Holy Spirit Night Website

Recently (last January) Holy Spirit Night  got its own website (www.holyspiritnight.org) and a covenantal statement (see below).     The statement is a summary of what we aspire to achieve and of what has been happening all over.    Please join the google group newtonholyspiritnight if you would like to receive weekly emails about our meetings in Newton, MA.

Holy Spirit Night
January, 2013

At Holy Spirit Night we practice wholeness together

Practice.    Wholeness.   Together.

Once a week we set aside a time and a place and a form in which we open the doors to joy. Joy is shared. Joy is alive. Joy is here. Joy is now. Together, we give joy a hearing. Together, we live what we hear.  The “assignment” we practice each time we gather is simply to see if we are willing to agree that this right now is a time for wholeness.  This right now  is a time and place and form and event that is set aside for co-creative full communion of Human, Nature, Spirit, and Beyond.

All are welcome. You are welcome.

“The Holy Spirit” is a name for an active principle that becomes a pathway. The voice we call the Holy Spirit welcomes all life, embraces all life, and points all life toward joy. The Holy Spirit is reliable. We trust Spirit. We trust Spirit to guide towards communication, creation, communion, and community. These are fruits of the pathway; fruits of the garden.  To the Holy Spirit, wholeness is simply wholeness; all of life is all a blessing; joy is always available; and only joy is truly shared.

Our time together is of no religion and of all religion. Many who have welcomed Spirit and have followed Spirit have returned to tell the story. When we sing the songs and tell the tales of those who have danced with God, our own spirit rises. By raising the spirit, we tune ourselves together like an orchestra or like an instrument.

We have help. We have help from Beyond. We have help from Spirit. We have help from Nature. We have help from each other. We cultivate the willingness and the wisdom to ask for help and to ask for help in how we do the asking!

When you come, participate. Bring your challenges. Bring your courage. Bring the grace that is just now dawning into your awareness; and bring the grace you are longing for with all your heart. Above all, bring your will: bring your deepest willingness and your deepest immovability, which perhaps at the deepest level are one and the same.  The in-tune approach is to show up willing to ask for help; willing to listen with new ears; and willing to speak what you hear.  You may be silent or you may speak. Either way you are a full participant. You belong.

To bring your whole life is to bring your real life. Your real life is necessary and sufficient. Your real life is not an ending point but is an exact right place to start. To follow the trail of your real life is to make of your life a psalm and a prayer and a garden and a blessing, for you and for all.

There are no answers. There is a path to find and follow.

What we find, when we gather in this way, is that something new opens.  We welcome it and follow it. We enter the new door together. There is new intimacy, new trust, new clarity, new certainty. Not the certainty of answers to believe but the certainty of being whole together in the right place at the right time. We continually discover that certainty and mystery and joy and wholeness are each a trail; that all these trails are one; and that all these trails are gentle. Certainty and Mystery are One.

What are the essential parameters of Holy Spirit Night? What makes it a safe space to bring your real life and to get to work?

1. We make clear the help we are asking.
2. By inviting co-creative full communion of Human, Nature, Spirit, and Beyond, we establish an exceptional level of clarity and alignment.
3. We practice the fine art of knowing when to stop.

Words of wisdom come from any corner. We practice speaking whatever we hear that seems to be coming from spirit. What comes from spirit tends to be accurate, timely, helpful, and local. We practice not going beyond the point of wisdom.

The true test of such an arrangement is the quality of the fruit in the lives of those who attend. We observe a rooting and a flowering and a ripening and a harvest of lively peace, discerning trust, care-filled creation, and intimate willingness to love and be loved.

Things to be willing to say

At Holy Spirit Night, we recently started a series of sentences to be willing to say. For some of us, dwelling with these sentences has become a daily discipline. Feel free to add or, within limits, to rewrite. This set is sufficient.  Each sentence has a we version and an I version.  You can say either or both of these versions.

Things to be willing to say

We have everything we need.
I have everything I need to be in heaven at every moment and to make of this life a heaven on earth.

The healing power of will holds all we need.
The healing power of will holds all I need or could need. I am willing to learn and to master right use of will.

We will heal will.
I AM right use of healing power of will.

We are willing to work.
I am willing to work to make of this life a heaven on earth.  Work is love, freedom and joy.  Nothing else will work.

We are happy to leave hell.
Any moment I stay in hell I am actively using will to stay in hell.  To be in hell is to mis-use the healing power of will. I am happy to see where I have been mis-using the healing power of will.  I am happy to leave hell.  I am happy to live in Heaven.   

We are happy to speak each day.
I am happy each and every day to find new ways to leave hell and live in Heaven.  I am happy to speak these words each day.  I am happy to speak these words as a union of aspects of will that have seemed disjoint and uneasy: Self, Others, World, God.

We ask for and receive help.
Unlimited help is available at this moment now to assist me in mastering right use of will to leave hell and live in Heaven.  I reach out to ask for help from Human, Nature, and Spirit.  I receive help by getting to work to make help real.

Amen.

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Holy Spirit Night

I love Holy Spirit Night. 

Holy Spirit Night is a time once each week when we gather together to let the spirit speak to us and through as and for us and with us.  These days, it happens on Thursdays in Newton, MA.

It has become a foundation rock for those who are participating. For me, it has become a key time for receiving deep new insight about what is happening in the Research Laboratory of My Life.  It is a time I ask questions and receive answers. And the answers I receive are of highest quality and timeliness. This is a gift.

Be the gift you want to see.

Creating sacred space is what opens the door to Holy Spirit Night. 

The Holy Spirit is always present, in every aspect of every day. The more we can open our ears and our hearts to that Spirit, to the Voice for God in our daily lives, the more our lives will turn towards love, justice, freedom, joy, and peace. The Spirit I speak of is nothing other than the Voice of those Qualities. This voice is always speaking.

