Hip Hop and Afrofuturism: The seeding of the Consciousness field

The Americas. This is where the End began. The West, the place of Prophecy, the place of Destiny. The genetic cellular database of Ancestral awakenings thrums in tune to the drumbeat call of generations of soul, of pain and joy rising above the spontaneous eruption of life, uncontrollable, unbounded, free of constriction or constraint in its purest form. This is the natural path life takes like water, flowing down or up whatever channel presents a path, making one where none exists, or deepening preexisting ways, widening, eroding resistance whenever encountered to open the way for a more intense flow of energy. 

What does all or any of this have to do with Hip Hop? With a bunch of kids who play their music too loud, who seem to have a fascination with cursing, disrespect of authority and women, baggy clothing, crime and material culture? How is any of this spiritual in nature and what does it have to do with consciousness? To answer these questions fully it is necessary to understand what Hip Hop is, what it really represents, where it came from and where it is going.

Loosely defined, it is the culture of the urbanized underclass, of the disaffected and the disillusioned masses. A culture of rebellion and revolt that employs every mode of communication known to humanity in order to get its message across. Music, art, the spoken word, the beat, movement. MC’ing, DJ’ing, Break Dancing/Popping/Locking and Graffiti are its major expressions, all of which encompass the primal cries of those relegated to possessing only their spirits and souls and little else of material substance.  As a post-modern deconstruction of a Western European meta-narrative, Hip Hop stands as an exemplar of the effect upon the individual of societal ills that are now global in scope. Ageless, as an expression of African-based musical and communicative forms of expression, Hip Hop was informally born as a genre in late 1970s New York City and the surrounding region, expanding relatively quickly from a purely regional expression to its current status as multi-billion dollar music of the global youth culture. It is fair to say that Hip Hop has come a long way. But it is also fair to say that it has a way to go still before it reaches its full potential.

Afrofuturism as a movement has evolved alongside Hip Hop, similarly having no definitive beginning while simultaneously coalescing alongside Hip Hop in urban America during the late 1970s. Its formal inception occurs much later, in the late 1990s and into the 00s as the online presence of African Americans grew stronger. The application of diverse academic traditions to the same questions was the beginning of a process that sought to dissect the cultural and media-based discourse of African-originated and futuristically-themed influence in the preceding decades in the attempt to define their interests and cultural memes.

And so it was that a small, ethnically diverse but concentrated listserv, called Afrofuturism, was born and prospered, for a time. Beyond the vigorous debates, expositions of consciousness, collaborations and intellectualisms lay an underlying strata of vast potentiality and possibility, made manifest through the broad and open genres of science and speculative fiction. The movement was represented by black authors, academics, Hip Hop headz and performers alike, all sharing a similar fascination with futuristic themes and expressions of modern societal tropes under the guise of the fantastic. Afrofuturism never really coalesced as a full-blown cultural shift outside of the avant-garde arts and music scenes of the large urban areas, but the fish bowl-like arena the internet was in those days brought larger and more mainstream attention to this small collective of personalities and ideas, raised against the growing din of diverse voices the Net was soon to become.

Hip Hop and the Afrofuture cannot be separated from the evolution of America as a nation, but they also cannot be separated from the evolution of consciousness not only of this country, but of the world. The impact of Hip Hop has been felt upon every continent, in every country. Rap is the music of the global youth culture. It is the sound of rebellion and discontent that can be heard wherever the young are gathered and wherever inequalities have resulted in the formalization of destitution. The original means by which Hip Hop formed have been repeated in country after country, city after city as the young and the listless have found themselves with little money and no musical education but still possessed of singing hearts and dancing souls, theirs or their parents record collections and an ever-growing mass of CDs and MP3s that consolidate the Music of the Ages. The ready availability and affordability of computers, digital music and sound equipment have created the perfect environment for a large-scale explosion of beat-centered creativity as the hard, biting sounds of rap drive the air and digital-waves toward the resolution of a Hip Hop planet, born to tear down paradigms not built for their edification.

There is Russian Hip Hop, Middle Eastern Hip Hop, African Hip Hop, European Hip Hop, Latin American Hip Hop. You will find baggy jeans and ball caps worn by youth of every ethnicity, shade, size or gender in every country in the world. This acceptance of a quintessentially American artform by two generations, X and Y, who are now birthing a third, generation Z, will take the artform into new territory as global consciousness coalesces around the ideals that undergird the very essence of Hip Hop. Freedom of expression  and lifestyle choices, a disdain for centralized authority, a dearth of color consciousness and a dislike of the trappings of corporate and/or governmental culture typify the belief system of Hip Hop Headz around the globe. The continuing revelations regarding the world-wide dominance of elite, corporate conspiracies have resulted in an ever-spreading understanding of the many threads that tie in to this reality, be they economic, political or cultural in nature. A wide-spread distrust of governmental measures as well as a realization that corporate culture does not have the best interests of the individual in mind bind diverse cultures and ethnicities together in recognition of their shared servitude and bondage to global consumer culture and hegemonic political domination by a self-serving and mega-rich elite.

The material and mainstream response to the impact of Hip Hop began early in its modern evolution. With the success of the Conscious Hip Hop movement in the United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a concerted effort was made on the part of the Music Industry to derail the movement by changing the focus of the music from positive messages, African history and evolved states of being to that of material wealth, violence and hyper-sexuality. According to music industry insiders, there was a successful attempt to provide monetary incentives and change the focus of individual Hip Hop artists to rap more about these topics and also to contract artists that would create the type of music that glorified self-hate and violence in many forms. This era was accompanied by rising drug use, gang violence in many inner cities and the destruction of previously cohesive neighborhoods by gentrification and urban renewal projects that diffused black power by moving populations out of the urban center and into suburban apartment complexes. The simultaneous influx of illegal drugs – as well as the continuing unavailability of stable sources of income – into these uprooted communities contributed heavily to the continuing dismantling of black political power. But what the Powers-That-Be did not take into account was the expansion of Hip Hop’s influence out of the black community and into the white community and from there, into the rest of the world. Even though the possibility of this happening was evident from its earliest beginnings – as exemplified by its multi-ethnic composition in the early to mid-80s as it spread like wildfire across America – the change in the focus of Hip Hop from a black consciousness to a gangsta/thug mentality that glorified the patriarchy and material accumulation appealed to the children of the suburbs, the children of affluence, the white children of th establishment. Their rebellion against their parents and dedicated economic commitment to Hip Hop raised the art form to national and international prominence, if not in spite of, then because of the negative direction the Industry chose to force the music into.

