Have you noticed how much media attention 2012 is getting? Last night TV viewers had to choose between a two-hour special on the SyFy channel and a one-hour special on Discovery. On Friday the 13th--fittingly--the new megadisaster movie "2012" will launch, spreading images of famous landmarks crumbling, whole cities swept away by tidal waves and screaming people fleeing while world governments try to save their own leadership. Those who see the film will retain these nightmare images, Hollywood's version of what lies ahead for humanity and the planet, and wonder, "Is it true?"
Where can viewers turn for answers and hope for the future? Unfortunately, most programs about 2012 shed little light on a complex, confusing subject and have less to offer when it comes to how to prepare for what is possible or probable as 2012 approaches. Predictably, they feature several "experts" on the Mayan calendar, an ancient prophecy or two, a few visits to Mayan temples, and a couple of contrarians who dispute the experts' conclusions.
Last night's SyFy special,"2012: Startling New Secrets," did include one extreme form of preparing for what may lie ahead: a survivalist community in Kansas was shown investigating the rehabbing of an old missile silo with the intention of living underground for at least ten years after whatever happens on the surface lays waste to the land. That's not my idea of how to prepare for 2012 and beyond.
When I wrote "Spiritual Wisdom for a Planet in Peril: Preparing for 2012 and Beyond" for the widest possible audience, it was for the purpose of not only informing people but helping them prepare in practical, positive ways for a world in transition. The message above all is about hope and taking responsibility for shifting one's own consciousness away from such projections of fear as the film "2012" projects by strengthening your spiritual connections, envisioning a new way of being, learning to thrive in a new, sustainable economy, creating intentional community, and developing an action plan. When people feel informed and prepared, they move beyond fear and work together for the good of the whole. That is one of the primary lessons we must learn as we approach 2012.
No one knows precisely what will happen when. No one can say for sure that the galactic alignment on the winter solstice of 2012 will produce a burst of solar flares or how they will affect the planet. And neither can anyone say for sure that 2012 is nothing more than the year that comes after 2011. Because everything is interconnected, fear can spread. So can peace and a more hopeful outlook for the future. It is time that we all work to become the change we are seeking and transform the world into a peaceful, sustainable global society.
If you want to be scared, go see the movie "2012". If you want to contribute to a better world, read my book and then co-create the kind of future you want for yourself and the planet.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Peace Begins Within
Every September 21st since 1982, communities around the globe have celebrated the International Day of Peace. Initiated by a United Nations resolution, Peace Day has wrought miracles, even in places that on other days are anything but peaceful. The UN has designated Peace Day as a day of Global Ceasefire in war zones, a time out from conflict and violence.
What possible difference could one day of peace make? Last year in Afghanistan, the UN Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) joined forces during the ceasefire to vaccinate 1.8 million children under the age of 5 against polio. One day without violence gives millions a taste of what life can be like when people intentionally choose to release the energy of war and conflict and celebrate the oneness of the family of humanity.
This year I was in metro Detroit on Peace Day and attended a program put together by One Peace, a local organization that has been organizing these annual events and other peacemaking programs for several years. A high school classmate of mine is a peace activist in the area, and she introduced me to the local leadership. Among them are several active in the Peace Alliance, a grassroots advocacy group promoting a U.S. Department of Peace, envisioned as a cabinet level department whose mission is to pursue peace instead of conflict. The Alliance is gaining ground and attracting support among U.S. policymakers. I admire the work these organizations are doing on a practical level to help promote a secure world in which every global citizen has the responsibility and opportunity to live life without war and major conflict.
And yet, as those of us who have walked our own paths of peacemaking know, peace begins within each of us. Until we learn to accept the “other” as an expression of ourselves, unless we recognize the oneness of all life in this interconnected universe, peace will not happen; it will not stick. Inner peace radiates outward and offers the vibration of acceptance and love as it sets in motion a harmonious, balanced energy flow among humans and with the natural world. When you feel that vibration within, you recognize it—or its absence--in others.
When I was in seminary years ago I took a class on peacemaking that made a profound difference in my own thinking about the nature of peace at all levels of expression. Whatever your religious or spiritual tradition, inner peace that transforms self and world is at its core. The great peacemakers of history were men and women who held within themselves that core of peace, returning to it in times of stress and conflict to continually renew through their essential spiritual connections the harmony that eludes the world.
One of these peacemakers was Jesus, who practiced and taught nonviolent direction action, a technique that surprises those who would pursue conflict with an unexpected response. When Jesus spoke of turning the other cheek, he was not teaching the passive response of a victim in the face of danger and misunderstanding. He demonstrated how to draw upon one’s inner power to confound the violent person, letting him or her experience how the higher vibration of love can overcome the lower ones of fear, anger, and separation.
Even in the face of death, true peacemakers will choose to resist becoming victims and use their considerable inner strength to confront and teach those who perceive them as enemies. It is a power tool for peacemaking in all settings: the family, the workplace, the community, the nation, and the world. Those who have practiced peacemaking using such techniques include in our own time Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Dalai Lama and Mother Theresa.
During my years in the professional ministry I had the opportunity to travel to some of the world’s worst areas of conflict: Bosnia during the war in the ‘90’s, Gaza, Israel and the Middle East, Northern Ireland, and places of riots within our own American cities. Listening to the stories of those whose lives were devastated in the ongoing conflicts and the perceptions of who was to blame was enlightening but discouraging. Until people can move beyond blaming others—which gives away their own power—and accept responsibility for co-creating a peaceful family, community, and world, International Peace Day will remain a day set apart instead of business as usual.
