Darkly Devotions

Lyric prose meditations that play with elements from evangelical Christianity, Buddhism, yoga, reiki, Tarot and “weird voodoo shit.”

~by Cindy Clem

***

 

Opening exercise: Walk on your knees back and forth across your living room floor. Pretend that the floor is a desert. Pretend that you’re repenting.

Today’s passages:

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. [1]
~Mary Oliver, from “Wild Geese”

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
~Matthew 5:6

An Attempt to Reconcile the Two:

It’s goodness versus righteousness, Elinor Dashwood versus Jane Eyre. It’s caring about what other people think versus embracing your inner freak. Good = nice. Righteous = whole. Continue reading

Darkly Devotions

Lyric prose meditations that play with elements from evangelical Christianity, Buddhism, yoga, reiki, Tarot and “weird voodoo shit.”

~by Cindy Clem

***
Opening Exercise: Make a batch of raisin cakes. Let them be your punishment and your grace. Eat, and ponder your iniquity.

Today’s passages:
Some people are attracted by looks.
Some people are attracted by money.
Some people are attracted by existential crisis.
~a friend of mine

I just fell into a manic depression
And I really wanna spend it with you.
~Styx

Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover [… ] just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.”
~Hosea 3:1 Continue reading

Darkly Devotions

Lyric prose meditations that play with elements from evangelical Christianity, Buddhism, yoga, reiki, Tarot and “weird voodoo shit.”

~by Cindy Clem

***

Opening exercise: Sit on the floor in lotus position. (If you can’t achieve full lotus, simply remove your left leg and set it one side.) Bend forward until the crown of your head rests against your root chakra. Hold your hands behind your back in prayer position. Breathe in the center, your am-ness. Let go of all attachments.

Today’s passages:
“Ahamkara is the strong wave that declares ‘I am.’ [It] is the sense of ‘I-am-ness,’ the individual Ego, which feels itself to be a distinct, separate entity. It provides identity to our functioning, but Ahamkara also creates our feelings of separation, pain, and alienation.” http://www.swamij.com/fourfunctionsmind.htm#ahamkara Continue reading

Darkly Devotions

Lyric prose meditations that play with elements from evangelical Christianity, Buddhism, yoga, reiki, Tarot and “weird voodoo shit.”

~by Cindy Clem

***

Opening exercise: Stand in a doorway. Grip the trim with your fingertips and sag. Feel the pull on your stomach, on the muscles between your ribs. Arch your back so that your body forms a bow between fingers and toes. Align your bow with the bow of God. Let fly the arrow to your heart’s desire.

Today’s passage:
Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4, NKJV

Testimonial: A Catalog of Unfulfilled Desire
When I was 8, I wanted ballet lessons, a canopy bed, and slightly pointed ears . At 10, I wanted ballet lessons and a horse. I wanted to find an abandoned baby on my doorstep, and I wanted to kick the kickball farther than the mean girl, Kristin Y., who took ballet lessons and who scared me by showing me soft porn when I went to her house for a sleepover. At 12, I wanted ballet lessons and to be able to move objects with my eyes. At 15, I wanted overpriced Esprit jeans, sharper calf muscles, a horse, and a boyfriend. I wanted to not have to wait 2+ years for each new Robert Jordan book. At 20, I wanted arms like Linda Hamilton in The Terminator or Yancy Butler in Mann and Machine. I wanted to be as good a writer as Keith S., whose paper my favorite professor read out loud in class. I wanted the actor who played the TV version of The Highlander to drive by my (parents’) house, see me on the porch, and slam on the brakes. At 30, I wanted a house of my own, a boyfriend, and a life purpose. I wanted to do a free-standing handstand and sit comfortably in the lotus position. At 40? To be determined all too soon. Continue reading

Darkly Devotions

Lyric prose meditations that play with elements from evangelical Christianity, Buddhism, yoga, reiki, Tarot and “weird voodoo shit.”

