8 Forces = Creation

hair flung into the air by belly dancer

During the years time moved around and gave me age I've thought about the so-called struggle with the Devil, and I began to see the emphasis on him as a Magician's Trick; a clever way of throwing out of sync where the focus of spiritual work should be: within. Not only is the universe reflected within our being the shadows and the light of our souls is reflective of the elements that compose Creation. Creation is a dance of elements. It is math and law, as Old Man taught me over the same years that gave me age, and insights.

Morihei Ueshiba, who founded Aikido, observed and shared that "Eight forces sustain creation: movement and stillness, solidification and fluidity, extension and contraction, unification and division."  When the Sioux war chief, Sitting Bull was in a battle he said, "Today is a good day to die, for all the things of my life are here." Jesus said, "I am the way the truth and the Light..."

These are long ways of men saying what women teach by their powers of Birth. Life-death-resurrection is the fundamental thread within the mystery teachings of Judaism, and from the ancient mysterious of the Egyptians, and many other indigenous traditions lives these sensible  observations felt in the way one lives with the Earth, our Mother.

War-like cultures have to have an enemy. Islam talks about the holy jihad as the inner battle, or struggle one undertakes within one's soul between light and dark, good and evil. These themes are fundamental to growth, and uncovering the mysteries we come from and are born into and are compelled to explore. If one needs a devil to focus on to become his/her best self; so be it. It is just that Old Man forbade me giving Satan any energy by acknowledging, or saying his name. Old Man said Christians say his name, and gave him more credit for things than they do Jesus!

- Gregory E. Woods, 

Keeper of Stories

10.10.13