The Importance of Starhawk’s “City of Refuge”

As predicted, levels of intensity, exposure, and reactivity continue to increase, so we best learn how to deal with rapidly thinning veils. I’ve said for years that this is not a time for keeping secrets and hiding from your Shadow, as the energies no longer support codependency, collusion, treason, or sweeping things under the rug. They just don’t. I’m rarely surprised by “shocking” revelations, as I read people’s energy signatures and therefore notice the darkness amidst the light, the smudges, the shameful feelings, fear and Shadow boxing. We will see more and more of this as the veils continue to thin.The Hopi prophecies even predict people losing their minds due to enhanced abilities to “see.”

Best remedies?

As I have said for years, we must each address our own Shadow. Doing so takes tremendous courage and often results in internal and public shaming or rejection by friends, family, and society. Do it anyway. The energies do not support running from your own Shadow. It is far easier to address the Shadow from a place of quiet safety than to have a Tower Card situation force you to do so, but these times offer lightning strikes and paradigm shifts galore. As Carl Jung said, “When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate.”

Learn to recognize your own responsibilities of giving away your own power, and learn how to reclaim any energies forcibly taken away from you –by whatever means provide strength and power to, not power over. The means of reclamation themselves usually demand engagement with your own Shadow. As within, so without. Walk the Middle Way of Atreyu. Sift through complex moral dilemmas and move beyond black and white thinking. Find your own firm moral compass in each situation by assessing your heart, intuition, facts and your awareness of others’ energy signatures. Freedom requires responsibility. Get used to it. There’s much, much more to come in terms of revelations.

And now, onto some recommended reading:

Starhawk has released a sequel to her highly prophetic novel, “The Fifth Sacred Thing,” which I’ve referenced many times on this blog, especially that novel’s exploration of El Mundo Bueno and El Mundo Malo. I still recommend reading “The Fifth Sacred Thing,” but the urgency of our times leads me to suggest her latest novel, “City of Refuge” even if you have not previously read “The Fifth Sacred Thing.” This new novel begins right where the earlier novel ends, and it deals with issues we are now — or will very soon be– facing as all the old structures ordering life and perspective crash and burn.

Specifically:

How do we convince people to walk away from their own enslavement if they have no concept of anything better?

How do we transition people from utter dependency into an empowered life if they’ve only known slavery, abuse, learned helplessness, and top-down control?

How do we integrate vast armies (real and metaphorical) of people “just following orders,” whether in the military, political “honey traps,” cults, torture chambers, or areas of life where these ways seem like “the only ways available”?

What do we do with people who have been so abused and broken that all they know is abuse?

How do we instill a positive sense of Self in people who have lost their own humanity through abuse, educational and media brainwashing, and/or collectivism?

How do we treat people who have failed — sometimes in spectacular ways — but who repent of those failings and attempt to make restitution?

What do we do with unrepentant psychopaths with every likelihood of repeated and increasing offenses?

How do we tell the difference between them?

How do we get real food into people who’ve only subsisted on chemicals, heavy metals, addictive BigPharma drugs, Frankenfoods and processed pseudo nutrients?

How do we fight for change against powerful, conscienceless forces without resorting to their level and methods?

How do we teach broken, abused people to lead themselves without ourselves becoming the next pop icon, guru, dictator, villain, or cult leader when the people we are helping project the only things they know onto us?

How do we step into leadership roles when that triggers our own need for Shadow Work, as well as others’ unresolved Shadows massively projected onto us?

What is truly compassionate, and how do we navigate hierarchies of compassion?

These questions and more run throughout Starhawk’s masterful “City of Refuge.” It’s a gritty, disturbing, yet redemptive book, and I cannot recommend it highly enough during these troubled times.

 

 

Nestle Continues Stealing World’s Water During Drought

Where to start with this one?

In case anyone needed anymore reasons to start (or expand) efforts to grow more of your own food, the situation in California’s Central Valley will hopefully urge people to set up gardens and encourage neighbors and cities to do the same, all over the US — and the world, which also imports much of CA’s produce.

The situation with Nestle is already serious, and pushing through the TPP will only make such theft of water — and prime farmland through this engineered drought — that much easier. Anyone who can’t fathom how CA might look in coming years if this corporate takeover continues ought to read Starhawk’s eerily prophetic novel, “The Fifth Sacred Thing.” It’s happening, and if we do not start protecting the Sacred Water, we will not have life. This call most obviously goes out to Californians, but Nestle is doing nefarious things in lots of places, including Maine. The Great Lakes are also for sale, thanks to a 2013 deal struck with China by Obama.

