History of the Soul - The Soul Goes Underground

We travel to the middle ages -a time when people are being persecuted for speaking about the sprit inside. We see how the Soul triumphs over hate and fear.

Show Notes

Recommended Reading: The Mirror of Simple Souls (paperback) by Marguerite Porete… 

Free online copy (scanned copy of the 1924 edition).. 

QUOTES:

"The soul, an eternal spirit, is beyond time's hold:                                                                                                    Even in this world it is in eternity's fold" - Angelus Silesius 

"I am God, says Love, for Love is God and God is Love, and this Soul is God by the condition of Love. I am God by divine nature and this Soul is God by righteousness of Love." -Marguerite Porete

"God is born in us as soon as all our soul-powers, which hitherto have been tied and bound, are absolutely free and when the mind is still and sense troubles us no longer." - Meister Eckhart

 “A day of Silence
 Can be a pilgrimage in itself.
 A day of Silence
 Can help you listen
 To the Soul play
 Its marvelous lute and drum.”– Hafiz

"Ever since happiness heard your name, it has been running through the streets trying to find you."- Hafiz

"I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness the astonishing light of your own being."  -Hafiz

"The vengeful God of wrath and punishment is a mere fairytale.” - Angelus Silesius

"Even before I was me, I was God in God; And I can be once again, as soon as I am dead to myself." -Angelus Silesius

People:

Meister Eckhart - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meister_Eckhart

Marguerite Porete - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marguerite_Porete

Angelus Silesius - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelus_Silesius

Hafiz - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafez

 Historical References:

List of people burned as Heretics: Wikipedia 

List of People killed in the Papal States: Wikipedia 

(Note, there is some overlap of names from those on the list burned as heretics) 

Transcript

In the 1600’ Angelus Silesius said…

 "The soul, an eternal spirit, is beyond time's hold:                                                                                                   Even in this world it is in eternity's fold" 

Welcome to The Soul podcast …

Today we're going to get closer to the modern age. We're going to look at Europe from the dark ages up to the 17th century… And we’ll travel to the Americas to see what the Aztecs had to say about the Soul around the same time…  And we'll see how people were forced to hide their belief in the Soul for the first time in history as the church started to see the inner spirit as a challenger to their power. And we’ll hear what deep thinkers of this time had to say about the spirit inside.

Today we’ll be covering blocks of hundreds of years on two continents… so, I'm going to jump forward in the timeline to the 1300 through the 1500s in the Americas. And then- we're going to head to Europe and look at the year 1000 to the 1500s. This was an eventful period in Europe. It was the first time we see the church try to control the individual’s personal relationship to the Soul. And you’ll see how it led to a dark chapter in human history.

A warning here – In order to understand the historical journey, we’ve had with the Soul – and see how people have gone through a lot to stay true to it… We’re going to be looking at some material that could be uncomfortable for some listeners… this will include disturbing details about public executions in the Middle Ages. This is NOT the normal tone or subject matter for The Soul Podcast… but it’s an important piece of the puzzle, which helps us understand this thing we feel inside. This section isn’t appropriate for young listers – and others may also find it difficult to hear. But we need to talk about it. This vital chapter demonstrates the power and resilience of the Soul. We’ll see that no amount of brutality could block our relationship with our deeper self. 

…Now, before we head into the Dark Ages… let’s take a trip to the America’s… before they called it that…. 

>>The AZTECS<<

Long before Columbus sailed to the Americas and long before the Spanish conquered the region, the Aztecs believed in the existence of the Soul. They had a way of looking at life after death -and the way the Soul ascended. After death the Aztec believed the Soul would go to one of three places: the sun,  the underworld, or a place called Tlalocan (tlah-low-can), which has been translated to mean a kind of paradise. This is a little like how Christians see heaven… with a few twists. The Aztec version of Heaven is ruled over by the rain deity Tlaloc and his consort Chalchiuhtlicue (Chal-CHEE-ooh-tlee-Qu). Those who died through drowning or lightning, (or as a consequence of diseases associated with the rain deity) got an automatic ticket to paradise.  Souls of fallen warriors and women that died in childbirth would transform into hummingbirds that followed the sun on its journey through the sky. Souls of people who died from less glorious causes would go to Mictlan (mickt-lawn)– The underworld.

