SPIRIT ALCHEMY | DIVINE FEMININE JOY

Julian of Norwich: Knowing and Teaching Joy in the Midst of the Black Death

Championing the Divine Feminine in the belly of medieval patriarchy

Those early Christian women mystics were no slouches.

Julian of Norwich actually coined the English word joy.

While she lived from 1342 to 1415, during a raging pandemic that hit when she was seven and returned again and again in waves.

They did not have vaccines and medications for the Bubonic Plague, so it wiped out half of England’s population. They called it the Black Death. People had to be buried five deep in mass graves. Two out of three clergies died — no doubt the best and bravest, ministering to the sick and dying folks all around them.

The plague was so contagious, mystical activist priest, Matthew Fox calls it AIDS on steroids. And it was global in scope.

Yet, amid all that death and grief, she pronounced her famous blessing:

All will be well, and all will be well, and every kind of thing shall be well.

Julain didn’t just ‘shelter in place.’ She was an anchoress.

That meant she was literally, and voluntarily, walled up in a small convent space for life. Can you imagine? For life.

She had a window into the sanctuary so she could enjoy mass. She had a window onto the street where she could take in the world and through which she did her spiritual counseling–but which also exposed her to contagions. And she had openings to exchange food and such.

One of those Black Death waves was from 1373 to 1390 during which Julian received visions and wrote her first book.

At that time, women didn’t write books. She’s credited with being the very first English woman of letters. In the 1300s!

Julian’s visions or “Showings”

In 1373, Julian experienced a series of visions she called showings. She wrote about them in Showings and Revelations of Divine Love. Both books are grounded in gratitude and the love of life.

Rather than flinch or hide from death, Julian faced it head-on. She actually prayed to enter into the experience of it. She prayed for three things: to participate in the sufferings of Jesus, to undergo a life-threatening illness, and to experience the grace of the triple ‘wound’ of contrition, compassion, and unbearable longing.

Her prayers were answered.

She got very ill, so close to death that her friends called in a priest to administer the last rites. In Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic and Beyond, mystical writers, Matthew Fox and Mirabai Starr, share Julian’s stated intentions:

“I yearned to fully experience all the discomfort of dying — physical and mental — with the accompanying terror and temptations of the spirits of evil. I wished to go to the brink of death but not pass over.

“What I wanted was for this sickness to purify me so that, by the grace of God, I would live more fully for his sake alone. Also, I was hoping it would prepare me for my real death, which I anticipated would soon be coming. I was ready to return to my God and my Maker.”

As morbid as that sounds, out of her visions came what Starr calls, a radically optimistic theology. I would stick a ‘y’ in there and dub it a radically optimystic theology!

Julian grounded her perspective on a sense of Divine Goodness and the sacred marriage of God’s grace with Mother Nature. Thus she honored the holy in all of life.

Champion of the Divine Feminine

My heart soared to learn that Julian of Norwich championed the Divine Feminine under a fierce patriarchy. Yet she sang praises to the Motherhood of God way back then.

In her showings, Julian encountered the living Christ as friendly, merry, warm, and welcoming. A Christ revealed to be God-the-Mother whose bleeding and dying were acts of unconditional love.

She was adamant about sin and damnation being human concepts. There is not one iota of wrath in God she taught. In fact, our mistakes and wounds make us all the more precious in His/Her sight.

According to Starr, “Who but a mother, she asked, would pour herself out for the love of her children? Redemption then becomes not about absolving us from sin, but loving us into the wholeness of who we really are.”

Them’s radical words at a time when the church changed its focus from the mystery of creation to absolving people’s sins before they died. Understandably considering the unfathomable number of deaths, the church was powerless to stop. But they also condemned those not saved in time.

Against this gruesome backdrop, Julian of Norwich was a stalwart advocate for Creation Spirituality. She continued that tradition which produced such luminous lights as Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas, and Mechtild of Magdeburg. And of course, Matthew Fox.

These holy women and men devoted their lives to teaching us that all creation is sacred. Not just God, the Creator. But the stars, planets, trees, plants, and living creatures everywhere. Creation itself is, along with scripture, a source of revelation about all that is holy.

The official church feared and fought nature, conquering and using her for its own nefarious purposes. Which included killing and/or enslaving indigenous people encountered in its world exploits. Indigenous people, who honor the holiness of Mother Earth and all her creations.

Like Julian

Amid horrific conditions, she remained a steadfast voice for God the Mother of us all. Across the years, she urges us to not flee life’s darkness but to stick around for everything that suffering, chaos, unknowing, and dark nights of the soul have to teach us.

One of those lessons is the depths of love found in the sacredness of all Life, including our generous but fragile planet.

Her other lesson is about joy.

She taught that we are born into a “birthright of never-ending joy.”

Julian stressed enjoying the beauty, awe, and wonder of all creation. She said, “To behold God in all things is to live in complete joy.” The “all things” of which she spoke included difficulties and challenges, as well as delights.

From her, we enjoy this well-known blessing:

I’ll close with these words from Matthew Fox:

“Our sister and ancestor, Julian, is eager not only to speak to us today, but to shout at us — albeit in a gentle way — to wake up and to go deep, to face the darkness, and to dig down and find goodness, joy, and awe.

“And to go to work to defend the earth and all her creatures, stripping ourselves of racism, sexism, nationalism, anthropocentrism, sectarianism — anything that interferes with our greatness as human beings.

“And to connect anew to the sacredness of life.”

And, I would add, our joy.

Namaste!

Marilyn Flower is a sacred fool who writes every day — fiction, poetry, and blogs — inspired by a process called SoulCollage®. She’s the author of Creative Blogging and Bucket Listers, Get Your Brave On. Follow her Sacred Foolishness or SoulCollage® for Writers, and Stay in touch!