mindful of just the one activity, but to wash dishes for the love of God.  A sort of split-level or dual-focus way of meditating can emerge.  Possibly the restless modern mind must begin its centering on God in this divided fashion, stilling the mind at one place which can later spread its centeredness to the whole.

 The Here and Now Presence—What makes the dual focus kind of meditation is not one thought competing with another, but a simultaneity of thought with movement, or imagination with will.  The simplest and least “mystical” method is the informal conversation with God or Jesus as recommended by St. Teresa of Avila.  It need not be ecstatic.  Indeed, it may become sheer emotional indulgence unless it includes all one’s grumbles and aridities.  Another method is the continual inner repetition of “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.”  Even when  approached maturely, it may not accord with the workings of one’s psyche. 

  Another approach to the practice of the Presence is not so much a method as an attitude, one that accepts in faith the presence of God hidden in the present moment. For Friends who believe that all life is sacramental, this sacrament of the present moment is a way to make this belief very real. J. P. de Caussade writes: “There is never a moment when God does not come forward in the guise of some suffering or some duty, & all that takes place within us, around us & through us both includes & hides his activity. . . You seek your own idea of God, although you have him in his reality.”  While mindfulness presses toward enlightenment, faith is content to follow a way of darkness, to find God’s presence in his absence.  St. Thérèse of Lisieux said: “My consolation is not to have any in this life.  Jesus never manifests Himself not lets me hear His voice.  He teaches me in secret.”  As de Caussade puts it, there are those who lose sight of the divine will because it moves behind the soul to push it forward.         

 Invitation to Pilgrimage—It may be useful for the journey to ask what sort of person you are.  It is better perhaps, to find meditation neither too easy nor too hard.  [If they are too easy and rich, they may be] pursued as ends in themselves and not for what they were opening the person up to.  In our practice, we must learn how to combine will and surrender.  Our [own] temptation to spiritual greed comes with the envy and discouragement we feel in reading the accounts of those more proficient in meditation than we seem able to be.

As we differ in the paths we take, so we will differ in our need for guidance.  It is in the more advanced stages of field-seeing, when contents of the deeper psyche may have to be explored.  Thomas Merton speaks of “dread”—the necessity of the purifying doubt of one’s fidelity and authenticity in the face of God’s total demand for truth in the inward parts and the little death of ego.  Meditation must not become a closed, self-confirming system, and another person can be God’s agent in helping to keep us open.  As you journey on the way, you will inevitably feel a certain withdrawal from the trashy values of the “the world,” [along with] compassion for those still in it.  You will have to steer a course between the avoidance of separatist priggishness on the one hand and over-assimilation on the other. 

What good does your inward journey do?  It is not so much what good you and I can do, but what good can be done through us.  I once was told that my presence in a group was “supportive,” though all I did was sit there.  Sometimes just being is the best kind of doing.  This is the secret of field-knowing: that we are all partakers of the divine activity.  Jesus was [in effect] saying, “Don’t hold a metaphysical autopsy; do God’s healing work.”  We reach a deeper plane when we realize that for Buddhism the poisoned arrow from which we all suffer is our self-protective sense of ego—our thing-seeing blindness from which we have to be awakened.  [Those of us who seek field-seeing] by dying to self can play our part in bringing the gift of the eternal, living, all-encompassing works of God made manifest in the growth of Christ in each and all. 

John Woolman said: “As I lived under the Cross and simply followed the openings of Truth, my mind from day to day was more enlightened.  I looked upon the works of God in this visible creation, and an awfulness covered me.  My heart was tender and often contrite. . . Some glances of real beauty is perceivable in their faces who dwell in true meekness.”   You come too.       

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220.   A Fifth Yoga: the Way of Relationships (by Joseph Havens; 1978)

The more completely we recognize and confront the Otherness of other persons, the more potentially redemptive they become for us.  Joseph Havens

 “To see the failings of our friends, and think hard of them, without opening that which we ought to open, and still carry a face of friendship, this tends to undermine the foundation of true Unity.” John Woolman  

 About the Author—Joseph Havens was educated at M.I.T. as an Industrial Engineer. WWII terminated that career after 2 years; he served in a Quaker C.O. camp. He continued his radical way of life in a Quaker commune. He worked with Blacks, work camp style, in desolate South Chester. He received a Ph. D. from the University of Chicago, & taught at Wilmington College & Carleton College in Minnesota. Although Quaker, he practices Buddhist Vipassana meditation. The Way of Relationship is one which he practiced before he could name it.

 [Introduction]—There are many paths to God. Seers of India described 4 broad disciplines, or Yogas, the Ways of: knowledge; devotion to a god; work or ritual duty; psycho-physical exercises (what the West thinks of as Yoga). A “5^th Yoga,” the way of human relations, is missing. Only gradually did I become aware of this way & its disciplines as a spiritual path.  It has entailed: changing my understanding of relationships; evolving a discipline; greater reliance on the guidance of powers beyond my own.  Personal relationships are a means of seeing.  Central to the discipline of the 5^th Yoga is the fact of Otherness.  The matrix of the Yoga of Relationships is our life with others.  The more completely we recognize and confront the Otherness of other persons, the more potentially redemptive they become for us.  Otherness is known in empathic and confrontational mode.

 Seeing through Another’s Eyes: Empathy—My 1^st teacher in the disciplines of the 5^th Yoga was Carl R. Rogers, originator of Client-centered Therapy.  Uncompromising honesty, [with oneself and with others] was the most important learning I gained.  It is a cornerstone of the 5^th Yoga.  A specific discipline I learned was getting inside the frame of reference of the other.  Rogers queries:  Can I step into the other person’s private world so completely that I lose all desire to evaluate or judge it?  Can I enter so sensitively that I can move about it freely, without trampling on meanings which are precious to him?  Non-judgmental listening as a tool of understanding is a basic ingredient of the 5^th Yoga discipline. 

 Rogers also taught that the discipline of seeing through another’s eyes is so demanding that it can take account only of what is in the other’s consciousness now. [Rogers indicated that his question has changed to: “How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth? All our current relationships are potentially growthful for everyone involved; they are part of our schooling, & include parents, children, spouses, and lovers. 

 Taking Back the Projection—Later I was a “religiously-oriented counselor” at Carleton College in Minnesota.  [I saw projection] in the confused feelings of my students.  What was not obvious was that I also was projecting.  I had been putting some of my “religious conflicts” onto my students.  [One thing I realized from this] was the pitfall of trying to comprehend another’s religious journey with the mind alone.  I needed a viable faith and a spiritual practice.  [In talking about this with my wife], she said, “Oh, you are looking for a ‘Yoga’ for yourself.”  Franklin Edgerton wrote:  Yoga means method, means . . .  exertion, diligence, zeal . . . a regular, disciplined course of action leading to a definite end of emancipation [i.e. union with a Cosmic Self or God].  It was indeed a “yoga” I was looking for. 

 Across the Mat—In the mid-1960s I became associated with a group of clinicians who introduced me to a whole new dimension of my discipline.  [At 1^st I felt inferior, but as I broke into the group I found that they were] not so comfortable as I thought.  Talking in this group sometimes led to “the hot seat.”  I was tortured with wanting to risk being in that position, yet frightened of the unknown things these probers would uncover in me.  [As we helped one another], the love among us grew.  Otherness can enter our lives and change us [as we listen] carefully and try to experience the world he or she lives in.  [In the 5^th Yoga] caring, direct, even angry confrontation can be healing.  In the yoga of relationship, growth rests upon being confronted, sometimes against our will, by the new and unexpected dimension of another person’s being.

The 5^th Yoga entails perceiving relations as means of true seeing rather than as instruments for our satisfaction.  Otherness is more directly and powerfully known in direct confrontation.  The aims of confrontation with Otherness are discovery of Truth and growth in love.  Confrontation is relevant as a mode of knowing only if the truth contained in it can be heard and assimilated.  A caring atmosphere is the element most necessary for this receiving and assimilating to occur.  The controlled professional responsibility and skill of a group leader, along with a serious and responsible attitude from the participants, may provide a non-sentimental kind of caring quite appropriate to the 5^th Yoga path; a deep affection and respect may grow out of such a soil.  

Confrontation and Caring—In the working party on “The Future of the Quaker Movement” [we built up] good feeling and respect [without dealing with] anxieties, irritations, and latent jealousies.  [Without realizing it, I tried to impose my definition of communication on a speaker and I was confronted about it].  Through their mediation I had met an Otherness.  Frank criticism had not been programmed into our group, and came only after the deeper springs of our feelings had been opened by the earlier eruptions.  The falseness of [avoiding strong emotions] and of programmed love is safer than running the danger of feelings which may be part bad and part good.  We can trust the bad feelings of others first; then, having traversed with them the Valley of the Shadow we can more easily give and receive tenderness.  In a confrontation where deep hurt surfaces and tears flow, [there is often] a coming together.  It begins to dawn on us that at root our interests are identical, our destinies the same. 

Corporate rituals [which follow such moments] seem to allow the universal or transcendent dimension of the event to be recognized and integrated without diluting the particularity of one person’s suffering or another’s need for forgiveness.  Quakers have a long tradition of honesty in speech and action.  John Woolman said:  “To see the failings of our friends, and think hard of them, without opening that which we ought to open, and still carry a face of friendship, this tends to undermine the foundation of true Unity.”  Without caring for another, criticism may simply raise the level of fear and anger, and Truth is shadowed.   

For Better or For Worse—Within my marriage my wife Teresina and I have experimented with 5^th Yoga disciplines, sometimes explicitly, sometimes unconsciously.  Hermann Keyserling’s Book of Marriage expresses the 5^th Yoga view of marriage as:  “The intention of marriage is not to slacken but to intensify conditions.  [From it] regeneration and new growth are made possible. . .  Marriage is not a fixed state . . . but should be looked upon as a problem that has to be solved ever anew.  Marriage is a lifelong pilgrimage. 

A long-term partnership usually begins with each partner presenting those facets of him or herself which please the other.  [Eventually] hurt and pain shatter the original oneness and the partners are forced to take another look at each other.  The more one looks, the more unfathomable becomes the mate we thought we knew.  [After a painful interaction triggered by a household disaster] we decided to re-enact the scene, and when Teresina entered the room, we should stop our words and let our bodies alone carry the action.  [Her body language expressed feeling overburdened.  She felt she could never meet my expectations; I was always calling for more].  We came upon the paradox that a genuine confrontation with the Other may lead toward becoming more at-one with her.  To affirm our oneness and to understand it may be characteristic of a fully matured religious consciousness.

 [In my marriage I tried to impose my rhythms of energy & activity on her, & she silently accepted it]; it was a hidden collusion we had never identified. I now let her care for her own rest & food needs without my interference. Dealing with the Otherness over the years can unlock the vise-grip which a life long companionship can place on us; real changes are possible. My wife is the Mirror which reveals what I need to know about myself.   

The Light that Reveals—[By listening carefully, & with a detached meditative attitude, I noticed] how much competitiveness and tenseness there was in the Meeting for Business. Along with this new seeing came compassion—for all of us caught in the self-concerns which cut us off from one another.  It is a part of Quaker genius to provide in worship the opportunity for just this kind of deeper seeing, but we too seldom use it—especially while doing business. 

[A meeting was organized to reconcile bitterness & contention between 2 members. The presence of 2 or 3 members while they explored their feelings about one another] acted as a catalyst to better communication; the 2 principals began really to hear, to take in feelings of the other to which they had been deaf. Most of us are at the stage in our Friends Meeting where we need special situations to make full use of the spiritual potential of our mundane Quakerly affairs. It is an uphill struggle to see our Monthly Meeting proceedings as anything more than getting the business done. Our present-day Meetings & Churches, with all their tensions and blockages, can be arenas for the practice of this particular spiritual path. 

Companions on the Way/My Own Otherness—Buddha said:  “Having spiritual companions is not half of the spiritual life, Ananda.  Having spiritual friends to share one’s journey is the whole of the spiritual life.  A similar teaching is evident in Merton’s description of the life of the Desert Fathers.  [My wife and I needed] to develop a sub-culture in which confrontation with Otherness is acceptable, a norm.

 Temenos, our spiritual retreat, is hidden in the woods a mile from the road, with no electricity or telephone.  Each summer, 10 or 12 of us come together for a week of mutual, unprogrammed search.  In discussing someone’s dream, someone else ventured that dream might be saying something about what had been going on in our group. [What had been discussed on another occasion as a seeming minor irritation became a deep sharing of hurt].  Some of us became aware once again of how deeply we hurt one another. 

At Temenos we intend to experiment with workshops, focused on the 5^th Yoga. [On 1 occasion when 2 women role-played men, & 2 men role-played women, some of us were brought] in touch with parts of ourselves that we usually repress or relegate to the opposite sex. We envision Temenos as 1 of many cells in a network in which 5^th Yoga practice will be nurtured & developed. Many of these already exist—in spiritual communities. 

As I move in my own journey into a more meditative phase, I seek confrontation less than I used to.  The stage of the journey which lies before me has to do with meeting and integrating my own inner Othernesses.  I am referring to my Shadow, my inner Child, my Anima, etc.  I doubt if we can know Otherness racially and deeply within ourselves without dealing with it in engagement with other persons.  The way of human relatedness described here means contending with the full Over-thereness of other beings.

The 5^th Yoga—The concern of this writing has focused on certain aspects of the spiritual way of human relationships. The 5^th Yoga draws heavily on contemporary psychological disciplines which try to foster good communication, creative human relations, supporting & loving communities. It asserts that the religious search is a lifelong one, & it involves disciplines which apply to all the situations & relationships of one’s life & not just specially designated ones.  

  My experience with the 5^th Yoga leads to the conclusion that any attempt to make ourselves more wise or more loving soon brings us up against the high walls of our competitiveness, our self-conceit. Transformations do occur. The truth grows on us that we in the hands of powers which we do not understand. What began as an empirical observation evolves into a faith. When the visible fruits of our walking the path seem non-existent, remembering to open ourselves to guidance & support from powers beyond our own can sustain us in persistence & in love. The other sense in which the 5^th Yoga is a spiritual path is its mystical element. [In the episode with my wife], I experienced a sense of burden in my own body. Beginning with attention to the many, we come upon the One. We begin to see in George Fox’s words, “that we are written in one another’s hearts.”  The 5^th Yoga then, is a contemporary path to Truth.  It is a particular talent of the present age which we are meant to multiply.               

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222.  The family as a way into the future (by Elise Boulding; 1978)

  Mostly the family dance is just the choreography of the reserved life, of all the left-over inexpressibles from hours of duty out there in the social web.  Always it is the Tao, the mirroring of the divine order, however imperfectly, as we teeter back and forth between the created and uncreated in the task of family growth. Elise Boulding          

 About the Author—Elise Boulding was born in Oslo, Norway, and came to America when still a small child.  [She has degrees in English and sociology].  A sociologist with a global view, she is particularly interested in conflict and peace, family life, and women in society.  Her publications include: History: A View of Women through Time; Children’s Rights and the Wheel of Life; The Social System of the Planet Earth (as a co-author).

 [The Tao of Family]—The future of the family is a subject often approached with great anxiety in these times.  I have long been convinced that families are the primary agents of social change in any society.  I have come to find the phrase “the Tao of family” meaningful, because it reflects the special nature of family as directioned movement.  [There is] ambivalence about whether the family is basically a good institution for human beings.  The truth lies somewhere between [“families are all devotion” and “families are all pain].”  Is there some better set of arrangements than the family almost within sight that will produce better human beings, more economic justice, and peace instead of war?

 The art of social design is at least 10,000 years old, but social designs always misses the individual’s uniqueness. We push at the edges of custom daily by performing our various roles in our special way.  The family is an ancient social invention that provides support for the individuation process [& shelter from the harshness of social prescription]. In times of rapid social change, the shelters do not function very well. [People feeling trapped in families or the social web experiment in creating] new family forms or the modification of existing ones. 

 The commune is an alternative family form that has been invented over and over again.  The history of these experiments puts the experiments of our own times into proper perspective.  A commune is even more demanding than a “kinship” family in terms of skill in social relations.  They must be exhaustingly recreated each day, and most people are not prepared for that kind of effort. 

 [Household Patterning]—Even in more settled times, there have been many variations of household patterning.  While a certain portion of any population lives in households which are standard for the society, demographic analysis is showing that fewer people lived in these standard households than had been thought.  It is hard for true individuality to flourish [where there are no] others who can mirror back the growth of one’s individuality over time; [families provide that mirroring]. 

 We worry far too much about the form of the family, as if there should be one optimum pattern answering the human condition.  There have always been widows, widowers, and unmarried women rearing children.  What is new is that the concepts of neighborhood have been weakened.  The 2-parent family is also being inventive, moving away from a cramping “woman-in-the-home only” image.  The personhood of the young and the old have also had to be redefined as we gain a better understanding of human capacity and social needs.

 Is it all over with the family, or is it still a significant human enterprise?  Here I will be referring to any household grouping which involves adults and children in continuing commitment to each other over time.  There may any number of adults; they may be heterosexual, gay or celibate.  What makes the household a family is that each member will care about each other member and be available in time of need.  A single-person household can be a “family” if there is an active network of nonresident friends and relatives in a long-term commitment. 

Family life is continuous creation of human beings & of the society in which they live. It is a reflection of the divine order & a uniquely individual act. [The Tao I speak of] is: the divine order & a way; non-action and action; God the Created & Uncreated. Quaker families are rich in traditions on silent waiting. In a spiritually alive community there is seepage of the spirit from individual to family to Meeting & back again.

The Dance of Growth—For the dance of growth to go on, each member must be daily attuned to the different body signals of each other member.  Part of the humor is dancing as if everyone were yesterday’s person & making belated adjustments to today’s person.  The magic of the dance still creates its own understandings. 

There are many forcible intrusions on the family ballet, but for the most part, this person-creating family dance goes on.  Each creates the other in the family ballet.  All movement is dance, if we but recognize it [as such; we may have more joy in the process of recognizing it].  Mostly the family dance is just the choreography of the reserved life, of all the left-over inexpressibles from hours of duty out there in the social web.  Always it is the Tao, the mirroring of the divine order, however imperfectly, as we teeter back and forth between the created and uncreated in the task of family growth.   

Time-Binding/Family Healing—For a child, a parent is tomorrow, a grandparent is day-after tomorrow. For a parent, a child is yesterday & tomorrow. Each of us relearns all of an entire life-span’s roles each day. In the family we cannot ignore the different memory stocks of each member. When life spaces are shared, when I-remember & I-hope enter into dialogue, each person gains a sense of social process. Without storytelling, there is no time-binding, no coherence between past & future. Meeting death with a loved one, we travel both ways.  Family acts of healing are also time-binding. We expect parents to nurture children, but forget that children also nurture parents. Confidence in one’s ability to heal in the family is confidence in one’s capacity for social healing.       

 Conflict Maturing—Maturing in the capacity to handle conflict is one of the most discussed and least understood aspects of family life.  While conflict avoidance, conflict management, “fighting” skills, and communicating skills are all very important and legitimate approaches to family conflict, they must not substitute for an understanding of the basic process of conflict maturing.  The more the love, the more intolerable can differences appear precisely because we have been used to seeing things in the same way in the past. 

I use the analogy of 2 young trees planted close together.  [They share a space and yet branches and roots reach out in different directions]  A family is a small grove of trees planted close together; the newer young trees experience this mingling of roots and branches, and the separateness of new growth away from the center.  The more we are faithful to both our togetherness and our separateness, the more pain we feel.  The maturing of conflict means letting each element of the conflict take its own shape, and then stepping back to see this impossible, warring configuration as an embodiment of creation.  While we must acknowledge and face contradictions, we do not have to flagellate ourselves with them.  The “remember-when” session of family reunions are like what we do daily in the family, evoking the familiar to smooth over the unfamiliar. 

The capacity for conflict maturing between adults, and between adults and children is as necessary an ingredient for family well being as is the capacity to love.  When the family functions as I have been suggesting here, the dance permits each person to grow without trimming the edges [as one has to do to fit each social situation].  In family interaction, we must move in all kinds of ways that are not spontaneous to us.  We have so much tension and tightness in the family, yet the spaces to pass through are there if we know how to find them.  The key to envisioning the good, and our not producing enough goodness to change our social course to nonviolence, must lie as much in the family as in our capacity for social design.

The Peaceable Kingdom—We love one another beyond reason and beyond design, at the far side of hurt and anger, because there is an order of loving in creation which the Peaceable Kingdom passage (Isaiah 11:6-9) describes.  It is a parable of family life, as well as a parable of nations.  [As a family], we are bonded at another level.  We are bonded in the knowledge of God, which is also the love of God.  The teaching of love has always involved a paradoxical yoking of the cosmic and the particular.  To the extent that the family is faithful to its nature and task, it is alive with love. With God’s help, the family is the best practice-ground for love we have.  From our first experience of co-creation with God and each other in the family, we stumble out into neighborhood and community, and practice co-creation there.  How are we to create viable new local community structures to replace the frayed structures of industrial centralism, in a dynamic context of world neighborhood, world need, world service?  Yet that is what we must do, and it is the high calling of family life to prepare us for this kind of co-creation.          

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224.  In the Belly of a Paradox: A Celebration of Contradictions in the Thought of Thomas Merton (by Parker J. Palmer; 1979)

“I have had to accept the fact that my life is almost totally paradoxical.  I have also had to learn [not to apologize] for the fact.”  Thomas Merton

 About the Author—Parker J. Palmer is Dean of Students at Pendle Hill, where he has lived with his wife & 3 children since 1974.  He has a Ph.D in sociology from Berkeley, and 5 years of working in community organization in Washington D.C.  He found in Thomas Merton’s writings [a concern for] the centrality of contemplation in a life of action.  A desire to learn more about contemplative action is part of what led the Palmers to Pendle Hill. 

 Foreword (by Henri J. M. Nouwen)—Thomas Merton, who never thought of himself as a scholar, has probably inspired more theses than any other contemporary spiritual writer. Few unsystematic authors have been so thoroughly systematized. Parker Palmer has been able to evoke the capriciousness that made Meron such an endearing author. He was sobering & funny, strict & open, Catholic & Zen, hard working & always available to others. Parker Palmer has found in Merton a brother whose inconsistencies invite us to enter deeply & to discover there, beyond all contradictions, the One who cannot be caught or understood, but only intuited & recognized with a smile. Parker Palmer knows Merton because he has an affinity with him. The greatest surprise of all is that it leads us closer to the spirit of Merton, [&] to Him in whose service Merton juggled contradiction & paradox. 

 Introduction—Thomas Merton said:  “I feel that my own life is especially sealed with the great sign [of Jonas the prophet . . . because like Jonas, I find myself traveling toward my destiny in the belly of a paradox.”  Contradiction, paradox, tensions of opposites, these have always been at the heart of experience, and I think I am not alone.  As I labored to remove the contradictions before presenting myself to God, my spiritual life [remained] a preliminary attraction, never quite getting to the main event.  For me there was light and liberation in Merton’s image of life in the belly of a paradox, [in his saying]:  “I have had to accept the fact that my life is almost totally paradoxical.  I have also had to learn [not to apologize] for the fact.”  Steeped in Taoism and Zen, [he is] claimed by some in the East to be an incarnate Buddha.

Contradiction, Paradox, & the Life of the Spirit—The contradictions of life are inherent in human nature & in the circumstances surrounding our lives. The things we seek consciously & with effort tend to evade us, while our blessings come quietly & unbidden. The contradictions of private life are multiplied when we enter the world of work & politics. [Finally, there] are religious conundrums which have bedeviled humans for millennia.       

Thomas Merton has helped me understand that the way we respond to contradiction is pivotal to our spiritual lives. The ultimate contradiction is the apparent opposition between God’s light & our own shadowed lives.  [We can walk in the shadows or disown the dark world and try to live in a bright, private realm].  A 3^rd way is to allow tension to occupy the center of our lives.  By doing so we may receive the transformation of contradiction into paradox.  The choices we thought we had to make, may become signs of a larger truth than we had even dreamed. 

A contradiction is a statement containing elements logically at variance with one another. Paradox is a statement which seems self-contradictory, but on investigation may prove to essentially true. By spiritual standards many religious insights contain paradoxical truth. Faith assumes that rules of logic become less & less useful as questions grow deeper. The truth of paradox comes from the world being full of very real opposites pulling vigorously against each other. [Paradox should not be used to] excuse the contradiction, sanctify it, & allow us to for-get about it (Bonhoeffer’s “cheap grace”). We will become more responsive to God’s spirit as we allow ourselves to be engulfed by contradictions which God alone can resolve. Although Marxism, Taoism, & the way of the cross may seem contradictory ways of life, Merton shows how tensions between them open into deeper truth.

 The Way of Marxism—Merton must have been attracted by the contradiction that was at the heart of Marx’s  life & thought. Marx believed that the dialectic always develops around economic factors. Contradictions arise from the different, unequal relations people have to the center of economic power. In capitalism, the contradiction is economic injustice, which will become conflict. [Ultimately] the outcome would be a new synthesis, the classless society, in which economic injustice is eradicated. 

Merton knew that Marxism & Christianity come full circle in certain respects. Marxism reminds us of key elements in Christian faith which Christians have a habit of forgetting. The 1^st convergence is “Religion is the opiate of the people,” if by religion we mean its intellectual, institutional, [& dead] forms. The ministry of every authentic religious leader is to break people from their addiction to inauthentic forms of faith. A 2^nd convergence between Marxism & Christianity is in their concern for the poor. The religion of many middle-class Americans is designed to dull their sense of justice & allow them to live at peace with glaring economic contradictions. 

A 3^rd place where Marxism and Christianity converge is in the idea of the classless society.  [The early church] was meant to be a sign of a world in which all will care for all.  There is a major parallel between the Marxist classless society, and the Christian kingdom of God on earth.  A 4^th convergence is that they assume a false understanding of our origins and destiny as human beings.  With Marx it was bondage to economic powers that was false.  With Jesus it was our bondage to sin. 

 In each of these convergences, Marxism reveals something essential to Christianity, something obscured & forgotten through centuries of inattention & distortion. How do we live in fair exchange, so that what we consume is balanced out by what we produce? How can our spiritual labors be as useful to the people who feed us as their labors are to us?  What are their fruits? Merton argues that the monastery [or any spiritual endeavor] must repay its debt to world labor by “producing people” [i.e. develop the capacity to love]. 

 Where Marx spoke of the alienation of labor, Merton speaks of the alienation of our hearts.  Where Marx argued that capitalism robbed people of the means & the benefits of their work, Merton argues that modern life robs us of our hearts [i.e.] our ability to feel connected with others has been stolen from us. Our individualized way of life makes us feel alone & unrelated; our competitive way of life makes us feel that our gains must come at the expense of others.        

 The theory of nonviolent change Merton is committed to is the notion that beyond every conflict there a resolution, a synthesis, a common good, which will be obscured by violence, but revealed by patience, dialogue, and prayerful consideration.  From Marxism Merton learned about the spiritual affairs of the heart.  His understanding of action draws deeply from Taoism, misunderstood as advocating a passive retreat from life. 

 Some day, far out at sea heading away from the place where the Lord has called us and lost in contradictions, we will be swallowed by grace and find ourselves traveling [in distinguished company] toward our destiny in the belly of a paradox.  Parker J. Palmer   

 The Way of Chuang Tzu—Wu wei is the Chinese word for “non-action.”  It occurs often in The Way of Chuang Tzu.  Merton became the patron saint of social activists because he spoke so clearly to their condition:  “The frenzy of the activist neutralizes his work for peace.  It destroys his own inner capacity for peace.  It destroys the fruitfulness of his own work. . .  He who attempts to act and do things for others or for the world without deepening his own self-understanding, freedom, and capacity to love, will not have anything to give.” 

 If we are tempted to use power for purposes of self-promotion and self-enhancement, not only do these tendencies deflect our action from its original aims, they lead to counter-productive actions.  Taoism thus serves to criticize and clarify our action.  Chuang Tzu’s poem “The Need to Win” says that the only way to victory is to forget about victory, to be indifferent to it.  We should not let our desire to meet these needs drain us of the power to do so.  Taoism pushes us by insisting that our actions transcend the polarity of good and evil.

 From Taoism we learn that religion is a mode of connectedness with the creative force of life.  When we lose this connectedness with life, with one another, then we need a code of ethics to tell us what we ought to do.  The spiritual life teaches wholeness, integration with all being, and out of that wholeness comes true power and true action.  In the poem “The Woodcarver,” the great artist follows the spirit, the internal flow, the nature of the thing at hand instead of rules.  Only through disciplines of “detachment, forgetfulness of results, and abandonment of profit can we transcend those anxieties about self and success which distort our actions. 

The action of “The Woodcarver” requires a belief that things & people do have a “nature”; that is limits & potentials. Most of our social action is based on the assumption that people can be seduced or compelled into whatever form fits the activist’s conception of how things “ought” to be. Only through concern & respect for the nature of the other can our action flow with the action of the Tao. Through Taoism Merton learned another image of action. It is one which we need to know in our own strained & frantic time.  Although Taoism stands on premises quite different from Christianity, the more deeply we pursue the contradictions the more the paradox comes clear. 

 The Way of The Cross—The cross reminds us of a major, historical contradiction.  Men & women yearn for truth & goodness, but feel threatened when these appear in human form, & murder the one who fulfills our wish. The cross’ structure suggests the horizontal pull between this person & that, & the vertical stretch between the demands of the divine & the fears of the flesh.  To walk the way of the cross is to be impaled upon contradictions, and yet the way of cross is also the way toward peace, toward the center where contradictions converge.

