Contrarian Medicinal Contrition
Last week we shared the ecstatic testimony of a woman born in 1844, only identified by her initials, C.M.C. Her story was originally published in Richard Maurice Bucke’s 1901 book, Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind. This week, Brad woke up with these thoughts about it, which we have written up for you.
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It is curious that no one knows the actual name of C.M.C., the Canadian woman whose personal testimony about her life-changing ecstatic experience is a guiding star for Sacred Ecstatics. Her words arguably tower above many of the well-known founders of major world religions—she tapped into pure sacred vibration and its jubilant elation, without need to recount it through the filter of ideological discourse. We propose that her initials secretly point to what preceded her immersion into what she called a “splendor and glory ineffable”—her antecedent existential condition was contrarian medicinal contrition.
As C.M.C. reported to Bucke, prior to her ecstatic awakening she felt like “some creature which had outgrown its shell, and yet could not escape… it was a great yearning—for freedom, for larger life—for deeper love.” With all of her “strength gone” and “every resource exhausted, nothing remained but submission.” No longer trusting that she could be the captain of her lifeboat, C.M.C. surrendered to a greater power:
“At last, subdued with a curious, growing strength in my weakness, I let go of myself!”
This surrender made her tender enough to feel and receive the “infinite love” that “streamed down like holy oil.” Her sincere contrition led to being touched by the magnetism and engulfing waves of electric joy and rapture. From her testimony we learn how the C.M.C. of contrarian medicinal contrition helps usher in the healing balm. It is the key to the exit door out of a small room shell into the big room where C.M.C. ecstasy awaits.
The changing dynamics, recipe steps, and four directions of Sacred Ecstatics* hold a plethora of contrary opposites from hot to cold, literality to metaphor, sense to nonsense, meaningful word to unrecognizable sound, still trance to moving dance, and so on. Maintaining the difference between any contrary enables a tension to be felt in the cord of relationship holding them together. Conquering one side to allow the other side to rule is what stops the vibration, drains away the n/om, and kills the spirit.
When Brad was given his final examination as a Zulu sangoma in South Africa he was asked how he deals with good and evil. If he had said that he wants to destroy evil so good can forever reign, he would have flunked the test. The answer must avoid an over-emphasis on either side, but instead underscore the importance of tapping into the tension between opposites that is the pulse of creation’s life force. Behind change is found an oscillation. If you want to change, then oscillate inside a contrary. Bring on multiple contraries and a multitude of oscillations, all mutually intermingling and amplifying, and you become a mystical wheel rather a misguided big deal.
When William Blake wrote the words, “without contraries lies no progression,” he was addressing practical spiritual engineering. Embrace the fact that you live suspended between the hot and cold, heaven and earth, spirit and flesh, mind and body, excitation and relaxation, health and sickness, life and death, victory and defeat, and every contrary that defines all the human crossroads. Then both resist and surrender so the oscillation, vibration, and movement create the friction and force necessary for the whole wheel of you to keep turning round and round.
It is the constant ups and downs and all the way around ascents and descents, as well as the sideways swings, that make the wheel turn and a soulful life awaken. Why land on a final answer when the question continues to change? Why settle on one question when the answer forever is altered? Rather than escape a trembling contrary or try to calm it down, be altered by its altering and changed by its changing. The line holding a contrary on each end is a rope. Your rope to God holds the oddball below and the odd God above. Stop fighting these contradictions and learn to burn as you turn and go up and down the axis in the circulation of this one-of-a-kind wonderful life.
As a contrary medicinal, the initials, C.M.C., are also free to further change their meaning. You might accidentally discover that you can musically change. While it may seem uncanny that music alone is able to change your life, try it and see how easily it can. Silently sing or internally hear a brass band when you are upset with what is going on around you. Notice how quickly you can musically change—another way to never leave home without C.M.C.
One more thing—the Canadian woman who was “swallowed up” by ecstasy can be your spiritual mother. Consider her your Canadian mother change. Why not carry a Canadian coin in your pocket or purse and from time to time flip it in the air and discover what face it temporarily shows you—does C.M.C.recommend less head-trips or less telling of your tales? Don’t leave home without your Canadian mother change. A clear mind clarifies more of C.M.C. as does cultivating mystery communion and conducting more current on your way to becoming a consummate master cooker. The more forms of C.M.C. you carry with you, the more you expand the room until you are in First Creation where the many faces, sides, and contraries of C.M.C. place you on the vast sea where you are amidst the moving tides and rolling waves of sacred ecstasy.
— the Keeneys, December 18, 2019
*For more on dynamics, recipes, and directions, see our books Sacred Ecstatics: The Recipe for Setting Your Soul on Fire and The Spiritual Engineering of Sacred Ecstasy.