We are coming into a cycle now when conflicts may intensify and flare up before subsiding into the age of peace and harmony wisdom traditions predict. It is up to each of us to learn to go within in meditation, silence, sound, and energy flows to find the place where we are one and from that sense of oneness offer our peace and love to the world.
I’m now helping to co-create an organization, Power of One 10.10.10, that offers everyone an opportunity to experience oneness and to contribute his or her gifts in the service of the whole. By next International Peace Day, we will be less than three weeks from holding a global celebration of our individual Power of One and the power of oneness. Please visit our website, www.powerofone101010.org or my website, www.healingandwisdom.com, to connect with the Power of One community, tell your own stories, and join with us on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. or link with us through the power of the internet on October 10, 2010, to express your Power of One to help bring about inner peace and a more peaceful world for all.
What possible difference could one day of peace make? Last year in Afghanistan, the UN Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) joined forces during the ceasefire to vaccinate 1.8 million children under the age of 5 against polio. One day without violence gives millions a taste of what life can be like when people intentionally choose to release the energy of war and conflict and celebrate the oneness of the family of humanity.
This year I was in metro Detroit on Peace Day and attended a program put together by One Peace, a local organization that has been organizing these annual events and other peacemaking programs for several years. A high school classmate of mine is a peace activist in the area, and she introduced me to the local leadership. Among them are several active in the Peace Alliance, a grassroots advocacy group promoting a U.S. Department of Peace, envisioned as a cabinet level department whose mission is to pursue peace instead of conflict. The Alliance is gaining ground and attracting support among U.S. policymakers. I admire the work these organizations are doing on a practical level to help promote a secure world in which every global citizen has the responsibility and opportunity to live life without war and major conflict.
And yet, as those of us who have walked our own paths of peacemaking know, peace begins within each of us. Until we learn to accept the “other” as an expression of ourselves, unless we recognize the oneness of all life in this interconnected universe, peace will not happen; it will not stick. Inner peace radiates outward and offers the vibration of acceptance and love as it sets in motion a harmonious, balanced energy flow among humans and with the natural world. When you feel that vibration within, you recognize it—or its absence--in others.
When I was in seminary years ago I took a class on peacemaking that made a profound difference in my own thinking about the nature of peace at all levels of expression. Whatever your religious or spiritual tradition, inner peace that transforms self and world is at its core. The great peacemakers of history were men and women who held within themselves that core of peace, returning to it in times of stress and conflict to continually renew through their essential spiritual connections the harmony that eludes the world.
One of these peacemakers was Jesus, who practiced and taught nonviolent direction action, a technique that surprises those who would pursue conflict with an unexpected response. When Jesus spoke of turning the other cheek, he was not teaching the passive response of a victim in the face of danger and misunderstanding. He demonstrated how to draw upon one’s inner power to confound the violent person, letting him or her experience how the higher vibration of love can overcome the lower ones of fear, anger, and separation.
Even in the face of death, true peacemakers will choose to resist becoming victims and use their considerable inner strength to confront and teach those who perceive them as enemies. It is a power tool for peacemaking in all settings: the family, the workplace, the community, the nation, and the world. Those who have practiced peacemaking using such techniques include in our own time Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Dalai Lama and Mother Theresa.
During my years in the professional ministry I had the opportunity to travel to some of the world’s worst areas of conflict: Bosnia during the war in the ‘90’s, Gaza, Israel and the Middle East, Northern Ireland, and places of riots within our own American cities. Listening to the stories of those whose lives were devastated in the ongoing conflicts and the perceptions of who was to blame was enlightening but discouraging. Until people can move beyond blaming others—which gives away their own power—and accept responsibility for co-creating a peaceful family, community, and world, International Peace Day will remain a day set apart instead of business as usual.
We are coming into a cycle now when conflicts may intensify and flare up before subsiding into the age of peace and harmony wisdom traditions predict. It is up to each of us to learn to go within in meditation, silence, sound, and energy flows to find the place where we are one and from that sense of oneness offer our peace and love to the world.
I’m now helping to co-create an organization, Power of One 10.10.10, that offers everyone an opportunity to experience oneness and to contribute his or her gifts in the service of the whole. By next International Peace Day, we will be less than three weeks from holding a global celebration of our individual Power of One and the power of oneness. Please visit our website, www.powerofone101010.org or my website, www.healingandwisdom.com, to connect with the Power of One community, tell your own stories, and join with us on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. or link with us through the power of the internet on October 10, 2010, to express your Power of One to help bring about inner peace and a more peaceful world for all.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
New Sign of the Times: Erupting Anger Triggers Division, Not Solutions to Common Challenges
In yesterday’s USA Today, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) was quoted as saying, “There is more anger in America today than at any time I can remember.” The context was a harrowing town hall meeting Specter held on the administration’s health care plan. One gun-toting New Hampshire man showed up at President Obama’s town hall gathering insisting on his legal right to bear arms.
Many of those angriest at the proposed health care reforms have been fed misinformation to fuel their dissent. Ironically, as the more conservative in the mix call for a return to the constitutional principles of individual rights and freedoms, those who push for reform hold up communal values of justice and equality for all, reflecting two sets of perspectives based on the same constitution.
