I sometimes smile when Mother Nature shows she doesn’t know which day it is for me to honor which Angel in accordance with my Essene Gospel practice. For instance, last Sunday (day of mindfulness of Angel of Sun in the morning per my “schedule” –  easy to remember!) we had rain and snow. And on Monday (Angel of Water day and another easy one for me – “moon day,” and moons govern the tides and waters) we had sunshine.

So what to do? Well, I go either of two ways. On days when the Sun is obscured I can think of its presence behind the clouds – or just honor the Angel of whatever is happening that day. If there's no snow or rain on Monday, I can think of Water by either noticing dew or frost, or the water that comes out the kitchen faucet -- or  bringing to mind rivers, lakes or oceans. Or I can be mindful of whichever Natural energy is predominant that Monday.

This lack of coordination seems to happen often with Angel of Air day… That’s Tuesday, but we often have winds for several days in succession. Just about any day we have breezes or blustery weather,       I like to think of the Angel of Air coming in to clear out the "baggage" of our mental bodies.  All that fear, anger, sadness, guilt, judgment (feel free to add your own) gets swept away and cleared out by the air. Ideally, sending all those energies packing  leaves us open to create more positive, health-ful and compassionate thoughts from that time forward. (I know, for however long that lasts…. Which is why I have to bring my thoughts back as often as I can to the belief that every little bit helps. It’s certainly better than nothing at all!)

It’s pretty neat when the weather or my location on any given day affirms the aspect of Nature for that day per the Essene Gospels. (By the way, the writings don’t tell  you what day you’re to honor which. There are segments that talk about “on the first day, greet the Angel of ____”  –  but that first day is not specified.) However, The Law (the Essene's understanding of the Supreme Being) apparently did not pass the schedule on to Nature. This allows us more variety in our practice, and many ways to be mindful of the Life that exists in our natural surroundings on any given day. :-)

The Angels of the Morning are: Sun, Water, Air, Earth, Life and Joy – and on the Sabbath we are told to honor all the Angels of Mother Earth.  I think the important thing is to work on mindfulness and appreciation of them – in whatever order you choose!

Yesterday we were treated to a morning of delicate, lacy frost decorating our trees, lawns and shrubs.

It was Monday – the day when my practice of the Essene Gospels honors the Angel of Water in the morning. So as I walked through the winter wonderlandy landscape, I thought of the different forms that water takes.

In The Essene Book of Creation, author Edmund Szekely refers to the ability of water to take its different forms: vapor in the air, liquid form in rain and bodies of water, and its solid form of ice. He claims that, in the Essene tradition, this underscores the varieties of Life experiences: thinking (air), feeling or emotional (water) and physical (the solidity of ice).

The fact that water evaporates, moves upward into the air, condenses there, and falls to the Earth again in the form or rain (or ice or snow if conditions are such) represent the constant interaction of Life. Water shows us all the conditions of Life in the forms it is able to take. And all forms of water are the simple two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen – illustrating to us, through nature, that all physical manifestations are made of the same “stuff.”

Nature reflects our “nature” back to us. And yesterday, in its shimmering beauty accompanied by the soft “tick, tick, tick,” of these small shards of frost hitting the pavement as they were blown off the trees by the gentle breeze, was a treasure. For me, it brought to mind the Beauty of Life -- the beauty inherent in all Life. Something I'm not aware of very often.

What is nature telling you today?  

I smiled on my morning walk today to see a lighted window sign, “Joy.”  Someone had it up from the holidays, was my guess. But it was fitting for me to see on this Friday, which is the day I am mindful of the Essene Gospel’s Angel of Joy in the morning.

Funny thing was, on my return past the house the sign was gone! Guess someone was taking down their Christmas décor. So I’m glad I was able to get a visual reminder to supplement my internal affirmations on at least one leg of my tour around the neighborhood.

It’s a New Year – and Joy is a fitting sentiment. I hope it becomes a greater part of your life as the days, weeks and months unfold.

