As I left the house, I felt a an exhilarating sense of expectation, as if something special was about to occur. It was a beautiful, sunny day, about 65 degrees Fahrenheit, not a cloud in the sky. I bundled up my son, Jaedyn, ever wide-eyed and curious, settled him into his stroller and started off down Main Rd toward the Community Center and the trails crisscrossing a small Wilderness Area bordering the Lake of Two Mountains.
These have been the trails that Siräyah and I have been walking since we’ve been living here in Hudson, Quebec. We find nature to be good for the soul. Getting out and experiencing the ambiance of the natural environment is invigorating and mood-enhancing. While the area possesses a relatively limited walking space compared to the kilometers of biking and walking trails that bordered the Saint Lawrence River in Cornwall that we used to walk in the days and evenings – watching the skies and the waters while exploring life and that which lies beyond during our time in that city – it does have a certain character and spirit that we find particularly engaging.
A stream now finishing with the torrents of snow melt and settling into the Spring’s flow as the grass, flowers and leaves spring forth in preparation and the weather titillates like a shy girl, flush and vibrant with beauty. The crisp cool of the air embraced us as the boy and I strolled along the sidewalk, observing the bustling little town of Hudson engaged in the morning rituals of Canadian-style civilization.
We walked by the bakery and the art salon; a young man with his 2 year old son in a wagon pulled off to the side of the walkway to let us pass. I laughed and told him, “Ah, and see, I was going to make way for you!”
He smiled and gestured us past with a grand sweep of his arm and I nodded, pleased by his theatrics.
We continued on past the community center where an older french man was speaking to his young daughter in a pedantic tone while she answered shortly and querelously.
Turning the corner and walking back toward the railroad tracks and the forest, we passed through the parking lot of the center. An elderly gentleman moved slowly in our direction, nodding curmudgeon-like and muttering a short, “Morning,” as he passed, intent upon the community center and whatever activities he engaged in within.
I responded in kind, accompanying my chipper “Morning!” with a nod of my own and an up-quirked lip.
The center was a generally busy space. We’d visited a few times and spoken with the receptionist as well as looked around. There was art for sale on the walls, open space for auctions, parties and miscellaneous gatherings, chairs and tables for bingo and other group activities and a few curling lanes. It was a nicely built and well-attended public area that we hoped to utilize ourselves someday.
I could feel the cool of the forest even in the general briskness of the day as the concrete parking lot turned to road. The beauty of the Hardwood Forest sub-zone of western-Quebec is beyond question. The region we live in, on the banks of the lower Ottawa River and the local widening of that river known to the natives and euro-Canadians alike as the Lake of Two Mountains, is in the sugar maple/bitternut hickory domain of the sub-zone and this forest extension was representative of the region. Cork elms, swamp white oaks, shagbark hickory, black and sugar maples, pitch pine, fir and spruce trees are abundant in this diverse realm on the very edge of two northern climate zones and we appreciated the diversity, energetic aspects and natural beauty greatly.
The boy and I continued our funky expedition. We bumped over the railroad tracks onto the gravel road leading back into the forests and I looked at the main path leading in, through the bars of an old, rusted, cast iron gate. I could see the leaf-strewn brownness of the path leading between the chapeled trees, most still browned and bare but beginning to display the pale greens and deeper hues of the onrushing spring.
I always walk down that path whenever I enter the forest from this direction, as it is a straight shot from the main street but today, for some reason, the thought of the alternate path – just 20 feet distant – leading along the banks of the stream toward the bridge from further down the gravel road, came to mind. A couple days before I’d noticed it as I hadn’t walked down it since last Fall, when Siräyah and I used to jog in the forests. But on this day I felt an irresistable urge to walk it even though it was just a bit further to get to it and it led to the same destination.
As soon as we entered the woods, I felt it. The trees were greening, small leaves budding and the smell of pines and vibrant growth filled my nostrils with a heady scent. As I inhaled, my heart – already open, warm and receptive – filled with what can only be described as an onrushing cascade of love. I was immersed within it, my out-breath and Tonglen training immediately and almost automatically sending that love multiplied back in response, out into the trees, the stream, the underbrush and whatever life dwelt therein, present in that moment, communing with us. I basked in the feeling, looking around me in amazement because this could be nothing less than the forest welcoming me. I laughed thickly, still breathing in that energy, that love and breathing it back out as the colors grew more vibrant, the scene around me imprinting upon my memory in all of its natural beauty and intensity.
