Synchronicity and the Road

Pre-historic Mississippian culture gorget

West Kennet crop circle, 2009

 'For Jung, Tarnas noted, “all events, inner and outer, whether emanating from the human consciousness or from the larger matrix of the world, were recognized as sources of potential and spiritual significance.”

I thought about that last quote for a while. It seems that once you recognize coincidence as meaningful, once you’re in the flow of it, the inner self and the larger outer matrix whisper constantly to each other. All we need to do is listen."

Trish MacGregor, Synchrosecrets Blog

I love the wonderful blog on synchronicity created by writers Trish and Rob MacGregor, which never fails to give me insight and affirmation of my own experiences of synchronicity.   So I take the liberty of quoting above from that blog.

I will be teaching at Sirius Rising and at Starwood this summer, as well as at the Studio on Broadway in Newburgh, NY (more on that later). I've also been wanting to visit a shamanic healer who has been very influential for me, Jewell, who lives in Shutesbury, Mass., a new friend also in that area, artist Valerianna, and the Sirius Community, also in Shutesbury.   I've been feeling very stale, and have felt more and more strongly that I had to get on the road, to refresh, get into flow, open up, connect.   I have many responsibilities here, so getting things together to leave is no small task, and I was planning on leaving the first of July.  But I've been feeling so strangely agitated that it seemed a long way off.  

Last week I was sitting at a table talking with someone about my Spider Woman project, the meaning of the myth to me.  During a pause in the conversation, I noticed a transparent strand with a tiny spider.............no one had noticed except me as it dropped down to hang right at eye level!   Later that day a little spider was seen hanging right in the middle of my windshield...............The next day I received a phone call from a friend in Sedona, inviting me to come up the following week (now) to see the Grand Canyon, visit Sedona, and possibly attend a Hopi ceremony.   I said yes!

 "I let my life be guided by a strange language that I call “signs”. I know that the world is talking to me, I need to listen to it, and if I do so I shall always be guided towards what is most intense, passionate and beautiful. Of course, it is not always easy.

If you trust life, life will trust you."

          Paolo Coelho



One last amazing synchronicity:  just the day before yesterday I received a order for a large Green Man mask (the Green Man, of course, symbolizes the return of life in the spring).  The mask is to be sent to..................Shutesbury, Massachusetts!    There are hundreds of little towns in Massachusetts – what are the odds!  So, I leave feeling encouraged by the universe. Jewell's  center in Shutesbury is called “The Source”, and all she does is about Earth spirituality.   

Om Tare, Tu Tare, 
From you, the demons of delusion fly
Praise Tara, whose fingers adorn her heart
Light radiates from a wheel in Your hand.

Caroline Myss talks about learning to think in symbolic terms, as did Carl Jung, who coined the term "synchronicity".  If we begin to think of not only our dreams, but also the often amazingly synchronized experiences of our  "awake dreams" in symbolic terms, as Trish commented, "the inner self and the larger outer matrix whisper constantly to each other."    There is a lot for me to ponder in this.  Not the least, that in a sense, the beginning of my fascination with Spider Woman began with Jewel, at her workshop on shamanic theatre, where I first began to "personify" Spider Woman.  It was, in fact, the "Source".  Not only that, but when working with Jewell all those years ago as I recovered from a messy divorce, I had one of the most profound visionary experiences of my life, my "vision of Tara" .  That was a very profound experience that also set me on the path of Compassion, and the Goddess.  Again..........THE SOURCE.



So.  It is time to return again, not only to Vermont and Massachusetts, to New York where I once lived,  not only to see my healer and friend Jewell,  but, to The Source. 
 
 And.............the Greenman, the source as well, the source of renewal of life in the spring.  Here is a poem I wrote about The Greenman, so long ago, and on an enchanting summer day in Vermont:

Remember me, try to remember.
I am that laughing man with eyes like leaves.
When you think that winter will never end, I will come.
You will feel my breath, a vine caressing your foot.
I am the blue eye of a crocus opening in the snow
a trickle of water, a shaft of light among the trees:

You will hear me singing
among the green groves of memory,
and the shining leaves of tomorrow.

I'll come with daisies in my hands,
we'll dance among the sycamores
once more

Lauren Raine 1996

I've been rushing around like crazy trying to get things done, and lo and behold, today is the day, car is packed, and, with Spider Woman as my Co-Pilot, I'm ready to leave for points north, and then points very east, just about as east as I can go until I run into the Hudson River.   May She give us all............a finely tuned Webbed Vision.  Blessings of the Journey to all my friends who read this.

