Waiting On A Miracle

This will be a year of miracles

Every one, waiting for a miracle. I was going to write a short piece, recapping the tumultuous year 2011, and saying, you ain't seen anything yet.

But I was reminded recently about a miracle I once had some small part in, and wanted to share that with you instead. Next month there will be some major world changes, and in our personal lives, and so, it is best to be reminded, how much we need them, and, how much we are surrounded by, miracles.

I write so often about them they almost fade in the background of my life, and when I look at my first article on the subject, Miracles (see the December 2007 archives) I think wow, it almost reads like a c.v. or resume ;)

But I woke up last week after a dream about a little girl and her mother. I'd written about her in From The Street of Babies To Baby Point Rd. (April 2008) The mother was a student of mine, who'd gone away for a while, gotten pregnant, made the decision to terminate, then found out after she still was pregnant (the abortion didn't work) .

The baby was premature at 28 weeks, and weighed 2lbs 7 oz. I did a lot of healing from a distance, and she recovered and now is a healthy little girl almost 6 years old. This is the nature of my healing, that whatever is best, is the outcome. This girl was supposed to be born, to help in her mother's healing, so she was born, and, she survived. I met her mom again last week, and saw a new picture. The girl is stunning, and yes, she was a miracle.

The purpose of a miracle is not to teach us faith, though heaven knows (sorry) how much we do need to have faith. What am I supposed to say to the er, rationally inclined? That a miracle is a random coincidence and congruence of events, hope is merely an evolutionary manifestation of the survival instinct, and faith an irrational belief in an imaginary deity? Well, excuse me, but I saw a study yesterday that said people of belief do have, statistically, far lower rates of depression and mental illness. So pfft, I say. The skeptical can at least respect the power of belief and spirituality in helping address the stresses we are going through.

What a miracle does, is, to my mind, prove the existence of God. That we are all beings created according to a plan, that we are loved and protected, and what happens, while it may be difficult, is for a reason. I pity those that think it is all random, even when I respect their belief.

If a war or disaster happens, it is a wake up sign to us to band together as spiritual brothers and sisters, so we can heal the planet. The personal tragedies that happen to us teach us to survive and be stronger. If tragedy or sadness hits another, that teaches us compassion, and how we are all connected to each other and need to value our own, unique contributions to the whole. And a miracle is not when we wait for a solution to our problems, though that can and does happen out of the blue, it is, simply a sign.

Yes, there have been many signs and prophecies pointing to this time.

It is a time for miracles.

Five Rules To Live By

The Rules Of Naseer

1. Be detached. Don't react.
2. You chose your life. Let go of the stuff you hold on to.
3. Learn what your purpose is.
4. You need focus and discipline to get to where you want.
5. Forgive, heal, move on.

Year Of The Dragon

Do I control the weather?

Of course not. You do.

It is very peaceful outside. There's a welcome snowfall that blankets Ontario. Winter is here, though it is a very strange weather we have been having. Soon, it will be raining again, and the temperature will be seven degrees Celsius.

All of this is an introduction to the year ahead. Some one, reading my previous article The Costa Concordia Tragedy, asked if I really believed that my meditations controlled the weather? I told him to ask the question again :) and then, shortly after, we had a huge storm that blanketed the area. And the answer is that I'm neutral, but also, a catalyst to these changes that are taking place all over. The year began with a major solar storm, then more rain, a little snow that cleared all the turmoil that had been building up in people, and now, some more rain coming in.

So, do I control the weather? My answer is, synchronicity, which will tie in very well with my new article Psychoanalysis coming up. Or maybe it's all a series of coincidences, that wherever I go or whoever I think of there is change. I said it before; I bring change.

And now we enter the year of the water dragon, and yes, there will be great change. The worst is when everything remains the same.

So what does this very special year bring? Perhaps the Maya knew the real underlying secret to time, that there is no beginning or ending. So, as I already said, it's not an end or a beginning. The best is not to know, but expect, anything. Expect great changes.

The year of the water dragon is a year of spiritual growth, of mysticism, of communication. There are people out there, searching for answers. There are people who have given up hope. And there are people who, not having learned the lessons of karma, for whom, everything remains the same, and they are stuck in the pattern or repeating their lives, and their mistakes, over and over again. What else is karma but the chance to learn your lesson?

Water represents healing, and the dragon, the earth. Expect floods and earthquakes, expect material changes that will affect us for good or bad, expect healing. Work for spiritual change, and justice.

