Greetings, blog readers!

How many of you know that on this past Monday, 11/26/2018, the U.S. landed a new robotic explorer on Mars? This one, called InSight, is specifically for probing deep below Mars’s surface to study its geological history and learn more about how Mars was formed.

Here’s a pretty awesome video of the location where InSight landed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC4qWmZHOf0

Now…. What’s often the first thing we humans want to look for on a new planet? Life! And what do we look for as an indicator of the potential of that life? Water!

Which is the connecting point for me today… because Monday, the way I do the Essene Gospels, is the day that I honor the Angel of Water in the morning.

I know that water is not thought to be existent on the arid, cold red planet. (Though we do have a current TV show of settling on Mars airing on the National Geographic channel where the scientists who arrive first do find water. And microbes…  Exciting!)

Is water really necessary for life? Essene Gospel translator and interpreter, Edmond Szekely, in his book, The Essene Book of Creation tells us that the mention of water in the Essene Gospels refers to the complexity of universal life. Szekely notes that water is not just mentioned as part of creation in our biblical texts, but also in the Zend-Avesta and in the Hymn of Creation in the Rig-Veda. In the latter is specifically mentioned, “Of the time the mighty waters came containing the universal germ.”  An oft-used Buddhist image is that of the ebb and flow of water as symbolizing the individuality of humans (the waves) as part of Spirit (the ocean). The waves are always part of the ocean, and the ocean is more than a wave.

In my most recent posts, I referred to Szekely’s interpretation of Light as consciousness. Now we see that Water represents life. Even in our bodies, Life comes from water. The sperm, largely made of liquid, travels through liquid to fertilize an egg, also largely water. The baby grows in the womb in amniotic fluid. And this is true of all mammals – the young grow in sacs of fluid.

It sounds like InSight will be looking more for the consistency of dirt and rocks…. Yet in the TV program, water is discovered deep below the surface of Mars. And if that happens, is there life? 

How does all this come together?

The abuses leveled towards the Feminine over the centuries (let us not even mention witch hunts and burning at the stakes!) lie in our mass unconscious. Till now. Women are coming together, en masse, to decry this practice in all its forms and demand that the Masculine start to not only behave with more respect and responsibility, but to own the errors of its past thinking that all things – not just women, but animals and all of the natural kingdom – are to be used in any way that men please.

Soooo… I’m even going to go out on a limb and take this a step further.

Could the climactic upheavals that have been taking place with much more regularity in the past decade possibly be the rebellion of the Earth for the way She is treated? America, especially, seems to think she can drill for oil anywhere, put in pipelines without regard to potential leaks, cut down vast forests, pollute the waters and the air -- and there will be no consequences. (Well, other than the potential for making more money, of course…)

The Feminine is speaking. It doesn’t seem like it’s loud enough quite yet, but She is growing in her demand to be recognized. Women are not only writing and speaking, but coming together in the thousands to protest. The Earth is sending us volcanic activity, tidal waves, wind storms and an unprecedented number of fires. Personally, it doesn’t matter to me how much of this climate change is man-made and how much is a natural cycle. I believe the Earth is attempting to call our attention to the fact that we are blatantly disrespecting her and causing significant imbalance – not to mention health risks either related to pollution of the land, water and air or the risk of death due to hurricanes and other “natural disasters.”

While this had all been percolating in our mass unconscious, it is erupting into our daily awareness --both on the conscious level and through accessing alternate states of consciousness. Moreover, Pluto is lending its energy to the process, further activating it.

I think we’re living in exciting times. Pluto exits Capricorn in 2024 – moving from an Earth sign to an Air sign, Aquarius. As for that energy, here’s what Ichrak’s astrology blog has to say:

“ When Pluto enters Aquarius  this heralds a period of sustained political transformation at a profound level. Whereas Pluto in Capricorn has largely been about the levers of government, the inner workings of global economic systems, the authorities out there, dark money, the secret powers in charge, Aquarius is about the people, the masses, and the 30,000 foot view. Saturn in Capricorn will encourage a healthy re-creation or bolstering of the relationship with the authority-in-here. Pluto in Aquarius weaves webs from the strength of that authority.
… This is about the primal bubbling emerging and overflowing from the camp of the masses. The effects of this transit are informed by the movements the people mobilize, the quality of the spirit of cooperation in their banding together, and the sense they make of the changes they want to bring forth. ”

For more on that topic: https://atlasastrology.com/2017/04/17/the-deck-is-being-stacked-for-pluto-in-aquarius/

Anyone else interested to see how all this shakes out in the next decade?

And don’t forget to “do your part.”

