Divining the Body: Reclaim the Holiness of Your Physical Self - Softcover

Jan Phillips

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1594730806 ISBN 13: 9781594730801

Publisher: SkyLight Paths, 2005

Synopsis

Honor Your Body as the Instrument of Your Soul

This book is an attempt to undo the damage we've sustained living in a culture that thrives on our self-hatred. It is a sanctification of our human bodies, a consecration of ourselves as hosts to the Great Beloved. It is a journey of awe and reverence through the sacred terrain of foot and hand, back and breast, heart and brain. The path to peace is the pathway through ourselves, starting with the inward step, the brave, gentle step toward the Divine within.
―from the Introduction

Our view of the human body is always evolving. From the goddess-worship of civilizations millennia ago, to the strict social rules of Victorian England, to the modern feminist movement, the human body―particularly the feminine body―has always been a point of interest, mystery and contention.

Discover an entirely new way to look at your body―as a pathway to the Divine. Award-winner Jan Phillips takes you on an energizing journey through your physical self, drawing connections between the bone, muscle and sinew of your body and the spiritual teachings of various faith traditions, modern scientific research and her own experiences. You will find yourself empowered to work to transform the world around you and overcome self-defeating thoughts through positive, practical exercises and meditations that show you how to climb back into your body and honor it as the temple of God that it is.

About this title

About the Author

Jan Phillips is an award-winning photographer, writer, multimedia artist and national workshop leader. She is cofounder of Syracuse Cultural Workers, publishers of artwork that inspires justice, diversity and global consciousness. She is the author of many books, including Marry Your Muse: Making a Lasting Commitment to Your Creativity (winner of the 1998 Ben Franklin Award) and God Is at Eye Level: Photography as a Healing Art. She lectures throughout the country, giving presentations that inspire creativity, community building and commitment in personal, social and corporate environments.

Jan Phillips is available to speak on the following topics:

• Evolutionary Creativity
• Spiritual Practice as a Creative Act
• Photography as a Healing Art
• Healing the Mind/Body
• The Word, the Image, the Story: Tools for Transformation

From the Inside Flap

To find God, you only have to look inward.

What impact can your hands have on the world around you? How can you feel the energy of the earth in your back? What would God see if God saw through your eyes?

This joyful and liberating exploration of the human body allows you whatever your religious background to delve into the mystery and spirituality of your physical self. Award-winning author Jan Phillips examines the ways we view our bodies and helps you to unmask and embrace the holiness of your physical self, allowing you to walk confidently, speak with authority, and connect with the Divine in new and surprising ways.

Divining the Body takes a practical approach to the work of debunking years of societal and religious myths about the human body, leading you step by step through the major centers of the body and offering meditations, writing exercises, and suggestions for group activities along the way. At the end of this spiritual pilgrimage you will find yourself more in tune with your body and the people around you, for when we embrace the Divine within ourselves, it becomes natural to find and love the Divine in others.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

Many of us are told as children that our bodies are temples of God, houses of the Holy Spirit, and that within our very beings exists a spark of the Divine itself. Following this joyful pronouncement, we also learn that our bodies are dirty, shameful, not to be touched, enjoyed, played with. We re taught to deny ourselves pleasure, to fight temptation, to hold back, to go without, to resist carnal connection.

The Imitation of Christ, attributed to Thomas à Kempis, was first published in Latin over five hundred years ago and remains in print today. It has been translated into dozens of languages and has a reputation as being second only to the Bible as a guide and inspiration to Christian believers. In a modern translation, we read: "Sometimes you must use violence and resist your sensual appetite bravely. You must pay no attention to what the flesh does or does not desire, taking pains that it be subjected, even by force, to the spirit. And it should be chastised and forced to remain in subjection until it is prepared for anything and is taught to be satisfied with little. You must know that self-love is more harmful to you than anything else in the world. You should give all for all and in no way belong to yourself."

It was this contradiction, this kind of training, that kept me confused and disembodied for the better part of my life. I grew up reading The Imitation of Christ every night before bed, from age eleven through thirteen. I was trying to be as good a Christian as I could be, and I thought if I read that book, I d end up being more Christlike. But its message only helped me sever my soul from my body, kept me from tuning in to its urgent, loving messages, fortified a fear that all light was outside me and all darkness within.

The great tragedy of Western religion is that it elevates disembodied love over embodied love, leading us to believe that it is better to be out of our bodies than in them. Even in the dictionary, the definition for carnal, which simply means "of the flesh," is charged with the added connotation: "usually stresses the absence of intellectual or moral influence."

It s not specifically a Roman Catholic upbringing such as mine that will create this division from the body, for this mentality has pervaded our cultures and religious traditions for thousands of years. Cultural anthropologists tell us that there was a time when humankind honored its oneness with the natural world and lived in peaceful, full-bodied harmony with nature. But as broader social organization developed, as religion became codified in language and in hierarchy, and as the intellectual became dominant over the physical, we began to separate our souls from our bodies. We forgot we were sparks from the same flame, waves of the same sea, that as much as the Divine is around us, the Divine is within us, experiencing itself through every sense in our bodies. The journey of our lives is a journey of remembering and reconnecting. It is a journey of joy and discovery, a chance to feel and reveal the radiance within. The spiritual path leads inward, for the beloved dwells there in every cell, like the oak in the acorn, the jewel in the mine. The great secret within us is waiting to be told through the living of our lives, waiting to be shared through the pleasures of our senses.

We need to climb back into our bodies and honor them as instruments of our souls. They are the means through which the Divine takes shape in this world, crucibles in which the raging blaze of spirit is transformed into luminous thought, radiant creations, enlightened action. We are the word made flesh, and through our bodies, we are continuing the creation of the universe, physically and metaphysically. It is not happening to us, but through us and the meaning we re seeking, the deep joy and passion we re after, the enlightenment we long for, all this arrives as we begin to re-pair what cultures and creeds have torn asunder.

In the process of divining our bodies, we embody the Divine as the mystics did. We feel the beloved in every cell, sense the sacred one in every heartbeat, every touch, every image our eyes encounter, every sound our ears behold. Transcending duality, we shift from a sense of "self" and "other" to a sense of self in other. When we embrace the Divine within ourselves, it becomes natural to find and love the Divine in others. It is our nature to do this. If we love ourselves tenderly, that feeling of compassion and kindness will seep out of us and transform every relationship in our lives.

This book is an attempt to undo the damage we ve sustained living in a culture that thrives on our self-hatred. It is a sanctification of our human bodies, a consecration of ourselves as hosts to the Great Beloved. It is a journey of awe and reverence through the sacred terrain of foot and hand, back and breast, heart and brain. The path to peace is the pathway through ourselves, starting with the inward step, the brave, gentle step toward the Divine within. Godspeed to us all.

Edition details

• Publisher: SkyLight Paths
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1594730806
• ISBN 13: 9781594730801
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256