Last year, it looked like New York City would be flooded by a storm surge from a hurricane. I'm fond of New York though; it didn't happen. But there's an idiot there who doesn't believe, and others who don't understand. But my warnings still stand. Read what I have written on this blog and my other website Man From Atlan and when you're ready, call on me one way or the other (but the e-mail is on my profile page :)

Humanity is divided by class, and race, and religion, and politics. Those who have power are trying desperately to hold on to it, and it is they, and not us, that are held by their fears.

This year of the dragon will be a great flood that will sweep all before it. And me?

God's Outside, Shoveling Snow

The Costa Concordia Tragedy

I hate mentioning these never-ending tragedies

Yet they happen often, they happen for a reason, and, they offer a message to all of us.

Just look at the coincidences. Over the last year I've been focused on Italy, for its political and financial difficulties, for a murder case that had a unique spiritual component, and because so much of it is a reflection of what's happening world wide.

So I see my task as being to warn people, and sometimes, sadly, the Universe has to send reminders. Now I don't expect to convince the rationally inclined, so, just look at the coincidences.

First, I wrote about the murder of Meredith Kercher in Italy, 3 major articles in 2011 focusing on the individuals involved. This was unusual, but at least I knew this had to do with spirits and spirituality, and connected with my field of mental illness and psychology. Then, I wrote another article in November Quo Vadis, which asked, where is Italy going? http://www.manfromatlan.blogspot.com/2011/11/quo-vadis.html then another in December, Satan~ism http://www.manfromatlan.blogspot.com/2011/12/satanism.html which begins with the trial of a refugee boat captain and his crew in Italy; they had killed many passengers by throwing them overboard in a voodoo ceremony at sea.

So, Why Italy? True, I was drawn to it by a particular case. I knew there were going to be spectacular changes in Europe which showed the breakdown of the old order (see The Rape Of Europa http://manfromatlan.blogspot.com/2011/10/rape-of-europa.html) but ultimately, I was drawn to a point in the future I saw coming.

I hold at least four meditations a year. They all have a specific focus on trends that are coming into play, but, they also are earth healing exercises. And the sad thing is, as I said so many years ago, that if earth changes and disasters are needed to wake people up, then let it happen. They are messages for people, and if they do not listen, so be it. The floods in England, the earthquake in Haiti, the Fukushima disaster, were all preceded by my meditations, and written about here.

They're not even punishments. Why blame poor people in Haiti or Iraq for the disasters that befall them? No, the message is for all of us, on this planet. If something happens to the least of us, then it is up to every one on this planet to learn from it, and prevent future disasters. The earth is not in balance, and it is up to us to bring it back into balance.

And if your rational mind only tells you there's nothing we can do, then so be it. Just please don't say "I prayed to move a mountain, but it didn't move". That's an untrue argument. We are all healers and magicians, but someone has to show you how.

We had very little snow this year, only rain, which isn't good for the crops in the summer. There's a lot of imbalance there. But shortly after my December 16 meditation, we had a lovely snowfall. Then just before my next meditation in January, the one billion dollar mega cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground off an island in Italy. The captain of the ship was careless, though it appears the cruise line, Carnival, is equally culpable. Still, here's the thing:

• It could have been much worse. Even though 32 died, 4200 were saved.
• It happened on my birthday.

I had written about "two Italies" in Quo Vadis and said that people would have to make choices between what type of country they wanted for themselves. This was pooh poohed by sceptics, but after the disaster Italian newspapers started writing about two Italies.

I said I was supposed to be in Europe and the U.S. That still hasn't happened.

And, I wrote about a magical trip back from Japan in 1957, where I had spent a whole month on an Italian designed and crewed ship, the M.V. Asia. The Costa Concordia was also an Italian built and crewed ship.

Yet, there was a friend who'd recently been told her friend was dying, and she was in a deep dark space. Then, the day after my meditation, the snow fell again all over Ontario, and as the big snowflakes descended on her garden, she looked out and felt God's peace.

As we go into the Year of the Dragon, we will all need to feel God's Peace.

Zero Is The Greatest Number

This is the number of God

Religion tries to understand God.

Science tries to understand the Universe.

Some feel that both can be understood through numbers, or mathematical formulas.

I like the simplicity of mathematical formula. But when I look at the great mysteries of the cosmos, I think there's more there than can ever be proven.

There's been a lot of news lately about the so-called 'God particle', which is just the main stream media's idea of sexing up science so people can actually get excited about it :)

The news is exciting, because it can expand our knowledge of the universe. It may help what is called the Standard Model of Particle Physics, a mathematical formula that explains how the fundamental building blocks of the Universe interact with each other. So far, the model does not explain how particles build up mass, you know, things like atoms or large planetary bodies.

