Permaculture Harvest despite Chaos!

“As the world teeters once more on the brink of chaos, in the forms of war and nuclear contamination from Fukushima, getting the harvest home and planning for next Spring is a way of keeping one’s sanity!”
So true! Yesterday my dad sent me an insightful look at the Syria situation, but it so obviously showed only one partisan side of the story. I concluded the rant that inspired with, “I don’t know what’s worse. Since the end goal has always been to take down America, it doesn’t matter which is worse. They both stink to low hell. …” And then? I went back to the garden. I manifested more flowering bushes; I ate some deliciously fresh, real food from the Earth; I planned the Fall/Winter garden, the garden next Spring. I continued updating various local people interested in my idea of planting an Urban Food Forest. In an insane world, it’s good to remember what’s real.
Another lovely post by Colette!

Bealtaine Cottage, Ireland

The permaculture harvest continues, along with the increasing numbers of visitors to Bealtaine Cottage.

Garlic is harvested, dried and stored…just in time for re-planting the crop for next year, in just a few more weeks.

As the world teeters once more on the brink of chaos, in the forms of war and nuclear contamination from Fukushima, getting the harvest home and planning for next Spring is a way of keeping one’s sanity!

It’s also a way of nurturing optimism and hope for the future!

Tomatoes are everywhere in the gardens and tunnel.

I let them do their own thing and they have produced wildly!

All the tomatoes are late, but then the summer was dithering in and out of Spring this year!

Even the Perlagoniums in the photo above are in late flower after several months of sleepy time!

As the summer fades into Autumn, the light changes inside and…

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Sentient Weeds

They say a weed is any plant growing where you don’t want it to grow. Sometimes even pretty, edible, medicinal, and/or intentionally placed plants outgrow their initial welcome. Or they try to take over the entire yard. I thought I’d share part of an ongoing exchange with a local gardening friend of mine who just returned after a month vacation. She had asked about canning supplies, and I just had my very first canning experience this past weekend.

Me:I made Lavender-Infused Dandelion Preserves with birch sweetener. Um….yum! Unfortunately, it was so very tedious to remove the dandelion bracts that I didn’t get to double or triple the recipe as planned. I still wasn’t even done de-bracting my frozen flowers when [my canning partner] arrived, on a time schedule. Sooo… that will be something I make again, probably next Spring when the dandelion flowers are nice and plump. Might as well get some benefit from this crazy yard!

Please let me know if you need any herbs, either for cooking or for starts. That garden sage is going insane again — actually, both are, but I learned the pineapple sage is not perennial in our zone. I also need to make some starts very, very soon of the tree collards, which are only perennial in zone 9. Everything in the garden is going insane, and I started yet another raised bed for winter veggies. I think I might be as crazy as my plants. 🙂

Her: Oh my, my yard is sooooo overgrown! And you wrote about weeding. I’m starting to think of the plants as being sentient. So how do you resolve weeding with that?

Me: RE: sentient plants. Um, yeah. Today, I told my morning glories to “play nice with the herbs,” because they were twining themselves around the tarragon and lavender, as well as totally covering an evergreen. I cut them back, and on my way to the meeting was admiring just how gorgeous they looked. They must have been PO’d at me, because when I returned, they were all wilting in the heat. With all the mulch I have there, they never wilt, but today they required me hand carrying 10+ gallons of water around that side of the house, shimmying behind the fence and back and forth. Then they perked up, but I could almost hear them snickering, “That’s what you get for telling us how and where to grow.”

I did have amazing results asking the poison ivy to leave. It is completely gone now — as far as David, our next door neighbor (who is terribly allergic to poison ivy), and I can tell. No Round-Up. No digging. I just asked it to leave, and it was ALL over our front and Southwest yard. After I thanked it for protecting the property and told it, “I’ll take it from here,” we haven’t seen it since.

Another time, I thought of pulling out my lemongrass plant because it had gotten so huge and was blocking the bell pepper. A few minutes later, I went out to harvest something else, and that lemongrass plant drew blood! Those grass blades are actual blades, but I’ve never been cut before or since I told it to behave or I won’t even save a single root to overwinter indoors. It’s been on excellent behavior ever since.

So yeah, the weeds … I tell them not to grow in certain places and they can flourish in others. Sometimes that works better than others. Sometimes I just need to give warning and say, “Look, you’re out of here!”

LOL, I am a crazy plant lady.

[And yet … if communicating with our plants can save us from using Round-Up and other toxins, think of the implications for our world! Last night, I found two huge grasshoppers on the lemongrass. I swear they were playing coy with me. “Just eat the lemongrass, OK?” I said. “Stay away from my kale.” When I came out this morning, the lemongrass had been trimmed back a bit so my newly planted Alaskan peas have light, and the kale looked great. I’m not above blending up a nasty jalepeno-geranium-garlic-peppermint spray to keep bugs off my plants, but it’s far easier just to ask the bugs to go somewhere else. The grasshoppers with their big eyes seem to be more willing communicators than this Spring’s leafhoppers. Watch out, though, leafhoppers: I’ll be ready for you next year, and no, I don’t mean pesticides. 🙂 ]

Julie Behling-Hovdal ~ Confessions of an Aspartame Addict

I received this article in Julie’s highly informative “Essential Survival” newsletter and asked for her permission to post it on my blog. Having known some people with various levels of aspartame addiction, including at least one person who developed MS-like symptoms and still refused to quit a 2+ liter a day habit of Diet Pepsi (in addition to several Venti-sized “sugar-free” Starbucks “decaf” soy lattes per day), I feel very strongly about the potent neurotoxins and drugs that pass as “food” or — worse yet — health food in the US. Slap a “sugar-free,” “low calorie,” “dairy-free” or “decaf” label on some things, and suddenly they seem like things it would be a good idea to mainline.