I stood there for a few minutes engaged in rapturous communication with the forest. It seemed as if we were speaking at the deepest level, beyond words, beyond concepts, beyond ideas, at the level of existence itself. Never distant from tears in the best of times they now flowed freely as did my low and amazed laughter as I basked in the joy of existence, sharing it with my ethereal and material friends of the natural world.
I walked in front of the stroller to look down at the boy. He was staring out into the distance, but when I moved into his field of vision he looked at me with his typical deadpan seriousness. I laughed, because it looked for all the world like he was thinking, Ok Pops, it’s a forest already. This is how they talk. What, you forgot? Come on, let’s go.
I chuckled and shook my head, my entire body pleasantly tingling with the remnants of the energy exchange between the forest and I. We crossed the bridge over the stream and greeted another couple with a dog. They smiled and spoke and continued on down another trail as we took the path they had just vacated deeper into the marsh area heading toward the lake. As we neared an overlook I began to hear a deep, groaning chorus of croaks and warbles that quieted when we stepped onto the wooden platform that served as an observation area.
In that particular part of the forest the winter runoff had caused an overflow of water during the past few weeks as the weather warmed that had left the seasonally dry terrain overflowing the banks of the meandering stream channels. A large pond had formed as a result. A pond that had dwindled as the winter snow melt completed and the streams of the area returned to their normal confines.
A few days before I’d learned that there were beavers in the area when speaking to a native of the region and observed a small one working industriously a bit further down the stream bed. Considering its size, its parents must have been responsible for the building of the dam that had resulted in the formation of this pond, which I was searching curiously for some sign of the creatures who were singing such a singular song.
As I stood there watching, the song resumed in its previous intensity, our presence noted and dismissed, apparently deemed insignificant. The chorus alternated in surround-sound from both sides in a call-and-response patterning that felt to me like flirting. I smiled, realizing that it was indeed Spring and mating season had once again arrived. I looked down at the boy, taking note of his heavy lids and generally somnolent behavior. The forest was like a narcotic to him, he always fell asleep whenever we spent time there. We continued our trek, leaving the strange creatures – probably toads or frogs of some sort although I saw neither hide nor wart of one – to their private conversations.
The forest felt magical. My body continued to tingle from the earlier energetic exchange with the forest and I was now being bombarded on all sides by new stimuli. A bird here, a rustle in the bushes, there. My senses were afire and everything glowed with a luminescence I attribute to an altered state of consciousness brought about by my sudden welcoming into the Congregation of the Natural World. The day itself was brilliant and the slight breeze flowed around us, whispering secrets just beyond the range of hearing. The Now moment was prescient and pregnant with potentiality and all else receded as we turned parallel to the river following the path toward the sandy beach.
As we approached the beach, I noticed a few crows in the trees. We stopped by a particular tree, a pitch pine that I’d passed many times before. I remembered just a few days earlier I’d noticed it and felt drawn to it for some reason. I chuckled to myself, as I’d actually hugged the tree after looking around to make sure I was alone. The next time I’d passed it I met Glenn and we’d had a wonderful conversation. As I stood there looking at it I remembered that I’d felt a bit peeved at the time, as I wanted to spend time with the tree and here was this guy showing up right at the moment I was walking by it. The synchronicity was not lost on me and I wondered if the tree had planned the whole thing.
The pervasive joy coursing through me had settled into a steady vibratory resonance of peace and I moved to the tree, examining it, particularly it’s roots. It was large, over 100 years old and the root system was extensive. To the rear of the tree, closest to the water, the soil had been washed away by the natural action of the lake as it rose and fell yearly with the melting and runoff of the winter seasons, so that the roots were exposed.
It’s beautiful, I realized. Sit. Meditate. The thought came to me suddenly and it seemed like the only possibility in that moment. The boy was sleeping peacfully, his face serene in the morning sunlight. I turned his stroller so that he was facing me and I then sat among the roots, finding a perfect position that left me grounded and steady. It felt as if the location had been waiting for me and I thanked the tree silently as I settled in.
A crow sounded above with a danger call. Three caws. Another answered, about twenty meters distant with three of its own. I noticed, but paid little mind as I looked around, relaxing, looking into the forest, still totally in the Now moment, my senses alert. The crow sounded again with a rally call. Four caws. I contemplated the crows and the meanings of their caws for a moment before a snapped branch and a sense of presence alerted me to a woman and her dog, approaching from the direction of the crows, and the sandy beach. As she passed, she looked at me curiously and smiled. “Hello.”
“Hello,” I replied, smiling back. Her dog huffed shortly and I said, “Hello to you too!”
She looked at me and said, “Excuse me?”
I replied, “Oh, your dog said hello also, I was speaking to him.”