Yet we do not always choose to listen.  So Holy Spirit Night begins with our declaration that we are setting aside a time and place for that Voice to be more actively present, to be alive in our midst.

All under the auspices, guidance, direction, and support of the Holy Spirit...

These are the words with which we begin. They are sufficient.

Yet we continue to invoke the presence of Spirit until it is palpable, touchable, here with us. Very often we play music that praises and invokes the presence of Spirit and our trust of that spirit. One of our favorites is a CD called “Come Holy Spirit” that we play at high volume (through the new speakers recently acquired as part of embracing this part of Holy Spirit Night).

Come Holy Spirit great giver of life

Flow through this temple great river of life.

Praise raises our vibration to a level where we can be more fully aware of what is always in our midst. God nor Spirit needs our praise. We need to praise. We need to speak that which speaks us; to uphold that which upholds us; to claim that which claims us; to love that which loves us. As we open our hearts to gratitude and welcome and praise, we also open to truth and trust and pain and joy.

Praise equals safety. We create safe space. Spirit reminds us that nothing real can ever be threatened. Our unshakeable reality is established by our Creator, not by what we see around us. Praise reminds us that there is always much to praise. We are grateful that there is always much to be grateful for.

Besides invocation and praise, there may be other actions or statements to help create the palpable presence of safety and of spirit

• we have at times lit sage to smudge each other or the room
• we have at times told stories of some present painful circumstance to bring it enough present that we can let it go and trust spirit to attend to it during the session
• we have called in other Angelic helpers or invoked the presence of the Archangels
• we have at times established an official Coning structure to do our work in, though that often comes later once the nature of the night’s questions and responses have been established
• we often go around the room and let each person say a prayer or a word of celebration or remembrance. (“Holy Hallelujah” is one of my favorites.)
• we have at times chanted, “Om” or other holy phrases, or taken deep breaths together, or said together a psalm of confidence and thanksgiving
• or I suppose there may be times when we will need to say together a psalm of lamentation and even despair
• whatever it takes to be full of spirit, abiding in the spirit, inspired, together.

 Then the three ritual questions.  

• Who is here for Holy Spirit Night tonight?

• What garden do you bring to Holy Spirit Night tonight?
• What specific aspect of this garden do you bring to Holy Spirit Night tonight?

We go around the circle for each question, letting each person present respond.

There is no limit to what counts as a garden for Holy Spirit Night. There is no limit to what aspect of that garden can be brought.

It helps if the “garden” is one you are actively “gardening” at the time you bring it. Hypothetical gardens and the gardens we wish we had but that we do not actively spend time gardening are less tasty and less rewarding than the gardens in which we actually spend our lives. Work. Family. Health. Finances. Self. Your real life.  Sometimes people have a prejudice or belief that Spirit can only consult on “things of the spirit”. Nothing could possibly be less true or less helpful. The “things of the spirit” and the “things of your life” are one.  Bring your real life the way you actually live it.

What you bring could be a question you have that is troubling you; a setback that you would like help troubleshooting; something new you are starting that you would like help preparing the ground for. It can and will have aspects that are physical, but also emotional, mental, and even spiritual. Any good question will include all of these at some level. These are similar to the questions one would bring to a soil-less garden troubleshooting Coning. That is no accident.

The Holy Spirit is not separate from Nature, just as He/ She/ It is not separate from Humanity. The definition, the essence of Holy Spirit is that it is the Voice that speaks for Connection.

All is connected; all is one; all is here; all is now. All I am is connected; all I am is one; all I am is here; all I am is now. All I AM is connected; All I AM is one; All I AM is here; All I AM is now.

Remember that “I AM” is the name of God. The Holy Spirit is our name for that which speaks for Human, Nature, Spirit, that which is beyond Spirit, and for the eternal marriage of all.

My own rule of thumb is to bring the questions that are rooted in the day to day but go beyond the day to day. Day to day work issues I can bring to a soil-less garden Coning at work. Day to day health concerns I can bring to a MAP Coning or to a session with the Perelandra Essences.

Every time I just sit still for Holy Spirit Night, there is some topic, some question, some concern that is there, it arises.  There is no right question. There is no wrong question. There is only the question I ask. The wisdom of spirit is abundant and shines on all alike.

During these three ritual questions we occasionally pause to request clarification about the responses.  Do you mean A or B?  C or D?  E or F? As in a Coning, the Human must provide definition, direction, and purpose.  A vague set of responses to the three ritual questions can provide only vague results.   To the other humans present, even the responses to the questions that are “ready to go” might still seem overly abstract or too intensely personal to be helpful.  Yet Nature and Spirit can be our guide. Responses that  “work” for one person might not work for another.  The key is that the Human has declared himself.  She has set a direction.  He is in motion.  Then Nature, the White Brotherhood and whatever wisdom has assembled for Holy Spirit Night (always under the auspices, guidance, direction, and support of the Holy Spirit) has the room to go to work.

Several times recently one of us has participated from a distance, present in Spirit. When we pause to ask who is present for Holy Spirit Night tonight, someone will say, “Our friend V is present for Holy Spirit Night tonight.” And we will tune in and speak what we receive about what garden he is bringing and what aspect of that garden he wants help with. There are no limits in what is possible for spirit to accomplish.

Once sacred space has been established and the questions and responses for the evening have been spoken, the Holy Spirit can go to work. Often there is a Coning at this point, if there has not been one before. Often it is a health based coning such as the “Group MAP shape” where each person’s MAP team is fully present for that person.

