Review: Desert Wisdom
Just What I Need For This Moment
The Middle Eastern tradition from the Goddess to the Sufis by Neil Douglas-Klotz, Thorsons paperback 1995 reviewed by Ayesha Foot.
"In the beginning ...
in archetypal form -
with the power to be something in principle -
like a point that unfolds itself
in wings, in flame,
in all directions,
conceiving the idea of a universe
for better and for worse ..."
For larger image click on picture (36299)
Rarely have I met a book which moved me at so many levels: the illumination of a familiar phrase, the excitement of the new, the recognition of something I have always known, but never been able to express fully. Wherever I open it I find just what I need for this moment. I had wrestled with the word Bereshith, expressed so beautifully in the quotation above, for a couple of years in the development of a dance before I read these words, and my eyes filled with tears.
Neil Douglas-Klotz uses a mystical method of translation traditional in the Middle East, and uncovers layer upon layer of meaning. For example, Bismillah, the first word of every sura of the Quran:
the next thing that happens occurs only
Through the waves of the whole universe yearning toward a goal,
By means of the entire unfolding cosmos,
ln the light of one single unity of purpose-
which is the clear sign and name of the Only Being,
the Ultimate Force behind being and nothingness.
We begin
With the Divine Void calling our name before we rayed into existence."
These are words to roll around the tongue, to read aloud alone or to friends, to glory in the sound and imagery, to allow the sound to penetrate every cell of your body. Yet to read Desert Wisdom only as literature is to miss at least half its value. For Neil Douglas-Klotz includes body prayers of a kind traditional in the Middle East, normally passed only from teacher to pupil, and which he himself has been sharing for years in this way as a Sufi teacher. Now he feels that the need of the Earth is so great that it is appropriate to share the wisdom openly. The need for a genuine spirituality, the experience of the sacred, rather than concepts about it, is widely recognised. So, too, is the desperate search for excitement to satisfy the intense longing of the soul for fulfilment which drives our society towards more and more consumerism. These practices help us to find within ourselves the answer to that need. Four thousand years ago, people in Babylonia-Assyria pondered the role of humanity and its relationship with the whole of creation:
let abundance and power come:
let humanity take on the consciousness
of the whole creation
and be absorbed by this task."
The author likens his new book to a hand-made carpet with many threads. It is possible to discern different patterns by approaching it from different angles, for this is a book which can be used and enjoyed in many ways. It is divided into three major sections: Voices of Diversity, Voices of Interiority and Presence, Voices of Communion, based on the views of Swimme and Berry on the evolution of life and consciousness. A second Contents list is built around the traditions from which the writings are drawn : Hebrew, Ancient Middle Eastern, Aramaic Christian, Quran and Hadith and classical Sufi poetry. The languages of the writings under consideration are richly symbolic, intended to be understood at many levels, based on the root-and-pattern construction. Textual notes give examples.
Desert Wisdom defies classification, bringing together many cultures, eco-feminism, earth-based spiritual practice, poetry and deep wisdom - and may therefore cause a problem to librarians. But who cares? For it is not a book to sit on a shelf, but one to treasure, to read and re-read, to work with in many ways. If I was allowed to keep only one book, Desert Wisdom would be that one.
So let us listen to the voice of Wisdom:
earth-wisdom,
breath of the mother,
source of all livingness in form.
Desert Wisdom, Thorsons, ISBN 0-06-061996-1
Copyright © 1995 The International Communique Ltd