Life, birth and death

Mentor Alice O. Howell reminds us of a Tibetan teaching that we fall into the trap of thinking of death as the opposite polarity to life. Death and birth are really the portals of consciousness that we enter and exit in the continuity of life's process. Is this linguistic trick one that increases our fear of our own mortality?

We have just ended our High Holy Day season. Some of the poetry and prose we read from The Gates of Repentance during Yom Kippur are very powerful and give pause for though about birth, life and death:

"Birth is a beginning
and death is a destination
and life is a journey . . .
from childhood to maturity
and youth to age.
from innocence to awareness
and from ignorance to knowing
and foolishness to discretion
and then, perhaps, to wisdom;
from strength to weakness
and often, back again;
from health to sickness
and back, we pray, to health;
from offense to forgiveness,
from loneliness to love,
from joy to gratitude,
from pain to compassion,
and from grief to understanding;
from fear to faith
from defeat to defeat to defeat
until, looking back, or ahead
we see that victory lies
not at some high place
along the way
but in having made the journey
stage by stage
a sacred pilgrimage
to life everlasting. "

Another beautiful passage from the same prayer book:

“If some messenger were to come to us with the offer that death should be overthrown, but with the inseparable condition that birth should also cease; if the existing generation were given the chance to live forever, but on the clear understanding that never again would there be a child, or a youth, or a first love, never again new persons with new hopes, new ideas, new achievements; ourselves for always and never any others— could the answer be in doubt.”

New Age/Old Age

The New Age order calls for building the global society in harmony with the natural world. It is being grounded by conscious individuals who are learning to replace the old world fear of difference with a celebration of diversity. Nowhere are the two models better demonstrated than the political arena in these weeks before the 2008 election. With the collapse of the financial structures worldwide and the opportunity for new beginnings, we are feeling the stress of hard times ahead, as they did in Europe in the thirties. The fear of difference that was manipulated then— played, exaggerated, stretched and implemented in the minds of the unconscious masses is now part of human history, a tragedy that defies description.Shame on those who are willfully attempting to use the same tactics in our political arena now, manipulating those unconscious rally attendees who are responding with outrageous comments that hearken back to those dreadful days.

John O Donahue, the late Irish poet and philosopher, reminds us that fear is about the 'force of falsification' and has nothing to do with the truth. Fear blocks creativity, beauty and joy, and lies, like a heavy rock, over these human qualities, causing them to stultify. For those of us who recognize that weight of fear within, let it go. Visualize with me a critical mass of awakened Americans holding the balance.

The birth of the new age

David Spangler, in his book, Revelation: The Birth of a New Age, described a world scene in which we would become increasingly aware of two world views, existing side by side, seemingly unaware of one another. How true this seems during this political season when American's living by in close physical proximity view reality so very differently. The new consciousness is bring inclusivity, mutuality and an awareness of the very life force of Nature and the earth. Any teaching, idea, thought or communication that increases fear, separation and exclusivity is of the old order and will pass away. It seems that Tolle's teaching is a most useful and timely tool to assist us to awaken to consciousness and choose to move into the new reality.

In the DNA?

Is it in the stars or far closer— in our own genetic makeup? What shapes us and forms the basis of our interests, likes and passions? Like the answer to all paradoxical questions, I guess the answer to the dilemma is “yes.” Having had a detailed astrological chart drawn up, we realize that in the interconnections of the various constellations at the time of our birth, lies the blue print to all that interests us. This came as an amazing insight when I had my chart drawn up several years ago. It was all there— from my penchant to calligraphy to an abiding call to investigate the mysteries in our lives from the world of myth, mysticism and in particular, the meaning and influence of the Sacred Feminine in human affairs.

Then I watched the movie "Signs out of Time" that tells the story of Marija Gimbutas, amazing scholar, thinker, archeo-mythologist and teacher who introduced a novel way of viewing antiquities that makes pre-patriarchal culture come alive. The possibility that the patriarchal worldview of hierarchy and separation (of ourselves from Divinity, from one another and from nature) was not always the way human beings interacted, gives us great hope for the future.

Marija was born in Lithuania and through her profound wisdom, she was able to take the knowledge of the language, the songs, the stories and mythology of the region, and craft an intuitive vision of the past. As I watched the movie, I realized that my grandparents all came from Lithuania. They were forced to flee at the end of the 19th century because of rampant anti-semitism at the time. I have no idea of how long my family roots connect back to this geographic location as it is very difficult to trace our genealogy. What struck me was how deeply moved I was when I first heard Riane Eisler talking about Gimbutas' findings some 25 years ago and how it resonated within me. I was very aware of being in the midst of a paradox - history as it was taught to me, or 'herstory' as felt real when I started studying Gimbutas' book Language of the Goddess.

In the stars or our genetic memory? I celebrate the dilemma and the result.

Intellect or beauty

On NPR this morning I heard an interview with a man from a homeless shelter who was taken by FaithVotes to a polling station in Ohio for early voting. His commented that he was going to vote for the Republican candidate because his running mate was cute!!! Reminds me of the old story of a woman who was asked whether she would rather be intelligent or good looking? Without skipping a beat she replied: "Definitely good looking. Men see better than they think". Goes to show . . . .