The Aztec had a pictograph language that existed long before the Spanish Conquistadores destroyed the Aztec culture in and around the 1500s. Most of the writings were done on perishable media, such as deer skins. There was also willful and short-sighted destruction of cultural artifacts by the Spanish, as well as the priests who came to “Civilize” the native population (and I put the word civilize in quotes). 

In trying to convert the Aztecs to the Catholic religion, the native writings were suppressed. So, no writings other than those carved in stone still exist from before the age of Columbus. So, it’s possible (and likely) that the Aztec belief in the soul went back hundreds of years or more before Europeans came to the Americas.

The Aztecs were at least a few thousand years behind the Europeans in their technological advancements and societal development… and the Soul was at the center of their culture.  Again – far removed from other cultures and tucked away on their own continent -the Aztec had a historical belief in an eternal soul. We see a pattern continue here. It doesn't matter where you are on the planet or how removed from other cultures you are... Each individual culture had its own belief in the soul.

Traveling back to Europe now, we’re going to land around the year 1000. The power of the church is growing, and Christianity is the dominant religion…. 

And starting in about the year 1000, we see that writings about the Soul slow to a near stop for more than five centuries. As Christianity and Catholicism take hold in Europe, the church gains massive amounts of power. The Church is so powerful it influences monarchies and government policy. Free thought is massively stifled - through fear. The church understood people’s relationship to the Soul and saw the value in laying claim to it. They declare the church is the only means to connect with and protect the divine spark we all knew we held inside. 

They continue to hold this position for generations. So, as generations passed under the influence of the church, many in the population begin to accept the church’s claim. They embrace the idea that the Soul and the God of Christianity are intertwined. They embrace religion -in the hopes of connecting more deeply with the power they feel inside.. and attributing it to “god”. 

As we’ve seen, people had known for (at least) a few thousand years that sitting silently with yourself can lead to a Soul reunion… Use of prayer and chanting could have the same effect.  So, people surely felt a Soul connection while doing these practices through the church. 

But religion had strict rules about what were appropriate ways to connect with our “higher power”. Ultimately religion became a wedge between people and their most valuable possession. It stifled their ability to connect -rather than enhancing it. And it drew an emotional shield across our relationship with the divine perfection we all feel. 

We’ve seen throughout the last five episodes that there had been a steady flow of philosophies about this unseen force. We’d been struggling to understand it for tens of thousands of years… Since recorded time, people had always felt it. 

Suddenly, during this time of church domination, writings about the Soul were stifled by fear of retribution from the church. And for half a millennium, philosophical writing about human’s relationship to the Soul came to a near standstill in Europe. Those who veered away from church doctrine risked being accused of being a heretic -and risked punishment of a horrible kind. 

So, what were the people afraid of?

Around 1077 the Catholic church began killing people for speaking or writing opinions that differed from church doctrine. These murders began as hangings but by the 1300s the church changed tactics and began burning these so-called “heretics” at the stake. Consider that; simply disagreeing with the church publicly was reason enough to lose your life in the most gruesome and public way. 

Backing up a bit.. In the Early Middle Ages, people were widely illiterate, and heresy was uncommon. By the High Middle Ages, more people were learning to read.  Many wanted to read the Bible. When they did, they sometimes came to different conclusions from those of the Church. Soon the church started accusing anyone demanding access to the Bible as being a sinner… and it could even get you accused of heresy. An educated public, with too much free thought was becoming a problem for the church. 

So, an attempt by the people to understand the Bible -without the church telling them how they should see it-  led to the rise of heresy in the High Middle Ages. 

And… by the High Middle Ages, Heresy was so common that the Church felt threatened. Any belief differing at all from the Church could be regarded as heresy, and be a punishable act. Free thought and free speech were a crime under church power.

What’s amazing is that these people weren’t denouncing god – just interpreting the bible in different ways -in an attempt to better understand their faith. Many -if not most- were more devout than those running the church. They were exploring their faith, to try and understand how the divine nature of the Soul.

Let’s look at an example from the 1300s

Marguerite Porete (pr. Mar-ga-reet  Poor-et) was burned at the stake in 1310 in France after being found guilty of heresy. And what was her crime? She wrote and distributed a book, which had a focus on trying to understand and explain the nature of the Soul. The book was called ‘The Mirror of Simple Souls’… (it’s available for free online -or you can buy a hard copy as well. I’ll put links in the show notes). 

Now, she first landed on the Church’s radar because the book was written in Old French instead of Latin -as the church had said anything that quoted the Bible must be written. This alone was reason to accuse her of heresy. 

