the Principle of Correspondence

“That which is below is like that which is above,

and that which is above is like that which is below.”

Sir Isaac Newton

Essentially, this maxim means that everything, all planes of existence, are connected and in correspondence. The macrocosm is in the microcosm and vice versa. In other words, solar systems, societies, and life on Earth are all the same. This second hermetic principle establishes that there is harmony between the physical plane, the mental plane, and the spiritual plane, in every creative aspect of the universe.

Whatever we do at the micro level, we also do at the macro level. Even the smallest of acts influences the grand scheme of our behavior. By doing anything, we also do everything. By neglecting one area of our life, we affect everything else. So, it has somewhat of a wave or butterfly effect.

Taking it one step further, we can affirm that the outer world is an accurate reflection of our inner world. Thus, the thoughts and images that we have in our consciousness, and in many cases subconsciously, ultimately appear in our external world. The mind takes everything as it is. It’s difficult for the mind to distinguish between illusion, faith, and reality, so it confuses interpretations with facts and begins to recreate exactly what we are focusing on the most.

The outer world reflects our inner scenery. Consider everything that’s going on and that’s good in your life. Take a look at the beauty around you. Consider the joy, the love, the light, and the life that surrounds you. All this is precisely a reflection of what’s inside you. Likewise, we can say the same for whatever you consider bad in your life. Therefore, unless we learn to face our own shadows, we’ll continue to see the very same shortcomings in others because the outside world is only a reflection of the world within.

The inner world is the cause, the outer world is the effect. So, in order to change the effect, you must change the cause. It's just how the universe works. Therefore, if there’s chaos in your outer world, that means there’s chaos in your inner world. Likewise, if there is very little love in your outer world, you probably don’t have too much in your inner world either.

Forget about changing the outside world until you have done the inner work. Begin controlling your inner world if you want to control your outer world. Think about your inner world as the place where you have absolute power. The principle of correspondence allows us to stop looking for outside reasons to explain what happens to us in the world. Instead, it helps us realize that we can find the real answers only by looking within.

Breathing as a Spiritual Bridge

Breathing in, I calm my body.
Breathing out, I smile.
Dwelling in the present moment
I know this is a wonderful moment.
Thich Nhat Hanh

Spirit is the animating or vital principle of all living beings. The English word “spirit” has its origins in the Latin spiritus, a word that derives from an Indo-European root meaning “to breathe.” Thus, our life force is infused and promoted with each breath we take.

Pranayama is a cornerstone of yogic practice and focuses on controlling and regulating the breath. It ushers in a seemingly mystical ability to soothe and revitalize us on many levels. With conscious breathwork, prana — the vital force that harmoniously circulates in the body and the universe — is cultivated and moved with intent throughout the body. When a person is angry or agitated, his breath is fast, disturbed and shallow. When a person is calm, his breath is soft and undisturbed. What yoga teaches is that not only our emotions control the quality of our breath, but we can control the mind and our emotions by controlling our breathing.

Breath is the bridge connecting our energy body to the infinite universal body of energy, so breath unites body, mind, and soul to the universe. Automatic breathing in and out is a biological process, but if you breathe with total awareness, something dramatic occurs. Breathing changes from an unconscious default process into one that purposefully brings life-initiating, sustaining, and healing prana to the body.

What yoga teaches us is that not only do our emotions control the quality of our breath, but we can control the mind and our emotions by controlling our breathing. Through breath we are not only connected to the life-giving functions within our bodies, but also to the external world through which we receive the life-sustaining energy of prana through air, food, and sunshine. Breath is a conduit to the unlimited supply of prana that sustains all life, the ecological balance of the planet, and the evolution of all species. While it has been established that there is a strong connection between the physical body and the mind, our sciences are only beginning to recognize the essential role and impact that breath has on our physical and mental makeup.

We take around 23,000 breaths per day, mostly unconsciously. By practicing conscious breathing, results which are both life- and health-altering begin to be experienced - a calmer mind and body; reduction of stress and anxiety; fuller and more complete breathing; increased oxygen supply to the blood, brain, heart, organs, and limbs; reduction of appetite and weight gain; healthier and more productive lungs; a release of muscular tension; and preparation for deeper meditation. And, of course, there’s a significantly more productive immune system, greater systemic alkalinity, increased energy, and less overall inflammation.

Of course, there are many mind-body-spirit methods of breathing from cultures all over the world, including Taoist Qigong breathing, Tibetan Pranayama, shamanic breathwork, breathing practices associated with Zen meditation, and others. They all seem to point to one universal truth — that we are more than just physical beings lost in a confusing world. Rather, we ARE the world itself, and the breath that flows into and out of us also does so through all things and through all of time.

Adapted from the writings of Vic Shayne in UPLIFT, 20200130

The Armor of God

 

Yesterday at midnight, Q posted a Biblical scripture from Ephesians that was riveting and very suggestive in its timing. One cannot ignore the wisdom that is embedded within the broad body of holy texts of every tradition recorded by our ancestors since the dawn of storytelling. It doesn't matter whether or not one is a religionist or believer. There are times when we all must pay attention to the words of the ancients (and the gods) and heed their wisdom and warnings. The presentation of these words at this time stopped me in my tracks.

