Vulture Speaks

I have an affinity with birds

 

The strangest thing happened this Thursday October 12. Our house is a magnet for wild life but this time, a rook of Turkey Vultures landed in our backyard, which we'd never seen before. They were magnificent.

 

My first thought was someone's dead. (Vultures are associated with death) When an aunt passed away a few years back a dove had crashed in our window-see Message From A Dove Later in the day, received a note that a friend had died suddenly in Florida. He was only 41. So I was inspired to write about it.

 

But my message is a continuation of an earlier article A Bird Came For Healing when an ill American Bittern flew into our yard and I helped it get better.

We all have a passion for learning, and the freedom to follow our path.

And my friend C. who at her wedding near Hamilton a Turkey Vulture got caught in a tree and I helped release it.

The message is, follow your path, and do not let anger, fears or emotions hold you back.

And, this is about the imbalance between earth and spirit.  

When birds appear they are always messages from spirit. 

 So everyone who was there at the wedding, followed our paths.

Vultures are sacred birds in many cultures, Egypt, Sumer, Çatal Hüyük The Vulture As Totem

In the 1950's the husband/wife archaelogist/anthropologist team of Ralph and Rose Solecki began excavating a cave site 250 miles north of Baghdad along a tributary of the Tigris River called the Greater Zab that rises out of the Turkey-Kurdistan border area. The cave had been used for burials by an ancient tribal people called the Zawi Chami around 8870 BCE (plus or minus 300 years, according to carbon-dating) --over 10,000 years ago-- which is well over 4,000 years before the beginnings of any of the various cultures mentioned above. In their dig the Soleckis found a number of wing bones of large predatory birds, which turned out to be Gyptaeus barbatus (the bearded vulture) and Gyps fulvus (the griffon vulture).

That very same overall innate nature imbeded in the actions and life of the vulture, never killing or hurting a living thing or its own fellow creatures, is reflected for the most part, in and by the the actions and life of the person that truly has the vulture as a totem animal. 

And my daughter had a dream where she was speaking words of power in Assyrian, from that same location.

This message wasn't about the person who passed away, but was for me. Still, I did have a feeling of sadness when I first met him. This was possibly his last comment, October 08, 2017:

 

Shamans are a bridge between earth and spirit, so Vulture was a message for me. For the restless spirit, to help ease its passing. For me, to keep following that path, which now looks like there will be changes coming anyway.

 

I look at the nature of Scorpio. It can be about death, and maybe we need to die or in some way, let go. For me, it is about regeneration. The countless deaths that have taken place was just to let us know we cannot continue in this way. There will always be sadness, but we must change. All these calls for "resistance" are just illusion, designed to keep us spinning wheels.

 

The path to change is to look after our bodies, our feelings, our spirit. Perhaps, this is the message that Vulture brings to you.



Happy Easter, Every One!



 

Letting Go Of Self 

 

A quiet celebration with my family but what, exactly, is the point of Easter? Is it about belief or something more? Yes, there was an event once, with a mythical person or not (I believe, it happened) but the message is, as always in religion or spirituality, universal.

I took a series of pictures and this showed in my phone album. Looks very like an aura. From a previous blog The 12 Chakra System of Healing:

Pink, our purpose in life, sky blue and indigo, the mind, intuition, violet is spiritual journey going into black, karma, the void, nothingness.

On a deeper spiritual level, only when we let go of our selves, can we be free.

Ego, the yellow chakra, the soul, is the sum total of memories, both this and past lives. Yet karma is inexorable and we are bound to and by it. How do we free ourselves?

Rationalists might believe our greatest instinct is self-preservation. I disagree. Our greatest instinct is the yearning of the spirit to free ourselves from the burden of karma. This is the purpose of all forms of meditation, to let go. For peace.

The ego, holds on to things. How we define ourselves, past experiences and hurts, our environment, upbringing.

Sometimes, we need to let go.

Sometimes, the sacrifice of self serves a higher purpose.

We are in the midst of the darkest age of all. Trump, war, the killing of innocents. The knowing pollution of the earth and its waters that give us life. The destruction of relationships and the loss of faith and idols with feet of clay. Should we all say there's nothing we can do?

That is not an option. A bomb went off killing 126 Shiite villagers from al-Foua and Kefraya in Syria, including 60 children. A million Yemenis are facing starvation. Not just in the M.E,., but all over. Furies take over the world.

This is what we can do. Think beyond yourself. There is the meditation of contemplation, there also is the meditation of peaceful protest and action.

Yes, we get all bound up in causes. Yes, there often is a price to pay once you stick your head out. Do not be afraid, you aren't alone.

 

Your religion, your faith or lack of belief doesn't matter. Funny, I have met so many good people on both sides of the imaginary left-right divide, all caring about what is wrong about the world. About the environment, that war isn't a solution but symptom and cause of our ills. You just have to care.

 

The key to it is a spirituality that goes beyond yourself.

 

That, my friends, is the measure of Easter. Not that we sacrifice ourselves, though all love for them that do for their causes, their beliefs, their creativity, their families and to help the ills of the world.

 

But, that you balance the needs of self  with the needs of spirit, that you go beyond with acts of kindness and faith.

 

I wish you the peace and joy of Easter.

 



Trump's 1st 100 Days

Resistance, they say 

 

A Federal Judge  has issued a temporary halt to Donald Trump's controversial "Muslim Travel Ban". This is the first of a series of mistakes he will make throughout his presidency. Which, whether you like it or not, will continue for two terms. Like it or not, he is your duly elected president.

 

In a previous article Psycho-Astrology Analysis: The Trump Presidency

 

I analyzed his inauguration chart which showed what would happen in his 1st hundred days: A deeply divided nation, efforts to undermine his presidency, a foreign crisis he must avoid at all costs. That he should focus on the economy, and get good, not self serving advice. That he would get legal opposition for his actions. He must cooperate with people, not try to bulldoze them over, or they would unite against him. I guess he wasn't listening :)

 

I've been told as a "spiritual" person I write quite a bit about politics but really, everything I write is through a spiritual prism. Noting the imbalances in the world; what could be more spiritual than that?

 

Yes, the imbalance between rich and poor, power and powerlessness, matters. Palestine is important, for Middle East peace. LGBT rights, matter. Civil Rights, matter. Black Lives matter. Muslim Ban matters. NoDapl matters. Brown v. Board Of Education, Wade v. Roe, Citizens United v. all matter.

