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The Heart of Humanity – Richard’s Commentary
Yesterday’s post was a message, as channeled by Rosemary, from The Divine Feminine. There is little I can say that will enhance their powerful message. But I do want to offer some thoughts and examples, perhaps in my way to amplify the message.
My first thought in encountering the words of The Divine Feminine comes from my training and work in indigenous cultures and their understanding of this “Heart” especially as it relates to ancestors. We, as living humans, stand on the bones of our ancestors; but their hearts beat right beside our own. Many of you know Rosemary as a medium who can speak directly to our ancestors, those who have transitioned in the near past and even ancestors from generations past. They are right here with us! So, when The Divine Feminine speak of The Heart of Humanity and say: “This is not about the individual heart of a single person but, rather, the collective heart of the humans both alive and in spirit” they include our ancestors in this Heart. Why is this important? They are right here with us, watching us, cheering us on. So often their messages through Rosemary are words of pride in our achievements, words of encouragement to continue to learn the lessons and evolve, words of comfort that they are with us! Their hearts beat within The Heart of Humanity just as ours do. Live and love within this energy!
My second reaction to the message is a recall of a divination card I often receive from the Goddess Guidance Oracle Cards by Doreen Virtue, PhD. Maat is a Goddess in the deck that 
carries the message of “fairness.” (I’ve pictured the card here.) The key to understanding the message of this card is in the definition Dr. Virtue offers for fairness: “It’s when all parties involved surrender their personal agendas in favor of the greater good for the entirety of the group. This requires trust in the wisdom of the group.” And I add this requires trust in The Heart of Humanity.
I like this definition of fairness a lot. And it is little wonder that I receive this card a lot! What if our justice system were based on fairness: what’s good for everyone, the common good? How did The Divine Feminine put it? – “For the good of all.” With no qualifiers. We are all in this together. Sometimes we may not like this inclusive approach to “all.” But we are all members of The Heart of Humanity!
My third thought goes to our “community supported agriculture” (CSA) farm. As I write this, today is pick-up day. Each week we get a box of organic produce fresh from the fields. During this past winter we purchased a family share in the farm. Now we are getting our return on that investment. We paid our local organic farmer in advance and now receive a share. This share means we are part of a community, part of the common good; and we are sharing now in the results, good harvest or poor harvest (and so far it’s been very good!); we share the benefit as well as the risk. Our community farm is part of The Heart of Humanity.
The Heart of Humanity is about our Ancestors and what they worked hard for, it’s about fairness, and it’s about sharing in the common good. I hope you are enjoying your share in this Heart!
PS: Come speak with your ancestors! They are alive in The Heart of Humanity. Your next opportunity to participate in a Conversation with The Other Side is July 13 at 7:00 pm Eastern. You can join the Conversation online via a video internet connection, or voice/phone; and if you can come to Annapolis, join Rosemary live! Get the details here.
The Cycles of Life
This week’s theme in Rosemary’s blog was Cycles beginning with her video message on Tuesday. Yesterday I wrote about the primary cycle in human life, human consciousness: Death. And as we move now into the energy of the Summer Solstice here in the Northern Hemisphere I am once again reminded of all the cycles that occur in our lives, from the most minute, the life and death of a single cell (we lose more than 50 billion a day to apoptosis!) to the solar cycle through solstices and equinoxes and all the solar holidays in-between, to human death.
As I thought about Glenn Smith, his early-in-life transition (he was only 55) I drew two divination cards (a daily practice, usually with the intention of divining the energy for the day); I wanted to tap in and see if Glenn had any messages for me through the cards.
First I drew Butterfly Maiden from the Doreen Virtue Goddess Guidance Oracle Cards. No surprise as this card is all about “transformation.” This is what I wrote about the card, pictured here:
Death is the big transformation for humans, only rivaled in grandeur and trauma by birth. And in a sense these largest of events in our experience of consciousness are one and the same. They are each part of the human cycle, a circle which has no end nor beginning. Birth, Life, Death, around we go always becoming, renewing, rejoicing in the knowing! And not knowing!