As Govinda notes, Pluto is currently in the sign of Capricorn. Capricorn is typically seen as strong, dependable, hard-working and persistent. That said, Capricorn is an Earth sign – and I would tend to agree with Athen Chimenti (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvhFODVB-nM) when he notes that as an Earth sign, Capricorn also contains Feminine energy.

Perhaps more than anything, my study of the Essene Gospels is getting me in touch with nature and the Earth as feminine energy. The natural component of the Essene Gospels has us honor the essences of nature (“Angels”) as aspects of the Earthly Mother.

Why, you wonder? Because the Earth is the sustainer of all. Like a human mother nurtures her baby and provides what the child needs to live and grow, the Earth grows the plants that feed both animals and man. The trees that take energy and food through their roots in her soil provide oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange so that all above-ground life can breathe and survive. Those trees also supply homes for birds and squirrels. The ground’s solidity holds the waters, which house fish life and also provide for our survival via not only the water we drink, but the water necessary to grow food plants.

In general, the Earth is dark; her soils varying from light brown to deep ebony. (Yes, I’m aware there are white and pink sands – that’s why I say “in general.” Let’s also remember there are black sands.) In women, the womb is dark. In that darkness grows new life. The night is dark – and the Moon, with her reflective light that shines in the dark, is referred to in the feminine.

We tend to think of the dark as bad or evil. Yet what is bad about a womb? How could a baby be nurtured for 9 months and survive in an evil environment? And don’t we trust the food we eat? If we believed all that’s dark is evil, then surely we would not want to eat things that are grown in and receive sustenance from that evil darkness!

Here’s another take on the dark, expounded by Edmond Szekely in his book, The Essene Book of Creation: The Essene Gospels (in the Book of Creation) define the dark not as anything evil or undesirable, but as “the absence of thought, of consciousness.”  So when the creation story talks about God dividing the light from the darkness, it is describing the advent of consciousness coming into our planet. Szekely says the same concept occurs in the Zend Avesta of Zoroaster: two “kingdoms” are created – that of Ormudz (Light) and Ahriman (Dark). In the Zend Avesta the dark is simply referred to as the absence of Light, containing within it all the potentials of Light – and will later evolve into Light. (My emphasis). He goes on to say that as a planet attains the degree of evolution when dominant races appear with the capacity to think, then Light enters it through the cosmic ocean of ether that makes up the universe.

In the meantime, the darkness holds the potential – apparently the potential for enlightened thinking!

To be continued....

I already quoted once from the astrologer, Govinda’s, newsletter. And now I must again. For I am currently feeling a swell of energy that is gaining momentum. This has been awakened in me by the processes of several women in recent Eupsychia Integrative Breathworks that I have facilitated – one in Oct. and one a couple days ago (Nov.).

For me, they appear to be related to the systemic energetic impact Govinda addresses in his article about Pluto’s recent movement:

“Pluto will cross the Ecliptic (the imaginary celestial plane formed by the Earth's orbit around the Sun), moving from the northern hemisphere into the southern hemisphere on Tuesday, October 30th at 6:13 am (PDT).

This represents one of the most profound shifts in the evolution of the Collective Consciousness
of Humanity in our lifetime!

Yes, Pluto is a planet! It is the most profound planet in our solar system. Pluto is a deeply spiritual, evolutionary planet. It is the planet of death and rebirth. (i.e.: The ending of old ways of being, allowing the birth of a new and expanded awareness and way of being.) Pluto serves our collective and individual evolution by showing us where we have blocks to the awareness of our Oneness. It helps us to unify with all beings and all things. It serves us by purifying the ego. Sometime this is done through a transformational process that is not always pleasant…

Pluto is in the Sign of Capricorn as it crosses the Ecliptic. Pluto is in Capricorn (from January 2008 – November 19, 2024) representing a condition wherein an entire chapter or cycle of evolutionary development has come to a close and another has begun….”

You can read the whole article here:  http://www.astrologywithgovinda.com/articles.html

Why this information on Pluto? Because not only is Pluto the planet of death and rebirth; it is also the planet that has impact on the mass unconscious. DominantStar.Com says Pluto “represents the “underworld” of the collective unconscious and of the collective psychic changes that originate there and that manifest as mass movements in social history.”

For me, I see this movement of Pluto coming into expression through current national events.

And what’s currently happening? The MeToo movement, Brett Kavanaugh’s hearing regarding alleged sexual abuse he committed years ago, and many other formal complaints being made by women about inappropriate sexual behavior of men in powerful positions. These accusations aren’t sparing anyone – consider those accusing American icon Bill Cosby! (Which statement is not meant to imply my belief in either his guilt or innocence; I’m simply noting that it happened.)

The “underground” repository of millions of women have decided enough is enough and secrets that had been held inside are coming to light. In one of the Breathwork sessions, two of the women not only experienced outrage related to their own past abuses, but saw this condition going back generations upon generations. One of them stated, “This has got to stop!”

