The touch of Otherness #Silenti

In every mystical gathering, of whatever nature, there comes that moment when a correctly constructed ‘vessel’ is taken over – however fleetingly – by a sense of ‘otherness’.

Experience teaches us that this is actually paradoxical. What is ‘taking over’ is the very state that is the goal of the activity, be that a deep talk, a shared, group exploration of a key topic, a ritual to unite and inspire, or an esoteric drama, constructed to allow that which is above the mundane things of life to inhabit it for a moment.

The word ‘above’ is tricky in this context. Correctly, it implies a more causal relationship to the assumed ‘lower’, but, really, ‘inner’ would be better, since all aspects of this relationship are present, even if some of them are not consciously so.

Such moments of otherness are accurately described in terms of their sense of difference to the normality of what engenders them. That touch, caress or ‘kiss’ of a presence which is already there is at the heart of mystical endeavour, but the operating principle here is that the group activity removes the barrier to our conscious awareness of it, rather than its invocation. We change; it doesn’t, at least in terms of our perception.

This is an important thing to grasp for the student of the esoteric. To know that, using the imagery of the Sufis, the ‘Beloved’ is always present is very different to a world in which we have to ‘conjure it’.

The other, and more hidden, implication is that the higher or inner intelligence is really the one driving the ‘opening’ that sweeps into the moment, filling the group with the kind of ‘warm frisson’ that marks the unmistakable presence of the truly spiritual.

When successful, we do not ‘do it’, it does…

Our workshop, The Feathered Seer, held recently in Derbyshire, had many such moments, and they were not restricted to the ritual drama so skilfully woven by Sue and Stuart. Many of them came in the supporting talks when the room opened to flashes of piercing honesty, which triggered a new and immediate relationship with the ‘now’.

Those who experience this are left in no doubt as to the very real nature of what has taken place, indeed, this very contact is the signature of continuously-unfolding reality, the living truth of our existence, waiting just behind our self-imposed veils of perception.

The Spirit is inclusive. It does not require any qualifications or ‘degrees’ of development, though these can help with positioning for the moment. What it waits for is an embrace…

In that unveiling, a notion of ‘otherness’ is swept aside in the returned embrace of the real; which has a power beyond logic and a heart beyond blood.

©Stephen Tanham