This essay is part 3 of an edited excerpt from Chapter 4 of the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion.
In my authoring of PaGaian Cosmology, I have associated the three qualities of Cosmogenesis (the unfolding of the Cosmos) as described by Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, with the three qualities of the Goddess metaphor; as a method of restoring Her as a pattern of Cosmological Creativity. The three qualities/themes of Cosmogenesis have been named by Swimme and Berry as differentiation, communion and autopoeisis/subjectivity. Herewith is an abbreviated summary of my synthesis of these three qualities with the three qualties of Goddess.
Describing differentiation, which I associate with the Virgin aspect – the Urge to Be, passionate love of every individual self, Swimme and Berry say,
From the articulated energy constellations we call the elementary particles and atomic beings, through the radiant structures of the animate world, to the complexities of the galaxy with its planetary systems, we find a universe of unending diversity… The more intimately we become acquainted with anything, the clearer our recognition of its differences from everything else… There has never been a time when the universe did not seek further differentiation[i].
Swimme and Berry note that the more deeply we come to know a thing – the Milky Way, the species on a particular tree in a rainforest – the more deeply we perceive its “ineffable uniqueness”. They note then that not only is each thing new and different, but that the dynamics of relationship between the new structures are qualitatively and quantitatively different. They find that when the thirteen point seven billion year epic of the Universe’s unfolding is viewed as a whole, with its extravagant creative outpouring, there is the revelation of the uniqueness of the creativity of each place and time, and the existence of each being.
My own Poetic translation of Swimme and Berry’s expressions regarding Cosmogenesis proceeds in the following way. When they say that the universe “at each instant has re-created itself anew”, and that this seemingly infinite power “speaks of an inexhaustible fecundity at the root of reality”[ii], I imagine it in “Goddess-speak”. That is, “the Virgin dynamic of unique beauty expressed and celebrated in early Spring, has layered within, the fertility that is expressed and celebrated in High Spring (Beltane), as She changes into the Mother dynamic of Summer, whose fertility rests in the Dark Interiority of the Old One expressed and celebrated particularly in Deep Autumn (Samhain).” This translation of mine is kin to William Irwin Thompson’s translation of Lyn Margulis’ description of her study of bacteria: he says that when he saw her film about bacteria, his thoughts “on the relationship between myth and science took a jump forward” as he began to understand what his Irish ancestors meant when they had spoken of “the little people” at work in the leaf mold at their feet[iii].
Even as Swimme and Berry define differentiation, the three aspects are constantly drawn into the equation, and again with this perception: “The multiform relatedness demanded by a differentiated universe rests upon the fact that each individual thing in the universe is ineffable”[iv]. The sentience or interiority or presence of each unique thing/being evokes relatedness in mind-boggling complexity. To help one understand the way in which the aspects support each other, Swimme and Berry imagine:
Were there no differentiation, the universe would collapse into a homogenous smudge; were there no subjectivity, the universe would collapse into inert, dead extension; were there no communion, the universe would collapse into isolated singularities of being.[v]
Each aspect does not really exist without the others, yet each has its own integrity. In the case of the dynamic of differentiation, Swimme and Berry say that, to understand the Universe – the entire display – to get the full picture, we must understand the absolute freshness of each being and each moment.
Describing communion, which I associate with the Mother aspect – the sustaining, relating Context, the reciprocal Place of Being, the passionate pouring forth for other, Swimme and Berry say,
… relationship is the essence of existence. In the very first instant when the primitive particles rushed forth, every one of them was connected to every other one in the entire universe. At no time in the future existence of the universe would they ever arrive at a point of disconnection. Alienation for a particle is a theoretical impossibility. For galaxies too, relationships are the fact of existence. Each galaxy is directly connected to the hundred billion galaxies of the universe, and there will never come a time when a galaxy’s destiny does not involve each of the galaxies in the universe.
Nothing is itself without everything else. Our Sun emerged into being out of the creativity of so many millions of former beings. The elements of the floating presolar cloud had been created by former stars and by the primeval fireball … The patterns of nuclear resonances enabling stable nuclear burning was not the Sun’s invention – and yet all that followed depended upon this pattern of interconnectivity in which the Sun arose[vi].
So it is with any entity, with any being – we arise within a pattern of interconnectivity, the beneficiaries of the creativity of former beings, supported by everything that has gone before.
Swimme and Berry point out that a sense of relatedness is at the base of being, present even before a first interaction. They give the example of an unborn grizzly bear, as being already related to the outside world in that she will not have to develop a taste for the foods bears eat, and she is already shaped for her environment and the survival tasks ahead of her; that is, we are already in relationship by the fact of our being – relationships then “are discovered, even more than they are forged”[vii].
Once again, in the process of defining the one aspect – this time communion – all three aspects are drawn into the equation. They say,“… the universe advances into community—into a differentiated web of relationships amongst sentient centers of creativity”[viii]. Storyteller Carolyn McVikar Edwards tells of Nine Sisters who stir the Cauldron who “represent the Holy Trinity of Maiden, Mother, and Crone, each able to manifest all three of Her selves”[ix]. And so it is with the three faces of Cosmogenesis … as Swimme and Berry say: “These three features are themselves features of each other”[x].
