The launching of this website and blog coincides with the release by Chiron Publications of my latest book A Mystical Path Less Traveled: A Jungian Psychological Perspective. The book proposes a psychological mysticism that preceded, and now replaces, a theological mysticism that has been dependent on theistic images of the divine that are no longer meaningful to many people – or necessary.
The following is one of the many poems in the book described as “Trail Markers” along the mystical path. This particular poem titled “I Know” provides glimpses into my current psychological perspectives on religion/spirituality, and on those numinous experiences we have named gods, goddesses, and God over the span of human history:
I Know
Having taken leave of the
back porch of the Church
and my ancestral religious tribe
To scout out their possible futures
and my uncertain one
My scouting report is dire
reminiscent of the Old one:
There is a new land just over the horizon
though not the one Promised
giants nevertheless
Ancient psychic fears and prejudices
hidden beneath wishful god-talk
ignored for centuries
We must stare them down
eye to eye
the flesh-eating monsters
Standing in the Way ahead
for our sacred species
and our holy humus.
Scouting reports to the faithful
evoke challenging questions about faith
Do you still believe in God?
Have you lost your faith?
Carefully consulting my deep-down knowing
birthed from rock-solid conviction
revised by divine doubts
My response echoes Jung
facing the same question near his end
I do not need to believe
I know!
What did he know
that mystic in psychological garb
What do I know
What do you know?
I know that I am
though I do not know where I was before
nor where or how I will be after
I know that life is full of mysteries
those we have named gods
no less so
That soul is as real as brain
the invisible as real as visible
That I am apprehended
by un-comprehended powers and presences
Who entangle me in the net
of unknowing.
I know that I am being sought
though I do not see my pursuers
nor clearly their intent
That I am also the one seeking
the seekers
A mutual game of hide and seek
forever playing out
in the meadows of my mind.
I know that faith and trust are twins
often confused with beliefs
that have other parentage
That beliefs breed mistrust of those
who believe differently
or not at all
That guarded beliefs
shrink the imaginative soul
While trust releases
the religious prisoners
That beliefs can change and must
lest religious word-idols
slay us all.
I know that faith is delicate and hardy
like the first cry announcing our arrival
on this spinning top
and our final sigh at the end
The trust of breath and gravity
our first and last
faith-filled acts.
I know that we create our gods
from numinous experiences
not of our making
That we create gods
who in turn create us
and save us
hopefully from ourselves
That devils are created likewise
from dark shadowlands
projected onto the faces
of those we fear or hate.
I know that all religious dogma
is necessary subjective fiction
always needing a revised sequel
That all sacred texts are human words
about the gods we create
That our god-naming and religion-making
are necessary industries
to employ the human imagination.
I know that our visible earth
is more precious
than a hoped-for heaven
That our at-one-ment with all
more precious than
atonement for a few
And if there is something like salvation
it will be for all
or none.
I know that I know very little
in the larger scheme of things
That I remain a final puzzle to myself
and others
Prompting the conclusion to this trust-filled litany
But, then, what do I know?
And you?
(Jerry R. Wright, A Mystical Path Less Traveled, pp. 88-92)