One By One, the Strands of a Web...
This lady's son is a truther; we had a nice chat outside the Harvard Science Center yesterday...
Greetings G,
What a great conversation this evening. I just wanted to drop you a line, hoping we can continue this dialogue on how the spiritual crisis that emanates from a burgeoning global awareness can be addressed. I appreciate you sharing so openly with me, and I hope our conversation energized your passion for your "calling."
In light of the cosmic shift--and the energy that is reverberating throughout the world right now, I wanted to share with you that as soon as I got on the subway and opened the book I was reading (Sensuous Spirituality: Out from Fundamentalism by Virginia Ramey Mollenkott)--this is what it said:
(Let me preface this by saying that Mollenkott has a sort of mystical dialogue here with god--though that may seem a little strange, she is definitely 'out of the box' in her views. She is speaking from a specifically Christian perspective that I am not attempting endorse, but I do find this extremely relevant.)
Then Why Bother to Work for Social Change?
On the other hand it has occured to me to wonder why anybody should lift a finger for social change. If everything is really working out as it should, why should I do anything other than eat, sleep, and be merry? Or perhaps read books on spirituality, meditate, and feel peaceful? When I asked that question of the Holy Spirit, I was told that asking that question reveals that I have forgotten that I am one aspect of the universal process that is working according to plan. The process will not be aborted if I fail to do my part in it, but in some infinitesimal way the process will be changed--and above all, I will miss out on the blessing of playing my position on a team in a universal game in which everybody wins. Among other things, I was told,Some people may be passive thoughts in my mind, and it is not your place to judge them or my way of being within them. But you are an active thought in my mind and it is in your nature to work for the social change that is already in the process of happening, (You can move mountains as Jesus said [Mat. 17:20], precisely because the mountains are already on the move.) It is for this reason that you can work in a relaxed and joyous way. All you have to supply is the willingness to channel my energetic love and justice into the world, and I will work through you to bring about what I am already bringing about.A great shift to consciousness is occuring in the world and you are part of that shift....I work in different people in different ways, and despite your passionate commitment to an activist way, you must allow other people to respond to you in ways that feel right to their natures, for thus the whole pattern is made perfect...To phrase all this another way, it is your privilege to be an agent of the social changes that are occuring. With you or without you, what should occur will occur. If you feel an impulse toward activism, you would be denying your own nature if you became privatistic and passive; so in that sense, it is essential for you to cooperate by being one of my activist channels into the world. On the other hand, it is impossible for you to make a mistake because even your apparent errors will be learning opportunities for yourself and others.
[...]In the chapters to come, I will explore some specific applications of the interaction between activism and wise passivity and their implications for people whose spirituality is of the sensuous kind. The ability to confront the sufferings and systems of this world with a tough-minded realism, and yet to remain willing to be shown some lovely possibilities beneath, beyond, and within those realities, possibilities that may not be apparent on the surface: this is what I mean by sensuous spirituality. And in my experience, it is the best antidote for burn-out. (P. 24-26)
then why bother?/William Wilberforce
there has been some amazing philosoph discourse on this site in the past few days!!! i have so much going on, but have been reading and absorbing whenever.
just viewed the inspiring film "Amazing Grace" last eve. highly recommend for those who may at times be feeling a bit discouraged. the actors were superb. (enjoyed seeing Rufus Sewell, whom i had just seen in "Paris, je t'aime!")
The Lord's strength and blessings to all you who be so good- and brave-hearted!
Albert Finney, Benedict Cumberbatch, and ioan whatev were also
quite excellent. A long time ago i saw Bill Moyer's "Amazing Grace" about Newton and how he came to pen that hymn.
I was going to post this yesterday...
then decided it might be too airy-fairy, but now I feel emboldened. Anyway, for people who follow astrology, we're entering a VERY interesting period between now and the early '20s. (And as a quick note, my take on astrology is not that the planets have an "effect" on us, but that patterns are replicated on many different levels -- as above, so below -- and that the human tradition of following the planets' positions relative to earth may be a revelation of pattern that is easier to read than some of the stuff that is right in our faces.)
This is from a site called Celestial Notebook, which does a daily "reading" of the planets positions relative to each other -- as opposed to a personal horoscope, which would be the planets relative to the position of of the planets at our own time of birth (our natal planets).
April 15, 2008
‘If you bear the cross willingly, it will bear you. ’ Thomas A. Kempis
Saturn, Master of Reality, and Pluto, Lord of the Underworld are close to trine – both retrograde at 1° Virgo- Capricorn (Virgo symbol-Capricorn symbol). During this year the principles of these two planets are effortlessly brought together: could we leap beyond the melodramas of personality and identify with something more timeless? Can we apply that special wisdom within each of us to make our intention dominant over our fears? Pluto takes away our crutches, shows us the darkness and our demons and insists we have faith in our destiny – success or failure does not count. Saturn offers us a mission: to shape a transforming world into a place where the individual lives his life in accord with what may be the best for all.