The woman laughed and looked at the dog, still walking past, “Oh, she talks all the time.”
I laughed in return and watched them for a moment as they continued on and then returned my attention to the forest. It soon stilled, the only sounds the gentle wave action of the lake behind us and the ambient rustling of the forest, interspersed with the harsh croaking of crows, the one closest to me still sending out updates every few minutes, others in distant trees responding.
My breath evened and I entered Samatha meditation, my eyes unfocused, gazing down at the ground, alternating between dirt and twigs, my mind stilling, the thoughts slowing. I concentrated on the breath for a while, steadying my seat, feeling the connection to the ground in that space, the earth, this forest and the tree. Resonant energy seemed to emanate from the very forest itself, a white, misty nothingness that twirled, twisted and undulated around the edges of my vision. The ground itself moved, also flowing, rising and falling with my breath, or like the lake and river beyond, unbound by the laws of the material world.
It felt only natural when I found myself engaging in Tonglen. With the in-breath I concentrated first upon the area, breathing in the energy of the forest, feeling it fill me, then with the out-breath, sending out love and peace. The air around me contracted with each taking, expanded with each sending. I then moved to the city of Hudson, envisoning its people going about their business, breathing in and taking their pain, their heartache, seeing it as black, crusty oil surrounding my heart. With the outbreath the tar-like substance dissipated in a burst of light and love as I sent energy outwards, intentioning harmony and higher states of consciousness.
With each breath in and out I expanded my vision to the next town over, Saint Lazare; then Montreal, then all of Quebec, then Canada and North America, then the Americas and the world. I found my parents, my siblings, cousins, other loved ones, including them, taking and sending. With each breath, I felt the energy growing, burgeoning, filling me, the breathes lengthening, the crust surrounding my heart thickening and then exploding as the energy shone from my heart outwards, always enough, ever enough to dissipate any negativity, for myself, those around me and the world.
I continued on in this vein for about 15 minutes before halting, returning to breath meditation in order to come down. My body was resonating still from the energy expenditure, I could feel elation, peace, a real and steady connection to the forest, to the world. A sense of grounding and of presence that I hadn’t felt in a long time. After regaining my equilibrium and grounding myself, I relaxed into the meditation for another 10 minutes or so before ending it.
I looked around. Immediately, the crow above me cawed. Four caws. The rally cry again. Answered from a few trees away. Then again, a bit more distant. I stood, feeling a bit faint and out of it. I was a bit surprised, but realized that I’d spent a lot of energy in the last half an hour. I was not tired but a bit disconnected from my body, while still being utterly in tune with my surroundings.
We continued on to the beach area. Jaedyn was still asleep. The crow that had sat in the tree next to mine the entire time I’d been meditating took flight in the same direction I was walking, cawing ahead. Danger, danger. He was answered and I realized then that, ok, this was a really weird experience.
The path opened up into the beach area. The glacial till of this region of western Quebec was known for it’s sandy character and I remember my amazement to find better sand on the river beaches here in Canada than existed down on the Gulf of Mexico.
The crows were still cawing away, now there had to be four or five of them, still close to us in the trees above. I decided for some reason to push the boy’s stoller out onto the beach itself, leaving the relative stability of the forest ground, out closer to the water. I’d never even walked down this section of the beach before, but felt that I had to.
The caws had become a steady but jarring cacaphony above, but as we left the shelter of the trees and moved out onto the beach they took on a different character, became more punctuated, briefer, including growls and high-pitched screeches. They were engaging in the fight call. Something had changed. I stopped the stroller about halfway between the beach and the forest and looked up.
Directly above us were two red-tailed Hawks, circling majestically, each in the opposite direction to the other. Only 4 to 5 meters distant, I gaped up at the raptors in total amazement and felt an unexpected surge of love and gratitude which I, again, automatically sent outwards and upwards towards them. In return I received a jolt of acknowledgement accompanied by unmistakable impressions of mission and of purpose and of destiny. My heart opened wide and the tears once again coursed down my cheeks as the beauty and majesty of the experience washed over me.
The rightness of the moment and the perfection of the synchronicty was too obvious to mistake as the birds of prey circled above us exactly once, twice, three times. It felt like a sign. It was a sign that I was meant to notice and remark upon; something too direct, too purposeful, too intelligent to be coincidence on that fateful day.
After making their point, the raptors drifted away on the winds, to the west, slowly. I watched one tilt and glide lazily southwards while the other continued west, going their separate ways, both eventually disappearing over the trees. I noticed then that the crows were gone. Or being very quiet.