 

Connected: An Autobiography about Love, Death and Technology

"We as humans have accumulated so much knowledge.  Why do we have such a hard time seeing the bigger picture?"........for centuries we've been declaring independance:  perhaps it's finally time to declare our interdependance."

One of my favorite books is Leonard Shlain's 1997 "The Alphabet Vs the Goddess".  It was my privilege to meet Dr. Shlain briefly when I was living in Berkeley, and his book was influential for me.  I was saddened to learn that he passed away in 2009, and in many ways, this provocative, funny,  and delightful film by his daughter, filmmaker Tiffany Shlain is a tribute to him. 

As someone who follows the Trail  of the Spider Woman, ever wondering at the new ways She has found to remind us of the Web, I'm nevertheless from a generation prior to computers, cellphones or even, heaven forbid, color xerox.  So I don't always know what to think of all this.  I remember last winter I went with some friends to an expensive Indian restaurant.  As we enjoyed our food and ambiance, we all noticed, at the candlelit table next to us, a well dressed young couple.  Both of them sat with heads bent over the little illuminated boxes in their hands, tapping away on them, and we had to admit, this was another generation.  We figured they were probably talking to each other.


"Have you ever faked a restroom trip to check your email? Slept with your laptop? Or become so overwhelmed that you just unplugged from it all? In this funny, eye-opening, and inspiring film, Director Tiffany Shlain takes audiences on an exhilarating rollercoaster ride to discover what it means to be connected in the 21st century. From founding The Webby Awards to being a passionate advocate for The National Day of Unplugging, Her love/hate relationship with technology serves as the springboard for a thrilling exploration of modern life…and our interconnected future"


To watch the film for free! :  http://connectedthefilm.com/

Trailer:

Encouraging News! Global Protest and Native Seeds.......

 In my previous article about Monsanto I shared two important movies, and information I've gleaned about the influence this corporation has on our government, and indeed, many governments.  But Saturday may have seen the first Global Protest against a Global Corporate Power - and that is a  very hopeful thing!

And while I'm thinking of hopeful things, Tucson has a wonderful organization called Native Seed Search that has been collecting and archiving food crops, such as blue corn, mesquite, and amaranth, that are indigenous to the arid lands of the Southwest, and the native peoples who lived here.  http://www.nativeseeds.org/   Native Seeds/SEARCH conserves, distributes and documents the adapted and diverse varieties of agricultural seeds, their wild relatives and the role these seeds play in cultures of the American Southwest and northwest Mexico, and  promote the use of these ancient crops and their wild relatives by gathering, safeguarding, and distributing their seeds to farming and gardening communities. They are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Tucson, Az.
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkt6zvHw89Y&feature=player_embedded#!

One Nation Under Monsanto? Where has Democracy Gone?

I was so happy to see national protests yesterday against Monsanto.   One of the  Senate's latest insults to Americans this week was to PROHIBIT states from legislating labeling of GMO food.   Hows that for contempt?  Not even bothering to hide the fact that Monsanto controls the Senate?  Here's a video of  yesterday's protests against Monsanto drawing a reported 2 million in 400 cities worldwide to the streets:

 http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10236

Congress passed a bill in March that gave Monsanto special exceptions to proceed with GMOs even if such crops were thought to be dangerous (the so called "Monsanto Protection Act")

http://www.infowars.com/senate-passes-monsanto-protection-act-granting-monsanto-power-over-us-govt/  

 This week the Senate refused by a 27-71 vote the Bernie Sanders Amendment to the Farm Bill that would have permitted states to pass bills requiring GMO labeling, effectively FORBIDDING STATES from labeling GMO engineered foods .  In essence telling the American public that this corporate entity can do whatever it wants without determining first what will be the environmental  impact, and, the American people will not be allowed to know that they are eating GMO foods.   

There is a Change.org petition to Obama to repeal the "Monsanto Protection Act", but I doubt it will do any good  now that the Senate has explicitly voted to prohibit labeling of GMOs for States.  http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-president-obama-to-repeal-the-monsanto-protection-act-repeal-the-monsanto-protection-act

 A few weeks back I posted a TED Talk by Lawrence Lessing about, in essence, corporate ownership of our government, which was once a democracy.  And the Multi-National Corporate State is doing a very bad job of governing, since, with climate change, destruction of the oceans, fracking what's left of the underground water tables............need I go on?...................their profits are going to be very bad in the not too distant future, because there won't be many people left to "consume" what little is left. 

