Ingrid's Substack Postings
Ingrid's Substack account and her postings will still be available online (see link above) unless her heirs requested to close the account; or Substack eventually applies its inactive account policy and closes the account. In case her account is closed, her postings are replicated on this website. They do not include images that go with the original articles but the links to her embedded videos are provided. For as long as Ingrid's Substack account remains open, you may want to read her postings on the Substack site.
First, I would like to wish all my subscribers a safe and progressive 2025. I would also like to thank you for your interest in my posts and for your referrals. in 2024, only 100 new subscribers came on board so I need to do better, and partly this depends on feedback from you as well as what you share with others. Revenue shrank considerably so this brings me to the first topic for 2025: not just the economy but the entire financial system.
Uranus will still be in Taurus most of the year though it does cross into Gemini and then retrogrades back into Taurus. Thus, the changes we have been anticipating really need to happen this year. I am not going to speculate on which way the winds are blowing. The spectrum goes from a jubilee with all debts scrubbed from the books and perhaps some refunds for irregularities in the financial industry . . . to a digital system based on social credit along the lines of what has taken place in China.
Obviously, I would favor a reset to zero and a clean start since otherwise, the pressure to slave away to keep one’s head above water is excessive. A jubilee would be a one-time event, and has precedents where inflation has eroded the value of the currency and interest rates are based on greed rather than monetary responsibility. It is anyone’s guess what a replacement for the current system would entail. Most people talk about gold-backed or asset-backed government issued currency. Only a few countries have this kind of system because most currency creation is handled by privately owned banks who, if my opinion counts for anything, should not have the leeway they have had for so many decades.
Everyone, I think, understands that vaults full of gold means the currency has backing, but have they understood that this is essentially a frozen asset that contributes absolutely nothing to what is called the velocity of money. Money is a means of exchange so it has to change hands to stimulate activity and prosperity.
Alternatives to gold would be other precious metals and perhaps gems, but the same argument would apply. Tying the currency to productivity is another possibility. One can include both agricultural and industrial production or sales, but such indices would tend to fluctuate more than precious metals. In my opinion, a digital currency would be an accident waiting to happen. The value is whatever people imagine or whatever the issuer convinces people to believe or whatever they insist is the truth. There is nothing inherent in a digital system to prevent abuse, and the risks are enormous since a glitch can cause a lot of headaches for a lot of people, not to mention what kinds of intentional fraud would be facilitated. Doesn’t it always depend on who controls what?
Tying a digital currency to a social credit system is obviously what the censors want so with Uranus going into Gemini, I can only imagine what we might — in the near future — have to go through to retrieve our right to freedom of thought and speech.
It must be obvious that the powers that be have acted on their own behalf without regard for citizens so if we were really going to let our imaginations go wild, we have to ask what it will mean if the current elite manage to acquire so much real estate that when Uranus goes into Cancer, we have to struggle to regain the right to own private property.
My understanding is that this is more or less the case in China. People may own homes and buildings but the land on which they are built is leased from the government. Hawaii had a lot of property with long-term leases, but these are often accidents waiting to happen . . . and when you think about who is in the rooms where the issues are being discussed, you do have to raise your antennae.
I think the changes will be railroaded through in a rush so as to clear the decks for other agenda . . . so this concerns me. Combining some relief with unpopular reallocation of the power to create money is probably the pacifier that will soon be promoted by the complicit press.
War and Peace
At this time, the new U.S. administration is “staunchly” pro-peace except that Israel is obviously off the table in terms of how influence should be used. This speaks more to influence and alliances than to ethics so it falls more under the influence of Pluto in very early Aquarius. I hold the very unpopular view than Pluto is indeed a malefic so we should expect our rights and ideals to be trampled unless the people wise up to the name of game and demand transparency and equality.
This said, I am cautiously optimistic about the long-term, not about the interim power structure and direction of the winds. However, I love this poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox though the version I first heard was a little more lyrical:
One ship drives east and another drives west
With the selfsame winds that blow.
Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales
Which tells us the way to go.
Like the winds of the seas are the ways of fate,
As we voyage along through the life:
Tis the set of a soul
That decides its goal,
And not the calm or the strife.
In this is our hope. The more people who are soul conscious and determined to manifest what is in the best interests of all life on Earth, the better the outcome. Afterall, the current leadership has, in general, not earned the right to stay in power.
A lot of hope has been placed on the new U.S. administration. Though I prefer it to the outgoing team, I have very little enthusiasm for most of the nominees to high positions. The first issue, I believe, is to find a balance between short-term economic revival and long-term harmony with life which means the off-grid crowd has to be on an equal footing with the high tech, economically ambitious, progressive elite, most of whom owe their success to how they have been riding the waves of the last few decades. This, unfortunately, says nothing at all about the long-term consequences of high consumption and low emphasis on strategies for sustainability and renewal of depleted resources.
The Wild Card
As mentioned in previous posts, the wild card would be a friendly alien presence in plain sight. It would have the potential for upsetting many carefully planned erosions of freedom and consolidation of control . . . and it would unravel some highly entangled concepts that are without validity. This might be what is called crossing one’s fingers . . . and should it occur, it would be at the expense of humanity rising to the need to see clearly and address its issues on its own.
Apology: on the last post with the drone show, the dragon is for the outgoing year. In the incoming year begins on the 29th and it will be the year of the snake.
China has a system that was probably based on influences from Chaldea. It is a sixty year cycle with 12 animals and five elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. The current cycle began in 1984. So, 2025 is the “year” of the wood snake and it ends on 16 February 2026.
We have similar influences in a minute with 60 seconds and an hour with 60 minutes. It is referred to as a sexagenary system.
Again, there are traditions I established for my subscribers, this going back quite a few decades. In yesterday’s post, I put the emphasis on the victims of aggression. Today, I am pleading with the aggressors to desist. Invest in your people and their talents. Allow everyone to live in peace. Resolve to solve problems in conference rooms, not battlefields. Put away weapons and let the citizens of the places under siege decide their futures without external pressures and threats, without risk to their safety and lives. There are a lot of changes (next post) coming in 2025 and many problems to address, often with new people at the helm.
The Year of the Dragon is ending . . . but the new year of the Snake only officially begins on January 29th in 2025. So the video refers to 2024, not the incoming year. https://youtu.be/9BNxrBcYouM
Carefully chosen because it is a hospital in part of the world with many sick and injured people. https://youtu.be/tzwWskM4hN8
The future of Russia! https://youtu.be/fd6EKKKjIoE
In keeping with my tradition of acknowledging the countries (or cultures) in the headlines at the end of each year, I would like to discuss the tensions in Europe with the deportation initiatives, the horrors in the Middle East, and the resurgence of what looks like the initial labor pains associated with the attempt to rebirth the Ottomon Empire.
I met my first Moslem in my high school days, an exchange student from Indonesia with whom I became close friends. At that time, I visited a mosque for the first time and was deeply impressed by the piety of people who were praying. In college, I met more Indonesians, and as time went on, I traveled through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. I was always impressed by the friendliness of the people, their hospitality towards strangers, and their craftsmanship in everything from cookware to places of worship. Later, I worked in Hyderabad while with the State Department. Many people of Islamic faith chose to stay in India, and some of them became treasured friends.
This video may help some people to understand the richness of the cultures spanning North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and the lands between Istanbul to the numerous stans further to the east.
As someone with a great interest in various cultures, I am acutely aware of differences as well as the underlying unifying factors such as desire to preserve traditions and identity, the hope of acceptance and appreciation, and the motivations to provide safety and opportunity for oneself and one’s family. This said, melting pots often take generations to stabilize and 100% merger is extremely rare. The United States offered residence and opportunities to millions of immigrants from all continents. People have, in general, accepted the most of the rules and rights while retaining some ties to their origins. This was obviously achieved at the expense of the indigenous populations who suffered unjustly and egregiously. I would hate to see something similar happen in Europe or the Middle East so I think it is time to rely on common sense and diplomacy and to put away the weapons and threats that escalate tensions without resolving the underlying challenges.
So, at this time, my inclination is to support deportation as a preventative measure. What Sweden is doing is unusual. As of the latest news to hit my desk, the borders are now closed to immigration and significant compensation is being offered to those who opt to leave, $34,000 more or less, enough for many to rebuild their lives in their home countries. This initiative is more nuanced than what we are hearing from the incoming U.S. administration. In Sweden, the ability to adapt to Swedish culture is factored into the process. This is evaluated based on the immigrant’s attempt to learn a new language, hold a job, and live without committing crimes against the host country and its people. In short, some immigrants will be invited to stay and to become Swedish citizens. In a well-organized country, a process like this is probably manageable, but I do not see it happening in the U.S.
There are other ways to handle immigration issues. For instance, indirect as it is, supporting opportunities in developing countries, desisting from interference in the governance of those countries, and providing start up loans for small enterprises makes the grasses closer to home greener and the distant pastures more questionable. Coveting oil and other natural resources is not the solution. It often comes with threats, inequities, and environmental havoc. A level playing field has to be accepted along with fair compensation offered both for imports and labor. The idea that exploitation will work out in the long-term is flawed. We have seen the plummeting of the standard of living and rise of tensions due to this avarice.
In short, let the world regroup along religious or linguistic or other lines, but cultivate fair and friendly relationships with everyone. Personally, I don’t care if my computer mouse was made in Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Mexico, Brazil, or South Africa. I do care that no one suffered as a consequence of my need for a mouse. As we move into an increasingly complex web of possibilities and relationships, let’s put the emphasis on fellowship with all.
It is that time of year when we look back at what happened and nearly the time when we look forward to the future. 2024 was a very challenging year for many people, including yours truly. Many people suffered various hardships, losses, and deaths among family and friends. To some extent, we would say this is normal, but the degree of suffering was, I believe, quite in excess of what is typical of life on Earth.
We saw senseless wars, destruction of infrastructure upon which people and industry depend, “natural” disasters with poor responses, deliberate deprivation of food and water to innocent victims of bad governance . . . and serious economic mismanagement causing crises for the working classes, not to mention the unemployed. On top of this, cultural conflicts accelerated to the breaking point in many countries. As a consequence, the pendulum began to swing wildly and move in the opposite direction so we can expect huge changes in 2025.
As for me personally, I am going through the third Saturn transit to my ascendant for this incarnation. This is often the time when people retire or reinvent themselves. I have sometimes used the analogy of an actress whose role has to change because the schedule for the coming time features different plays . . . or operas. Being more conversant with opera than Broadway, I might use Lady Macbeth as an example. She is typically portrayed as ambitious and the power behind the throne . . . though I once was friends with an actress from the Royal Shakespeare Company who, on stage, was a famous Lady Macbeth. I asked her how she interpreted the role. She said she did everything out of love for her husband. This is not how she comes across in Verdi’s Macbeth, an opera I have seen on stage quite a number of times.
Now, let’s say the actress has to learn a new role, like Desdemona from Othello/Otello. Both Rossini and Verdi wrote operas based on this Shakespearean play. Desdemona is young, rather on the naive side, innocent, pure hearted, and definitely a victim, not a perpetrator of crime.
If one is stereotyped and unable to craft a credible Desdemona, she will fail in the new role . . . which is why artists have to study the scripts and be coached before they can perfect the new roles.
Here is Anna Netrebko in the Sleepwalking scene from Macbeth. https://youtu.be/K5t1xBcljOo
It could also be argued that the opera Macbeth is somewhat “raw” compared to the sophistication of Otello. Macbeth belongs to the “early Verdi” period and has the strong martial energy of that period. Otello, on the other hand, belongs to the “late Verdi” period which was much more polished. Both operas are quite wonderful but very different.
Hopefully, these two examples help to make the transit clear. The old has come to the end of its journey, and the new is developing. In terms of how this applies to me, I looked back at the two previous transits. Obviously, retirement was not an option in my early twenties. However, there was an epidemic of mononucleosis that broke out in the women’s dining room of the bank where I worked. I was basically sent home for months. They paid my salary, but did not allow me to work. No treatment was prescribed. I was living in New York and started designing costumes and sets for stages of some operas, just kind of for fun. I had just become engaged, and my fiancé was as sweet as they come and apparently immune to mono as was my roommate. Neither came down with it. The marriage obviously never took place, and I ended up on leave from the bank while trying to stop the war in Vietnam through a new position with the State Department.
The second Saturn transit had some parallels to the first. My partner died. I was bereft and returned to Santa Fe, suffered multiple spider bites and was, for all intents and purposes, paralyzed for almost a year. As with the first transit, I recovered completely; but having recently met Gail Barber, became even more heavily involved with music therapy . . . and began writing lyrics to which she composed music for the harp.
Music therapy is probably the most important part of my work. Yes, I wear several hats, but I have developed a method for inducing a safe equivalent of a near death experience. There is no trauma so what is involved is free movement between various dimensions of consciousness where people can explore past lives, emotional patterns, and purposes of life and even of a series of incarnations. It cannot be done remotely which means it is time to build a healing community in which this is one of the modalities offered.
As for the other parallels, yes, I have had three separate injuries/accidents and one sudden infection when grocery shopping and exposed to construction dust. I was mostly bedridden for perhaps a month and still have some recovery to complete for the other injuries. I am not the only one growing older, one appliance after another broke: first the refrigerator, then the dishwasher, then the heater in bedroom, and now the washing machine. I am limping along with a little ice box sort of contraption. The dishwasher was relatively easy to fix, but the washing machine is toast. On top of this, a tree fell and smashed many sections of my fence and over the holidays, two more sections began to fail . . . and five websites were hacked. They are finally back up and running, but the number of issues seems rather excessive.