Scientists postulate the existence of an energy field called the Higgs field, that permeates every part of the Universe, even in what is called Dark Matter in the emptiest regions of space. It is this energy field that gives mass to particles, or in other words, creates everything (You see where I'm going with this, don't you? ;)

The standard model does not explain the gravitational mechanics that holds together the Universe, though Einstein's General Theory of Relativity does quite a good job, imo. The genius of Einstein lay in that he could look at a pattern, and see things that formed the basis of his theories. He would sleep, and come up with solutions in the dream state. This process of intuition is one explored in depth by Carl Jung, one of the founding fathers of modern psychology.

I'm reading "Deciphering The Cosmic Number-The Strange Friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung" by Arthur I. Miller. Pauli was a famous physicist who predicted the discovery of the neutrino and had a lasting impact on theoretical physics. Jung's psychoanalytical theory borrowed much from metaphysics and arrived at the concept of a universal consciousness, and, synchronicity.

Both were intrigued by numbers, from a scientific and a metaphysical perspective. And in the course of their relationship, both developed an obsession with the number 137, that it was a number at the root of a mathematical formula for the universe. Their reasons were based on 1/137 being a constant in the fine structure of matter, and that 137 had a kabbalistic connection as well. Yet it was Pauli, the scientist, who thought that numbers had a mystical power (they do) which would help him understand the universe, and Jung, the psychoanalytical metaphysician, who looked to science to help validate his mystical theories (I believe his focus on science was a loss to psychoanalysis, which could have developed much further otherwise. Others will now have to continue this quest to develop a better understanding of human psychology) It is a beautiful book, and I recommend it for all the brilliant insights it provides.

But here's the thing. While 137 might well be the number of the Universe, what, precisely, is the number of God? Kabbalists, alchemists, gnostics, have endeavoured to come up with a number, but each assumes that it must be a finite number. I believe the answer is Zero.

I have always known that to understand God we would have to understand nothingness, or, the void.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light": and there was light." Genesis 1:1-3.

So the universe starts out of nothingness, or, the void. And then, out of that energy, comes light.

So, science can explain the mechanics of the universe, with varying degrees of success. It can't explain consciousness, or how that develops in us, unless it also explains a creator :)

Jung got that right, by exploring consciousness, and universal consciousness. He also suggested that the answers lay in the unconscious, and there was a bridge between science and the unconscious that could help increase our knowledge and human understanding.

He and Pauli (it really is a lovely book) started to look at Gematria, the kabbalistic system that assigns numbers to letters of the Hebrew alphabet. So, therefore, each word has a particular numerical value that can also have spiritual meaning. You will see that reasoning in Hindu and Hermetic philosophy as well, and a sequence of sounds, or chant, or saying 'Om', for example, can have effect.

Ah, but to borrow from the song, what is the sound, of silence? And, in deep space, is there sound? It is the absence of sound, of light, of mass that interests me. It is this absence, this nothingness that is the root number of God, which is Zero.

The Buddha got it right. Our religions' attempts to define God are often expressions of our own ego, or desire. He suggested instead, that we try to reach a space of nothingness, without thought or desire. This, too, is God.

So we have this primordial force that creates the many universes. Science attempts to explain it as contained within the three dimensions of space, then a fourth one, of time, but it misses another dimension, of spirit consciousness, and, another: the primal force of the void.

It is interesting that both Jung and Pauli were open to new interpretations of the supernatural, (as am I :) or alchemical symbology to explain nuclear forces. Seriously, all you need to create gold is an enormous power source, but I just want to explain the knowledge for now.

There's a new physics formula waiting to be discovered, called the Theory Of Everything (TOE) which covers the strong and weak nuclear forces, gravitation, electro-magnetic force, and how mass is created. I'm not a physicist, though, so can only explain my theory in spiritual terms.

But first, a personal story. My family knew the late professor Abdus Salam, Nobel prize winner in Physics for his co-discovery of the weak nuclear force. He could have won a second prize for his discovery that neutrinos have no mass, but was discouraged in publishing that by Pauli, who at first could not believe in what would soon turn science upon its head. The prize for that discovery eventually went to others, but the two scientists developed a mutually admiring friendship. I look at their correspondence, between a Muslim and a Jewish scientist, and wish that all our religious differences could so be overcome..

So, a theory: You can plot a line across curved time and space, say in four dimensions. Or, you can have multiple parallel dimensions, each occupying a space slightly off axis of each other, or, spinning at different speeds. So, Time and Space can be measured many ways relative to each other. You can exist across time and space, as I say in my classes. You can also, heal the past, or, visit the future.