As Hip Hop has evolved within the crucible of a planet in the throes of change, it has come to represent a shifting of consciousness, being the musical form best suited for political and social challenges. Its hard, eviscerating beats, biting and rough dictions and choruses, are the perfect backdrop to a world on the cusp of transformational change. While mainstream Rap still possesses that material edge that glorifies bling, the dollar bill and the objectification of women as sexual objects, underground Hip Hop culture remains conscious and concerned with the plight of the underclass the world across. With the spread of Internet access across the planet, that underclass has realized that they hold common cause with each other, no matter their country or origin or color. A global political consciousness is a precursor to a global spiritual consciousness as people become aware that politics is only the outermost layer of an affliction that goes much deeper. The speculative aspects of the Afro-future arise in this space created by infinite potentiality as artists meld their conceptions of the present with ideas about what could be, in a perfect world. The addition of both New Age and Afrocentric spiritual ideals, as well as the culmination of the Age – centered around the 2012 fulcrum – combine to create a discourse of extraordinary exceptionalism that surpasses nation-hood and represents an elevated sense of connection, of oneness, of common cause.

There is a revolution of the spirit as well as the body that is overcoming the dictates of materiality, of modernism and the consumer culture. While there are many causative factors that have contributed to this awakening, the impact of African-related innovations and movements in the West have been strongly felt. From the Haitian revolution and the victories of Touissant L’Ouverture, to Nat Turner, the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement, there is a connection. From Jazz to Country to New Age genres, there is a connection. From Fats Domino, Little Richard and other African-Americans impact upon the evolution of Rock and Roll to the evolution of electronic and computer-based music and art forms, there is a connection. This connection is the expression of the Souls of Black Folk, the visceral nature of their interactions with the world, the spirit-filled mass consciousness that resists all attempts at suppression, repression and genocide. It is, in microcosm, representative of the human spirit in macrocosm, it is what happens when a group of people is put upon for centuries at a time and their desire for utter freedom grows beyond the capacity of any seeking control over them to contain. It is when expression becomes mandatory, where not even death is threat enough to maintain silence, that the extraordinary becomes mundane and wonder fills the world to overflowing on a daily basis.

Of course,  the formulation of the present moment is a collective endeavor that all streams of humanity have contributed to, that, in fact, every person who has ever lived has, in their own way, helped to create. Consciousness is a condition of awareness and each individual becomes aware of the realities outside of his or her own chosen spotlight for different reasons. But it cannot be denied that the world as it is today is the result of vast inequalities that have been fomented over generations. Inequalities that have resulted in the deaths of untold millions, the servitude of untold millions more and the domination of the world by a small, inbred and greedy elite. The atrocities that have come to predominate the historical record of these latter centuries of the Age of Pisces perhaps have no equal in the known history of humanity upon this planet. The world as it is today, with all of its pain, heartache and vast inequalities, is also a beautiful place, where the seeds of Africans brought to the Americas, mixed with the Aboriginals and Enslavers both, have broken ground, tilling the field of hearts the world across, as what has been done becomes clear and the ramifications of karmic repayment attend that clarification. Hip Hop and the Afro-future stand intertwined in the Present as an indicator of Past and Future, one indistinguishable from the other according to the infinite realm of probability that leaves conceptualization boundless and free to be, to become whatever we wish it to be. This is the legacy of our ancestors, and that which we leave to our posterity in our turn. The gift of life and love despite pain and heartache, and of expression ,without apology, of who we are, were and will be, far beyond what those who think they control reality could ever conceive of.

What is Afrofuturism?

Originally written in February, 2000 by Rahkyt/Mark Rockeymoore. 

What is afrofuturism? 

At first thought, perhaps, an oxymoron.

On second thought, a vision of fluffy, puffy afros crowning multi-hued afronauts – juxtaposed atop a sterile, ivory vision of technological progression – is born; space ships and colonization, galactic empires and trans-planetary corporations. Further speculation inevitably conjures up nightmares of oppression at an almost unimaginable scale as the vagaries of the human soul are pit against the relentless drive of technology. Wondrous conceptions exist: Herbert’s Dune, Asimov’s Foundation and Brin’s Uplift War come immediately to mind.

Or perhaps the term gives rise to more contemplative dreamscapes, in which the future approximates the past in a more organic, holistic understanding of the human condition.

Civilizations have coexisted before, in synch with the Earth’s natural rhythms, each another and the biosphere. Examples abound: Kemet, Sumeria, Mesoamerica, India. Terraced gardens amidst the rainforested mountain ranges of the equator. Pre-Saharan expanses of irrigated plain in northern Afrika. Cultivated forestland and ceremonial mounds in mid-latitudinal America.

Ancient monuments of cyclopean conception witness the passage of time, the world across. Only ruins of these civilizations remain, yet they provide a model of truly integrative theocratic dynasties that ensured the existence of poverty-free, moral based societies girded by certain knowledge of humanity’s inherent divinity rather than its original sin.

The future meets the past in the crucible of the present.

There exists, deep within the ebony recesses of the net noir, a diverse community that skirts the quantum-dusted fringes of the new afrikan technotronic space, awash in a blaze of neon, shining sites proclaiming knowledge born, revolution and reinvigorated ancestral memory; space that serves as enclaves of exploration for three generations of diasporic afrikans as they interact and explore the issues shaping the melanated perspective.