This said the reinvention has begun. There will be a major announcement regarding training in darkfield microscopy starting in March. I will provide the details within a fortnight because several people are on holiday now. The training will take place in Holland and be posted on a new website for those who cannot attend in person.
Funding has not covered costs so things move a bit more slowly than I would like. There are two people on my tech team and two on the graphics team. Obviously, none are full-time.
Substack is an important platform, and we are heading towards the two-year anniversary. Quite a few new subscribers have joined in recent days and I am grateful for the referrals and sharing. I know that some authors stick to a more narrow area of focus, but I do wear at least four hats which is why I might sometimes seem all over the the map. This said, I do not really identify with either Lady Macbeth or Desdemona. If I had to choose operas in which I do see myself, then my first Saturn transit was basically straight out of the second act of La Traviata and the current situation feels more like the last act of La Forza del Destino.
Dec 26, 2024 The Immortal Callas
I spent yesterday reminiscing over a long letter about Maria Callas that I wrote to my astrological mentor, Ivy Jacobson, back in the 1970s. Loosely quoted, a commentator divided the operatic world into “before Callas and after Callas” which is perhaps not quite fair; but it is true that she brought acting into opera in the best of the ancient Greek tradition of theater.
Her immortality can be gauged by the number of films made about her, including the new one starring Angelina Jolie as Callas.
The above link, surely not for everyone, contains a reverent analysis of her unique style, using one of my favorite arias as an example. I don’t actually think any comments are necessary on my part, but with all the emphasis now on frequency and sound, some subscribers may want to probe what makes some music live forever and why.
All this said, I have posted quite a lot on the story line of operas. It is probably fair to say that before Verdi, many composers just wrote music and many singers seemed to read the music but not the libretto. This might not have been entirely true, but as one excellent pianist said to me, “I can’t tell whether they are going to war or courting.” Bel canto is particularly guilty of this tendency, but when the lyrics are merged with the music, magic can occur.
Norma is a Druid priestess living under Roman occupation . . . and is secretly involved with the Roman proconsul with whom she has two children. She lives in a tightly bound traditional community wherein she has betrayed her vows and yet appears without taint despite her inner conflicts, perfect role for La Callas!
Chaste goddess, who dost bathe in silver light
These ancient, hallowed trees,
Turn thy fair face upon us,
Unveiled and unclouded...
Temper thou the burning hearts,
The excessive zeal of thy people.
Enfold the earth in that sweet peace
Which, through Thee, reigns in heaven....
The holy rites are ended.
From the sacred wood
Let every unbeliever go.
When God, in his dark anger,
Shall demand the Romans' blood,
Then from the Druid temple
My voice will thunder forth.
Yes, he shall fall.
I can punish him -
(But my heart can never do it.)
(Ah! bring back to me
The beauty of our first love.
Then, against the world itself
I shall be your defense.
Ah! Bring back to me
The peace and warmth of love,
And in that love I shall find again
Life, fatherland and heaven itself!)
(Ah, be once more as you were
When first I gave my heart to you!)
In keeping with my emphasis at the end of every year of paying special homage to the countries that have suffered the most, I chose Carol of the Bells. It was composed in 1914 by Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych and is based on a Ukrainian folk song associated with the coming of the new year, which before the Christianization of Ukraine was celebrated in April. Today, of course, it is sung at Christmas, but originally it was so popular that it became a sort of nationalist song to push the recognition of Ukraine’s declaration of independence from Bolshevik Russia. The folk song speaks of the arrival of a swallow portending abundant days ahead. Perhaps you hear the bird?
We should have reason to believe that peace will soon come to Ukraine and hopefully the entire planet. Having cordial relationships with one another is definitely something to be cultivated and implemented . . . so let us join one another to make this season the turning point in which harmony and respect prevail.
Whatever your faith, I wish you all a safe and blessed holiday season.
Dec 22, 2024 The Southern Tomb
Being a Nordic, this time of year is very special. I just loved Christmas in Sweden. Though there is almost no sun, it is bright enough to go cross country skiing by starlight and the whole energy is just magical. Well, summer is also special because the sun can be overhead at night but the animals in the forest and even the fish in the lake sleep. The stillness of the north is very special, something I have always treasured.
There is mythology surrounding this time of year that no doubt predates Christianity which was very late reaching the Scandinavia. If far enough north, the sun disappears into what is sometimes called the Southern Tomb. There, it rests for three days and then emerges again to begin the journey northwards, and it is this rebirth of Light that has been celebrated from ancient times as the birth of hope and a better future.
This is like a fresh start, and in some cultures, the new year begins either at the winter solstice or when the sun emerges from the tomb. The symbology and its relationship to culture and religion is surely obvious, not just to Christians but also to many others around the world.
I have long been an advocate of calendar reform, including the elimination of daylight savings time. The statement attributed to Native Americans always brings a chuckle: “Only a white man would believe you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it to the bottom, and have a longer blanket.”
Some say, it was “government” that operates under such delusions; but, as an astrologer, I believe that holidays should be synchronized with calendars. The logical time to start a new year would be when the sun appears to emerge from the tomb . . . or when it enters zero degrees of Aries.
I spent one winter holiday in Japan where three days rest are observed at the start of the new calendar year, but in reality, it should be now that we go within . . . and reflect and imagine what life could be like if optimism prevailed over fear. Then, when the sun regains power, we energize the way forward into era of harmony with one another and with the Universe . . . which should be our guidance system.
For me personally, this is a time of deep inner peacefulness. Action then follows the maturation of the ideas that have matured during the time of reflection.
Dec 12, 2024 The Opening of the Swedish Holiday Season
December 13th is the first day of the Christmas season in Sweden and is called Santa Lucia Day. It has been widely celebrated for centuries and this video captures the spirit of the North, something dear to the heart of Scandinavians. Enjoy!
As pundits and goofs are busy trying to read the tea leaves, opinions about the future vary from reckless threats of World War III to blithering optimism about the incoming U.S. administration as well as its cousins in other countries. Most seem to forget that bureaucracies are lumbering dinosaurs that do eventually go extinct, but they are unsuited for survival long before actual extinction. Besides, what is released to the public is rarely what it appears to be so disinformation and malinformation are ubiquitous.
My goal today is to examine the “Wild Card” which I believe to be some version of disclosure, either faked by the deep state or authentic. We know that an officially sanctioned disclosure would have the earmarks of NASA et al whereas a real alien presence might be necessitated if the misuse of power were to upset the future of life on Earth and perhaps beyond. While I am inclined to think that some countries have saner leadership than others, in general I believe politicians cannot step too far out of the box without losing their thoroughly indoctrinated base. One can be influenced to lean to the left or right, but enlightened leadership and electorates are underpopulated.
This is opinion, my opinion, nothing more. If disclosure breeds fear, it is fake. The motivation behind the disclosure should be suspect, and people should ignore the puppets who do the bidding of their masters. If the aliens who appear are dignified and erudite, we can assume we are being protected by benevolent beings who seek to avert a disaster similar to what happened to Lyra when scientists believed their synthetic creations were superior to naturally occurring forms of life.
I lived in rural Hawaii in the 1970s where residents relied on catchment water that was stored in a butyl rubber-lined ponds. UFOs used to hover and suck up all the water so there was never a question about whether they existed or not. There are mountains of evidence of their existence, but some might be alien and some might be reverse engineered by the military industrial complexes in various countries. The atrocities and abductions alleged to have occurred seem to be intelligence agency operations, demonic for sure, but it does not mean that benevolent aliens are not watching over us . . . to prevent things like nuclear wars. We often hear of intercepted nukes so maybe we are being protected.
My beliefs are based on a combination of intuition and logic. To be much more advanced than Earth civilization is today, mastery of universal laws must also be more developed. Since I believe in a purpose behind existence . . . as well as ultimate immortality and indestructibility . . . I assume there are many civilizations more advanced than ours . . . and probably some that are less advanced.
I also believe in entrainment which means that the vibration of the Creator and the Will behind that movement inevitably pull everything into alignment, there is no question in my mind about the eventual outcome of our cycles of incarnation and interludes.
Faith might be interesting to examine, but it is not proof. Some people used to call me a galactic gypsy, but I have visited a few other places and all were more advanced, peaceful, and wise in their counsel. Obviously, you don’t have to believe me, but this seems correct to me; but it is also logical if we accept that life is much more complicated than what we experience in physical bodies. It cannot be extinguished, and I think some scientists are gradually arriving at the same conclusion.
The bottom line is that IF “they” arrive, we first need to recognize there is, in fact, a crisis that has built up to critical mass. Secondly, we need to discern whether or not to believe what we are shown. Thirdly, we know that change is around the corner.
Dec 01, 2024 Mercury Retrograde
Mercury appears to retrograde three times a year for just over three weeks each time. Of course, it does not really go backwards in its orbit, but it appears to us earthlings to be doing so. Since we react to appearances, this is usually a good time to fix the past but not commit to too much to the future.
Here are my rules for navigating Mercury retrograde cycles. Always keep in mind that details can be unclear so whether booking a ticket for an event or trip, make sure that the dates, time, price, and place are all perfectly clear and check everything at least twice. If commencing something new, defer some important decisions until more towards the end of the cycle and have numerous discussions about the understandings before signing any documents. This particular cycle started roughly on November 25th and ends December 15th, the exact time and date depend on your time zone.
This is a good time to make repairs to the house, appliances, computers, car, etc. It is also wise to back up your devices that have data. Fixing damaged relationships may take tact, sincerity, and will power, but this is the time to try to mend hurt feelings and misunderstandings.
For bloggers and podcasters, this is the cycle for editing, but not for launching anything completely new. If shopping, check your receipts and keep them in case you end up needing to return something.
When Mercury is retrograde during holiday seasons, keep in mind that many people are put on board who have little or no training. This would include clerks in stores, delivery people, and even extra people taken on board to recover from storms and power outages. Try to anticipate a little more frustration and roll gently with the challenges.
Dec 01, 2024 Astrology: Ancient and Modern
My plan is to write several posts on various aspects of how we get our information as well as a more in depth exploration of both astrology and healing. First of all, whether the Earth is part of a geocentric or heliocentric system does not affect the reliability of astrology. Likewise, whether the Earth is flat or a globe is a matter for experts to decide but does not really matter in terms of horoscopic interpretation. Where esoteric astrology is concerned, the astrologer’s beliefs regarding an intelligent Creator versus a Big Bang or any other theory might play into certain slants where interpretation is concerned . . . such as whether we have destinies or simply random experiences. Whatever the bias, there will be mountains of peer-reviewed papers supporting the view of the proponent for one concept or another.
The reason certain speculations or theories do not jeopardize the interpretation of astrologers is that horoscopes are based on observations of positions. Well, that is not 100% true because most people today use computers that have calculated the probable positions based on data from 1950 that was fed into the computers of the U.S. Naval Observatory. Who knows how many martinis were downed before astronomers could agree on the future wobble of the Earth on its alleged axis or on the eccentricity of an orbit; however, the positions are usually correct within one degree.
The bottom line here is that we respond to what seems to be, and I can remember articles I read as a child in the Los Angeles Times about the energy of a star going straight through the Earth as if there were no obstruction at all. The report was allegedly based on scientific experiments, but who knows if the conclusions were warranted or hypothesized. The point might be that the Copernican Revolution was just one incident in the long history of astronomy. If you doubt this, think of string theories and intelligent design . . . and the agnostic idea of a Big Bang explaining the complexity of the Universe.
Before going too far, I would like to present a brief summary of the Hindu concept of yugas. In this context, the yugas refer to recurring cycles in which the overall ethical state of humanity is expressed. In Krita Yuga, people are virtuous and live long lives. In Treta Yuga, there is a decline in both morality and longevity. Deterioration is greater still in Dvapara Yuga and Kali Yuga is characterized by extreme decadence and short life expectancies . . . with a very small percentage of people being upright. Fortunately, Kali Yuga is the shortest but the one most relevant to our current world situation. So far as the understanding of divine principles goes, the comment by Boganathar was that as Kali Yuga approached, he was concerned for the plight of humanity. He gathered together some sages, and they agreed that the best approach to the degradation would be to promote the concept of Bhakti, i.e. devotion or love for the divine.
To make this clear, in the ancient Indian system, the goals of spiritual practice are traditionally thought to be achieved through good deeds, devotion, or wisdom. These are what they sound like. Through charity and service to others, one builds good karma. Through devotion to ideals and reverence for higher principles or the Creator, one merges with the object of one’s love. Through wisdom, one becomes enlightened, a realized being with a transcendental nature. Though the practices differ, the common denominators are reduction of the role of the ego self that gives space for the growth of compassion and understanding.
Pundits are not in agreement as to whether or not Kali Yuga has ended. Some say it will end in 2025. Sri Yukteswar calculated that we entered Dwapara Yuga in 1699 AD. Some push the date back by more than 5000 years. I feel that we are nearing the very end of Kali Yuga, and my thinking is based on the depravity of current global systems in which the ruling elite have assumed they are above the law and the tendency to use force to achieve one’s goals rather than cooperation and assent. In addition, we can factor in demonic strategies to block our access to spiritual inspiration and guidance.