Solutions exist, but they require awareness and courage. They also require action. Even agriculture need not require so much wasted water. Deep mulch, organic soil amendments, drought resistant heirloom varieties, and companion planting take planning, but can work in harmony with the land. Sacred ritual to honor the water, rain dances … these things actually do work, because they put us back in harmony with Nature. We need multi-tiered shifts on all levels, from reclaiming rights stolen by corporate “persons” to reclaiming our own, sacred place in Nature. As the Hopi say, “This could be a good time.” Yes, it could, but it won’t unless we embrace the necessary changes *now.*

Straight from the Horse's Heart

Before we get to our featured article below, it is important to note that the BLM continues to remove wild horses and burros because of “drought,” or because there’s “not enough” forage and water.  We know there is a “man-made” drought because the huge amount of water used by mining and other extractive industries (oil & gas).  Advocates need to be aware of all of the issues surrounding big users of water from our aquifers.   I’ve listed a few sources regarding California’s dire drought below, but there are similarities in other states and areas.

A recent Los Angeles Times editorialby the hydrologist Jay Famiglietti starkly warned: “California has about one year of water left.”

Sonali Kolhatkar recently wrote an article “To Solve California’s Water Crisis, We Must Change the Nation’s Food System.”  Residential use of water in California is about 4% and agricultural use is 80%.

Kolhatkar…

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Whole Earth Summit ~ March 11-13, 2014

Whole Earth Summit:

Free online talks with visionaries, Earth healers, permaculture designers, and food/seed sovereignty advocates. Click here to see the lineup of events. Some of us plan to gather locally to watch and discuss how these great ideas might apply to our own yards, commons and cities. I’m especially excited for Thursday’s talk with Transition Town founder Rob Hopkins and Starhawk.

El Mundo Bueno

In Starhawk’s novel, The Fifth Sacred Thing, two vastly different worlds vie for control. In mundane terms: a utopian, earth-loving, community-oriented, individual honoring society that values freedom and the sacred fights for survival against corporate fascism, religious, financial, and soul oppression, hypocrisy, and the Police State — a culture’s unprocessed Shadow Side made manifest.

In magical realist terms:

“Doña Elena used to say that there was the Good Reality, El Mundo Bueno, literally the Good World, and the Bad Reality, El Mundo Malo, and they were always vying with each other. In the Good Reality you have a mild headache; in the Bad Reality you have a fatal brain disease. In the Good Reality, you catch hold of the rail as your foot slips; in the Bad Reality, you miss, slide down the stairs, and break your neck.

“We walk in the Good Reality as if we were treading the thin skin on warm milk. It’s always possible to break through and drown. …

“There is a hopeful side to Doña Elena’s teaching. … Even in El Mundo Malo, the Good Reality is always just on the other side of the surface of things. If you can learn to reach and pull yourself through, you can make miracles.” (Starhawk, The Fifth Sacred Thing, page 44)

When I first read these words, I immediately recognized their profound truth. I have witnessed this dynamic so many times during Medical Intuitive sessions when someone inquires about an intense physical issue that could go either way. In these cases, I explain that the outcome is not set: on one hand, those tumors could reveal themselves as stage 3 cancer and the person uses this illness as a rapid and socially acceptable way to “check out” of the misery they’ve been feeling without the stigma of suicide; on the other hand, the person could reach across the veil and reclaim all the reasons they want to live, all the goodness that longs to express itself through them. If they reach across that veil and pull themselves into the goodness, align themselves with that alternate reality, then the test will show those tumors to be benign or even non-existent.

I have many confidential stories of tumors mysteriously dissolving or morphing between initial diagnosis and surgery. I have witnessed even more situations in which a person swims around El Mundo Malo for many months (or years) of chemotherapy — or other intense “treatments” for things like cancer, Lyme Disease, brain injury, Fibromyalgia, extreme Dark Nights of the Soul — until one moment, they finally say and command from the depths of their being: “Enough is enough!” Then, miraculously, they lift themselves through to El Mundo Bueno, and life becomes as inversely wonderful and magical as it was horrific and cursed before.

In The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran describes it thus:

“Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”

We live in a world of extreme — and intensifying — contrasts. In addition to deeply personal conversations with clients all over the world, I scan so many article headlines and blog comments, and it always strikes me how vastly differently people experience the same circumstances or the same locale. Though tempting to figure out “what’s true” or “who’s a disinformation agent,” my observations show that we live in a Both/And Universe. El Mundo Bueno and El Mundo Malo exist simultaneously, and we summon them by honoring or rejecting the sacred — in ourselves, in others and in the “world” at large. Every time we calm ourselves and remember (re-member … give new form and vessel to) the sacredness of Air, of Fire, of Water, of Earth and of Spirit, we pull ourselves back into the Good Reality.

