Walking the Labyrinth 21st Nov.03

Home Introduction Current issues The bride Manifesto The heart of community Let the people speak Links Latest updates Poetry and photo library The common-unity of one

The following text is a copy of an an email sent to Fiona Fidgin, the event co-ordinator and / or facilitator,and full member of The Iona Community. A copy was sent to Jenny and Niall Martin, Associate members, who organised the event for a group of Iona Community Associate Members in Edinburgh. The event took place in a church.

 

Fiona,                                                                                                                                   Sent around 3rd. November 03.

Mythology is No Myth!
(Walking the Labyrinth)


I assume you received my email advising that I had been in touch with Jenny and Niall Martin regarding your Walking
the Labyrinth event scheduled for a group of Edinburgh Associates on 21st November; and for the public on Hogmanay

(added detail in the context of this web page) If my assumption is correct thank you for arranging for my receipt of a copy of your article from the February 03 Coracle describing the event.

I accept that your involvement with this exercise is in good faith. As an Associate Member of the Community however I
express strong disapproval of this rite of passage as you describe it. It is no concern of mine whether you accept this
Witness or not. Should you do so it is your duty and responsibility to warn others. Should you be at odds with the
Witness, so be it. Amen.

Firstly reference is made to individual words and phrases in your article, not as they appear to the eye, but to the Heart.

                                                                                     ----------------------------------

At the end of the first paragraph your first mention of the purpose of the exercise is “so we can make more of the
cerebral side of things”


2nd.para, third line. “ritual”. On the assumption that the purpose is of the Spirit we ask ourselves if the Holy Spirit
acts through ritual? For example do you perceive the Sacrament of Communion as ritual or symbol?


2nd. last line of colunm 1. The words Spiritual and Blessing are spelled with small first letters. Holy Spirit as Unity is
indivisable, therefore there cannot be spirit and Spirit when referring to The Holy Spirit of God. As it is The Holy Spirit
as a member of the Trinity Who Blesses, the word Blessing also requires a capital.


Column 2, line 6. “no tricks”. The subtlety of Mythology should never be ignored or under-estimated. Arch deceit is
such that the deceived individual or group is unaware of the deception either at the time or subsequently. Faust’s
Mephistopheles is far more subtle than Milton’s Satan!. A labyrinth is a labyrinth especially when you think
(cerebral) it isn’t .


Column 3, line 6. “spiritual tool”. You use these words twice to refer to the event -- are the words themselves a tool
in someone else’s hands? Stephen Ross, a fellow practictioner (?) uses the phrase “a great tool”. God being perfect in His or Her Self has no need of tools which by definition are external to the self. To use this description of the event is to confirm the
mindset that the intellect and ego are in charge as the prime mover and articulation of the outcome of the event.

Only the human uses a tool. Thus irrespective of the intention in good faith the outcome can only be temporal as the
Christ is being (mis)used as a tool !
Mephistophles is thus enabled to effect a benign, even comforting presence as
the spirit of the labyrinth. This is precisely the “orientation to spirit” published by Kathy in her leaders interview
shortly after her appointment. Kathy has it that spirit (small letter) “orientates in the direction of our main hopes and
concerns”. Thus in Saul’s wake on the road to Damascus! Please see also Current Issue No1 on the Wind of Change

website at:-   www.wind-of-change.co.uk.


Column 3 para 2, third last line. “thinking mind / intuitive mind”. Still in a mindset -- and therefore of the temporal.
What or is it Who is the intuitive “mind”? “To enter the labyrinth is to choose to walk a spiritual path” -- agreed,
but which spirit?


Like Kathy our leader, Steve Ross refers to “ideas, wishes, dreams for the year ahead”, and confirms them as being his ideas
etc. He refers to his work in mental health and the need for a physical manifesation of the journey, thus once again
focusing on the temporal however well meant.


Page 2, end of second paragraph. “Enabled her to own her choices -- and therefore to reflect upon her
opportunities”. Where is The Holy Spirit in all this, where is the name of The Christ on anyone’s lips?


Middle of last paragraph. You spell the word Divine with a small “d”. This word describes the very nature of God!
Yet we spell our own names with a capital. This error confirms the perceived superiority of the tool user over the
perceived tool. Again perhaps, irrespective of all awareness or intent. Amen.

In summary what you propose is a psychological tool and nothing else. Yes, it may well be beneficial but that is part of
the deception of the thrall.
There is also an element of group therapy and / or “group think” whereby the intellect
mimmicks the perceived blessing (small b) of another individual, or wonders what is wrong with me that I am not so
blessed? This after the event. This is part of the prison of the temporal labyrinth of the mind(set). All Mythology has two
levels that of the mind and that of the immortal Soul. The labyrinth of the latter has to be entered alone or so it appears
to the intellect. The entry point to this Blessing; its nature; and Blessing upon exiting are fully revealed to the Soul in
Psalm 46.10. Only the mind seeks an exit.


The Soul experiences Reality in the knowledge that there is no exit, nor does “it” need one. Thus in the gift of Grace of
The Christ alone it has no desire to leave The Christ -- only to serve in the Inner Temple for ever.

The extent to which you explain or describe the Myth and / or the individual characters is not mentioned in your article.
An interpretation is as follows.

The Minotaur is the human condition and thus a symbol of all who enter the gate of the Soul -- which has
NOTHING to do with time, Hogmanay or othewise. This is the attempt to imprison the immortal Soul in time
and thus space, that is the material. To allude to time is part of the deception. Thus the slaying of the Minotaur
is a symbol of the return of the Prodigal through the gate of death of the ego. This cannot be by individual will,
nor does it happen in a day. Psalm 46.10 can be of a thousand earthly years -- but a moment!

The Minotaur symbolises the fallen human being or ego (defined as all thought outwith the “mind” of God) which was
created by an act of disobedience to Gods’s Law be it either or both of “thou shalt not eat of the tree at the
centre of the garden”, or “thou shalt not commit adultry”. In this Myth the adultry is that of Queen Pasiphae
symbolising Eve with a powerful animal which considers itself to be a perfect specimen of a bull symbolising
the ego. The hero, Theseus, is the fallen Adam who chooses the gate of voluntary sacrificial death (The Cross)
for the good of humanity. The Queen’s daughter Aridne who falls in love with Theseus is Love as Spirit Who
alone can guide humanity not back to earthly life as we know it in the intellect but to the death of the ego upon
the Cross which is the only exit from the Labyrinth not back into time, but to / as Eternity. Amen.

You may care to discuss this epistle with your colleagues and / or the clergy of St. Marys Lutton Place.(one of the venues).

This month your event interacts* with the Souls of the Iona Associates and others in Edinburgh, and with 400+ members of the public
believers or otherwise on Hogmanay. The walk back is a very long way -- and the darkness is all around.

May God Bless you and keep you, and the Souls before whom you present your-self. Amen.

   Ian McLean

                                                                                                                                                                 
*It does not address Souls openly, again this is part of the deception.

cc. Jenny and Niall Martin.                                                                                                          Back to Current Issue 8 Homepage.                       

                                                


Home | Intro | Issues | Bride | Manifesto | Community | People speak | Links | Updates | Poetry & photos | Common-unity