Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep, because our salvation is nearer than when we came to believe. Romans 13:11
There is a natural cycle within all creatures and within the Earth itself, of waking and sleeping. Winter solstice is a time of longest night, but in that darkness, we are called to arise from sleep and become aware of our inner Light.
Every year since His birth, “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” Says Matthew, quoting Isaiah 9:2
To participate in a more conscious manner in this great cosmic event, we can ponder the mighty forces in the heavens that guide and protect humanity, even in our mass ignorance. Outer darkness will always give way to inner Light.
Gaze within your body, to our beautiful, wondrous beating heart, floating in the heavenly pericardium sac, imagine replacing all fear with Love, Light and Life—receiving the gift of faith. This living faith in the heart images the birth of our Master, Jesus Christ, as He was born in a humble cave and unknown by the outer world (save a few who were receptive to the heavenly messengers).
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called wonderful., Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)
May the blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ be upon us and bring peace.
From Father Paul:
As it was in the Testament, so it is today with us; for in our own endeavor bringing brothers into the Light of Christ, we are showing the greatest of concern for the salvation, as it is said in the church, or bringing them into illumination … and showing the evolution and the worth of the human soul. …
We then become the shepherd who rescues the lost sheep that Jesus taught about. So it is with us. We teach to bring the Light of Christ to each man, thus purifying the body. Through the baptism we bring that soul into a state of declaration of intent. For it is God’s Will that no soul be lost. And the offering of our communion of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is a means through which the absolution is obtained from past errors or, as the church puts it, sins…
The very purpose of our spiritual development and cosmic unfoldment such as we are striving for in these higher levels of life in this order, the Holy Order of Mans, is not to make ourselves appear outwardly different in form or color or features, but to bring about that great rejuvenation from within, and that attunement with the higher forces of the universe that will bring us a degree of immortalization, that everlasting Life which Jesus spoke of. ..
I made one statement when this order started: I said only the strong shall survive. I still say only the strong shall survive, because only they can be of help to the world at large, in piloting man’s evolution into a state of peace and reality. For it is the nations of the world we have to contend with also, and the people. And only those who really work with their being and the powers and gifts they have been given can move these things and keep them going down the right track. Now, it is up to you.
Mediator I
A mediator is a go-between, one who interposes between two parties in order to harmonize or reconcile them. The great Christ is the Mediator of this solar system. He diffuses unto all of creation the Light, Life and the Charity of the Father.
Here on the Earth, the Lord Jesus Christ is the Mediator between us and the Great Christ– for Jesus says: “Only through Me shall you see the Face of the Father.” Through Jesus’ consciousness and His mantle, men can reach the great reality of themselves and their Father.
The term go-between is a very realistic term. It points out the realness of our Lord Jesus and His great function for man, who has lost all consciousness of life and of the Great Creator of the life.
Man struggles along in life — straining with those things of the earth — striving to have two cars, two houses…to have a good-paying job, to have a nice-looking woman, and all other worldly goods.
The whole of a man’s existence today is wrapped up within himself. He no longer can reach out from himself to see the world as it truly is. For, even as he walks down the street, he sees the buildings and those passing by through his own thoughts and with all of his biasness and narrow-mindedness, he sees but not even a fourth of the material world.
The use of a go-between here is one who has reached and sees past the things of the world — the concepts and ideas of man — and reaches into the greatness of the Creator without opinion and without desire. Thus, he links the two together — being on earth, but giving out the Truth and the Light and the Reality of the One World.
Jesus stated in the New Testament: “For, lo, I will be with you unto the end of the Age.” He is ever-present and always at hand — unifying man and the Creator. He is a channel of the Great Light and Wisdom of the Father for the earth.
In prayer — when one reaches his mind and his Soul upward towards the Creator — he travels through this Great Master — for He has given Himself as a channel for the Word.
Man can no longer stand the Light, or the Truth of God, so there has been placed for him a Mediator, who brings things down to the level man can understand and cope with. By man’s act of harmonizing himself with this Mediator, he then becomes in harmony with the One for whom the Mediator mediates for.Jesus says “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light.” Thus, He took on the greatness of God while here on earth that man could see it. After the ascension, His spiritual body diffused around the earth and thus, became the mystical body of Christ of which all men, whom receive the Light of Christ, become living, moving, active cells within this body of which the ruler of this body is the God head.