As Ken Burns suggested in his 1994 documentary on baseball, our national pastime is an indicator of mass consciousness. On the same day that anger exploded at the town hall meetings, it exploded on the baseball diamond. As I watched my favorite team, the Detroit Tigers, play the Boston Red Sox, young Tigers’ pitcher Rick Porcello hit the Red Sox’ Kevin Youkilis with a pitch. Youkilis, believing the pitch was intentional, charged the mound, and the two tussled to the ground. Anger broke out on the field, as the two teams gathered around them. It was in the air that day, picked up and acted out by citizens and players under stress. Reactive stress is a condition that occurs when suppressed anger erupts and strikes the nearest target, as in road rage.
Watch for it now as a sign of the times, this explosive anger out of proportion to the events that trigger it. Anger is not an easy emotion to manage. Anger turned inward, women have learned, leads to depression. Turned outward, anger can contribute to systemic breakdown of social order. This is what is happening now. We are witnessing the crumbling of old hierarchical systems of government, education, religion, corporations, and now health care as a necessary part of the transformation of consciousness we are experiencing on the path to 2012 and beyond. Communal anger, a resonance of rage, may be speeding up social change, although, ironically, fear of change is a primary cause of the anger.
Even though this nation elected as its president last fall the man with the greatest capacity to bring people together and heal what divides us since Abraham Lincoln, anger seethes beneath the surface. Action of any kind is a release, yet rarely does it produce wise solutions to common problems.
As a spiritual healer, I have found that energy healing can assist people in converting anger to more positive emotions, as their energy fields are rebalanced for inner peace and harmony. People calm down and become able to use their innate wisdom and natural intelligence to handle situations. We need more of this kind of healing now!
In my book "Spiritual Wisdom for a Planet in Peril: Preparing for 2012 and Beyond”, I pointed out that the worst case scenario on the path to the transformation of Planet Earth that is underway would be for those ruled by low vibration energies like fear and anger to gain control and cause the balance of power to shift toward chaos and anarchy. With these vibrations weighing down the atmosphere around us, there’s a very real danger right now of this phenomenon happening. The kind of explosive anger we are witnessing is also reflected in the natural environment, as earthquake and volcanic activity increases. More severe earth-changes may lie ahead, with angry outbursts a leading indicator of and possibly even a contributor to an unstable planet.
While the old order needs to change to make way for the higher consciousness future many envision, if humanity persists in its path toward division rather than unity, acting out in anger, we may miss out on the cosmic momentum moving us toward an age of peace and harmony on an Earth that offers abundance for all.
It’s time to look at the smoldering anger within ourselves, our culture, and our human race, and convert it to positive action to find solutions to the significant environmental, economic, and social challenges we face. The way through 2012 and beyond, as I said in the book, is together, not separated.
A new initiative I helped found, Power of One 10.10.10 (www.powerofone101010.org), is working to unite people in celebrating our oneness and the power of each and all of us to transform the world in positive ways. Join with us in this exciting new venture to move beyond the anger and fear that divide us to co-create positive solutions to the environmental, economic, social and spiritual challenges we face. Claiming individual and communal power for the higher good of all is the path we must take now.
Many of those angriest at the proposed health care reforms have been fed misinformation to fuel their dissent. Ironically, as the more conservative in the mix call for a return to the constitutional principles of individual rights and freedoms, those who push for reform hold up communal values of justice and equality for all, reflecting two sets of perspectives based on the same constitution.
As Ken Burns suggested in his 1994 documentary on baseball, our national pastime is an indicator of mass consciousness. On the same day that anger exploded at the town hall meetings, it exploded on the baseball diamond. As I watched my favorite team, the Detroit Tigers, play the Boston Red Sox, young Tigers’ pitcher Rick Porcello hit the Red Sox’ Kevin Youkilis with a pitch. Youkilis, believing the pitch was intentional, charged the mound, and the two tussled to the ground. Anger broke out on the field, as the two teams gathered around them. It was in the air that day, picked up and acted out by citizens and players under stress. Reactive stress is a condition that occurs when suppressed anger erupts and strikes the nearest target, as in road rage.
Watch for it now as a sign of the times, this explosive anger out of proportion to the events that trigger it. Anger is not an easy emotion to manage. Anger turned inward, women have learned, leads to depression. Turned outward, anger can contribute to systemic breakdown of social order. This is what is happening now. We are witnessing the crumbling of old hierarchical systems of government, education, religion, corporations, and now health care as a necessary part of the transformation of consciousness we are experiencing on the path to 2012 and beyond. Communal anger, a resonance of rage, may be speeding up social change, although, ironically, fear of change is a primary cause of the anger.
Even though this nation elected as its president last fall the man with the greatest capacity to bring people together and heal what divides us since Abraham Lincoln, anger seethes beneath the surface. Action of any kind is a release, yet rarely does it produce wise solutions to common problems.
As a spiritual healer, I have found that energy healing can assist people in converting anger to more positive emotions, as their energy fields are rebalanced for inner peace and harmony. People calm down and become able to use their innate wisdom and natural intelligence to handle situations. We need more of this kind of healing now!