Her belief system was highly influenced by the teachings of the church. Of course, it was. The church was all-powerful. It was the center of life in her time. This book was a deep dive into understanding the nature of the soul and its connection to religious believe and god. None of its content denounced god. It only looked for answers to the deep knowing she had that there was a divinity in herself… what has been called a great spark, the inner perfection, and the god inside.

She wrote…  

"I am God, says Love, for Love is God and God is Love, and this Soul is God by the condition of Love. I am God by divine nature and this Soul is God by righteousness of Love."

Marguerite Porete  had spent much time in quiet reflection with her soul. She had experienced a Soul Reunion… which is reflected in her writings. And she understood that a person would have to step back from their education… and set aside their “reasoning mind” in order to be open to the touch of the Soul. At the start of her book she wrote.. 

“Theologians and other clerics, you will not have the intellect for it,

No matter how brilliant your abilities, if you do not proceed humbly.

And may Love and Faith, together… Cause you to rise above reason, since they are the ladies of this house.”

Well… this pissed off the church.  How dare some strong-willed woman talk down to them about religion?! She was imprisoned in 1308 ……and then -in 1310… she was tied to a stake and burned. It’s said she went peacefully to her death. There are accounts from the time that the crowd was moved to tears by the calmness of how she faced her end… and of course, she would. She understood the immortality of the Soul. 

… but this was just the beginning of the church’s reign of terror. 

This horrible form of execution was so well adopted by catholic priests across Europe that by the 1500s burning at the stake spread as far as Ireland. 

As a small aside--- the church was proud of their work. They kept records of their killings. Today you can see lists of their atrocities on Wikipedia. All thanks to church record-keeping. (you can find a link in the show notes -for two Wiki pages that list some of the victims of the Catholic church.) When you check out the lists, which include hundreds of names.. understand that this list isn’t a complete list. These are only the more prominent cases. After some research I continually found cases of group burnings, beheadings, other executions of lesser-known people mentioned… which are not included on the Wiki page. One estimate I found says that during the inquisitions held between 1530 and 1730, there were more than 1250 executions. We know for sure there were several hundred more before the 1500s. 

I know this is ugly.. but we’re going to end in a better place -so stick with me if you can. 

Now, at first the burnings were rare, but as illiteracy levels dropped and more people started reading -and questioning church authority, the executions increased dramatically. It increased every year for the next 200 hundred years and came to a horrible crescendo in the 1500s -before a slow tapering off -over another 200-PLUS years. In a fourteen-year period starting in 1544 –  ….in England, Scotland and Wales there were 118 burnings. Some of these were mass burnings of several at a time. In the 1700s, the church finally ended the practice.

Now, let’s consider that 14-year period… Take a moment and think of the emotional impact that would have on the population. That’s an average of more than eight burnings a year in an area smaller than the State of California. It would have been nearly impossible for a citizen not to be aware of the murders. Many in larger towns would have even witnessed them or heard about them through first-hand accounts. This left a mark on the minds of anyone who might question the teachings of the church or question its authority on matters of the Soul. 

So, (as you might expect) … few people were willing to risk writing their beliefs on our relationship to the Soul. When researching my up-coming book, The Soul Reunion -Coming Back to Yourself, I ran into a wall when looking for writings about the Soul, between 1200-1700. Suddenly, no one was talking about it. A quiet time had emerged on the topic. When I saw the statistics and details of these mass-killings by the church, I understood why. The deafening silence matches up with the times of these killings. People were traumatized. It wasn’t for another hundred years -or so- after the killings ended before people were brave enough to ponder the nature of the Soul again. Because of this there are very few writings in Europe about the Soul for around 500 years. 

The people who were bold enough to share their opinion during this time were truly brave. One was a German theologian known as Meister Eckhart. Though he wrote about the Soul, he was careful to word his belief in a way that didn’t leave God out of the equation. Around 1300 he wrote.. 

"God is born in us as soon as all our soul-powers, which hitherto have been tied and bound, are absolutely free and when the mind is still and sense troubles us no longer." 

The first part of this reflects long-held understanding that the body is powered by the spirit. The second half echoes writings from thousands of years earlier - that deeper connection to the soul can be achieved when we quiet our mind. 

Though his writing was cautious, it was still an act of bravery. Imagine feeling so strongly about a topic that could lead you to arrest and possible death, yet you still wrote about it. It didn’t hurt that there are no records of burnings in Germany up until that point… so he may have felt a bit safer than those in other parts of Europe. 