To get in tune with the Mediator, one must follow, implicitly, all of this Commandments which bring forth out of the depths of man the great love for his Creator.
From Medpage MD online: One in five people who survive cardiac arrest after cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) may recall lucid experiences of death, with detection of rhythmic brain waves suggestive of near-death experiences, reported Sam Parnia, MD, PhD, director of critical care and resuscitation research at NYU Langone Health.
“We wanted to do a study to understand what people really experience when they’ve gone to the brink of death and are brought back, and [whether we] could find any brain markers that support what millions of people have been saying for decades — that they have lucid and heightened consciousness when they are on the verge of death,” Parnia told MedPage Today.
The study, which was recently presented at a Resuscitation Science Symposium during the American Heart Association annual meeting in Chicago, involved 567 people whose hearts stopped beating while hospitalized and received CPR from May 2017 to March 2020 in the U.S. and the U.K.
Of these individuals, 53 survived; 28 completed interviews, and 11 reported cardiac arrest memories or perceptions suggestive of consciousness, Parnia said.
More specifically, survivors reported having unique lucid experiences, such as perceiving a separation from their body, or observing events without pain or distress, he added.
One survivor recalled a perceived separation from their body, noting “I found myself well above the operating theater.” According to another survivor, “I went through a tunnel at high speed. It was wonderful there, and I did not want to come back.”
They also reported experiences that included a meaningful evaluation of life, including their actions, intentions, and thoughts towards others.
One explained that “I was given a life review … during the review, we revisit scenes from our life.” Another noted, “I saw my entire life in great detail, and experienced feelings through it of satisfaction, shame, repentance.”
The researchers found the experiences of death to be different from things like hallucinations, delusions, or CPR-induced consciousness.
Notably, the study also included tests for hidden brain activity, with the researchers finding spikes of brain activity, including gamma, delta, theta, alpha, and beta waves, up to an hour into CPR.
Finding brain markers up to an hour into resuscitation is suggestive of lucid, heightened consciousness, Parnia said.
According to Parnia, the implications of the study may include showing that social conventions surrounding death are antiquated and that experiences people have in relation to death are unique, rather than hallucinations or delusions.
The researchers concluded that studies to date have not been able to definitively prove the reality or meaning of patients’ near-death experiences, but no study has ever disproved them either.
THURSDAY NIGHT TAROT transcripts of talks by Jason Lotterhand on The Empress:
ABOUT TWO THOUSAND YEARS AGO, the Christian Fathers decided to get rid of Isis. This is like waving your hand and saying you’re going to do away with the sun, moon, and stars; their decision was just about as effective. Since the human mind is constituted in such a way that people will believe almost anything, and by the same token will disbelieve almost anything, the concept of Isis was completely sidetracked. However, it has never really gone away. Isis is not dead, not by any stretch of the imagination. The Divine Mother exists, much to the amazement of everybody, despite being put down for centuries in the Western world, although not in the East. Isis is a force that can’t really be downed. She simply went underground with the greatest of ease. She has stayed in her crystalline, subterranean cave and awaited her time. The rediscovery of this principle is a delightful surprise for many people. We are in a time when the feminine aspect is being recognized for what it really is. The Divine Mother is becoming part and parcel of our religion and that is a good thing for everybody. It used to be that way in the old days and it will be that way again. In terms of a worshipful being, if anybody deserves our appreciation, it is the spirit that Key 3 represents. The Church tried to turn Isis into the Virgin Mary because there was an outcry about the ancient Divine Mother getting swept under the rug [NOTE by SOM editor—small minded dogmatists did that, but Mary embodies the divine feminine and Isis in reality] but the [dogmatists’] concept of the Blessed Virgin omits the tremendous natural support we receive every moment of our lives from the feminine principle. Isis represents the entire life support system that makes it possible for us to exist on this planet. There is absolutely no way that there can be any substitute for women as far as motherhood and the propagation of the race is concerned. Although