Somewhere in the liturgies of Jungian mystic, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, she describes how mathematically and statistically extraordinary each of our existences is. So much has had to go right, so much more often than it didn’t go right, for each of us to be here. Our existence is a common miracle.
According to the astrophysicists, our unlikelihood is made possible by stars. All the water on Earth gushed from young, forming stars. The elements of life gathered on our sweet home planet from the explosions of the stars' deaths. And so far, just one star, in all the billions upon unfathomable billions, our nearest and dearest Sun, was situated in just such a way that life could be nurtured here.
Spirituality and Science are two ways of understanding the natural world. Spirituality insists we know and trust ourselves. Science insists we know and trust what is repeatable. And yet, what evolves from our self knowing, our unique art, is not only what shapes our humanity, it’s how we create our lives.
The microbiologists will tell you that a hallmark of health - in places and people - is a robust and varied population of bacteria - aka ‘good bugs.’ They keep ‘bad bugs’ at bay from invading and overtaking organisms and ecosystems causing disease, death, and collapse. Essentially, the bacterial populations of humans are so abundant we are basically bacterial colonies parading about as humans. The more we learn, the more we realize, we aren’t quite who (or what!) we think we are.
The Mystics have known and taught Truths for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years before science has discovered them, let alone measured them. If you Trust the wisdom and plenitude of the Mystery that has made the improbable amount to the daily miracles we rely upon, we also know the most important things in life cannot (and maybe should not) be measured, but felt and known and danced with.
Truth and Wisdom come from surprising and humbling places that somehow amplifies the awe of our divinely unique existence, even more singular than any of the billions of stars that showered their bounties upon us and this beautiful place we call home making all of this magic possible.
With Love & awe and gratitude,
Chase
Photo by Hristo Fidanov
