PSI Annual Journal 1999

The mystical experience is not something we hear a lot about in gatherings of liberal religious people. This is in part so because a true mystical experience is intensely personal and because of it’s intensity, almost impossible to describe to another human being in words - because there are no exact or precise words for the unknowable essence which many refer to as God or as the Deity. Therefore, in an attempt to describe the Deity or a direct experience of or with that Deity, we humans often turn to the use of metaphor to convey the message.

To begin to understand the mystical, we have to start by looking under the headings of religion and theology. Theology, is broadly defined as the study of the knowledge which exists pertaining to God or the Divine in our lives. Now because by definition of the Holy, the sacred Other, the idea God is supposed to be unknowable. How can we define something in precise terms when, (1) we are expected not to be able to know it, and (2), the very body of inquiry itself is grounded in the experience of the mystical or spiritual, and in the most elusive language of all, the language of faith. And yet, many of us yearn for clear definition of that knowledge – that connection – that experience, and without it, or, feeling removed from it…we feel rootless – at odds with self, and worst…. utterly lost or abandoned.

Not all of us will have or even want to have a true mystical experience. I do not believe it is a necessary component of spiritual wholeness. I do think most of us want to understand and feel a connection with what gives our life meaning and I believe that one of the ways of getting to that meaning, to that point of understanding, can be through the language of metaphor. It is a more circuitous route than learning and reciting a catechism, but it is one that is filled with the most interesting and magical side-trips and meanderings that anyone could ever imagine. In fact one group of religious scholars have gone so far as to identify a whole new way to study the subject, and have called it Metaphorical Theology – the practice of learning about the divine by using the language of metaphor.

A number of Unitarian Universalist Ministers in the US and Canada belong to something which is called, ”Minister’s study groups.” I used to belong to one called the “Berkshire Group” - we met in the Berkshires in the Western Massachusetts. There is also the “Greenfield Group”, “ Ohio Group’, the ‘Cedar hill Group” and a number of others. They are often named for the place they meet, or the name of the district. The purpose of the groups is academic and theological. Each year, when the group meets, a religious or theological subject is chosen, and members prepare papers and responses based on assigned readings. It is not unlike what you might experience in an advanced seminar in graduate or theological school. It is part of our spiritual and professional development and a way to connect with esteemed colleagues. Last year, the subject chosen for the Berkshire Group was “Metaphorical Theology”, and I’ll have to admit that I was terrorized by such an abstract concept. Theology is tough enough without moving it into the metaphorical realm. …But I’m a good soldier, and I slogged my way through the readings only to find out that it wasn’t anywhere as dense as I thought it was going to be, and in fact, as a religious poet and artist, I had been actually doing it for some time. A simple definition of metaphorical theology, is when we use one word or image in place of another in such a way as to clarify, concretize or illuminate that word or concept. The visual metaphor of God’s presence in the burning bush in the book of Exodus is a perfect example. By definition in the Jewish tradition, Yahweh is terrible, dangerous, unknowable and very unpredictable. A burning bush is all of those things. The image brings to mind a powerful magical deity without actually calling it by name. To carry it further, if we think about all the things that the burning bush is or might symbolize, we have a better understanding of the power and mystery of the Jewish deity. It is a concrete image that, in Jewish tradition, gives an accurate picture and therefore, an understanding of the very abstract concept of an unknowable, un-namable God.

When I was in high school, one of the many things I struggled with was really understanding the difference between similes and metaphors. I finally created a clue for myself by connecting “like or as” to the word simile itself creating the word “likeasimile” and thereby could remember that if either of those two words were present, than I was in the presence of a simile, but if those two little qualifiers were absent, then I probably had a metaphor on my hands--metaphorically speaking of course

Let me give you an example of a simile. The children yipped and screeched and tumbled over one another like puppies let out of a pen. The image is unmistakable; we instantly see a pile of happy frolicking children. Nothing in the simile tells us the children are happy, but the inference is clear. Sad puppies don’t yip and tumble, they brood or whimper. Another example might be, “He stood like a rock, seemingly immovable against all that was buffeting him, but the fissures, the cracks were there, and in time they would split him apart. It is a distinctly uncomfortable image, but it is an undeniable simile. I think there have been times in most of our lives when we could relate to that image.
A metaphor, is a little more abstract, in that the “like” or “as” clue is not there, and the reader or the viewer has to do the work of making the connection or the comparison, and figuring out the reference. It is not always readily apparent, and often a metaphor is deliberately or poetically ambiguous.