I’ve also mentioned before that the dairy industry is trying to get permission to redefine “milk” so that includes “aspartame.” Why such insanity? Because if the definition of “milk” includes “aspartame,” then they don’t need to label it. I realize potential unlabeled aspartame is only one among dozens of unbelievable toxins and health concerns related to factory farmed, antibiotic laden, hormone infused, GMO bred and fed cows producing dairy that absolutely requires enzyme killing and protein denaturing pasteurization; however, the idea that something as unremittingly toxic as aspartame could appear unlabeled in foods that uninformed parents think are healthy for their children … well … that’s really disturbing. Particularly after some of the symptoms I’ve witnessed in life as a Medical Intuitive and/or friend.

If aspartame is one of those things that you know is bad but think an occasional diet soda “can’t hurt,” or that it’s “better for the kids than sugar,” please do read the story of Julie’s dad, intermixed with the industry’s claims and FDA admissions of side effects. Eye-opening, indeed! Many thanks to Julie for all her wonderful information about essential oils, do-it-yourself first aid, and all around preparedness strategies, and thanks for letting me share this information with my own readers!

Julie Behling-Hovdal ~ Confessions of an Aspartame Addict

The Essential Survival Newsletter, Issue 177, August 22, 2013

Just a few months ago I got a call from my mom — one that I never expected to get. She called to inform me that my dad had finally ditched his diet Coke habit! After upwards of 25 years drinking several cans of diet Coke a day, my 73-year-old dad decided to kick that habit!

For years my dad had heard my mom and I preach about the dangers of aspartame — an artificial sweetener made from the excrement of genetically modified e. Coli. After my dad had been experiencing numbness in his feet for years and then started to experience partial blindness earlier this year he was finally convinced to stop consuming this toxic substance!

Last week I heard that Coca-Cola was testing a new ad campaign to help boost their sagging sales of diet Coke. I guess more people than just my dad have been wising up to the dangers of aspartame, and that’s been cutting into their profit margin.

In the remainder of this article I will share snippets of Coke’s new test campaign in which a middle-aged woman and her teenage daughter are pictured enjoying a special moment together with diet Coke in hand. Beneath the picture is a touchy-feely mini-article filled with a mixture of fluff and outright lies, and which was designed to make you feel good about drinking diet Coke.

I will share some questions that I asked my dad about his experience with diet Coke, and his responses. I will also share some of the disturbing data on aspartame that should give pause to anyone who cares at all about their health!

Diet Coke Confessions with Ed Behling

New diet Coke ad: “Our use of high-quality, low- and no- calorie sweeteners, including aspartame, allows us to give people great-tasting options they can feel good about.”

Me: How did you get started with diet sodas?

My Dad: I was always conscious about wanting to keep weight off, so I started drinking diet sodas as soon as they came out in the early 70′s. I started with Pepsi Lite that had saccharin. Saccharin was eventually banned and I transitioned over to diet Pepsi, and then to diet Coke. I think I drank about 32 oz. of diet Coke a day for around 25 years.

New diet Coke ad: “Time and again, these low- and no-calorie sweeteners have shown to be safe, high-quality alternatives to sugar.”

Me: Were you ever concerned that the diet Coke might be harming your health?

My Dad: Only when you and your mom started warning me. I took what you said about aspartame and put it in the back of my head somewhere.

My Thoughts: On the FDA website today, I found a document sharing the data from an epidemiological survey from 1988 listing out the adverse health effects reported from aspartame use just until that time. Here they are:

“Eye
– Decreased vision and/or other eye problems
(blurring, “bright flashes,” tunnel vision)
– Pain (or or both eyes)
– Decreased tears, trouble with contact lens,
or both
– Blindness (one or both eyes)

Ear
– Tinnitus (“ringing,” “buzzing”)
– Severe intolerance for noise
– Marked impairment of hearing

Neurologic
– Headaches
– Dizziness, unsteadiness, or both
– Confusion, memory loss, or both
– Severe drowsiness and sleepiness
– Paresthesias (“pins and needles,” “tingling”)
or numbness of the limbs
– Convulsions (grand mal epileptic attacks)
– Petit mal attacks and “absences”
– Severe slurring of speech
– Severe tremors
– Severe “hyperactivity” and “restless legs”
– Atypical facial pain

Psychologic-Psychiatric
– Severe depression
– “Extreme irritability”
– “Severe anxiety attacks”
– “Marked personality changes”
– Recent “severe insomnia”
– “Severe aggravation of phobias”

Chest
– Palpitations, tachycardia (rapid heart action),
of both
– “Shortness of breath”
– Atypical chest pain
– Recent hypertension (high blood pressure)

Gastrointestinal
– Nausea
– Diarrhea
Associated gross blood in the stools
– Abdominal pain
– Pain on swallowing

