Time Passages

by Rev. Amari Magdalena

It seems we are closing the second decade of the 21^st century on a Ring of Fire eclipse.  Though I know time is an illusion and construct of the rational mind, I am struck by this moment.  We might say that time is the way we measure energy which is all around us all of the time. That said, in this material world we attach much to our calendars and timepieces.  And so it is that we close a period of ten years looking to the skies for answers.

Broadcasters seem to agree that it has been the best and worst of times in many ways for different people.  Some have amassed great wealth while others have experienced a shattering of the American Dream of working hard and improving their lot in life.  Poverty and Wealth have both grown somewhat more lopsided. The fabric of citizen unity has suffered rips and tears. Conversely, consciousness has risen steadily during this decade. The new birth of Earth has had its bumps.  Yet, as futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard, noted birth is not always smooth and easy.  Significant upside, we’ve connected globally through social media bringing us the world. This decade, in its close, seems to have been oppositional.  The pendulum which frequently swings to extremes has taken a sharp launch to the right and is in much need of finding middle ground.

We tend to view these passages personally and collectively.  On a personal note, I lost my last parent, four good friends, and other younger relatives. Gained three granddaughters and another grandson. Wrote and published seven books. I made four big moves: one within a state, three others to different states circling from sun to rain to sun.  I’ve held numerous ceremonies celebrating seasons and continued to teach ancient wisdom and pathways to peace.  Evidence suggests I’ve surrendered being paired.  No doubt I’ve accumulated more stuff than I now have room for and see the benefit in simplification.  Moved out of middle age into the elder realm.  Quite a passage!

Where does it leave us to acknowledge that 87,360 hours (5,252,429 minutes) have buzzed by? What do we do with this knowledge of our, and others, memories of chunks of time wrapped in ten years? How do we glean the gold from the dross and offer it to the Gods imploring them for a more promising future? In which way do we celebrate without losing the important lessons. Which Cave Center meditation will assist us in shedding what no longer serves us and igniting a torch of hope for the future?

We can make plans and temp the Gods!  We can, as Robert Kennedy said, dream dreams that never were and say why not! We can laud the young people coming up with new visions and energy to revive or planet. We can take time to smell the roses, applaud magnificent sunsets, and keep improving our ability to love without conditions while serving our fellow Earthship occupants. We can engage life and not choose to sit this one out. We can forgive and embrace forgetting. Ultimately, we can choose to find beauty each day, express gratitude, extend kind-filled acknowledgements, and enjoy this wondrous illusion. We can foster hope and continue our journeys as Peace Pilgrims until we cross the Rainbow Bridge.

Prognosticators say were headed for glory. Hallelujah! Time passages buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight!  

"You can start anew at any given moment.  Life is just the passage of time and it's up to you to pass it as you please."  Charlotte Eriksson

"The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time." James Taylor

A Sensory World

By Rev. Amari Magdalena

As I drive about at this holiday season and see all of the displays of Light and enjoy the smells of Cedar, Cinnamon, and Ginger, I am reminded of what an amazing sensory world we live in.  In the rush of our daily lives, I feel we often take our five senses for granted until some event triggers a memory or an acknowledgement.

While we have five physical senses, we’ve also a sixth sense that may or may not be well developed. Sight is a miracle for those blessed with sightedness. Our eyes are the windows to the world.  They can afford us an unparalleled vision of beauty or expose us to the worst visions of humanity.  I’ve chosen to see or seek beauty in this elder passage of my life.  If I should have negativity or worry descend, I direct my focus to beauty.  And, beauty is all around us if we just look beyond the limiting vision of our living boxes. I believe beauty is the portal to the soul.

Hearing the sounds of a beautiful symphony, lullaby or Gregorian chant can trigger a splash of positive endorphins and oxytocin hormones being released in our oft stressed systems. We hold so many memories of the music of our generation.  Music can also be cacophony and grate on our peace.  Science is now learning that even the planets and stars have a sound. Sound can open doors to new worlds, if we are willing to listen. Folks with clairaudience have fine tuned the sounds to understand messages from beyond our normal range of listening.

Touch!  So vital to newborns under all circumstances and a needed commodity throughout life. The Puritan, WASP, influence in the early founding of what we call America, led to less touch than is desirable.  As our melting pot of a country has brought peoples of all cultures, we see more touch demonstrated in some than others.  Lack of touch can lead to depression. Kinds of touch in our environment speaks volumes to our mental states: soft, soothing, harsh, rugged, etc. Touch is ultimately about connection. The more, and better quality hugs we receive, the more we feel our existence is affirmed and valued.

Smell, and all the memories associated with it, may be carried from childhood through our adulthood.  The scent of our familiar family has a long-lasting impact on our later connection with people who enter our lives.  We do not all smell alike. Mother’s bond with their newly born infants through smell-they smell like the mother. Scents can enhance our natural smell or repulse others.  Scent sensitivities are growing as natural ones are replaced with chemicals. Even our mental outlook can be impacted by smell.  Surrounding our homes with scents that speak to us in a most positive way, can be uplifting.

Taste, and our culinary preferences, have evolved into an entire smorgasbord of foodie industries. We equate taste with other aspects of life also.  We might say an interaction left a bad taste in our mouths.  Conversely, we exclaim, “Yum!” at a great experience or culinary delight. Another expression of taste is with a value judgment-good taste or poor taste in friendships, home décor, etc.  When our taste buds are keenly developed in all aspects of life, we tend to be more open to the new and untried. 

Development of our Sixth Sense can open a whole world beyond the material. I believe that all of us have the capacity to open that 3^rd Eye.  Much of our early conditioning impacts whether we’ll allow that awakening. When we trust that there is indeed more than what seems to be through our illusions of permanence, a wondrous world of possibility invites our tenancy. With the opening we have a foot in both worlds.

