Varied Paths to the One Center

And so we in Edmonton, Alberta, did a ritual by a sacred spring that we were lucky enough to find. And that was all simultaneously done. There were people, I know, as far south as Patagonia in South America. There were people in England and Europe as well as North America simultaneously doing ceremonies, lighting sacred fires.

Judy Evaski talks with Carol Sill on Open Pathways

C: Hi this is Carol Sill and I’m here in Vancouver today talking with Judy Evaski about Open Source Spirit, and her spiritual path. Hi Judy.

J: Hi Carol.

C: You were talking a bit about how your path has been varied…

J: Yes, it’s a really interesting project, open source spirituality, and I notice that many people have chosen a path and developed it really fully. Often from starting on another path. I would say that my path is a little different, in that it’s been a sequential exploration, but with the same essential seed from the beginning.

C: So what would that sequence be? How did you start?

J: Well I started out as most North Americans did, in the Christian church, and then gradually got involved with the social movements, the social justice movement, the peace movement, and trying to make spiritual ideals into a reality.

And from there I was lucky enough to meet up with some of the North American Sufis, who actually I think contain or hold the essence or the seed that is in the center of most of the spiritual paths. And so it wasn’t a religion, per se, it was a spiritual philosophy that gave me tools and confidence and some basic techniques of meditation, as well as various spiritual paths. So that I became able to understand the language that was in each of the paths and to start to identify what were the common threads.

So many of us compare religions or philosophies by finding the essence of what’s different between them. And that’s kind of a western way of thinking. Although that’s evolving now, and I think that’s why a project like this can occur, because we are now more able, and we have a language. Many people have pursued spiritual paths other than the one that they began in, and so that’s why we’re seeing the blossoming of something like this, I believe.

C: So after your sufi involvement, you went into some other directions as well?

J: Yes, and it was more that life provided me with these experiences. I was very fortunate to have met a Tibetan lama who had escaped Tibet in ’54 (59?)  with the Dalai Lama, and made his way to Alberta, where he began to become who he was before. And he was also, I would say, someone who had a sufic perspective: in terms of – he had a very formalized Tibetan Buddhist path, and we did practices with him in that path.

However he had a very well-developed heart which I believe is the essence of all of the religions. And all of the spiritual paths. And in fact all of the political paths. I understand now that people who are very involved politically are every bit as much on a spiritual path as others.

C: I know you’ve had experience in the Native tradition as well. How did that happen?

J: That was a wonderful thing. A sufi friend sent me an email about the Giant Medicine Wheel that was occurring in 2004, with its center based in the Grand Tetons in Yellowstone Park. Apparently every 500 years or so, it was a tradition that native communities from North America and South America possibly, certainly Central America, Mexico, would come together and they would share their rituals in a way that would affirm the stability of Mother Earth, of affirming our love for her, our understanding our place within the matrix of creation. And it appealed to me to be part of that medicine wheel ceremony, because although there was the center, they also had the 12 sites around the perimeter, about 500 miles out from the center.

And so we in Edmonton, Alberta, did a ritual by a sacred spring that we were lucky enough to find. And that was all simultaneously done. There were people, I know, as far south as Patagonia in South America. There were people in England and Europe as well as North America simultaneously doing ceremonies, lighting sacred fires.

It was a time of great sharing from the Native tradition from the elders to those of us who were not, but had a spiritual leaning. There was a lot of special teachings released for us at this time.

So out of that I met the current elder that I’ve been working with. He was a Seneca elder, from Six Nations, although living off reserve. And he was mixed blood, which I am as well. I discovered not that long ago that I have Basque blood. I was adopted, so I didn’t know that. The fact that he was mixed blood and able to speak of it was already a resonance. I grew up in that area, and I had always wanted to connect with the old spirits of that land, and I didn’t have a context in which to do that, other than through the Native path.

So luckily this man was willing to strike up an email correspondence, again something that’s very unusual and outside of the norm of that culture. And yet, we’re all adapting, which is why you can do a project like this now, whereas  a few years ago you probably couldn’t. Many of the sacred teachings wouldn’t be spoken of in a technological framework.

Similarly, if I were to speak of Native teachings, it would be expected that I would do some smudging, like with some sweetgrass or sage. And it’s just a very wonderful tradition that they have that creates a sacred space to talk about sacred things.

C: That’s beautiful. Thanks.