Here’s the catch, though: the sacred invokes and demands a sense of awe. When we approach sacred things with glib, surface platitudes, we begin our slip into the Bad Reality. Most people don’t notice right away. Things just gradually start feeling “off” until, seemingly “out of nowhere” they become unbearable. This is why the Hopi prophecies say, “All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.” For when we trivialize life, we forget ourselves and our sacred connection to El Mundo Bueno. We abdicate our power to change our world when we slap happy faces, denial and pretend transformation upon soul wrenching or scary things. When we ignore our Shadow Side, we have not “transcended” it. The Shadow, too, is sacred. In fact, seeking and finding the sacred within the dark offers one of the fastest trains out of the Bad Reality.

In his highly recommended book, The Sphere of Art, R.J. Stewart offers a specific practice to transmute what he calls the sub-lunar world of everyday life by allowing it to cling like a shell to a sacred sphere that extends above and below wherever we are. The sphere itself begins as a void that then allows stellar and Earthlight healing to purify and heal everything it touches. Through regular practice, the inner truly does transmute the outer. I’ve only read half of this book so far, but through it I discovered the why’s and mechanics behind many of the things I intuitively find myself doing just prior to some positive external shift. Those interested in Faery Healing and Earth Healing will appreciate all of his books, in particular, Earthlight and Power Within the Land. This article by Jessica Montgomery also suggests ways to bring more sacred ritual into your life.

I write a lot about transmuting so-called negative things, because I know that we can. To sit idly by and just watch or ignore the desecration of our world when we have the power to change it seems to me the surest and most deserving slip into El Mundo Malo. Pointing out the darkness is not enough; neither does minimizing the challenge resolve that challenge. Recognizing fear, mouthing or typing “One Love” and then shouting or scurrying away won’t do it either. Transmutation involves taking it all inside ourselves, burning the dross in the fire of Unconditional Love and then allowing that change to pour forth from us into the so-called real world. “Faith without works is dead.” But so are works without faith. By “faith,” I don’t mean your particular religious belief, but rather a way of life — an intimate call and response relationship with the entire Universe.

Every tradition and non-tradition offers a mystical path and, contrary to popular belief, the mystic does not run from the painful or ugly:

“I will soothe you and heal you,
I will bring you roses.
I too have been covered with thorns.” ~Rumi

The mystic recognizes both the power and the play of paradox. What the intellect and words can’t express — even in this article — the soul well knows. As Christopher Hitchens says, “At a certain point talk about ‘essence’ and ‘oneness’ and the universal becomes more tautological than inquisitive.” However, you will know you’re approaching essence and oneness when you begin to feel them working through you. It’s not all about left-brain-verified results, but a true spiritual transformation naturally wants to flow forth. If you find yourself talking of “oneness” and “essence” but not directly interacting with the Universe, then you will find El Mundo Bueno more easily by offering random acts of kindness than by continuing to offer lip service to what you do not really feel.

“At this time in
history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves. For
the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.

“The time of the one wolf is over. Gather yourselves!
Banish the word ‘struggle’ from your attitude and your vocabulary. All
that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” ~Hopi Prophecy

“But does this stuff work?!” you ask.

I have reason to believe that it does. I hear daily from people all over the world — some of whom live their lives in a sacred manner and celebration … and others of whom have forgotten to do so. The ones embracing the sacred continue to live in El Mundo Bueno, no matter what the rest of the world presents around them. We each must choose, even the plants and animals. That point of decision does not always come easily, but it does come.

Just this week, I’ve heard from three different people who had despaired of life that life presented an “opportunity” for death. Each person knew that they could accept a set of circumstances that would very quickly manifest all the passive suicidal ideation they’d toyed with over the years. Each person felt the profound significance of that moment, and these three felt waves of grief followed by a glimpse into the Good Reality. “I want to live!” “I have so much more to offer.” “I’m going to allow this joy to flow through me.” In each case, something shifted, not only inside themselves but “in reality,” as well.

In the non-confidential realm, I can share that my sweet, faery friend Tania Marie saw ten more healthy starfish in the Southern California waters. Others regularly see an epidemic of “melted” starfish, but in Tania’s world, they thrive:

I can share this blog comment: “Oh and Laura, chemtrails have been completely absent for the last 5 days, at least over my area of Minnesota. Thursday and Friday last week were bright and cold and sunny. Saturday was a normally winter-gray day with some flurries. Sunday and Monday (today) were bright and clear from sunup to sundown. Not a plane or a trail to be seen. Interesting. A friend from Maine tells me she saw a northern loon swimming in the fjords there, months ahead of schedule, and you had a comment from a beekeeper that the queen bees are unusually active for this time of year. Has something shifted…? I’m going to keep observing.”

I have permission to share this email:

“LONG story short… I made some comments on Sandra Walter’s fb post about the importance of birds (particularly geese, as they were the initial topic) in the Ascension process… as an exclamation point on what I was just saying and validation from the Nature Realms that I was correct in what I had been saying a few flocks of geese began to fly into the farm at dusk (about an hour later). Thought they were Canadas; we have had a lot of those this year. They turned out to be Greater White-fronted Geese! And like so many of the other birds that I have had here on my 5D farm/sanctuary — they aren’t “supposed” to be here! They are rarely seen east of the Mississippi river. 🙂 Love when that happens! And they winter very far south of here on the western side of the river. So cool!