Years ago, I read in a Reader’s Digest article that listed the true capacity of our five physical senses. An example of this is: “See a small candle flame from 30 miles away on a clear, dark night.” Other examples spoke to the other senses.  Our crowded cities with overload on our natural senses have dulled most of them.  Isn’t it time to reclaim this sensory world? In wide open spaces, in nature, away from the proverbial madding crowd, we may discover a world of wonder.

I encourage us all to not depend on seasons or holidays to reawaken our senses.  Choose now to value them, activate them, and experience one of the true joys of having a human body. Add a color to your décor.  Try some new music. Add a new spice to food. Find a pleasant natural aromatherapy oil to diffuse in your living room and bedroom. Choose a new fabric in your clothing or furniture. Experience more of life! And, if you trust yourself, do something to wake up your sixth sense!  And remember, love is the poetry of the senses. (Honore de Balzac)

"Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul." Oscar Wilde

"There are four Powers: memory and intellect, desire and covetousness.  The first two are mental and the others sensual.  The three senses: sight, hearing, and smell cannot well be prevented; touch and taste not at all." Leonardo da Vinci

"Man has no Body distinct from his Soul; for that called Body is a portion of Soul discerned by the five senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age." William Blake

Saving Humanity and the Planet

by Rev. Amari Magdalena

A wonderful Zen Buddhist Monk at CSL Las Cruces today addressed three poisons and their remedies.  He specifically mentioned: greed, hate, and delusion the cures for which are wisdom, generosity, and loving kindness. These are also referred to as non-delusion, non-attachment, and non-hatred. The latter represent wholesome factors. Right now, our world is squeezing through the center of a very tight hourglass of change as it has become top heavy with greed, hate, and delusion.  It’s a pretty painful process. Many do wish the sand  to reach the other side as time chases us.

At the risk of being redundant, may I remind us all that so many things have created this moment: political unrest; increasing poverty; disappearing niceness, moral compass, and manners; uncontrolled growth at the top tier of economics; changing weather patterns; and the ever-shifting sands of history. All empires fail and have throughout history. Power has been rested away from one group to another, repeatedly.  As the empire waned, many poisons were evidenced. 

While this feels like very bad news, one can look at it as a necessary process to foster a quantum leap in human evolution.  If we are to have a eco evolution, the human evolution must be accelerated.  Polarity and duality have no place in this process, or it will surely derail good intentions, affirmation and prayers for good, and the shreds of a humane society necessary to fuel and foster the evolution.

Delusion is but one aspect of the poison yet a very important one.  In metaphysics, along with many indigenous understandings of the corridor West, it signifies the grand delusion.  If we are to push this process through the narrows, we each will need to explore our own 7 veils of illusion* and remove them. Easier said than done, at times, yet we no longer have the luxury of holding tightly to our comfortable denusions (denial and delusions). 

As the monk said, we can no longer be satisfied with Talking our Talk; time now to Walk the Walk in real time. This requires us to wake the hell up in every given moment, not just in consciousness groups or spiritual gatherings.  As an insurance company may ask us to put a monitor on our mileage for better potential insurance rates, it is time for us to monitor our thoughts for salvation of humanity.

For several decades now many of us have gathered in consciousness groups that meet once a week or occasionally.  We come away inspired and committed to making a positive change. Some of the enthusiasm results in creating organizations for good.  That is fantastic! Yet it doesn’t solve the problem though it punctures a small hole in the back log of hourglass sand and allows a trickle to reach the new.

What then is necessary beyond continual vigilance on our thinking and exploring more avenues for change?  Finding ways to significantly get in the touch with those who are different than ourselves.  Releasing any smugness in the belief that we’re doing great good and should be receiving accolades for our efforts. Retiring the Ego.

We must include the ‘others’ that our judgment views are separate from us. We’ll need to behold the golden threads of essential light and energy that connects us all. Will it be possible to connect with everyone, perhaps not? Yet, yes, we can attempt to widen our circle of influence and levels of understanding of apparent differences.  When we have opportunity and access, we can see the Divine in those we connect with, even for brief moments.  The others, we can simply extend loving kindness to their souls.  We could even use the Shamanic Journey to connect with those that we are unable to reach in the relative world-totem to totem.

Even small acknowledgements like speaking the name of the person who is serving us, whose tag gives us that information, can be beneficial.  We can join groups that are not all espousing the very same things we are about and just be ourselves. We can ask questions in of people in the group about what they want out of life and how they see the world. Active efforts, no more exalted rhetoric, are much needed.  Stepping into another person’s moccasins, even for moments, will help us find the light connections. Releasing the concept of separate races and epidermal distinctions.

Asking ourselves in each interaction: am I being wise; am I able to be of generous service; is my attitude and behavior conveying loving kindness?  And, when those attributes are not prevalent, stop the interaction, back up and start anew.  Refrain from self-flagellation as it tends to being things back to the self and cause angst and self-judgment. Become the person of a world where everyone thrives.  Then, and only then, can the clogged sands pour effortlessly into the other side of the hourglass and save humanity and the planet.

“We must flex our heart muscles not only to include the least, the last, the lost, but also to include whomever we are currently referring to as ‘snowflake’ or ‘deplorable’ instead of God’s name for all of us which is ‘Beloved.’”  Rev. Robin Bartlett

"A Religion of Evolution: that, when all is said and done is what Man needs ever more explicitly if he is to survive and 'superlive,' as soon as he becomes conscious of his power to ultra-hominize himself and of his duty to do so." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

*7 Veils of Illusion from Unbecoming Me: The Ultimate Shapeshifters Journey