But not separately, which is the divisiveness of identity politics we've allowed to take over. And not that I am particularly concerned about the antics of Alt Reich dummies doing Nazi salutes or Antifa protesters setting fire to trash cans or throwing bricks through windows. I'm interested in what the rulers are doing. Someone said this about power, that while we react to what they did yesterday, they've moved on to their next step. I prefer to see where they're going, and write about what they'll do next. In other words, prophecy.

Yes, I think the anti-war movement is the moral cause of our time. Attacking refugees and people fleeing those wars on the basis of their religion and national origin, even cancelling the visas of 100,000 people and  preventing legal residents from returning home caused outrage and many people to feel ashamed for their country. Decent people all rushed to help. They protested in the thousands at airports and lawyers met incoming travellers to offer free legal services.

Helping others, is a spiritual thing.

Helping to heal the planet, is a spiritual thing.

But I said this about Obama in 2008, that this was America's last chance. And now I say this about Trump: you will have to go so far back before you can go forward. It isn't even about the man. It's about you.

The Democrats are so hapless they won't regain Congress. Not unless they reform. Liberals who didn't speak up and put their bets on a bad choice: you could have had Bernie Sanders, you got Donald Trump instead. Those are the consequences. Politically, you cannot regain what you lost until you learn to listen to the concerns of real people. Politically, not until a third party that embraces real populism, not corporatism. Nancy Pelosi, leader of the Congressional Democrats said, "we're capitalists. That's the way it is".

But that's just me, trying to be helpful on the material plane.

As I wrote then, What next, America?

The real resistance will be spiritual, not political.

 

Acts Of Kindness

 

It was a rough year

 

As we come to the last day of a very rough year, here's a very special message. I picked up a book at the library today, and there was a book..

 

Its title: Lucknow Ransom, Glen Peters, Parthian, Cardigan, 2013. 

 

An Anglo-Indian woman leaving her past behind enters a 2nd class railway carriage in Calcutta with her son. There she meets a Hijra prostitute called Lakshmi, from the Hindu goddess of good fortune. She treats her with kindness, and is helped in turn as they get involved in a scandal.

 

Hijras are a 4000 year old transgender community of men who transition to women in India and Pakistan, who despite prejudice, have been granted the right to be considered a third sex for identification purposes. It is considered good luck to have them dance at Indian weddings, bad to mistreat them.

 

Background to the Hijras:

 

India's Third Gender Communities

 

South Asia's Transgender Community Speaks Its Own Language

 

This was an interesting connection to when I last visited Pakistan in 1995,

Mother Mary Comes To Me.  I took a train from Karachi to Lahore and that was a 2nd class carriage too :) Even though I had a reserved berth people came on anyway and crammed the seats. A party of Hijras came aboard. People refused to let them sit beside, because, prejudice.

 

I asked them to sit with me, which they accepted gladly. "Aren't we all the Children of Adam?" they asked the shamefaced passengers. Then they shared their food with me (again, people don't like to eat from the same container as a Hijra, but what do I know?)

 

This reminder today, for a project I'd been working on: a fictional crime series set in Pakistan. To tell the story of a police investigator as he progresses through the turmoil of post independence Pakistan. Not a new idea, to set crime stories in other cultures, other historical periods (I've been reading Magdalen Nabb's Marshal Guarnaccia series and Qiu Xiaolong's Chief Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Department series, enjoyed tremendously but then, I read a lot).

 

It's in the telling of a story, and the building of a character. An investigator who works the seamy side of Lahore's criminal underworld and, copyright, its title is The Punjab Minister's Wife. To be followed by, By Sea to Karachi, The Malir Ghost and The Haunting of the American Embassy. Like me, he loves Sufi and Indo-Persian poetry.

 

But the message from the past, and, for the future as the world wonders what will 2017 be like?

 

Be known for your acts of kindness.

 

 

 

 

Ravens Return

 

"When people become spiritual again, the White Ravens will return" ~

I was reminded of the lines from Yeats The Death of Cuchulain

“There floats out there
The shape that I shall take when I am dead,
My soul's first shape, a soft feathery shape...”

which pertains to what John Kercher called the White Feather phenomenon in his book Meredith (Hodder, London 2013)

He writes that when he was at his lowest in despair a white feather appeared magically at his feet. Many of Meredith Kercher's friends also had similar visitations, which he believes was his daughter reaching out to comfort him from beyond the grave.

But this post is really about spiritual journey. In the native traditions, the appearance of white animals, especially White Ravens, denote a time when humanity will become more spiritual.

In my Spiritual Journey to the U.S.  I wrote how we saw a White Eagle driving through the Appalachian Mountains, then our son Raven was born in New York,  and my hopes for the American people. While we were there, a White Buffalo was born in Wisconsin, many more since then. That there were many delays and changes since then. What of it? People started to wake up.

There was a time when darkness covered the earth;
the sun had been stolen.
After much searching, Raven found the sun.
With the sun in Raven’s bill, Raven began the long
 journey to return the sun turning white during the
 trip due to the brightness of the sun.

And now, White Ravens have started to appear RARE WHITE RAVENS ARE INCREASINGLY BEING PHOTOGRAPHED ON VANCOUVER ISLAND B.C.

And when people supported Bernie Sanders in his run for the presidential nomination a bird magically appeared.

And when people went to Standing Rock to protest an oil sands pipeline, protect the water and heal the earth a herd of buffalo magically appeared..

Tomorrow, there will be an election, and it doesn't matter who will win, since the solutions will come from us, not them.

It has been prophesied the forces of resistance to change would get stronger, but so, too, those who would bring change.

As I wrote, only those who were teachers and healers would be able to change this world that has been created. Ravens, are beings of knowledge and creation, they are wise and helpful to all; this the message from White Raven.

But going back to Yeats plays, he also refers to Morrigu, the war goddess who gathers the souls of the great warriors and appears in the form of a black raven. Cuchulain says

Her black wing touched me
And all is intelligible..

And as Cuchulain takes on the bird form of the dead heroes,

"There floats out there
The shape that I shall take when I am dead,
My soul's first shape, a soft feathery shape...

And is it not a strange shape for the soul
Of a great fighting man?"

There will be wars and warriors, and the brave men and women who fight to change the future, will be my comrades, and, all will be intelligible...