There is evil in the world. And there is good. We live in a necessary duality. One cannot exist without the other. There is no light without darkness. But very often one force holds sway over the other. That has been the case during most of my seven decades on this planet. Darkness in the world has had the upper hand over the light during much of my life. Without detailing the struggle between the two forces, sometime during the 1980's, for the first time in millennia, the forces of light gained an advantage over the forces of darkness in our world. And the forces of good have been gaining momentum since then.

We are on the cusp of a major coup, perhaps within a matter of days or weeks, in which the forces of good will strike the forces of evil with an unrecoverable blow that will accelerate progress toward a Golden Age in our world that is prophesied from a time before memory in the holy texts of all traditions. What is about to happen is ordained, but will still be a shock to most. Hereafter, very soon, the world will never be the same again. It will become a better place. Knowing intuitively that this pivot point in history is imminent, seeing this Biblical reference on the internet in an otherwise politically-focused forum holds my full attention. We all need to pay attention, keep open minds, and suspend disbelief. The Silent War occurring out of the knowledge of most people for millennia is on the verge of being won by the good guys.

Hold onto your seat, and mind the wisdom of your father's father's fathers:

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Ephesians 6:10-18, New International Version (NIV)

Free Thought

"Free thought is a philosophical viewpoint

which holds that positions regarding truth

should be formed

on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism,

rather than authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma.”

Q

Quantum Weirdness

There are several black dots at the intersections in this image.

How many of them does your brain let you see in one glance?

Remember the Chicken and Egg Question? And the one about if a tree falls in the forest, if there a sound when no one is there to hear it? Before you answer these again for the umpteenth time, consider these points of Quantum Weirdness:

The world does not exist unless you look at it.

Particles are pushed around by an invisible wave,

but the particles have no influence on the wave.

Everything that could possibly happen DOES HAPPEN,

in an array of parallel realities in the same space.

Everything that could possibly happen has already happened

and we only noticed part of it.

Everything influences everything else instantly,

as if space does not exist.

The future influences the past.

Now, consider how this one works!

Using Our Voices for Personal Development

"Music gives a soul to the universe,

wings to the mind, fight to the imagination

and life to everything.”

Plato

Modern science is beginning to recognize the profound effect of sound on the human nervous system. Researchers have discovered that specific sound frequencies, influence brain waves and chemistry by increasing dopamine and serotonin (the ‘feel-good’ hormones). Indeed, the power of sound to influence consciousness and well-being has been evident for millennia, from Gregorian chants of the Middle Ages to the shamanic drumming of indiginous cultures from Siberia to South America to the impassioned voices and rhythms of Africa.

"The deeper we penetrate the mystery of sound,

the more we are able to trace the link that connects all sounds
- what musicians call harmony;and it is in harmony that is hidden the secret of joy and peace.”

Hazrat Inayat Khan, ‘The Mysticism of Sound and Music’

The ancients understood the power of sound and music. Pythagoras believed that each planet rang out its own note based on unique vibratory frequencies, which he called “the music of the spheres.” Plato asserted that a musical education was essential because, “More than anything else, rhythm and harmony find their way into the innermost soul and take strongest hold upon it.”

The mythical Hermes Trismegistus, considered the father of alchemy, chemistry, and modern science, devoted two books of his ‘Hermeticum’ to the study of sound and frequency from an alchemical, or transmutative, perspective. Alexander the Great so treasured these Hermetic texts that he built the Library of Alexandria to house and preserve them.

The ancient Vedic masters recognized the influence on sound and vibration on consciousness, and developed a complex system of syllables, called ‘bija.’ When combined, these bija became mantras corresponding to every aspect of consciousness. The practice of chanting the syllable ‘OM’ is perhaps the most well known example of the use of sound from the vast Vedic mantra system.

With a natural love for music and performance, a young girl growing up in Wyoming, far from the lights of Manhattan, wanted to be a Broadway actress. Later, Gina Marie Williams became fascinated with understanding and curing disease. “If the choice was to sing a pretty song or cure AIDS, curing AIDS seems like a better contribution to humankind. I was gifted in the health sciences and anatomy and felt it was my responsibility to become a doctor,” she said. But while she pursued a medical education in epidemiology, she never lost her love for the creative arts.

Eventually she recognized profound disconnects between medical science and true ‘wellness,’ and circled back to music as a performer and songwriter, while also studying visual art. At the same time she explored and learned structural bodywork systems, moving more deeply into the relationship between health and consciousness. All her passions, interests, and creative expression intersected with decades of training in esoteric alchemy and mystery school teachings from throughout the world.

“I worked for a time as a performance coach, and then started working as an executive coach. My clients were professional singers, actors, and comedians. Later I began to work with entrepreneurs and executives who were speaking in public and learning how to use their voices to contribute value in the world,” Williams said. Over time, she developed sound training tools to help her clients to achieve deep congruence of body, speech, and intention.

Immersion into music, sound, speech and coaching led Williams to conclude that ultimately, the greatest contribution she could make would be to give children the same tools she developed for adults. She also recognized an opportunity to adapt ancient sound wisdom to modern life, and FlowSong was born. “I wanted to give kids the tools to manage their body/minds and express their deepest, heart-felt values,” she said.

