Tuesday, May 14 Reflection from Sheona Della-Fort

Only yesterday I was researching passing the mantle in the old testament when Elijah the prophet gave Elisha a double portion of his spirit and threw his mantle down for him to pick him up. “So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him,” 1 Kings 19:19.

In this passage, Elijah had just been instructed by the LORD to anoint Elisha to continue his work.  In some Jewish traditions during the Passover, there is a seat left for Elijah to come in and sit at the meal table or the door is left ajar. 

In the New Testament Jesus appeared between Elijah and Moses in a cloud  - a bit like the Shekinah glory.  Jesus was Jewish and his disciples who were John, James and Peter were well versed in the old testament.  The thing is Jesus didn't have to introduce the 'dead prophets' to his disciples by saying now this is Mr Moses and this is Mr Elijah. The disciples knew by their own 'Spirit' who these prophets were.  Peter also went about trying to build some temple booths, tabernacles or shelters for all of them but Jesus told him no and said not to make them. What Jesus was trying to do was to say the Spirit cannot be contained in a shelter. 

John the disciple was one who embraced mystical visions because a lot of his visions were on the island of Patmos whilst he was alone.  I remember once being accused of not belonging to a particular faith tradition because at the time I had left 'church'.  I said to the very dogmatic person that neither was John the apostle being in 'church' because he was alone and having experiences of the Divine in nature on a Greek Island.

The Celtic Church revered the Apostle John as their founding disciple and people like St Cuthbert also had mystical visions. I live near Holy Island in Northumberland, UK where St Cuthbert as a young boy 'saw' the the soul of St Aiden ascend into heaven.

The Celtic tradition here in Northumberland was very much about nature, animals and seeing 'Christ' in the stranger.  St Cuthbert's body was wrapped in the Nature Goddess Silk and in a way it is like a mantle 

The Nature Goddess Silk at Durham on JSTOR

St Peter, known as the Rock was however the saint revered in the church at Rome and under Emperor Constantine unified all the various religions under one Church. The Roman Catholic Church. 

I am studying for my MA Psychosynthesis Psychology and I started this because I too had 'mystical' experiences and had a unitive experience of all faiths and none coming together. It was when I was alone and meditating in my flat.  I decided to explore this further and found other faith traditions had these experiences. In fact the University of Trinity St David in Wales has research centres such as The Alister Hardy Trust: religious & spiritual experiences. (studyspiritualexperiences.org) and 

Healing-Justice-Well-Being – Global Humanity for Peace Institute (ghfp.institute)

This morning I went to put oil in my car and top it up with water.  It is a very mundane thing to do but Jack Kornfield a renowned Buddhist and psychologist in America  said ' After enlightenment do the laundry'.