Blue Morpho Butterfly. Butterflies are symbols of transformation, among other things. Image courtesy of Public Domain Pictures.
Blue Morpho Butterfly. Butterflies are symbols of transformation, among other things. See if you can guess the connection with the Blue Butterfly and something I mention in the post (Hint: it’s once-removed). Image courtesy of Public Domain Pictures.

Thanks to a lovely synchronicity via the blog-o-sphere, I attended a gathering this past weekend, Friday into Sunday, on the topic of an emerging InterSpirituality.

First the sweet magic last week of connecting with a fellow blogger and woman of spirit, Joanne Corey, and we realized that we were both located in the same geographic area.

Joanne shared word with me about the InterSpirituality conference, which was coming right up, and we were able to meet in person, meet up with others of kindred interest about such things, take in the richness shared at the gathering, and open a local conversation that started in cyberspace. How cool is that?

(Joanne wrote a really insightful blog post on the gathering, too — see below for the link to that post.)

So what is InterSpirituality?

Exactly what you might think, and likely a whole lot more. Plus, it’s an emerging conversation, and as such will evolve and grow in richness, connection, and understanding.

Bee Lick Creek, Jefferson Memorial Forest, near Louisville, Kentucky. Public domain photo by John Knouse, May 2005, WikiMedia.
Bee Lick Creek, Jefferson Memorial Forest, near Louisville, Kentucky. Public domain photo by
John Knouse, May 2005, WikiMedia.

Ultimately, it’s about building bridges based on what’s shared, on commonalities that exist between people and ‘positions’ or worldviews that otherwise, in a locked-in dominant worldview, seem separate and too often become the basis for fighting with each other or for unspeakable cruelties.

(In an InterSpiritual perspective, that’d be called 1st Tier thinking or a sort of rigid-little-boxes reality — more on those in an upcoming post).

One of the areas I’ve long been intensely passionate about, both intellectually and based on my own transformative experiences, is just what sorts of values and even practices most traditions, ancient and contemporary, share in common; and what experiences — individually and then in groups — help to effect transformation and build these bridges across these various chasms of rigid and often oppositional difference.

But in the context of this recent gathering, the primary guest and speaker, Kurt Johnson, a man who’s been both Christian monk and evolutionary biologist (among other adventures), shared his work in this area of emerging InterSpirituality — an area of passion for him to the degree that he’s written a book on it specifically to introduce it more broadly at this particular time.

Gaia, by Robert Donaghy, contributing artist to the Artists Envisioning the Divine Project.
Gaia, by Robert Donaghy, contributing artist to the Artists Envisioning the Divine Project.

So much was shared and taken in, both in the formal lectures and conversations, and also in the one-on-one and small group conversations that took place during breaks and over lunch and after the formal programs.

I’ve got a bunch of notes and my beanie is buzzin’ (that’s me-speak for a lot of ideas and insights and neurons sparking!). The conference topics overlapped a lot with my previous work and interests, and also lit new sparks, as such things do, in what’s possible moving forward.

So I’ll be sharing bits and pieces that really stood out for me, as well as some questions that got sparked and things I and others noted were not as present in the conversation as they might have been — including Feminine and feminine (!) voices and perspectives. (Though it’s always wild, if you look and listen and sense closely, you do always see the Feminine there, even if not formally acknowledged or introduced!).

But for now, here’s an interview and conversation with Kurt Johnson sharing his perspective on this whole notion and possibility of InterSpirituality:

You’ll find more online, including Kurt’s site for his book and various interviews on youtube and podcast.

And as promised, here’s Joanne’s blog musing after attending two of the three days of the conference — she shares some nice insights and a few questions or observations that came up for her as well.

Meanwhile, all of this new information and energetic-psychic infusion is percolating away with what’s already in the cauldron.

I’ll be sharing more gems with you, since it’s so related to what I and so many of us have already been exploring, living into, writing about, and reflecting on. And as always, there are lots of the other Via Feminina, ancestral wisdom, empath-sensitive and other ‘usual-suspect’ topics on the writing roster.

More soon, and wishing you very well in the meanwhile.

Big Love,

Jamie