Fall Of The Iron Blog

Sorry all. This one seemed important and has been very heavy on my heart. It actually took me two Sundays to write. It's not meant to be entertaining. I hope that it's informative and, even more hopefully, a little uplifiting for each of you in a special way.

So many things have happened in this lifetime. Momentous, life-changing events that each of us views differently. What were you doing when you first learned they were tearing down the Berlin wall? How did you find out about the fall of communism? Did you watch on television as they tore down the statue in the square of a city previously known as Leningrad? Did you see the news reports after Reagan was shot? Did you see the live broadcasts of September 11th in 2001? Did you light a candle or pray while Pope John Paul II lay in his deathbed? Who told you that the Challenger shuttle had exploded shortly after take-off? How did it make you feel when they announced that the folks at Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL) were abandoning the multi-billion dollar Mars probe that failed shortly after landing on the red planet?

So many occasions in my thirty-seven years. There's more, much more, just on the horizon. Like the social and political changes of the last twenty-five years the next quarter century is going to be a turbulent, spiritual revolution. The time has come for spiritual awakening and I passionately believe that it's beginning to happen, right now.

Look, I know that this is a heady topic for an unusually irreverent blogger, but it's what has been on my mind during the last two weeks. It's actually been weighing very heavily on me. There are several reasons that I believe all of this so strongly.

For many of you reading this who are tied closely to the mainstream judaeo-christian organizations, like the many that I was raised in, it's this overwhelming sensation that the prophecies that were revealed to John on the Isle of Tarsis during his imprisonment there are close to fulfillment. The tribulation days of Armageddon, as displayed in the book of Revelations, are heartbreakingly tragic because the wrath of God reigns down on the entire Earth in an apocolyptic climax. Many fear God only because of the horrifying images they were "force fed" as children just like the many monster laden fairy tales used throughout history to teach children a "rational" fear of retribution if considering doing wrong. My upbringing included all of this, and more, but I'm now realizing that these "truths" have a deeper and far more loving purpose than I was told about. Luckily, I'm no longer the "milk feeding" type that I was cautioned to avoid being. The more substantial spiritual diet that I'm currently surviving on has given me a compassionate and hopeful perspective. I'm not trying to "convert" ANYONE, here. Honestly. I'll quote two verses from the new testament. The first is I Corinthians 12:14 "For the body is not one member, but many." The other is Romans 11:29 "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance." The reason that I lump those two verses together is because I believe that God is far bigger than one religion and has spoken to many divine souls throughout history. I used to be one who felt that if someone differed with my opinions and beliefs that they weren't worth my time or attentions. I now realize that everyone, from the most insignificant to the most important, has something important to say and must be allowed to voice. If I didn't believe that with every fiber of my being... I wouldn't be writing this blog. One last quote for you to digest before I go on, "And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." (John 8:32)

Recently I read a very interesting website that talked about what the Hopi Indians call the Fifth Age of Man. The Hopi believed that the Fourth Age (our current Age) ends when one of their spiritual dancers, called Kachinas, stops dancing in the center of the main plaza and removes his mask in front of the uninitiated children. This blue Kachina, called Saquasohuh, is represented by the emergence or discovery of a blue star in the heavens. They strongly believe, like many others, that the heavens and the Earth are irrevocably linked and that one mirrors the other. The Hopi sing songs during their Wuwuchim ceremony each year. According to their history a specific song prophecying the Saquasohuh and speaking of the disunity, corruption and hatred threatening the Hopi way of life spreading out into the world was sung in 1914, just before WWI, again in 1940, before the US entered WWII and again in 1961 before the beginning of the war in VietNam. The Hopi live in the American southwest and are a part of our history, our heritage.

Not by coincidence, the Hopi prophecy speaks very clearly the predictions made in many native American traditions. The ancient Shashone and on through Lakota Sioux, Cherokee, Navajo and even the isolated Inuit. The most amazing correlation is the similarities, both in timing and composition, with very ancient prophecies about the Age of Aquarius. In Egyptian philosophy the water god Hapi, who was responsible for flooding the Nile every year, was referred to as walking upon the Earth. In both Greek and Roman mythology the water gods were foretold in the stars as becoming dominant.