The next possibility is that of the ego-consciousness. It is our collective memories, shared from past lives and with each other, that create another force, lets call it Psi. It influences us greatly, but our emotional turmoil blocks that knowledge. Raising our spirit consciousness allows us to go beyond our material or psyche based state into a magical dimension where things just happen.

But in between and within each dimension there is a space. That space, that energy, is called the void, the nothingness, and its number is zero.

This the number of God. Everything else is a number, a value, is created. But God is, and always has been.

Time circles upon itself, and so, God has always been.

There is the individual consciousness, and there is God consciousness. One is created, the other has always been.

The primary numbers, the kabbalistic and astrological archetypes, all have meaning. But when you add zero, or God, it raises them to a higher level. 1 becomes 10 becomes 100 etc, to illustrate my meaning. You can be bound by your archetype, your karma, or, you can free yourself from it.

People can spend a lifetime trying to free themselves from their thoughts. Yet all I do in my healing or meditation is touch them, and they know peace, for I reflect that energy back to them.

Time and space can be transcended. You can be bound by it, or, transcend it. And in the end, we all return to the nothingness.

Satan~ism

The Rudolph Steiner bust of Ahriman

An Italian court has just overturned the conviction of public prosecutor, PM Giuliano Mignini, accused of illegally wiretapping a prosecutor and police he felt were impeding his search for a serial killer. Mignini had been attacked for theorizing that a series of murders in the Florence area were the work of a satanic cult, with friends in high places. And right after that, this headline appeared in Italian news.

"Five arrested over Lampedusa 'voodoo' murder"

"Five people have been arrested on suspicion of murder after more than a dozen illegal immigrants were thrown from a boat in a "voodoo ritual to calm stormy seas," an Italian prosecutor has claimed" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/8928738/Five-arrested-over-Lampedusa-voodoo-murder.html

Questions: What drives the belief in Satan, and how is it manifested? Given world events, are we ruled by human beings who chose to be evil, or are they actually controlled by forces of evil? Do satanic groups exist? Or just mentally ill people acting out stuff they read or saw in the movies? Or, again, is all this a manifestation of our psychology? Does Satan exist? As a being, or, a force?

Some say that Satan rules the earth.

Conventional mythology and monotheistic religions hold that this being is a lesser angel, angry at God, and therefore always trying to subvert God's creation, and turn humanity away. Or, an aspect of God. Or, an energy.

Ahriman: Zoroastrianism holds that Ahriman, the prototype for Satan, is the 'destroyer of hope' that must fight Ahura Mazda, the 'bringer of light' . This is a form of dualism that suggests two equal forces. It is a battle that has always been, and will continue to the end times, or, as I like to call it, the beginning times.

Then again, in a now extinct form of Zoroastrianism, we see Zurvan, the original creator god, within which both good and evil are contained. So, Satan could well be an aspect of God.

Mesopotamian texts are the first written history we have of the symbolism of the snake, or serpent, which have since been perverted as symbols of Satan. In ancient times, the snake was the symbol of knowledge. It is still a symbol of healing, in the twinned serpent caduceus. And, it is the symbol of sacred sexuality, all forces that have been subverted by the controlling forms of religion.

Satanic Theology: There must be protagonist and antagonist, or competing forces. There must be apocalyptical struggle. There must be good and evil, and the struggle between them is the basis of this theology.

Shamanism: The earlier spirituality of natural forces and earth energy ended up in conflict with the later sky god religions; yet, even in Mesopotamian culture, it was understood there was a dualism that combined the two energies, the male and female, to make the whole. Yes, shamanism, with its emphasis on blood, masks, and human sacrifice, at times veered into some deep dark spaces the sky religions sought to suppress. Yet the later religions, in trying to put down the feminine, actually incorporated many shamanic practices into themselves.

And Satanism actually grew as a result of this suppression, and a lot of what we consider to be good or evil is often a religious construct, with no basis of justification except as a means of control of a competing model of spirituality. I do not argue that good or evil does not exist, but they happen within what is known as Universal Law, and not religion, which are man made laws. Even the belief in black as the colour of evil is based on this split.

Interesting side note: I use black as a healing colour as it represents karma. Karma is correlated with sin, that there are consequences for our actions...I also see a super black, which is the complete absence of light, as the colour of the Void, the 'nothingness' that Buddhism attempts to get to, that Science is only beginning to understand. Here is also, death and destruction, the chaos beyond ordinary physical laws that help create life anew..

I personally believe in a flow of energy between Sky God and Mother Earth, and that we exist between the two, and bring balance through ourselves. It is only when we are not in balance that we commit evil.

