How many times have you said, “If only I could go back and do __________ again”?  Well, the thing is, if you could go back and do it again, you would do it exactly the way that you did it.  The only way that you could have done it differently would have been if you had advance knowledge of the outcome.  Since we are not given advance notice of the outcomes of our decisions, we make the only appropriate decision or choice.

When we are babies, we make our decisions based upon our natures.  Do I take that?  Do I try this?  Do I stick this thing in my mouth?  Our inner natures are as unique to us as our fingerprints, or a zebra’s stripes.  Then, we make our next tier of decisions based upon the outcomes of the last.  Did it hurt?  Did it incur disapproval?  Did it taste like #$%^?  The outcomes of those natural impulses guide our next level of choices. 

Later, as children, we begin to make choices according to our natural instincts, tempered by the outcome of our prior choices and now, further tempered by the norms established in our home environment.  Steps, one step leading to the next, and to the next, and so on, always following a natural order.

Then, we go to school and encounter peers.  They add a new layer to our decision making process.  Any decisions that we make at that time, are based upon the progression of each of the previous steps.  Each of those steps colors our perception of the world of choices and decisions that we face each day.  And each step adds a tint to the world that we perceive. 

I don’t know where it came from, but, as far back as I can remember I felt an overwhelming sense of duty and responsibility.  As a child, I was to ‘good’ one.  This was not the one that I wanted to be.  Clearly, I envied the ‘bad’ ones, they had so much more fun.  But I felt compelled to be good.  And it was a thankless choice.  I was like the brother who stayed home and did his chores while the Prodigal Son had a ball, blew his inheritance and then was thrown a party for coming home broke (that one was my sister). 

After escaping my Cinderella childhood, my mother and my grandmother both lost their ability to walk and so, I bought a house and moved them in.  One day I was complaining about how horrible it was reliving my childhood in spades, at 33 years old my friend said to me, “Well, it was your choice!”  Never for one minute, during the entire process of inviting them to live with me, did I consider it to be a choice.  For me, for who I was and my perception of the world, it was not a choice it was what I had to do. 

Now, I could say that if I had it to do over again, I would have done it differently.  But that is not true.  There are only two possible ways that I would have made a different choice.  One way would have been if I had known how badly it was going to turn out.  The other, would have been had I been born someone else, and raised by other people.  I made no choice.

You see as much as we believe that we make choices, in retrospect, it has to be clear that we do not.  Whether we know it or not, we are doing what is the only clear thing to do based upon our perception of the issue.  It is just like voting.  We choose to vote for a candidate who best represents what we perceive as the right things.  Humans do not make choices.  We take the next logical step based upon who we are and the life that we have lived.  If we had it to do all over again, with no future insight and no additional input from some new sources, we would do it all over again in exactly the same way that we did it the first time.

This means, that we act in accordance with who we are, and what we believe is the best way to act within the options that we perceive available.  We never make the wrong choice, we never make a mistake, we act, at all times, appropriately.  We make our decisions in a manner that is completely consistent and appropriate.   If a fiction writer is good, he or she will develop a character that is complete enough, that we believe his choices and can foresee the direction that he will take.  A good writer will give a character believability – which means that his or her actions will be consistent with that character.  This means, that in real life, unless we are crazy, our decisions will also follow a consistent path, a path that is true to who we are and how we have incorporated the outcomes of prior actions into ourselves.

Understanding this, understanding that I will always follow a path that is true to who I am, and where I believe that I fit in my perceived world, means, that I do not make choices.  I do not make mistakes, my actions reflect who I am and what I see – through the eyes of who I am.  Today, I would not make all of the choices that I made yesterday – only – because I know how they all turned out, only – because the way that they turned out has given me new experiences from which to draw and grow into who I am today. 

So, don’t buy into failure, don’t buy into mistakes.  Believe, that each step appears before us to lead us to the next – no errors – no missteps – only lessons.  The outcome of each step is  not the result of our choices but the next step that Spirit places before us.

It would be very easy to say that based upon the nature of man as he has shown himself throughout history, the only destination is self-destruction.   We are in an escalated time of war, hatred, greed, and all of the things that spell disaster. 

I see things symbolically.  When I was working for the man who would later become my partner, for a business in New York, I remember walking down the halls feeling as though the file cabinets on either side of the hallway were falling in on me.  I felt the same urgency as Chicken Little in the story saying “The sky is falling, the sky is falling”.  It was this sense of urgency that caused me to push my boss into opening our own business, and we did.  Not a month later, the company that we worked for went bankrupt. 

During George W’s second term as president my friends would complain that he was going to get away with everything, it seemed that everything was working out for him.  Yet, my vision this time, was of a dam with a hole, and like the story of the little Dutch Boy, he had his finger in the hole.  However, in my vision the holes kept coming – more and more until the entire dam collapsed.  This was, to me, what began with Bush and would continue with whoever became president after him.   The impression that I was left with was that there was no system, not corporate, not governmental, not environmental, not social and not religions that would be sustainable for much longer.  What we needed was not just change, but transformation from the ground up.  The dam could not be salvaged or patched, it had to be demolished and rebuilt.

I used to paint furniture.  As an artist, I would use furniture as my canvas.  One day I found this perfect desk.  What I should have done was sand it down to the bare wood, then prime it and begin painting.  But that was too overwhelming a task, so I just primed it.  The paint was not holding, so I would pile on another base coat.  I kept putting paint on top of paint and although it looked beautiful when I was done, I could not sell it – or even use it because I had added too much good paint to the bad.  Some things need additional coats, and others need to be stripped down to the bone and built up from scratch.  This is where we are.

Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. “  Regardless of a new administration in the White House, the solutions to our economic problems are being sought at the same level of consciousness that created them, which has been – take care of the corporations and they will take care of the people.  Make sure that the banks have money and they will spread it down to the people.  I guess it is just a continuation of trickledown economics.  What would constitute change – real change?  It would be working from the bottom up.  You see, even if the banks are willing to give people credit cards again – the people are not going to be so willing to take them.  We are becoming debt phobic. 

Between the years of 1988 and 2006 the average wage in this country rose a total of about one percent.  During that same time period the average cost of living rose over ten percent.  How was that gap supposed to be filled?  I know, credit!  Credit that we could not pay because of the gap, if we could not afford, on the average wage to life, how could we afford to pay a credit card with growing interest rates?  Why did no one look at these figures and anticipate a problem?  The answer is greed.  And it is that greed that prevents the kinds of change that we need now to guarantee the future.

The government should not loan money to investors to buy the bad debt from banks, the government would take the bad debt itself, declare a moratorium of up to two years on foreclosures and renegotiate the loans so that the people could catch up.  The government would focus all of its attention to creating jobs and keeping people in their homes.  Nothing would stimulate the economy more than for people to have disposable income, not more credit.  Nothing would improve consumer confidence more  than to feel safe within their homes and with their healthcare.   We are giving the thieves who stole the cookies from the cookie jar, money to replace the cookies.  There is no change here, just a new twist to an old knot.  With the number of homeless and unemployed expected to continue to rise, I wonder who the economy is picking up for.  But it doesn’t matter. 

There is something else happening that is an deeply difficult issue to tackle and therefore an issue that is not addressed.  People have paid money into social security and into their pensions in the belief that these were up there with death and taxes in terms of things that we could count on.  Today people are reaching retirement age with nothing, social security that is not enough to live on, Medicare that is not enough to keep one healthy, and a pension that has been stolen by the same corporation that promised it. 

We have no trust, we have no reason to trust.  A terrorist attack is only one of many threats to our lives that we live with, losing our homes, our ability to feed our families, our ability to provide the education that will safeguard our children’s future, and the healthcare to keep them alive should they become ill.  Keeping the homeland secure should be much more far reaching.

The only thing that the people are able to count on is that they have the power, the right and even the duty to change the system.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.-

We are a skyscraper that is on fire on the first two floors, the occupants of those floors are dying, but the people in the penthouses are feeling safe and secure.  But soon the fire will eat its way up to the top, and although some people on the lower floors are close enough to jump to safety – that can’t be said for the high income floors.  But we won’t address the basement until those in the penthouse are affected, which of course will be too late.

Add to this we have a growing climate emergency, which the huge coal and oil industries do not see that it can be addressed adequately for at least a few decades.  The scientists tell us that we don’t have one decade if we don’t start transforming our way of life today. North Korea is desperate to attack someone and prove itself  as a major military power.  Israel is desperate to bomb Iran.  And all of the fundamentalists of all religions are excitedly awaiting Armageddon.

If this were a novel, no one would be anticipating an happy ending.  But there could still be one, a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a new generation of Senators and Congressmen.  President Obama was not just elected by those who were of voting age.  He was elected because of the hard work of many young people who were not yet old enough to vote but will be not only old enough to vote, but interested enough to run for office in the year 2012.  Those who will be voting in that election will have a different agenda and enormous power over communications through the internet. 

The generation of the sixties had great promise and hope of a world in which there was peace, brotherhood, and an end to war.  Sadly, their hopes were dashed and their faith was shattered when their candidate for President lost the election.  They became cynical believing that they were up against a system that they could not, with all of their work and enthusiasm – defeat.  Some just withdrew, some decided that if you can’t beat them, join them.  This is not the case today.  The young people of today did win, and they did change the face of the country.  They are empowered. 

Seeds are being planted now in every area of life.  The technology exists to end consumption of fossil fuels.  These young people are growing up in a time where greed is not good.  They have a voice and they will use it loudly. 

Things change, the world changes, and it is very hard, even in our own personal lives to know the exact date that it happens because we are not aware of the change until we are well within it.  From there we look back and say, “yes, it was around that time that….”

Monopolies were one banned because they inhibited free competition.  We decided free competition was not really necessary.  The next generation of law makers will rid the world of monopolies, not because of their impeding competition, although that will always be a part of it, but because by their sheer size they threaten the global economy, as is being proven today.  They will create the kinds of far reaching changes that will pave a new path for the world, a path to sustenance.  It will be a world where everyone having some, is more acceptable than some having everything.   I see the new government supporting education, healthcare for all and self sustaining communities.  Where fossil fuels with be the alternative and fuel created by the Sun, the Water and the Wind will be the norm.  The new leaders around the world will come to see that if everyone has the same size guns, they become a useless weapon.  Then a handshake and a helping hand will be the weapons that end hostility, instead of life.  After the darkness of path that we have set before us, I see a new path, and I see the first steps on that path coming in 2012.

2012, Age of Aquarius, Changing Times

It would be very easy to say that based upon the nature of man as he has shown himself throughout history, the only destination is self-destruction. We are in an escalated time of war, hatred, greed, and all of the things that spell disaster.