That’s how strong the belief in the Soul was for many. The church had tried to suppress a human birthright, the human relationship to the divine spark. We can see that writings about the Soul began to increase as the executions and arrests slowed late into the 1600s. Fear of persecution started to drop… but it took a several generations before the echoes of the Catholic church’s terrorism subsided and people in Europe felt safe again to ponder the human relationship to the Soul. 

You stuck with me through that difficult chapter. So, I want to reward you with something a bit softer. Let’s travel to Persia and the 1300’s… 

Hafiz  wrote… “A day of Silence
 Can be a pilgrimage in itself.
 A day of Silence
 Can help you listen
 To the Soul play
 Its marvelous lute and drum.”

About the time churches were burning heretics in Europe, a wise poet and mystic in the Middle East was pondering the nature of the Soul, with less fear of retribution. Born Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī but known simply as Ḥāfiẓ, this Persian Muslim was known for questioning religious hypocrisy. Like Rumi, he too was a Sufi. Hafiz had a deep relationship to the Soul. Though little is known about his practice in connecting with his divine spark, forms of meditation were common at the time. His connection with his deeper self was clear in his poetry. He wrote.. 

"I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness the astonishing light of your own being." Many more throughout history would discover that sitting silently with yourself can bring you closer to your Soul.  He also wrote about the feeling after a Soul Reunion… "Ever since happiness heard your name, it has been running through the streets trying to find you."        

I make this brief stop in Persia to remind you that -while the Soul was under attack in Europe, it was alive and well-loved in other prats of the world at the same time.

Now, let’s go back to Europe, around the time Middle Ages were coming to an end .. and the tyranny of the church was also ending. I’d like to introduce you to…. 

>>Angelus Silesius<<  

In the 1600s Europe was entering a period we would later call The Renaissance, Protestants revolted against Catholic oppression pushing back on all the years of tyranny -leading to the Thirty Years' War, Rembrandt was panting masterpieces, and a German Catholic priest, mystic and poet known as Angelus Silesius was putting a lot of thought into our relationship to the Soul. Though he was a Catholic priest, Silesius’ thoughts and writings on the nature of the Soul were often on the fringes of the church’s way of thinking. 

Free thinking was still a dangerous thing... Though, it’s important to note that there were few live burnings in Germany like they’d had in other parts of Europe. And there hadn’t been one for almost a hundred years when Silesius did his writing. So, he must have felt a little freedom in this. But of course - a priest could still be branded a heretic if he strayed too far from the teachings of the church. At the very least he could be defrocked, but imprisonment was also just as likely when questioning the church’s teachings. So, writing about the Soul was a bold act. 

Silesius spend a lot of time thinking about the true nature of the Soul, beyond what the church said. He concluded that we are all eternal, even without being saved through the methods of the church. One of his boldest statements he made was… 

"The vengeful God of wrath and punishment is a mere fairytale.”

He leaned quite closely towards the Buddhist and Hindu ways of thinking when he wrote..

"Even before I was me, I was God in God; And I can be once again, as soon as I am dead to myself." 

The phrase “dead to myself” is important. He’s not saying he will connect with the god inside when he is dead. He’s saying he connects to the god inside when he strips away the external self. Not literally dead, only dead to himself, which means the destruction of the ego. The god inside is the Soul. He saw the Soul as separate from the personality. Silesius was a brave man. To write that you are God in the 1600s was grounds for being called a heretic. Silesius was driven by a desire to understand his connection to the internal perfection he felt. Like so many before him, he was seeking answers to the question of the Soul. It was so important to ponder this that he was willing to take the risks he knew were involved. 

He understood there was much we don’t know… but he felt there was at least one thing that was undeniable – the Soul… The Soul….  
 So, we went on a long ride today. We started with a Quote from Angelus Silesius- and ended with more from him. We saw people stand for the Soul and fall for the love of the Soul. We saw how the soul can’t be completely suppressed by the powerful. 

In researching this episode, I kind of fell in love with Marguerite Porete. I plan to do an entire episode about her, further down the road. 

We’re getting closer to the end of the History episodes. Just 1 or 2 left. I realize this episode has been a dark ride without the uplifting wrap-up at the end, I try to provide.  In Episode 7 we’re going to start up in the 1700s and come forward. I promise it will be much happier subject matter.  So come back and listen to the next episode of the Soul Podcast– will ya?!