France proclaims 600th anniversary of Joan of Arc 

President Sarkozy will travel to Domremy, the village said to have been her birthplace, where he will unveil a plaque in the home where she is thought to have been born. 

Mr Sarkozy will also visit Vaucouleurs, also in the Vosges mountains of eastern France, where Joan of Arc began her campaign to push the English out of France and put Charles VII on the throne.

Mr Sarkozy and far-right leader Marine Le Pen are battling over the mantle of the French patron saint Joan of Arc, a surprise player in the upcoming presidential election. 

The two leaders are to stage rival celebrations of the 600th anniversary of the birth of the 15th-century Catholic martyr who has been appropriated by the far-right partly for her booting out of medieval English "immigrants".

The teenage peasant led the French army against the English after experiencing religious visions and was later burned at the stake, but her broad appeal to French of all political colours has ensured her immortality. 600 year anniversary of Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc Revealed

By Jeff Nisbet

On May 30, 1431, a young girl was burned alive for heresy and witchcraft in Rouen, France. 

According to one account of the day, when she had succumbed to the flames the fire “was raked back, and her naked body shown to all the people, and all the secrets that could or should belong to a woman, to take away any doubts from people’s minds. When they had stared long enough at her dead body bound to the stake, the executioner got a big fire going again round her poor carcass, which was soon burned, both flesh and bone reduced to ashes.”
Although history tells us the victim was Joan of Arc, a simple shepherdess known then as Joan the Maid, the account of her execution shows even her gender was in doubt at the time—a doubt put to rest perhaps just a tad too neatly in the historical record.

Joan deserves a closer look.

Born on January 6, 1412, Joan is one of history's best-documented figures—hardly surprising considering that the records of her several trials still survive.
At age 13, a "voice" told Joan she had been chosen by the “King of Heaven” to bring “reparation to the kingdom of France, and help and protection to King Charles.”

One of the suspiciously precise details we know about Joan is her exact time of birth—one hour after sunset on January 6, a day variously known as the Feast of the Epiphany, the Day of the Three Kings, and the Twelfth Day of Christmas. Surprisingly, neither Joan’s mother nor any other witnesses at the “nullification” trial mentions that Joan’s birthday was an official holy day. Joan of Arc Revealed




Happy Three King's Day

Today is January 6^th or Three Kings Day or Day of the Ephiphany

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphany

Epiphany (Greek: επιφάνεια, "the appearance; miraculous phenomenon") is a Christian feast intended to celebrate the 'shining forth' or revelation of God to mankind in human form, in the person of Jesus. The observance had its origins in the eastern Christian churches, and included the birth of Jesus; the visit of the three Magi, or Wise Men (traditionally named Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar) who arrived in Bethlehem; and all of Jesus' childhood events, up to his baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist. The feast was initially based on, and viewed as a fulfillment of, the Jewish Feast of Lights. This was fixed on January 6.

 

 "Twelfth Night" is a reference to the twelfth night after Christmas Day, called the Eve of the Feast of Epiphany. It was originally a Catholic holiday but, prior to Shakespeare's play, had become a day of revelry. Servants often dressed up as their masters, men as women and so forth. Twelfth Night

Jean Seberg as Joan of Arc in the 1957 film Saint Joan. Photograph: Popperfoto/Getty Images

Joan of Arc at 600: the best of role models

As we celebrate the 600th anniversary of Joan of Arc's birth, let's remember what she stood for, because she is one of us

At the opening of his 1916 silent film Joan the Woman, Hollywood grandee Cecil B DeMille introduced the French hero Joan of Arc as "the girl patriot who fought with men, was loved by men and killed by men, yet retained the heart of a woman". A warrior at 16, a saint at 19, Joan – or Jeanne, to us French – is the world's first pop icon. Groovier than the Virgin Mary, sexier than the Mona Lisa, she has been a star ever since she told the English to go to hell in the late 1420s, and fans throughout the world are today celebrating the 600th anniversary of her birth.