Skin and Allergies
– Severe itching without a rash
– Severe lip and mouth reactions
– Urticaria (hives)
– Other eruptions
– Aggravation of respiratory allergies

Endocrine and Metabolic
– Problems with diabetes: loss of control;
precipitation of clinical diabetes;
aggravation or simulation of diabetic
complications
– Menstrual changes
Severe reduction or cessation of periods
– Paradoxic weight gain
– Marked weight loss
– Marked thinning or loss of the hair
– Aggravated hypoglycemia (low blood sugar
attacks)

Other
– Frequency of voiding (day and night), burning
on urination (dysuria), or both
– Excessive thirst
– Severe joint pains
– “Bloat”
– Fluid retention and leg swelling
– Increased susceptibility to infection”

Also, the FDA document admits that researchers and physicians have associated the following health conditions with the long-term ingestion of aspartame:

– “Brain tumors

– Multiple sclerosis

– Epilepsy

– Chronic fatigue syndrome

– Parkinson’s Disease

– Alzheimer’s

– Mental retardation

– Lymphoma

– Birth defects

– Fibromyalgia

– Diabetes

– Arthritis (including Rheumatoid)

– Chemical Sensitivities

– Attention Deficit Disorder”

Another study recently done analyzing the data of 77,218 women and 47,810 men over a 22-year period and in which their aspartame use was documented in detail every 2 years shows some disturbing trends for aspartame users. The study found that one 12 oz. can of diet soda a day led to:

– 42 percent higher leukemia risk in men and women (pooled analysis)
– 102 percent higher multiple myeloma risk (in men only)
– 31 percent higher non-Hodgkin lymphoma risk (in men only)

Previous studies on cancer and aspartame that found no link between the two were far less thorough than this study.

New diet Coke ad: “For over 127 years, people have been coming together over Coca-Cola products to refresh, to celebrate, and to enjoy a moment with something they love. One reason why is that people have always been able to trust the quality of our products and everything that goes into them. That’s something that will never change.”

Me: Do you think you were addicted to diet Coke?

My Dad: I don’t think I was addicted, but if I didn’t have something to drink right after my daily workout, I would get cranky. I didn’t want water. I would usually drink diet Coke or Gatorade.

New diet Coke ad: “Today, we’re proud to offer a wide range of Coca-Cola products that fit different people’s lifestyles. Because we believe that when people come together with more choices that are right for them, good things happen.”

Me: What made you finally decide to go off diet Coke?

My Dad: I read some articles that you had sent to me and learned that diet Coke makes you eat more and has harmful effects. In April 2013 I made the decision to never buy any more diet Coke, I could only drink what I had at home. I drank a can a week until they were gone. I’ve been off diet sodas for several months now. I drink regular sodas again, 32 oz./day, and haven’t been gaining any weight.

My Thoughts: What “good things happen” when people get together to imbibe Coke? Regular Coke has high-fructose corn syrup, which is associated with metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and heart disease. Diet Coke’s aspartame might give you neurological problems, weight gain, and chronic debilitating illness including leukemia. I really wish my dad would go off sodas completely. Maybe he will eventually.

New diet Coke infographic: “Studies show [aspartame] is safe for children, people with diabetes, people trying to reduce calories, [and] pregnant women.”

Me: Have you noticed any changes to your health since ditching diet Coke?

My Dad: I noticed an improvement in my eye sight, and the numbness in my feet has decreased.

My Final Thoughts: I am beyond disgusted with big corporations like Coca-Cola who utilize their power and resources peddling products dangerous to our health. It’s even worse when they come out with ad campaigns to dispel “myths” about their products being dangerous, when those myths are true!

To the CEO of Coca-Cola (and this applies to many, many others) — how can you sleep at night knowing you are becoming wealthy on the backs of millions, even billions of people worldwide, as you steal their health day-by-day with your dangerous “foods”? Why not seek to become wealthy providing people with foods that contribute to health?

I think I already know the answer to that question, but part of me hopes you aren’t as evil as I think you are. I would love for you to change your ways and prove me wrong!

– Julie

Julie Behling-Hovdal is a reflexologist/holistic healer and founder of Essential Survival where she teaches people how to prepare for the #1 cause of death in the event of an economic collapse — lack of access to medicines. In 2005 Julie was able to get off 4 prescription drugs and heal from a 6-year stint of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and fibromyalgia with products from Young Living Essential Oils. Get a free copy of her report “Fast Track Survival Medicines” at http://essentialsurvival.org/fast-track-survival-medicines/.

[UPDATE from Laura: Synchronously, right after hitting Publish, I received an Action Alert from Organic Consumers Association about this very topic. Click here for their take on it, along with a chance to tell Coke to quit it already!]

Last Few Days for the August Special

Wow, I guess this one was really needed! People have been bursting forth from the long ago past to reach out for extra support this month asking, “Do you, by chance have any coaching specials? I’ve been doing so well, but now I could really use a sounding board and extra clarity.” Coaching special? Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I do. It’s always so interesting to see in retrospect why I’ve intuited each monthly special based on the energies I feel bubbling to the surface at the beginning of the month. If the following resonates with you, you still have some time to sign up. These sessions don’t need to be used this month; that’s just when this very deep discount ends. 🙂

AUGUST SPECIAL

So many people have recently asked me if I “ever do intuitive coaching” that I’m feeling called to offer another coaching special this month. The answer is yes, I do offer intuitive coaching. I am just a stickler about the differences between coaching and therapy, and I am extremely careful not to do something for you that you can appropriately do for yourself.

