The Wisdom of Eros: Antidote to War

If you're based in the UK (or will be there the weekend of Sept. 2-4th), I strongly urge you to take advantage of a sterling opportunity to link up with some of the most innovative minds of our time, at The Great Rethinking conference in Bath.

Part of an ongoing spectrum of events known as The Prophets Conference, this particular confluence of allies features a dozen exceptional thinkers culled from a variety of arenas, including:

° quantum physicist Fred Alan Wolf, PhD (who was one of the scientists interviewed in What the Bleep Do We Know!?),
° poet extraordinaire David Whyte (whose brilliant line, "The rest of creation is waiting, breathless, for you to take your place" defines my lifework),
° spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen, founder of What Is Enlightenment? magazine,
° and theologian Thomas Moore, PhD, the author of Care of the Soul, SoulMates, and an astonishing new article, The New Epicureans: Sex and Violence, Pleasure and Pain, Grace and Decadence, which recasts the truth of the '60s in a 3rd millennium sensibility: Make Love Not War becomes Venus taming Mars, leading the way into a new dawn.

Moore writes, "Hidden beneath the conflicts and divisions of modern culture is a profound fear of life. This anxiety finds expression in both exaggerated images of sex and in various kinds of repression. What is needed today is the restoration of a Venusian sensibility and an Epicurean delight in the deep joys and everyday relationships and experiences. We badly need grace, mutual appreciation, and humor. Spiritual movements often overlook the sensual layer of life, thinking that virtue somehow stands in austerity and self-denial."

Moore's presentation at The Great Rethinking will be a personal and global appeal for grace and beauty as antidotes to conflict and violence. For the complete article, e-mail me with "Thomas Moore article" in the subject line.

Humming In Tune With the Higher Vibrations

This month's heralded a humdinger of an energy shift, and even knowing we're in the midst of it, riding the waves can leave you exhausted. Spiritual chronicler Karen Bishop, always on the edge of the Now, offers a balancing perspective on the Ascension Leap of Mid-August, aptly describing our realignment process as "internal tsunamis."

One point really resonated with me. I've been housesitting in Berkeley since mid-July, and feel like I'm being driven insane by the noise, dirt, and chaos of the city after so many years in serene, rural environments. The "me" who lived happily in San Francisco in the 1980s and early '90s has undergone a radical shift, and is no longer harmonic with these denser energies. Karen writes:

"For sensitives, these mismatches can be challenging. Mismatched vibrations can leave one in a state of short circuitry, with great knots and gagging in your stomach, with a tenseness and tightness which does not support the natural flow of source energy, and with an acute feeling that you do not belong anywhere. The old lower vibrating energies and ways can really make one feel ill. And it can be difficult as well to say 'YES!' to anything, as it seems that all presented to you and in your environment requires a 'NO!.'"

Yes, Karen, it's how I've felt exactly!

However, she reminds us that in the higher realms, all is perfect and this is simply part of the evolutionary process; that even apparent polarity or darkness "only exists to support us in summoning something different." And I know how deeply true this is; how many, many times the people and situations that have seemed to be my greatest nemesis have turned out to be great gifts in disguise, facilitating my own growth.

So have faith, dear fellow travelers. Allow the cleansing process to continue, be very kind to yourself, and know that you've chosen to be part of this amazing journey into the New, now. In your deepest being, trust what you know, and flow with it to the best of your ability. Hum yourself into the higher vibrations, and know you're tuning up and tuning in to the Music of the Spheres.

Blessings!

8:8 Update -- How Ascension Affects Your Health

We're in the midst of the most powerful planetary upgrade since 2001, according to Archangel Michael through Celia Fenn. It's a highly creative time, when the "Solar Feminine" energy blends the fire of the sacral chakra with the love of the heart chakra.

But it is a major clearing. Here are the symptoms you may experience as you integrate these powerful energies:

* Dizziness and Spaciness, as your Higher Chakras are activated by the powerful Higher Energies. Also some shakiness as the energies move into the entire system and put pressure on the meridians as they integrate.

* The Symptoms of Detoxification as the vibration of your body increases and it throws off toxins. These include headaches, diarrhea, nausea, etc.

* Exhaustion, as your body works to integrate and balance the new energies. It will be energetically overloaded. This may also be experienced as short term memory loss, forgetfulness and problems with time seeming too short.

* Intense dreams at night, as your psyche sorts through your Akashic records and integrates the new energies and light codes. This is tied in with intense cleansing at the Sacral Chakra as humans prepare to once again use this chakra in sacred service.

* Deep sadness and Depression, especially concerning relationships. This is because as a Collective, humans are releasing old patterns and energies of abuse and negativity in the Sacral Chakra and making way for new positive relationship patterns. This personal clearing has been accompanied by a Collective or Planetary clearing of the destructive nuclear energy trauma of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at this time. Many Lightworkers have also assisted in clearing these energies from the Earth's Akasha at this time and paving the way for the intense Orange-Pink or Solar Creative energy.

Awaken Your Divinity! August 13-18th Is A Golden Moment

This August is truly the time to light the Fire in your Soul!

The 19th Annual World Congress On Illumination takes place in Tucson, AZ August 13-18th, when a "critical mass of transfiguring Divine Love" will be reached on Earth, according to Patricia Diane Cota-Robles.

Can't be there in person? Join with your sisters and brothers virtually via World Puja, an Internet site dedicated to creating free live global webcasts for the purpose of planetary healing. World Puja will be broadcasting during the entire six-day event, and archiving the webcasts on their site.