I stood there, breathing hard in the aftermath, as if I’d just finished a 26 mile marathon, my mind reeling with the implications of the succession of events I’d just experienced. As I wheeled the boy off the beach and we walked back through the forest, I wrestled with the memories, already casting them as a tale told and searching for meaning.
I stopped at the bridge again on the way out and built a small dolmen with three rocks, two round and one long, placing the structure precariously on a large boulder near the water. As we exited the forest I looked back, wondering if I would ever have such an experience again. The day seemed to grow brighter in response and the moment opened up, revealing, once more, the perfection and magic to be found right Now and in every Now following, from here unto Eternity.
Understanding the bio-energetic reality within which we operate on a daily basis is a necessary part of knowing the time. It must first be internalized and known at a cellular level that we are all connected. That quantum entanglement is real and that all quanta, sub-atomic particles, atoms, molecules and cells comprising our bodies, all bodies, everywhere, are connected. This is scientific fact.
We live and interact within an electromagnetic sea of energetic impressions and we each possess, surrounding our body, a very specialized and form-specific biome of a certain shape and size. There are many traditions that explain the different layers and parts of this omni-dimensional vital body but it can simply be denoted as being both orb-like and geometric, having linear and non-linear components.
Because there are so many different types of sentience and because humanity has been interacting with these forms of intelligence since our inception as a species we have varying qualities of relationship with them. Some are beneficial to human development while others are not. Some are highly interactive while others are not. Some display higher rates of vibration and others do not.
We are also subject to attachments, inserts and implants that serve to limit our inherent spiritual potentiality. Some of these foreign installations occur by chance encounter while others are purposeful. Directed efforts within the context of a religion, spiritual tradition or energy-working modality can remove many of these impediments once their presence is detected.
What this means energetically is that we are the ultimate decisions-makers in any perception of reality that we participate in. In other words, nothing can be done to us without our express permission. Understanding that there are levels of knowing within this statement is realizing what the Self is, recognizing the impact of karma, of reincarnation, of pre-life agreements, of the Higher Self and the Avataric self, of taking control of your life and determining a plan that reflects your desire for a free-will existence beyond the layers of the control matrix.
You already know what it feels like to wake up. Every morning, you find yourself in a place where you are aware of your surroundings. It may be the alarm clock, it may be a ray of sunshine floating through your blinds to caress your eye-lids, it may be some other sound. You find yourself lying there for however long, experiencing. Then, suddenly, you become aware of yourself experiencing. The day floods in and the night recedes instantly, you begin to think of getting up, your plans for the day. Any dreams you may have been having slip into unconsciousness, as the waking mind is not equipped to fully understanding them. This is the common experience of awakening.
The first and most common type of Awakening these days is economic. Ever since the collapse of the monetary system in 2008, brought on by unregulated financial instruments and predatory lending, things have gotten worse for the majority of the world’s people. While wealth has continued its relentless path of concentration in the richest hands and banks, the Western world’s middle class ranks have been steadily thinning. Faced with joblessness, the lack of opportunities and limited welfare benefits, the realization that the educational system actually mis-educates has been sinking into the minds of more and more people. Understanding out-sourcing, international economic agreements, the trans-national nature of corporations and other previously arcane topics sends the newly disenchanted down rabbit holes filled with information previously disdained and irrelevant to the lives of the sleeping, but newly relevant to the burgeoning understanding of the nascent Seeker.
And this is where the path of Awakening generally ends, for most people. And why not? Up until this point, the Seeker has gone from placidly going about his daily life, content with the mainstream pleasures and accomplishments that are generally indicative of success in life. A job, a family, a bit of spending money, maybe a house, condo or nice apartment, friends and vacation time. Coming to the understanding that a life lived consciously is comprised of much more than just going along to get along is a quantum leap from a start-point of ignorant material comfort and nominal success.
This is formidable task. This is where most Seekers balk. This is where most fall back into the comfort of group-think and stagnation, preferring intellectual masturbation to inner knowledge. This is where the programs of a lifetime reassert their primacy, where the ego recognizes the threat and responds. Where a not-so-subtle material re-entrenchment occurs once you’ve realized that you’ve reached the point beyond which your family and friends must finally realize that you’ve gone Off the Reservation and are no longer even attempting to conform to their culturally-based standards of normality and social acceptability.