For example, if the newly elected administration is successful in removing fluoride from public water supplies, we will have taken a major step forward towards moving from spiritual blindness to spiritual alignment. Fortunately, we have a cure in the form of tamarind.
A second sign that we are emerging from Kali Yuga into Dwapara Yuga would be if there were wiser use of resources and a more equitable distribution of wealth. In today’s world, there are many billionaires and even some trillionaires while countless people live in poverty or only slightly above subsistence levels.
A third sign would be a reversal of the recent movement to eliminate consequences for crimes involving theft and even arson, rape, and sometimes murder. There is a letter of the law and a spirit of the law so to rise above the misery of Kali Yuga, the spirit must guide and not be trampled under ridiculous excuses for exaggerating the importance of the legalese used in courts.
Another sign would be a reduction in the use of weapons and warfare and a reliance on plebiscites and populations to override the ambitions of tyrants. In this context, I will argue that many corporations are tyrannical in that they exploit resources and the public to promote their bottom line at the expense of what is best for the Planet and its life forces, by which I mean to include people, animals, plants, and all the forms of life and majesty found in the natural world. When we see real changes in behavior at the top, we will know that Kali Yuga is over.
Nov 29, 2024 Deduced or Divinely Gifted?
Back in the early seventies, I developed a thesis that astrology was divinely revealed to humanity . . . because what is involved is so complicated that a single person or even a group of people studying for centuries could not have made the observations and calculations necessary to develop such an elaborate and complex system. There was no textbook in which such speculations could be found so this was simply an assumption I made based on how very, very difficult, well impossible, it would have been to put together pieces of the puzzle that worked in every latitude and included all the cycles and asymmetrical orbits that are the nuts and bolts upon which horoscopes are cast.
It was decades later that I discovered the Siddhars of ancient India and felt vindicated when learning that they wrote thousands of books on astrology, medicine, philosophy, music, poetry, and even geography. The word Siddhar comes from “siddhi” which are skills developed by exceptional beings. Were they great yogis whose experience was largely the result of countless Earth incarnations, or were they aliens?
Sometimes, readers enjoy my personal stories and others probably think a more formal writing style would be appropriate. In defense of today’s post, I would like to create a context for understanding siddhis and later Siddhars.
In 1968, I drove a Land Rover from England to India where I was to assume my second post with the State Department. I accepted the assignment on the condition that I could have the leisure for this adventure. The trip took 100 days, and while there is much that could be told, two highlights might be mentioned in the context of this post. The first perhaps set the stage for viewing the world and its history in a new light. I was completely enamored of the Musée de l’Homme in Paris. It is a kind of anthropological museum . . . and for the record, anthropology was my favorite undergraduate elective, far more interesting to me than philosophy or history. The exhibits at the museum were riveting so I stayed in Paris for several days and went back again and again. The Egyptian exhibits were fascinating, but music was somehow even more intriguing and set the stage, so to speak, for what I would hear on the radio while driving further and further to the East.
Sound, as I am sure I have mentioned in previous posts, is related to the etheric element and therefore to the structure of the etheric body, but even if we understand the concept of an octave, the way the spectrum is divided within the octave varies tremendously from one culture to another, but what I heard on the radio was subtle changes, starting perhaps in Greece where the music is wonderfully exciting but definitely different from music in Italy, not to mention Germany or France. In Turkey, the music started to sound more exotic, and this continued to be the case as Rimmerfjord, the name my grandfather gave the Land Rover, and I proceeded towards India. I was still a long way from putting the thousands or millions of pieces of the jigsaw of life together, but the stage was becoming more and more interesting, certainly more alive than anything I learned in school.
Since we are shaped by sound, developing a new appreciation for differences in how we listen and hear was very important, but the second highlight occurred in Northern Afghanistan, high in the mountains in December. I was taken to a cave and shown a picture of Jesus sitting in lotus posture. I understood that what prompted the men on horseback to show me this was their fascination with my blue eyes and blonde hair which were similar to the cave painting. They wanted to know where I came from since they had never seen anyone with my features before.
For me, I immediately understood that Jesus had studied in the East and was teaching a watered down version of ancient esoteric wisdom for Middle Easterners. This was also a major piece of the gigantic puzzle; and, for the record, it probably takes hundreds or thousands of incarnations to complete the puzzle. This said, each new piece that fits is thrilling.
I spent Christmas in Kabul and arrived in New Delhi before the end of the year. On my first day in India, I was invited to accompany a Kashmiri to visit Prof. Dr. Lokesh Chandra whose family had collected rare manuscripts and art, mainly from Mongolia and Tibet. For the next 18 months, I visited Prof. Dr. Lokesh Chandra almost every day after work and learned so much, including that one’s thinking and life experience should mature before publishing. In short, the entire harvest of one’s incarnation might involve adding only a few sentences to the vast literature already in existence. This made the publish or perish mentality of academia look as childish as it actually is.
Jumping forward, I quit the State Department in mid-1970 and went to Sweden to recover from all the tropical fevers I had contracted while posted in India. A point came when my temperature was normal, and I ordered a Citroen Ami 8 and drove from Paris to Kathmandu. Though not equipped for on board cooking or sleeping, it was a lot more reliable than the Land Rover. In Nepal, I was the guest at a New Year’s party where I met the Abbot of Thyangboche Monastery. He invited me to visit his monastery, and I set off, on foot, with two Sherpas in early March. However, the abbot was already there ahead of me. I asked him how he got there so fast since I knew his plan was to leave well after me. He described siddhis and inferred that he had teleported himself from Kathmandu to Thyangboche, which, for the record, is the last village before Everest base camp.
Though listening carefully, I was freezing in the Abbot’s study. It was so cold that I felt that the thick carpets were sticking to me as if made of dry ice rather than wool. The Abbot chuckled and said that I should concentrate on the intersection of three nerves above the navel to keep warm. He made some jokes about electricity and Indians who burn cow dung to make fires, but he realized I was not a yogi and invited me to continue the discussions in the kitchen which was indeed much warmer than his private study. The monks in the kitchen were visibly surprised to see the Abbot so I am sure his effort to be hospitable was completely irregular.
In any event, he continued to discuss siddhis without ever implying that there is anything special about developing such talents.
Rewinding a bit, there was a bookstore in the lobby of the embassy that specialized in books on everything Asian. I was without doubt their best customer and had bought every book on Tibet as well as Buddhism and ancient forms of medicine. However, compared to what is in print now, there was not much that was original in the late sixties. The owner of this little enterprise said that anyone with a scissors and pot of glue can author a book in India . . . not much different from bloggers today except that they use a mouse and Crl +C and consider that this is journalism.
Though the seeds were planted more than half a century ago, Prof. Dr. Lokesh Chandra was right about their germination.
The Siddhars
Traditionally, there were 18 Siddhars, historic beings who were prolific writers with phenomenal transcendental gifts. Most hailed from South India and wrote verses in what is now an archaic form of Tamil. Many traveled extensively, certainly as far as China, but most likely also to South America. One of the Siddhars, Kamalamuni, was born in Varanasi (Benares) and was said to have been Confucius, simultaneously with his life as a Siddhar. He was the guru of my favorite Siddhar, Boganathar, who was also Lao Tzu. I discussed this with a Chinese colleague who studied at the White Cloud Temple in Beijing. At first he was indignant and rejected the idea, but he came to understand that Lao Tzu basically appeared out of nowhere without any history and his name means white hair. What is said about his past is of a more or less mythological nature. Bogar said that he revived the body of a dead man and used it when manifesting as Lao Tzu.
If one takes these curious statements at face value, we see not only a seeding but a highly developed intention to educate and ennoble humanity. In the case of Bogar, he is credited with the discovery of an elixir of immortality, the foundation of kaya kalpa, a protocol for rejuvenation and, in some cases, immortality. This is the word used in the Chinese version and I confirmed that it means to live forever, not regenerate as was the case with Tapaswiji Maharaj who did kalpa three times in our era. One of Bogar’s students is the famous Mahavatar Babaji who taught Kriya Yoga to Lahiri Mahasaya who taught Sri Yukteswar, author of The Holy Science and the guru of Paramahansa Yogananda.
The Holy Science
Sri Yukteswar wrote that the purpose of his writing the seminal book was to show the essential unity of all religions.
If truth is really the truth, it will be the same for everyone, scientists and mystics, Christians and Hindus, etc. I have always understood that this is the case, but Sri Yukteswar dotted the “i’s” plus some. These are the four sections of The Holy Science.
The Gospel: “…seeks to establish the fundamental truth of creation, and to describe the evolution and the involution of the world.”
The Goal: “All creatures, from the highest to the lowest in the link of creation, are found eager to realize three things: Existence, Consciousness, and Bliss.”
The Procedure: “…deals with the method of realizing the three purposes of life.”
The Revelation: “…discusses the revelations which come to those who have traveled far to realize the three ideals of life and are very near their destination.”
Every few years, I reread The Holy Science. It is astrological and philosophical. Its implications are far reaching. Sri Yukteswar posits that the Sun revolves around the center of the creative power of the Universe which regulates Dharma, what we might call duty, responsibility, or destiny (my loose effort to summarize a truly pivotal book).
I want to close this particular post with the promise to continue the saga. I feel this is the beginning of a new chapter, post number #201, and I want to go deeper into astrology and astronomy, both Ayurvedic and Siddha medicine, rejuvenation, music, philosophy, and destiny.
This is a sort of encore performance, tying together threads of several posts, perhaps starting with the harp variations on Bellini’s Norma, one of my favorite operas. The setting for I Puritani is in England during the turbulent times of Oliver Cromwell and religious divide. This last opera of Bellini weaves together political and religious themes with a romance between Elvira and her beloved Arturo, a Royalist, who without explanation, disappears moments before their wedding in order to escort the widowed queen to safety.
Bellini was attracted to the story because Elvira goes mad with despair. He was desperate to create a truly dramatic opera that stirred emotions without triggering the censors who took a dim view of rebellion against the status quo; however, this fever was spreading like wildfire during this period of history (1835). He worked very hard to make the opera as perfect as possible while simultaneously arousing tremendous emotion. Needless-to-say, the demands on the singers are tremendous so we will give the impeccable Mariella Devia an encore.
Here his sweet voice
He called me and then disappeared.
Here he swore to be faithful,
Here he swore,
And then cruel, he fled!
Ah! never again here absorbed together
In the joy of sighs.
Ah! make me hope,
Or leave, let me die!
For those who want to watch the complete opera, I would recommend the two videos with Olga Peretyatko. The orchestra and caste are superb and capture all the sentiments Bellini wished to express in this opera.
So, why am I so passionate about opera? Besides the gorgeous music, all the art forms are combined in opera. There is a story, the libretto, and the inspiration behind the story. There are costumes, stage design and settings, acting, a full orchestra, and often immortal themes that have a curious longevity. Norma is set in Druid times, but the messages are as cogent today as hundreds or thousands of years ago. If we wanted to simplify the messages of I Puritani, we have the classic political conflicts and the battles and divisiveness fomented by differences . . . as well as the passion for life and love that is inherent in human nature. Elvira did not know if Arturo was unfaithful, dead or alive, or even whether they would be happy to meet again in the afterlife. Her imagination got the best of her, but unlike many operas, this one has a happy ending.
Meet Arturo and the queen and Arturo’s rival in love. Juan Diego Florez is a Peruvian tenor who has performed on countless stages around the world.
In choosing I Puritani, I feel that the conflicts we have today are not really different than those in the past, nor is the toll on individuals and their families. So, as we celebrate Thanksgiving, we should be grateful to be alive and hopeful that wisdom will prevail over reckless ambitions and carnage.
Nov 24, 2024 Theology and Mysticism
This is post #199 and next post is scheduled for delivery on Wednesday afternoon (Pacific Time), just before the beginning of the Thanksgiving holiday. I am indulging a bit as we reach the 200 post milestone.
I think I have mentioned that while most people are brought up in the religion of their family, this was not the case with me. I overheard my parents discussing which church the children should attend. The date is not clear to me but somewhere around age 8-10. They chose the Presbyterian Church because Dwight Eisenhower was popular and perhaps already president, and he was a member of this Protestant denomination. I remember being quite upset because it seemed like a frivolous way to choose a church.
A helpful context for this might be a reference to my own horoscope. I have a Sagittarius Moon in the ninth house and Pisces rising so both religious study and mysticism are natural for me. For more information, read my essay on the Monastic Moon.
As a child, I was very active in both church youth affairs and efforts to promote international cultural understanding. I was editor of the youth newspaper for the church, and was sent to a leadership training conference in Big Bear, California, where an immense debate took place one evening after dinner. We were scheduled to discuss the youth budget for half an hour, but the arguments went on through the night until breakfast. My position was that the missionary budget should go to health care and not involve proselytization. The grown up leading the discussion became so infuriated that blood vessels broke in his eyes, and he made some quite inappropriate allegations that should never be repeated. I responded calmly with what I now see was predictive of a long future wrestling with beliefs. I said that hell is not a place but rather a state of mind. Upon my return home, the minister of my church summoned me. I expected to be praised for my insights and had no idea that my views would be regarded as heresy. I ended up saying to the minister that he obviously did not understand what he was saying when standing in the pulpit and preaching to the congregation.
