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Wonder Is a Prayer: Becoming Ecstatic

“We can make a discipline of awe and become transentient.
Doing so, we might realize an altered sense of humanity.”
John Lamb Lash, Not In His Image

“Revelation (Akasavani) never ceases.”
(from a Tantric scripture sighted by Woodruffe in Shakti and Shakta)

It’s undeniable that the ecstatic is increasingly nudging its way into our daily lives.  Before we go much further in unpacking what I mean by this assertion, let’s make sure we have our language down:

Ecstasy
late 14c., "in a frenzy or stupor, fearful, excited," from O.Fr. estaise "ecstasy, rapture," from L.L. extasis, from Gk. ekstasis "entrancement, astonishment; any displacement," in NT "a trance," from existanai "displace, put out of place," also "drive out of one's mind" (existanai phrenon), from ek "out" (see ex-) + histanai "to place, cause to stand," from PIE base *sta- "to stand" (see stet). Used by 17c. mystical writers for "a state of rapture that stupefied the body while the soul contemplated divine things," which probably helped the meaning shift to "exalted state of good feeling" (1610s).

I want to make this clear because ecstasy is too often described as unparalleled joy (which surely is included in its aura) yet it boasts much more depth and complexity.  I especially want to emphasize ecstasy’s meaning as ‘entrancement’, ‘astonishment’ and as a feeling which ‘drives out the mind’ while ‘contemplating divine things’.  In my personal experience, I find here distinct resonance—the ecstatic becomes me often when my wonder has become, as it were, a prayer; when my perspective has enlarged somehow to make for a greater sense of the world about me, about the self which is me and all beings and, often, those two realms in tandem.  In such a peak experience, I am suffuse with a sense of awe that demands me to revere while at the same time this reverence is not merely sent out to the luster of a starscape overhead, or the unbridled beauty of mountains trampling my horizon, but sent in to the being that is perceiving this; is able to not only perceive but in doing so apprehend some kind of overwhelming magnificence that shimmers my body into something utterly light-like.

There is definitely a rambunctious kind of joy here, in the sense that I’m overflowing with a happiness too immense for me to contain and, thus, trumps any attempts to limit it via calming techniques or simple mental reproaches.  If anything, attempts to impede or slow this effulgence of joy causes pain.  Surely it is as, drawing from the logic of Chinese Medicine, when feelings are arrested by the mind we are literally stagnating the force of life or qi.  Of course, the mind is given whim to do other, more agile and beneficial things with feeling, such as following them to conclusions, notions, actions, etc. but here I am emphasizing the mind’s tendency, as habituated by benumbed Western Culture, to abate any feelings that seem incontrollable and of the frenzied, ecstatic variety; feelings that ultimately ‘drive out the mind’.  Such feelings are a direct attack on the supremacy held by the intellectual mind so prized in Western Culture and point to why they are often encouraged to be suppressed.

“When the people lack a proper sense
of awe, some terrible fate decided by
the universe at large will befall them.”
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

It is with great joy that I am beginning to witness in this very Western Culture to which I am conditioned (and hopefully deconditioning from more and more) that the ecstatic is appearing in evermore frequency, approached by people of many different races, cultural imperatives, classes and the like as a binding force of pure feeling which transcends any limitations that might divide us, drawing us into one soup of succulent humanity.  In a world broken by conflict and inter-species division (which his-story falsifies as the incontrovertible way of life), this human brethren-broth of ecstasy offers one of the most wondrous salve to the fractured sense of humanity at large.  In activities which activate jubilance, either in movement, singing, dancing, even breathing, yoga or impassioned unitive discussion, it seems all of the conditions of society, culture, religion etc. are shook off revealing the essence of human nature.  Moreover, normative to human nature’s coming alive in such spaces and instances is a sense of capacious happiness, as if all we had to do was connect somehow and someway, powerfully, committedly and even (or perhaps essentially) playfully.

