manitou

Okay, now wait a minute. Let's get this straight. You had a category 5 cyclone aimed directly at your town, and you posted a cry for weather shamans. Did you just say that the storm took a bit of a jog before it hit Queensland? I don't know what the others did, but is there any chance that any weirdness we tried may have actually worked? I did an odd little ceremony involving a candle, an atlas, and high pressure. Wouldn't that be something?

Mal, what a relief. Thanks for keeping us updated so well. I hope your friends and neighbors are okay too. This is a rough year.

I'm not sure how I mean meekness. It just keeps popping into my head. Maybe in terms of the ruled class in Egypt throwing off the yoke of the ruler. I'm just not sure that any word in the Bible or any other tome is absolutely to be taken at face value - who knows what the original intent of the speaker was? I'm not sure who the speaker even was - maybe Jesus? Maybe the speaker merely meant 'the ordinary man will inherit the earth'. Agreed....those people are not meek. What courage. If today was any example of what those poor people have to live with - I mean really - riders with whips on camels? It just seems like there are a whole lot of dominoes on the verge of going down with this same thing, at the same time. So many things are branching together, and so many answers are being provided at this particular point in time. My head is kind of spinning -

Oh God yes.

The thing about the TTC is that the interpretation is completely dependent upon the degree of spiritual understanding of the interpreter.

Ralis, so glad you made it okay.

A cup of hot chocolate awaits you in east Ohio, if I see you stuck out in front of the house... Be safe.

That's odd. I see Mr. Obama as running the country as you would fry a small fish.

I worry about my Ohio trees, Indiana. There's so much ice on them right now the branches are hanging way down. I just hate it when that happens. But don't you just love it when a bright white snow covered hill is contrasted with the dark grey sky right behind it? What a horizon, it makes my heart jump. Or the little diamonds in the snow when the sun first comes out? Or the tiny little tangled twigs in the bushes that all have frost on them. So intricate. Or the wonderful bright red cardinal sitting on that snowy pine? This is the first winter I've allowed myself to enjoy it since we moved to Ohio four years ago. The last 3 years I was afraid of it; afraid we'd get stuck, afraid we'd run out of heating oil, afraid I'd fall on the sidewalk, afraid, afraid, afraid. This year the fears seem to have lifted, and in their place is a magical kingdom that I can't seem to get enough of. I know, I know....ask me again in March.

My cranky old uncle input is the way the news anchors talk down to us. I feel like they're talking to five year olds, not mature adults. I want to find a good friggin news show! I don't want this egocentric stuff they show on CNN, this fixation on celebrity and All Things U.S. God forbid we should be in an election cycle; it's as though the rest of the earth doesn't even exist. It is possible to find world coverage, but doesn't it seem a bit odd that we have to go to someplace like Link TV and hear the news from Al Jazeera? This is ridiculous! And now they're depending so much on their I-Reporters (how much cheaper is that??) that they don't even have the real things posted around the world any more. My other pet peeve is the way government feels that they have to protect us from ourselves. I'm sick to death of political correctness, but particularly all the safety procedures that we manage to put into place any time any little anomoly happens. And it always starts with the soccer-mom news anchors leading the charge, making sure "This Never Happens Again To Anybody". Jeez. I'm sick of warnings being printed on plastic bags telling me not to swallow them. I'm sick of printing on a frozen food label that tells me that I have to cook this pizza before eating it. I'm really sick of having my intelligence insulted every time I turn around. And yes, I do think our society is desensitizing. I don't think the soul knows the difference when someone is engaging in real life, or playing a video game. I think the soul reacts to the games as though it were real. When you slaughter so many people every day, it's bound to reap a bit of a harvest in your soul. But perhaps this is part of the evolution as well. Maybe those kids will be the ones flying space ships with joysticks and using their gaming skills, and yet be impervious to emotional distraction while they're doing it. Maybe that's why....

A ceremony to you and Queensland from this end.