The second card I drew was from the Aleister Crowley Thoth Tarot Deck; it was the 10 of Disks, “wealth.” This is what I wrote about the 10, pictured here:
Wealth. Fulfillment. The completion of human goals. Another “end-vibration” card showing me that endings are not only OK but need to be expected. We can never be sure when a life is fulfilled. Too often endings are abrupt and unexpected. A greater cycle, beyond human consciousness and understanding – the mystery – is playing out. We are but cycles within cycles adding our ounce of Oneness to the tidal ocean of consciousness. Rest, Glenn. We hold your ounce as precious!
We can measure so many cycles: the cycle of a cell’s life, the cycle of the sun as it appears to spin around the earth. But how do we measure the cycle of a man’s life? The span of time from birth to death, to fulfillment of one life, remains in the mystery. Yet there is so much to learn from each precious life.
I learned many things from Glenn in our too short friendship. He was such a gentle man and yet so deeply conscious. Read about him in the blog we wrote together: powerfulsensitivemen.com. And here’s something he wrote for Rosemary I want to share:
Having always thought I was a bit odd and different from the regular crowd, I was overjoyed to receive a message passed to me through Rosemary Bredeson that I was indeed ‘different’, during a group session I attended. In fact every message she passed to the twelve people gathered had some impact on me. The message I received could not have been more relevant for me even though I have had many readings by many different psychics over many years. Her joyful way of expressing heartfelt messages from The Other Side was a delight to witness.
This is how Glenn was in life; he always seemed overjoyed and delighted!
I went to my Svaroopa Yoga class tonight energized as I often am to take respite in my body, to bring my consciousness to my physical being rooted as I am in this life for now on the planet. For the evening’s contemplation my teacher used a quote from Aristotle:
Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.
Glenn was a happy man, passing to another phase of consciousness having fulfilled his purpose in this cycle on Planet Earth.
Butterfly Maiden
When I was a kid growing up in Wisconsin we used to plant corn when the oak leaves were as big as squirrel ears. I loved this way of letting nature guide the farming cycles. Nature knows more about how to grow things than we will ever know with all our weather predicting technology and modern methods. This reminds me that we are patiently waiting for the first delivery of spring harvest from our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm here in Maryland. But with the cool, wet spring things are late and we are probably still a couple of weeks away from first delivery. For a farmer from Wisconsin there should be no surprise here!
I wrote this thinking about corn planting and growing – the old-fashioned way! And I hope Butterfly Maiden is watching over our CSA vegetables!
Butterfly Maiden
The corn is planted;
The spring rains have come.
The holy ground is rich;
The loam warms the seed.
Soon there will be a splitting;
Soon the full moon will shine.
Soon the earth will feed that seed;
Soon the sprout will reach for sun.
Moon watches through the night;
Moon wanes through a fortnight.
Moon withers toward rising sun;
Moon winks out as the sprout sees dawn.
Butterfly Maiden sheds her cocoon;
Butterfly Maiden warms in the sun.
Butterfly Maiden grins at the grinning moon;
Butterfly Maiden guards growing corn.
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
PS: Qigong starts this evening, Monday, June 3 at 7:00 pm. If you are in the area of Annapolis/Severna Park please join me: Details here.
Sunday’s Poem: Mothers
In honor of all Mothers everywhere; where would we be without you?
Mothers
Where would we be without them?
The Universe is mostly “dark” matter.
Mother.
The Taoists have it right:
The dark is the womb;
The dark is the source
Of all the Suns!
Where would we be without Earth?
She is mostly feminine water.
Mother.
The Evolutionists have it right:
The Water is the womb;
The Water is the source
Of all Sons!
Where would we be without Eve?
She is mostly womanly love.
