“I praise the dance, for it frees people from the heaviness of matter and binds the isolated to community” [Augustine]
“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” [Deuteronomy 6:5]
“Theres joy, joy, joy in repetition” [Prince, Graffiti Bridge]
This post forms part of the synchroblog “Moving towards worship”, and is part 1 in my series “Myths for our time.”
For some time I have been asking about the shape of things to come. I have wondered about models of community as well as of worship. And in the last month, myself and other venturers have been engaged in various activities, firstly the Afrika Burns festival in the Tankwa Karoo, South Africa, and secondly two NIA (Neuromuscular Integrative Action) movement sessions.
So, in the wake of some exciting, practical experimentation, (and to a lesser extent as the “season” of Christmas looms), I would like to offer a reflection on Festivity.
Celebration, are you quite mad?
Having been immersed in creativity, freedom of expression, dance and music, almost might we say, baptised anew into Celebration, I am compelled to consider the role of this in my and our life. Naturally, I also reflect up the nature of life and of G-d. So I have some questions:
- Is celebration an aberation from serious life, something to do once, twice a year, at prescribed times like Christmas, on a holiday, or on a birthday?
- With tragedy and despair all around us, and suffering an ever present reality, is it appropriate to celebrate at all?
- In Anglocatholic culture, it is said that the Eucharist (Body and blood of Christ) is “celebrated”. I have always liked the sound of that, but sorry Father, I’m afraid your church services just don’t feel very celebratory.
- Kids get so excited about things, ice cream, horses, swimming, TV, but from adolescence onwards we loose this – is this the proper way to grow up?
- Is celebration equal to hedonism – for those who simply want to escape reality, or blot it out through indulgence, escape, sex, drugs, and partying?
- Even if I do intellectually believe in celebrating, why don’t my attempts to do so seem very authentic or powerful?
- What is the essential nature of the afterlife: solomn, pious and peaceful? Mao Tse Tung-era massed movement? The euphoria of a purple haze? Having all our messy earthy theologies nicely put into order, with a Mr-Bean-style smugness? Having all our needs finally met in the ultimate consumer experience?
I offer these questions from the POV of one who was raised in a Modern, Western, Eurocentric culture in South Africa, and one who has been on a lifelong journey to seek out the truth, a 15 year soujourn through the conventional church, a 10 year period on the via negativa, and in the last year, a freedom to ask and live whatever the hell question I wanted to of anyone, the cosmos, and G-d him-herself.
More importantly perhaps is the fact that I am not a natural party animal, nor am I that hedonistic. I have inherited my mothers Apollonic spirit, preferring the mountaintop, simplicity and asceticism to the ways of my father: he was an arch-Dionysian given to self-gratification, joviality and revelry. But it is his spirit that now calls me down into the valley, towards the sounds of mirth, partying and sheer enjoyment.
So I am happy to say that I have some ideas, I have some vision about all this. But I wanted to frame these questions to give a context for where I am coming from now.
A Festive G-d
I’ll get to the point: We serve a Festive G-d, and as made in G-ds image, we are “Homo festivus”. It is part of our nature to celebrate, indeed we are called, coaxed and wooed to do so. I am indebted to John Morehead for introducing me to the term Homo Festivus, as well as many of these notions, and he and others have long been involved in this debate.
Now I am not going to say “Thou shalt celebrate”, because that undermines the free hearted giving that is part and parcel of loving response. Only a loving, thankful response can be sustained, and provide the fuel for authentic festivity.
In reality, we don’t always feel like celebrating. We may NEVER feel like it. We may be so caught in despair that we cannot see any reason for joy. I have felt despair. I have lived in loss for many years. I will live in loss in the future, and will feel despair again. But while, by grace, I glimpse the glory of this freedom, I want to live it, share it, write it, and move it, for THIS is a my foretaste of eternity … being one with the Creator, one with each other, one with creation.