Marxism begins with profound sympathy for the wretched of the earth, a sympathy which has been largely been lost in affluent Christian circles.  But Marxism allows pain to pursue its natural course toward anger and violence.  We have no reason to believe that change by violence foreshadows anything other than more of the same.

  In contrast, the cross signifies that pain stops here.  When Jesus accepted the cross, his death became a channel for the redeeming power of love.  The suffering of which Jesus spoke is not that which unwell people create for themselves.  It is the suffering already present in the world which we can either ignore or identify with.  The way of the cross means letting that pain carve one’s life into a channel through which the healing stream of the spirit can flow to a world in need, and bring us to the cross.  The way of the cross reminds us that despair and disillusionment are not dead-ends but signs of impending resurrection. 

 2 illusions must die on the cross:  false sense of self; false conception of the world.  Our “false” self separates us from God and from each other.  [In order to go through] the spiritual struggle to become part of the “hidden wholeness” [one must have an ego in order to lose it].  The 2 illusions are related since much of the false self is built around our notion of what “the world” wants and demands of us.  Merton chides novices for thinking of the world as an independent entity, a thing “out there.  The world is within each one of us.

The pain of living the contradictions is partly the pain of having our illusions shattered.  It is somehow more comforting to believe that the world is a monolith which forces us into certain ways of life than to accept the fact that we have the freedom to respond fully to God’s will.  Freedom is what the cross is all about.  The cross liberates us from the idea the world in “out there,” over and against us; the experience of the cross reveals that the world is in us, in both its glory and its shame.  Since the world is in us, we are responsible for the world; the shape the world takes depends on how we live our lives.   

Not only are we freed from the illusion and freed to respond; we also freed in the knowledge that the world is redeemed by a God who suffers the contradictions with us, [who] suffers brokenness, but always offers the gift of reconciliation.  By living the contradictions we will be brought through to hope, and only through hope will we be empowered to live life’s contradictions.  Some day, far out at sea heading away from the place where the Lord has called us and lost in contradictions, we will be swallowed by grace and find ourselves traveling [in distinguished company] toward our destiny in the belly of a paradox. 

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227.  Woman Ministers; a Quaker Contribution (by Robert J. Leach; 1979)

 About the Author—Robert J. Leach is 8^th generation New Englander, whose connections with Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket are strong.  He served as first Secretary for Pendle Hill Publications (1939-1942).  As Chairman of the history department at the Écolè Internationale de Genève, he has traveled worldwide in the interests of international education.  Bob has been clerk and historian, and is now elder for Geneva Monthly Mtg.

Preface (by Ruth A. Blattenberger)—A change in attitude regarding women in the ministry has evolved slowly during the 2^nd half of the 20^th century. In 1978 the National Council of Churches (NCC) released a statement showing that less than ½ of the churches in the US ordain women. Quakerism, on the other hand, has always encouraged women preachers. Traditionally this ministry rose out of a response to the Inward Light existing in all persons, regardless of sex; only a minority of pastoral ministers have been women. The women in Robert Leach’s study all belong to the unprogrammed tradition. Howard Brinton said: “Since the 17^th century there has been evidence of a continuing trend in Protestant sects toward the Quaker position (experiential religion).”

 [Introduction]—Both laywomen, and I as a layman feel discomfort in an ecumenical situation.  As a prophetic ministry, [Quakerism faces] the old conflict of prophet versus priest. Professionalism is a serious obstacle for women in most Christian denominations. Women’s access to the professional ministry does not appear to have become any easier. Women have been recognized as ministers by the Society of Friends since the time of its beginnings. Traditionally Friends have had grave reservations about the paid ministry. Our loyalty to unprogrammed meetings is a heritage of primary importance. Because everyone is illumined by the Holy Spirit, the spoken ministry is, of course, not limited to men.  George Fox said:  “I came up by the flaming sword to the place where Adam stood before he fell,” [i.e.] Fox did not believe that Adam’s sin was inherited. Fox found man and woman equal before God, and defended women preachers. 

Pioneering and justifying women’s roles—In 1652, Margaret Fell met Fox; she heard him preach in the Ulverston church near her home. She was powerfully convinced and said: “We are all thieves; we have taken the Scriptures in words, and know nothing of them in ourselves.” Margaret Fell was imprisoned several times, beginning in 1664, and forfeited her estate; later her term was reduced to 4 years, during which she wrote several books, including Women’s Speaking Justified. She protested that in rejecting woman’s preaching they rejected the Holy Spirit and power that spoke in her.

 Margaret Fell gave stability to the Quaker movement before it was organized.  Her home functioned as a center for the scattered group.  With Fox she was instrumental in establishing an organization.  To record ministers, a meeting would write a minute saying, “We recognize this gift in the ministry.” [A recorded minister] or public Friend was expected to resign from all committees in order to be free to travel, [including across the Atlantic]; mostly, 2 would travel together. 

 Carrying the Gospel Abroad/Discrepancies in equality—Elizabeth Hooton was George Fox’s 1st convert; she was middle-aged when Fox was only 22. She left her family when she was 61 for the 1^st of 2 journeys to New England. The Puritans did not let her disembark, but she went to Virginia & managed to return to Massachusetts. She was punished inhumanely, & imprisoned.  She returned to England & was imprisoned again. Armed with the king’s permission, which served as little more than a landing permit, she returned with her daughter in 1664. In Cambridge, she was brutally punished again & left in the wilderness. Later she accompanied Fox to Jamaica, where she died. Another early Friend was Mary Fisher, servant of a family which converted as a group.  After her rough treatment in Massachusetts, she was graciously received by the Grand Turk, Sultan Mohammed IV in 1658.

 My research suggests a double standard. Women had a secondary position, even though men’s meetings & women’s meetings were set up with the intent of being equal. The difference in inequality is seen in the history of Friends on Nantucket Island. Even though the Meeting was started by Mary Starbuck’s invitation to all who wished to come in silent waiting on the Lord, the meeting was formally approved by men in 1708 as a men’s meeting. The Women’s Yearly Meeting in New England came into existence in 1764 largely because of Nantucket women who operated so effectively while the men were away; most major decisions were handled by men.

 Patterns of Change—Generally speaking, the women involved in Friends’ ministries during the first ½ century of Quakerism were humble in origin.  The women generally had little involvement away from their homes, and little schooling.  Even men’s education was minimal among Friends at this time.  During the 18^th century, the Society “settled in” as it withdrew from public life.  Many families became part of the merchant class.  While some women became involved in social mission; many desired to stay within their homes, so domesticity did not carry with it a stigma of deprivation.  Though by this time many meetinghouses had been built, certain meetings for worship were still held in private houses.  Swarthmore Hall became a center for Friends in northern England, while Mary Starbuck’s Parliament House was a center for Quakers in the New World.  Quietism (submission to the Divine Will) pervaded the Society during the 1700s, continuing into the 1880s.

 The Hicksite & Orthodox Separation in 1827 was into groups of quietist & evangelicals with their pro-grammed ministry; women were prominent in both groups. Catherine Phillips (1726-1794) & Rebecca Jones (1739-1818) are examples of traveling quietist ministers [who warned against priestcraft, ritual, & inefficacious ceremonies]. These quietist ministers referred to the Bible, but felt Biblical texts must be interpreted through the Light within. Rebecca Jones’ ministry was of the Word, but full of social overtones. The evangelical & British Hannah Kilham (1774-1832) had a dream of an international missionary community in Africa. Great dissension was roused by her plan for Gambia because of its evangelical nature, not because of her sex. The decision-making was the men’s duty & privilege, while the many members of the Ladies societies did the actual work.   

 Pivotal Time: new thrusts and awarenesses—By the mid-19^th century, the climate was ripe for the vigorous spirit and charming personality of Lucretia Mott (1793-1880) to open the way for more women’s rights. Her Quaker heritage now discouraged women Friends from speaking in public or addressing non-Quaker gatherings.  Lucretia had a limited but adequate education for teaching school.  But the role of abolitionist early captured her energies.  Her meeting nearly disowned, as some pacifist Friends feared that radical abolitionist activities might lead to war.  Her keen mind and serene composure in confronting outbursts of angry pro-slavery was demonstrated on at least 2 occasions.  The exclusion of women from an international anti-slavery congress [aroused her interest in emancipation for women]; her speaking inspired Elizabeth Cady Stanton. 

Uniqueness of the ministry of Friends/A special contribution—Various Quaker ministries include speaking through the silence, the voicing of a concern, & speaking to another’s condition. Silence is a part of every unprogrammed meeting for worship. Sometimes meetings are completely silent. Out of a meeting for worship may grow a heartfelt concern. The concern is sometimes so filled with light [& clearly meant for others] that he or she is led to speak. [I once spoke using the elevation of the Host as an analogy for Inward Light, which 2 1^st-time Catholic attenders found meaningful].              

Prayer has a very special significance to me.  It is an important part of the ministry of the Society of Friends, although not exercised now as much as formerly.  Anna Brinton 1887-1969) was at her best in the ministry of the spoken word.  She was of the tradition of those who prayed on her knees.  [One of her prayers started with]: “We give thanks for the things that change not in the midst of man’s confusion, for the beauty of the world and the up-holding strength of household affection.”  For many years she was a forceful presence at Pendle Hill, the director-ship of which she shared with her husband.  Anna was unusually effective in anything she set out to do.  A very great woman in many ways, she went anywhere that a need existed.  She got from one end of China to the other by making arrangements on the spur of the moment.

 Co-participation of men’s and women’s groups—The 1^st combined monthly meetings of women & men happened in 1868 on Nantucket, [mostly because of decreased membership].  The London Young Friends Association did not merge their separate men’s & women’s meeting until 1920. In 1941, at a Conservative Friends Meeting, the men & women still met separately, & women asked permission before addressing the whole meeting. On the other hand, women seemed to dominate a Quaker group during the 30 years that Jane Palen Rushmore (1864-1958) was General Secretary of the Hicksite branch of the Philadelphia YM. She put much effort into bringing the 2 Philadelphia YMs together after more than a century of the Hicksite-Orthodox separation.   

 Current liberation/Universality of cultural patterns—Elise Boulding (1920-2010) is a modern friend with strong academic credentials; she has an important career in sociology & interests in community action & the dynamics of peacemaking. She has a special feeling also for the Catholic church. She lived for 5 months in New York City, where she was tremendously affected by John Haynes Holmes (pastor) & Catherine de Hueck (director of social work center).  In her pamphlet Born Remembering (Pendle Hill Pamphlet #200), she writes of learning to live in a new rhythm, [which includes extended retreats].  On weekends she joined her husband and other family members, attends meetings with them, or they visit her.  As an activist Elise is obviously drawn to women’s liberation.  The strong, independent Quaker woman in our modern day has often joined herself to the women’s liberation movement.  Some of its protest [includes] no male element at all when obviously both elements are essential. 

 The concept of spirituality as both male & female is dealt with in Pendle Hill Pamphlet #191, Feminine Aspects of Divinity, by Ermine Huntress Lantero; she said: “In the Friends lifestyle a rare degree of equality between men & women was insured by their realistic acknowledgements of ‘that of God’ in every human being.”  [Neither primitive South Pacific, nor sophisticated Far-Eastern cultures can find satisfaction with a sole masculine deity.  Buddhist and Chinese both see a combination of male and female aspects in the fully realized human being.  Lantero interprets [the Old Testament] God as generative Spirit which mothers the world into being in the creation story in Genesis.  The New Testament phenomena may be interpreted as an expression of Wisdom/Spirit. 

 [Conclusion]—Current efforts by & for women & increased recognition of the masculine-feminine attributes of [foreign deities] are causing Christian ecumenical groups to reexamine the issue of women in the ministry. The early Friends mentioned here established a firm foundation for women’s presence in the ministry by declaring that women could speak for themselves & carry God’s message far & near; they earned increasing respect through the years. But Friends have not always granted equality to women in administrative and decision-making roles.

Today we find Friends participating in ecumenical groups locally and internationally.  Some women friends do work with ease in the ecumenical world [e.g. Blanche Shaffer (FWCC), Tayeko Yamanouchi, and Ingeborg Borgstrom, Jean Zaru (WCC), and Lydia Stokes (NCC).  Both women and men share the gifts of the spirit, and we feel that a society which accepts unequivocally the lay ministry provides a special encouragement for its members to grow in wisdom and stature.  It would be desirable if the clergy in ecumenical groups would accept women in the full role of ministry. Women sense a lack of acceptance, and seek a deeper understanding of their position.  It is hoped that in this situation the constancy of Friends’ ongoing witness to the prophetic ministry, and its implications in regard to women as ministers, may serve as a helpful guidepost.

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228.  With thine adversary in the way: a Quaker witness for reconciliation (by Margarethe Lachmund; 1979)

 Only if we live in such inward relation to God that the right sort of love streams from us shall we have the courage and strength to witness for the truth. Toyohiko Kagawa

  About the Publication & Translator--[This pamphlet is a translation] from Margarethe Lachmund zum 80. Geburtstag, published in 1976 to commemorate her 80^th birthday. The translator, Florence Kite, was at Pendle Hill as Joseph Platt’s (our business manager) secretary; she met Margarethe in 1952. She was Executive Secretary of Intergroup Relations for Philadelphia YM & visited German Friends during the ’56 &’77 Yearly Meetings; she visited East Germany in 1970. She was assisted in translating & knowledge of Margarethe by Theresa Hoehne.

 Foreword (Florence Kite)—Margarethe Lachmund (1896-1985) is a German Quaker, a warm wise, loving woman held in deep affection by a host of us in Germany, in America, & wherever else we may have had the privilege of knowing her. Margarethe attended the Friends World Conference at Swarthmore in 1937. She was impressed by Frederick Libby, Rufus Jones, and Henry Cadbury.  Toyohiko Kagawa said: “Only if we live in such inward relation to God that the right sort of love streams from us shall we have the courage and strength to witness for the truth.”  [This piece] is not really about agreeing with your adversary; it shows how to reach out to him in a spirit of trust while holding fast to truth and avoiding fear and hate.  Other parts of the original include a 1946 talk given to a women’s group in Greifswald about organizing civilian relief during the Russian occupation. 

 Until 1946, the Lachmunds lived most of their lives in the province of Mecklenburg (East Germany) in a number of small towns.  They suffered because of their opposition to the Nazi party, and were separated by her husband’s imprisonment by the Russians for 8 years.  1948-1954 she served as executive clerk for the German YM; 1954-1962 she served as clerk of the YM’s Peace Committee.  Margarethe is an extremely modest person.  It was with great difficulty that she was persuaded that her story had relevance to non-German readers. 

 All My Life I have found myself placed between people of different sorts and differing views.  When I had completed my professional education I went as a governess to a castle in Mecklenburg in East Germany.  There I lived through the revolution of 1918.  I often found myself standing in between the open-minded but conservative Count and the Social-Democratic workers. 

Hans Lachmund was a democrat, & a passionate believer in republican government. His German National, [Christian Socialist] fiancé caused surprise if not uneasiness. I left the German National party because they didn’t disavow their right-wing member’s violent attempt to overthrow the National Assembly. After our marriage, I joined the Peace Society. [I had a passionate clash with our church pastor over politics]; I gave up in tears. It was a long time before I learned to arrive at calm conversation with people of an orientation other than mine. In 1924 my husband & I [went] to a democratic Peace Congress in London; here we met Quakers, [& stayed with them]. [The Quaker wife shared her peaceful views &] 2 young men our age tell about their refusal of war service.       

  A Christian Under National Socialism?/Strained Relations—After National Socialism came to power in 1933 [I asked]: What does it mean to live now as a Christian? Our group [only wished] to keep far away from all National Socialist & withdraw to an island. Through those difficult years I had gained valuable insights: Our side is not all white & the other all black; [everyone] has the potential for good & evil; we only strengthen on his fateful way the person who uses his power for evil when we meet him with anxiety, contempt or bitterness. [We had a foster-daughter for 9 months from a National Socialist family & sent her to relatives to celebrate National Socialist holidays].

  Official attacks on us began early, in 1933.  I was pilloried in the newspaper and questioned by police about the “Socialist Friends of Children,” for whom I was being considered for its chairman.  Our boy [politely greeted the policeman and he was transformed].  On April 9 my husband was suspended from his post as a judge, and later falsely accused of fraud.  I had offered to help former members of the dissolved Social Democratic youth groups to keep control of themselves and not to get into ill-considered political stupidities.  The SS-men surrounded my house one evening and the young people chose to go with regular police rather than the SS.  [I decided to stop having the young people meet at my house until it was safe for them to do so].  

 [I discussed the students,] the control exercised over my mail, and socialism with the deputy district leader.  He had had so decisive an experience of nationalism that no one could dispute it with him, [whereas I] “had the deepest human fellowship with beyond all national boundaries.”  [We later had another] long political conversation, open, often sharp, and partly dangerous.  I thanked him that I had been able to speak openly to him. 

  Hans Lachmund is Again Appointed Judge [in a Smaller Community]—My husband was appointed judge, & assigned to the court in Mecklenburg’s smallest town. [Our desire to take a friend’s daughter in seemed to cause problems with the National Socialists]. Her class teacher was an older woman, known as a passionate National Socialist. It couldn’t be a friendly interchange, & the teacher was right that our views would not change. But the girl stayed with us & went into a boarding school so that she was able to go on with her education. 

 We lived in the same apartment building as the very ambitious SS leader and the fanatical head of propaganda of the little city.  [I caused] icy aversion by not responding in kind to Heil Hitler greetings.  We thought of emigrating and we had to think more seriously about the need for an opposition to remain in the country.  After a hard struggle I decided to concede the morning greetings in the house and to officials.  Interestingly my husband was not required to greet with Heil Hitler.  [We were pressured to listen to propaganda, and] to avoid suspicion that we listened to foreign broadcasts, we ourselves had no radio till the end of the war. 

 The National Socialists in the house had children.  For their sake there was nothing for it but to muster all one’s strength to create a friendly atmosphere so they might grow up naturally and unaffectedly together.  [After 2 years] some unknown but kindly court promptly transferred my husband to Pomerania, where our past [including] the charges against us were not known.  But now the secret police, the Gestapo, entered the picture.

 From Mecklenburg to Pomerania—My husband was a Freemason, one of the 3 “international powers” which National Socialism regarded as deadly enemies. In Pomerania the local Gestapo came to us often with questions about Freemasonry. [Our local questioners seemed to have genuine insights into Freemasonry from the interrogations, but said the people at the top would not be reached with my husband’s argument].  [With considerable effort], I avoided answering the question on avoiding military service for the sake of young Quakers.  [On the question of pacifism, I said that the threat of mutual destruction] was just why the pacifists tried to find other ways.  [I asked]: How could nations live together from entirely egoistic points of view without its leading to the catastrophe of war? I received no answer. [When they questioned me on my stay in US, I feared they would ask if I had spoken to any emigrants deprived of their citizenship.  I knew that to keep my inner sense of assurance and freedom I must not lie].  Suddenly they broke off without putting the dangerous question. 

 On Behalf of a Jewish Acquaintance—My relationship with the Gestapo official assigned to watch my husband and me developed almost normally, in openness and naturalness.  [But he was] outraged that Jewish families had turned to me.  I said:  “Make your laws humane, and not a single Jew will know my name any more.”  In 1938 I had another interview with a higher official [on behalf of a Jewish doctor disabled in the war].  [I recited the battles he had taken part in and asked]:  And the leg that he lost? How we can we overlook all that, which our people at that time accepted as a sacrifice, Herr von Körber?”  [Even though] the former legal assurances of special treatment for Jews who had taken part in the war were officially withdrawn, our acquaintance was later saved from arrest by special order from the Gauleiter’s office [and was later allowed to resettle in Hamburg].

 The Post War Period/In Need of Supplies—Many experiences in the post-war period gave me ever-increasing certainty that hostility can at least be modified, even if not dissolved, in spite of the greatest conflicts in men’s ideas, interests, even moral principles, [for] there is an approachability in people.  When one approached Russian soldiers honestly, naturally, without aggression or fear, they reacted no differently than people brought up as Christians.  They gave me food and some work to do when I was being held for crossing into West Germany illegally.  They tried to take my living room furniture, but did not after I firmly said I would not let them commit this injustice.  I was to experience many times what a weapon there is in a quiet non-aggressive persistence. 

 [I used this persistence in many negotiations].  The mayor made me a special commissioner, first to protect the National Socialist Welfare storehouses against theft, & then to build up the welfare services. [I waited patiently & peacefully at Red Army offices to see the commandant]. We received 5,000 lbs. of dried potatoes. It would be misleading not to say how often I have been seized by a profound fear on such occasions. [I especially recall a] saying of William Penn’s, written in prison: “We can fall no deeper than God’s arms reach, however deep we may fall.” Then I found inward peace & detachment so that I was able to see in the powerful man simply another human being trying to carry out his duty.  With our weak powers we can help relieve the tensions evoked by conflict, and live in them in the right way if we seek to fulfill both of Jesus’ commandments of love & truth.  

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229.  Henry Hodgkin, the road to Pendle Hill (by John Ormerod Greenwood; 1980)

“Please remember that we are learners always, and whatever helps us to see light will be welcome, whether the process be joyous or painful.” Henry Hodgkin.

 About the Author—John Ormerod Greenwood’s unusual family name comes to us through a much loved grandfather who was a minister in the Methodist Church.  He was born in 1907, and began to attend Friends’ Meetings after WWI because of their peace witness.  In 1978 he completed his Quaker Encounters, a 3-volume study of Friends’ international work.  His main interests have been in theater.

  Foreword—This pamphlet embodies in revised form a lecture given to the Friends Historical Association and the Friends Social Union at their joint Spring Meeting at Alloway’s Creek Meetinghouse, South Jersey.  It comes from Quaker Encounters, Henry T. Hodgkin: A Memoir, and Pendle Hill Archives. 

 [Introduction]—When Pendle Hill, the Quaker Center in Pennsylvania, was founded in 1930, it was felt that much would depend on the choice of its 1^st director.  Henry T Hodgkin was then in his mid-50s, [with a history of work in national Christian movements in 2 countries & missionary work in China]. Henry took the road to [“the other Pendle Hill”] in the belief that everything begins in the mind and the hidden life of the soul before it has material existence.  Henry Theodore Hodgkin was born on April 21, 1877, in the North Country of England and died March 26, 1933 in Dublin.  [He had only 2 years at Pendle Hill, which] he establish on the basis of work, worship, recreation, and social action as “a haven of rest, a school for the prophets, a laboratory of ideas, fellow-ship of co-operation.”  They said when he died, that “the love and devotion of Henry Hodgkin have been built into its foundation.”  He said: “Please remember that we are learners always, and whatever helps us to see light will be welcome, whether the process be joyous or painful.”

 He was born among the proud Quaker clans of Darlington, “The Philadelphia of the North.”  Their energy was matched by their intellectual range and philanthropic interests.  So Henry started with all the advantages of birth and breeding, belief and money; and solid advantages they are for creating confidence in a potential leader of men.  Henry’s advantages carried with them their own built-in disadvantages against which he constantly struggled: a touch of arrogance and knowing better; profound ignorance of an empty belly, narrow horizons, the absence of love.  He stood just under 6ft. 5in., had a powerful voice and presence and was good at sports.

  [Deviations from the Norm]—Instead of any form of British football, Henry played the new Canadian game of lacrosse; instead of cricket, he played lawn tennis.  Henry’s interest in Foreign Missions came to dominate his life in general; Friends Foreign Mission Association (FFMA) [was of particular importance in his life].  A young Canadian Evangelical Friend, John T. Dorland was an inspiration for him.  Dorland was joint secretary of the Friends Christian Fellowship Union, which Henry joined.

 For a long time the place of youth in the Society of Friends had been to listen to their elders until age brought wisdom and they became “seasoned Friends.”  Youth began to look upon itself as a separate and enviable order in Society, close to the source of inspiration and ready to criticize its hidebound elders.  In 1895 at Cambridge, Henry Hodgkin became college representative for the Christian Union there, and joined the [international] Student Volunteer Missionary Union.  When this Union found that only 20 colleges in the British Isles outside Oxford and Cambridge had any sort of religious organization, they started the Student Christian Movement. 

 Hodgkin encouraged the practice of taking decisions without voting, and of preceding important steps by holding “retreats.”  Henry combined personal loyalty to Christ with faith in the scientific method.  He said:  “Faith is not contrary to reason but an act of reason. We use it constantly in science & without it we would never advance.”  

 [Married Missionary]—[He did his medical training in St. Thomas Hospital, and in East End Mission Hospital in London, where he met Elizabeth Joy Montgomery from Northern Ireland.  They were married in Northern Ireland on December 9^th 1903.  In May 1904, they offered to go to China.  It took them from March until May 1905 to reach Szechwan, the most westerly province of China.  There were only 24 of them in the mission, including the new arrivals.  [The Quaker couple] made a good start, and helped to draw together not merely the little Quaker band, but the wider missionary community.

 An ambitious scheme was formed to set up a West China Union University, one of the 13 planned in China.  [Hodgkin’s talents and standing in the academic world] enabled him to help draw into the scheme not merely American and Canadian mission boards, but even the hesitant Anglican “Church Missionary Society.”  Hodgkin pleaded that the colleges should have a federal rather than an organic relation the University and that it eventually should be in Chinese control.  He succeeded in setting up an Educational Union for West China, and as secretary of the West China Conference [helped make progress in the Protestant ecumenical movement].  [He was greatly limited in his efforts by it being impossible for him to learn Chinese].

He had no patience with the argument that we should be Christians first and Quakers second.  He said:  “I am a Quaker because I am a Christian, and it is the devotion I feel towards Christ my Lord that makes me a keen Quaker. [That] prevents me from entering sympathetically into the attitude of mind that makes an antithesis where there is none.”  The YMCA wanted him to run their organization in China; his father on the FFMA board wanted him to acquire more experience locally first.  Henry wanted the YMCA job, but acquiesced regretfully to the view of his father and friends.  There is no personal dilemma so bleak as that of being indispensable in too many places.

 [Henry at the FFMA and the Fellowship of Reconciliation]—After the general secretary of the FFMA died suddenly on returning from India, Henry was brought home from China to take his place, just after his 33^rd birthday.  He set up a Quaker Conference in 1914 which included non-Quaker speakers.  He also attended “The World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship through the Churches in Switzerland.  [When pulpits on both sides began preaching hate, Henry T. Hodgkin lost patience with the churches, and became a pacifist and a socialist. 

  A group that included clergymen continued to meet in London, but the pacifists withdrew when Henry’s  paper was refused publication.  They met at Cambridge in 1914 and agreed to found a new inter-denominational pacifist body, The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), chaired by Henry.  He spoke in favor of starting such a movement in America.  He wrote to Joy in 1915:  “Just now the pull of America is very strong on me, and I wonder whether some day I shan’t want to bring thee and the children over here for a year or two, and try to make a more serious contribution to the problems than I have yet been able to make.”

   He was bound to demonstrate his faith by constant speaking at public meetings, often in personal danger; by visiting prison and working for conscientious objectors, and by working for war relief and for civil liberties.  At the end of the war he was chairman of the Jerusalem and Palestine Relief Fund.  He wrote A Lay Religion and The Christian Revolution in connection with FOR.  [His description of “religious specialists” [i.e. priest, theologian, and the “saint”] was:  “He is with us today as arrogant as ever, as ready to bind burdens on others which he is unwilling to lift with his little finger. . .  The truth is uttered glibly, or it is withheld in whole or in part, lest it should offend the wealthy and influential members of the congregation. . . The ordinary presentation of religion is not real.  It is surrounded with subterfuge and sham; it is associated with medieval ceremonies.” 

 [Back to China]—After 4 years’ preparation, a Conference was convened in Shanghai in May 1922 by representatives of all the 130 Protestant denominations in 18 provinces of China.  In spite of a tempting offer to be FOR’s secretary, he continued working in China.  The Fundamentalist’s narrow faith and insistence on the inerrancy of the Bible led to their withdrawal from the National Christian Council.  [His difficulties prompted 3 queries]: Is the state of luxury that separates us from even the best of our native fellow workers really necessary?  Ought we to become Chinese subjects [completely]?  Have we been afraid to speak the truth about our own failure, that of our own churches and countries, and so put back the cause of truth? 

 Henry Hodgkin abandoned hope for the Protestant church as he knew them, and began to build an alternative vision of the inter-penetration of faiths and culture, [particularly Christianity and Chinese Buddhism]; [he cited the early church’s] fusion of its Jewish inheritance with the philosophy of Greece and the organization of Rome.  He hoped that: “Chinese Christianity might interpret Christianity in a far more thoroughgoing way than anything that is current in the West.”  [He thought what was necessary was]: “such intimate relations with the few as will enable them to catch all that is best in our spirits, and to take up burdens we may have to lay down.” The FFMA Association which he had served as missionary and General Secretary had already disappeared into history. [The new Friends Service Council which he supported was inaugurated in 1926]. 

 [The Road to Pendle Hill]—In 1918 he wrote in Lay Religion:  “The way to find the truth is for each of us to examine his own actions, & from them deduce what his actual religion is. From that starting point & from that alone, can we begin to find our way to that religion by which we ought to live.” Pendle Hill was to be a cell provided for that starting point.  [One of his issues with existing education was that]: There has been strikingly little integration of their lives around any consuming moral, social, or spiritual passion”; intellect alone was not enough.

 [His vision included]:  “a synthesis of religious, scientific and aesthetic thought.”  Many students “will find the richest part of Pendle Hill outside the stated courses. . .  There is an element of isolation or solitariness in the greatest personalities as well as development through stimulating fellowship.”  [Pendle Hill was not] “a modern monastery.”  The work of the house was [and is] to be “shared by all with a minimum of outside help. . .  No rules, no credits, no penalties.”  The fellowship was “student and faculty together working at the problems considered and share in their devotional life. . .  There are resources in the spiritual world far greater than we commonly use.” 

