This was the essence of David Spangler's oft brilliant lecture at the Theosophical Library on June 6. He started with a blank page. "Empty space contains the power of the potential." A blank page, or a blank computer screen, may become a piece of writing, a work of art, a budget spreadsheet or a lecture prop. When we put something on that blank sheet, we automatically define it. A mark, a word or a picture is an idea captured from undifferentiated infinity and brought within the boundary of our consciousness. We create the idea by the boundary of defining it.
Spangler related this to creating sacred space. One space is no more sacred than another, until we mark it off and consecrate it. By making a boundary to separate this sanctuary from the world outside, we create a temple. Moslems use a prayer rug; Catholics use holy water; Wiccans use a circle. Whatever we use, we dedicate it to that sole purpose and no other. Therefore, every time we invoke the space, or use a sacred tool, it will have one familiar meaning and will help us evoke spirit more easily. We can create sacred space by lighting a candle, by saying grace at meals or by any action that intentionally changes the ordinary into a ritual.
"Ritual is engaged mindfulness," says Spangler. A cup of tea between friends in America is a far different thing than the intentional purposefulness of a British high tea ritual. The difference is the intention that gives symbolic meaning to the ordinary actions of brewing and serving tea. "Ritual is meaningful only if it is mindfully done," he says. "Nothing is too ordinary to be sacred. Intention makes it sacred."
We are what we think. What we do repeatedly with engaged mindfulness, for example our rituals, defines us. Rituals are different than habits. Hab-ts are performed mindlessly; rituals are performed mindfully. Spangler challenged us to test this theory by deliberately stopping one of our rituals, such as our morning coffee, and see how this changes our sense of self, our definition.
By defining who we are, we automatically create a boundary that separates us from whom or what we are not. "Creation of a boundary is one of the most significant creative acts we can perform," says Spangler. "It defines what's in and what's out." Differentiation requires boundaries. Identity requires boundaries.
A boundary not only separates; it also brings together. It is a place where differences meet. Some differences repel; other differences make new combinations possible. Hydrogen and oxygen are different, but they can combine to create water.
In my observation, people with clear boundaries are different, but they can combine into a couple. The corollary, of course, is that people without clear boundaries find it difficult to couple. Spangler elaborated on couples. "We bring different aspects of ourselves to different boundaries," he says. "While we may not include someone within our physical boundary, we may include them within our emotional boundary of love, our intellectual boundary of understanding or learning or within our spiritual boundary of energy." We include different people within different boundaries. Thus, in my observation, we have different goddesses and gods to represent the different aspects of ourselves that we present at different times to different people.
Boundaries, sacred space, ritual, identity. Spangler brings these all together in one word: "mindfulness." Mindfulness focuses the mind to be authentically present, to pay attention and to put intention into our thoughts and actions. Mindfulness allows us to see things as they really are. It allows us to see the sacred in each moment; the potential in each day, the possibilities in each blank page.
This intentional mindfulness is magick. "Magick," he says, "is an intentional connection with the forces of life. Magick is an elaboration of what we do in ordinary life." Magick helps us see the universal potential in all things. Boundaries create sacred space in which we perform rituals to help us work the magick to connect us to the universe. "Consider the Catholic Mass," he says. "It is an elaborate meal in sacred space with a series of rituals to bring our mindfulness to a climax in the transubstantiation -- the changing of the bread and wine into Christ's body and blood." This is magick.
Spangler's point is that the more we live intentionally mindful of the potential of each moment, of each person, of each thing in our lives, the more connected we will be with the universe. Every encounter will be a sacred opportunity. Every moment will be an intentional choice. We can live magickally.
Will we then live in some perpetual ritual, floating in a universal oneness? "No," says Spangler, "because we have boundaries." Because we have identities, we recognize what we are and what we are not. Sometimes we know our boundaries, and sometimes we have to be open to others, so we can see our boundaries (our limitations) through their eyes.
Boundaries exclude. More important, however, is that boundaries include. A boundary says much more about what is inside it than what is outside it. Boundaries are how we define ourselves. The boundaries we set and the tools we choose are how we "set up shop" for our work in the world.
[Home Page | Other Articles in This Issue | FAQ | Local Resources]