Ecstasy & Spirituality
“Reality doesn't impress me. I only believe in intoxication,
and in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me……
I escape, one way or another.
No more walls.”
Anaïs Nin
And to that I say…..Yes! Escape the boundaries of reality to ecstasy, one way or another… each of us in own way, each of us on own pathway. No matter how outrageous it may seem to the world!
This month at Interfaith Community Sanctuary, we are inspired by ecstasy.
But what is that? Is it one of those words describing a state of Being that we as everyday folk might never attain? Is it a state of Being meant for saints and ascetics or for People Crazed with Spirit, People touched with the energy of the Divine?
The ancient definition of Ecstasy comes from the Greek word- ekstasis, which means “standing outside of where you usually are.” It is closely connected to another Greek word, enthousiasmos, which means “the God within”. So, putting the two definitions together: in moments of ecstasy, you stand outside of yourself and the Holy One appears within or enters. In Greek philosophy, it came to mean moments when a door opened in your mind or your soul and you felt an expanded sense of being, an intense feeling of joy and you felt connected to Spirit or Holy Divinity.
The definition of ecstasy now a day is quite long and involved and has special definitions and caveats for ecstasy involving different focuses and methods and paths to get “there”. But it is generally thought to be an altered and heightened state of consciousness involving oneself with…… something else. An experience differing from so much from normalcy that the body and mind is removed from an awareness of the “here and now”.
I believe that the pathways to that state of being, to ecstasy are diverse, with none of the pathways more noble or elevated than the next. Some of the pathways are utilizing meditation or movement or art or trance or near-death experiences or music or being one with nature or physical exercise or drugs or fasting or the breath or prayer…the list goes on and on. It is as diverse as we each are. Each of us has our own sacred pathway to ecstasy, to the Divine.
It seems that many established spiritual paths have a prescribed definition and way to arrive at ecstasy along with a set of requirements or rules or tests, but I say that as many different souls that exist at every energy state…. that’s how many different ways there are to arrive at the destination of ecstasy or ways to experience it.
We are all such different presentations of Beings… so how can another person tell us how to reach bliss, or ecstasy, or the Divine or say that we can’t? We all can experience ecstasy. It is just finding your pathway to Divine Joy. I believe that ecstasy is co-created with Divine Holy One who shares it freely with us all if we wish.
I think that defining ecstasy, makes it way too left side of the brain-ish, so that logical thinking gets in the way with too many words and descriptions and qualifications. I believe ecstasy and mysticism are experiential and not something accessed by an intellectual approach and that it is available to all if we desire that.
However, I have thought at times that some practices proposed to reach ecstasy may be ways to silence or distract the human mind to remove inhibitions and social constraints. All this with the goal of liberation to return to our natural state of union with the Divine. Thus.....arriving at a state of Ecstasy.
In my way of being here in this reality, in this time, for right now, I believe the pathways to ecstasy are unique to each one of us so that there are billions of blessed paths….a path for each one of us with a special signature with our soul’s name written on it. If we look at the mystics who have gone before us, perhaps we can look to them for clues, sure. But I truly believe that we are all wired for ecstasy. So, look to yourself, to your inner voice of your Divine self. That’s the best place to look for your own personal pathway.
You might also ask- where is Ecstasy birthed? I believe it is birthed where everything starts, in the Heart of the Divine. Beatrice Bruteau has said, “The Holy One, with the Ecstasy of extreme Love and supreme joy, emptied Herself into the form of infinitude and birthed the universe! Bruteau called this one “creative, expansive, conscious act, The Holy One’s ecstasy.”
Ahhhh! Even Holy One has Ecstasy! Actually, I believe She is Ecstasy.
This year we are inspired by St Francis, so I want to mention a famous painting in which he received…. if that is the proper term….stigmata. At that time- it was a way the Catholic Church and the painter could relay the message that St Francis had reached a state of Ecstasy. I personally believe St Francis was in the state of ecstasy most of the time. He didn’t care if anyone knew he was in communion with the Divine or in a state ecstasy-he just lived his life that way. And this, the stigmata, was a sign for others to understand this because they did not understand the more subtle ones.