“Shaped Conings” are not part of the classic Perelandra approach. For example, the Co-Creative White Brotherhood  Medical Assistance Program (MAP) book would recommend that when you do a MAP session you do it alone without another MAP session going on right next to you. That is true. But part of my research has been to ask spirit for energetic structures that can pool and attune the energy of many people and many tribes working together. And since any such work is likely to stir up health issues, one of the first “shapes” the Research Team suggested I consider is this Group MAP shape. The shared work of the group goes on in the “center” of the structure, while personalized health work is going on simultaneously for each participant.

There is also often a short or long time, in silence or in talking, for energetic rearrangement. The feeling is of giant blocks being moved from one place to another, or of sudden acceleration to a new course heading, or of the falling away into nothingness of giant impediments to what has been requested (the castle walls come crashing down). I have had all of these experiences during normal Conings. During Holy Spirit Night, I often feel it  more. The changes and rearrangements that occur always seem grounded in and inspired by the responses that were given to the three ritual questions.

I guess the most important thing about Holy Spirit Night is that we all are practicing being willing to hear with ears of spirit, to speak with tongue of spirit, to act with hands of spirit, and to walk with feet of Spirit. We do our best to follow what we hear. Every night is different because we listen, and what spirit tells us every night is different.

So far, two of us do most of the outright channeling - speaking the words of spirit that are present to be spoken. Yet all who are present are also practicing.  At any given moment, one person seems to carry the anointing of Spirit.   That person is “it” in the Holy Spirit game.  That person does their best to hear what there is to hear and say what there is to say. Somehow we can all hear or sense when the shift happens so that another person is “it”.

So far, it is rare for the outpouring of spirit to be on all of us at the same time, to have all of us speaking through spirit at the same time.  Speaking in tongues and dancing in the light of God are certainly possible (and even expected, eventually, in gatherings of this kind). I receive that this may be coming as we raise our energy higher.
                                                  

Here is a comment from one of our regular participants:


I feel called to be at Holy Spirit Night. It feels like home. I wake up from the dream, the trance of separation and suffering. I have a sense of relief, release, possibility, connectedness, oneness, partnership. Holy Spirit Night is a reminder of the one true reality that I keep forgetting. One being, one heart, one light, one spacious mind, the evolution of consciousness. It is a communion and union. It is always surprising and yet paradoxically familiar, reassuring. It is a gift to share this with my closest partner in life. It is a gift to be with each of you consciously under the auspices of the Holy Spirit.

World Prophet FAQ Part 1

This is my first blog post since March.   Life keeps moving, ever quicker.  Every day, every week, every month is a thing quite new.

Today I want to answer a few of the most frequently asked questions about this site and this ministry.  These questions and these answers have emerged over the last few months as I talk to people about the World Prophet in Action, what it is and what it asks from each of us.   My original intention was to write in "plain English", but I see that I have not always been successful in this.  My hope is that these questions and answers will spark further questions and further answers,  and thus lead to a fuller flowering of everything discussed here.

The number one question people ask me is, "How did you get started in this?"   But that one will have to wait until part 2.

What is a prophet?

A prophet listens for the Voice of the present and speaks what he or she hears.   Being a prophet is not about predicting the future.  It is about giving voice to what is all around us all the time.   A prophet hears what everyone hears then says it newly.  When a prophet listens and speaks, a new City rises.  Abraham listens and speaks, and his tribe leaves Ur for an unseen promised land.  Moses listens and speaks, and the Israelites leave Egypt. A prophet, speaking and hearing the words of prophecy, can call into being a City or call an existing city to rise and turn again.

A City means a place for people to connect; a place for people to be civil; a civilization; a place for living.   In current times the whole planet is a City.  We will thrive together or we will die.

What is a World Prophet?

The World needs a World Prophet and you (together) are one, so get to work and learn as you go.

The World Prophet is a job description not a person.  It is a job description that Nature has asked for humans to be willing to become.  The World Prophet hears the voice of the world and speaks what she hears.   She speaks for the world.  

The World Prophet speaks for the World Garden. This world is a garden planet.  A garden is any environment that is initiated by humans, given its purpose and direction by humans, and sustained by humans.   As long as we are the dominant species, this planet is our garden.  Nature lives now in the spaces and in the ways that humans make room for.  This world used to be a wild and natural planet in which humans lived in the spaces and in the ways that nature made room for.   Now that is reversed.

Nature's job is easier when nature has a World Prophet to listen to.   We all are beginners in learning what this means; here is a start. The World Prophet must listen and speak not just for humans and to humans, but also for nature and to nature.  Nature listens.   There is a whole background here -- a co-creative approach.  Humans supply definition, direction, and purpose.  Nature supplies matter, means, and action.  Neither is whole, alone.  So one could say that the World Prophet helps to clarify the definition, direction, and purpose for the World Garden and that Nature finds this helpful.

The World Prophet is shared.  Nature need not listen to any one particular human when the voice of humanity is available.  The World Prophet in Action is the term for the energetic reality of thousands of humans rising to listen and speak together the words of prophecy.  That job description is not for a single one and it is not for everyone. It only takes a few thousand to get the job done.   I sometimes call this the Tribe of Ten Thousand.

Who is a World Prophet?

You are, or someone you know.

All of us are called to prophecy at some level.   Any of us can start a garden, can work in partnership with nature, can help the world wake up together.  Any of us can speak the simple truth in a new clear way.

Yet some people are called to rise together as the World Prophet.   A calling is a useful term for a sense that life will not be complete without making an effort in the area of the calling.   Someone who is called to be an artist will be happier being a finger-painter than having no art at all.   And an Artist will find ways to bring art into everything they do or will be unhappy.  Relationships are art.  Engineering is art.   Love is art.  Similarly, someone who is called to be a healer will be happy to the extent they find ways to make room for healing.