some people don’t care whether the race continues or not, apparently Mother Nature is seeing to it that the race does continue. The handmaidens in this activity are women, not men. Using the feminine principle, we recreate ourselves in occult work. The woman within each of us is our CREATIVE IMAGINATION. That is the area of our psyche where we receive inspiration and nurture ourselves and our creations. If you want information you go to the university, to Alma Mater, the all-inclusive receptacle of wisdom and knowledge. The ultimate place to apply for knowledge and information is Nature herself–Isis, in other words. There’s an old saying, “If you want to know what’s cooking, ask Mother.” If you exclude Mother from your assessment of what you think is going on, you are making a sad mistake as far as the Cabalists are concerned. The Cabala goes back a long time to the days when Isis was venerated in the Middle East. Everyone was aware of her as the source of all nurturing and all inner and outer knowledge. Key 3 is ample evidence of the existence of Isis. She was the same mother who cooks your breakfast and gives you lunch and dinner. She was a good mother. That’s the way Isis was, very close, not far away, not abstract. Consequently, everybody in every conceivable walk of life could understand and love Isis as God. Today we have to remember that Isis is alive and well. We love her because she is our mother. If you don’t love her, the consequences are serious. For one thing you may find that your bones . . . are. . . getting . . . drier.
In astrology, Key 3 represents Venus, the aspect of Isis as the desirable one. …She is the part of life that we can touch and are close to. The abstract, masculine aspect is difficult to approach. That’s Wisdom (on the Tree of Life, Chokmah the Father. The only way we can get any inkling of what that is like is through the agency of Understanding, Binah the Mother. Binah’s symbol is the cup, the Holy Grail, which is able to receive the message that’s transmitted from the other side of the Tree. Insofar as we have associated ourselves with that cup, we too can catch the inspiration that comes from Chokmah. Of course we mustn’t divide everything in two’s. That would be a mistake because everything is one, not two. This is simply the description of a process.
As I’ve said before, the ultimate adventure is to reach the Holy Grail. We can’t go any farther than that because we become as one with the principle of Binah, who contains all within herself. The root of the Cabala is receptivity. As long as we are willing, we can and will receive our heart’s desire. There are sayings like, “Greater things than these are laid up for you.” These sayings are true but they don’t become real for you until you’ve experienced them. The machinery of the Tarot and Cabala can get you to the point where you can experience all these spiritual verities you’ve heard about. The main symbol in Key 3 is the heart. In Tarot symbolism, the right hand is the active hand. Venus embraces the heart with her right hand, indicating that love is her primary concern. The law of the Mother is love. If you want to connect with her, you have to practice love. We can approach nature through science, of course, but the direct approach is through the heart, through feelings. The dove that represents the Holy Spirit is seen moving in the heart, not in the head. After doing “neti, neti”* with the head, we finally grind it off and realize that meaning is found in the heart. The Holy Spirit is none other than Chokmah, the Life Force. In the Cabala there is no such thing as force without consciousness. This force -the spirit moving in matter-consists of life, intelligence, and energy. Alchemy calls it fire. The fancy Cabalistic talk that you hear about the fire in the water speaks of the fire of love in The Empress’s heart. The dove is colored white, the heraldic color of the Crown on the Tree of Life. We remember that white is the highest vibration in this particular system of coloration and discover that the dove in the heart is an exact parallel to grace in the Holy Grail. If you are looking for your spirit, this Key shows you where it is…
* (Sanskrit : नेति नेति) is a Sanskrit expression which means “not this, not this”, or “neither this, nor this”
With the eruption and flow of the Mauna Loa volcano on the island of Hawaii, many people are commenting and admiring the glow of Pele. Pele is the Hawaiian volcano deity meaning an elemental force or the creator of the beautiful volcanic landscapes.
According to tradition, Pele is embodied by the lava and natural forces typically associated with volcanic eruptions. Pele is believed to be born in the far land of Kahiki and voyaged to the Hawaiian Islands searching for a suitable home.
They report this journey taking place between 850 AD and 1250 AD. Pele migrated through the islands and eventually found her permanent home in Halemaʻumaʻu crater at the summit of Kilauea.