“An hour after I talk of this… geese appear… and not just geese, but rare geese for this area… and they are flocking in… wow.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, All!!!!

“So many people are having these encounters!!! I AM filled with awe at this. Love it! Looking forward to your post!! Blessings on many levels!!!! j

P.S. No toxic snow here either. :-)”

I can also share from my own experience that not only does our snow melt normally, with no black and no chemical smell, but it is some of the most beautiful snow I have ever experienced. This past weekend, on our way to David’s parents’ house, everything sparkled in a way I’ve never seen before except in my imagination. It looked like faery snow, twinkling to such a degree that by the time we reached the house, I could not contain my joy.

I know from reading blogs, from emails, sessions and world news that many people felt this past week as horrifically intense. We are where we are, and there’s no shame in finding yourself in El Mundo Malo. I just want to share that some people are transmuting their reality in powerful ways. When I mention this on other blogs to counteract the doom and gloom, I often get the blog equivalent of a blank stare, so I offer it here. El Mundo Bueno requires focus and a sacred attention to detail, but it is possible. Not just possible: real.

““Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.’

“‘Does it hurt?’ asked the Rabbit.

“‘Sometimes,’ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. ‘When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.’

“‘Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,’ he asked, ‘or bit by bit?’

“‘It doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

― Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

The Oracle Report ~ Mars, Eris and Katy Perry, or How the Illuminati Are Poised to Strike, and Why They Will Fail (Part 1)

Thanks, Jean! I love this Oracle Report, because it not only exposes the ritual at the Grammy Awards, but it also empowers the reader to recognize how esoteric tools and energy alignments could be used for other things than mind controlling viewers and ushering in wars.

As I commented on a different article deconstructing the Grammy Awards ritual:

There’s even more programming than the obvious. In addition to all the MK Ultra and Satanic creepiness, there’s an overt message that all magic(k) is evil, sexually perverse and related to mind control. Take home message: “You can’t fight us. Don’t even try. If you try to tap into your own alignments with energies, you will get swallowed up by evil, just like us.”

Meanwhile, as WB Yeats says, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” We won’t get out of this via ordinary means, and the psychopaths are doing their best to ensure that the aware stay far, far away from any kind of positive magick, far, far away from any of the tools they’ve co-opted and maintained as their own exclusive property [including the use of astrology for amplifying and empowering intentions.

Tools are neutral. Their use depends upon the intentions of whomever wields the tool.] You can smash someone’s head in with a hammer, but you can also build a house or a boat. You could be like Pete Seeger with that hammer … or you could believe that because we’ve seen so much scary action from murderers with hammers that all hammers are inherently evil. Not so, not so. We drink this Kool-Aid to our own peril.

“Where there is fear, there is power.” The Illuminati, or whatever you want to call them, manipulate and dis-empower people in at least two ways:

1) They completely use and abuse the unknowing and unaware, sucking off their life force for nefarious ends.

2) They terrify those who see through the illusion so that those people with higher levels of awareness won’t ever tap into their own power for fear of being “like them.”

This dynamic explains the value and importance of Shadow Work:

“Who sees all beings in their own self, and their own self in all beings, loses all fear.” …The men Bird faced were not alien to him, and so ultimately they could not defeat him.” ~Starhawk, The Fifth Sacred Thing

Live and learn, but also … please … permit yourself to learn and live!

The Oracle Report ~ Mars, Eris, and Katy Perry, of How the Illuminati Are Poised to Strike, and Why They Will Fail (Part 1)

The world is supposed to be a happy and safe place for children. But that’s not the case anymore with the Illuminati magician-minions’ systematic deconstruction of childhood wonder and innocence and the calculated exposure of children to rituals blending sexual and occult themes. But the New World Order has gotten as far as it has in large measure because these rituals are timed in accordance with astrology, which is part of the Illuminai’s war chest. Latest case in point: Katy Perry’s ritual-performance at the 2014 Grammy Awards on the eve of the Mars-Eris opposition at the Eris Point, the Illuminati’s preferred degree in the zodiac for furthering their control agenda. Under the surface, this ritual is preparation for war.

The unavoidable consequence (or in Illuminati-speak, the “revelation of the method”) of enacting mass occult rituals, which is exactly what the Grammy Awards and all other mass spectacles like Opening Ceremonies at the Olympics are, is that it leaves a signature, a trail, a calling card. For a “forensic” astrologer like me and the only astrologer to begin researching the planet Eris at the observatory where it was discovered, it is easy to see when the Illuminati will make geopolitical moves (usually through false flag events). Their “secret” is not so secret anymore, however.