Mother.
The Biblists have it wrong:
Her love is the womb;
Her love is the source
Of All – not the fall!
©2013 Richard W. Bredeson. All rights reserved.
The Story is Not the Person! – Richard’s Commentary
“The story is not the person.” And often the story is not the story, at least not the whole story. I think that is one of Rosemary’s points.
I had the great privilege over a number of years to “sit at the feet” of Robert Bly. One of his “lessons” was to examine a story or poem on at least three levels: the concrete, the psychological and the mythical. And even then large swaths of a story can be glossed over or missed entirely.
At the concrete level, the story is never the person. You can’t know much at all from this level. It is superficial at best. To use a well worn cliché it’s like judging a story-book by its cover. I am a great fan of science fiction; I can never guess what a book is about from looking at the typically lurid cover! These days you certainly can’t judge anything from clothes. Styles are all over the map and casual is becoming formal in many venues! For those who are well trained and experienced in sensory acuity there are deeper layers to the concrete level that can be observed. Milton Erickson pioneered the use of body language in his hypnotherapy work and could utilize a subtle movement, twitch or flush to take a patient into deeper trance. And this brings us to the psychological level of the story.
Rosemary’s point that “the story is not the person” is much about this psychological level, the back-story, the underlying elements to a person that are buried behind the external persona. Sometimes this deeper part of the story is hidden even from one’s self. Our layers of beliefs for example are not necessarily something we dwell on to determine our current motivations or reactions to situations. It is this psychological level that gets protected, especially the shadow components of our makeup…and we all have them. Our boundaries protect this area and need that respect Rosemary urges us to observe.
And it is this level that we need to take into consideration when interacting with people. We all have our psychological stories. Some we can feel free and even good about sharing. Some remain hidden, protected behind our walls of privacy. The point here is to realize every one of our encounters with a person involves a hidden layer that needs our understanding and respect. We have our boundaries and they have theirs; let the unrevealed layers be a part of the mystery of the encounter.
It is at the mythic layer to the story where we can have some fun. And I don’t mean to make fun but to be inventive, creative in our approach to interacting with others. At some level we humans are all archetypes; we embody all the mythical gods and goddesses, the legendary figures from history, the stories of golden ages with mythic heroes and heroines from pre-history. Bly’s approach to analyze a poem or a story at the mythic level is to look for the archetypal, the over-arching theme that holds deeper meaning beyond the superficial and even the mental levels; the god-like meanings that underpin the entire arch of the story. And we can apply this approach to our encounter with others. Ask, what part of the greater mythology of human existence is this person playing, in his life, in my life, in the greater context of human evolution!
That’s right! Every one of us is playing a role, our personally designed role, in the expanding story of human evolution, the evolution of consciousness! This is exciting, scary, sobering, even mind-boggling. And it’s true.
So, next time when you meet someone, a friend, an acquaintance, even a stranger, ask yourself what role that someone is playing in the unfolding mythology of humanity!
ARIES and the I Ching for the “Moonth”
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my post yesterday. Is there a conflict between all the energies in the House of Aries and the I Ching which seems to be urging caution? I’ve received more astrological guidance and I’ll be sharing some of my musings on this conjunction of these energies.
First a “word” from dear friend, teacher and intuitive astrologer, Chris Largent, about Aries:
1. Spring is expansive, so it’s a great time to get out and celebrate. The winter brought with it unconscious and other-dimensional processes, and we worked hard – usually without knowing it. So, we need to rest and have fun. The symbols now are particularly good for getting out in nature – any kind of nature.
2. The ‘Big Transition’ aspect is back and will be with us through early 2014. Since this symbolizes a shake-up in collective consciousness, we may feel an urgency or an awakening relative to our destinies as culture changers.
In fact, a combination of present aspects symbolizes the Big Kid in us going out to play, the Contemplative Adult reflecting quietly, AND the Serious Change-Agent breaking free of oppressive programming to help liberate the world. This gives all of us plenty to do.