Pele now governs and dwells in the boundaries of Puna and Ka’u. Many Hawaiians revere Pele and consider her part of their ‘ohana.
Pele is also known to be an ʻaumakua, or deified ancestor, for people who live in the districts of Puna and Kaʻu on the Big Island.
What’s unique is her presence can be felt by those who visit the volcanic domains. It is customary to ask permission from Pele to travel through her land and take in the sacred landscape.
Pele is seen to be destructive but also creative when it comes to nature. Peleʻaihonua (Pele the eater of the land) describe her volcanic energy and have been shared by many Hawaiians over long periods of time. Ancient Hawaiian chants explain the function of Pele and how she created new land but also destroyed what was once there.
From Mother Ruth’s notes on HOOM history:
It was the Christmas of 1967 or ’68 that our first Christmas boxes of groceries were given to the needy, and thereafter this became a tradition, growing larger in scope each year. The Brothers went to store owners asking for food or toy donations, with strict orders that no one was to ask for money. With the food and toys thus received, they made up boxes and delivered them the day before Christmas to poor families whose names had been obtained from some source. In the basement were used clothing and other objects which were given out to persons who came in to look them over and choose what was needed.
It was probably this same Christmas Eve that Father and all of us walked from the Brotherhouse all the way down Market Street to the Powell Street cable car, singing carols all the way. We took the cable car to Fisherman’s Wharf and sang carols near the Franciscan restaurant. It was a cold night and few people were at the Wharf. On the cable car going back, the conductor rang his bell in accompaniment with our singing. It was lovely.
A Japanese startup company called Soundpower Corporation is tapping into a new energy source, generating both electricity and hope that it could contribute to the battle against global warming. The company’s flagship product, the revolutionary Power-Generating FloorTM, works by converting physical pressure into electricity and has a wide range of potential applications. Part of the appeal of this device is that it emits no greenhouse gases or other pollutants.
The Power-Generating FloorTM consists of tiles that convert vibrations caused by people or automobiles passing overhead into electricity. Within each roughly 50-centimeter-square tile is a crystalline substance called a piezoelectric element. When outside pressure is placed on these elements, electrical polarization occurs and generates an electric potential in proportion to the amount of force applied.
Since the devices draw their energy from plain physical force, they produce no harmful byproducts like carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases. And unlike fossil fuels, there is no need to worry about supplies running out. While output varies depending on the number of tiles, a step by a person weighing 60 kilograms normally generates 0.1 Watt of power.
Soundpower began testing its Power-Generating FloorTM in 2008, and in July of that year, corporate office design company Kokuyo Office System Co. had Power-Generating FloorTM tiles installed in its headquarters. The electricity generated from foot traffic causes green LED lights embedded in the tiles to switch on and illuminate the walkway.
Preparing the Way: The Holy Mother speaks to Her child at the threshold:
I love you, little star-flake
Do not weep to leave the bosom of God,
For there is a God on earth where I am sending you,
And he will be your father.
Do not cling to my robe, little one, for these swirls of my robe are the nebulae
You will see in the heavens there.
You tear my heart with your longing eyes, my child
But look, I am coming with you
There is a daughter of mine on earth,
And she will be your mother.
Even now the temple you see about you is her womb.
Do not fear to leave the land of Light.
I would not send you into darkness,
But in their hearts where I send you
The sun of your homeland burns.
They will know who you are for they know each other.
Even the smallness you have taken on they will love,
The flailing limbs, the eyes that do not see,
the leaves of the moon that fold about the sun.
They will hear your heart inside you cry.
They will see the wings of light, my wings,that enfold you all your life.
Even now they love you. They know, as we do, that in all births
It is one Child who is born.
Go now, little child.
In the eyes of your mother find me again
In your father’s heart find me.
Do not be afraid to put on this tiny disguise
How could they fail to recognize you, you who said to them,
I was hungry and you gave me food
I was thirsty and you gave me drink
I was a stranger and you took me in,
Naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you cared for me.
I was in prison and you came unto me.
So go to them, vast and ancient soul,
Go to them now
They are also waiting to be born.
–Liana Herbertson, from Mothering Magazine