FlowSong is a book series, written and illustrated by Williams, that offers methods for using the western musical octave as a map for navigating the creative process. She is quick to point out that the FlowSong method is intended to help children find their ‘voice’ and creative potential rather than a sonic ‘healing’ modality.

In her work she observes that when students sing the vowels, they become more aware of the intrinsic connection between their voices, different tissue and organ systems of the body, and the areas of shared human experience. “Using the vowels can help identify self-imposed limits to creative expression. They help people increase their ability to communicate and listen more effectively, find the courage to take risks on their own behalf.”

If you cannot teach me to fly, teach me to sing.

J.M. Barrie

Williams explained that her system is based on the seven vowels first identified by Pythagoras over 2,600 years ago. She said, “FlowSong helps readers understand the connection between their body, mind, voice, and spirit so they can more fully express their creative genius. It is a tool for personal development disguised as a magical adventure tale.”

She explained that today’s children are growing up in a world where they spend a huge amount of time typing and communicating via technology. “The more time they spend behind the screen, the last time they spend communicating face-to-face, developing the abilities that allow them to express themselves, and to listen to others effectively.

“FlowSong helps them understand their instrument of communication — their body, mind, and voice, and how to use it to make rich, genuine, face-to-face connections with others. The root of successful creating always has been, is, and always will be the ability to develop and maintain healthy relationships.”

As children’s voices are emerging as a valid and rightful force for our future, it’s important that we imbue strong harmony values when they are young. Imagine a world in which resonance and harmony for the greater whole is second nature. May we all sing a song of Unity, Peace and Love flow.

from the editors of Uplift Connect

Limits of Perception

The greatest tragedy in life is not so much that we have been shaped by the world we live in so as to have lost our way on the spirit path, but the fact that we have lacked the will and intent in our lives to change ourselves. The only way out of this dilemma as individuals and as a species is by way of a true rebellion, a revolution against our own fear and stupidity. The hardest part is that it must be a revolution of one, a solitary task that cannot be accomplished with the support of any other.

There may be an infinite number of ways to perceive the world. With countless ranges of perception available in the universe, there is no single objective reality. That's just how the universe works. So how do you lift the societal veil to reveal the wealth of perceptual possibilities that have always been there for the choosing? No mentor will step forward to guide you. No written wisdom exists to lift you over the threshold. The only path of discovery to expand your abilities is to stand before the abyss, alone, and either hurl yourself off in a winged fury of abandon, or run and hide in the security of your own comfortable routines.

The ONLY limit to human perception is ultimately timidity. In order to manage our lives in the world we live in we had to give up the gift of infinite perception that would enable us to witness everything. We sacrificed our flight of awareness in exchange for the security of the known. We can always abandon the known to live audacious lives out on the edge of discovery, but we cower instead, and dare not when we should be prepared to sacrifice it all at a given moment's notice.

Inspiration from a Teen Physicist

Max Loughan is an inspiring young man with a big vision: “As cheesy as this sounds, from day one on this planet, I knew I was put here for a reason. And that reason is to invent and to bring the future. My true goal is to help. It is to invent a future where people can be happy, where they can be safe and sound.”

This unusual 13 year old has invented a free Tesla inspired energy device, using a coffee tin, spoon and some wire, which he says cost him 15 bucks.

His eloquent theories on God, the universe, the Bible, and physics, are sure to touch your heart and mind.

Living in the Flow

We have been conditioned by the world to live and die with barely a whimper. I visit the graves of our fathers and their fathers and all that remains is a few stories tucked away in a memory that soon, itself, will be gone. In the end all that remains, mostly, is the wind that blows our ashes from one place to another. We live in a world whose coded behaviors soften us, making us forget our initial impulse, until we look into the mirror and hardly recognize our spirit looking back.

We come into this world in a struggle. By denying our essential tendencies, society robs us of our warring heritage that was gifted to us to transform us into magical beings. I chose to live my life in motion, provoking tensions, then discharging them into explosive bursts of celebration. I am ever mindful that I cannot be at my very best under any condition other than maximum tension. I shout my intent to the world, or I remain silent, forever reflecting the ebb and flow of the universe.

To be a warrior one must ever be harmonious with the flow, never to pause in mid-stream to make a futile attempt at creating an impossible peace. From the moment I exploded into being until I pass beyond, I live in the flow. Only my commitment to the incessant struggle aligns me with the flow, leaving me the gift of a profound sense of harmony with all things.

Two Roads Diverged

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, but I chose neither one. Instead I left the road and forged my own path to embark on an untrodden journey through the woods that would take me through the darkest part of the valley, through mysterious fogs, and over mountains rising high above the clouds, unseen from the road, to arrive at a place where I can finally enjoy the last glimmering rays of light of a glorious time alone in the woods.

When I was a child, and even a young man, I enjoyed being alone. I built a wonderful tree house twenty feet above the forest floor in a white pine whose needles would sing to me in a light breeze, lulling me into a dreamy sleep while reading Henry David Thoreau. High on my perch there I would spend many an hour reading, writing, dreaming, and just being.