(Saturn and Pluto were opposite each other during the fateful events of 2001.)
We are not ever placed in a situation that is beyond us: when we are ready for the next lesson, it appears and, although at times we need to surrender, we have the resources to find the way out. When we feel overwhelmed by what we need to face, we have only to ask for heaven’s help. Our higher mind knows the answer, however paradoxical, to all our major conflicts.
Saturn is slowing down to turn direct on 3 May and makes himself at home at 1° Virgo until 23 May! The Sabian symbol for this degree is illuminating: ‘A large white cross dominates the landscape; the wisdom and compassion only the experience of suffering and isolation can bring.’ And the keynote: ‘A liberating ordeal’.
is airy-fairy like artsy-fartsy?
but, well, fresher? :)
In any case, I think that astrology can provide as good a starting point as any for reflection and contemplation. it's kind of like saying that it doesn't matter whether you use metric or avoirdupois or imperial measurement units so long as you don't compare apples and oranges. of course what makes astrology more of an art than a science is the fact that interpretations, while not entirely arbitrary, leave lots of room for massaging. of course so do regular "hard" social statistics and the like, so that the real fools are the ones who think that their "scientific" method (when applied to fuzzy things like people and societies) are any more valid than things like astrology which by virtue of their own innate fuzziness may well be a better match for understanding the living world...
The message is in the massage...
"what makes astrology more of an art than a science is the fact that interpretations, while not entirely arbitrary, leave lots of room for massaging."
On a tangent is my take on dream interpretation -- I think the meaning almost always comes out in the act of putting the dream into words in order to tell someone about it or write it down. I think there may be meaning in the nonverbal dream, too, but it is much less accessible.
correct...
I had a VERY odd dream last night about cats that I had not fed for months eating pieces off a ktten's ear... care to try your hand at that one?
Clearly...
The cats represent Mohammad Atta, who killed kittens before 9/11. You "not feeding the cats" represents your denial of Islamofascism and the way your denial will lead to another Islamofascist attack on everything that is cute and furry.
Hysterical radio ad for Oregon Humane Society...
http://www.oregonhumane.org/OHS_EndPetlessness_60.mp3
I don't know if it is used elsewhere as well.
OMG you're right!
Now that you mention it, the cat had shaved all of the hair off its body and rubbed olive oil all over itself in a cleansing ritual the night before, JUST like Atta did. And even though it was enjoying the cannibalism I could tell that what it really wanted was some pork chops, cocaine, and a lap dance, except that Western Union messed up the wire transfer from Patsystan sending it by mistake to one Mohammed Al Jaharawazi at 45 Hickory Lane in Wichita, Kansas. My memory of the dream gets a little fuzzy after that...
rabbits, cats, dogs, people
there was an interesting predator/prey study on dreams done that i read many years ago..something to the effect of dreams being subconscious instinctual mechanisms to enhance and ensure survival - in the case of prey - avoidance (flight) and awareness, whatev, and predator, speed and attack whatev. i will look around for it. this hit home right leading up to and immediately after 2001. husband was miserable in corporate job, from which he was ultimately severed, and i was having recurring dreams of moving into different houses and apartments, sometimes going back in time, to less appeaing abodes. while still in dream,  i would become suddenly aware of a great gnawing sense of loss ...my home!! then would wake to the relief of reality that the house was still here, and i still had time to...take heed, do something!
survival, warning, wake-up call?
my cat just caught a rabbit!
last evening as we were sipping wine, gazing at the sunset, grilling chicken...little cat-man struts up witht furry little lapin in mouth.. right up to us and into the house...his proud and generous contribution. guess his "predator" dreams have been working quite well for him. not quite so for his little furry prey.
how synchronous/coincidental/serendipitous was this?!
And a further note...
Pluto and Saturn were in opposition to each other for the period around Sept 11 -- evidently a lot of astrologers were predicting something Big 'n' Bad to happen during that time.
One funny tidbit, from an Alternet article:
In June 2000, Lynne Palmer, a 69-year-old Las Vegas resident, published her Astrological Almanac for 2001 (Star Bright Publishers). On page 95 of the book, buried among advice on the best days to go to the movies and worst days to lend people money, Palmer had written, in an odd combination of the obvious and the prophetic: "Avoid terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001."
what are you, some kind of nut?
OBVIOUSLY she was tipped off by Alex Jones, who predicted 9/11 when he was in the 7th grade...