 [As to the early history of Pendle Hill] I propose only to stress the strenuous wholeheartedness with which the Hodgkins committed themselves to the scheme, and the price they paid for it.  There are still Monday night Extension Lectures open to the public.  As of the last active school year a student could take “2 or at most 3 classes” each 2 to 2½ hours long involving the “interplay of student and teacher.”  Most of the big things that Henry T. Hodgkin served have gone into oblivion together with the world he lived in.  The Christian Revolution for which he hoped has still to take place.  But the seed was planted, and grows.

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230.  The life of the spirit in women: a Jungian approach (by Helen M. Luke; 1980)

  About the Author—Helen Luke came to the US from England in 1949.  She worked as a [Jungian] counselor in Los Angeles for many years before founding Apple Farm center in 3 Rivers, MI, for people who were seeking connect their daily lives with the reality of myth and symbol.  In connection with the center, she wrote Dark Wood to White Rose: A Study of Meanings in Dante’s Divine Comedy.  The present pamphlet was written out of concern for the need of women today to regain a true understanding of the nature of the feminine.

 I. The Spirit and the Animus—The true meaning of “spirit” is glimpsed by us only through [an experience] that can never be rationally explained in words.  The most universal of all the images of the spirit is the breath, the wind. Closely related to this is the image of fire.  Whenever a breath of wind or spark of fire lodges in the mind, we are immediately aware of some kind of newness in life.  “Spirit” expresses that which brings about transformation. [e.g.] The Holy Spirit in the Godhead entered into a woman and transformed God into incarnate man.  The spirit has usually been associated with masculine creative power, though its feminine aspect has been known as Sophia.

 [The feminine and masculine aspects of spirit must be] experienced as separate [before they can] unite in a holy marriage.  The masculinity of the spirit is meaningless unless it enters into a feminine container.  No man can create without the equal participation of the woman without or the woman within.  In every creative act, the male and the female, the active and the passive, are of equal importance; [the feminine and masculine are of equal value].  It requires a great effort of consciousness in every individual woman to remain aware of this destructive spirit whispering [the centuries-old message] about the inferiority of her passive, feminine, nature. 

 Carl Jung’s “animus” is a personification of the unconscious masculinity in women, [& is often manifested negatively]. What the animus, [the ability knows one’s goal’s & to do what is necessary to achieve it] affirms is that the creative power in a woman can never bear fruit if she is caught in an unconscious imitation of men. Unrecognized & undifferentiated, he will actually destroy the possibility of her integrating her contra-sexual powers. The danger of mistaking a spirits experience for The Spirit experience has always been recognized by the wise.

 How then are we to test the spirits?  If we find ourselves so inflated by it that we at once set out to convert others, we may be sure that we are simply possessed by the “spirits” of the [anima and animus].  We are justified in speaking of the spirit of God only when it leads to an incarnation in us of the spirit of the truth within.  The true experience is a reception of the creative seed into the vessel of the feminine.

 II. Women and the Earth—[Before a woman can embrace & use her masculine discrimination], she must first learn to recognize & to value the nature of the principle which is dominant in her by the fact of her sex. She must recognize all her delusions about the nature of womanhood. Often a woman will reveal that her concepts of what it means to be a woman are concocted from notions of frivolous, empty-headed pleasure-seekers pursuing sexual goals. Half-consciously it adds up to a choice between whoredom & slavery.  [The mother-symbols of earth, moon, dark, & the ocean have been forced into a back seat to sun & light & air]. The way back & down [into the earth] to those springs & to the roots of the tree of life is also the way up to the spirit of air & fire in the vaults of heaven.

The Yin, feminine, receptive principle, equal & opposite of Yang the creative doesn’t lead but follows, since it is like a vessel in which the light is hidden until it appears at the right time. There are 2 dangers: inertia, or Yin taking the lead & opposing Yang. If we can learn to be still without inaction, to “further life” without willed purpose, & to nourish without domination: then we shall be women again out of whose earth the light may shine.     

 III. The Academic Woman [Introduction]—Very few women who have grown up in this century are free of the guilt complex [and of feeling incapable] of producing original thoughts.  In a great many women the guilt produces a positively compulsive desire to go to school.  The drive very often has little or no relation either to practical necessity or to a genuine love of learning.  The acquisition of mental and rational skills appears to innumerable modern women as the only way to escape the sense of inferiority that besets them.  The fear and anxiety of not achieving a doctorate, plus the ever-growing, unconscious resistance which made it harder and harder to write anything can affect [her entire life].   

 III. The Academic Woman: Neurosis—An academic woman’s neurosis usually occurs when she is approaching life’s mid-point, & when she has already achieved success in her profession. [While in her dreams she seeks identity & meaning through the prestige of mental activity acceptable to male academic gatherings], it becomes clear that she was really searching for a new religious attitude to life.  [In her youth she had been unconsciously nourished by the Catholic Church’s symbolic life].  To continue to receive nourishment, one must consciously find faith’s living water and spirit’s flame through real self-knowledge and attention to one’s own spontaneous imagery.  The negative animus uses as a weapon the mistrust and contempt for the feminine way which surrounds us all.  Neither asceticism, forced meditation, short cuts to the numinous, or the attempt to force creation out of a sterile soil can avail until she finds and experiences what it means to be a woman.

 No one creates anything without the co-operation of the contrasexual element. [The woman described above in trying to work as a man would be going in a direction backwards for her]. She has then to start from the receptive, the hidden, the goal-less aspect of Yin. [One solution was] to resign from her job & stay at home with her children, garden, & cooking, & look inward with quiet attention to the images behind her life. I am not suggesting that all women must sacrifice in this way. But the break must be made—a defeat accepted—a loss of prestige endured.

 [A man in a similar situation discovered that the resistance to pursuing his doctorate was the voice of the spirit speaking to him like Balaam’s ass so that he would accept his vocation as a priest]. He gave up his job in spite of strong opposition & for 2 years taught small children in a remote place.  Without any effort on his part the way opened for him, & all he had sacrificed was restored to him in a priestly instead of in an intellectual context.  His spirit was set free to grow, nourished by the earth of the feminine within him. 

[While the man had mistaken his calling and rejected the feminine values, the woman had chosen the right calling, but tried to follow it at the expense of her womanhood, instead of allowing it to grow out of the earth of her feminine nature.  At first she felt clumsy, inept, moving in an alien element.  The animus resisted, forcing her to remember and to affirm her calling to academic life and her need for it.  She learned to wait until the right time would come.  Thus, the cause of the neurosis in both the man the woman lay in their subjection to the collective contempt for the feminine, “receptive devotion.”

Marie-Louise Von Franz points out how the way of the heroine often involves a time of withdrawal from the world and enduring the suffering of silent waiting. [There is eventually a] reunion with the hero, whose quest has involved vigorous action.  [A woman sometimes has] to wait for the return of her creative spirit.  [A way opened for the woman too], an opportunity to use all her exceptional qualities of mind and personality. 

 Let it not be supposed that through any of our human transformations we are freed from our conflicts.  When women return to their calling, they can now “carry the outer world” and their own conflicts with their changed attitude to the receptive in life.  The greatest contribution to this world of reason and logic comes from the feeling responses of their nature, and their thinking may well be of a clear and incisive nature.  Feminine originality lies in the capacity for unique individual responses [to internal or external images, rather than thinking].  These responses are every bit as creative as the production of new ideas.

  IV. Woman in the Arts—It may well be that for as long as we still live in the dimensions of time & space where differentiation between the masculine & the feminine is essential for consciousness, the number of women manifesting artistic & literary genius will remain small. [There is as much genius in woman as in men, but the feminine genius is at its greatest in the sphere of relationship, rather than artistic or scientific expression. Acting and dancing are in their essence arts of response.  The artist becomes a vessel for the spirit of the character he or she represents. 

  The writing of fiction likewise depends on response [& understanding relationships. [The demand for publicity poses a danger to the creative woman], to her art & the essence of her life. One of the major psychological diseases today is the urge to make everything public. Man’s urge to share his creative thoughts is an essential good. But the extremes, sponsored by those with genuine concern for humanity as well as by the media of our society, are largely destroying the sense of mystery itself and with it the essential value of the individual “secret.” The light which is born in secret will shine out when the time is ripe and be seen perhaps by few; the number is irrelevant.

 Emily Brontë & Emily Dickinson lived in extreme seclusion, withdrawn from the world; Bronte shunned even limited publicity. Jane Austen was at great pains to preserve her anonymity. Dickinson’s poetry remained mostly unknown until long after her death & her genius has only recently been recognized. Though they weren’t free in the outward sense, their inner freedom was protected from struggling with the world & destroying their spirits.

 Edward Lucie-Smith has said that poets are no longer judged by their work but by the sensational events of their lives [e.g. the suicides of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton]; their poetry is of secondary interest.  In our society’s climate the feminine qualities wither and die because nothing is judged valuable unless it is known to and approved by large numbers of people.  Art is born of conflict, and the outer life of the creative genius is often tragically disordered and imposes great suffering on those close to him or her.

We are concerned here with the many lesser talents, who are enslaved by the terrible pressure of the will to do which kills the feminine creative genius & hands it over to the negative animus & his pursuit of prestige.  The woman poet may receive into the soil of her feminine earth the fire of the spirit & may know “the masculine & violent joy of pure creation [May Sarton].” We are paying a high price for freedom [from enforced servitude to “feminine roles”], but it cannot be evaded. [There is a responsibility to ask]: What kind of free spirit is it that breathes through me & is the dominant influence in my life? To discover this is a task of self-knowledge which demands courage, honesty, & perseverance. We may do what we will only when we have learned the nature of love. 

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231.  Quaker testimonies & economic alternatives (by Severyn Ten Haut Bruyn; 1980)

There is the danger and temptation to you, of drawing your minds into your own business, and clogging them with it; so that ye can hardly do any thing to the service of God.  George Fox

 About the Author—Severyn T. Bruyn is Professor of Sociology at Boston College and directs a graduate program in Social Economy and Social Policy.  [He has been very involved in the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) including an Executive Committee.  His interest in economic alternatives grew out of his search for consistency between religious testimony and the patterns of everyday life.  This pamphlet describes how Friends have sought a “third way” which seems more compatible with religious principles.

[Introduction]—Friends have long tried to make the conduct of their business life consistent with their religious beliefs.  It has not been easy in capitalist systems, which persist, in part because acceptable alternatives are not easily found.  The socialist state has its own form of dominance and exploitation.  The problems in capitalist countries is that the business systems have led historically toward bigger government; so we stand in a muddle.

We cannot remain mere observers. We forget that we are part of the continuing mystery of change itself.  We either contribute toward corporate exploitation in our daily transactions or we choose to contribute toward social change and the transformation of the system.  [Perhaps] people in their spiritual condition are creators of the world in which they live.  Some Christians sought to overcome the dominance developing through business institutions.

Early Quaker Thought—The early Quakers testified against the excessive demands of business.  George Fox said:  “There is the danger and temptation to you, of drawing your minds into your own business, and clogging them with it; so that ye can hardly do any thing to the service of God.”  John Woolman saw ethical problems developing early within his own business and in the business institutions of his day.  His question was: Should he develop business for his own advantage in the light of his Christian beliefs?  He withdrew from his own business.  Of the wealthy who profited from the poor’s labor he said: “there is often a danger of their being disqualified to judge candidly in their case, not knowing what they themselves would desire [laboring as the poor did].”  Woolman’s universal concern for people extended to the rich as well as to the poor. 

Howard Brinton studied the early Quaker journals and found that almost every one contained some reference to restrictions on business.  [Since] there were no professional ministers to look after the affairs of the Society of Friends, if Friends carried on large businesses, they would not have time to perform their religious duties.  Quakers were radical Christians who did not separate their religious convictions from the rest of their life and conduct. 

Later Quaker Thought—In the early 19^th century, Quakers like John Bright, Joseph Rowntree, & George Cadbury developed a new pattern of thought among Victorian Quakers. By the 1890s, Friends could no longer take it for granted that philanthropy was ideal or that charitable societies were an adequate response to the times. By the middle of the 20^th century many Friends had faced directly the problem of corporate capitalism. The Philadelphia YM Faith & Practice said: “[The importance of profit] has been based on the theory that the pursuit of self-interest will result in the greatest good. This is not what Jesus taught. . . By his control of a business, the employer has power over the working lives of all his employees. [Some are asking]:  Is it likely that wholesome conditions of work & adequate wages will be attained if the employees have no share in determining them? Will not sharing in management have great educational value & may it not release latent energies in employees?”

Quaker Experiments with Common Ownership—In the 1950s Quakers began experimenting in different countries with democratic forms of economic enterprise. The best known case is probably the Scott-Bader Com-monwealth [still going in 2015].  Ernst Bader, its Quaker owner, gave 90% of his shares to the Commonwealth.  Membership in the Commonwealth company was made open to all employees after a probationary period. 

  The Community Council was organized as the main administrative body.  The corporate constitution lays down a maximum ratio of 7:1 between the highest and the lowest salary in the firm.  Management must answer all questions raised by members.  The preamble to the corporate constitution states:  “Power should come from within the person & community, & be made responsible to those it affects. Human dignity & service to others [should be considered] instead of solely economic performance. Mutual responsibility must permeate the community.”

“The Commonwealth has responsibilities to the wider community & is endeavoring to fulfill them by fostering a movement towards a new peaceful industrial & social order. [We believe in] a sharing of the fruits of our labor [with the less fortunate] & a refusal to support destructive conflicts.”  The Society for Democratic Integration of Industry (1958) became Industrial Common Ownership Movement in 1971; [it is still going in 2015]. 

[When the Quaker Victor Bewley heard of a woman being fired after 30 years with a company and other injustices], he changed the structure of his own business.  The company’s capital would be held in trust for every employee.  After 3 years anyone could apply to become a member of the company “Community.”  The Articles of Association were written with a Christian motive and purpose.  A business “Council” was formed consisting of the head of every department plus elected representatives from each department.  The meetings are informal, and a consensus is sought in all meetings.  The worker cooperative movement has developed significantly around the world.  [There is the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives].

 Another approach to economic democracy in which some Friends have been actively engaged has been the Consumer Cooperative movement.  The customers gain equal votes in choosing the board of directors of their own company.  Friends constituted a significant portion of the founders and leaders of co-operative grocery stores in suburban Philadelphia.  Problems of democratic control and member education had to be worked out in those co-operatives which have become quite large. Worker and consumer cooperatives do not solve all the problems of classical capitalism even though they suggest an evolutionary trend.  [Since exploitation can happen in either type], many observers have argued that these 2 types should be linked together in federations.  Producer and consumer cooperatives could be linked as well.  The result is an economy with a social foundation.

Trends and Experiments Outside Quaker Witness—The concern for transforming economic enterprises so that they become more consistent with religious principles has been expressed widely outside the Quaker tradition.  American Cast Iron Pipe Company’s owner in the 1920s & Milwaukee Journal’s owner [in 1937] turned over the shares of their company to the workers [both are still operating as of 2015]. 

 A secular trend toward employee ownership has been developing in both the US & Europe. There is Employee Stock Ownership Plan legislation (ESOP); [as of 2015 over 2,600 firms come under this plan]. A marked increase in worker control over the management of European enterprises has been evident in the last 2 decades [e.g.] in West Germany the largest 650 corporations are now “co-determined; [over 750 as of 2005]. Some form of workers’ council is required by law in most of Northern & Central Europe. The AFSC has studied these secular changes & has begun to help people participate in this change, keeping in mind the Quaker tradition in history. 

  American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)/New England AFSC)—The AFSC appointed an Economic Exploration Committee in 1965 to look into the economic factors which were affecting their community relations efforts.  Rufus Jones once wrote of [transforming humankind (see quote at beginning of last section)].  The Community Relations Division Committee followed these principles in making their suggestions:  sharing of power; assistance applied directly to individual; no racial discrimination; external costs of operations should be recorded and addressed; National planning; appropriate subsidies; distinction between “work” and “job.”              

  The New England AFSC has formed an Economic Alternatives Committee to provide opportunities for experimental social action in the field of business and labor.  The AFSC argues that the participation of employees in planning for the responsibilities required in managing their own firm is important.  [Experience has shown that if the purchase of shares by employees is unequal there is inequity in voting power and the temptation to “sell out” to outside investors is often irresistible].    

 The AFSC Committee on Economic Alternatives is designed to help employees anticipate these problems so that they can better control their own destiny.  The Committee offers information to employees on systems of corporate governance guided by principles of social accountability, an education involving discussion, conferences and consultation.  One of their clients was Colonial Press in Clinton Massachusetts.  The AFSC Alternatives Committee also helps people develop land trusts in rural areas.  Land trusts are organized with lessees to the land participating on the boards of directors which oversee the use of the land in the interest of the community.

The AFSC is interested in the social dimensions of economic alternatives, but members also express their spiritual concerns about how systems of production affect people.  Committees member are similarly concerned with how enterprises are able to release the creative powers of employees [and in some cases the introduction of meditation into the work place].  The AFSC staff states that it is a matter of maintaining a proper balance in the values of every day life.  The concern is to recognize the importance of the inner life and the spiritual needs of people at work while facing squarely, the practical need for a corporate income.  The consulting staff also suggest that it is possible to design job systems to maximize the release of the “creative potential of all employees.”  [The “mixing up” of traditional job roles may] overcome bureaucratic traps and allow people to expand their lives.

The AFSC Committee holds that high technology leads toward a centralization of political power while low technology may reverse this tendency.  One Committee member [developed a system involving an electric car and a windmill to charge the batteries].  The Committee is therefore seeking a wholistic approach to economics by creating bridges between the producer and the consumer; it sees this as basic to social planning on a larger scale.  [Utilizing a community development corporation, a neighborhood grocery store was bought by the workers and was able to provide profit for its employees and serving local needs at the same time]. 

The Committee believes that is possible in the long run to reduce government expenditures for agencies treating environmental, labor and other public problems by planning for the systematic development of economic enterprises organized in the public interest.  The Committee believes a concept of democratic citizenship is appropriate for economic enterprises.  Quakers in the 17^th century were calling for the development of an inner power and authority in the face of external controls.  The AFSC Committee members however, do not see their primary function as that of changing the larger system.

  How can I participate in a fairer distribution of resources unless I live in a community which makes it possible to consume less?  How can I learn accountability unless I live in a community where my acts and their consequences are visible to all?  How can I learn to share unless I live in a community where hierarchy is unnatural?

 Basic Principles of a Nonviolent Economy: 

Trusteeship—developing “land trusts” [based on the spirit of stewardship].

Cooperation—economy based on principles of mutual assistance and social responsibility.

Constitutional democracy—base production and distribution decisions on [how it affects the community].

A Planned Economy—design economic alternatives based on social development rather than “supply and demand.”

Social Development—cultivating the human resources of knowledge, skills, and social sensitivity.

A Human Orientation—using material resources and labor to meet human needs.

Equal Access—widespread availability of resources, productive opportunities, and needed goods. 

Small and Global—developing regional units small enough to allow for [widespread] effective participation and large enough to enable self-sufficiency, and always in the context of world citizenship and responsibility. 

  Community and the Economic Order—Parker Palmer, Dean of Studies at Pendle Hill, posed the above  queries about the wholeness of life.  London Yearly Meeting became concerned in the winter of 1973 about problems developing in the British economy and charged their Social Responsibility Council to look at the problem.  [The members sought answers on a wide range of topics dealing with economics’ effect on society.  The answers were published in a volume called Public Resources and Private Lives.  The authors concluded: 

  “The state of the economy in any western society is a central pre-occupation even for those whose primary common ground is spiritual. . .  We can now see that the economic is not a peripheral concern, but central to the whole relationship between faith and practice. . . Economic affairs are now so central to our whole existence that no other aspect of personal relationships or individual life styles can be looked at without understanding what it means in terms of [individual and] national wealth and their distribution.”        

What principles can Friends offer to business people, labor leaders, consumer advocates, anyone who is deeply involved in the management of the economy? 

 In 1975 AFSC’s Marjorie Swann brought together people to develop principles on what is “the non-violent economy.” The Committee’s task was inspired in part by Gandhi’s principles of nonviolence, self-rule, and non-possession.  The group considered the principles at this section’s beginning significant guides to social action.  These concepts are in full accord with the testimonies of Quakers in history.  Kenneth Boulding calls Quakers “conservative radicals.”  Conservative because they seek to conserve the connection to the past and to the eternal, [which they invite into the meeting for worship].  “Here that which is beyond time and in every time becomes part of the present.”  Radical because “their authority is the light within . . . by which past undoubted authority must be tested.”  “There is a constant hunger to apply the eternal principles of love, justice and redemptive suffering to this present world”; George’s Fox’s “But what canst thou say” is a key query.

 If George Fox were living in his fearless manner today, he might well suggest that we bring the fire of creation to live our lives together without undue dependence on the corporate state.  A major task of our time is to help create a new economic order.  George Fox was inwardly guided by a “pure fire,” and during difficult times he walked “solitarily . . . taken up by the love of God.”  I believe that these sources of guidance are the foundation on which we can build wise alternatives as we move toward the 21^st century.   

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232.  The Life Journey of a Quaker Artist (by Dorothea Johnson Blom; 1980)

       About the Author—Teacher, writer, & artist, Dorothea Blom began her art career as a designer of batiks in a Madison Avenue studio, & later wrote on design & color. A major event changed her life, & since then she has focused on art as link between inner & outer worlds, a link which can determine our relation to ourselves & to culture.   

  The Past Changes as I change; even while I ponder & write, transformations take place. There is no “objective reality,” only vantage points, or different levels in inner space, from which we see, & which transform what we see. My 1^st 25 years were unmitigated depression, a “sick period.” The 2^nd to my early 40s, consisted of discovering new relations to life & learning to trust inner [geography]. The 3^rd period is characterized by reconciling opposites.     

  I. Stepchild of the Culture—As long as I, the adult, closed the little girl out (fearful I might be her), she could not heal; but she has healed, and I rejoice in her secrets.  She has become a growing point for me. [There is a picture of a blissful Baby in Red Chair by an unknown American artist in a Williamsburg, VA folk art center].  The infant soul represents the incorruptible core of innocence always present in the life journey; when we lose touch, it waits within us for rediscovery.  [My 1^st experience with a Christmas tree in the firelight is surely where my relation to the Tree of Life began; I didn’t realize until my 30s that this experience was a religious or mystical experience.  The little girl [felt distant from her godlike parents and used] her dream world as an escape.  [Her mother did not believe touch was necessary if you really loved someone].

  As a child she had an instinctive trust of images that came that came to her in dreams, & was even curious rather than frightened by an occasional nightmare. One lasting image was of a spring, a pond, & rich plant growth.  Toward the end of pre-school years, she found that she hated oatmeal, and as a result rejected a God so stupid as to give her oatmeal, and let those who needed it starve.  On her aunt’s large farm she wandered in the fields. One day she crossed a boundary, through a gate down a road to the forest.  She walked part way down the road and then retreated to her favorite field.  It was an intense experience that must never happen again. 

Entering school was a frightening experience for me, one I didn’t get over for years.  I seemed introverted to others and still couldn’t read by the age of 10.  Through a substitute art teacher, I found a lively satisfaction in art work, discovering in it a lifeline between me and world.  After 10 the imaginary family came into competition with the world of my peers, [which I wanted to be part of].  I had a baby sister who died in infancy who was very important to me, the center of my life.  I was beginning to develop close friendships with girls more stable and slightly older than I.  After a summer adult art class, I was bored with high school and was allowed to enter Walden, an expensive private school on a scholarship.   

The students there were the most brilliant, articulate and expressive peers I’d ever known; the students helped plan the curriculum.  [While I had cultural shock and retreated into shyness] I acquired a self-motivation and excitement about learning that I never lost.  I began to see life on this planet as process, and hoped I could take part in it.  One of the richest friendships of my young years was with a visiting art teacher from Vienna.  She insisted on my working to music, [which I now do to] experience with my body a meditation theme I am focusing on in some art medium.  The year after leaving Walden I was employed in a batik business producing freehand designs in dress lengths; on a modest scale I seemed to have everything important to me. 

 But something was missing, and I began shopping around for [a place of worship].  I had severe depression, but when the doctors wanted to send to a State Hospital, my father rebelled, took me home and became my nurse-companion.  I used to think of the following 5 years as a period of unspeakable suffering.  There seemed an almost invisible black veil between me and future.  Now I see breaking point postponed until I was a student in a good hospital.  My father emerged as an instinctive therapist.  Even at the time I was affected by the transformation in my father.  [He open up outside of our relationship], doing new things and making new friends.  A man I met in the hiking club started coming to the house.  Christian was 15 years older, we were both frightened people clinging to each other.  A year after we met we married and began to live with my family.    

 In Hinduism, I found confirmation of my temperament, a sense of worth [and a living in the present] which my own culture had not validated.  Three months before my 1^st baby was to arrive, my father died of a heart attack.  10 years after that were to pass before I could even begin to forgive him for having withdrawn his attention from the little girl that I was.  As I grew older I came to see that my introversion was discredited by an extroverted culture. 

 2. The Courage to Change—Life became a gradual trusting of unfamiliar states of mind. I had periods of bad depression & so did Chris. [Even as slim earners] we didn’t have any more problems than the others. One Quaker said: “The Bloms live on a shoestring, but the shoestring is always long enough.” When I first walked into the Friends Meeting of Chappaqua, NY, I said: “I’ve come home for the 1^st time in my life.” My homeland in the Society of Friends opened many things, [from a Peace Forum, to Fellowship of Reconciliation, to AFSC, to providing rest for Nazi refugees]. 

  [Once each in my 20s and 30s, I fell in love].  I didn’t think I could endure my marriage if I developed a sexual relationship outside of it.  I have come to realize how idealized this kind of love can be, because it never gets tested [through all the hard years].  Each step my husband or I took tended to lead us away from each other.  For me the raising of children was like climbing the hard stone steps of necessity, one which maybe held me together.  Fritz Kunkel once said that the greatest gift a parent can give a child is the testimony of his or her continuing growth.  The most significant landmark for those decades was Gerald Heard.  People like Heard and Howard Brinton who move comfortably between science and religion, finding a relationship between the 2, appeal to me. 

 I was 28 when I read Heard’s Pain, Sex, and Time, a survey of Western history based on changing relations to these 3 elements in the culture.  Gerald Hear has said that most illness reflects other problems.  He concluded that we and our world can’t change significantly unless we make time every day for meditation.  I had my 1^st religious experience since I was a child as a result of meditation. 

 It was as if God said to me, “This is your mountain.  Your are at its base, ready to climb.  How can you move to higher ground without sometimes losing the view and finding the going rough?  You will always be on this mountain.”  The Sienese artist, Sassetta, gave me another relation to the mountain as life journey with his Meeting of St. Anthony and St. Paul.  The author writes, “this comes most often to my mind as representing the life journey, moving [in and out of the woods, meeting important figures] in relation to self, world and God.” 

  I have never completely forsaken daily meditation, even though there have been long dry periods and many half-hearted ones. [I had a difficult time being with my mother as she recovered from a broken hip but she found a miracle of forgiveness for her alcoholic mother.  It improved the relationship my mother and I had].  Once on a day off I wandered around the Metropolitan Museum in an isolating fog until I found myself in front of Rembrandt’s Head of Christ.  This painting awakened in me a new relation to life that led to a fresh beginning.  When I left the museum the whole world looked different, everything and everybody.  Even strangers on the street were lovable—not from my love, but from a love coming through me. 

  III. Continuing Creation (Hilltop Experience)—I knew I must change my life.  I knew I must explore the function of art as it heals and transforms.  A lot of things needed sorting out, and I didn’t know how to start.  I walked down the 2^nd important forest road of my life.  It took me to a hilltop-crowned with an open field.  The sky hovered close.  I discovered Mother Earth and Father Spirit as my parents, freeing my biological parents to be fallible human beings.  The experience released new energy to explore “what next.” 

  I found a half-time job [which at times demanded I be fully present with demanding customers, often seeing through the crustiness to a little child who never grew up.  The rest of the week I spent on my own custom-made education, and in the pursuit of my question:  what is the inherent function of art?  [It is] at its best is a by-product of religious experience.  Every culture, period, and true artist educates us to a different relation to reality.  Art has the power to transform both inner and outer realtity.  After two years I began teaching in adult schools.  This teaching arose from a place where art, religion and growth processes converge within the context of our changing world.    

 Increasingly I felt a “possession,” an irrational fixation I could not get rid of.  A friend suggested I see Martha Jaeger, a Quaker, Jungian therapist in New York.  Martha saw my possession as the healthy assertion of my weakest endowment.  My sense experiences had a hard time holding their own against the tide of feeling that swamped them.  If the artist in me was not starved to death [for lack of sense experiences], at least she was weak from undernourishment and neglect.  One new beginning was re-discovery of the artist in me.  I work as an apprentice to a student of mine.  I found working in 3-dimensions exhilarating.

 If clay was a gift of my 40s, & free stitchery, reveling in yarns, was a gift of my 50s, water color as meditation was a gift of my 60s. But teaching remained my 1^st art. I was teaching 3 sections of the same class each week.  There always several Friends in the classes, which Martha said were a better education than I could buy, because I always had to be a step ahead of the students. The children had moved off, and Chris and I developed a relationship which became simpler and more deliberately supportive of each other in our different interests and needs. 