View the video of this conversation.

Open Pathways

“And so we in Edmonton, Alberta, did a ritual by a sacred spring that we were lucky enough to find. And that was all simultaneously done. There were people, I know, as far south as Patagonia in South America. There were people in England and Europe as well as North America simultaneously doing ceremonies, lighting sacred fires.” Judy Evaski talks with Carol Sill about the paths she has explored through her spiritual journey, through Christianity, Sufism, Buddhism and the Native traditions.

Read a transcript of this video here.

Christian Buddhist Pagan

“I often think of God as a diamond, a huge huge diamond with many many facets. And for whatever reasons we can see the different facets, different people can see different facets.”

Isabella Mori in conversation with Carol Sill

C: Carrying on our conversation about some of your spiritual life …. I know that you’ve been involved for many years in actively pursuing a deep and sincere spiritual life. I’m wondering if you could just say a few words to us about how you got started. What awakened you first?

I: Actually, I come from a family where spirituality of one way or another was always … My grandfather was a Lutheran minister. My grandmother on my father’s side was spiritual in many ways, and now I would say strange ways. In her own way. She was a professed Lutheran but she also was – how should I say? For example, in the Second World War, right after when everybody was starving she went around and she read the cards to the people and that was how she met everybody. And she read strange books about stigmata…..just about everything. So it was always around me.

C: So it was natural for you to be aware of all the other aspects of life as well as what we see and hear in the physical world.

I: Absolutely yes. Plus my father was an artist , he was completely surrounded by artists. So all of that was really quite natural.

C: Can you tell me how this has affected you in your daily life in the past year or so? Any new ideas or ….?

I: That’s an interesting jump, to go from my roots when I was little, 2, 3 , 4, until now , with many many things that happened in between.

One thing that’s interesting that happened in the last 2 years or so is that I’ve become a little interested in my spiritual ancestry, from one part of my life. Eight years or so ago I realized I really needed to pay heed to my Christian ancestry and reconnected with that part. Shortly after I realized that to some degree certain practices that people often call pagan are important to me, and in that connection I started to look a little bit at my father’s ancestry. They spent most of their time in the Baltic triangle, so Russia, a little bit Baltics, Finland, Sweden. And to just kind of look at what the pagan influences from that area are. So that has been quite interesting. I don’t think I can talk very intelligently about it, but at the same time there’s been something very deep and stirring about that for me.

C: So the idea of coming into an understanding of your roots on a deep level helps infuse your life today.

I: Absolutely, yeah. And it excites me. One example is something that actually happened earlier, and when I realized that pagan practices would be of importance to me (which in itself is an interesting story), I was immediately drawn to the four directions. And especially the direction of the North. Of the cold and of the dark, which really surprised me because, as you know, I’ve spent some time in South America and felt really drawn to that, and felt I belonged there.

So I was surprised by how immediately drawn I was to the direction of the North. How very naturally it made me think of countries like Sweden and Norway, and some of the music that I know from there and some of the literature that I’m working with, and then afterwards I realized that I had some connection with the ancestry of the society. I read a little bit about Finnish magic, and if I have a chance to pick up something on the Norse gods and things like that…

C: And you find no separation or no conflict within yourself between believing in the spiritual life related to Christianity and any of the Norse gods?

I: No. Straight out no. I would describe my spiritual life as a mixture mostly of Christianity, Buddhism and Paganism and I see absolutely no contradiction there. Most Christians and Pagans and Buddhists – they tear their hair out when they hear that. But for me it’s really all the same. I mean, to me - I often think of God as a diamond, a huge huge diamond with many many facets. And for whatever reasons we can see the different facets, different people can see different facets.

I feel very lucky that somehow I get to see these three facets. There’re many many more, and maybe one day Allah will speak to me … I see a lot of connections with Sufism and especially Zen Buddhism. But so far Allah hasn’t spoken to me, ….

C: That’s great. Well I think that’s good for now, and we’ll end the call ….

I: Thank you very much Carol, it’s been good to talk to you.

View the video of this conversation.

Isabella Mori’s Christian Buddhist Paganism

Isabella Mori tells about her ancestors and their spiritual paths.

“I often think of God as a diamond, a huge huge diamond with many many facets. And for whatever reasons we can see the different facets, different people can see different facets.”

Link here for the text version of this conversation between Isabella Mori and Carol Sill.

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