How many historical figures can lay claim to having inspired more than a dozen biopics since the beginning of cinema? The latest one, Jeanne Captive, has just been released in France. And that's just films. Her frail figure in armour, carved in marble and stone, graces the streets of New Orleans, Washington, Paris, Montreal, among a hundred other cities. Ingres painted her; Verdi, Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Honeger wrote operas dedicated to her. In theatre, the farmer's daughter inspired Von Schiller, George Bernard Shaw, Bertold Brecht, Paul Claudel and Jean Anouilh. A 1990s famous Japanese rock band called itself Janne Dar Arc, and several video games have enrolled the pretty but chaste fighter as their leading protagonist. For good measure, let us not forget to mention Leonard Cohen among his greatest fans: in "Joan of Arc", he huskily sings "I love your solitude, I love your pride, my cold and lonesome heroine".

Jeanne is indeed a fascinating figure, all the more so if you are French. Aged 12, I went through a mystical period when I feared I may, too, have to be burned at the stake for my country's sake. I had just cut my long hair very short and looked a little like Ingrid Bergman as Jeanne in Roberto Rossellini's film, or Jean Seberg in Oto Preminger's own version. I got slightly mixed up between the hundred years war and the French Resistance during the second world war, confusing the perfidious English with Nazi Germans along the way, but how could you blame me when even Winston Churchill had nicknamed Charles de Gaulle "Jeanne d'Arc"?

My confusion didn't last long as, a year later, the extremist-right National Front emerged on the French political scene, highjacking the lovely and audacious girl as their effigy. She suddenly became a political enemy; from hero, she became foe. For my generation, traumatised by the rise of Jean-Marie Le Pen's party, she suddenly represented chauvinism in its nastiest form. From a freedom fighter, she became a hater of foreigners. She could have no place in our hearts.
We were fools. The left should have fought hard to reclaim Jeanne. She is not, as the extreme right historiography would have us believe, a royalist Catholic die-hard. She is a people's girl, betrayed by the king and burned by the church. In other words, she's a feisty little punk who paid for her audacity with her life. Let's say it loud and clear today, Jeanne is one of us! 2012/jan/06/joan-of-arc-600-anniversary

Secret Messages

The messages have been arriving filled with synchronicity lately. They are deep, and filled with messages of heart and love. It gives me great joy that so many are now also "listening" to the messages.

It has been predicted by many that this was to be our last "Christmas" and a great awakening was to take place in the coming year of 2012. Elle of Crystal Links Blog has blogged on many wonderful articles that support her theory that we exist in a Holographic Universe.

The theory that reality, as we consciously experience it, is not real, goes back to ancient indigenous people who believed we exist in a dream or illusion. In our current timeline, we refer to the matrix, grids, virtual reality, simulation and hologram. Today many physicists are researching the concept of the universe as a hologram.
The universe is a consciousness hologram. Reality is projected illusion within the hologram. It is a virtual experiment created in linear time to study emotions. Our hologram is composed of grids created by a source consciousness brought into awareness by electromagnetic energy at the physical level. The hologram is created and linked through a web, or grid matrixes based on the patterns of Sacred Geometry. The hologram had a beginning and it has an end, as consciousness evolves in the alchemy of time. As the grids collapse, everything within the hologram will end, helping to understand what is going on in the world today.

On Christmas Day of this year, 12/25/2011 a wonderful young man appeared on the scene and left us with many great and wonderful "secret" messages for us to decipher. A wonderful young man named Ben Breedlove died on Chirstmas Day leaving us with his story. In Hebrew the name Ben means "son" and Breedlove is a message we can understand in these days. Here is a wonderful article by Greg at The Daily Grail.

Here is Ben's Story . And some of the comments left here touched my heart with the sweetness of the great synchronicities of this wonderful message to arrive for all of us who "listen" on Christmas Day, which for many represent the birth of Divine Love for all of us.