The ecstasy of St Francis, I believe, is Joy or Bliss in the connection with the Divine. Being one with the Divine. I say this in the present tense because I believe that the Bliss, the Ecstasy that we experience, that we share, that we create is an energy that is perpetual and shared with the multiverse. Being at One with the Divine and feeling this with our physical, emotional, mental, spiritual Being, even if for just one precious divine moment is Ecstasy. These are the moments that time stands still, that time is altered, that we feel in connection to and in flow with the Divine. I believe that for each one of us there is a pathway to that state of Being and each one of those pathways may be different- be it meditation, prayer, poetry, music, dance, conversations with The Divine, a walk in nature, the breath, dancing in the rain, or just being with a leaf, one leaf and on and on...
As Richard Rohr said: “Just gaze at one leaf, long and lovingly, until you know, really know, that this leaf is a participation in the eternal being of God. It’s enough to create ecstasy. A green tree works just as well as a golden tabernacle.”
Rohr has said that part of St Francis’s mission was to show us that mysticism and ecstasy is an experiential knowledge of God, instead of cognitive knowledge. To show us that we can connect to The Divine, through experiencing everyday life, like being at one with nature.
In Druidry, there is a state known as "nwyfre" or "life force" which pervades all things. Druids believe that nature, in all Her glorious presentations, give us immediate access to Nwyfre by erasing boundaries to become one with the Divine Life Force and to the Joy, the Bliss and the Ecstasy that follows. So just as Richard Rohr and Druidry suggest, connect with the essence of a leaf and you connect with the Divine.
Another path to ecstasy is the way of the artist. Art and creativity involve intensification and focus of consciousness by an artist and a connection to many things like light and color and pattern and in my experience ……...to energies that live in the multiverse or in another form of reality. This is another path to the Divine and Ecstasy.
Most of you have heard me speak about my state of being when I create. I go into prayer and meditation and then I surrender to The Divine and to the state of co-creation and to whatever creatively comes in that moment.
What appears creatively might be a surprise for me as well as another person. I don’t judge the creation, I don’t try to explain the creation, I just live in the joy of the blessed moment of creation. This for me is a form of ecstasy.
After all, what comes through might be for a person I will never meet, not for me. When I create, I am in a state that is separated from the usual life in the here and now. I open to the Divine. I may not know what it is that I am painting or why I am painting the creation …but I do know that I am blessed to be the moving part in a co-creation with spirit and the paint and brushes and water. This state is timeless and is joyful and is a blessing. Being an artist and creating is ecstasy for me, in all its forms.
Some say that viewing art that is created in this particular state of Being, this state of energy, can carry viewers into a form of bliss or ecstasy as well. Just viewing it. You can see this when people gaze at certain art like the Sistine Chapel or Monet’s Water Lilies or the wonderful art that used to bless the walls in this room. It is not necessarily the form that the piece of art takes, it is the energy of how it was created in connection with the Divine. This energy then lives in these paintings. You see, paintings can sing a song of their own, and be a celebration of the Divine revealing a form of Ecstasy.
Ecstasy in art can also be a connection of souls. With art, the here and now artist can connect with the energy of artists on the other side of the veil and then with the people who will view the piece of art. A connective web of creation. There were several paintings that I created here during services of the Convocation of the Divine Feminine in which I believe that the paintings not only connected as I usually do with energy but also connected with the energies of the people present in this sanctuary at the time. A copy of one of those pieces of art ended up as street art on a busy street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn so it connected to the energy of the people who viewed it there as well. And who knows how many photographs were taken of that piece of art and shared with others who may have felt the energy that it was created with. Created right here in this sacred space.
In Druidry, the role of the Bard was much like how I describe my painting process. Going to the other side of the veil and being in connection with Nwyfre or Awen and the energy of Nature. The Bard could bring back a gift to share with all who would see or hear it, bringing back a gift of ecstasy for all to share. I understand this form of ecstasy.
