Wonderboeck

Spiritual Alchemy

David Joris ( 1501 " 1556 bce ) was a leader of the Anabaptists in Holland. That is the predecessor … of the modern day … Amish experience … famous in the American continent. Its the life of a man … that weaves a great tale of mysticism and rationality … as if the spirit was mixed with the mortal nature of man … to reveal a personality … who declared himself … ' a prophet ' … and … ' a representative of the lord.' But David Joris turned out okay in the end … finding his salvation in the experience of … ' internal religion more appropriate '… in the final years before his death.

Lancaster County in Pennsylvania … is a rustic place … with twisting roads … rolling hills … farms … horse buggies and bonnets … whose appeal of view … carries a strong scent of the human spirit. Its a place where … folks build their own homes … work with their hands on wood … sew quilts … and make delicious food for sale to customers … on account of their conspicuous ethics. It has been for a long time a durable part of Americana for the casual observer.

Its a lifestyle and culture … that has its roots in Europe … where the Anabaptists faced the harshest treatment … in their opposition to the Catholic church. The difference lay in one simple experience of the human condition. The Catholics were prepared to transfer their experience of the spirit to an institution … while the Anabaptists claimed the right of man … to his own deification as spirit … ' and reformer of the whole world.' Joris suffered … ' lashing … boring of the tongue … and exile … while his mother was beheaded '… in the many crackdowns undertaken against the Anabaptists.

The American experience … is full of expressions about freedom … and the great experiment … and I can't help but feel if they … continue in some way … to view the experience of man as spirit … while subscribing to institutionalized faith. Joris was described as a man … ' who revealed unusual scriptural knowledge.' And no doubt that continues in the 300,000 Amish practitioners today … who are split into divisions … and continue to experience … walkouts by its disillusioned membership.

I visited with a lady on the web … who helps folks leaving the Amish experience … or a certain chapter of the faith … to re-adjust to life … in normal society. I also paused at the site of a … Dr.  Holmes Morton … pediatrician in Lancaster County … who attends to Amish children with hereditary illnesses … especially … maple syrup disease. It makes me wonder … whether all of our fall-out from the social organizations we engender … may be handled with learning and self understanding.

But surely … that is the intent of civilization … and the progress we have made over the ages. Joris himself showed acute self understanding of his situation. In his later years … he wrote to Martin Luther … ' warning him of his self derived wisdom and reason.' He advised his followers … ' to flee false prophets and the wise and mighty of the world.' In going into an … internal experience of faith … Joris demonstrated the twin peaks of faith … that it ought to be thought of as a thesis … and thereafter … be subject to a practical test in the living of it … by the very individual who professes to such a view.

I identify strongly with such a view … and found in my living of it … to be a little different. Our thoughts are often soft … motivated by self support … and borne as a dream … we know to be true. In the actual living of it … we learn many new things … that refines our experiences at street level. It is a greater assurance of the person we thought we were … and the way that relates to the grocer … the hairdresser … and the general society. In an extension of the experience … it relates to the world … the reason we were born in this life … with the association of our parents … brothers and sisters … wife and child. Its a physical report that … blasts our thoughts of promises … and affirms the nature of our being in the physical.

Curiously … the two are not very different. Joris must have realized … as I have come to … that his life was a plan of learning and understanding for himself … in the plan of creation. And this is the new flavor of the month … in these times … when we refer to man's experiences of faith … knowledge … and the normal life. In a strange twist of coincidences … the Anabaptists claimed that a man … should only be baptized at an older age … rather than a baby. Its a proposal I expect … is made with the understanding gained … in our later years.

I had sent an e-mail to the lady … at the website … who helps with disillusioned Amish membership … to come read my narratives … at WC. I had hoped that … it'll help her with … what may constitute as … youthful dissatisfaction at the practices of the Amish. A person today … caught on to the feverish experiences of creature comforts and the consumer society … may be dismissing something far more profound in their individual natures. And yet … it nice to know that … we need to understand all about humanity … before settling down into our internal realization of its truths.

The act of baptism … as any act of engagement of the spirit … by the will of volition … is a phenomenal experience … that brings the man … into a reflection of the spirit … in an inexplicable gesture that is beyond mind and knowledge. But the mind views it … and records its experience of it … as witness. It is the spirit giving unto itself. I don't see how it makes a man good … but it does make him aware of the incredible possibilities of experience in life.

In 1542 … Joris published … Wonderboeck … and was immediately drawn into a quarrel for the leadership of the Anabaptist … with Mennon Simons … who subsequently founded the … Global Anabaptists Mennonite Chapter. In the encounter … Joris asks of Mennon … ' Who advises you Mennon … to appear so boldly before the Lord?' ' Who has sent you?' A man would need to know.

Reference : Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online.