The Stigma of Mysticism & Returning to the Source

Okay, I am the first to admit, this blog sounds a bit on the mystical side. I originally entitled it "Returning to the Source". What is the Source? Think of images of a fresh well or watering hole, the primordial soup from which life first sprang, or a tranquil place of respite. The Source describes a phenomenological encounter between the introspective, inner eye and the energy of imagination beyond time and space. When attentively listened to and apprehended, this energy takes form and is intuitively embodied within categories of the mind (Lakoff) such as impressions, visions, feelings, symbols, and concepts of self. Some may recognize it as a voice. The Source is unique for each person, and is hazily perceived in awareness. It requires a deep receptivity to the forms and sensations experienced within the whole being. It connects darkness to the light, births emptiness into life, allows mystery to become known, and opens flow of creative energy onto the conscious awareness of our being. Artists through out time have painted from this inspired, fiery, and often crisis-laden reservoir of human experience, spirit, and emotion; Hildegaard, William Blake, Van Gogh, Kandinsky, Rothko, Joan Snyder. The Source is a term that unifies the psychological, spiritual, existential, theological, and phenomenological perceptions of humanity. It embraces our deepest sense of being, bridges our humanity to our divinity, and opens the flow of emotional and psychosomatic healing. Yogis have called it Life Force, Heidegger has called it our primordial Being; Freud has called it the unconscious; Jung, the Collective unconscious; Tillich, the Courage to Be; Thomas Moore expresses it as Soul.
Returning to the Source is a path that requires a childlike faith; the ability to let go and play, explore, and become open to what possibilities exist in the present moment. It relinquishes human control and ego, and allows what is to be.
In a world where overstimulation, social fragmentation, and psychological rootlessness dries up the nourishing waters of awe, wonder, and excitement of life, a return to creativity through a committed, meditative, and personally expressive process restores the sense of rootedness, nuturance, and balance. As a spiritual practice, human devotion merges with presence giving birth to new capacities for living. It allows for our potentials to emerge.