In my book "Spiritual Wisdom for a Planet in Peril: Preparing for 2012 and Beyond”, I pointed out that the worst case scenario on the path to the transformation of Planet Earth that is underway would be for those ruled by low vibration energies like fear and anger to gain control and cause the balance of power to shift toward chaos and anarchy. With these vibrations weighing down the atmosphere around us, there’s a very real danger right now of this phenomenon happening. The kind of explosive anger we are witnessing is also reflected in the natural environment, as earthquake and volcanic activity increases. More severe earth-changes may lie ahead, with angry outbursts a leading indicator of and possibly even a contributor to an unstable planet.
While the old order needs to change to make way for the higher consciousness future many envision, if humanity persists in its path toward division rather than unity, acting out in anger, we may miss out on the cosmic momentum moving us toward an age of peace and harmony on an Earth that offers abundance for all.
It’s time to look at the smoldering anger within ourselves, our culture, and our human race, and convert it to positive action to find solutions to the significant environmental, economic, and social challenges we face. The way through 2012 and beyond, as I said in the book, is together, not separated.
A new initiative I helped found, Power of One 10.10.10 (www.powerofone101010.org), is working to unite people in celebrating our oneness and the power of each and all of us to transform the world in positive ways. Join with us in this exciting new venture to move beyond the anger and fear that divide us to co-create positive solutions to the environmental, economic, social and spiritual challenges we face. Claiming individual and communal power for the higher good of all is the path we must take now.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Celebrating the Summer Solstice on the Path to 2012
As the Winter Solstice of 2012 fast approaches, marking a time of great transition for humanity and our planet, each turn of the cosmic wheel becomes more significant. The summer and winter solstices, along with the spring and fall equinoxes, have been occasions for celebrations and rituals for thousands of years. The ancients looked to the heavens with awe and gratitude for the gifts of each season and built cosmic calendars on the Earth to mark the movements of the heavenly bodies. They were aware of early or late signs of spring to know when to plant their crops and noticed the changing angles of light as summer lengthened their shadows. They lived in harmony with the rhythms of the universe.
In the last century, as populations have become more urban than rural, many of us have lost our conscious connection to the natural world. We may note the change of seasons--warmer or cooler weather, longer days or nights--but have largely forgotten the significance of the Earth’s annual journey around the sun as it tilts on its axis.
This yearly orbit is linked with much larger cosmic movements, as Earth moves counterclockwise through the twelve signs of the Zodiac, each about 2160 years, and completes what is called the Precession of the Equinoxes about every 25, 950 years. All of these cycles, as well as the shorter lunar and solar cycles, were known to the ancients. The Mayan calendar gives evidence of this, and many monuments around the Earth similarly indicate that the movements of the heavens were well observed.
According to interpreters of the Mayan calendar’s long count, December 21, 2012 is the date when all of these cycles--short and long--complete, as Earth and Sun align with the dark rift at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Some plausibly argue for other dates, but the Winter Solstice of 2012 (Summer in the Southern Hemisphere) is now part of the collective consciousness of our time, as media focus on this date builds.
What precisely will happen then no one knows, but speculation ranges from Doomsday scenarios to the ushering in of the Aquarian Age of enlightenment and peace, with all species including the human living sustainably on the Earth. I am firmly in the latter camp, as those who have read my book, Spiritual Wisdom for a Planet in Peril: Preparing for 2012 and Beyond,” are aware. Our task is to bring about the most positive outcomes for ourselves and our planet.
The Summer Solstice on June 21 offered an opportunity to reconnect with the natural rhythms of Earth and to celebrate the time when the sun at its zenith appears to stand still in the heavens. Now light wins out once more over darkness, as the longest day of the year marks the beginning of summer. From this day forward to the December solstice, daylight diminishes again until darkness settles in and winter pulls us inward.
Summer is an expansive time, when all things seem possible. Now through the autumn equinox on September 21 is a time of great abundance, as Earth nourishes her species through growing plants, plentiful waters, and new generations of animals, birds, and insects. Our home garden produces a rich bounty of lettuces, tomatoes, squash, beans, and herbs, offering us fresh, nutritious meals through September. Last year one of our pumpkins, harvested in July, lived on our front porch through January, before the frost turned it rotten. Mocking birds nest in our yard, large bumblebees buzz around our purple ice plants, and the butterfly bushes in our side yard attract many beautiful species. Wild blackberries turn ripe and disappear quickly as the local deer population gobbles them up. Visual and edible symbols of Earth’s abundance are one of the great joys of summer.
Since ancient times, people have celebrated the Summer Solstice as the victory of light over darkness. Monuments like England’s Stonehenge are gigantic calendars marking the Earth’s turning toward the light and have become sites of annual festivals to give thanks to the Divine for the life-giving sun.
On a number of occasions, I have traveled to power points and sacred sites on the planet to participate in solstice or equinox celebrations: Stonehenge, Chitchen Itza in Mayan Mexico, Egypt’s Giza Plateau, Ireland’s Newgrange, and Chaco Canyon in New Mexico among them. In these and other locations, ancient astronomers and priests left solid evidence in stone of the path of the sun’s seasonal alignments so that their communities could anticipate and benefit from this knowledge. Ancient gods were worshipped as bringers and sustainers of life.
Now science confirms what spiritual people have always known intuitively: the interconnected web of life throughout the universe that flourishes, dies, and is reborn in new forms and patterns, as the process of creation continues to unfold throughout time. The evolution of human consciousness that 2012 is about is one significant culmination of a more than 16 billion year old cosmic process, and those alive today may experience this shift.