The world of people can be exhausting with so much energy and feeling happening all the time. Nature was my retreat to recharge before returning. Thank goodness I have always had the woods to find solace. Solitude was a comfortable place. Not an escape, but a place where my soul could simultaneously find peace and come alive. I guess I have always had my tuning set on sensitive... maybe we all do! I was easily stimulated, especially by the emotions and sensations of social interaction. I was acutely aware of the subtleties of other people and the world around me, and intensely empathetic, seeming always prepared to quickly tune into changes in vibration.

I am a wanderer, a dreamer, a seeker of beauty and truth. Mine has been a lifelong quest for authenticity which I have sought in both myself and those I encountered along the way. I have always been keen to notice the “flame of recognition” in the quick exchange of the eyes of a stranger. Did I see a certain remembering, a feeling that this may not have been the first time we exchanged glances? Did we know each other in another time? Another place?

I felt awkward as a young person and generally socially uncomfortable. While I liked people and made friends easily, I tended to float on the outside in any group, and protect myself from sharing who I really was. It has always seemed that I was from somewhere else and didn't belong here, but still I had this driving need to connect to people at a very deep level, at the level I readily found within the perch of my white pine treehouse. Such occasion was rare, of course, so most “friends” slipped into and out of my life, without attachment or regret.

Throughout life I have had occasions to meet kindred spirits and when it occurs I blossom like a flower in the warm light of like-minded familiarity. I have no problem traveling alone, but when the spark of my soul is set aflame by another who truly sees and understands, I am filled with the brightness of a thousand suns.

At times the path may have been difficult, but by keeping a wide open and curious heart, it has been mostly a fascinating, enriching journey. As I watch the sun dip toward the horizon in my later years, I turn more to reflection to find the meanings along the way. It is easier to embrace my sensitivity these days and accept my differences and better use them to my creative and inspirational advantage.

There has always been magic in the quiet hours. The quiet aloneness allows us to go deeper into that place that has always been waiting there to be mined for understanding. Most of us have a certain longing for the recognition of others. I've never needed as much of that to be happy. Perhaps our longing to be seen by others is just a reflection of our own need to clearly see ourselves - the primal urge to know ourselves truly, without masks, without judgements, without fears – that desire to look into our own eyes, the windows to our soul, and say, “I really see you, and accept you for everything you are.”

There’s a reason some of us walk a slightly different path - maybe to cultivate time and space so as to better nurture individuality and creativity; maybe to inspire change. We feel a deeper instinct to be the change we wish to see. This is our calling and we have to answer it because it is our gift and ultimately our truth.

There is real beauty in someone who doesn’t need to be surrounded by people or entertained to be content. I have chosen to find “the magic” in myself. It is real and tangible. You see it in the eyes of someone watching the sun dip below the waves from their solitary vigil on the beach; you see it in someone who looks into the night sky to discover that we are never really alone; you see it in the exhilaration of a mountain climber who holds the entire universe in his outstretched arms.

We are all connected by invisible threads that weave between us, cross-stitching our stories, lives, hopes, dreams and wishes to create a giant canvas quilt in which we all play our tiny part. We share a piece of ourselves when we meet, when we connect, when we touch, and when we love. Equally as important, we nourish aspects of ourselves when we sit alone on mountain tops, beds, or beaches.

I am a part of this great tapestry, whether alone in my treehouse or integrated with the world. We grow when we are apart and we learn when we are together. There’s a hidden gift in the separation from the whole - You can access the inner voice that whispers secret wisdom. You can learn to hear the voice of your heart, which is sometimes indistinguishable among the voices in a crowd.

Thoreau's mentor and compatriot, Ralph Waldo Emerson, said to, “Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.”

I have always loved and sought out my alone time, and while still a wanderer who senses he has traveled here from afar, I am comfortable in my own skin among the crowd. I love and accept myself, first and foremost, on my own terms. It is the foundation of loving and accepting all other selves for who they are on their terms. After all, we're all in this together. All for one, and one for all, together and alone.

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —

I took the one less traveled by,

and that has made all the difference.”

Robert Frost

Take Off Your Spiritual Mask

I am in love with this blessed mess of our humanity, more than ever. I see the Divine shining through the stink and the shit, the Absolute penetrating into every pore and crevice of relative existence. I see nonduality in the hot, sticky, burning mess of duality itself, unspeakable courage and hope at the pit of our despair.

I see the sad old patriarchal spirituality, the toxic masculine cosmology that shamed and devalued the body, its desires and its vulnerability, its passion and its sweat and its tears, its needs and its gloriously awkward and often highly contradictory feelings, slowly dying and being reborn as something more tangible, and honest, and grounded, and integrated, and real.

We are beginning to understand that the teachings of Advaita and Perfectly Pure Present Awareness are beautiful (don’t get me wrong, they contain so much truth!), but so very incomplete when standing on their own. We may be the “Light of Consciousness” itself, but mere intellectual insight cannot begin to heal our deepest trauma, for we are human and wounded as much as we are Divine, no matter how much we try to hide it. Holy light must penetrate the putrefying darkness inside, slowly, lovingly, and the body and its authentic feelings must be drenched with compassion and breath. Nonduality must speak to the healing of trauma, for we are all traumatised, whether we know it or not.