Secret Groups: There have been secret societies since Babylonian times. There are good forces that serve and try to take humanity to a higher level, some that, rightly or wrongly, feel they alone can decide what is good for humanity and the direction it must take, and some that use black magic, or fear, ritual and psychology to control people. For further reading I refer to Pauwel and Bergier's Morning of the Magicians, Manly P. Hall's The Secret Teachings of the Ages, and William Bramley's The Gods of Eden. Rudolph Steiner is also a good source for some of the battles between the different factions of these occult societies. There also is a very strong connection between some of them and the Nazis, far too numerous for me to list here, but I suggest you read about Nicolas Roerich and the Thule Society, and Heinrich Himmler's expeditions to the Himalayas.

Then, there are the Freemasons, about whom more later.

Modern Satanism:

The Process: The first satanic group I met was called the Process, or The Church of the Final Judgement. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process_Church

Led by Robert de Grimston and his wife Mary Anne MacLean, they were a splinter group from Scientology. In 1966, they retreated from the world to Xtul, in the Yucatan peninsula. There, with the aid of various stimuli and psychedelia, they channeled God, aka Jehovah, then, the later aspects Christ, Lucifer and Satan, and stated we all vibrate according to one or the other aspect, and we must eventually integrate all four. They were much perturbed when I said I already integrated all four. I was a young whippersnapper then :)

Having been born out of the various psychoanalytical therapy movements of the 60’s, the Process was widely influential with Rock Stars and in the counter culture movement. The Process eventually fell apart when it turned out they had influenced multiple killers Charles Manson and David Berkowitz, the 'Son of Sam' and they tried to change direction.

I found it interesting they had a secret, undisclosed belief in long ago UFO’s visiting Earth based on the writings of Brinsley Le Poer Trench, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brinsley_Le_Poer_Trench,_8th_Earl_of_Clancarty and http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Crete/9923/trench.html and that their ideology had some resemblance with mine. But I saw also elements of manipulation and control I would never be able to live with.

Yet, for all they might truly believe in an apocalyptical world and that Charles Manson was a sign of the end times, there was something beautiful there too, in that even if they got Satan all wrong, they still got God, somewhat right.

THE GODS ON WAR

Robert de Grimston, Process Church of the Final Judgment.

http://feastofhateandfear.com/archives/robert_07.html

Yeow! The reading is a riff on War, and yes it should be read in full, great poetry cannot be summarised but read in its entirety.

But here's the conclusion:

"1.15 Humanity as a whole will not rise above its conflicts. Even if it were to do so it would still destroy all the physical, social and moral structures which it has created, because it would see their total invalidity. But it will not; so the destruction will take place in a chaos and confusion of ignorance, with the vast majority still clinging desperately to their hollow materialistic dreams, even in the depths of their final despair; whilst the few who do rise above the conflicts, will stand aside, separated from the mass, united not within but without the man-made structures of the human game, and linked to a new reality founded not on the laws of men but on the Laws of GOD."

The Process Church reinvented itself as the New Ager Foundation Faith of the Millennium, then as one of America’s most well known Animal Rescue services, the Best Friends Animal Society based in Utah. It pleases me to know that my old friends Brothers Micah and Michael, and Mother Ophelia, who sought so hard in the 60’s and the 70’s to create a better new world, now serve our animal friends. (They were the organization that went in and rescued many animals from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and if they ignored the humans, at least they did good, nevertheless)

I lived through tumultuous times and saw how hard people tried to change the corrupt society they lived in. The assassinations of JFK, RFK, Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lennon, the Vietnam War, Kent State and anti-war movement, Che Guevara’s execution, the 1966-68 student riots, the music, the films. We were the idealistic generation, and if some choose to drop out and explore the possibility of a beautiful spiritual alternative, then more power to them.

The CIA and Mind Control experiments: After WWII the CIA enrolled many spies from the Nazi secret services. They also took over many scientists who had conducted mind control experiments for the Nazis. See Mark Zepezauer's The CIA's Greatest Hits and Bramley (above) for further references. From Bramley, pg 449: (Re: the Jonestown massacre) "On September 27, 1980, investigative reporter Jack Anderson ran a column about the Jonestown incident. One newspaper headlined the column: CIA involved in Jonestown Massacre? In this column, Anderson refers to a tape recording of Jim Jones in which he refers to a man called Dwyer. This may be Richard Dwyer, the CIA deputy chief in Guyana who accompanied the fact finding congressman Leo Ryan to Jonestown. Congressman Ryan was killed, but Dwyer, unharmed. Hmm.