Okay, so people have predicted that something was going to happen. What does that mean to you and me? Part of the reason that I've been reading about these prophecies and researching this information is to find out more about something that has been happening to me on a very personal level. It's very like something that happens to me every weekday morning. My alarm clock pulls me from the unconscious to the semi-conscious but the thing that gives me the ability to face the day is when I jump in the shower and douse myself in water. Water, the purifying element, that we all depend on more than we realize. It's been such a strong message of both myth and prophecy because of the importance in our lives. Jesus changed water into wine and walked on water. Every psuedo-christian tradition baptizes a person in water to symbolize their spirtual rebirth. In The Diamond Sutras Buddha compares a person's "great awakening" to drinking a glass of pure water. Even in the Vedas the god Brahma, the Creator aspect of God, emerged from the primeval waters and brought all of the creation into existence from those waters.

In my own humble analogy, the alarm signaling that I have to get in the shower and wake up, I'm trying to say that the alarm has been sounded. In some cases, for thousands of years. The water is now upon us. The Age of Aquarius is here. People are beginning to wake up.

I challenge any of you to search the web for yourselves and find references to people having dreams about water, prophecies about torrential rains and floods, the Earth's own baptism because of global warming and the melting of the polar ice and so many other references that it's overwhelming. Personally I believe that all of it is a signal that the drought is over.

How are we waking up? Many people are breaking away from traditional teachings and seeking truth on their own. In today's world of instant access to information it's become commonplace to be able to cross reference the religious books from across time and around the globe. All I have to do is go to my favorite search engine and put in a few words to get a hundred different websites with a hundred different opinions about a hundred different religious truths. Actually, for someone like me who is a bottomless pit of curiousity it's bliss. The main reason that I mention it is that, more and more, I'm starting to see patterns in the chaos. Within the noise, the multitude of voices all speaking at once, a single message seems to be rising above all the rest.

Wake up... it's time to wake up.

Jackie has a very dear friend that she talks with from time to time. We met him because she was trying to find a source for a wonderful, and rare, chrystalline mineral called Phenakite (or Phenacite) for another close friend who has his own kinesiology practice. What she ended up finding was more than just a man who provides all kinds of gemstones and other precious minerals. She found a wonderful person who seems to be just a little bit more evolved than most. He's closely tied to the Lakota Sioux nation and their traditions. However, he just seems to know so many things about the world that can't be explained rationally but can easily be seen as true. Most of the time, that doesn't matter. The things he talks about, like love, compassion and raising the awareness of the human heart, are so basic that it makes us realize that it's not quite so much about changing the entire world as it is about accepting the fact that each of us is a part of that change. He constantly challenges Jackie, and indirectly me, that we're running out of time. His message of the need to raise the consciousness of the world before it's too late mirrors many of the things that we've discovered on our own and through others that we talk to across the internet. The world is on the verge of a colossal, spiritual change.

Sure, people have said this througout the centuries and for most it takes a measure of faith to even see the commonality in many of these things. What would make me believe that my little blog would make any difference? It doesn't. Why would I actually think that I could change things by writing all of this? I don't. So why? I'll tell you... I don't know. In my heart, all I can do is try. I wake up every morning with only one thing on my mind... surviving through the day that I'm presented with because I know there may never be another. I always loved what Theodore Seuss Geisel, known to the world as Dr. Seuss, said. "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."

Every day I try to raise my own consciousness just a little bit. I try to love those closest to me a little better. I try to love those around me that I find it hard to love. I meditate, pray and seek God and hope to learn more about every one of the divine faces that are all part of the same creator/god/goddess/universal spirit... mother, father, sister, brother, friend, enemy... every single one of them. I seek to remove my own mental, emotional and spiritual blocks and stretch myself thin so I can listen to the noise of the universe and find the music that will fill my soul and give me the ability to share that music with others.

I can't tell you what that is for each of you. Meditation, prayer, intellectual pursuits, faith, works, the fulfillment of promises, duties or other spiritual contracts you've made with the infinite you've experienced. I follow my own path and, in my limited way, I'm trying to encourage you all to do the same. My message may boil down to this, though. As our good friend says, "We're running out of time." I believe that to be true. Live each day as though tomorrow may never come and you may find that today is enough. Life has never asked more from any of us.