On last year’s summer solstice, I joined an annual ceremony in northern Michigan led by several generations of Ojibway women at the site of petroglyphs sacred to their people. The women hauled water in purifying copper buckets from a nearby stream to cleanse the large rock on which the ancient messages were written for our own time. Barefoot, grandmothers and their daughters and granddaughters scrubbed the rock with brooms, then offered a traditional feast representing Earth’s bounty to guests. It was a wonderful way to honor Mother Earth and ancestral wisdom.
This year I had intended to join a group of spiritual energy healers at another ancient sacred site, the Serpent Mounds of Ohio, to ground and amplify healing energy through the site, connecting with the Earth’s grids to bring a higher dimension of healing and harmony to the planet. Instead, I stayed home to be with visiting family. However, through the power of the internet, you don’t have to travel around the globe to join in a summer solstice celebration. At 8 p.m. EDT on June 21, I tuned into the Concert for the Living Water at www.liveh2o.org and joined millions around the world in sending love and healing through thought, intention, and chanting to the Earth’s oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams. I concentrated especially on the Great Lakes because of their importance and my own spiritual connection to these great bodies of water.
Feeling very aligned with the intention of this experimental gathering held around the planet and virtually through the internet, I was grateful to be able to contribute through this medium to cleansing and healing the waters. We know from the work of Japanese scientist Dr. Emoto, who was involved in this project, as well as from the science of energy healing, that water holds memory and vibration. As humans and invasive species have polluted the life-giving waters on which all life depends, their healthy vibrations have shifted and diminished. Through our collective intention, we can change that, and this concert held, appropriately, on the summer solstice was a way to focus and amplify our energy through the sound frequency of love. As the www.h2o.org website states, “love is the universal healer and water the universal solvent.” Bringing these together with amplified power can cleanse and heal us all.
The Concert for the Living Water is a great example of what is possible when each of us joins with others as one voice to raise the vibration of the planet and contribute to the transformation of consciousness that will bring about an era of peace and harmony on Earth. It was especially appropriate that it should happen on the most enlightened day of the year.
In the last century, as populations have become more urban than rural, many of us have lost our conscious connection to the natural world. We may note the change of seasons--warmer or cooler weather, longer days or nights--but have largely forgotten the significance of the Earth’s annual journey around the sun as it tilts on its axis.
This yearly orbit is linked with much larger cosmic movements, as Earth moves counterclockwise through the twelve signs of the Zodiac, each about 2160 years, and completes what is called the Precession of the Equinoxes about every 25, 950 years. All of these cycles, as well as the shorter lunar and solar cycles, were known to the ancients. The Mayan calendar gives evidence of this, and many monuments around the Earth similarly indicate that the movements of the heavens were well observed.
According to interpreters of the Mayan calendar’s long count, December 21, 2012 is the date when all of these cycles--short and long--complete, as Earth and Sun align with the dark rift at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Some plausibly argue for other dates, but the Winter Solstice of 2012 (Summer in the Southern Hemisphere) is now part of the collective consciousness of our time, as media focus on this date builds.
What precisely will happen then no one knows, but speculation ranges from Doomsday scenarios to the ushering in of the Aquarian Age of enlightenment and peace, with all species including the human living sustainably on the Earth. I am firmly in the latter camp, as those who have read my book, Spiritual Wisdom for a Planet in Peril: Preparing for 2012 and Beyond,” are aware. Our task is to bring about the most positive outcomes for ourselves and our planet.
The Summer Solstice on June 21 offered an opportunity to reconnect with the natural rhythms of Earth and to celebrate the time when the sun at its zenith appears to stand still in the heavens. Now light wins out once more over darkness, as the longest day of the year marks the beginning of summer. From this day forward to the December solstice, daylight diminishes again until darkness settles in and winter pulls us inward.
Summer is an expansive time, when all things seem possible. Now through the autumn equinox on September 21 is a time of great abundance, as Earth nourishes her species through growing plants, plentiful waters, and new generations of animals, birds, and insects. Our home garden produces a rich bounty of lettuces, tomatoes, squash, beans, and herbs, offering us fresh, nutritious meals through September. Last year one of our pumpkins, harvested in July, lived on our front porch through January, before the frost turned it rotten. Mocking birds nest in our yard, large bumblebees buzz around our purple ice plants, and the butterfly bushes in our side yard attract many beautiful species. Wild blackberries turn ripe and disappear quickly as the local deer population gobbles them up. Visual and edible symbols of Earth’s abundance are one of the great joys of summer.
Since ancient times, people have celebrated the Summer Solstice as the victory of light over darkness. Monuments like England’s Stonehenge are gigantic calendars marking the Earth’s turning toward the light and have become sites of annual festivals to give thanks to the Divine for the life-giving sun.
On a number of occasions, I have traveled to power points and sacred sites on the planet to participate in solstice or equinox celebrations: Stonehenge, Chitchen Itza in Mayan Mexico, Egypt’s Giza Plateau, Ireland’s Newgrange, and Chaco Canyon in New Mexico among them. In these and other locations, ancient astronomers and priests left solid evidence in stone of the path of the sun’s seasonal alignments so that their communities could anticipate and benefit from this knowledge. Ancient gods were worshipped as bringers and sustainers of life.
Now science confirms what spiritual people have always known intuitively: the interconnected web of life throughout the universe that flourishes, dies, and is reborn in new forms and patterns, as the process of creation continues to unfold throughout time. The evolution of human consciousness that 2012 is about is one significant culmination of a more than 16 billion year old cosmic process, and those alive today may experience this shift.