 [He died of a heart attack and a younger sister of mine died almost exactly one year later].  The presentness I had in death with these 2 that I shared much life with was surely awesome, affecting deeply my relation to death.  The day before Chris died he had the 1^st mystical experience of our life together, [after an argument we had].  [After the deaths], I soon noticed how the psychological space had changed.  If someone’s presence is withdrawn there is an unfamiliar climate.  I was told to notice the gifts of the dead.  Both of us needed to forgive and be forgiven.  Important life relationships continue after death.  Even now, 12 years later, I dream of Chris twice a year, and I’m always amazed at what is obviously a further stage in the development of our relationship. 

After Joe and Teresina Havens invited me to London to do a seminar, I continued to do programs in far places.  Quakerism is where I belong, supplying me with a long range continuity through which I have struggled, grown, suffered, and rejoiced.  For me it is my spiritual laboratory in which I have tasted truth, relationship, and vision.  During the 1960s my growing spiritual relation to art led to widening circles within Quakerism and other groups.  I was invited to Pendle Hill for 1 year as a guest teacher, and I stayed for 6.  The students come to spend 8 months taking a new look at life, so as to know themselves and life in a new depth of understanding. 

 [Even I gain a new understanding, and a name to go with my lifelong handicap.  One of my young students recognized my problems as dyslexia].  I was 60 when that happened, and I still enjoy laughing over it and its effects on me.  I often feel younger than when I was young, physically healthier and more playful.  Growing old for me is easier than growing up or being young. 

  From Pendle Hill I moved on to another adult learning retreat center, Koinonia Foundation in Baltimore; I am in my 5^th year there.  I do short-term teaching at Woodbrooke in England and Vittakivi in Finland.  These years have made of me a bit of a connoisseur of group living in adult learning and retreat centers.  Persons return again and again to places like Pendle Hill for renewal.  Each place becomes a “Mecca with blemishes.” 

 A word which has meant much during this decade is “convergence,” adapted from Teilhard de Chardin.  Through it I find aspects of myself discovering one another.  This culminates in the impulse toward organic wholeness of life.  Teilhard says the center of the universe is where a person is, and that God is the Center of centers.  When these 2 centers come together the way opens, as at a crossroad in all directions.  The mandala with its center and related parts, is the ideal tool in an age of monumental convergence.  It has taught me what Heaven is: a 5^th dimension, encompassing and containing all lesser dimensions.

 As for simplicity, the artist in me wants to simplify, to choose what rings true, and to slough off what gets in the way.  That of God within us is the creative aspect of human nature.  Continuing revelation is the essential partner of continuing creation.  Art at its best is part of continuing revelation.  Habitual, mechanical patterns of thought and action are the real enemies of revelation.  Living with strong imagery through reproductions of art is an enormous help in freeing me from dead habit.  My favorites of these are Michelangelo’s “Unfinished Statues” in Florence.  [e.g. The Captive Atlas is a powerful art image which reveals the struggle to pull oneself loose from the habits and attitudes that stand in the way of finding one’s own shape.         

  Revelation sometimes comes to us in spite of ourselves, whether we can make good use of it or not.  Sometimes the Christ figure stands in for Mystery, walking on the troubled waters of our world or of my troubled spirit, or leaping from the Cross to bless us.  Maybe my greatest miracle of convergence is my relation to my own culture.  I recognize the one-sided natures of both Eastern and Western culture.  My culture needs the likes of me if it is to survive, just as I need my culture to be healthy and whole.    

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233.  Friends and the World of Nature (by Theodor Benfy; 1980)

It would go a great way to caution and direct people in their Use of the World, that they were better studied and known in the Creation of it.  For how could Man find the Confidence to abuse it, while they should see the Great Creator stare them in the Face, in all and every Part thereof? William Penn

 About the Author—Ted Benfey belongs to Friendship Meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he teaches chemistry and history of science at Guilford College.  He joined Friends while a student at University College, London.  He writes: “The rift between man and nature became abruptly clear to me the day I heard of the bombing of Hiroshima.  This pamphlet arose during a Woodbrooke sabbatical, “where I sought for Quaker insights that would allow men and women of our time to break through to a more harmonious communion with nature.” 

 I—What is needed is a new way of looking at nature, releasing the energies of those who look at nature in non-“orthodox” ways but are shackled by the fear that they may be wrong. The only sound way to hold to the particulate, mechanistic doctrine is to insist that we, [like inanimate nature], are mere particles in motion, a machine part of a larger machine. All who look into themselves know they are aware of something that is not machine-like.

 The suffering of countless today is a feeling of being shackled by a fragmented, fractured world view. We have lost the art or the interest in putting the pieces of puzzles together.  In fact [the spiritual pieces that are] not consonant with [modern science’s worldview is considered an illusion].  God is not to appear at certain moments of evolution to breathe life into the 1^st amoeba nor to endow the 1^st human with a soul.  All of God’s handiwork must have gone into the original design.   

Around Newton’s and Laplace’s time many thought of God as the great clockmaker and winder-up of the universal clock.  The current evolutionary view is not complete, because its initial description demands an act of faith from us and we have never yet been asked to commit ourselves to anything remotely resembling this claim.  If there is no meaning [in asking what was going on before the Big Bang], there is no significance to our own lives either.  We are afraid to say no to a coherent viewpoint that at least ties together all the sciences even if it plays havoc with our conception of ourselves, our sense of our significance, our own importance.  [There can be no measurable progress towards a goal] on a time scale immeasurably long. 

 II—Those who are not scientists seem to assume that all scientists are committed to a view of nature that is nothing but particles linked or in motion.  They were totally unlike us—for we could examine them and feel them and taste them and be nourished by them, but they could do none of those things.  In the 1700s Laplace raised the possibility that if all were particles, and their laws of motion were known, [past, present, and future] locations could be calculated [without worrying about deviations].  [Even after new discoveries and theories], the basic view that nature is dead and unfeeling and soulless has not fundamentally changed. 

 Those chemists who were not atomists and early North American naturalists were not concerned with the ultimate constitution of matter, particulate or otherwise.  A major motivating force behind those devoting their professional life to the study of animal behavior must be the delight and fascination in simply watching the life patterns before them.  Max Weber and R.H. Tawney pointed to the change in religious atmosphere which led a remarkable number of religious dissidents to flock to the sciences and make significant contributions to them.  Friends were in fact advised by William Penn to find their recreation in nature.  It is unlikely anyone would have followed that path if they thought that they might in fact lay spiritual insights open to question.

  III & IV—The 17^th century saw not only the great Puritan hurricane engulfing England, it saw also a modified Platonism, neo-Platonism, entering the British Isles.  This neo-Platonism sought for a new view of the world not grounded in pagan Greek thought but transformed by the insights and experience of Christianity, which helped to raise the significance of matter and of working with materials.  Christianity clearly has a doctrine of matter quite apart from its new insights about man and sin and rebirth and man’s relation to God.  Quakers held that all matter was sacramental, not certain bits at certain times.  George Fox said:  “A true voice arose in me which said, ‘There is a living God who made all things,” [i.e.] all things should reveal the character of the maker.  

 John Woolman said: “Our Gracious Creator cares & provides for all his creatures. His tender mercies are all over his works; & so far as his love influences our minds, [just that far do] we become interested in his workmanship. We as his creatures, while we live answerable to the design of our creation, we are entitled to a subsistence that no one may justly deprive us of.” [In his business], the material & how it was used were to be vehicles of God’s love. [John Woolman was probably influenced by the Neo-Platonic author of The Imitation of Christ, Jacob Boehme, John Everard & William Law]. These 3 broke with the older mystical tradition of via negativa (salvation through self-denial). [There is] is an active role for the God-centered man in the world’s affairs, because as Boehme said: “The visible is sprung from the spiritual world ... it is a subject or object resembling the spiritual world; the spiritual world is inward ground of the visible world; the visible subsists in the spiritual.” Neo-Platonic thought was sweeping through England during the 1640s. The era of revelation by Jesus through the Church was to be replaced by direct communication between Christ & his followers through the Holy Ghost, Christ in us.   

 [V]—Boehme was interested in alchemy, & alchemists had always believed that careful study of the transformations possible in the laboratory would provide hints of the transformation of which man’s soul was capable.  Du-ring the 16^th & 17^th centuries arose the “Chemical Philosophy,” an attempt to rewrite science, the description of nature, in a Christian form rather than the mechanistic, atomistic directions that were being developed. Most chemists were not atomists until our Friend, John Dalton (1810) showed how atoms could be useful in chemistry. 

      Why should a Quaker open the door to a development so destructive of religious concerns? [This wasn’t the only time Quakers have opened the door to developments whose consequences were not in line with Quaker longings. The Quaker Abraham Darby & his descendents found a way of using coal for smelting iron ore. Kenneth Boulding said: “the economic base for the great upsurge of English speaking people in the last 200 years owes a great deal to 18^th century Quakers in advancing science & industry. [Perhaps] Quakers organized their Society on the confident belief that all truth is good & new truths will enhance & enlarge understanding of truths already known. 

 Another Quaker opened a door to a new & destructive world.  Benjamin Robbins turned his genius to the study of projectiles and military engineering. He maintained his friendships with if not his membership in the Society. I am convinced that there is more optimism than blindness underlying the enthusiasm of these 3 Quakers.  They had faith that there would always be enough individuals sensitive to God’s will to prevent that progress from leading mankind as a whole to destruction.

 VI—John Woolman must have been deeply influenced by neo-Platonic ideas regarding the material world for there was little in his Quaker reading to help him.  Some believe that John Woolman was not alone in his concerns.  John Woolman’s influence extended beyond Friends.  Woolman had a strong influence on Emerson, and Emerson had an enormous influence on 19^th century American thought.  Emerson wrote:  “As water to our thirst, so is the rock, the ground to our eyes and hands and feet.”  Emerson felt unsettled and paralyzed by the mechanical conception of the universe and the corresponding psychology of sensation of John Locke.  Emerson provided a philosophy that not only helped to overcome the servility to tradition but taught how to use the resources of nature. 

  The motivation for American industrialization was the dream that through the right handling of materials a human standard of living could be provided for all citizens. Howard Brinton writes: “Emerson’s doctrine that God is present in all events in nature was similar to the Quaker belief that inspired Quakers to pursue science. . .  Man, disillusioned by the extreme danger which mechanistic science & the meaninglessness of life which it creates now placed him, is seeking some deeper, more moving & more spiritual power to give direction and goal to his life.”    

 VII-IX—Kathleen Lonsdale (1903-1971) said:  “Friends do not accept the idea that the universe occurred by chance, that man is a chance conglomerate of molecules which has developed ideals, a conscience, humanitarian instincts merely in order to survive.”  Harold Loukes stated: “The central element in the whole Quaker position is that spiritual laws are material laws as well; they are the law of the universe.  [When someone uses atoms to ex-plain man’s creation of artworks, no doubt the atoms will be endowed with even further properties].

 We now know that Dalton’s atoms are not uncuttable, they have their own structure, that atoms of the same element are not all alike, nor are those of different elements always a different weight.  Any given atom can have its life history, from the time of its birth, through its period of disintegration or absorption into something larger.  As the theories are modified they more and more describe little organism time-dependent entities—rather than Greek eternal atoms.

 The Chinese made remarkable progress in science and technology before 1500 on the basis of their Yin-Yang concept of alternating and complementary phases.  The fact that progress in understanding and manipulating the material world can be made using either a particulate and analytical, or a continuous and inter-related philosophy suggests that the atomistic-mechanistic view point need not be the final one. 

There is a new view of the natural world and our relation to it struggling to be born.  What we need is to forge a new link between the insights of science and the deeper promptings of the human spirit.  [When we see nature as part of us and ourselves as part of nature, affecting and affected by nature], then we will be moving to wholeness, to health.  What we need is rebirth of love for matter, becoming friends with the rocks, heeding Emerson’s call.    

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235.  A.J. Muste, pacifist & prophet: his relation to the Society of Friends (by Jo Ann Robinson; 1981)

About the Author—Jo Ann Robinson majored in history at Knox College, Galesburg Illinois; she learned of A. J. Muste thru the Student Peace Union. She served as a Freedom School teacher, voter registration worker, & with a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The pamphlet originated as a talk sponsored by the Friends Historical Association spring 1978. She researched at Haverford College & the Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

       Introduction—In 1961 A. J. Muste observed, “I spend a good deal of time among … Unbelievers; my thoughts constantly shuttle back & forth between conviction that many of these are true believers & the wish that I might give them an account of the faith that is in me, [in a way they would understand].  Muste was a man of religion, & the language of scripture & religious experience was not always shared by his political comrades. Quakerism & the Society of Friends played a part in the evolution of those convictions, & Muste influenced Friends. [His life & influences included the Dutch Reformed Church, Marxist thought, & the perfectionist ethic of Christian pacifism.

 I: Formative Experiences—Abraham Johannes Muste (1885-1967) in his tenderest years displayed a striking sensitivity to things of the spirit.  He experienced a “sort of revelation” about both the otherness and the loveliness of fellow human beings.  [He experienced profound grief at the death of a pet bird, which influenced his reflections on] “the heart’s awareness of the preciousness of all life.”  Sensitivity and openness to religious experience continued to characterize the boy Muste after his family’s passage to the US.

On his 14^th Easter “the world took on a new brightness,” [and from that day] “God was real to me.”  He officially joined his Dutch Reformed congregation at a very young age. Muste recorded experiences of divine incursion at every crucial turning point in his life. He had a deep emotional and intellectual infatuation with Ralph Waldo Emerson, who shared many Quaker beliefs. 

World War I & the Introduction to Quakerism—Muste was ordained as a Dutch Reformed minister in 1909.  [5 years later] he underwent an “agonizing reappraisal of his beliefs and decided to seek an intellectually and theologically less restrictive denomination, [which was Congregationalism]. A searching critical [examination] of World War I led to a parting of the ways with his congregation.  In Boston, [he joined the peace-oriented company] of J.  Edgar Park, Willard Sperry, Bliss Perry, and Charles F. Dole, and [heard inspiring peace testimony].    

 At the same time he had come upon the works of Rufus Jones on Christian mysticism and was intrigued by the strain of pacifism which runs through the mystical tradition.  [Its impact was inspiring and enlightening; it’s obscurity was insulting and aggravating.  For the rest of his life Muste was irritated that Christian pacifism had not been accorded a place in the mainstream of religious education.  Muste became a founding member of the Boston chapter of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) in 1916.  [He seemed to experiment in his sermons, going back and forth between conventional patriotism and the anti-war position.  Later, when he lectured at Pendle Hill in the early 1940s, he unequivocally rejected violence on prophetic Christian grounds. 

During the war the time Muste spent in FOR work increased as his pastoral & counseling effectiveness at the church declined. [His stand upset the grieving mother of a casualty &] he offered to resign; he took a leave of absence instead. He became involved with the Friends Meeting in Providence, R.I. It was not a pastoral meeting, but the members “in return for some pastoral services & speaking provided ... a home & some expense money. He re-signed from his church in March 1918 & became a member of the Meeting in April. At the Meeting he asked that a “Peoples’ Book Room” be created where “various unorthodox, persecuted individuals of the city gathered to talk.” 

 Involvement with Labor; Disillusion with Religion—Muste moved back to Boston while continuing to serve the Meeting in Providence. He devoted much of the rest of his time to the Boston FOR.  He & 6 or 7 other Boston radicals met regularly to explore ways in which Christian teaching could best be applied to contemporary social & economic problems. He offered his services to aid the Lawrence textile strike, & a new textile workers union asked him to become its General Secretary. He was so involved with the workers that he had to ask Providence Meeting to let him go.  His experience with the strike left Muste with the conviction that if a religious community is to get a grip on the realities of any given political or economic situation there is no substitute for direct involvement in that situation.  He spent 2 years in a “desperate effort to establish a beachhead … of unionism in a chaotic industry.

  Muste became Director of [the newly opened] Brookwood Labor College, Katonah, NY in 1921. For about 3 years Muste corresponded with Providence Friends, specifically Charles Sisson. At Brookwood Labor College Muste was helping to train a body of “Musteite labor activists & shape an outlook of “progressive labor action.”  Over the next 15 years Muste was battered in body & spirit by faction fights, labor wars, & the unremitting suf-ferings in the Depression Era. More & more Muste began to admire & gravitate toward the Marxist Left. In 1934 Musteites joined forces with the American followers of Trotsky; it was a disastrous alliance & ended in July 1936.

  Renewal of Faith—In 1936, in the sanctuary of the St. Sulpice Catholic Church in Paris, a “deep & … singing peace” came over him. An inner voice said, “This is where you belong, in the church, not outside it.” He experienced renewal & gained a clear conviction that “Love is the basic reality of the universe” & obedience to that reality means no resorting to violence in any form; this is an illustration of Howard Brinton’s ethical mysticism. [The ethical mystic] as Rufus Jones said, “Stands the world better & becomes a better organ & bearer of spiritual forces.” [Although he seems to fit the Quaker idea of ethical mysticism], it isn’t so easy to describe A. J. Muste as a Quaker. After this experience, he renewed his membership in FOR & took the position of Director of Labor Temple, a Presbyterian institution. In 1940 Muste became Executive Secretary of FOR for the next 20 years. He thought of himself as a Friend, but did not bother with technical problems of affiliation. 

 II: Interweaving the Religious & Political—Both the Labor Temple & FOR were religious centers where spiritual resources & political struggle were intertwined & from where Muste could act upon his conviction that “we must become revolutionary out of a religious philosophy.” “God created both the religious & political dimensions & placed us in a world where we need to build community that interweaves the 2 together …”  [He tried to bring Presbyterians back to the New Testament Christian, & Quakers back to George Fox’s revolutionary consciousness]. 5 themes stand out in his interpretation & message of these spiritual forerunners: breakup of the present world order; non-conformity; pacifism; joyousness; preparation for a new Pentecost. 

  Breakup of the Present Order [& Non-conformity]—Whether or not human self-destructiveness ended in the final catastrophe, profound changes in human relationships to each other & the universe were unavoidable. He believed that at the “burning inner core of the spiritual universe … reside silent & almighty energies which can control the atom & the suns & use them for good & not for evil.” We need to form a new community in the midst of the old order’s disintegration. The new community would have to break loose from the old order & refuse to conform to its patterns. Muste’s image of non-conforming Quakers was important to his strategies of non-cooperation.

 Pacifiism, Joy, and Pentecost—“Pacifism, rejection of violence, & emphasis upon suffering love is integral to … prophetic religion.” In the final [Viet Nam] period of his life [with Americans shooting at, dropping bombs on, & using napalm to roast] people, some of the exaltation went out of his faith. Between St. Sulpice & Viet Nam, when Muste spoke of his faith, he spoke of deep & thrilling joy. He confided, “I always have a certain suspicion of any “saintliness” which lacks buoyancy & effervescence.” “Our most important responsibility is the formation of spiritual community capable of producing a pouring out of the spirit comparable to Pentecost.” A. J. Muste confronted Presidents, Prime Ministers, & premiers with his consciousness of the imperatives of Christian pacifism. Muste significantly influenced the formulation of AFSC’s seminal statement, Speak Truth to Power (1955).

 III: Criticisms of Quaker Practice—Muste was wary of any human group that tended toward exclusiveness or whose member reduced their experiences of sharing to routinized patterns of meeting & worship. He said: “No churches are Christian fellowship in the true sense of the term, [including Quakers].” “The spirit has not invaded the houses where we meet. We are not on fire.” Muste was extremely critical of Quaker education for allowing the Peace Testimony to fade among its young people. [The fact that his own son joined the Navy in 1944 may have had something to do with this]. He warned that such closeness [as is found in many Meetings] has an exclusionary impact on people [“outside” the Meeting], who are people who to be reached & included.  Most of all, Muste was disturbed by the legal distinction which prevailed in the US through most of his lifetime between religious and non-religious conscientious objectors; the latter only had the choice of military service or jail.

 Interaction & the Meaning of his Life with Friends—[Muste’s answer to why he spent so much time among unbelievers was]: “Perhaps it is in the area of … looseness from the world-that-is, of experimentation [&] creativeness … that one can find the key.” Long after he ceased attending Meetings where he held memberships, Muste could draw upon support of some of the weightiest members of those Meetings. In FOR, among conscientious objectors, working for non-violent action, Church Peace, war resisters, Viet Nam war protesters, there was a Quaker presence. 2 of Muste’s “financial angels” were the Philadelphia Quakers Emily & Walter Longstreth.  It was important to Muste to be included among Friends.

“Time & again,” a Quaker woman wrote, “when we Friends weighed & considered the course our witness was to take we have seen far off down the road ahead of us the tall spare frame of A. J., already in the Way.” His mystical experience of the divine spirit led him to active prophetic witness. The sources of Muste’s religion, while varied, contained a lot of Quaker history & thought. In turn Muste encouraged Friends toward deeper appreciation of & return to their radical roots. Commitment to revolutionary change often proved stronger among “unbelievers” whose fellowship & support were also vital to him. He brought faith & politics into balance, infusing strategy with spiritual insight. A. J. Muste’s prophetic faith called us all to become Saints for this Age.

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236.  Four Women, Four Windows on Light by (by Carol R. Murphy; 1981)

       “Will you open or close the door upon the angel visitant, who cometh in the quiet of meekness, as he came of old to the patriarch at noonday?”  Mary Baker Eddy

      “It is those who have a deep and real inner life who are best able to deal with the ‘irritating details of outer life”.  Evelyn Underhill 

      “The experience of the transcendent; this seems contradictory and yet the transcendent cannot be known except by contact, since our faculties cannot manufacture it.”  Simone Weil  

      “Dogma can in no way limit a limitless God …For me a dogma is only a gateway to contemplation and is an instrument of freedom and not of restriction.  It preserves mystery for the human mind.”  Flannery O’Connor

 

 About the Author—Carol Murphy has written a baker’s dozen of Pendle Hill Publications.  She said:  “After making an attempt to pull together material for a journal of my own inward travel, I [instead] began to study the likenesses and contrasts of several lives together.  [I found] Julius Silberger’s biography of Mary Baker Eddy, and it became the mosaic piece that made a pattern of communication between these several lives.”

 [Introduction]—Four women entered my life and sat down in my mind:  a neurotic Victorian lady [Mary Baker Eddy]; a devout Anglican lover of mysticism [Evelyn Underhill]; an ex-agnostic Jew [Simone Weil]; and a Southern writer, Catholic in the land of born-again Baptists [Flannery O’Connor], [brought together from a book-store].  [Are there 2 worlds, a tangible and an intangible, or only one seen in different perspectives]?   

Mary Baker Eddy, 1821-1910—One guest has long been challenging me to fling aside my sense of helplessness before the material world and put my trust in the Allness of God; [I’ve never been quite willing to do that].  Mrs. Eddy did have something to say which has caused me to wrestle with the rationale of religious healing.  Mary Baker was the youngest of 6 on a New Hampshire farm.  She married a man 11 years older than herself; he died 6 months later.  I think it is possible that her liking to be swung or rocked, [as susceptible to hypnosis as she was], aroused altered states of consciousness which opened the mystical world to her. 

Her contact with the healer Phineas Quimby gave her a certain foothold on a direct way of contact with other sufferers.  She fell on an icy street, and underwent a personality crisis, changing from an immensely sensitive, naturally melancholy and self-absorbed woman, to the energetic founder of a new Christian sect.  [She remained] constantly at war with the darker and more dependent side of her nature.  [She wrote the book Science and Health beginning in 1872] and published it in 1875.  She died in 1910 of pheumonia.  She wrote: “Life is God, good and not evil; that Soul is sinless and not in the body; that Spirit cannot be materialized; that Life is not subject to death; that the spiritual man has no birth, no material life, and no death.”  “Truth is demonstrable when understood, and good is not understood until demonstrated”; healing was to be her way of demonstrating Truth.

  In the past, the traditional healer had the task of restoring the patient to harmony with the cosmic forces by a combination of confession, psychotherapy, and herbs and potions.  [Later, the body was “mechanized].”  Medicine captured the body, and the cure of souls was confined to a purely spiritual sphere. The sense of wholeness was lost.  Mrs. Eddy proclaimed: “Instruct the sick that they are not helpless victims.”  Deluded they may be, but not stricken down by God, for God is on the side of health.  “Will you open or close the door upon the angel visitant, who cometh in the quiet of meekness, as he came of old to the patriarch at noonday?”

 Evelyn Underhill, 1875-1941—“Christianity does not explain suffering but does show us what to do with it.”  [Her serenity was hard won, coming from the many] creative conflicts in her life.  [She had a brief flirtation with Catholicism].  [How does that] fit in with her awakening to mysticism through the Order of the Golden Dawn?  There came into her life a tension between the everyday world and the mystic’s “other world” of assurance.  The books she wrote about this tension come to the decision to accept the everyday, even at the sacrifice of mystical ecstasy in hope of finding the union of the two in incarnation.

 [She received balanced spiritual guidance from Baron von Hugel].  She learned to accept the Anglican Church’s practices along with its often exasperating officialdom.  Von Hugel advised her to stop all thoughts of self and direct her attention to God.  Hugel’s blend of prayerful contemplation and simple acceptance of the dailyness of life was passed on to others in her letters and the retreat talks she gave.  She said:  “It is those who have a deep and real inner life who are best able to deal with the ‘irritating details of outer life”.  In today’s revival of interest in inner disciplines, she can speak to us afresh.  

 Simone Weil, 1909-1943—[Beginning as an agnostic Jew, Simone Weil says]: “There is an absolutely insurmountable obstacle to Christianity’s incarnation. It is the 2 little words ‘anathema sit’ [let him be cut off] … I remain with all things that cannot enter the Church.” Both she & her older brother Andre were precocious & great readers. Her intellect was stimulated by Alain & a philosophy that emphasized perception, will & freedom. She never joined the Communist Party because of the same truthfulness & independence that kept her out of the church. 

She combined teaching, revolutionary zeal, and politics until inevitably she outraged her superiors.  She tried factory work, and there, she said, “I received the mark of slavery.  Since then I have always regarded myself as a slave.”  In Portugal, seeing fishermen’s wives on a religious procession, she realized that Christianity was a religion of slaves, and all slaves belonged to it.”  [After a brief time in a Spanish Civil War militia group], she had a second contact with Christianity on a trip to Italy, where in a small chapel in Assisi, “something stronger than I compelled me for the first time to go down on my knees.”  After experiencing of Christ during her chronic headaches, she commented, “The experience of the transcendent; this seems contradictory and yet the transcendent cannot be known except by contact, since our faculties cannot manufacture it.” 

  She read the Bhagavad Gita, sympathizing with the plight of Arjuna. Her family fled France after the collapse of the French Army.  [In Marseilles she labored in the grape harvest with others, and with Catholic clergy in discussions about beliefs]. She sailed to America, got a job with the government in exile in England, where she worked, wrote, and lived no better than the starving people of France until she died of tuberculosis in 1953. She desired affliction, but it had to come by necessity, not choice. She believed that God is silent in the world, absent save for those human beings who turn to him with absolutely unmixed attention.  She wrote:  “This universe where we are living … is the distance put by Love between God and God. We are a point in this distance.  Space, time and the mechanism that governs matter are the distance.”

Flannery O’Connor, 1925-1964 —“I am reading the Weil books … Her life is almost a perfect blending of the Comic and the Terrible … What is more comic and terrible than the angular proud woman approaching God inch by inch with ground teeth?”  Flannery was born in Savannah, [and shortly after college and writing school, her life began to be embodied by her writings and her letters].  [She also began to be ill from lupus erythematosus]. After a struggle her condition stabilized enough for her to pursue her writing.  “I am making out fine … I have energy to write with and as that is all I have any business doing anyhow, I can with one eye squinted take it all as a blessing.”

She felt that the religious sense was being bred out of people, so “reducing everything to human proportion that in time they lose even the sense of the human itself.”  She herself kept her faith, though assailed by the doubts of the times.  In her own ebbs and flows, she came through “always with a deepened sense of mystery and always several degrees more orthodox.”  “It is the virgin birth, the Incarnation, the resurrection which are the true laws of the flesh and the physical.  Death, decay, destruction are the suspension of those laws.”  The Eucharist was “the center of existence to me, all the rest of life is expendable”; without it a church would become an “Elk’s Club.”  [She was no good at traditional prayer, meditating, or contemplation].  No doubt her real prayer was her writing, with its flashes of Spirit, like “shining from shook foil.” She was only beginning to be awakened to the meaning of the civil rights struggle [when] she died, with the troubles of others on her mind. 

  Conclusion—Now, I will address my guests with Quaker informality. Mary Eddy, I like you have visited the sick, and I’ve seen the need for the spiritual care of patients, [and perhaps the doctors too].  I think we owe to you and others, Mary Eddy, the realization of how important our mental structuring of reality is.  Your sense of the Healing Mind keeps breaking through.  And yet, I can’t just dispose of the material world of things as an illusion; it’s real in its own way.  As I search for some divine pattern of all patterns, I fall back on Isaac Penington’s saying “All Truth is a shadow except the last … yet every truth is true in its kind.  It is a substance in its own place, though it be a shadow in another place; shadow is true shadow, as the substance is true substance.”

 Evelyn Underhill, I sympathize with you in your championing mysticism as the radical un-selfing & union with God which is religion’s vital center. You know that God works through human nature, even such material as Mary Eddy’s paranoid sickliness. Perhaps for us in the West, we need Christ as our form of non-dualism—God & man in union without confusion; we are the branches on the Vine. You who have found a home in traditional religion may find it hard to understand [how some] have to search for an inner core of communion with the Ultimate prior to & at the heart of all traditional expression; [then] they may find their native religion [filled] with meaning.

