The Sacred Principle Project

There is a story we tell every year: in the deep midwinter, a virgin mother gives birth to a son-god-king in a stable, marked by a bright star. In this Christian myth, the child who is born is the son of god, god incarnate, who came to the world to save the people from sin, a savior. The story has such influence on our current society that his supposed birthday literally marks the before and after on the calendar of the history of the world. Even those who do not believe in the doctrine of this story are still familiar with the themes. And for those who believe or not, there are elements of the story that are perhaps unconvincing, that do not quite seem to fit, that feel like they need a leap of faith to believe. So, where did this story come from? Why do we collectively need to retell it every year? And why was it set now, at the time of winter solstice in the northern hemisphere? Let's go back 20,000 years... In the Paleolithic era, from the Pyrenees to Siberia, our cave-dwelling...

We climb up the gravel mountain road. I had always thought of caves as low and deep in the earth, but this one sticks out on the side of the mountain, and we have to walk up a good piece to reach it. From a vantage point, we can see clear to the Mediterranean Sea. Our guide reminds us that 20,000 years ago, when the first humans found and made use of this cave, the shoreline was some 20 kilometers further back, and that there was only low shrubbery, not tall trees. So there was a clear view of the valley -- and the traveling herds of animals they ate.  Photo credit: Carol Buck. 17 December 2022 In this cave, Cova Parpalló, over 5,000 painted and etched rocks have been found. Animals were drawn on flat rock pieces separated from the cave walls, like tiles, and found in different parts of the cave. Carvings directly in the cave walls remain to this day. Our guide tells us that inside the cave, they also found animal bones: rabbit bones were the most common, but also boars, deer and a...

The ultrasound said the sex of the baby was female. We picked out a name and for over a month, got used to the idea that we would have a baby girl.  At the next ultrasound, the doctor asked if we knew the sex of the baby. What a strange question, I thought, when I had handed him the paperwork from the last appointment. That is when we found out the first ultrasound was wrong, and our baby had the undeniable anatomy of a male.  I was in shock. It felt like such a huge change. And the fact that I felt it so deeply also came as a shock, because I had convinced myself that it did not matter, that we would be gender neutral, that society places so many associations and expectations on sex and gender stereotypes, and I would resist that.  Lucky thing, we had decided to keep the sex secret during the pregnancy, so we were the only ones who knew of this change of plans. I did this, especially, to avoid the pink-and-blue dichotomy of newborn clothes and gifts. We refused to tell p...

Ever since I heard the news, the phrase that keeps playing on repeat in my head is: ...a struggle for the soul of America... The news being, the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade in the United States. (Good coverage on that here at Democracy Now! ) But also being, the two debates that divide the country along moral lines: gun control and abortion. Each side is adamant they are right, and neither side is open to negotiation. Each side feels only their position will save the soul of the nation. I first heard this phrase listening to Rick Tarnas of the California Institute of Integral Studies describe the state of the planets in 2022. The United States, he explained, will be undergoing a Pluto return this year, meaning the return of Pluto to where it was when the country was founded in 1776 as a political entity. Pluto, the planet of death, birth and transformation, upheaval, and raw, natural power, representing secrets, the underbelly, the shadow side. Tarnas described ...

   So now we know about the split. We see the impact of the death of the goddess in our relationships - to each other, to money, to land, to god, to work, to life. (See previous post, Split from the sacred ) Now we need to figure out, how do we fix this? What is the solution, to get out of these patterns of violence and patriarchy? According to Baring and Cashford in The Myth of the Goddess (1991), this current Judeo-Christian myth of a single male god is a tribal myth -- meaning it was meant to apply to a certain group of people at a time of threat to strengthen their own identity and self-interest through a negative opposite (the feminine). This myth has endured and gained power over the past 2,000 years, however, and what these authors see is that this myth got stuck, in a collective arrested development with an unresolved conflict not allowing the tribe to move into the next stage.  ** So how do we get past this conflict? How do we move from the duality, the oppositio...

When did we split from the sacred? By "we" I mean the "Western", White, Anglo-Saxon, Judeo-Christian peoples. My people, my ancestry.  In my time living close to and learning about Indigenous traditions especially in the Andes of Peru, I came to wonder: where and when was my lineage Indigenous? We are all from somewhere originally, we all were native to someplace at sometime, right? So when did my family lose our Indigeneity?  At first I thought, it was when we left the land, that the physical settling on one piece of land and staying in one place generation after generation was the characteristic of Indigeneity. Which I do not have as my ancestors left their homelands in the 1600s and early 1900s, I grew up as a settler/colonist/invader on Native American lands, and I have moved to several countries none of which match my native ethnic heritage. But I came to realize that it is not about place itself, it is about mentality. Our relationship to the place. And that ...

I like quiet mornings when I am the only one up. I open the blinds and spread out my yoga mat between legos and crayons. If I am feeling inspired, I light a candle or put on the diffuser with an essential oil. My sacred time.  For several years, I have been doing the videos of Sarah Beth Yoga . In her most recent video, she shared a message that resonated with this project in a deep way. In between child's pose and downward dog, inhale and exhale, she reminded us to "find the balance between the strong and the calm." Not just referring to muscles when she suggests we ask ourselves, "where else can I soften?", she connects the physical with the emotional, the balance between masculine and feminine, the calm in the chaos.  And in a society dominanted by masculine energy, she challenges yogis to "imagine for a moment, what would your world be like if you embraced the soft, celebrated the fluid, the intuition, the gentle?" Aha! The sacred principle manifes...