I watched the video yesterday from the daily news updates and was so moved I forwarded the link to several friends. Now today to find out he died one week later only makes the story more poignant.
As I recently posted I recently read and am rereading Holographic Universe. I believe his statements about finding himself inside an endless white room looking in a mirror with a rapper playing his song about finding heaven fits perfectly within the concept. Synchronicity is at play with the timing of the lyrics and him promptly waking back into life. The presence of the rapper who presumably is still alive does not in any way undermine the legitimacy of his experience or point to it as fantasy or hallucination, but rather perfectly fits within the framework of a holographic theory or even traditional spiritual theory of an afterlife in that the rapper was merely the form his consciousness chose to interpret the energy there to assist him in this nde, or for that matter the form the angel or spirit chose to represent itself…a familiar form to further underscore the message of the musical lyrics.
If it were merely a last minute attempt by a dying brain to rationalize its demise then the timing of lyrics and his resuscitation are highly coincidental, which is of course what synchronicity is – coincidences with profound meaning, which according to a holographic theory are coordinated by an implicate order aka universal mind aka God.
I for one am a believer and believe he is content and happy and continuing his journey. Clearly he learned lessons in this life and perhaps taught a few in his short but beautiful video effort.

—

Greg H.

And so beyond that immediate, gut-wrenching moment, what this terrible news brought into sharp relief for me was the simple fact that we are all gifted with something precious: life. Whether you're religious, an atheist, or just of a general spiritual bent, there is far too much to do in our time on this Earth to waste time being negative. Chase your dreams, while appreciating everything you have been given, love and be loved, and perhaps most importantly of all, do good.
Godspeed Ben Breedlove. Thanks for sharing your story.

Ben's favorite video 
Kid Cudi - Mr. Rager - 2011




Here is Ben's sister's message at his funeral -

iJourney: iJourney.org: An Inner Journey

iJourney: iJourney.org: An Inner Journey

Fabric of the Cosmos - What is Space - Reality as a Hologram - Illusion of Time

Fabric of the Cosmos - What is Space - Reality as a Hologram - Illusion of Time

Do you believe in miracles?

Not Photoshopped: Beam of Light Shines on Fallen Soldier’s Miracle Dog

 

Reported by ABC News’  Kimberly Launier:
It was an overcast day in Newport, N.H., when a simple “20/20″ shoot turned into something that made me wonder about life after death.

I was filming soldier Justin Rollin’s parents Skip and Rhonda playing with their dog Hero, whose rescue from the Iraq War zone where Justin died was nothing short of a miracle.

Sometimes when Rhonda hugged Hero she would softly pet her face and coo, “Justin, are you in there?”  It was Rhonda’s gentle way of remembering their son and his last living connection to Hero. At one point, Hero wandered off and took a stroll in the backyard. All of a sudden, the clouds broke and a light began to solidify in a beam directly down on Hero — a kind of vertical halo.

As this dramatic ray of light was shining on Hero she turned to look at me, and it was all I could do to hold the camera steady and not drop it in astonishment. It was an unforgettable moment, and made me wonder if in fact Justin was in there. Then the light vanished.

I couldn’t wait to check my camera’s playback to see if it caught the stunning beam. When I saw that it did, I was so happy that I burst out dancing. It was a great moment to share with Justin’s parents. We all laughed together, and wondered if perhaps this had been a sign from Justin.

Watch the full story Friday on “20/20″ at 10 p.m. ET and read more about Hero and Justin here.

 

Advent - We Enter the Season of Violet Light

The Dream of the Alchemists

The Violet Flame is a tool of self-transformation. Physical experiments in alchemy whereby base metals are transformed into gold are symbolic of what the Violet Flame does. 

In medieval times, alchemists attempted to transmute base metals into gold, using heat to separate the "subtle" from the "gross". While there have always been alchemists who sought to create wealth by transmuting base metals, this process of transmutation is symbolic of a higher and more noble Alchemy - the Alchemy of self-transformation. 

Alchemists of the Spirit did not seek physical wealth, but spiritual wealth. They sought to transform themselves into more spiritual beings, by becoming more loving, wise and compassionate. The Violet Flame has the capacity to bring about this transformation by transmuting negative elements within ourselves. The Violet Flame has the unique ability to transform fear into courage, anxiety into peace and hatred into love. This is why knowledge of the Violet Flame has been so prized throughout the centuries. 

