Energy Exchange and Propogation: Eat to live, or, don’t consume your kids!

Energy.

Power.

We all have some of it, we all want more of it. How do we get it? How do we lose it? Where do we get it from? What do we do with it once we have it?

If any of you have read the Celestine Prophecies, have perused much of the New Age material out and about, the Net across, or, if you know much about the ancient and modern alchemical tradition, then you know that there are ways that we can receive energy from nature. Communing with the natural world, going for walks in the park or in the forest or desert, silently absorbing the energy that we receive from plant and animal life is one way of gaining energy.

We get energy from the food we eat. If we eat organic vegetables straight out of the ground, we receive a large quotient of the energy that these plants have stored during the photosynthesis process. Plants, fruits, vegetables, are basically just light and water in material form. We consume that light and then our body uses as much of it as it can in order to power itself. Vegetables contain more of this kind of energy than meat does. That is why it is believed, in many traditions, that being a vegetarian raises the vibrational frequency of your body, making you more amenable to spiritual pursuits and the elevation of mental states, while eating a meat diet lowers your vibrational frequency, grounding you, intensifying your presence in the here and now of this material world.

Don’t you feel much better after you’ve been outside, walking around in nature? Invigorated, somehow? As if you stuck your finger into a light socket?

It is possible to overdo it. Staying outside in the sun, for instance, all day long with no protection, and the energy we recieve from the sun’s rays can leave us lethargic and drained, because we’ve overcharged ourselves. A short nap often alleviates that, leaving us with enough energy to last us for a while.

Contemplation, concentration and meditation are other ways of raising energy. The movement of serpent power/kundalini/chi energy can be affected by yogic exercises called Pranayama, which is basically just a series of practices concerned with the movement of the breath. Inhaling, retention and exhaling according to different methods and accompanying visualization practices. Breathing is the key to meditation. According to the tradition, there is a receptor behind and a bit beneath the nose that processes prana, which is a form of etheric energy, and the only way you can bring prana into your body is through the nostrils. Deep, full breaths and the attempt to still the mind allows the body to process this energy type and store it for future purposes.

What do we use our energy for? To live. To interact with others, to do the things that we do. To go to work, to talk on the phone, to interact with our spouses, friends, family and children. To think, to write, to draw, to paint. To create music, to dance, to sing and to shout. To argue, to fight, to make love, to eat. Everything we do takes energy, so if we don’t have a conscious method of making sure we have enough energy, then we find ourselves running our bodies into the ground, because the food that we eat in this culture is generally not enough. We need other ways of gathering energy to us.

What is another way we get energy?

From each other. We are trained from childhood, in our families, to eat each other. To consume each other’s energy in parasitic relationships that we are generally unconscious of. I mean, sure, we know when we are in healthy relationships or when we are not, when we get to a certain stage of life, or a certain understanding about relationships. But that takes experience and knowledge to determine. When we are children, we don’t have that experience and knowledge available to us in most cases, since we are newly returned to the world and we don’t have access to past-life memories in that manner. So, we are trained in the methods of energy-siphoning, and we do it first in our families, and then with our friends, and then in the greater society in our daily interactions.

There is negative energy and there is positive energy. And there are strategies that we are all familiar with that allow us to get energy from each other. Some of these methods should be obvious to us all, when we think about it. Try to remember any time in which you were in an argument with someone. Where it got so bad that there was yelling, screaming, shouting. Try to remember an argument where you were on the losing end. Do you remember how you felt, when that other person was standing over you, their eyes glaring, their body seeming to swell up before your eyes,  their presence absolutely dominating your perceptions in every way?

You felt small. You felt lost. you felt confused. You felt … weak. As if you’d lost more than the argument, as if you’d lost something else. And you had. You’d lost energy. That person was swelling up, because they were consuming your energy in that interaction. Often, this occurs on a daily basis. If you look at any of your relationships, you can find examples, even small ones, of where energy exchanges occured. A quick, flippant exchange with a close friend where you exchange insults, with the other person coming out on top. They just took a quick sip of your energy. That person who always has a complaint about something, and you sit there and listen to them as they whine and moan. That’s right. They are siphoning off your energy. That high energy alpha male on the job who comes up and bullies you for a moment in jest, while others around are laughing and watching. They’re all feeding off your energy, although he gets the most. They then cast you off, and you feel weak, drained and depressed.

Ever felt the need to go out and “look for trouble”? Perhaps that is a teen thing, but feeling bored and antsy, and wanting to do something to jazz up the day or evening, you go out to find a way to get some more … energy. Whether it is going out to do some dirt or find something – or someone – to get into, we’re looking for some way to increase our energy quotient. Parents take energy from their children when they scold them emotionally. Siblings take energy from each other when they fight, argue or compete. Spouses do the same. So do friends. We even take energy from our pets. You all know people who have dogs or cats – or children – that are scared to death of their owners/parents. Any of this sound familiar?

Don’t take it lightly. This is serious business. It’s life and death, literally. Most of us are running around our lives with such a low state of energy, we’re like a battery that has almost been drained of its charge. We’re talking about life. We’re talking about the energy we need in order to survive for just a bit longer.

Some of us are so stressed by our lives that we jump when the phone rings. That is a sure sign that you have a low energy quotient and there is someone siphoning energy – or more than one someone - in your life. Others of us are on the other side of that equation, and we often feel very powerful, because we are eating the energy of those around us. Our emotional, intellectual or physical dominance, either conscious or unconscious, is affecting the people we are close to, often detrimentally.

It takes a conscious effort not to take energy from others, after you’ve lived a lifetime doing so. It takes a leveled attempt to control our emotions and words in a manner that does not impinge upon the free will of another. This is a difficult proposition to contemplate, because what it means, is that our most basic methods of interacting with each other is based upon either a symbiotic or parasitical energy exchange, and these often work themselves out in our closest relationships. In fact, in these intimate personal relationships, the energy exchange is unconsciously agreed upon at the beginning or early stages of the relationship. One person is the consumer, the other is the consumed. In some relationships, it is more equal.

Once you become conscious of this energy-siphoning, everything changes. You begin to pay more attention to your interactions. To how you feel. To whether you are gaining energy from others, or taking it. And once you become aware of the process itself, and how it works, you may find yourself consciously trying to change the way you interact so that you no longer allow others to just take your energy all willy nilly. And, if you are a truly giving person who cares about others, you try to change your patterns so that you are no longer taking energy yourself. The funny thing about this is, if you try to change the relationship so that you’re not giving up or taking energy anymore, it often ends!

Even if you are the one who is siphoning energy from another, the person whom you’ve been eating feels all confused and angry, because something has changed, but they’re not sure exactly what! If they are used to this state of being, they seek out another who will do the same thing to them, because we are always most comfortable in the types of relationships that we’ve experienced in the past. Even if it is a negative relationship. And for those who are being siphoned by others, if you are able to create a shield around yourself that the one sucking your energy can’t penetrate, they also become confused and angry, and seek easier prey. They also have no idea what has changed, except they might complain that you have become stubborn, or non-communicative, or something else that addresses the symptoms of your change, but not the underlying cause, which, of course, is your decision to no longer be food for someone else.

What are some strategies that can be employed in order to deflect this form of energy consumption? Firstly, get out more. Go outside. Interact with nature. With plants, animals. Look at them. I mean, really look at them, think about them, think/project your feelings at them and find the beauty in them, and you will find that they communicate back to you. Even more directly, they give you of their energy. Finding the beauty in anyone or anything birthes a reciprocal response, a reradiation, since, by doing so, you are giving of yourself, your energy, you receive in return. In any symbiotic relationship, where both individuals are giving of themselves, and not just taking, balance, equality, is achieved. And this includes plants and animals as well as people.

For protection against energy-siphoning, self-knowledge is key. No one should be able to tell you anything about yourself that you don’t already know. This is one of the major tools of those who eat others. Create doubt and fear – taking advantage of low self-esteem - by jabbing a hole through your psychic defenses so that your energy can be sucked up leisurely through an ethereal straw. There are many strategies that people use to get inside your head and dominate you for the purpose of consumption.

Anybody who tries to tell you anything about yourself is really showing you a reflection of their own perceptions of you and not the objective reality of your existence, since they don’t know you half as well as you do, if you allow yourself to listen to your deepest Self. And the only way to do that is through contemplation. Through silent time. Prayer, meditation, time spent alone, listening to what lies beneath your thoughts, the silent knowing that represents your true, eternal spirit. If you do that, you build up a sphere of knowing, which nothing that is not you can penetrate. Does that make sense?

Those who siphon energy often prey upon our illusions, upon the vagaries of our personality complexes, our egos. Its a strategy, just like the lioness stalking her prey. She crouches within eyeshot of the Impala, staying close, threatening with her very presence in order to creating fear and doubt in the poor animal, stressing them out to the point of physical weakening, confusion intended to penetrate their mental defenses. These individuals play upon our perceived weaknesses in order to place us in a defensive state, so they can dominate us psychically and slurp up our energy like it was so much red koolaid. You know, the nice, sweet good stuff.

