A creature indeed

book 1.6- Margery's reaction to Pieta

"What aileth thee woman? Why farest thus with thyself? We knew him as well as thou."

This quote resonated with me the most after the readings. To me, it sounds ALMOST like a hint of jealousy. Not jealous that she has visions, but jealous of her relationship with God that she claims. It's fair to say that most people in this time were fearful of standing out, everyone is on edge, just one moment away from saying the wrong thing that will get you accused of a heinous crime. People were afraid, and to ease their minds, they had to weed out people that were different from them.

 I think Margery is in some ways, lucky. If it were anyone else having these visions, they would likely be accused of heresy. However, because of her status and continual acceptance of the Church's word, she was able to just slip by. The other church-goers can see the bigger picture of this. They see that Margery is (annoyingly) different. They want to know, why her? What makes her think she is so special that not only she gets to see visions from God but that she isn't persecuted for having these. Her having these visions almost gives her a sense of authority and right. She has been "chosen" as the one or one of the few to see these visions. So when she cries out in the church, what makes her experience different from everyone else.

As they said  "we know hm as well as thou", there were men and women that dedicated their lives to learning the life of God and they don't all see these Godly visions. So does her seeing visions suddenly make her more knowledgable or higher in some way? Through the eyes of everyone else, she shouldn't have the privilege of seeing God when she only knows him as well as everyone else.

Margery: A Crybaby? Or A Savage?

Margery's life seems to be very strange to me as she is nothing like Julian or Hildegard. She was raised middle class, didn't learn to ready, and clearly loved sex. She reminds me loosely of Mary Magdalene but not as a prostitute. Margery never became an anchoress either. She was just a plain woman, for the most part who had a vision of God some time after giving birth to her own child. Which is understandable for the time and ibuprofen or morphine hasn't been invented yet so I can relate to her almost losing her mind. I also found it interesting that she found her own way of devoting herself to God through prayer and tears. This isn't a discussion question but why? Is it because she thought her sins kept her from doing so? She is no mere woman for she also had a business or two (though they failed), and "wrote" her own book. She gave birth to 14 children and tried to hold a vow of chastity (though her husband was a dick about it). Margery is a special mystic in her own right though she took a different path compared to the other mystics we have learned so far. 

Chatting with Jesus and rally

Margery was going insane trying to throw herself out a window, and biting at her own wrists. Then John hired keepers to lock her up, Margery was chained up in that room for eight months. And boom, Jesus shows up chats her up and a miracle happens she is no longer insane. Then John believes that she is not crazy any more, and she gets to leave the room. Then she decides to get big into clothes and brewing, which is where I got a little confused with her journey. I felt that if a miracle happens to you by chatting with Jesus that suddenly makes you not insane, you don't decide to change up your look or start brewing beer. Unless for some reason Jesus decided to tell you to change up your look and start a brewing company, I highly doubt that but I have never had a vision. But anyways she did this while having a crazy amount of kids and surviving which is like a miracle in itself. I would think you would devote the rest of your life or give some time to the church or doing some religious stuff. But it took both of her businesses failing and Jesus himself to come down and tell her to devote herself to service. I just think that it shouldn't take Jesus telling you straight up go to church and devote some of your time to it, especially since he gave you multiple miracles already. Also you'd think that if you became tight with Jesus and God, which you are able to talk to already, by devoting your time to the church that more miracles would come your way. 

The tears must keep flowing...

The Differences

With the extreme differences in their lives and revelations how were they similar leading them both to be classified as mystics?

"Ye are no good wife"

How did the Christian faith impact Margery?

After Margery turned her back to God “forsaken her Christendom, her faith and deny her God…”(384) why do you think she decided to go back to the Christian faith? How do you think this decision impacted her later in life.

“daughter, why hast thou forsaken me, and I forsook never thee?”(385)

Pup... yup

This song seemed relevant to the disarray that Margery, and probably Julian, felt when experiencing the visits/visions from God. Get rid of the lyric that says "...or the drugs that I'm taking" and replace it with something about ecstasy and, presto change-o, the song is even more relevant to the reading.

Lyrics: https://genius.com/Pup-bloody-mary-kate-and-ashley-lyrics

A Nut, A Tree, Prospering into Possibility

An image that really stood out to me while reading about Julian was the vision she had of God holding a nut within his hand. It said, "She describes seeing God holding a tiny thing in his hand, like a small brown nut, which seemed so fragile and insignificant that she wondered why it did not crumble before her eyes. She understood that the thing was the entire created universe, which is as nothing compared to its Creator, and she was told, 'God made it, God loves it, God keeps it.'" This fragility described by her of the entire universe was perplexing--balance is required for it to remain, and balance, especially by God's creation of humanity, is difficult to maintain.

Her relation to this created universe being lesser than God himself was a little over the top for me. I'm not a religious person, but if this universe was created by someone, do we think the creation is better than the Creator? Personally, I think the former is more important, more impactful, and more compelling. The universe theoretically would not exist without the creator, sure, but then when God separates himself completely as Julian described, does that really make him better?