Just one note about art in any form being viewed. So many people believe that if you create something, it needs to be or has to be shared with others. I believe that if not one person sees a creation of art or hears the poetry, or the music that is created with prayer and meditation, I believe that the art is still perfect and that it has fulfilled its mission. Creation of art does not have to be about someone viewing it or selling it or marketing it. I believe art created by prayer and meditation or ecstasy releases Divine Loving Energy in this dimension, in this world in its birthing process. And its mission is complete. But of course, if the creation is viewed and the energy felt and the prayers realized, all the more joy and ecstasy released in the world.
You know, for much of human history, this would be a perfectly normal way to talk and think and feel about the arts. Painting, sculpture, music, poetry, theater, and dance were understood to be Ecstatic techniques that could connect one’s spirit to the spirits of others- dead or alive and to Nature and to the Divine.
In Indigenous populations, the artists were many times the Shaman and healers and seers, who created art as a bridge to the other worlds. Not for walls in homes or for sale. The ancient Greeks knew that the arts were a part of ekstasis- what I mentioned before—the shift in consciousness beyond the ordinary self. Artists of the Middle Ages (500-1500), Renaissance (1300-1600), and Romanticism (1800-1850) knew that art could be a pathway to spiritual ecstasy. It was standard, until recently, to believe that the arts could connect human consciousness to a deeper spirituality.
Vincent Van Gogh had some interesting things to say about the creative state. “When I have a need of, dare I say.... religion, I go outside and I paint the stars. It is the language of nature, which one can listen to. For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream. I put my heart and soul into my work and have lost my mind in the process. Paintings have a life of their own.” That thought is something I resonate with and sounds like ecstasy to me.
I agree with Van Gogh. Nature has its own song it sings, and it connects us to a different reality, and we can lose our rational minds in the process of creation. Thank goodness! As an artist, I pray, meditate, open, connect and surrender to the Infinitude of the Multiverse. It is my form of ecstasy…. time and awareness is altered and I am as surprised as anyone when I see images and messages in my co-creations with energy and spirit.
With so many avenues to ecstasy, I have to wonder, why it is so difficult for humans to accept ecstasy in our own life. Perhaps it’s because we judge, discriminate, decide, qualify, quantify, and intellectualize most of our life experiences.
Or perhaps we are afraid of what others might say about us being ecstatic. In our recent history, ecstasy has been seen as a form of mental illness. People who claimed to have a Divine connection to God were marginalized or mocked or institutionalized. This headset is still with us today.
Sociologists have said that ecstasy was just a stage in our evolution on the way to rational bureaucracy. Anthropologists have said that ecstasy was a trance state known only to primitive people in undeveloped cultures. And psychologists such as Freud have said that ecstasy was a form of automatism or hysteria that happens only to weak, neurotic, and irrational types…. like women or Welsh people! And as a woman who has Welsh ancestors, I said- Rubbish!
But perhaps it is…. as GK Chesterton said- “We have all read books where the main character has forgotten who she is- she understands the cosmos- yes, but never the self. Perhaps we have forgotten who we really are. Our rationality and practicality have even led us to forget that we have forgotten! But Our spirit, our art, and our Ecstasy is from the place where for one moment we remember, what we have forgotten.”
So, I ask you……do you want to be in the state of ecstasy? Then Remember!!! Remember who you are……. remember that you are Divine! Now that’s something to be ecstatic about! Find your personal pathway through your unique gifts and erase boundaries to become one with the Divine Life Force and the Joy, the Bliss and the Ecstasy that follows. Experience your form of ecstasy that pours from the center of your soul that you may choose in every moment. Ecstasy is experiential…. not intellectual….so listen to your heart, listen to your soul, and find your path. Open yourself to it… surrender to it…. with your whole heart, soul, and body. Connect to the joy, connect to the bliss, connect to the ecstasy by remembering who you are - your Divine self. Surrender to Divine union in the moment and there you will find your ecstasy!
Thank You.