If I'm honest, (and when am I not!)...the best part of this book I am reading
is the part about the Imaginal.
Bourgeault proposes that as oppose to imaginary,
the Imaginal is actually a place.
When MM saw the risen Jesus on Easter Sunday and was directed to go and spread the good news, (the apostle to the apostles), Bourgeault suggests this was not a vision, but a real meeting on another plane.
It's why I have always loved the author
John O'Donohue (thank you V.). He explains Ireland and Irish lore as inclusive of
an underworld as a real place.
Right after our Mum died, I only dreamed of her once, she and I sat on a flight of stairs and she looked me right in the face and said "I can't find Daddy".
This neither distressed nor surprised me (she and my father had a volatile relationship and I wouldn't put it passed Dad to hide from her). I've never thought this was a dream or an illusion, but always felt this was part of Mum's exit from this life.
I'm not sure after reading Willow's post on her haunted manor
I wouldn't be highly motivated to move, but I am very strongly attracted to the notion of
alternate planes.
I truly believe that it was the real Jesus...the risen Jesus whom Mary saw that day...the Bible says that he was seen over 500 times by others also, as a real human. It's interesting to think of how this could have possibly occured, scientifically and spiritually...but also, God's miraculous hand can pretty much do whatever He wishes, no explanation necessary, just faith. Fascinating subject!
ReplyDeleteWHen My boss died a couple of years ago, I stuggled to come to terms with how a youngish man who had such special skills (he was an oncologist performing life saving limb salvage surgeries on adults and kids with bone cancers)and devoted so much of his life to helping others could be taken so cruelly.
ReplyDeleteOne of his students, a Muslim man, said to me. "He was urgently needed on a different plane". Just those words was comforting to me. I saw him once after, like you with your mother, in a dream (more like an appearance). He was holding a big beautiful cheese and his eyes were glowing and clear and he looked rested and happy. I took that as a sign that he was content with his passing.
I guess we can't even fully explain consciousness, so explaining altered states of consciousness, or evern surmising whether they are in some way other planes, is beyond us.
ReplyDeletespecial
ReplyDeleteJ - I think what MM experienced was real too. If she had been the only person to claim that she saw the resurrected Jesus, she would have been viewed with a bit of a sideways glance as someone a bit unbalanced. But Jesus appeared 500 times to many other people, were they all some kind of delusionaries? The interesting thing is that there is no record of him ever appearing to any of the Pharisees or Julius Caesar. The book sounds really interesting.
ReplyDeleteJessica/Molly...I don't think Bourgeault denies the appearance to MM was real, she just believes it look place on another plane (because of the depth and higher-level relationship MM had with Jesus)...and that that place is as real as anything else.
ReplyDeleteIt is an interesting book Molly...the language can be difficult at times (at least for me). The author is an Episcopalian minister and is very comfortable in this field, so I get a little lost in the terminology sometimes.
Mise...you live in the land of the wee people, so this has to be no leap in logic for you.
Ian...nice of you to stop.