 

And there is no Corporation more powerful, or scary, than Monsanto, a corporate entity that is busy playing God/dess with absolute impunity.   I posted previously about the "Monsanto Protection Act" that was just passed, and feel, in good conscience, that I need to post further for the benefit of any who may not know about why people have been marching this week against Monsanto.  Below  is the   documentary "The World According to Monsanto".   Having watched it, I BELIEVE EVERYONE NEEDS TO SEE THIS FILM.  This is truly monumental, and frightening, whether we're hearing a French scientist report that the universally used weedkiller Roundup "provokes the cell division leading to the formation of cancer", to the almost complete  loss of independent farms and  biodiversity in Uruguay.   
 

In India farmers are being driven to suicide because they can no longer, due the fact that Monsanto completely controls the cotton seed market,  afford to plant their traditional crops (Monsanto and the Seeds of Suicide).  As a result, they are falling deeper and deeper into debt, losing their lands, and being displaced from traditional homelands.  

 

Indiana farmer Troy Rouse talks, in the film (below) about being sued by Monsanto. (If you grow organic or conventional,  and your neighbor grows Monsanto, the two will likely cross, making you legally liable to be sued by Monsanto when they field test your seeds.)  Further, seed crops are being designed to be sterile, so that future planting must be purchased anew from the corporation****.    This means that  essential food crops could be controlled by a corporate entity demanding a tax which it can determine at will.  And what will happen if modified seeds escape into the gene pool, now that Monsanto has  carte blanche to proceed without appropriate controls  or even visibility to consumers?   

 http://youtu.be/N6_DbVdVo-k




****http://youtu.be/eUd9rRSLY4A

Update on the Bosnian Pyramids

 

In 2011 when I went to the Glastonbury Symposium, I was blown away by learning about the work of  Sam Semir Osmanagic, the visionary amateur archeologist who is attempting to excavate what he believes is a pyramid complex in Bosnia.   I admire Dr. Osmanagic's dedication and vision, and have been rather disgusted by the way, as so often happens, he has been pooh-poohed and called a fraud, although in all fairness, there are many who support him, including the President of Malaysia who visited the site.  I love Wikipedia, but their dismissal of his work is very disappointing and I think reflects a prejudice.  The fact is, if he's right,  this is the highest pyramid in the world, and the complex is 10,000 + years old.  Such a discovery would re-write what we think we know about the ancient world, and what we know about ancient Europe.

One of the developments I've been following (oh, to be young, and go volunteer to dig for a summer!  What fun that would be!)  is the discovery of what may very well be a concrete/cement that was used to construct the (as yet unproven) pyramids.  This could mean that not only were the ancients creating intentional geomantic environments that were sacred landscapes***, but they had building technologies some 10,000 years ago that included making cement.

"Results released by the Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy of chemical and diffractometry laboratory analysis done on sandstone and conglomerate blocks taken from the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun show that the samples are an inert material with a binding, similar to that found in ancient Roman concrete. These results were confirmed by analysis on the samples done at the University of Zenica,Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Stone terrace made from sandstone plates on top of the Bosnian "Pyramid of the Moon", September 2008  More photos: http://www.bosnianpyramidofthesun.com/

In a separate independent test, Professor Joseph Davidovits,  member of the International Association of Egyptologists and author confirms this claim. “I performed electron microscopic analysis of the sample and I propose the geopolymer chemistry that was used to make this is ancient concrete,”  http://www.davidovits.info/34/the-pyramids-in-bosnia-europe-perhaps-in-roman-concrete

He further adds that the sample is composed of “a calcium/potassium-based geopolymer cement and that although he cannot date the sample, he can discern that it is not modern concrete, but more like the technique used by the Egyptians 3500 years ago.” In his book "The Pyramids: an Enigma Solved" ,Davidovits proposes that Egyptian pyramids were constructed using agglomerated stone (limestone cast like concrete)."

Outside walls of the Bosnian "Pyramid of the Sun" made of the concrete conglomerate blocks, Northern side, July 2008

Christopher Dunn, author of The Giza Power Plant (1996) writes that the pyramids were "ancient energy machines" or power sources that channelled geo-magnetic energy, which is currently a popular theory among researchers. The pyramids of Bosnia have the same elements that define the structure of an ancient "power generator system."

http://beforeitsnews.com/beyond-science/2013/04/30000-year-old-bosnian-pyramids-built-with-man-made-cement-2441772.html 

What do we really know?  What knowledge might we have lost?  Fascinating to speculate.  Atlantis rising.......... 

http://youtu.be/f1BOT928Jn4



***A great Blog that follows the Bosnian Pyramids excavation, as well as discussion on related themes is Old Europe   (http://bpblognews.blogspot.com/).  Here I've copied from an article:

"In ancient times architecture was considered not only a creation of form to limit or define space, but also inherently a sacred form that concentrated beneficial earth and cosmic energies and dispersed harmful earth and cosmic energies. The subtle energies of earth and cosmos were taken very seriously in the spiritually advanced societies of the past. The ancients were conscious that certain architectural features transformed invisible energetic fields that exercise subtle but predictable influences on the human body and on the environment.

