Time as art by Cynthia Winton-Henry

Time as Art Spiritual Instruction Module: Cynthia Winton-‐Henry What does sacred time feel like? Time as Art The Role of Sister Rhythm Attuned to Cosmic Time: You in the Great Wheel of Time The Big Times Attuning to Lunar Time What time technologies are you practicing? What is being initiated now?

Time is a big teacher. It is easy to fear, force, rush and deny time. We get stuck in the past, future trip, and we lose NOW! Can we ensoul both temporal and infinite time? Directing a performance called “Some are Wise and Some are Otherwise,” monologues by women over fifty, it seemed important to play with the changing season of my body, how the Great Wheel of Time is advancing my wrinkles and increasing my do-‐si-‐dos with death. Time’s passage is inevitable. Will time be part of my mystic love affair? Mary Oliver as always, says it well. when death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder blades, I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering: what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness? And therefore I look upon everything as a brotherhood and a sisterhood, and I look upon time as no more than an idea, and I consider eternity as another possibility, and I think of each life as a flower, as common as a field daisy, and as singular, and each name a comfortable music in the mouth, tending, as all music does, toward silence, and each body a lion of courage, and something precious to the earth. When it's over, I want to say all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms. If I make peace with time, history still beats with an evolutionary pulse demanding more than we know how to give.

Each day can feel urgent. Media anxiety around the Mayan calendar and climate change push us to reconsider the need for a planetary consciousness now that we can picture the little Earth from the moon and download visuals of heavenly bodies that make us feel so finite. Urgency, however, is not how Earth or Souls dance. As Mama Donna Henes says, One by one, in tiny increments Candle by candle, gesture by effort Wish by prayer, concern by care We feed the life-‐fires of the soul And light the infinite universe, Little by little from within.

What does sacred time feel like? In a clock-‐heavy world screaming for human productivity, sacred time barely stands a chance. Add your religious calendars and activities that tell you what kind of time it is. Meanwhile, something new (and old) is happening. Spirituality is opening the door to enter sublime states without obligation. We’re discovering how to move back and forth between the sacred and ordinary whether driving down the highway or cooking in the kitchen.

It’s sacred time when we sense an upwelling of spontaneous transcendent energy and emotion. It needn’t feel dramatic. Both fundamentalists and new agers know what it is like to feel, aligned in time, guided by something Greater. Synchronicities occur and synergy happens. On the flip side we also bemoan feeling off track, our inner GPS desperately trying to reroute to a higher system. Call it bliss or the Holy Spirit; once we experience time that’s full of light, energy and presence, we seek it. We foreswear an ever ticking clock and claim the inner authority to name time on our own terms causing us to wonder Was it synchronous? that two years after Mom died the pansies the she and I loved volunteered and bloomed double on my winter porch? That the day she turned toward dying I burned my arm and imagined the moon sinking into the sea of the great snake saw the sun set twice on the southern sea then blew my heart into my hands an hour before I heard she no longer rose? that I had to fly thousands of miles home with my friend, a hospice chaplain that double Sunday on a flight prescheduled to fly into LA where Stephen and my sister picked us up, she, stripped of her job, no computer, phone. that Katie sang to Mom on her last night? that I reached and spoke to my brother? that Stephen’s family gathered nearby to honor his uncle? and he visited the woman in whose house we married who’d suggested he be a hospice chaplain? Was it synchronous that on mom's last night waiting with George and Val I awoke at 7:15, Wednesday to find her breath changed?

that I felt a strange release and saw mom’s spirit lift? that Mom in a new white gown chosen by my sister looked like an angel before her body was taken? that Green Tree Villa staff wept and embraced us and as we sat by a fountain surrounded by lavender Lurley Katharine Wentworth– mother, lover, dancer, traveler, handiworker departed much loved, much loved. Ultimately, only I can decide if my timing is good and I am living in sacred time. When mom died I believe I was. I take comfort in that.