Thus began a quest for another place to go on Sunday mornings. I will not recount all my disappointments, but I was clearly not going to find a place of worship that met my needs for trustworthy interpretation of spiritual profundities. This has been a lifelong pursuit, and there were many wonderful milestones on the journey, but in all these decades since the clash at Big Bear, I have not changed my position on attempts to convert others to one’s own beliefs. I believe strongly that we each come to our understanding little by little, some faster than others; and it is absolutely imperative to keep politics out of religion since the administration of affairs on Earth has little or nothing to do with the broader scope of Creation and its Purpose. This said, I am profoundly optimistic about the long haul since there can be nothing more powerful than Creation Itself so we will all fall in line sooner or later, if not by choice, entrainment itself will operate to our benefit.
Many believe in duality in some form or other. As an astrologer, I see people favoring either a path of what is sometimes called skill in action or a path of discovery involving deeper and deeper understanding and eventually wisdom. This particular duality expresses itself in the first chakra and determines both the direction of the spin and the functioning of the fight or flight mechanism. It is not safe to attempt to change the direction of the spin so it behooves us to recognize our paths and to perfect our expression of the finest qualities of each orientation.
This said, it is easy for someone such as myself to look at the world situation and wonder if the reins of power are in safe hands. Likewise, few on the path of wisdom have reached a trustworthy level of understanding so we must use discernment and caution before abdicating the responsibility for governing ourselves. For similar reasons, we need to have the maximum freedom to think and explore and a minimum amount of meddling in our lives and the choices we make.
Every country has its history. For instance, after India got its independence from the British Raj, it quickly faced a schism in which East and West Pakistan split off from India. Hindus in the two Pakistans, now Bangladesh and Pakistan, fled; but many Moslems felt safe staying in India where there is immense cultural and religious diversity.
Europe is now struggling mightily with cultural identification and issues of assimilation, and we see several bases for the deportations that are occurring, only one of which involves differences in faith. The other issues largely involve economics and crime.
The U.S. should be different because whatever we might say about the waves of immigrants since Columbus and later the Pilgrims, at a certain point, the indigenous cultures were trampled; but immigrants have, on the whole, adapted to their new homes. Of course, most people retain some kind of association with their ancestral roots, but certain concepts, mainly of universal rights and freedom, are accepted. This said, I will go on record saying I support deportation of those who have entered the country illegally as well as anyone committing crimes. The right to live in a foreign country almost always involves visas and usually begins with temporary visas that may or may not guarantee permanent residence and citizenship. As someone who has lived in many different countries, I am fully aware that to stay permanently in any place usually involves a lot of paperwork and bureaucracy and sometimes investment in the country, i.e. a willingness to enhance the local economy rather than to absorb its resources.
Since much of modern society has been socialized to some degree or other, there are also immense potential expenses revolving around the services offered to residents. In general, I believe that government impinges on many of our freedoms so I would like to see that reach trimmed, but defining the lines between what is humanitarian and what infringes our inalienable rights can be challenging. Turning national involvements in matters such as education back to the states does not really restore rights, merely which governmental bodies that have influence.
This said, the point of the celebration of Thanksgiving is that we are grateful for the opportunity to pursue our paths without excessive interference . . . and we need to remember that important as our roots are, there are times when to survive, we must be transplanted to a safer place.
Truth be told, I have been preparing a Thanksgiving post for the last 2-3 months, but it is mainly musical so what I would like to do today is revisit what we were taught when we were young, i.e., that the Pilgrims came to the New World in search of religious freedom. Alas, that is but one tiny piece of a much more complex story.
We could go back to the voyages of Columbus. The future king of England was born in 1491. At the age of 17, Henry VIII ascended the throne and married Catherine of Aragon, the youngest surviving daughter of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile. The story is actually quite complicated because she was betrothed at age three to Prince Arthur, elder brother of the future king. Both were only 15 when they married in 1501. Prince Arthur died five months later, Catherine insisting that the marriage was never consummated.
In marrying King Henry VIII, It could be argued that neither English royal married Catherine, rather that England married Spain though Catherine was of English royalty on her mother’s side. During the years of limbo between her marriages, she became the first woman ambassador in European history. She also served briefly as regent of England when Henry VIII was in France (1513). During this time, she quelled a rebellion and aroused patriotism among citizens.
Her great “flaw” was that she failed to produce a male heir, leaving Mary the presumptive future monarch. This set in motion a royal battle with Pope Clement VII who refused to annul the marriage, thus precipitating a schism with the Catholic Church and the onset of the English Reformation in which Henry VIII became the supreme head of the Church of England. All convents and monasteries were dissolved, assets were seized, and Henry VIII was, of course, excommunicated.
Anne Boleyn entered the picture in 1526, and the marriage to Catherine was declared invalid in 1533, leaving Henry free to marry Anne. Catherine did not recognize Henry as the head of the new Church, and she continued to consider herself the rightful wife and queen. She was very popular among the citizens of England, but was banished from the court and died in 1536 of cancer, leaving Mary the heir apparent to throne.
The complexity of this epoch in history includes the role of Martin Luther whose objection to the sale of indulgences was posted in 1517. In short, both the Protestant Reformation and the establishment of the Church of England occurred more or less in the same period of history. The difference of course is that while theological arguments were used both by Henry VIII and Martin Luther, the motivations were dissimilar. Nevertheless, introducing the vernacular into the new churches set the stage for much wider understanding of doctrines.
This was a part of the Renaissance sweeping Europe at the time so whether talking art, literature, religion, or science, the gateway to the modern world was opening. As an astrologer, I would also note that the Copernican theory supporting the concept of a heliocentric universe was published in 1543; and in 1572, Tycho Brahe observed a super nova giving rise to the idea that there are stars beyond the Moon.
Continuing our saga, John Calvin broke from the Catholic Church and eventually gave rise to what is known as Puritanism in which the primary goal was to establish a covenant with God. One cornerstone of the Puritan faith is a belief in predestination.
The Pilgrims were mainly Separatists who fled England for Holland to avoid religious persecution from Anglicans. These are the Protestants who set sail from England and founded the colony in Massachusetts in 1620.
Though celebrations involving indigenous tribes and settlers can be dated as far back as 1578 (Newfoundland), the first “official” Thanksgiving took place in 1621 with Pilgrims and members of the Wampanoag tribe. Thanksgiving became a national holiday during the American Civil War, 1863, under President Lincoln.
Ostensibly, the freedom to practice one’s faith without risk of persecution would seem like a breakthrough, but Thanksgiving was more about a feast of survival than a guarantee of the right to one’s own beliefs. Survival depended more on the generosity of the indigenous peoples’ willingness to share food with colonists than on respect for differences. Proselytizing, persecution, and prejudice were not eliminated.
As we emerge from the election season, we hear a lot of rhetoric about America being a Christian nation. It was perhaps colonized by Pilgrims of strong persuasions, but it should be accepted that the goal was and should be freedom, not domination much less intolerance. Interestingly, while Protestants constitute a relatively new branch of Christianity, indigenous people have held on to many of their traditions despite their having become a minority. Likewise, immigrations of Catholics, Buddhists, Moslems, and Hindus have diluted the dominance of Protestants in recent years.
Speaking for myself, complete separation of church and state seems imperative to spiritual and political stability. Faith is something that might be an inherent component of the soul, inborn so to speak. It is the foundation of all that is potentially noble and uplifting. It is also personal and hopefully unshakable. On the other hand, the state is responsible for security and sound domestic and international policies. It should not be involved in education, religion, or ownership of media platforms.
We accept that leaders have personal lives in which it is appropriate to practice their beliefs, but it is not appropriate to attempt to impose those beliefs on anyone else. Now, if we go back to Henry VIII, we recognize that the underlying issue was an heir — and the notion that a different wife might provide a male heir turned into a conflict involving schisms, persecutions, executions, and legalities rather than mystical understanding of the role of spirit in matter. The question then arises whether marriages are made in heaven or on earth? Do you know the answer?
Most people are aware of our five senses and even the extrasensory extensions of those senses, but do we realize that even beyond those senses, there might be even higher expressions of the senses?
Each sense is related to an element, a chakra, and specific higher dimensional possibilities that many would deem supernatural. One may be born with such special gifts or the abilities may be cultivated through certain practices . . . in which case, we can speculate that the attainments may be carried over into future lifetimes.
To make this as clear as possible, the earth element relates to the sense of smell and the adrenal glands. We know that certain species have a much keener sense of smell than most humans. For example, the “war dogs” used in Vietnam could smell if air passed over a trip line that could detonate something if someone walked into it without seeing it. In a dense jungle, something as simple as fishing line might not be conspicuous. Smell is critical to the discernment and is necessary when we need to know if air is safe to breathe and food is safe to eat. It can become highly exaggerated with people with multiple chemical sensitivities or it can vanish after a trauma. Then, there is a question as to whether or not the sense will recover.
Water rules the sense of taste and can be similarly vulnerable to diminishment after a shock to the system. Fire rules sight. It depends on light. People with strong fire energies are usually farsighted and have no trouble with night vision. If this sense is developed, one can have etheric or even astral vision, a paranormal attribute.
The sense of touch is governed by the air element. We feel movement and have sensations when there is movement. This sense can be developed so that psychometric skills can manifest. Some people know the history of antiques by who handled the objects in the past. A few know how to read gem stones through touch.
Sound is the matrix for all manifestation, not for all that “is” but rather all that is dense enough to become materialized. It is therefore very important to avoid dissonance and even more important to filter what we allow ourselves to hear.
Any sense can be more or less developed and just to give this context, dolphins have much better hearing than humans and are sensitive to a much wider range of sound.
When we cultivate sensitivity, the extrasensory expression may become manifest. Being fiery, sight has generally been my extended sense. What I can say is that besides what most people see, there is a lot more going on that few people see.
The aura is often heavily populated with little beings who sometimes tell stories out of school. They are truthful even when the conscious self is not. There are spirit beings, fairies, ghosts, and even writing in the sky or overhead.
In my lifetime, there have been times when I was highly sensitive and saw things one normally does not see, but I know others who have far more developed skills, including the ability to teleport, to manifest objects out of thin air, and to control the elements.
There is history, mostly written in Tamil, of 18 siddhars, individuals who exhibited extraordinary powers. Many of them lived extremely long lives, and some of my Indian friends believe they were aliens. They were prolific writers and left a vast body of literature covering everything from poetry to mathematics and astronomy. They were the founders of yogic practices and systems of medicine such as Siddha Medicine and Ayurveda. My favorite was Boganathar. Among many accounts of his accomplishments and acts, at the behest of his teacher, he went to China where he took up the body of a dead man and appeared as Lao Tzu. When mentioning this to a Chinese colleague to studied at the White Cloud Temple in Beijing, my colleague was a little more than incredulous; but he did a little research and found that, in fact, nothing is known about Lao Tzu’s early life and he appeared with white hair as a sage without much history. However, Bhogar tells many stories, including one involving his dog on their return trip to India. He decided to rejuvenate himself and his dog. The opportunity was offered the disciples who accompanied him, but most panicked when they thought the herbal concoction killed the dog as well as the first disciple to take the medicine. They fled and then felt guilty and decided to return to the site in the Himalayas where this event took place. Instead of finding corpses to bury, they found a note saying that they had missed their chance for immortality and that the dog and faithful disciple had left for India.
Siddhars could teleport so stories about faraway countries and miraculous events can be found in many parts of our world.
Whether or not the Siddhars were aliens is moot, but my colleague was asked by the Chinese government to investigate the claims of a woman who said she worked with a small group of aliens. He corroborated all her accounts. Later, he worked with children with special gifts. They found worm holes, a twin planet that is only about ten years ahead of ours, and souvenirs were passed between the children in China and those on the other planet. He sent me many photographs of the children and the gifts that were exchanged.
These events triggered me to reread the Book of Enoch because it is very likely that Enoch was the first in Western history to describe what he learned while a guest on a space ship. This book has, of course, been deleted from the Bible, but once upon a time, it, along with dozens of others, comprised a more complete account of the life of Jesus as well as the world as it was thousands of years ago.
Erich von Däniken has proposed changing a few words in the Bible because he believes that some of the beings referred to as sons of Gods or those who were not exactly humans were aliens, not deities, not lesser gods, not angels, not illustrious beings with supernatural powers, just aliens.
If someone from a more advanced civilization were to visit a place that was not as advanced, they might exhibit qualities that are not typically manifested here.
Based on the altered states I have facilitated and the memories people have shared, it would seem that Earth was populated by a huge variety of immigrants from other parts of the Universe. This is very easy to understand if we take the Americas as an example, before the Europeans, then Africans, and then Asians came here, there were already “indigenous” people but many of the these people have traditions suggesting that they came from elsewhere, very often the Pleiades. Then, if you go to Africa, you have the Dogon account that they came from Sirius B, a star that until recently most astronomers did not know existed. My visions show that many of the ”light workers” we see today came from Sirius, but Sirius A. They could, of course, have intermarried so their descendants have influences from several star systems.
Each of these systems has unique characteristics so just as we see variety among so-called Homo sapiens, there are signatures that typify other star systems. With some form of disclosure expected in the very near future, it might behoove us to recognize that there is even more diversity among beings of other star systems than what we recognize as ethnic characteristics on Earth. I am so looking forward to an event in which our place in the greater scheme of life is brought into focus. I am not afraid at all of the so-called aliens. I would be much more concerned if one of our agencies faked disclosure and kept the truth buried. In short, we need discernment as well as an open mind.