There is a tradition of black emancipatory thought, inextricably linked to western civilization and its evolution, that has proffered various works of a speculative nature pertaining to the physical or spiritual omnipresence of the Afrikan archetype within a western framework. A serialized novel like Schuyler’s “Black Empire” would be one example. Even recent contributions – especially those that press those boundaries and explore the possibilities of human interaction, sociologically or biologically – such as Octavia Butler’s “Mind of my Mind” or Nalo Hopkinson’s “Brown Girl” serve to exemplify this worldview.

According to afrofuturist Alondra Nelson, a colleague named Mark Dery was the first to use the term afrofuturism in his edited collection “Flame Wars”, among other places. He defined the term thusly: “Speculative fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of 20th century technoculture–and more generally, African American signification that appropriates images of technology and a prosthetically enhanced future –might for want of a better term, be called “Afro-futurism.”

Since that moment in time, afrofuturism has expanded to embrace the entire, colorful world. As expressions of the possibilities that afrofuturism heralds, these examples and definitions cover but a fraction of the whole. There are also the soulful intonations of Sun Ra, DJ Spooky, Busta Rhymes, the Wu-Tang Clan, Public Enemy and others who straddle the razor’s edge of the digital divide; the visual and aural artists redefining the way we think about ourselves by adding layers of contextual blackness in a multi-media format, accessed by varying levels of understanding and acceptance.

It is questionable whether or not afrofuturism possesses specific traits or characteristics because its expressions are as diverse as the Afrikan diaspora and the experiences shared by those who compose it. The only framework that can possibly contribute to an understanding of what afrofuturism is would be the overarching cultural system within which it has gestated. Because afrofuturism is transnational – disdaining place and localized adaptations for a more holistic global extent – this ‘overarching cultural system’ can only be defined as Marimba Ani’s global white supremacy system. In this view, cultural icons like Nat Turner, Akhenaton, Nkhrumah, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Martin, Malcolm and countless others were the afrofuturists of their day.

Afrofuturism is the antithesis of futurism. Countless science fiction novels, comic books and movies laud the inexorable nature of progress and, by extension, the global white supremacy system as well as the understanding that this system espouses a future that progresses in stages or flights of mental evolution, shuttling from mechanical to molecular to digital to cellular modalities, at which point science and magic become almost indistinguishable to the uninitiated and the god-concept is finally subsumed. The most inclusive of these extrapolations do indeed challenge the social structure of white supremacy but most retain the hierarchical dependencies of left-brained, materially oriented thinking. This tendency does seem to evolve as western society adapts to the wider availability of information as well as the increased exposure of xenophobic populations to ethnically diversified surroundings and traditionally holistic cosmogonies.

Of course, there has always been the pagan tradition of ancient Europe, personified by the Kemetian-taught Druids – not to mention the mysticism of the east, of yin and yang, also kemetian-taught – that has informed the european weltanshau, from the prehistoric mythos of the celtic Tuatha de Danaan and the kemetian-derived greek pantheon of gods and goddesses, to the present day wiccan and new age revolution.

The interplay of race, culture and time coalesce in the moment, revealing the barest, most tantalizing glimpse of what afrofuturism could be and perhaps has always been.

Afrofuturism is not science-fiction. It is not a mechanical, technology driven vision of the future because an afro ain’t never been about anything constricting or orderly, in the hierarchical sense. Rather, an afro is free-flowing, loving the wind. Changing, shifting and drifting on the breeze, bending this way, puffing out or just plain swaying gently from side to side, following the whimsical inclinations of the melanated person upon who’s head it is perched. An afro can be taken from, it can be added to, yet it still retains its own natural structure, its own spiral and bouncy nature. It is flexible, yet patterned. It is about synthesis and holism. It is about accepting the kitchens and working the waves on the crown. It is about dreading, locking and following the patterns of nature where they lead, yet following a laterally delineated order. It is about the interplay between dominant and recessive genes. It is about diversity. It is about knowing purposes and determining the placement of diverse variables within their proper context.

Afrofuturism is about knowledge. It is about intuitively understanding the harmonics of the Earth and solar system, their electromagnetic interactions: the effect of a butterfly in Brazil upon a hurricane in France, the weather patterns of the Earth, the living cycles of our days and nights and the stilling of the mind. The rotation and evolution of the galaxy and the oneness of the universe. The true , inner connectivity between each being on this planet. The simplicity of knowing truly, what love is. It is about the science of relationships, of clearing the mental and spiritual debris from one’s life in a healthy, systematic fashion. Of cleansing the body, not only our own, but that of the earth that we, as a culturally diverse people, have helped to subjugate. It is about shattering the walls separating the sciences and realizing the oneness of all creation. Knowing, and loudly declaiming its presence and purpose in the larger scheme of creation. Afrofuturism simply is!

It is also a one-world philosophy. Not only because of the secret history of Afrika’s primacy in early human cultural and physical evolution, but also because it is a sane alternative leading to a sustainable future. Afrofuturism is inclusive, yet it is very much aware that each thing, person, institution and body politic has its place and time and that each must fulfill its inherent purpose. This aspect makes afrofuturism more than a political or literary/artistic discourse since it approaches the metaphysical in its insistence upon realizing the fullest expression of each and every aspect of its existence. It becomes a way of life, a way of thinking holistically.

As far as its adherents are concerned, they are – again – as diverse as is the Afrikan diaspora. Perhaps they can be characterized as possessing an interest in current affairs and technology, or perhaps they are more interested in ancient afrikan sciences and the historical evolution of the various ethnic groupings of biological Afrikans spread across the world, to include western Europeans, Asians, Native Americans or Australian Aborigines. Or perhaps they cannot be characterized at all, being too diverse.

