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A Poem for Saturday, and the times: “What Might Have Been”
I’ve been quiet for a while during our shutdown, shut-in, staying much more within. Maybe my muse has gone inward as well to reflect. And while it might be tempting to begin to emerge from the inner work, to venture into the wide world again, I’m not sure it is time yet. We remain cautious, immune systems strong but not over-taxed. We remain comfortable and well on the inside!
But there are other ways to reach out; my muse is beginning to rise and wonder what it’s all about. Richard shrugs with concern, some frustration, deeply puzzled about the meaning of so much foolishness. Perhaps the muse has a bit of an answer:
What Might Have Been
The passing of a friend, a brother, a lover
Leads deeply to a pondering:
What might have been.
Wars ending in retreat, defeat, chaos
Demand the heart/mind to question:
What might have been?
Sickness, disease, pandemics
Force reflection on community;
What might have been!
Separation, polarization, fear of other
Rend the heart and soul; I wonder
What might have been…
Anger, resentment, frustration with what is
Soften in contemplation:
What might yet be!
©2021 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
Sunday Poem; a sample from “Circular Leadership: Together We Rise”
Today, at 5:35 AM EST our collaborative book is launched! And to celebrate this event I am publishing here the poem I wrote to conclude my chapter:
Human Virtues
Love:
It all begins with love,
The creating force alive
Through the whole world
From deepest deep to highest above.
Honor:
A state of being derived from love,
Self-love, the source of all;
A principle that upholds, ennobles,
Creating the foundation for Human.
Integrity:
Springing from honor, Human
Knows place in the world; holds
Space firmly on that foundation;
Rises to each occasion to bless.
Community:
Integral Human reaches outward
To serve humanity in blessed community.
Community blesses Human in sacred symmetry
Echoing voices of goddesses and gods.
High Purpose:
The highest purpose is to love,
Honor, grow in integrity, serve
Community in a spiral blessing rising
Through the evolution of Humanity.
©2019, Richard W. Bredeson, all rights reserved.
Help me celebrate by buying the book; the Kindle version is available today for only $0.99; and it’s in full color!
FRIDAY’S POEM FROM “RHYTHMS AMD CYCLES” – Meet Tristan
Running on California time today (I guess this is more like “Saturday’s Poem”) where Rosemary and I are visiting our newest grandson, Tristan Wallace Bredeson. It is my joy to introduce him to you! This “image poem” certainly belongs in Rhythms and Cycles. He is the first son of a first son going back 5 generations!
MONDAY’S POEM: The Most Popular from 2013: Karma
For the end of 2013 I did a scan of poems I published here on Mondays and discovered the most popular one, by the number of “likes” was Karma. Here it is again; and thanks to all for your following and reading through the year!
Karma
There’s always more to burn:
Fuel to feed the great fire.
Travels through life in the mire
Lead to more lessons to learn.
Brothers of three generations
Differ in extraordinary ways.
Their life-paths twist through a maze;
Destinies driven by their limitations.
Karma is complex to unwind;
The source is a tangle of lives.
The weaving together of so many tribes
Forms a patchwork, one of a kind.
When love is the thread for the stitches,
The patterns emerge in fine hues.
The patchwork of reds, purples, blues
Renders a tapestry depicting life’s riches.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
And, have a safe, wonderful, happy and prosperous 2014!
PS: Next year will be wonderful! How do I know? Because I listened to a message from The Divine Feminine channeled by Rosemary on the Winter Solstice; and they offered guidance and advice on what we might expect in 2014 and how to approach the year’s upcoming energy. Expect more change! The transformation continues! If you missed the message it is now available as an MP3 recording for a modest price; check out the details here: Winter Solstice Message
Alchemy and the Goddess
My posts have been sparse lately as we travel coast to coast and back home. Experiencing all these climates has been enjoyable but a bit hard on the environmental body controls. Rosemary and I are both a bit under the weather (so to speak) from the changes. It was good to get home to Colorado last evening and back to our regular schedules. My posts will be regular again as well!
Last night Rosemary and I hosted our “First Monday” Spiritual Exploration Group meeting here in Colorado Springs. We had a good turn out for our topic of the month: What’s All This Hype about 2012? What’s the Basis for it and What Do We Think Might Happen? I found some interesting references to both Alchemy and the Goddess in my readings in preparation for the discussion. There seems to be a strong synchronistic potential at work in my life. The books I am choosing to read and the topics I am choosing to write about and discuss all align with the topic of this post. More of this as we work through the week
The first story of my current book on Alchemy (Alchemy, an Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology by Marie-Louise von Franz) is from the Codex Marcianus. It is called The Prophetess Isis to Her Son and is about Isis seeking the secret of “the holy technique” – the preparation of gold and silver. Interestingly Alchemy and the Goddess are immediately linked not only in my mind (see my post on March 25) but in the very first material I take up on the subject!