~by Cindy Clem

santa kneeling at manger

A Holiday Genealogy Quiz

Matthew 1:1-16
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of [1].
1. A) Abraham
B) Noah
C) Aslan
The correct answer is A. (Noah is mentioned in the Luke genealogy but not this one. Aslan is God and as such the father of all animals, humans, dwarves, and fauns.)
To Abraham was born Isaac; and to Isaac, Jacob; and to Jacob, Judah and his brothers;
And to Judah were born Perez and Zerah by Tamar; and to Perez was born [2]
2. A) Hilton
B) Hezron
C) Mario Continue reading

Darkly Devotions

Lyric prose meditations that play with elements from evangelical Christianity, Buddhism, yoga, reiki, Tarot and “weird voodoo shit.”

~by Cindy Clem

***

 

“Be blessed by the God within you.” ~The Archangel Gabriel, trance channeled by Rev. Penny Donovan, in response to an audience member’s sneeze during the angel/Rev.’s lecture on forgiveness, circa 1995

Part 1: Gabriel

Gabriel appears by name four times in the Bible: twice in the book of Daniel, where he interprets Daniel’s dreams, and twice in Luke, to announce to Zacharias and Mary the births of John the Baptist and Jesus, respectively.

Daniel 8:15-17a

Now it happened, when I, Daniel, had seen the vision and was seeking the meaning, that suddenly there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of the Ulai, who called, and said, “Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.” So he came near where I stood, and when he came I was afraid and fell on my face.

Daniel 9:20-22

Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my god for the holy mountain of my God, yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering.

Luke 1:11-13

Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.

Luke 1:26-29

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.[1][2]

Rev. Penny Donovan[i]

Gabriel is known as the Spirit of Truth… He is the one who is in charge of the mental and spiritual planes of man’s evolvement… It is Gabriel who comes softly, quietly, with profound love and desire…

Now that we know more about Gabriel, the angel who comes softly with profound love and yet still manages to scare the living daylights out of people[3], let’s get to the fun stuff.

Part 2: Trance Channeling

Trance channeling is a form of mediumship in which the channeler communicates with a spirit and shares with that spirit mental and physical energies and consciousness.[ii]  According to “How to Trance Channel,” on eHow.com[4], you should turn off your cell phone, listen for the universe’s hum, relax until you feel “an unfamiliar tug on the muscles around your nose and eyes, as though your face were a mask being tried on or manipulated by another,” and basically wait for your entity to appear. [iii][5]

The Orin and DaBen website (Orin and DaBen, from what I can tell, being the spirit guides of the two people who created the web site) explains that people who channel are kind and hardworking, enthusiastic, creative, empathic, curious, sensitive, humble, compassionate—basically, the salt of the earth, which makes you wonder what’s making  them so defensive.[iv]

You don’t have to wonder long. Just as you have Orin and DaBen, so also have you their exorcists. Bibleinfo.com warns that the spirits brought forth by channeling are satanic, that channeling is “abhorrent to God,” and that “nothing but the power of God, granted in answer to the earnest prayer of faith, can deliver these ensnared souls.”[v]  They quote Leviticus 20:6, KJV: “And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.”[6]

Leave it to Leviticus, the book of arcane rules and punishments (excommunication, stoning) that warns against, among other things, eating fat and blood, getting tattoos, and having sex with a woman during her menstruation.

Who to trust? Where to turn?

Part 3: Closing Exercise

Trance channel a poem based on the Scripture verses above. Call it “A Gabriel Poem.” [7]

Here’s mine:

Men on the banks of Ulai

Fly swiftly

Having been caused to do so

I fell on my face

 



[1] Not your everyday, “hello,” now, is it? Apparently angels, unlike vampires, do not have to be invited in.

[2] Merry Christmas!

[3] Not necessarily a contradiction. We are perhaps most profoundly afraid of what we most profoundly need. Love, usually.

[4] According to eHow, if you’re interesting in trance channeling, you may also like, “How to clear Facebook search history” Dove chocolate bars, and vegan-friendly Thanksgiving staples. (I think they mean food, not the metal things you put in a stapler. I figured this out because of the word ‘Thanksgiving’)

[5] To find out more, sign up for a free deep trance channeled newsletter! @www.aprilcrawford.com

[6] a-whoring we will go

a-whoring we will go

hie ho the derrie-o

a-whoring we will go

[7] You can tell your poem is trance channeled if it comes easily, as if the words were given to you, and makes you feel strangely about yourself afterward. These poems are also called “collage poems.”



