The courage to live in your own truth
Following the Thread— a series beginning with Alexander John Scott & a trip to Northern Ireland
In the 1830’s Alexander John Scott, a Scottish minister, stood up to the pressure of the Westminster Confession by refusing his signature; the Church wanted the submission to the idea that we are born “wholly of defiled” in body and soul, and “wholly inclined to all evil.” Here let me pause and recognize a gorgeous book I am reading by John Philip Newell:
Check it out here.
Okay, back to the Celts, do you want to know what Alexander John Scott taught instead? He used the metaphor of the golden thread which ran through the royal garments of the time to teach on the relationship of the divine woven within the fabric of us.
As Newell writes:
In nineteenth-century Britain, royal state attire was still threaded with a filament of gold. If the golden thread was taken out of the garment, the whole garment would unravel. So it is, said Scott, with the interweaving of the divine in the human. If somehow it were taken out of us, we would cease to exist.
Our current state of human affairs is apparently not new. It is not new to shame humans away from their divine origin and force their word and their signature of declaration onto something they do not believe it. Apparently, our declaration is so important and powerful it is worth being coerced, and unfortunately we think it is insignificant, easier to go along with the flow; and yet, through millennia, those that we seek to appease—on whatever level, conscious or subconscious— are very away of the power of your submission.
For many of us here, the threads are becoming more and more obvious; what is in shambles and threadbare versus concepts and circumstances that for some miraculous reason are withstanding pressure in miraculous fashion, and bearing the the same traits of gold—strengthened through fire.
When I was in high school, Sister Mary Pat (yes) wrote on my report card that I ask a lot of questions. I am structured to inquire. I have passed this DNA on to my son, and although we may worry down those around us, it is this flame of curiosity that lights the way for others to ask the questions in their own heart rather than simply guess the fine print is fine (I have another story for you on that another day).
Listen, what I’m trying to get at and will continue to write on is this: It all matters, you matter. Ask questions and don’t bend on the things you know to be true.
Have I told you about my time in Northern Ireland? When I was a senior in college I was dating a lovely guy and we had plans to go to Ireland together. So fun.
We broke up. Although I was sad, about the break-up I was about to miss-out on Ireland. I didn’t want to travel internationally alone. I had heard that one of my favorite philosophy teachers took a trip to Ireland or something (that is how my brain works. I jump at the resonance and kinda catch up to the details). So I walked into my friends and advisor, and said “How do I get on the Ireland class?”
“You mean the faith-service learning trip?” Dr. Parker looked at me head tilted. Although I was at a Jesuit school, I wasn’t seen on any campus outreach programs.
“The one where Dr. Long takes you to Ireland.”
“Ah, the trip to Northern Ireland, where you go on a service trip for reconciliation philosophy?” she kindly reiterated.
“How long are you in Ireland?”
She clacked on her computer, “You have to take his class on Reconciliation Philosophy, that is available this Spring in preparation for the trip and it looks like you are gone, for, hmmm about two weeks.”
“Sign me up.”
That trip changed me. I didn’t read the fine print about the service and how I’d be building houses for Catholics, with Protestants that once burned down homes. I didn’t know that sitting in a pub and listening to strangers would reinforce my suspicion that we are miraculous beings, who feel deeply and can find ourselves in epochs where we are divided for ludicrous reasons and the absurdity is easy to see in another, but much more difficult to see in ourselves and our own culture.
There was a golden thread being stitched into my life through that 1998 trip that is rising up again today, with the space to be curious and to listen. I bet you too are having memories of seemingly discordant pieces that are somehow asking for you to connect the dots, and allow the thread to illuminate an answer.
It’s all connected.
We know this in some space in our heart. No matter what life has layered upon us that spark of the divine lays and waits for the spaciousness in your mind to reignite the flame. Many of us have been holding our breath, and it’s time to breath freely again, knowing that the best of what is human is divine.
We are flawed. We are divine. It’s interconnected. We are interconnected to bring us back to the essence of our creation: love that we cannot fully define. We are inseparable from that which we are made of. No matter what we are told, the truth of our worth lay in the light-bearing cells of our body and in the steady faithful cadence of our breath.
What happened to Alexander John Scott? He was denounced as a heretic by the assembly and his own family at the age of 26. He was reported to be relieved of the battle, but the weight of the denouncement took a toll on his health.
When his health regained, he started to teach again and his message evolved. We’ll share his story in this series, but for now I’ll share Newell’s question paired with an intention from Rudolph Steiner, given in another country, in another time, who wrote for such times as these.
Newell: “Where do we find the strength to spiritually resist what is false?”
Steiner:
“The world threatens to numb
My soul’s inherent powers.
Therefore, step forth memory,
Shining from depths of spirit,
Strengthen my vision
That only by strength of will
is able to sustain itself.
See you back here soon. Until then, take good care,
Kate
Are these the conversations and considerations speaking to you?
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