“Striving to increase awareness of our spiritual natures as well as the news, technologies and agendas which influence them.”

Well it’s obvious there is quite enough material to keep us busy on the “news, technologies and agendas” part of that mission statement.  It’s the “increasing awareness of our spiritual natures” part that can be challenging, though it really is far more important.  We often cannot control our circumstances; only how we react to them.

I’m not going to preach, because truthfully every person has their own Walk, and goes at different rates.  Not everyone is ready to live completely in faith – though I can tell you for my own part, right now my own circumstances would have me feel like I am walking across the Abyss supported only by a warm breath of air.  It might seem like I’m in danger, but for some reason I never fall in.  By now I recognize the feeling, and the chasm itself, for what it is, and the Walk has gotten easier.  Not easy – just easier.

I’ve had eight years to work on this transformation within myself.  Seeing the world with new eyes, carefully witnessing the magic as well as the malicious; living in the Tao - living with this awareness of ‘God’ as an active participant in my life – it’s been a tremendous adjustment.   Some days I’m more tuned in than others; sometimes outer circumstances affect me, other times I easily find that center of stillness amidst the chaos.  It has taken a lot of focused, concentrated effort to get where I am, and I admit I still have a long way to go on my own spiritual Walk.  On the other hand if you knew me back in the ‘90s I imagine you’d be surprised at the person I’ve become. ;)

I lost a lot of friends at first.  Actually, nearly all of them disappeared.  I had become changed almost overnight, and it was hard on many of them, especially those so deeply committed to old habits.  It was hard on me too.  A few miraculous friendships did survive however, and I now treasure them deeply; not only that, I’ve made new friends, and even reconnected with a very old one.  (Ok, she’d kill me for that - she’s not old, far from it; but the friendship goes way back).  If you’d ask me what I’ve learned looking back so far, it’s that Someone knows what I need better than I do; I just learn to let go, focus on love, and pay attention to the helicopters.  Even though the first few steps can seem dark, pretty soon other possibilities and circumstances arise and I’m around the bend, onto something so much greater than I could have imagined.  The people that are in my life now are positive forces – especially my family.  I was raised in a supportive environment and then married into another one, so I’ve really been blessed in that regard.

I wish I could say in one simple sentence how to rise above it all – ok, I can: “Live in love.”  But easier said than done, right?  There are methods of attaining one’s internal connection with and awareness of the Higher Power, and many great and wise sages have attempted to teach us about this throughout the ages.  The greatest truths are the most simple, however; truly, how much better of a world would it be if we all really did live in love?  Amazing, no doubt - but meanwhile, we must often tread through the muck of other people’s egos, fear, greed, anger and hate, so…the least we can do is work on cleaning up our own muck.

As I’ve said before, surfing is a challenging sport, but once learned, the ecstasy is indescribable.  It is an individual sport, and each participant must learn how to balance and avoid the reefs on their own.  Just don’t forget there is a powerful swell of compassionate, loving energy all around us who wants to keep us upright and moving forward.  Connect with that Source and find support in troubled times:  seek first love, peace and harmony and the rest will come. 

“Open yourself to the Tao, then trust your natural responses; and everything will fall into place.” Tao Te Ching #23

• Wordpress users may know what I’m talking about when I say it’s always thrilling to find a great plugin.  Here’s to Sean over at Geek with Laptop for making my Archives dream come true.

• It turns out that the father-in-law of the man infected with a treatment-resistant strain of TB who got on an airplane last month happens to be a tuberculosis specialist at the CDC.  Coincidence?

• In my recent post about a Cosmic Perturber I mentioned the work of researcher Burak Eldem, who believes the cycle for Nibiru is 3661 years (and that it’s coming around again in 2012).  That number also surfaced as the approximate age of a ghost forest in Oregon.  Weird, right? 

• Do you know about Cruithne, an asteroid in a bizarre horseshoe-shaped orbit around our sun, also sometimes referred to as “Earth’s second moon”?