Coaching, as I offer it, is for people who recognize that they are the primary factor in making changes in their own life. Just as an athletic coach can assess an athlete’s talents and skills, recognize weak or sloppy habits, design targeted exercises to foster strong spots and strengthen weak spots, as well as help to motivate and inspire, I do much the same thing as an intuitive coach. I can and will do all these things, but I cannot and will not play the game for you.

Depending on your goal, I may bust you on some hidden but highly sabotaging beliefs, help you understand and thereby release and/or transcend externally imposed patterns, and encourage you to get very, very specific about how you’d love to feel in your new, healed life. I will not use coaching time to encourage you to wallow (or wallow with you) in old drama except for the expressed purpose of quickly using that negativity to determine what you’d rather be feeling and experiencing. My intuitive coaching is mostly present, future, and often parallel oriented, rather than past. The past I do tend to bring through is often relevant generational or past life insights — again, with an eye towards discovering and supporting you to embrace your preferred Now ‘n’ Later.

“Support” in intuitive coaching does not mean listening to a weekly recap of all the ways life isn’t perfect. That only underscores and amplifies those things. “Support” in intuitive coaching means helping you to recognize how you tell your own story to yourself and others and how to become a better storyteller of deeper, more satisfying and more pleasant stories. I’m trained as an English major, and I will urge you to explore the symbols, plot, characters, patterns and foreshadowing in your own life. I’ll encourage you to express your tale and your life in active rather than passive voice. I will “read,” brainstorm and help you create, edit and re-vision your story, so long as you remember your own role as author and protagonist. (If you really, really want to remain a victim or minor character in your own life, then I’m not the right coach for you.)

Sometimes this change process takes longer than others. I can help you understand pacing, cosmic/energetic plot, and character influences, as well as suggest ways to streamline your story for faster action, but you maintain the primary power and responsibility for expressing your own life. You have far more control over your timing than I do. “How long will this take?” depends on a lot of inner subtleties that I can help you understand and shift; however, I would not presume to remove or steal those from you. Those subtleties, nuances and unique experiences are yours to make of and do with what you will.

If intuitive coaching as I offer it sounds like something you’d find helpful, then this month’s special offers a chance to engage at a lower rate. Normally, coaching sessions are $175/hour or $600/4 hours. This month (at a pre-edited 444 word count!) we’re calling in the angels to support the coaching process at a Special Rate of $444/4 hours. Offer valid if purchased through August 31, 2013, but sessions can be redeemed as needed before or after that date. Please contact me if you’d like to sign up.

Too funny! I had asked the angels to give me a sign that this was the right package to offer. That 444 word count appeared at just the right time. According to Doreen Virtue, “444 – The angels are surrounding you now, reassuring you of their love and help. Don’t worry because the angels’ help is nearby.” So there you have it: angelic endorsement of this month’s special. 😉

Cheers!

How I Did Less and Ate Better, Thanks to Weeds ~ Tama Matsuoka Wong at TEDx Manhattan

This was fun! Thanks to “And Here We Are.” David and I attended a Goshen event that aired this conference, but somehow we missed this one.

“Tama Matsuoka Wong is a professional forager and the principal of MeadowsandMore, which she founded to connect people with wild plants and natural landscapes. She won the New Jersey Forest Stewardship Award in 2007 for her work on stewarding her own property in western New Jersey. She collaborated with New Jersey Audubon on producing a booklet Meadows on the Menu about how to work with nature to turn lawns or fallow fields in to meadows. Tama has advised and worked with schools, conservation groups and private individuals to assess, steward and restore natural landscapes on their properties.

“Tama recently authored the book Foraged Flavor: Finding Fabulous Ingredients in your Backyard or Farmers Market about her several year project with the chef de cuisine at Restaurant Daniel in NYC to turn edible “weeds” from nature in to delicious cuisine. Tama has lectured about food and nature across the country and has led educational programs for schools, conservation groups, foodies and homeowners. Her “weed” work has been profiled in the NYTimes, NPR, CBS Sunday morning, among others.

“In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)”

Uniquely You, Divinely One

This one wants to go up again, particularly in response to Jon Rappoport’s latest post, “Why Do They Try So Hard to End Freedom?” It’s also my hope that if I repost this article, I can save myself having to write something called, “The New Age Borg.” We shall see …

Laura Bruno's Blog

I’ve had my friend Tania Marie‘s painting and title on the brain: “Uniquely You, Divinely One.”

She painted this years ago, but I always remember it when I see snow. I love how each snowflake is gorgeously unique, and yet they all work together to create “the snow.” Each serves its purpose in a beautiful form, but the power comes through community. I’ve increasingly found myself pondering Collectivism, or rather, two seemingly similar yet radically different manifestations of Collectivism.