The story itself is fascinating: Isis encounters an angel who wants to have sex with her in exchange for the knowledge of alchemy. She puts him off until she obtains the knowledge; then he admits this is above him and he needs to hand her off to another more powerful angel. The next day the more powerful angel appears; this one too wants to have sex with Isis. Again she refuses until she receives the secrets of the preparation of gold and silver. In the story the recipe is actually presented but the names of the various substances used are so arcane as to be not identifiable today. But Isis does obtain the secret knowledge and is allowed to share it with her son, Horus.
The significant part of this is where von Franz takes the discussion: she draws the parallel between this myth and the creation myth of the Bible where Eve is the source of the “fall” when she suggests Adam eats the apple whereby they gain knowledge. Of course the Isis story is a positive one: not only does Isis succeed in gaining the information she sought, but she also avoided payment for it by not having sex with the angels. The Eve story is negative: the payment for the knowledge gained is expulsion from the garden. Von Franz would say both stories are archetypal and related; they likely have the same source. The Biblical story is much younger than the Isis story. How is it that the newer story was twisted to have a negative outcome to the gain of knowledge?
And this becomes the crux of the evolution of western civilization, even consciousness! There was an ancient track that seemed to consider knowledge as good. And women were the seekers and keepers of knowledge. This track was diverted a few thousand years ago to declare knowledge as evil; and the cause of this evil was Woman! What is this all about?
Is knowledge good or evil? You might think this is a silly question in the post-modern world of today when science and technology are supreme icons of advancement. But this debate continues. How many people today would still say Eve was wrong in offering the apple, knowledge, to Adam? How many people today deny the science behind the evolutionary process? Believe it or not there is still a sizable portion of the population of this country that believes the Earth is the center of the Universe! (And I suspect these people do not want to discover anything that would contradict their beliefs.)
Is knowledge evil; is ignorance bliss? The question is not as simple as it seems. My posts will continue to consider the question – as we seek answers through knowledge!
Alchemy?
Rosemary and I are moving into the “scurry” phase of life getting ready to travel for the next 10 days. We are going west first for a workshop for “holistic practitioners” to gain traction in the market place. Since I left the field of marketing in the corporate world more than two years ago I have learned a great deal about how to market in the new world of Web 2.0 and all that goes with it. One of the purposes in my retirement was to devote full time to getting the word out about Rosemary and her gifts. And I’ve been scrambling ever since. I frequently tell people “I don’t know how I ever found time for a 9 to 5 job before retiring!
From the west we are heading all the way east for some family time and to plan a wedding for some very dear friends of ours. So, if you notice a day or two of missing blog posts you’ll know why. (I thought another thing I had retired from was frequent travel! I retired from an airline communications company for which travel was second nature. That nature seems to have followed me into retirement.)
I am the blessed and frequent recipient of Rosemary’s gifts! Last night she hosted “Conversations with The Other Side,” one of her regular events where participants get messages from The Other Side – from loved ones who have crossed over, angels, guides and spirit guides. It is always a good time with some laughter, some tears, and deep wisdom.
And true to form I did receive some fascinating messages last evening concluding with a visit by a “wizard from the middle ages”! And, yes, historic personalities, real and legendary, do show up from time to time; we also had John Adams make an appearance last night. The message from my wizard guide was to take a close look at alchemy; to “tune into the teachings of alchemy at the very deepest levels. Understanding of alchemy, about what we can do with ourselves, is becoming more and more needed on the planet because the whole evolution of human consciousness is relying on alchemical shifts within human beings. That’s how the energy shift is going to happen.”
OK, then! No problem here; I’ll get right on it! Seriously we do have several books on alchemy which I’ll be taking with me as I travel. And I do have a background, my first degree, in chemistry (not sure if this gives me a head start or not!).
Actually the real head start I have is a book I’ve been reading by Joseph Donlan: “Ordaining Reality.” (It’s now actually three books, the unabridged version and two abridged versions for people who want to get right to the meat.) Mr. Donlan states his purpose behind the books “is to explain the underlying laws of nature supporting the theory that positive thinking produces positive results. This knowledge will significantly enhance your ability to bring about desired changes in your life.” And if I hear my “wizard guide” correctly, alchemy can be used to bring about these desired changes. What I’m thinking is Mr. Donlan’s book is about the underpinnings of alchemy.
One of Rosemary’s favorite expressions is: “change your mind, change your life, change the world.” And I’ve seen this work time and again. Mr. Donlan’s work explains why this is so. Clearly there are alchemical processes at work here, and I’ll do a lot of further reading to not only discover these processes, but put them to work in my life and let you know how to activate them in yours!