Alchemists of all ages have sought the mystical philosophers’ stone. Early alchemists pored over minutely ciphered texts in search of this stone. For them, it was worth a lifetime to decode the mystery of this "stone" which symbolized the transmutation of the lower animal nature into the highest and divine. The coveted philosophers’ stone - "the stone which is no stone" - was not physical, but spiritual, and created out of fire. 

Some alchemists did discover the secret of the Violet Flame. According to Neoplatonist alchemists, the philosophers’ stone was a self-transforming fire that would lead their souls upward, by drawing up to the Spirit all qualities which dragged downward and opposed the spiritual essences. In the process, the "hard and refractory materials" in their bodies would be transmuted into a rare and more luminous material. In this sacred experiment, they said the alchemist would become "like the gods", pursuing "the gold of the wise and not the vulgar metal".

Transmutation, then, was not just a process which turned base metals into gold, but a spiritual process which raised the soul into a state of unity with the Divine. 

 The Violet Flame - The Alchemist's Dream

Life has been quite the roller coast ride for me lately. I have not felt competent enough to write any posts on here, perhaps that is a symptom of my inner journeys. I have had a glorious summer of beautiful, bountiful gardening. I started a small business of selling plants at a local farmer's market. It was very hard work but so very rewarding. It was in a section of town that has fallen into hard times, all the businesses have left for people with more money. Lots of old, beautiful, now empty buildings. I was chastised by many people for making this my area to open my business in. I should try for the booming, white, suburban areas. I am glad I didn't listen to them. I met the most wonderful people this summer. It seemed that I was surrounded by kindness and true, honest joy. Just the plain joy of living and being in sync with the pulse of life. It is a place that I strive to find each and every day. But in these times it grows much harder to find that "violet flame". 

In reading back over some of my posts here, I discover how very wordy and boring some of my posts are. I copy and past way too much when I should only past waypoints. I will try to do better. I just want to share the secrets that I discover. But truly all I can do is show the way..........

So in this wonderful season of Advent, or the coming of the Violet Light I hope you will find your own secrets.

GA Homily for the First Sunday in Advent
by Rev. Steven Marshall

---

Seeking the Light

The First Sunday of advent marks the beginning of a new liturgical year. Like Lent, it is a penitential season and a preparation for a new cycle. Traditionally Advent is a time of fasting and praying. For the Gnostic the penitential seasons are a time for quiet introspection and self-reflection in preparation for the great festivals of Christmas and Easter.

Paramahansa Yogananda describes this inner work of preparation as a work of inner cleansing and purification.

"I will prepare for the coming of the Omnipresent baby Christ by cleaning the cradle of my consciousness and sense attachments; and by polishing it with deep, daily, divine meditation, introspection, and discrimination. I will remodel the cradle with the dazzling soul-qualities of brotherly love, humbleness, faith, desire for God, will power, self-control, renunciation and unselfishness, that I may fittingly celebrate the birth of the Divine Child."

http://gnosis.org/ecclesia/homily_Advent1.htm

http://gnosis.org/ecclesia/homily_Advent2.htm


During the season of Advent we are most acutely aware of those less fortunate and in need. As we perceive the pain and suffering in the world, we can often feel overwhelmed with the immensity of the divine work of redemption. The Book of Sophia describes this work of redemption in marvelous simplicity, not as an external projection but as an inner mystery.

"Do to all men who come to you and believe in you and listen to your words what is worthy of the mysteries of the Light, give the mysteries of the Light and do not hide them from them. For he who shall give life to a single soul and liberate it, besides the Light that is in his own soul, he shall receive other glory in return for the soul he has liberated."

The most precious gift we have to give in this work of redemption in the world is the offering of the mysteries of the Light, however we may attest to them, not by street corner evangelism or door to door proselytizing but by doing what is worthy of the mysteries of the Light to those who seek it and come to us. As one by one the Light is awakened in others, then the pain and suffering in the world can be transformed.

My wish for all of us is that we can each find our way during this journey of life to our own "violet light" and become wayshowers for all that search.

On the wings of a snow white dove

Some days it just all comes together and the world turns golden. A bubble of a new reality drifts on into my dreams and doors open to the heaven that is there all the time. The trick is holding on to it.

