Twelve Principles of Creation-centered Spirituality

1. The Universe, and all within it, is fundamentally a blessing.

Our relationship with the universe fills us with awe.

2. We experience that the Divine is in all things and all things are in the Divine

(Panentheism) and that this mystical intuition supplants theism (and its child, atheism) as an appropriate way to name our relation to the Divine and experience the Sacred.

We experience that the Divine is in all things and all things are in the Divine.

3. Divinity is as much Mother as Father, as much Child as Parent, as much Godhead

(mystery) as God (history) as much beyond all beings as in all beings.

We are liberated from the need to cling to God in one form or one literal name.

4. In our lives, it is through the work of spiritual practice that we find our deep and true

selves.

Through the arts of meditation and silence we cultivate a clarity of mind and move

beyond fear into compassion and community.

5. Our inner work can be understood as a four-fold journey involving:
~ awe, delight, amazement (known as the Via Positiva)
 ~ uncertainty, darkness, suffering, letting go (Via Negativa)
~ birthing, creativity, passion (Via Creativa)
~ justice, healing, celebration (Via Transformativa)

6. Every one of us is a mystic.

We can enter the mystical as much through beauty (via Positiva) as through contemplation and

suffering (via Negativa). We are born full of wonder and recover it at any age.

7. Every one of us is an artist in some way and art as meditation is a form for releasing our images and empowering the community and each of us.

Whatever the expression of our creativity, we find fulfillment in ritual as the communities art (via

Creativa).

8. Every one of us is a prophet.

Our prophetic work is to interfere with all forms of injustice and that which interrupts authentic life (via Transformativa).

9. Diversity is the nature of the Universe.

We rejoice in and courageously honor the rich diversity within the Cosmos and expressed among

individuals and across multiple cultures, religions and ancestral traditions.

10. The basic work of the Divine is compassion and we, who are all original blessings, are

called to compassion.

We acknowledge our shared interdependence; we rejoice at one another’s joys and grieve

at one another’s sorrows and labour to heal the causes of those sorrows.

11. There are many wells of faith and knowledge drawing from one underground river of

Divine wisdom. The practice of honoring, learning and celebrating the wisdom

collected from these wells is Deep Ecumenism [Oneness].

We respect and embrace the wisdom and the oneness that arises from the diverse wells of all

sacred traditions of the world.

12. Ecological justice is essential for the sustainability of life on Earth.

Ecology is the local expression of cosmology and so we commit to live in light of this value: to pass on the beauty and health of Creation to future generations. (to be “esteemed” ancestors)

-edited by Michelle and Evelyn 2008-09-12