To clarify that statment in the context of this discussion, current studies in genetics and race are recommended to the discerning reader which suggest that – racially, in the true st, biological sense of the matter – we are ALL Afrikans, not only because of the fact that at some point in the not-so-distant past certain segments of Afrikan society migrated to different parts of the world for different reasons and lost or forgot who their cousins were, but also because of the fact that we are all internally Afrikan, or black, the color of carbon, the basic building block of life; not to mention the key of life and the brain itself, neuromelanin and its external manifestation, melanin. Blackness is within and without.

Regardless of the individual afrofuturist’ area of interest, her perceptions of the world contribute fundamentally to his understanding of the present moment. These perceptions are subject to the controlling factors of education, experience and intuition, any of which can and must be present within any afrofuturist framework.

The ‘understanding of the present moment’ that is formed by an afrofuturist can perhaps be characterized as possessing a critical focus upon true , universal equity and proper utilization of all resources – biological, mineral and ethereal – guarding against complacency and rigid structure delineated from a centralized source, preferring to consult and accept guidance from numerous, yet symbolically related bodies of information before taking action or forming conclusions. All things exist in a state of flux. Of motion. Understanding the applicability of that statement to all things and how to express that understanding as it pertains to the furtherance of the natural order is fundamental to an afrofuturist understanding.

The kemetian tree of life cosmogology, precursor to the Jewish Kaballah, explores the relationship between humanity and the cosmos through the triumvarate of philosophy, science and spirit. Through the processes of historical diffusion and localized adaptation, the basic precepts of these all-encompassing ‘behavioural texts’ have girded the underlying truth of the ‘universalizing religions’, to include Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, all of which have sent varying shafts of ethical light into the darkness of human ignorance, allowing for the cultivation of the higher emotions for a relatively few adherents. The alchemical sleight of hand, as it were, transforming base materials into the spirit-gold of ethical enlightenment.

The ‘understanding of the present moment’ is also affected by the individual afrofuturist’s conception of future possibilities. In fact, the subjective exploration of these possibilities is also a necessary condition for considering oneself an afrofuturist. Nat Turner, Akhenaton, Nkhrumah and all of the ancestors mentioned earlier have possessed this gift, this ability to transcend their cultural milieu and dream the dreams of the soul, the quantum realities of an infinite creation, of universe overlapping universe and endless possibilities, allowing them to deepen their understanding of the present moment and giving them the divine right and strength to make their visions manifest through their own actions and through us, their descendants.

The moment is the real, the domain of the afrofuturist. The future and past are fluid and ever-changing, possessing the ability to morph instantly into social texts capable of accentuating the diverse realities of the melanated mind during fabulous flights of intution, delving into the nature of perception and birthing successive moments from the contemplation of those that have passed and those that are yet to come.

Outside of the constricting vagaries of time and logical progression, only the now is real. The afrofuturist domain lies somewhere external – yet integrally connected – to physical incarnation, to include the dreams and desires of progenitors and progeny alike, unto infinite generations, to encompass the geo-physical perfection of the pyramids as well as current ground-breaking, world-shaking research being done by melanated scientists the world over as they chafe beneath the shackles of the global white supremacy system. Afrofuturism simply is and always will be, regardless of the social and political context of its practitioners, for it truly is a necessary expression of blackness, the key to life, both within and without.

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 and densities 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 and 3rd-density time and space 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 or above 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 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.

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.

From Here to There: Savannas of clarity and light

Free Will and Destiny always make good topics of conversation.

In watching the Matrix I movie again the other night, I was struck by Morpheus’ question to Neo regarding his thoughts about Destiny, Fate, and Neo’s response that he didn’t like the idea that he didn’t have control over his outcomes.

When considering it in the context of Creation as laid out by the Ancients, the reality seems to be that our choices are indeed Free, as we make them, but since we are ensconced within a time-space continuum that is bubble-like, with other aspects of Creation lying outside of that bubble, the many precognitive abilities that seem to be supernatural in nature are merely extended human perceptual capacities that allow us to span the realms of reality that lie outside of our normal five senses and our limited experience of an eternal and infinite Creation.

We do this daily. The feelings that we get when we meet someone for the first time. The thoughts we have that seem to come from outside of our thought processes and affect our lived reality. The ability we have, sometimes, to know things we haven’t learned. The strange coincidences that arises from our thoughts and actions, and lead to some change in our circumstances. Little things, in the larger scheme of things, but meaningful things, when they come to our experiences of this world.

Relationships have been very difficult for me lately. Friend relationships and intimate relationships alike. Determining my own needs has run directly into fulfilling others needs, and the result has been chaotic, to say the very least. It is often an underlying part of our realities that the societal context within which we live determines the way that we carry out our relationships. When we live within a sick society, often, our so-called personal choices come from places of sickness that are reflections of our early childhood learning, and the patterns that we witnessed and internalized during that time-frame.

Growing out of those patterns does not happen unless we make the conscious decision to leave them behind at a certain point in our lifetimes. Making that conscious decision can only happen if our experiences leave us in a place where we are forced to confront our choices and beliefs and determine whether or not they truly help us or hinder us during our sojourn through life. Doing so requires a sober and in-depth exploration of personality and Self, which is a task many of us run away from instead of toward.

It’s hard. Very hard. For anyone who has been told about themselves and has had to look in the mirror and realize that you’re not all that you thought that you were, you know that your first instinct is to look away. To never look in a mirror again and walk around not even thinking about whatever your problem is – the problem that is, apparently, very obvious to those close and not so close to you – but which has been hidden from you, by you yourself. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? That we can hide things from ourselves? Or, see them, and then make the conscious decision to ignore them?

“I am who I am, love me or leave me.”

“I always been this way, and I ain’t gonna change.”

“I’mo do me, no matter what.”

“You ain’t no better.”

