This reflection was shared at an online gathering of Associates, Oblates, and Sisters of the Community of the Transfiguration on December 11, 2020.
Yesterday was the feast day of Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk who was born in the Pyrenees mountains of southern France in 1915. As he says in the first sentence of his well-known spiritual autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain, he was born “under the sign of the water-bearer,” which was his way of saying that his astrological sign was Aquarius. Merton is considered one of the most (if not the most) influential spiritual authors of the 20th century, exploring Western and Eastern Mysticism, Zen Buddhism, art, literature, photography, philosophy, politics, activism, poetry and so much more in his writings, including astrology. Although it was never a main focus of his, he remained intrigued by the zodiac and the teachings of the stars, much like the magi who were led to the Christ child through their study of astrology.
There’s an understanding among astrologers that we undergo a major shift in our personal and spiritual lives about every 27 years, which is the amount of time it takes for the planet Saturn to return to the place where it was when you were born: your “Saturn Return.” Merton’s feast day is celebrated on the 10th of December for two reasons. First: that was the day when he entered the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in Trappist KY, just weeks before his 27th birthday (at the time of his first “Saturn Return”). It was also on that same exact day (December 10th) that he died and entered the next life in Bangkok, Thailand as a result of accidental electrocution, exactly 27 years later (at the time of his second Saturn Return). So I invite you to reflect on where you were in your spiritual life during your first Saturn Return (around 27 years old) and during your second Saturn Return (around 54 years old) and also to think about where you were or where you might be during your third Saturn Return (around 81 years old).
I’ve been thinking about Merton and the teachings of the stars as I’ve been preparing for a retreat tomorrow titled “Praying with Thomas Merton During Seasons of Darkness,” which will focus on Merton’s responses to the question of suffering. I’ve also been thinking about the upcoming great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on Dec 21st, the winter solstice (the longest night of the year) and also the feast day of St. Thomas the Apostle.
The physical and spiritual darkness seem to be growing around us as the nights become longer, the COVID death toll increases at a disturbingly rapid rate, and blatantly false conspiracy theories continue to spread among our fellow Americans, deepening our division and distrust. In one of his prayers, Thomas Merton said “the night has values that day has never dreamed of.”[1] And in one of his poems, he says, “When the shadows fall, the stars appear [and God wanders about.]”[2] Although the darkness is indeed frightening and it demands our caution and care, it also makes it possible for us to see the glorious stars that remain hidden during the day. (The light from some of the most distant stars began its journey before the Earth even existed!).
So as we pray for all those in need during this season of darkness (including those beautiful blue stars known as the Sisters of the Transfiguration), I invite us also to reflect with gratitude upon the gifts that have become more apparent to us like stars in the night sky, gifts that had previously remained hidden from our sight or that we had simply taken for granted. And I encourage us to share these “stars” with each other and experience the joy that Merton described in his book Dancing in the Water of Life when he wrote these words: “Seeing the multitude of stars above the bare branches of the wood, I was suddenly hit, as it were, with the whole package of meaning of everything: that the immense mercy of God was upon me, that the Lord in infinite kindness had looked down on me and given me this [life] out of love.”[3]
[1] Sign of Jonas, 358.
[2] “Hagia Sophia” from Emblems of a Season of Fury (1963) in The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton, 370-371.
[3] Dancing in the Water of Life, 177.
DANIEL DeFOREST LONDON 