This newsletter is published monthly by the Mystical Order of the White Rose, a multi-faith devotional and spiritual support organization.  We support-- and share information about-- mystical, monastic, contemplative and creative ways of living.  We encourage prayer, the reading of sacred scripture(s), lectio divina, meditation, journaling, solitude, fasting, silence, sacred movement (dance, mudras, yoga), kindness, hospitality, worship, simplicity, creativity, active involvement in spiritual and religious communities, and  loving service to others.  You can view past issues here and you can subscribe to the newsletter by clicking here.

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Theme:  Spring--the Season of Rebirth

Table of Contents

-- Poem:  April is the Cruellist Month by T.S. Eliot

-- Article:  Spring--The Season of Rebirth by Sheryl Paul

-- Quotation:  "Birth and death...." by Isabel Allende

-- Quotations for Gardeners, Walkers, and Lovers of the Green Way
   Poems, Quotes, Folklore, Myths, Customs, Holidays, Traditions, Verses,
   Celebrations, Sayings, Poetry, Quips, Lore, Links, Recommended Reading
   Gardening Chores for the Month off f April      Compiled by Karen and Mike Garofalo

-- Article:  Jung's Psychology of Rebirth and Spring Rituals--Mandalas, Dreams and the         Rediscovered   Self  by Mary Desaulnier

-- Poem: "To what purpose, April ...." by Edna St. Vincent Millay

-- Poem/Hymn:  "Now the Green Blade Riseth"  -- Christian and Wiccan Lyrics

-- Links of Interest

--  Multi-Faith, Multi-Media Daily Devotionals for April 2011

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April is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring

     - T. S, Eliot

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Spring--the Season of Rebirth

by Sheryl Paul

     When we align ourselves with the primary action of each season, we can harness the energy that permeates the natural world and, thus, facilitate our own transitions. During autumn, as we witness the falling of leaves, we open to the energy of shedding and ask ourselves, “What is it time to let go of?” In winter, as we watch the stillness settle over the land and notice the hibernation of our own soul, we ask, “What arises in my quiet and solitude?” In spring, the literal and metaphoric seeds that lay dormant for several months tentatively poke their heads through the warming earth then burst into full bloom. And in summer, we celebrate the fruits of our labor and enjoy the days of water and sunshine, asking ourselves, “What is it time to celebrate?”
 
     On the threshold of spring, we begin to notice a quiet awakening within. The intentions that we set during the long days of winter, both for ourselves and our children, may have lain dormant these past months, but now we see the first green heads pushing through and realize that the dawn of something new is upon us. Spring is the season of hope and renewal when, encouraged by the increase of light and warmth, we find the energy to take the necessary action that can push the tentative new beginning into full awakening.

     Now is the time to ask yourself: “What is longing to be born? If I set intentions on New Year’s, how can I draw upon the energy of renewal and call those intentions into action? What changes and rebirths do I observe in my children? What seeds of new beginnings were resting in the underground caverns of my child’s mind and are now bursting into fruition?”

     Spring is green, tender, and alive. It’s the childhood stage of the seasons of transitions where innocence and purity permeate the atmosphere. (For a more detailed and graphic representation of each season, please see my Seasons of Transitions diagram.) As nature wakes from her winter slumber and you observe the first pale green leaves unfolding out of the buds, ask yourself, “What is childlike inside of me that wishes to come out? What is it that is longing to be born? What do I see in my child that is aching for release?”

     Sometimes simply noticing the change of seasons is enough to facilitate an inner change. For example, last year I was counseling a mother of two girls. The younger girl enthusiastically threw herself into every new activity and seemed to exhibit little struggle with life. The older, on the other hand, was more cautious and sensitive, and had been struggling the previous summer with mastering the skill of riding a bike. The girl wanted desperately to ride a bike and join her neighborhood friends in their fun, but something was holding her back.

     As spring neared and the weather warmed, my client and I discussed saying to her daughter, “Spring is here to help you learn this new skill. Just like the first crocuses that bravely show their heads even when the threat of winter is still near, you can find the courage to try to ride your bike again even when you’re scared. Perhaps you just weren’t ready last summer. I think you’re ready now. What do you think?” The girl said yes, she was ready and yes, she was still scared. The two of them then planned a special hike together in the early days of spring to observe the ways in which the season was birthing herself. They noticed the tiny green buds on the trees and the delicate blades of wild grasses popping up across the hillsides. They hiked for a few miles, then rested on the earth and felt the warm sun on their faces. When they returned home, the girl rode her bike alone for the first time successfully.