I want to change. Maybe you do to. In fact, many of us want to change, but the problem arises when we look at the current state of our lives, and try to figure out how to get from here to there, how to stumble our way through the briar-patch mess that we’ve made of our lives into the clear fields surrounding, out of the forest and onto the Savannas of Clarity and Light. How do we change our situations so that we can be that avatar of ourselves that we see within, living the lives we want to live, being the people we want to be?

Some people will tell you to just stop. Get rid of all of the negative influences in your life and change right then and there. And that is a valid choice. Itoften results in the accumulation of unresolved karma and also doesn’ttake into account the reality that sometimes we are in life-situationsthat we can’t get out of realistically without drastic consequences. And, sometimes, those consequences are necessary. Sometimes, an abused spouse has to run away from her or his abuser, just pack the bags and go for theirs or the children’s sake. Other times, we have to cut off a relationship that we can see is no good for us, even if we are still emotionally or chemically attached to that individual. Stopping is a valid response, and one that we sometimes wait. But there are other options as well.

Continuing within a negative pattern, changing it as we go along, until the outcome is one that has brought us into the light. This is more difficult, obviously, because the possibilities of succumbing, of continuing the negative pattern are strong. This is the case in just stopping the negative pattern as well, as any ex-smoker still loving his or her tobacco can tell you. It requires a firm will and a clear goal to make it through, if the choice is made to allow a situation to continue, seeking ways to direct the situation in a positive manner, leading to a positive outcome. Also, when you take this path, you have to be very observant of the many forks and side-paths along the way. Synchronicity is the key factor to the decision-making process, when you are seeking direction in life, and the opportunities may often arise alongside distractions designed to obscure opportunity’s facade and keep you blinded and headed down the wrong tracks, well on your way to a dark and painful end.

Stopping or continuing. Both valid choices, both valid ways to experience life, and to change your situation. The key to either’s success is the clarity of the goal. Whether or not you can see where you want to be in the end, and if you have the willpower necessary to sustain your effort until you arrive there. There will be dark days, and times when you say to yourself that there is no G-d, or the Light is too far away. There will arise emotional despair, strong enough to cause some to think of black-hole dissolution and service-to-self in the form of suicide and the immerson of Self into even more negative practices that are life-threatening and immolatory in nature.

Burn, burn, burn on the cross like Jesus in the Devil’s favorite dream, what’s the point, my life is meaningless and nobody will miss me anyway.

We can’t really please anybody. Everyone sees themselves in everyone else anyway, and what we love about others is usually what we love about ourselves, and our fascination with seeing that reflection so clearly. Some call that love, at least.

Whatever it is we’re doing here has implications beyond our petty wishes and banal experiences. Whatever kind of experiment this is, whether it is an insignificant play on an obscure stage somewhere on the fringes of the known universe, or whether it is a cosmic stage of intense importance to all sentient beings everywhere, really matters little when it comes to our own individual experiences of life.

It seems to all be about choices. And whether those choices lead us to a better or worse outcome for ourselves, and, in that sense, whether our spirits and lives are fulfilled by our actions, or whether they are not. How we actually feel, emotionally, is tangential to the central question of whether or not we are fulfilled. Feelings come and go – both positive and negative – but that sense of pervasive peace and contentment that comes from the fulfillment of a personal purpose in life is something else altogether.

Fulfilling our individual purposes, be they in the Darkness or the Light, is the goal. Finding out what that purpose is and how to fulfill it, our journey through experience. It’s my journey. It’s your journey. No one else can tell us how to travel it.

I gotta do what I gotta do to get from here to there. And so do you. So let’s agree to do whatever it is we gotta do the best way we know how, no matter what anyone else wants us to or thinks we should do. Even our mistakes are ours and ours alone. We make them because we need to, for whatever reason. Advice is good, but doesn’t trump experience, and some’a y’all, like me, got hard-ass heads.

Even when it seems like we are not making a choice, we are making a choice. No choice at all is a valid expression of Free Will, and often has consequences, just as making a choice in one direction or another does. Destiny happens, Fate is the book written, the story told before, during and after the events take place.

As we play our assigned roles, perhaps we should keep in mind that we are only part of the cast, and that the starring role rotates. Also that there are infinite stages, set for an eternal audience that includes us all in the roles of actor and audience at different points of consciousness outside the boundaries of time and space.

Space and Time: The infinite and eternal

As a geographer, I am perhaps inordinately concerned with where I am at every moment. Situating myself in space, defining the place of my inhabitance, is an automatic and referential habit which also solidifies my position in time. The space-time continuum being one of the core aspects of physics as defined by Einstein and so many others seems to me to be a formalization of what we all intuitively know, although we rarely articulate it in a conscious fashion.

I tell my students constantly that we all are natural Geographers. Each of us navigates the world with a mental map of our own specific creation that highlights what is important for us in our lives, as wel as what is not important. And what are all of the many variations of maps that we see all around us today except someone’s visualization of a particular version of reality, usually created with a specific purpose in mind?

A road map highlights important highways and byways, mainstreets and thoroughfares. A political map highlights boundaries and borders, states names and inceptions. A weather map highlights fronts and streams, high and low pressure zones, a contour map elevations and amounts. Being thusly subjective and prone to relative interpretation, what has been considered to be firmly scientific and beyond dispute is proven to be culturally relative and prone to manipulation by individuals and groups bent upon conveying certain perspectives, beliefs, and realities to others based upon their own questionable agendas.

The mental maps that we carry around in our heads possess a similar form of adaptability, although we’re not always conscious of it. Let’s say you take a certain route to work everyday and do so for years. And then, one day, in conversation with a friend, you learn of a shortcut. Although you’ve been happy with your route for a long time, just the knowlede of this new route acts as an irritant in your mind and you are not satisfied until you take the route, try it out, in order to determine, to your own satisfaction, whether or not the route lives up to its hype or not. Imagine how you’d feel upon determining that the new route actually takes longer, and that your own route was superior in time and space savings all along.

