Joanna Macy who passed on Saturday (19 July), was a pioneering revolutionary in Buddhism and eco-spirituality and a deep inspiration in my life. Although I was not with her often in recent years, we taught together at Matthew Fox’s original Institute for Culture and Creation Spirituality in California in the 1990s, before I moved to the UK. She read and praised my first book Prayers of the Cosmos in 1990, saying,
“Here we find a Lord’s Prayer and Beatitudes that call even the most agnostic of ecofeminists and deep ecologists to reverence–and to a glad reconnection with forgotten roots of our shared culture. For the many of us who want to peel away centuries of dualistic, patriarchal forms and recover the life-affirming beauty of our Christian roots, nothing could be more welcome than this exquisite little volume. Breathe a sigh of relief as you open Prayers of the Cosmos!”
By agnostic of ecofeminists, she was referring to herself, of course, and this part of the endorsement was a bit too radical for the publisher in 1990 (or now), so they edited it out (and later removed the dark-skinned Jesus that was on the original cover). Many years later, in 2023, Joanna wanted to read an advance copy of Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus but couldn’t manage computers or the internet anymore, so she asked me to print and send her a large type manuscript of the book, which I gladly did.
Her work, Despair and Empowerment in the Nuclear Age inspired me to bring through the music and ritual movements to the second Aramaic Beatitude (“Ripe are those who mourn, grieve, feeling deeply confused by life.…” At the time, there were no Dances of Universal Peace that included grieving as part of them (and there still aren’t any more unfortunately), but this dance ritual became a mainstay for a number of the “Council of All Beings” groups that she founded.
Go well, Joanna, you will only find wider and wider circles welcoming you. As we say in Scotland, “haste ye back!” (but only if that’s your dharma, of course).
“I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not complete the last one
but I give myself to it.
I circle around God, around the primordial tower.
I’ve been circling for thousands of years
and I still don’t know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song.
—from Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy (1996)