So we have to shield ourselves from them. In the best-case scenario, this shield is built up through years of extensive self-examination and a sure knowledge of who we are. But since many of us are just beginning this journey, a short-term way to deflect these individuals is to create a sphere of light energy around ourselves in the moment. A shield of white light, imbued with feelings of love and surety, through which no negativity can penetrate. Admittedly, this is difficult to do in the moment. Especially in the moment when you are threatened. But it is possible. What is needed, is for you to disengage from the individual threatening you and concentrating upon the visual image of the sphere, which removes you immediately from the state of energy siphoning, and into the state of energy creation, as you divert that energy this person is taking into another form, that of a sphere of protection.

Over time, and utilizing these strategies in a consistent manner, it becomes automatic. Sooner rather than later. And once you have more energy, your life changes. Once you have more energy, you are able to manifest your reality quicker. Once you have more energy, you are able to focus and concentrate more. Once you have more energy, you are able to achieve your goals.

The very last thing I am saying is to just radiate love and light. No. That is not the answer. Those who siphon energy just eat that up and come back for more. Over and over again. In addition to that, sending out general feelings of love and light into the universe, or, giving it to those who have not asked for it, is an impingment upon Free Will and may backfire upon the sender, or even skew the life path of the recipient who did not specifically request it. And, it must be said again, those who siphon energy just eat that up and come back for more.

To take on the stance of solidity that is required in order to be a warrior of the spirit, we have to be complete in and of ourselves, while at the same time recognizing that there is a war for spirits going on in the material world, and that this war is being carried out right under our noses. It is being carried out in our own personal interactions with others, as well as the local and global events that we all see shaping the world at this point in time.

Each of us makes a choice in each moment, whether to be a warrior or not. We make a choice also, in the context of energy exchange, whether to be one who eats or one who is eaten.

But there is another choice. That choice is to eschew either position, and take another path. To neither eat or be eaten, but to receive your sustenance from another source altogether. Since we are incarnate within a world of carnivorous appetites, at some level, we all must consume other sentient forms of life. If you’ve studied the traditions of knowledge and spiritual devotion, one thing that must stand out to you is the insistence by those far along those paths, upon consuming the least amount, or only what is necessary to live, and to confine that consumption to the lowest density – perceptually determined – lifeforms (Plants, fruits).

Eat to live. Live in the knowledge of Oneness. Take as you give, seeking equity in all things. This is how power accrues, and your body becomes a tuning fork of divine energy, to be utilized in the ongoing perfection of the soul.

Crazy: Proportionally, moderately, insane

What is crazy? How do you define it? If you search online, there are a number of definitions. Here are two:

cra·zy… (krz)

adj. cra·zi·er, cra·zi·est 1. Affected with madness; insane.

2. Informal Departing from proportion or moderation, especially: a. Possessed by enthusiasm or excitement: The crowd at the game went crazy.b. Immoderately fond; infatuated: was crazy about boys.c. Intensely involved or preoccupied: is crazy about cars and racing.d. Foolish or impractical; senseless: a crazy scheme for making quick money.  

Both definitions encompass pretty much all of the instances that we employ the term to describe. In the most extreme sense, to be “affected with madness”, which is defined as…  mad·ness… 

1. The quality or condition of being insane. See Synonyms at insanity.2. Great folly: It was sheer madness to attempt the drive during a blizzard.3. Fury; rage.4. Enthusiasm; excitement.

…is the most extreme understanding of the word. There is something to be said for “acting a fool”, “roidin’ out”  or just being “hype”, given certain conditions, I’m sure. But I think, when most people use it, they are really refering to the second definition of “crazy” and its multiple iterations, “…(to) depart(ing) from proportion or moderation.”

Proportion and moderation both refer to a deviation from the norm, the norm being the condional acceptability of an individual’s thoughts, words and actions within the context of societal mores, said society being inclusive of in and out groups, the overall culture and sub-cultures with all of their variability. In effect, anyone not inside of a particular grouping can be considered crazy, giving the narrow strictures applied by each cultural grouping pertaining to belonging or otherness.  Exclusivity becomes, then, the norm, with each group maintaining and propagating mores proportionally and moderately, with the hierarchical structuring within the group cascading from the most normal to the least normal.  

What lies beyond normality?  

If - accepting the existence of dichotomy within the world in all of its perceptual manifestations – we employ the term crazy as pertaining to the majority of the people in the world, and normal as pertaining to a very distinct minority, is it fair to generalize by saying that most of the people in the world are crazy? Do you feel comfortable living in a world knowing that, given certain conditions - and the fact that, here in America, Americans move an average of 5 times during their lives - you will only come into contact with normal people a proportionally miniscule number of times during your lifetime, unless you go to extremes and ensconce yourself within a safe and comfortable geographic location – or type (read suburb or city) of location – where you only have contact with people like you? Or, where the contact that you do have with people unlike you is limited or controlled, and you are the person in the comfort zone, exerting dominant (sub)cultural or social power during any interactions?  

 

It can be a sobering reality, if you allow it to sink in.  

The realization that the very perception of normality that we, as a certain sub-group of a certain culture and population - can also be seen as our very wierdness by most of the other people in the world. Such an understanding may lead you to very uncomfortable realizations.  

The first and most important of these is that what we usually define as “I”, “Me”, “Myself”, is often just a collection of habits and memories that are culturally specific and, therefore, crazy in someone else’s eyes and belief system.

 Secondly, that by closing ourselves off from the experience of other cultural groups that we may come across during our lifetimes, we are relegating ourselves to a limited perceptual experience of life and, by extension, a true experience of the beauty and diversity of the human condition the world across.  

And thirdly, that we become set in our ways and immutable, stuck in beliefs and understandings that have no real bearing upon our own lives, let alone the life of the world, and the mulitude residing therein.   

 

Proportion and moderation have their place, that is certain.  

The Middle Path is both stately and serene, a vehicle of understanding that can lead the seeker to a greater understanding of the outer, as well as inner, worlds. Being open to perspectives, understandings, other people’s ideas and beliefs, keeps the mind fresh and clear, allowing you to refresh your own ideas and beliefs, and perhaps to even change, if you deem it necessary, once you’ve been exposed to another viewpoint.  

 

Would you rather be normal or crazy?  

We spend lifetimes trying to “fit in”. But just because it’s easier to “fit in” with your own particular group of friends and acquaintances does not necessarily mean that “fitting in” is the only way to approach life and relationships with others. Often, by “fitting in”, we close off that innate curiosity that we’re born with, stultifying our intellectual and spiritual growth by taking on ideologies and belief systems that do not answer all of our questions. For the sake of “fitting in”, we may even stop asking those questions. To “fit in”, we may marry someone and live somewhere that we hate. To “fit in”, we may speak a certain way or do certain things that we detest.  

 

We “fit in” to be normal.  

When we commit to being totally and fully ourselves, we are, without a doubt, crazy. When we commit to approaching every one that we meet with an open mind, we are, without a doubt, crazy. When we commit to seeing the world anew every day, without preconception or condition, we are, without a doubt, crazy. And when we commit to seeing ourselves with new eyes, to giving up the old ideas that we each hold about ourselves, both good and bad, we are, without a doubt, crazy. Each and every one of us.  

 

And yes, that means you too.

Change Agents: The black hole of immolation

Change agents seem to take a hand in the evolution of individuals or groups. People who come into a situation, or a life, and their very presence seems to lead to some kind of change, be it inner, outer or both. It seems, that in different times in our lives, we can all act as change agents for ourselves, for our families, friends, communities, nations or worlds.

Change agents are often different from those around them. They seem to move into and out of situations, and, by so doing, changing the dynamics of the individuals and groups with which they interact. Change agents seem to represent equally the kinds of forces that lead to negative change as well as positive change. Change agents can look like, can be, anyone. Change agents can be recognized by the effects that they have on the world around them.

Change agents seem to awaken some latent power of self-examination in others that has been bubbling for a while until it reaches the boiling point. When dealing with individuals, these people seem to cause them to question their own beliefs and lifestyles, which raises emotions and thoughts that seek to attain material expression through actions taken as a result of the initial or ongoing interaction. When dealing with groups, these people seem to verbalize commonly held beliefs that have remained at the periphery and yet have been obvious enough to be recognized by all, once stated aloud.

A certain charisma also seems to accompany change agents. They seem to exude an auric force that can be greater or lesser, can be inwardly our outwardly-focused, can be higher or lower in orientation. Change agents can appeal to the highest standards and aspirations of humanity, or they can appeal to the lowest standards and aspirations of humanity. Their philosophies can be geared toward spiritual or intellectual development, or material or sexual gratification. They can lead us toward the stars and the light, or towards the inner
caverns and darkness.