On the one hand, we’ve got a growing recognition worldwide that, despite all the attempts to ostracize the Other, we are more alike than different. We’ve got a growing movement of Universal Love and interconnectivity as people begin to see the humanity in people of different cultures, religions, countries, dietary persuasions, skin colors, genders and education levels. Concepts like “Namaste” (the Divine in me honors the Divine in you), “In…

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Jon Rappoport ~ Why Do They Try So Hard to End Freedom?

I love this article by Jon. It’s a simple reminder of why freedom is worth fighting for — on all levels: “mind, body, soul, imagination, and love.”

Some people find Jon’s style a little — or a lot — too in-your-face, but I happen to enjoy his deep appreciation for and devotion to those sacred, precious things all too often tossed away as worthless junk or unimportant words and concepts. Personally, I get his outrage at sacrilege and tyranny, and I love that he champions the Imagination and the full potential of humanity. Jon’s an artist and a writer, and he recognizes subtleties. He knows when something feels off, and he’s not afraid to discover why. He’s also not afraid to use his own creative power to change it.

“Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn’t have it in the beginning.” ~Mahatma Ghandi

I love how Jon reminds us who we are and what we can do.

Jon Rappoport ~ Why Do They Try So Hard to End Freedom?

I have several answers to that question.

The people who run the people who run things want to own everything.

To them, freedom is another thing to own. So they want it. And they want it all for themselves.

Second, they realize that people who have freedom will not want the kind of world being lowered on them, and with freedom, those rebels may just find a way to keep the planned future from happening. So…better to close all doors.

All the phony political talk about “we’re in this together” is a blatant attempt to promote the idea that freedom is a small thing that must be sacrificed. For the greater good.

The people who run things from the top believe that freedom can be owned, because they can’t think of anything that can’t be owned. That’s their view. That’s the way they see life and the world.

That puts them at a strategic advantage. They focus all their energies on buying and selling. The holdouts among us are those who have values that can’t be displayed like cars in a showroom. Values that can’t be argued for in commercial language. Values that are ultimately non-material.

Holding the value of freedom gives us one advantage. We’re not competing against similar products in the marketplace. We’re competing against one thing only: slavery.

In one way or another, I have been writing about mind control for 30 years. It’s the doorway into slavery. It’s an attempt to wipe out everything that freedom means—most of all, how much it means.

Whatever humans can accomplish, the platform for it is liberty.

To say that freedom carries too much potential for abuse is like arguing that oceans are too dangerous and should be outlawed.

The so-called philosophies that replace freedom try to paint their conclusions with inevitability, and they all fail. From Plato to Marx, they begin with statements of what is possible “if only people would recognize the truth.” Their utopias, when played out, produce tyranny over mind, body, and soul. The cost of perfection.

Behind every good thing you or I or anyone has accomplished, there was the space of freedom. It’s almost a truism, it’s so obvious. But because it’s so obvious, we tend to ignore it.

Now, strong advocates of freedom are looked upon, by the government, as potentially dangerous people. They are demeaned in every possible way. If that doesn’t give you a clue about where government is heading, try reading the piece of paper called the Constitution, and then compare the statements in that document with the present scope of government and come to a decision.

As an aside, try finding a serious college course that does exactly that comparison in great detail. Good luck.

Freedom is out; the collective is in.

Our petty leaders, the dupes and mules for the future over the hill, are humping the ultimate prize, freedom, which they will lay at the feet of their masters. They will do it gladly, because they can sell all the programs and systems and laws and regulations that add up to no-freedom. It’s easy. They believe it’s workable. And the less freedom that exists, they more power they, the dupes, have, and the bigger their principalities. They’re mercenaries.

Here’s a principle you won’t find in a college economics course: the free market can only exist when the participants have non-material values that conspire to produce good relations among people. In the absence of that, anything and everything can be bought and sold, including the right to be free.

This, of course, ties in with the elite philosophy of ownership.

If we give up our values, some distant future historian will write: “Those people believed in a myth of great men who had much money, much power. Demi-gods. The demi-gods appeared and approached the people with an offer. Sell us your freedom. What is your price? And the people named a price and the bargain was struck. The people were satisfied. They reasoned that what they were trading was a thing, an item, a kind of product, which, were it not for the demi-gods, could never be sold. In a way, the people were mesmerized by what they had been able to accomplish with that sale. Ironically, they were so deluded because they had allowed themselves to grow fat on freedom…”

Mind, body, soul, imagination, and love all exist on the basis that freedom is there — or if it isn’t, it must be fought for.

Jon Rappoport

Timothy Glenn ~ Your Game Review

Another post from my friend Timothy Glenn. He’s cranking them out these days! This one arrived with the following photo and quote. I’ll let Tim’s words speak for themselves, as I know many will greet them with both shock and relief. Yes, it can really be that simple. 🙂

Your Game Review
Analogies From the Proterrian Channelings

By Timothy Glenn

Life on 3D Planet Earth: according to Proterrian, this amounts to nothing more than a virtual reality computer game, an MMO RPG (a massively multi-player online roleplaying game). And the only reason we are here experiencing this life, is because we have become game addicts.

Once upon a dimension, you and your friends were strolling through the Cosmic Gaming Arcade, and you happened upon a strange-looking game in a dimly lighted corner. The artwork for Life on 3D Planet Earth abounded with improbable creatures and incomprehensible symbols. Curiosity got the better of you.