Universal principles of electromagnetics and harmonics which are not fully understood by mainstream science (but accurately understood by the Illuminati) indicate optimum energetic times to imprint reality and influence events. In the zodiac, when a planet makes an aspect to 21 degrees of Aries, the Eris Point or degree in the sky where Eris was discovered, the Illuminati enact a ritual that is tied to war. This is because archetypally Eris is known as the Queen of the Battlefield, Queen of the Underworld, and the Goddess of Chaos and Strife.

But the “face” of this goddess is split in two like no other. There is a second side of the Eris archetype – a nurturing wife and mother who leads her children through the cycles of birth and growth, upholding the values of true love and freedom, righteously defending against slavery and tyranny. Her themes are intertwined with protecting those on the margins of society. (New mom Beyonce held this role in the Grammy Awards ritual ceremony.)

Historically, Eris has been known by many names. She is the Sumerian Inanna/Ereshkigal, the Egyptian Isis, the Babylonian Lilith, and the Disney characters of Snow White/the Evil Queen and Sleeping Beauty/Maleficent (the latter also featured during the Grammy Awards). Eris is a shrieking banshee on the battlefield and the protectrix of elite troops. She is the wrinkled witch stirring a cauldron and a seductive underworld goddess mixing elixirs of alchemy.

In astrology, when planets make conjunctions and oppositions to the Eris Point, the degree in the sky where the planet Eris was discovered, powerful archetypal energies engage. It provides a “magical” opportunity to imprint reality. The nature of the opportunity is determined by that planet’s own archetypal themes in association with Eris’ themes. The Illuminati believe that “paying homage” to Eris with a ceremony when the planet Eris and/or the Eris Point are astrologically activated courts favor, so they perform rituals when these astrological aspects coalesce. “Favor” in this sense describes the potential effectiveness of the goal – the spell.

Rituals and ceremonies are more powerful when masses of people participate, thus mass media is the perfect outlet for such activities. Blue eyed and dark haired Katy Perry, Eris du jour, fits the Illuminati’s preferred stereotype of Eris. Katy Perry is an amalgam of fairy princess and dominatrix wrapped up in a package of charm. Her performance motif could have been anything, but a witch in the grove is hardly random. The ceremony at the Grammy Awards occurred on the eve of the exact opposition of Mars and Eris, very close to the Eris Point. Mars is the God of War and he also happens to be Eris’ brother. When Mars and Eris are in aspect, anger, aggression, conflict, and war are heightened. When they are in aspect close to the degree where the planet Eris was first discovered, the influence is enormously magnified.

However, the real cruelty of the ceremony is that Katy Perry retains an ember of childlike wonderment for life; therefore children are naturally drawn to her. She is most popular with (worshiped by) very young children. She’s the voice of Smurfette, after all! Her performance was scheduled early in the show when younger children would still be awake. The Illuminati believe that involving children in their rituals empowers the ritual. Enough whistleblower and court testimony has surfaced regarding ritualized child sexual abuse for us to know that secret rituals with children are a reality. Most likely a real ritual involving children was occurring while those watching the “dramatic” rendition of the ritual, Katy Perry’s performance, unwittingly offered passive participation.

There is a term for the insertion of ideas and intentions into people’s minds at certain times for a desired effect that grows over time and is reinforced at future opportune times: mind control. These broadcast “performances” are ceremonial mass mind control via the entertainment industry using a calendar of astrology for timing.

(Katy Perry should be mindful that the Illuminati wholeheartedly believe in the misogynistic notion that “all goddesses must fall” and thus will engineer or facilitate a future fall from grace. Then, she will either remake herself like the phoenix rising from the ashes or be annihilated in the flames. It’s a win-win for the Illuminati because “goddesses” are powerful regardless of whether they are fallen or risen. Most likely Katy Perry is peripherally aware, as are most artists in the music industry, if not the entertainment industry as whole, that there is a cabal of occult-oriented businessmen-bankers who are truly in control of whom becomes successful and what type of art shapes the world. Jay-Z is rather open about it; his commitment to perpetuating the symbolism is plain. Madonna, a previous ritual pawn who is occasionally trounced back out, is now deeply immersed in the Illuminati’s perversion of the Mysteries. It is perversion because their view is based on foundations of dominance and control of others– principles contrary to life.)

Freedom of expression stands, but it is our job to be wise to what is being expressed. Katy Perry’s performance-ritual is a statement that only those who are schooled in esoteric wisdom would fully understand. In Part 2, we will look at just what that statement is and why it indicates that the New Moon in Aries on March 30, 2014, the astrological New Year, opens the year when the Illuminati make their final move and why the energy that they try so desperately to control will ultimately be their downfall. On that day, Mars comes back to Eris for a repeat performance. This time around, however, the ritual will not be shrouded behind a flimsy stage spectacle. It will play out in the theatre of the world.