Time and space. The Infinite and the eternal. Encompassed by the twin disciplines of Geography and History. Geography being concerned with space, history being concerned with time. Antagonistic in a disciplinary fashion, Geographers utilize history and Historians utilize geography without giving full credit where it’s due, due to the natural antogonism stemming from the competitive nature of western academia, and the codification and compartmentalization which resulted in the creation of individualized disciplines, here in the United States, back in the late 1800s. Geography being a latecomer to the battle, has continued to struggle at self-definition, exclaiming and pontificating upon its importance and integral character amongst the chorus of competing voices and interests in the scuffle for research funds and university acclaim.

Both disciplines mirror natural human tendencies. It is safe to say that they represent a split within the individual’s consciousness that characterizes our sojourn though life. Every experience we have occurs in space, through time. It is at this juncture that the split between science and mysticism becomes murky, that we begin to see the deepest, darkest shadows of irrationality that haunt academia, that whisper dreaded secrets to the heart of rationality and logic, promising inevitablity, destabilization, deconstruction, anarchy and chaos.

Space and time are experienced subjectively, as we all know. Two people experience the same space differently, influenced by the very real effects of emotion and perception, as well as by varying external stimuli determined by their own individualistic foci upon specific aspects of reality. Time also passes in a subjective manner, which is further exascerbated by the scientific acknowledgement that time and space bend, stretch, conditionally, based upon their relationship, one to the other. The famous example of astronauts traveling light years, returning to find everyone dead and civilization progressed hundreds of years into the future, or the phenomena by which time at different elevations passes faster or slower depending upon a location’ distance from the extreme density located in the center of the earth.

As above, so below. A phrase that always holds meaning. In this case, time and space, both external to the human body, possess internal characteristics which can be denoted as conditions of consciousness. Time corresponds to the dimension of the Now, of the infinite character of awareness and consciousness through which each second is experienced in a visceral and aware manner, lived fully in an awakened state. Space, then, corresponds to the depths of awareness which can only be reached by intense inner exploration, through prayer, meditation, visualization, a seemingly endless abyss of a singular nature through which our own nature can be gleaned by the discerning third eye.

The experiential nature of spiritual exploration will probably never receive it’s full due from Academia, and probably for good reason. Two diametrically opposed manners of observing and interpreting the world and it’s many-splendored phenomena can hardly be reconciled. The nominally objectified world of the scientist, based upon experimentation and codification, repetition and verification, is mirrored by the same tendencies in the nominally subjective world of the spiritualist, and yet, the nature of the exploration of one, is the subject of a visceral and subconscious denial by the other. Scientist categorically deny the validity of the experience of the spiritualist, and vice versa. One based upon the impossiblity of objectivity, the other based upon the improbability of subjectivity.

Both objections reek of fear, the bastard child of which is, of course, anger. Anger, categorical denial, rejection based upon an internal conviction of certitude and, perhaps, an iota of irrationality connected to the inability to change one’s position, challenge the dominant paradigm, risk one’s career by exploring the gap between rationality and irrationality, science and soul, the worldly and the otherworldly. And yet – as determined by Siddhartha and innumerable sages and scions of the conscious path through millenia and across the varied landscapes of the human experience – the Middle Path of studied observation and direct experience is the only true path proven by time’s remorseless march and by spaces undeniable similiarity of experience and conclusion as documented through multitudinous oral histories and countless material relics of both pictoral and written evidence.

Eastern and Western philosophies collide in the crucible of the Global Village. The New World Order has presented us, its Denizens, with a table laid out with a sumptious banquet of information, viewpoints, tools and contexts within which to synthesize information, seek holistic solutions to global and local problems, to view our own lives through the lense of a wider, more humanistic viewpoint. And, while the ills of humanism as a philosophy tend to obscure the prescient value of the individual, the undeniable fact is that we all are One, dependent upon each other whether we realize it or not. The perhaps eternal battle between Self and Society as exemplified by the objective nature of society and the subjective nature of the individual express themselves contextually through time and space, resulting in singular experiences written indeliably into the Akashic record, impressed upon the waters of Amenta, the Book of Life, the Seat of the Soul.

What if, in truth, there is no dichotomy? No fundamental disagreement of principle or philosophy, because all of these are conditions of incarnation, of experience upon this worldly plane?  The acceptance of the possibility of such is conditional to the acceptance of a host of other beliefs, all possessing their own wealth of experiential evidence subject to the belief or disbelief of the individual perusing the data, and yet, beyond belief lies certain knowledge, awakened by direct experience of information deemed by some as-yet-to-be-determined locus of consideration within us all, evidenced by a gently thrumming vibration in the chest, spreading throughout the extremities dependent upon the strength of said truth and the individual’s connection to that aforementioned Truth Center.

The infinite and eternal exist. Predate existence, in fact. And, as expression of such, energy neither created nor destroyed is transformed, and that transformation is the necessary condition of existence and evolution of body, mind and soul, be you staunch scientist or devout spiritualist.  The end goal is written on a map of the soul, and is, truly, the same.

Space and Time: The infinite and eternal

As a geographer, I am perhaps inordinately concerned with where I am at every moment. Situating myself in space, defining the place of my inhabitance, is an automatic and referential habit which also solidifies my position in time. The space-time continuum being one of the core aspects of physics as defined by Einstein and so many others seems to me to be a formalization of what we all intuitively know, although we rarely articulate it in a conscious fashion.

I used to tell my students constantly that we all are natural Geographers. Each of us navigates the world with a mental map of our own specific creation that highlights what is important for us in our lives, as wel as what is not important. And what are all of the many variations of maps that we see all around us today except someone’s visualization of a particular version of reality, usually created with a specific purpose in mind?

