12 Principles of Creation Spirituality

12 Principles of Creation Spirituality

Many people ask me what my faith tradition is and I always answer that I am an ordained Interfaith Minister and that my spiritual practice is creativity. This can be a bit confusing, as I don't attend church regularly and I don't subscribe completely to any established faith tradition. I am deeply in awe of all the faith traditions in the world and they all speak to me on some level, and yet they all do NOT speak to me on another level.

But, when pushed, the closest thing to an established faith tradition that I can subscribe to is Matthew Fox's Creation Spirituality.  I won't go into the history of the how and the why of the creation of Creation Spirituality in this little blog post. What I will share with you are the 12 Principles of this movement. Explore these ideas in your own life and see if they resonate!

1. The Universe and all within it 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 is "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 (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 what is 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 in Deep Ecumenism.
    We respect and embrace 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 the light of this value - to pass on the beauty and health of creation to future generations.