• May I just note the irony that Russian President Vladimir Putin “obliquely” compared US foreign policy to the Third Reich in a speech last month?  Now there are even rumors of a new Cold War-type chill settling in again.  Gog or Magog, anyone?

• Researching the Vatican-Planet X link I found this site which contains a lot of links about supposed disinformation agents, particularly involving the Jesuits.  It’s all very Da Vinci Code-y.

• Jake Kotze and his blog, The Brave New World Order, have given me a lot to ponder.  His concept of synchromysticism is intriguing; great videos too.

• The first known Category-5 hurricane (cyclone) to churn up the Arabian Sea is headed for Oman and then straight into Iran.  Tropical Cyclone Gonu is being called extreme, unusual and rare.  Jim Andrews over at AccuWeather.com said, “I can say with confidence that this forecaster has never seen the likes of this.”  Hmm…what was that thing about weather modification and weather wars, and didn’t I hear a rumor about war with Iran?

[Inspired by Aura at Encounters with the Unexplained]

Hawaii is a gorgeous place to live, most would agree.  The weather is unbeatable, the people are full of aloha and the beach is always close by.  I suppose some might say it has its downsides too – things tend to be more expensive, and it always takes longer to get things done because most people would rather be playing than working.

Whether Hawaii’s legendary creepiness is a downside or not depends on your point of view, but unless you live here you might not be aware of all the strangeness that goes on – and the blithe, casual way people live with the phenomena.  It’s just part of life here, given the diversity of cultural influences regarding the spirit world and its pervasiveness in everyday existence.

The first experience I had was talking to the rocks.  It might sound strange but since then I’ve heard such stories from many, many people here.  Pele, the volcano goddess, has created a virtual army of bizarre lava rock formations that often seem to contain faces and shapes, and in the right state of consciousness you can hear them whisper their wisdom.  What they told me was scarier than hearing their voices:  they have been here for a very, very long time, waiting; but that time is now short.  Later I picked up the great book Obake File: Ghostly Encounters in Supernatural Hawaii  and a shiver went down my spine when I read the chapter on the rocks.  Witnesses account that giant rocks, said by local shaman to contain demigods, have gotten up and moved on their own.  Supposedly the great god Kane lived in a famous rock in Pearl Harbor until the day the monarchy was overthrown by the US government on January 17, 1893, when it abruptly disappeared.

We get spirits, too; a lot of them.  All locals know about the Nightmarchers, and if your house is located on one of their ancient trails, you’re in for some trouble.  I’ve heard people tell about seeing an army of ancient Hawaiian apparitions marching through their living room on a full moon.  Rumor has it people have actually had houses moved out of these paths.  Whenever anyone builds a house or starts a business they always have it blessed in Hawaiian – whoever you are, spiritual or not, this is simply the way it’s done.  Don’t tempt the local spirits – trust me.  We have to periodically cleanse and bless our own home – not that they’re evil, but they do seem to grow in numbers and they eventually start to irritate my husband, who can see them much better than I can.  They try to hide in the mirrors but we’re hip to that trick.

The most astounding experience however has been the fairy lights.  I’ve read similar accounts of people seeing strange colored globes of light flitting around various places, all over the world, in fact.  There are certain places in Hawaii they simply abound, especially during a full moon for some reason.  Initially they like to pretend they are emergency trucks in the distance – until you realize 1) there is no road out there or 2) they suddenly all spin into a circle and blink in patterns.  The locals call them ’akualele’, or fireballs.  My husband has had many, many very close encounters with them, and is convinced they are conscious in some sense.  They have come within 10 to 15 feet of him, and he describes them as, “spheres about the size of basketballs with spun glass inside (angel air, like for Christmas), all lit up but changing colors rapidly, red, green, blue, orange, yellow, purple.” He said when he laughs, they light up brighter and bounce up and down a little as if they’re imitating him.  The most incredible story involves an outing at one of these more remote places with our teen-aged nephew, who had gone hiking away a few miles and as it got dark my husband began to worry when he didn’t return to his calls.  He began to yell louder and louder, when he saw one of the lights speed off away from him.  Our nephew returned later to say one of the fireballs had screeched up right next to him whereby he heard his uncle’s voice loud and clear, calling for him, at which time he turned around and headed back the approximately two miles he had walked.  The light they emit is strange, and when photographed one can see the different light spectrum.  Though difficult to capture and then interpret, here are a few shots they managed to get.  My own spirit tells me they are just curious thought forms; some kind of earth spirit or perhaps they are peering at us through vast distances of time, space or dimension.