I see things symbolically. When I was working for the man who would later become my partner, for a business in New York, I remember walking down the halls feeling as though the file cabinets on either side of the hallway were falling in on me. I felt the same urgency as Chicken Little in the story saying “The sky is falling, the sky is falling”. It was this sense of urgency that caused me to push my boss into opening our own business, and we did. Not a month later, the company that we worked for went bankrupt.

During George W’s second term as president my friends would complain that he was going to get away with everything, it seemed that everything was working out for him. Yet, my vision this time, was of a dam with a hole, and like the story of the little Dutch Boy, he had his finger in the hole. However, in my vision the holes kept coming – more and more until the entire dam collapsed. This was, to me, what began with Bush and would continue with whoever became president after him. The impression that I was left with was that there was no system, not corporate, not governmental, not environmental, not social and not religions that would be sustainable for much longer. What we needed was not just change, but transformation from the ground up. The dam could not be salvaged or patched, it had to be demolished and rebuilt.

I used to paint furniture. As an artist, I would use furniture as my canvas. One day I found this perfect desk. What I should have done was sand it down to the bare wood, then prime it and begin painting. But that was too overwhelming a task, so I just primed it. The paint was not holding, so I would pile on another base coat. I kept putting paint on top of paint and although it looked beautiful when I was done, I could not sell it – or even use it because I had added too much good paint to the bad. Some things need additional coats, and others need to be stripped down to the bone and built up from scratch. This is where we are.

Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. “ Regardless of a new administration in the White House, the solutions to our economic problems are being sought at the same level of consciousness that created them, which has been – take care of the corporations and they will take care of the people. Make sure that the banks have money and they will spread it down to the people. I guess it is just a continuation of trickledown economics. What would constitute change – real change? It would be working from the bottom up. You see, even if the banks are willing to give people credit cards again – the people are not going to be so willing to take them. We are becoming debt phobic.

Between the years of 1988 and 2006 the average wage in this country rose a total of about one percent. During that same time period the average cost of living rose over ten percent. How was that gap supposed to be filled? I know, credit! Credit that we could not pay because of the gap, if we could not afford, on the average wage to life, how could we afford to pay a credit card with growing interest rates? Why did no one look at these figures and anticipate a problem? The answer is greed. And it is that greed that prevents the kinds of change that we need now to guarantee the future.

The government should not loan money to investors to buy the bad debt from banks, the government would take the bad debt itself, declare a moratorium of up to two years on foreclosures and renegotiate the loans so that the people could catch up. The government would focus all of its attention to creating jobs and keeping people in their homes. Nothing would stimulate the economy more than for people to have disposable income, not more credit. Nothing would improve consumer confidence more than to feel safe within their homes and with their healthcare. We are giving the thieves who stole the cookies from the cookie jar, money to replace the cookies. There is no change here, just a new twist to an old knot. With the number of homeless and unemployed expected to continue to rise, I wonder who the economy is picking up for. But it doesn’t matter.

There is something else happening that is an deeply difficult issue to tackle and therefore an issue that is not addressed. People have paid money into social security and into their pensions in the belief that these were up there with death and taxes in terms of things that we could count on. Today people are reaching retirement age with nothing, social security that is not enough to live on, Medicare that is not enough to keep one healthy, and a pension that has been stolen by the same corporation that promised it.

We have no trust, we have no reason to trust. A terrorist attack is only one of many threats to our lives that we live with, losing our homes, our ability to feed our families, our ability to provide the education that will safeguard our children’s future, and the healthcare to keep them alive should they become ill. Keeping the homeland secure should be much more far reaching.

The only thing that the people are able to count on is that they have the power, the right and even the duty to change the system.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.-

We are a skyscraper that is on fire on the first two floors, the occupants of those floors are dying, but the people in the penthouses are feeling safe and secure. But soon the fire will eat its way up to the top, and although some people on the lower floors are close enough to jump to safety – that can’t be said for the high income floors. But we won’t address the basement until those in the penthouse are affected, which of course will be too late.

Add to this we have a growing climate emergency, which the huge coal and oil industries do not see that it can be addressed adequately for at least a few decades. The scientists tell us that we don’t have one decade if we don’t start transforming our way of life today. North Korea is desperate to attack someone and prove itself as a major military power. Israel is desperate to bomb Iran. And all of the fundamentalists of all religions are excitedly awaiting Armageddon.

If this were a novel, no one would be anticipating an happy ending. But there could still be one, a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a new generation of Senators and Congressmen. President Obama was not just elected by those who were of voting age. He was elected because of the hard work of many young people who were not yet old enough to vote but will be not only old enough to vote, but interested enough to run for office in the year 2012. Those who will be voting in that election will have a different agenda and enormous power over communications through the internet.

The generation of the sixties had great promise and hope of a world in which there was peace, brotherhood, and an end to war. Sadly, their hopes were dashed and their faith was shattered when their candidate for President lost the election. They became cynical believing that they were up against a system that they could not, with all of their work and enthusiasm – defeat. Some just withdrew, some decided that if you can’t beat them, join them. This is not the case today. The young people of today did win, and they did change the face of the country. They are empowered.

Seeds are being planted now in every area of life. The technology exists to end consumption of fossil fuels. These young people are growing up in a time where greed is not good. They have a voice and they will use it loudly.

Things change, the world changes, and it is very hard, even in our own personal lives to know the exact date that it happens because we are not aware of the change until we are well within it. From there we look back and say, “yes, it was around that time that….”

Monopolies were one banned because they inhibited free competition. We decided free competition was not really necessary. The next generation of law makers will rid the world of monopolies, not because of their impeding competition, although that will always be a part of it, but because by their sheer size they threaten the global economy, as is being proven today. They will create the kinds of far reaching changes that will pave a new path for the world, a path to sustenance. It will be a world where everyone having some, is more acceptable than some having everything. I see the new government supporting education, healthcare for all and self sustaining communities. Where fossil fuels with be the alternative and fuel created by the Sun, the Water and the Wind will be the norm. The new leaders around the world will come to see that if everyone has the same size guns, they become a useless weapon. Then a handshake and a helping hand will be the weapons that end hostility, instead of life. After the darkness of path that we have set before us, I see a new path, and I see the first steps on that path coming in 2012.

2012, Age of Aquarius, Changing Times

By Denise Gibel Molini

One day as I was driving my car I had a vision of the future.  It was a future that seemed to me to belong to those who will be here perhaps thirty to fifty years from now.  I saw young people living with each other in an environment of peace and cooperation.  I did not feel any remnants of the world that we live in today, in fact, I felt very strongly that they had built their world on the ashes of ours.  The ability to communicate using ESP and all forms of mental powers was very strong.  The only feeling that I had of that time which was negative was their memory of what mankind had to endure in order to get to where they were.  I sensed that there had been much suffering before that point was reached.

This time is very clearly approaching.  It is led by compassion.  I had seen a video on you tube about the bond between a dog and an elephant.  A while back I saw one on the bond between a turtle and a hippo.  I watched on video where a man and women went into the wild to reunite with the lioness that they had released back when she became of age.  The lioness ran and jumped into the arms of the man who raised her.  I had seen a story a couple of years ago about an Orangutan in Africa who adopted abandoned kittens and a pig who adopted puppies Today I watched a story about a dog who nurses abandoned tiger cubs, and cheetah cubs,  and a cat who brought an abandoned baby rabbit and nursed it with her kittens.  I saw a nine year old hippo in South Africa lying in bed with her human owners, kissing and loving them – nestled next to the family dog.  Then there is the remarkable video of the lioness who took care of a baby antelope, and after that one was taken by a lion she went on to care for five more.  The natives named her, Blessed.  Every instinct in her would tell her that this animal was food – but her heart took over.

The underlying energy of this planet that we live upon was for thousands of years, that of dog eat dog, survival of the deadliest – a giant food chain.   It was violent; that which was wild, was by instinct savage.  Not anymore.  The animals that we see are exhibiting what must be called basic compassion.  This is coming from their connectedness with the earth – they immediately incorporate into their instinctual behavior the energy that comes from the earth.  We, as humans have lost our connected with the earth, we are slow to respond to the changes in her energy fields that arise.  We are slow; we are closed off by our belief systems.

We advanced very quickly from the printing press to the industrial age, to the technological age and now the information age because all we had to do was modify what already existed in order to move to the next step – we did not have to reinvent the wheel.  I felt as I experienced this vision that this generation had to reinvent the wheel.  Whatever we built, it seemed that we had either destroyed or used up the resources necessary to maintain.  I felt saddened by what we had done, but happy knowing that the future was so beautiful.

All of the ancient prophesies declare a coming era of peace.  One in which as the Bible states in ISAIAH 2:4 “And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more”. This is the destiny of the New Earth and her inhabitants.  Our challenge is not to create it, it has been created and it is waiting for those who can come out of the desert and enter the Promised Land. Our challenge is to be willing to let go of our golden idols, and our selfish ways.  The future is by any description – Heaven.  Mankind will reach it, perhaps not us, but the human race will.  Even the worst case scenario ends in the knowledge that only through cooperation, understanding, acceptance, compassion, equality and peaceful co-existence can we, as the human race, hope to survive through this millennium.

We have knowledge.  We have information.  What we lack are wisdom and foresight.  We are a “crossed fingers society”.  We react to the inevitable crisis that we will face with our heads in the sand and our fingers crossed.  Katrina is an example of how we handle everything.  It was well known that the levies in New Orleans and Mississippi would not withstand that eventual category 5 hurricane.  But instead of building levies that would, we crossed our fingers and hoped that they would not come down on our watch.  When it was very possible that they would fall, there was still no forced evacuation – there were, however, many fingers crossed.  It was known that the levies were not in the best shape, and nothing was being done about it.  Had we been prevention oriented would we not have made sure that  there was a plan in place to evacuate all of the surrounding areas.  But as usual, our plan was more cost efficient – we crossed our fingers.

The Bush Administration entered into a war in Iraq with no exit strategy – no strategy at all, except of course – crossed fingers.  I have recently read articles by economists at the beginning of the sub-prime boom promising that it would bring us to where we are today.  So, many knew what the likely outcome of what we were doing was.  Instead of forcing a change in course – we crossed our fingers.  We have become a society that has an enormous aversion to the cost of prevention.  We know in our hearts that one day our actions will have severe consequences, we just prefer to cross our fingers and hope that they come when we are gone.  This crossed fingers thing, it isn’t working well for us lately.  But we still cross our fingers in hopes that this is just a glitch and not a new paradigm.

I believe that life is like dominoes.  There are moments in our lives when the road that we have been traveling on reaches a fork.  On each path of the fork are rows of dominoes.  This is as much free will as we are going to get.  Once we push down one domino, we are on that path until the next fork and whatever lies in front of us cannot be changed.  There are destiny points in our lives that we will reach regardless of what we do.  These are where we either learn the lessons our collective and individual journeys were meant to teach us – or – we begin new journeys.