Copyright OracleReport.com. 2014. All rights reserved. Permission granted for reposting this article in its entirety when credit is given.

Book Review: Starhawk’s “The Fifth Sacred Thing”

A local friend suggested I read “The Fifth Sacred Thing,” so that some of us could form a book discussion group about the ideas and vision of this novel. Although it took me awhile to get into the characters, I quickly saw why my friend has read this book three times and counting. It’s filled with permaculture principles, magick, natural healing, and the tension between totalitarian dystopia and a power-from-within ecotopia based upon respect, not control.

I found Starhawk’s text incredibly prophetic, even when I thought it was written in 2005. My admiration tripled when I noticed a publication date of 1993! In 2013, as we face nuclear and toxic poisoning of the Pacific Ocean, a no longer hidden Police State, genetic manipulation, a transhumanist agenda, biological warfare, and increasingly intense weather events –both natural and human-aggravated — the setting of this novel in 2048 feels rather optimistic.

Once I managed to get a handle on the characters, I found the book difficult to put down. As the narrative continued, I realized that the initial ambiguities and confusion about gender, age and physical markers, actually contribute to and underscore the tale. As readers, we quickly find ourselves overwhelmed in and by a post-collapse world, unsure exactly which collapse triggered which events, but gradually recognizing the effects of long-term trauma and difficult life. Things the 20th and early 21st centuries took for granted have not been available for at least a generation, and the ripple effects of such deprivations reach much further than minor or anticipated inconvenience.

At the same time, we find that some things in this future society function much more harmoniously than in our current one. In the absence of cars, trucks and planes, this culture has compensated for its isolation by cultivating the individual gifts of each member of the community — art, music, healing, science, cooking, dreaming and psychic defense. Everyone gardens and participates in seasonal rituals, and the society bases itself around the premise that the Four Sacred Things (fire, water, air, earth) are so sacred that they cannot be privately owned. “May you never hunger; may you never thirst” is a phrase used in real-life pagan gatherings, but in “The Fifth Sacred Thing,” this concept forms the basis of an entire political system! No one goes hungry, and no one goes without water.

As the plot rolls on, we see just how innovative and special this city’s solutions are. Contrast via epic journeys to the Southlands shows us that — despite the obvious challenges up North in 2048 — things could be (and are) much worse elsewhere. The characters face horrific trials that force them to question not only their own morals and philosophies, but also the very essence of what it means to be human. Readers with rigid ideas about sexuality, self-defense, magick, religion, medicine, technology, and the occult will likely find themselves extremely challenged as they journey with the characters. Author Starhawk practices the Reclaiming Tradition, which combines one’s spirituality with non-violent political activism. Throughout her novel, we witness the effectiveness of non-violent resistance, as well as its limitations. The characters’ reactions and struggles force us to evaluate our own fixed ideals, hypocrisy, privilege and irresponsibility. We see on every level how each small action affects the whole of Creation, often in dramatic and unforeseen ways.

I particularly enjoyed all the manifested visualizations, herbal and energetic healing, as well as the key roles played by bees and crystals. Since I have personally made a decision to use magickal self-defense rather than violence should the SHTF, I enjoyed reading about various techniques — many of which I recognized as real, not fiction. In the acknowledgments, Starhawk confirms how thoroughly she researched this book, including Native teachings, along with actual songs, chants, techniques and rituals.

If you’ve ever wondered, “What would I do if society collapsed on multiple levels at once? Does it need to be ‘every man for himself,’ or can (must) we find ways to work together in community? Would we really be stronger together than apart? What does magick have to do with a fully functioning human, and how do I access multi-generational healing?” then “The Fifth Sacred Thing” deserves a place on your bookshelf. You will want to read it again and again, tracking your own growth as you face its challenges. If, on the other hand, you prefer to rest in the hazy halls of denial and wish to cling to the patriarchal status quo, then drop this book like a hot potato! You cannot engage “The Fifth Sacred Thing” and remain unchanged.

Nullification, Freedom and Resuscitation: “The Outstretched Hand”

I’ve noticed the Corbett Report video below posted in lots of places and have even had it sent to me by email; however, this morning is the first time I’ve had a chance to sit down to watch it. This valuable discussion covers Thomas Jefferson’s idea of “nullification,” including the 10th Amendment, which allows states to have a “last resort ‘No'” to federal, tyrannical encroachment.

I haven’t finished watching the video yet, so I don’t know if they also get into the right of jury nullification — another way to give the old heave ho to tyranny by refusing to convict someone for breaking an unjust law. [Update: they don’t, but you can find out more about jury nullification here.] The NDAA, of course, denies people, including Americans, the right to a jury of their peers, which is why state and local nullification has become so important.

With no one to enforce tyranny, the tyrants will become ever more isolated and obvious, as people s-l-o-w-l-y (but surely?!) begin to grab a clue. Freedom is available, for those who recognize it, value it, and demand it. As Ben Franklin supposedly said while exiting the Constitutional Convention, “[You have] a republic, if you can keep it.”