Since moving here six years ago I’ve fallen in love with this place, this island, this Hawai’i.  Its beauty and energy both bring me solace and nurture my inspiration.  If you are in Hawaii or ever plan to visit, take some time for a supernatural tour of its legends and mysteries.  You won’t be disappointed.

Antarctica is truly the last frontier.  Its distance and inaccessibility easily lend itself to speculation and rumor.  Beginning with enigmatic ancient maps, which some believe show the southern continent as it looks without ice and snow, its existence has remained shrouded in mystery as well as ice.  Many theorize Atlantis is to be found there; Internet rumors claim there are satellite images which reveal an anomaly beneath the ice, replete with the concentric circles Plato wrote about, though I couldn’t find them.  Not surprising; such a find would rock the scientific world in terms of the age of civilization.  Some alternative researchers however do suggest that Antarctica used to lie in tropical regions before the last pole shift, and was the site of a flourishing ancient society.

Searches for “Antarctica anomaly” yielded a work of fiction some claim could be a disinformation campaign for what scientists have really discovered down there.  Another involves Lake Vostok, the “largest deep sub-ice body of water on our planet”, which stays liquid as a result of heat from an unknown source and along whose shores scientists have found an “unknown magnetic anomaly”.   Since 1999 there have been a few highly unusual and dangerous ‘emergency airlifts’ during the winter, arousing suspicions; a few scientists involved in research in Antarctica have also turned up dead for various reasons.  The coincidence is debatable, but rumors suggest they knew something and wanted to talk.  Soon after this unusual activity, some controversy arose surrounding the development of an “ice highway” due to potential environmental impact, but the road was recently completed anyway; now they can drive there, lessening the reliance on cargo plane travel to cart equipment to and from the research stations.  

All kinds of interesting news filters out of Antarctica; there are lots of blogs and even a newspaper.   Awhile back I found a strange story at Pravda about some kind of time portal in Antarctica.  Research also brought up Nazi interest in the continent; it is well known that Hitler was deeply involved in the occult and was perhaps influenced by claims that such knowledge originated in Atlantis, or maybe he was looking for the passage to Agartha itself, supposedly accessible through holes in the poles.   There is some history of military activity there, see Operation Highjump and Britain’s secret war.  There’s even a movie called The Secret Land about the US military exploration of Antarctica in 1948.  But according to the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, countries are no longer allowed to engage in military activity there -  of course, one imagines that some, including the US, are indeed doing just that, in secret.  In fact I found other rumors of the NSA coming in and taking over the study of Lake Vostok.  Certainly there is military technology there.

And amongst the news about all the melting going on down there as a result of global warming, I found this article about “an unprecedented series of ‘blasts’, energy surges, which the planet has been taking from an as yet unknown source which has been bombarding Antarctica with cosmic rays and disrupting Northern Hemisphere weather systems on a global scale.”  The largest blast occurred on December 1, 2004, just weeks before the earthquake/tsunami in Indonesia.  This information startled me into thinking about Planet X again as being the cause.  This quote from an anonymous Russian scientist gave me pause, “Why this game?  We all know what’s happening.”  Global Research concluded the article by wondering about a fact apparently known to world governments and scientific establishments but beyond the understanding of the general public at large.  “It remains an undisputed fact that this world of ours is facing a type of global cataclysmic event buried in our common geological past, and maybe…in our common ancestral memory also.”