Time as Art Science says we live within four realities: space, energy, time and matter. These are also the foundation of dance. Resisting and engaging them are central to all wisdom initiations. Lyall Watson author of Gifts of Unknown Things writes, Poetry and music exist in time. Painting and architecture are a part of space. But only the dance lives at once in both space and time. In it the creator and the thing created, the artist and the expression, are one. Each participant is completely in the other. There could be no better metaphor for an understanding of the cosmos. We begin to realize that our universe is in a sense brought into being by the participation of those involved in it. It is a dance, for participation is its organizing principle. This is the important new concept of quantum mechanics. It takes the place in our understanding of the old notion of observation, of watching without getting involved. Quantum theory says it can't be done. That spectators can sit in their

rigid row as long as they like, but there will never be a performance unless at least one of them takes part. And conversely, that it needs only one participant, because that one is the essence of all people and the quintessence of the cosmos. To dance well requires awareness, guidance and practice. Using a time-‐sense teaches us how to take one step at a time, recognize arcs of time, respect time’s passing, the time it takes to do things, and how to value endings and beginnings. We learn to “waste” time, “have” time, and to shift between clock time and flying time. We discover how to make time meaningful. As Ecclesiastes beautifully states, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every purpose under the heavens.” Once initiated into time we can embrace the time we are in and play with it like art. Our body in present time is key as meditators, contemplatives and artists know. John Naft writes We traverse the spiritual path much more sure-‐footedly if we are rooted in sensation, in a robust foundation of contact with our inner energy body, which mediates direct perception of our physical body and supports our contact with the present moment, our presence in the here and now. A great deal of effort goes into the growth, care, and feeding of our physical body. No less effort is needed to grow, care for, and feed our inner body. The stages of that process can be outlined as: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Relaxing Our Body Body Calm Recognizing Sensation Sensing Parts Sensing the Whole Body Energy Breathing 6

7. Sensation in Movement 8. Stabilizing the Inner Body 9. Body Presence Those who practice InterPlay are lucky to get such a full and creative education in how to be present to self, others, and the world using every media: voice, movement, stillness, contact, and words.

Sister Rhythm Humans breathe on average 25,920 times per day, which is the number of years in a great Platonic year, i.e. the number of years it take the sun to complete full cycle of the zodiac.

We can say rhythm is everything. Musician Mairi Campbell adds, “Gravity is pulse.” Earth bodies move to the rise and fall of time. How do we play with time? If you been a student of music or dance then, you’ve played with rhythm and learned that you can lose the

Rhythm (from Greek ῥυθμός, rhythmos, "any regular recurring motion, symmetry"[1]) generally means a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements…In the performance arts rhythm is the timing of events on a human scale; of musical sounds and silences, of the steps of a dance, or the meter of spoken language and poetry. Rhythm may also refer to visual presentation, as "timed movement through space" and a common language of pattern unites rhythm with geometry. Wikipedia

beat and stray from the rhythm.

Studying African dance in college, I couldn’t tell the down from the upbeat much less hear changes in rhythm. Since I danced to my own beat it was good that I could improvise. What a surprise when on my 50th birthday during a soul retrieval the practionner found my sense of rhythm. A day or two later I picked up a drum. Letting hand and heart come together, I felt rhythm pour out of me. I’ll never forget my own joyous, natural rhythm, the wisdom of my body. Treva Bedinghaus says timing in dance is being able to "let go" and allow yourself to express your feelings through your movements, instead of trying to keep count of the beats in your head. When you achieve perfect timing, your dancing will appear relaxed and natural. You will no longer need to count beats, as your body will be fully aware of its place in the music at all times. Ananda Ray’s Choreographers Secret Toolbox suggests we practice 1) moving on a scale from slowest slow to fastest fast, 2) Changing rhythm (metered and syncopated, accent) and 3) Measuring actions in time (momentum, tense, minutes/hours). The ability to pause is another key to embodying sacred time. Rest is embedded in patterns of sleeping, rising, activity, and seasons. Wayne Muller in Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest implores, Sabbath time is a revolutionary challenge to the violence of

overwork, because it honors the necessary wisdom of dormancy. If certain plant species do not lie dormant during winter, the plant begins to die off. Rest is not just a psychological convenience; it is a spiritual and biological necessity. Perhaps this is why, in most spiritual traditions, ‘Remember the Sabbath’ is more than simply a lifestyle suggestion. The fact that it is so easy to override rest may be why we are commanded, “Honor the Sabbath.” Once we know how to affect time, we can really play with it. As a performer, teacher, ritualist and social artist I’ve learned how to make time disappear by creating conditions that open up easy focus and transfix attention. I skillfully play between what ancient Greece differentiated as chronos and kairos time. According to Wikipedia “Chronos refers to chronological or sequential time. (Kairos) signifies a time lapse, a moment of indeterminate time in which everything happens.” Kairos correlates to what I call our “Flaps Up” Big Body and the mundane “Flaps Down” Little Body correlates to chronos. While our big body touches eternity we can also manifest soulfulness in everyday life. I call this Ensoulment. The fastest route to integrating soul on Earth is through the time arts of music and dance that integrate the big and smaller self. Humans unlock the secrets of time through song and dance. Dance

unlocks energy. Drum unlocks time. Together they ignite sacred Power Time. Layne Redmond who wrote When The Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm tracked evidence of women playing frame drums in the region known as Turkey as early as 5000 BC. In DRUMM magazine she wrote,