To help raise your vibration in preparation for this influx of Divine Light, Patricia recommends several simple breathing exercises that awaken your I AM presence and release more limiting frequencies. You can follow the complete instructions at Era of Peace.

Of Soul Mates, Sapphire Children and Royalty

August has always been a key month for me, a time of amazing possibility. Probably it's that fiery Leonine energy. In 2005, the Lion's Gate ushered in with the heliacal rise of Sirius (see July 13th entry, "R U Sirius?") brings astonishing gifts:

Archangel Michael, channeled through Celia Fenn, says the period from the New Moon on August 4th through the Full Moon on August 19th will be the most intense for opening to these new energies streaming in from the Galactic Center — and it will also be challenging to maintain our perspective as the frequency continues to accelerate. Focus. Focus. Focus. And remember to radiate the Love that you are.

I'm personally excited that this cycle also ushers in a two-year window to undergo an "Initiation of the Soulmate Union." Since I've been consciously calling my soul mate since 1998, I am elated to think we might at last connect on the 3-D plane! Michael warns it will not be an easy initiation, and...I am ready to step forward to help create the pattern and pathway for those who follow! If you're ready to reune as well, call your Beloved to you now!

We're welcoming in a new level of Star Kids, too. If you gave birth or are about to give birth in 2005, your child will likely carry the "Royal" Sapphire and Diamond energy, and be attuned to the highest level of Christ Consciousness.

Archangel Michael explains, "In ancient Egypt, this advanced auric configuration was held by the Pharaoh and his family, and its code names were 'the Blue Nile' and 'the White Nile'. These represented the Fifth Dimension (blue) and the Ninth Dimension (white). It was the function of the Royal family and especially the Pharaoh, to hold the balance between these two levels in order to ensure abundance, prosperity and peaceful balance in Egypt.

"The Sapphire children are the 'Royal' children of the Planet. They will be serving the same function as the Pharaohs of the past. But, they will be your children...and they will teach you that you are all Royalty. You are powerful and wonderful Beings of Light and Love. Each one of you has the ability to move to this level at this time!"

What Will You Harvest at Lammas?

August 1-2 marks the mid-point between summer and fall. Known as Lammas, or Lughnasadh (LOO-ne-sah), it's one of the 8 "Cross Quarter Days" on the Wheel of the Year (the others are the Summer and Winter Solstices, Spring and Fall Equinoxes, Candlemas (Feb. 2), Beltane (May 1) and Hallomas/Samhain (October 31). Lammas is a celebration of abundance, the harvest time, and a potent moment to bring ourselves back into alignment with the natural world.

An evocative description of this turning comes from a comprehensive mythology site with the delightful double-entendre title, Myth*ing Links, an annotated and illustrated collection of worldwide links to mythologies, fairytales and folklore, sacred arts and sacred traditions, loving compiled and updated by Kathleen Jenks, PhD:

"Lammas...is a hot, lazy, delicious time of the year. Bees buzz in the heat of the day, the air is still, and the force of the sun remains strong, even though its sway over the earth is slowly diminishing day by day. In the cooler nighttime, frogs and crickets keep us company. It is here, in the gloaming, when so many rituals begin...

"This is when the powerful gods of the grain harvests are honored. They are in their prime, sometimes generous, sometimes quixotic, and always aware with a bittersweet pleasure that their time will wane, as it always does, and they will die, as they always do, and yet nevertheless they will return to another delicious summer next year, as they always do, and have, and will, for this is the endlessly circling Wheel of the Year, and they ride it proudly.

"Yet there is a darker nuance, one that surprised me, for I had thought that this was a purely masculine god's festival. I learned however of Lugh's touching and loving devotion to his foster-mother, the royal Tailtiu, whose fate may be even more intimately woven into this season than his..."

Jenks quotes Parabola magazine author Mara Freeman on the further genesis of Lammas:

"...Lugh dedicated this festival to his foster-mother, Tailtiu, the last queen of the Fir Bolg, who died from exhaustion after clearing a great forest so that the land could be cultivated. When the men of Ireland gathered at her death-bed, she told them to hold funeral games in her honor. As long as they were held, she prophesied Ireland would not be without song. Tailtiu’s name is from Old Celtic Talantiu, 'The Great One of the Earth,' suggesting she may originally have been a personification of the land itself, like so many Irish goddesses. In fact, Lughnasadh has an older name, Brón Trogain, which refers to the painful labor of childbirth. For at this time of year, the earth gives birth to her first fruits so that her children might live..."

What needs to "die" so that the new can be born in your life?

Canadian tarot reader and astrologer Tara Greene says that Lugh's festival points Southwest, and resonates to the element Air. "Southwest represents the Place of Healing, of the Dreamer and the Dream. It is the place of both your Personal Dream and the Sacred Dream of the Planet. What is your Personal Dream? With Saturn in Leo, the personal and practical dream must be ruled by the heart not the ego. What is your Sacred Dream? The Sacred Dream is your Highest Spiritual Dream."

This August 1st, especially if you've never honored Lammas before, join with me in remembering your relationship with the Earth and her cycles. Give thanks for the abundance of beauty, harmony, peace, love, healing, grace and balance you are inviting into your life and into the collective, and imagine your Sacred Dream into reality.

The quintessential song for invoking Gaia's healing Sacred Dream came through John Lennon. I must admit that feeling deeply into these words now, there is a cellular resonance I've never been conscious of before, although I've heard the song hundreds of times:

Imagine

~ John Lennon

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religon too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one.

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will live as one.