Continuing with Robert F. Kennedy’s plan to make America healthy again, we can look at other issues he has addressed, but I want to sketch a sort of spectrum going back to when I first began my journey into natural medicine and healing more than 50 years ago. At that time, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) was making headlines. The cause was unknown but was later tentatively associated with adverse reactions to early childhood vaccines. This is a long and tragic story, but it was followed by Alzheimer’s disease and an alarming increase in autism and then Lyme disease and a crescendo of diabetes and now massive reports of complications and death from the various Covid vaccines.
RFK, Jr., believes the epidemic of diabetes can be solved through removal of toxic components in foods that are found in virtually every grocery store. He cites food colorings as well as long list of ingredients that are banned in the EU. He then advocates an organic diet. Here is a one minute summary:
Rewinding to the 1960s when I landed my first real job post-graduation, my impression was that neither the food nor pharmaceutical industry have a conscience. As the only woman professional in the research department of a Wall Street bank, I was assigned to evaluate food, beverages, chain restaurants . . . and at times to cover for the pharmaceutical and chemical analyst who was my immediate boss, not the vice president of the research department, but the leader of one group of analysts. The job involved a lot reading and attendance at banquets hosted by companies who were cultivating stronger ties with Wall Street . . . and of course, higher valuations of their stock. The emphasis was always on the bottom line: profit.
This is why I today balk at the corporate model — and most of President-elect Trump’s financial ideas and goals. The corporate model is designed to benefit stockholders, not employees or customers. This encourages cutting corners, not to mention exploitation of all lower and middle level workers as well as duping of the public through carefully engineered advertising and price gouging.
Also, there is nothing inherent in the corporate model that would support sustainability or quality. I will give one example from a luncheon hosted by a famous company in the liquor industry. A guest, not me, asked what the difference was between a cheap bottle of vodka and an expensive one. The presenter said, “price” . . . meaning that the bottle may have a fancier appearance but it is not superior to the lower priced competition.
Unfortunately, this pattern can be found in everything from olive oil to vacuum cleaners and prescription drugs. This is not to say that quality cannot be found, but the price and packaging are not a guarantee that you get something better by paying more. I am sure that with certain luxury items, there is a difference, but with most rubbish in stores, there is no guarantee that price is a determinant of value or efficacy.
Hence, the instruction to RFK, Jr. to restore real science to industries that have strayed from credibility to exploitation and golden parachutes is an important step in the right direction as would be elimination of egregious conflicts of interest.
What, however, would happen if the corporate model itself were replaced by putting the emphasis on service to humanity as opposed to profits. I am sure most health care providers started out as idealists whose motivations were compassion and a desire to heal.
Over the years, I have worked with many modes of healing as well as insurance providers. One important project began with the AIDS epidemic. The fifteen largest insurance companies held a secret meeting to determine whether expensive payouts at a young age would cause the companies to go belly up. I developed a wellness plan in which every insured individual with a serious diagnosis would have a choice between mainstream medicine and a wellness regime, a residential facility with a staff comprised of both allopathic and holistic practitioners. They would be given a lump sum to spend as they wished, meaning they could tour the world and/or live it up with whatever time they had remaining or enroll in a wellness clinic which we estimated would cost 10% of what conventional treatments would run. There was a lot of excitement and great support at the middle management level but the president of the company shot down the proposal and reneged on the promised fee for my services which involved months of work. The explanation was that the companies were so cross-invested that they would profit from pharmaceutical sales even with claims coming from clients who had not paid much in premiums.
It is obvious why there is a revolving door involving regulatory agencies and corporations. My sense is that unless one includes both natural medicine and serious clinical trials as part of the necessary reforms, we will not achieve health . . . because, sorry to say, the body can only utilize what is natural and everything foreign would add to stress on the coping mechanisms we have developed to deal with insults to our health.
As someone who has been committed to natural methods of healing for over half a century, I also feel that everyone should have complete freedom of choice as to the type of insurance one does or does not prefer and the modalities used to address health issues.
For example, diabetes is now an epidemic that, according to RFK, Jr., runs $1500 a month. I ran a remote clinic in India for a while, meaning, I was working via webcam with an Ayurvedic doctor and a team of Western-trained Indian doctors. The Ayurvedic doctor took all the diabetic patients off insulin on day one and blood sugar tended to be normal by day ten. If the patients followed through with the necessary changes in diet and herbs that help to regulate diabetes, they would remain healthy, but what we saw was that habits run deep and the most serious threats came during holidays in which a vast number of sweets were consumed along with meals that were traditional rather than healthy. Obviously, this is a ubiquitous problem. I saw the same pattern in Europe and North America.
Wrapping this up, I would like to comment on Donald Trump’s corporate approach to the economy. As someone who studied economics, I know the curriculum, but it is 1950s “modern” and completely unsustainable if people are concerned about the trajectory and the impact on future generations. Briefly, his tariff threats do punish exporters but they are ultimately paid by the importers and passed on to the consumer.
Likewise, a consumption tax puts a very heavy burden on lower and middle income individuals, some of whom may be in a zero percent tax bracket. What are exempt essentials? We need food, medicine, clothing, a roof over our heads, transportation, and perhaps have expenses for education, vocational training, exercise, and home businesses. Wealthy people already have many loopholes to avoid taxation, but a consumption tax would hit them a bit. Ellen Brown’s idea of taxing financial transactions would generate the same amount of income for less than 1% and it would not have any adverse impact on those who are living more or less hand to mouth. Anyone with investments to manage has more income and assets than needed to survive so a tax on transfers of stock and bonds would not really set anyone back much at all.
With the election finally behind us, announcements about the new administration’s agenda are beginning to hit the press. As many realized, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is on board to “make America healthy again.” He is highly qualified for this task. Besides his encyclopedic mind, he has studied and litigated the issues undermining health and knows the lay of the land. He is often criticized because of misunderstandings regarding his position on vaccines, but he is actually more tactful than I am and has a more open mind about the potential benefits. The issue boils down to adjuvants and their safety or lack thereof, but the starting point of his program would seem to be fluoride and getting it out of our water, something that will revolutionize how we think and how we perceive our relationship to the spiritual realm.
Reviewing my past posts, this would seem to be the twelfth one in which fluoride is discussed. It is not only a very serious toxin that is found in the water of roughly 75% of the country, but it damages the pineal gland by causing ossification, i.e., calcification of the very part of our endocrine system that allows us to perceive higher realities. So, we are not just being dumbed down, but we are forfeiting access to the guidance system that would enable us to understand the nature of divinity as well as our own special roles in the grander scheme of Creation.
Fluoride makes people more docile and therefore easier to manage, but it has a litany of side effects, the most egregious of which is to descend into blind skepticism about the vastness and intelligence of the Universe. It may be impossible to prove, but overemphasis on materialism, atheism, and even perhaps descent into cynicism and chaos may be directly or at least indirectly related to the dysfunction of the pineal gland.
That is the bad news, the good news is the damage is reversible. Exactly how long it takes to recover seems to depend on the length of time of exposure. For instance, a young person who has only sporadically been exposed to fluoride may recover full functionality of the pineal gland in a few weeks whereas an elderly person who has been exposed for decades may have to persevere for several months. This said, the cure is simple, natural, and virtually harmless, even delicious.
I happen to enjoy the taste of tamarind. I have such an affinity for it that I recognized a tamarind tree when seeing one for the first time in the Caribbean. It was love at first sight. Of course, I was familiar with the taste because of condiments used in Indian cuisine. Interestingly, many Indian dishes are served with two dipping sauces, a green one that is cooling and a red one that is spicy. The green one has cilantro, a major chelator of toxic metals, especially mercury, aluminum, and lead. The red one has tamarind, the fruit used to decalcify the pineal gland.
There are precautions for use of cilantro. If one has amalgam fillings, cilantro should not be allowed to come in contact with those dangerous restorations. One can, however, very carefully chelate mercury if placing the tincture far in the back of the mouth and swallowing quickly . . . then rinse the mouth several times to be sure the cilantro does not remain in the mouth. However, where tamarind is concerned, no such precautions are necessary. It can be consumed as a candy, a refreshing beverage, soup, or dipping sauce . . . or as a tincture.
As noted, I have a relationship with tamarind and use it many times a week, not every day. However, I am also intrigued by the beauty of the wood. I have a mortar made of tamarind, souvenir from the Bahamas where I lectured at a women’s conference. The wood also has amazing acoustic properties which can be found in drums, marimbas, and even guitars, usually only the back and sides. It gives an almost harp-like feeling to stringed instruments. As someone who is passionate about music therapy, the resonance of tamarind is thrilling to my ears.
Okay, playing a marimba will probably not decalcify the pineal gland so perhaps a recipe would be helpful?
Even though a little long, I chose this one because she is thorough, but you can usually find blocks of tamarind in grocery stores so you don’t have to peel the fruit. The taste is sour, but being a fruit, it is also a little sweet. If you want to sweeten the juice, use something natural like jaggery, date sugar, or coconut, not white sugar.
There is a lot more I want to post. Monday is not just a holiday but a very special day for me since I took Bodhisattva Vows on November 11th. I will post something to celebrate this event.
Oct 29, 2024 Parasite Epidemic
This post on parasites will differ a bit from the longer Substack post written last year. If you missed it, you might want to start there to get a broader view of the risks and strategies for reducing risks. Today, I want to address two issues that might be relatively new to my subscribers. The first is the introduction of parasitic infections via the recent jab that involves roughly five billion humans on this Planet. The second is the method of action of the various remedies, often not at all what one thinks.
Due to the desire to control what people think and believe, the facts about both Covid and the vaccine are not being discussed in most mainstream media publications. You can find the facts on selected free speech platforms and websites that cite specific scientific studies. The truth seems to be that some severely misguided individuals believe that using attenuated or dead parasites in vaccines will somehow improve immunity. I will restrain my Mercury/Mars conjunction and not go into why this idea is almost beyond absurd. This said, the “contamination” is apparently not limited to the recent investigations that focus heavily on Pfizer and Moderna batches but might go back many years.
If you are a lay person, you might start with a search on Rumble. Experts will find very disturbing studies on highly scientific sites . . . so the issue is not that some people are prone to exaggeration but rather that the testing of various batches has resulted in alarming discoveries.
In my June 2023 post, I mentioned that I first saw blood parasites when a medical professional left his microscope at my house and temptation got the better of me. I had been curious for two decades, but the scopes are expensive so I had to convince myself that I could not possibly damage the scope if all I did was turn on the light. What had first appeared as a white blob broke into many discrete objects that were translucent under the intense light of the scope. I understood that this was important new information so rushed to connect a VCR to the scope and began recording. I got up every 15 minutes during the night to see what was happening and saw the development of a little heart and various internal organs and then a quest for something to eat, definitely a gestation and development process that is familiar to all of us.
A mixture of guilt for submitting to temptation and excitement overwhelmed me, and I wondered what the earliest time would be to call the owner of the microscope. His first words were, “I hope you recorded everything.” Later that day, he came with an armload of books on parasitology and said, “Find a match in these books.” I read over 3000 pages in ten days because, to be honest, what I had seen was fascinating.
It was quickly evident that there are thousands of varieties of parasites . . . and over the next decade or so, I became so familiar with them that I could tell where people had traveled. An example may help to understand this better. There was a patient in Europe who was on the equestrian Olympic team. She looked majestic on her horse and was radiant despite living with a death sentence over her head. She was said to have ovarian cancer and only months to live. I found many abnormalities in her blood, including a parasite that was vaguely familiar. I asked, “You haven’t perchance been to Nairobi, have you?” It was similar to parasites of patients I had seen who had been to Nairobi, but not identical. She said she lived in Mombasa for 12 years so you see that close as the two places are, the parasites were not quite identical.
It’s been many years now, and I have taught quite a number of practitioners how to find the parasites. They were ubiquitous even before the recent campaign to vaccinate unsuspecting people.
This said, my expertise is mainly with blood parasites so we are talking about microscopic parasites as opposed to the ones normally discussed in books on tropical medicine and by those influenced by the writings of Hulda Clark on liver flukes.
What I can say with absolute certainty is that parasitic infections do not increase the efficiency of the immune system. Rather, they impose an extra burden on a system that already has a lot of challenges.
Remedies
Many traditional parasite remedies have been in high demand since the advent of the alleged pandemic. What is curious and should have specialists thinking is that while natural remedies often have a wide range of action, until recently no one was taking Ivermectin for the flu. What is the secret here?
This question is a little hard to answer, but based on my now quite lengthy studies, I would say that the mechanism for action is not what people might believe. The technical term for an herb having antiparasitic properties is anthelmintic, but the language suggests that a parasite will ingest the herb and die. I have not actually seen any evidence that suggests this happens.
However, before describing what I have seen, I might detour a little and discuss a few approaches to intestinal parasites. For instance, pumpkin seeds are often included in the list of remedies, but the supposed reason is that they have sharp edges that damage the skin of the parasites so that the parasites die from injuries rather than toxins.
With something very popular like green walnut hulls, the chemistry is sedative so the drowsy parasites cannot cling to the walls of the intestines and they get flushed out.
Now, let me go to the blood parasites where I have actually observed the entire process, often over a period of months. Very hot spices are irritating for the parasites and then they are vulnerable. Then, a single white blood cell organizes hundreds or thousands of red blood cells to immobilize the parasite. Then, she approaches the parasite and the red blood cells open corridors for her to blast the parasite with a mist that blisters the membrane. Oozing begins. She repeats this in numerous places. Then, she leaves and parasite begins to die.