It is important to comprehend the significance of women’s control of sacred music and dance in Egypt. Religious ceremonies based on music and dance can synchronize the underlying energy of the mind and directly influence our perceptions of reality. Ritual influences our modes of awareness that both underlie and transcend the normal patterns of consciousness. Rites can be used to rouse and shape group emotion and behavior, developing a continuous shared consciousness. Music vibrationally transmits states of mind directly from consciousness to consciousness. Thus, politically, music can resonate simultaneously on far more levels — emotional, spiritual, intellectual and physical — than can words alone. As music initiates changes in group consciousness, it can affect vast social and economic cycles.

When I met Layne in person she brought to mind Miriam in the Book of Exodus who led the victory dance on the other side of the Red Sea. In seminary I claimed her my ancestor after reading in my Oxford Annotated Bible, “She was known as a prophetess to her people because of her ability to sing and dance.” Scholars who consider her chant to be the oldest couplet in the Bible believe she was a spiritual equal to Moses and Aaron. The story goes that she was later ostracized due to a disease.

I wonder about that.

Those with sacred timing wield power. Perhaps why the Vatican was built atop one of Cybele’s temples where women practiced the ecstatic art of dance and drum; why laws were made to stop Native and African Americans dancing and drumming; and why drum and dance were

outlawed in the church. Barbara Ehrenreich explores this in Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy.

You in the Great Wheel of Time There is music in the spacing of the spheres. Pythagoras 6th c. BC Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all you stars of light! Psalm 148 All that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth glorifies God. Al-‐Jumuah 62 Quran Now the Mother Earth, And the Father Sky, meeting, Joining one another, helpmates ever, they. Navajo Prayer I was in my twenties when I discovered that Cynthia means daughter or goddess of the moon. Curious. What did the moon have to do with me? I knew about the star over the manger and felt awe below the blazing Milky Way, but little of the giant synchronizer called the Universe, the turning of the one, or the world traditions that honor Lunar Goddesses. I did not know that “until the 17th century, astrology was considered a scholarly tradition that helped drive the development of astronomy. It was commonly accepted in political and cultural circles, and some of its concepts were used in traditional studies like alchemy, meteorology and medicine.”

Astrology is a silent player in most social circles, even though stars played a five thousand year starring role (pun intended) in Indian, European, Asian and Mayan cultures.

Mysticism and body wisdom call for deeper listening. In The Secret History of the World, Mark Booth offers a fascinating historical synthesis of the wisdom schools where he points out that in every culture the evolution of God's, Goddesses, and wisdom had roots in the influences of the planets and stars.

While the development of reason, industry, and individual free will probably created a more authoritative middle class, a lost connection to the stars may have cost us our ability to sync up with heavenly bodies. If we don’t value our dance with heaven do we then lose touch with the universal mystery? Could detaching from the stars contribute to the rise in individualism and the self-‐centered ability to pillage people who gather beneath the Night Sky? Might reconnecting to the Moon, Stars and Planets reunite humankind? Disciples of a new Universe Story hope so.

Astrology may hold a key to universal consciousness as a tool that helps us recognize that everything is synchronously connected. Robert Ohotto says, "Astrology functions to unite the outer world with the inner invisible world, allowing us to see the duality as one." In other words the moon, sun, stars and planets are not just objects. They are like gods with massive influential powers. Why ignore Mercury in retrograde, the intervals when electrical, communication, and travel gets wonky? (I call it Gaia on her period) The Old Farmers Almanac says: “When Mercury is retrograde, remain flexible, allow time for extra travel, and avoid signing contracts. Review projects and plans at these times, but wait until Mercury is direct again to make any final decisions.” What time is it in relation to the movement of the stars and planets?