You might know an agent of change. You might be friends with one, or might know one at the periphery of your acquaintance circle. This person will stand out to you, and will have something about them that you want to know better. This attraction may, often, be misunderstood as meaning something more than what it truly is. Because of our society, and our needs, often, we place upon others expectations or desires that originate within ourselves. Often, those expectations and desires are of a sexual or emotional nature. That agent of change, depending upon his or her self-awareness, may respond or not, but in all instances, change, negative or positive, will occur.

In a group situation, the expectations and desires of the group may lead the agent of change to take on responsibilities or implement decisions that may or may not satisfy the underlying expectations and desires that led her or him to that organization in the first place. In either case, change, negative or positive, will occur. Institutions rise and fall based upon the actions or inactions of agents of change.

If some people are change agents, does that mean that other people are not? No. It does not mean that at all. All souls are equal, and each destiny is as important as every other. Given the right situation, anyone can be a change agent. If one’s level of knowledge or desire finds expression in ideas or paths that intersect with another’s knowledge or desire to change their current path, change occurs. Change is a fact of life. It happens regardless of our will, in most instances. In fact, those times when we fight change the most are when change cannot help but overtake us.

Change leaves us devastated. Or exhilarated. The only thing that is certain, is that change changes us. For some, denying the efficacy of change is a way of life. Living, solidly implanted within an unchanging perspective regarding the world. Refusing to admit to change, refusing to allow it within the sphere of one’s own personal circumference and life. These people fight change viscerally and desperately, waging losing battles in an endless war.

Being able to recognize agents of change, and the necessity of embracing change in life is one of the major lessons we all have to learn. Often, the very act of learning to identify change agents teaches us something important about ourselves. As we come to know them, their values, beliefs and ideals, we learn to examine our own perspectives, our most deeply held beliefs, values and aspirations. The intensity of that self-examination can and should give rise to intense emotions. Those feelings can be internally or externally directed, giving rise to change in others. Or, it can be reflected back at the agent of change. The outcome of that reaction is, again, dependent upon the orientation and self-awareness of the receiver.

Each of us can list off a number of occasions in our lives when we have fought some change, and ended up worse off because of it. Even seemingly negative change can often be beneficial in the long run, just as seemingly positive change can often be costly in that same long run. Fighting the inevitable is like fighting the rising of the sun. It’s going to happen no matter what.

The path through life is not clear. None of us were given a road map. None of us know the terrain, past the moment that we can see clearly. Relying upon our past experiences in order to predict the future, whether it be a lover’s behavior or the stock market, does not work very well. In fact, relying upon the past too much reinforces egoistic perspective ossification. We get stuck in our beliefs. We say things like, ‘Well, it’s always been this way.’ We become rigid, stiff, pedantic, stentorian. We become institutions, connected to and dependent upon the personal and social perspective that we proselytize with every breath, thought and action.

Being an agent of change is a difficult proposition. Agents of change are often hated and feared, as well as respected and revered. The apparent contradiction in the aforementioned is not so contradictory, when you think about it. Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, JFK, MLK, Ghandi, Hitler, Akhenaton, are all individuals who fomented change and who were both hated and loved simultaneously. It occurs in our own lives. There are people that love and hate each of us.

Making the choice to be an agent of change is accepting the responsibility of embracing change. Of making a stand against rigidity and stagnation and seeking to express the inner urge toward movement, toward manifesting fully what is within, without. Change hurts us. Change hurts those we love. Sometimes we don’t want to change, because it will hurt those around us. We stay the same, so that they feel comfortable. Each time we make that choice we step closer to dissolution, to the Black Hole of Immolation, or sacrifice for the good of others. Often, our own fear of change reinforces the desires of those around us, and we sink back into stability, settling in front of the television to watch the next episode of ‘Are you Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?’

We’re lucky, in one sense, that becoming an agent of change often happens unawares; that it ends up being the fruition of an on-going process whereby one outgrows one’s inner and/or outer environment and must move to another. In these instances, the change happens in sporadic episodes of intensity, whereby all around one’s self is uprooted uproariously, and drama and pathos ensues. As the path clarifies and the brush settles, the clarity of the new state of things becomes apparent, and the nature of the moment can clearly be recognized against the tapestry of the past as the result of a herculean effort, clearing the way for even greater, future feats of inner and outer strength.

Becoming a change agent changes you: changes your life, changes the life of everyone around you. It is a responsibility, one not to be taken lightly.

I seek to be an agent of change. Do you?

The Ferryman: Is spiritual growth for sale?

In Greek mythology, Charon is the Ferryman of Hades, transporting the Souls of the Dead across the River Styx to the Underworld. Souls which are properly prepared, present Charon with a payment of gold. Those who cannot afford the price are doomed to wander forever, along the banks of that fateful river.

 Electronic enlightenment, available for only $49.99 at www dot e-light dot com!

 Ancient scriptures reworded, meditative techniques and prayers de-contextualized, creative visualization Gurus have become the spiritualized prophets of the New Age, selling personal evolution to the masses as the new commodity; free market methodologies, laissez fair, closed-source psychologies, available only to the worthy!

 Does spiritual evolution truly have a cost? Can dollars and cents equal prayer and penitence? Are the lessons available on websites worldwide actually capable of changing something inside? Revealing subconscious constructs collective in nature and inner knowledge, without going to college?

 Has something changed? Or, is there some Divine Law at work, here?

 Many holy books state the following: In order to receive one must give, In order to prosper one must work hard, in order to learn, one must study and in order to truly live, one must first die.

 Across the ages Gurus, Shamans, Priests, Medicine Men and Women, Witches, Warlocks and others of the mystical ilk have accepted payment as a token of willingness on the part of the Seeker, of the acceptance of market value for services rendered; an exchange of commodities, the spiritual for the material, the stuff of daily existence for that of Eternity.

 A Seekers resolve must be tested and, when truly prepared, the teacher will arrive and, past the fiery passage of the dark night of the Soul, lies the possibility of spiritual evolution for every person.

 But most Souls balk at the cost and refuse to pay the Ferryman, preferring instead to return to anonymity and the unexamined life, living it in search of comfort and the illusion of love, which is really lust masked and beautified to hide the nothingness inside.

 The advanced lessons of the Soul are available within each of us, while step one through ten can be purchased in Churches, in pamphlets and online, the Divine is really within our minds, but that contextualized knowledge must first be internalized, the Third Eye poked, the internal fire stoked by a burning desire to Know, to Be, to truly and finally See.

 The spiritual knowledge passed on in Churches, Temples, Mosques and through the observance of religious ceremonies across the world are only the first, most obvious level of spiritual knowledge, and produces only a modicum of spiritual growth within the individual. The metaphoric stories learned as youths and adults, serve to provide us with the framework necessary to delve within, through prayer and meditation, accessing the deeper channels of the collective archetypal library, wherein lies the possibility of true Gnosis.

 It is only through direct and concentrated access to the subconscious – through prayer and meditation and the inculcation of the trance state, i.e. mantras, visualizations, etc. – is it possible to change behavior at the most fundamental level of the personality construct.

 To be reborn, one must first die to ones Self, to the world, to former knowledge and understandings.

 One must undergo a Re-envisioning of Reality, a re-conceptualization of the Totality of Creation.

 This state of Being can sometimes be brought about by a death in the family; a change in material circumstances; an inordinate time spent alone; or, the natural evolution of the spirit to the point of instantaneous and complete knowledge.

 This last is the most difficult, and the possibility of allowing Self to drift back into the comfort of the illusive perceptual world of our surroundings, ever-present.

 We are, each of us, the Ferryman, possessing the capability of total Self-transformation, capable also of self-transport across the river Styx, to the other side. The other side of life, of experience, from whence we will look back upon our lives as the Darkness before the New Day. We are, conversely, capable of lying to ourselves, thereby remaining mired within our individuated psychoses, neuroses and problems of the Daily Grind. 

 But we all must, eventually, reach the Crossroads where the forward path leads invariably to the river past which lies the Underworld, or the Inner world of the Soul.

 And once we arrive there, and face the Ferryman, whatever choice we make carries a cost. The question is, whether were willing to pay it or not.

Self-Help and Self-Knowledge: Are we the sum of our material conditions?

“G-d helps those who help themselves.”