Certain investigators have suggested this debated extra-planetary body is hurling towards Earth’s South Pole which is why most astronomers don’t see it, and why there is such fevered research going on down there right now.  Former CNN producer Marshall Masters does a great job finding what programs are being sponsored that could aid in tracking Planet X; incidentally, he also throws hit hat into the ring with the binary star theory.  Who knows what is really going on, what will happen, if or when but one thing is for sure: I will continue to pay attention.

[Picture of new South Pole Telescope courtesy of US Antarctic Program]

AntarcticTelescope1

A few days ago the area surrounding our volcano here on the Big Island, Kilauea, experienced a sudden and unusual flurry of small earthquakes.  Yesterday our local newspaper, West Hawaii Today, reported on the front page that the lava had actually stopped flowing out of the Pu’u O’o vent.  This is noteworthy because it has been erupting constantly since 1983; Kilauea is considered to be one of the most active volcanoes on earth.  New fissures have appeared in the past day or two, and some rare plants and animals are in danger in some areas.  However this startling change is good news for our leeward side of the island (except of course for some disappointed tourists): without the ensuing vog, our skies will be clearer and cleaner than they have been for 25 years, at least for a little while. 

Several other volcanoes have been active the past week or so as well.  In New Guinea, explosions from Rabaul rocked the surrounding areas as ash plumes rose 8900 feet.  In Ecuador, both Tungurahua and Reventador experienced lahars and ash plumes this week.    Ditto for Kliuchevskoi, Shiveluch and Karymysky in Russia, and Ubinas in Peru.  Mt. St. Helens continued to grow its lava-dome. 

There is definitely an ongoing debate as to whether volcanic activity has been increasing the past few decades.  Skeptics insist any increase is due to better scientific observation.  However, it might be interesting to consider any connection between global warming, solar activity and volcanic activity.  I found one site which considered the relationship between such earth changes and Chandler’s Wobble.  And of course, as always, there’s Planet X to consider. 

In other perhaps not unrelated news, a lake suddenly disappeared in Chile recently, baffling scientists.

• National Study on the Internet:  Passing on a request from a researcher at Stony Brook University in New York, who is doing a study about how people process information they encounter on the Internet.  It takes about 10 minutes to complete the survey, and you can choose to enter a raffle for a $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com (also you may opt to remain completely anonymous, no email or anything). 

• For those of you who read my book and remember my analogy about the Mirror Image of the truth, this article about the US Department of Defense developing a Psyops program that will create a parallel Planet Earth, an actual alternative reality, will give you pause. 

• Seeing a large meteor streaking across the sky, and even hearing the accompanying sonic boom, is a rare experience; the past couple of weeks two notable sightings have been recorded, one in Idaho and the other in Sri Lanka.

• A few weeks ago NASA released a few photographs from the Hubble telescope of two large asteroids in our solar system, Ceres and Vesta.  Then just recently they reported the cameras were suddenly and inexplicably not working.   Again.  Hmmm…

• Somark Innovations has created a biocompatible ink tattoo with chipless RFID functionality.  Mark of the Beast, anyone?  Not for the folks over at We the People Will Not Be Chipped.com, that’s for sure.

• Pretty soon we’ll have to have a passport to go to Canada.  In fact there are so many people applying for passports to comply with the new regulations, the system is backlogged and they had to delay the start date.  For more information go here.

• Now for something on the lighter side…check out Zen Stories to tell your neighbors…also Zen and Taoist stories.

From The Plan to Disappear Canada by Murray Dobbin, “If the machinations going on in this country regarding so-called "deep integration" were instead a communist conspiracy to take over the country (you will, of course, have to try hard to imagine this) the news media would be blaring the story.