[v] http://www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/what-does-god-say-about-channeling-and-mediums

***

Cindy Clem received her MFA in poetry in 2005 and has been writing non-fiction ever since. Her poems and essays have appeared (magically!) in Mid-American Review, The Normal School, Prairie Schooner, Memoir (and), Superstition Review, The Interrobang, Spittoon, and Michigan Quarterly Review (forthcoming).

Darkly Devotions

Lyric prose meditations that play with elements from evangelical Christianity, Buddhism, yoga, reiki, Tarot and “weird voodoo shit.”

~by Cindy Clem

***
Opening exercise: Bring into your imagination one of your child selves, the young self at its most jarringly awkward, its most self-conscious, the self, of all the young selves, that you would prefer to forget. Close your eyes and see this child walk toward you, a perfect expression of the awkwardness in whatever form it took: buck teeth, overgrown hair, scabs, bruises, acne, Kmart jeans, glasses the size of plates, extra fat or limbs as thin as wind chimes. Is this child happy to see you? Is he unsure, hopeful, sullen? Does she jump on you, ignorant of the socially appropriate amount of personal space, like she always was back then, with everyone? How do you feel, seeing this child approach? Meet with this child every day until you look forward to seeing him or her, until you can trust each other.

Today’s passage: “Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.’ And He laid His hands on them and departed from there.” Matthew 19:13-15, NKJV Continue reading

Darkly Devotions

Lyric prose meditations that play with elements from evangelical Christianity, Buddhism, yoga, reiki, Tarot and “weird voodoo shit.”

~by Cindy Clem

***

Opening exercise: Thread a needle. Pull the thread all the way through. Then, thread the needle again. Repeat for ten minutes. Each time you poke the thread through the eye, bow slightly and say, “If you would be so kind.” Each time you pull the thread through, bow again and say, “Thanks awfully much.”

If you assumed that today’s Scripture has to do with camels, you were wrong. It is, however, about water. Before we begin, please fill in the required words for numbers 1-8 below. Continue reading

Darkly Devotions

Lyric prose meditations that play with elements from evangelical Christianity, Buddhism, yoga, reiki, Tarot and “weird voodoo shit.

~by Cindy Clem

***

 

26

 

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.

~Psalm 100: 4-5

Thanksgiving exercise:

Stand in the middle of a room. Raise your arms and head toward the ceiling. Laugh. Open your mouth wide, and laugh as loudly and as deeply as you can. Keep laughing, even if it sounds fake (it will sound fake). Laugh past the barking discomfort, past the feelings of lunacy, past the part where you scorn yourself for buying into this stupid exercise. Continue reading

Darkly Devotions

 

Lyric prose meditations that play with elements from evangelical Christianity, Buddhism, yoga, reiki, Tarot and “weird voodoo shit.

~by Cindy Clem

***

 

Opening exercise: Be like the squirrel, girl, be like the squirrel. Give it a whirl.[1]

Today’s passages:

  1.  “And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.” Genesis 5:24
  2. “The Three Dharma Seals (Dharma mudra) are impermanence (anitya), nonself (anatman), and nirvana.” Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching
  3. “For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God.” God

And Enoch[2] walked with God

If this were the New Testament, we might take this figuratively: Enoch, having asked Jesus into his heart, carried God consciously with him—to work, to bed, on walks. But this is the Old Testament, where God can’t be inside you, where he has not yet multiplied to Trinity and nestled himself into our beings[3]. So could God walk? Did he don trousers and accompany Enoch on long, meandering, meditative rambles? In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve “heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” Yet the sound of God walking is not feet crumpling grass but voice (“So [Adam] said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid…”). I’m getting too literal. “Walked with” in Genesis 5:24 probably means “talked to, as if to himself” or “really liked,” even though there is no given precedent at this point for God relating to people in other than an authoritarian, micromanaging way. Or maybe it means that Enoch was the human that, finally, after many rough drafts, was exactly what God had meant to create all along: good company. Continue reading