This is a quote that may be familiar to some of us, as something our parents or a mentor might have said to us during a time period when we were wondering what direction to go in, what path to take, which mountain to climb, or not. Although it is often thought to have originated in the bible, Ben Franklin was actually one of the first to state it in that particular way, although there are older quotes attributed to others that basically say the same thing:

“Help thyself, heaven will help thee.” LaFontaine, Book VI, fable 18

“Heaven ne’er helps the men who will not act.” Sophocles

“Help thyself and G-d will help thee.” George Herbert (1593-1633), Jocula Prudentum

Understanding this term is pretty subjective, I think, and depends upon the context and our own personal belief systems. For me, it means that my active participation in the course of my life trumps sitting back and waiting for blessings to rain down upon me. That by moving toward my goals, I create activity that allows G-d to move with me, presenting opportunities and circumstances that bring me closer to the place and life that G-d desires for me to live. This works in the area of synchronicities, where me taking advantage of coincidences that seem to pop up miraculously move me closer to my goals. The fact that these coincidences would not have occured if I had not previously been moving toward my goals is never lost upon me and speaks to a larger constellation of possibilities that transcends religions, that makes it clear that such things do not just happen to Christians alone, but that lies beyond religion in the realm of spirituality, and is the gift and blessing of all of humanity.

Considering the importance of a state of mind, it becomes very clear that we are what we think, and our possibilities are only circumscribed by the limitations of our dreams and desires. The lives that we live, even though they may seem as if they are incontrovertible, and, perhaps, forced upon us by fate, are largely a matter of choice. Moving past one’s personal circumstances then is dependent upon us making the choice to do so, and that is so much easier said than done, especially when our identities are tied up in the material conditions around us, which includes the possessions, the friends, the families, and the society in general.

What does this mean to people who live in ghettos? Trailer parks? The urban wastelands in the underdeveloped countries of the world? Who are stuck in systems of education and economics that leave them foundering, attempting to prosper in a system that seems to relegate them to the margins? And what about those who charge such individuals with responsibility for their conditions? Who state that they must rise above their surroundings and be all they can be, rather than remain, complaining, mired in the morass of abject poverty and engaged in morally reprehensible behavior?

Is this, then, the spiritual equivalent to a bootstrap philosophy as espoused by so many that seem to want those underpriviledged individuals to remain in their impoverished conditions? I submit to you that political posturing, while seeming to mirror higher, spiritual truths, is often based upon personal gain or agendas that require that the words serve a hurtful purpose, and are not accompanied by corresponding actions meant to relieve these people from the desperation of their conditions. Also, talking at people is different from talking to people and judgement of others always invites judgement of Self, and hypocrisy is an ever-present condemnation of those who seek to gain power over others by misapplying spiritual truisms out of context. While the words themselves may act to empower an individual who hears them to make positive change in her or his life, the responsbility inherent within speaking such words invites the creation of karma for the person speaking, dependent upon the intention, context, applicability and effects of the words spoken.

But it must never be forgotten that we are, indeed, free agents of sorts, and that we are responsible for our conditions to the extent that we can change them ourselves, be that an individual task or something better charged to groups of like-minded people, bent upon changing their worlds. The interpretation of our material conditions being subjective – and dependent upon our frame of mind and experiences – we must always recall that some of the happiest people in the world have very few material goods, and that this lack of wealth does not seem to affect their spirituality negatively at all. Which gives rise to that perennial question:

Are we, then, the sum of our material conditions? Am I that person who got raped when I was  ten years old? That person that was bullied when I was twelve? That person who won all those championships when I was eighteen? that person who got fired for doing something stupid on that job when I was twenty-nine? That person who did this and received those benefits during that time in this place?  And, if we decide that yes, that is who we are, what does that mean for us today? Are we the same person now as we were then?

What if we make another choice? A choice not to be that person anymore? What if we choose to be who we are right Now and let all of that go? Let the past go, forget it; let the future go, let it come on it’s own, and create ourselves anew with each moment, manifesting the truth of who we are right this moment. Is that possible? Realistic? Desireable?

Self-knowledge is perhaps the greatest journey that any individual can make. Going within one’s Self is a more fateful and fearful journey than climbing Mount Everest, or crossing the Sahara, or swimming the English Channel. Making that trip into one’s past in order to clear terrible memories, going deep within in order to confront fears and phobias is a trip that we would much rather put off for our entire lifetimes. Somehow, we believe that repressing these memories and feelings is a proper response to them. Often, the feelings that we get that make us keep secrets, or deny what we’re feeling, come from some sense of familial or societal pressure to conform to some abstract conception of normalcy, and we fester beneath the smiles and loud talk, living lives of quiet desperation as we die inside, our visages and postures twisted over the years as the ugliness within us grows stronger, the fear more palpable, the memories stronger and more present, taking over our present and making our future a reflection of what has been, rather than what should be.

The act of changing one’s destiny, then, means that we must know who we are, fully. We must recognize our fears and phobias and move to diffuse their power over us. The practice of repressing feelings and memories must be seen as an automatic fear response coming from ego, that feeds upon these buried emotions and feelings, solidifying its position as the sole purveyor and interpreter of your, our, reality. Beyond ego lies the Watcher, the observer, the seat of the soul and consciousness, where our true Self lies waiting for us to activate the power that we possess from birth, the ability to manifest whatever we desire in our lives and in the world around us.

“For G-d has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and self-control.” 2 Timothy 1:7

Beyond denomination and religion lies Truth. Conscious intention and creative visualization allow us to manifest our realities beyond the ability of any perceived circumstance to maintain itself as our one and only everlasting truth.  The way others see us and even the way we see ourselves are illusions based upon our addiction to the past and future,  our need for continuity and our fear of the unknown, the unknown in this case being ourselves, the “I” that lies beyond the experiences in our past and that lies waiting for us to remove the blinders and reveal what has been hidden within us each for far too long and allow ourselves to blaze forth like stars, shouting in triumph to the multiverse as we finally open our eyes and awaken to the truth of who, and what, we truly are.

You know that this is true. Think back. Think about situations that have occured in your life when you have made an incontrovertible decision. When you have known – I mean, absolutely known for a fact – that you just had to do something. That there was no way around it, and, more importantly, that you did not want to get around it, you wanted to do it, had to do it. You felt powerful, didn’t you? You felt very clear, knew what you had to do, how you had to do it, why and when. And you did it, didn’t you, and everything turned out the way that it was supposed to, moving you forward into your destiny and bringing you to this moment, right here, right now, where you are reading this and realizing that you know all of this already and that all these words are doing is releasing that power again, awakening your memory of visualization, pinging that Self purposefully obscured by the ego’s selfish machinations and bringing a great big smile to the face of your soul as it strengthens, and as the ego weakens, just that much more. This conversation that we’re having right now is a conversation with yourself, as you consider and realize that you are not the sum of your material conditions and that you are exactly who and what you decide to be, right now, and right here, in this moment.

That’s powerful, isn’t it? And do you feel that power fading right this moment, right Now, as thoughts about your circumstances arise to do combat with your feeling of invincibility? For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Are you having thoughts about the lack of money in your pockets and the perceived inevitability of you ever having enough money in your pockets? Do these thoughts make you feel weaker? Do you feel the helplessness, the hopelessness increasing as you lose yourself in past memories of failure or future hopes of prosperity, and the Now recedes? What about the situation you find yourself in with your significant other? The impossibility of carrying on normal relationships with your father? Your mother? Close your eyes and remember that feeling of power and control, and let it rise to pervade your consciousness while you let all of these negative thoughts dissipate into the moment and you feel the Now awakening, manifesting in your life. Open your eyes and notice how crisp and clear everything is, how colors are brighter when you’re not wasting your time worrying about the past and fearing the future, how your every sense is focusing upon the moment, upon the Now, upon life as lived, not as we force it to be through the imposition of the past and future upon the life we’re living right this second.

Awaken the G-d within your Self and manifest your chosen reality. Tap that divine power that is your birthright and be who you know you are, letting no one or no thing distract you from this goal and watch, and see, as the multiverse laughs in sublime delight and moves with you, presenting you with opportunities and circumstances that lead you directly into that life that you were born to live.

The Falls of Eternity: The void of potential and material manifestation

Can you imagine a time when thought was undifferentiated?

Well, consider the possibility that such was once the case.

That, once upon a time, many, many suns ago, in fact, before there were any suns at all, there was no you or I, no here or there, no up or down, in or out. That all that there was, in the Entirety of Creat-no, wait. There wasn’t even a Creation, yet! That all there was, in the entirety of this Formless, Void of Potential, was Awareness. Not even thought had been separated yet! Omniscience was eternal and infinite, there was nothing beyond. Nothing within, or without.

Until, at some gradual point, Awareness became aware of Itself. And with that, came the experience of differentiation. With this understanding came the realization of complete and utter pervasivity, of Being and expansiveness that was Formless in nature, and yet totally present. It was everywhere and nowhere! It was everything and nothing! Omnipresence awoke to its own presence and power, and, by so doing, separated Itself from the entirety, that formless Void of Potential in which it had been gestated and, in an instant, the first Word was spoken. And with the speaking of that first, holy Word, a Big Bang occured that resulted in a further differentiation from Formlessness into Form and a simultaneously multiversal and dimensional descent into matter arising from pure consciousness to manifestation upon the material planes. Greater and greater forms of etheric consciousnes descended into matter, achieving density and mass, limiting omni-consciousness and perception, savoring the change, the viscerality of experience that resulted from this Great Experiment.