One episode of  "We'll Meet Again" focused on a couple of men who had survived the Holocaust.        In one case, the very close friend that one man wanted to reconnect with had passed away – but he was able to travel to Israel to meet his friend’s children. They shared something interesting (if I’m recalling this correctly in terms of it being the children who shared this…. Perhaps it was the man seeking the reconnection): That their father did not share any stories about his experience in the death camps – but what brought out the memories was when the grandchildren asked questions.       It turned out that both men, in their later years, realized the importance of keeping the memory of the atrocity of those times alive and had reached out to the younger generation to tell them about their lives in Dachau. The visiting man told the other’s children, “Yes, we didn’t want to contaminate our children with that information.” (My emphasis)

So, war has no impact? From this little blog post to our administration’s ears! (I wish!) It brings to mind the Native American teachings that our actions have been impacted by seven generations before us, and will affect not only our life, but seven generations that come after us.

OK, the "We’ll Meet Again" story was a little digression…. I tend to be prone to those… But did it illustrate my point?

Digressions aside, what’s the upshot of all this?  The potential of opposites is always a clash.                   It seems rare that both sides are able to honor the difference and find ways to use each position to advantage.  Yet, birth happens from the union of two opposites to create a third distinct entity.          (And if we consider children as our model for this, the third – or child – contains within it aspects of each of the two who created it.)

I think our country is ripe for a Birth. There’s  a lot  of energy stirred up in the many levels of                    our conflicts. In meditation this morning the thought came to me that all this pain could be likened      to the pangs of childbirth. Often mothers think they are dying in this process – yet usually they survive and a new life is born.

Will this come to fruition in 2019? Of course, I don’t know. Nor do I know what qualities this new “being” will possess. I am hoping for a better sense of cooperation, wisdom and respect. However, the potential is that a rising Feminine will be “clothed” in women’s bodies, yet throw their own agenda around in a way very similar to the Masculine that preceded them.

I don’t know what will unfold, but I don’t think anyone can deny that the process is in the works.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2019!  If the birds around our house are any indication, this year will be met with lots       of excitement! I suppose one could see that heralded in the past couple weeks by the way the         U.S. stock market is behaving.

Which leads me to consider all the fluctuations and conflicts that are occurring – at least, in our country. Following the Nov. elections, the Democrats took a majority in the House of Representatives. The Republicans retained majority in the Senate. New laws enacted require passage by both these parts of our legislative body and already the power struggle is on. Which reminds me of the legislative gridlock that fell into place when President Obama came in and the Republicans did all they could to grind law-making to a halt. Hmmm…. Karma, possibly?

But it’s not just that. The Masculine and Feminine “balance” (which I put in quotes as I don’t believe it’s in the best balance currently) is also being challenged.  The Masculine has been throwing its power around without thought for potential fall-out. The MeToo movement is saying “enough!” and women are speaking out about how this treatment has been affecting them.  And it’s not just women. 

The Masculine rattles its sabers demanding respect and control, sending young men off to war to show our strength (and hopefully get whatever it is the powers-that-be want from the other country.)  Do they consider the damage caused to this new generation of the Masculine? Doesn’t seem so. Apparently, it’s worth the physical, emotional and spiritual damage.

And thought seldom seems to be accorded to the families of those soldiers when they return home.    If Dad (or Mom these days) harbors anger about physical injuries that impact their quality of life, where is that released? If traumatic brain injuries have changed their mental functioning, how are thoughts and feelings now expressed? What about the impact on the family of their loved one’s flashbacks;      the hypervigilance of PTSD; beliefs held by the soldier about the people they were fighting, and so many other aspects of having to fight to the death against another person? And if anger or depression impact the children, what’s the impact on the grandchildren? The higher rate of suicide among veterans is well established – and somehow, it’s still worth it.

My husband and I have been watching episodes of the PBS series, “We’ll Meet Again.” It tells the stories of a variety of people, all impacted positively by someone who they then lost contact with. As they get into their later years, a strong urge develops to find that person, reconnect and thank them for the experience they shared so long ago.

....  To be continued in next post  :-)

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/