Twelve Principles of Creation
Spirituality
1. The universe is fundamentally a blessing.
Our relationship with the Universe fills us with awe.
2. In Creation, God is both immanent and transcendent. This is
panentheism which is not theism (God out there) and not atheism (no
God anywhere).
We experience that the Divine is in all things and all things
are in the Divine.
3. God is as much Mother as Father, as much Child as Parent, as
much God in mystery as the God in history, as much beyond all words
and images as in all forms and beings.
We are liberated from the need to cling to God in one form or
one literal name.
4. In our lives, it is through the work of spiritual practice
that we find our deep and true selves.
Through the arts of meditation and silence we cultivate a
clarity of mind and move beyond fear into compassion and
community.
5. Our inner work can be understood as a four-fold journey
involving:
- awe, delight, amazement (known as the Via Positiva)
- uncertainty, darkness, suffering, letting go (Via
Negativa)
- birthing, creativity, passion (Via Creativa)
- justice, healing, celebration (Via Transformativa)
We weave through these paths like a spiral danced, not a ladder
climbed.
6. Every one of us is a mystic.
We can enter the mystical as much through beauty (Via Positiva)
as through contemplation and suffering (Via Negativa). We are born
full of wonder and can recover it at any age.
7. Every one of us is an artist.
Whatever the expression of our creativity, it is our prayer and
praise (Via Creativa).
8. Every one of us is a prophet.
Our prophetic work is to interfere with all forms of injustice
and that which interrupts authentic life (Via
Transformativa).
9. Diversity is the nature of the Universe. We rejoice in
and courageously honor the rich diversity within the Cosmos and
expressed among individuals and across multiple cultures, religions
and ancestral traditions.
10. The basic work of God is compassion and we, who are all
original blessings and sons and daughters of the Divine, are called
to compassion.
We acknowledge our shared interdependence; we rejoice at one
another's joys and grieve at one another's sorrows and labor to
heal the causes of those sorrows.
11. There are many wells of faith and knowledge drawing from one
underground river of Divine wisdom. The practice of honoring,
learning and celebrating the wisdom collected from these wells is
Deep Ecumenism.
We respect and embrace the wisdom and oneness that arises from
the diverse wells of all the sacred traditions of the
world.
12. Ecological justice is essential for the sustainability of
life on Earth.
Ecology is the local expression of cosmology and so we commit to
live in light of this value: to pass on the beauty and health of
Creation to future generations.