But, it was not that smooth, or simple, was it. Such things never are. Before that Big Bang occurred, Hierarchies of Powers and Principalities evolved as Consciousness continued to coalesce and differentiate Itself from the Void of Potential and descend further through the etheric, vibratory levels of dimensions in ever-decreasing collectivities at every stage approaching material manifestation excepting only that final, precipitous descent into Form. That last choice was made after the coalescence of separate Collectivities of Mass Consciousnesses that were distinct in and of themselves, creating vibrational energy families, if you will, formed to abide and rule in sharply distinct dimensional levels, interacting with each other and permeating the bubble of consciousness – still and always ensconced within that infinite Void of Potential – yearning for experience and curious as to the possibilities of even more radical interaction and differentiation.

Experience calls, ever. And, at some point, it was decided by different Collectivities that they would enter into Form, into the lowest densities of consciousness. Materially incomprehensible negotiations between some of these vast and sublime Soul Groups resulted in material ramifications that limit the world of our senses as we continue to re-enact the drama of agreements made Eons ago between Collectivities innimcal in nature, perhaps even competitive – or warring – and yet desireous of a shared experience of Incarnation resulting in the evolution of the All, through the experience of the One. Many “Ones”, that is, each a member of a greater Soul Group, interacting within the context of their own unconsciousness awareness of that membership, and yet fulfilling the conditions of Destiny through the actions of each Soul Group’s individual components, or members.

As above, so below.

If this ancient paen, a truism of cosmic unity, holds, then it only stands to reason that our most sacred beliefs do not tell the entire story. If there is Good and Evil on the material plane of Creation, why should there not be Good and Evil – or, altruism and malignant narcissism – at the higher etheric vibrational levels? Perhaps the terminology is a distraction, one that draws away from the underlying abstract, scientific concepts. If there is Dichotomous Opposition at all levels of nature, why should this not also be so at every dimensional level leading back from Form, into Formlessness?

Since Formlessness only exists within the Void of Potential, then every dimensional level leading to and from that original state of consciousness reflects the descent of Awareness from Unawareness, of Consciousness from Unconsciousness. The movement, or evolution of Creation, then, is cyclical in nature. From the original state of undifferentiation, to some future state of undifferentiation, with the infinite array of multiversal and dimensional experiences of material incarnation manifesting the entire range of possibilities inherent within the Void of “Creative” Potential, as Consciousness itself yearns for unconsciousness, as Individuality yearns for Collectivity, as I yearn for You.

What if this is true? Could you imagine what a world it would be? What a universe it would be? What a multiverse it would be? Multiple-if-not-Infinite dimensions interacting, each of us playing a part chosen far back into an inconceivably distant past Reality, in order to fulfill the conditions necessary to create an equally inconceivably distant future Reality. Time being a condition of material Incarnation, Past, Present and Future are visible simultaneously from without. The Material World, then, is like a bubble, or marble, in space, and to Soul Groups and Entities looking in upon the goings-ons within, all strands of 4th-dimensional time are visible simultaneously. It is an uncomfortable concept, is it not? Thinking of ourselves as being exposed in our perceived privacy and material isolation, to extra-dimensional Groups and Beings that see and understand – perhaps even more than we do – our every thought and action, past, present and future? Like 2-dimensional flatlanders seem to us, our 4-dimensional perception of existence is limited, when compared to that of the Entities residing in the higher dimensional frequencies.

To those Collectivities and Entities spying upon our doings here, within the material universes of conscious manifestation, perhaps communication with us often occurs at a level beneath consciousness, moving into the realm of conscious perception only at those junctures when seeming synchronicities result in fortuitous occurrences, or even negative happenstances that make some sort of an impact upon our lives. Perhaps interaction with these Soul Groups occurs within the stream of chatter that arises from our egoic minds, and we find it difficult to distinguish between the noises, unable to separate what is truly our own inner voice, and what might be a communication from elsewhere, or elsewhen. Perhaps these interactions are formalized in with automatic writing, mediumship and ouija boards, and, perhaps, the intentions of those doing the communicating are not always in what we, in our peculiar and limited manner, might consider to be our own best interests.

The mythopoeic era of Humanity, often called the Golden Age, is distinct in that, during this time period – an Age of Gods, Goddesses, Heroes and Monsters – people spoke to Divine Beings directly. People saw the Gods and Goddesses, interacted with them. The nights were filled with horrible creatures and fear and dread were not inculcated purposefully, as we do today, with our scary movies and pathological curiosities toward the perverse. Magic was in the air, the Fairies (Sidhe, Tuatha de Danaan) lived on the Earth and in the Earth, with Dwarfs, Gnomes, Druids and Witches behind and in every rock and tree, hiding under every hill and sneaking across every dale. Perhaps the side-effects of a burgeoning earthly population – and a corresponding increase in collective, psychic detritus or background noise -taken alongside the increased static of various families of electromagnetic radiation pervading the ether have reduced our ability to sense the influx of extra-dimensional communications.

And, perhaps, the solidification of cultural mentifacts and sociofacts have also reduced our ability to “see” things that are outside of our frame of reference. I am reminded of the tale of the Shaman who witnessed the coming of the Europeans to the shores of the Caribbean, who walked to the beach day after day, looking out, knowing something was there, until, one day, the ships that had been anchored offshore for days appeared as if by magic, finally coaxed forth by his gradual and systematic breaking-down of unconscious cultural boundaries, allowing him to see something that was totally outside of his, or anyone else in his culture’s, ken. If a Grey, one of the little, big-headed aliens of popular mythology, stood right beside you, or appeared outside of your window one night and you opened your eyes and looked right at it, would you be able to see it? Would you believe the evidence of your own eyes? Think about it carefully, before you answer.

With the Precession of the Equinoxes and the continuous movement of galaxies through our own universe – again, one of an infinite array – the tendencies of consciousness reflect a simultaneous movement across intergalactic space ranging across a time span of 25,800 years – which itself is only one of 12 aspects of a greater, 309,600 year cycle – during which time consciousness expands and contracts as we move also between the 12 Houses of Zodiacal Precession, continuing our outward expansion as the relationship between our own particular galactic spiral retains its relationship to other galaxies, solar systems and celestial bodies, maintaining etheric roles and promises made between consciousness Collectivities those many, many Eons ago.

Our experiences, as individuals, are diverse. And yet, there is a similarity, a connection between us all that links us as One, that has been explored psychologically and spiritually, acknowledged, its ramifications considered, expounded upon, its implications far-ranging. The viscerality of experience connects us and yet separates us as we coexist within the shifting boundaries of perceptive constraints that comprise this shared illusion of individuality. There is no doubt that we all share a genetic heritage and there should also be no doubt that we share a spiritual heritage. The Imperatives of Incarnation demand the expression of difference. And yet, there is so much more to Reality than what we see, hear and feel. Those vibrational changes in the atmosphere that we sense before a storm or in the quiet of a room, that quality of alone-ness that might change in an instant, raising hairs on the backs of our necks, causing us to crane our necks searching the room for the entry of another, those feelings that we get when we consider a course of action, either affirming or denying our intellectual decision-making processes, causing us to squirm in discomfort as we battle within ourselves to come to a decision, or not.

Awareness increases as Knowledge of Self does the same. Deciding to seek after Self-Realization is a choice to seek after the Path Less Traveled, and to commit one’s Self to seeking after the Truth, no matter the cost. For most, ignorance and unconsciousness is preferable. Living knowing that life is but a dream, and that we can drift, slumbering, merrily dreaming as we course down the twisting, branching, River of Incarnation to approach the Falls of Eternity, then to plunge, eyes wide shut, into the unknown mist of implacable Destiny, is but one choice in an infinite array. One that we make knowingly, at every level, despite its ramifications in the material world of our own Self and Group-Immolation. Such is the state of this precious life we live, gained at the cost of payments made in flesh and blood, pain and pleasure, hate and love.

Again, as above, so below.

Consider that, as you contemplate sleeping through life, unknowing.

Art and Experience: The social compact and creativity

To what purpose do we share? Why do we write, draw and sing? What do our continual manifestations of creativity have to do with the world of our experience?

It is understood that we exist within Creation, or, the Material World. The 3-dimensional world of our senses (sight, sound, touch), plus time, the 4th dimension. It is also understood that, from the perspective of consciousness (mind, spirit, soul), this Creation is also Maya, a sanskrit word for the illusory world of the senses or, again, the Material World.

As an artist, graphic, textual and aural, I create in sight and sound, according to my feelings and thought-processes at the time of creation. An idea may birth itself in me and percolate for minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or years, and then come out as a beat, a song, a poem, an essay, a drawing, painting or graphic. It is indisputeable that, however that idea expresses itself upon leaving my thoughts and emotions and manifests materially upon whichever canvas I choose, the idea itself is not original, that it comes from some deeper well-spring that all humans share, which is what allows you to read what I write, listen to the words I sing or look at the picture I paint and feel something upon witnessing it.