On last year’s summer solstice, I joined an annual ceremony in northern Michigan led by several generations of Ojibway women at the site of petroglyphs sacred to their people. The women hauled water in purifying copper buckets from a nearby stream to cleanse the large rock on which the ancient messages were written for our own time. Barefoot, grandmothers and their daughters and granddaughters scrubbed the rock with brooms, then offered a traditional feast representing Earth’s bounty to guests. It was a wonderful way to honor Mother Earth and ancestral wisdom.
This year I had intended to join a group of spiritual energy healers at another ancient sacred site, the Serpent Mounds of Ohio, to ground and amplify healing energy through the site, connecting with the Earth’s grids to bring a higher dimension of healing and harmony to the planet. Instead, I stayed home to be with visiting family. However, through the power of the internet, you don’t have to travel around the globe to join in a summer solstice celebration. At 8 p.m. EDT on June 21, I tuned into the Concert for the Living Water at www.liveh2o.org and joined millions around the world in sending love and healing through thought, intention, and chanting to the Earth’s oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams. I concentrated especially on the Great Lakes because of their importance and my own spiritual connection to these great bodies of water.
Feeling very aligned with the intention of this experimental gathering held around the planet and virtually through the internet, I was grateful to be able to contribute through this medium to cleansing and healing the waters. We know from the work of Japanese scientist Dr. Emoto, who was involved in this project, as well as from the science of energy healing, that water holds memory and vibration. As humans and invasive species have polluted the life-giving waters on which all life depends, their healthy vibrations have shifted and diminished. Through our collective intention, we can change that, and this concert held, appropriately, on the summer solstice was a way to focus and amplify our energy through the sound frequency of love. As the www.h2o.org website states, “love is the universal healer and water the universal solvent.” Bringing these together with amplified power can cleanse and heal us all.
The Concert for the Living Water is a great example of what is possible when each of us joins with others as one voice to raise the vibration of the planet and contribute to the transformation of consciousness that will bring about an era of peace and harmony on Earth. It was especially appropriate that it should happen on the most enlightened day of the year.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Swine Flu: Pandemic or Lesson on Releasing Fear?
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
In recent weeks I've had the opportunity to speak to hundreds of people in person and through radio interviews and teleconferences about 2012: what may be coming in the way of earth shifts and human-caused changes and how to prepare for the most probable outcomes, while envisioning a new way of being in a transformed world and beginning to live out that vision now.
The question that keeps coming up is this: what do we need to know and do now to make it through the coming shift and transition to a higher consciousness?
The first part of the answer is, emphatically, not to go into fear. Fear is a lower-vibration energy that can spread as quickly as a pandemic and cause as much damage energetically. Since 2001, we've gotten so used to fear-based interpretations of the world through media, politics, and conspiracy theories that we either panic at the first sign of trouble, giving energy to the worst case outcomes, or sink into denial, ignoring the signs of the times that tell us the world is transforming in many ways at once.
Giving in to fear clouds our judgment and vision, snatching away our sense of security and control of our own lives. It also saps our ability to choose to participate in bringing about the best possible outcome for the highest good of all life on this planet.
Witness the so-called swine flu pandemic. Conspiracy theorists tell us the swine flu virus was concocted in secret labs and released on the public by dark forces hoping to kill off millions of excess humans on this planet or just to create massive panic. The Egyptian government ordered that country's 300,000 pig population slaughtered out of sheer ignorance and fear, which it multiplied exponentially with this worst possible response to a perceived threat. Even the National Institutes of Health, by recommending that school systems with possible cases close down for days or weeks until the virus is contained, amped up the fear by giving it probable cause and threw a wrench into the end of school year plans of hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, and parents left without child care options. Individuals who can afford to get Tamiflu prescriptions from their doctors are doing so to protect themselves. Spiritual healers are recommending natural products like essential oils to ward off the virus and restore the physical and energy bodies to full health.
It seems that each institution or individual is demonstrating its own level of consciousness in its reaction to this virus.
What is the truth about swine flu? Is the threat overblown, considering the number of cases worldwide? It appears so. And yet, as I point out in "Spiritual Wisdom for a Planet in Peril: Preparing for 2012 and Beyond," pandemics are one kind of natural- or human-caused disaster we may experience in this time of great change for which we can prepare on both physical and energetic levels.
While science works on understanding the virus and and governments on containing it, we, from a higher consciousness perspective, can deal with swine flu and other potential disasters by recognizing that through directing positive intention and energy to the threat we can influence the outcome. By consciously choosing not to participate in fear but rather to surround the virus, the people and animals touched by it, and the medicines and personnel prepared to counteract it with the energy of love, we can help convert a potential disaster into a soft landing. The more of us who practice sending the high vibration of universal love into the world in place of the lower vibration of fear, the less likely a potential disaster is to become a real one.
This is a huge lesson to be learned as we move forward through this cosmic shift marked by 2012. Knowing how to heal the body, mind, and spirit is essential. Choosing not to participate in fear and to offer love in its place will make all the difference.
In recent weeks I've had the opportunity to speak to hundreds of people in person and through radio interviews and teleconferences about 2012: what may be coming in the way of earth shifts and human-caused changes and how to prepare for the most probable outcomes, while envisioning a new way of being in a transformed world and beginning to live out that vision now.