The Right Hook

You slipped a token into the slot, and played for awhile, puzzled as to what this game could be. None of it made any sense. Who would create a game that hardly gave the players any options? Before long, something weird happened, and the game announced you were “dead”.

Huh? What did “dead” mean? You had no clue, except that your icon would no longer function no matter how you clicked on it, and the game indicated that you only had two more “lives” left. Those “lives” passed quickly. However, your curiosity had been piqued, so you slipped another token into the slot.

You had never imagined that a game could be constructed within such narrow parameters, but a few tokens and a lot of frustration later, you started figuring out a few ways to evade that goofy “death” concept, and to prolong your “lives”.

The Left Jab

With so much focus crammed into such miniscule parametric quantities, portions of your consciousness began to feel fuzzy, grow numb and fade out of mind. You had no use for all of that awareness in the game, anyway.

Although your options barely existed, the game itself simply teemed with different ways it could “kill” you. This quickly led to an obsession with avoiding “death”, which for some odd reason seemed to be inevitable anyway. You wavered between weariness with the monotony and fascination with devising clever strategies for staying “alive”.

You might have quit, but you made a momentous move that triggered a surprise announcement from the game: “Congratulations! You have won a Free Life.” What a concept! Now, all you had to do was figure out exactly what you had accomplished to win your “Free Life”. Tokens and “lives” flew by, and soon you were concocting schemes to win those delectable prizes.

You could not fathom what it meant to “compromise your integrity”, much less to “sell your soul”, but those tricks worked like a charm. You developed an arsenal of utilitarian tools. You had already mastered the basics: fear, lust, ignorance, arrogance, anger, judgment. But upon that foundation, you now crafted your “lives” with finely tuned instruments: deceit, manipulation, usury, malice, greed, hatred. Man, you were on a roll…toward loss, pain, grief, depression, and other surefire ways to score points.

Hey, You!

Some of your friends wanted you to join them in playing other games or to explore another part of the arcade, but you merely expressed annoyance at having your game interrupted. “Leave me alone. Don’t break my concentration.” Ignoring your friends became a key part of succeeding in the game.

The fact that you had become socially dysfunctional never registered with you. Nothing mattered but the game, and winning more chances to “cheat death”. Now there was a concept that scored points.

Your friends finally gave up and walked away when they witnessed you jumping into the air and triumphantly shouting, “I won seven free lives!” And somewhere…in some foggy matrix…a game developer intoned the word sucker…

Time Out

We interrupt this analogy to return to Proterrian, who has just illustrated how the soul itself became addicted to this MMO RPG called Life on 3D Planet Earth.

The soul became mired in the illusions of this world over the course of eons, and eventually accepted ridiculous notions, like: we are here to learn something. Proterrian incessantly reminds us that we are part of the Infinite. “And as God, what is there you really need to learn? Nothing. Learning something is merely a structure of playing the game. You don’t come into this world to learn. You come into this world to forget, and then to play the game of remembering.”

Getting Wise to the Game

Proterrian notes that many of us are awakening within the game, and we find ourselves wondering why we ever thought this was a cool game to play in the first place. We are glancing around, refocusing our eyes and shaking our heads, because we can even see the background grid. We are muttering things like, “Too many glitches. And the colorization is off. And when it comes right down to it, the graphics really suck.”

Using another analogy, Proterrian likens us to avid gamers, rather than addicts. Of course, we’re avid. We are working for the prestigious Cosmic Gaming Magazine, and we are studying this game with due diligence, because we are preparing to write our game reviews. We are currently finishing the last round of play, and we are anxious to quit playing altogether, so we can expound with reliable authority. “Life on 3D Planet Earth: A Definitive Review.” Upon seeing our reviews in print, some of us look look forward to clicking on Uninstall.

Reviewer Preview

According to Proterrian, the latest intergalactic poll conducted among the reviewers portends exceptionally low playability ratings. The developers may soon be seeking other employment.

Advance comments from various reviewers:

“The developers apparently took the concept of Crash and Reboot, and turned it into
a game of death and rebirth.”

“The soundtrack will probably rank among the worst for several galaxies around. The jarring and grating noises disturb all neighboring solar systems.”

“If you are looking for nothing but addiction, this game is for you.”

“Interesting rough draft, but not quite ready for beta testing. Vast potential left undeveloped. Never quite got the hang of that loneliness feature.”

“This game is cleverly designed to suck the life energy out of the players, without the players being able to discern who ends up with their energy.”

“Unimaginative to the point that if banality were king, Life on 3D Planet Earth would rule the universe.”

“Divine Love, the Universal Essence, is replaced by something called fear. Joy is replaced by a strange idea called seriousness. Life is replaced by a device called entropy. The game requires massive amounts of energy to learn, and then you wish you hadn’t learned any of it.”

“This reviewer confesses to copping out before attaining Elite Level.”

All Spun Out

Proterrian marvels at the endurance of the Elite Level players. “Each of you has been racing for ages on the Hamster Wheel of Karma and Reincarnation. Indeed, you have been spinning your wheels in the mud for eons.”

The final steps: Click on quit. The game will ask, “Are you sure?” Click on yes. Write your review. Click on Uninstall.

And now for the burning question: As a professional game reviewer, how many stars will you give Life on 3D Planet Earth?