Dancing and VJing at Camp Vuvuzela at Afrika Burns was a new experience for me. There was no sense in which “I, performer”, or even “I, reveller”, was present. “I” performed, sure, putting visuals to the DJ’s psytrance/electro offerings; but I never saw that DJ, nothing was announced, and everything just happened … this was the Anarchy of Love. It was for me a confirmation of Advaita – radical non-duality – or put another way, its was the joy of the ego being lost in Oneness. There was no me-you, or us-them. Those that lose their soul shall find it, reports the Gospel.
I’ve been brought up with a view that “Oneness” is an exclusive concept, defined by the orthodoxy of Christendom. This is based on the dualistic view of a future separation of the saved and the unsaved. So, Oneness is OK if it’s Orthodox Christian Oneness, otherwise it’s a pantheistic eastern notion incompatible with the bible, Christ, and salvation.
In case you misunderstand my embrace of Festive Culture, it is not without its dangers. To be consumed by the offerings of the ego – hedonistic self gratification, sexual conquest, shame at ourselves, or debilitating introspection – means that we are imprisoned slaves and, not true members of the Festive Race. I still can’t quite get my head around how this man said this, given his role in the propogation of many of the destructive dualisms that haunt us to this day, but … to further quote Augustine,
“Dancing demands a whole person, one who is firmly anchored in the center of his life, who is not obsessed by lust for people and things and the demon of isolation in his own ego.”
Are we having a good time, yet?
Homo Sapiens, “Knowing” Man, has an inkling that he should rejoice, but is confounded by ego, sin, and systems of injustice that oppress this instinct. How he expresses this instinct to celebrate has in many cases, been substantially reduced.
- Instead of Holiness of all Being, we have intermittent “Holidays” where what we “celebrate” bears little or no relationship to our lives. What exactly is “Family Day”, or “Heritage Day”?
- Instead of deep, authentic humour we have jokes – little pills of laughter.
- Instead of sumptuous, inventive expression through our garments, we have the tyranny of fashion and occasional Fancy Dress opportunities.
Our institutions have let us down. I’m not asking for a Cultural Revolution, I am saying wherever meaning has been lost, we need to refind and reinvent it. For example, primally, we know that the drum calls us to enter in. But layer upon layer of manners, sophistications, domestications, civilisations and barriers have rendered our sense of the Festive quite inane.
- If a holiday is redundant, then dump it. If an important day is not noted, note it – who celebrates Beltane besides a few neopagans? And yet our connection to the seasons is far more important than artifical notions of nationality.
- Stop filling up deep sadness with alcohol-fuelled jokes. I like good jokes, but often the “life and soul of the party” is actually a penguin-suited cadaver out of contact with real irony or deep authentic joy.
- Instead of religeously branding ourselves with Nike, Gucci, or Calvin Klein, assemble your own outfit, one which IS you and comes FROM you. Authenticity is so much more powerful than cloned coolness.
The Isness
There is nothing that inspires me to dance, move and create, like the idea that G-d is present, present in all of creation. This panentheist vision – All is IN G-d, and G-d is IN all – is what drives me to give my body, energetically and wholeheartedly, to the moment, the community, to the Ground of Being. No E’s, no acid, no grass, no mushrooms, no drunken stupor, just a deep appreciation for being alive. No ulterior motive, no one to conquer, to impress, to rebel against, to convert, a simple isness, is a pround act of worship.
- I am inspired by the the Sweedish movie “As it is in heaven”, reviewed here, in which a dour, fearful Reformed community is transformed by dance and celebration.
- I am inspired by the River in Tolkein’s Third Earth called the “Celebrant”.
- I am inspired by Brasilian, African and other cultures who host wild, spectacular carnivals, a celebration of carne (that’s flesh, brothers and sisters), the aroma of which MUST be more pleasing to G-d than all the incense floating up from 10,000 aescetic alters.