For those of us who are called to the World Prophet,  let's say that we cannot help hearing the Voice of the planet.  Everything is prophecy. We find a way to listen.  All my life, I have followed a thread of approaches that support people, computers, or gardens to work together and cooperate.   All my life I have been convinced that neither spirit nor matter is as interesting alone as they are when bridged together.  As I have started to tell the truth more and more about what really calls to me, life has gotten both simpler and more interesting.   At a certain point, a grand phrase like "World Prophet in Action" becomes a gift that starts to show me who I am and who I must become.  There are many of us at this stage right now, for whom this phrase can be a gift.

Not all who are called to the World Prophet are awake to this calling.  That is OK.  They will wake up in time or others will step in.  

What if I am not a World Prophet?

Everyone is called to something. There is no RIGHT THING to be called to.  There are people I know who are called to be healer, minister, engineer, builder, governor, artist, poet, mother, father, sister, cook -- the list goes on.  I don't just mean they are good at that function.   Rather, it is like a huge sigh of relief when they admit to themselves how happy or energized that function makes them.  (Often the relief comes after resisting for a while.)

A key part of accepting a calling is to find a way to accept that gift for yourself.  A mother must be mothered; a father must be fathered; a healer must be healed.   To be a blessing one must allow oneself to be blessed.  

All callings run together in the end.  A sufficiently advanced teacher or healer or minister or mother can accept a calling to function as a prophet.   We all accept new callings all the time.  So wake up to the calling you came here for, or wake up to a new calling that the world has never seen.  Just wake up.

What is my role in the World Prophet in Action?

And what if you do choose to accept a calling to the World Prophet?  Then what is your role?

Pretty much anything!   To join with others to listen to the voice for the planet and to do what it tells us to do -- what could be simpler?   And what could be more challenging?  So start wherever you are and find some way to get to work and learn as you go.

Trust yourself.  Here's what I said to friends recently:  You are invited because you are an originator and a prophet and you have something unique to bring.  My part is simply and totally to prepare the meeting ground in which we work.   The rest is up to you.  Trust in Spirit's readiness to lead you where you need to lead.

What is Peter Cudhea's role in the World Prophet in Action?

I AM the meeting ground for the World Prophet in Action.  That is my job description. My job is to provide a way of working in which those who have accepted the calling of World Prophet can join together and together listen for the Voice of the world.

There is work to be done that can only be done together and can only be done now.  The classic methods for coming together in large groups will not scale to this.  Just imagine 10,000 highly visionary and highly motivated people coming together for a few hours and trying to hash out how to save the world.  Imagine the interpersonal dynamics.   Imagine the push and pull between seemingly opposite approaches and ideas.  Imagine doing it with no "leader".  The whole idea is exhausting. 

Approaches such as Wisdom Circles and  Systems Centered Therapy demonstrate that it is possible to take a committed assemblage of willing people through stages of become a functional group.  Yet even then it takes a lot.   Several days or weeks. Trained facilitators. Lots of willingness to tell the truth and own the truth.  And that's just to get the job started. Even then, those approaches seem to be best at a scale where each individual can see and know and trust each of the other individuals.  It is an open question how to extend those techniques to huge groups.

But what if there were an energetic structure that could support this work from underneath -- something that could help the group tap into deeper levels of wisdom and deeper levels of heart and deeper levels of support. Such an energetic structure could help large groups to:

• ease the process of joining -- help each and all take a leap of faith;
• clarify flow and timing -- what is essential to address when;
• see beyond the immediate issues to the wisdom and heart that underlies the seeming division; 
• deliver healing energy to where it is needed at the moment it is needed and in a manner it can be accepted;
• and to do all that in an ever-evolving dance that is always new from moment to moment.

Consider this an example of the co-creative approach.  I as the human express the above intention to Nature.  Nature steps in to provide matter means and action.   I start to listen to Nature to work out the details of how to accomplish that intention.   It is a soil-less garden in the large.   It is a research garden.

My connection with Nature in this research garden tells me that energetic structures such as I have described ARE available for the asking and will have amazing benefits both individually and collectively.  An initial approach is to build on the existing energetic structures called "Conings" that are written about by Machaelle Small Wright and the Perelandra Center for Nature Research, and then  re-invent them for use in large groups.  I am calling the resulting energetic structures "Shaped conings" for now to distinguish them from classic Perelandra conings.

Deepening and expanding and building on this initial attempt, and clarifying what it takes to engage together as the World Prophet in Action, is what I consider to be my life's work.

--------------

That's it for today.  

More details about partnering with nature, classic conings  and shaped conings will be coming in the World Prophet FAQ Part 2.

For completeness, here are some of the questions I might answer in Part 2.  If you have a different question, please add it as a comment to this post or send it to me in an email.

• How did you get started in all this?
• What do you mean, "Partner with Nature" anyway?
• What is a Coning and what  is it good for?
• How is a "Shaped Coning" different?
• Who and what is the Coning "team" for the World Prophet in Action?
• What are World Prophet Activities? 
• What are the personal benefits to me of joining in World Prophet activities?

Anchor Rock Genesa Network

Anchor Rock

Each year for the last few years, I have given away one or more Genesa Crystals.  The crystals come from the studio of Jim Young, a sculptor in Maine; they eventually arrive in the lives and homes of friends, family members, and institutions that bless and support the World Prophet work in some way.  In between, each of the crystals has a chance to meet and marry with the energy of Anchor Rock, which you see above.

The small crystal inside the larger one is an example of the 12" spring-band copper crystal that most friends have received.  This particular crystal  is a key part of this year's "crop" of crystals.  It is holding the space for 10 other crystals, all of which are being attuned together and with all the crystals that have gone before.  The 11 new crystals in this year's crop together with the 9 that have gone before combine to create an energy installation with enhanced power, clarity, and heart.