I am an avid follower of Montalk, one the deepest thinkers on the planet Earth. I happened to stumble across his site this weekend to discover this new article Dawn of a New Cosmic Day

Here is a small snippet that took my breath away -

Timewars

How do thoughtforms tie into timeline dynamics? Once created, they ceaselessly pursue their programming until the astral archetypes delineating their objectives are fully manifested in the physical. That is their demiurgic function, to take an archetypal template and realize it in the physical. Usually they do this by exerting pressure upon the timeline at quantum bifurcation points, bending it toward the probable futures where their objectives are fulfilled. Thoughtforms may be interpreted as strange attractors located in the future, pulling various timeline pathways toward them like magnets attracting iron particles along their magnetic field lines.

The prime objective of the Demiurge is to fashion the Universe, to generate and perpetuate physicality. This objective is met every second as the Demiurge or World Thoughtform collapses quantum wave functions into tangible configurations, like a sliding zipper meshing together separate strands into a single line. Hence linear time ticks on with or without our participation.

The Demiurge is responsible for time itself, just as an author is responsible for time within a novel’s plot, or the subconscious for time in a dream. Lesser thoughtforms, which are but extrusions of the Demiurge, respectively modulate the properties of time according to their archetypal impulse. Weaker thoughtforms merely have probabilistic influence, nudging the course of events toward one probable future instead of another, while stronger thoughtforms could conceivably reformulate the entire timeline. An author may feel a weak impulse and merely change the direction of the story, or a strong impulse and rewrite it from scratch.

Christ and Yahweh signify the diametrically opposed primary extensions of the Demiurge rooted in divergent probable futures. In one probable future, the Christ thoughtform has accomplished its objective of spiritualizing matter, restoring all fallen souls, and placing physicality back under the reign of the Logos. In the other probable future, Yahweh has fully matterized spirit, enchained higher souls into the darkest of conditions, and thereby secured for itself the most exquisite energy source.

Each exerts its influence upon the timeline, each represents a particular state, aspect, or extrusion of the World Thoughtform, and each sends its feedback flow into the present from our perceived future. In turn, we send our feedback flow into the future via the causal consequences of how we respond physically, mentally, and emotionally. Our response increases or diminishes the strength of either future/thoughtform via the past-future feedback loop.
While the Logos is beyond even the Demiurge and is an eternal intelligence beyond time, the Christ impulse appears to be a provisional thoughtform active within linear time as a probability current flowing toward the best of all possible outcomes. Meanwhile, Yahweh is one flowing toward the worst. None can deny that these worlds exist as probable futures; it follows from the simple fact that not all futures are equal, thus some are better than others, and there exists the best and worst among them.

Christ and Yahweh are completely goal oriented like any thoughtform, ceaselessly working to fulfill their objectives, one toward ultimate balance and the spiritualization of matter, the other toward ultimate imbalance and deadening of spirit. Consequently, our timeline is under competition by two primary opposing time loops, or equivalently, our world is the intersection between higher and lower realms. This dynamic is represented in the Gnostic Christian symbol of the vesica piscis, two circles intersecting.

The late Philip K. Dick, science fiction author and modern Gnostic, speculated on the matter as follows:

The Logos is not a retrograde energetic life form, but the Holy Spirit, the Parakletos, is. If the Logos is outside time, imprinting, then the Holy Spirit stands at the right or far or completed end of time, toward which the field flow moves (the time flow). It receives time: the negative terminal, so to speak. Related to the Logos in terms of embodying world-directives and world-organizing powers, but at a very weak level, it can progressively to a greater degree overcome the time field and flow back against it, into it, impinging and penetrating. It moves in the opposite direction. It is the anti-time. So it is correct to distinguish it from the Logos, which so to speak reaches down into the time flow from outside, from eternity or the real universe. The H.S [Holy Spirit] is in time, and is moving: retrograde. Like tachyons, its motion is a temporal one; opposite to ours and the normal direction of the universal causal motion.