In spite of our scientific progress in the modern day, we still know very little, in comparison to the ancients, about the relation of forms both natural and artificial to subtle and invisible but potent energies from earth and sky. Since 2006, researchers from many different disciplines have visited the Bosnian Pyramid Valley. These researchers have made pioneering discoveries that have allowed us to dramatically expand our modern understanding of the nature and purpose of the Bosnian pyramids and pyramid structures across the planet. A two-year study performed by biologist Dr. Sulejman Redžić from the Faculty for Natural Sciences at the University of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, has shown that the soil temperature on the Bosnian pyramids and nearby areas is 5 degrees Celsius warmer than elsewhere in Bosnia.

Astonishingly, Dr. Redžić was able to identify several plant species on the pyramids that are typical of warmer Mediterranean climate zones. This means that these ancient pyramid structures create an artificial microclimate in the Visoko Valley. U.K. scientist Dr. Harry Oldfield developed a photographic method similar to Kirlian photography that captures the "shapes" of electromagnetic energy in a two-dimensional photograph.

Images: rising energy fields of the Bosnian pyramids

Dr. Oldfield's photos of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun showed that the electromagnetic fields above the pyramids are oriented toward the vertical rather than the horizontal. This is unusual because the electromagnetic patterns above natural features such as hills and mountains are normally vertically oriented. Vertically oriented electromagnetic fields are characteristic of artificial (manmade) structures. In addition, Dr. Oldfield recorded more activity than expected, with strong electromagnetic fields above the Bosnian Pyramid of The Sun.

Corroborating Dr. Oldfield's findings, Dr. Slobodan Mizdrak, a physicist from Zagreb, Croatia, led a team of experts who measured both electromagnetic radiation in the Bosnian pyramid complex in 2010 and 2012. The team also measured an unusual 28 kHz ultrasound phenomenon exiting the top of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun. A two-day experiment in April 2012 demonstrated that the source of the ultrasound "energy beam" is beneath the pyramid at a depth of 2440 metres (1.86 miles). Analysis of collected data has shown that a metallic plate located deep under the pyramid in combination with underground water flows and unexpectedly high concentrations of negative ions generates electric power of more than 10 kilowatts. 

Image: artistic reconstruction of the Central Fire

The presence of high concentrations of negative ions has also been detected also in other locations of the valley, namely inside Ravne tunnel labyrinth. Different measurements performed during the past six years have shown a tremendous increase in negative ions inside the tunnel system, reaching levels of up to 40,000 ions per cubic centimeter 200 meters inside the tunnel system. Negative ions are atoms or molecules that have more electrons than protons in their nuclei. Series of analyses in the last 120 years have proven that negative ions clean the air of dust, spores, mold and pollen and provide numerous health benefits to human beings. Thousands of people who have visited the underground tunnel labyrinth during the past six years have been able to experience the healing power of this negative ion-rich location.  

Janez Pelko, a Slovenia researcher who studied the effects on the human aura of a short stay in Ravne tunnel labyrinth, demonstrated that the human aura increases and reconstitutes itself significantly in almost 80% of cases among people after a one-hour stay inside the tunnel labyrinth. Janez Pelko's research is mainly inspired by the work of Prof. Konstantin G. Korotkov, a renown Russian scientist who invented the Gas Discharge Visualization technique (GDV), which represents a breakthrough beyond Kirlian photography, allowing direct, real-time viewing of human energy fields.

Thus we come to the conclusion that ancient cultures had developed an understanding of the subtle effects of various invisible life energies and created structures to both generate and magnify them."

February 21, 2013, The Invisible but Vital Life Energies of the Bosnian Pyramid Valley

Pagan Humor.........

 

The Great Tunisian Kiss-In

Photo by Said Koriche 

There are times when I'm amazed at how human beings can turn reality on its ears.  It is illegal to kiss in public in Tunisia, where fundamentalists are becoming prominent (ever notice how so many governments, in various flavors, always seem to attract people who love guns and hate love in any form?)

The good news for Tunisia is that after a couple was arrested for kissing hundreds of young people defiantly turned out en masse for a kiss-in on Bourguiba Avenue, under the slogan, "Let them arrest all the lovers in Tunisia".  Bravo!  There's hope yet!