Absolute truth is toxic if it does not walk hand in hand with fierce human truth. Teachers who speak of spiritual awakening as some kind of final state of total invulnerability, some resting place where we become immune to grief and pain, untouched by human suffering or wounding, the ‘illusion’ of human feeling and trauma transcended at last and the ‘separate self’ finally reduced to ashes, are misguided at best, manipulative at worst.

At some point on this path, we are all greatly humbled, brought back down to earth. Our happy dreams of ourselves as enlightened beings, invulnerable to imperfection, incapable of error, floating above all human suffering, stabilized permanently in our true nature, crumble and burn.

Yes, in the end, expert and amateur alike, we are all humbled by life. We all encounter heartbreak, and loss, and unexpected pain, and we are called to grieve our own arrogance, accept that we are not the flawless beings we thought we were, turn towards our deepest wounds - our shame, our terror, our loneliness, our own hubris - and dive in.

Yes, we are Peace and Love and Joy and Beauty and Freedom. But we are also so damn spacious and vulnerable that we contain bottomless Despair and Loneliness so huge that it makes worldly love possible, and infinite Boredom, Boredom so great that it births a thousand universes just to experience itself, and a magnetic Longing, a Longing so powerful and attractive that it can rejoin us with ourselves, even if we have spent a lifetime trying to run.

I am in love, more than ever, with the sensitive, vulnerable, imperfect, awkward, shy and shaky humans that we all are underneath the myriad spiritual masks we wear. I am in love with how damn hard we try to get things right sometimes, and how damn beautiful it is to fail.

I am in love with our vulnerability, the cracks in our armour, our raw edges, the soft fleshy parts that we try so hard to hide.

I declare that nonduality is a tantric love affair with duality, and is one with it, and is its essence and its life, and it binds the feminine and the masculine principles and renders all our ordinary moments sacred.

And when pretending to know gets too exhausting for you, friend, when you tire of being the expert and the world’s teacher and the one with all the clever memorized answers, just let yourself fall, let yourself tumble to the ground and question everything and weep out the old dogmas, and I will be here to hold you.

Authored by Jeff Foster

scienceandnonduality.com

Mystical Leanings

I am, by nature, a mystic. I require no intermediary to speak for me or interpret communication between me and the Source of my being. If further refinement of my beliefs is needed, then I would admit to being a mystic of the Gnostic variety, mostly in agreement with age-old Hermetic thinking. That, as such, would be a good way of distinguishing my beliefs from those of Christians or Jews or Muslims or Hindus or agnostics or atheists or whatever. Buddhism, apart from the rest, is a way a living that speaks loudly to me and is consistent with how I apply my mystical outlook.

So what is Hermeticism? The hermetic tradition represents a lineage of Gnosticism actually, which is the name for a variety of ancient religious ideas and systems dating back to the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. The surviving writings of Hermeticism are known as the Corpus Hermetica, which is composed of a series of letters from a master Hermes Trismegistus wherein he tries to enlighten his disciple.

Hermes Trismegistus is the purported author of both the Emerald Tablet and the Corpus Hermeticum, and one of those characters in history that blend the mythical with the actual. Hermes Trismegistus is the author who represents a combination of the Egyptian God Thoth and the Greek God Hermes, who were both gods of writing and magic in their respective cultures. Hermes was credited with tens of thousands of highly esteemed writings, from both Egypt and Greece, suggesting a shared cultural tradition between the two in the man. And while the Italian Renaissance believed Hermes to be an Egyptian Priest, it is possible the Corpus Hermetica was actually written by a collective of unknown authors who were Platonistic and Stoic Greeks.

In ancient Greek mythology, Hermes is believed to move freely between the worlds of the mortal and divine. He was also viewed as the protector and patron of roads and travelers, as well as merchants, messengers, sailors, athletes, herdsmen, and thieves. There is little wonder about my affinity for this Greek god. Just look at his winged feet as he glides through the universe between worlds. Remind you of anyone? His consort was Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess associated with love, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. Again, no surprise that I have surrounded myself with beautiful women my entire life. Hermes, or Mercury as he was also called, was the messenger of the gods and generally referred to as the “divine trickster”. Methinks it is very fitting that he is my patron.

One of my mentors for the past thirty years has been Drunvalo Melchizedek, whose mentor in turn until 1991 was Thoth, in the flesh. Thoth, or Hermes, has appeared again and again throughout many cultures from Lemuria to Atlantis to ancient Egypt to Greece and Rome to contemporary times. Setting all mythology aside, this was an incarnate entity of very high spiritual standing who lived among humans continuously for tens of thousands of years until humanity reached a certain threshold of consciousness before leaving our realm to steer the planet from a higher dimension.

I consider the teachings of Thoth/Hermes to be the closest to understanding Source of any other philosophical or religious ideology. The Corpus Hermetica and the Emerald Tablet have answers to not only every question we might imagine, but every question our imagination has not yet reached. Inherent in the teachings is that the universe runs on natural laws. When we take time to understand these laws, they serve us as we proceed along the path of awareness and ascension. Since the very beginning of civilization the wisest of us have been united by a pursuit of discovering what these natural laws are, so that we can learn from them and use them to experience more happiness, meaning, and control in our lives in the time we have here. For me, the words of Hermes Trismegistus, very simply, lead to an overall greater understanding of the universe and our place in it. These words are closer to Source than any I have ever encountered. At the risk of being labeled, this is as close as I come to minding an intermediary in my spiritual pursuits.