In the other Breathwork session, one of the women experienced shape-shifting into a bear in order to attack a horde of vicious men on the rampage. Other animals joined her – and after the men had been dispatched, all the animals shape-shifted back into women!

To be continued…

Two posts in one day? Unheard of -- for me, anyway!

Till I saw this clip from CBS Sunday Morning.

Dare I go back to the Essene Gospels again? In the account of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments, there are Commandments he receives when he originally goes up on the Mount -- which become changed after he descends and finds his people cavorting and worshiping the golden calf. When he goes back up to plead with God for understanding of the weaknesses of the people, Moses is given a second set of Commandments -- the ones we have in our standard Bibles today.

But here is what the Essene Gospels include in the first set of Commandments:

"Thou shalt not take the life from any living thing. Life comes only from God, who giveth it and taketh it away."

Here's a young man putting that into practice -- thank you for honoring the sacredness of all life!

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/reviving-a-squirrel-with-cpr/

Well, this morning (Sunday – Angel of Sun morning, on a cloudy day) I tried something new. This past week I took an action on something I’ve been wanting to do for months: I contacted a Jewish community near me to see if I could initiate some learning in their tradition. I was not raised in the Jewish faith – yet, not coincidentally I’m sure, in the years I lived in New York City my two best girlfriends were Jewish, I dated a Jewish man, and considered another Jewish man in the office where I worked a good friend. To top that off, I completed a 2-year program in Interfaith ministry taught by a Rabbi!

Those who have followed my blog know that in the past several years I have been studying and practicing the Essene Gospels. It’s noted in one of the Essene books I have that Kabbalah could be an outgrowth of the Essene teachings. What I have not mentioned yet on this blog (I don’t think) is that I’ve also been reading about Kabbalah – and resonating with it. And despite the fact that Kabbalah is the teachings of Jewish mysticism, apparently those teachings are not supported by many mainstream Jewish synagogues and Rabbis. For a long time I was trying to find a way to study Kabbalah with others through Meet Ups without success.

I emailed this local group and was promptly placed on their email list. (Of course, no direct response to my inquiry about studying Kabbalah – ha, ha! I figured I probably need to become more known to the community and then they can decide whether I’m worthy, or ready, or…  Mildly annoying, but I get it.)

One of the upcoming events was a teaching/discussion today in commemoration of the 11 Jewish people recently murdered in their place of worship in Pittsburgh. The topic was Finding Comfort: Seeing G-d through the Pain. There had also been a series of Holocaust survivor speakers recently here in Spokane that unfortunately I missed attending. So great – I get to go pay respects to a community that, in the least (in my beliefs), does not deserve such persecution. (Of course the point can be made – who does???)

One of the points the Rabbi teaching this topic made is that we humans perceive things as tragedies, yet we have no knowing the possible higher purpose of such incidents. At the very least, our painful life experiences provide us opportunity to grow – grow in awareness of our physical endurance, our emotional capacity, and our ability to help others who may later go through similar experiences. What he said brought to mind that old Chinese story of a man whose son breaks a leg, and he thinks that’s horrible – till the national army comes to take the young man to serve in war, and he’s unable to go because of his broken leg. There’s a series of similar other things that happen, each originally seen as terrible – till the next event follows and what was seen as horrendous and such a cause for suffering and grieving suddenly turns into a blessing.

Several months back I had an interesting dream. During the days leading up to it, I’d been bumping up against the concept of things happening in the spiritual realms -- or perhaps parallel universes if you want to look at it that way – that have direct impact on physical events. However, we are unaware of the connection because we can’t see with our human eyes what’s happening in other dimensions. 

In my dream, an other-worldly being was standing behind the driver’s seat of a car funneling M & Ms through the tight opening in the seat where the seat bottom meets the back of the seat. This was resulting in a pile of M & Ms accumulating on the seat. I realized in the dream that I was being given an insight on the cause of the appearance of the M & Ms, which were visible to us in our ordinary physical existence. I knew the being behind the seat was not visible to our physical eyes, yet the M & Ms were amassing because of it. And I “got” that, for all things that appear in our physical universe, if the cause is not one we are able to apprehend physically, it means there is something occurring on a non-physical level.

M & Ms?  I know – funny symbolism! I suppose one could use the goofiness of what was being used to illustrate the point as a reason to discredit it. To me, the point is not what was used. What if it were gold coins accumulating on the seat? The message, for me, would be the same: There was a direct cause for the appearance of those M & Ms – but the vast majority of humans, myself included, would not see it.

Is it possible that tragedies we experience are blessings in a way we don't comprehend?

We do not know All.