Timothy Glenn
http://soulpurposereadings.com/

The Oracle Report ~ Saturday, August 24 – Sunday, August 25, 2013

I’ve now had two people mention to me how strongly they resonated with the weekend’s Oracle Report, so I thought I’d follow my nudge to post it. Lots going on under the surface and then bubbling up for sharing.

The Oracle Report

Saturday, August 24 – Sunday, August 25, 2013

Disseminating Moon Phase: sharing, teaching, learning, introspection

Moon: Aries/Taurus

Ruling Mahavidya: Bhairavi and Shodashi

Today we begin the Disseminating Moon phase. Disseminating Moon phase is the time of the lunar month when we share with others and receive feedback that helps the wish/intention we set back at the New Moon phase to become stronger. We do not need to share or disclose the wish or intention per se. We share ourselves and, in the process, we not only receive messages and information that is helpful to us, but we provide messages and information that is helpful to others. Disseminating Phase is about communication.

We have ample power for communication and sharing from the Disseminating Moon phase combined with this weekend’s conjunction of Mercury (the Planet of Communication!) and the Sun. You will want to follow inner prompts to share information, go certain places, see certain people, pick up a specific book, talk to someone in particular, etc. Synchronicities abound, so pay close attention.

In the pattern of the Moon phases shifting between active and passive states, Full Moon phase is “active” and Disseminating Moon phase is “passive.” Even though we are taking action when we share with others, the mission is more about introspecting on the information we are receiving. Receiving is passive. Wise owls go inside themselves and observe in order to learn. Disseminating Phase always feels to me like playing the game “Clue” when I was younger (it has since lost its appeal; I tried it again recently). We are on the trail to learn more about our mystery (our wish or intention).

But this works best when we are willing to follow our intutition and share what we are prompted to share. In this way, we collaborate with others to bring about everyone’s wish or intention. We are part of their dream.

This does not mean what we hear from others is the way it is or the way it will be. It’s to be taken on board for consideration. The process of consideration (introspection) is what strengthens the wish or intention. Take the best and ignore the rest.

We have some particularly strong astrological energies coming up this week, primarily the approach of the Black Moon to oppose Pluto (with the exact conjunction on Thursday). As I’ve discussed, this astrological energy is taking romantic relationships to different levels (ending altogether or going in a new direction). Black Moon/Pluto energy only affects romantic relationships that are serious. This energy is interested only in true love, not superficiality. Commitment issues and the desire for commitment are the main focus. Also, the strong feminine energy (wild power) that began yesterday will remain in effect for a few more weeks. The power to fall in love or fall back in love is exceptionally high.

While this is transpiring this week, Mercury and the Sun will oppose Neptune and begin opposition with Chiron. Mars will move out of soft and sensitive Cancer and into fiery and dramatic Leo.

This is a lot.

Translation: Power down this weekend and charge up your inner batteries. Sudden, deep, transformative realizations come from sharing with others and taking in what others are feeding back to us. Pay attention to nature. The Mahavidyas often communicate their teachings through the natural world. Remember that fortification of the heart is taking place this month, calling forth the spiritual warrior in each of us. Follow the mission of Disseminating Moon phase and share your time, your thoughts, your ideas, and your feelings with others and see what feeds back to you.

A Glorious Pre-Autumn Show

Well, the plants say it’s time for another garden update, because they’re showing signs of Fall. We had a cold week here a little while back, with nighttime temperatures in the 40’s! Cool, crisp days, some nice, heavy rains. The plants and I all wondered if Autumn might be making a very early appearance. In fact, my bell pepper plant stopped producing, and “told” me it was due to the cold weather, even though we were nowhere near frost. Last night while having a little ragweed sneezing “break” from sleep, I learned via the iPhone that bell pepper plants stop producing when they sense temperatures below 65 degrees. Who knew?! Certainly not I, but in the future, I will cover my peppers if it dips below 65 at night.

Even though my sunflowers are also looking rather advanced for their age — kinda droopy like Fall — I’m grateful at the moment to have as lush a garden as I do. David and I eat fresh produce every night, immediately harvested before food prep, and most lunches and smoothies feature some kind of garden fresh produce, too. Many people have told me that their tomato plants kicked it in the cold weather — blight seems to like those dewy days that don’t burn off. I’ve had to prune some spotted leaves, too, but I have a different problem here: the tomato plants have grown so huge that three of them tipped over the back of the garden this week, despite multiple cages per plant, plus various booby trapped stakings and stringings. They’re still producing like crazy, though. It seems like every day, we’re eating, giving away, freezing and/or dehydrating tomatoes here. By kindly tipping backwards (as requested by me if they felt the need to fall over), they freed up a lot more sunny space for the rest of the “Bed Bed,” which has burst forth with even more color and productivity.

That yellow marigold in the back hadn’t been flowering, because the tomato kept shading it. Suddenly, she has exploded in blossoms, and the Dwarf Siberian Kale has never been happier. I love how the lavender, geraniums, marigolds, onion and cauliflower “trap crop” just love on each other in a rainbow of colors.

Nasturtiums have also taken off. They and the nearby parsley have doubled in size just this past week.