There are these moments in which we have choices to make.  What we choose, which domino we push, will be based upon what, if anything, we have learned thus far on our journey.  It is like a train station with many trains leaving, trains that will each take different tracks, yet all end up at the same station where we either leave, and end our journey, or get on a different train.  Once we get on a train, we are on it until it stops, and whatever happens, happens from that point on.  No more choices.  We get on the train, or push down the domino – we have created the point of no return.

We know that every species plays a role in the balance of our ecosystem.  We have no way of knowing the effect of the mass extinctions that we are causing.  We can guess, what the outcome could be if we continue to lose our bee populations.  It is clear that our plants don’t pollinate themselves.  One of the reasons that I find the prophesies of these ancient peoples such as the Maya so valuable is because they did have access to the history that preceded them.  When Christianity spread throughout the world, so did the mass destruction of any records that preceded its existence.  We have scant information to piece together; however, I believe that we have been left with enough.

There is no way of knowing which straw will break the camel’s back.   I remember a few months before September 11^th I wrote an article for a local magazine in which I stated that I felt that the feelings of anger, inequity and hatred in the atmosphere (emotional atmosphere) had reached critical mass and something had to happen – somewhere it had to blow.  There is always a point when everything reaches critical mass, like a storm cloud hanging in the air waiting for that last molecule of moisture to hit it and the water pours out.

The moment that patient zero contracted AIDS was a point of no return for an epidemic that continues to kill millions of people.  There is one ash, one spark that floats into the brush and smolders for hours before turning into a fire that wipes out thousands of homes and kills countless people.  The moment that the ash touched the dry brush was a point of no return even though no one saw it or its results for hours or perhaps days.  Perhaps it was the day a butterfly flapped its wings in South America, leading to hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.  It could be an election.

The world is not going to end.  We will plunge ourselves into a period of painful darkness, death, and suffering.  In the end, we will understand that hatred is the most dangerous terrorist and as long as hatred exists – no one will ever be safe.  We will understand that greed is the one greatest toxin in our environment, and so long as we cling to it, we doom ourselves and our children to inevitable disease and starvation.  In revelation the Bible talks about 144,000 souls.  The Mayan long count of 144,000 days is coming to an end.  In numerology that number equals 9.  Nine is the number of endings, but more of seeding the future with itself.  Something is happening – now.  Something bigger is going to happen soon, but if we look for it with narrow lenses we will miss it.  It is in the big picture.  When we focus all of our attention on one hole in the dam, we can become too sure that we don’t really have to worry.  But if we look up and see all of the holes in the dam, we will act now.  The action that we need now is to become wise.  We need to evolve into the people able to do what must be done.  And we need to do this now.  I found this in an essay written by Ervin Laszlo and it best describes how we must transform our living now.

TEN BENCHMARKS OF AN EVOLVED CONSCIOUSNESS

1. Live in ways that enable all other people to live as well, satisfying your needs without detracting from the chances of other people to satisfy theirs.

2. Live in ways that respect the right to life and to economic and cultural development of  all people, wherever they live and whatever their ethnic origin, sex, citizenship, station in life, and  belief system.

3. Live in ways that safeguard the intrinsic right to life and to an environment supportive of life for all the things that live and grow on Earth.

4. Pursue happiness, freedom, and personal fulfillment in harmony with the integrity of nature and with consideration for the similar pursuits of others in society.

5. Require that your government relate to other nations and peoples peacefully and in a spirit of cooperation recognizing the legitimate aspirations for a better life and a healthy environment of all the people in the human family.

6. Require business enterprises to accept responsibility for all their stakeholders as well as for the sustainability of their environment, demanding that they produce goods and offer services that satisfy legitimate demand without impairing nature and reducing the opportunities of smaller and less-privileged entrants to compete in the marketplace.

7. Require public media to provide a constant stream of reliable information on basic trends and crucial processes to enable you and other citizens and consumers to reach informed decisions on issues that affect your and their lives and well-being.

8. Make room in your life to help those less privileged than you to live a life of dignity, free from the struggles

9. Encourage young people and open-minded people of all ages to evolve the spirit that could empower them to make ethical decisions of their own on issues that decide their future and the future of their children.

10. Work with like-minded people to preserve or restore the essential balances of the environment, with attention to your neighborhood, your country or region, and the whole of the biosphere.

It is my belief that December 21, 2012 will be an important date for the future of mankind – but I don’t think that anything noticeably dramatic will occur on it.  I believe that it is simply the point of no return – the quiet falling of the first domino.  It could come in any form, such as, a bill that does or does not pass Congress.  It could be a new disease – or new form of an old one.  It could be a high school chemistry major who could not take being bullied one more day and creates an airborne chemical weapon which he unleashes in an airport.  It could be an act of war, or the last pollutant entering the atmosphere which will cause, at a later date, the natural disaster that changes everything.  We know what we have to do.  But, then again, we can just cross our fingers.

By Denise Gibel-Molini

Sometime in the 70’s I came across Norman Vincent Peale W. Clement Stone and Napoleon Hill.  Both of these men were amazing motivational teachers.  They taught what today is called the “Secret”.  Then it was the power of the subconscious mind.  Later in the 90’s I had a Spiritual Book store and I began seeing different books on the various “proven” laws of success.  These were more steps to achieve the same goals as were promised by Napoleon Hill and Norman Vincent Peale.

I believed, and still do to this day that there is an enormous power in positive thinking within the individual.  I remember that my year spent in “network marketing” was spent in hours of motivation and the power of positive thinking.  During that you I didn’t make money.  However, I never even caught a cold, I was never tired, and nothing could break my spirit.  It changed my life for the better – just not in the way that I was looking for.

I have a problem with all of these secret, hidden, special, scientific methods of attaining ones dreams.  They could never pass the kinds of tests required in order to state that a product or a drug was proven effective.  I know many many more exceptions to this rule than those for whom the rule has worked.

My cousin is the poster child for the anti-law of attraction, or the law of repulsion.  The more that she wants something, the more she is convinced to the core that she will never have it.  She focuses daily on visualizing her life – long and miserable in failure and loneliness.  Yet, after an entire year of this dedication to the negative – in rode prince Charming on his white horse to whisk her away to love and bliss.  In fact, most of the people that I know who focus all of their attention on the miserable trick that the universe has played on them, are the exact ones for whom success and opportunity seems to pop up out of no where.

Of course, there are those, such as Barack Obama, for whom living in the visualization of being President and sitting in the oval office did work.  Then, there are John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and scores of others who also lived “the Secret”, who lost the race and the chair that they each saw themselves sitting in day after day.  Yes, there is a law of attraction, but it is greater than we could every imagine, and it rules.  You could call it the attraction of fate, or simply the power of the greater plan – the soul’s plan for each of us and for the world.

According the today’s science everything is nothing, or energy, consciousness – fields.  Various fields of consciousness.  So, some believe, and this is what I believe, that the soul is a kind magnetic field.  Before it incarnates it programs itself to attract to it the people, places, and experiences that will facilitate its personal goals and the goals set by the accumulation of all souls incarnating in a certain time.  We, our fields, are all woven together to form a divine personal and universal tapestry.

We attract, and are attracted to only what we chose as souls.  And for the soul all experiences are parables.  All experiences have within their essence a moral lesson teaching love, faith, compassion, forgiveness, and placing the spiritual above the material.  We can find this in each story that we tell of an incident in our own lives.  Sometimes it may take years to “get it”, but when we do – we understand the lesson.

Part of this process is the ego.  The ego is made up of an accumulation of all of our lives on the earth past and present along with all of the emotional experiences that imprinted on it and lie buried within the database of our subconscious mind.  “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” W. Clement Stone.  This is true, however the kind of belief that is necessary is not belief held in our conscious minds, or our imaginations – it is belief held in our subconscious minds.  You see, we live in a world that is neither solid nor three dimensional.  It has no time.  That is fact, but it is not the belief that is held by our subconscious minds, otherwise we could not share this earthy experience.  So belief, is deeper that imagination – it is deeper than reality.

To journey into that realm of the subconscious through hypnosis or through deep meditation, is a journey to what is in essence another reality.  It is a journey in which we leave our ego behind.  What we find when we do, is that this plan, or this series of plans are purposeful and fulfilling in ways that are eternal and not limited to societal programs or past life understandings  of what we should our should not want in this one life.

What we find, is that the path, however it appeared in our conscious state seems to be a path to joy.  Even if we enter into this state to attempt to rewrite the script.  We come back knowing, believing that there can be no better script for our lives than the one written.

Some of us come into life with a burning desire to be rich and famous.  That burning desire comes from the fact that it is the journey written by the soul.  And when these people enter that path to wealth and fame – they find that it was nothing that they had ever imagined, in no way free of pain or suffering, in no way self-validating, and that lesson is the moral of their parable.

I have a ability to visualize, not so much a persons path, but the purpose of the path – the types of experiences that will bring the story to its true gift.  There is a good friend of mine who is a visionary photographer.  His work will take people to great places one day.  Consciously he is fully aware of the unique beauty in his pictures.  And he is frustrated that he cannot sell enough pieces to pay he rent.  Although people are taken aback by the beauty of his work, it is not selling.

We have done past life regressions.  In each life he rose to a different position of social prominence.  In each life he was very focused on his career, on his good name and his status in the community.  And – in each life he died in deep spiritual and emotional pain because he had passed up his chances for true love and emotional fulfillment.  His soul vowed that in this life he would balance both.  He was told by his guides under hypnosis that he had to learn that God gave him two hands and he could have fulfillment in each.

The last time that we spoke, it came to me that although his material success and public recognition were immanent, his soul would not attract them to him until he was balanced within himself.  Until he found his inner power, his inner love and was able to manifest that love in the world as a part of who he was – the material success would remain just outside of his grasp.  The purpose of this being that if his material success were to come first, he would then become caught up, as in his many past lives in that alone.  Once again he would miss the thing that eluded him life after life.  He had to find himself now, to avoid the risk of never finding it, and living a life of emptiness.

There is a law of attraction that is at work in our lives from the day that we are born, but the attractor is not our conscious mind but the spirit that lives within us.  When we want something and do not get it, it is because it is not something that we want from within our souls.  It is perishable.  The soul seeks that which is permanent and continuously giving.  When we do not get what we want, however badly we believe that we want it, however hard, we believe that we have worked for it.  The cause is not our personal failure – it is the success of the soul.  We don’t generally know what we really want, we only know what we really want to feel.

Society tells us that what we want to fell is in box number one.  But if we cannot open box number one, it is because what we want to feel is not in it.  Society, those things that we are programmed from childhood to believe are the keys to happiness, are only part of the superficial, impermanent world around us.  They are not part of the real and permanent world that is within us, the world that contains the true power.  Jesus says, “Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all else will be added unto you.”  This means seek for the joy that lies within you.  Seek first the foundation that lies within you.  Seek first the soul and its treasures that lie within you.  Once you have found all the glory that lies within, all else will come.  All else will be attracted to you.  This is the Law of Attraction.  This is the real secret.

