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The Mythic and Magic Structures: Exploring Jean Gebser, Lesson 6

The Mythic and Magic Structures: Exploring Jean Gebser, Lesson 6

I know that a number of you, in growing awareness of the of the blind spots and shadow elements in the mental structure of consciousness, have been casting a fond glance toward indigenous cultures, which seem to offer counterbalancing strengths in precisely the areas where the mental structure is weakest: a deeper connection to the natural world, a more organic sense of belonging, and a greater awareness of the evocative power of ritual and the numinous.

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The View from the Periscope: Exploring Jean Gebser, Lesson 3

The View from the Periscope: Exploring Jean Gebser, Lesson 3

Gebser’s brilliant unpacking of the structures of consciousness in terms of PERSPECTIVE (as it is understood in the art world rather than in philosophy) gives us a powerful new visual tool with which to begin to see where we’re pinned. In art, perspective is a technique for creating the illusion of depth and space on a two-dimensional plane. It works by establishing an arbitrary “vanishing point” on the horizon, then arranging all the elements on the canvas on a hypothetical line leading back to it.

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An Invitation to Begin the Healing Work: Exploring Jean Gebser, Introduction

An Invitation to Begin the Healing Work: Exploring Jean Gebser, Introduction

Well, the oasis of grace miraculously opened, and now it’s time to roll up our collective sleeves and get on with the healing work! I know that my own first assignment has something to do with helping to expose—and hopefully defuse—some of the reactivity and sanctimoniousness that boils just below the surface in my immediate peer group, the spiritual liberal intelligentsia.

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I Am Not a Space that God Does Not Occupy: Part VIII  - The Eye of the Heart
Finding God Cynthia Bourgeault Finding God Cynthia Bourgeault

I Am Not a Space that God Does Not Occupy: Part VIII - The Eye of the Heart

During the ten years or more it took for this other way of understanding to be gradually assimilated in me, I slowly awoke to the real “aha!” of the situation. The thing is, pantheism, panentheism, monotheism—all those other grand “isms’ of the Western philosophical mind—are purely functions of the operating system, the rational mind running its perception-through-differentiation program.

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