Four Paths of Creation Spirituality The backbone of the Creation Spirituality tradition is its naming of the spiritual journey in the Four Paths, which parallel the cycles of the four seasons. It invites us to be participants in the circle of life—being filled with awe and wonder, feeling our pain and losses, exuding creativity, and persisting as justice makers. The Four Paths also address the question: Where will the experience of the divine be found in our time? Creation Spirituality responds: the divine will be found in these places: In the Via Positiva: In the awe, wonder, and mystery of nature and all beings, each of whom is a “word of God,” a “mirror of God that glistens and glitters,” as Hildegard of Bingen put it. This is Path One. In the Via Negativa-In darkness and nothingness, in the silence and emptying, in the letting go and letting be, and in the pain and suffering that constitute an equally real part of our spiritual journey. This is Path Two. In the Via Creativa: In our generativity we co-create with God; in our imaginative output, we trust our images enough to birth them and ride them into existence. This is Path Three. In the Via Transformativa: In the relief of suffering, in the combating of injustice, in the struggle for homeostasis, for balance in society and history, and in the celebration that happens when persons struggling for justice and trying to live in mutuality come together to praise and give thanks for the gift of being and being together. This is Path Four. At Historic Sweets Ballroom:1933 Broadway, Oakland (between 19th & 20th near the 19th Street BART Station)