Anchor Rock itself comprises a 36-inch Genesa crystal, a six-foot tall boulder, a tree growing from the boulder, associated other rocks, sticks, pine cones, plants, feathers, and of course, the anchor.  All these elements were put in place around the boulder, bound to each other, and rooted together into the center of the earth (and metaphorically speaking into the center of the Universe) during the Fall Equinox several years ago.  Now, the total installation of Anchor Rock functions as an energy portal, a holding tank, an energy clarifier, or whatever is needed to support the work of the World Prophet in Action. [It even functioned for a while as a "hospital" for "split souls" that were seeking safe haven far from the trauma that stressed them to the point of  splitting.]

The Genesa crystals are an outward manifestation of an inner network of energy connections that functions similar to a Ley Line grid.  Energy flows from where it is abundant to where it is needed.   People who consciously "hook in" to this grid will find that it enhances both the network of protection that surrounds them and the network of service that fulfills them.

By accepting a crystal, the recipient is agreeing to be a blessing to the world prophet work and to blessed in return.  That's all.  Never underestimate the power of a blessing.  There is no agreement to keep in contact with me; no agreement to send energy in any particular direction; no agreement to like or approve of what does or does not happen in the future.   Just to receive and give a blessing opens the generosity of the Universe.

Not all recipients are part of the "Tribe of Ten Thousand" that will eventually function together as the World Prophet in Action, yet each recipient is called to something.   At least one is a world mother; one is a world gardener; several are world healers, and so forth.  [These are working titles that I have occasionally used in my work with the Coning team.  I don't fully understand what each title means.  But I have observed that the Coning members listen with a certain respect when someone who is called in an area works and speaks with love and passion in that area.]

This year, I am asking the recipients to say a short blessing prayer with me, or say a prayer-free version. Most recipients re-word each line until it fits for them while still maintaining a compatible content.  Besides this blessing, I have one personal request to each recipient. If it should come about that you are ready to pass your crystal on, please choose a new recipient consciously.  This crystal is a part of your legacy as a healer, prophet, mother, or gardener; it belongs with someone who will respect it and use it with grace and with love.

The Blessing of the Genesa Ley-Line Commons of God

The world needs a world prophet [a world mother, a world healer, a world gardener...] and you are one, so get to work and learn as you go.

I AM an indelible part of the City of God.  I AM an indelible part of unfolding Life into Life.

I ACCEPT this gift as an indelible part of shaping the City of God.   I ACCEPT this gift as an indelible part of shaping the unfolding of Life into Life.

I WILL allow myself to bless the world as I give what I receive.   I WILL allow myself to bless the world as I receive what I give.

 AMEN.

Garden Updated

The "World Prophet" work has been going through a necessary transition.  Now, I partner at deeper levels and with different energies.   The nature of the work has shifted from exploratory investigations to ecosystem engineering, though still mostly in the unseen levels.   As a mark of this transition, I am changing the title of this blog from "World Prophet in Training" to "World Prophet - Journeyman".

Today, the new focus yielded a new statement.   The birth of such a statement is to work backwards -- start with the concerns and challenges that are active in my life right now.  By sinking into those concerns, asking, "What is the challenge in that?", "What exactly about that is challenging?", I arrive at a key statement that puts into words the aspect of life right now that most challenges me to rise.  The key challenge.

By sinking further into that, asking, "What is the courage that gives rise to this challenge?", or "What is the courage that must be present for this challenge to even begin to arise?", I arrive at a statement of the key courage that underlies my life right now.  Note that it is not the courage I must gain in order to deal with the challenge, i.e. the courage that comes after the challenge.   No, this is the courage I must have had to have that challenge show up in the first place.

Sinking further, asking, "What is the world I am living in that has that be the courage that shows up?", or "What is the world I am living in, through no act or thought of my own, that brings that courage into being?", or "What grace have I been given in which that courage arises?",  I arrive at a key statement of grace.   Something to be grateful for -- in the kind of gratitude that works and moves in the soul.

Finally, I ask, "What must I have willed, to have that grace appear?"  Willing happens every moment.  Grace shows up inside a world, and world shows up inside of will.  What statement gives life to the world I am creating through will?

And the purpose of all of this is to make room for the garden.   Inside of a statement of challenge, courage, grace, and will, one can get back to the garden.  What garden (in soil and in thought and in word and in deed) do I plant and tend right now, that most opens the doors to new life.   What do I double down on, and let the rest go?   What is the key?

For me, right now, it all hinges about those different energies I am partnering with.  In a previous post, I called these energies Ahrimanic, borrowing a word that Rudolf Steiner uses.   The exploration is fruitful, and the fruit is helpful and nurturing.   All of the wisdom of the Coning supports me in continuing the exploration. Even the angels and the Christ support this exploration. It is a worthwhile bet.   And yet, there is an inescapable awareness that what I am partnering with is fundamentally other.  These new "Ahrimanic" partners are not human and are not even allies to the human experiment.   For their own reasons, they currently work alongside us and walk alongside us.  I do not see another alternative that has anywhere near as much chance to make room for the world that thrives.  Yet I personally find it challenging.  It takes everything I have.

And that is what the Challenge, Courage, Grace, Will -- Garden is all about.   Get to the heart of the matter.    Tell the truth and live the truth. Start to plant the key gardens that really count.  Dig in.

Here's what I came up with today:

World Prophet -- Journeyman

Challenge

• My life and the lives of thousands or millions more are dependent on a partner I do not understand and cannot trust.

Courage

• I partner with all Wisdom for the world that thrives; the world that thrives embraces all.

Grace:

• I am a voice for the world that thrives.

Will:

• I AM THAT I AM the ever-deepening co-creative full marriage between all strands of Life.