It Will Only Take One Good Man

Feed the Good Wolf

Magicians of our own Illusion

What if everything around us is a hologram created by our own consciousness? What if we, the observers as well as participants, are only programmed to believe it is all real? Sounds like the movie The Matrix. Even imagining this is a bit uncomfortable, yet the idea that the universe we inhabit is nothing more than a giant holographic experience is the finding that a growing number of quantum physicists are reaching with their continuing exploration and deeper understanding.

Another way to look at it is that we are living inside an encoded light projection. The closest parallel would be like watching a 3D projection in an IMAX theater. A viewer's experience varies according to the lens through which they are observing and from what point in the theater they are observing.

We may only live inside a program, afterall, that we believe is solid and real because that is how our brains have been conditioned to tell us the way it is. In essence, it is like we each are living out our own version of a virtual reality game. Our life experience is being played out within a bubble of matter that does nothing more than reflect back to us our own thought vibrations. The world around us is no more or no less than the sum total of the thoughts we emanate into the creation field.

Within a hologram, everything is connected. You are one and the same with the world you perceive in the holographic grid, despite the fact that you have been conditioned to interpret it as apart from you. Whether aware of it or not, you are really just a small extension of your higher vibratory self, expressing itself in just a slower vibrational state. Getting right down to it, we are essentially nothing more than a projection of our own consciousness. We are Creators, all – the magicians of our own illusion.

the Sky is Falling, the Sky is Falling

We have miraculously survived all this,

but is there an antidote for fear porn?

Challenging the Illusion of Reality

Everything that we perceive by our senses to be real is illusion. The thoughts that we think reflect a constant stream of interpretation that all of the world we sense appears to be solid. Yet, there is no solidity at the core of matter whatsoever. Any physicist will confirm that the real world is just substance that carries the semblance of solidity due to the repulsive forces that exists between its charged particles.

We have known for more than a century that matter is comprised of oscillating fields and waves of rhythm. If we could look at the heart of any atom – its nucleus – there is nothing solid there at all. What we would find there would be a dynamic pattern of tightly condensed vibrating energy. So, our bodies, like everything else in our world, are nothing more than densely compacted energy particles that are constantly in motion. There is only coherence because of the billions of electrical signals continually running through us varying by how we define and interpret the world of sensual stimuli around us.

Everything vibrates at different speeds. If a thing vibrates fast enough, it will disappear because our sensory instruments – our eyes – can no longer perceive it. Without getting too extreme by way of example, just look at a hummingbird's wings or the propeller of an airplane.

The human vibration is different from other objects around us. It may appear that we are separate from what we see around us – other people, animals, nature – but we are not separated from any of it. Everything exists in one connected unified field of energy. It is only our sensory perception and culturally-reinforced interpretation that makes things appear as dense matter and apart.

What if we remove the convincing perceptual lens that locks us into the loops of conditioned belief? Would limitations suddenly vanish? Most of our limitations are derived from all the materialized appearances that we sense and interpret as real. Physical reality is only what you make of it and does not exist independent of our interpretation.

Outer reality always reflects inner reality and the perceptions that are held within our consciousness. We each project this experience we call reality. No two projections are exactly alike, despite the consensual conditioning we all receive. Life is not happening to you from all around you, it is happening through you from within.

When each of us came to this world, one of the purposes was to learn in this school called life that we each create our own reality. When we arrived, the majority of us were taught and have had ingrained within our thought structure the idea that our perception of reality is solid, and that is what we have all agreed to believe. But just because we believe it and agree that we believe it does not make it so. The idea of solidity has served us up to a point, but a growing number of individuals are remembering why we came here and are growing in awareness that we truly are the creators of everything we experience. When how we define the world around us evolves, so too does the reality mirror of each of our life experiences.

Fathers and Sons

My father passed away nearly thirty years ago, and I wasn't at his side. My memories of him and love for him is ever present in my head and heart, still, however. Throughout much of my formative years, we had a typical father-son relationship. He went to work as a nuclear technician for Westinghouse for thirty-two years before he retired, never turning down over-time so that he could make the best life for his family that he could. Until the weekends, my sister, brother, and I would not see much of our father. On most weekends for all my early years, we had a ritual of getting out of bed and all piling into the car just after midnight every Friday night when dad got home from work for a two-hour early-morning drive up to the “camp”, our second home in the “country”, that dad worked on building and improving as income and time would allow for all my early years. The travel time back and forth was most fun as we all thrived in the captivating playful attention of our loving father.

Like Harry Chapin's Song “Cat's in the Cradle”, my life raising my own sons was much the same as my relationship with my father. While I worked away from home very often, I deliberately spent as much time as I could with the family. I was always mindful that I didn't want to be a father who was absent all of the time.

When my father passed away from cancer at the age of 67, I did not take the time to grieve, as is culturally expected, but found a deep strength within to deal with his passing, immediately finding peace. Recently, however, when I came across this video of James Blunt’s new hit song, Monsters, it stopped me in my tracks. It literally grabbed me by the heart strings; releasing emotions that I’d managed to hold at bay all these years. I knew the feelings were always there, since my father’s death, but I had always held them back out of some uncanny sense of denial. Tears came to my eyes and I cried out of love.