Few noticed when the republic flatlined in December 2011. Will resuscitation work? That depends on how much life and pulse we’re willing to breathe into it. I’m reading Starhawk’s novel, “The Fifth Sacred Thing,” and last night a quote really jumped out at me. I will write a separate post on the novel, because it’s excellent so far, but here’s the passage that expresses my own hope of resuscitation:

[Speaking at a Seder dinner in which the participants compare their imminent-invasion-by-a-police-state situation to the story of the slaves leaving Egypt] …

“‘I have been in Egypt,’ [Bird] said. They all turned to look at him. ‘And yeah, my own hands and arms and mind and magic got me out. But it wasn’t just me. And it wasn’t just the collective strength, because that seemed pretty damn far away at the time, and the people I was with — even together, we didn’t have much in the way of strength. So I can’t tell you what it was. It wasn’t an old guy with a beard, and it wasn’t a big lady in the sky. But when I was trapped there, something did reach for me.’

“‘How do we invoke that,’ Holybear asked quietly, ‘Where do we put in our order for divine intervention? Because without it, if it’s only our arms and hands, however united, frankly, I don’t think we’re going to win this one.’

“‘I’m not talking about winning and losing,’ Bird said. ‘I’m not even talking about getting free or getting caught or living or dying, really. I’m trying to say that this, this livingness we’re all in and of, has something in it that reaches for freedom. Maybe that quality isn’t first or most central. It could be just like a single thin thread buried in a whole carpet. But it’s there. The outstretched hand is there. If you reach for it, it’ll grab you back.'” (Starhawk, “The Fifth Sacred Thing,” page 215)

There are many ways of reaching towards “the outstretched hand.” Nullification offers a non-violent, legally and historically legitimate option. Watch, learn and integrate. We chose to be here at this precarious and important time in human evolution.

“Tell me, what will you do with your one wild life?” ~Mary Oliver

Even though I believe we have way more than one life, this one, right now, is important. So tell me, what will you do with this one wild life?

Corbett Report

Published on Dec 13, 2013

SHOW NOTES AND MP3: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=8413

Hardly a week goes by that we aren’t faced with some new outrageous piece of legislation from the increasingly tyrannical government. But once these bills have been passed, what can we actually do about them? What if stopping this legislation was as simple as saying “no”? Join us this week on The Corbett Report as we explore the nullification solution, a long-repressed piece of political history that offers us a way out.

Imagination and the Sacred Duty of Visionaries

“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things that escape those who dream only at night.” ~Edgar Allen Poe

I just finished talking with a friend who’s already been doing incredible things for the Earth and its poor, hungry and downtrodden. She’s about to take a leap of faith. Actually, she’s already significantly further along than mid-leap. But she hasn’t landed yet, and people around her have begun saying one of two things: 1) “Are you insane?!” or 2) “Oh, you guys do such amazing things that it always makes me feel bad about my own life. I know you’re on the right path, but I could never do that. Just watching you live your life makes me feel so bad about myself.”

Comment 1 obviously doesn’t help, but neither does comment 2, since my friend is a genuinely kind, loving, generous and exuberant person. She feels called to take her leap and to create a model for something that currently does not exist. She wants to make the world a better, more peaceful, abundant and joyful place, and the last thing on her mind is judging others who — for whatever reason — choose to live their lives along more typical 21st century trajectories.

Without sharing any of her personal identifying details, I felt led to post about this topic, because I find so many other visionaries faced with the same two challenges from those they know. Oftentimes, the people they most think would understand present the strongest resistance, which causes visionaries to question the foundation of what they’re leaping towards:

“Whoa! I didn’t expect that kind of comment from him!” or “Ow, now I’m starting to wonder if I’ve somehow missed it and this is really an ego thing. Is it? I mean, I know I felt led to do this, but … Now I just feel bad for making other people feel bad. That’s so not my intention. I just wanted to follow this call I felt to do something radically positive for the Earth and our community.” These swings from others’ projections and doubts can undermine the positive energy needed to complete the leap, and since the comments usually only come up once people have already committed themselves to the new, the shaky feelings hit them while mid-air. That feels particularly uncomfortable.

Here’s what I told her, and I’ve said it to clients before, too:

Most humans are so out of tune with their own imagination that they’ve all but lost their ability to envision or create anything better than the status quo. Use it or lose it. That imagination is so dusty and forgotten that most people don’t even know where to search beyond the ordinary and mundane. But here’s the deal: the status quo has sprung some serious leaks! The boards are squishy, and the floor’s about to disintegrate. Whether through growing denial or their equally diminished powers of observation, most people simply can’t or won’t begin creating replacements for the status quo until trauma arrives to take out the rest. By then, it’s too late, because most of them will freeze up or die of despair.