A road map highlights important highways and byways, mainstreets and thoroughfares. A political map highlights boundaries and borders, states names and inceptions. A weather map highlights fronts and streams, high and low pressure zones, a contour map elevations and amounts. Being thusly subjective and prone to relative interpretation, what has been considered to be firmly scientific and beyond dispute is proven to be culturally relative and prone to manipulation by individuals and groups bent upon conveying certain perspectives, beliefs, and realities to others based upon their own questionable agendas.

The mental maps that we carry around in our heads possess a similar form of adaptability, although we’re not always conscious of it. Let’s say you take a certain route to work everyday and do so for years. And then, one day, in conversation with a friend, you learn of a shortcut. Although you’ve been happy with your route for a long time, just the knowlede of this new route acts as an irritant in your mind and you are not satisfied until you take the route, try it out, in order to determine, to your own satisfaction, whether or not the route lives up to its hype or not. Imagine how you’d feel upon determining that the new route actually takes longer, and that your own route was superior in time and space savings all along.

Time and space. The Infinite and the eternal. Encompassed by the twin disciplines of Geography and History. Geography being concerned with space, history being concerned with time. Antagonistic in a disciplinary fashion, Geographers utilize history and Historians utilize geography without giving full credit where it’s due, due to the natural antogonism stemming from the competitive nature of western academia, and the codification and compartmentalization which resulted in the creation of individualized disciplines, here in the United States, back in the late 1800s. Geography being a latecomer to the battle, has continued to struggle at self-definition, exclaiming and pontificating upon its importance and integral character amongst the chorus of competing voices and interests in the scuffle for research funds and university acclaim.

Both disciplines mirror natural human tendencies. It is safe to say that they represent a split within the individual’s consciousness that characterizes our sojourn though life. Every experience we have occurs in space, through time. It is at this juncture that the split between science and mysticism becomes murky, that we begin to see the deepest, darkest shadows of irrationality that haunt academia, that whisper dreaded secrets to the heart of rationality and logic, promising inevitablity, destabilization, deconstruction, anarchy and chaos.

Space and time are experienced subjectively, as we all know. Two people experience the same space differently, influenced by the very real effects of emotion and perception, as well as by varying external stimuli determined by their own individualistic foci upon specific aspects of reality. Time also passes in a subjective manner, which is further exascerbated by the scientific acknowledgement that time and space bend, stretch, conditionally, based upon their relationship, one to the other. The famous example of astronauts traveling light years, returning to find everyone dead and civilization progressed hundreds of years into the future, or the phenomena by which time at different elevations passes faster or slower depending upon a location’ distance from the extreme density located in the center of the earth.

As above, so below. A phrase that always holds meaning. In this case, time and space, both external to the human body, possess internal characteristics which can be denoted as conditions of consciousness. Time corresponds to the dimension of the Now, of the infinite character of awareness and consciousness through which each second is experienced in a visceral and aware manner, lived fully in an awakened state. Space, then, corresponds to the depths of awareness which can only be reached by intense inner exploration, through prayer, meditation, visualization, a seemingly endless abyss of a singular nature through which our own nature can be gleaned by the discerning third eye.

The experiential nature of spiritual exploration will probably never receive it’s full due from Academia, and probably for good reason. Two diametrically opposed manners of observing and interpreting the world and it’s many-splendored phenomena can hardly be reconciled. The nominally objectified world of the scientist, based upon experimentation and codification, repetition and verification, is mirrored by the same tendencies in the nominally subjective world of the spiritualist, and yet, the nature of the exploration of one, is the subject of a visceral and subconscious denial by the other. Scientist categorically deny the validity of the experience of the spiritualist, and vice versa. One based upon the impossiblity of objectivity, the other based upon the improbability of subjectivity.

Both objections reek of fear, the bastard child of which is, of course, anger. Anger, categorical denial, rejection based upon an internal conviction of certitude and, perhaps, an iota of irrationality connected to the inability to change one’s position, challenge the dominant paradigm, risk one’s career by exploring the gap between rationality and irrationality, science and soul, the worldly and the otherworldly. And yet – as determined by Siddhartha and innumerable sages and scions of the conscious path through millenia and across the varied landscapes of the human experience – the Middle Path of studied observation and direct experience is the only true path proven by time’s remorseless march and by spaces undeniable similiarity of experience and conclusion as documented through multitudinous oral histories and countless material relics of both pictoral and written evidence.

Eastern and Western philosophies collide in the crucible of the Global Village. The New World Order has presented us, its Denizens, with a table laid out with a sumptious banquet of information, viewpoints, tools and contexts within which to synthesize information, seek holistic solutions to global and local problems, to view our own lives through the lense of a wider, more humanistic viewpoint. And, while the ills of humanism as a philosophy tend to obscure the prescient value of the individual, the undeniable fact is that we all are One, dependent upon each other whether we realize it or not. The perhaps eternal battle between Self and Society as exemplified by the objective nature of society and the subjective nature of the individual express themselves contextually through time and space, resulting in singular experiences written indeliably into the Akashic record, impressed upon the waters of Amenta, the Book of Life, the Seat of the Soul.

What if, in truth, there is no dichotomy? No fundamental disagreement of principle or philosophy, because all of these are conditions of incarnation, of experience upon this worldly plane?  The acceptance of the possibility of such is conditional to the acceptance of a host of other beliefs, all possessing their own wealth of experiential evidence subject to the belief or disbelief of the individual perusing the data, and yet, beyond belief lies certain knowledge, awakened by direct experience of information deemed by some as-yet-to-be-determined locus of consideration within us all, evidenced by a gently thrumming vibration in the chest, spreading throughout the extremities dependent upon the strength of said truth and the individual’s connection to that aforementioned Truth Center.

The infinite and eternal exist. Predate existence, in fact. And, as expression of such, energy neither created nor destroyed is transformed, and that transformation is the necessary condition of existence and evolution of body, mind and soul, be you staunch scientist or devout spiritualist.  The end goal is written on a map of the soul, and is, truly, the same.