For me, rebuilding planetary consciousness is a kind of play where my awareness gently evolves over time. A friend gifted me with a reading the first time I had my chart read. The astrologer worked for the 49'ers. Then I met Gretchen Lawlor who writes for We'Moon: Gaia Rhythms for Womyn. She gave me a reading in exchange for an InterPlay workshop. I consulted her again during the 2008 recession when I felt like the Universe was picking on me. Another astrologer I’ve seen used Tarot to help me face old martyr patterns and step into Mystic Tech. Whether in good or hard times, it’s easy to take time personally. Astrology reminds that there is a lot more going in time and space than the self. Yet, who doesn’t love the idea of having a personal relationship with heaven? I love Rob Brezny’s Free Will Astrology column. This word magi offers what the New York Times calls “little valentines, buoyant and spilling over with mischievousness…soul prognosis,” “witty parables, tender rants, cultural riffs, pagan wisdom, and lively ritual.” His book Pronoia “makes a case for a cagey optimism that requires a vigorous engagement with the dark forces and asks us to rethink life as a sublime game created for our amusement and illumination.” What do you think of his 2014 forecast for Gemini, my sign? A horticultural company in the UK is selling TomTato plants to home gardeners. Each bush grows both cherry tomatoes and white potatoes. The magic was accomplished through handcrafted hybridization, not genetic engineering. I foresee a comparable

marvel in your long-‐term future, Gemini. I'm not sure about the exact form it will take. Maybe you will create a product or situation that allows you to satisfy two different needs simultaneously. It's possible you will find a way to express two of your talents in a single mode. Or perhaps you will be able to unite two sides of you that have previously been unbonded. Congratulations in advance! Art is time. Time is art. I can play with that.

Big Times When Berdalee, InterPlayer, activist and minister of “elf-‐help” said, “You’ve got to meet Li at keepingtime.com,” I listened. Part of the generation proclaiming the “The Age of Aquarius,” (Unclear what you mean here) I couldn’t resist poking fun at the year 2000. I made black sweatshirts for that New Year that said Millennium Schmallennium: InterPlay Everyday. On the uphill side of 2012, something about time lit up. It didn’t take a lot of intuition to know that time was a deal. Li is a college professor who appears to be unusually called to develop a visionary calendar inspired by both the Mayan Calendar and an avid relationship with the stars. Communicating with her over the years I respect her cultural humility and the consistency in her explorations. Like her I now believe that there are MANY Forms of calendaring in the world, not just the Roman one, and that perhaps we don’t have to be so mono-‐calendric.

A number of friends and I began playing with Li’s colorful, spiraling, lunar-‐based Mayan inspired calendar. In the process • I began to recognize the 52-‐year cycles when each person completes a full round in their planetary dance and begins to move through the solar system again. I now take note of what happens in people's 52nd year and consider age 52 the beginning of true adulthood. • I learned to lightly sync to the rhythm and rhyme of 13-‐day waves that move through 13 months along a 13-‐year spiral of time. I love considering that it takes 13 days to manifest an

According to the Law of Time, modern humanity is in crisis because it is immersed in an erroneous and artificial perception of time, causing civilization to deviate at an accelerated rate from the natural order of the universe. To remedy this self-‐destructive situation, a collective unification into galactic consciousness is required. For this reason, José Argüelles promoted the return to a natural timing cycle through the regular measure of the 13-‐Moon 28-‐day calendar…using a master synchronization matrix that all other systems and counts could be synchronized by. For this reason he called it a synchronomoter, a tool for measuring synchronicity.

intention, not just a week. • I linked time to 13 primary joints in the body. • I came to enjoy that each day had a poetic meaning and energy like Yellow Worldbridger, Blue Star, or Green Dog, and that time tells a story. • I recognize the Mayan’s “day out of time” in July. • Connection to the lunar Hebrew and Wiccan seasons has grown.

Best of all Li’s calendar inspires the more mytho-‐poetic body relationship to time. Time is no longer something that passes or is just in my head. My imagination sings of the poetry of time. I’ve researched and played with the calendars of other Mayan calendar teachers especially Jose Arguelles who inspired Li. Arguelles gave rise to the 1987 Harmonic Convergence, was honored as the Closer of the Cycle by Mayan indigenous elders, and illuminated the Law of Time, the mathematics of synchronicity! He named the shift from linear to galactic time, and speaks of shifting from Time as Money to Time as Art. Remarkably he died at the exact time of his own birth March 23, 2011, precisely 1,328 years after the passing of Pacal Votan, the chief engineer revered for guiding the Mayan mission of inscripting stone monuments with precise astronomical and astrological information during his 52-‐ year reign. Arguelles’ ideas about time-‐planted seeds helped me realize this formula.

Spontaneity (Energy) + Synchronicity (Time and Space) + Synergy (Matter) = The Sacred Way of Time For me this is what I experience when I dance and improvise.