I wanted to end this blog with a big smile and considered making some kind of irreverent top ten. Somehow, it just doesn't seem right. Instead I'm going to provide a list of quotes to, sort of, round out this whole, long diatribe. They're each like little lotus blossoms, the most beautiful of flowers that grows from the muck and slime. Some are from the very young, some the very old but all are yet more examples that it's fitting to great each person you meet with the traditional hindu mantra/mandhu "namaste" which, literally translated, means "I recognize the divine in you." I challenge all of you to do just that, every single day and from now on. Recognize the Divine, no matter where in your life you look you'll find it.

One of my favorites from a little girl who saw hope all around her in the darkest time in human history:

"How wonderful it is that no one need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
~ Anne Frank

This one is a quote from a victim of the Columbine tragedy:

"Tomorrow is not a promise, but a chance."
~ Rachel Joy Scott

Here's a quote from a giant who lived in the body of a small, truly divine soul:

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
~ Mahatma Gandhi

The most well-known of the Christian apologetics whose great wisdom and talent was in making the complex startingly simple and personal:

"Human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and can't really get rid of it."
~ C. S. Lewis, A Case For Christianity

And finally a quote from the man I feel had the greatest mind in history coupled with the biggest heart:

"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."
~ Albert Einstein

Find the divine, people, because it's all around you... and inside of you.

Quick Teahouse Of The August Blog

This one was removed in the interests of good taste. I'm sorry, gang. I need to write more when I have a clear head.

Love to all,
The Right Rev

Revenge of Bride of Blog...

Let's see, it's August and my last blog was in February. Six months should be enough time to let the world recover.

I'M BAAAAAACK!!!

For now I'll only be blogging once a week. Sundays, to be exact. That's my day on the computer. We've gone from a three computer household to one. Yep, we're pretty bohemian around here, these days.

So, you're probably wondering what I've been doing for the last six months. I can sum it all up in one small word... Ha! No, that's not what I've been doing. That's what I say to being able to actually explain it. Of course, I'm also assuming that the insane people who read this blog are wondering what I've been doing and not breathing a collective sigh of relief that I'm sparing the world my peregrine ramblings.

I'll try to compress some of the more salient changes into a brief list.

1) The book's on terminal hold until further notice. Not enough time since I took a nine to five. That may change and very soon... more as things develop.

2) I've discovered that my faith has changed considerably since I started meditating. I've been told that questioning your faith tends to happen when you suddenly start remembering things from your past lives and discovering that you have some remarkable spiritual gifts. I'm just saying...

3) The Topaz, though not perfectly healthy, still lives. We also have a second car, now, thank you to my future in-laws who have single-handedly proven to me that parents can actually be kind, loving, supportive and even friends.

4) My health is excellent. My diet varies but I struggle even more than before because I no longer eat any kind of red meat. Only seafood and, VERY rarely, some chicken. No more eggs, either. Believe it or not, I've done things with tofu that have even surprised me.

5) Jackie and I are doing well and she and the girls are still the center of my universe. The nineteen year old moved back in with her grandmother just after she broke up with her boyfriend. The fourteen year old is still brilliant and full of life and the nine year old is still so completely amazing because she notices things that people five times her age miss completely. Jackie and I should be getting married very, very soon. Again, more as things develop...

Okay, so I can't think of anything really poignant to talk about, even though the news has been fraught with interesting topics. Let's just reunite with a top ten about my life in an apartment full of women.

The Top Ten Things I've Actually Said In The Last Six Months:

10) "Okay, loaf of white bread, cheddar cheese, vegetarian refried beans and long-super maxis with wings."

9) "Where does one find strawberry glitter gloss?"

8) "Why does my hair brush smell like the cat box?"

7) "No, I am not seeking revenge for what you did to me three lifetimes ago, I swear."

6) "For the love of God, and all that's holy, don't ask me about your outfit. I'm male, remember?!?!"

5) "So far, when I try to meditate, I've been attacked by birds, bats, roaches, cats and kids but the worst obstacle is the neighbors screaming religious epithets while having sex."

4) "Does anyone know why my underwear is in the kitchen cupboard?"

3) "You can date any boy you want, right after I scare the crap out of him."

2) "You mean all three of you just started your cycle at the same time and the world hasn't exploded? It's like a menstrual miracle."

and the number one thing I've actually said in the last six months:

1) "Will you please not dry your bra by hanging it out the window of the car!"

See you all next week!

Quote for the week:

“No one should abandon duties because he sees defects in them. Every action, every activity, is surrounded by defects as a fire is surrounded by smoke.” ~ Lord Krishna from The Bhagavad Gita