- I am inspired by the trend to expressed, overt rhythm in music over the last decades. Long live Elvis, and his holy, gyrating hips. It’s largely a matter of taste, but I do love trance and other musics which until recently sounded boring to me. I have discovered a profound truth in rhythm, simplicity and repetition.
And in my brief introduction to NIA, I am inspired to combine robust bodily expression, an exploration of the healing arts, moving in community, freedom to express any kind of gesture my imagination might produce, and a profound sense of Festive worship as G-d intented it to be.
Other participants
timvictor said
I fear I relate to your statement “Homo Sapiens, “Knowing” Man, has an inkling that he should rejoice…” more than I’d like to. I know I “should rejoice”. I know that Goddess is the Dancing One. After a lifetime of denying expression I’m left with my head encouraging my heart to express. In fact, my heads really getting into it but the challenge remains for my heart to get into it.
Moving Toward Worship: Whole Person Worship « tim victor’s musings said
[...] Sound & Silence – Moving Toward Worship: Homo Festivus – Man the Celebrant [...]
gwanda muses... said
in terms of my own experience, i find an overly involved intellect & the dryzabone theology i was inflicted with in my late teens and early twenties to be the biggest hurdles to celebration.
the unconscious, the feminine, the mystery, the rhythm, the intuition, the sensual, the sexual – the things which a dominant intellect & demonic dogmatic dominion theology in all it’s disguises hunt down and drive underground – provide the fire & the ability to lose ones self/ego and enter into the transcendent.
that’s why i don’t think the political organised church will ever succeed in creating a context where we can celebrate with our whole being. it’s underlying theology undermines the root and essence of homo festivus.
unless of course Matthew Fox becomes the next pope.
a great post.
ruZl.
Nic Paton said
Tim, I think you are getting into it with your heart, and I respect that. That’s loverly – the Dancing One. Whats the source?
Gwandathemuserla, yes the “Magistarium” can try stamp out freedom, but as you say it just goes underground, and comes out all perverted and toxic. I suppose, sadly, that you are right about the organised church being doomed in creating something genuinely wholistic.
Can a non Catholic become pope?
Don R said
Nic- As you know, I am in the process of restructuring my entire life. I have found it to be the most intriguing, stimulating, satisfying thing I’ve ever done. I am using a quote, which speaks to me deeply, to help me do just that:
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
I have found this to be true.
gwanda muses... said
Matthew Fox for pope? Not while that Ratzinger’s in town. i suppose it might be possible, technically, depending on whether he became a non-catholic in the eyes of the catholic church. VJ sets at the vatican? yeah baby…
stray said
Interestingly enough, there are more celebratory festivals in the OT calendar than fasting times. Wonder why fasting has been made more ‘holy’ or ‘of God’ than celebrating? Especially since God commands in the OT that the Israelites have all these celebratory festivals – more than anything else. Maybe God loves parties after all… ?
timvictor said
Somehow we elevated the ascetic over the revelatory, with the latter viewed as tapping into our sinful nature and hence purity through avoidance as primary. Unfortunately, the Galatians text among others only makes sense when speaking of the same context. Also, we’ve done the opposite of Paul’s statement in Scripture to the effect that we shouldn’t listen to those punting ascetism as spirituality for we are embodied and sensual and to enjoy the body and our world.
Nic Paton said
Stray
I’d like to revisit the OT fesitvals in the light of homo festivus. When I did a cursory study, my first impression was that they were very exclusive, most of the reason to celebrate being how their ememies had been defeated etc, and this wasn’t what I wanted to hear. But I suspect a more in depth study will be very helpful.
I think you understate: G-d as I experience G-d is all about party, (read this in the context of redemption and repentance as well). I mean, I don’t think our core nature is “worker”, do you?
Tim
“The chief end of man is to enjoy G-d forever”, starts (paraphrased) the Westminster catechism (you can chuck much of the rest of it tho’) – yes Joy is perhaps the central mood eschatologically.