The question that keeps coming up is this: what do we need to know and do now to make it through the coming shift and transition to a higher consciousness?
The first part of the answer is, emphatically, not to go into fear. Fear is a lower-vibration energy that can spread as quickly as a pandemic and cause as much damage energetically. Since 2001, we've gotten so used to fear-based interpretations of the world through media, politics, and conspiracy theories that we either panic at the first sign of trouble, giving energy to the worst case outcomes, or sink into denial, ignoring the signs of the times that tell us the world is transforming in many ways at once.
Giving in to fear clouds our judgment and vision, snatching away our sense of security and control of our own lives. It also saps our ability to choose to participate in bringing about the best possible outcome for the highest good of all life on this planet.
Witness the so-called swine flu pandemic. Conspiracy theorists tell us the swine flu virus was concocted in secret labs and released on the public by dark forces hoping to kill off millions of excess humans on this planet or just to create massive panic. The Egyptian government ordered that country's 300,000 pig population slaughtered out of sheer ignorance and fear, which it multiplied exponentially with this worst possible response to a perceived threat. Even the National Institutes of Health, by recommending that school systems with possible cases close down for days or weeks until the virus is contained, amped up the fear by giving it probable cause and threw a wrench into the end of school year plans of hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, and parents left without child care options. Individuals who can afford to get Tamiflu prescriptions from their doctors are doing so to protect themselves. Spiritual healers are recommending natural products like essential oils to ward off the virus and restore the physical and energy bodies to full health.
It seems that each institution or individual is demonstrating its own level of consciousness in its reaction to this virus.
What is the truth about swine flu? Is the threat overblown, considering the number of cases worldwide? It appears so. And yet, as I point out in "Spiritual Wisdom for a Planet in Peril: Preparing for 2012 and Beyond," pandemics are one kind of natural- or human-caused disaster we may experience in this time of great change for which we can prepare on both physical and energetic levels.
While science works on understanding the virus and and governments on containing it, we, from a higher consciousness perspective, can deal with swine flu and other potential disasters by recognizing that through directing positive intention and energy to the threat we can influence the outcome. By consciously choosing not to participate in fear but rather to surround the virus, the people and animals touched by it, and the medicines and personnel prepared to counteract it with the energy of love, we can help convert a potential disaster into a soft landing. The more of us who practice sending the high vibration of universal love into the world in place of the lower vibration of fear, the less likely a potential disaster is to become a real one.
This is a huge lesson to be learned as we move forward through this cosmic shift marked by 2012. Knowing how to heal the body, mind, and spirit is essential. Choosing not to participate in fear and to offer love in its place will make all the difference.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Home Gardening Evidence of Consciousness Shift
As the vernal equinox on March 20 approaches, a time when darkness and light are in balance, the natural order gives visible signs of rebirth. Birds build nests, flowering trees begin to bud, and streams swell with snow-melt. If we look closely, we will also find signs that the Great Shift in consciousness I wrote about in Spiritual Wisdom for a Planet in Peril: Preparing for 2012 and Beyond is well underway, balancing light against the darkness of war, conflict, and financial collapse.
One positive sign is the increase in home gardening. Just this morning a news article confirmed that more of us are planting gardens to grow our own produce. Burpee Seeds, one of the largest seed companies, is experiencing an unprecedented surge in demand. People have figured out that growing their own vegetables and fruit can not only save substantial money but also provide them with nutritious food and valuable lessons about connecting with the Earth and her cycles.
My husband recently found his sixth-grade report on Victory Gardens, illustrating the importance of home gardening during World War II that provided up to 40% of the nation's fresh produce. We can do so again and enjoy gardening as a family and community activity.
In my hometown, Detroit, urban blight is being transformed into community gardens. Young people work in the dirt on vacant lots and see the results, renewing their bonds with Mother Nature. Neighbors work together and share the produce. Everyone benefits. This is the new consciousness in action.
Last week my husband and son roto-tilled our garden area, adding home-grown compost to enrich the soil. We've already had our annual garden planning meeting with our neighbors and will go together to the local garden supply store this weekend to pick out plants and seeds and begin by planting those that can take hold in an early North Carolina spring. Remembering the lucious tomatoes, zucchini, pesto made from fresh basil, and Arugula last year's garden yielded makes us eager to get started. Although the local deer ate most of our young blueberry plants, we'll try again. We don't mind sharing with the deer. They are part of our ecosystem, and our home took part of their habitat. We enjoy seeing them thrive on the local plant life also.
If you can create a garden where you live, by all means do so. Get your neighbors together to help. Apartment dwellers can start seeds or seedlings inside, then transfer to patios or balconies. Ask your landlords and condo associations for a community garden plot. This kind of contact with the Earth's cycles and bounty truly is life-giving and enlightening, and returning us to a healthy relationship with the natural environment is part of the Great Shift.
One positive sign is the increase in home gardening. Just this morning a news article confirmed that more of us are planting gardens to grow our own produce. Burpee Seeds, one of the largest seed companies, is experiencing an unprecedented surge in demand. People have figured out that growing their own vegetables and fruit can not only save substantial money but also provide them with nutritious food and valuable lessons about connecting with the Earth and her cycles.
My husband recently found his sixth-grade report on Victory Gardens, illustrating the importance of home gardening during World War II that provided up to 40% of the nation's fresh produce. We can do so again and enjoy gardening as a family and community activity.