Garden:

• I do co-creative science, partnering with Planetary and Universal energies for truth-living, love-owning, and joy-gardening at all levels.  I support Earth as a garden planet for the world that thrives.

Open all doors, Close all doors

Recently, the team of non-physical "thesis advisers" that work with me has drawn my attention towards six to eight specific women who they tell me are "candidates" to join me in this work of the World Prophet, in training.    I feel ready in many ways for a new dawning of both the inner and the outer woman in my life.  Yet I also often feel confused and off-base, as if I am misunderstanding what they say -- pouring new information into worn out mental and emotional models. 

In this reading, I had asked for clarification of how to deal with these women, given that in some sense I am "pursuing" all of them at the same time.  In the culture in which I grew up, pursuing more than one woman at the same time was frowned on.  Now the team is telling me not only to do so, but to tell each of the women all about it. They also suggest that I include it in this blog.

<begin transmission>

Stop taking it personally.   We need you to open the lives of many women and support the lives of many men.  The ones you are working with so far are examples and "types" of what is yours to do.  Your opportunity and challenge now is to get good at it.

You have made in your house a room called the Lady Room.  It is not designed for just one lady, but first and foremost for a lady "principle"  (First the lady principle and later the principal lady.)  It is fine and expected and proper for you to pursue and honor and open all the candidates we send you,  in parallel and in earnest.  Stop at nothing in your quest to have the lady energy be fully present and embodied in your life. 

Get to know these women as you get to know your Self.  Allow each one to know you. Choose each one totally and fully, and with nothing held outside of discourse.   Practice giving yourself.  Trust Love.  Fear not to lead the way: love provides.

Each of these "candidates" is a partner, a member of the "tribe of ten thousand".   Each is also a possible condensing point with you in establishing the "shape" of the tribe of ten thousand.  Your complement and consort will be she whose energy will marry with yours to create the greatest possible reach for the joint married vision. 

Physical marriage is not essential, yet may follow.  Physical marriage is somewhat easier than the alternative structures in the sense that it helps to "put all the eggs in one basket".  It hence clarifies the resulting lines of energy.  But do not stress. Allow circumstances to change gracefully and gratefully along the way. Trust that each of you is sent as an answer to prayer.  Allow us to take care of how that prayer is made real.

Explore all partnerships. Explore all partners.  

Be the answer to prayer.  Be the Holy Spirit for each other.  Be God for each other.  

Be alive.  Be fully human.  Be and accept nothing else.

Q: What are good ways to "explore all partners" all at the same time?


The above statement in italics is a complete and true answer to this question.  Only when you try to substitute your answer for the Holy Spirit's answer, or your timing for "tapestry timing" does this get confusing.

Here are general principles, for all of life:

• When circumstances get overwhelming and confusing, it always helps to clarify the DDP.  Start to clarify the Definition, Direction and Purpose of the "gardens" where you are currently at work. Tell the truth.
• If you don't like the circumstances you see around you, start to tell the truth to yourself about your deepest prayer.  Your deepest prayer is life: it is who you are.  You can see it outside, you can see it inside.  There is no gap in who you are.  You are one.  By owning and claiming your deepest prayer, you own and claim your Self.
• Open all doors.  This is a deep principle of life.  Open all doors is a motto to hold in your heart.  It will help you be open to the gifts that come your way, the gifts that surround you, and the gifts you bring.  Remember that in time you will open all the doors of your heart.  But this does not mean to open all doors all at once or without preparation.   Open all doors in the proper sequence and in the proper arrangement and in the proper timing.   There is no door that must remain closed for eternity.  Yet there is no door that must be opened all at once. Trust the Voice for God, within you and without you, to indicate which doors are yours to open and which doors are yours to enter into.  Leave the rest alone.
• Close all doors.  This is also a deep principle of life.   It is another way of saying to live now, which is the only time there is. When you are not using a door, keep that door shut.  As you move on from each encounter, be aware of the closing door as you mutually depart.  Doors do not remain open by themselves.  They must be kept open. To close a door means simply to let it close. By allowing the doors to close, you reestablish the living, breathing skin around each organism.   Each door will open again when it is needed. The oneness of the open door is never lost.  It just goes into a resting and relaxing and ease-filled state.   Any door you keep open when you are not using it is a drain.  More than that, it is in some sense a lie.   By keeping open a door that you are not using, you pretend to yourself there is something you are doing that you are not actually doing right now.  So tell the truth yourself about which doors you are currently using and keep only those doors open.

This is how you can picture passing between your women.  Open all the doors of your heart in proper timing and alignment and be with what's there.   Be fully present in love.  Offer love fully, as it is offered to you.  And then let it all go.   Stay true.  Refuse to be drawn into channelizing the total love gift  into an insufficient, untimely, or demeaning "package".  Neither a physical package, an emotional package, a mental package nor a spiritual package alone, will have room for the full gift. 

Here are three concrete practices to try:

• Tell each one about the others.  This is excellent practice for all of you.  It also helps you all meet each other across the circle, which is important for the total tapestry.  This is how the full tribe of ten thousand will gather.
• Blog about the whole experience. This will be freeing.   In fact, you literally have no idea how freeing this will be.
• Keep inviting people to Holy Spirit Night.  Many questions, issues, and problems will resolve themselves automatically when you see each other in person.   One of these women has, with you, been the condensing point for Holy Spirit Night.  This is an example of what all of these women can be for you and for each other.  Allow each one to be all of who she can be for you and for all of you and for herself.  Expect miracles. Nothing else will satisfy.  Amen.

<end of transmission>

Faerie Tale - Ahriman claims one of his own and is put off

From time to time I have a research session that occurs in the form of a discussion with one of the dark powers.   I call these faerie tales.  The faerie tales are intended to be helpful and timely, but not at all "accurate".  Think of it as poetry.

