Why all the uproar?

I've read in the paper that the Catholics are up in arms over the release of the movie version of Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass, a children's fantasy book. I wonder if any of them have read the book? I read it a couple of years ago and found it to be a delightful adventure story full of powerful metaphors.

The possibility of the "Magisterium" an authoritarian organisation which restricts freedoms in order to impose its own systems of belief upon the populace representing the Catholic Church is what the uproar is about. But why? If you have read the book and are Catholic, how could you see a church you love as having these qualities? The authoritarian air of the "Magisterium" can represent any organization that has the goal or limiting personal freedoms.

Besides, there are many other movies and stories that specifically target the Catholic church much more directly. How about the Three Musketeers? Or, Joan of Arc? Or, Shogun? Or The Thornbirds? Perhaps it is just because the book and movie has children as it's primary audience?

The story revolves around Lyra a young girl of about 12 that was raised at what appears to be some sort of monastary. She is then captured by an illegal group of perverse individuals whose goal is to separate children from their souls (represented by a "daemon" animal that lives outside their bodies). The adventure ensues as Lyra escapes and works at rescuing the other chiildren in the grips of this group.

The Metaphors

Over the past twenty years I have worked with adults and adolescents that have been abused by parents and other authority figures that have done their level best to remove their souls. As children, they were subjected to all kinds of authoritarian rituals that reduceds them to soulless fractions of the self they were born into.

Through emotional and physical coercive techniques, authoritative parents and organizations of all sorts have required children to give up their SELF in order to not be beaten or even merely rejected. This is what the "Magisterium" represents, not the Catholic (or any other) Church.

I remember sitting in a doctors office waiting room when my kids were small. One mother had a two year old little boy who was sitting next to her. Every time this child wiggled, not misbehaved, but merely wiggled, the woman slapped his arm or his thigh. The little boy had obviously already lost his soul because he didn't even wimper or protest in any way.

Another mother I witnessed in grocery store. She had four children with her ranging in ages from about three to twelve. They were standing quietly all in a line behind her at the check out. I smiled at them and asked their mother how she did that (get her kids to be so cooperative). She looked at me with a steely, dead serious expression and said "You have to break their spirit." The woman appeared normal enough, but the comment sent chills down my spine.

That's what The Golden Compass is about. It's not about the Church. It's about any person or group of people who would attempt to force children (and of course, any of us) into losing our spirit.

Who are the "Bad Guys"?

The authoritarian figures in the story, and in our lives, are the real losers in the book and in life. They have lost their souls so completely as to not care about the emotional and spiritual life of human beings. One can only guess at the horrors that these people must have experienced to have lost their souls so completely.

Believing that there is no one who cares about us or that there is no value to our SELF is what causes us to lose our souls. Any of us who are subjected to these conditions over long enough a period, will lose our souls.

What does it mean to "lose our souls"?

Losing our souls is when we lose connection with our emotional and spiritual life. How much or our life requires us to give up our SELF?

The good news is that we can re-connect with our lost souls. We can re-connnect with our emotions and our spirit. It's not easy, but it is not only possible, its necessary for us to experience joy in our lives.

How do we re-connect with our souls?

Try the following for a few days and notice how different you feel about yourself and your life when you spend this time with your SELF

Take the time to breathe

LIsten to what your body is telling you

Put one hand over your heart and breathe air into your heart

Close your eyes and listen inside to whatever comes up

Do nothing to stop the feelings that arise

Listen to what your feelings are trying to tell you about you, about your life, about anything that is going on in your life.

Let me know what happens!

I'd love to hear about your experiences as you move toward re-connecting with your emotions. What problems come up for you? What felt good about it?