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Lisa! Thanks for saying hello and I’m so glad you’re here. I only have a layperson’s knowledge of Jung so I’m thrilled that people with a comprehensive background are part of this circle. MOTT is tough going and it can be a slog, but I think by limiting ourselves to two letters a month we can go the distance. You eat an elephant one bite at a time (except for me, I’m a vegan!) — so let the adventure begin!
Bill, so glad you are here! I’m still hoping to get up to your center one of these days, God willing and the virus don’t resurge. I know several people who have participated in Haden Institute programs and they all loved it. Glad you’re bringing that Jungian perspective.
Rebecca, it is so exciting that you are part of this tribe. You have so much wisdom and insight to offer. Thanks for joining the circle.
Greetings, Royce. Glad you are hear. I can relate to your comment about shamanic work in relation to meditation — and I hope your experience of MOTT will be that the kind of meditation it prompts is somewhat in between imaginal practices like shamanic journeying, and the radical silence of Zen or Centering Prayer. I’m one of those crazy people who loves it all (!) and I think this book does represent a kind of bridge between those two spiritual practices.
Anyway, thanks for signing on and saying hello!
Darrell, I forgot you were in the class back at the P&D! Wow, that’s great. That was before I began to hang out at the monastery (remember when you and I went to the monastery the Good Friday before I became a Catholic? Hard to believe that was — gulp — 17 years ago!) — let’s just say that after studying with the monks for all these years, I have a much richer appreciation of MOTT and where the author is coming from, and hopefully that will be reflected in this course!
Anyway, so glad you are here, dear friend.
I wonder if this could be a regional thing. Here in Georgia, most people I know seem to pronounce it with the second syllable accented and the second “T” silent: ter-OH. But I have also heard it pronounced in both ways you describe, Jack.
“You say po-TAY-to, I say po-TAH-to, let’s call the whole thing off…”
Perhaps with a nod to the wisdom of Ira Gershwin, we can make room for different ways of pronunciation?
Lynn, glad you are here! Yes, this is the Island for Misfit Toys (ie, Christians who find nurture in the archetypal wisdom of the Tarot). There is a book coming out in September that I have had the good fortune to read already, I think people in this course will love it: it’s called The Contemplative Tarot: A Christian Guide to the Cards by Brittany Muller. If you want to pre-order it, here’s the Amazon link: https://amzn.to/32CaGiG.
MOTT is a hard book to read, but it’s worth the effort. I’m on my fourth read-through and I still don’t get all of it! But there’s so much gold that I think we can get a lot out of the book even if we don’t know all the allusions to French philosophy etc.!
Jane, thanks for your introduction and thanks for being here! Your comments about MOTT are so in alignment with my own feelings about the book. And I love your “story”! I think this is the great invitation of our time: for people to dive deep into multiple traditions and find ways to integrate the depths, more than just a “lowest common denominator” blending, but truly a “deep calls to deep” integration. It’s not always easy — some of the challenges of interspirituality do show up in MOTT — and sometimes interspiritual work can seem really messy, but I think the Divine is more interested in our hearts than our ability to tidy things up.
Looking forward to the conversation!
George, welcome! I’ll be in your neck of the woods (at Holy Cross Monastery up the Hudson River) in July. It’s one of my favorite places, so I’m really looking forward to getting up there this summer.
I think wearing theology lightly makes all sorts of sense. ? And yes, I think God is just fine with that…
MOTT is definitely deeply contemplative and mystical: experiential, as you say. It also has some blind spots, probably mostly due to how old it is. I think it will make for some interesting conversations as we all explore it together.
Mary, glad you are here. So sorry to hear about your loss of your husband. That had to have been surreal, moving into the pandemic so shortly after that life-changing transition.
Astrology, as you may know, goes quite well with Tarot — as does Kabbalah, the tradition of Jewish mysticism. We’ll be touching on all of the above as we make our way through this book. I think both astrology and Tarot, when approached from an archetypal (rather than “fortune-telling”) perspective, have at least as much to offer us as more “acceptable” tools like the Enneagram or the Myers-Briggs.
Yes, MOTT is difficult, but it also can be pretty generous in yielding its treasures. We’ll have fun exploring!
Steve, thanks for being part of this circle of explorers!
While MOTT is clearly written from a Christian perspective, my hope is that we can create a circle of inquiry and reflection that is centered on contemplation rather than any particular creed or doctrine.
12-step spirituality is one of the great gifts of our age.
I think it is appropriate to place MOTT alongside the works of “classic” mystics like Meister Eckhart or John of the Cross. What all three have in common: they’re challenging to read, but ultimately very rewarding!
Jack, so glad you are here, and I hope you will find MOTT to be a rich and inspiring book. There’s a lot of insight and interesting new ways of seeing things.
Like you, I was drawn to the book by its endorsements. I don’t think my assessment of it is quite as superlative, but I do think it’s a wonderful book and well worth reading on many levels.
Man, what a story (about Budd Dwyer). That had to have been a traumatic event. I lost a couple of friends a few years ago, who died by suicide when one of them was facing sentencing for a conviction. The one who was facing imprisonment was deeply depressed, which probably factored in to his criminal actions. Just a sober reminder that we need better ways to offer mental health care and authentic rehabilitation to those who break the law — not just the shame and horror of punishment.