People often wonder what spiritual tradition I follow. They read my blogs, my 
Religions and spiritual systems reflect what seems to be a mathematical equation of Truth. Truth is a form of awareness, one that, when present, thrums through my body like an electrical current. Words, when spoken or heard, if containing Truth, lead to a visceral experience of discernment, which is beyond any doubt a form of connection to something beyond the mundane, beyond body language, beyond surface-level reality and the culturally-determined and biased truths that comprise the stuff of our daily grinds. All religions contain a kernel of Truth. By this stage of human cultural and societal evolution, it is apparent that the inter-relation between religious systems is much greater than most proponents of specific religions might admit to. Given certain cultural biases and evolutionary processes which have had a strong part in determining many of the ritualistic and humanistic aspects of different religious systems, the extraordinary amount of correlation about basic tenets and ideas about humanity and our relationships to the Cosmos and Creation is humbling to consider. As there are so many resources currently available for all who seek edification in this matter, it is not necessary for me to expound too deeply upon the subject other than to acknowledge this Truth and contextualize it.
The first word was a release of energy. That energy differentiated, becoming All That Was, Is and Ever Shall Be, as explained above. The first word was a sound, much like the words that we use today. The Buddhists say that word was Ohm. The power of words is expressed in ways too varied to remark upon, but suffice it to say that each of our lived experience should give us a very visceral understanding of this Truth. Words spoken in anger or in love, the beauteous sound of a harmonic chorus, a large choir, a child’s laugh. Words, sound, vibrations, resonation, creation. The relationship of musical notes to sacred geometry, to energy, to the very fabric of Creation, is emphasis of the importance of an holistic understanding of reality, of consciousness, of who and what humanity truly is and what our potential really encompasses.
Once your perspective has shifted to the point where you begin to understand the world as energetic interactions and relationships of linked and resonant fields, you begin to understand what it means to live in a state of grace, or in the flow of life. Once you have begun to lessen your inner resistance to the energy that is flowing through you, that is flowing through us all, you begin to realize that it is most often the blockages within yourself that cause many of the problems that surround you and that lead to further emotional imbalances and material contradictions in your life. It becomes possible to be aware of the flows of energy in your own body and the bodies of others, as well as the flow of intentions and the resultant interactions through which thought is manifest into deeds which imprint upon the very fabric of reality. As you clear your own blockages through meditative and prayerful practices, acupuncture, energy work with doctors, shamans, priests, preachers, pastors or psychics, your Self begins to experience states of consciousness previously unknown. Bell-like clarity and flashes of intuitive understanding that seem to come out of the blue, but that truly come from deep within you, from your Higher Self or God-presence, become only now accessible because of the clearing of mental and emotional detritus that was blocking their full expression. Our innate psychic potentiality can then be realized and we begin to experience more synchronicities, more intuitive leaps. Our dreams begin to instruct us and our lives begin to change, to simplify, to become less dramatic, less stressful, less blocked by negative energy that is really only our fears expressed in various forms stored in different locations in and around our physical bodies and astral fields.
The dangers we face we do so as a consequence of our chosen perspectives. All energetic relationships correspond to very strict rules according to flow and direction. This holds true regardless of context or type of energy. As an illustration, between the New Age-related and dichotomous designations of Service-to-Self and Service-to-Others as expressions of Bad and Good or Dark and Light, respectively, there exists a middling pole around which both extremes spiral, as exemplified by the yin-yang symbol. This pole is Unity Consciousness, a recognition of the necessity – and rightness – of the manifestation of opposition as an expression of the whole. Those whose intentions approximate the expression of Goodness as a lived reality can be seen to be on one side of the equation, while those who approximate the expression of Evil as a lived reality can be seen as the other side of that same equation. Being polar extremes, there is an inordinate amount of resistance and conflict between these two poles, as is readily understood by all. The eternal battle, it is called, or the War of Opposition. Those who plant themselves firmly between the two extremes experience the least amount of resistance as the energy from both poles flows through them rather than finding terminus within them.
The contradictory nature of spirituality and nationalism confront all spiritual seekers at some point of their personal evolution. And yet, our specific circumstances, our dharmic inheritance as it were, serves a purpose in the unfolding of our spiritual destinies as nationless Citizens of the World. Coming to grips with one’s Past and integrating it with one’s Present is a key component in the journey towards Transcendence of the material plane of existence, which can mean many things to many people. For me, personally, Bush’s War on Terror and Obama’s War on Liberty aftermath has left me struggling, caught within the grips of an extreme case of cognitive dissonance as my training and upbringing as a member of the American Warrior Class(AWC) surges within my mind. Memories of soldiering, the endless repetitions of the National Anthem, Pledge of Allegience and Star Spangled Banner during my early years combine with the direct military indoctrination of my young adulthood and the subsequent, rough cameraderie of soldiers, as well as the life and loves that have formed an indeliable impression upon me in the Past have made me the man that I am in the Present. I would not be who I am now, if it were not for who I was then.