My own, personal interpretation of a deeper Reality – as opposed to a surface reality - a deeper Truth – as opposed to a surface truth – that we all share, is what allows us all to resonate deeply to beautiful works of art, to empathize with an emotional song, or nod to words written which describe what we feel or think about something almost exactly. The closer you and I are in our backgrounds and cultures, the easier it is for me to translate those deeper currents of reality into forms that you can understand. The closer we are in immediate experience allows you to feel the emotional currents that may underly specific forms of expression, creating an immediate bond of sympathy that will transcend any other perceived differences.

But does that poem, that essay, that graphic, that song reflect what is Real? Or is it only a representation of something that is unreal? Is the work of art or literature meaningful beyond our experiences, or are our experiences the sum totality of our awareness?

Our experiences bind us not only to Creation, but also to each other. I always emphasize to my physical geography classes that our most fundamental and intimate relationship – post-birth – is not with each other, but with the world around us. We share Incarnation, as a human family, within the bounds of the Material World. We share, as a human family, the generic symbols and archetypes of collective unconsciousness. We share, as a human family, the range of emotions that cause us to smile or frown. We share, as a human family, the progressive and encompassing stricture of time and space. Therefore, we share, as a human family, all of the requirements necessary to create an illusion of reality that binds us, in turn, to the Material World.

So if this world is the product of a form of collective consensus regarding the nature and form of reality, what does that mean in terms of our expressions and the existence of a greater Reality? The double-slit experiment, which underlies and upholds the most basic assumptions of quantum physics has banished any doubt about the relationship of consciousness to matter. The act of observation changes the state of matter at the most fundamental level of aggregation, the quantum field. Mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.

Or, if you don’t think it, it’s not real. We create reality in each moment, then. We co-create this reality by agreement. We are trained from childhood in the conditions of this agreement and by the time we are adults, it is mostly an unconscious process. If you have children, or remember your own childhood, you can recall the process by which it occurred: the constant bombardment of questions leading to answers that reflect very subjective viewpoints held in common. As we age, we find confirmation of these early lessons in our friends and society in general, which further solidifies our perceptions and views of the world that can harden with age unless we consciously cultivate a mindstate of questioning, seeking and an openness to new ideas and experiences. The natural creativity of children becomes stultified, their opinions and viewpoints grow more rigid as the world loses its magic.

In fact, that selfsame creativity that we often associate with artists and the insane is the common birthright of all children. We think of artists as strange, eclectic and wierd because they don’t think like most people, because, generally speaking, they remain open to ideas and experiences. We don’t think of children as strange, eclectic and wierd because we associate their curiosity about the world and everything in it as a function of their youth and inexperience. Once children gain more experience, we expect them to settle down, to conform and to take on a more conventional and acceptable attitude that plants them firmly in the cultural ground tilled by their ancestors and elders, to themselves then become to propagators and protectors of our collective experience of reality.

As painters, as writers, as musicians, we play around with this experience of reality and find meaning in highlighting specific aspects of of our common heritage. We draw upon relationships, religion and social mores in our search for deeper meaning, using symbols and archetypes to awaken our deeper instincts and understandings of reality. And these, in turn, open the door into that deeper, underlying Reality, if only for the duration of that shared experience of art, music and writing. Being multi-dimensional in nature, we find comfort in the realization than we are more than the sum of our individuated experiences, in the knowledge that we share more in common with each other than that which binds us to our own lives and situations.

Life would be lonely without this ability, without this connection, the confirmation of which also substantiates our sense of belonging within the human community, the human family. We find comfort, then, in co-creating the illusion. In the telling and sharing of our stories, in whatever form, as our distant ancestors did as they huddled around the tenuous fires of primeval humanity, set against the encroaching darkness of an unknown and dangerous creation that threatened our very survival as a species.

The illusion is the necessary condition of incarnation. Art reminds us that we are in it together. Artists are the spiritual warriors of the Material World, pointing us back to that which is true beyond our own experiences. Confirmation that there is more, and that, whatever that “more” really is, we are an integral part of its expression.

Good, Evil and Moral Relativity: Do words mean anything anymore?

Good: morally admirable; estimable: deserving of esteem and respect; beneficial: promoting or enhancing well-being; agreeable or pleasing; of moral excellence.

Evil: morally bad or wrong; morally objectionable behavior; having the nature of vice; that which causes harm or destruction or misfortune; tending to cause great harm; the quality of being morally wrong in principle or practice; malefic: having or exerting a malignant influence.

Moral Relativity: In philosophy, moral relativism is the position that moral or ethical propositions do not reflect objective and/or universal moral truths, but instead make claims relative to social, cultural, historical or personal circumstances. Moral relativists hold that no universal standard exists by which to assess an ethical proposition’s truth; it is the opposite of moral absolutism. Relativistic positions often see moral values as applicable only within certain cultural boundaries or in the context of individual preferences.

I wonder when Good and Evil became too simple of terms to apply to worldly situations. Probably in the Garden of Eden, when Eve told Adam that the Serpent said it was ok to eat the apple, despite what G-d had told them both.

Equivocation, debate.

Discussions, obfuscating simplicity with intricacy.

A short discussion on another blog entry caused me to think about this and I decided to explore those thoughts a bit. First, there are tomes and tomes on each topic and I don’t plan on contributing to them or writing one myself anytime soon. Second, I am coming at this question, obviously, from a spiritual center that is knowledgeable of the existence of Goodand Evil in this world. Third, note my inclusion of the phrase, in this world in the previous sentence, because I am well aware of its illusory nature and the reality that the dichotomy of Goodand Evil are indeed two aspects of a whole, Oneness, corresponding to Light and Dark, Yang and Yin.

Yin and Yang: The concept of yin and yang originates in ancient Chinese philosophy and metaphysics, which describes two primal opposing but complementary forces found in all things in the universe. Yin, the darker element, is passive, dark, feminine, downward-seeking, and corresponds to the night; yang, the brighter element, is active, light, masculine, upward-seeking and corresponds to the day.

When speaking of complex systems, is it possible to oversimplify? To define them as Good or Evil and leave it at that? I think so, yes. To define an Axis of Evil in opposition to your Forces for the Greater Good is perhaps an example ofmoral relativism. To apply these designations to anyone or anything that an individual or group finds pleasing or displeasing to their own senses or purposes is easy and it is often done. A mother protecting her children from invading fire ants might consider them evil. A farmer watching his crops wither under the scorching heat and sun of drought conditions might consider the sun evil, while another farmer watching his crops drown under inundating rains might consider the sun good.

In the moment, subject to the whims of life as they occur, our emotions range along the scale between happiness and sadness and our mental chatter does the same. Since happiness equals good and sadness equals bad, all input leading to the cultivation of either emotional state correspondingly becomes good or bad with barely a thought. Since this is so simple and clear an association, it is often an unconscious process of passive acceptance when we hear people we’re supposed to be able to trust use the terms good and bad – often substituting the word evil for bad – meaning, of course, extra, extra bad – and think that they’re talking about Good and Evil. For individuals with a spiritual background, who are used to interpreting life from that focus, good and bad are different from Good and Evil. But saying something is bad is a lot different from saying something is evil.

How is the jump made, from bad to evil? Usually without us being consciously aware of it. From understanding that different people have different goals, different lifestyles have different outcomes, different nations have different ways of life, to believing that another person, lifestyle or nation is bad is part and parcel of the human condition, of prejudices held against those we perceive as different from us, be it cultural, ethnic, racial or, as is more prevalent, the entire trifecta. Human xenophobia is based upon fear of difference and such a basic human response is easily exacerbated by power-brokers seeking to divide populations for their own purposes.

The questions then arise, how does one define Evil when moral relativism rules the day? When the normal, day to day interactions between people, cultures and nations include power plays that bring differences to the surface in a manner that almost begs for conflict that, in fact, seems to see conflict as the only way to solve these differences? Does bad become evil when it suits the purposes of individuals, groups, cultures and nations to define others, their actions or beliefs as such?

Here in the United States, we have a long tradition of debate and conflict stemming from our earliest beginnings as a democratic nation. The pluralistic nature of the nation and the very mechanisms of representative democracy require a healthy form of debate and difference, and our political system has evolved based upon that core understanding. The nature of debate, requiring oppositional sides, of necessity incorporates elements of exaggeration that seek to portray the opposition in the worst possible light and the evolution of the system has resulted in the political back-biting and mud-wrestling that we see before us every two years, in city, state and national elections. Words are used to exacerbate difference and draw diverse populations to political and social causes that pit one constituency against another, and those who do not fit comfortably within either camp are disenfranchised and left shouting in the wings while the main stage is taken by demagogues of oppositional stripes, spouting slogans and catch-phrases designed to arouse emotion and subdue the intellect, at least for the short period of time it takes to make it through the election cycle. The result is the institutionalization of sound-bite politics and the cooptation of the political system by talking heads that represent powers and principalities that hide in the shadows, feeding political machines with an endless stream of capital while the lumpen proletariat continues to labor beneath the remorseless wheels of capitalism, trying to keep from falling.