The Tao Of Trees

 

Our lives are like trees     

We ebb and flow day and night                        

Blowing with the breeze.

 

Be a growing tree

Reaching the brilliant sky

 

Because we are, try.

 

 

 

Sunlight shining down

 

Tree Of Life sustaining us

 

We are heaven, ground.

 

#Haiku #Tao



Bunnies and Fertility

Now the baby hare came back

 

Someone's pet rabbit in the UK died two years ago; a wild hare showed up in our back yard after that. Hare Krishna, Hare Rama 

 

Someone's cat got run over (I discovered the body) and within days "Lucky" the stray cat showed up for her Cats we have loved

 

Someone's pet rabbit passed away today. But, we've seen our hare around all year and in the past few days, a baby hare came to our magical garden. (We keep it full of weeds and wild flowers to feed and welcome nature, not repel it).

 

The last time, I wrote "Speaking of hares, they represent fertility, and someone we care for just told us she's expecting again, that from a previous story of how spirits go where they are needed and have the chance to do good. Plus another friend's daughter in the U.K. is also expecting".

 

Speaking of, another person I know has uterine cancer and all one can do is pray for her, because some are unaware of root causes and or/treatment. 

 

And another person, affected by someone's suicide (my next story) fell and threw her hips out of alignment. When I treated her today, she felt her uterus shift, and her ovaries drop, then lift.  

But this blog isn't about them, or hares, or fertility, though oddly enough, I AM finishing my series on vaccinations, which do indeed cause fertility problems, by their nature but also, design. and I already wrote about Bees And The Fertility Crisis

No, it's about the imbalances within the earth, and within you. And, spirit. Spirit lives on.

In mythology, Krishna and Rama are avatars of God. And what else is mythology but a retelling of the spiritual or religious experience? And hares/rabbits are in the native tradition messages telling us to get away, to seek refuge from negative energies.

 

Seek refuge in God.

Hare Krishna,

 

Rama Rama, 

 

Hare Krishna,

Hare Rama.

 

What's Up With The U.K?

 

What next?

 

It's nearly nine years since I last visited the UK. You look back with sadness at the possibilities for change you saw then, and what's happened since.

 

We arrived during the 2007 United Kingdom Floods  and now, the region is still reeling from heavy rain fall and floods as a series of storms hit the Isles going on into 2016 2015-2016 Great Britain and Ireland floods 

 

Yes, there is an imbalance all over the world. It's raining today, January in Canada! I'll meditate and pray for peace, but really it's about what you will do for change.

 

I follow 9 and 12 year cycles. Where were you 9, 12 years ago? What have you done since? Are you repeating what you did then, or will you do something different?

 

I could go on about spiritual imbalance, but really, that won't work till you figure out your material and emotional foundations.

 

That's why I placed so much importance to the February 15, 2003 anti-war protests all around the world. A seminal event, and of course I had to be there. But people got discouraged after that, and divided as propaganda was used to convince us of the case for war. So 12 years later, we had the war in Syria causing a million people to flee into Europe.

 

So, almost 9 years later, floods. I warned of a cleansing of the earth then. Earthquakes, floods, disasters. Wake up calls. Personal as well as environmental pain.

 

But I look to the signs of hope. The good people I met then, who I still pray for. The people I continue to help. The ones who did not give up, so I didn't either. There will always be hope.

 

We are slowly taking back the world, one country at a time. My country, Canada, first. With leaders and parties who will be held accountable.

 

The UK, which I love as I love Canada, and its people. That it elected Jeremy Corbyn as Labour party leader was great news. Attacked every day by corporate media and pro-war elements in his own party. Yet it's the young people who follow him that I respect most, because it is they who will change the world.

 

It will be a long process, but there will be change. Be involved in politics and environmental causes. Do not be influenced by anything except your own knowledge and conscience. Be a force for healing, of your self and the planet.

The Meaning Of This Christmas

There's a story called The Legend Of The Christ Child which illustrates what I want to share with you tonight. It is a short one; family calls.

This story, translated from the German in 1891, is about a little child wandering through a cold city, looking for warmth and shelter, no where to be found. Every where, it is met with indifference, till finally in the poorest of hovels, is welcomed in.

And that kindness illuminates the whole room, so that it is more than the richest of homes.

The wars of the world created a wave of human refugees met with indifference and hostility. Just as with the Christ Child..

"One mother feared he might have some
ugly disease which her darlings would catch ; another
father said he had only enough for his own children,
and none to spare for beggar brats. Still another told
him to go home where he belonged, and not to trouble
other folks."

Maybe much of the world feels that way. But Canadians have in great measure welcomed the news we might be allowing up to 50,000 refugees by next year. They will be lifted in, at a cost borne by all us Canadians.

So there is good after all, but that isn't the point of this story.

There was a knock on my door this morning and it was the neighbourhood Adventists with their literature. So I thanked them and wished a Merry Christmas. They replied, "oh, but we don't celebrate Christmas".. Well, aren't I glad they woke me up then? :)

The meaning of this Christmas is that God doesn't care how you observe rules or what religion you belong to or whether you believe or not. God doesn't care about the colour of your skin or your gender or who you love.

Only, that you show love, and kindness. To every one.

What Is The Source Of Your Rage?

In this increasingly angry world,

 

 

I am still angry. And the question is why?

I saw a recent episode of "Super Girl" that shook me. She was asked to look at the source of her rage  http://screenrant.com/supergirl-tv-red-tornado-review-recap/ so I looked to the source of my rage and remembered that I wrote something in my first book, in 1974,

Man From Atlan-The Man of Religion 

He had no friends and kept to himself, but there was a novice he liked. A boy of about eleven who sang in the choir, his beautiful clear voice soaring high above the others at times, then more controlled now, a crystal clear note that blended with yet stood out against the others, making the tapestry of music that much more moving. The singer's duties were light because he had to rehearse his music all day, but when he did work in the kitchen or the vegetable plots he found the novice with the Moorish face going out of his way to be kind to him, even protecting him from the bullies who were jealous of the special treatment he enjoyed. He never acknowledged the kindnesses that he received, having been spoiled by parents and priests. Nor did the giver mind the snubs that came his way. There was something so defenseless about the golden boy who sang like a bird, a dark cloud that he had seen over his head, that he could only feel sorry for him.