Time, World Weariness and the Search for Fulfillment

No thing lasts forever, which is why it is so important to create an immunity within one’s Self to the siren call of attraction and desire. Not an immunity based upon rejection or supression of feelings, for such only builds up negative karma and has to be released eventually. An immunity based upon the decision to cultivate non-attachment in search of that Shangri-La of all Seekers, the Cessation of Desire.

Earthly attachments really take up all of our attention. The friends, the children, the lovers, the jobs, the recreation. All of it dominates our thinking, holds the primary position in our thoughts of the future and our considerations of the past.What gets lost in all of this is the Present, of course, and the state of the body and soul in the moment. And, being so forgotten, both suffer. The Body gets fat and sluggish and the Soul withers as the Ego dominates the internal conversation, relegating the Self to the position of Observer only.

Sometimes, while thinking, I stop. Allow the mind chatter to cease and to experience the moment in all of its purity. Inevitably, a thought arises as I see a bird fly by, or hear someone’s voice, and that thought begs for attention, for the Ego’s concerned nodding and sympathizing, because, without it, thought dies a wispy, untraceable death. Since we have been conditioned by our environment and those around us to ‘think like them’ our Egos do as they have been trained and focus their attention upon continuing the thought process by adding another thought, then another and then another in the logical and rational processes of induction or deduction, which are supposed to reflect the ‘natural’ way that the mind works. We are told that this is right and exact, right? That thinking is the key to intelligence and to success. Cogito Ergo Sum, I Think, Therefore I Am.

Those of the spiritual nature know that this is not true. Thinking obscures the I AM. Thinking relegates the I AM to a subsidary role, and WE ARE without thinking. WE WERE before thinking. WE WILL BE after thinking. Subjecting ourselves to the deprivations of Time is a choice, the I AM being ALL THAT I AM and I AM THAT I AM encompasses all of Creation beyond Time and Space and beyond the framework of all that we can consider, rationally, with the mind. What lies beyond the mind cannot even be fully considered with the mind because the mind is a tool; a limited tool that is meant to serve the greater Self which is the Soul. There is no place for intuition or the recognition of the speech patterns of the soul in the rational processes of the right-brained predominance of societal and cultural production, which acts to limit our conception of what is proper thought and behavior during our lifetimes.

Getting caught up in Time is so easy. Wanting, desire, the things of this world are so shiny and beckon the attention, drawing thought like food draws flies. The pretty girl, the handsome boy, the shiny diamond, the powerful car, the beautiful house, the verdant island all evoke feelings of desire as we seek to assuage that within us that segregates, that sees all without as separate from what is within. All things manifest in Time and Space. A thought held at one point in Time, depending upon its strength, maifests in Space at the point of its fullness. The Law of Attraction states this clearly and it follows that that which is supposed to happen, to manifest in one’s life, will do so while that which is not will not. This is true of people, of things, and of events.

Many are familiar with the old, hoary chain mail, a Reason, a Season or a Lifetime. People are in our lives for periods which correspond to these designations. What is usually not considered in this email is the Space that corresponds to the Time. And, that Space is not always physical space. Many times, it can be cultural space, mental space or spiritual space. As we grow and evolve, people move into and out of our lives depending upon who we are at a specific place in our lives. Our intellectual, philosophical and spiritual belief systems draw others of like mind and inclinations, and we resonate within each other’s spheres of influence and intention, shining like stars as we build and destroy seeking the Knowledge of Eternity.

When those relationships change, or end, it is usually for an excellent reason. One person grows while the other does not. The space which had been shared becomes too small for this growth and both leave it, or one stays. The decision to cultivate non-attachment then becomes an option for the person tending toward the higher planes of existence, an opportunity for one to seek the Greater Love which allows one to continue to feel the same love as before, but in a more expansive and freeing manner that wishes the best for the other person without holding on to them as if they were an anchor in the Sea of Life. Being tossed about in the waves and currents gives rise to fear, which then leads to entrapment within Time, and then attachment. Losing those attachments, then, releases us again, into the buffeting discourse of stimuli and we seek solace from that feeling of being overwhelmed by seeking someone else to attach to, led by the vagaries of want and desire.

We lose the ones we love – in the way we want to love them, at least – without fail, or the relationship changes beyond our desire for that change to occur. Everything changes, that is a constant, while our Ego attempts to keep things the same, and under its control. Our ability to keep up with that change and not hold on to old modes of thought, ways of being and relationships depends upon our ability to cultivate non-attachment and continue moving forward without holding on to what has become memory and regret. To become, truly, dispassionate, requires us to let go of both happiness and sadness. Both extremes create karma and yet it seems unavoidable as we go through the throes of emotional turmoil, convinced that our feelings of happiness are the end all be all of stability, not recognizing that we cannot have happiness without sadness and that both are extremes on a scale that should be balanced, somewhere in between. Becoming world-weary can be the result of living life in the emotional extremes, as mood swings and changes reveal the futility of living in the world, fully immersed in the search for fulfillment, when such fulfillment cannot be found in the finite world of the five senses.

But the deeper currents of that ocean must be explored by each of us individually, as they cannot be described adequately using words. Stillness, movement. Joy, and bright knowing. Beyond the attraction that we experience as a partial fulfillment of worldly love is that Greater Love that fills us to the brim in moments when we flow over, our joy and sadness mixed to become something greater and transcendent. Tears mix with laughter and the sensitivity of the spirit becomes an awareness and an awakened sense of empathy and compassion that makes the slightest emotional experience a possibility to cultivate Oneness.

Becoming immune to desire, ceasing to desire opens space in duality for Oneness to shine through as the Ego steps back, its needs subordinate to the evolution of consciousness. Desire creates separation, the illusion of pain when what one desires becomes lost, an opportunity for the Ego to regain its control. Constantly seeking to remove those opportunities then occurs through mindfulness, being aware of ones flow of thoughts constantly, and working consciously to sublimate them to the flow of moments, staying, constantly, in the Now.