What happens next depends on the functionality of the immune system. If friendly bacteria are available, they devour the soft tissue of the parasite. If people are taking antibiotics or they do not have sufficient friendly bacteria for some other reason, the parasite decomposes through fermentation. This explains why mixing and matching can be counterproductive. For instance, when parasites are dying, it is not uncommon to have mild symptoms of an infection, rarely enough to stay in bed, but doctors may prescribe antibiotics based on symptoms rather than true understanding.
In general, with blood parasites, all will die with 36 hours but grogginess due to die off may persist for 5-6 days. This is why the protocol I developed has three steps: Arjuna’s Arrows to weaken the parasites, Dragon Dreams for the 4-6 days when grogginess is the main symptom, then Phoenix Rising to bring the system up to par. As noted in previous posts, parasites can lay a lot of eggs and sometimes they are clever and hide the eggs under membrane linings or even in the brain. These eggs are not necessarily affected by remedies so they will hatch and the protocols have to be repeated, preferably for 2-4 months but occasionally for several years.
In the case of intraerythrocytic parasitic infections, the culprits are safe until the red blood cell ruptures and releases the merozoites into the plasma. Without a microscope, one does not know exactly when the rupture occurs, but it tends to correlate with the appearance of more discomfort and symptoms, sometimes even a fever.
Though a medical astrologer, I have not posted very much of an astrological nature on Substack. However, with so much going on in the world and change seeming to be inevitable, I would like to take a few moments to discuss what some call the “Finger of God configuration” and others call the “Y formation” that is currently gaining exactitude in the sky.
People have different levels of understanding, not to mention acceptance, of astrology so please bear with me as I explain the yod. Obviously, there are 360 degrees in a circle. In horoscopes, the gateway of the soul is the ascendant which is usually drawn at the nine o’clock position of the horoscope, the Eastern Gate where the motivation of the soul is shown.
A quincunx is a 150 degree angle anywhere in the chart. However, the natural chart that starts at the first house, would have a quincunx going from the ascendant to the cusp of the sixth house, health, and going the opposite direction to the cusp of the eighth house, death. These are very strong “parting” aspects meaning one makes irrevocable changes, except in the case of a yod.
Now, try to imagine you are journeying along through life and have two options. You can go to one destination/frequency or another. The yod in question now has the Sun, representing self as in conscious self as well as leaders having the option of going towards Neptune in late Pisces or Uranus in late Taurus. These are the two planets behind the miasm in the third eye. If the vision is clear, Neptune will influence the right hemisphere of the brain and Uranus would organize the manifestation of the vision via the left hemisphere.
Without the guidance of Neptune, Uranus is often eccentric rather than original. Neptune can be delusional, but when detached from irrelevant influences, it can be a clear channel for deeply mystical revelations and guidance. It can also be deceptive if motivations are impure and clarity is lacking. The rule for proper relationship to Neptune should probably be to permit the influence only if the ego can be put aside along with all personal opinions and expectations.
Uranus is the magician whose primary task is to manifest the will of Heaven on Earth. However, as noted, not everyone functions at this level and they filter impressions through layers and layers of fog that obscure the possibilities that exist.
In the context of the current world situation, we have been exposed to inordinately convoluted influences through intrusions on our natural state by those with hidden agendas. However, there are individuals functioning with compassion for the plight of our Planet and its inhabitants as well as many with innovative ideas for making order out of chaos.
Important meetings are scheduled for the next few days, and it is probably safe to assume that changes will follow these gatherings of the so-called leaders of the world. For sure, there will be major changes in the financial system, and there will also be sinister forces trying to deploy false solutions for alleged problems such as health, weather, controversies, conflicts, and competition.
Speaking for myself, I see people who have penetrated the miasms and cleared their vision as well as people whose positions are of no use whatsoever to the future of life on Earth. If people are viewing through their mists, they probably subscribe to mainstream portrayals of what is presented as reality; but the truth is their vision is obscured by falsehoods that are going be retired and replaced by Truth.
Given the forthcoming U.S. election, what is important is that if speaking to the masses, one has to reach the voters on the playing field that seems normal to them, but this stage is cluttered with ideas that are irrelevant and obsolete. This includes our ideas surrounding money, wages, earning power, spending, financial systems, taxation, and right use of resources. The terminology I have used for both of the major parties is that the thinking behind the platforms is obsolete. However, if one were to present a radically new vision, it might fall on deaf ears.
Lurking in the background of what could and should happen is the faltering grip of Pluto on those with the power to influence and control. Many will fall in the days to come, and some will switch sides as the most expedient way to avoid personal disaster.
For individuals who are faced with important decisions, the way the yod will play out will probably involve flirtations with making major changes or procrastinating in the hope that more perfect options will present in the future. Since both Uranus and Neptune are retrograde, my advice is to observe carefully and defer decisions until the planets are direct, which is December for Neptune and February for Uranus. Regardless, one of the blessings of a yod is that if a choice is regretted, one can change the choice to the other option(s) considered at the time of the first reaction.
The motion of the Sun is swift so this yod will come and go in less than a week, but important matters will probably be on the table at the global meetings. Those with planets in late Libra may feel the yod much more strongly than others.
It would not surprise me if some normally highly visible individuals more or less vanish from view or withdraw from the fray. It would also be likely that exposures of particulars from the past result in loss of face and popularity. Again, it is important to underscore that these transits are fleeting so observing possibilities but deferring decisions is probably the best path for most people.
Mold is opportunistic and thrives with moisture and darkness so expect it in places where one rarely looks such as under the house and in basements, in the attic, between walls, and in bathroom and kitchen cabinets.
Are there coincidences or plans made in advance of incarnation that prepare us for moments in the future? As fate would have it, my house flooded following faulty installation of a washing machine (by the appliance company) and I took mold remediation training shortly after hurricane Katrina when most of the others in the course were contractors looking for lucrative jobs in New Orleans. I have a lot to share and you can also share this post with those in your circle.
Rule 1
Mold remediation is a job for properly trained and equipped professionals if the affected area exceeds 12 x 12 inches (roughly 30 x 30 centimeters). Even with a small area such as this, proper masks and gloves are essential.
Rule 2
Despite advertising and claims to the contrary, mold can not be killed. It can be relocated, but not destroyed. It can be dormant, sometimes for years, but it will activate when the circumstances favor a vegetative state.
Like many, I have probably seen a lot of videos of flooding, not just Helene and Milton, but the Sahara and Arabian Peninsula, Myanmar and the Himalayas, Germany and Italy, China and Vietnam . . . and this goes on and on. If everything is lost, as has tragically been the case for many, the remnants of buildings and property do need to be relocated to landfills. If the properties can be reclaimed, Tyvek suits, respirators, and proper equipment are needed. Thus far, I have not seen any videos evidencing correct preparations and protection.
To the credit of some, relief has been focused on food, water, hygiene, and temporary accommodations. The public response has been heroic in nearly every devastated area, and when it comes to handling of damaged and contaminated material, most has been added to trash piles without any attempt to reclaim items of sentimental or financial value. Proper remediation can be quite expensive because personal items have to isolated and then cleaned and restored. It is a long-term proposition so more urgent issues have a much higher priority.
Good News
Mold can be inhibited. The first step is to eliminate moisture. Not much can be achieved so long as there is excessive moisture. Once dry and cleaned, the affected areas can be misted with essential oils that are inhospitable to mold. When first researching this, my attention was primarily on rare books and lumber but there were a few anecdotal bits and pieces of information about spraying newspapers so people could sit on a park bench in the open air without mosquito bites or mold. This was important because some people contacting me twenty-odd years ago became infected due to moldy paper used in indoor potted plants.
Becoming conscious of risks is the first step towards reducing the risks. Then, of course, action is required.
Unfortunately, what works externally cannot usually be used internally because the effective doses would exceed safety limits so remediation is a property issue and recovery is an individual matter requiring very careful attention to effective strategies.
Mold Infection
There have been many interruptions so I will write about mold allergies and infections in the next post. Meanwhile, please be careful!
Oct 12, 2024 Columbus and Navigation
I remember how excited I was when first learning that Columbus discovered America. It seemed so adventurous and daring . . . but that was decades ago. Today, my goal is to draw a parallel between 1492 and the world in our times. Choosing a starting point is quite difficult because my Swedish genes nag me to mention that the Vikings for sure got to North America long before Columbus.
Columbus was born in the Republic of Genoa in 1451. He had three brothers, one of whom, Bartholomew, ran a cartography business in Lisbon. Columbus helped his brother but most of his early life was spent on ships that were carrying valuable cargo. He traveled extensively and though not scholarly, he made copious margin notes in the books he did read, like those of Ptolemy and Marco Polo.
My experience as a tourist is that at each resting point, one meets other travelers who may or may not have come from the same direction, meaning, for example, one might be in Athens or Istanbul but the people one meets may have come from the east rather than the west. One exchanges stories about the road conditions, dangers, restaurants, and perhaps languages, history, and cultures. Sooner or later, one hears something that triggers a synaptic response and a desire to probe further.
Since the Silk Road was well established in the 15th century, it is very likely that Columbus had fairly detailed knowledge about places to the east but speculations were rampant as to whether or not one could reach Asia by sailing west, not just in the mind of Columbus but with others as well. Columbus made some serious miscalculations about the size of our Planet and was roughly a third shy of reality.
Most of us know the rest of the story because we learned it in school and have probably seen films depicting the life and voyages of Columbus and his financiers, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand.
Zheng He
One of my early Substack posts referenced the famous Chinese admiral whose voyages dwarfed those of Columbus. Zheng He was a Muslim admiral whose first fleet consisted of 317 ships and a crew of 28,000. They went from port to port, generally sticking close to the coastlines as they sailed through Southeast Asia and as far as the Eastern coast of Africa. The ships were loaded with gifts and items of trade and diplomatic missions were established along the route. The Ming Dynasty sponsored seven expeditions. The missions could be considered economic and political since no attempts to claim land or colonize occurred though some envoys were brought to China along with exotic animals, the giraffe being the most celebrated.
Some expatriated Chinese already lived in several of the areas visited and some crew staffed the new missions, but the goal was mercantile in nature and mostly non-violent except for encounters with pirates and a land war in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
There were three emperors during the span of Zheng He’s voyages. Sponsorship ended and tales of the expeditions were more or less muffled.
Church and State
What is noteworthy is that much of the area covered by Zheng He embraced the Islamic faith, not entirely, of course, but it is clear that Indonesia, except for Java, the Arabian Peninsula, and much of East Africa are Moslem. Likewise, much of the area visited by Columbus is Catholic. However, as discussed in a recent post, in the case of Columbus, there were Papal grants of land and sovereignty whereas no such conquests or seizures were initiated by the Chinese. This said, tributes were expected from the foreign countries.
Columbus did not explore much of continental North America, but, as we know, the Pilgrims came later and brought Protestant Christianity with them. This may become the subject matter of a Thanksgiving post!
Today
The parallels that jump out are that when the West wants something, it tends to use force. Whether seeking gold, oil, rare minerals, or control over thought, it is ruthless and depends on might over what is right. The pattern is so out of control that this abuse of power is now being directed at citizens rather than foreigners who have come to enjoy more financial and political security than native born residents.
China continues to engage in deceptively friendly economic exploitation by building dams and power plants, airports and harbors, roads and agricultural projects, all with conditions that cripple the economies of the host countries that cannot afford to pay back the loans . . . unless they surrender natural resources in exchange for interest payments on the debts.
Where Does it Lead?
If trends remain the same and are projected forward into the future, religious conflict and exploitation by the powerful will cripple civilization as we know it. We see the seeds and many have germinated and will become stronger unless creative minds devise alternatives to the current political and economic objectives.
The history of colonialism is that the intruder will eventually be expelled due to a surge of public sentiment. This is sometimes followed by nationalization of properties, industries, and natural resources, meaning the “investments” of the foreigners are seized without compensation. This, however, only works if a national identity is crafted and a charismatic leader emerges who arouses a desire to reclaim what is rightfully part of the country’s identity and resources. We do see such movements gaining momentum and can thus expect changes that will interfere with corporate and political interests.
On the other side, we see conflicts between cultures holding different perspectives and values so the lives of many people who expatriated and might be disrupted. This is happening in Europe and the scale is likely to increase rather than abate. Every country is handling this differently and the repercussions will be enormous.
So how far back can these measures go? Historically, various ethnic and religious groups were targeted. The Inquisition is one example and the Holocaust is another. Finding peaceful and humane solutions is highly desirable. We can compare the Swedish strategy that involves hefty payment to non-Swedish ethnic groups to leave, $34,000. Germany paid roughly $1200 to each Afghan who was involuntarily deported. If we look at the Swedish figure, it must reflect the social cost of welfare payments, education, and healthcare so the burden on taxpayers has to have been enormous if it is cheaper to repatriate people than to subsidize them. There are humanitarian arguments for why aliens should be allowed to stay regardless of the legality of their entry, but there is a tipping point and it has been exceeded in some countries.
More Parellels
If we play it forward just a bit more, let’s try to imagine that we develop the capacity to colonize other planets? What if those planets are actually already inhabited? How will we behave?
Oct 8, 2024 Angels or Astronauts?