     The early weeks of spring often bring a quality of restlessness. As hopeful and optimistic as this season is, there’s always an element of discomfort in the world of transitions. Said bluntly, change is hard, so even when the change is positive – like birthing a new part of yourself or watching your child master a new skill – there’s an itchiness of psyche that occurs when the old self or skill level falls away and the new one hasn’t fully emerged. In summer we celebrate with joyous abandon, but spring is still tentative, and there may be days when winter settles her snow over the land and we’re pulled back into the silent, underground world. When we understand these natural cycles of death and renewal, we can make space for them in our inner lives and help our children make sense of the process of change.

     If winter was a season of sorrow, allow the light winds of spring to wash away the residue of grief. If winter was a season of sickness, let the freshness of spring restore you to health. If winter was a season of loss, notice the new life and rebirths that surround you. If winter was a season of silence, invite the birds of spring to bring song back into your life. If winter was a season of hopelessness, connect to the perennial signs of hope that rise up in the natural world as if to say, “Today is a new day. Today I can start something new and find that place of beginning within. Today I am alive and for that I am grateful. Today I see love manifest in the miracles of nature and I whisper a quiet but certain ‘Yes.’”

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Source:  http://rhythmofthehome.com/spring-2011/spring-season-rebirth-seasonal/
Through her websites Conscious Weddings and Conscious Motherhood, her blog Conscious Transitions, and books, Sheryl Paul helps people traverse the tricky terrain of transitions. She’s the author of The Conscious Bride and The Conscious Bride’s Wedding Planner and has appeared several times on The Oprah Winfrey Show, as well as on Good Morning America and several other international newspapers, radio, and television.
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Birth and death are made of the same fabric; there is pain, separation and joy in both.

- Isabel Allende

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Quotations for Gardeners, Walkers, and Lovers of the Green Way
Poems, Quotes, Folklore, Myths, Customs, Holidays, Traditions, VersesCelebrations, Sayings, Poetry, Quips, Lore, Links, Recommended Reading
Gardening Chores for the Month of April  

Compiled by Karen and Mike Garofalo

           Please click here to explore and savor this wonderful collection. 

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Jung's Psychology of Rebirth and Spring Rituals 

Mandalas, Dreams and the Rediscovered Self

Feb 12, 2009 Mary Desaulniers

The psychology of rebirth is evident in many folk rites of spring.These spring rituals usually consists two parts: a) the dissolution of winter, personified by minor deities and b) the welcoming of spring personified by a young girl holding a green branch. Such ritualistic farewells signal a decided transformation of the individual from fragmentation to wholeness, loss to renewal.

Jung sees this transformation as a necessary part of individuation, the process of psychic and spiritual growth in man. He himself was paralyzed by depression when, out of inner necessity, he made a professional departure from Freud. He was able, however, to work himself out of his depression through the rituals of rebirth: mandalas, dreams and the rediscovered self.
Rebirth, Spring Rituals and Mandalas

Jung sees mandalas as literally “birth-places,” giving form to something that does not yet exist. Creating circular, intricate mandalas, he finds in each a cryptogram of his inner state. Allowing himself to be carried by the current and relinquishing all desire for control, he eventually comes to realize that all paths lead to the centre, the mid-point of the mandala. The psychology of rebirth is a consistent process of discovery and rediscovery. Only by experiencing loss can the individual constellate his rebirth in the centre -- a new beginning and a new self.

Man’s discovery of a wider meaning to his existence is made possible by attention to dreams. The total dream life of an individual points the way to an undiscovered self, a stranger buried deep within the layers of the psyche. By observing his dream life, man can detect a pattern that leads inevitably to the lost dimensions of the soul.