Then the boy who sang so beautifully was taken away, and a few days later he found out that he was sent to Rome to sing in the Papal choir after being castrated so that his lovely crystal clear voice might be preserved forever. And when he heard that, the rage came again, a rage to burn the monastery, pull down its walls, kill them all and leave nothing behind, just a clean pure space so that no more of that cruelty might live again. And because he could do nothing, it turned into a great sadness that turned into the sickness that came in to take him.

Then this: Man From Atlan - The Man of Religion Part II

 

he was still bound to the flesh and had to return. And when he did, the rage came, the rage that wasn't at his fate because he had chosen his path, but at Lucien and all that would come between lovers, between husbands and wives, between man and freedom and his thoughts, between anything at all, with their intolerance, their hatred, their jealousy and greed and inhumanity.

And this:

"Looking at these words dispassionately, one can only see that you believe yourself to be a messiah who would destroy the Church and set himself up as a spiritual ruler for all of us who cannot find 'Truth'."

 

"There are no messiahs, Lucien. Only teachers." 

 

I am informed by my visions. I was angry when my brother died. I was angry when I read about Apartheid South Africa and Israel and the fanatical version of Islam taught by Saudi Arabia. (My friends were ANC members coming to Pakistan to study, Palestinians, Saudi Marxists (go figure).

 

I am informed by visions of past lives. I was angry to see genocides created by religion, I was angry to see evil life creating experiments by deranged 'scientists' and non-religious rational thinkers. I was angry to see the distortion of religion, I, who was there at the birth of the religions.

 

I am angry to see the destruction of the environment and the cruelty of war. I am angry for the powerless and the poor in the face of the powerful and the rich. I am angry for injustice.  

 

I could "burn the monastery, pull down its walls, kill them all and leave nothing behind, just a clean pure space".

 

But that is not the answer; violence only leads to more violence, and is the way we are divided against each other. And I will not make myself sick over what is the way of the world.

 

Remember this, though.

Lucien could not look into those eyes. He could not look away. They compelled him, made him come back to them, only to once again feel the flames that melted the flesh from him...He couldn't do anything. There was no defence against it, not even the power he had could protect him from the rage.

 So yes, I rage. But that rage is directed into a passion for helping people and teaching those who are ready. Yes, there will be many sad events in the time to come. People will die and be killed unjustly. Yesterday in China in the city of Shenzen, a huge landslide.  But when you meet me, you will see not the anger, you will feel the peace.

And instead of rage and violence met with violence, there will be flowers.



Faith in Humanity

I always have faith in humanity, but sometimes, it is good to have that faith reconfirmed: A (Syrian?) refugee in Turkey, asking for asylum of Ecuador via Twitter, gets a response from the President Raffaele Correa himself who forwards it to his chancellery. It looks hopeful, and that, sometimes, is all we need, hope.

 

This reminds me of the Vietnamese Boat People

 

“Between 1975 and 1976, Canada admitted 5,608 Vietnamese immigrants. In 1979 and 1980, another 50,000 people from Vietnam, refugees who later became known as the “Boat People,” settled in Canada.”

 

Welcomed to Canada under the leadership of Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, they integrated into Canadian society and now are a vibrant part of our history, with nearly 200,000 people living in communities that never saw Vietnamese people before.

 

And now his son, Justin Trudeau, elected less than a month ago, has vowed to bring in 25,000 Syrian refugees before years end. Our private carrier Air Canada has offered to ferry ALL of them, and homes and places for them to stay have been offered all over this wonderful land of ours.

 

I will always have faith in the goodness of people. 

God Bless Scotland

From Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh 2007

 

I didn't want to write this until the results were in, but my hope still was, that Scotland would  stay within the union.

 

The results are now in with 55.3% voting NO for the question of Independence and 44.3% voting YES. Congratulations to the people of Scotland in this proud moment. That there was an 85% voting turn out, and, 16 yrs old being allowed to vote, were the amazing notes to this democratic process and the general civility of debate and discussion between both sides was appreciated. Alex Salmond's concession speech brought tears to my eyes when he said we are all Scots men and women and we move forward together.

 

There are other separation movements, like the now much set back Quebec referendums and ongoing noises in Catalonia and the Basque regions of Spain. From a previous life, and a book I wrote 40 yrs ago so my feelings are constant:

 

"Yes, he was a Catalan, he thought. And at school, he had seen the map and heard his teacher say, This is Spain. But though he had been born a Spaniard, he belonged to an even greater world. How small a place must we cling to, he thought, remembering how Catalonia had looked on the map of the world. Can we then go on and say of even smaller things, say, this is my village and I am different from the man in the next village? Our village should declare its independence from the rest of Spain, he said laughingly."

I visited Scotland twice in 2007. Once with my family as we travelled all over including ferry trips to the Isles, and once, when I was helping friends set up a healing center in the North of England but also made a trip to Edinburgh where from the mount known as Arthur's Seat I took this picture looking out over the city and castle. Looking and knowing there still was much ahead for these proud people and history to be made.

I've written about my feelings for this place called Great Britain formed by the Act Of Union 1707 Rule, Britannia

 

but should tell you that my feelings for Scotland from Robert the Bruce's time and The Declaration Of Arbroath 1320 have also, been constant.

 

"For as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom — for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself."

From the Declaration, here, are principles laid down then that define those of us who care for justice:

1. "Firstly, it set the will and the wishes of the people above the King."
2. "Secondly, the manifesto affirmed the nation's independence in a way no battle could, and justified it with a truth that is beyond nation and race. Man has a right to freedom and a duty to defend it with his life."

These are the principles that we need to be reminded of, in the time to come, and God Bless Scotland for this reminder.

But I still feel its place is within the Union, for it is in union that we can become whole, if I may use a spiritual metaphor. England has lost its way. I saw that when I was there in 2007. And now, still bombing Iraq and crooks from around the world driving up London housing prices and buying football clubs? A system in which pedophilic networks are covered up? PM David Cameron's speech this morning was just, more of the same, jockeying for stasis.

But the problems are real. Aside from issues of unemployment, a stagnant economy, privatization of public resources and closing down the social safety net, there is a spiritual malaise sad to observe from afar.

With the extreme weather and other reminders being sent your way, I say this: watch out for shocks ahead, if you will not change.

Yet, there is much magic in these British Isles. And, within you.