Well, what's crazy is that here we sit, in front of our computers, staring into a little square screen..... It is insane. All of it. If you can subscribe to the We Are All One theory, which many of us here do, then whether we are 63 or 13, it doesn't matter. The only thing separating us is the element of Time. Inside we are all the same being, spread out over the illusion of a one day at a time existence. To look at a particular group of any sort with accusation is merely to point the finger at one's self. We're all one, here and now. Blame is a waste of time and energy, it's useless. At some level, things are right on track. As Taoists or some variation thereof, this is our strength. We know that. There is no need for fear.

Looking at this from a slightly different perspective: Self-awareness, whether it be the self-awareness of a Buddhist or a Taoist, is a channel that must be travelled in addition to the external knowledge we attain from studies, reading, or masters. The self-awareness channel is a going-in process that involves years of internal Aha's!, which is the connecting mechanism for all the external knowledge we acquire through external means. What we are left with is a cosmic basket weave of our own making, each individually expertly fitted. The series of Aha's! only lead to one place. The I Am. It has nothing to do with ego. In fact, ego must be tamed before the room can be entered.

If you're growing old less than 8 hours isn't sufficient either.

The wonderful thing about being a Taoist is that we know that things are moving along just fine - that spirit, or the void, or whatever you want to call it will evolve just the way it is supposed to. There is no cause for individual alarm - the intelligence of the Whole will see to it that needs are met, that the dross is cleared away, and that all is well. The green industries will have to spring up quickly - they will. The political situation, in lieu of the chaos in Egypt, and in particular being adjunct to the Suez Canal - who the heck knows what's going to happen there? It will go according to plan. Oil will no doubt become less relevant as global awareness toward global warming and other ecological tendencies increases in breadth and intensity. This too is part of the dynamic. We in particular are the ones who must keep their heads throughout all of this - many will be looking to the enlightened ones to show the way. I think all we have to do is trust in our own intelligence, on a global scale. It's certainly there, and we will be the subtle leaders.

Do you have any corn? We're going to a movie; Corn needs to be popped.

Yes, between Ah! and Ough! there is a world of difference. Ah! is that which is pleasing from our current perspective. Ough! is that which is repugnant from our current perspective. But it is all so relative! it is only the perspective that changes, not the circumstances. It is all in our mind. We can choose our mindset from day to day and choose the attitude we live with daily. If we choose an attitude of love for everyone (admittedly a difficult mindset to stay in) we end up with a day with many Ah's! and few 'Ough's! The idea that the Tao suggests that learning should be banished often sticks in the craw of people who value learning, as we all do. But learning also breeds arrogance if we aren't careful. If only we can utilize the learning without the ego-need to show it. Perhaps putting a bunch of initials after our names isn't the very best thing for our soul progression. When we become learned we often attach too much importance to our own knowledge and cease having an open mind for new knowledge to come in. After all, I do have initials after my name, or (in our particular case) I am a Master of some sort, and therefore I have the information for you, nobody has the information for me, I've got it all. Who among us cannot relate to this Catch 22? That which men fear is indeed to be feared. It is to be feared because these things are real to them. To one that realizes that we are the great Manifester and we manifest all from the inside out, there is nothing to fear at all. All we need to do is to Be Here Now and be the witnesses. Distant is the dawn of awakening for the ones that are fearful; those enlightened to the Oneness lack fear. The people of the world still have emotional attachment. They are the merry-makers. The Sage is more akin to the newborn babe, the True Self. Like a new-born babe that cannot yet smile, as personality and appropriate responses are not yet learned in the infant. The Sage is a blank slate, no judgment, no preconceptions. It is because of this that he has clarity, with no anomalies of personality to distort his vision. The people of the world have enough and to spare.... Look around us. The quest is for more and more useless possession, for fame, for fortune. Those are the vulgar; they are clever and self assured by nature. The Sage, on the other hand, is adrift, muddled, nebulous. He is Here Now. He is waiting for the Plan to be unfolded to him in the right moment. When the moment arrives, he plucks the fruit of the Plan. He is muddled because when people ask his opinion he often has none. He wears the world like a loose garment. He does not judge. The Mother. Oh my God. This is the thing the shaman rests in. When we breathe in the air of the Mother, we know it is Her. Each and every breath we can feel the form of the Mother. When we lay on the grass, we grab onto her warm green hair and smell the earth, knowing that every cell in our body came from Her. We know that She has consciousness; we're proving that every day. We are Her. She is total Love to us - all our nourishment is from Her. We abuse her; she is capable of showing her discomfort through her various manifestations, and do they not seem to align with ours? The condition of the Mother and the condition of Man seem to be very closely aligned, if we watch the news at all.