Organized religion is also notorious for highlighting difference in order to draw their congregations further into the fold. Religious systems like Christianity and Islam, both of which have an aggressive history of indoctrination-by-force, actively decry the validity of other religious systems. The language used reflects the foundational cosmology of their teachings, casting the war between cultures as the war between Good and Evil. Unscrupulous men across the centuries have taken advantage of this formation by applying these terms according to their own needs and purposes, guiding the construction of Empireaccording to their own self-serving interpretations of Scripture. This is not to deny the underlying spiritual core of these religions, in fact, quite the opposite. The monotheistic religions encapsulate and corroborate ancient spiritual ideals that archeologists, linguists and historians are only now recognizing in civilizations as diverse as middle America (Olmec, Mayan, etc.), Africa (Egyptian, Nubian, etc.) and India (Dravidian). Many of the tales of the Old Testament (Pentateuch) seem to have their beginnings in older myths stemming from southern, to middle and near eastern sources. The employment of celestial language serves to marshal the troops against the forces ofEvil, with each side acting, of course, for the forces of Good.

The distaste that many have for using such simple terms comes honestly, it’s sad to say, from experience and education. Even a cursory knowledge of history reveals the uses that the termsGood and Evil have been put to, and the, yes, Evil, that has resulted from the desultory application of spiritual principles to worldly events. The only way that these terms can be understood and applied accurately seems to be if they are carefully cast in terms of spiritual realities rather than worldly realities. That is, if a consistent and encompassing understanding of Good and Evil is applied that incorporates a considered rendition of facts and events whose outcome corresponds to the characteristics generally recognized as Good and Evil. When that Politico talks about the Axis of Evil, do his actions place him firmly in the Forces for the Greater Good?When the mother calls the ants evil, is she recognizing the basic instinct for survival and natural right of insects to live and prosper on the same Earth as Humans? When that farmer is cursing the sun, is he truly cursing the outcome of the drought upon his material condition? Are these instances example of things that are bad due to personal circumstances, or evil due to greater, spiritual concerns? The answers to that question are, perhaps, as diverse as people born into this life. Or, perhaps not.

The gift of language has been a boon and a burden for Humanity. In Jewish, Christian and Islamic theology, when humans built the Tower of Babel that reached unto the sky and threatened the Heavens, their punishment was the destruction of the tower and the imposition of multiple languages. G-d segregated humankind so that they could never again challenge His supremacy. Through language, humanity has been able to split the atom and write peace treaties, express love, hate, write amazing literature and sing heart-rending songs. The very essence of life is revealed through shared experience that is passed from person to person in writing or through the spoken word. The separation of the material from the spiritual, of necessity, results in a failure to communicate clearly. An impossibility of communicating clearly, without the effects of cultural biases coming into play, as well as the individual ability to interpret information, words, according to her or his own personal knowledge base. Interpreting these words in the context of their usage becomes paramount. Who is using the term? Who or what are they applying it to? Are they speaking to greater spiritual concerns, or the outcome of worldly power plays? Do the personal or collective characteristics of those claiming to be on the side of Good correspond to the generally accepted ideals of what is good? Or are they of a different, and more base sort:

Matthew, 7:15-23 A Tree and Its Fruit

15 – Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

16 – You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?

17 – So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.

18 – A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.

19 – Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

20 – So then, you will know them by their fruits.

21 – Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.

22 – Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’

23 – And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’

And while this passage is from a specific religious belief system, and speaks in the language of a specific time and place, the truth that it encompasses is multiversal in nature. The lesson, in this case, speaks to the close attention to actions rather than words. To outcome, rather than intention.Words and intentions can be falsified, while actions and outcomes can be seen clearly. Good and Evil exist and find their expression in every aspect of human incarnation. To deny the validity of the terminology is to fall prey to the purposes of those who wish to hide the results of their words in confusion and vague interpretations. In the language of moral relativity and nationalistic fervor. Every cause has an effect, every word is intention manifest, every action leads to an equal and opposite reaction.

I think that, by the time that, in the Star Wars Prequel ending,Revenge of the Sith, Anakin Skywalker murdered his wife, Padme, and faced his old Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, he was well aware that his good intentions had fallen by the wayside long before. The results of his actions did not correspond to the beauty and lawfulness of his words. Rhetoric serves well until the resultant actions bear visible and undeniable fruit. Simplicity then, in such instances, is the result of complex forces brought to bear through all aspects of creation at the micro and macro scale. It is in the analysis, though, that this complexity must be interpreted through a spiritual lens and the resultant interpretation made.

If the road to Hell is indeed paved with good intentions, then the road to Heaven must be littered with bad intentions blown to the side by celestial winds, transmogrified and elevated by the synchronistic effect of experience and growth. Religious and colloquial myths and tales are filled with stories of bad girls gone good, evil men turned to the Priesthood and entire eras transformed by the aftereffects of traumatic and desperate events. There is always the hope that people transcend their limitations, and that their words do indeed forecast the outcome of their actions.

Into the Light: To choose, or not to choose.

There are two choices when you’re waiting in the darkness. Move into the light, or wait for the light to move into you.

I suppose it’s like sitting in the shade. Enjoying the cool, looking out into the sunlit world. You know that at any moment you can get up and return into the light. And you also know that you can sit still, and the shade will give way to the light.

When you are sitting in the darkness, you are pregnant with possibility. Waiting, torpid, the sense of stasis is pervasive; you have made the decision to make no decision. The darkness is comforting, it is stability, it is the known, the circumscribed, it requires very little effort on your part. With no effort toward movement, there is an enjoyment of an illusory sense of permanency. All choices are postponed as you bask in the comfort of the known.

To make the choice to move out of the shade, out of the darkness, requires an act of faith. Faith is required, because you have no idea what movement will bring. Stepping into the light might bring positive or negative events into being. Obviously, the difference between the shadows and the light are those of warmth and coolness, which can be either comforting or uncomfortable, depending upon your perceptions of the moment. If you are cold, the warmth of the sun is desireable, if you are hot, the coolness of the shade can be equally attractive. Similarly, if your personality has been formed to suit the darkness, then you will gravitate toward the shadows. If your personality has been formed to suit the light, you will gravitate toward the sunlight.

Stability is an illusion, when applied to the world of our senses. Change is the rule. So all urges we have toward keeping things the same, maintaining a certain lifestyle or being the same person are doomed to failure. The light comes to us, when we attempt to remain in the dark. The light may be born by another person, or it may arrive on its own, in the form of an event that forces us into movement. The loss of a job or a loved one, the arrival of a baby or a phone call.  An earthquake or a car crash, a trip to jail or church. The type of self-examination that arises from experiences of cognitive dissonance, where we find ourselves unable to percieve our surroundings the same way as we did before, is a harbinger of things to come, a fundamental shift in paradigmatic thought, a blessed experience whereby we come to see the light.

Or not.

At a certain point in our lives, each of us becomes aware when we are running from the light. We see the people around us, and we notice the differences in personality and inclination that makes some people more open than others and we make a conscious choice to associate ourselves with the kinds of people who help us to feel comfortable about the lives that we have chosen.  And yet, even surrounded by darkness, by those who have chosen pain over pleasure, there remains a sliver of light, a seed of potential that can blossom into a raging inferno, given the right catalyst.

With successive opportunities- over the course of a lifetime – to choose the light over the darkness, our inevitable choice becomes a reflection of the person that we have decided to be. And, after a certain point, the potential to deny the original choice and choose another grows smaller as the egoic resistance solidifies, resulting in what some call a ‘hardened heart’, where the light cannot shine, or where the song of life cannot be heard. Our souls become a rocky wasteland where painful pleasures bring a decreasing reward. Pleasures that brought ecstatic enjoyment in the years previous become joyless habits impossible to fulfill, but which require constant maintanance because they reflect the choice that you originally made to follow a certain path, rather than another.

Yet and still, movement is constant. The light returns as the sun returns, because we are in movement. The light is constant. The sun shines from the center of our solar system as the planets dance around her, rotating at their leisure, engaging each other in planetary dramas as she looks on in benevolence and strength, building consensus and representing peace with her presence alone. Our relationship to the light is similar. The light of love, of Divinity, remains the same. It is always there. It is we who move. It is we who find solace in the darkness sometimes and don’t want to come out to face the light. The light that burns so brightly, revealing all of the dark corners of our souls.