Pundits would pontificate, editorialists would erupt, security forces would be unleashed.

Instead, a virtual conspiracy to make the country disappear through assimilation into the U.S. gets barely a mention.

But news of the scheme -- formally called the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) -- is finally breaking out of the secret chambers of the ruling elite and the federal government. This is both good news and bad. It's good that ordinary citizens are finally getting a glimpse of the betrayal of their country. The news is bad because it reflects just how much of this scheme is already being implemented. “

Mr. Dobbin goes on to summarize the main points of the arrangements in the works.  Our government claims the agreement is still ‘informal’ (White House spokesman Tony Snow called the NAU a ’myth’), but others insist it was signed without our approval on March 23, 2005 in Waco, Texas by President George W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and Mexican President Vicente Fox.  From Robert Pastor at the CFR, “The main recommendation of the Task Force is the creation, by 2010 at the latest, of a North American security and economic community whose boundaries will be defined by a common external tariff and an outer security perimeter".  Indeed, over 300 agencies are already ‘harmonizing’ regulations of such things as energy, taxes, tariffs, and pesticides, many of which were originally part of NAFTA and are now being ‘fast-tracked’ by the SPP initiative.  Even a trilateral open skies initiative has been discussed.  (Incidentally, the US and the EU are also ‘harmonizing’ regulations.)  Security concerns have always topped the list of justifications for integration. At least one NAFTA superhighway is also in the works (with new RFID tracking technology), even though fourteen states have petitioned Congress to abandon the SPP. 

Secretive summits have been held as critics declare an elitist corporate agenda works out the details of their scheme away from prying eyes.  Indeed they may have good reason: outspoken critics include Lou Dobbs, Rep. Ron Paul, Rep. Virgil Good (R-Va), and Connie Fogal of the Canadian Action Party, and there are plans to protest the next meeting of the SPP on August 21-22nd in Montebello, Quebec.  Opponents from both Canada and the US are up in arms over the potential loss of sovereignty.  Others go further, claiming the plans are an act of treason or sedition.  At least two other recent acts, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2007(NDAA), which gives the President dictatorial powers in the case of ‘public emergency’, and the Military Commissions Act which suspended habeas corpus in 2006, have been linked to the plans by some opponents.  For more information, here is a timeline of the events leading up to deep integration, those organizations working to support the plan, and those fighting against it.  Pierre Hillard also provides a substantial overview, as does Dr. Jerome R. Corsi in his book, The Late Great USA.

Proponents insist there are no plans to undermine the US Constitution or create a unified currency, but others maintain these issues will likely be addressed eventually, and probably already have been behind closed doors.    Immigration will certainly play a major role in the decision-making process; some wonder if the issue is being used as a diversion, or a “mechanism for achieving the globalists’ NAU goal”.  From WorldNetDaily.com, “WASHINGTON -- The controversial 'Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007,' which would grant millions of illegal aliens the right to stay in the U.S. under certain conditions, contains provisions for the acceleration of the Security and Prosperity Partnership, a plan for North American economic and defense integration, WND has learned."  Attaching such an emotional and controversial issue to the globalization agenda is a cleverly sinister way to achieve their eventual goals of a New World Order.

“When the will to power is in charge, the higher the ideals, the lower the results.” –Tao Te Ching #58

If you spend time investigating any of the strange and even disturbing elements of our present global reality, it’s easy to become disheartened or even anxious or desperate.  It’s not uncommon to feel this way and if you have, you’re not alone.  I spend a lot of time sifting through quite a bit of difficult material every day, and I still have moments when the potential future hits me so hard I lose my breath.  As I gather information for a post, sometimes I have to close my laptop and go do something else for awhile.  It can be overwhelming, no matter how many years one has been awake.  Who hasn’t thought about going back and taking the blue pill?  The red one can be bitter and acrid indeed.