Let me give you an example of a metaphor. “The anchor of the family had finally rusted and come loose from her mooring, and now the relentless tide of events would pull her further and further away from anything even remotely resembling solid ground.” Again, not a happy image, but the one that came to me as I was writing this. The implication of a strong, possibly aging woman, emotionally uprooted and cast adrift, is clear, but there is a deliberate opening for individual interpretation. There is much more mystery to the image. Or how about this one, “She was in full bloom, always turning towards the light, and teasing all who came near with a mysterious and tantalizing fragrance.” It is a happier image, but again, one that leaves a lot more to the imagination than if I had said, “She was like a full blown rose, always turning towards the light", etc. etc.

When I was in High School, I didn’t give either similes or metaphors a whole lot of thought beyond passing the test in English class, and being able to define them on my college entrance exams. It wasn’t until I had declared myself an artist, and was recognized as such that I began to pay more attention to the visual and literary metaphors that I was using on a daily basis in the pursuit of my craft. Metaphors, in particular, even more than similes were a way for me to use a concrete image of one thing to convey a message or to teach a lesson about something else. Almost thirty years ago, when my first marriage was coming apart, I found myself painting a picture which depicted images of tangled, twisted and dying trees in a fiery hellish swamp. I didn’t realize when I was doing it that it was a visual metaphor for the dismal mess I believed I had made of my life. Interestingly it wasn’t until a painting buddy of mine looked at it and said…”is it really that bad Judy?” In that moment, I realized it was, and began a conscious effort to begin to get out of that swamp. …It took a while though, but I made it. In this case, the use of the visual metaphor of the trees and the swamp were unconscious on my part, but the message was clear, and through the help of an honest friend who saw my desperation and named it, I began the journey back up into the light.

As a working poet and visual artist, I know that metaphor and simile are two of the basic working tools of my trade. More recently I have come to understand that they are also the teaching and dialogic tools of the philosopher and not surprisingly, of the theologian and the spiritual healer as a path to healing and spiritual wholeness.

Because religious faith is such an intangible thing, we clergy and religious educators, often use the tools of metaphor and simile to make the illusive concepts of faith, God, the Holy Spirit, the Power of Love, the transcending mystery and wonder, the Spirit of Life, the Holy other, the Dark night of the soul, Nirvana, more accessible to those we would lead and teach, and more importantly, to ourselves.

If we look at the Bible, the Hebrew Bible, and the later New Testament, we can see it as almost one continuous metaphor on the scope and nature of the deity. The parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin are stories that tell us that one lost and retrieved soul is somehow more precious in the eyes of God than playing it safe and staying with the flock and behaving yourself all the time.

Metaphor is a way of approaching something, which challenges precise definition in order to make it more concrete and to be able to understand it more fully. I make extensive use of metaphor - personal metaphor- when I lead spiritual retreats. Anyone who has attended one of my retreats knows that I ask people to make a name tag with not only their name, but with a personal metaphor, or simple drawing of some symbol or object that has meaning for them at this time in their lives. I get sun symbols, trees, mountains, spirals, shells, stars and butterflies to mention only a few. My personal metaphor is and has been for a long time a patchwork quilt. The exercise is great for getting to know about one another on a level that goes beyond where you live and how many kids you have or don’t have. Right from the beginning, we are sharing with one another some thing or event that has a particular meaning for us. The little visual symbol seems to make whatever that thing or event is, more accessible to both the individual speaking and to the group as a whole.