Equilibrium is achieved by the Logos operating in three directions: from behind us as causal-time-pressure, from above, then the final form, the very weak H.S. drawing toward perfection each form. But now equilibrium as we know it is being lost in favor of a growing ratio of the retrograde teleology. This implies we are entering, have entered, a unique time: nearing completion of the manifold forms. Last pieces are going into place in the over-all pattern. The task or mode of the H.S. is completing. Not beginning, not renewing or maintaining, but bringing to the end, to the close. An analogy would be the transit of a vehicle from one planet to another; first stage is the gravity of planet of origin; then equilibrium of both planets in terms of their pull; then the growing pull of the destination gravity-field as it gradually takes over and completes the journey. Beginning, middle, end. At last one senses the receiving field engage, and then correct. (Philip K. Dick, In Pursuit of Valis, pp. 64-65)

Corruption of the timeline stems from the corruption of the Demiurge, for the Demiurge is time. Both the quality of time and the fabric of history were affected by this corruption. If the Demiurge is responsible for time in general, the Corrupted Demiurge is responsible for linear time in particular, for the limitations imposed by linear time are favorable to its agenda. Those who succumbed to the Corrupted Demiurge underwent a Fall into the limited spacetime bubble we are now accustomed to, a realm where time marches ceaselessly forward toward entropy, atrophy, and decay and the senses are confined to the domain of matter and electromagnetic energy. These conditions, which define the Cosmic Sleep, serve to increasingly isolate us from true reality. Were it not for the influence of Spirit/Logos, every last one of us would be matrix puppets.
Hence the influence of Logos, which intervened through the Christ or Holy Spirit thoughtforms as a direct counter-reaction to the threat of the Corrupted Demiurge, may be said to be working “over and against” linear time. It counters linear time not by creating a reversed linear time flow, but a nonlinear type of time harmonized with the Logos. (In mathspeak: imaginary time. Tachyons don’t move backwards in time, but propagate in imaginary time. The opposite of causality is not reverse causality, but acausality). It works through synchronistic, nondeterministic, critical point intervention instead of cold mechanistic calculation. It works through the butterfly effect. Many of the parables attributed to Jesus pertain to this.

The Dissolution of Linear Time

As with the Philosopher’s Stone transmuting matter, sufficient etheric energy can also override linear time. The meta-civilization can exist outside linear time because they possess a quantity and quality of etheric energy that places them beyond the grasp of the particular World Thoughtform that still holds us firmly in linear time. The implication is that the Etheric Tide irradiating Earth may loosen that grip.

Put another way, the Dawn of a New Cosmic Day, which represents a major transformation of the Demiurge, would signify a major transformation in the nature of time as well. Time could change toward nonlinearity: variable time rate, selectable location along the timeline, and greater malleability in what directional heading time takes. Right now, linear time marches steadily forward like involuntary muscle movements during sleep, such as breathing, while nonlinear time is like consciousness returning to the body and resuming voluntary control.

The Etheric Tide poses both a dilemma and opportunity for the Corrupted Demiurge. While the dissolution of linear time would undermine the control it has enjoyed so far in our history, it can still reign afterwards should nonlinear time be successfully harmonized with its parasitic objectives.

This has already happened in certain probable futures, futures from which negative time travelers originate. These alien manipulators are entirely steeped in nonlinear time, for they use time travel freely, but even so they are saddled with limitations that force them to rely on cold calculation to pursue their agendas. Even with their nonlinear and demiurgic abilities, it seems they get befuddled and undermined by the even more subtle, synchronistic, and incomprehensible maneuvers of the Logos.

Timewars and Thoughtforms

Nonlinear time makes the past accessible and reconfigurable. Thus our reality is accessible and reconfigurable by beings who operate beyond linear time. This necessarily includes forces from our own probable futures who have already undergone the Etheric Tide and broken free from linear time, be they positive or negative.

If time travel is possible, it will happen sooner or later, therefore it already has happened at some point in the future, hence we are being visited by time travelers from our perceived future. This would be mere philosophizing were it not for alienology research confirming that time travelers do indeed comprise a portion of the alien presence. The other portions consists of meta civilizations that previously transcended linear time. Regardless of where within linear history the moment of transcendence was achieved, once beyond, one “joins the club” so to speak.