After the massacre, investigators found large quantities of arms and powerful psychotropic drugs. Also found at Jonestown was chloral hydrate, which had been used in the CIA's secret mind control program MK ULTRA. It is entirely possible that Jim Jones' followers had been secretly administered these drugs to control them. Something I have seen happen in many other groups. Timothy Leary, the LSD promoting counterculture guru, also had CIA links. Was the massacre triggered by Congressman Leary's mission to investigate the group's activities? Jim Jones was known to have distinctive tattoos. Yet the person whose body was found had none.

Modern satanism is, I find, an extension of mind control experiments that were conducted by various secret services from the early 20th century on.

The CIA infiltrated and set up various New Age groups, cults, and psycho-therapy organizations. L Ron Hubbard's Church of Scientology had connections with the Office of Naval Intelligence, and Jim Jones, with the CIA. LSD experimentation was conducted on unsuspecting patients in mental health clinics.

And yes, it has been alleged that mind control experiments are being conducted through various satanic fronts, and there is a heavy emphasis on blood, child abuse, ritual sacrifice, and psychological shock on the general population through sensational killings.

http://www.whale.to/b/aquino.html

Lt. Col. (ret'd) Michael Aquino of the Psychological Warfare Division of the US Army is one example of where I believe that 'satanism' can be a front for using trauma as a form of mind control.

It would be a lot harder to prove satanic ritual at work here. The whole process of ritual is to create a mind control matrix so powerful people can be conditioned to do things they never would do otherwise, or, remove inhibitions that previously acted as a check on the deepest urges of their psyche. Such people rarely confess.

It also is very interesting to see occult symbolism in horrific events like 9/11, the London Tube Bombings (7/7/7) and Operation 'Shock and Awe' (Shekinah) Such visual symbology can literally change us..

One can really get sucked into this, but what gets me is the underlying psychology. To me, the real satanists aren't people play acting something they read about, but the torturers of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, Bush and Blair, and the Wall Street banks :)

The Masons: They are one interesting group. Their mythology states they are the builders of Solomon's temple, and their outwards impulse is humanitarian and utopian. The craft they speak of concerns the building of a new temple, but also, a new society. They are thought to be behind the revolutionary societies that created the French, American, and Russian revolutions.

It is in Italy, however, that one sees an interesting dichotomy. Italians have a fascination for investigating possible satanic links to serial killers and child sex abuse. The Catholic Church under Pope Paul II reiterated its ban on any Catholic joining the Masons, and this goes back to the time when Garibaldi, the Italian liberator, attacked the Church's power and was roundly criticized for being a revolutionary mason. There is no love lost between the groups, and those feelings run deep.

Yet it was in Italy we learned about a masonic lodge called P2 Propaganda Lodge, which worked with the Vatican and the Mafia, and was set up by the CIA! http://rawilson.com/undercontrol.html They were part of underground groups set up in Europe to counter communism, and followed the already established template of various interlocking criminal/masonic/religious/ military intelligence networks. (See, the Moonies) And, this group was responsible for the Milan train station bombing, the assassination of premier Aldo Moro, and other terrorist attacks to try to destabilise Italian society and bring in a right wing government.

Therefore, I do believe there are such groups, but their purpose is to establish elite control over the population. Satanism is just a front used to hide their real goals.

The Power Of A Curse, or, Voodoo: There are people that believe in such things, and I've been asked many times if they were under a curse of some kind which caused their misfortunes? Of course there are some that practice Voodoo, or Santeria. I used to work for a Government Agency and one day a lady took exception to the way she felt she had been treated. As she left she yelled, "I put a hex on all of you!" Within a week, every person in our department had an accident, thankfully minor ones. I say that of course such power, or directed energies can affect us. We also have the power to NOT be affected by them.

But I say this to you. Such curses always affect the people who make them. Better to be at peace, and let things pass right through you.

And yes, some people practice black magic. Yet you look at Aleister Crowley, who was not only a spy for British Intelligence, but insane. And James Jesus Angleton, the CIA spymaster, was probably paranoid, and he set up the P2 masonic lodge in Italy. Most people practicing black magic just use it to psychologically control others or work through their own psychoses. They try to control entities yet end end up being controlled by them. See my "Angels, Spirits, Demons and Djinn" http://manfromatlan.blogspot.com/2008/01/angels-spirits-demons-and-djinns.html to get an idea:)

It is a valid argument to say that demonic possession is simply a form of mental illness. Indeed, the ancients used to argue that the mentally ill were 'demon possessed". I, happen to believe that such energies are indeed, real, and whether one is performing an exorcism or a visualization to help people with their problems, it is the end result that counts.