3. As a result, we may also experience a tension between the old world and the new one, out there where “the wind blows” and “wild things run.” We may feel an inner resistance to leaving the “medieval fort” of conventionality. And we may even find apparently good reasons for clinging to the old when new ways of being confront us – which they do constantly now.
So, it’s a time to be alert to our resistance and our destinies – along with resting and playing.
And here is more from Gloria Hesseloff, especially about that “medieval fort” image Chris conjures:
“The New Moon in Aries focuses on the energies of the Divine Masculine, which is very different from the patriarchy. … Energetically, this feels like a fortuitous time to invoke the Sacred Masculine to join forces with the Divine Feminine in putting a powerful hold on the old, less evolved, dominating patriarchy that has abused Mars/Aries energy with war and violence.
- Aries is ruled by Mars. Evolved Mars is more a protector than an aggressor.
- Mars is considered the Warrior.
- Let us be Warriors for Higher Consciousness…Peaceful Warriors, Spiritual Warriors, Wise Warriors, Spirit in Action.
- We can generate an “energy field” that contains the heart & soul of the Warrior.
- This can be sent to areas around the world to promote peace.
- This field can be applied to our daily lives where we courageously go after what we desire. This is the time to be the hero or heroine in your own life!”
And then there is the I Ching energy of “encounter” (especially with young, energetic women) and “retreat.” Note that for both the initial and approached Gua the yin lines are in an advancing position moving upward toward the yang dominated top of the Gua. My feeling is there is a lot of feminine energy in this Aries configuration; in fact Venus too is in the “warrior house” clearly influencing, not necessarily softening, the energy! Here’s what I wrote about all this in my pages:
“Encounter is with the Goddess! She is referred to as a “strong maiden” in King Wen’s Decision. Who is she? This is about feminine energy in this Aries House. Venus is in Aries along with Mars. She is strengthened by Mars’ presence, closeness (a bit over 2 degrees separation at this point). In fact it may be this Mars energy that is in “retreat” from the strong feminine. Balance remains a key word for this time within Equinox energy. Balance the masculine and feminine energy within and all around. And, yes, there may need to be a retreat before the strength of the feminine in order to achieve this balance. Gloria referred to the Divine Masculine as the powerful, generative King Archetype. Perhaps his retreat is into his feminine, creative power.
“There is strength in retreat. I visualize a time of gathering strength, building potential for what is coming (the “Big Transition”). I visualize the final stages of the worm within her chrysalis, a deep retreat into this desiccated state just before the emergence of the true creature in her brilliance and beauty. The Goddess emerges from her entombment to dry her wings in the light and complete the cycle of life, from cellular egg to crawling worm to gossamer flight.
“It is time to submerge into the energy of this powerful Aries time to gather strength for the emergence. The Goddess will empower this emergence. But there remains the cautionary note of Gou! This is powerful feminine energy to encounter. Treat it with utmost respect. Bow before the power or risk its loss and backlash!”
I think I have resolved any perceived conflict in my mind. How are you dealing with all this power both “out there” and within?
Monkey-Mind (What Is This? – An Example) Deep Peace
OK, so I referred to this Korean Koan in my post yesterday, February 7, and as things go I had the opportunity to use it today. As it always does, it worked out very well; so, I thought it would be a good thing to share, to let you know how to apply it in a real situation and how it turns out.
I was writing my pages this morning, my “Morning Pages” – one of my practices taken from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. And I found myself completely awash, all over the place. Now, this is OK; these Morning Pages are suppose to be a “dumping ground” – a way to clear the mind of all the clutter so there is room for creative insights, so we can hear the muse, right? Well, today I seemed much more scattered than usual. I drifted around and wrote about fragments of thoughts that crossed my mind. This does happen to me from time to time. I even get blocked and then just write nonsense to get through the three pages. But today I didn’t like the feeling I was getting, and then I asked:
What is this? And so it began:
What is this?
