Jesus walking on water, and then inviting Peter to join him on the stormy surface of Lake Gallilee makes our Western minds reel with incredulity. This story cannot be taken literally. Humans cannot walk on liquid water. So as with all deep truths, we need to investigate the narrative as myth. Myths are thos true stories that probably nenevr happened historically or scientifically but remain true.
The walking on water miracle is an interesting study in overcoming fear and balancing our lives.
Join Peter as he unpacks this part of the archetypal life of Jesus as a map for our own journey in life.
Ram Dass spoke eloquently of developing a spiritual practice that enables you to keep your heart open in hell. Mahayana Buddhists have the notion of Bodhisattvas, enlightened being who after countless rebirths are ready to enter into the bliss of Nirvana, but who vow not to cross over until they have assisted all sentient beings, to cross over before them.
Once in conversation with a Zen monk, and referencing the Boddhisattva concept, the monk smiled at me and replied, “Yes, but Jesus also was a great Boddhisattva.” In that moment my entire life changed as I realised we are all just ‘walking each other home’, another Ram Dass saying.
Compassion lies at the heart of all spiritual practice, in fact is the absolute validation of our journey. If my journey, religion and practice does not increase my compassion, what’s the point. If my religion makes me cruel, fearful and judgemental what’s the point?
This episode explores the way Jesus experienced compassion and unpacks some of his crazy wisdom that enabled his to say to marginalised and dispossessed people that they were “Blessed”.
This isn’t what you may think.
Karl Marx misread this ascpect and called releigion “an opiate”. He was wrong, It isn’t opium, correctly understood this crazy wisdom is dynamite!
The Cross as a symbol has become unanimous with the Christian Church.
In this video Peter explores the cross not as a Christian Brand mark or even as a Colonial Crusading Emblem, but rather as a integrative symbol of psychological healing.
The cross is not intended to be expanded as a symbol of global dominance, rather is it intended as a symbol of contraction and convergence to the centre point where the four axes converge.
It is the centre of the cross that is most redemptive. It is also clear that we cannot take up the Cross of Jesus in this process. We are told explicitly by Jesus to take up our OWN cross.(Mt 16)
Accompanying the Radical Christ Journey – Peter offers a series of Integration Practices to help move Information, through integration, to personal transformation. In the first practice we travel to India and the little town of Tiruvanamallai https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiruvannamalai the home of Ramana Maharshi who taught the Advaita method of “Self Enquiry” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-enquiry_(Ramana_Maharshi)
Simply investigating “Who am I?” can bring us to a transforming encounter with the Divine Witness that is in us and IS us. The name of God is I AM is it not?
“Love God and Love your neighbour” is for Jews and Christians the Greatest Commandment. This Video Explores the Radical New Ethic proposed by Erich Neumann in his Book Depth Psychology and the New Ethic. (1990) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Neumann_(psychologist)
Using ancient Rabinnic Midrash methods in Hebrew Translations Neumann came up with an amazing insight into what neighbour can also be translated to mean. In a world where the old laws and religions no longer inform and modify our behavior there is a need for a New Ethic. No longer a dualistic and shadow projection onto an external enemy -which justifies: wars, genocide, racism and self-righteousness. The new ethic invites us to love our own inner evil and enemy and thereby heal and save the world by saving ourselves.
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Early on in the narrative of Jesus’ ministry, the crowd want to make him King.
Both occasions are after he has miraculously fed them (John 6:12-15) and extravagantly made wine from water. (John 2:23-25). In a publicist’s nightmare, on both occasions Jesus withdraws from the projection and idolization, “because he knew what was in people’s hearts”.
What was it that Jesus knew?
Carl Jung in his work Aion, has helped us understand the psychology of projection which I unpack in this video.
Understanding how we project our own gold out of the shadows of the unconscious can help us understand (if not desist), from falling in love, worshiping the wrong objects, and even from falling prey to scapegoating others when they don’t meet our unrealistic expectations of them.
We cannot blame the devil, nor make Jesus responsible for our salvation.
In this fourth video of the Radical Christ Series Peter maps the Life Stages that Jesus, with every hero in mythology, and our lives follow. Myth is understood as an “Absolutely True Story that probably never happened” Jesus as the proto-typical (arche-typal) human life has in the stages of his life the experience and the cure for every human condition. The key lies in being able to connect where we are in our life stage, with the corresponding stage in Jesus’ life.
You can contact Peter by emailing peterwoods.pe@gmail.com
In this third foundational video for The Radical Christ series, Peter examines the role of Archetypes in Mythology, and explains why Jesus is the most accessible Archetypal Map for Western minds
You can schedule one on one Skype or Zoom sessions with Peter by emailing peterwoods.pe@gmail.com
Setting the scaffold for understanding the Radical Christ, in this video I explore the origins of religion as a consequence of the consciousness of Homo Sapiens. Animated cave art, abstract thinking, projection and the return of God to the flesh of human being are all markers on this fascinating human unfolding. There is no religion that didn’t begin as a human conversation trying to explain the mysteries of a conscious existence.
In a joint venture with Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat and in the face of rabid fundamentalism and tired Christian ritual, Peter is launching a series titled “The Radical Christ”. Just under a year ago whist on a visit to Dharmagiri, Thanissara “downloaded” an insight during her morning practice which she wrote on a notelet and presented to me at breakfast. “PW” she said, “This is your next work”. The note read simply, “The Radical Christ”. There was an immediate resonance with Thanissara’s words. They made sense at all levels I have spent most my life speaking about Jesus in one way or another, and though I no longer preach, (over 1500 sermons done, many on this blog still getting hits late on Saturday nights): I do love Jesus. Not in the way that most angry fundamentalist Christians say they do, but in a way I would like to unpack in this series.
This offering is the product of my acceptance of Thanissara’s shamanic ancestral download (I am a Jungian and an African after all), and some months of reading and dalliance with video production software.
In these conversations we will explore a new understanding of Jesus the Christ. Using the insights of philosophy, culture and psychology we will dig into the archetypal significance of a God-Person interconnection that could lead to global engagement and human transcendence at this time of ecological crisis.
