Embodiment Spirituality and No Words Theology. Is this what was resurrected? Journal entries and theological reflections from Holy Week 2024.
I am sharing here my journal entries and theological reflections from Holy Week, 2024. When journalling I usually start with a question and then sit quietly and wait for the answer. This is what I wrote.
Remind me again. What is Theology?
It is the study of the Divine.
This, spirituality, and education – from neuro-queering and embodied perspectives – are my academic, professional, and lived experience specialisms and expertise.
What do I need to know today, which is Good Friday?
On Good Friday we are reminded of the fate which awaits humanitarian and humane humans who challenge the empire, its systems, and the status quo.
When enough of us: a) recognise the abusive and oppressive overarching culture and structure we live in and b) work on our nervous system regulation – moving out of functional freeze and dissociation, collapse, and fawning – digesting sympathy energies of flight and fight which result from the thawing, the solidarity, belonging and safety between us will result in a humane, humanitarian, humanity – in which such revolutionaries are the leaders, pioneers and visionaries of new society structures and global order.
What do I need to know today, which is Holy Saturday?
On Holy Saturday we depathologise despair and pivot to the perpetrator.
Despair is a normal response to loss.
‘Why have you forsaken me?’ is a healthy expression when we have been subjected to abuse. Flee and overwhelm are normal nervous system responses to threats. A community that sees any member, but especially its teacher, be subjected to torture and horror, would experience terror, freeze, and survivor’s guilt.
On Holy Saturday we can pause, refocus, and zoom out – looking at the bigger picture.
And in doing so we pivot to the perpetrator.
Victim blaming and pathologisation of trauma responses divert attention away from the perpetrator and the choice they made to harm.
The empire, its systems and institutions, was (and still is) the predator and abuser – actively hunting and killing the most humane, humanitarian, humans – peacemakers, status quo challengers, divergent free-thinkers, and creatives.
Holy Saturday is our shocking wake-up call to our overarching cultural norms. We lay collapsed in the dark cave – the tomb/womb – of that realisation.
What do I need to know today, which is Easter Sunday?
On Easter Sunday we are reminded that the resurrection of a humane and humanitarian humanity will happen through trauma resolution and restoring regulation – despite the scars – individually and collectively.
Resurrection is humanity’s embodiment post-trauma.
Mind and body come out of ‘freeze’; dissociation, numbness and collapse, survival responses complete and there is restoration of the (co-)regulation; compassionate goodness, flow, human spirit – despite (and in spite) of the scars – individually and collectively.
A humane and humanitarian humanity, living as and from the parasympathetic ventral vagal nervous system, simultaneously rises and descends in and through healthy embodiment – as a tangible divinity – governed by fleshy knowing, collectively liberated from the hell of the abusive and oppressive overarching culture of empire, systems, institutions, governance, and dogma.
The start and end point is the body.
What do I need to know today, which is Easter Monday?
Post-resurrection, the ‘risen’ humane and humanitarian humanity will acknowledge that there is no separation between spiritual and human needs. Interaction with scarred bodies and nervous system health will be the spiritual practice. Ensuring that everyone has access to decent food, clean water, warmth, shelter, movement, and sanitation will be the devotional act.
Doubting Thomas placing his hands directly on the scars, and Jesus, the trauma survivor turned thriver activist, saying yes to the request, offering co-regulation, role modelling and mentorship in No Word Theology – trusting our own felt sense discernment – aka fleshy knowing – going in and through embodiment – above all else.
Interaction with scarred bodies and nervous system health is to be the spiritual practice – aka Embodiment Spirituality.
‘Feed my lambs’ Jesus said, emphasising a practical and community focus, a very tangible divinity.
Post-resurrection, the ‘risen’ humane and humanitarian humanity will acknowledge that there is no separation between spiritual and human needs. Ensuring that everyone has access to decent food, clean water, warmth, shelter, movement, and sanitation will be the devotional act.
The start and end point is the body.
After Easter week I presented a paper – “Making Love with the Divine: Sacred, Ecstatic and Erotic Experiences,” for the first time, at the SST Prayer conference, which outlined two concepts; Tangible Divinity and No Words Theology. These are ‘lived experience’ embodiment theologies, rooted in embodiment spirituality, embodied education [1] and the resolution of trauma, in what I call our Divine Nervous System.
I wonder, now, if this is what the deeper meaning of the resurrection story is and that Theology, especially practical theology, needs to reflect this. Imagine a non-hierarchal, non-dogmatic, and non-ableist Theology which emphasises embodied theological education, and our body wisdom and draws on the polyvagal theory [2], to become a no-words study of locating the divine in and through the body within our flesh knowing, as Jesus and Thomas demonstrated.
As I complete this reflection on Easter week this year I thank all the scholars, teachers, mentors, including Audre Lorde, Lisa Isherwood, Elizabeth Stuart, Marcella Althaus-Reid, Dr Peter Levine, Dr Stephen Porges, Irene Lyon, Dr Gabor Mate and Cole Arthur Reily, whose work inspired these ideas and reflections. In addition, I wholeheartedly thank the women who contributed their lived day-to-day ‘mundane’ and ‘ordinary’ yet ‘sacred’ and ‘spiritual’ experiences and shares, to the research process for the workbook I authored, Making Love with the Divine: Sacred, Ecstatic and Erotic Experiences [3], which was published last year by Girl God Books, and explores tangible divinity more deeply.
References
[1] See: https://www.thegirlgod.com/embodied_education.php
[2] See: https://www.polyvagalinstitute.org/whatispolyvagaltheory
[3] See: https://www.thegirlgod.com/making_love.php
© Kay Aldred, 2024.
This work is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
Cover Image: Provided by the author.
Kay is an experienced Teacher (PGCE), Theologian (MA), published Author and Editor specialising in Embodied Education, Embodiment Spirituality and the ‘fleshy knowing’ of lived experience.
She is a Freelance Consultant, Associate and Lived Experience Development Lead at Neurodiverse Connection (www.ndconnection.co.uk).
She offers neuro-inclusive, creative, and embodied perspectives and approaches, which are nervous system-friendly and trauma-informed, to support individual and collective well-being and spiritual needs, and positively shape organisational culture and outcomes.
