George, Thanks for reminding me of one of my teachers at the University of Creation Spirituality, Neil Douglas-Klotz, an Aramaic scholar. His book, Prayers of the Cosmos:Meditations on the Aramaic Words of Jesus, is one of the treasures on my bookshelf. He used to lead a circle dance, chanting "Our Father which art in heaven": Abwoon d'bwahshmaya. Bow on Abwoon stand up straight on d'bwah,, side step on shmaya. He translates that one line into the following beautiful poem: O Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos, dark you create all that moves in light. O Thou! The Breathing Life of all, Creator of the Shimmering Sound that touches us. Respiration of all worlds, we hear you breathing - in and out- in silence. Source of Sound: in the roar and the whisper, in the breeze and the whirlwind, we hear your Name. Radiant One: You shine within us, outside us --even darkness shines - when we remember. Name of names, our small identity unravels in you, you give it back as a lesson. Wordless Action, Silent Potency - where ears and eyes awaken, there heaven comes. O Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos! Blessings, Jann McGuire -----Original Message----- From: George Holcombe via Dialogue <dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net> To: ICA/OE List Serves <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net>; ICA/OE List Serves <dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net> Sent: Wed, Apr 19, 2017 7:28 am Subject: Re: [Dialogue] [Oe List ...] A footnote to the Lent–Easter journey This has turned out to be a good Easter conversation. May I add two more things? Some of us may surely know that the word Easter actually derived from the German pagan goddess, Eostree, which also explains the bunny rabbit. Some scholars point to when Christianity spread to England as the time this celebration came into being, prior to that it was just Passover. Western Christianity, which is primarily what was shaped after Constantine made it the religion of the Roman Empire is basically what we have (with a few amendments like the reformation) and the many threads of Christianity: Easter orthodoxy, Coptic, anabaptist, gnostic forms, etc. are only remotely acknowledged and rarely known in any depth. When I went to seminary Greek was taught and a little Hebrew, but the language Jesus and his disciples spoke, Aramaic, was rarely mentioned let alone examined. It is a more complicated language, more orally understood that by the characters. Emphasis on one syllable or another can change the meaning of the word as well as the context for what is being said. Abwoon (english letters not the Aramaic characters) is the word scholars say Jesus used for God. We got the Greek translation Aba or abba meaning a male. Abwoon is gender neutral and comes in 2 parts, “Ab" was part of a reference to an earlier female goddess among other things and “woon" can be translated to mean the void from which all things come. This would have really blown out the lights in my seminary. Imagine referring to God as Mystery rather than Daddy. George Holcombe geowanda1@me.com "Whatever the problem, community is the answer. There is no power greater than a community discovering what it cares about." Margaret Wheatley