In this day and age, if you have maintained your ability to Imagine and Create, then you have a Sacred Duty to bring those imaginings into Being. People without access to their own, innate vision and imagination will demand tangible, “real” models to move into. Leaping into the unknown, even when the known is the cliff of death, just isn’t a viable option recognized by the majority on this planet. One might argue that’s how we got ourselves into this mess, but that’s a different essay!

“Blind Faith” is how it looks to people without imagination. People in touch with their imagination, inner promptings and intuition may not know how it will all turn out, but — like artists — they sense Creation at work. They recognize the pull of the Divine as it works through them, shaping their desires and compassion into something “real.” I’ve quoted The Velveteen Rabbit before, but it seems appropriate again:

“‘Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.’

‘Does it hurt?’ asked the Rabbit.

‘Sometimes,’ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. ‘When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.’

‘Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,’ he asked, ‘or bit by bit?’

‘It doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.” ~Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

Imagining something and loving it enough to make it real is one of the most important Sacred Duties of our time. If you’re a fellow visionary, then I hope this post strengthens your confidence and resolve. Remember, a Sacred Duty means that you have behind the scenes help available to you. It doesn’t matter if no one else in your life can see that help. What matters is: will you allow yourself to accept that hidden help? When you walk a sacred path, you can expect synchronous answers to your prayers.

According to Deepak Chopra, “[a] synchronicity is a coming together of seemingly unconnected events. If you focus your attention, you may recognize that your life is shaped by those moments of meaningful coincidence. You may even be able to nurture and participate in those moments in a positive way. Together, this awareness and intention make up what I call your SynchoDestiny.

“In any aspect of life, attention and awareness foster growth. Whenever you focus your attention on a subject or phenomenon, the object of you attention will grow stronger. The more you become aware of meaningful coincidences in your life, the more often you will encounter them. Moreover, meaningful coincidences are well worth your attention. According to Vedic tradition, there are two characteristics that define a person on the path toward enlightenment: First, a sense that worries are disappearing. Things may go wrong, but they don’t bother you anymore. Second, in every area of your life, you become aware of a growing number of synchronicities.”

If you’re reading this post and realize that you’re currently not a visionary, then I would simply urge you to pause before shooting arrows at loved ones leaping across the chasm — especially if those friends or family members have expressed a deep calling to heal the Earth by working with Imagination and the Unseen Realms. Some day you might appreciate the ready-made models these people are carefully dreaming, building and testing with their own energy, lives and risk. No need to feel guilty because you aren’t them; each person needs only offer what feels right and of urgency for them. A little story in the Bible comes to mind, from the Book of John:

“So Peter seeing him said to Jesus, ‘Lord, and what about this man?’

“Jesus said to him, ‘If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!’

“Therefore this saying went out among the brethren that that disciple would not die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but only, ‘If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?’…”

Whatever your spiritual tradition, the same principle applies regarding someone else’s sense of Divine Calling. If so and so feels inspired to take these steps, “what is that to you?”

If someone’s actions, vision and commitment make you feel uncomfortable for not stepping more into your own power, then deal with that rather than shooting that discomfort at people mid-leap. If you would like to feel more Divinely inspired, then ask and listen. Request signs along with the wisdom to interpret them and the courage to act on guidance and opportunities. We can all learn from and support each other, and people who are mid-leap appreciate kind words and encouragement, too.

I will leave everyone with these words from Starhawk:

“Life demands honesty, the ability to face, admit, and express oneself.”

“Beware of organizations that proclaim their devotion to the light without embracing, bowing to the dark; for when they idealize half the world they must devalue the rest.”

“Our way out involves both resistance and renewal: saying no to what is, so that we can reshape and recreate the world. Our challenge is communal, but to face it we must be empowered as individuals and create structures of support and celebration that can teach us freedom. Creation is the ultimate resistance, the ultimate refusal to accept things as they are. For it is in creation that we encounter Mystery…”

Peace!

Permaculture and the Sacred: A Conversation with Starhawk

This is a fascinating talk and Q&A session with Starhawk at Harvard Divinity School. She covers personal spirituality, planetary crisis, backyard gardens, city planning, stories of neutralizing the WTO and the globalists, “feeding what you want to grow,” the Transition Movement, and much more. An hour and 24 minutes well spent!

“Starhawk, contemporary witch, activist, and permaculturist, spoke at HDS on March 7, 2013, about how earth-based spirituality can inform and empower efforts to build sustainable communities and societies. Starhawk is a founder of Reclaiming, a contemporary Pagan tradition that blends Goddess spirituality and social activism, and of Earth Activist Trainings, which equips people to combine permaculture design with political organizing and spiritual practice. A leading interpreter of feminist Wicca, she is the author of The Spiral Dance, The Fifth Sacred Thing, The Empowerment Manual, and many other books.”