Continuing with my rant on the absolute need for separation of church and state, there are some details that I would like to bring to the attention of those who are not aware of the history of Christian theology . . . for others, well? Determining the precise authorship of historical writings is sometimes challenging; and where prominent religious figures are concerned, very few committed their teachings and doctrines to writing. This was sometimes handled by followers such as was the case with the Buddha, but it would appear that most Christian accounts were written later from memory. Over the course of time, seventy plus books were rejected and omitted from what we today know as the Bible.
My personal pet peeve is the Book of Enoch, but there are others. Enoch is mentioned in the Book of Genesis (5:18-24). He was a direct descendant of Adam, seventh generation, and great-grandfather of Noah. In a terrifying event, the young Enoch fell to the ground in fear and was lifted up into the sky — presumably to a spacecraft — where he was tutored by wise beings, probably most specifically Uriel. He wrote down everything he learned. The writings cover astronomy and geography but the main teachings concern the Kingdom of Heaven and the need to educate children from an early age about the importance of living righteously so as to enter life eternal.
As an astrologer, the Book of Enoch is more than interesting for a number of reasons. He presents an explanation of astronomy that is quite challenging to the modern mind, but also difficult to refute. More importantly, he provides details of the fallen angels and seems to make a case for the existence of aliens with technology and wisdom surpassing ours. The existing literature is based on pre-Christian Ethiopian texts preserved by both Jewish and Christian sects, and there are many translations available online as downloadable pdfs.
Enoch warns of a judgment and is quoted in the first Chapter of the Book of Jude. This is the summary of the contents of the surviving writings:
The Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 1–36)
The Book of Parables of Enoch (1 Enoch 37–71) (also called the Similitudes of Enoch)
The Astronomical Book (1 Enoch 72–82) (also called the Book of the Heavenly Luminaries or Book of Luminaries)
The Book of Dream Visions (1 Enoch 83–90) (also called the Book of Dreams)
The Epistle of Enoch (1 Enoch 91–108)
At the age of 365, Enoch was taken by “God” . . . leaving his writings to his descendants, which, as noted, included Noah.
Omitted Books
As the various councils met and debated, many writings failed their particular litmus tests. Having read hundreds of biographies and thousands of religious and metaphysical books, it seems likely that the closer the scribe was to the subject, the more reliable the accounts tend to be. Splicing together an account centuries after the fact involves comparing sources and making judgment calls. More importantly, it is critical that all attempts to reconstruct events occur without prejudice.
Taking the current world situation as an example, we have people like John Kerry lamenting that the first amendment interferes with the capacity of the elite to promote their agenda. Others are advocating strongly in favor of free speech as essential to freedom but also to whatever influences our grip on truth and reality.
So, collecting a hoard of bishops to make decisions only works if there is no pressure from above to contort the facts. An example I like to use is the persecution of Galileo. His views were never officially accepted by the Church, but apologies were issued in 1992, not for the heliocentric argument but for persecuting Galileo for his theories. In contrast, the Big Bang theory was promoted almost as soon as it was conceived . . . and would appear to be anything but rooted in theology.
Some of the omitted books would, of course, shift perspectives . . . like the Gospels of Thomas and Peter, certainly first hand observers with strong influences on Church history. The latter was referred to by both Origen and Eusebius and rediscovered in 1886 in Egypt.
My Issues
Well, I am a stickler for Truth . . . and it is elusive unless we have proper sources for our understanding. However, the real issue is civilization itself because misuse of information and power undermine the integrity of society. Without a moral compass, we are doomed.
Since the doctrine of karma is closely linked the understanding reincarnation, the disappearance of the concepts from Western civilization is beyond tragic. Yes, we managed to preserve some worthy principles such as the merits of compassion and charity, but these virtues are not necessarily linked to the equilibrating force of karma.
Now, if we tie these ideas to the current calamities in the world, we see how devastating it is that those with power often misuse their leverage whereas those with compassion are responding to the crises with badly needed assistance and concern for the suffering endured. It does not matter whether we are talking war, hurricanes and flooding, illness, hunger, or poverty . . . what matters is that our humanity influences the outcome in an uplifting and regenerating manner.
Oct 4, 2024 Weaving the Tapesty of Destiny
What happens in life is determined by the intersection of karma and destiny. We can think of karma as the great adjuster. It is not “an eye for an eye” nor a judge passing sentence but rather a method for creating equilibrium when balance is disturbed. Everything seeks harmony so when there is a disturbance, a reaction occurs that moves the pendulum where it needs to be. Karma works on the subconscious level and is a vital force in making adjustments while incarnate. Destiny is a aspect of the role we are to play in the Divine Creation and operates on the superconscious level.
To give this a context, let us take the many aggressive acts occurring on the Planet, not just now, but throughout history. War is one of the most egregious causes of disharmony. Taking liberties with language, it would be fair to say that no matter what the propaganda inspires, it is impossible not to be terrified when under fire. Have you ever wondered how in the recaps of famous battles, soldiers marched in lines and faced a barrage of arrows or bullets and fell and the next row of soldiers then encountered the same fate. Could anything be more idiotic? If the adversary hid in the bushes and ambushed the soldiers, they were not “playing by the rules” and were called guerillas or something similar in tone.
To overcome the natural resistance to risk, the recruits are subjected to a barrage of arguments and patriotism to give rise to a willingness to stake all for a just cause, such as protecting the homeland, defeating an enemy whose values differ, or perhaps inflicting harm in retaliation for some issue in the recent or distant past. In short, these are the tricks used to force people to put aside their fear and risk all for some allegedly noble or strategic cause.
This is against Nature and unnecessary so why — after so many centuries — are people in power able to manipulate, and why have they not learned to use wisdom instead of force?
Background
In my experience, people incarnate and learn to adapt to circumstances through either a path of wisdom or path of skillful means. This determines the direction of spin of the first chakra and how the fight or flight mechanism functions. We decide whether the best response is to avoid conflict or engage and try to prevail. Flight often involves loss of certain connections that we value such as leaving our homeland, family and friends, jobs, and sometimes even possessions. Fight is a high risk gamble in which there will most likely be a victor and a vanquished.
In most cases, flight involves losses, such as disruptions in attachments and goals whereas fight can be a life or death matter, as with wars, or one in which the price paid for losing, as for example in a law suit, can be much more than the risk was worth.
In a just world, there would be rules and some confidence that fairness would prevail. In a corrupt world, power often prevails over principles and outcomes are often prejudicial. Unfortunately, most of us are today living in an top heavy system in which a very few individuals are intoxicated with power and have the means to pollute and jeopardize the lives of others.
The ability to retain power depends on strategies that often involve extreme efforts to control others through money, propaganda, and ultimately threats.
Karma
The doctrine of karma and reincarnation was a fundamental part of early Christianity but was rejected, along with the teachings of Origen (c. 185 – c. 253), by the Fifth Ecumenical Council in 553 AD. In various regression sessions, it arose that both of my parents played key roles in subverting this tenet and this could be seen in their horoscopes. Ideas and communications must be untainted but when they are warped, understanding is affected. More recently, some videos have appeared on YouTube in which rabbis state that the esoteric texts of Judaism refer to reincarnation, but the concept has been hidden from the masses. I don’t know the position in Islam, the third of the Abrahamic religions. However, I am certain that Jesus spent time in the East because I was shown paintings of Him in caves in Afghanistan. He was sitting in lotus posture but was clearly Jesus, not someone from the East.
Misunderstanding of karma can be responsible for rejection of doctrine, but this is based on ignorance, not proper science or metaphysics. Every action has a reaction so we need to consider our actions before setting in motion unwelcome repercussions.
Reincarnation
Reincarnation is a much more complicated concept and involves the indestructibility of life itself. Mystics often have profound insights into the essence of existence, but those who walk a different path may lack this understanding. This said, roughly half the world believes in reincarnation, but this is obviously an East-West dichotomy.
My experience as an astrologer is that the Moon in the horoscope represents the past and memory and is therefore a clue to karma. The rising sign gives clues to the purpose of the soul, and the Sun suggests what we need to manifest in this lifetime. At any given time, one or another aspect of ourselves may be more active than another.
We have immortal components and temporary ones. We are also multidimensional so we can become caught up in emotions or in deep trance or heavily engaged in keeping our acts together in the here and now. The more stressful our lives become, the more pressure there is to focus on survival. Those with power can manipulate in such a way to increase or decrease the stress.
If we believe that all those with power tend to misuse it, our cynicism may stand in the way of those who have good intentions and power, but, admittedly, it can be hard to trust those who have captured more wealth and influence than the average person.
Consequences
In various posts to Substack, I have referred to how injuries can persist for countless incarnations so egregious deeds such as rape, torture, and violence can leave wounds that take eons to heal. Yes, a certain amount of care is provided in the afterlife, but the memories and wounds tend to persist when reincarnating. This is my most powerful argument against all forms of harm inflicted on others, including people, animals, and probably also plants and the Earth itself.
The bottom line is that everything matters so before taking actions, we should evaluate the pros and cons seriously.
Last Sunday, I indulged my passion for opera because part of my therapy for remaining calm in a world that is turbulent and unpredictable involves listening to music. However, there was a motive that transcended the bel canto masterpiece . . . and this involves the question of why centuries after the death of Lucrezia Borgia, she is still fascinating enough that both Victor Hugo and Gaetano Donizetti were devoting their artistic talent to portraying a controversial woman of a powerful family. Today, I would like to focus on Rodrigo de Borja, the father of Lucrezia, who became pope in 1492. When we study the history, we will understand that drawing attention to the events that we were never taught in school has the potential of revealing the power behind the events dominating the world, then and now.
Rodrigo de Borja/Borgia was born in Valencia in 1431 at the height of the power of Aragon. He studied law at the University of Bologna and held many positions in the Catholic Church, thanks to his Aragonese maternal uncle Pope Callixtus III. He continued to hold high administrative positions in the Holy See under the next four popes until he himself became pope in 1492.
Rewinding a bit, Rodrigo Borgia, as a cardinal, was papal legate to Spain. His mission (1472) was to quell rebellion between Castile and Aragon, but he had been given a papal dispensation allowing him to approve (or disapprove) the marriage between Ferdinand (of Aragon) and his second cousin Isabella of Castille. As we all know, the marriage went forward . . . and made history. More importantly, Cardinal Borgia had gained the favor of Ferdinand . . . and reciprocated as we will see.
Rodrigo returned to Rome and began the affair that resulted in the birth of four children, including Lucrezia, younger sibling of Cesare Borgia who was the source of inspiration for Machiavelli’s The Prince.
Skipping many details, Rodrigo, after serving under five popes, was himself elected pope on 11 August 1492, just eight days after Columbus set sail under the patronage of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella . . . to whom Rodrigo had become connected by marriage of his son Pedro Luis to the cousin of Ferdinand, Maria Enriquez.
Papal Bull
As the new pope Alexander VI awarded family members with high positions. Cesare Borgia became Archbishop of Valencia and Giovanni Borgia became Duke of Gandia, where the Borgias had their ancestral roots. Nepotism reached scandalous levels and hostilities arose. King Ferdinand supported Alexander VI in exchange for title to New World, awarded on 4 May 1493. The Papal Bull divided the New World between Spain and Portugal and became the basis for all claims to the right of Europeans to colonize the Americas. It bears noting that while the geographical territory was broadly defined as pole to pole and defined the longitudes, most of the two continents had yet to be explored by Europeans.
While people do tend to be ethnocentric, it bears noting that while the territory from Tierra del Fuego to the U.S. Southern border has remained under the influence Spain and Portugal, the north came more under the influence of Protestants. Martin Luther was a younger contemporary of the Pope Alexander VI and railed against the indulgences that were enriching the families of the elites holding high church office, but more than a century passed before the Mayflower docked with the Pilgrims . . . and this may, at some point, bring me to another opera, I Puritani.
This post is based entirely on my personal experiences . . . meaning nothing is from textbooks or the Internet much less social fads that come and go with the shifting tides. My “education” on the endocrine came as a sort of download at a time when Jupiter and Neptune were conjunct by transit to my Sagittarius Moon (1972) and I was blessed with several years of numerous kinds of extended awareness. I had been invited to speak at a conference and the entire system came in about 40 minutes while drafting a paper that was actually never presented due to censorship.
The simplest way to start this post would be to explain that the endocrine system is a direct precipitation of the chakras which, in turn, are derived from a combination of our soul intent, i.e., destiny, and previous incarnate experience. As we master certain abilities, the chakras develop momentum and this influences the development of the endocrine glands and their secretions. This involves everything from the adrenal glands and the fight or flight mechanism to the insights and awareness of the higher chakras.
A colleague once criticized me for using very strong language when arguing that meddling with the endocrine system is reprehensible. She felt I should tone it down, but I said then and will continue to insist that my choice of words was absolutely correct. Yes, occasionally, there are extenuating circumstances in which interventions are warranted but for the most part meddling not only goes against Nature but against the logic and “plans” for our incarnation.
For today, I would like to address the epidemic of gender dysphoria. We are born with certain arrangements of the chakras and endocrine glands, and we have experiences, reactions to experiences, social pressures, fads, and sensitivities that may prompt us to want to make changes in order to adapt or to fit in with the prevailing winds.