Whatever we find before we find the kingdom that lies within, will be empty.  And if we seek that first, it will consume us to such an extent that we will remain empty for the rest of our lives.  No praise, no adulation, no recognition that we may receive from the world, will give us the fullness of self that we are really seeking unless first we seek and become grounded in the foundation that lies within.

I think that we should all be free to follow what we believe.  And so this is not to offend Atheists, just to discuss the arguments that I have heard in favor of it and against the existence of a God.

When I was a child there was no mention of God in my home, except when accompanied by damn.  When my younger sister was born, I felt less loved by my mother than ever.  Somehow I knew that with my sister in the picture I would never be loved.

So, around the age of four I began sitting in front of my house hoping that someone would pass by and adopt me.  One of the many days I sat waiting for my new family I heard a voice in my head.  It was a male sounding voice, the kind of voice that makes you feel safe and secure.  This voice told me that I was not going to ever get a new family.  It told me that I was very loved, that it loved me, and that when I grew up I would understand why I was in this family and know that it was the right place for me to be.

From then on, I had many conversations with the voice.  It comforted me when I was afraid, and made me feel loved when I felt alone.  The voice did not offer a name, I did not ask for one.  Today, I believe that it was God speaking in a voice that would make a child feel safe.

When I was a teenager, I would come home from school, go up to my room, lock my door and either turn on music or the television.  One night I was locked in my room with the television on and I fell asleep, as I did every night (because I was afraid of the dark).  I was awaken by the one voice that could pull me out of a coma.  I heard my mother scream at the top of her lungs, “Denise!!!!!! Get Down Here”.  I ran down the stairs to find her half asleep and half watching the television.  I asked her why she called me, but in my mind I knew that there was no way that this half asleep woman could look like this after letting out the scream of the century.  She looked at me as though I was crazy and said, “I didn’t call you”.  As we were about to enter into this discussion over how I could have imagined her calling me loud enough to make me jump out of bed – while I was sleeping – an enormous cloud of black smoke filled the stairwell and came pouring downstairs.  I screamed for my father who was in bed upstairs and he almost fell running down,  By this time we could see nothing.

Luckily we found our way to the door and got out of the house.  My father burned his hand opening the doorknob as it was already so hot.   I ran next door and called the fire department.  After the fire department came they told us that it had been an electrical fire.  The origination point of that fire was my television.  Certainly I would been dead, unlocking my door in the dark was not easy, and there is a chance I just might not have awoken before it was too late.  My father and I could have both been dead before my mother even knew that anything was wrong – since she was downstairs.  Something supernatural happened to me that night to save my life.  That something, I call God.

Two weeks later, those same neighbors I ran to to call the fire department were all killed while they slept in an electrical fire.

Here are some arguments that I have found on the internet against the existence of any god.

“The progress of science
The progress of science bring each day a more complete explanation of phenomena that men attributed, until now, to the divinities. God is pushed back within the limits of the Universe.”

Nowthese are quotes from Einstein which address that statement:

“Although I am a typical loner in daily life, my consciousness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice has preserved me from feeling isolated. The most beautiful and deepest experience a man can have is the sense of the mysterious. It is the underlying principle of religion as well as all serious endeavour in art and science. He who never had this experience seems to me, if not dead, then at least blind. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection, this is religiousness. In this sense I am religious. To me it suffices to wonder at these secrets and to attempt humbly to grasp with my mind a mere image of the lofty structure of all that is there.”

and another Einstein quote:

“Science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the aspiration toward truth and understanding. This source of feeling, however, springs from the sphere of religion. To this there also belongs the faith in the possibility that the regulations valid for the world
of existence are rational, that is, comprehensible to reason. I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist without that profound faith. The situation may be expressed by an image: science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

Here is another argument against God:

A different proof that there is no God is:

“Life is Material, not Supernatural:  We are material, Natural Beings
All Evidence points to life being material and natural”

“A popular objection to atheists’ arguments and critiques of theism is to insist that one’s preferred god cannot be disproven – indeed, that science itself is unable to prove that God does not exist.  This position depends upon a mistaken understanding of the nature of science and how science operates. In a very real and important sense, it is possible to say that, scientifically, God does not exist – just as science is able to discount the existence of a myriad of other alleged beings.”  Austin Cline

According to the ancient religions, God is unnameable, incomprehensible,  a power that works within the universe as the universe exists within God.  According to renown Physicist David Bohm:

“Bohm believes that life and consciousness are enfolded deep in the generative order and are therefore present in varying degrees of
unfoldment in all matter, including supposedly “inanimate” matter such as electrons or plasmas. He suggests that there is a “protointelligence” in matter, so that new evolutionary developments do not emerge in a random fashion but creatively as relatively integrated wholes from implicate levels of reality. The mystical connotations of Bohm’s ideas are underlined by his remark that the implicate domain “could equally well be called Idealism, Spirit, Consciousness. The separation of the two — matter and spirit — is an abstraction. The ground is always one.” (Quoted in Michael Talbot, The Holographic Universe, HarperCollins, New York, 1991, p. 271.)’

In Bohm’s view, all the separate objects, entities, structures, and events in the visible or explicate world around us are relatively autonomous, stable, and temporary “subtotalities” derived from a deeper, implicate order of unbroken wholeness. Bohm gives the analogy
of a flowing stream:

On this stream, one may see an ever-changing pattern of vortices, ripples, waves, splashes, etc., which evidently have no
independent existence as such. Rather, they are abstracted from the flowing movement, arising and vanishing in the total process of the flow. Such transitory subsistence as may be possessed by these abstracted forms implies only a relative independence or autonomy of behaviour, rather than absolutely independent existence as ultimate substances.

(David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, Boston, 1980, p. 48.)

We must learn to view everything as part of “Undivided Wholeness in Flowing Movement.” (Ibid., p. 11.)”

This comes from the new physics that is responsible for 30% of our current economy.  When today’s science describes what the material, natural  world is made of, it can be described as nothing less than supernatural or metaphysical.  What we see as the world around us appears to be real, but what it is made out of is consciousness.  A statue made out of clay, can be called a statue, but it is still really clay.  Regardless of what we are made into in this material world, what we are made out of is not of this material world.  So far, according to Science, what we and the entire Universe is made out of is an unending mystery.  And as much as they learn to describe what we are made out of, they cannot ever come to the original cause, why we exist.  If that force that underlies and guides the universe is what our ancestors and many of us today call God.  Then Science proves God.

Next argument:

If God exists than God must interact with our universe and there must be some physical manifestations of his interaction.

For me, the voice when I was very young, and the voice that saved me from dying in the fire were manifestation enough, but the Universe itself is the greatest physical manifestation of God’s existence, not as a “he” not “his” but the mysterious awesome force, the implicate order the unknowable, unnameable Source of the universe.

Often atheists use the Bible to argue against the existence of God.  But the Bible, or the Koran can only be used to argue against the description of God, not God itself.    In this respect, it is possible to argue because these books are ancient and must be taken on faith, not proof.  But God as the Atom, God as the Implicate Order, as Consciousness Itself or Original Cause cannot be argued.  Science is, in every day, coming to understand God in the way that our ancient ancestors once did.

To me, God is impersonal, unconditional Love, far beyond our capacity to understand but it is our drive to seek.  I don’t feel that anyone must believe in God.  However, if atheism is logical and realistic as it is supposed to be, then its arguments against God, must be sound, grounded, and able to address even the most ancient spiritual concept of God, which I have not found that it has done.  It may be capable of an eternal debate over the validity of religion, specifically or in general, but again, that is not an argument against God.

I remember when I was growing up.  Each year my Mother, sister and I would spend one month in Atlantic City.  It was wonderful.  During those summers I made many friends, one was Wanda Wingate.  She lived in Philly.  From the age of about ten, until I finished high school we would write letters to each other every week.  Each week I would sit and tell her all of my highs and lows.  I share all of the intimate details of my life with only her, and she with me.  We exchanged advice, shared each others happiness and tried to support each other through our sadness.   I loved getting her letters, reading them over and over and placing them in a box.  Through her I met my first great love, Jeffrey Goldson.  He was a few years older than I and when he went off to college we would write to each other a few times a week  I loved to stare at how he formed the letters of each word, I loved the scent of the paper because it carried his scent.  The internet is a wonderful place to share, and to learn – but it came at a great cost.  It cost us those letters, those moments of going off to a quiet place to hold those pages and feel the energy of the person who is writing.  I think that our letters intensified my love for him.  And in his box, I could reach in a pull out the letters and feel again that love whenever I needed.

Then I remember so vividly the first book that moved me, it made me fall in love with reading.  I remember the way that it smelled, I remember the way that each page felt against my fingers – I remember this, but I neither remember the title nor the name of the office, just the feel.  There is no e-book that can compare with the feel of a good book in your hands.

Two of my favorite shows when I was young were “Little House On the Prairie” , and “The Waltons”.  The families in those shows had very little.  Life was hard work, but somewhere in that hard work was a sense of quality of life.  All that they had was the love of family and community, and somehow, life seemed to me so much better then.  They were not plagued by depression – even in the depression.  The wealth of each family was their bonds, bonds created out of necessity and lack of distraction.  But their wealth could not be given a price.  I remember when I was in my own business and making more money than I every imagined that I could make.  I would drop ten thousand dollars in a boutique without blinking an eye, but I have never been so unhappy in my life.  I wore the quality of my life on my back – Escada, Ralph Lauren  my gold rolex, my Fendi purse, wallet and cigarette case.  My life had no other value.  I know now that the ability to feel joy and happiness are what we pay for those things.  The more I bought, the more my soul was being drained out of me.  I did not know it.  A junkie first gets high to feel a little rush, to be taken out of himself for a short time.  This is the same thing that happens when we find ourselves with money.  We buy things that we could not have bought before just to be taken out of the self that we once were.  What we don’t realize is that whether the addiction is to a drug, alcohol, food, or money – we are not taken out of ourselves, instead, our self, is taken out of us.  We don’t realize this, until we kick the habit by choice or by force.  Then we find that ‘living’  feels so much better than anything that we could buy or steal to make us feel like we are living.  If one is born poor, he always looking through windows at the people who have everything.  That experience makes them feel that they are not whole.  So it is their journey to strive to have those things in order to see that nothing in the material world can increase us, to the contrary, it decreases us.  Then there are those who are born with money and the status that it brings.  They do what they have to do because they are raised to feel that who they are is about what they have and how they appear.  Only by losing or giving up what they have, can they learn who they are.