The ecstatic can do this and has for aeons been an integral part of indigenous practices (and by indigenous I include here Europeans who have for much of our known history been perpetrators of indigenous destruction but are now becoming more connected to their own native roots in classical Europa culture—see Not In His Image by John Lamb Lash for more on this. This is one of the greatest books written in the modern era with not a tinge of exaggeration).  Whether it be in the shaking ceremonies of the Kalahari, the impassioned Zikr of the Sufis, the many varied and fiery drum-dances that pervade Africa, to the even the modern rave, surrendering to furies of movement, singing and other free-flowing expressions is one of the oldest spiritual practices to connect us with greater dimensions of beingness.  Moreover, this is done fully embodied, not out of the body or even with plant substances such as entheogens.  These are naturally induced states simply utilizing the mind-body-soul in highly vibrant ways that we ‘normally’ would not in our domesticated society.  Paradoxically, it is by losing control of ourselves in such fits of ecstasy that we actually apprehend higher realms of control and guidance that are more based on feelings, vibrations and energetic phenomena rather than intellectual constructions.  It is here that we are coaxed to “see with our feelings.”

It is this engagement with our primal and primordial wildness that is an integral aspect of our culture which modern social norms have rooted out to vicious degrees.  In fact, it is quite tragic to apprehend how rigidly sanctioned expressions of the ecstatic are in modern culture: we’re allowed to go ‘nuts’ at sporting events, or under the influence of alcohol at bars and dance clubs but to enter into ecstatic states anywhere else is often met with the shut-down glances of subtle ostracisms by passerbyes and even the eventual reprimand by police or security forces.  When we apprehend how deep this goes we realize that perhaps in destroying native culture the world over, Western Culture has also destroyed its own connection to one of its most precious expressions and sources of life.

More and more of us are realizing this.  There is a collective interest in expanding the sense of the Self with varied explorations of healing, dance, art, spirituality, even entheogens.  People are understanding that perspectives heal and that ours has been detrimentally narrow.  Even in the Occupy movement I see not the vitriol of anger spewing frustration on monolithic authoritarian systems but a boundless and playful enthusiasm of liberating creativity held long captive in the human essence and now surging forth not out of mere desperation but the joy and confidence in knowing the world can change and we can change it—all of it-- for the better. 

It is here that the ecstatic truly takes shape as something that is vital to the human spirit and the evolution of our species.  We face incredible challenges to transform the world and yet nevermore has there been the awareness of what is really wrong.  But to do so is going to require radical change, courage and community, sourced in a relentless belief in human ingenuity, potential and creativity with a devotion to maintaining positivity—holding light, aloft—in the midst of darkened days.  It is here that the ecstatic dances of our African brethren, the spirit-songs of our First Nations family and the deep, pulsing and shaking core of every human heart set alight by laughter and empowered feelings serves as vital energy to nourish the galvanization of human culture as a force of global change and rectification in the age of mass awakening and collective action.

“In the Mysteries one learns more about nature than about the gods”
Cicero

Let us recall that almost every indigenous culture has its roots in a profound connection to the Earth, seen as the very fount by which our life is not only fed but given purpose.  In this way, we engage a multidimensional reality that sees this planet as something teeming with life, alive itself, and we a blessed part of this wildly complex eco-spiritual journey.  It’s time we made our prayers torches of sun-bursting devotion to the greatness within and without us.  It’s time we embraced all, no matter colour or creed, with the love of meeting another aspect of the Self.  It’s time we danced together, sang together, healed together and created ecstasy together by the sheer force of connecting the light from one heart to another in great conflagrations of knowing and feeling.  We are changing the world, each moment, each thought, each action.  Life has regained a sense of adventure and all are being called to join in the entrancing drama of recreating this world as something of powerful, truthful beauty.  What better case for ecstasy.  I’m shaking as I write this!

I’d like to close with a final passage from John Lamb Lash, here referencing Earth as the Greek Goddess figure, Gaia, and speaking of some the classical Mysteries which we were initiations into spiritual awakening and purpose and often included activities that catalyzed the ecstatic...

“Perceiving Gaia as the Eleusinian initiates did was also an act of love; because the realization that our minds are not our own inspires immense affection for the Other.  Humanity cannot survive without observing the interspecies bond. To love all that is not human, animals and plants, insects, the atmosphere, empowers us to be human. Loving Gaia is the highest calling of humanity. It is also the path of enlightenment that can lead us to coevolution in the most direct way, the safest and sanest way, because the spirituality of the Mystery experience grows directly from our biological endowment.” John Lamb Lash

 


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