I too, Simone Weil, am an intellectual whose rational mind has had to be dragged toward God with ground teeth.  You never knew the full horror of the Holocaust; it would have shaken your certitude, [since “ordinary” suffering “so rends my soul that as a result God’s love becomes almost impossible.”  You could have used a touch of your compatriot Colette, with her frank enjoyment of simple, sensuous things. It’s awkward for self-conscious intellectuals to try to identify with the under-classes.  How I would have loved to introduced you to John Woolman, who merged his life with the poor. [As to your struggles with choice and necessity, there is a kind of meaningful coincidence that works in the lives of those who get into harmony with nature or are advanced in the life of prayer.

Like you, Flannery O’Connor, I have had to speak out in an unbelieving world.  I am like you a poor prayer, and what I can’t contemplate within, I have to find in the manifold things of the outer world, if I can.  There is a secular rationalist part of me which I have to wrestle with.  We have both secular rationalists and prophets among Quakers.  Somewhere at the heart of every living religious faith is the thing itself, the Real Presence, not just a symbol of something else.  I don’t think this reality can be confined to an altar in one Church, nor can we disregard the human response.  The subjective and objective must be united in whole experience.

  We have explored 4 different ways of approaching that Center where mind & body, God & man, will & circumstance are reconciled. Mary Eddy sought it by means of healing, Evelyn Underhill by incarnating mystical love, Simone Weil by a vocation to affliction, & Flannery O’Connor by offering her vision of the Comic & the Terrible to the Real Presence. All experienced some measure of conflict; all pointed beyond themselves to what is more real. [I will close with Simone Weil’s words]: “This obedience of things in relation to God is what the transparency of a window pane is in relation to light. As soon as we feel obedience with our whole being, we see God.” 

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238.  Lawrie Tatum, Indian Agent: Quaker Values and Hard Choices (by Robert Hixson; 1981)

        My fervent desire was to be supplied heavenly wisdom sufficient for the [responsibilities] devolving upon me …. Agents were encouraged to use every effort to Christianize and civilize the Indians on the peaceable principles of the gospel, and to deal with them honestly, firmly, and lovingly … This, I believe, was the wish and intent of every agent.”  Lawrie Tatum

       Can military force by justified if the only alternative appears to be even more bloodshed and violence?  And if not, then what methods should Quakers adopt to prevent warlike people from harming others and themselves?  Does the Quaker insistence on principle that makes for good conscientious objectors, make for ineffective leaders and decision-makers?  What value are Quaker ideals if they cannot be realized in society at large? Robert Hixson

        About the Author—Born in Boulder, Colorado in 1943, Bob Hixson graduated from the Univ. of CO, worked in the Peace Corp in West Africa, & taught elementary grades in Philadelphia & Vermont. With a Master of Sci-ence degree in natural resources conservation from Cornell, he began writing & editing in Vermont.  Bob is particularly interested in exploring Quaker history to discover how our principles can be applied to life situations.

 [Sections from original pamphlet rearranged]

 [History of Kiowas and Comanches]—Before Spanish settlement in the New World the Comanches had been an obscure Shoshonean tribe living in the central Rockies.  Their name for themselves was Nermernuh (The People).  The Kiowas [or Kwu’da] too started in the mountains and moved out onto the plains.  With the acquisition of horses, [both tribes] transformed into a mounted military aristocracy.  With the abundance of buffalo came the freedom to pursue one of their most honored traditions—warfare.  Raiding, most often at night with a full moon, was the means by which a man achieved wealth and prestige.   

 The revolutionary effect horses had on the Kiowas and Comanches had a devastating effect on the other Indian tribes, who could not withstand the Kiowa-Comanches alliance after 1790.  The Kiowas and Comanches permanently altered the demography of the Southwest, blocking and then containing Spanish colonization.  The Spanish established lucrative trade with them in the spoils of raids into other regions.  Particularly cruel was the trading and ransoming of Anglo and Mexican captives carried off in raids.  

Just as the ‘Comanche barrier’ halted Spanish & Mexican colonization from the west & south, it equally blunted the Anglo settlement from the east. The settlers, & even the U.S. troops sent to the region were no match for the Indians, who had superior horsemanship, knowledge of the terrain, superior numbers, bolder tactics, better mobility, and more appropriate weapons.  The theft of livestock was also devastating.  The army and the Texas Rangers learned from earlier errors and were becoming more effective.  General Sherman, Civil War hero said:  “The more we can kill this year, the less will have to be killed next year.  They all have to be killed or maintained as paupers.”   

 [Peace commission and Lawrie Tatum]—In 1867, a great peace commission that included General Sherman and Commissioner of Indian Affairs Nathaniel G. Taylor met at Bent Forks on the Missouri River to study the problem and negotiate treaties.  Their report suggested that missionary groups become more involved in working with the Indians.  Bishop Henry Whipple of Minnesota supported the recommendation and various Quaker groups began cooperating with him.  When the Quakers protested military supervision of the Indian Bureau, President Grant accepted their advice and asked for names.  The Quakers were given the superintendency of the Indian Bureau, and recommended Lawrie Tatum, who had moral and religious uprightness, concern for humane treatment, interest in education and sound business judgment, as one of their agents. 

 So, in the Spring of 1869, a 47 year-old Quaker named Lawrie Tatum left his Springdale, Iowa farm to participate in what Quakers called a “holy experiment”; he was away from his farm for 4 years.  It was to take him to the center of a confrontation between friendly persuasion and armed might, between distant idealism and urgent pragmatism.  [The question was]:  Can Quakers be as effective at policy-making as in policy-protesting?

 Still, Tatum was a farmer, not an administrator.  Tatum wrote:  “I was living on a farm in Iowa and knew nothing about being nominated for an Indian agent until I saw my name in a newspaper … I knew little of the duties and responsibilities devolving upon an Indian agent.  After considering the subject as best I could in the fear of God, and wishing to be obedient to Him, it seemed right to accept the appointment.” 

 In May 1869, Tatum and other Quaker Indian agents left their homes and began traveling west to their agencies; [Tatum traveled nearly 450 miles from eastern Iowa to Junction City KS, then 350 miles south and a little west to Fort Sill in southwestern OK].  Fort Sill in 1869 was a new agency, established that year.  Within Tatum’s 5,000 mile² jurisdiction were about 500 Apache and 1,200 members of the Affiliated Bands (Caddoes, Wichitas, Kuchies, Wacos, and others).  Tatum’s main responsibility was the pacification and containment of 1,900 Kiowas, and 2,500 Comanches.   

 [Tatum, Kiowas and Comanches: 1^st 2 Years]—When Lawrie Tatum arrived to take charge of the agency, he found ambitious projects, barely begun.  He started building a new agency building on higher ground, a schoolhouse, [residences] for a physician, carpenter, and other employees, bought a steam engine and fixtures for a sawmill and a shingle machine, and small millstones for grinding corn.  Tatum had an unshakable belief in the value of Indians as human beings worthy of concern, charity, and love.  [The times were such that] they could strive to preserve the human rights of the Indian, but they could not comprehend preserving the Indians’ culture.

 Opposing Tatum’s efforts was the Kiowa chief Satana, [who did not like corn, and saw no point in being “civilized” when the] “wild” Indians were treated better and rewarded more, [in a misguided attempt to get them to stop raiding and taking captives].  Tatum’s answer to all these policies was simply to end them.  Even though he was responsible for them, several hundred Kiowa and ⅔ of the Comanche lived wild and free.  [Those on the reservation had to tolerate a lack of meat, coffee and sugar, and musty cornmeal].

In the fall of 1869, Tatum returned to the Midwest to buy farm machinery, visit with Quakers, and rejoin his family; his wife and youngest child returned to Ft. Sill with him.  [A major obstacle to getting the Indians to follow “the white man’s road,” was the white’s lack of understanding that there was no central authority among the Comanche and Kiowa tribes to impose a decision on the whole tribe.  In late May and mid-June the Quahada band of Comanche raided Ft. Sill and the agency killing 3 men.  In late June Tatum wrote:  “I called the Friends together who were working for the government, and told them that … I expected to remain, but wished them to use their own judgment as to remaining there or returning to the states”; only the teachers stayed with Tatum. 

 He & Colonel Grierson agreed “that it wouldn’t be right to let them go without punishment after such atrocities committed, with a hope that their rations be increased. My fervent desire was to be supplied heavenly wisdom sufficient for the [responsibilities] devolving upon me.” On July 1 Tatum was made responsible for the commissary stores, including over 4,000 head of cattle; Mary Tatum & the other Quaker employees left 4 days later.  

     When the Kiowa came, Tatum writes: “Their plan was to get their pay then (for the captives) & again when they were brought. I told them that I should give them nothing at that time, & they need not come to me again for their rations until the captives were brought to me … While we were in council the Indians had their guns, bows, & arrows lying at their sides, which could be seized in an instant … I thought they were doing it to intimidate the colonel & myself… My plan of withholding rations from a tribe or band that had white captives until they were delivered was new & experimental … I thought it was right, & therefore the thing to do… it worked grandly.”

Among the captives was one Temple Friend, who had been with the Indians for several years & had forgotten his original name & could speak only Comanche. When his grandfather spoke his name & his sister’s name, he recognized them. The release of captives also was emotionally difficult for the Indians. The Kiowa & Comanche were very egalitarian people who admired toughness & bravery wherever they found it. Quanah Parker, son of an Indian & a white captive, was one of the Comanche’s greatest & most warlike chiefs.  One Indian had told Tatum  he had “the strongest medicine for recovering captives” of any agent they ever had.  Lawrie Tatum was responsible for 26 women & children being released to their people.  It was the achievement of which he was most proud.

 [Other problems arose].  Seeking to trust the Indians, Tatum left provisions unguarded, and they were stolen.  Most Kiowa and Comanche ignored appeals to come onto the reservation.  One chief told Tatum that if Washington did not want young men raiding in Texas, Washington should remove Texas where the young men wouldn’t find it.  The situation was tragically clear.  As long as game was plentiful and the Indians could obtain guns and ammunition from traders, they could not be kept on the reservation and from raiding without force. 

 Superintendent Hoag and other Quaker officials visited, and seemed well satisfied with the way the agency was managed.  Tatum reported on an agent meeting in Lawrence, KS that: “Agents were encouraged to use every effort to Christianize and civilize the Indians on the peaceable principles of the gospel, and to deal with them honestly, firmly, and lovingly … This, I believe, was the wish and intent of every agent.”  

        [Tatum, Kiowas and Comanches: 2^nd 2 Years and Conclusion]—With the return of spring in 1871, the Indian ponies grew sleek & young warriors restless. Emboldened by lack of punishment [resulting from Quaker princi-ples, which did not permit calling in troops], the Kiowa & Comanche in 1871 intensified Texas raids. [The whites felt panic & outrage, while the Kiowa & Comanche felt exhilaration & excitement that normally came with war. 

[After a raid on a party right behind his own], General Sherman ordered Colonel Ranald McKenzie to meet him at Ft. Sill. Sherman arrived at the agency on May 23; his mood was grim. Tatum no longer doubted that force would be necessary if the Indians were to cease raiding. Sanctioning the use of troops to bring the Kiowa & Comanche under control brought Tatum into direct conflict with his Quaker supervisors. [Tatum had gone] among the Indian lovingly, sincerely, patiently, & trusting in God’s goodness & wisdom—and still they still raided. 

 [The Kiowa chiefs Satana, Eagle Heart, Big Tree, Big Bow, and 1^st Bear (Satank) came to the agency].  Satana made a speech claiming credit for the raid that killed 7 men on a mule train.  Tatum went to Colonel Grierson and requested the arrest of the chiefs.  A general melee ensued; there was panic, disorder and one Indian killed.  3 days later Colonel McKenzie arrived and took 3 of the chiefs—Satana, Satank, and Big Tree—away in chains.  [Satank managed to get his handcuffs off and attacked the soldiers, forcing them to kill him].  He knew the old ways were dying, and he did not wish to live the new.  He died with his honor intact. 

 [The remaining 2 chiefs were sentenced to hang, but the Quakers got the sentence commuted to life imprisonment.  Tatum wrote:  “It was right to have them arrested, & I see nothing to make me feel doubtful about it … He whom I endeavor to serve has, I believe, enlightened my understanding in times of need.”  He later wrote:  “The Kiowa & Quahadas are unmanageable by me … Nothing less than military authority, with perhaps some punishment by troops, will bring them into subjection as to again render the services of a civil agent of benefit to them.”

 In August and September of 1872, the Quaker Indian officials convened 2 large intertribal councils, hoping the influence of the “civilized” tribes could be brought to bear on the Kiowa and Comanche.  Most of the Kiowa and Comanche stayed away; those that came only wanted to demand their chiefs back.  Tatum was adamant that Satana and Big Tree not be released.  [While the Friends Indian Committee felt very hopeful about the release of the chiefs, Tatum did not believe their promises, based on past experience.  Satana “could not keep the other Indians from raiding if he wished to, and he would not do so if he could.”

 When Quakers distant from the reservation continued to work for the chiefs’ release over his objections, Tatum resigned effective March 1873.  The following questions that have troubled Quakers throughout their history [were confronted by Tatum as by few other Quakers]:  Can military force by justified if the only alternative appears to be even more bloodshed and violence?  And if not, then what methods should Quakers adopt to prevent war-like people from harming others and themselves?  Does the Quaker insistence on principle that makes for good conscientious objectors, make for ineffective leaders and decision-makers?  What value are Quaker ideals if they cannot be realized in society at large?

 The Kiowa & Comanche were predestined to be almost totally unreceptive to friendly persuasion & example; [meekness was weakness; no raiding was surrender. Lawrie Tatum sought to reconcile idealism & pragmatism, but when a choice had to be made he chose pragmatism. Tatum’s Quaker successor, James H. Haworth was instructed not to countenance the use of military force; in 4 years he had no better luck than Tatum. The Peace Policy, the “holy experiment,” had been a failure. With each battle or raid, the Indians grew weaker & the whites stronger.  Defeated militarily, the last of the Indian bands, led by Quanah Parker, came to the reservation in June 1875.         

 The tasks that Tatum “failed” at almost no human being could have accomplished, and Lawrie Tatum was just an Iowa farmer armed with good intentions and an unshakable determination to what was right.  [Kiowa, Comanche, and non-Indian respected him and were sorry to seem him go.  “I can see that the public service is to be the loser by any change, however worthy may be your successor.”   These Indians knew courage when they saw it. 

  Although he never again became an Indian agent, Tatum remained interested in Indians and their welfare the rest of his life.  [Both he and the Indians were trapped in their own times and values and never really understood the depth of the differences between his culture and theirs.  Lawrie was a sincere, deeply religious, practical man made strong and purposeful by the moral imperatives of his faith.  To all difficulty and adversity he always had but one answer.  “I thought it was right—and therefore the thing to do.”

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243. Joel Litu, Pioneer African Quaker (by Rose Adede; 1982)

JOEL LITU 1890-1977—Litu’s death seems like an end of an era.  He was the most distinguished man of his time in Kenya; in many ways, he was ahead of his time.  He played a part in East Africa YM about a ½-century.  Geoffrey Bowes, London YM.

                                              

 About the Author—Rose Kasandi Adede was born June 26, 1952, Kaimosi, Kenya. Her parents, Joseph & Sarah Ngaira Adede, were stationed at the mission school. She attended Dar-es-Salaam Univ. in Tanzania, graduating in 1975 with an education B.A.; she attended Pendle Hill in autumn 1981. This pamphlet was written in 1980 after she met Anne Shope of Greensboro, NC, who journeyed to Kenya in Dec. 1979 for a Conference of the United Society of Friends Women. She accompanied them for 3 weeks & was inspired to write this biographical sketch.

 PREFACE—My main sources were interviews with Litu’s older brother Masia, sister Kahi, wife Marita, daughter-in-law Sarah Adede, and a good number of his other relatives.  There were also letters from and about him, speeches and sermons.

 [Introduction]—Joel Litu was outstanding; his voice rang out loud, deep and distinct; he was over 6 ft. tall; his dark skin was always shiny and clean; he washed his own clothes. In Litu there was a streak of the immaculate.  On his father’s side Joel Litu belonged to the Lungusia, one of the key clans in the heart of Maragoli land.  Majani married Jaluha, who conceived during their courtship.  Her father chased her with spear in hand, across the stream toward Majani’s village.  Masia was her 1^st-born; Litu was her 2^nd.

Early Years—Joel Litu was born in 1890; the day & month are not known.  Before long he was towering over his older brother.  [Litu would sit with his mother in the kitchen and help her with chores like grinding millet].  During 1907, when the Maragoli people suffered famine, Litu’s skill in grinding proved particularly useful.  He would ready the grinding stone and dried skins while his mother fired the millet grains.  In his free time, Litu loved to tame birds.  He had a score of wild doves & a good number of chickens. If one of the birds was not ea-ting well he would fuss about it loudly.  His father was often away from home at meetings where the other village elders would discuss communal matters.  Later the same night, his father would buy a pot of beer for his friends.     

The circumcision of boys is an old custom among the Maragoli.  Most of the boys were circumcised when they were in their late teens, when they were old enough to understand the truths given to them. The day before they were circumcised, Litu, Masia, & other young men were rounded up by a drummer & taken to a hut at the end of the village specially built for the occasion, where they were to stay for the night. Very early in the morning the boys were circumcised in a nearby stream. During the healing period they stayed in the hut with some elderly men who looked after them; they ate porridge out of a common bowl, & learned woodworking craft & songs. 

The Quaker missionaries who 1^st settled in Kaimosi in 1902, had gradually gained converts.  By 1910 the very first African converts were beginning to staff Quaker schools.  One such school was started in 1911 at Mbale with Yohana Amugune as teacher. Litu joined the year it was started, and mastered Swahili, the lingua franca. Amugune recommended Joel Litu to Emory Rees to help translate the Bible.  Litu 1^st worked at typesetting.  Of Majani’s 7 children, only Litu’s name was known beyond his home village, his tribe, and his country. 

One day an elderly woman brought Marita Kekoyi to the village.  She stayed at a neighbor’s house and Litu joined here; it was called eloping.  [Litu marrying before his elder brother was against custom].  Nine months later Marita gave birth to Joseph Adede.  Later she and Litu had a wedding after the manner of Quakers.

The Young Family Moves to Vihiga—With the pressure of work Litu had to migrate and stay on the mission station at Vihiga with his wife and son; Litu stayed at Vihiga for 30 years.   In the 1920’s Litu’s father Majani was taken seriously ill and [shortly] died.  Litu could not help connecting his father’s death with his habit of drinking.  Throughout his life he preached vehemently against the use of alcohol. 

 [Living] at the mission statement, Litu worked all the time. His day was spent translating the New Testament in Luragoli, other needs of the mission station, & work in the press; there was a high demand for hymn books & portions of the Bible already translated. The schools also needed a great deal of printed material. Emory Rees gave Litu a small house walking distance from his; Marita began to make a home out of what was available; she turned the houses’ plot of land into a vegetable garden. Within decades at Vihiga 9 boys and 3 girls were born into Litu’’s and Marita’s family.  The working population on the station increased with the opening of a boys’ boarding school in 1922.  The teachers formed a soccer team.  Litu threw himself wholeheartedly into the game. 

[The funds were scarce for] boarding schools in the 1920s.  The boys had to eat boiled vegetables & cornmeal; [special food for wealthy boys caused unrest, so it was forbidden]. Joel Litu was a brilliant Bible teacher. He would read a portion, explain the words & images, & drill the boys on important passages. At times it was difficult to draw distinctions between his teaching in class & preaching in a Sunday service. He led hymns in a clear voice; quite often he sang very early in the morning in his moments of devotion. The rich Quaker hymn tunes were among the treasures that he cherished. In 1923, the boarding school was moved to Kaimosi Mission; Vihiga became a day school. Litu lived at Vihiga & taught Bible classes on certain days at Kaimosi. 

Deborah Rees worked to help the women, teaching them reading, sewing, & basic hygiene. Before the East Africa YM was established, Quaker members from Malava, Kaimosi, Vihiga, & Lirhanda gathered together periodically for 2 or 3 days. In 1926 Emory Rees & his family left Vihaga for the US. [The staff, pupils, and neighbors gathered to bid them farewell].  Joel Litu escorted them over 500 miles to Mombasa.  In the 12 years Rees and Litu worked together a warm, strong bond grew up between them.  [At their graveside in the US Litu prayed]:  “Beloved friends whom I can call my parents in Jesus’ name are buried where I stand.  Their bodies are buried here on earth, but their souls are in your hands, Jehovah god, who sent them to our country Kenya to seek us.”

 Joel Becomes Supervisor of Schools—With the departure of Emory Rees, Litu was virtually in charge of Vihiga mission station.  Litu [was the sole wage-earner in his extended family; his brother stayed home, tilled the soil and provided enough food for his family and for Litu’s.  All the family turned to Litu for support and guidance.  Litu’s work took a different direction.  He was offered an opportunity to go to the Jeanes Teacher Training Center at Kabete to study hygiene and farming.  He started farming the plot around his house, and demonstrating what he had learned.  Litu also accepted appointment by the Society of Friends as first African inspector of the schools under the management of Friends Africa Mission for 5 years.  [He traveled to all inspections by bicycle].  On Saturdays he would carry out household chores.  Sunday he was either preaching at the Mission church in Vihiga or in a neighboring village.  His service continued after worship, as people followed him home, asking questions on the Bible, or advice on matters affecting their personal lives.

Working on the Bible at Lugulu/Sharing the Little Hut—Jefferson Ford of Lugulu Mission decided to carry on with the work of Bible translation.  Litu would travel 2 days on bicycle, stopping at Malava Mission on the way.  He would spend a week at Lugulu translating the Old Testament and teaching in the Bible school, then travel back to Vihiga; Litu did this for over 10 years.              

Litu’s son, Joseph Adede graduated as a teacher from Makerere College in Uganda, and 1^st worked at Kaimosi Boys Boarding School.  From 1939-1941 Litu was teaching Bible in Kaimosi. When he worked late he stayed at the school, sharing a small grass-thatched house with Yosiah Chagwe, and later with a student, Obeda.

 The Return to Mbale/Court Tribunal—In 1943, Joel Litu chose to leave Vihiga Mission and move back to his home village Mbale.  [He kept up his connection with his village, sending along clothes and seedlings.  In the 1940s the Quaker movement had grown to over 10,000 members.  Joel Litu’s advice was constantly sought by his fellow Quakers.  Whenever American Friends had a meeting to discuss certain issues, it was customary for African Friends to confer with Joel.  The Mission Board recommended to the 5 Years Meeting in America that a Yearly Meeting should be established in Kenya; 1946 saw the birth of East Africa Yearly Meeting.  Joel Litu became the 1^st presiding clerk and served in that office for 3 years.

 In 1948 Joel Litu was called upon to serve in a Court Tribunal made up of village elders, who executed justice on a village level.  Litu’s appointment as a magistrate was a great satisfaction to his family; Jahlula lived to see it, but died the next year.  [A man tried and failed to bribe him with a hen].  Many cases were land disputes.  Litu would interrupt testimony when he sensed they were lying].  After serving in Mbale, he was transferred to Mumias some 30 miles away.  The Wanga people were surprised that he did not take bribes, “what big people take.”  He also served in Lurumbie, and Ilolomani.  He worked in the courts a total of 17 years, retiring in 1965 at the age of 75.  The Queen conferred a Certificate of Meritorious Service upon him in 1966.

Replacement of the Bicycle/Last Days—It wasn’t until 1956 that Litu was able to afford a car; actually his children bought it for him. [He never mastered driving, & had someone drive him where he wanted to go]. His grandchildren took delight in seeing grandpa’s car go by, & relied on it to announce his departure & arrival. 

 During his late years Joel Litu was not an ailing old man; he still took long walks in the evenings, [& walked all around the village. He was known as “Aligula”—one who visits. In his old age Litu’s profound involvement in Quaker concerns didn’t diminish. [He was chairman of the YM’s board of Trustees, was very concerned with the use of YM funds, & the sale of its property. In 1975 he joined delegates who attended a Friends United Meeting (FUM) conference in the US. After his return from the States, Joel became ill. He was well enough to attend his YM’s Annual Conference, spoke briefly, & led the singing of “When the Role is Called up Yonder.”

 Becoming ill again in 1977, he was taken to the New Nyanza General Hospital in Kisumu.  Though in pain, he spoke of his faith in the Lord Jesus and of his spiritual father, Bwana Rees, saying, “Emory Rees clothed me with Christianity”; on February 4 1977, Joel Litu died.  [People within 5 miles of his home came to mourn his passing].  His gravestone was of marble, provided by FUM and the American Bible Association, with a photograph taken when he was preaching with a Bible in his hand.  

 Litu’s Work—His life work falls into 3 distinct phases: 1914-1926; 1926-46; 1946-1965.  The 1^st phase he was involved in printing, teaching, preaching and translating the Bible.  The second phase began when Emory Rees left, and marked the maturing of his ministry and spiritual growth.  He worked without supervision for the longest hours and received the least pay of his working life.  The third phase he become the 1^st presiding clerk of the East Africa Yearly Meeting and ended with his retirement from service in the tribunal courts in 1965.

Litu contributed toward the establishment and growth of the Quaker movement in Kenya both materially and spiritually.  He raised and collected money for many church buildings, and sometimes supervised the construction.  He was a widely sought after Friend who graced a number of ceremonies.  In 1930s he became the 1^st African Quaker authorized to conduct weddings; his last wedding was 2 months before he died.  As the 1^st presiding clerk of East Africa Yearly Meeting he placed it on a sound foundation, and was very active in visiting village meetings.  He also contributed a lot to the transformation of Luragoli into a written language.  His rich vocabulary proved invaluable in the [painstaking] translation of the Bible, [according to Emory Rees].  Many of the trees he planted on all the stations where he worked still stand.  Throughout his humble, tireless work Litu planted seeds of the word of God in many hearts.    

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245.  Alternative Christianity (by John Punshon;1982)

About the Author—John Punshon was born in London’s East End in 1935. He was evacuated to Devon for the duration of WWII. He became a convinced friend at Brasenose College, Oxford. He was appointed Quaker Studies Tutor at Woodbrooke, the Quaker Center in Birmingham in 1979.  John used his invitation to speak at Friends House in London in 1981 to contribute to the continuing discussion as the nature of the Quaker tradition.  This pamphlet is the result.

[Introduction]—[The Quaker approach to religion tends to see form and substance as opposites and not complementary parts of a whole.  If we are to bear collective witness, we have to give form and structure to experience.  We must go beyond the raw material of personal experience to see ourselves in a wider setting.  Is the Friends’ interpretation of the mind of Christ and the New Testament as valid as that of the major branches of the Christian religion?

The Problem of Authority—[Some Quakers say that no generalization about Quakers would be helpful, and it would erect standards as to what qualifies as “Quaker.”]  I dissent from these objections because: they are themselves generalizations; [saying that there is no place for authority in Quakerism is a misunderstanding of what authority is].  It no more follows that the lack of an outward authority implies the lack of any authority than to say that the lack of creeds implies an absence of belief.  Quakers have an inward authority, called by various names.  The Quaker tradition is the path into which Friends have been led by the Light, and the beliefs it has led them to espouse in the form of collective insights, not individual enlightenment. We are only entitled to assume we have a better understanding than past Quakers if we give full weight to what they had to say. 

Christian Principles/Quaker Praxis—The Old Testament involves the following doctrines:

1^st God is a moral, creative, and loving agent who created the Universe by an act of will and imagination.

2^nd The relationships we can have with God become strained or impossible through self-centeredness (sin).

3^rd Because of the basic moral estrangement of human & divine, initiative for reconciliation comes from God.

4^th The primary aim of religious life should be seeking justice, not ecstasy; God is to be found in history.

5^th The life of religious discipleship is good works proceeding from faith

On this foundation lie the distinctive doctrines of Christianity [in general].  So, Quakerism shares a theory with the rest of the Christian Church but displays a totally different praxis.

We do not baptize or celebrate the Holy communion because we do not believe that divine grace is channeled through outward ceremonies dependent on human arrangement. We have beliefs but we do not impose a test of belief on perspective members. Friends have always believed that purely verbal formulations rooted in the circumstances of a particular time & backed with the sanction of outward authority discourage direct personal experience of God. We meet in silence, because worship should be held under the complete guidance of the Holy Spirit. Silence remains the distinctively Quaker form of worship, even in the programmed tradition. The minister is one with spiritual gifts that are self-authenticating. We lay our ministry open to all for God to use as he thinks fit.  With Christians it has been left to Friends, Mennonites, & Brethren to protest [that there is no such thing as a just war], & that one’s attitude to war is a clearer indication of the ground of one’s faith than any creed or religious affiliation. What brings out the differences between Quakerism & other churches is its attitude towards the Bible.

Children of the Light/Basic Divergences—The earliest name Friends adopted for themselves was the Biblical “Children of Light; “Quaker” was an abusive term used by others. George Fox’s question, “what thou speakest, is it inwardly from God?” is not an invitation to people to construct their own faith. 

The Quakers are saying that the New Testament is the product of a community; what matters is what it can tell us about that community.  Quakers claimed to be that community.  This sense of identity with the New Testament Children of Light is the basic principle which distinguishes Quakerism from older traditions and gives its doctrine of Scripture its dangerous and sometimes abused freedom.  The divergence between Quakerism and the other churches comes in the way the Holy Spirit is envisaged as guiding the Church.  The Quaker conception of identity with the Children of Light and the Catholic “Apostolic Succession” are fundamentally different in that the Catholic use an intermediary in the workings of the Spirit where the Quakers do not.  