It is monkey-mind that chatters away on endless loops of to-dos, to-worries, with no to-bes.
What is this?
The complexities of modern life.
What is this?
Life in the 21st Century.
What is this?
Now.
What is this?
Breath, Singing Bowls, Sleeping Dog, Rest.
What is this?
Deep settling.
What is this?
No-thing. Stillness
And this is deep peace.
Ahhh… And from there I was able to get back to my pages and wrote a very nice final third page. It was a deep exploration of our “spinning Universe” in all of its wonder and extraordinary quantum behavior.
And then, I asked: What is this?
Life.
What is this?
Consciousness.
What is this?
Love.
What is this?
The only “thing” left at the end, at the beginning.
What is this?
Love is the Alpha and the Omega. It transcends consciousness. It births consciousness so it can reflect on Love.
What is this, this it?
Call it what you will: God/Goddess, Mother/Father, Source, Alpha/Omega, All/No-thing, Tao.
I like Tao.
Next time you get stuck give this koan a try. See what answer you get!
Union and the Echo of Time
I’ve written now of my two messages channeled by Rosemary on December 7, 2012 (review the recording here). The first came from the three “Floating Heads” who have called themselves QRS. The second came from a Native American Guide – a Feminine Guide who spoke of the Union, or Unity, of Body and Spirit. Today I explore the coincidence of these two messages and their overall meaning for me:
Of course, it is no coincidence that QRS and my Native American Goddess Guide came together on the same night this past December to offer their messages to me. What is the nexus of the messages, the integration of the two?
QRS spoke of time and the importance of pulling future strength, character, structure from the future into the now in order to create the future. Time is an echo-chamber and the resonance set up in the present reverberates through all time. The future is now, the past is now; it is all right here, only and always in this moment. There is a Union here. We come back to wholeness. As we are holographic beings of the wholeness of creation so too is the present moment a holographic instance of All Time! The All is instantaneous.
One way to conceive of this is to imagine the moment before the Big Bang. At that moment there was a single seed containing all of the potentiality of everything and every-when. This singularity was it. (And here I use the past tense loosely because it is just as valid to claim it is now and in the future!) This singularity was/is eternal. We are still living within this Eternal Singularity; we are the potential within it. This Singularity is the seed hologram of Everything and All Time.
So what?
The consciousness of this greater dimensionality of reality has broad implications to how we might choose to live our lives. It is the integrated message of QRS and my Native American Goddess Guide. As we live, love and think in this moment we affect both the past and the future and we effect them as well! QRS is nudging me along a path that is essential to their future as they are living it – both 500 years in the future and now, through the echo I am creating. And 500 years ago my ancestors sent out an echo that is me. And I speak to them through this echo-link urging them to live, love and think in such a way that I might live just so, now! And we are all One in the great Seed Singularity that is pure potential for all of this to unfold just so!
Love, gratitude and forgiveness are profound attitudes and actions that are at the core of how to live with the implications of this Union of the All across All Time. If Brian Swimme (author of “The Universe is a Green Dragon”) is correct, then it is Love that motivates the Singularity Seed, that eternal stillness that was/is Pure Potential, to sprout and bloom into the Grand Universe. With Love as the echoing motivation for the New Human, an extraordinary sense of Gratitude swells my heart and deep Forgiveness for all limits place on Self and Other (One) swells my Spirit; and we drift into a place of expanded consciousness that can only be described as Bliss – Prajna Paramita – The Heart of Perfect Wisdom.
Gate, gate, para-gate! And so it is…
PS: Happy New Year! Our regular newsletter, Rosemary’s MuseLetter, continues in publication with a new issue tomorrow. Gain insight from her so that you too may Live Your Richest Life! Subscribe today – it’s FREE! And with your subscription you receive a wonderful audio meditation.
