Daily Signet

I
the sacrificer
the sacrifice
the sacrificial altar.

What is the sacrifice
which saves the universe
which builds my new body
and sends me to be with God forever?

What needs to be poured upon my stones?

Not clarified butter
warm red blood
or bowls of gold.

But rather the darkened, unworthy portions
Of myself
Willingly brought to light by with faithful fire within
White hot
And brighter still                                                                                                         

Donna Piper Leichtling

On This Day…

St. Vitus: one of the 14 Holy Helpers, and after whom the affliction St. Vitus Dance is named (D 300)

Suijin Matsuri: Shinto rite to honor the Kami of Water

Daily Signet

See that the Tree of Heaven has its roots in heaven and its blossoms on earth—transcendent in the immanent. See that the Tree of Earth has its roots in earth and buds in heaven – immanent in the transcendent. Blossoms and buds intertwined. Roll that over into a three-dimensional sphere of life and the roots of both trees, and the blossoms and buds are in the same place; heaven on earth and earth in heaven. Heaven in earth; the I Am in me. Earth in heaven; the earth of me in the I Am of me. Tat tvam asi. Thou art that.                                                               

Ben Leichtling

On This Day…

Harriet Beecher Stowe born 1811 in Litchfield, Connecticut, died 1896: writer and abolitionist
Works: Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Quotes: “The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.” “Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” “It’s a matter of taking the side of the weak against the strong, something the best people have always done.”

Daily Signet

The fullness of life is the fruit of creative response. And creative response is core to growing soul and growing soul is all we are asked to do in this life. It is what will serve us in the next life and what will extend our influence in this life even after we are gone. For what is of the soul is founded in the eternal and serves as nourishment to those becoming human. This nourishment of soul is found in the concept of the Golden chain—soulful predecessors who still inspire us with works of creation and lives true to their origo.  Our role as Anam Chara is to continue to bolster the collective resolve of Christuman to individually respond to the call to create. I appeal to you to help me root myself in my genius, my origo—what is unique in me—so that I may create. And I commit to you that I will help you root yourself in your genius, your origo—that what is unique in you is maintained with integrity and from it you may create.                                         

Benjamin Martin

On This Day…

Anthony of Padua with the Infant Jesus by Francisco de Zurbarán, 1627–1630

St. Anthony of Padua (1195-1231): Franciscan preacher

Dorothy Sayers born 1893 in Oxford, England, died 1957: crime writer, poet, essayist, translator and Christuman Humanist best remembered for her plucky detective, Lord Peter Whimsey
Works:  Gaudy Night, Whose Body?, The Nine Tailors
Quotes: “Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.” “The great advantage of telling the truth is that nobody ever believes it.”

Daily Signet

I have always seen the second of the Ten Commandments—“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image…”— translated in a way which led me to believe that God was ordering us not to sit down and with pocket knife and a bar of soap, whip out a little statue of Him (which would, after all, be quite difficult to do, having no model). However, the way Mircea Eliade translates it, “You shall not make yourself a carved image”…makes my mind want to add the word “of” between “Make” and “yourself." Ah! A more sensible idea! Not that we are forbidden to paint pictures of God, or to whack the corners off great chunks of marble, endeavoring to duplicate His appearance, but rather that WE should not sit about as wooden, unmoving, lifeless images of Him, but should be fully alive, animated, experiencing, growing.  For God lives through us. Our play is the learning of God. Our pitches into the mud and descents into the various underworlds we create teach us both, as do our triumphs, our joys.  

Donna Piper Leichtling

On This Day…

Djuna Barnes born 1892 in New York, died 1982: writer and artist and participant in the Paris renaissance of art in the early 20th century
Works: The Book of Repulsive Women, The Antiphon, Nightwood (her autobiography was titled Life Is Short and Nasty – In My Case It Has Merely Been Nasty)
Quotes: “A strong sense of identity gives a man an idea he can do no wrong; too little accomplishes the same thing.” “We are adhering to life now with our last muscle – the heart.” “Dreams have only the pigmentation of fact.”

Daily Signet

Mechthild of Magdeburg, a 13th c. Christian mystic, first gained authority over herself by submission to a search for rock bottom, where she was absolutely stripped of all consolation and expectations. It was not her worthiness, then, which drew God to Mechthild, but rather her emptiness; even God, according to Mechthild, must submit to the authority of love. Mechthild’s submission is active, drawing in her desires as if preparing a treasure, and thereby creating an irresistible vacuum for God’s love and grace to fill. There is no pride in this authority, nor is it without cost, for the inward tug that draws us in time to God must first draw us to the depths of abandonment. This abandonment does not come from the belief that one can become God, but rather as Mechthild described it, in the profound sense of Thou and I and the essential difference between the two when one has genuine self-knowledge. 

At one point in Mechthild’s life, the church authorities refused to read the offices before her or celebrate the mass. God assures her, though, that “I am in thee and thou in Me; we could not be closer, for we two are fused in one, poured into one mould, thus unwearied shall we remain forever.” Christuman calls each to be his own priest, to go beyond believing to beloving, to essay the freedom of choice against the authority of love.  Mechthild would tell us that “Amen” will move heaven and earth if backed with the authority of love and the power of submission. “Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened unto you.” In the name of the Christ within each, may it be so.  Amen.                                                        

Teri H. Martin

On This Day…

Sacred Heart of Jesus – Christian Catholic

St. Barnabas, Apostle