The 1^st basic divergence is that the Catholic is hierarchical and exercises a teaching and pastoral ministry primarily through its clergy.  Friends believe that I Corinthians 12 says that the Children of Light knew no distinction of clergy and laity.  2^nd Using a primarily sacramental system channels grace through ceremonies and distorts the original pattern of Christian witness.  The Children of Light’s witness was a revival of prophecy. 3^rd Quakers have never denied the need for eucharistic remembrance, but rather that its symbolism was other than a spiritual and inward thing.  4^th if you set great store by participation in the eucharist, you have laid down qualification for those who wish to take part; you reduce faith to an expression of doctrine rather than an experience of the Spirit. 

An Alternative Theory of Continuity—Quakerism would make 3 conditions that must be satisfied before any Christian group can claim to be in the same power as the Apostles.  The 1^st condition is that it must display the fruits of the Spirit, as found in Philippians 4:8 and Galatians 5:22-23.  The 2^nd condition is a conscious awareness of [firsthand experience] of the Spirit in the group, and an acceptance of it.  The 3^rd condition is sound doctrine, a willingness to accept the guidance of the Spirit.  Quakerism is a Christianity which emphasizes the importance of intense inner conviction and a hostility to outward and visible ceremonies and forms.

Friends have always set themselves strongly against what they consider to be a timid Christianity which says that Christ’s death frees from the consequences of sin but leaves you in a sinful state.  The light shows you your sin and gives you the power to overcome it.  Some see the light as a source of understanding, while others see the Light as a means of verifying our understanding.  We internalize it, spiritualize it, respond to it.  We are justified because of the Light and not the event.  [There are movements within Quakerism]: those who tend towards the evangelicals, and those who tend towards a rejection of Christianity.

The Particularity of the Bible—The Bible contains a record of events and the consequent development of ideas, and what matters in theology is what you do with these events, what sort of significance you see in them.  The means of understanding the significance of these events can only be with you.  Only the Light can unlock the Scripture’s secrets.  To look for religious authority in the Bible alone is to mistake a part for a whole. 

Robert Barclay proposes that the Bible contains: a faith historical account of the actions of God’s people in various ages; a prophetic account of some things past and some to come; and a full and adequate account of the doctrine of Christ.  Barclay had no critical problems such as we face.  We have to reach our own accommodation with the text, and use all the critical tools and academic disciplines available to us.  Does the Bible, after being critically examined, contain history, prophecy, and doctrine that we are under an obligation to accept because it is in the Bible?  Some people answer the question by explaining it away.  Others see the Bible simply as myth, i.e. it expresses at a very deep level patterns of psychological response to the world of our experience that necessary for creative and productive living.  And then there are attempts to locate scriptural authority in the events the Bible relates rather than the text which does the relating.

Liberation Theology—The Uruguayan Jesuit Juan Luis Segundo formulates the “hermeneutic circle,” [which has to do with changing our interpretation of the Bible.  He said:  “If our interpretation of the Scriptures does not change along with the problems, then the latter will go unanswered; or worse, they will receive the old unserviceable answers.”  As a Quaker I find this approach acceptable and productive [because]: the theological agenda is settled by experience rather than unchallengeable assumption; it does not encourage random and undisciplined change; understanding the place of revelation lies in the individual apprehension of developing truth; and it rests not on particular authority but the faith that God is unconfined.  Liberation theologians point to what affects us now as the basis from which theology must move. 

What does God have to say about current issues?  The most important thing God says is that there is nothing new in these things, that they have been a feature of human experience at all times and in all places.  Three biblical features lead to activism and involvement.  1^st there is conflict and a call to prophetic witness against oppression.  2^nd is urgency and a call for justice now.  3^rd is idealism and a call like Micah’s to put down war and take up peace.  This is the way Quakers have always regarded religion.  I would conclude that Quakers [coming down on the side of peace, the oppressed, and nature] are all part of [both] a 20^th century political movement and a religious movement of far greater antiquity and divine significance.

New Testament (NT) Criticism/ Defining Radical Quakerism —[Christianity today is faced with the attitude that the documents of the NT are] so fragmentary and ambiguous that they can provide no solid grounds on which to stand.  [At the beginning of the 20^th century], our understanding of NT times underwent a profound change.  The gospels offer us a perception of Jesus, [not Jesus himself].  The Bible by itself cannot give us the truth about Jesus and cannot provide the authoritative revelation that for so many centuries we thought it could.

We have 4 Christologies: John, Paul, Peter, and Hebrews; we have the tantalizing problem of the Synoptic Gospels.  [What we really have] is evidence about the experience and teaching of the 1^st Christians, and an ex-pression of faith.  “For God,” Paul said, “who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Corinthians 4:6).  George Fox was saying that the Bible will not yield up its revelation to the intellect, operating upon the letter of the text, but only to the humble spirit that will recognize the things of God illuminated by the Light Within. 

We can seek and find God within; indeed, that is the only place where God can be found.  People who found themselves on the same spiritual journey do not avoid great differences of opinion, but can transcend them by recognizing one another as followers of Jesus in a multiplicity of ways.  London YM’s Discipline points to the traditional Advices and Queries and Christian Faith and Practice, which express the broad principles of belief and conduct that the YM holds.  It calls simply for loyal recognition of them, not precise agreement.  My own YM expresses it understanding of the nature of the Church today the same way. 

 [Quakerism is an “alternative” Christianity, because it is: radical, charismatic, and prophetic.  The Quaker contribution to all kinds of struggles is a special case of a much older and more profound struggle on the stage of human history.  The office of prophet is a diverse and therefore misunderstood one.  It is unsought and frequently resisted; part of the prophetic experience is a struggle with God that resolves into total obedience.  The prophet all too often sees his words rejected as threatening to established values and habitual ways of thought.  Friends believe that it is the prophet not the priest, who is the interpreter of God to mankind.  The proclamation of God’s goodness and God’s justice, God’s love and God’s redemptive purpose is not once for all, an event which took place at an ever more remote period in the past, but is the immediate and eternal work of the Holy Spirit. 

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246.  A Quest there is (by Elizabeth Gray Vining; 1982)

About the Author—At last, Elizabeth Gray Vining has written a sequel to The World in Tune.  This pamphlet is a collection of quotations from some of her favorite mystics, accompanied with interpretive comment.  They offer glimpses into her personal life, and reveal a lover of birds and beasts, with an ever present awareness of the spirit embodied in substance. 

That a quest there is and an end is the single secret spoken (Quote from Evelyn Underhill’s Mysticism).  When I first encountered it, I was drowning in grief, reaching desperately for a hold on some meaning in life.  I expected to be told something elaborate, final, and incredible; I found instead this simple assurance.  There is a search; there is a purpose.  That is all you need to know.  The rest you must find out for yourself.

To think well is to serve God in the interior court.

You are as prone to love as the sun is to shine, it being the most delightful and natural employment of the Soul of Man, without which you are dark and miserable. Thomas Traherne.

Thomas Traherne was a shoemaker’s son in Hereford, 10 years younger than George Fox.  Like George Fox he wandered England for a year looking for truth.  He took orders in the Church of England & became rector of a small church in Herefordshire & later a chaplain. He wrote poetry & a book called Centuries of Meditation.  The “centuries” were collections of 100 meditations each; he wrote 510 such collections.  They were not published until 230 years after his death.  Traherne had the insight that one must love oneself before one can love others.  “By choosing, a man may be turned and converted into love.”

What a wonderful now!  It is surely eternity.  Kanjiro Kawai

Kanjiro Kawai was a great modern potter and poet of Japan.  We visited him one day in March 1950.  His house was built in the Japanese style, but was sturdy and solid where others were fragile in their beauty.  He found the joy of the pioneers a beautiful thing and wanted to know about the pioneer spirit in America today.  I quickly answered that it came out mostly in our love of freedom.  Kawai showed us his wheel, which he powered by kicking it vigorously and then working till it ran down.  We left with a copy of his short poems, and each of us received a piece of pottery.  The poems had to do with fire, and clay and light, with wood and stone, with an insect and the moon, art and life, with eternity.

Saint Benno and the Frog—[St. Benno would often pray as he walked in the fields.  One day he bade the frogs be quiet.  Upon further reflection that frogs might be more agreeable to God than his prayer, he bade them continue their praise].  St. Benno was born early in the 10^th century of a noble family in Swabia.  He was happiest as a hermit in the Swiss mountains.  To most of us today the sound that frogs make beside streams and ponds in the early spring is cheerful and welcome.  Henry Waddell, an Irish scholar and poet, translated this story from the Acta Sanctorum, (Acts of Saints), a collection of stories and legends about saints, began early, in the 17^th century.

Power said to the World, “You are Mine./  The World kept it Prisoner on his Throne.

Love said to the World, “I am Thine./  The World gave it the Freedom of her House.  Rabindranath Tagore 

[The 3 temptation in the desert changed Jesus from an admirable, lovable young man to a strong, purposeful, inspired prophet].  In modern times the 3 temptations might be interpreted as wealth, prestige, and power.  Power is the most dangerous because of its very attractiveness and the seductive idea that one can use it for good.  Certainly St. Francis was able to avoid all 3 temptations, but not St. Teresa of Avila, who as Mother Superior had unquestioned power over sisters sworn to obedience.

The Donkey: [1^st, there is an unflattering description in the 1^st person, then]:   Fools! For I also had my hour/ One far fierce hour and sweet/ There was a shout about my ears/ and palms about my feet.  Gilbert K. Chesterton    

Exasperating donkeys may be, but still somehow they are lovable and, in simpler countries than ours, still useful members of society.  The donkey is a small, humble animal, used for humble purposes, [especially in Greece]. [The donkey also played key roles in Jesus’ early life, by carrying her “safely to Bethlehem town,” and safely to Egypt after his birth].  There are wild donkeys on Ossabaw Island of the coast of Georgia, with dark markings on their backs that resemble a cross.  In spite of the cloud of forgetfulness under which Chesterton is at present obscured, his poem about the donkey still is found in anthologies.

       [Old English poem from a young widow to her husband begins & ends with]: Here, Shadowe Lie/Whilst life is Sadd/ Still Hopes to Die/To him She had…Love made me Poet/& this I Writt/ My Harte did do it/& not my Wit. 

Many years ago I met the author of these artless but poignant lines in the parish church at Burford in the Cotswolds.  My own handsome and brilliant young husband had been killed in an automobile accident less than 3 years before.  The fellowship of the sorrowful I have called it, that little spring of understanding that flows between people who lost some one very dear.  Earlier I met Ela, another grieving young widow at Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire.  She was under great pressure to remarry, but in the 13^th century established a nunnery instead at Lacock where she and William had lived.  I saw the cloisters, the abbess’ parlor with 2 fireplaces and a tiled floor.  Something of her steadfast soul spoke to me intimately over the centuries.

One God there is, greatest of men and mortals,/Not like to man in Body or in Mind.                                All of him sees and hears and thinks.  Xenophanes of Colophon (6^th century B.C.)

     Xenophanes of Colophon offered the proposition that man creates God in his own image; his own belief is stated in the quote beginning this paragraph; he was probably exiled for this belief. William Butler Yeats, around 1890 wrote a poem that the moorfowl, lotus, roebuck, & peacock each imagine God in their own image. William Blake is probably the most mystical & mysterious of all the great English poets. He wrote volumes of visionary, prophetic poems. [From a long poem called The Everlasting Gospel this pamphlet’s author selected a passage that observes how different interpretations of the Gospels can be incompatible with each other]. When shall we learn to pray not to “what I think Thou art but what thou knowest Thyself to be?”

Pile the bodies High . . ./Shovel them under and let me work/I am the Grass; I cover all . . ./ I am the Grass/let me work.  [From Grass, by Carl Sandburg]

Summer Grass;/ of stalwart Warriors’ Dreams/The Aftermath  Haiku by Basho (17^th century)

They Hated and Killed and Men praised them/ But God in His shame hastens to hides its memory under the green grass. Rabindranath Tagore (19^th -20^th century)  

      When I was in Japan, I used to drive several times a week through one of the most devastated parts of Tokyo. [In one large, burned-over place there were waste metal piles, carefully stacked; eventually the piles were taller than 2-story houses; I went away for the summer]. I returned to discover that vines & creepers had grown, spreading over the great masses of wreckage a curtain of living green. The grass has begun to work, I thought.

… Provide for the aged homes of dignity & peace; give them understanding helpers, & the willingness to accept help.  As their strength diminishes, increase their faith & their assurance of your love. Episcopal Prayer Book. 

From 65 to 95 is 30 years, as great a distance as from 20 to 50; but they call us all old.  I am fortunate to live in a loving community, where we all enjoy dignity and peace.  A few are weak but none is isolated.  Age comes, and without jobs, without the energy to fill all our hours with activity, with decreased ability to read, to travel, or even to knit, we have much more time to think, [especially through increasingly sleepless nights].  Some of us find that what we thought was faith was not much more than well-being , that our realization of God and his love was academic, unreal, unconvincing.  [The end of [the author’s] prayer for the aged would be]:  “Grant them courage in the face of pain or weakness, and always a sure knowledge of thy presence.”

At the Flower Vase/ The butterfly seems to be listening/ To the One Great Thing.  Issa (18^th century Japan)

Beautiful flower arrangements are an important part of every Japanese house and store.  [To Issa, the butterfly might have been listening to Buddha].  To us it would be God.  Issa’s experience of homelessness helped him to understand the fears and sufferings of all small, weak things.

      

I and my white Pangur/ Have each his special art./ His mind is set on hunting mice./ Mine is on my special craft./ … He is master of the work/ which every day he does,/While I am at my own work/ To bring difficulty to clearness.  Anonymous (translated by Kuno Mayer)

The monk’s work in the 8^th century was in Ireland copying the books of the Bible in beautiful handwriting.  In Ireland the monks lived in separate cells scattered about the woods and fields near a church or a cathedral.  This monk with a cat must have rested his pen many times while he watched the movements of his cat and smiled as he watched.  We do not know his name; but his cat’s name has become immortal. 

    [I said to Love]Let my shame/ go where it doth deserve/And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?/My dear, then I will serve./You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat./ So I did sit and eat.  George Herbert   The scene is the great hall of an English manor house of the 17^th century.  The humbler ones sit below the salt cellar in the middle of the long table.  [The speaker is asking to be seated at the humble end] when the noble host came down from his place at the high table to welcome the traveler.

George Herbert looked forward to a political career.  And then he felt a call to the spiritual life and the ministry; he obeyed, but not without a struggle.  He became rector of a little country church in Bemerton.  His one indulgence was to walk into Salisbury twice a week to hear Cathedral music and to make music with friends.  Once he came upon a poor man with a horse that had fallen down. He pitched in and unloaded the horse, got him up and reloaded him.  When his appearance was criticized, he gave a spirited homily on prayer and practice.

His poems were published after he died and in the 20^th century became important to a brilliant young French Jewish woman, Simone Weil, whose life and writings have meant much to Friends, especially because of her compassion for the poor.  She memorized the whole short poem and used it to deal with agonizing headaches.  Once when she used it, “In the sudden possession of me by Christ . . . I felt in the midst of my suffering the presence of a love, like that which one can read in the smile on a beloved face.”  In its own way this poem bears a resemblance to the lofty scene in the upper room in Jerusalem, when Jesus tied a towel around his waist and, kneeling before each one, washed the disciples’ feet.

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248.  The Candle of the Lord (by Elfrida Vipont Foulds; 1983)

The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.  Proverbs 20:27

About the Author—Born in Manchester (England) 1902, Elfrida Vipont Foulds grew up in a Quaker family.  She worked as a free-lance writer, lecturer, & singer before and after her marriage to R. Percy Foulds, a research technologist. During WWII she was headmistress of the Quaker Evacuation School at Yealand Manor.  43 of her books have been published.  She is also chairman of the committee which arranges visits to the Quaker “1652 Country.”  [She has shown international interest in schools, colleges, children’s libraries and Quaker groups].

Rufus Jones and my father E. Vipont Brown were almost exactly of an age.  Both belonged to that generation of your men and women who brought about a great re-awakening of Quakerism nearly 100 years ago.  The movement was led by Rufus Jones in the US and John Wilhelm Rowntree in London Yearly Meeting.  Quakerism was ready for the challenge of a new age. 

Pendle Hill according to Henry Hodgkin, was to be “a haven of rest, a school of prophets, a laboratory of ideas, and a fellowship of co-operation.”  [As to rest], musician and saint and tortured prophet alike have discovered that there is only one abiding source of rest, the Eternal Presence in the human heart.  The prophets and the idealists, the scholars and philosophers, the craftsmen working together will emerge only if at the heart of each restless, seeking individual there is the knowledge of where that rest is to be found. 

This quotation reminds me of a hymn we used to sing in the little “Children’s Meeting” started by my mother and other pioneering women at Mount Street Meeting. [We would sing]: “Like a little candle/We must shine/you in your small corner/ And I in mine.”  [Unfortunately “small corner” would conjure the image of “standing in the corner” as punishment].  We can take the text smugly, and it will get us nowhere.  We can take it in a disillusioned spirit, and again it will get us nowhere.  Or we can take it up as a challenge and ask if indeed one poor candle’s gleam can be of use in the world we live in today. 

Nearly all Friends must surely be familiar with George Fox’s vision in 1647 of an ocean of darkness, with “an infinite ocean of light and love which flowed over [it].”  After WWI, many including me believed that it was all over bar the shouting; not Rufus Jones].  [In time of catastrophe, George Fox came to expect that ] the emergence, the incursion, the vernal equinox of the Spirit comes through some human individual or some pre-pared group.  It does not come as lightning out of the sky.”  We are asked to be channels for the incursion of the Divine Life, even in the midst of the ocean of darkness and death. 

The youth of Rufus Jones’ time were as familiar with their Bibles as ever were the early Friends, but they were also familiar with the biblical scholarship in their own day. The students of the Scarborough Summer School would become Friends whom I myself later knew as revered members of an older generation. The Adult School movement took young people who had led sheltered lives into a more workaday world, & [brought some of that world] into the Society of Friends. [Time spent with Joshua Rowntree, left a tramp thinking that] he could see nowt but the moors & the sea & the sky, [but that later in life he said, “Joshua] made me see.”

The re-awakening of Quakerism inspired by that generation affected Friends all over the world. The inspiration continues to work, but the ocean of darkness is still threatening a world constantly menaced by catastrophe.  The 1^st World Conference of Friends, held in London in 1920 was called the All Friends Conference.  They said that their exhausted, suffering world needed men and women who were prepared to live their everyday lives as if the Kingdom of God had come.  It will be through us as individuals, however inadequate we may know ourselves to be—a poor candle’s gleam, but part of something in which we have faith, something which we believe God is bringing into this hungering and thirsting world.      

A little passage in II Esdras says: “Come hither, and I shall light a lamp of understanding in thine heart which shall not be put out.  Once, a national day of prayer was proclaimed in an emergency.  [A friend thought that was treating God as though God were a fire engine.  A teacher once had me memorize] Matthew 15:25, “Lord, help me.”  I have never ceased to be grateful to that teacher.  At first I thought I was too busy to set aside time for prayer.  At last I began to realize that I needed some kind of inner peace, or inward retirement.  I studied John Woolman who said, “The place of prayer is a precious habitation.  I saw this place to be safe, to be inwardly quiet when there was great stirrings and commotions in the world.”  Here is where our poor candle can shine more brightly, where we can gather strength to meet the desperate need of the world today. 

“Dear Friend, when the Lord has set you free and brought you into joy, then you think you have overcome all.  But there is a daily cross to be taken up.” Elizabeth Hooten

“I continue a prisoner in Banbury, but I witness freedom in the Lord.”     Ann Audland

The great experience of 1652, which transformed Quakerism into a vital missionary movement, began with George Fox’s vision from the top of Pendle Hill.  We could explain away the whole thing as something which has nothing to do with us today.  We can contract out of the whole affair and leave the visionary people to get on with their visions.  But the events of 1652 began at the foot of Pendle Hill, by being “moved of the Lord to go atop it.”  George Fox had no good reason to go up there, especially if you add the legend that the Devil walks on Pendle Hill.  It was when Fox obeyed his guidance by doing a crazy thing and climbing Pendle Hill, that God gave him his marching orders. 

[There was also] Dorothy Waugh, a Westmoreland farm servant who was called of the Lord to go to America and share the Quaker message.  [The first time she went to Boston, she was] imprisoned until their ship’s captain agreed to take them back to London.  Meanwhile a Quaker name Robert Fowler had been called of the Lord to build a ship, with out knowing who wanted it or was going to pay for it.  The Quaker missionaries set out, Dorothy Waugh amongst them, and made that memorable voyage in the The Woodhouse.  They received a clear direction from God to:  “Cut through and steer your straightest course, and mind nothing but me!”  The accusation is made that we are apt to confuse our sense of guidance with our own personal inclinations.  As John Churchman said: “To see a thing is not a commission to do that thing.  The time when, and the judgment to know the acceptable time, are the gifts of God.”  We can receive a call, but the time is not yet.  In God’s good time, often very suddenly, the door opens.  Something says: “Now is the time!”  Such is the joy of a life lived under God’s guidance.

[Such a life requires courage.]  Margaret Fell was sentenced to be “cut off from the King’s protection.” She said:  “I may be out of the King’s protection, but I am not out of the protection of Almighty God.”  The more I study Margaret Fell’s life, the more I realize that she could not have given that answer when she was first convinced of the Truth; her faith was something which grew steadily.  Simple people in jail fearlessly claimed the right of every freeborn Englishman to be tried, but said that if they were not granted these things, they would “lay down patiently and suffer under you.”  That was the spirit that broke the religious persecution of their day. 

Elizabeth Stirredge of Bristol & Somerset first argues with her guidance, suggesting that God had better send someone else [that could] make a much better job of it. Later she goes ahead in faith; you can feel her joy vibrating through the pages. Thomas Briggs sand in jail saying, “I sing for joy because I know the Lord is with me.”      

We are going to need the kind of endurance that the early Friends knew.  Ellis Hookes was the 1^st Recording Clerk of London Yearly Meeting.  In the year of the Great Plague (1665), he stayed at his post maintaining Friends’ affairs, visiting Friends in prison, and helping those with the Plague.  William Edmundson, when he was lost in the American wilderness said:  “I had nothing to sustain me but the Lord.”  James Nayler said after his agonizing experience of error and shame and self-deception that there are times when:  “the clouds may be so thick, and the powers of darkness so strong, that you see Him not, yet love him, and believe, and you have him present.”  Let us not waste our sorrows, our sufferings, our moments of despair.  We must use them.  We must use them for a well, and living water will spring up and refresh our spirits, and the spirits of those around us.

Another working pattern for the task in hand lies in our fellowship together.  Perhaps it is time we ask our-selves: “Are we gathered?”  In spite of being physically separated from his fellow Friends, James Parnell knew that he had the loving support of his friends.  He knew that he could not be cut off from them; he maintained his testimony and died a martyr’s death.  Our fellowship today must be as strong and have the same sustaining vision.  We must be gathered in the deepest sense, [i.e. when all know that they are in the Presence of the Spirit].

There is something else I feel we need to accept, however unwillingly.  The Early Friend Elizabeth Hooten wrote: “Dear Friend, when the Lord has set you free and brought you into joy, then you think you have overcome all.  But there is a daily cross to be taken up.”  We are not going to be able to carry that cross unless we know the secret of self-discipline.  Ann Audland from a filthy, malodorous prison wrote:  “I continue a prisoner in Banbury, but I witness freedom in the Lord.”  George Fox wrote:  “Never heed the Tempests nor the Storms, Floods nor Rains, for the Seed Christ is over all, and doth reign.”  “Do not think that anything will outlast the Truth, which standeth sure and over that which is out of the Truth.”  “So be faithful, and live in that which doth not think the time long.”

This conception of timelessness has echoed through Quaker history to our own day.  Tom Kelly exhorted us to live on two planes at once, to pursue our daily lives balanced between Time and Eternity.  [That is the only way] we are going to live as if the Kingdom of God had come.  Have we evolved a working pattern which will cope with such a challenge?  Are we ready to live as if the Kingdom of God had come? Are we ready to believe that the Spirit of Man is the Candle of the Lord?

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254.  To Martin Luther King, with love: a southern Quaker’s tribute (by David W. Pitre;1984) 

In the final analysis, we must all choose the world we live in, & the world we see. I choose to see a world of possibility, & I choose to embrace Quakerly hope, not despair, as the spiritual impetus of life.  David W. Pitre        

“Quaker ethics is based on feeling and not on reason … We can trust our deeper feelings as a guide to behavior better than we can trust our reason.”  Howard Brinton

About the Author—David W. Pitre was born in Opelousas, Louisiana, on June 5, 1951.  He has lived in several southern states, & received his education in Southern states, completing a Ph.D. in English at the Univ. of SC (1980). This pamphlet reflects years of appreciation & assimilation of the writing & faith of Martin Luther King.  [I & other Quakers are interested in] King’s mystical perception of God, his pacifism, & his determination to find the Divine Spark in the most unlovable person. My reasons for writing this essay are explained by a quote from King: “I am moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my heart…”

I—The 1^st time I ever “saw” Martin Luther King, Jr., I was in a car on US 190 between Opelousas and Baton Rouge [There was a billboard implying that King was “a bad nigger” and a “Communist agitator.”] He was dangerous because he questioned all of the assumptions of the society I had been born into.  [There was another time when adults accompanied 4 black boys as they “invaded” a “whites only” city pool].  The stunned, fearful behavior of the adults confirmed the wrongfulness of integration.  [In 1968, I laughed along with other white boys as they celebrated the assassination of King in front of a grieving black girl]. 

As a 1^st-semester freshman I had gone from supporting George Wallace to complaining that George McGovern was “too establishment.” [The class in general objected to King’s message as “impractical” idealism and “unrealistic” patience.  In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King wrote:  “I have wept over the laxity of the Church.  But be assured that my tears have been tears of love.”  [We have been told to wait.  After a long list of violent racist acts and discrimination], King writes:  “you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.  There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over…”  What awed me was King’s determination to appeal to the higher selves of his readers and oppressors.  As I read through the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,”  I cried freely, at at 1^st hurtfully in remorse, then therapeutically in reconciliation and realization.  “Dr. King” became my friend Martin.  Surely Martin Luther King is a “Friend of Truth”; surely he is a “Friend in Christ.”

II—In my racist experience & growth beyond them lies a tale of God’s gentle though powerful persuasion.  As a Quaker, I’ve often considered how the tranquil power of agape & caritas works slowly and often in spite of our egos and worldly aspirations.  As Edward L. Wallant wrote:  “Answers come in little glimmers to your soul.”  This is not to say that my discovery of King as an intellectual and philosophical companion marked the end of anger, confusion, or self-contempt.  A seed of peace had been planted, but several years of germination remained.        

In my remaining college years, Suspicion and cynicism replaced naivete and complacency. I failed to retain an understanding of and feel for the love King preached and to embrace the gentleness and depth of his faith.  And yet that stage was as necessary for me as its predecessor.  [I noted King’s response to Vietnam]: “I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond in compassion…”  It was also during this period that I began to read about the Quakers’ involvement in anti-war activities.  My introduction to and embracing of Quakerism reflects the same spiritual leading as that which changed my intellectual admiration for Martin Luther King to an affection for him and his life’s message.

My autobiography & Stephen B. Oates’ King biography indicate that faith & love & Divine Will often seem unfathomable to people impatient for change.  Friend Harold Loukes [says that King] did not delude himself that “bad men are good men [but looked] for the goodness in bad men.”  King’s assimilation of Gandhi’s Satyagraha provided the psychological element of his nonviolent resistance.  King writes: “Gandhi was probably the 1^st person in history to lift the love ethic of Jesus above mere interaction between individuals to a powerful & effective social force on a large scale.”  The nonviolent resistance I witnessed in the swimming pool did not prompt long-term fear. I was able finally to assess & then intellectually & spiritually to outgrow, racism & segregation. Had King not offered the “creative tension” at the swimming pool, nothing would have changed.  King wrote that neither violent rebellion nor passively waiting for the white race to grant it voluntarily would work.  To become a participant in “justified violence” is to justify all violence. 

As King understood and practiced it, civil disobedience as a form of peace-witnessing is no substitute for mediation and compromise, and should be the last resort.  During all his marches and boycotts, King constantly requested meetings for reconciliation and negotiation.  The Birmingham Commitment Card said:  “REMEMBER always that the nonviolent movement in Birmingham seeks justice and reconciliation—not victory.”  Nonviolent protest can, in the wrong frame of mind and heart, be destructively aggressive, [even coercive].  The world needs teachers more than it needs martyrs.  Gandhi and King both understood well that violence can be conveyed by attitude and by language, as well as by physical behavior. 

The late Wade Mackie of AFSC is a Quaker exemplar of King’s philosophy.  He never harbored resentment for the segregationists.  Instead, Wade preferred “to give them the chance to do the right thing.”  Civil obedience too often provoked unwarranted brutality.  As King, Wade, and Mel Zuck illustrate it was also a time of love, of finding unexpected.  Mel told of Friends encountering a group of angry Klansmen.  They invited the Klansmen to have tea and coffee with them.  Then, they “strove with them” to see their actions and their beliefs in light of their professed Christianity.  To be sure, few if any of the Klansmen changed their minds at the time; neither did I when 1^st exposed to integration.  To grow impatient for quick change is to confuse the satisfactions of the ego with the Spirit-sustained determination of the faithful servant.  Maybe the Friends’ [patient] love yielded remorse, sympathy, empathy, understanding, reform, freedom [for all concerned]. 

