Where are we going?
Introducing the Faerie Hurricane

By Chris Paige

OtherWise on the Journey Home

There is something powerful about "place." Images and experiences of rest and home and stability. There is safety in the settledness, and rootedness of place. And these are critical things quite lacking in our culture at large -- community, connectedness, home. We need such stability and continuity in which to grow. We need such security in which to rest, re-member ourselves, and trust our wholeness.

Yet, the danger remains in becoming static in the stability, frozen in the rootedness, complacent in the settledness. Paradoxically, these are quite prominent themes in our culture. Indeed, it is strange and tragic that we can be so stuck but still without roots.

While we long for stability, our very being is essentially dynamic verb. Poetry in motion. We are most ourselves in this present moment -- which is transition. Evolving and changing -- just as the past moves into the present into the future. On the edge of existence from one moment to the next.

"Journey" is a great image to embrace this dynamic, transition, motion, verb-ness. If we image this journey like a vacation trip, then it incorporates the rest and play and relaxation. But it remains challenging to locate the blessings of stability, rootedness, connectedness, and home. Long vacations are great, but at the end, I am usually ready to come home. Yet, if we image this journey as the trip home, it is too easy to get caught up in the work of "getting there" and lose the joy that is possible on the way.

So, how do we talk about coming home to a place that is on the journey?

The place is called OtherWise. A home which is perpetually in motion.

Traditional Roots

The image of Hebrew/Jewish community (adopted within Christian tradition) is helpful in that "home" was often located with the traveling community more than with a particular physical place. In fact, when they overidentified with a particular place, they often got themselves into trouble -- as do we.

An interesting image from that same tradition is the "tabernacle." A tent in the wilderness where people come to hear the voice of God. A place where we come to rest and find support -- a place we come home. Yet, the tabernacle was portable. And as people come and go, the place itself is drawn forward on the journey.

The tension in both community and tabernacle images is that too often someone ends up becoming a control figure. Some people are in the community and others remain on the margins. Someone ends up guarding the door to the holy place in order to keep it "safe." Some are allowed in, and some are stopped at the door.

These are real issues in living in the sacred space of the OtherWise...

• Is it possible to have a community that is completely open/inclusive -- and still retains a useful identity?
  This is where the OtherWise challenge us to let go of our need for definition and identity.
  "Who do you say that I am?"
  Perhaps we let our actions and ministry speak for us.
  

• Is it possible to have a welcoming place/church/tent/center with no walls or doors or guards or locks -- and still retains some sense of safety?
  This is where the OtherWise challenge us to let go of our need for security.
  "So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lillies of the field, how they grow."
  

• But is it actually possible to sustain ourselves and a lifelong journey without some clearly defined sense of identity, security and destination? And is it actually possible to communicate clearly with others (to bring us all home), if we cannot/willnot define ourselves clearly? Is it really possible to "stabilize ecstatic mystical experience"?

Indeed, I'm afraid that the OtherWise challenge us to become nutbars! To believe in the Divine Contradiction at the core of the universe. And to pursue our work/play -- which is manifesting this Divine Contradiction in the world. And to know that this Divine Contradiction is, in fact, very Good.

For, the truest OtherWise, will always be seen as pathological by those who are still asleep... "Seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand." "If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear." "If I tell you, you will by no means believe." "Blessed is the one who is not offended because of me."

Afterall, Jesus himself was a big-time Nutbar. He was so "pathological," that they crucified him. They said he had an unclean spirit. They said he was a blasphemer. They just couldn't understand the OtherWise of his Living, and eventually found his presence Intolerable. Even an abomination, if you will.

It is our task to examine how can we stretch this OtherWise vision out...
"like an expanding uterus
and turn it into a viable world itself "

The deed is indeed already done.
It surrounds us now. A great cloud of witnesses.
The circle is already complete -- and always has been.
"The kingdom of God is in your midst."

The challenge that remains is
to live into that reality
and learn to talk about that reality
and invite others to share that reality with us.

The Faerie Hurricane

And so rest in the image of the holy hurricane. Dive deep into the grips of this powerful, raging storm.

In the chaos of the moment, it may seem there is no order to its devastating winds and torrential rains. But when our perspective is transformed, we can perceive that there is a beautiful and complex, but systematic churning.

This storm is devastating and dangerous to any who are unwilling or unable to be carried along. While the wind is magnificent and awe-inspiring, it is also quite dangerous -- no matter how you look at it.

So, how do we live inside of and travel with this holy hurricane? Well... you'd have to be crazy! Yes, and you'd better be scared.

But to embrace our faerie wings and let ourselves be carried by the wind and the rain is glorious... This is what we were born to do. So, let us do it with joy and thanksgiving.

And as we fly through the air, let the people still standing on the ground -- with their windows boarded up, bracing for impact, hoping it will pass by leaving them untouched. Let them shake their heads with skepticism and fear.

But do not let them keep us on the ground. Don't let them take us inside their stuffy houses, behind worn shudders. Let us breath deeply and feel the fresh air of this present moment, as the wind carries us into the heavens. And don't be surprised if the parents and authorities of the land are frightened (or condescending) when we invite their children to fly away with us to never-never-land.

Where are we going? We are going round in glorious circles together, on the winds of the storm.

And the storm will take us where She will. Indeed, we must strive to be grounded in the Tempest Herself. For the faerie circle is a holy hurricane that will rage over our heads, whether we lift our own wings or not.

It was told to the OtherWise of generations long gone.
And thus, it was written and passed on to us this day,

"I call heaven and earth as witnesses today,
that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing;
therefore choose Life,
that both you and your descendants may live.
That you may love the Tempest and trust Her Voice
and that you may cling to Her,
for She is your Life and the length of your days."

"Where are we going?" by Chris Paige; https://www.angelfire.com/on/otherwise/journey.html

For a translation of the full text: Deuteronomy 30:1-20

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To return to the Land of OtherWise...