The Canticle of the Turning lyrics
--Rory Cooning
When I turned 35 years old, in 1982, my purpose and mission in life began to
make itself known to me. I knew that building the Kingdom of God of Earth was
the reason for my life. That’s pretty much why we began to figure out how to
develop community with other people interested in furthering the
Queendom/Reign/Presence of God in the world.
We met another interested couple and founded the Grain of Wheat Community,
establishing ourselves in rural Osceola Township in Fond du Lac County. We
established a 60s-style, sustainable farm community on Camp Vista’s farm
property. We decided to live according to the Sermon on the Mount found in
Matthew’s Gospel in the Christian Scriptures.
At that time as well, I was becoming more deeply involved with the Yoga Tradition
and the Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, which was located
in Glenview, Illinois. I immediately noticed the commonalities and mutual goals
of each tradition—Christianity and Yoga. I found myself immersed in the
spiritual, mystical practices and philosophies of each tradition.
Included in our journey to the land and self-sufficient living in community was the
desire to be prepared for the changing culture, the “new Jerusalem” in biblical
terms. We believed that the world was, with our help, ready for “the turning” of
the world into a loving place, compassionate and open to God’s joyful blessing
on the Earth.
Needless to say, my thoughts about the coming new world, which would rise
from the dust and destruction of the old, self-centered, greedy world of the
military-industrial complex and its supporting corporations, did not come as I had
expected. We were considered too far out, especially for the rural Fond du Lac
people. We were like “hippies” in the 1980s.
However, today I see that the world is “turning.” The old Shaker song, if nothing
else, is reminding me of the working of the Holy Spirit, the constant dancing of
Shiva, and people are changing. I see signs of the “New Jerusalem,” the
Presence of Christ, the concern for all forms of animal, vegetable and mineral life
happening all around me.
When I tell people at our Saturday Farmers’ Market booth that the Fond du Lac
Center for Spirituality and Healing, now doing the work of the Grain of Wheat
Community, Inc., is a holistic health center whose roots are yoga, they don’t
grimace and walk away, but are interested in finding out what I mean. Another
group of people that I am with every Tuesday evening is studying the Universal
Christ. This is a concept that documents through the Christian scriptures that
“Christ is everything.” Of course, this is very similar to the non-duality belief of
the Sankhya philosophy of Yoga—All is One! And that All is Divine! The Creator of All Life has imbued all reality with divinity! When we talk about this in the group, it is not misguided understanding, as was thought of just a couple decades ago.
Truly, the world is turning. More and more people are waking up to the spiritual
realities of life that are buried in the rigid religious definitions of the past couple
thousand years. Even movements that are considered violent and destructive to
the way things were are forging new directions and new life into our past
methods of living on the earth and with each other.
The world is turning. We are building the “City of God.” “The Lord, the Light, and
our Love [is turning] the night into day.”
I bow to that Divinity within you.
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