I needed to hear of other ways of dealing with a form of oppression whose spiritual tool was greater than physical segregation of races.  What Mel related was an account of behavior which drew upon hope and not hate, redemption and not revenge.  After all of the reflection and all of the moments of heart-understanding, I find myself an unlikely exponent of a Way of Gentleness, an equally unlikely Quaker, and autobiographical chronicler of the glory of Martin Luther King’s civil-rights movement.  If King’s beloved community requires patience, long-term faith, and intentional sustained love, history testifies to the grimness of the alternatives.  In the final analysis, we must all choose the world we live in, and the world we see. I choose to see a world of possibility, and I choose to embrace Quakerly hope, not despair, as the spiritual impetus of life.   

III—In assessing Martin Luther King’s Dream, I believe that I also necessarily gauge the real power of Quakerism to work change through its practical mysticism and its idealistic appeal to humankind’s higher Self.  King wrote:  “Genuine integration will come when men are obedient to the unenforceable … which are met by one’s commitment to an inner law, law written on the heart, [which] produces love.”

[A friend approached me, noticed I was reading King’s biography] and strode angrily away.  My silent response, filled with love and divinely furnished patience, spoke more eloquently than any articulated protest.  There are other disquieting indications that the Promised Land is within our reach but beyond our grasp.  The Klan still operates openly with local cooperation in some areas of Alabama and Georgia.  The resistance to the Martin Luther King holiday is reminiscent of earlier attitudes and attempts to discredit him.

One problem familiar to any worker for peace and social-justice causes is the reluctance of some black leaders to give social justice/civil rights issues priority.  Black officeholders need to spearhead judicial and legislative handling of them.  Black legislators often feel that the plight of black citizens is hopeless.  It is hard to justify legislation which benefits “only a minority” of the state’s citizens.  Another problem is the tendency of some black politicians to view elective office and its perquisites as a means of attaining, and then maintaining personal success, status and power.  They exhibit the same reluctance and timidity King found and regretted among the prominent and well-to-do black clergy of his own time.  Merely holding elective office isn’t enough; what’s still lacking too often is altruism and a vision of hope.  And yet there is more reason to hope than to despair.  Now, across the South, women, Blacks, and Hispanics serve as mayors of the largest cities.        

My rhetoric classes express disbelief when I provide background for rhetorical analysis of King’s “I have a dream speech.” The idea of “white only” and “colored” signs and facilities now seems preposterous.  [A cross was burned on the lawn of black student for having an “integrated” slumber party].  Her integrated circle of friends would have been unthinkable 20 years ago.  Friendship is now more desirable, more normal, than fear.

On a July 4^th PBS broadcast, James Earl Jones read King’s “I have a Dream” speech.  He read it with great emotion, and finally wept, as did the rest of us.  20 years have merely enhanced the hopeful vision so beautifully painted in 1963; they have freed a lot of us from a cycle of oppression; they have showed us that Martin Luther King did not ask too much; we loved too little.  Love and faith can help undo 300 years of fear and faithlessness.

IV—King’s call to me is not the mythic one to adventure, but the call to faith & all that is encompassed within that broad category.  He brought out, in spite of determined ego-resistance, an idealism that combines unconditional love and stamina.  King taught me, by letting his life speak, that love is a choice and not some outer state that is forcibly implanted in our awareness.  The hero is heroic not in spite of his or her flaws but because of his or her great struggle with them; so it was with King.  Gentleness and a sense of God’s constantly revitalizing love became real to the point that King thought of his death with peace and a sense of accepting inevitability. 

And all of his miscalculations and weaknesses simply heighten the heroic: this passionate very human man makes heroic behavior something not just for Nobel laureates but also for share croppers, for itinerant ministers, for the long-suffering and the powerless, even for the fearful segregationist and racist.  He was a quintessential American Patriot whose idealism drew upon both religious hope and the Constitution, a complementing influence that has been under emphasized in focusing on King’s more “revolutionary” thought.    

When he was loved and feted, he gave the glory to God, to his co-workers, and especially to his long-suffering black people.  When he was vilified, he suffered privately but endured patiently and willingly, understanding that carrying the Cross was finally less important than spreading its Light.  Above all, King cultivated Christian caritas, fellowship, and reconciliation among God’s peoples.  He sought to walk in the Light and thus to spread it, ever widening into Dark.  In “Where do we go from Here?” he wrote:  “There is nothing to keep us from remolding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands unto we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.”  The recurrent theme of hope and benevolence reverberates throughout King’s life and writings.  He not only led me to love him and what he stood for, but also he would not let me hate my earlier self or my past.

I did not want to write this essay.  Too much that I have been ashamed of for too long had to be re-examined.  I have realized the impact on me of King and Quakerism only by the strength of the cathartic release from my past and my forgiveness and reconciliation with it.  Howard Brinton said: “Quaker ethics is based on feeling and not on reason … We can trust our deeper feelings as a guide to behavior better than we can trust our reason.”  Neither the unreasoning fear of racism nor the unloving anger of misguided political activism could withstand the Light that King taught me or the gentle power of love that has touched my life in quiet steady ways.

King led me, in an intensely personal way, to understand in my heart and not just with my mind, the tranquil strength of agape, of caritas, and therefore of social justice and fellowship.  Martin Luther King speaks my mind and lifts up my spirit.  At long last, I celebrate his life. 

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256.  The Prophetic Stream (by William Taber; 1984)

About the Author—William Taber’s roots & life-long membership are with the Conservative Friends of Eastern Ohio. He has been nurtured by Friends General Conference in the Pittsburgh Meeting & Friends United Meeting through the Earlham School of Religion. He taught at Moses Brown School & spent 20 years at Olney Friends School. He has taught Quakerism for 4 years at Pendle Hill. This pamphlet is an expression of his concern to revive the prophetic element in Quaker worship & ministry as well as in the wider Christian community. 

[At times I can easily] believe that Jesus knew God so totally and so obediently that his energy field merged with the Divine Life and encompassed all creation, changing, through his knowledge and his self-giving  the psychic climate for all, making the Holy Spirit available to all  as it had never been before. William Taber   

Preface—The term prophetic indicates in a single word the basic theory of Quaker ministry. This pamphlet is an edited version of the 1983 New England YM talks on OT & NT prophets, Jesus & Quakerism.  The references to George Fox & Quaker religious experience are intended to show how Fox & the early Quaker experience were related to the experience of earlier prophets & to explain how Fox felt about the prophetic tradition.

MOSES AND THE ROCK WHERE JOY BEGINS—All the early Friends ministers, starting with George Fox, believed that they were in the living stream of the prophets which stretched from Abraham and Moses through Jesus and the apostles.  Modern Friends can deepen our understanding of the Quaker faith by going back, reading and “talking” with the prophets, Jesus, and George Fox.  In the prophets and in other parts of the OT we can see an evolutionary movement toward the shift in consciousness that continues into the New Covenant.  Through the eyes of George Fox, we can find traces and hints of the pre-existent Christ in the OT.

Moses began by seeming a complete failure as an upper-class, educated “radical activist.”  His passion for justice was still with him when he helped 7 daughters against burly shepherds. His Sinai years were like a Pendle Hill experience in that they gave him plenty of space and time to change the busy rhythms into a quiet and receptive pace.  [Through this time which climaxed with the burning bush] Moses evolved a higher level of consciousness].  The most important meaning of the “I am” passage that follows the burning bush is that God is livingly present everywhere and everywhen.  It is terrifying, transforming, and mind-shaking to experience the living presence of the living God, [as Moses and much later George Fox did].   

If the Gospel of John is right, the preexistent Christ, the Word, the feminine Wisdom was present with and in Moses as he stood barefoot at the flaming bush.  Moses had become a man of vision, and would become the archetype of all the Biblical prophets who followed him.  [There are] 3 major tasks of a prophet: [discover the law; practice the law; make spirit available].  As we look at prophets, we see that their warnings, advice, visions, are based on a clear seeing of the law.  The unreality of key OT laws began to change when I read the Bible meditatively, with the intellect at rest, and with pauses for reflection.  I then realized that most of the Laws of Moses were designed for a specific culture of long ago.  Even with this recognition, there is still a small living core of the Law which remains as vital as it ever was. 

Moses, like Newton and Einstein with their Laws, saw or felt the law as a vital force, not merely as a string of words.  The 10 Commandments, used the way I just described can be used as a set of queries for personal examination.  The 1^st 4 commandments as a unit can be described as focus commandments.  The 1^st of these is nothing else than a powerful call to be powerfully focused around one supreme loyalty, one absolute and unshakable trust.  The query is: Where is your loyalty; where is your rock-solid unshakable trust?  Has the salt lost its savor so that it is therefore unfocused, useless?  The 2^nd focus commandment [has to do with graven images].  We are being warned about scattering our forces by focusing on one or more other aspects of reality.  The query is:  What are your graven images; career; acceptance; fear?

“Your shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.  The 3^rd commandment goes far beyond the banning of profanity.  To utter God’s name, to open the conduit of the Power lightly or with lazy attention is to court disaster for the spiritually developed soul.  Frivolous speech numbs us to the beauty, anguish, and divine tasks of the Eternal now.  [Am I] present where and when I am? Am I really understanding and meaning what I say? The 4^th focus commandment to “remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” is a reminder of the importance of periodically stopping our outward activity to give the intuitive mode of being a chance to operate.  Do I take time periodically for calm receptive focusing inward? Since we are not where George Fox was constantly we probably need this commandment’s reminder that a truly focused life must have periodic times of the Sabbath state of consciousness. 

When Moses came down the mountain with the 10 Commandments, he began to perform the 2^nd task of the prophet; he began to walk in the new law & show others how to walk in it. Moses’ Old Covenant & Jesus’ New Covenant imply a deep connectedness with life itself. The Old Covenant was sealed with sacrifice, because the people of that time believed the essential & indissoluble life force of an animal was in its blood. Sharing blood with God & then with the people joined the people with each other & with God with a holy glue & bond.

In showing the way to live the Law or to walk with God, Moses also performed the 3^rd task of the prophet by helping make spirit available, particularly through prayer and intercession.  Jeremiah fulfilled this role, and it is beautifully described in 2^nd Isaiah.  The early Christians saw Jesus as perfectly fulfilling this prophetic role of interceding on behalf of others and making the Holy Spirit available.  By using blood, the physical metaphor or symbol available in his time, Moses like other prophets made spirit available to the people.

The Apostle Paul knew the rabbinic tradition of a supernatural rock that followed Moses, so that whenever there was a great need for water, Moses could strike the rock.  Paul believed that the ever-present rock and the supernatural, life-giving water was actually the pre-existent or eternal Christ.   George Fox would probably say that the rock which followed Moses still follows us today.  [If we are not aware of it], it may be because we have forgotten the timeless focus of the 4 focus Commandments.         

 IS CATCHING PROPHECY LIKE CATCHING THE MEASLES?—Many of the prophets act as if the willingness and the ability to be a prophet can at least be caught, and perhaps even taught, so long as we remember that the fact of prophecy remains with God alone. An early example is when Moses gathered 70 elders at the tabernacle, and the spirit of the Lord came down to Moses, and some of that spirit was put into the 70 elders, and they prophesied. 2 elders not at the meeting of the 70, began to prophesy in the camp, [as a sort of “Quaker maverick.”] Moses said: “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his spirit in them.” As elders, they would have had experience and some training; they went through rituals; they were together in a holy place, in the presence of a prophet of great power. Even this early in the OT we have the example of the prophets Eldad and Medad operating as a pair.

The boy Samuel is another good example of catching prophecy. [He started as a child]. He lived continually in the presence of the holy, with rituals & chants & prayers. God spoke to the prepared youth while he slept in that sacred place. He is a good example of how a solitary individual relaxes so that the aperture of the intuitive mind is consciously or unconsciously open to the divine. I know an example of someone, who after months of daily devotional reading & worship sat down one morning and looked into his heart and knew “that Someone had been there.” In time he became empowered with a gift of gentle, discerning and prophetic ministry.

When Samuel was old, & Israel was in need of a new, different leader, [the Holy Spirit led Samuel to recognize that Saul was that leader. Saul was given the place of honor at what was essentially a communion with God & a fellowship feast. Samuel also performed the prophetic act of preparing Saul to enter the prophetic stream]. He anointed Saul & told him he would meet prophets, be filled with the Spirit & prophecy]. Sometimes prophetic infection is an ecstatic experience [as with Saul], or it can be a great trouble & a true dis-ease, as with Jeremiah.

The rest of the OT gives us tantalizing glimpses of groups of prophets who practiced a kind of group worship is which consciousness was altered and opened to ecstatic or prophetic states. Some of the great prophets may have had disciples who stayed together after the prophet’s death, preserving the tradition, and perhaps providing a nurturing ground for new prophets.

Jesus’ prophetic opening had been prepared by other prophets from his infancy & even before his birth. When the fullness of the Spirit came to Jesus, he was with other prophetic persons, his cousin John & John’s disciples. Jesus performed miracles in which he made spirit available to affect the spiritual, & the physical plane. 50 days after his martyrdom, a power possessed the tiny band of disciples & followers which he had left behind him. [The Holy Spirit which Jesus had made available in a new way to the world was released at Penecost].

From the early Quaker point of view the Book of Acts is really the story of how that Spirit became more & more available in the ancient world. In 2 instances, “catching the spirit” was not dependent on water baptism. One group needed to receive the Holy Spirit from Peter & John [after they had been baptized], & another received the Holy Spirit from Peter and his companions [before they were baptized]. The term Holy Spirit appears 17 more times in Acts, so it is clear that each Christian was expected to have “caught” the Holy Spirit, usually from someone else who had it; many important decisions were the result of direct guidance by the Holy Spirit.

In I Corinthians 12 & 14, Paul makes it sound as if prophecy were very common. George Fox believed that because the Corinthians obviously need so much advice and direction to keep their worship services from getting out of hand, they had not yet come into the full maturity of the Holy Spirit; he believed that if they were fully into the New Covenant and the Holy Spirit, there would be no need for human direction of worship.

[Out of their experience] early friends believed that they had entered the same living prophetic which flowed from far back in the OT and which had been expanded in the New Covenant given by Jesus. Careful reading of Quaker writing shows that in every generation it was the traveling Quaker ministers who were often the most important forces in discerning and encouraging the next generation of ministers and prophets.

On the other hand, there also evidence that some of Quaker leaders discovered or “caught” the Quakerism in the power of a gathered meeting. Paul says that when we are caught up in the prophetic stream of the Holy Spirit, we do not all become speaking prophets. Rather we become prophets in the way we live our lives, how we spend our money, what we support, where we work and live. [We need dramatic, conspicuous, sometimes martyred people]. Sometimes even the most unassuming Quaker must take such a stand. However, the Society of Friends would soon die out if we could not depend on the silent and inconspicuous prophets, [those] resting quietly in the prophetic stream, who are necessary for each gathered meeting so that others can catch the spirit.

OPENING SOME KEY WORDS FROM THE PROPHETS—4 key words or ideas from the great prophets still speak powerfully to us: [tsedaqah (justice),da’ath (knowledge), Chesed (faithful covenant love),  hatsenay leket ‘im Elohim (humbly walk with your God).] The 1^st of these key words is one we often translate as justice. [Even with the OT’s violent nature], we find a strong, continuing demand for justice, [especially for the powerless]. When King David broke at least 4 of the 10 Commandments with Bathsheba, even his absolute power as an oriental monarch couldn’t save him being denounced by the prophet Nathan. This prophet gives us the tradition that neither kings nor American presidents are above the law. What Elijah said to Ahab after a man was executed to get his land indicated that Elijah knew the law of justice for the less powerful & was willing to run great risks in proclaiming it. Later, the great prophets or writing prophets as they are sometimes called believed themselves called to be signposts at a traumatic crossroads of history.

1^st, there was Amos of Tekoa.  God gave Amos, & the following prophets a deep & foreboding sense that something had gone wrong with the Holy Experiment of the Covenant of Moses. Unless the people observed the Law it would work itself out to a terrible end. Amos 1st condemned by complaining that “the righteous [are being] sold for silver, & the needy for a pair of shoes . . . O you who turn justice to wormwood, & cast down righteousness to the earth!”  After condemning empty ritual, he writes: “But let justice roll down like waters, & righteousness like an everflowing stream.” “Behold the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when I shall send a famine on the land of hearing the Lord’s word.”

Gentle Hosea actually lived in the northern kingdom, which was totally wiped out just a few years after he had prophesied.  He writes: “There is no faithfulness or kindness, and no knowledge of God in the land.”  He implies that the inward fact of knowledge of the Lord is the central inward reality from which flows the outward behavior of fulfilling the specific laws of the Covenant.  To know the Lord is to return to the Covenant relationship, just as citizens of old knew the comfort and security of being under the king’s protection.  To recognize the king is another way of allowing the solitary ego and our individualism to fall away in the face of a higher loyalty.  On another level, knowing the Lord would certainly have meant knowing the Law literally and being able to act out of the law from a deep, instinctive level. Finally, knowing the Lord is a matter of heart and the will and the mind and the spirit; it means giving the entire attention, the whole focus to the Divine center.    

Another key word from Hosea is Chesid (faithful covenant love), which can be shown by God to an errant people.  Hosea’s 1^st 3 chapters give us a model for returning that faithful covenant love to God.  The message from God that Hosea writes is: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”  Several decades later, Micah took up God’s demand for human justice in the Southern Kingdom of Judah.  [His question is still with us in Micah 6:8]:  What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly (hatsenay leket) with your God?  The modern-day queries might be:  How can I justify my existence in a world where so many are miserable?  What is the right-sharing of my resources in this wealthy and privileged land? 

The rough but very practical prophet Micah saw that the way to please God is not in a giving or sacrificing which leaves the heart untouched, but in doing [justice], and being [just].  The phrase “walk humbly with your God” could include our Quaker attempt to follow the moment-by-moment and day-by-day leading of the Holy Spirit.  With Justice, knowledge of God, faithful covenant love, and walking humbly with God, we are called to both a powerful inwardness and to a powerful outwardness at the same time.  We follow Christ in placing much emphasis on outward behavior and service; we follow Christ in placing much emphasis on the reality of inward experience which makes the outward behavior possible.

Isaiah’s experience of a vision described in Isaiah 6:1-8 still happens in our own time.  There still comes the same shaking awareness of the awesome power at the center of the universe [which trivializes our great civilizations].  Yet this Power cares about us and yearns to guide our evolution into the New Age.  Most of us will not be called to the prominence of the work of an Isaiah, but we are called to be prophets, each according to the grace given to us.  How do we prepare for prophecy?  Do we devote ourselves to a daily spiritual discipline appropriate to our stage of the spiritual journey?  Do we cultivate a personal or group worship which can open us to the prophetic stream?

THE STUBBORN JOY, THE CROSS OF JOY—When we pass through the dark times of our own lives or the discouraging moments of history, it is good to know the prophet Habakkuk.  This man probably lived and prophesied 100 years after Micah and Isaiah, i.e. after the death of good King Josiah (609 B.C.) and before Jerusalem fell (587). While other prophets had been God’s mouthpieces, Habbakuk and Jeremiah passionately questioned Divine justice.  Habbakuk asks: Why dost thou look on faithless men, and art silent when the wicked swallows the man more righteous than he? 

[Answers seldom come quickly].  The prophets of old and our 30 decades of Quaker prophets often had to stand for hours in what seemed like the darkness of God before the answer came.  Prophets who know the law upon which all creation turns and who continually re-enter the stream of the Living Presence are able to avoid panic in the hurly-burly of the present because of instinctive knowledge of the inevitability of the working out of Divine law.  God answers: “Behold he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by faith.”  [Some Quakers will turn off at this point, while others will start to nod approvingly].  What then is faith, as the Quakers have understood it?  Even though words are important, the Quaker understanding of faith and of belief is that they are primarily nonverbal.  From Moses up through the Holy Spirit’s coming again and again in Acts, we see that the full faith usually resulted from an experience which transformed the old self.

[Instead of “faith,” let us use the word “trust.”]  If I know God on a real and nonverbal level, and a communion with that Divine reality, I have a sense of trust so profound that its effects can be measured in my physical body and my emotions.  The traditional Quaker experience is that faith is largely a result of being in the presence of God.  A living faith requires a trusting that our Divine Friend will support us as we move forward in the dangerous but exciting stream.  

If, like Habakkuk, we stand for hours on the watchtower in the presence of God, the shape of reality begins to change, new laws of spiritual cause and effect begin to emerge, and we come to know more and more about the Law which holds the universe together.  At the heart of the Christian experience as exemplified by George Fox and the Quaker tradition, there is a deep and irrepressible joy, even when on the surface of our life we may be embroiled in troubles and confusion.  That quiet inward place is where the cross comes in.  If we stay with that cross of joy with the faithfulness of Habakkuk, our own spiritual journey will get on much more rapidly. 

Jeremiah and Ezekiel, prophets of the same time also help us to look forward to the new life which would become possible in the New Covenant.  Being in the prophetic stream means being open to God and to human suffering while being thick-skinned and strong enough to bear criticism and run great risks.   With prophetic fire burning within him at that point in history Jeremiah was sure to have a dramatic life.  He narrowly escaped death on several occasions, for a time he was imprisoned, and for a time he had to go into hiding; he was finally carried away from his own land by his own people.   

Jeremiah has some beautiful passages which look beyond the limitation of the old Law and the Old Covenant which most of the people had not been able to uphold.  “I will put my law within them, and I will write in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people . . . I will forgive them their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”  Ezekiel said: “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you . . . and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.”

It is no accident that the Society of Friends has had a radically different pattern of ministry, because of early Friends’ living experience of the reality of God’s presence in all who had truly opened to the Spirit, as Jeremiah predicted.  Faith means more than trust; in some mysterious way it means empowerment.  It means the ability to walk with God even in dark and difficult places as we follow the otherwise impossible law of the prophet Jesus, remembering Habakkuk’s answer:  “The righteous shall live by faith.” 

TAKING JESUS DOWN FROM THE WALL—[By George Fox’s time,] Jesus Christ had been stuck up on the wall in an impressive and magnificent way, but he was completely out of reach to the ordinary person.  Jesus was stuck back across 1600 years of history, or far off into the future when he would be the final judge; [Jesus has not been available in our time, either].  One cause may be that the modern mind has been out of touch with our intuitive ability to feel nonverbal religious reality.  Sensitive people have been turned away from Jesus because of [the rigidity, intolerance, and masculine] nature of the Christianity they are familiar with. 

I believe that Christ is available in our time because George Fox and others have rediscovered a living Christ different from the conventional image on the wall.  Thanks to Isaiah’s disciples and Ezekiel, [those in exile in Babylon] did not lose religion when they left the turf of their old god; [they discovered a God that could be worshiped anywhere].  One inspired reader of the old scrolls and the recent prophets, and familiar with Isaiah’s work began to feel the prophetic call.  Isaiah 40-55 were spoken bit by bit or burst by burst 150 years after the original Isaiah.  Modern scholarship recognizes these chapters as II Isaiah. 

The God who speaks in II Isaiah seems a far vaster God than we met before in the OT; he is the God of the entire planet & all its peoples & all of history. This God invites all people to that watch tower or worship, of altered consciousness. II Isaiah’s Suffering Servant songs have intrigued & inspired Jew & Christians alike; they also inspired the young Jesus. The 1^st & shortest of these songs (Is. 42:1-4) about the coming servant of the Lord mentions justice 3 times in 4 verses. True justice, the justice we all seek, is more akin to healing than to punishment, to a renewed & higher harmony than to rigid organization. The 4^th verse tells us that the Suffering Servant is like a wedge which is slowly, imperceptibly opening the heart of humanity so that true justice may grow. 

Because he has been so deeply taught, because he has listened so obediently, the Servant is able to live out that law of gentleness, that awareness that the means do beget the ends.  Time after time these verses have helped me take down the distant picture of Jesus Christ and brought me closer to the historic Jesus of Galilee and the cosmic and gentle presence which I have felt in my own heart.  It is wonderful to find that clear inward awareness, not only as we waken into each new day, but even during the night. Quaker nonviolence grows out of faith as inward experience and inward empowerment. 

[When I read Isaiah 53:3-5, about how Jesus was “stricken, smitten by God, wounded for our transgressions” as a youth], I was offended to think that my salvation depended upon substitutionary magic & such physical violence. [My] many hours on that watchtower of a consciousness turned toward God, have revealed a deeper meaning of the Christ event in history. [It is important] to understand how Jesus was able to identify with all humanity. The fact that he died painfully upon a Roman torture device is but a parochial detail in comparison to his cosmic work of dying to the self on behalf of humanity. Jesus as Suffering Servant & prophet knew God so totally that his dying to the self performed what seemed like magic, even though it was the working out of law.  When near an individual great soul I have sometimes known things inwardly that I would not ordinarily know, or received inward answers to questions.  [I can easily] believe that Jesus knew God so totally & so obediently that his energy field merged with the Divine Life & encompassed all creation, changing, through his knowledge & his self-giving the psychic climate for all of us, making the Holy Spirit available to all as it had never been before.

George Fox often used conventional Christian language and Bible quotations, but he always used them with a difference because his experience had made Christ a present, living reality rather than a theological statement.  Fox and early Friends accepted the outward work of Christ, but they insisted that it is the inward work which transforms us and guides us into new ways of service, new ways of fellowship. 

George Fox [used many words as a kind of] many-sided prism to break up the dazzling white light at the center into its many colors or functions.  Fox most frequently mentioned the office of Christ the prophet, the living inward presence which discerns, admonishes, teaches and leads.  Fox’s terms can become more than words only as we ponder them and step gingerly or boldly into the prophetic stream:

teacher . . .   

          governor [of a steam engine] . . .

              redeemer . . . 

                 minister . . .

                      the rock . . .the foundation . . .

                         sanctifier . . . your sanctuary . . .

                             your way . . . your life . . .

                                 heavenly seasoner . . .

                                     orderer (of justice, harmony) . . .

                                         wisdom of God . . . treasure of wisdom . . .                                         

                                             truth . . .

                                                the door . . .

                                                   light power . . . a covenant of light . . .

                                                      maker of prophets . . .

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257.  Artist on the witness stand (by Fritz Eichenberg; 1984)

   About the Author—Fritz Eichenberg, born in Cologne in 1901, emigrated to the US in 1933, became a Quaker in 1940, and became well-known as an artist, educator, printmaker and illustrator of many important books for children and lovers of classics.  He wrote Pendle Hill Pamphlet  #68 Art and Faith (1952); he also wrote and illustrated his own fables, Endangered Species, and a contemporary Dance of Death.  His prints, mostly wood engravings, are in major collections here and abroad.
     The artist’s work is a mixed blessing of joy and suffering, of the ecstasy and agony of forging out of the artists’ substance an image that mirrors their existence against the background of their time, our time. 

Where are the artists eulogizing the grandeur and harmonies of nature, its checks and balances which give meaning to our lives?  

The debt we owe great art, accumulated over the centuries is immeasurable.  Let’s try to pay it off by listening to its immortal voice.  Fritz Eichenberg

INTRODUCTION—Potentially, creativity is dormant in every human mind; it needs nourishment & care.  Even if we don’t all become artists, it will bring us closer to the creative arts & their enjoyment. [Many if not most] come to the conclusion that their puny efforts are not worth struggling with an [unruly, resistant] genius.  Yet there is no reason to get disheartened. Our tentative activities in the giant mystery may set off sparks that lift us out of anonymity. [Our gifts will at least reach those closest to us].  They may be our most valuable asset.

The artist’s work is a mixed blessing of joy and suffering, of the ecstasy and agony of forging out of the artists’ substance an image that mirrors their existence against the background of their time, our time.  All truly great art is universal.  Often we enjoy greatness without recognizing it.  If you are born with certain convictions and a tender conscience, your path is laid out for you and you have to follow, even if your tender feet object.    

EARLY ENCOUNTERS-In tracing my pilgrimage back to my childhood I discovered how early I was affected by the frailty of human life.  My first encounter with an artist whose work affected me deeply was Alfred Rethel and his Auch ein Totendanz (Another Dance of Death).  [I wrote an essay on it as a school boy, and designed] my own Dance of Death a half-century later.

[A neighbor in my family’s apartment house was an art historian and a museum curator.  After asking me a few thoughtful questions he] pulled out of his library 2 volumes of Eduard Fuchs’ History of European Satirical Art; they became my Bible. [I discovered Bosch, Brueghel, Goya ,and Daumier, and the hard-hitting art of the Simplicissimus and the Charvari.  There was a lot of political and social ferment] but my own decision to be an artist, to walk in the footsteps of my idols, never wavered.  The universal suffering of mankind, made me conscious of the power and the passion of love, and of the agonies and elations of a creative life.  The city of Cologne taught me history of art and of faith.  Through 2,000 years of war and peace, pillage and prosperity taking turns, it had survived as a living depository of the great arts of the centuries.   

STUDENT DAYS; WORD & IMAGE; EARLY INSPIRATION—I was 20 when I graduated from the department store job to student life at the Academy of Graphic Arts in Leipzig.  In 1923 I moved to Berlin to marry, working as an artist-reporter, writing and illustrating, cartooning and lampooning.  I began to see the world as a stage, directed by an unseen master who analyzed the script, assigned the roles, picked the actors, arranged the curtain calls and decreed the final drop. 

I continued to read insatiably, indiscriminately, to bolster my pedestrian, anti-intellectual high school education.  Most of the artists and writers I admired had labored under the problems of all non-conformists.  Very few escaped the wrath of the guardians of the status quo unless they [spoke as a mouthpiece of the Church and State, rather than as a prophet].  I was led by intuition to a little book with the mysterious title Tao-te Ching by Lao-Tsu.  [His 81 short sayings] became guideposts in the turmoil of my life.  Ultimately Lao-Tsu led me through Zen to the “Light Within,” “the Quiet Inner Voice” of George Fox the Quaker and to the Peaceable Kingdom of Isaiah.

