Lo-Fi & Hushed / Winter Solstice Session / To Know the Dark
2023 Winter Solstice Practice Session
To know the dark, go dark.
— Wendell Berry
Lo-Fi & Hushed Contemplative Practice Session for Wed, Dec 20, 2023 at 6am MT (GMT - 7)
Good people, the December NonRequired Reading List is nearly finished. A stack of digital envelopes sit besides me. But before I send the NonRequired to your inbox, it is open season for a shared contemplative practice. Each solstice and equinox Contemplify offers a public Lo-Fi & Hushed contemplative practice session for both free and supporting1 subscribers of the Non-Required Reading List. For those interested, go tell it on the mountain…
The third week of Advent salts on joy. Not because of the circumstances, but despite them. The work remains to create the conditions for the gift of joy to emerge. The candlelight is building around the Advent wreath and solstice is breaking into a light jog. The arms of Advent and winter solstice are outstretched, reaching towards embrace. We are so close to completing the circle. Our own sweet darkness yields in a protected and patient trust. Let us welcome the gift.
Wendell Berry’s “To Know the Dark” will be our vessel for this Wednesday’s Winter Solstice Lo-Fi & Hushed Practice Session. You can follow the link to peek at the entire poem or wait to be surprised in the practice on Wednesday morning.
Let us welcome this dark knowing into our practice.
May we show up with expectation under its seamless cloak.
Advent rejoices within the crackles of reality.
Let us slow our pace to hear this joyful song.
Participate live in Lo-Fi & Hushed at 6am MT (GMT -7) on Wednesday, December 20, 2023 by going to https://riverside.fm/studio/lo-fi--hushed (if this is your first time, check out the helpful links below)
If you are a regular attender, remember the solstice and equinox Lo-Fi & Hushed practices are public and use an unique link. Use the one listed above. A deep bow to all of you supporting subscribers who have joined this circle of practice. As solstice kisses Advent, may the seasons mark a deep remembrance for you.
In hushed prayers,
Paul
Helpful links for learning more about Lo-Fi & Hushed…
Lo-Fi: Tech details
Hushed: Contemplative details
Question: FAQs
Instructional Flow for Lo-Fi & Hushed (December 20, 2023)
Go to Lo-Fi & Hushed link at 6am MT (GMT - 7): https://riverside.fm/studio/lo-fi--hushed (What time is this in my timezone?)
Light a candle (as possible): To physically acknowledge and welcome the fire of the Spirit’s presence
Hum: The research shows that humming (like singing and laughing) calms our nerves and enhances our sympathy. I begin with 3 long hums (feel free to join in). Humming settles my body and spirit while slowing the chug of my train of thoughts.
Bow: I bow to symbolize my head dropping into my heart as well as to literally bow before Mystery.
A thought before Lectio: A short musing and grounding to prepare us
Lectio / Reading: (~ 5 - 10 minutes)
Poem will be read 3 times.
Notice any words, phrases, thrusts, or themes that draw your attention.
Meditatio / Discursive Meditation (~5 minutes):
What is this poem saying to me? What word/phrase/thrust/or theme hovered? What surprised me? What am I being asked to notice? How did my body respond? My mind and heart? My spirit and soul? Who does this remind me of and why? How might God/Mystery/Higher Power be speaking to me through it? These are some example questions of inquiry to startle bring attention into active engagement with the poem.There is a level of effortful engagement in this movement of the practice. This can be done interiorly (that is what I do), in a journal (sometimes I do this), or talking aloud (rarely for me).
Oratio / Prayer (~5 minutes):
What is this poem calling out of me? How does this change my rutted ways of viewing reality? How is this poem asking me to show up in the world? What conversation does this start with the Beloved? You can see how this movement is prayerfully active out of the text and into conversation with God/Mystery/Higher Power. These are some example questions of prayerful longing in active relationship with God through the poem. I often find meditatio and oratio swing back and forth towards one another like a porch swing in a prairie wind. Once that wind settles to stillness, the invitation to the fourth movement opens.Contemplatio / Contemplation (~ 10 - 15 minutes):
This movement is being open to the passive reception of undisciplined grace.
Reflection:
After the Lo-Fi & Hushed session (and throughout the week), practitioners can return to this post and share any reflections or insights on the practice in the comment section below. The purpose is to 1) meaningfully integrate the practice through reflection 2) bear witness to the practice of others through reading their experiences 3) connect across the common bonds of a shared practice.
Sharing Reflections after Lo-Fi & Hushed
Communal reflection can be powerful, restorative, and encouraging. That is what the comment space after a Lo-fi & Hushed session is for. To help orchestrate that, here are the snappy guidelines.
Share from the heart what you experienced in the practice. Let that guide what you post. Some insights are given in contemplative practice to be shared. Paradoxically, more is not always more. Contemplative teacher James Finley says that “brevity forces clarity.” Let that guide the length of your post.
Be good to yourself. Allow the Divine to hold what arises as you can. And be patient with yourself.
This is not a therapeutic space. Best to take therapy to the professionals.
Above all, be kind. If you post unkind things here your comments will be deleted and you will be booted from Contemplify. This is a place of written reflection to edify the journey. Do not self-promote or market (no urls to your website, books, sales, etc).
Enjoy the gift of sharing and learning from one another. Your contribution means a lot. Thank you!
Shared a reflection on the practice by clicking the “Leave a comment” button below.
I often quote the great Barry Lopez about 'going to where there is life'. That is how you build community, stay open, invest in generosity and Spirit. Today, i was slapped on the back of the head by "To go in the dark with a light is to know the light." The darkness has lessons to impart without light interrupting its unbrokenness.
It has been said that the dark night of the soul that John of the Cross beautifully writes is actually a light so bright it appears as darkness. I like that. But today I appreciated the sense of an absence of light, the full weight of darkness, calling upon language of emptiness. There was no equating it with despair, but the open feeling of standing beneath a night sky. I felt small in a vastness. Yet knowing i am small in a vastness kept me connected. I felt the invitation to be humble on a path of darkness, of unsightedness as trustworthy insight. A trust is indeed required. In a spot of life seeking to control a few outcomes (always a temptation), but to go dark is to trust in the Mystery that yields a releasement. So here i sit, listening to the dark "bloom and sing".
I first heard this poem at the close of a Tenebre service in 2015. I include it in the version of Tenebre that I offer on Wednesday in Holy Week. So it was a delight to read, chew, pray, and listen for my "so that..." in a different context and liturgical season, and season of Creation (for those of us in the northern hemisphere the darkness is about as long as it can be). I've been wrestling with the metaphors of darkness and light this Advent, privately and publicly (and reminding there are also dawn and dusk - transition times that disrupt the binary).
I was drawn to the imperative, "go dark" - and that's what I've been trying to do since returning from my desert retreat. Berry supports my current experience that the dark, and darkness, and perhaps the accompanying silence are not evil, and to be avoided, from which to be protected. "Go dark." Go sightless, and experience the blooming and singing and the other elements of Creation that journey there with me. Here are Peace, Hope, Joy and Love.
The Divine responds to the longing (hollering) of my heart with Love. When I (Mr. Busy) go dark, I am nurtured by Love. My heart and voice then sing of the living Love that flows and is present for all. I am enkindled to burn and glow with the Divine Triune: The Name of Love, The Power of Love, The Glory of Love. That's what I know in the Dark.
PS - it was deeply connecting to know I was in this practice with 26 (and more who practiced later) others. Community dispersed and practicing together! Huzzah! To know, in the dark, that others are there - with me always.