St. AUGUSTINE & DISCERNMENT
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St. AUGUSTINE & DISCERNMENT
📝 Essence vs. Perception circa 400 CE
I enjoy reading. It is usually the old greats who fire in me a lost touch. An ancient circle, holding. Most recently I revisited, Plato, Cicero, Augustine, The Dead Sea Scrolls, the writings of Moses, Mary Magdalene and and further into biblical scripture that I cross examine with neurology, energetics and my own theories. I’m just raging over here in my free time… where’s my staff. Archimedes! Ehem…
Those of you who have been reading my words over the years or knew my social media channels, know that I believe discernment is a key ingredient in spiritual expansion. Discernment is a muscle, a skill, an art which allows a person to see through outer form and into the essence of truth. A discerning person will not fall for the false claims of the showman selling trinkets for trillions. A discerning person will know to go left when everyone else says go right. A discerning person will see the shadows the masses give substance to, and shine a light on the fly making the world fear the false. A discerning person is not as concerned with perceptions and outer form, knowing it is the energy and essence of a thing that will cause impact, and one’s interaction with the thing that will create karma, or another word for karma is doing, as Alan Watts likes to put it (which I do appreciate). May your interactions with truth be conscious.
Why? Well because one’s level of discernment is catalytic to making wise choices: aka making dumb-ass decisions that you regret over and over….or not doing that. A discerning person becomes wise. I’ll give you a simple example. Let’s say a friend calls regularly always complaining about the same kinds of problems. One month it’s this, the next month it’s that. Next year— same deal. And you begin to notice a pattern. Of course you want to be kind and to be there for your friend. So you give your time and energy for the calls. You go over and cook dinner. Maybe you go out of your way to check in. This friend is on your mind. Maybe instead of taking care of something you need to do for yourself, you heed your friend's desire for comfort and offer your energy. Then, you notice you start to get tired. This tiredness does not seem to go away. However, you ignore it. The next week your body gets sick and you have to take off work. You aren’t as present for your kids. Your friend calls again with the same problem, desiring the same energy, and not wanting to change any behavior or help themselves. In this scenario is the kind thing to do to keep giving? Or to stop? This is an obvious example— as it is meant to be, but discernment would be required here. You see, a medicine woman, an elder healer with discernment, might have a different approach with your complaining friend here. This prayer was given to me by my friend Amy, founder of OLJA (obsessed with these products, as I prefer the best) and I found it so inspiring.
Medicine Woman's Prayer
I will not rescue you,
For you are not powerless.
I will not fix you
For you are not broken.
I will not heal you,
For I see you in your wholeness.
I will walk with you through the darkness,
as you remember your light.
A discerning person will hold compassion without an overindulgence in sentimentality, succumbing to the complainer’s victimhood. Now, I am not talking about callous, selfishness and being unable to show support for people in times of need. I am talking about something else. By indulging a poor perception and untrained mind committed to staying low and seeking attention by way of it, one gives their own substance to shadow. In fact, you serve it.
Every breath we take and every move we make makes a statement. The darkness must come to the light. Light does not stoop her brow to the floor to make anti-evolutionary forces more comfortable with itself.
Discernment is required at all times.
I love how St. Augustine puts it in Confessions, Book V. Here, he is discussing a time of philosophical transition from one school of thought to another. He is genuine in his query and does his damn research! I appreciate people who use their own minds and hearts to make decisions. I appreciate it when people ask questions and look deeply into the world and themselves to find their own truth. Here, he discusses discernment of truth beautifully:
“I found him a man of agreeable personality, with a pleasant manner of speech, who patterd off the usual Manichean arguments with a great deal more than the usual charm. But my thirst was not to be satisfied in this way, however precious the cup and however exquisite the man who served it. My ears were already ringing with these tales and they seemed to me none the better for being better expressed, nor true simply because they were eloquently told. Neither did I think a pleasant face and a gifted tongue were proof of a wise mind. Those who had given me such assurances about him must have been poor judges. They thought him wise and thoughtful simply because they were charmed by his manner of speech.
I have known another sort, who look on truth with suspicion and are unwilling to accept it if it is presented in find, rounded phrases. But in your wonderful, secret way, my God, you had already taught me that a statement is not necessarily true because it is wrapped in fine language or false because it is awkwardly expressed…. You had already taught me this lesson and the converse truth, that an assertion is not necessarily true because it is badly expressed or false because it is finely spoken. I had learnt that wisdom and folly are like different kinds of food. Some are wholesome and some are not, but both can be served equally well on the finest china dish or the meanest earthenware. In just the same way, wisdom and folly can be clothes alike in plain words or the finest flowers of speech. “
- St. Augustine, Confessions, Book V
As you have come through an emergence of new energy this summer and stand in a portal of alchemy, surrender, integration and letting go this fall; I would invite you to make discernment your own best friend. If you call upon your highest self, I’ve no doubt you will be assisted by all the forces of Good in your endeavor to be in full integrity with your true self, discerning effortlessly what is aligned for your soul, or not.
And if it’s not aligned— just let that shit go. Say thank you. Wow, have I been letting go, letting go, letting go. In sitting with life in my fully empowered, beautiful, grown, healthy, embodied female goddess-self— oh my, has it has become painstakingly clear what is hollow and fruitless, and what has amps and what does not. In my personal life, if there are no amps I’m not even throwing the dice to see. Not interested. Boring. Lack of substance and depth is a waste of my time and energy.
Life itself and the Universe will remove that which is not for you. Even if it hurts, stay grateful for the perceived losses. There are always unseen forces at play conspiring to guide us into our most majestic lives. I truly have faith in that.
With Love,
Kalisa