TO REFLECT ONE’S TIME—We often think: if only I could have lived in ancient Greece or Rome, during the Renaissance or the Age of Enlightenment.  We can and we do, through the great heritage left us in thoughts and images.  Holbein’s famous Totentanz (Dance of Death) gives us a vivid insight into the time in which he lived; his Death has no respect [no partiality] for rank and wealth.  I followed that concept in my own series on Death in a nuclear age, as a witness to the follies of our time. 

Erasmus’ In Praise of Folly gave me the incentive to show in my prints that Dame Folly hasn’t changed her face during the past 300 years.  Facing for the first time Michelangelo’s Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel gave me a jolt—a truly superhuman vision blessed from above by a youthful beardless Christ.  [Rembrandt and Bach also influenced my student days in Leipzig].  A Bach cantata will lift your spirits and may save you a few sessions on an analyst’s couch.  It’s difficult to determine what [art form] exerted the most decisive influence.  There is no dividing line—genius is not bound to any medium.  I read Grimmelshausen’s Simplicissimus, admired Bertolt Brecht’s stage presentation of part of it, and studied Jacques Calot’s etchings of the Miseries of War.  These came together in my The Adventures of Simpliccismus 50 years later.  The interconnections, the chain reactions, the cross currents flowing from one master’s medium to the other are alive.  The lack of lessons learned by mankind are most discouraging.  

ART AND FAITH; HISTORY AS TEACHER—Among decisive chance encounters I think of Giotto, the revolutionary painter imbued with deep faith and in his art defying tradition.  He painted the life of St. Francis, who has inevitably appeared in my work, a source of strength, simplicity, faith and beauty we need so badly in our time of confusion and uncertainty.  Should not our great artists and writers try to bring the awareness of our problems closer to us, their contemporaries?

A study of the lives of the artists I have mentioned is a lesson in humility, a belief in the supremacy of the spirit which triumphs over difficulties that would cripple most men.  In Napoleon, on the other hand, we witness the destructive power of one man, who also inspired Beethoven’s “Eroica,” compelled Goya to create his great series of etchings, The Disasters of the War, & his painting Tres de Mayo, primed the pens and gravers of Gillray & Rowlandson to furious protests in their brilliant cartoons against Napoleon’s planned invasion of England.       

Goethe’s Reynard the Fox induced me to do my own Fables, Endangered Species, reinterpreted against the background of the momentous events of our own time, The Atomic Age.  Goya, the grand witness of war’s atrocities, died in exile in Bordeaux after Napoleon’s defeat, deaf and poor.  Honore Daumier, who worked for newspapers like the Charivari and La Caricature, spent time in jail for offending royalty, and became a beacon for generations of like-minded artists who believed in the remedial power of art as a social and political weapon.

Gogol wrote Dead Souls and The Inspector General against the background of strict censorship in Tsarist Russia.  I illustrated Edgar Allan Poe’s stories after reading about his early life, his struggle for recognition and his ignominious death in a Baltimore gutter.  [The Bronte sisters wrote and battled for recognition in a world where women “simply did not write.”  Heinrich Heine, Charles Dickens, Hans Christian Anderson, and Schumann lived and wrote during the same time].  Prior to illustrating Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons, I learned what I could by studying his life.  He fought for and lived to see the Russian serfs freed, 2 years before Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. 

THE ARTIST AND THE BOOK—Dostoevsky and Tolstoy overshadowed the 2^nd half of the 19^th century and entered my life, my thoughts and my work as if I had made myself ready for them.  [Their struggles and dedication to their causes] fired my imagination.  Illustrating Tolstoy’s War and Peace, his Childhood, Boyhood, Youth, Anna Karenina, and Resurrection, made me feel deeply related to his great and restless spirit.  His private life, his ruthless honesty with himself fascinated me.  Tolstoy’s correspondence with Gandhi is enlightening if seen in terms of our own war-ravaged time.  Dostoevsky’s visionary description of the 2^nd coming of Christ in the Grand Inquisitor can be considered a daring challenge to the Orthodox Church.  [Through his writing] I felt most keenly his agony, the ceaseless struggle to find the source of his faith, to find God. 

Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, Van Gogh, and Gauguin [were the exception to an otherwise meaningless contemporary art.  When WWI ended, foes became friends,  A fresh blast blew in from the new Russia—the constructivists, the suprematists, and abstractionists.  From France came the Fauvists, the cubists, the new wave with Picasso, Braque, Leger, Matisse—the surrealist, Max Ernst and Dali—and Germany became the birthplace and the center of the Expressionists and the Dada  movement with Picabia, Schwitters, George Grosz.

ART AND REVOLUTION—New inspiration came from socially oriented art which prospered under the auspices of a new regime in Mexico, shown in the Rivera & Orozco murals, celebrating the history & the victory of the oppressed. I admired the stark woodcuts of the Flemish Frans Masereel as he joined the fight for human rights. I revered the work of Käthe Kolliwtz, so deeply concerned with the fate of simple people & their struggles for existence. I admired George Grosz cartoons, drawing, & lithographs showing “The Face of the Ruling Class.”

[An unrecognized part of the art world] are the cartoonists of the daily press, who are doing a yeoman’s job to pillory the shenanigans of our politicians, elected or self-appointed. There are always artists champing at the bit to be a witness to their time; they need a forum on which to meet their audience, to let off steam, to prevent the boiler from blowing up. We usually look for stimulation in the wrong sources: drugs, alcohol, parties, sex & violence on the TV or in the papers—thrills of quick impact which wear off quickly. Where are the artists eulogizing the grandeur & harmonies of nature, its checks & balances which give meaning to our lives?

ART AND THE QUAKERS; ART WITH A MESSAGE—2 centuries ago our lone Quaker artist, Edward Hicks, painted his vision of the Peaceable Kingdom over and over again, against the advice of his own Meeting; he found no followers in his time.  Rufus Jones said:  “We look back with mild pity on the generations of Haverford students who were deprived of the joy of music and art … The strong anti-aesthetic bias in the minds of the Quaker founders was an unmitigated disaster.”  Religious leaders of all denominations are beginning to rise out of their lethargy and make use of art’s spiritual power. 

Art has survived the cavemen, the Pharaohs, the princes and the popes; it will survive the computer—if we care enough.  Sensitive to the illnesses of his time and giving expressions to his concern in any medium, he is bound to run up against the guardians of the status quo.  Your conscience and the strength of your convictions must back you up.  I feel myself in the spirit of George Fox, John Woolman, and others.  Neither jail nor mistreatment would hold them back from their missions, living testimony that love could overcome hatred.

I feel rewarded that my work has been used by so many denominations and groups devoted to peace in our time, and that it finds the intended target, the human heart.  For more than half a century I have sent a print to my friends everywhere each year, usually a commentary on the state of the world—and incidentally on my own condition.  We are all blessed with different gifts, witnesses ready to be counted.  The debt we owe great art, accumulated over the centuries is immeasurable.  Let’s try to pay it off by listening to its immortal voice.

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258.  When Silence Becomes Singing: a study in perception and parable (by Helen Kylin; 1984)

About the Author—Helen Kylin is a painter and photographer whose work has been seen in art shows around Cleveland.  She has been a teacher and coordinator of a elementary program on creative enrichment.  She is member, deacon, and Bible student in the Fairmount Presbyterian Church.  Most of this pamphlet was written during the 3 terms when Helen Kylin was a Pendle Hill Student.  She hopes to continue developing her own creativity which is the open end of her own parable.

i thank you God for most this amazing day; for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky, and for everything

which is natural which is infinite which is yes  

(i who have died am alive again today/ and this is the sun’s birthday;...)  

(now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

              i am not sorry when silence becomes singing                e. e. cumming

Even though it is my own free will to write this study, there is also an element of compulsion because the subject has been on my mind for many years.  Being a creative, left-handed, and somewhat dyslexic person, I have sought ways to understand the dilemma that made me think differently about the world.  I am grateful for the struggle to [“be like the others”] because it has taught me to be logical and verbal.  So it is my logical self that says I do this study of my own free will and my intuitive self that wordlessly pushes me to the task. 

When I look at a landscape or a group of people with an eye to taking a photograph or painting a picture, I am looking as much as the shapes between the objects as at the objects themselves.  The empty spaces between much of what I say and the poems and stories I use will be as important as the words I will be using.  It is in these spaces that thought connections can be discovered.  A friend said: “There is no music in a rest, but there is the making of music.  Silence is also a component of creative thought.  A certain part of the brain must be put to rest so that intuition can speak to us with its own language.  Einstein spoke of a period of visual and kinetic images, after which words were laboriously used to translate the images into language. 

[In the right brain/left brain process] the right brain looks at the whole of a situation & then proceeds to its parts.  The left brain looks at a situation by breaking it up into a sequence of steps that lead to wholeness. Our creative moments are not just times when we paint a picture or write a book. The same process is in operation when we make a connection with a story or metaphoric statement. [The process goes from]: preparation & investigation; rest and forgetfulness; integration and revelation; new relationships and patterns of ideas & images.

Creative thinking is not a matter of the dominance of one hemisphere over the other.  It is a matter of using both sides in a manner appropriate to the type of work being done.  [I worked with the creativity in children.  Many of them said] they would remember the quiet place they had found inside their minds.  Victoria said: “You dig down deep in your well—all the way to your little self.”  Katie said: “If you can’t think of anything you go to a corner where it is quiet.”  I am not emphasizing staying in intuitive states for long periods of time.  It is in the movement between the 2 hemispheres of the brain that creativity is generated.  The Society of Friends explores this process and creative social action has proceeded from it.  In the stillness, empty spaces occur and new possibilities are searching their way to the surface of the mind. 

 One early morning when I was about to leave a well-loved place, I stood before a great tree and it spoke to me.  I was slightly changed by the confrontation.  I had been discussing Findhorn the evening before; Findhorn people produce vegetables of prodigious size by talking affectionately to them.  The tree did not turn my life around, but it did broaden my view so that now I think again before doubting possibilities. 

In I and Thou Martin Buber says there are three spheres in which the world of relation arises involving: nature; language; and spiritual beings.  [My encounter with the tree] enlarged my primal knowledge of reality in ways that are not expressed but are valid.  The 2^nd sphere involves language.  Forces of nature were like pre-metaphors for pre-historic man and helped him cope with the world.  Even abstract words were once images developed by someone making connections between a known and an unknown.  [Very old metaphors] may have lost their metaphoric surprise, but we can realize that these words and others once had a surprise effect on any person who first used them.

Small children reach out perceptually to their environment & find similarities. We can’t discount the evidence that children have a metaphor sense. As the child learns good vocabulary, the process of putting words into categories continues. Mental lists of color words or flower words [& other groupings] are made. Metaphor has come to be seen by scholars as a process where a known becomes linked with an unknown in such a way as to present new thought or image. The 3^rd sphere of relationships which Buber mentions is life with spiritual beings. It lacks but creates language. “We hear no YOU & yet feel addressed; we answer—creating, thinking, acting.”

As we know, the conscious mind is only part of the thinking process.  What is happening in the silent hemisphere can be processed in the verbal hemisphere.  Then, a new insight suddenly appears in the mind that is prepared to receive it.  It is sometimes as creative to understand a metaphor by using our imagination as it is to create one yourself.  The ability to think this way becomes lost to some people but perhaps it could be recaptured. 

St. Augustine spoke of his surprise at the mountains and hills of his imagination and the plains and caves of his memory.  We cannot develop new meanings without the skill of comparing feelings or objects for which we have no known words with a known.  The making of metaphor does not ever take us completely away from ourselves.  The self is always one component of the process, and the new insight adds a dimension to the self in its journey of becoming what it can or must become. 

We are advised by Jesus to lose ourselves in order to find ourselves.  Perhaps we cannot lose ourselves until we have a self to lose.  Each separate road taken becomes a story for God’s eyes to see and God’s ears to hear.  If we being one part of metaphor are moving from the known through the unknown, our stores will probably become myths or parables.  The Bible gains power in our lives through images and stories we can take into our lives and relate to as examples and guideposts on our journey.

Stevie Smith’s poem “Not Waving but Drowning,” is to me a metaphor for our inability to communicate well.  It says in part:  “Nobody heard him, the dead man./ But still he lay moaning: … I was much too far out all my life/ & not waving but drowning.” Kafka says: “When the sage says: ‘Go over,’ he means to some fabulous yonder, something unknown to us, something that he cannot designate more precisely, or help us get there.”

I can spend a ridiculous amount of time building walls between myself & the critical remarks of friends.  Gifted teachers like Jesus, the Baal Shem Tov & Chuang Tsu break down the barriers & reach us by an indirect approach through open-ended stories.  Parables have the power to make people see reality & face it.  Here is a short Pendle Hill garden parable:  “One time we put a fence around the garden & trapped 5 rabbits inside. Each garden/parable is harboring a real live rabbit or toad which may jump into our hands & reveal personal messages. 

Jesus realized that people respond to an indirect approach.  He showed respect for his listeners by speaking to them so that his words could be met by each person’s perception.  Since we are developing organisms our under-standing may change and develop as we grow.  [The early churches began with parables]. As they moved out into the world influenced by Greek culture they were influenced by a different literary style—the allegory.  In the gospel passage where Jesus explains the parable of the sower and the seeds, it is probably the church speaking and not Jesus himself.  This interpretation set a pattern of allegorization that has stayed with the church until this century.  An allegory assigns a set meaning to each person or event and reaches a known conclusion; Greek minds could not easily handle an uninterpreted parable. 

Through the study of biblical language and history in the last century, the allegory’s [set values & meanings for each aspect of the parable] has been challenged. We need a growing understanding of the message Jesus came to bring as well as understanding that the people Jesus spoke to were used to hearing ideas in indirect metaphoric words. If we aren’t careful we can make up meanings that carry us farther from [the reality of life that parables were meant to teach us]. Parable are fragile & not to be stretched out of shape. The part of the parable that is unexplained carries the emotional impact. Our interpretations may need verification, but each can be unique. 

Brinton Turkle, writer and illustrator of children’s books and a Quaker says:  “In a way all the stories I have written and will write are already in my head.  It means that the right time and right climate must be there before it can come out.”  [The same is true of creating our Self].  As we progress on our journey many parables occur in our own lives.  If we become sensitized to them these insights can be gifts that have meaning beyond the words. 

        Because most of us have heard the parables often and since childhood, it is not easy to hear with new ears and see with new eyes.  In a real way for us Jesus can become a part of our personal metaphors and a part of our personal parables.  As we confront ourselves with biblical parables and with our own parables we can be met by truths that have in them the power of transformation.  In a real sense Jesus [can] become the Harvest as we respond with our lives.  

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259.  Stewardship of Wealth (by Kingdon W Swayne; 1985)

About the Author—Kingdon Swayne was born into the Society of Friends. A graduate of Harvard, he spent the 1^st half of his working life as a Foreign Service Officer. Since 1967 he has taught at Bucks County Community College, & been active in his political & service community. He thought about the wealth he was accumulating.  This pamphlet shares the serious introspection, but most importantly, the knowledge gleaned from others.

Stewardship is an attitude of responsible, future-oriented caring for:  Oneself; immediate family; time and energy; material possessions; the most local ecosystem in one’s personal care; wider circles of human community [ranging outward from] neighborhood to the whole human race; “Spaceship Earth’s” ecosystem; community of All Being (God).  Kingdon Swayne. 

TOWARD THOUGHTFUL STEWARDSHIP—It is commonplace that most American Friends pursue professional-level occupations & are rewarded with [generous] incomes. Friends are troubled by the contrast between their affluence & their belief in social & economic justice. In 1983, I confronted the fact that my gross annual income was about 10 times my living expenses. To help clarify my thinking, I resolved to devote a fair part of my time to a survey of the stewardship practices of some of my fellow members of the Society of Friends in Philadelphia YM. In part my thinking was: The core idea of stewardship is elegantly simple & wise:  what is yours under civil law is not yours under divine law.  How one expresses this in action is by no means clear.    

SELF-ASSESSMENT—I wrote a letter to those who responded that served as a model & as the 1^st part of a confidential, mutual sharing of approaches to stewardship. My assessment was in part that: [Stewardship is more than charitable giving]. Until 45, I was “other-directed” in my stewardship decisions, my lifestyle governed by my salary & my colleagues’ lifestyle. My charitable giving was modest & pro forma. After 45 years as a nominal, birthright Friend, I opted for a career change. I bought a 3-unit apartment & rented out 2. I received a pension & became a resident in a town where I felt almost total freedom to choose my standard of living. The values I was pursuing were self-sufficiency & a prudent concern for the possibility of medical catastrophe later in life.

I found it very difficult to find a clear, firm set of principles on which to base a self-consciously chosen living standard.  I ended up with some rules of thumb:  good, long-lasting clothing; no expensive eating & drinking; no excessive living-space; performing arts enjoyed at less than top dollar prices; austere foreign travel; new, modest, energy-efficient car every 6 years; reasonably priced electric & electronic gadgets; housekeeper; excess cash in mutual funds; paying taxes; repairing, recycling, making do, do-it-yourself around house; cost-benefit analysis on all purchases; no wasting of nonrenewable resources; community-building or good works social gatherings only; affordable, uplifting artwork (not for investment); providing good start in life for next generation. 

I find it a little hard to distill a clear philosophical foundation from my 16 rules-of-thumb.  What I am looking for is a living standard for myself that I can in good conscience defend.  I use less than my “fair share” of the gross national product, but far more than my fair share of the gross world product; the US is a very difficult place in which to live at the median world income.  I was now embarked on an elaborate survey whose selfish purpose had disappeared, for I had decided what was right for me to do. 

THE MEANING OF STEWARDSHIP/CHARACTER OF DATA—Many respondents brought other aspects of stewardship into their self-assessment; it may be helpful to devote some space to the meaning of the term.  [To paraphrase John Woolman]: small income and cheap conveniences to lead a life free from “much entanglement”; look to the sources of conflict and oppression in possessions; turn our treasures into the channel of universal love.  SHAKERTOWN PLEDGE: I declare myself a world citizen.  I commit to: ecologically sound life; creative simplicity and sharing wealth; join with others to reshape institution to bring a more just global society; occupational accountability & products free from harm; proper nourishment and physical well-being of self; honest, moral, loving relationships; prayer, meditation, and study; participation in a community of faith. 

Stewardship is an attitude of responsible, future-oriented caring for:  Oneself; immediate family; time and energy; material possessions; the most local ecosystem in one’s personal care; wider circles of human community [ranging outward from neighborhood to the whole human race; “Spaceship Earth’s” ecosystem; community of All Being (God). 

I made no serious effort to arrive at a representative sample.  Most respondents were active in Philadelphia YM’affairs.  I read and re-read the responses, letting gems of wisdom shine forth and patterns emerge, a Quakerly mode of analysis, appropriate to Quakerly subject matter. 

GENERAL FINDINGS—My major interest was in the choices people make between stewardship of self and family and stewardship of wider circles of the human community.  One question on which I would have welcomed experienced guidance was this: how big a personally controlled “safety net” is big enough? Most respondents clearly maintain a prudent concern for likely future contingencies.

Unlike me, most respondents are parents, and most of the parents are also grandparents feeling responsible for the welfare of their grandchildren.  The respondents felt that a Quaker upbringing tended toward children who were less affluent than themselves.  Most respondents took it for granted that making provision for a secure retirement of self and spouse and for emergencies for family were proper uses of wealth.  Only 4 respondents had specific plans for charitable giving by bequest.  No respondent acknowledged the accumulation of wealth as a specific goal.  Most respondents have accepted the wealth that has come their way as an object of stewardship, [but do not view it] as an impediment to a good life.  Tithing, [while not a strong Quaker tradition] is a rule-of-thumb that about half the respondents see as appropriate and aim for in a non-rigid way. 

A PHILADELPHIA QUAKER LIFESTYLE/ IS IT TYPICAL? —There is a pattern in the responses that defines what might be called a Philadelphia Quaker lifestyle.  The only notable difference between respondents with very different incomes was in choice of living quarters.  The median lifestyle is characterized, at least in self-assessments for other’s eyes, by a greater consciousness of what is forgone than of what is possessed.  Almost every respondent saw his or her use of automobiles as having a self-denying aspect.  Many respondents saved through do-it-yourself projects, not including auto maintenance. 

What I have produced is a description of a fictional suburban shopping center whose customers are exclusively Quaker.  [The thriving businesses are: health food store; wine and beer; bicycle shop; discount appliance store; fabric store; Goodwill clothing box; hardware store; music store; community meeting room; gas station do-it-yourself pumps.  The struggling or failed businesses are: grocery store; bakery; new-car dealer (failed), used-car dealer (struggling); clothing store; furniture stores (failed); restaurant.

Education is the one area where Quaker families see no need to apologize for seeking the best they can manage.  A minority of Quakers saw overemphasis on do-it-yourselfing as an anti-social denial of work to someone, and a misapplication of talents that might be more productively employed.  I asked the question: Can you distinguish between your economic and religious motivations in the area of energy conservation?  I am troubled by the contrast between the data I have on respondents’ travel habits and practices and my observation of Quaker travelers.  What sets affluent Friends apart from others more than anything else is the amount and style of traveling they do.  Some see it as “using discretionary income to but experiences, not things.”  I have concluded that 4 Quaker lifestyles can be listed: American middle-class (AMC); AMC with considerable self-conscious restraint; American lower-middle class, value directed career choice, above average giving; “alternative” lifestyle of deliberate simplicity.

SHOULD QUAKERS ALIENATE THE WEALTHY?/INVESTMENT OR NOT?—One respondent made an eloquent plea for Friends to change the “repugnance” of wealth for the sake of Friends’ institutions that need help from the wealthy, whom we have either pushed from our midst, or have failed to keep them bound lovingly in as their worldly wealth increased.  Do we really believe Jesus’ eye-of-the-needle metaphor about the rich?  Are we willing to accept its implications for Friends’ institutions?  One money manager challenged me to define more clearly my reasons for embarking on a course of major charitable giving, arguing that holding substantial assets was in itself no obstacle to responsible stewardship or simple living.  I had a deep sense that wealth held without clear purposes is wealth withheld from more constructive uses.

FINAL THOUGHTS—I am left with the strong sense that stewardship styles are rightly highly individual.  The respondents explained their stewardship styles in terms of family background and life history.  The irreducible minimum requirement for an acceptable stewardship style is that it expresses in some meaningful way a sense of interconnectedness with all the universe.  Steven Rockefeller says:  “There is something seriously wrong with a social system that allows poverty and related disadvantages to exist along side extremes of wealth and privilege.  [The challenge in this situation] is simply this:  How can I develop my own unique capacities and interests, and use the wealth and power which has been entrusted to me by society so as to benefit others and create a more just and compassionate world?  The things we have are [actually only] entrusted to us for wise use.”          

GUIDE TO SELF-ASSESSMENT[QUERIES]

       What considerations guide your choices with respect to purchasing the following: living quarters; household furnishings; food and drink; clothing; transportation; recreation [i.e. arts and craft, vacations, entertainment]; electric and electronic devices; education; personal services?

        What is your annual income?

        What career choices have you made that limited family income?

        Can you distinguish between your economic and religious motivations in the area of energy conservation?

        Have you a cutoff level below which you can comfortably lay out money without stopping to think about it? 

        What is your family’s budgetary process?

         How are conflicts between family needs and the larger society resolved?

         How does your will resolve the above conflict?

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260.  The Way of the Cross: The Gospel Record (by Mary C. Morrison; 1985)

About the Author—Mary Morrison describes herself as 49% Quaker, 51% Episcopalian. She wrote 4 pamphlets before this one [120, 198, 219, 242, & 2 after (311, 364), the last at age 92]. Gospel Group study has had a long history at PH. Henry Burton Sharman began it at Pendle Hill’s beginnings in 1930; he taught for 3 yrs; his student Dora Wilson taught it 20 yrs. Mary Morrison taught it from 1957-77. [This pamphlet is part of her hope to lead people to the heart of the Gospel message & to describe Jesus’ life journey that became the Way].

The Way of the Cross was for Jesus and is for us a much longer walk than [the Via Dolorosa]. It is the story of how Jesus lived out from beginning to end most truly and fully what was in him. True artists are those who shape not sounds or objects, but their own lives as they walk their path of life [as Jesus did].  Mary Morrison

We look at Jesus, crucified; and we see what we would rather not see, ever, during all our lives: suffering; helplessness; defeat; humiliation; sorrow; death.  Jesus’ experience draws our eyes not because it is unique, but because it can be ours.  We need to know how he faced those things.  John tells one story of this time; Luke another; Matthew and Mark unite to tell the third. 

In John’s Gospel Jesus seems to stride along the road, carrying his own cross. [There is concern for others; there is a sense of a cry of triumph; there is not a sense of human need.  We may have been luck enough to know people who met suffering and death like this, and who, moving on, left a blessing behind them.  We may have met our crises strongly and triumphantly; but it does not happen often.  There remains the uncomfortable thought, “What if you can’t do it that way?” So we look away ashamed. 

Then our eyes are drawn back, to Luke’s Gospel. When Jesus comes along the road, exhausted, battered & bruised, he is not too exhausted to really see, the women along the road, his crucifiers, the penitent thief, or to commend himself in trust to God, the deepest, most personal of all his relationships. He is always in relationship in Luke’s story.  [Again we ask]: “But what if you can’t?  How can we follow him? We look away again.

Our eyes are drawn back again to the story Matthew and Mark join in telling.  Jesus comes along that road, flogged, bleeding exhausted, dehydrated.  They give him something undrinkable to drink.  Jesus is alone in this story, and it is true that he cannot save himself.  And that last and deepest relationship has vanished, it is nowhere to be found.  Jesus cries out; there is no answer, and he dies.  Terrible.  But wonderful.

Here at last is the Jesus who can hold our gaze, who can draw us to him. [We do not ask, “What if I can’t.”] Jesus does not “curse God and die”; this is the ending that deserves a triumphant cry, [Jesus conquers nature and death].  We need all 3 pictures of Jesus at his crucifixion; this last one has the ultimate power to hold us and draw us in.  God could save him [and us] at the very moment when he felt most completely lost; this we can follow.

I have begun in this way because here is where we all usually begin—& end—in thinking about the Way of the Cross. The Way of the Cross was for Jesus & is for us a much longer walk than [the Via Dolorosa]. It is the story of how Jesus lived out from beginning to end most truly & fully what was in him. True artists are those who shape not sounds or objects, but their own lives as they walk their path of life.  Jesus did this supremely.  It was Jesus’ life-journey to uniqueness and Godhood. It is also the human journey, taken step by step.   

Most who have been parents have had a sense that the children who come to us are of “the Holy Spirit.”  As children we may have been lucky enough to be with elders who saw promise in us.  And all of us are heirs of a great tradition.  Jesus could and did lay claim to all of this. [And with the story of the “lost” 12-year old boy, there is a sense of Jesus asking, “Didn’t you know I’d be at the Temple?”  During the long silence, Jesus “advanced in wisdom and stature,” [probably by] a very human process.

What does it tell us about Jesus that he came to John [as part of a crowd] and was dipped by him into the River Jordan?  He has grown up in a great tradition and has loved it. Now he must begin to question some of its easier and more comfortable assumptions.  We find this a painful process; perhaps Jesus did too. Conscious choice of the Way of the Cross begins.  And so Jesus comes to John the Baptist and gives himself over to the experience that John offers: [full-immersion baptism].  It involves 2 experiences: being accepted; knowing the powers that are within us.  Perhaps we suddenly come, one day, to an inward sense of having all that we’ve been doing and thinking come together into a harmonious whole.  With Jesus what is in him and must be lived out well is his sense that he has been chosen and given the power to usher in the Kingdom of God.     

Together, acceptance & temptation are really 2 halves of one experience.  These temptations are opportunities.  1^st is the opportunity to test your acceptance & use your power for yourself. 2^nd is the opportunity to prove it to the crowds. 3^rd  is the opportunity to use them within the existing, hardened channels of power.  Nothing in all the Gospels is more exciting than his recognition that these opportunities are in fact temptations.  With Jesus’ help we can see this too, & make of our own small way the Way of the Cross, with power subservient to love.     

The most helpful aspect of his way was the fact that he did not know what it was. He had to grope along the path and test every step.  1^st, Jesus begins to work with what he has been taught.  As we read we can watch his concepts grow and change.  [He learned the difference between miracles of proof and self-dramatization and miracles of compassion; the difference between his healing people and being an instrument of healing]. 

Conflicts run almost all the way through the Gospel between: patience and impatience; love and anger; peace and violence.  They run all the way along his path of the Messiah, and in them we can see him feeling his way into what it means to be the one who ushers in the Kingdom.  His path begins as a way of love and gentleness.  He never claims the Messiahship.  The moment comes when he says to his disciples, “Who do people say that I am? . . . Who do you say that I am?”  My thesis is that he really needed to know the answers for his own sake; that what they thought of him was an important part of his knowledge of his Way. 

He has dealt inwardly and outwardly with love and anger, peace and violence and he has arrived at the  knowledge that he can resolve these conflicts only by receiving the violence, absorbing it, dying from it, and creating new life within it, [thus making] his power subservient to love.  Human nature seems naturally to think that power sits up high and is able to accomplish things, rather than standing low and being able to endure things.  But Jesus knew his way.  He said:  “The kings of the pagans have power over the people . . . But this is not the way it is with you . . . rather the leader must be like the servant.”  And so he went his Way to the very end.  It was not possible for death to hold him or that Way to have an end.  Jesus lived out fully what was in him and took the consequences fully upon himself; and God did the rest.  [We hope for the same] in our long walk.  The thought is so simple as to be hardly comprehensible.  

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