When you look at the possibility of ancient civilizations or even ancient alien intelligence, it reminds me once more of how much we have lost. Modern man has achieved incredible things, yes - but all so machine oriented. We have lost our animal/human essence in the process. We have lost our connection to Tao, to the elements, to the energy which is free for everyone. Some of us humans are trying to re-attain the connection, through our spiritual or shamanic practices. But it's almost like the 'progress' and the 'loss' have happened in inverse proportions and within the same time frame. Like two sides of the same coin. We've created really cool machines that can interact with each other instantaneously. And we have virtually created man. But by and large, the human population is predominately tattered, whether we're referring to physical poverty or poverty of character (maybe more a problem with the West). I wonder if the money thing (or the gold coin thing, or the bead thing) was the demise of previous populations. Maybe nothing assures downfall faster than the self-interest of the powerful imploding in on itself, leaving the 'meek' to inherit what's left. Maybe this is a pattern that continues on ad infinitum until the human experiment fully plays out, or at least until we learn otherwise.

Sometimes I wonder if galaxies or universes don't oscillate through a black hole from galaxy incarnation to incarnation. Like when this cycle is over, we'll be on the other side of a black hole.

My experience sort of bears that out too. I have a 12th grade education, that that's just barely. My husband Joe has an 8th grade education; he hasn't been getting the scrolls, but the incredible knowledge that has been inserted into his shamanic little head is astounding. He is capable of speaking like a Master when it's called for. Plus, in his case, this is after a total of 19 years spent in prison and many years of living on the streets as a wino. I think some of our stories around here are pretty incredible - I've heard glimpses of other incredible recovery stories on this site as well. This is magic alchemical stuff.

This is an odd phenomena, and I too have felt the shift from death-fearing to non death-fearing. It's like I am prepared for it at any moment, and it's okay. but this is not to say I don't love life - I love life now more than ever before, because my energy system has awakened and is more connected with the life around it. Castaneda would often talk about utilizing death as an advisor, about an arm's length off to our left side. This mindset is wonderful in my opinion - it helps put every decision within a context that is very clear. But because we realize death is so imminent, the appreciation for life is expanded. In one of Shirley McLaine's old books (Out on a Limb, maybe) she talks about an OBE where she would be connected with a silver thread to the earth but go way out in space. After she became capable of doing that, she no longer feared death, she realized that there was a continuity that extended beyond what we see here and now. I've not had the identical experience as Shirley, but one time during tantric sex my husband and I went to a golden womb of a place that eminated golden rays of light and we could hear an electrical buzzing or humming. I don't know if this is the same place that death takes you to, but it felt like it was the connection of all-spirit, of the essense of everything. It was a place of no gravity, a golden void. This phenomenon felt very real to us - and we both have a different view of death since this happened. The fear is gone.

Thank you Susan - your perspective was really informative and your words resonated right to the bottom of my heart. The idea of concentrating on the underground chakra makes perfect sense.

I'd just love to be able to remember my youth at all. I've never been able to.

lol, no I didn't mean to say the law of the jungle was trite. The overusage of that particular bible passage over and over to justify capital punishment is trite. They're just being lazy...I'm sure if they just took the time to read the darn thing they could come up with other round passages to jam into that square hole.

Okay.