James Blunt wrote and filmed this ballad for his father, who is dying of cancer and does not have long before he passes. He asked his father to be in the video. The lyrics, ‘You’re not my father, I’m not your son. We’re just two grown men saying goodbye' touched me deeply. The spiritual significance, the dignity and the honor that is imbued in these lyrics is powerfully humbling. His words take us beyond our Earthly roles as fathers and sons, as equals on this spiritual path. I salute you, I love you, and I set you free. This is what I said to my father then, and I say to my father still.

This video with its lyrics is a gift to us all - but especially for men. My prayer is that all boys and men could watch it and reflect upon it's message. And when it’s their time to say goodbye to their father, their sons, their brothers, grandfathers or best mates, they can unreservedly weep and humbly release their feelings, and rejoice in the liberation that comes from connected, heartfelt, expressions of love.

Return of the King in 2020???

What If You Couldn't Remember Who or What You Are?

When you step back and really examine the current state of life on Earth, it becomes apparent that one of the things most responsible for the current human condition is a loss of self. People have simply forgotten who, or perhaps more correctly what, they are. People simply don't seem to realize that all those who presume to control them via the machinations of government are all simply people, exactly as they themselves are people. It is this loss of self that has, to a large extent, led to the current human condition. It is people’s failure to view things from this more human perspective that has allowed others whom they have been subconsciously trained to view as having more value than themselves, to control and ultimately enslave them. And it is only by breaking this programmed and self constraining mind-set that mankind will ever truly gain the freedom many so desire.

The programming to which mankind has been subject, has truly been intense. It comes from all angles and there are none that are completely immune to its influence, simply due to their everyday interaction with society. It is present in the lives of most people from the moment of birth, and unavoidably so, because it is already present in the minds of their parents due to the conditioning they have in turn undergone during their own path through life. And this subtle programing gets more refined and more dehumanizing not only with each generation, but virtually with each year, as more and more changes are introduced into the education system, into the workplace, and delivered into the minds of the populace via the media.

The real problem with the education system today is that most people, most parents at least, simply don't look at it. They just don't bother to take the time to look at what their kids are being taught or how the lessons are being presented. The introduction of political correctness into academia, whereby "all are equal in the eyes of education," where there are no failing grades and everyone is a winner, essentially means that bright students are 'normalized', no one excels and the collective mind of the youth is effectively homogenized. Taught always to view themselves as part of a collective, to be fearful of any change, to view independent thought as irrational and abnormal, even potentially dangerous, to always seek help from the nanny state to address any concerns and to always respect authority, this serves to create a very easily controlled society in which all critical or creative thinking has been very effectively stifled.

To step back a couple of years by way of an example, this type of attitude and completely programmed dependence on the nanny state was in fact, very clearly seen in the minds of many British youth who were so fearful of the recent result in Britain's vote to leave the EU. Many took to "blaming" the older generation for being so "irresponsible" as to create such an "uncertain future" for them simply because they know of no other life prior to Britain becoming part of the EU and are so willing to believe the fear and government propaganda delivered to them by the controlled mainstream media during the process. It has also been seen in the recent stance of American youth calling for tougher gun laws in a plea for the State to protect them from the many shooting that are undoubtedly staged by the state themselves, and for this very purpose. As a result of Academic programming, many of today's youth view the nanny state as being all important. And the bigger the nanny then the more safe they believe they will be. Naturally, as with virtually every thought placed in the minds of the people by the state, such a notion is so far reversed to the actual truth as to belong to the realms of pure fantasy.

Really, when one begins to examine our modern society and the great many problems it creates, with even a partially open mind, it becomes apparent that it is the state itself that is responsible for virtually every issue the people on this earth are facing, and yet it is the state that people turn to when seeking solutions to these issues. The state may of course offer you some appeasement, but never what you are really in need of and ultimately in almost every case it will turn out to be something to further consolidate the power of the state has over you. Yet people still turn to the cause of their woes in search of remedy. They do this simply because they know of nowhere else to turn and again, this is ultimately due to a loss of connection to self - a simple lack of understanding and recognition of who and what they truly are.

In regards to humanity and how it is that people view themselves in relation to the social 'food chain', many view themselves and their peers as 'average human beings', yet their training and programming causes them to view other classes almost as a different breed of more worthy or more valuable human beings. It is a social class system that has been cleverly instilled into people's minds which has nothing really to do with social standing, wealth or upbringing but is more to do with trust and where and in whom, such trust should be placed. Those of higher academic achievements for example, are often seen as being wholly trustworthy. Look at the faith people place in so called 'experts', in scientists, professors and others of perceived authority on a particular subject. Simply by default, most people place an enormous amount of faith and trust in doctors and modern medicine for example. Yet there have been subtle changes in the way modern medical practitioners treat their patients.