The expression of this dichotomous viewpoint, the struggle between the World and one’s current circumstances and understandings is the stuff of spiritual elevation. In each moment, it is possible for us to let goof the Past, to die to who we were in order to become who we are meant to be. As an example, it is as if there were a grand template of Rahkyt out there somewhere, a vision of perfection and peace whereby I realize my inherent probabilities, manifest at the highest level of Being, the possibilities of my spirit and my soul. A similar vision exists for all of us, regardless of our stations in life, or our individual experiences, because we are all One, connected at every level of interaction, our actions and reactions being determined by the chaotic effects of stimuli too many and diverse to specify ranging from an vast number of options spanning both space and time, creating matrices of chance and probability that result in our individualized Destinies, sending us upon life-journeys of perfection and peace, despite the emotional highs and lows of illusory materialism that distract us from what is really going on, beneath the surface drama of life and its attendent trials and tribulations.
It almost goes without saying that the connection of body and mind, and some aspects of the spirit, to the collective of humanity is of necessity a mandatory expression of Oneness and that Nationalism, even considering all of its ills, is reflective of this subconscious desire of disparate groups of humanity to express this reality, given their shared ethnic and cultural affiliations. Group-mind, mob behavior, both have an aspect of shared consciousness at the level of the human sub-conscious, binding individuals together in ways that are scientifically documented and verifiable through varied methods utilized by the mass media, corporations and governments in order to direct and control populations.
This body I inhabit is formed of Stardust born of Earth, third planetary body from Sol, one solar system among many clustered within the Milky Way galaxy, reflecting the Infinite Array, expressive of the expansive nature of both matter and consciousness and the continuing evolution of the multiverse, transcending time and space within the remorseless imperative of the evolutionary process occuring within the soul of each moment, born anew with each thought and subsequent action at every level of Creation Become. My experiences and genetic programming, explicit towards the manifestation of my own personal destiny as a microcosm of our shared, collective destiny, the fulfillment of an imperative born far beyond my, or our, capacity to conceive of in its awesome and terrifying immensity.
We can all be illogical sometimes, in fact, I’d say that it was our particular gift as humans, to bring a sense of the peculiar, of the subjective to our experiences and many would argue that, thusly perceived, illogicality is the natural state of humanity rather than its diametrically opposed counter, logicality.
Illogic allows us to be God-like, our word becomes the law, any challenge to which gives rise to the righteous anger of the divinely-inspired. Illogic can also be related to a mythopoeic mindstate, wherein the world is a magical place, gods and goddesses exist, and magic makes women mad and men fall in love without recourse. Logic, again as the inverse, implies the non-existence of differentiation, of a steady-state creation of Oneness, where purity and stability reign.
From there, to Del City, Oklahoma, achieving the Arrow of Light, entering Webelos and then, joyously, Boy Scouts and the summer between sixth and seventh grade. The troop was all white, except for me, but, through my first real experience of political intrigue, I somehow wrangled the position of Senior Patrol Leader from what I now recognize as a natural intrest group formed by two close friends and their extended network of sycophants and hangers-on, giving me the votes needed as a reciprocal payment for appointing one friend as Quartermaster because he, apparently, liked the sound of it.
But anyway, Tommy Pierce (yes, that’s his real name) was my age; brown hair, pale skin, normal size for a sixth grader. He was brash, spoke before he thought, but not really the worst kind of guy. We didn’t really like each other, but we respected each other. On this particular camping trip, we were placed together in a tent, along with two other kids.
I quit Boy Scouts when we moved to Scott Air Force Base, outside of Bellville, Illinois. I went through Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class and Star, ending up earning a Life Scouting badge, which is one below Eagle Scout. This was an expression of Illogicality on my part, quitting because I’d been ‘traded’ between troops during a sickness, giving up an entire youth’s commitment because of a feeling of betrayal by scouts that I really didn’t have much of a personal relationship with anyway. If it can be called this, I suppose it is one regret that I have in life, not finishing the entire Scouting program and reaching the highly vaunted rank of Eagle Scout.