Warring among meta-civilization factions has the appearance of a timewar. As they attempt to reconfigure the past in their favor, we would experience a tug of war that continually adjusts our trajectory into the future. The subtler details are explained in my Timeline Dynamics article. The more our trajectory points toward their particular probable future, the stronger and more tangible they become to us. That is mathematical fact in quantum physics. This feedback loop resembles thoughtforms acquiring energy and tangibility and is intimately tied into that process:

Better probable futures are ones that have more of the Christ impulse defining their World Thoughtform, worse probable futures have the Yahweh or Corrupted Demiurge impulse underpinning theirs. The best of all possible futures is entirely of Christ/Logos, the worst entirely by Yahweh/Corrupted Demiurge. These are the “alive cat” vs “dead cat” outcomes in our cosmic Schrödinger’s Experiment. Currently the two states are superimposed, both outcomes exist in a mixed state, which is why both influences are simultaneously active in our world.

After reading this article I spent the rest of my day outside in my garden. It was one of those perfect June Days when the sun sparkles and your body can actually feel one with the earth and feel the great love of the "Holy Spirit". Time did not exist per se, I was one with life, all life. This is how we were meant to live. Deeply.

Returning to my blog tonight I happened to discover that my computer's clock was goofed up for some reason and was stuck on Sunday, June 12th. Imagine the tingly sensation that surged through me when I also discovered this:
Sunday, June 12th a Homily for Pentecost, the Coming of the Holy Spirit

Pentecost is a very important feast day in our Gnostic liturgical calendar. It commemorates the promised coming of the Holy Spirit to the Disciples, which was predicted by Jesus prior to his mystical death and resurrection. The mythic cycle of the liturgical year seems to come to an end at Pentecost, yet, for the Gnostic, it is the beginning of the true spiritual mission of the Christos. The Pistis Sophia describes twelve years of activity by the Logos among the disciples after the Ascension. It also describes the Apostleship of Mary Magdalen and the mythic cycle of the feminine power represented in the descent, suffering and assumption of Sophia.

Pentecost with the insertion of the Trinity season begins an entire half of the year, representing the mythic cycle of the feminine aspect of God, the season of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost, like Advent, is a beginning, the beginning of a new level of spiritual activity in our archetypal life. The Holy Spirit, like a great wind, blows into our spiritual life with something new, unexpected, and, even if somewhat unsettling, yet as a consoler and comforter that is not of this world.
The Gospel of St. Matthew states quite accurately "The Spirit bloweth where it listeth."

Pentecost (Whitsunday)

Intent: Coming of the Holy Spirit

---

THE COLLECT

Eternal Spirit of Wisdom, source of love and light; thou norm of the Father and the Son, who comest into the soul of man as the balance of righteousness and truth, we hail thee! Most holy comforter, dove that deifiest mankind; thou presence most secret and adored in all the worlds, hear our prayer! Thou who art the fire of Pentecost, who movest upon the face of the waters; who comest down as a mighty wind; and who renewest the face of the earth, we glorify thee, and rejoice in the all renewing majesty of thy deathless might, now and forevermore.
Amen.

---

THE LESSON

The lesson is taken from the Kephalaia of the Paraclete:

The fount of every blessing and all the invocations is the mother of life, the first Holy Spirit, the first mother who has come forth the father and first appeared, the glorious one who is the beginning of all emanations that have come to this world. Know that the grains of the dust of the earth can be measured, with the whole universe, one can count the grains of the dust of the earth year after year; but the length of time the Holy Spirit passed with the father, that one cannot count. He first formed her in his inner chambers in quiet and in silence; but when she was needed, then was she called and came forth from the father of greatness; she looked after all the aeons of the light.