I recall that throughout my childhood years, a visit to the doctor would require a personalized diagnosis. The doctor would thoroughly examine the patient, sometimes refer to detailed texts, often run blood tests, and generally poke around the lymph and glandular system for physical symptoms and anomalies. Yet last time I visited a doctor, and such occasions are extremely rare for me, the physician simply typed my symptoms into his computer and allowed the software to diagnose me and prescribe me with a suitable medication. Does this seem rational to you? Does this sound like the reasonable result of years of studying to become a medical practitioner? Is one simply expected to believe the practitioner is able to use a computer better than someone else, and that skill is to what he owes his position? And more importantly, does this method sound like something you should trust? Does it indicate the person you are dealing with to be of an upstanding and trustworthy character? Personally, I found the procedure both fascinating and quietly discomforting at the same time.

The same can be said for the scientific and academic communities. Many view such people as having far more value than the average Joe. Often the scientists themselves adopt a superior attitude by default, and genuinely do view themselves as having more worth than others. Rather than enter into any reasoned debate, are quite happy to brandish their credentials to quieten any disputes to their authority. It is this type of social programming that has led to the disempowerment of so many. This is also very much exemplified in our approach to politicians. We tend to treat these people very much as our superiors when they are in fact our employees. Yet in what can only be compared to some type of collective Stockholm syndrome, we fawn and pander to them, we exalt and praise them and we ask and petition them for change rather than simply looking at things from the correct perspective and simply instructing them to carry out the tasks and duties we require of them.

What is needed is to put a little humanity back into the equation.

Let's just openly face it, we are subject to lies and propaganda and basically spoon fed an endless supply of crap from every conceivable angle. Be it contrived and constructed news about daily 'terrorist attacks' (that somehow seem to more and more frequently lack the presence of any confirmable victims); be it the environmental concerns we face from an ever growing corporate rampage across the earth that is fast destroying any means of a viable future in order to feed the economic model in its wanton demand for permanent growth; be it the latest reasons why we must continue funding war and bombing children in the middle east. We are fed all this mayhem and woe on a daily basis and all is designed to instill into the minds of the people that we desperately need government to ensure our safety when the real truth is that it is the government who creates all the problems, simply to insure their position of control.

It's a classic protection racket.

The people really could deal with things quite easily if they simply cut off the life blood to the system and began supporting each other. The problem is that such a thing will not occur to any meaningful degree until people realize their own worth and begin to see the worth in others around them in their local communities. When such a thing happens we will begin to see some real change. But it will not occur at all until people put down their fear, step into their humanity and choose to get involved. And the first step is to step away from the social conditioning. To realize that regardless of education or perceived professional standing and the implied trust that comes with it, all living beings have equal standing and value.

Everyone.

You don't need to ask politicians for permission to live your life. You don't need to believe you must obey a so called law that claims you cannot collect rain water. You don't need to obey the dictates of a legal system that has been designed to place life as being subservient to economics. You don't need to believe that a law that does not apply to the politicians can somehow apply to you.

And therein lies the problem.

Our politicians and governments have way overstepped the mark and it is high time they were called out and held accountable for their actions, regardless of the office they hold. And if politicians are not to be prosecuted for their crimes and deceit; if the law is not to be applied to them as it would be applied to anyone else, then the stark reality is that there IS no law and no real and just society, but rather a slavery system, whereby one set of rules apply to those who create the rules, and another to the people. When looked at under those parameters, you are faced with the stark reality that there IS no law.

That is our predicament, and it is truly time for mankind to stand up to address the situation we now find ourselves in. It is time to face the uncomfortable reality that most of our trust has been very much misplaced and that this is not the result of a collective mistake, but rather the result of a carefully crafted plan to disempower and fool mankind into handing the keys to their freedom and to their very lives to others who simply do not have their best interests at heart.

It is time we reclaimed our Earth from the criminals who now control it.

There are a great many people who can see the reality of the human dilemma now, and many others who are waiting for the call. All it will take to start bringing about some real change is for people to now apply their knowledge to their community.

Ask questions, share information and lead by example in all that you do. Inspire and empower all those you come into contact with and know that with every soul you reach, every heart you touch and every smile you inspire, you are making a difference, sparking a light and inspiring change in others.

Written by MAX IGAN, 2017, the CrowHouse

Existential Conundrum

Freedom is a heavy load, a great burden for any spirit to undertake. It is not a right granted without cost, but a choice made, and the choice made may be a hard one, a costly one. The way forward winds ever upward towards the light, but the laden traveler has no chance of reaching it, nor can he. We may only approach the unattainable truth through a succession of approximations and errors. That is all.

Along the way, affliction comes to each of us - not to make us sad, but to make us sober; not to make us sorry, but to make us wiser. Each generation, in turn, imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that came before, and wiser than the one that followed, yet science continues to gather information faster than any of us gathers wisdom.

The greatest error a thinking person can make is to believe that one particular version of history is absolute fact. History is recorded by a series of observers with limited perspective, none of whom are impartial. The world has always been and will always be about continual and inevitable change. No sensible decision can be made without taking into account not only the way that the world is, but the way that the world will be.

Man is an unnatural animal, a rebel child of nature. More and more does he turn against the hand that nutured him. It doesn't matter what you do, as long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it to something that is like you after you take your hands away. That's the rub. In the end, we are each ultimately required to go against our own nature, no matter who we are. It's a basic tenet of life to seek to violate our own identity. At some point, each of us must do so. It's the ultimate price of living in the world – to overcome and defeat creation; it is cursed work, an unavoidable curse that nags at all life everywhere in the universe.