The rebirth of Jung’s lost self is most significantly illustrated in his dream of the magnolia tree. In this dream, he was wandering through the dark, sooty streets of Liverpool when he came upon a magnolia tree suspended on an island in the middle of the city. Everything around it was dark and foggy, but the tree blazed with light, a confirmation to Jung that he has found his centre; this discovery enabled him to move out of his depression, confident that his departure from Freud was indeed a move in the right direction.
Rebirth, Spring Rituals and the Rediscovered Self

So significant is the process of rebirth for Jung, he writes in The Undiscovered Self: The Dilemma of the Individual in Modern Society (New York: New American Library, 2006), that modern man is stifled to such an extent by the demands of contemporary society he is incapable of birthing his own truth. Self-knowledge has been displaced by State Knowledge and the stranger self, so vital for insight and rebirth, has been exiled to the margin.

Because of fragmentation and dissociation in the contemporary world, Jung states that sightings of UFOs have become modern symptoms of a universal need for oneness. In Memories, Dreams, Reflections (New York: Vintage Books, 1989), he claims that UFOs are metaphors of a lack in modern man—his inability to open up to the undiscovered potential within him. Flying saucers with their rounded shape, the shape of the mandala, are seen by Jung as symbols of the wholeness man craves for.

The rebirth in spring rituals is archetypal for Jung who sees in the renewal of nature a metaphor for man's rediscovery of meaning.

Read more at Suite101: Jung's Psychology of Rebirth and Spring Rituals: Mandalas, Dreams and the Rediscovered Self http://www.suite101.com/content/jungs-psychology-of-rebirth-and-spring-rituals-a95876#ixzz1Ii5SIgBj

http://www.suite101.com/content/jungs-psychology-of-rebirth-and-spring-rituals-a95876

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To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of little leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know.
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify?

-  Edna St. Vincent Millay, Spring

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Poem/Hymn:  "Now the Green Blade Riseth" 

Christian and Wiccan Lyrics

Video:  Love Is Come Again by St. Barnabus Anglican Church Choir

Christian Lyrics
 

now the green blade riseth
from the buried grain
wheat that in dark earth
many days has lain
love lives again
that with the dead has been
love is come again like
wheat that springeth green

in the grave they laid him
love whom hate had slain
thinking that never
he would wake again
quick from the dead
my risen Lord is seen
love is come again like
wheat that springeth green

forth he came at Easter
like the risen grain
he that for three days
in the grave had lain
quick from the dead
my risen Lord is seen
love is come again like
wheat that springeth green

when our hearts are wintry
grieving or in pain
thy touch can call us
back to life again
fields of our hearts
that dead and bare have been
love is come again like
wheat that springeth green

 
Wiccan Lyrics

Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark Earth many days has lain.
Love lives again, that with the dead has been.
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

Now the spirit stirreth at the stricken root
From the rotted tree stump springs a living shoot
Mold, muck and clay bring for the green of May
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green

In the Earth they laid them in a barren place
Witches from the burning nameless and erased.
Rising again, their ashes feed the grain.
We are come again like wheat that springeth green.

Now the wasteland bloometh from the hidden bud
in the rocky desert, rivers brim and flood
Dry bones will sing, the quickening of spring
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green

© The Lansing Spinster's Guild

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The Symbolism of the Sun and Its Meaning

by Thais Campos

The sun has been used in many different cultures and religions as a symbol of the divine. It represents the cycles of death and rebirth towards evolution.

     An anthropologist once went to an indigenous tribe in a far away land. In his journal he wrote that every day, just before dawn, the members of that tribe gathered outside to perform a strange ritual – they started to yell and crash objects in order to make a lot of noise. Only when the sun finally rose above the horizon, did the Indians stop the rite. "This helps the sun win the battle against darkness and rise again" someone said.

     Astonished, the anthropologist asked the leader of that tribe if they really thought that the sun only rose because they made all that noise, which seemed a bit irrational. The leader smiled and answered "You are so stupid! Of course the sun will rise, regardless of our rituals. The sun already won this fight against the dark night, a long, long time ago. The sun inside each one of us, however, still has to struggle to win the fight against our lower instincts, and this is why we make all this noise, to help our inner suns triumph over our dark side".

     This little true story synthesizes much of the symbolism of the sun in ancient cultures. There is a sun inside each one of us, which is a mirror of the sun that we see in the sky. By watching the movement of the sun, we are also watching the movement of our souls towards spiritual ascension. This is why the sun is so special in many different cultures.