At this point you may be wondering what this has to do with “The Goddess.”My message from “my wizard” was to investigate alchemy not for curiosity’s sake or for the academic enjoyment of the pursuit of knowledge. He said I need to help people “understand how alchemy happens in the 21st century – how people can get rid of the lower vibration of lead and turn it into the higher vibration of gold.” This is the ascendant story all over again; this is Inanna, born a Moon Goddess, descending to Earth to bless her people with growth, descending to the lower world to appease the Goddess Ereshkigal, rising again to reestablish her rightful place and ascending to the upper world again in her cycle of birth, life, death and new life. Lead vibration to gold vibration is part of this cycle. The golden grain from the fertile Earth is part of this cycle. The moon phases and Sun seasons are part of this cycle. My adventures into alchemy parallel my adventures with The Goddess.
Stay tuned for my further adventures!
Mother Love; Goddess Love
We are all glad it’s Friday; even those of us who are fortunate enough to be “retired” from the corporate world still appreciate Friday evenings. I don’t know if this is such a well traveled rut for me that Fridays just feel better or if I am still enough in that weekly cycle, “the grind”, to continue to appreciate the more relaxed feeling that comes from closing down, at least a little bit, for this time of the week. I’ll be doing that as soon as I publish this!
A few days ago I mentioned the name of an Indian Holy Woman Rosemary and I have known and been following for a long time – probably close to 15 years now, since she started touring the US in 1995. She goes on a yearly tour of the West through the late spring and summer months to bring the teachings of her Hindu faith to her many thousands of followers here. She teaches from the Vedas, she initiates into powerful practices and she renews hope in the beauty and purpose of humanity. Mostly she brings the incredible power of a Mother’s Love for all of her “children.” And unless you’ve experienced her or someone like her, there is no describing the feeling of love she vibrates when she calls us her children and “her babies.”
Her name is Sri Karunamayi; but we all call her Amma, Mother in her native language, Telugu. And you can read about this remarkable woman at: www.karunamayi.org.
I have participated in many activities with Amma over the years: I have sat in silence with her at several of her retreats; I have done pranayama breathing exercises with her before and after meditation; I have been initiated into several chants, including the ancient and powerful Gayatri Mantra; I have chanted the Sri Saraswati Mantra to greet her and to wish her farewell; I have experienced personal darshan with her and received her blessing; and I have bowed to the floor to touch her precious feet; mostly I have just been in her presence and that’s enough to feel again that Motherly Love we all long for and deserve, no matter our age! We all need to feel that kind of unconditional love.
Sri Karunamayi is a devotee and, I believe, Avatar of Saraswati, the Hindu Goddess of Learning. You will notice that Amma uses many of Saraswati’s symbols including swan and peacock. Saraswati is always portrayed with a Veena, an ancient Indian stringed instrument. According to saisathyasai.com: “The Veena points to the collective sound of all our thoughts and actions as it is manifest as music in the cosmic universe.” Amma’s voice is an echo of that “collective sound” and stays with one always.
That word: Avatar, is much in our language these days with the extraordinary movie by that name, video games in which players take on avatars, and even blogs where we can post our own “gravatars.” What is this about? Are we looking to take on a new persona to escape our own? Are we anxious to embody a powerful archetype to empower ourselves in a dis-empowering world? Amma is one woman who has done this, not to escape, but, indeed, to move fully into that Goddess energy and embrace the duties and responsibilities expected of a Goddess. Not many people can do this. Amma braved many hardships in order to accomplish what she has. And she continues to embrace her role in the very deepest sense. These world tours she takes on are not easy. I’ve seen first hand the logistics involved in her cross-country treks. Take a look at her tour schedule and you will know this is a rugged life!
And she does this all for love, for her children. Her Western tours are for both teaching and for fund raising. You can read about her many missions on her site. Just as one example she is building houses for displaced refugees. For our 25th wedding anniversary in 2008, Rosemary and I asked that all gifts be given in the name of SMVA Trust specifically to build one of these houses. I am pleased that we raised the $1100 to do just that, thanks to friends and family and a little extra from us.
If you want to experience Amma’s Mother Love, this pure Saraswati Goddess Love check her tour schedule and find a way to be in her presence this year!
As an aside but still related, I received the most magnificent and long awaited gift in the mail today. I had ordered a Tibetan style felted wool vest from a charming little website mid-February. (www.eternalknots.com) These vests and jackets are made by Tibetan refugees in Nepal and all the money goes to them, for feeding mothers and children among others. I can tell from the handiwork and care in the vest’s construction that this is a product of Love, a Mother’s Love to feed her children, and even love for some stranger on the other side of Mother Earth. I felt this high vibration of love as soon as I tried it on; and, of course, it fits beautifully. Order one for yourself or as a gift. But don’t expect instant gratification; it’s a long way to Nepal, even by “express mail”!
What a lovely way to begin the weekend. Namaste!
Please enjoy!
Men and The Goddess 