Christ and Anti-Christ: The world's religions create this need to believe in saviours, and the forces that oppose them. I disagree. It depends on us, and the choices we make, and said so here: http://manfromatlan.blogspot.com/2007/12/christ-antichrist-and-armageddon-i.html but know that each of us can choose to align with either of these energies, and manifest them within ourselves.

Satan: So, is Satan real? Yes, indeed. As long as you also accept that Satan is a form of consciousness. As long as you accept that Satan, like God, resides within us, and the path you choose is the one that determines your fate, and not, an external force. We are faced with these choices every day, to do good or evil, to accept injustice or not, to allow ourselves to be manipulated by lies or, to find our own balance. We make a decision, each day, to give in to fear and hatred, or, to know compassion, faith, and love.

And, even when we are tempted to make the wrong choice, there always is the path that leads back to God.

Quo Vadis?

The astrological chart of Italy

I thought I had never known any Italian people until we moved to Canada but then I remembered, omigod, MV Asia! We came back from Japan by ship (this was before jet planes) and for a whole month, we were on the most beautiful passenger-cargo ship I have ever seen, MV Asia. It was Italian, of course ;)

In an age when people actually travelled between countries by passenger ship, the post war Italian ships were the epitome of design. The Lloyd Triestino line had seven specially designed ships that travelled the world. From The Ocean Liner Museum: http://www.oceanlinermuseum.co.uk/Victoria%20history.html

"The Italian tradition of luxury and style at sea was never so fully realised as it was with its postwar fleet of liners. Though its fleet had been virtually destroyed by the ravages of war, Lloyd Triestino made a great effort to rise from those ruins, and thus were produced some of the finest, stylish, elegant, graceful and most beautiful vessels to ever sail the oceans of the world.

All this series of ships had typically modern, sculpted Italian lines, which included sharply raked bows, lusciously curved superstructures, tripod masts, streamlined and low funnels, terraced after decks with a pool and lido for both classes and graciously curved cruiser spoon sterns. It was the "Golden Age" of the combi-liner, and the Victoria and her sister Asia were among the most beautiful of their type ever built".

The two most beautiful of them were the MV Victoria and the MV Asia, which regularly travelled the Italy-Hong Kong route. There were about 500 passengers, and the crew, all Italian, so I and my brothers were treated very nicely all over the ship for the whole month it took for us to get back home. And if you have never eaten a meal at sea, or been in a tropical storm, or seen the sun set over some distant horizon, you have not lived.

But pardon my digression into a magical point of my childhood. This is an article about the people of Italy.

Now I confess to having strong feelings about places I have been to and people I have known in lives past. Maybe it is my observation that Italians are just like Pakistanis :) for we are indeed, alike in our love of children and family and food. We are warm and passionate, and what you see is what you get (Just don't mix us up with Indians, please. Sorry :) Maybe it's the kindness I'd received when I was young, or the quality I appreciate the most; the honesty of emotion.

Regardless, I found myself being drawn, once again, to Italy when some Americans, in defending accused murderer Amanda Knox, had to attack a whole country for its perceived shortcomings...Irony abounds.

A while back I was telling all and sundry about an impending clash between right and left wing style governments and that people would peel back from the excesses of both sides and find some balance.

And sure enough, what I said about France and Italy is coming to pass. Sarkozy's turning liberal, almost, and Berlusconi's, out. Their shameful involvement in the war on Libya has a very heavy price that will be shared by their countrymen.

I like to use astrology's language and symbols to describe events that have come and those yet to come, it has an elegance that can't be beat.

I found this analysis written by astrologer Liz Greene in 1999 about Italy's future. The period she covers runs from 1999 to 2009, and describes very well, what might have been. http://www.astro.com/nat/natit_e.htm

"The republic of Italy was born in 1946 under the versatile, communicative sign of Gemini. Pluto, as it moves through Sagittarius, presents major challenges to this country's political, financial, and social structures, offering the possibility of a total transformation of outlook with greater stability and the fulfilment of many cherished social ideals. However, it would seem that this potential, because of Pluto's delving quality, can only be achieved if there is greater transparency and openness on the part of both government and people.

Italy's birth chart reflects the double-edged gift of an intense and enormously creative individuality coupled with a propensity to shroud many things from prying eyes. It is this inclination toward secrecy, reflected in many areas of Italian life and government, which may be challenged by Pluto, and old sores and grievances inherited from the past may need to be brought into the open and re-evaluated so that the innate optimism, idealism and generosity expressed by the fine aspect between the Sun and Jupiter in this birth chart can be anchored in positive changes which benefit everyone.