There are two cycles of wealth and both are natural as the cycles of day and night and as much a part of our journey.  These cycles occur to the individual soul as well as to the collective.  There is the cycle of material wealth, where it is our path to gain materially at the cost of the spirit.  This is followed by the cycle of spiritual growth, where it is our path to gain spiritually at the expense of the material.  These are set by God, and we can no more change, extend or redirect them anymore than we can the rotation of the earth around the Sun or the moon around the earth.  We can change these no more than we can change day to night and night to day.  There are many minor cycles within each great cycle, but it is the great cycle that rules through it all.  If you are on the spiritual cycle individually, you may win the lottery – then lose all of the money.  If you are on the material cycle, individually, you may be down to your last dime and come up with an idea that brings you material wealth for the rest of your life.  As a whole, we are so deeply engulfed by our addiction to the things that we don’t need, that we can’t see how life could be better  or even tolerable without them.  We have become enslaved by our material addiction collectively, that we fear losing our chains.  In the Rider Waite Tarot deck the Devil Card has a man and a woman chained to the Devil.

The important thing about this image is that the two people chained to the Devil have their hands free and the chains around their necks are more than loose enough to be slipped right off.  The Devil represents money, power, status, all of those things that are our addictions in the material world.  It seems that the Devil has possessed these people, but in fact, they can leave at any time.  They have taken on the horns of the devil because they have become that which they have coveted.  This is the material part of the cycle.  The Major Arcana, or first 22 cards of the Tarot deck depict the “hero’s” journey from fool to wisdom.  We have been the fulfillment of this card.  But we are entering a Spiritual Cycle.  So, since we will not voluntarily remove the chains, we must be shaken at the roots, we must lose what we have allowed to posess us in order to be free, and so, the card that follows the Devil is the Tower.

If the natural disasters of the past years have shown us anything, they should have shown us that we cannot control life. We do not know when we will be struck by a disaster. Personal safety is an illusion, just as homeland security is an illusion. We are each on our own clock’s and they will each stop ticking at the appointed time, whether we are in the Twin Towers or walking along the desert. All that we have built and held onto can be lost or taken away from us in a moment. How much better would we feel if we gave what we had to those who have nothing rather than just losing it? Once upon a time the world was immense, and one could comfortably live a lifestyle of opulent excess, ignorant of the starvation and suffering that our excesses could ease. Now, it is not the case.

And [Jesus] told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God will say to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” Christianity. Luke 12.16-21

Imagine how the earth was created—how the body was created. The earth was given limited resources. The earth could have been created as a garden in which the food and shelter and everything that we could ask for simply grew as quickly as we could harvest it. Or, we could have been given the power to manifest everything we wish to have merely by desiring it to be. But that is not the case. And knowing that the force that guides the Universe is love, we must know that this is not to punish us. No, the earth has limited resources and some men are born with access to those resources while some are born without that access. This is the Divine Design, it places before us the opportunity to choose righteousness, the path must be chosen to have value, one cannot be forced out of fear of punishment or fear of rejection, the path of love must be chosen out of love—the need for love and the desire to give love. It is obvious that in the wild animals do not have this choice. Animals know only one path, and for the lower self in man, the animal way is the natural way. Yet as humans, we are able to reach into our souls and find the strength to rise above the natural choice to the spiritual one.

What causes wars, and what causes fighting among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. Christianity. James 4.1-3

We are containers with limited space within. We may fill that space with the things of the world or with the things of the spirit or, as it is for most of us – some proportion of both. Everything that the world of flesh has to offer contains an addictive quality. From the moment that we take our first breath – we are engulfed in an addict’s paradise. It is through this addictive garden that we evolve and it is our susceptibility to addiction – not the choice of drug, which marks the level to which a soul has evolved. Addiction is attachment plain and simple, but it is easier for us to raise ourselves above judgment (in our own eyes) if we limit our focus to what one is addicted to rather than that one is addicted. For one to be addicted to cocaine is bad; yet to be addicted to attention – is ok. It is bad to be addicted to alcohol – but power is ok. We become addicted to food, to comfort, to routine, to family, to nation, to form of worship, to race, to position, to war, to being divided or even to being united, to injustice or even to justice. Addiction is attachment.

All of these things that we attach ourselves to will one day be no more. And the extent of our suffering – the intensity of our hellfire, will equal the intensity of our attachment. We are all born within the garden of our own struggle. The lesson is to love your brother as yourself without condition. There is a story of a man who went up to the greatest Jewish religious leader and asked him to condense the entire teachings of all the sacred Wisdom into one sentence and the Rabbi, without hesitation said, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you”. There are innumerable gardens in which to grow that flower and we are each born in one of them. Some learn through greed, some through religious hatred some through bigotry, some through the need for power and some as victims of the powerful. You can learn the lesson by the choice you are faced with while riding in a limo passing a poor child in a ghetto, or a homeless man on the street. You can learn the lesson being the poor child or the homeless man. Both roles are means to the same end and neither one is a punishment or a reward. The awareness of the other on both ends engenders an emotional response, which in turn forces a choice. The choice that we make in those moments will feed the soil that we sow and determine what we will ultimately reap.

On earth, our parents threaten the harshest punishments on actions that will cause us the greatest harm. They do this out of love for us. So it would stand to reason that the Source of all Love would place the greatest admonishment on those things that hurt us personally the most. And to Do unto others what we would have others do unto us is wise because what we do to others we really do to ourselves. When we harbor hatred, resentment, or anger towards another we create an energetic umbilical cord between the other and ourselves which flows from soul to soul feeding each with poisonous energy. When we are told to forgive, we are really being told to release ourselves from the flow of that poison; to forgive is only to release.

All that belongs to us or will ever belong to us is what we can take with us. All that we can take with us is what we can carry in our souls. Unconditional Love is spiritual tender. Those emotions that can only exist in the absence of Unconditional Love are spiritual debts. When we act selflessly from our hearts we are making deposits into our spiritual retirement accounts. When we act selfishly without regard for others, we are making withdrawals. The account must be full in order to retire from the suffering of this world. How many lifetimes it takes us to fill that account is up to us. There is no judgment. But to retire from suffering, it must be full.

We are here to learn to cherish that which is ours to pass through, with love and appreciation, that which is not ours and to know the difference. We are happy when we receive, when we acquire, when we are applauded, we are happy when we are loved. Happiness is contingent on an action that is happening and when it is no longer happening, we are no longer happy. But our being is transformed into the most elevated joy when we give and the more difficult the gift is to release the greater the feeling of sacrifice – the greater joy that fills us. Remember that to sacrifice is to make sacred. Feed your own body, you satisfy your body, but feed the body of another who is in need and you satisfy your soul.

3. I searched in my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, my heart yet guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what it was good for the sons of men that they should do under heaven all the days of their life. 4. I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards; 5. I made me gardens and parks, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit; 6. I made me pools of water, to water there from the forest where trees were reared; 7. I bought men-servants and maid-servants, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of herds and flocks, above all that were before me in Jerusalem; 8. I gathered me also silver and gold, and the treasure of kings and of the provinces; I got me men-singers and women-singers, and the delights of the sons of men, musical instruments, and that of all sorts. 9. So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. 10. And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them; I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced because of all my labor; and this was my portion from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do; and, behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was no profit under the sun. Ecclesiastes 2:3-10

God, Spirit, All-That-Is, placed a certain amount of resources on the earth for all life to share. It is limited, but it is always just enough. Regardless of what we tell ourselves about the greatness of our effort, we cannot earn more than our share, we do not deserve more than our share. And what is our share? It is that which leaves enough for every other person on the planet to have their share. Those of us who have more than we need to live comfortably are hoarding the food, the shelter, and the medication that could save the lives of those who are dying because of their lack. And the blood of those who die because of our greed is on our hands. The difference between life and death for a child in Africa is a few dollars; the difference between a life of poverty and suffering and a life of hope and possibilities is a few dollars. We are not only our brother’s keepers; we are our brothers. We are one body human containing one Spirit immortal, and to tell ourselves that what happens in the Sudan will not effect us, it the same as saying that cancer in the foot, untreated, will never effect the heart.

All children are our children, all lives are our lives, and any life that we are able to save becomes our responsibility to save. To whom much is given, much is expected. It makes no difference what lies we tell ourselves in order to buy our ten thousand dollar bags, and six million dollar homes, a child’s face is embedded in every one of those dollars and a child’s life or death is written into those choices that we make.

Jesus said to [the rich young man], “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions. And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, it will by hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Christianity. Matthew 19.21-24

The depression that sweeps the industrialized nations is the price of our greed. The Bible says that money is the root of all evil, but it is not evil, it is the most addictive of all drugs and so it is the root of the greatest spiritual pain. Money is the key to the material kingdom. Money brings worship, adulation, slaves, all things that feed the ego. Yet, it is not money that is the problem it is the hoarding. The more money one hoards, the emptier one is Spiritually because the energy of material possessions in much denser and weighs down our energy fields leaving little or no room for spiritual joy to permanently root itself within us, not because we make money but because we hoard it for ourselves and do not send it back out to do good works.

“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:25, 2.

Today the Spiritual force of the Universe has made the world one in which we know children are dying needlessly. The world is small enough for us to know where and when men, women and children are being senselessly slaughtered because of the color of their skin or nature of their beliefs. We know, because this has been deemed the time of revelation, when we are revealed for what we are—and what we are is reflected in what we most value, not what we tell others we most value, and not in what we tell ourselves we most value. In this moment, we can stand strong as healthy wheat, wheat that gives nourishment to all, or as weeds nourishing only ourselves at the expense of others. All that we each deserve is enough to live a healthy loving life. All that we have beyond that is what would give that same quality of life to another. I once worked eighteen hours a day and was paid more than generously for that effort; I had a house in the suburbs and three bathrooms in my New York apartment. At the same time a woman sharecropper in Mississippi worked the same eighteen hours a day and could not afford indoor plumbing. I was not being rewarded for being a better person in this life or any past life, what I was being – was tested. It is time for the harvest.

We must learn and not forget that it does not matter how healthy, wealthy or wise we are, the time and manner of our death is not within our control. How long we will keep whatever we have is also not within our control, all outcomes are beyond our control. Now is the time when we are to be seen clearly, we cannot hide or pretend. The true measure of the man is not how much he has, and it is not how much he gives, but how much he is willing to give of that which he cannot bear the thought of living without.

We are being tested, and more than this, we are being given an opportunity through the suffering in the world to show the power of the light that we have within us. The world has become small enough for us to see the needs of others, small enough that we must make a conscious choice with every penny that we waste on selfish pleasures. We are no longer only responsible for the consequences of our actions but we are responsible for the consequences of our lack of action as well.

The Universe is not something around us, it is the substance of our being. God is not a separate entity; God is the Great Self, the Great Soul of which each of us is a part. God is Love; to live in God’s image is to live in the image of love and to love in the image of God. No one is empty, we are all full, those who are empty of attachment to the world are full of Spirit, and those who are filled with worldly attachments are empty of Spirit. Some are half full of the world and half full of Spirit, each have our own proportion of both and that is our choice.

