Offering up our animal self for the sake of the sacred makes it more possible to be close not only to God but also to one another. View the study sheet here. Watch the recording here.
No matter how much history we have read or experienced, naked aggression on a massive assaultive scale by one nation against another still shocks us. A sovereign state unconstrained by humanitarian moral valuestargets civilian population centers, schools, hospitals and refugee convoys. It is heartening to know that Russia’s brutal attack had to be built upon a foundation of lies told not only to its people but also to its soldiers. Still, even one hardened Pharaoh’s heart can cause death and disaster on a massive scale.
Human myths, stories and art have for thousands of years told of how easily we can shed the garment of humanity and transform into vicious animals. A recognition that we carry within us an instinctive ferocity need not result in our chronic isolation from or, worse, preemptive attacks against another. There are ways to manage that awareness and achieve mutual relationships, even a sense of grace about it all.
The artist Francis Bacon was deeply absorbed with the animalistic nature of human beings. Much of his work displays humans in terrifying biomorphic forms. To look upon them is to be disturbed and frightened. If they were to ever escape the confinement of the canvass, they would devour us. Yet, many of those who modeled for him were individuals that Bacon loved, and some whom he loved intimately. He was able to see the monsters that dwelled within them and still draw them close.
Many cultures have rituals designed to integrate the human and animal sides of ourselves so as to blend the best of both for the well-being of the tribe, the village, the community. The Book of Leviticus opens with Divine instructions about offering up something of ours to God. The text says this is to be an animal of some particular kind. Hasidic tradition reads the opening verses of Leviticus closely and sees that it is something of ourselves that we are to render into smoke. This rendering of our animalistic nature for the sake of the sacred makes it more possible to be close not only to God but also to one another.
Join us here at 7:00 p.m. (PST) Thursday March 10 as we explore the beast within.
