Seasonal Reflection: Welcome to a Transformational Fall! An Introduction to Creation Spirituality

Change might well be the only constant in our lives that we can name. Change can be experienced and understood on many levels and across the many dimensions of our lives. There are changes in routine, in health, in our work, in our relationships, just to name a few!

As we enter into the glorious season of Fall with all its splendid changes in nature, we cannot help finding ourselves thinking and reflecting on the nature of change in our lives, in our local community, and the world.

While most theorists busy themselves writing about the psychological and the sociological, the environmental or even the financial aspects of change… Those who truly embrace impermanence, or the capacity for change, are the ones who are traveling “the mystical path with practical feet”; so they can look at these wider and deeper concerns and place them step by step in a different context. 

From my home base as a mystical interfaith theologian, I see the source of change as the presence of the Holy Spirit that accompanies us in all that we do. Change is life; and the Spirit is that agency and that energy that gives us breath and life. She gives us a sense of purpose and a deeper meaning to our days. 

There is not one activity of life, down into its most basic elements, that doesn’t involve us in some sort of active, ongoing alchemical or transformative change in some way. To breathe, think, walk, relate, create, or make -our essential activities-means that you are constantly engaged in the processes of change even when you do not realize it! From our body’s metabolism and digestion to thought, sensation, and consciousness itself, our lives are constantly involved in change.

Sometimes, in our lives, we are consciously called, even compelled to change: Our attention is creatively captured or graciously compelled to change because of some coercive circumstance, severe obstacle, or the necessity for change that can arise from an unexpected challenge and/or blessing we have received! 

In the interfaith and international movement called Creation Spirituality, change is a welcomed energy that gives vitality and meaning to our lives. In this approach to our inclusive Western religious heritage, an open-hearted welcoming spirituality combines with ethical relationships, and is interwoven with ecology so that it can be dynamically understood and enthusiastically celebrated as the four paths or Vias, that a person, or a community can participate in and travel through in their yearly journey.

The four paths are the Via Positiva, the Via Negativa, the Via Creativia, and the Via Transformativa. I have taught this cycle in a way that roughly fits into the four parts of the traditional church year, with some additions and accommodations for a wider view, and a deeper appreciation of the sacred rhythms and emphasis that can be found in each season.

Simply described, the Via Positiva begins the week before Thanksgiving, and lasts to Epiphany, and it is the way of the Mystic. The church year and the mystical outlook starts with the sense of awe and with the harvest of gratitude. It sets the table for a greater appreciation of wonder. 

The Via Negativa is after Epiphany and ends through to Easter, Winter into Spring, and it is the path of the Prophet. It is our invitation to the interior life, to contemplation and to self assessment. It recommends simplicity, and the need to reconcile and release anything thing that keeps us from balance, justice, equality, and wisdom. 

Via Creativia, is Spring into Summer, the way of the Artist. The earth’s creative cycle, the greening of soil and soul, the expansion and outreach towards possibilities and potentials.

 Lastly, we come to the Via Transformativa, which is the way of the Healer/transformer. The harvest is here; the leaves change and fall, the earth changes in its preparation for winter, and for the soul’s latency. The invitation towards change and towards the value of dynamic impermanence becomes a constant companion.

Fall is THE season for change! In my understanding, this is the essence of real transformation- the new into the old, the old into the new-all in one grand cycle, a circular and ongoing dynamic of change. Waxing theologically, each autumn we will be traveling down the Via Transformativa together, knowing full well that who we were as individuals and as a community, in some certain measure will change: We will not stay the same– we always live in a crucible– We do not yet know what we shall become.

Each of us needs to realize that we are all together in an equally shared, transformative journey. Like it or not, change happens to each and to every one of us, whether we try to resist it or not. 

So it would be the best approach for body, mind, spirit, and soul? For our relationships, families, and our social institutions? It would be to consciously and courageously seek out new ways to positively embrace change, and extract any constructive meaning from it for the greater good…