Hare Krishna, Hare Rama

Hare Krishna

 





 

Hare Rama

 

I've been seeing forward, and reporting the spiritual crisis facing this planet for a long time now. I've seen it in the forms of psychopathy that occurs in ordinary murder as well as in the money class and political leaders, the wars that occur just in time for someone to profit from it, the destruction of our environment, the corruption of society, the fertility crisis and damage to our gene pool, which I hope to continue writing about as long as I live. And, when I am gone, trust me, I will incarnate again to help whoever prays, and asks for help.

 

I've written how I hold 4 meditations a year, and how they seem to coincide with significant events both before and after. No, I do not cause them, nor do I cause death and destruction. You, do, with your blindness and inability to change, to not accept a path of inner and outer peace, the path of spirituality. I am strictly neutral in this process. Karma is karma but I still help. Neutrality is a state of mind, not a policy of non-intervention, see?

 

I am a healer, but, I also teach. And if lessons are needed, then so be it. And as always, I am there.

 

There were a lot of events that took place. The ongoing barbarism of Gaza, civil war in Ukraine (aside: an astrologer said Putin, a Libra would have some sort of reckoning, I thought he would get stronger. My column on Russia will be next)

 

So, my meditation on August 24, 2014, planned well in advance. A 6.0 magnitude earthquake hit the Bay area that day Napa Valley Earthquake and I am grateful no one died, I have friends there, and quite a connection with California. As my readers know, I actually held a meditation in Northridge on January 15, 1994, and when I placed my hands on the earth, felt it move. The 6.7 magnitude Northridge Earthquake hit Los Angeles just two days after. Then, an idiot on Twitter said this to me:

 

Have a good night Ergon. Stay the hell away from Joan Rivers. I like her. Don't send her to heaven just yet.- Sept 03

I wish they didn't do that. Joan Rivers passed away the next day, after complications from a minor procedure. RIP. And now he wants to know if I caused it or claim to have caused it. I first came across her in a Playgirl (bunnies?) interview in 1977 where she said "God, I hate the Arabs" then just recently, her callous comments about Gaza, grated. But no, I didn't hate her in turn.

However, and this is where you call it a coincidence or whatever: this gentleman is referring to the death of Terri Schiavo: she was in a coma too, I prayed for whatever was best for her, she passed into spirit. And now, Joan Rivers, and it was a mercy, and she is in a better place. Unlike him.

This is what I do. I help ease the passing into spirit, and the question of what happens when we do, or how to do it, is one of my interests and subjects of study.

Never mind. Death is sad, but just another step in our journey. It is the lack of spiritual knowledge that bothers me, because of the untold harm it causes, but, that's how it is. If something needs to happen to restore balance, it will. Revolutions, earthquakes, personal events.

But there is much that is good, and positive, to report.

Someone who lost a job, found a better one.

A cat was lost, then found again. A message of why do these things repeat themselves?

Someone in the UK mourned the loss of a pet rabbit this year; a wild hare showed up in our back yard. (Pictured here) It even had the same markings as the one who'd passed! Sorry, that isn't Joan River's spirit (smile) but the same pet, returned again. It wasn't for us, but a message for someone else, received, and hasn't been seen since.

Speaking of hares, they represent fertility, and someone we care for just told us she's expecting again, that from a previous story of how spirits go where they are needed and have the chance to do good. Plus another friend's daughter in the U.K.

In mythology, Krishna and Rama are avatars of God. And what else is mythology but a retelling of the spiritual or religious experience? And hares/rabbits are in the native tradition messages to get away, seek refuge from negative energies.

Seek refuge in God.

Hare Krishna,

Hare Rama.







Reflections On A Meditation

Trees bow to spring winds

the silent volcano broods

change is always good

I remember meditations past, that it seems always were closely preceded or followed by disasters and personal changes. This coming meditation, on July 14, is very important. It has already been preceded by the Alberta floods, as over a hundred thousand were forced to evacuate their homes, and a train carrying oil overturned in Quebec, and a plane crashed in San Francisco.

At a family picnic on Canada Day, I heard that someone I knew had gotten pregnant unexpectedly, after much healing. Someone asked me if I knew someone who'd be willing to be a surrogate parent; her health prevented her from carrying a child. Then I met someone else, a friend of the family I hadn't seen for thirty years. His father was one of the first healings I had unknowingly until later, done. He was dying of cancer, given a week to live, recovered and lived another ten years. Seeing him reminded me once again, what I had done, and what my purpose was.

Why are you here? What is your purpose in life? If you want to live the way you are now, bless you. Being spiritual is not, is never, easy. But don't complain, don't be angry. You can change things. Do I remove karma? No, but I help you to do so. The Way of Atlan is to find your path, and follow it. But first, find the things that prevent you from changing your self.

A while back, I sent a gentle reminder to people: sooner or later, your karma will catch up with you. It could be illness, or sadness, or loneliness. It could, for the planet, be disasters. All are preventable, are changeable. All you have to do is change your self. But you do not change what that inner voice says you must do.

I was 5 years old when I went with my parents to Mt. Fuji. Looking out at a glorious sunrise over the mountain, I felt peace, and my path was set from there. I knew that the past, and future were all the same, and I could repeat it, or, I could change it. What I learned since then, I seek to share with you. 

Who knows what the future will bring? 

Past and future join
Mount Fuji in still water
peace reflects inside me

Rome 2013

Ivstitia

(continued from the previous blog PERUGIA)

March 25, 2013: I'm glad I went to Italy. I'm standing here outside Italy's Supreme Court, Corte de Cassazione, in Piazza Cavour, Rome, waiting with a crowd of press and other journalists. I knew I had to be there.

It's been an interesting journey, ever since I first came across the Meredith Kercher case at HUFFINGTON POST then at PERUGIA MURDER FILE. For a while it seemed like it could go either way. Amanda Knox and Rafaelle Sollecito have been found guilty, then provisionally acquitted by Judge Claudio Hellmann, now under appeal. A strong case, vs judges wanting to get rid of the problem? In January, I decided I should try to be there, to see whether justice would prevail.. I wrote and asked for a press pass, which I received in mid February. Was in Perugia March 18-24, and Rome March 24-31.

Cassazione is in a neo-classical 19th century building at Piazza Cavour in Rome. There are two entrances, one facing the Tiber river opposite Ponte Umberto I, and the other one most people go through on the Piazza Cavour side. Three camera crews milling around outside, from NBC, CNN and RAI.