When using metaphor with the intent of spiritual healing, I work a little differently. Because people don’t often speak directly - don’t or can’t – speak directly about something that is bothering them – something that is making them feel alienated or unconnected, I often work metaphorically – that is talk about something else – seemingly unrelated and see where the feelings surface. For example, rather than asking a person to draw a symbol and talk or write about it, I might show an object to a person or to a group and ask what thoughts this thing – whatever it is, conjures up for them. Most recently I used an actual patchwork quilt. The conversations that grew out of the experience of touching the quilt, turning it over, looking at the stitches – all done by hand, some even smelling it…. were deeply moving. People shared their personal quilt memories of grandmothers sitting in the slanting sun of late afternoon, sewing and dozing in the comfort of the memories – of stifling summer nights in the Deep South and sleeping on a pallet of quilts piled up on the front porch. Stories of quilts made for the birth of a child – and taken away to college or to the grave – stories that were the fabric of these people’s lives. As people talked about the stories in the quilt – they were telling their own stories without fear of reprisal. It was after all a story about a quilt. Only later, when I would ask that the stories and the memories be written down– committed to paper did the real understandings begin to emerge.

The mystics of the church have always used the language of metaphor to try to communicate what for them is a direct experience with the divine. The image of shimmering light is often used – the burning bush again? – A star in the east? – The exotic and erotic words in the Song of Solomon and the terrifying images of eternal hellfire in the book of Revelations. Native Americans symbolically return to the hot dark belly of the earth in sweat lodge cleansing and purification ceremonies to be born again into the light of understanding when the ritual is complete.

There is a Native American Ojibiway prayer, which speaks to this idea of spiritual disharmony or brokenness:

Grandfather,
Look at our brokenness

We know that in all creation
Only the human family
Has strayed from the sacred way.

We know we are the ones
Who are divided
And we are the ones
Who must come back together
To walk the Sacred Way.

Grandfather
Sacred One
Teach us love, compassion and honor
That we may heal the earth
And heal each other.

There is much to be learned from this prayer. For it is the belief of many that spiritual alienation from the divine whole or the divine order of things is the source of the disharmony with nature, which in turn, is the cause of much if not most physical illness…and all spiritual illness – the sickness of the soul. But if this is the case, and we know we are troubled, how do we get better? How can we walk the sacred way again? How can we heal ourselves and others? Knowing we are in distress is the first step, and it’s the easiest one. Understanding the source of the problem is not so easy. Using the language of metaphor – physical or spiritual metaphor is one way to locate the inner voice. Writing a story about some seemingly neutral object will often, very quickly begin to bring up feelings – or offer insights into another again “seemingly” unrelated situation or issue. Or is it so unrelated after all? To continue the exercise, we must revisit the story we have written down and look inside the metaphors and behind the little abstract references and see what they are telling us.

Metaphor, the use of one word or idea in place of another to illuminate or explain an idea, also puts us at a safe distance from a problem or issue while at the same time offering us greater understanding. We are the ones left to decide whether or not to accept the message we are offered. So it is with the mystical experience –if it does indeed happen, we must ask ourselves, what is the message, and, once we understand it, will we choose to accept it. I can’t answer that one for myself much less anyone else. This is the paradox of Liberal Religion. We would love to know for sure…and as much as we would, we are just as sure, there is some new truth as yet to be revealed which we must be ready for and the next one after that. The most clarity we can really hope for is the clarity and the blessing of the moment. That wonderful feeling of connectedness to all there is, and you don’t know what IT is, or much care, you just know that whatever IT is, you are connected to IT, and IT and YOU are one and truly blessed.

That, by the way is the closest I can come to describing my own transcendent moments. I don’t need any more than that and I’ve stopped asking why.
“Grandfather…Sacred One…Teach us to walk in the Sacred Way”.

PSI Symposium Annual Journal 1999