Purity through avoidance – good antimantra.
gwanda muses... said
Stray & Tim – good points. to my eyes, the development of the organised church over the last two millennia is characterised, amongst other things, by the move from:
- heterodoxy to orthodoxy.
- satan in G-d’s service as tester/accuser to semi-autonomous enemy of G-d.
- embracing of Divine Feminine/Sophia to a bizarre monosexual deity.
- centrality of individual spiritual experience within community to church/priest-mediated experience.
i don’t find much in orthodox theology to celebrate and am in much need of a fresh revelation of G-d, having thown so much of my past belief system out. celebration is certainly vital & vitalising and as Nic said, a foretaste of eternity. having done a fair bit of debating, reading and thinking over the years, my hope is for a simple theology born out of experience & an inner knowing.
thanks one and all & i look forward to spending some time with you Tim, when i’m next in the moeder stad. i’m off to my sons playschool leaving party. children ARE celebration.
‘r…
gwanda muses... said
i mention those 4 moves as examples of what prevents people from celebrating. there are plenty of others but currently stand by the statement that orthodox theology is emphatically anti-celebratory – at least in any empathetic & inclusive sense.
fakeexpressionsoftheunkown said
Nic, great stuff!
I’m inspired to discover more of God’s nature and my own. The way you have highlighted the need for a loving, thankful and sustainable festival of life. Also, the “Isness” of God being ever present and most noticeably seen through its creation, therefore God is in me and I am in God. This is energizing us to celebration. Let’s face it, you can dance, sing and celebrate alone in the privacy of your own space but it is nowhere nearly as good as a raving, loud, joyous, uninhibited party with music , laughter, shouting ,dancing, singing, lights the smell of sweaty perfume. The Homo Festivis is a communal animal and the unifying ingredient of Love.
Let’s party on !!!!
On a different note: When considering the subject of dance and celebration as a whole, I was reminded of 2 Samuel 6.
Click here to read: http// http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=10&chapter=6
It is the story of the Art of God being brought into Jerusalem by King David.
What absolute chaos!!
I’m not big into the OT , a little to violent, but this shows an interesting side of passion and celebration. David is not scared to express honest and raw feelings towards God, both anger and uninhibited worship.
Nic Paton said
(Raises ear trumpet, puts in false teeth) What is this “bizarre honosexual deity”? I am deeply afraid, even now. No, make that deeply aroused. No, I mean offended. Deeply offended. Yes.
Excellant analysis, Gwanda. I pray for your fresh revelation. Work hard with yourself, maybe put yourself into unfamiliar situations. Don’t be too celebral, but be celebrating.
On point 4, “centrality of individual spiritual experience within community to church/priest-mediated experience” I find there is also this happening: a move towards individual experience IN STEAD of community, post enlightenment.
Nic Paton said
FEOTU – wo hey now thats a frightening scenario. The upshot of 2-S-6, despite dead worshippers, onlookers rendered barren, and unlimited delays to proceedings, is a celebration on a cosmic scale.
I would like to think about that a bit, and hopefully my NT theology can help me put my reservations to rest, because it is indeed a seminal narrative.
Sweat? Dripping. Nudity? Yes maam. Exhibition? Oh yeah. Music and dance? Mm Hmm. On the edge worship? Well… No domestications there, its a full out, no holds barred bish bash of YHWH’s presence.
So hopefully, with a little bit of help from the Blood of Christ, we can pump up the party too, without too much fear?
fakeexpressionsoftheunkown said
The OT Homo Festivus knew how celebrate, regardless of the risks. Here’s a list of some sacred and not so sacred elements of festivity:
• Singing
• Playing of Musical Instruments
• Dancing
• Feasting
• Wine
• Fire
• Fireworks
• lights
• Cheering
• Nudity
• Animal sacrifice
• Waving of flags/banners
• Chanting
• Costume or special dress
• Offering up of gifts
• Giving of gifts
I’m sure that I have left out loads of others, so feel free to make more lists.