I arrive at 9:20 AM and pick up my press pass, Passi n. 342, Sezione Penalli, Corte Supremi de Cassazione March 25, 2013. The court session begins at 10:00 AM.

Find my way to the Aula Prima Penale on the second floor. Huge, wide halls, facing a large inner court yard.

Not an overly large court room. 16 seats behind the partition where the legal teams sit. I grab one of the last seats, reporters from The Telegraph, New York Times, AP, Il Giornale dell Umbria, free lancers standing around and against the walls. Visible are Kercher family lawyer Maresca, Knox lawyers Della Vedova, and Ghirga, Sollecito lawyers Maori, and Bongiorno. Raffaele's father Francesco Sollecito surrounded by large family group, but Meredith's sister Stephanie Kercher could not be there due to her mother's ill health.

10:00 AM: The 5 judges walk in. Luigi Riello, attorney general for the court, sits on the podium to the left, with Maresca on that side, the defendant's team to the right..

...There are about 40 people in the audience. Journalists, law students from La Sapienza University, Sollecito family. Note: any Italian citizen or member of the press may attend Cassazione hearings. Just show your ID.

The presiding judge discusses the order of the day. There will be other cases dealt with later, after Knox and Sollecito.

10:15 AM: Proceedings begin. Riello makes a brief statement. Judges retire behind closed doors. Speak to the law students. Some think the case is very strong, others that it hasn't been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Most seem to favour a guilty verdict.

10:35 AM: Judges return, and ask questions of Riello about the points in his appeal. Two judges then enter into a lengthy summation of the case before them, and the appeal arguments. The relatrice is a woman in her 50's, v. bright and alert.  (Judge pro) Her respondent, Judge con, is probably in his 50's, with a goatee, and he starts with a lengthy summation. It appears they are arguing pro and con, a view of an inquisitorial system arguing and then arriving at a conclusion.

Question asked of Riello. He answers, then speaks very strongly about the legality of the appeal. Then he talks about a crime of passion, with a escalating crescendo of violence. The president listens intently.

Riello starts to veer off into the evidence, instead of the law, which is what Cassazione is about. The president interrupts him, saying "if I allow you to do this, then the defense will want to do the same, and we'll be here all day". Della Vedova smiles. Seems very confident at this point. More questioning of Riello, who makes a long dissertation. Judge con questions him about the interpreter Anna Donino, and how much she influenced Amanda Knox's "confession". Riello responds.

The relatrice (Judge pro) goes on at length about Le corte de Assise, (the Appeals court of Judge Hellmann) then about Rudy Guede's role in the crime, with 'the assistance of others'. Mentions the computer hard drives as argued by the defense. Then Amanda's role in falsely accusing Lumumba, the callunia. Brilliant, but rather long summation. Both she and the other judges speak past noon, with the arguments going back and forth, at length about the evidence, about Raffaele and the knife, the computer drives, biological traces, possible motive, Knox and the arrival of the postal police, Sollecito fudging the alibi, their guilty behaviour, Knox and Lumumba again. Emphasises that it was a sadistic act.

A very strong summing up of the evidence. I fell that finally, Meredith Kercher is being considered.

Frank Sfarzo shows up. No eye contact, hmm. He doesn't know who I am, stands there texting away. (Refer to the previous blog and all references to Sfarzo~gate)

12:42 PM: The judges are still going strong, with speculation it was an impulsive crime of the moment, and the relatrice summing up of the psychological motives behind the false accusation.

1:00 PM: The presiding judge thanks her for her (long) summation.

Riello sums up at length: Strong voice, humorous asides to lawyers. Asks for the 'disability' of the ruling by the Appeals court, jokes about the internet DNA research of Conti and Vecchiotti, that the law must be respected. Makes an impassioned speech about Intenzia, Motivazione, the 'anthropological relations between Knox and Sollecito, how their reactions were not normal'. "I was there" reads as "I did it". The accusation of Lumumba. A Psychological summing up. La Ragazza (naive Amanda) visiting Italy. Of Sollecito's "I can't remember". "Insomnio, Insomnio"

Sfarzo texting away. Francesco Sollecito wondering what I'm doing there

Riello goes on at length about Lumumba. Her accusation of an innocent man was "pathological". The illogicality of the appeal ruling by Hellmann. Judge Massei, the judge of the 1st instance trial, on the other hand, had expressed his judgement logically. Knox was the brain who manipulated Guede. Normal vs abnormal behaviour. Inappropriate behaviour.

Reporters coming and going out.

Will the court send back to Florence? Multo confuzione.

President tells him to get on with it. Basta! Is he losing patience? Riello's getting a bit long winded in the argument. Asking for the proper application of the law. Repeat: asking for a ruling of the illogicality of Hellmann/Zanetti again.

Not enough people present to fill the galleries. 16 seats audience. 20-30 standees. That's it.

Riello making fun of the contaminizione. Illogical arguments of appeal to try to prove contamination. Tidies up his files; thumps the desk with both hands. Gravissimo! Guilty, with Rudy Guede. Rejecto the recorso. To allow the appeal of the Procurator Generale. Pleads to ask the calunnia (criminal defamation) conviction and sentence of Amanda Knox to stand.

Lunch break 30 minutes. Court to reconvene @ 2:35 PM.

 The sign outside the court: 1st Sezione Penale Aula.

 Lunch till 2:45 PM. Speak to reporters and law students in the hall and crowded but elegant cafeteria down stairs. Law students have a mixed view on the matter. On the one hand, that Italy's legal system is antiquated and needs to move more toward common law practices. Others, equally passionate about the inquisitorial system and checks and balances within it. Aware of American media interference and attacks on the integrity of their system. The majority view, that I can see. One woman says oh, I think she's innocent (but leans toward the case not being proven) and another, a student from Africa, says flat out he thinks she's guilty. No one mentions Raffaele

The reporters consensus seem to be that the tough questioning by the court (of Riello) indicates that Knox and Sollecito will go free. The relatrice and he had quite a discussion about the proposed remedies, and I was struck by the sheer intellectual capacity of the arguments, and responses.

Return from lunch, and Frank Sfarzo is there towards the back, so I stand beside him, observing. His hair's longer now, so he's abandoned the short sides and trim he had on Vashon island, and wearing a rumpled blue pin stripe suit, no tie. He's on some IM account scrolling and texting away. Doesn't look too shabby, honestly, so I guess someone's still supporting him. Doesn't make eye contact. Then suddenly he lets out a big sneeze. Oh dear, has someone got a cold?

