Aleph: Redeeming Your Soul

Novels often herald extraordinary transformation for me; more than two decades ago, a line in Slightly Like Strangers helped catalyze the launch of my own business: "Security isn't something you save up. It's what you find when you take risks."

Now Paulo Coehlo's latest, Aleph, takes us on a highly personal crisis-of-faith odyssey in which the author redeems himself from 500 years of purgatory by asking a young woman whom he condemned to death as a witch during the Inquisition to forgive him. Reading this as the 11:11 gateway opened, I suddenly flashed on a core conversation I've shared numerous times over the past 18 years, concerning a naturopathic doctor who helped me heal during my awakening journey, yet whose devout religious beliefs seemed at odds with her homemade, Nature-based herbal and homeopathic remedies.

In a moment of perfect clarity I realized our interaction was exactly what Coehlo describes: in merging devout faith with "paganism", my naturopath enabled me to question my own beliefs and learn to stand in my truth, to hold the "both/and" ~ God and Nature, God in Nature, God as Nature ~ and to truly embrace "no separation" as my embodied mantra. My personal credo became, "If it works for you — and harms none — it works for me."

The lines one of the "witches" speaks to Coehlo 500 years earlier seared my soul and brought tears of recognition to my eyes; veracity does that. Here is what one of the girls says as they are being led to the stake:

"The time for fear has passed; now there is only the time of hope. Are we guilty? One day, the world will judge us and we will not be the ones to feel ashamed. We will meet again in the future, when your life and work will be dedicated to those who are so sorely misunderstood today. Your voice will speak out loudly, and many will listen to you.

"Love will conquer hatred. When the time comes, those who are burned today will be exalted. Wizards and alchemists will return, the Goddess will be welcomed and witches celebrated. And all for the greatness of God. That is the blessing we place on your head now, until the end of time."

Power Play

It's US Election Day, and as people feverishly rush to the polls, bear signs and banners endorsing their cause or candidate, and generally enjoy the political frenzy that is November 6, 2012, I'm pondering the nature of true power. A week ago the East coast was decimated by what the media labeled a "Super Storm," a politically correct way of referring to a hurricane that flooded New York City, closing the NY Stock Exchange for two consecutive days — the first time this has occurred in 124 years! — and causing severe damage and massive power outages throughout the Eastern seaboard and beyond. My family in New Jersey was without power for five days.

Hm. I've long resonated to the number 5, the great transformer, which configures a star. 2012 is replete with "5" energy: (2+0+1+2 = 5). It's the numerical symbol for action and freedom, appearing in starfish and flowers with a regenerative geometry: the flower of every edible fruit is five-petaled. The Greeks called the fifth element quinta essentia, the pure and concentrated essence, or invisible connector that allows earth, fire, water and air to communicate.

Clearly, it's time to reconsider the nature of power. Nature's power trumps humans'; the election dwindled to less than insignificance when lives hung in the balance. I'd venture to say that in the hardest hit areas, who wins the White House is still not top-of-mind right now.

Yet we have the potential to embrace and embody true power as the ancients conceived it: not as offices and badges and bank accounts, but as the energy that can heal and unite. Consider (literally, "with the stars") the following:

Sound and light describe the Universe (Uni-verse: "One Song"). Everything vibrates at varying rates of speed. Based on more than two decades of research, engineer and craftsman Chris Dunn posits that the Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt was actually a gigantic acoustical device. The Egyptians, he believes, married music and science to create a natural power plant — the Pyramids — by attuning to Earth frequencies and utilizing these vibrations as their energy source. The ancients used their advanced knowledge of consciousness and harmonics to develop a source of energy that operated on both spiritual and material principles, transducing the Earth's natural vibration (via strategically placed quartz crystals, which are alchemical energy modifiers) into clean, plentiful energy.

Does this seem fantastic? Consider that we've all heard of opera singers who can shatter glass by hitting a certain pitch. Early in the 20th century, physicist Nikola Tesla almost destroyed a building in which he was working by turning up the amplification on his oscillation machine. The building began to vibrate as if an earthquake had hit, and it was only by smashing the machine that he averted reducing a granite edifice to rubble.

We feel this same sympathetic harmony inside ourselves when we "vibrate" to another's emotional state. Fear, anger and hate lower the rate of vibration; love, joy and laughter raise it.

Thus, the living Earth can be the source of our true power — if we're willing to channel the higher frequencies that support this advanced technology. It is possible; we're activating our potential more cleanly than ever before in this quantum moment, as all indigenous prophecies and global spiritual leaders affirm.

Considering our current state of energy depletion, individually and collectively, this awareness, and what it portends for us now, is, well — powerful! True power means "able to be," to exist in a state of pure harmony. It's less about being president than setting precedent, and being present, being the gift of who we are to and for one another. That's true power, an infinitely renewable resource.