Walking the Mystical Path with Practical Feet: Being ‘both-and’ in and ‘either-or’ world
We have a new bird visiting our garden. The sound of crows, magpies, butchies, rainbow lorikeets, and noisy miners are familiar and lovely. These are kind of like the predictable bird traffic of our little back yard eco system. We get a sporadic noisy cockatoo flyover, and occasional kookaburra disrupting the dynamic and making all the above upset. And even more occasionally we’ve been blessed with the sighting and nesting of tawny frogmouth. But for the last few days, there’s been a new sound coming from the tree tops. A “too—whitt, too— whitt”. Familiar from bush walking but not for ‘home’ ….
I’ve had a ritual for almost 2 decades now, of rising earliest (in my house) and doing some form of contemplation to transition from sleep to awake. Over the years this took various forms from sitting in mediation and physical yoga practices, to sunrise neighbourhood walks.
In the last few years – initiated by covid lockdowns - I’ve prefaced these formal practices with a simple act of making coffee, then enjoying this as I sit on my back deck looking at, into, through and beyond my backyard. Letting sleep lift while I look, listen and sense the world enter me, and myself enter the world. I’ve come to know the flora and fauna of my immediate back yard rather intimately. A simple but meaningful gift of reconnection, that came from a forced slowing down, that helped me to ‘think’, ‘see’ and ‘be’ in a completely new way that isn't purely contemplative and meditative, nor is it wholly cognitive.
In her books and talks, cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien says that post-modern life offers all of us a “golden invitation …. to walk the mystical path with practical feet”. This is truly an incredible phrase, and one I’ve been consciously trying to embrace as a living question.
How do I do that? … walk the mystical path with practical feet? What does that look like? … feel like? … act like? What does that even mean?
Arrien goes on to describe quite perfectly the tension of opposites that you might be familiar with, where you’re “ … walking on one leg in the outer world, and have not dropped our other leg into the inner world [… or … ] … walking on one leg in the interior worlds and exploring inner life, but not applying our other leg in the outer world”.
For me this evokes a clear image of the gargantuan effort it takes, to try and move along in the world, on one leg! To make changes, navigate challenge, reach goals, etc, by doing a weird hoppity-hop-along. Grunt, grunt, grunt …. Why is nothing changing!?
Surely you’d move along more efficiently and powerfully, dance with grace and agility if both legs and path united? Imagine bringing the wisdom, insights and seeing that you thought could only can occur during deep contemplation and meditative states into everyday consciousness, and as you get about doing the mundane and necessary things in the world of home, work, and others.
What is your default way of being? In the outer world, in action and doing, keeping busy, planning, working. Or the inner world of dreaminess, contemplation, distance and musing, and spirituality?
While the word mystical / mysticism / mystic definitely holds a numinous and sacred quality, it doesn’t have to be religious (but it can). The capacity to walk the mystical path predates religion as we know it today. In his extraordinary book ‘Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save The World’, indigenous scholar and art critic Tyson Yunkaporta attempts to educate a collective Western culture in how an indigenous mind – a mystical mind - can offer real sustainable solutions to the world’s biggest collective ecological, social, political and psychological problems. Very practical stuff.
And this is not for the purpose of replacing western logic, or turning back the clock to become hunter-gatherers once more. But for expanding consciousness, and rewiring our neurology to become a more holistic system that he describes as:
1) a mind that is in relationship and connected to others (kinship mind),
2) that values narrative as a powerful mode of knowledge transmission (story mind),
3) where metaphor and symbolism are valuable ways of knowing and understanding the world and facilitating action (dreaming mind),
4) where trance and immersive experiences help you tap into collective knowledge beyond personal experiences (ancestor mind), and last
5) where a high and broad perspective that encompassed context, relationships and whole systems together enables creative solutions (pattern mind).
This describes a non-linear process of thinking or extra-cognition, as opposed to linear or hierarchical thinking that’s valued by science and modern systems. While thinking based on Western traditions might consider this way as disconnected from reality, for indigenous people this was a constant state of being. It just was. And, it was a state of being that all our ancestors (even if you’re of Western origin) possessed! And one that most of us have become disconnected from, but can reconnect to, and wed to modern life.