Especially when going into what was later pointed out in the document of when Julian was living during the plague--as many religions point out similarly to Julian, there is no mercy or good fortune without some suffering. But such levels of anguish and disparity between people seems immoral, at the very least. It was what the universe, or the creation, does with this suffering that becomes more important and impactful than God's creation of them. Julian had a very holistic view of the universe, which I think is apt to her idea that if we are all created by God, then we are all intentionally connected to one another. What exactly do we do with this connection, and how do we hold ourselves accountable to our impact on one another? Going back to the imagery of the nut, humanity is fragile and significant, and I feel that especially now that nut is on the verge of cracking.

Love Visions

After reading about both Hildegard von Bingen and Julian of Norwich, I feel more aware of the concept of mysticism and how it relates to the blossoming, influential perspective that magic primarily stems from a benevolent or malevolent religious origin. Julian's visions heavily assert that God is made of love, that "before He made us, He loved us, which love was never slaked nor ever shall be. And in this love he has done all his work" (Kiefer 2).

I also find it fascinating, as I always have, how people choose to depict God and the controversy that surrounds those images. The Norton Anthology source talks about Christ's humanity and how he died to "clear the debt" humanity owed Him as a moral obligation (Greenblatt, Abrams 355). Julian's visions about God's relationship to his greatest creation, an 'endlessness' of love and rebirth, feels like an answering balm to the suffering of life and the impossible chasm between human violence and God's magnificence. The line, "Julian never leaves the sight of the wounded, bodily Christ, whose very physical suffering is somehow simultaneous with these almost immaterial visions," perfectly encapsulates, to me, what Julian's life of solitude was about (Greenblatt, Abrams 371). If God can love us through endless time despite our flaws, then, Julian seems to say, we should devote ourselves to Him and simultaneously remember our physical bodies while ascending into our spiritual selves.

Overall, the concept of a loving and forgiving God reminds me of modern platitudes/sayings passed around as band-aids to a bad day or an assurance that "everything happens for a reason," and that sometimes "bad things happen to good people." I wonder if this welcoming perspective on God was semi-founded or made popular by Julian of Norwich.

https://www.berfrois.com/uploads/2019/02/julian-of-norwich.jpg

So Many Visions

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Being an Anchoret must be pretty lonely

After reading this text, I felt like being an anchoret has to be quite lonely. Like you literally become dead to the world. I couldn't imagine doing something like this for the rest of my life without being incredibly lonely or becoming crazy. I applaud her for being able to go into seclusion for the remainder of her life to contemplate what the meaning of her vision.

Jesus is Our Mother?

"And thus in our making God almighty is our kindly father, and god all wisdom is our kindly mother, with the love and the goodness of the Holy Ghost, which is all on God, one Lord. And in the knitting and in the oneing he is our very true spouse and we his loved wife and his fair maiden, with which wife he was never displeased. For he sayeth: "I love thee and thou lovest me, and our love shall never part in two." (NAEL page 378)

The two types of relationships Julian describes here are very interesting and I found it surprising that she wasn't condemned for saying that Jesus is a mother to all of us, who suffered for us in the same ways our mothers suffer for us. I also thought it was interesting how this Father and Mother relationship, with all of creation as their children, parallels what we think of as a familial relationship.

I've seen some shizz

The Strength of Women

"Julian never hesitate to speak of Jesus Christ as "our mother." [...] In speaking of Christ as "our mother" Julian was merely likening the work of Christ to that of a mother. He gives birth to those who are "born again." Like a mother, he suffers for them before, during and after "delivery." He must patiently nourish, safeguard and instruct those who are born of him" (Julian of Norwich pg 3).

I find it interesting that both Julian of Norwich and Saint Hildegard of Bingen both regard important figures as women. Love is portrayed as a woman in Hildegard's song and Julian likens Jesus Chirst to a mother figure.

Why Live as an Anchoress?

After her series of visions, Julian decided to spend the rest of her life devoted to God, praying, and contemplating her visions. She also counseled many using her spiritual insight and book. It seems to me that she could have actively pursued spiritual life without living isolated in a small cell. What motivated her, and others, to live as an anchoress rather than out in the world as a member of society who shared God’s love?  

It's the little things, my friends.

Reflective Paragraph:

On the fifth page of Julian of Norwich, a selection from Julian's book "Showings" discussed appreciating the little things in life. For example, the little hazelnut. "The first is that God made it. The second that he loves it. And the third, that God keeps it." Something as minute as the hazelnut can cause such wonder in people. How many times have you actively thought about a hazelnut in your lifetime? Whether you are faithful or not, I think that this passage serves as an excellent reminder to note the smaller details in life. Something as minuscule as a hazelnut can have such an impact. Whether that be flavoring someone's coffee, being added in a recipe, or used as a snack (do people eat straight up hazelnuts?) that food is on this planet for a reason, and I think it can serve as a greater metaphor for all of us. Each of us are here for some reason, and we all have little details about us that no one really notices. We all have impacted people in ways that we cannot, or never will know. I’m sure we’ve all noticed details in our environment or other people that others wouldn’t bat an eye to. The uniqueness of us, and our environment is so incredibly plentiful and spectacular, that even something as little as a hazelnut can be enough to write 300 words about.