Do you not feel this time  different than any other? This time is not a test it is a gift. It is a gift to us from Our Source, a chance to wipe out our karma with good works, to purify our souls with unconditional love. To strengthen our faith and show our love of All-That-Is by giving without fear of not having enough left for ourselves, for the enjoyment of the world is empty, but the joy of Love is a cup that constantly runneth over. What are the fires of hell? They are the tests and temptations that we must go through on this earth to burn away our attachment to the material – to mammon. The fires of hell are no more or less than the suffering that we endure living with the desire for what we do not need, the fear of losing or actual loss of what we do not own, and the blindness that keeps us from knowing that having and losing in this world are both illusions and what is of value to our souls is always a part of them.

He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work. As it is written, He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor; his righteousness endures forever. He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your resources and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for great generosity.

Christianity. 2 Corinthians 9.6-11

We must join hands, join resources, and realize that it is not what we have that creates happiness it is what we share.  That is what we will be left with when all is done.  We will have all that we need to live.  Above that we will have the spiritual wealth that is priceless.  We will lose much to gain much more.  We cannot recover we must recreate.  And as hard as it is for many of us to believe, it is in the plan that we will.  We are being shaken from the Devil by the Tower.  But once we have lost all that stands between us and each other, between us and compassion, and between us and God, we become wealthier than we could ever dream because our wealth will flow from an unlimited Source.  It will be spiritual and we will re-birth our humanity – the card in the deck which follows this, tells this story, it is The Star

After the tower of all that is false and illusion has crumbled to the ground, we are left with abundance of all that is real and eternal.  The world as we know it is ending, its cycle is over.  The Star represents abundance, a bright future – and most importantly it is a future that one of freedom.  True freedom is owning nothing and being owned by nothing, but being a part of everything.

I am going to approach this economic crisis that we are in, in two ways, the mundane and then, the spiritual. I first want to say personally, that I am deeply entangled in what is happening to so many people. This is my story:

I purchased a house with my husband that was well within our ability to support. However, my son has a learning disability and I found that in the special class in which he was placed, there were no text books, and basically no teaching going on. The only recourse that I could see was to send him to a special school. The insurance paid for counseling, but not for diagnosis, which was a $2000.00 expense. The medication that he was taking was very expensive even with insurance and so was his tuition. Being hounded regularly by mortgage brokers who made offers that were so good, while we were unable to continue to pay for our son’s tuition, we said “yes”. Of course, at that moment when we promised the tuition payments would be brought up to date, the closer for the mortgage company comes in with the ’switch’ as in ‘bait and switch’, and we really did not get the mortgage that we were promised, but we were already too in need of the money to back out.

At this point, we can’t pay for food, clothing ,utilities, the mortgage and continuing tuition, so we accepted the many credit card offers that came in, only to use for living expenses. Without knowing that the interest rates would only equal a loan shark. I explain my story because when I hear politicians concerned over the fact that the government helping the people who are losing their homes could penalize those tax payers who were not abusive, I think that this is ludicrous. I believe that bailing out the institutions who prayed on those of us struggling so that their executives could bring home embarrassing paychecks is what is insane.

That was personal, now, here is what is logical to me. I have been hearing lately, predictions that this recovery will happen by the end of 2009 or 2010. I still don’t see how. The reason that I don’t see how is because there is a difference between a PH.D. in economics and common sense. Since the 1980’s there has been little government regulation of industry and what regulation there was, was clearly overlooked. And what has happened? This is called the benefit of small government. No matter what anyone says, we are here because the Government wasn’t. Let me repeat, this is what happens when the government does not regulate industry. This is no government intervention in business. As opposed, to total government intervention into our private lives as we have had since 9/11. Ok, Business= no government – the common citizen = Big Brother.

The average CEO went from making 50 times as much as the average worker to 500 – 5000 times as much in that time period. So, while the top of the food chain was experiencing a boom, the bottom was experiencing a bust. The cost of living steadily increased as the incomes on top increased, so the rich grew richer, the poor grew poorer, and the middleclass just grew poor. But no one in Washington saw this coming. No regulators, no analysts, no oversight committees it was just POOF- it all happened in two months! Almost Supernatural!

In the past two years we have lost over 2,000,000 jobs – more than half of those this year. Millions of families have lost their homes, everything that they have struggled to build. Now, the government thinks that putting more money into the banks will help the economy recover. How? If – the banks lend, it will only be to those will good credit which leaves out everyone who has lost their jobs and or homes. Or, it will be fixed by tax breaks. Again, How? If I am an employer who pays for store space in order to sell shoes that no one can afford to buy – why would I hire more employees to stand around doing nothing? Why would I keep the employees that I already have standing around doing nothing? What kind of tax break will make this work for me? If the small businessman receives a large tax write-off for losses, he will be really grateful that now he will be able to make his own mortgage, he is certainly not going to increase production of merchandise that will sit on the shelves because no one can buy. If I were a manufacturer or a store owner I would appreciate my tax break come in the form of paying customers, after all, to go from 50% of nothing to 35% of nothing really isn’t a big incentive. And I think that I can speak for many Americans when I say that an extra 25.00 in my paycheck each week would only change how many times a week we eat pasta. Perhaps an extra 50.00 might help us add a steak night. As for shopping, my department store of choice is The Goodwill Superstore and I am afraid that unless the tax break can in effect double our income, or guarantee a future income, that will remain the only other store I enter outside of the supermarket.

Today, we need 2,000,000 jobs. We don’t even have to create an industry to do it. Hire teachers, hire police, hire firemen, hire healthcare professionals. Hire laborers to build more and better schools so that our country can compete in the industrialized world, good clinics so that everyone can receive adequate healthcare. Instead of guessing how much bad debt the banks have. Let the government take over the mortgages that are at risk of foreclosure and renegotiate loans with terms that people can afford. Let the government take over the homes that have been foreclosed on, locate the families and again renegotiate terms that they can realistically pay. Do this, and it is a win, win situation. The government will see more of its money than it ever will if it gives it to banks. The school system and healthcare system will not be the worst one in the industrialized world, people will be better protected, crime will decrease and most of all – we will have some money to spend and maybe we will not be so afraid of spending it. Then create a supplemental healthcare system for those who cannot afford insurance, and for those medical crisis that insurance companies don’t pay for which destroy the livelihoods and lives of millions of Americans. All of this, if done, can create employment today – create spending today, because if we don’t do it today, by the time the government has created 2,000,000 jobs we will need 8,000,000.

The Republicans like to call this wasteful spending, pork. I believe that tax breaks, at this juncture, is wasteful spending. This is my opinion. Arguably, I am a little miffed. But I would be even if it was not happening to me because I see what has been going on as unconscionable. You know how I think it could have been avoided? I think that if the government renamed the minimum wage a “livable wage”, and raised it to meet the increase each year of the cost of living, corporations would have had to raise all of the wages on up and those at the top would have had less to steal. In fact, if I knew a ballsy litigation firm, I’d beg for the largest class action suit ever seen against these CEO’s of Wall street who created this mess, took government money and still spent in only on themselves while the rest of the country lost everything. OK, now this is my non-spiritual take on this situation. My next post, will be my Spiritual view of what is happening in the world, why it must happen, and how it fits into Astrology and the indigenous predictions.

If you fill a balloon with air

The air never becomes the balloon

And you never see the air

If the balloon pops does the air die?

No, it simply becomes a part of the air

from which it came

Until it is time

In a little while

to enter another balloon.

So it is with the Spirit and the body

So it is with me

I fill this body with my spirit

I do not become this body

as the air

does not become the balloon.

I see an image In the mirror

I do not see me

I see the body within which I travel this life

I see a body age

While I do not age

I see a form

While I am formless

This body may weaken

with time

But like the air

I do not

But like the air

I do not

Like the air 

I return

To the Spirit

From which

I came

Like the balloon

This body may have a different color

a different size

But like the air

I do not

I cannot see me

In a picture

My race, or religion

my education or social status

are not me

They are materials

like the materials that forms the balloon.

I cannot know me through your judgment

of this form

of this life

not even through my own

No one can see the air

if only focused on the balloon

No one can see the Self

if only focused on the body

or how high it rises in status

- in power

To know myself

I must close my eyes

and follow the air

as it turns into the breath

that fills my lungs

and focus on its journey within

I must follow the air to the place

deep inside where I am found

And to know you

I must also close my eyes

and follow the air as it flows

as breath

to the place where you are

All other seeing

all other knowing

Is not of me

It is not of you

But of a balloon

that today encloses

Tomorrow releases

But never,

never

describes the inexpressible

Spiritual Beauty

of who we truly are

The following poem is dedicated to three men who are not here to read it, but were it not for them, I would not be the person that I am today writing it.

It is dedicated to my father Aguinaldo, my brother Alfonso, and my surrogate father Al Wallach.  These three men refused to yield to what
they believed to be injustice.  They instilled in me the deep conviction, that if we try to hide from injustice, if we tolerate injustice, or even if we ignore injustice, we are destroying any hope that in this world, there will ever be justice.  They were not here to witness this day – but I think that they planned it that way so that
they would have the best seats in Heaven.

Today the World Changed

I did not receive a release of my debts

But still, a debt was paid this day to a people,

To my people

Today the world changed

For one moment

Those men who sat for days to build a foundation

Upon which a more perfect union could be built

And those slaves who gave their blood, sweat and tears

To lay the bricks and mortar that would secure that foundation

And the Red man, from whom all of this was taken

Rose in silent witness

All of those souls – joining hand, and heart

Standing side by side cried tears of Joy

For the resurrection of the Spirit of America

Today the world changed

Not with a bang – but with a whisper

A whisper that resounded throughout the world

And into the Heavens

The sky did not fall

Only that impenetrable ceiling upon which, the words,

“You may rise no further, this club is for “White Men Only”

Came tumbling down like the walls of Jericho.

Today the world changed

The last unyielding, inhumane, bloody chains of oppression gave way,

The spirits of my Hebrew ancestors who escaped Egypt

And had cried that they could not be really free until all mankind was free

Stand, arm in arm with the spirits of all of the slaves that toiled
to build this country as the they had once toiled to build the pyramids,

Together their tears of joy rain down on us,

For they are all finally free, and the yokes of slavery and fear

Are removed from their generation

Today the world changed

Millions gathered ,of all ages, races, religions, genders, gay and straight, from all nations and all political ideologies

And above this multitude of men, women and children

Unnoticed, inconspicuous

Flloated  a multitude of Angelic Beings

All huddled together to bear witness to

the New World of Man,

the resurrection of Hope,

the resurrection of faith,

And the resurrection of Divine Love,

Today the world changed

The President of the most Powerful Nation in the world,

Was  raised up by the hands of the thousands of slaves who laid

The path that he walked , who built the stairs that he climbed,

And with pride and overflowing hearts they placed him in the highest seat.