Richard’s & Rosemary’s Divination for 2013
Hello, all! Happy New Year, 2013!
Rosemary and I have been enjoying some time with family and away from work and computers for the past few days! Thank you for that! And today, I drew a couple of cards for my daily practice and it turns out I drew the same card from the Goddess Guidance Oracle Cards by Doreen Virtue that Rosemary had drawn the day before, on December 31. Coincidence? We prefer to dismiss coincidence and rely on synchronicity!
We have chosen to share our divination for 2013 with you all. Let this be our community fortune, from the two of us:
From the Goddess Cards: Lakshmi, Bright Future: Stop worrying. Everything is going to be fine.
The only blocks to success, peace, balance, flow, are our own projections of problems, obstacles, fears into the future! Yes, indeed, project only positive aspects into the future and pull them back into the present. Stay in flow and the bright future flows to us. Stay in balance and all obstacles become gateways! Stay in Peace and the world around is a place of peace.
And, from The Crowley Tarot, The 10 of Disks: Wealth.
This card is about inner and outer balance to maintain a constant flow. As we recognize and own our inner treasures, the outer treasures will manifest. This card represents the completion of goals and the peak of Earthly happiness. By year-end our resolutions will be attained, goals achieved and material gain will be substantial.
These are the words I wrote.
We take these cards as wonderful omens for 2013! We have written often about 2012 as the year of transformation. We are in process of deep change. And with deep change come rich rewards. “It’s in the cards!”
May your 2013 be a year of rewards! May you Live Your Richest Life!
More from QRS on Time
As I wrote my “daily pages” today I thought about time, especially as 2012 runs down, the moon cycles to full and I continue to examine this construct that the “Floating Heads” – QRS from the future – are bringing to my attention. And as soon as they come to mind they begin their dictation. Here’s what they offered today:
The Full Moon is nearly upon you. Pay attention. As the moon swells it fills with all the energy for you. It is full of love energy. Take it in, breathe it in and breathe in the emotions of the Universe, including our love energy. When you draw your cards today you may want to pay close attention to them and even blog about them. Divination for the blog is a good thing and you have been neglecting that element lately.
We would speak to you today about circular time. It is a bubble-like thing, expanding. It is not unlike the expanding Universe itself, moving away from itself. Time, Space, Matter, gravity are all closely related concepts in what you have known as a unified field. It is less like unity and more like singularity. It is, at root, all one thing, all inter-related and inter-dimensional. Your Thich Nhat Hahn speaks of “inter-being.” This is the word he chooses to speak of these concepts. Time is a component of this inter-beingness. This is how the past and future inter-relate with the present; this is how they can all seem as one thing, all existent at once. This is how Rosemary can talk to dead people, see and hear historical figures, sense us and reveal us to you. She sees and hears through this singularity of time. And this is how you are writing our words which are coming to you from the future. This is how you can reach forward into the future and empower the present from what you bring back. We are repeating ourselves here to be sure you get the concepts through different metaphorical approaches.
Write about this and your cards.
And so I have…
And here are the cards I drew today. Take these as the energy of this Full Moon in Cancer.
From the “Goddess Guidance Oracle Cards” by Doreen Virtue I drew Green Tara:
And from the Crowley Tarot I drew the Princess of Wands:
Green Tara urges us to “Start Delegating – Ask others (including me) to help you instead of trying to do everything yourself.” For me this relates to community, as I wrote about in yesterday’s post. We can’t do everything ourselves, “it takes a village.” Green Tara is a helper in community building. As we move into 2013 with this full moon energy behind us we can look to community for both what we are to do, how we are to be and where we can take refuge.
The Princess of Wands is youthful, feminine energy; she is full of passion and love. She represents the young Tara and unites us all through her love energy.
These are two wonderful goddesses to take with us into this full moon time. We can use their energy and their wisdom to help us build community, the Community of 2013!
Men and The Goddess 