Describing autopoiesis, which I associate with the Crone aspect – the Return to the Dark Sentience, the Wisdom of the Ages within, a passionate commitment to transformation, Swimme and Berry say:
From autocatalyctic chemical processes to cells, from living bodies to galaxies, we find a universe filled with structures exhibiting self-organizing dynamics. The self that is referred to by autopoiesis is not visible to the eye. Only its effects can be discerned. … the unifying principle of an organism as a mode of being of the organism is integral with but distinct from the entire range of physical components of the organism. … Living beings and such ecosystems as the tropical forests or the coral reefs are the chief exemplars of self-organizing dynamics, but with the term autopoiesis we wish to point not just to living beings, but to self-organizing powers in general. Autopoeisis refers to the power each thing has to participate directly in the cosmos-creating endeavor. For instance, we have spoken of the autopoiesis of a star. The star organizes hydrogen and helium and produces elements and light. This ordering is the central activity of the star itself. That is, the star has a functioning self, a dynamic of organization centered within itself. …With such an understanding of the term, we can see that an atom is a self-organizing system as well. Each atom is a storm of ordered activity. … A galaxy, too, is an autopoietic system, organizing its stars into a nonequilibrium process and drawing forth new stars from its interstellar materials.
Autopoiesis points to the interior dimension of things. Even the simplest atom cannot be understood by considering only its physical structure or the outer world of external relationships with other things. Things emerge with an inner capacity for self-manifestation[xi].
Swimme and Berry put forth the question then about the sentience of the elemental realm,
… for we now realize that where Earth was once molten rock, it now fills its air with the songs of birds. And if humans bask in an astounding feeling for the universe, and the human arose from the elements, what can be said of the inner world of the elements?[xii]
They affirm the need “to preserve the continuity holding together an integral universe” and the need to “avoid regarding consciousness as an addendum or as an intrusion into reality”[xiii]. Their interpretation is that the universe is “a place where qualities that will one day bloom are for the present hidden as dimensions of emptiness”[xiv]. Swimme and Berry affirm that, the universe is a single “multiform energy event”, that “everything comes forth out of the intrinsic creativity of the universe” – a “latent hidden nothingness of being”, and they speak of the “potential sentience” in early elemental forms[xv]. They say:
The rocks and water and air, just by being what they are, find themselves flowering forth with sentient beings. At the very least we can say that the future experience in a latent form is wrapped into the activity of rocks, for within the turbulence of molten magma, self-organizing powers are evoked that bring forth a new shape – animals capable of being racked with terror or stunned by awe of the very universe out of which they emerged[xvi].
In a recent interview Brian Swimme gave a short version of the whole story of evolution: he said,
You take hydrogen gas, and you leave it alone, and it turns into rosebushes, giraffes, and humans.” He went on, “…The reason I like that version is that hydrogen gas is odorless and colorless, and in the prejudice of our Western civilization, we see it as just material stuff. There’s not much there. You just take hydrogen, leave it alone, and it turns into a human – that’s a pretty interesting bit of information. The point is that if humans are spiritual, then hydrogen’s spiritual. It’s an incredible opportunity to escape dualism–you know, spirit is up there; matter is down here. Actually, it’s different. You have the matter all the way through, and so you have the spirit all the way through[xvii].
The transformative nature of both autopoeisis and the Old Dark One/Crone seem central to Cosmic Creativity in a dramatic way – whether it be in the collapse of a star, or in the death of a loved one. Vision and perhaps trust are needed to comprehend such destruction as creative – creative of a larger picture than is ours to hold. When “autopoeisis” is described as “an inner capacity for self-manifestation”[xviii], the self that is being spoken of, is the self that at once belongs and “knows”[xix] it belongs, to the Larger Self – which is the source of the passion to manifest and to organize.
NOTES:
[i] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p.73.
[ii] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p.74.
[iii] William Irwin Thompson, Gaia: A Way of Knowing, p.7. He says that when Lynn Margulis spoke of bacteria laying down the iron ore deposits in the Gunflint formations of Ontario, he saw dwarves at work in the mines.
[iv] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p.74.
[v] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p.73.
[vi] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p.77.
[vii] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p.77.
[viii] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p.77.
[ix] Carolyn McVikar Edwards, The Storyteller’s Goddess, p.152.
[x] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p.73.
[xi] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p.73.
[xii] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p.76.
[xiii] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p.76.
[xiv] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p.76.
[xv] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p.76.
[xvi] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p.76-77.
[xvii] Susan Bridle, “Comprehensive Compassion: An Interview with Brian Swimme”.
[xviii] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p.75.
[xix] This “knowing” is meant in the broadest sense – not only referring to the human reflective knowing, but also to other ways of “knowing” by other beings and entities.
REFERENCES:
Bridle, Susan. “Comprehensive Compassion: An Interview with Brian Swimme”. What Is Enlightenment? No. 19, Spring/Summer 2001, pp. 35 -42, 133 -135.
Edwards, Carolyn McVickar. The Storyteller’s Goddess: Tales of the Goddess and Her Wisdom from Around the World. NY: HarperCollins, 1991.
Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005.
Swimme, Brian and Berry, Thomas. The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
Thompson, William Irwin. Coming into Being. NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.