Uranus, also a harbinger of change and progress, is crossing the area of Italy's chart which reflects its past, and this too suggests that many issues - both religious and social - need to be finally confronted and transformed. Italy's Scorpio Moon, hidden away in the area of the chart concerned with ancestral inheritance, suggests that old wounds linger for a long time, and so does the people's mistrust of authority, whether religious or political. The cleansing and inspirational energies of both Pluto and Uranus could provide the possibility for the healing of these wounds.

Whether or not you are personally in sympathy with the kinds of changes now on the horizon, this is one of the countries most powerfully affected by important planetary movements in the next decade, and the potential for positive change and the expression of each individual citizen's creative gifts is enormous"
~Liz Greene, 1999

I looked at the chart as well, and the following is my own interpretation. Yes, Italy exhibits, quite clearly, the dual nature of Gemini. The mercurial creative side, the hidden spiritual nature. Thus, I say there is a higher side to it, and a lower more corrupt side. (Which is also described by its Scorpio nature)

I am writing about Italy today because many years ago, I had a vision about the death of Pope John Paul I and knew that changes in the Catholic Church would be reflected in changes in the country of Italy. I have long thought this dividing line to come would be described as the old Italy vs the new. Some have said there is no such divide, but they are thinking it's all controlled by vested interests that will resist change. I say it's a battle between the Italy of the past, and that yet to come, which is the spiritual awakening which is yet to take place. And I see also, the end of the Catholic Church, and the beginning of a new one, which will also be mirrored by, a new Italy.

It does look like the next two years will lead to a battle between the old and the new Italy. Yes, the potential for positive change is enormous, but so, too, will be the resistance to change. Interesting, that the planet Saturn, which represents restriction, became exact this November 9-10, when the crisis peaked. It will be exact again from late May to August 2012, when there will be another crisis, change, elections or revolution.

The chart for Italy shows mercurial Sun in Gemini, the very deep 12th house Moon and Ascendant in Scorpio, and not that there are secrets, but there are depths to those secrets. When you see Prime Ministers belonging to secret masonic lodge P2 which was responsible for deep corruption, Mafia and Vatican entanglements, assassinations, terrorist bombings, and financial thievery, you know that there are depths indeed.

Yes, with four planets in the 8th house the Italians are a very sensual people. There is also, financial corruption shown in the 8th house placement. With Sun in Gemini they can also be religious, even, spiritual, even if the planet Mercury can make them er, flexible in their beliefs. It is my hope they will be not only rational and analytical in their choices in the time to come, they will also be, spiritual.

And 12th house Moon in Scorpio again? Secret services, spies. Scorpio can be either of the highest spirituality; or, the depths of the gutter. It was Italian agency SISMI that fed the world the fake Niger tapes that led to the Iraq war, the Vatican is reputed to have the finest intelligence agency in the world ( I can see some better, ISI and MI-6) and Propaganda Lodge P2 and Operation Gladio assassinated anti-Mafia judges and set off bombs in train stations.

But what I see the beauty Italy has given the world. For every Pope killed (John Paul I was the most recent) I see the Sistine chapel and Michelangelo's Pieta. There is the Mafia, and there are Ferraris :) There were the ships MV Victoria and Asia.

Some people, who know only how to measure by political or economic yardsticks, are hopeful the new government of Italy will bring about change. Others, of like mind are more pessimistic, saying the old order is too entrenched.

The economist in me says there some strong fundamentals to the Italian economy. People tend to save more than most other European nations so their banks are reasonably stable. They could buy up more of their debt so they are not too dependant on foreign predator banks and speculators. They have a strong industry and work force, and, they have gold.

According to this article http://seekingalpha.com/article/307336-why-proposals-that-italy-should-sell-its-gold-are-ridiculous Italy has one of the largest gold reserves in the world, and unlike the short-sighted British who sold theirs for $250 per oz or the Germans who store theirs in New York, of all places (!) http://www.abendblatt.de/wirtschaft/article2087049/Deutschlands-Gold-liegt-im-Tresor-in-New-York.html it is the Italians that refuse to sell theirs, which is very wise. Gold has a power of its own; don't misunderstand when I say it is spiritual. So suffice to say Italy has a strong base, and its last 12 years of misjudgement is not fatal in itself. There will be a long period of readjustment no matter what else takes place. But the future brings much more than what ordinary people can overcome.

This is the sadness of being able to see the future. On the one hand you see signs of what lies ahead. On the other hand you know it might be too late. You try to warn friends and the people you love, but what happens then depends on the choices they make.

The answer, for the people of Italy and the world is that political and economic change will not be enough. All we ever get is the semblance of change, without anything real.

Unless there is real spiritual change, things will get much worse, sorry.