The dark corners that we are ashamed of. That we don’t want anyone to see, to know about. No one at all, let alone the presence that lies ever in waiting within the very heart of the light.  The dark corners that keep us cowering in the shade, scurrying like rats to follow dark, diminishing patches of cool stability as the burning rays of truth reach out for us, offering us the one thing that the darkness never can.

Revelation.

The revealing of truth. All things hidden, brought to the surface. Living in the light. Becoming the light.

Realizing that the weight of life is the sum of our choices. That our bodies reflect our untruths, our distortions, our perversions, our neuroses. Over a lifetime, we become our decisions, in form and inclination. The shift of an eye, the twist of a lip. The deformation of a strut turned limp, a sneer turned into a leer. Vocal propensities become unconscious habit, we become all that we have been and in so doing, reflect our chosen reality for the entire world to see.

Those who choose the light reflect that choice. A certain lightness of Being, an airy quality of strength and potential. Smooth brows and a twinkle in the eye, a spry step and easy laughter minus guile and deception. The choice to embrace the light is the choice to embrace change, which leaves the past behind and creates each moment anew in the Now, disallowing the collection of earthly weight and of burdensome habits that collect further poundage, dust and disfunction.

So, in the end, the only choice becomes when. When you will allow the light to become you. If you will move into its path, or wait until it inevitably moves into you, the difference between the two being the amount of difficulty that you will encounter once the light illuminates the areas of your life that you have been keeping hidden. By moving consciously into the light, you have a certain amount of say in how you will experience it, how you will focus that light and, thereby, affect how those around you will react to its warming, life-giving presence. Often, when we wait for the light to come to us, it pays no attention to our wishes and desires, arriving with the searing vengence of the desert sun, taking life, burning and scorching all in its path.

The amount of fear we cultivate – allow to surround us and affect our thought processes – will determine how and when we choose to consumate a relationship with the light. The fact that this fear has a life and personality of its own makes it more difficult to overcome. As all living things do, it fears its own dissolution. Its death. The death of the ego, which feeds upon and hoards the fear, using it to keep us distracted from the Now and seeking the shadows when the light is our birthright.

All things return to their origins, eventually. Even upon the eve of our exit from this life, the light will beckon us to come forth.

The choice of when, not if, is all that we possess, because we are indeed fractals – reflections below of Reality above – temporarily obscured by shadows created by endless movement, yearning to live again, thrive again, fully exposed, in, to and of the precious light.

Evolution and Movement: Are good and evil real?

A discussion with a close friend brought to mind the question of what is Good and what is Evil?

If everything in Creation is necessary, than what is unnecessary? If Creation is perfect, then what is imperfect? If material Creation is split, i.e. expressed as a dichtomy, black/white, him/her, us/them, right/left, then what is good and what is bad? And, when we define good and bad, is it a tacit approval of relative expressions of some abstract moral code, or does it refer to some higher code or law past the level of human agency?

Is the law of society the law of Heaven? Does our karma (result of our actions), as the Hindu and Buddhists hold, depend upon our dharma (moral duty)? Even Jesus said, “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” with the implication being that there was an expression of Divinity within the formation of the State and the trappings – and execution – of earthly power. And so, with that in mind, is the state executioner guilty of murder every time he pulls the lever in the death chamber? Or is he absolved of responsibility since he serves as the instrument of a “Higher Power”, in this case, the State? Does that mean that the depradations of WWII in Hitler’s Germany against the Jews fall under this same law? The Hutus and Tutsis, in their back and forth genocides of the mid-90s? The Serbs against the Bosnians, also in the mid-90s or the Muslims against the Christians in the Sudan of today? Do all state-sponsored deaths (war, criminality, genocide) leave the individuals who participate in them free of moral culpability, if and only if their actions are carried out in fulfillment of their state-sponsored roles, and not as an expression of some personal drive toward emotional satisfaction achieved during the act of murder?

What about religions? Islam? Christianity? Judaism? Hinduism? Do they hold and express the highest truths? Islam’s Jihads and the savage dominance of Africa, the Arabian peninsula and South Asia during it’s first 500 years; Christianity’s unrelenting holy wars against unbelievers, purges and imperial/colonial power mongering; Judaism’s G-d sanctioned wars against heathens and unbelievers in the Old Testament and the Zionism of the 20th and 21st century; Hinduism’s strict social hierarchy expressed by the racism and classism of the Caste System, with the Aryan Brahmins at the top and the Dalit Untouchables at the bottom: all of these systems have spiritual cores which touch upon the eternal truthes that course through the marrow of the world, invigorating the astral lives of countless groups and individuals, but does this make them the truest expressions of Divinity in the world? Imbue them with the capacity to be the ultimate purveyors of Truth, of Right and Wrong?

Or, is individual initative and free will more important? Since the body/mind/soul complex is the Temple, does that make us each Priests, able to determine right and wrong for ourselves? And if that is true, what is to separate the Christian who believes such from the Luciferians and Satanist, whose credo, “Do what thou wilst shall be the whole of the law” (Crowley) states, generally, the same thing? Certainly, the Christians utilize the bible as their instrument of Higher Law, but the bible has been used to murder many millions over the time of its creation, and to marginalize and enslave countless millions more, as well.

So who has the moral high ground? Is it the State? Is it the Religion? Or is it the Individual? Do the mores of the New Age movement, which emphasizes the individual and personal connection with Divinity make each of us a Law unto ourselves, as long as we ‘connect’ and ‘represent’ Divine Law to the best of our ability? To the best of our ability? Our very human, and limited abilities?

Or is something more required? Is it possible to move past these very human, limited abilities? To encloak ourselves in Divinity, really and truly, past our material and egoic limitations that keep us bound to the known and finite world of our 5 senses? And, if it is possible to move past them, then how do we continue to interact in the world of individuals who have not moved past them? Like the Cathars in Middle Ages France, or the Witches of Salemin the Enlightenment-era Americas, those who represent a spiritual viewpoint that is markedly different from that of the majority population find themselves martyred on the cross of social condemnation and the ultimate repression. Is this the preordained fate of every Seeker after Truth? To be crucified by the bloodthirsty and G-dless masses?

The Judeo-Christian ethic was born in Egypt but probably stems directly from the lineage of the oldest monotheistic culture in the world, that of the Batwa, or Pygmies. Considering the universal nature of spiritual precepts that undergird virtually all of the world’s major religions, the Western, secular viewpoint expressed by such fields as psychology and physics stumble in their materialist tracks when such luminaries as Karl Gustav Jung and Stephen Hawking, two men who bridge the gap between the material and the spiritual, confound pure materialists and spiritualists alike. For most who argue the importance of moral relativity and human initiative as the be-all end-all of material creation, recognizing that – beyond opinion and bordering the trackless wasteland between hypothesis and fact – the greatest Western scientific minds find an all-encompassing consciousness existing outside of the purview of individuated consciousness not only possible but probable, should be an enlightening realization.

So where does this leave us on the questions of Good and Evil? Perhaps, with the realization that in a multiverse where darkness and light are necessary, good and evil are necessary as well. That, as long as material conditions require life to be expressed through dichotomies, we will always have dichotomies. There will always be a day to follow the night. A right to offset left. An up to challenge down. The conditions that we take for granted; the opposites, the disagreements, the challenges and the conflicts that are so necessary in life, all of them, are required for the condition of existence itself. While we rail against evil, we must recognize its existence on a par with good. Like the Yin and Yang symbols of Eastern spiritual and philosophic thought, dark and light exist within the circumference of the All (circle), but the All is whole, indivisible. Each, the dark and the light, possesses a seed of its opposition, existing in harmonic resonance, one with the other.

Our choice is free. We are the Deciders that determine the path that we take during a lifetime and we waste time and effort when we regret, when we dwell, and when we look outside of ourselves for answers to our own deepest questions about who we are, where we are going and what we should be doing. The pathes that we choose should be the most direct expression of our deepest desires and needs. Because we are individual souls representative of spirits outside of the boundaries of space and time, our lifetimes are not concurrent and we progress in the past, future and present equally and simultaneously, some past lives representing higher degrees of consciousness than our present lives, in some cases. A life as a buddhist monk five hundred years ago does not necessarily mean that the life that you’re living right now is as highly or ethically evolved. Time does not constrain the soul’s evolution, since the material world is confined to the three dimensions of space and time, the fourth dimension.  Our choices remain a condition of the lives we are living right now as well as our past lives, but, in each moment, we have the choice to transcend all of that to make a different kind of decision. And this is where personal spiritual or ethical evolution lies.

In the end, it seems that good and evil are really not the point. Movement is.  Progress, evolution over time and through space as the solar systems, universes and overall multiversal expression of Creation continue to become, the infinite variations of life and consciousness adding their experiences to the collective whole, evolving toward some undefineable and unexpressible condition of existence that must be reflective of the holistic qualities that we represent in microcosm during our finite, yet infinitely satisfying, journeys in the flesh.