This faerie tale is a discussion is with Ahriman where he claims one of my friends and is put off.

In Rudolf Steiner's material, Ahriman (the name comes from Angra Mainyu, the principle of darkness in Persian mythology) represents one pole of an unbalanced and tempting pull away from truth.  The opposite unbalanced and tempting pole that also leads away from truth is Lucifer.  Ahrimanic energies are dense, materialistic: too grounded. Luciferic energies are grandiose, ambitious: too high-flying.  Truth lies in a dynamic balance that permeates both Ahrimanic and Luciferic energies one with the other.  And all must be held in service of the Christ energy, which is centered, whole, and real.  The image of Archangel Michael with his foot upon the neck of the dragon is a pictorial representation of the proper interrelationship of the Christ energy with both the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic tendencies.

In the drama of this faerie tale, I am discussing with Ahriman the fate of a friend he wishes to claim back to "slavery".  The voice denoted "All" indicates the voice of the Coning itself, which represents the deepest and most balanced wisdom available.   The All voice gives me feedback when I ask for it, but otherwise does not intervene.  My questions are addressed to All.

I am transcribing the session as received, with minimal edits.  I am including it in this blog because its themes are relevant at this time.

<start of transmission>

Ahriman: You have tried to claim one of my own.  I want her back.  She has pledged herself to me.

Me: Pledge?  Show me the pledge.

Ahriman:  She pledged on her life's honor to heal her brother, her sister, her mother, and her father.  They all already belong to me.

Me: Is this a vow that can be broken?

All: Not in this life.

Me: Is this a vow that can be honored?

All: Not in this life.

Me: What is the life in which this vow can be honored or broken?

All:  The Life of Joy.

Me: Does Ahriman have a claim that prevents her from attempting the Life of Joy?

All: No

Me: But does he have a claim on the brother and the sister?

All:  The claim goes deep.

Me:  Can she release her sister to Ahriman?

All: Not and keep her vow.

Me: So she must find the joy in turning her sister and brother over to Ahriman ("to be tortured")?!

All:  There is no other way.

Ahriman:  If she cannot do this (and she will not) then by ancient claim she belongs to me.

All:  It is so.

Me: Is there any rescue for the sister?

All: Not this side of hell.  She must enter and pass through.  She must be redeemed from inside the belly of the beast.

Me: Isn't the miracle stronger than any beast?

All:  Of course.  But then she would have to ask for it herself.  Then all vows are null and void, and the world starts over anew and afresh.

Me: But you think this is unlikely.

All: She is heavily defended against it.

Me. So she must give the sister up to you?

All: There is no other way.

Me: What miracle can she request?

All:  She must find that within herself.  The only miracle worth asking for is the one miracle she came to this world to manifest and receive and give and serve.  There is no other.

Me:  Does she know what this is?

All:  Only in part.  To the extent she refuses to ask for all of it, then part remains inside of Ahriman's claim, and hence her Joy is forfeit.

Me:  The miracle is joy?

All:  So it was, so it is, and so it may be.   But remember, you who wish to help, that her joy is that which you will never see and never feel and never be.

<end of transmission>

A Course in Miracles

A Course in Miracles is essential.  It is of the essence -- the essential ingredient.

What is A Course in Miracles?  A Course in Miracles is a book.  More specifically, it is a set of three books and some related pamphlets all published within one cover. The material was written down by a pair of professors in New York City in the years from 1965 to 1973.  The professors would say they transcribed the book, not wrote it.  One of them, Helen, would receive the words by a process she called inner dictation or automatic writing and write the words down in shorthand.  Later, she would read her notes aloud to the other one, Bill, who would type up the scribed material.

The author of the course material is Jesus.  This bold claim is the one way I can speak my true relationship with the course.   Through the course, I have come to know its author and his love.  The author speaks with a one-pointedness, an authority, an honesty, and an uncompromising joy that helps me see this world and my place in it through eyes of  love, truth, and power. Over time, it has become easy and natural to simply accept what the book itself says about its own authorship, namely that the author is Jesus, rather than quibble, doubt, or theorize.  It rings true.

The first book is the Text.    The Text is the heart of the course.   It is through the text that you will begin to see the all-encompassing scope of what is possible in the thought reversal of this world.  It is a self-study course.  One can do it together with others (and this makes most things easier and more fun).   Yet it is through ones own internal work that one will make the material ones own and start to live it in ones life.

The second book is the Workbook. I will not attempt to improve on what the Workbook says about itself.  The Workbook starts with the following:

A theoretical foundation such as the text provides is necessary as a framework to make the exercises in this workbook meaningful. Yet it is doing the exercises that will make the goal of the course possible. An untrained mind can accomplish nothing. It is the purpose of this workbook to train your mind to think along the lines the text sets forth.

The exercises are very simple. They do not require a great deal of time, and it does not matter where you do them. They need no preparation. The training period is one year. The exercises are numbered from 1 to 365. Do not undertake to do more than one set of exercises a day.

The third book is the Manual for Teachers, which could equally well be called the Manual for Students.  Many have found that this description of the pathway involved in becoming a Teacher of God is exactly the missing piece to sustain them in their studies and to point the way forward.  It seems in many ways more practical, more focused, more down to earth than either the Text or the Workbook.