They were able to work through the pain, the blood, and the exhaustion without giving up,

Without laying down to die,

Fueled and Driven by the faith that

One day, if they built it -

He would come

and complete the circle.

Today the world change

Never again can a teacher tell a little black, Hispanic, or native American child,

“You cannot reach for that goal, why even try, just wash dishes, clean houses

Get those foolish notions out of your head”

Never again, can a teen on the corner selling drugs to other teens

be able to say,

“The White man condemned me to this life, it is not my fault”

Never Again will the Black, Latino or Asian child be able to say that there is nothing more to aspire to

because they are Black, Latino, Chicano, or Asian

except to die in a gang.

Because – this day, if we look to our left, and we look to our right, there

Is the White man -

He is not in front -

He is not in control,

He is one of us – Today, the united States of America had declared this from here on,

Open seating

Today the world changed

No more can a boy or girl, living in a blighted ghetto or an arid dying suburb say,

“I cannot become whatever I want”

No one can ever, from this day forward say, I can’t.

No excuses left – no justifications left,

There is no greater or more meaningful role-model

Than the President Of The United States.

Today life’s struggles are still overwhelming us,

The tunnel which now darkly surrounds us

Has become neither shorter, nor easier,

And for so many of us – the light at the end of that tunnel,

Has grown no brighter.

Today the roof of my house shelters my family,

Tomorrow, it may be the roof of our car,

But if I have to struggle through the challenges of each day

This is the world that I want to struggle in.

Today the world changed

The dark and spiritless landscape that I stared out at yesterday

Has become a garden with the just  the tiniest buds of hope, of possibility, and of Light.

Whatever lies ahead for me, I have lived the best of my life.

My greatest fear was that my children would not have the chance to know

what the best might be.

And I know that the best that lies before my children will be much different than mine -

For mine was not real, it was made of glittering dust and ashes of the material world -

like a star we see far off in the distance of the night sky – so beautiful, yet

As soon as we see it, it is dead -

As soon as we obtain that far off material goal – it too is dead,

Ashes to ashes – dust to dust -we search for the next one.

Today the world has changed

The world of my children will not glitter,

It will radiate.

They will remember what being drunk with the world destroyed,

And so they will seek joy – and not intoxication.

History will record that this date ushered in a New Age

This is a great man,

but a great man cannot climb great heights alone

A great man can only accomplish great things by standing on

the shoulders of ordinary men and women,

Today the world changed

It changed because of white, black yellow and red, Jew, Christian,
Muslim, Sufi, Buddhist, Taoist, Hindi, Mormon, Atheist,, Agnostic, and
all other faiths -

men and women, gay and straight,

and the littlest of children,

the tiniest of Angels,

all raised him up, with their voices, and their prayers

pledged their toil, their struggles, their nickels, their dimes, their hopes and their dreams.

Because although this man is great

equally great are the people, the nation and  the world that would not let him down.

Today the world changed

Because one man claimed his place in history,

and showed us that we must claim our voices,

We must shout from the rooftops until we are heard,

And never, never be silent again.

He reminded us, and the world that this is our country -

and in the greatest sense – it is the country of the world -

there is no nation that does not have its own seeds planted in this garden.

And Today the World Is Proud to Be An American

And I am proud to have my country back

Today the world changed

I have my Statue of Liberty back,

This Lady was given to us as a reminder of who we are,

and why we are,

As clearly etched eternally on her foundation:

I have taken my faith back,

Knowing in my heart and soul that this moment has sealed it

forever.

Whatever happens, for better or for worse cannot erase,

cannot tarnish,

cannot touch in any way the undeniable fact,

That Today Happened

And it happened to every man woman and child in the world,

And with that faith – I have a reason to go on.

Today the world changed

The Last Great door opened wide today

The Last “Whites Only” sign

Has come down,

And with it, the last excuse for not trying,

or forever yielding the fight Before it’s begun

The White Man has not surrendered -

better than this,

He has realized that we are all in it together

And to stand, we must stand together

Today the world changed

All because one man, foolhardy enough to think that he could,

Promised millions of people around the world, that, “Yes We Can,”

And yes, together we did,

Today The World Changed

This is for every little child of every race, religion, and national origin,

you can dream even bigger,  reach for that far off star

even farther,

And for every man or woman who sees -Nothing

Whose lost -Everything,

You!  Find that dream, dust it off,

And dream it like you’ve never dreamed before,

Search for that star

You long ago lost track of,

And MOVE!

RUN!

REACH !

Everything is possible so long as we

Can hold our dreams

and keep our eyes on our stars,

Today the world changed

Today, with brown hand placed on the Bible, this man said, “I accept”

And we heard his heart say to us,

I accept your trust, I accept your faith,

I accept your dreams and your hopes.

I accept your need to believe

and I will honor them,

and I will honor you

with every breath in every day.

Today the world changed

On this cold, clouded winter afternoon

We were warmed, united in sacred ceremony

That at last

Meant something

in a place within each of us that we no longer dared go,

Under a common shining light

As One Nation, under God, with Liberty and Justice For All

It matters not what tomorrow brings -

whatever it brings will pass

Only this moment will shine forever

Through whatever darkness lies ahead

It will shine

It will shine until the last hungry child is fed,

It will shine until the last sick child is healed,

And it will shine until the last guns have been beaten into plowshares,

And until the missiles have been beaten into pruning hooks:

and nation no longer lifts up a sword against nation,

And  neither shall we learn war any more.

Today, The world changed

And nothing again as long as we live will ever be deemed, impossible.

Denise Gibel-Molini

With all that we are going through in the world today, it is more important than ever that we remember what we are, why we are here, and how our experiences now relate to all of that.   Otherwise, we will get lost in the experience and lose sight of its purpose.  We are souls rooted in God.  We enter the earth round of incarnations to learn unconditional love.  It is a concept that we throw around, but one that few really understand and even fewer live.

Every soul in this dream, at this time, is learning his own lesson; however, that lesson is connected with attachment to the things of the material world.  We talk about the final battle between good and evil.  But there is no battle between good and evil.  The battle that is being waged on earth today is between the spiritual world and the material world.  If we were to assign God to the Spiritual and Satan to the Material, then it is hands down a victory for God, because there is no power on earth that can prevent the fall of all those who held material power, along with all those who have been striving for material power and all those who have served material power.  But it is not that easy.  Losing everything is only the beginning of the journey, just as it had been for Job.

The accumulation of wealth in the material world requires a narrow sight.  Even if we do not consider ourselves to have hardened hearts, we must close our eyes to that which would prevent our focus on the goal of accumulation.  When I was in business, my partner and I began with an equal opportunity to amass wealth.  He was able to close his eyes to the needs of those workers whose efforts were necessary for our success.  I was not able to do that.  He felt that his position was earned by him, and obviously sanctioned by God; it was his right to be wealthy.  I felt that it was the Grace of God that had placed me in that position, and not my right.  I felt that it put me in a position where I was more responsible for those who were not in my position, not less.  He became wealthy not by screwing other people, so to speak, but by not seeing them.

I was driving in a car with a friend of mine in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and as we drove from the airport I saw that there was a beautiful view of the ocean to my left, and to my right was the very sad view of extreme poverty.  I asked my friend, as I looked at the broken down shacks to my right, how could they live their lives of affluence while they had to see this poverty every day.  He just turned my head towards the ocean and said, “We look this way”.  This position that we are facing, is one created not only by those who did not care, but also by those who would not see.  The fall that we are facing is rooted in the belief of Cain, that “I am not my brother’s keeper”.

There are so few of us who even love God unconditionally.  We live life in accordance with what we believe to be the will of God in order to gain the reward of such living.  It does not matter if we seek the reward of our faithful deeds on earth or in heaven; the point is that we are acting on condition.  What we do, we do as a means to an end.  In Job, we see a righteous man who we find, after being tested by Satan is perhaps righteous in the Biblical sense but not in the Spiritual sense.  It is clear in the beginning that he is good to those God favors, that he prays and gives the sacrifices required by scriptural law.  It is clear that his actions throughout his life had been without sin.  Yet, as is often the belief, he felt that in some way, the wealth, position, power and respect that he enjoyed was due to his life of righteousness, a reward from God.  In the beginning, he took the loss of everything in stride, understanding that God gives and so God can take away.  But as time went on he became angry, certain that he was a righteous man – holding up his end of the agreement – but God was not holding up God’s end.  He reached one point where he came to the belief that there is no benefit in trying to please God, in living a righteous life.  As Satan told God in the beginning, Job’s love was conditioned on the life that he was given, not from his heart.  Job goes through all of these different scenarios with three of his friends, always ending up in the same place.  Finally, the last person to speak to him is the youngest, waiting till the end because of his lack of age and the apparent learning that goes with it.  This young man speaks of God, not from scriptural reference but from the words that have come into his heart.  He tells Job that it may not be about reward or punishment; it may just be that God is speaking to him, teaching him something through these trials.

We want to believe that we are suffering because of the few greedy people who have robbed us.  That we are suffering because we have been deceived by a corrupt government, but that is only slightly true.  A better way of looking at it is that the system that we have fallen victim to is a system that we ourselves have fought to hold in place because we desire the material wealth that is only possible through a system such as ours.  We yell foul, only because it has broken down before we have had the chance to reach the top.  I say we because this is a Democracy and we have, and have always had the power to change the system, which we have not done because we have wanted our own chance at the golden ring.  Whether we can count ourselves among the haves or the have-nots, we are not separated by greater values but by lesser opportunities.  We need to learn, first and foremost that it doesn’t matter whether or not we profited by the system – we still chose to hold it in place.  The capitalist system, contrary to Democracy, creates mountains where those who can climb, can look down and feel superior to those who cannot.

So as we continue down this road of economic collapse, we are given a chance along the way to find our hearts, to forget about what we have left to lose and consider what we have left to share with those who have nothing left at all.  It will be a long road down, and all along the way we will have this opportunity to rise up and embrace the God within our hearts, perhaps this is the rising in our bodies, while we live to the Spiritual principals that are buried in our hearts.  For those Christians who are waiting for Christ to come and take them up in their bodies, perhaps, Christ is here already, waiting for them to enter their hearts and rise up to Christ’s level of unconditional love, while they are still in their bodies.  The number 144,000 breaks down in numerology to the number 9, which is the number of Universal Love.

Many of us are holding on to what someone else wanted for us, or someone else’s dreams.  Few of us are living the lives that reflect who we are in our souls.  The losses that we are facing now, could be the greatest chance that we will ever have to create the lives that speak our true names.  Now is the time when we are free to become.  There is a door opening for us, a second chance – we need to take it.