---

THE GOSPEL

The gospel is taken from the Gospel according to St. John:

Jesus said unto His disciples: I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that She may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Her not, neither knoweth Her; but ye know Her, for She dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more, but ye see Me; because I live, ye shall live also. The Comforter, who is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, she shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

The Gardener

http://www.digitalblasphemy.com/graphics/640x480/gardener1640.jpg

The Mysterious Gardener
Stuart Wilde
{Excerpted from Plum Red by Stuart Wilde (unpublished)}

A tale about your silent power.
Many years ago in old China, there were a group of small villages on the banks of a muddy tributary of a great river in the province of Shan Tung. The villagers were very poor. The crops often failed, and the river flooded from time-to-time, making matters worse. The water really wasn't very clean; it carried disease and parasites, which affected animals, and sometimes the villagers became sick. At harvest time, bandits would come down from the hills, attacking the villages, and they would carry off the crop. The villagers' lives were miserable, brutal and hard.
They got together and decided they would build a temple, hoping that through prayer and dedication, their fortunes might change. The land around there was not particularly fertile or attractive, but there was a very nice spot under a small hill, which had a stream running past it. They consulted with a local master who knew where the dragon lines flowed, and he decided that that spot would be an auspicious place to build the temple. He insisted the temple be placed so that the hill was behind it.
Work commenced, and the villagers began hauling stones and digging the foundations, and about forty of them, men and women, were involved in the activity. Each took turns to work on the temple, then he or she would return to their work in fields, and so in this way the temple gradually got going in fits and starts.
They had been working about a month, when a stranger walked into the village. He seemed young. He was tall and strong, but not muscular. He sat by the village well, not far from the building site. The villagers were suspicious of him; they wanted to know who he was.
He told them he was a traveler, and he asked if he might rest by the well for a few days. He assured them he would cause them no trouble.
The stranger hardly ever spoke, except to exchange a few pleasantries with those that came to fetch water. He sat by the well for three days, watching the villagers building their temple. Finally, he asked one of them, "What are you building?" A villager told him their tale of woe, saying how the people had decided to build a temple, hoping that it might bring them better fortune.
The stranger nodded as if approving. A short silence hung in the air, and then the villager returned to his work. The stranger's presence soon became the talk of the village. They wondered who he was. Some said he must be a sage. Others disagreed; he looked too young to be a wise man. The stranger was dressed in an unconventional way. This gave rise to further discussions and speculation. He carried a long sword strapped across his back, and he wore protective clothing made of leather. His jerkin was studded with metal on the chest and shoulders. Yet the rest of his clothes were those of a peasant with one exception, tied around his waist was a silk sash. It was wound around him several times and knotted at the hip; from there it hung down to his right, almost to his knee.
The sash was plum red in color.

Lessons

I decided to try my hand at selling plants from my home this year. I have hundreds of tomato and pepper plants started but no customers. A friend made me a web page and I put an ad on Craig's list. This has been the coldest, meanest spring I can ever remember. And the whole time I have been working my rear end off, falling into bed each night totally exhausted. And what used to be a joy has become a nightmare all because I needed to make some money. In the beginning every single little seedling lived, which most gardeners know is unusual. I felt good and felt that plants loved me. Then I became doubtful, tired, fearful and started making excuses to let some die. Things went very bad. Horrible storms came, killing frosts that decimated my little plants. I lost my faith and worry over not making a dollar here or there ruled my life. And then yesterday a lovely day sitting outside still transplanting but just doing it for the love of it. And then I had a visit by two belligerant wasps who would not get out of my face. I tried and tried to ignore them but I have a deep, deep fear of wasps. When I was around 3 years old I was attacked by thousands of them and stung almost to death. Each year I grow a little more braver and tolerant. But these two tested my faith and my husband brought out the wasp spray and either they were dead or they decided to leave. My husband surprised me by saying over and over how sorry he was that he had to kill them. He wished they would have just gone away. He felt so bad and then I felt bad that he had killed them for me.

Then this morning I find this

Clarissa Pinkola Estes: "In fairy-tale justice, as in the deep psyche, kindness to that which seems less is rewarded by good, and refusal to do good for one who is not beautiful is reviled and punished. When we enlarge ourselves to touch the not-beautiful, we are rewarded. If we spurn the not-beautiful, we are severed from life and left out in the cold."

Could anything be any clearer? Now all he and I can do is try to make amends and learn to live and let live.

Life is painful and full of lessons lately even in the smallest things. But I know great joy is there too, but I am being taught to appreciate that. Just wanted to share in case we are all at some crossroads now and it seems hopeless, we have to keep trying and not give in to the things we know are wrong and lead to a dead end. And even the "not beautiful" deserves our love.

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