Attuning to Lunar Time A new moon teaches gradualness and deliberation and how one gives birth to oneself slowly. Patience with small details makes perfect a large work, like the universe. -Rumi

Once I began to pay attention to time in a synchronic way, I found my way back to the moon with the help of Jan Spiller's book, New Moon Astrology. Jan’s website dedicated to empowerment on the spiritual path offers that “Awareness and Intention are important at this time… keeping our eyes on ‘what’s right’ with situations and encouraging those pathways, (with) the bigger picture of the wants and needs of everyone involved in various situations -‐ including ourselves.” Along with the Old Farmers Almanac Jan invites us to pay attention to what we plant during new moon. By bringing awareness to both the timing of the moon and its movement through the twelve houses, she supports a practice of making 10 wishes on each month’s new moon. She proposes that annually each person enters what she calls a granddaddy power period. My granddaddy period occurs late January to early February during Aquarius. On reflection, I realized that big visions and initiations have occurred during this time. Taking Jan’s suggestion to make 40 wishes during this period each year my wishes are gentler as they push toward manifestation and can cause as much discomfort as joy. To help me appreciate the monthly affects of the moon Joa Datillo,

member of the Hidden Monastery, sends me Susan Baylies Lunar Phases page, a handy reference to the moons waxing, waning and planetary phases. Susan shares, “I made my first Lunar Phase Card in 1977 to increase my awareness of the moon’s influence in my life. I used to chart my menses to see if my rhythms felt different under different phases. I found that I worked more productively if I did my creative projects during the waxing moon (from new to Full). The waning moon time is better for final details and review, repetitive maintenance, house cleaning, etc.” I now interplay with the new moon, the wax and wane of the moon and the affect of its alignment with the planets each day.

What time technologies are you practicing? On the second new moon of January 2014, Chinese New Year, Year of the Horse I read “Horse provides a good and quick transportation for people before automobiles. Horse can give people a ride to their destination. Therefore, horse is not only a symbol of traveling, but also a sign of speedy success.” In other words, we might expect things to move speedily with fiery energy. We shall see. Will I be pushed, pulled or in synch with divine energy? I reflect: • What is being initiated now? • Am I practicing being in the present? • How am I playing with time?

• Do I want to speed time up or slow it down? • Am I in rhythm with life, with the moon and the stars? • Am I claiming what I notice? • Do I love the mystery of it all? • Am I in sync with time? • Do I have time? • What does it mean to take my time? • How often do I enter states of timelessness? What takes me there? Whether or not you are highly conscious of time arts, I believe if you are playing, embodied, and attuned to those around you, then you naturally activate that navigational star inside that guides you. Your timing and chances for success improve. In other words, if you are practicing spontaneity, synchronicity, and synergy, you’re probably aligning to the stars.

Links John Naft, Inner Frontier: Stages of Body Presence. http://www.innerfrontier.org/InnerWork/Archive/2009/20090112_St ages_of_Body_Presence.htm Space Time Energy Matter in Science http://science1.nasa.gov/astrophysics/big-‐questions/How-‐do-‐matter-‐ energy-‐space-‐and-‐time-‐behave-‐under-‐the-‐extraordinarily-‐diverse-‐ conditions-‐of-‐the-‐cosmos/ Space Time Energy in Dance http://educationcloset.com/2013/10/16/best-‐integrated-‐teaching-‐ elements-‐dance/ Timing in Dance http://dance.about.com/od/getstarteddancing/f/Timing.htm The Secret History of the World by Mark Booth http://www.amazon.com/Secret-‐History-‐World-‐Mark-‐ Booth/dp/1590201620 When Women Were Drummers by Layne Redmond http://www.drummagazine.com/features/post/when-‐the-‐drummers-‐ were-‐women/ Chinese Year of the Horsehttp://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/2014/2014Zodiac.htm Robert Ohotto: Intuitive Astrologer http://www.ohotto.com/features/astrological_ages_tour.asp. We'Moon: Gaia Rhythms for Womyn. http://wemoon.ws/wemoon.html Rob Brezny weekly emails http://www.freewillastrology.com/ Jan Spillers forecasts https://www.janspiller.com/connecting.php Li’s Keeping Time Calendar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmJQ73anCKs. More at http://stargazerli.com/calendars/learning-‐to-‐calendar-‐ journey/ Jose Arguelles, The Law of Time http://www.lawoftime.org/thirteenmoon/untyingtheknots.html Lunar Phases Calendar http://www.snakeandsnake.com/lunar.htm More resources http://www.snakeandsnake.com/moontime.htm