I was listening to one of the alternative radio talk show hosts the other day, and he and his guest were discussing how some young people, though fully aware of the coming ‘new order’ and all its controversial agendas and organizations, agree to join the powers-that-be rather than be on what they think will be the ‘losing side.’  I’m not sure which is more difficult to assimilate:  that there are people out there that Know,  yet consciously choose to join the bad guys, and that they actually believe it will be the ‘winning side’; or that the ones who decide to remain and fight against the machine will have a very, very difficult time indeed. 

Yes, our future will be full of misery and chaos.  But we are already living in the future.  From microchipping to prophetic warnings; from droughts to floods, earthquakes and fires; from secret cabals and wars to chemicals in our food and air, our world is very quickly becoming a difficult place to live purely, simply and at peace – and it will surely become progressively worse in the next few years.  I have no illusions about that, and I spend quite a bit of time meditating on remaining in a place of serenity despite the chaos.  There are still pockets of truth and warmth, we just have to find and then protect them.

When we got married, my husband and I had this short phrase inscribed inside our wedding bands, a phrase that meant a lot to us spiritually then, and still means a great deal to us today.  It’s one of the ways we’ve gotten through some hard times.  Trust me, I know the arguments; many say, it can’t be ‘all good’ – there has to be bad to be good.  Or, then that would mean evil is good, and so forth.  Philosophically, yes, one can go around in circles on this one.  But the phrase has taught me some very simple yet sturdy spiritual lessons that have aided me in my daily life.  First, I have had to learn to trust that God, the Tao, has got it all worked out.  He’s perfectly aware of what’s going on, and there is a Plan – even if most of it is beyond me.  I can’t prove this; I just know it from my own personal experiences of synchronicity and spontaneous knowledge.  It’s not my job to worry about anything: not about money or health, not even about global catastrophic destruction or a global police state.  Worry is the opposite of faith and will get me nowhere.

Another lesson for me is that whatever seems ‘bad’ now can often turn into something good; the silver lining philosophy.  This is very much a tenet of Taoism, and even Christianity; “turn your scars into stars” is a favorite teaching I heard from a minister awhile back; the thought can give you hope even if it seems impossible at the time.  And lastly, that we all have a choice every moment to act either with love or with evil intent – this is how the wheat is separated from the chaff.  God, the Tao, wants us to choose love, to choose Him; without that choice, we wouldn’t be able to love so strongly, or Know Him as completely, because we wouldn’t know the difference.  So in the end, even evil has its purpose.  I know, it’s a difficult notion to absorb and certainly I don’t claim to be an authority on this; I’m just sharing how I get through the day.  I imagine we all have a way to explain the evils of the world so we can make it though.  Those who don’t are likely having a very hard time indeed.  Whatever works for you, I like to say.

Surfing the Tao is about how you live your life even though all this crazy stuff is going on.  It’s about being nice to your neighbor even though you just got fired.  It’s about raising your children with wisdom and respect, even though you suspect the future could be bleak.   It’s about recycling even if the End is Near.  It’s about lending a hand, teaching the truth and spreading love and awareness, lest Hosea ring true, “my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”.  Though there are sure to be many truly bloody battles ahead of us, the most important battle is in our hearts, in our spirits; that part of us which is connected to the eternal.  Be a spiritual warrior: stay strong, stay wise, stay grounded.  Be aware but not afraid.  Know, but be at peace.  Teach, yet be gentle.  Remember, the future has already happened: it is done, and the good have won.  A better world is already waiting for us.  We just need to keep walking towards it.  As Lao Tzu wisely suggested, “accomplish the great task by a series of small acts.”  We all have a role to play in this final act; deep in your heart, you probably already know what yours is.

Love is the answer; love is the why, the how and the what.  In the end, love really will be all we need.  In the end, love will be all that is left.  Practice it now, today, and every moment.  Spread the word and have no fear, for love is not just soft and tender, but also ferocious and determined, like a lioness defending her cubs.  God is with us and He has not left us in the wilderness to perish.