How can I stretch my mind to incorporate and value both mystical [expansive, holistic and extra cognitive] ways of being as well as analytic reasoning? At the same time?
While it might feel like this relationship between the inner symbolic, sacred, mystical and outer literal, scientific and rational is based on a chronic and unsolvable dichotomy. It needn’t be. I’m committed to living and exploring ways to marry the two. That’s not about turn taking, or a doing something this way then that way, but by living in a way that is both-and not either/or. That’s both connected to the mystery, and pragmatic. This means that together, something completely new is born from the union – a unique 3rd way or 3rd element.
Modern day mystic, Carolyn Myss, speaks about the intuitive shift required to move from horizontal time, and linear thinking, to ‘vertical consciousness’ (or deep time/ancestor-mind) and a holographic perception - where you see and respond to your whole field not just to what is directly in front of you (like pattern-mind, kinship-mind). Similarly Joe Dispenza uses quantum consciousness to challenge our idea of a predictable, linear reality to remind us that a number of potentials or 3rd ways, exist in this ‘field’ when you are truly present.
But beyond these more esoteric concepts, and Yunkaporta’s labyrinth (this mind blowing book requires more than 1 reading), I’ve been intrigued with others who are each bringing mysticism into the here-and-now world in a way that’s useful, practical and effects change in a more mundane way.
Psychologist, storyteller and author Sharon Blackie, speaks of how truly inhabiting the world around us (i.e. art, the natural world, the body, objects, places, others) can bring us to an experience of oneness that knows that everything, absolutely everything about us is ‘alive’ and present even across time and space. That by being fully present and becoming enchanted by them, these ‘things’ can speak to you, teach you, and provide answers to the personal and collective issues of the day. You honour the messages received, even if they might not make sense from a pure rational mind, and bring that wisdom into the world.
Similarly, author, poet and ‘neo-troubadour animist’ Sophie Strand takes enchantment further. She includes in her “council” of advisors, not only the people in her community, but the creatures, plants and man-made structures of her world, as well as the micro-organisms and fungi that are contributing to her debilitating chronic illness. Both Blackie and Strand seek to understand and use the mysterious, symbolic and metaphoric language of these living and non-living, human and non-human beings to heal, to build wisdom, connection, and a sense of belonging that ultimately can provide subtle, sometimes inexplicable, but powerful solutions to problems around choice, health, loneliness, creativity, ecology, and leadership.
I find this way of living in the world - of speaking to and listening to and engaging with your whole environment, with your fully embodied self, as mystical and so so very practical and real. It requires a different pace, and an attitude of curiosity and wonder that’s not naive but deeply wise. It requires you become more comfortable with a kind of knowing-but-not- knowing in an absolutist way, where you linger and explore a symbolic message rather that immediately require the facts and proof. Trusting that your strong conditioning toward organisation, and logic won’t become lost but will be reutilised. This way you start to learn the language and story of your world and become a part of it - you belong to the world - very practical and real.
If you’re stuck on how to start; begin with questions like these, to the things that seem to be present, appear and seem prominent in your environment. Learn to listen to the response from body, senses, mind, or environment, and become familiar with this as a new language.
“What is the message here in [e.g. displaced forest bird that has entered my urban garden] ?
“What is this creature, tree, smell, personal encounter, structure … etc …. trying to communicate to me?”
“ How might this inform an issue or problem I’m experiencing right now?” “ How can I work with this in my life now? or later?”
“ How might this be good medicine for me or my community?”
I get that it’s kind of weird, but also, it’s not that weird. At least we can begin to make it less so. If you try, or are already practicing practical mystics, I’d love to hear how “walking the mystical path with practical feet” has shifted the way you live and experience the world. What’s changed in your life - both small things and big things - as you begin engage with yourself and your world in this way?
Resources (some have affiliate links* - if you purchase via the link I may get a small commision, at no extra cost to you)
Angeles Arrien, The Four Fold Way *
Tyson Yunkaporta, Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking can Save the World *
Sophie Strand, Make Me Good Soil, on substack
Sharon Blackie, The Enchanted Life: Unlocking the Magic of the Everyday *
Joe Dispenza, Becoming Supernatural. How Common People Are Doing the Uncommon. *