3:20 PM: Giulia Bongiorno is going strong, almost argumentative. She's a good speaker, with a flair for the dramatic. Judges listening intently, as she argues about the errors in Riello's statement, arguing on the law, the imputing of malfeasance by the appeals court. Going on about Rudy Guede as the sole perpetrator as determined by the Corte de Appello.

3:45 PM: This is when I see, and Giulia does too, the court slipping away from her. She's also arguing the evidence, going on about the computer hard drives, orating, almost operatic, now using the cartoon vixen defense of Knox.

4:00 PM: Maresca walks out as she continues. Sadly, she sounds almost desperate. The president sits there, bemused as she berates him, and geez, but she's being going on longer than Riello.

4:35 PM: Carlo Dalla Vedova. A snappy dresser always. Arguing "see you later"? (the text from Knox to Lumumba) Sheesh. Now every one on the defense team is arguing evidence, and running on scared.

4:50 PM: Happy Birthday, Luciano Ghirga. (Knox's lawyer) Going on about Masons, fer crying out loud. (PM Mignini's apparent 'obsession') Paints Knox as naive, Little Miss Innocenti.

5:05 PM: Ghirga concludes, and the court adjourns right after. There will be an announcement @ 9:00 PM.

The reporters all chase out after the lawyers. They seem to get their cues from whoever they talked to. It went well, no, it didn't go well. Fascinating to see their demeanour reflected in the stories they write and give in later interviews. Frank Sfarzo sits with other Italian reporters in one corner of the hall, spinning what just happened, and what is going to happen. I feel he's still after Mignini, and as I found out in Perugia, watch out, Frank, Mignini's carrying a much bigger stick now

I make friends with the cops. Much more fun than the reporters, but seriously, I respect the journalist's craft. They're professionals, forced by their editors and news departments to write crap, fit a narrative. No mileage in the truth, sometimes, though of course for many, it's the truth as they see it.

I get a sandwich and eat it out in the hall. Everyone has to hand in their pass by 7:00 PM but we don't need new ones to come back in. I enjoy they're not as paranoid about security as we NorteAmericanos. Then I get called to the front security, grande problema; nessun problema

8:35 PM: Giulia Bongiorno takes a call. Something stressful. I think her source is telling her something from inside the court.

9:05 PM: Doors open.

9:07 PM: The judges will announce their decision tomorrow, March 26, @ 10:00 AM. (Raffaele Sollecito's birthday)

In all the foofaraw I miss a couple of important calls I could have taken to meet some people, but instead I head off home. As I walk across the Tiber on Ponte Umberto I, there's Frank Sfarzo at the lights, driving a newish SmartCar, and we look at each other, then he drives off, still texting away. I'm not going to chase after him to get his license plate, thanks, and somehow I doubt he could have imagined I'd be there.

Off to bed, and I dash off a couple of notes. What will tomorrow bring? I've had this feeling, but never wanted to engage with it. The day will bring what it brings.

-----------
Summary:
This is why I got involved in the Meredith Kercher case, and which has brought me here to Cassazione. To one day, see justice be done, and my commitment sees me here in Rome. It's been quite a struggle to balance my other work and heavy family responsibilities, but I do care about the world that I will leave behind for my children, and am honored to have taken up Meredith's cause for the last three years. Yes, I get passionate about my causes, which has in the past been anti-apartheid, Vietnam war, anti-war, pro-Palestine. I even worked on the campaign to try elect a female president in Pakistan, back in 1964. Meredith's cause was simply an extension of this, but has come over the years to take on a spiritual dimension that transcends mere reasons of logic or law.

A reporter asks me: "why're you so involved?" And I reply with a question I asked a while back: what drew you to this case? It is this question, I think, that will better help us understand ourselves, but also, why Meredith was so important to us. It was about justice, but also, about our deeper spiritual selves, and our need for peace. Another reporter (they got to know me quite well in court) asked whether I was Meredith's uncle! seeing as I come from the same city as Arline Kercher. No, but I'm sure that there was an affinity based on that. Never mind. It's a good question. Why am I here? And where do I go from here?

It's been a good two weeks in Italy. I arrived on the 18th and was delayed at the train station, getting a phone; I arrive late in Perugia and miss my appointment with PM Mignini. The sun was finally out yet as I get on the train, it's pouring rain. I feel those are cleansing tears, and feel hopeful that justice will finally be done. But I'm also glad I am here, to witness it.

Perugia is an ancient city built on an Etruscan foundation; its walls contain many remnants of the older civilization. Its inhabitants have always been fiercely independent of Rome, and could care less that the sophisticated Romans think of them as er, slightly provincial, and maybe, superstitious. Me, I love every thing about it, from the chocolate to the culture and the warm, friendly people. And there is another thing that drew me to it: the Etruscan culture was very concerned with the after life and the hidden dimensions. It seems to me that while there's this huge disconnect in Western civilization between rationalism and spirituality, here in Perugia it's all a whole lot closer to the surface. I met occultists who I'm now pleased to call friends, and sense the many bright, shining spirits that hang there. Meredith had a much deeper connection to Perugia than most can imagine, so I have kept my views on this mostly out of this site, even when I felt it precluded a deeper understanding of this case or the culture of Perugia. If people wanted to call it a simple murder case, then why does it haunt those of us drawn here? I tried, in my own way, to help bridge that and create a deeper understanding.

I should also point out that PM Mignini was unfairly targeted for even hinting there were deeper, darker forces at play here in the MOF and Meredith Kercher cases. North American media played on those very same anti-supernatural tendencies by painting him as a satanism obsessed prosecutor, and in so doing, allowed some serious criminals to walk free. Even when some native commentators on TJMK and PMF discussed the deep hold masonry has on the Italian polis I felt those references went over the head of most people or were politely ignored. That's sad, really. I do not speak for him or claim to know what his views on the supernatural are, but failure to understand the underlying Perugian culture seriously impedes our understanding of this and the related MOF case, and gives his enemies a free rein to continue attacking him. And us from defending him. IMHO. Me, I can always walk away from it, but I am here for a reason.

The train from Perugia arrives in Rome the afternoon of the 24th, and it's gloriously sunny. Yet, that night in my hotel room, I'm woken by a heavy storm and lightning that once again, feels like cleansing tears.