gwanda muses... said
Nic – “a move towards individual experience IN STEAD of community” – mmm agreed, the individual vs communal is another subtle dualism and we sacrifice for too long a stay at either pole.
which deity do we celebrate before & within? the bloodthirsty OT one or the loving & benign Father of the NT? that radical duality stands in my psyche like two bouncers, preventing entry to the party.
if celebration comes out of freedom – independent of economic, political or other outward freedoms – and this freedom emanates from a knowledge of the Truth, then maybe our level of desire to celebrate is the best indication we have of where the pearl of great price is buried.
the schizophrenic/ambivalent/incongruous picture of G-d held by the mainstream church seems etched on my soul & no doubt many others experience this too – namely the near impossibility of trying to erase it through an act of will, of the intellect, of rebellion or whatever.
i support anyone’s right to celebrate in whatever way they find valid and true. i just find myself unable to share in it within even the most liberal christian context it seems. i’m excited for all those who connected with the Other through movement in community @ NIA and encourage you to continue exploring it.
as Joseph Campbell used to say, “follow your bliss”.
go well all.
Steve said
I was once with a group of students being taught in three days what people go to teachers training college for three years to learen. Lectures the first day, visit to a school to watch tewachers do irt the second, teach a lession (religions instruction) the third.
We had to announce our lesson themes to our teachers beforehand. I said mine was “celebration”.
I was told this was a no-no. Children of that age (9-10) do not understand big words like celebration.
I had my doubts, and when I got into the class I asked the kids “What’s your favourite football team?”
“Manchester United” they chorused.
“What do you do when they win the cup?”
“We have a celebration,” the kids replied.
Nic Paton said
Yes Steve I believe the desire to celebrate is innate, and that the Christendom machine is much more interested in compliance through fear that releasing our natural inclinations.
timvictor said
Gwanda,
I’m not sure that I go with the proposed dualism between the God/-ess of the OT and the one of the NT… but that would be a discussion for another time and place.
All of the us,
I believe that celebration requires purpose, planning and action. It seems that our histories, particularly us western people disconnected from older historical roots, don’t necessarily lend themselves to celebration. I’m keen to appropriate one or two festivals from our shared history as they touch on God’s/-ess’ historical activity and on future promise.
How about we put a Passover and Tabernacles on the cards for this year?
Nic Paton said
Tim
I fully agree that these things need planning and decisive action. There is a liminal space where they are vision but not natural practice.
For example, I am not sure that Passover or Tabernacles FEEL like they are my history. But I am prepared to investigate how they might be.
I feel much closer to celebrations aligned to nature, but that is probably not going to draw as many adherents as one more directly aligned with Biblical history.
fakeexpressionsoftheunkown said
I find it interesting when I look back on the Christmas and New Year that has just passed,two iconic holidays connected to celebration and festivity, and feel once again let down by the hype, rushing around and need to create an atmosphere of Joy and Happiness.
I think that maybe we need to consider more authentic reasons for celeration that will come out of our own life experiences and community.
I totally go with looking also to nature. A day trip up the west coast of the Cape when the Daisies bloom at spring time to dance in the veld or a night beach party at full moon in the Febraury when the nights are so hot here in Cape Town.
timvictor said
I like the idea of celebrating nature. Often, however, nature is a canvas and we project from our history onto it. What I like about, for example, Passover and Tabernacles (among others and these are suggestive) is that they are our history in a broader sense as these celebrations stem from God’s/-ess’ with our forebears. I have no nationalism – not Christian or Jewish or South African – to speak but I do identify with the nomadic community of faith throughout history. Or at least I’d like to.
Nic Paton said
Tim
I’d like to hear your take on these 2 feasts.
What I have come to see is that there is a difference between Solomons temple and Moses’ tabernacle. The one represents settled empire and the other, tribal nomads. I think if they could be imagined in their original context they would be powerful.