This newsletter is a publication of the Mystical Order of the White Rose, an emerging multi-faith cyber-community for people interested in--or actively involved with--traditional and/or new, post-modern, expressions of mysticism, monasticism, and contemplative living. The newsletter is published about every two weeks and each issue contains two weeks of daily multi-faith and multi-media devotional readings as well as writings and profiles of mystics, contemplatives, artists and visionaries. If you are not already a subscriber, you may become one by clicking here.
Our intention is to encourage, support and educate people about mystical and contemplative ways of living with special emphasis on prayer, meditation, lectio divina (reflective reading of sacred or uplifting texts), journaling, creative and artistic expression and service.
The great and lamentable lateness of this issue is addressed in the article below: "Hurting, Healing And Home." I have been very ill and explore some of the spiritual and psychological aspects of illness in the article. This issue of the newsletter will not feature any profiles or interviews and will be a skimpier version of the usual newsletter.
Table of Contents
--- Daily Devotionals - Muti-faith, Multi-media Readings
--- Kabbalah Personality Quiz
--- "Hurting, Healing, And Home" Article by Cynthia Lee
--- "It's About The Rose" -- A CD by Karen Marie Garrett
--- "U.S. Religious Landscape In Flux" - An article about findings from a survey By Pew Forum On Religion And Public Life
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Daily Devotionals
Please click on this link to access the daily devotional readings for March 1--March 15, 2008. Once there, you will find a separate listing for each day that is underlined. Click on it to access the day you want and you will be taken directly to the reading for that day.
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Kabbalah Personality Quiz
This is serious rather than silly quiz, and it is free to do, although you will be introduced to some related services that do require payment. The test can allegedly accurately identify over 100 septillion (that would a one followed by 26 zeros) individual personality types. Your current mood and circumstances do not influence the test results significantly. Color, geometric designs, size and positioning of the icons used are derived from the Kabbalah. Click here to take the test.
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Hurting, Healing & Home
by Cynthia Kiteley Lee
How foolish we mortals can sometimes be. There I was thinking that, since "things come in threes," and since I'd had three physical afflictions (Influenza, food poisoning, and a surgical procedure), I was done with physical afflictions for awhile.
It didn't work out that way. That triple-whammy of physical afflictions turned out to be a mere warm-up, an opening act, an appetizer for a much more substantial and painful experience of illness that started about almost a week ago, right ast the tail end of February and the beginning of March.
Until this afternoon (March 6) I have been so disabled by fever, headache, severely sore throat and fatigue that I was unable to read, write or work on the computer for more than a few minutes at a time. Thus, the non-appearance of the Mystical White Rose Newsletter for the first half of March until now.
Today I made a second visit to the doctor in connecton with this "viral infection." She was concerned that my "viral infection" might have developed into flu, but it hadn't. It was still something more along the lines of a common cold with higher than average throat pain.
Hurting--Why Me, Why This, Why Now?
Physical pain and dysfunction wrench us out of our ordinary universe of habits, concerns, goals and activities and force us to deal with other realms, especially the senses, the body, and health issues.
For some of us, like myself, who are hard driving high achievers who juggle myriad projects and work intensively, even obsessively, on them, illness and forced bed rest can be a way of getting us to stop, rest, and reconsider our priorities.
Spiritually-oriented people tend to feel inner and/or social guilt, shame and embarrassment about getting sick and revealing to others energetic imbalances and weakness. After all, aren't spiritually "together" people always supposed to be happy, healthy and have "things under control"? Well--not really. Be wary of this type of "should" thinking and passing sweeping negative judgments on yourself or others for having "physical afflictions."
As sophisticated as we might appear on the surface, there is a more child-like, primitive side to our psyche that can be easily tempted to view our own or others' injuries, illness or misfortune as "divine punishment" for bad behavior, thoughts or feelings. Tread carefully in this thorny spiritual thicket. "Blaming the victim" is often more psychologically satisfying than dealing with a complex, multi-layered world that has shades of gray and not just black and white. Don't jump to conclusions too quickly.
Healing And Home
After visiting the doctor, eating breakfast at a restaurant and dropping off a prescription to be filled, I returned home, exhausted, fevered, and barely able to maintain verticality. I gulped down some Advil, settled onto the bed in our guest room (which serves as my sanctuary, chapel and meditation and prayer room) and slept.
Having no concept of privacy, and believing that we are all members of an inter-species "pack," two dogs and one cat clambered into the double bed with me. One of the dogs weighs over 110 pounds. It was a very cosy and comforting arrangement. I hadn't felt able to meditate as usual, so had not been spending significant time in "Cynthia's Sanctuary" the last few days. Of course, when I do meditate, pray, read or journal in the bed, that turns into an inter-species group activity as well.
After napping several hours in the official sanctuary area of my home with animal "guardians" in close attendance, I awoke feeling better than I had since the onset of my illness. I was surprised, delighted and grateful and, after eating lunch, started working feverishly (ahem) on the Mystical White Rose Newsletter.
Messages From The Depths
This latest experience of illness has been a cosmic "amber alert," for me, and the message I've received is that I need to take more aggressive, creative, self-protective action to improve my health, especially with regard to increasing the quality and quantity of my sleep.
For more than two years now my sleep has been seriously disrupted by my husband's job, which requires him to be on call 24/7. In fact, when he first started the job, I got sick, and later on, when the business grew and the phone calls through the night increased, I got sick again. And it doesn't help that I'm a night owl who likes to stay up very late working obsessively on Internet projects.
Even though it's been abundantly clear for a long time that chronic sleep disruption and sleep loss weaken my immune system and tend to make me sick, my response was to increase my intake of immune system-enhancing nutritional supplements and slip slide along hoping for the best.
Since the frequency and severity of my falling ill have been increasing rather than decreasing this past year and a half, nutritional supplements and slip sliding have not been working well.
The record high levels of pain, dysfunction and personal and professional disruption associated with this latest episode of illness have stimulated me to resolve to aggressively seek new and better ways to improve the quality of my sleep and health.
Pain can be a great teacher and motivator and, if we listen, has much to tell us about ourselves and our lives.
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It's All About The Rose - A CD by Karen Marie Garrett
A pianist and composer, Karen Marie Garrett is a "new age" musician who has been strongly influenced by classical music. Her highly acclaimed It's All About The Rose CD has a song, Tally's Lullaby, that has developed a strong following. The song's subject is the death of a beloved pet; a dog named Tally. Tally's story and the story of the song can be found here. Karen Marie Garrett's personal website: http://www.kgpiano.com/ You can download song samples from it to your MP3--if you have one or purchase the CD and learn more about Garrett's projects and other CDS at her website.
It’s About the Rose album was released January 1, 2007. The album debuted at No.1 on national radio charts and held the top position for three consecutive months which is a rarity in the current music market. The CD was instantly named among the Top Twelve Adult Contemporary Albums of the Year and the beautiful melody has inspired a varied number of special projects.
In the aftermatch of the Virginia Tech shootings tragedy, Garrett collaborated with Winter Robinson (author consultant, therapist, and intuitive), of Maine in a spoken word meditation using “Tally’s Lullaby” as the musical foundation for solace and healing. More recently, “Tally’s Lullaby” has been used as the musical platform for a non-commercial video produced in Nashville to raise funds for cancer research, in conjunction with the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer campaign.
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U.S. Religious Landscape In Flux
Here is an article about findings from a survey By Pew Forum On Religion And Public Life. Click on this link to learn about the survey results http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23337807 If you have had the impression that mainstream Protestant Christian denominations have been losing members and that nondenominational churches have been growing vigorously, you're right on track.