In my hometown, Detroit, urban blight is being transformed into community gardens. Young people work in the dirt on vacant lots and see the results, renewing their bonds with Mother Nature. Neighbors work together and share the produce. Everyone benefits. This is the new consciousness in action.
Last week my husband and son roto-tilled our garden area, adding home-grown compost to enrich the soil. We've already had our annual garden planning meeting with our neighbors and will go together to the local garden supply store this weekend to pick out plants and seeds and begin by planting those that can take hold in an early North Carolina spring. Remembering the lucious tomatoes, zucchini, pesto made from fresh basil, and Arugula last year's garden yielded makes us eager to get started. Although the local deer ate most of our young blueberry plants, we'll try again. We don't mind sharing with the deer. They are part of our ecosystem, and our home took part of their habitat. We enjoy seeing them thrive on the local plant life also.
If you can create a garden where you live, by all means do so. Get your neighbors together to help. Apartment dwellers can start seeds or seedlings inside, then transfer to patios or balconies. Ask your landlords and condo associations for a community garden plot. This kind of contact with the Earth's cycles and bounty truly is life-giving and enlightening, and returning us to a healthy relationship with the natural environment is part of the Great Shift.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Thrive in a New Economy That Works for All
Worried about surviving the financial collapse? Concerned about making a living in turbulent times? Here are four ways to bypass a dysfunctional economy: revive the barter system, trade locally, create micro-businesses, and develop self-sustaining communities.
As the economic turndown worsens daily, business as usual is not a viable option. Rather than attempting to fix a broken system based on greed and excess, it's time to create a new, sustainable system that works for everyone and is earth-friendly.
A cashless economy in which buyers and sellers together determine the value of the products and services exchanged will make a comeback. The new system will be based on relationships and shared values so that the planet and its interdependent inhabitants may survive. Brokers of barter services will do well in the new economy, as they connect and expand markets for their customers.
Local currencies, already in use, could replace a collapsed U.S. and global currency. A step beyond the barter system, local bucks create a recognized medium of exchange.
As big businesses depart from communities that can't sustain their bottom lines, people will support their local merchants through the downturn so that essential goods and services will continue. Shedding the unnecessary is a part of the new, sustainable lifestyle.
Creativity will be valued in the new economy, with thousands of micro-businesses forming as inspiration and an entrepreneurial spirit join to offer value for a minimal investment of capital. Local lenders will step forward to support such cost-effective endeavors, just as they have in third-world countries like Bangladesh.
Having lost confidence in big banking, community associations are forming to offer loans to their neighbors with reasonable terms that benefit everyone. Other communal efforts to ensure mutual survival and access to the means to own a home and make a living are likely to emerge in the next few years. Grassroots economies will flourish, and businesses will do well by treating their customers as friends.
Community enterprises will be the hallmark of the new economy. Co-housing and community gardens are making a comeback, as generations move in together and neighbors create common areas. The concept of each household owning its own lawnmower will seem archaic, as tools are shared to save valuable resources.
Public transportation will improve in response to demand, and neighbors will carpool for shopping, work, and school. Group home schooling will thrive, as public systems collapse under the weight of crumbling facilities and budgets. In general, people will stay closer to home and adopt simpler lifestyles offering less stressful, more enjoyable lives.
As the world is transformed by crisis, a consciousness shift will cause people to recognize their interdependence and pull together to create new ways not only to survive but thrive in a new economy and a new era of sustainable living.
As the economic turndown worsens daily, business as usual is not a viable option. Rather than attempting to fix a broken system based on greed and excess, it's time to create a new, sustainable system that works for everyone and is earth-friendly.
A cashless economy in which buyers and sellers together determine the value of the products and services exchanged will make a comeback. The new system will be based on relationships and shared values so that the planet and its interdependent inhabitants may survive. Brokers of barter services will do well in the new economy, as they connect and expand markets for their customers.
Local currencies, already in use, could replace a collapsed U.S. and global currency. A step beyond the barter system, local bucks create a recognized medium of exchange.
As big businesses depart from communities that can't sustain their bottom lines, people will support their local merchants through the downturn so that essential goods and services will continue. Shedding the unnecessary is a part of the new, sustainable lifestyle.
Creativity will be valued in the new economy, with thousands of micro-businesses forming as inspiration and an entrepreneurial spirit join to offer value for a minimal investment of capital. Local lenders will step forward to support such cost-effective endeavors, just as they have in third-world countries like Bangladesh.
Having lost confidence in big banking, community associations are forming to offer loans to their neighbors with reasonable terms that benefit everyone. Other communal efforts to ensure mutual survival and access to the means to own a home and make a living are likely to emerge in the next few years. Grassroots economies will flourish, and businesses will do well by treating their customers as friends.
Community enterprises will be the hallmark of the new economy. Co-housing and community gardens are making a comeback, as generations move in together and neighbors create common areas. The concept of each household owning its own lawnmower will seem archaic, as tools are shared to save valuable resources.
Public transportation will improve in response to demand, and neighbors will carpool for shopping, work, and school. Group home schooling will thrive, as public systems collapse under the weight of crumbling facilities and budgets. In general, people will stay closer to home and adopt simpler lifestyles offering less stressful, more enjoyable lives.
As the world is transformed by crisis, a consciousness shift will cause people to recognize their interdependence and pull together to create new ways not only to survive but thrive in a new economy and a new era of sustainable living.
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