Part of this week’s grind has been filling the rest of the “Guarden” bed, the white structure that will eventually have a cold frame on it. (No affiliate link. I just think it’s a cool product!) That thing takes 600 pounds of soil, and guess what? I hauled it and mixed it all myself. Sheesh! That was a lot of heavy, stinky “Chickety Doo Doo” work. Yesterday, while I finished up the rest of the loading, I glanced over at the “Bed Bed” (a repurposed Sleep Number Bed Frame that performs far better as a garden than it ever did as a bed!). I had a brief moment wondering why I’ve worked so hard to set up this yard and realized that I really haven’t even touched the permaculture aspects yet. I’ve just been trying to get the garden itself up and running. I wasn’t feeling particularly like a partner with Nature, but rather a bit of a crazy faery lady planting flowers and veggies all over the place. At just that moment, I glanced at the Bed Bed and saw a Giant Swallowtail butterfly happily sipping away on the zinnias.

I didn’t have my phone on me at the time, and anyway, I was coated in dirt so wouldn’t have wanted to photograph right then. Here’s a picture I found on Wikipedia, though:

Giant Swallowtail (photo from Wikipedia)

This butterfly followed me around the yard as I picked up dandelion puffballs and carefully walked them to a collection bag away from the freshly filled Guarden bed. Then she would hoppity bop her way back to the zinnias, over to the explosion of color in the InstaBed:

… and then back to the zinnias. I felt this butterfly was a “she” for some reason, and she kept me company along with the hoverflies who seemed most interested in my next project, preparing a medicinal herb bed for next Spring:

beginning to lasagna garden an herb bed, which will be mulched to high heaven later next week

For some reason, those hoverflies really love that part of the yard. I don’t know if it’s the watermelon:

Jubilee watermelon growing in a crate

Or perhaps the happy cantaloupe growing up the trellis, also growing in crates:

In any case, the hoverflies zipped around me this afternoon, too, while I added sand, peat moss, lime and mushroom compost on top of the newspapers and cardboard. Hoverflies are super cool! They look like giant striped bees — these ones were black and white with a hint of red — but they don’t sting.

I haven’t had any trouble with bees or wasps. Last year, we had a wasp nest close to our little strip of garden on the side of our Madison house. They stung our neighbor when he moved our garbage can, which conveniently kept him out of my garden, where I had previously asked him not to tread. He was afraid of those wasps! He’d joke with me that ours was the only house on the block that he wouldn’t go near because “‘o’ them wasps!” I told him I’d just send a preemptive message, “Comin’ thru, comin’ thru, I mean you no harm,” and they would part like the Red Sea. Never had an issue with them at all.

This year, we have bees galore, mostly bumble bees, which are apparently, the most efficient pollinators, even above honey bees. In the front sunflower and bee-friendly bed, I often see twenty or more bees in a two square foot area that I’m trying to water. Every once in awhile they’ve gotten a bit angry with me for interrupting their meal, but I send a quick, “Hey! I planted these flowers, and if I weren’t watering them, they wouldn’t be here. So don’t give me any of that buzz, alright? If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be eating these flowers, because they wouldn’t be here. Got it?” Then they happily move on to a different flower without harassing me at all. In the back gardens, I often see too many bees to count sipping on the flowering oregano:

I somehow managed to get them to clear away for the photo, because in the past they’ve buzzed around my head and hands making me fear dropping my iPhone in a flower bed!

I also finally just let the arugula flower instead of pinching off the flowers multiple times per day so I could keep harvesting greens. We have enough greens, and if this arugula wants to make seed so badly, so be it! I will replant some in the new raised bed.

The bees are loving the arugula flowers, and now the nearby bush basil and Italian basil want to know why I keep pinching their flowers. “I’m not done with you yet!” I tell them. “You’ll just die after you go to seed, and wouldn’t you rather become a delicious pesto and have me honor you all winter when I savor your flavor from this summer?” As a matter of fact, they would — for now. Speaking of speaking to plants, I am reading a wonderful library book called “Old-Time Gardening Wisdom: Lessons learned from Grandma Putt’s kitchen cupboard, medicine cabinet, and garden shed!” Page 76 of Jerry Baker’s book reads:

“Talk to your plants!

“That’s what made me famous many, many years ago, and I still strongly believe in that philosophy today! …

“Believe you me, talking to vegetables, shrubs, grass, trees, and flowers is not a kooky or crazy thing to do. Any doctor worth his degree will tell you you’re not a nut if you talk with the living, growing things in your garden. …

“Grandma Putt said anyone who has been gardening for a very long time has to be a great plant communicator. Why? Because they are most likely reaping as much news from their gardens as there is in the newspaper they use for mulch!

“So, if you want to have green-thumb growing success, get out there and start gabbing with your plants … the minute they stick their heads above ground!”

I highly recommend this book, BTW. I wouldn’t try everything in here, but I’m finding all sorts of affirmations of things I just “felt to do” in the garden, including having faery bling and other metal things. One chapter is called “Electrify Your Garden” and describes an old method of using metal to charge the air in the garden, increasing nitrogen for your plants. This is especially noticeable after storms. That’s according to Jerry Baker, his Grandma Putt, lots of scientists and yours truly. Of course, the faeries claim it’s them making the plants grow so well as a thank you for flowers and bling. Whatever works. 😉

Anyhoo, just a little pre-Autumn beauty in the garden, which sustains me as I take on ever larger areas and challenges in this crazy old yard.

Cheers!