The bible speaks of the hardened heart, and the point at which compassion and love become foreign to certain people who cultivate Illogicality and its corresponding effect of egocentricity. That book also states that once the heart achieves this state, it can’t be changed. But that we have infinite chances to release it all to God, through the medium of Jesus the Christ. Divine grace is our birthright, on this point, almost all religions agree. The contemplation of Eternity through the lense of Life is, as stated in 1st Corinthians 13:12:
My own illogicality is often followed quickly by remorse and apologetics. If any of y’all reading recognize any of this in yourself, I reach out to you with compassion and understanding, and universal love. Only recognition and the commitment to consciously working against Illogicality can change a lifetime of response-patterns. But we have to do it, if we’re ever going to be the people we were born to be, which can only be done if we release that knot, give in to something Greater, and share the love, rather than holding it, jealously, inside, where it can only fester and die, taking us, struggling, along with it.
I opened my eyes to a new year and didn’t remember who I used to be. I reveled in the freedom but found myself wandering the streets looking into glass windows desperately trying to forget places I knew. People brushed rudely past, pointedly ignoring my knowledgeable look, their eyes shifting away as they retreated from the Now back into the past and future of their regrets and fears, their own attempts to forget as clear to me as the clashing shades and hues of their auras. I chuckled knowingly. This was the way of the world.
Are you ok with the fact that the past is gone, never to return? That the good old days no longer exist and are best left to stories told to children and strangers, gathered ’round? That what was true back then is only an indication of the way things used to be, and not an indication of how they are going to be tommorrow?
The night I found out that I could fly was an important milestone for me. I remember it vividly. I was escaping from a situation and found myself walking. The lightness of leaving lifted my spirits and body simultaneously and I found myself bouncing higher and higher with each step. By controlling my emotions I found that I could regulate my height and I explored a prison for psychic criminals, passing recalcitrant Yogins, Fallen Angels and social Deviants alike, searching for her.
If there are an infinite array of Quantum universes, one after another receding into the timelessness of the eternal, who is to say what is real and what is not? In an infinite Creation aren’t all things probable? And, if they are, does that mean there is a Disney universe out there somewhere where Mickey Mouse is King and Minnie is his Queen? Daisy could be his Courtesan while Donald plots jealously to murder Mickey in his sleep, reclaim his woman – and make Minnie his Ho’ - then take over the Kingdom. Could it be possible that we access these universes or travel through them with each random imagination and daydream, and that we sojourn those dimensions/universes closest to our current reality with each decision that we make, shifting through them like fish through layers of the ocean? That the possibilities that we envision become real if our intentions are clear enough? That our ability to manifest our desires takes us irrevocably through higher or lower dimensions along the trajectory of our eternal journey, depending upon our innate spiritual propensities?
I observe the daybreak from the vantage point of a convict, trying to figure out how to break out of this prison I’ve created for myself. The walls close in around me and I chafe beneath the weight of my chains. The stars seem so close as the sun rises and they fade, leaving me with only a vague memory of their position. If I can only remember where they are, I know I can find my way back home, where you are waiting for me, knowing that I will come when I can.
Random moments find me wondering about you, and what it is like living your life. When I pass people on the street sometimes, or see them in cars or sitting in restaurants, I try to envision their lives. I wonder how their houses smell, where they work and do they like it. I try to see the state of their relationships in their eyes and body language, how they interact with the ones they are with, are they restless, and whether or not they know the Secret of Life. I find it most difficult to imagine the ambience of your life. The feel of it.
There are certain realities that must be addressed in order for the world to move forward as One. These realities have been created by the super-conscious agreement of large soul-groups comprised of smaller collectivities and individuals inhabiting this planet, engaged in a mutually beneficial karmic drama drawn out over many hundreds and thousands of years. The origins of this passion play are lost in mists of time, subject to multitudinous explications and storied retellings, but the ramifications of it remain with us.
As the planet’s population grew, each group achieved its core aim, existing apart for millennia to consolidate and manifest these understandings in preparation for the time when they would again come together. It took an extraordinarily synchronistic coalescence of technological innovations – contributed over time by all of the races of humanity – to create the conditions necessary for this Great Return to 
be effected. Ostensibly, it was the “discovery” of the Americas by the Europeans and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade that created the multiracial civilization which has now reached its apex upon the Western lands of this planetary body. But it took the nautical innovations of the Chinese (rudders, masts, etc.), chemical innovations by the Africans (gun-powder, steel) and the land already inhabited, cultivated and explored by the American (South and North) Indians for these Times to become fully manifest.
There are many in the current New Age movement who believe that their group is the manifestation of this prophecy. However, despite their belief, in order for the prophecy to become manifest, all of the conditions of the prophecy must be fulfilled. These conditions include the following primary aspects:
It is easy enough for individuals to gather together in a group, to look around and see people who look like them and think like them and, ostensibly, speak of unity consciousness. These people may also speak of shared knowledge, the divine feminine and indigenous wisdom. They may also seem to act in a manner that embraces a sustainable future and decries a continuation of the current death-culture. But words are easy. It is when actions are called for that the determination must be made as to whether Truth is present or not. The type of truth that is often most subjective and relevant in this land of contradiction has to do with that which has kept the People divided for so long. The political, economic and social echos of prejudice, xenophobia and institutional racism.