More than any time in our recorded history it behooves us to remember that we are souls, and as souls we are learning.  Our Teacher is God and the text is the book of life with all of its stages and all of its experiences.  United, as One, we can have more happiness in our lives than money could ever buy.  We just have to open our hearts and see God, love God, and server God, in and through every creature on earth.  In this final battle, the material world has no chance against the Spiritual, we just have to take a side and live it.

I remember walking down the street in my fur coat a few years back and having someone ask me if I knew how many minks died for my fur. I stopped wearing fur. I stopped because I did not need it, it was a luxury, it was a sign that I had made it – it was ego food. I understood the question. Now, with the world so small, and the suffering so great – so unavoidable – I wonder if we should not feel the same sense of responsibility that we feel for helpless animals, for helpless humans.

There was a time when your choices were beautiful sparkling diamonds or dull glass. It made some sense, if even in a superficial way, to want a diamond. But today, there are faux diamonds that cost a fraction of the cost and sparkle with equal brilliance – so one has to ask oneself why buy the diamond? What is it’s value in our world today? What if you have a ten thousand dollar diamond, trade it in for a one thousand dollar cubic zirconium and give the nine thousand dollars that you have left to buy mosquito nets for children in Africa? Then your diamond would have value., it would show much more than what you can afford to have, it would show what you are willing to give. Wouldn’t it be cool, rather than wearing a five thousand dollar blouse that says you are filthy rich, wearing a five-dollar tee shirt that says, “The money I planned to spend on a blouse is feeding a village in India”. How cool would you be?

Bling says to the world, “I am wearing this because I can afford it and I have nothing better to do with it than waste it on show”. Yes, it just does. No one can watch the homeless and displaced, the diseased and dying in this country and around the world and then spend thousands of dollars on things, which announce, “It’s about me”. Not today. Today we don’t need to spend thousands, millions of dollars on precious gems in order to sparkle. We can spend a fraction of that on semi-precious gems, give the rest to those in desperate need and not only sparkle from the gems, but glow from the heart. I believe that today it would be much more satisfying to wear something that doesn’t say “I have made it because I can afford to drip in diamonds” but something that says, “I have made it because I can afford to feed a village”. The oohs and ahhs are much greater today and much more long lasting when you show what you give rather than what you wear.

If our success in a profession is measured by the amount of money that we are paid, that is ok, if we understand that our true worth is measured by what we give. The point is that there is no need for bling today, it doesn’t look better than faux bling, but trading that bling in for heart does look better. We cannot outlaw bling anymore than we can outlaw fur, but it would be nice to ask someone dripping in bling, “How many children’s bellies could be filled by those earrings?” “How many villages could be educated against AIDS with that ring?” And perhaps, while we are at it, we should ask ourselves how much does it cost to make a house a home, and how many children can we give a home to for the price of a ten million dollar house?

I am not advocating ego denial. I am advocating a sense of satisfaction that not only feeds the ego but also feeds the soul. Trust me, it feels better to give to give to children in Somalia than it does to give to salespeople in Harry Winston, Proving to a child that faith has reason, God is alive and that there are angels is so much more gratifying than the stares you get from sparkling down the street in jewels. And who could honestly say that a tour of a mansion you built could hold a candle to a tour of the hospital you built in a village that has not even seen a doctor. Save a mink, don’t buy fur, Save a child, don’t buy bling.

In the darkness

i cry

and cry

and hope

the phone will

ring

and hope

i can hold on

until

there is no more

crying

no more

hoping

and no more

darkness

I am living

between

If you stay

or

If you leave

I am surviving

between

with

or

without you

I face two paths

and travel

none

For you are still in my life

but not really

And you are out of my life

but not quite

I am an Astrologer, and among Astrology we speak our own language.  We say things like, “Saturn is conjunct the Sun”, and we need say no more because within our community we all understand what that means.  When I first began doing readings I would say, “Such and such is happening to you, because Saturn is conjunct your Sun.  I found that people became so caught up in thinking that they had to understand the meaning of that phrase that they lost the message that I was trying to convey.  So I learned to give the information that was needed and leave out the information that would only create a distraction for someone who did not understand the language.  I am neither scientifically or mathematically oriented.  I have a very difficult time understanding anything that is explained using scientific terms or mathematic formulas.   They are languages that I just can’t wrap my mind around.  I need someone to convince me that something works using a language that I can readily understand.  So, when I read that quantum physics or quantum mechanics is responsible for the microwave, the internet, nuclear energy, etc., I am convinced enough that it works to be able to accept whatever else it has to tell me, just as I only need to drop a ball from my hand and watch it fall down to trust the things that are explained by gravity.

In the beginning what we call God today was considered incomprehensible.  All ancient belief systems saw God as being so great that we could never name or even begin to conceive of it as anything but an awesome mystery.  The best that we could do was to acknowledge that God was in all that existed in the world around us and attempt to worship aspects of God through the different natural examples around us.  All of the religions that we considered to be polytheist were not, they were worshipping the unnamable Source of the Universe through its aspects.  There had been, since the ice age and awe and fear of the Unnamable because it could not be defined or named but could be experienced in everything in our Universe.   But with the formalizing of religion we lost the awe and mystery of our Source because contrary to what we knew – we named It and believed It to be contained in whatever name we chose – even god with a capital “G”.  We gave It names, Yahweh or Jehovah, Allah, Jesus, etc.  In essence, with each new name, we created a new god that only a chosen group could access.  Although we say that there is only one true God, that one true God is Allah if you are a Muslim, Yahweh or Yod-He-Vav-He, if you are Jewish, Jesus if you are Christian.  In truth, we have numerous one true Gods.

What was not understood was that anything that has a name has limits and boundaries.  It becomes something to understand, to figure out.  So, through our formal religions we became accustomed to gods that we have limited within names, thereby given a material quality to – thus, offered to science something to disprove.  In order for each religion to distinguish their one true God from all other one true Gods was by giving them different names.  This was something that would not have even been considered before.

We relate to time through clocks and calendars.  Neither is not time, and neither can explain our experience of time – how it seems to move faster when we are running late, and move slower when we are anxiously waiting.  During all of this the hands of the clock seem to move at the same pace.  Although the clock can never express time as we perceive it, therefore time is much greater than the systems that we use to measure it.  And, any name or label that we give to the Source of all that is, describes it as much as a grain of sand contained on the beach describes the earth that contains all beaches.  With each name and character that we ascribe to our Source we distance ourselves further from Its true awesome power and glory which was felt, honored, loved and feared by our ancient ancestors.

Science and Spirituality once were one in the same.  They described the movement of the clock and honored with awe the essence of time as one whole.  There was a completeness that gave peace to our understanding of the world in which we lived.  Science contained an awe and acknowledgment of Spirit.  It contained the understanding that the world is made up of an understandable how – and a mysteriously incomprehensible why.  With the formalizing of the Institution of Religion, science was evicted and Spirituality was left like time without the clock to contain and express it.

With the separation of Science and Spirit we were forced to make a choice that either discounted our spiritual beingness or our material beingness.  We have lived a disjointed life in a disjointed world, fractured, fragmented and unable to reconcile itself.  This is because the spirit of the Life and the form of life were separated by a fork in a road where neither path led anymore to wholeness.  God became a name representing something superhuman that was real only in relation to its connection with a specific religion.  In my mind, God, by each name, became no more than the Spiritual Leader of each religion – each religion contained a God, rather that all religions being contained within the One Source of All that Is – the eternal I AM.  In truth, It is beyond comprehension, beyond description, and therefore – beyond name.  When we say God – with or without a capital “G”, we are not referring to That which is nameless.  We do not fear God because we have not only give God a name, but a gender – something that is only assigned to the things of earth.  We have made our Source into a man, albeit a superman, but a man nonetheless.  Therefore, science has scoffed at God, each religion has turned God into its own mascot – and mankind has ceased to evolve, living like the fish symbolizing Pisces – connected, yet swimming in opposite directions and going nowhere.

Now there is this new science.  It is real, because it is through this science that we have, as I mentioned above, nuclear energy, microwave ovens, television, and the internet and on and on.  However, this new science tells us that everything in the Universe consists of atoms, and atoms are not “things”.  Atoms are comprised of 99% space.  According to science, as much as we consider ourselves solid forms, we consist of formlessness.  It tells us that the world in which we live is the world that we collectively and individually perceive.  Its journey is taking us Home – returning us to the wonder, awe and mystery of God.  Reading about the discoveries of Quantum theory and quantum mechanics is like reading an ancient mystical text.  Science and Spirit are returning to the point of oneness.  Form and Spirit are reuniting and we are returning to the connection with the Unnamable Source of all that is.  The Quantum Sciences are mysterious and meta-physical; however, we can no more live without them today than we could live until this time without Newtonian physics.  Albert Einstein, one of its fathers said,

“A human being is part of the whole, called by us “Universe”, a part limited in time and space.  He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest – a kind of delusion of consciousness.  This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us t our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.  Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.  Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievements is in itself a part of the liberation, and foundation for inner security.”

The world of quantum physics is not solid, it is not a world of things but a world of the “no things“.   These “no things” are what the entire universe is made up.   They are energy and that energy is consciousness.  The Source of all things, spreads itself through the universe as consciousness, as atoms…as “no things”.   This is the science that will be the foundation for the future description of our world.  In this context, the origins of the world and of the species are then placed in what can only be viewed as a spiritual context.  There is no avoiding a new paradigm.  It is one that begins where our most ancient ancestors left off. The ancient wisdom that the Mayans claimed would be resurrected is being resurrected through scientific discoveries, the uncovering of ancient texts, and the sudden spiritual inspirations that many are having now.  The science that will take us through the 21^st century and the New Age, is one in reverence for the Source of all that is.  It is one that resonates with the earliest mystical traditions.

Through science, we will come to understand that the world is a Spiritual Universe that appears to be a physical one.  This will open up new ways of understanding every aspect of our lives, the meanings hidden in the scriptures that we study, and our connection with each other and with all life on earth.  From the fourth century CE., until less than two hundred years ago, the world was flat and the Sun, Moon, and stars revolved around it.  We were certain that disease was caused by evil spirits and the use of herbs for healing was witchcraft.  All of this began to change slowly with the Enlightenment.

Although we see the world today in a radically different way, many of the other superstitions and beliefs are still tucked comfortably under the guise of religion.  We have opened a new cycle with the entrance of quantum physics into our everyday lives.  It is not real, so we will be forced to listen to what it has to teach us.  It will become a part of our consciousness and form the foundation for the new age that we are entering.  The Hopi say that we are leaving the cycle of the animal and entering the cycle of the human.  This coincides with the fact that Aquarius, the age that we are poised to enter, is the only sign in the zodiac represented by a human.  It is the water bearer – the bringer of wisdom, and the glyph that is used to represent Aquarius is › a symbol that could be seen as two quantum waves moving together through the Universe.