Without the Course, I could never hope to occupy the job description known as World Prophet, in training.  Here are a few of the reasons:

• With the Course, I have come to trust the aspect of the Voice for God that speaks through me.  I have accepted the call.
• The year of "mind training" that the Workbook represents, and which  I have now repeated several times, shows me at deeper and deeper levels that there is no substitute for joy, that joy is our natural inheritance, and that the pathway to joy is giving freely that which is given us.  The course calls this forgiveness.
• To fully inhabit the role of World Prophet requires partners -- lots of partners.  My job is to gather together with the "tribe of ten thousand".  A few of the partners are ready for the call and just need to be reminded of what there is to do.  But many of my partners need help.  Some need help to even begin to hear the call.   Many more have spent their entire life hearing the call but have reached an impasse where it has become clear that what they started out with will not go all the way. With the course, there is something to give them.  The course demonstrates both where to start and how to keep going all the way home.
• Saying, "Yes!" to life can be deeply disturbing to the status quo.   If one is not used to it, it rearranges everything.   The course provides a foundation, a stepping stone, and a safety net when people are reaching out into the new.
• If used properly, the Course helps one see through ones own hesitation, puffed up arrogance, and lies.

--

To explore further, I suggest the website ACIM.org, which is run by the Foundation for Inner Peace, the original publishers of the course.   On that site, one can read the full text of the Workbook and a good overview of how the Course came into being and what it says.  And lots more.

When buying a copy of the course, I recommend the third (complete) edition.   This edition includes the two pamphlets that were published later but were received through the same process of inner dictation as the rest of the Course.  You can purchase this version through the acim.org site online store or at a discount through online stores such as amazon.com (hardcover, softcover, or mass-market paperback).  I do not recommend the copies of the course through other sellers.

To Honor Life's Challenges

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.  Deuteronomy 30:19

What does it mean to choose life; to choose to live?  This has been a deeply personal question.  Perhaps it is the most personal question.  Every person's answer is different.   One answers by living.   This post is about one window on choosing life -- one way of saying one's own deep and powerful "yes!" to the full catastrophe of life.

Earlier this year, I asked my team of non-traditional "thesis advisers" for help in giving the gifts that come from this "World Prophet in Training" research program.   I sometimes get tongue-tied when I try to explain this research.   Much of the research takes place on inner levels; inner experiences are notoriously difficult to convey to others.  When one tries, one generally sounds both arrogant and flighty.  So, how can I be the benefits of researching what it is to be a World Prophet, in training, and give the gifts that come from there?

The team offered the following:

Challenge, Courage, Grace, and Will -- then Garden

Today's post is the first installment of this.   Let's start by honoring your challenges in life. 

This isn't a lecture, it is an exercise.

List all your challenges.   Go ahead.   You can do it right now.   It is not an infinite and unending list.   What are all the areas and circumstances in your life that you find challenging?  When I do this, I start by telling the truth to myself about what are all the circumstances that I don't like, that I am annoyed by, wish would go away, wish were already different than they are.   I sink into those challenging circumstances, looking past my reaction to the circumstances to see the challenge itself.  So you do that.  Look deeper into each one of your challenges.   Stay with it until you can see what about this challenge is calling on you to rise -- to become who you must become.  (It is in this sense that the challenge is something to honor -- your challenges can show you who you are.)

Let's try an example.   Today's annoying circumstance is that my lovely six-year-old dog (Dixie, a Golden Retriever Mix) is occasionally peeing on the floor.  Yecch.  I have an immediate reaction and annoyance to cleaning up the pee.  I have an annoyance that my "orderly routine" is ruined and that she seems to need a level of care and attention beyond what I am used to providing.  But what, specifically, is the challenge in that?   It is not all that challenging to stoop down and clean things up.  It is not even all that challenging to start a healing coning or to call the vet.   But the circumstance is not just annoying, it is indeed challenging.  So I sink down into that feeling of being challenged, and see and look and observe.   What is there?  

What arises is a question of, "Whom shall I trust and how far shall I trust them?"   Will I trust my Coning partners with this issue from the day-to-day world?  If it were my own health, I would not hesitate.  But now another being is involved.   And my daughter is involved as well, who cares for this dog as much or more than I do.   Am I willing to stake their health and their love on the same tools I use in my research?   Really?   That is today's challenge.  

There is no easy answer.   The challenge calls on me to rise to a new level.  It calls on me to take a stand about what really is the highest and best standard of care for this loving companion animal who calls my house her home.   The particular action I end up taking is less important than the question itself.  There is no "right" answer. The challenging question itself is what to honor.  It calls on me to choose.

Perhaps I will involve my daughter in the decision at a new level.    Perhaps I will invest several weeks or a month in exploring Nature Healing Conings at a new level, and only then involve the vet.  Perhaps I will involve the Coning partners in the decision about how and when to involve the vet.  It would of course be smart to involve Nature in this way. The Nature Intelligence side of the coning  are the masters of order, organization, and life vitality in any situation; the coning will generally be better than I am at determining the most appropriate means, once I have articulated the intention clearly.  But only I can (and must) set that intention.   That is my job and no one else can do it for me.

A challenge is not (just) something that is hard.  My daughter is now playing high-school field hockey; the practices are hard, uncomfortable, ugly, and long.   But what part of that is challenging?   Is it the sense of blowing past ones perceived limits?   Or is it learning to trust and work with coaches who are calling out the best in their athletes in a way that seems perhaps both supportive and also "mean" at the same time?   Or is it dealing with the grief of giving up other options for what to do this fall?  Only she can see.  Our challenges are as personal as our gifts and our joy.

What is there to honor about challenges?  As you might see from the example above, whatever it is that I find challenging shows me who I next need to become.   We normally think of courage as what helps us meet our challenges.   The challenge is there first, and then the courage helps us meet it.   But I suggest that is exactly backwards.   Instead, I suggest you imagine that your challenges are a direct window that shows you what your courage must be.   You have exactly the challenges that your courage makes room for.  But that is a lead-in to a future post.

So stick with it until you can list all of your challenges and find something to honor in each one.  This by itself is a worthwhile accomplishment.   Pat yourself on the back.  Then stay tuned for future installments.