The uncomfortable truth is that, while individual racism has certainly subsided in the last 40 plus years since the post WWII freedom movements and the end of legal segregation in the United States, many individuals still harbor conscious and unconscious prejudices or stereotypes against those of other racial groups. Not only that, but institutional racism – the structural codification of segregative behaviors, i.e. public and private sector discrimination – remains implicit in all of the continuing inherent discriminatory practices in job hiring, the criminal justice system, housing and recreation. As individuals engage in these areas of people activity without a conscious awareness of the prevalence of institutionalized racism, they are actively promoting and endorsing it by their very participation in these modes of societal production. By the neighborhoods we live in, by the stores we shop in, by the social organizations we belong to, we advertise to the world what we believe and who we are, whether we realize it or not.
These racist philosophies have morphed in the New Age to take on more universal aspects, as streams of supposedly ancestral genetic superiority are said to have originated upon other planets and within distant star systems. These belief systems are typified by the glaring omission of representatives of all of the races of humanity throughout the rest of the cosmos, but also state that genetics are the currency of the galaxy – an obvious and glaringly xenophobic paradox – thereby subliminally justifying similar threads of ideological dominance and suppression here upon the earth. By so doing, they tend toward the justification of all of the ills of discrimination, segregation, enslavement and superiority complexes that have bedeviled humanity for so many 
millennia, indicating that these things exist beyond the earth and so they must be, if not positive realities, then at least they are pervasive wherever 3rd Density consciousness exists. Whether or not these realities exist is not the point. The point of our current existences here upon the earth is spiritual evolution, the importance of which should necessitate our elevation beyond all discriminatory practices and systems of knowledge, no matter who else in the galaxy or universe practices them for whatever reason.
In this context, indigenous knowledge becomes an owned commodity, available for procurement and appropriation, the ceremonies of Reds, Blacks and Yellows become common spiritual property for all – i.e. the New Age movement – to change, modify and employ, regardless of the inherent dangers of practicing foreign systems with a limited understanding of the cultural and historical context and methodological particulars. The spiritual traditions of the Ages, perfected as practiced over many millennia of experimentation within the geographic crucibles inhabited by each of the different racial groups, become the fodder for instant egoistic gratification masked as potential spiritual ascendancy. This is of course a relic of the commodity-based and consumption-oriented nature of Western society and, therefore, contains as a key aspect of its expression an often unconscious desire to materially consume, even in the context of spirituality, in order to fill the gaping emotional and spiritual void that currently exists within so many yearning for something more.
These times could not have come into being without each of the four directions, without each of the four races. But now, it is the task of each individual of conscience to become overtly aware of the remaining aspects of separation-consciousness that seek to continue the trends of division. It is time for us to actively make the effort to bridge the gaps not only between different racial groups but between different aspects of ourselves and between our conscious and unconscious awareness. We must become awakened to who we are, or, as the Ancients prescribed so vociferously, man, woman, Know Thyself. We must seek out those aspects of ourselves where we unconsciously comply with segregative institutional norms, where we take on aspects of victim consciousness, where we agree with oppressor or oppressed viewpoints, where we partake in inherently separative activities.
Have you ever felt like you weren’t moving? Were not progressing? Were in a place of stasis, where every attempt you made to go forward was met by an invisible-but-irresistable force that kept you still, thoughts whirling furiously, frantically, mind wondering why?
What do you do in times like this? Do you continue to press forward or stop for a moment to examine 
Where is the point of egress? Do you find yourself looking for it? Finding yourself stuck, do you search your life events, examining each moment and action, seeking a way out of the quagmire? Do you eagerly await the next synchronicity which may provide you with a way forward? Do you go within and examine your motivations after all? Find out if you are being true to yourself? Do you even know what being true to yourself is? Who you are? What you want?
But more than that, you find yourself clear, even if only until the next experience of resistance arrives, and the entire process starts all over again. The ultimate realization is that this process can end with the understanding that perception is key, as is self-knowledge. Perception of forces in the outside world, their relation to your current state of mind and experiences, and your perception of yourself and your ego’s attempts to distract you from the Now, as well as its desire to keep you regretting (Past) and worrying (Future), and definitely not seeking within for self-knowledge, or paying attention without, for synchronicitous events.