It's sunny but cold the morning of the 25th, so I make my way to Cassazione and am there till after 9:00 PM, when the announcement is made that the court will render its decision the next day, 10:00 AM, March 26, 2013. Regardless of what many are now saying it was clear the appeal would be won, the fact is the consensus among the reporters in court that night was that Knox and Sollecito would win. But I saw Bongiorno's face fall when she received that call at 8:35 PM, and believe that is when she found out which way the decision would go (Which is why Papa Sollecito and Frank Sfarzo weren't in court the next day)

--------

9:30 AM, March 26, 2013: I'm there early. It's a bright sunny day, and I am hopeful. New shirt and tie, and the briefcase of course:) Some reporters are lost, but I've been in and out so many times I lead them through the many halls, elevator from the cafeteria, right then left, left.

10:00 AM: The doors open, and we go in. Standing room only. The judges enter at 10:05 AM, and at 10:07 AM, bang! a complete victory for the appeal, and the decision read in less than 60 seconds by the presiding judge. Complete, shocked silence in court. Maresca dashes over to hand some papers to the bench, and the lawyers huddle together. Outside, the defense put on a brave face, but they look shell shocked, the defeat is complete.

I shake Maresca's hand, and head out. He says to the waiting reporters, at least now they know they will get a fair hearing in Florence, but really, this is his style. He won't gloat about what was the end of a long and shameful episode in the treatment of this case.

But first, I go to public relations to get a copy of the dispositivo (they had to call the court clerk's office to have it sent down to them and it appears I got the first copy, no one else had asked by 10:30 AM) and I pass it on to the other reporters so they head off to the clerk's office to get their copies. I also find out how to get a copy of the reasoning report when it is released in the future.

Then I go out and watch the reporters file their stories with the waiting TV cameras. Watching the reports on the news later, I ask: Are these the same people that complained to me about how the story was 'worth nothing as compared to real problems' they'd rather be reporting, like war and the economy? That 'it doesn't matter at all except to the families'? I replied that well, justice is always important but they said the only reason they were there was because their head offices wanted to push the story. (Funny, but when I returned to Piazza Cavour two days later there was an NBC crew from London complaining about how they should have been on their way home but were still there for reasons undetermined

I spend the rest of the day meeting reporters and once again, the rain starts to fall. Let it pour. I find it cleansing, healing.

Tomorrow, I'm going to start enjoying my vacation. But tonight, I will find Pesci Fritti, a small trattoria off piazza dei Satiri, and, enjoying my dinner, raise a glass to the Kerchers and to Meredith. RIP, Meredith Kercher.

Why did I go to Italy? Whatever I do, there always is a reason, or many,  that compelled me. The many spirits of Perugia. Past lives in ancient Etruria (the homeland of the Etruscans, corresponding to Tuscany and Umbria and Rome itself. Papal politics, which I have been following since the assassination of Pope John Paul I and the Banco Ambrosiano scandal. Italy, that has drawn me since I was young; the assassination of PM Aldo Moro and the masonic lodge Propaganda P2, Italy's role in facilitating the Iraq and Libyan wars. Much karma here, and the earthquake was a message. But never mind that. I will do my healing work here, much as I did in Tehran 2007, then return home.

But there always is the personal: people who have been haunted by the case, in Italy and also at home. What can I do but try to help? I draw the Tarot card, "Justice". Yes, I bring justice, and I bring karma. Wherever I go, there is change, and I don't even try to change things, just be.

Why am  I here? Well, the people I met through the case. So many people in need of help, from the woman who was a healer yet afraid to express that side of herself, to the man still grieving over the death by suicide of his parents, to the woman whose thesis was going no where. Each of these, and many more, I helped. The people in Perugia I have met before, the streets of Rome where every step brings back memories...the people I ask: where do you go from here? This is what I do.

Where do I go from here? I don't know. The future will bring what it brings. But in  the end, this is the memory I take back home to Toronto:

Me, waiting here outside Cassazione the evening of March 25, waiting for the judges to come back.

Waiting, for justice.

I Shall Dream Of Asteroids

Don't mock

It seems that no matter how close something happens, some people just do not see. And that's the way it should be. People should always have faith of their own free will and not be coerced into something out of fear or end of the millennium panics.

So an asteroid was supposed to pass close by earth today and if it had impacted us there have been a global catastrophe, and instead, a meteorite exploded over Central Russia and over a thousand people were injured.(No, I didn't think the asteroid would have landed)

But whenever I get into this space, something..happens. I thought about the present pontiff, and wrote about him in Why Rome?  and sure enough, he up and quits. And lightning strikes St. Peter's dome, twice.

Seriously, these are little signs. Not enough to make any one change, not even a little bit, and this makes me laugh. What changes people is not an asteroid or meteor that hits earth somewhere else,  but, the personal shift that happens when something comes along and gives a quick boot up the ass.

And that, is something that people, countries, and religions need, sad to say.

Me, I'm an observer. Yet somehow, change seems to follow me. I think of a place, or a person, and change follows. When you're ready, let me know.

Edited To Add: The day after I posted this, Rome was hit by another earthquake. Residents, alarmed by a scientist who'd successfully predicted that some major earthquakes would hit Central Italy, panicked. As someone who's been closely following Italy, and the Catholic Church, for some time, all I can say is that change must come.

Follow Your Spirit

The Merlin Falcon In Our Back Yard

Today, as we begin the Chinese Year of the Snake, my message to you will be very brief. Twenty one years ago, around about this time, I began a journey of spiritual teaching that led to this day. I was driving on a country road and saw a flight of Canada Geese fly low overhead, and knew this was a very special message to me, as I have always equated birds, with spirit. You will see, from my blog, the number of times I have referred to them, and the lessons I learned therefrom. It has not always been easy, but it has been exciting, it has been wonderful, and it has brought me much love.

Last year was all about karma, and the things we have left undone, and the lessons we still have to learn. This year, will be all about spirit, and the things we have to do in our lives. If you are happy with the direction of your life, go for it. If you think there must be something more, then I say to you, follow your spirit. Sure, when you first try to fly, you will stumble. But one day, you will fly!

So, once again, recently, a flight of geese flew low overhead. Once again, a large hawk flew and circled just a few feet over my wife and children's head. Once again, a Merlin Falcon landed in our back yard.

~Follow your spirit, make a leap of faith~