In terms of gender, most of us have had lives as both males and females, and the current global situation may persuade us to favor one gender over another, but there is nothing new about this. I have regressed hundreds of people in order to facilitate their recall of past lives. Some were soldiers, some were accused of witchcraft, and there were many who cross dressed to avoid conscription or perhaps being burned at the stake. We also have solar and lunar influences, one luminary being more influential than another. In short, we favor a certain bias and this can be psychological and/or sociological since the female influences are lunar and the male influences tend to be more solar. We may feel closer to one parent over the other or decidedly uncomfortable with one parent or perhaps a teacher, coach, priest, or other figure in our lives.
In my experience, it is wiser to investigate the origins of the bias than to attempt to fix a problem through gender reassignment. It is especially “reprehensible” to intervene with hormones and surgery and doubly “reprehensible” to do so with minors. Hormonal intervention creates all kinds of confusion and chaos, but surgery is irreversible and almost never justifiable. Yes, there are medical crises that can sometimes warrant drastic measures, but peer pressure or advice from confused adults, even doctors, is not a reason to tinker much less to mutilate a body.
In my long career, I have had very little direct contact with gender reassignment. One client chose, as an adult, to undergo a lengthy process of transforming from an electrifying woman to a mousy man. Years of psychotherapy, cross dressing, hormonal supplements, and surgery followed. The one question no one asked in this process was once identifying as a man, would the social life involve dating and perhaps marrying a woman or a man. I was dumbfounded that such an obvious issue was skipped over, both by the psychiatrists and the individual making the changes. After some stammering and confusion, the client said, “Well, I guess I would be dating women.”
Another “case” involved a man who worked as a male professionally but socialized and traveled as a woman, wigs and hormones but no “chop chop” as the person put it. The situation was interesting to observe because there were many hobbies and conversations that we would tend to associate with male tendencies but there could be a deluge of tears if an earring was misplaced, clearly an exaggeration even for a hormonally distressed woman.
I have nothing whatsoever against trying out various manifestations of the self. It is like acting, and we are all on a stage and can, with some training, learn many roles; but when it comes to hormones and elective surgery, I feel that therapy is preferable to physical modifications.
Basically, we need to accept that mistakes are not made on the soul level. They occur when we have not mastered our roles for the current incarnation. So, we need to begin by understanding ourselves, and this is not generally taught by either family or school. It is a psychospiritual process that usually begins in adulthood though it can start earlier if precocious.
Environmental Havoc
It was quite a few decades ago that fish were discovered to have been affected by estrogenic substances in water. Many were not sexually differentiated nor capable of procreation. The handwriting was on the wall, and I spent many years working on protocols with a German abbot who was concerned about this issue, both among school boys and monks. Hormones are very powerful and potentially “altering” so we should be careful. There are natural hormones of both human and animal origin, synthetic hormones, and so-called bioidentical hormones. All are potentially potent, but the “accidental” exposures are often to xenohormones in plastics. These are estrogenic in action and can have a powerful effect on both males and females. They are also ubiquitous which means we cannot entirely escape them.
While I would like to believe that even xenoestrogens can bring us more in touch with the Earth Mother and our desire for safety and security, it is not clear that the hormones are responsible for whatever back to Nature leanings one has. This said, I will close this post now with an assertion that while I have put the emphasis on hormones that are gender specific, my position is that tampering with any hormone is something that should only be considered in medically serious situations. This said, doctors themselves often do not have training that allows them to prescribe safer alternatives so you have to acquire the knowledge on your own.
Sep 22, 2024 History and Artistic License
Departing a little from my tendency to post operatic excerpts on their own merit without commentary, today’s post will begin to tie together the bits and pieces of my passion for music. Lucrezia Borgia is great opera, one of my many favorites. The plot adheres closely, but not entirely, to historic fact. It relies partly on the writings of Machiavelli who was a contemporary of Lucrezia Borgia, the daughter of Rodrigo Borgia — who later became Pope Alexander VI — and his mistress Vannozza dei Cattanei.
As a Borgia, Lucrezia was heavily involved in politics and was perhaps the original femme fatale: beautiful, ambitious, and riddled with secrets, including perhaps a son who figures prominently in the opera. As a member of one of the most prominent and powerful families of the time, Lucrezia had a superb education, surrounded by the intelligentsia of the Italian Renaissance. Several marriages were arranged by her powerful family, and she had a number of miscarriages and at least ten children. She also held positions as the governor of Spoleto and later took care of Vatican correspondence and the governance of Ferrara. All this was managed in the short span of 39 years. She died after complications of the birth of the eighth child born while married to Duke Alfonzo whom we see in the first clip below.
My mother, who was a concert pianist before giving birth to me, said I was the only person she knew who could listen to opera before breakfast. I vividly remember all the operettas my mother used to play on the piano, but when I heard grand opera, a new world opened for me. The first performance of Lucrezia Borgia I saw was with Monserrat Caballe, and wonderful as she was, Mirella Devia is actually perfect and therefore peerless.
In the first selection, the enraged husband accuses Lucrezia of infidelity and says she was followed to Venice and seen with Gennaro. In the second, we see Lucrezia and Gennaro who has been poisoned by the jealous Duke. Lucrezia reveals to him that he is a Borgia and at the very end discloses that the person he adores is, in fact, his mother. This part is probably not historic fact, but rather artistic license.
Sep 18, 2024 Health Care Reform
This post has been promised for some time. The subject is vast and will require a lot of study, but everything begins by drawing a line between what is voluntary and what may be mandatory. In my opinion, authorities, whether they be governmental or non-governmental, should not have any jurisdiction over any person’s body except in very extenuating circumstances such as a very serious genuine epidemic. Even in such situations, every individual should have the option of self-quarantining. With the advent of countless delivery services and the ability of many people to work from home, it is possible to self-quarantine for extended periods of time. . . IF absolutely necessary.
No one has the right to mandate any medical procedure against the wishes of the individual. This includes infants, incarcerated and hospitalized people, those with higher risks than others, and those with chronic conditions requiring care. Reasonable alternatives must be provided in all circumstances, and deeply held religious beliefs must be respected regardless of the alleged science.
For example, as a vegetarian, I object to serums that have been derived from infected animals or aborted fetuses as well as anything that is not mineral or plant-based. As a health nut, I object to all toxins and most preservatives. This is my choice and there are millions of others who feel as strongly as I do.
Now for the reforms, this starts with respect for individuals and their right to freedom so all modalities should be options for those who seek to improve their health or overcome disease. The AMA has a long history of persecuting chiropractic healing and the FDA is doing its utmost to destroy the availability of homeopathy. Their positions are not based on outcome studies or research, just prejudice, perhaps supported by Big Pharma. If people want to see a shaman or psychic or faith healer, that is their choice, not for anyone else to decide.
So, to tie this up in a nutshell, freedom is first goal of reform and it extends to everyone, not just a group here or there, meaning whether Amish or just plain obstinate or kooky, we have rights that preclude coercion.
The Plan
Step one is to revitalize the indigenous medicine of the United States because the understanding of our flora is part of the heritage of the First Nation People. I propose establishing five very serious research centers where traditional and modern scientific methods have an equal footing. These can be situated on tribal lands in the north, east, south, west, and center of the country. Funding should be generous and should include clinics and hospitals where outcome studies are carefully organized and published. Costs to patients should be nil.
This effort should be accompanied by conservation efforts to assure the availability of endangered species plants such as bloodroot and goldenseal and many other species.
Step two is to fund studies relating to the deployment of biological weapons and release of toxic chemical agents, medical waste, and insects. Transparency is of the utmost importance. If my studies are accurate, then Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and the AIDS epidemic were brought on by humans as were Lyme disease, Morgellons, and the countless side effects of the recent jabs. We should also probably include autism and Alzheimer’s here since they are an epidemic and thus suggest that if we lived as our recent ancestors did, the incidence would be close to nil. There are scientists who understand the details behind some of the bizarre concoctions who can work with those seeking cures to relieve the suffering of innocent victims of iatrogenic conditions. In my opinion, all victims deserve free treatment as well as compensation.
Step three is to establish wellness clinics in all communities, starting with those areas in which there is the most drug and alcohol abuse. Looking around at the aftermath of exporting jobs overseas and locking down many businesses, there are vacant properties that are costing owners mortgage, tax, and insurance payments but not generating any income. These can be converted to practical treatment and residential facilities so that people can get off the streets and try to reinvent their lives . . . with the help of trained counselors and vocational training.
Step four is to encourage the spread and availability of detoxification centers, everything from adding wings to gyms and places of worship to resorts in pristine areas with pure water and clean air. The truth is, we are all exposed to toxins, and we all need to detoxify on a regular basis. Those who avail themselves of potentially preventative measures to protect their health should have lower health insurance costs.
Step five is to promote serious educational programs covering health issues and treatments. This can be done through colleges and online. Most people do not understand nutrition and many do not know how to cook. Understanding of chiropractic medicine, acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, Ayurvedic and Siddha medicine, homeopathy, herbal medicine, and even movement, art, and music therapy is seriously lacking and needs to be explained in a clear and understandable manner so that options that are less invasive than modern medicine are factored into serious health decisions.
RFK, Jr.
I am glad that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has defined a role for himself to fulfill his destiny, but we must remember he is a lawyer who has filed major lawsuits against industrial giants who have caused harm to our environment and health. He had not worked in a clinic nor had the responsibility for counseling patients about their options . . . though I think his understanding surpasses that of many who are not yet out of the box. Rooting out fraud and conflicts of interest is part of what is needed to bring our health up to standard, but it is not clinical and therefore differs from my ideas.
It is important to keep in mind that there are tens of thousands of practitioners who have the training necessary to ease the epidemic of chronic diseases. Some voices are heard and others are not, but there is not a void of qualified people ready to help those in need.
Sep 17, 2024 Equitable Tax Reform
This post is another chapter from my past. As a child, I was very inspired by the work of Dr. Albert Schweitzer. Then, in 1962, I spent the summer in Karuizawa, Japan, and read an article in The Japan Times about a tribe in Africa where the entire adult population was blind and children were used as seeing eyes for adults. I flew into a rage, thinking, if I were a doctor, I could reach a few thousand people in the course of a career. If I were a teacher, I could perhaps encourage better understanding of health and hygiene and maybe people would take more precautions to avoid what must sometimes seem inevitable. If I were an economist, I could try to set the wheels of progress in motion and the quality of life would improve for those who are impoverished and destitute. I wrote a letter to Yale University explaining why I wanted to become a development economist and was miraculously accepted, with a personal note from the admissions official saying it was the most passionate application ever received by their office.
Being a woman before the time when job discrimination was banned, it took a while before I got overseas, this with the State Department, first in Vietnam and then in India. In Vietnam, there were about 40 economists in our department, but I was the only one assigned to fiscal reform. The Vietnamese had inherited a French system in which taxpayers submitted paperwork and auditors in the Ministry of Finance would calculate the bill. If one’s paperwork happened to remain at the bottom of the pile, the window of opportunity for collecting taxes would pass after three years. Given the war and chaos, most people were not paying taxes because many auditors had been drafted and the Ministry was vastly understaffed.
Along with my Vietnamese assistant, a lovely lady who had studied economics in Australia, we proposed shifting from reliance on income to consumption taxes, but unlike the Trump proposals, the taxes were to be levied mostly on luxury goods, zero taxes on essentials like food, housing, clothing, transportation, medical services, education, etc. There was no fixed rate but rather different rates for different items. For example, a boat used on the Mekong River to transport food to a market might be tax-free but a yacht used for Sunday tourism might have a high rate of taxation.
As I listen to the proposals for reform that political candidates espouse, my feathers are ruffled because the impact of change would benefit a few, but pose a major hardship on those who are already scratching and clawing. I will explain, but meanwhile, I would note that the South Vietnamese government did adopt our proposals which were also used as models for many other developing countries.
The U.S. is not, however, a developing country. It is a badly managed nightmare that is rapidly propelling us into a post-industrial society that will perforce become an agrarian culture, hopefully without GMOs, chemtrails, and other unnatural components. In this interim stage, we are a suffering from hugely corrupt financial fraud so, in this situation, I think Ellen Brown’s ideas are the proper solution. She proposed a 0.1% financial transactions tax and total elimination of the income tax and all other taxes.
Here is my argument in favor of her proposal. Anyone who owns stock is at minimum a little better off than those who are currently destitute or close to it. A tiny tax of 0.1% would not pose a hardship on anyone. The tax would be very easy to administer and barely rock the boat of even trillionaires. Taking Ellen Brown’s ideas to the next level, she maintains that a tax of 0.25% would allow the government to fund projects and benefits that are currently unaffordable. How much simpler can it get?
Though I agree with Trump on the subject of illegal immigration, I believe his Wharton School studies are completely obsolete . . . just as my ideas in the sixties have been improved upon by Ellen Brown. I don’t expect to be heard, but if you share this post with others, maybe we will be heard.
People in very low economic brackets do not currently pay income taxes so a change to consumption taxes would severely ding their budgets. If we are currently dismayed by the soaring cost of groceries, imagine how we would feel if every time we swiped our credit card, we paid 23% more than we pay today.
In other posts, I have mentioned how much I have traveled and “seen the world”. The U.S. does not have the highest standard of living in the world nor the most equitable system of taxation. I worked on Wall Street in the mid-sixties and millionaires were like billionaires today. These clients were in a maximum 2% tax bracket. My starting salary was $7000 a year, not per month. I was in a 14% tax bracket.
Many countries have free education and even stipends for students. A few give free houses on the citizen’s 18th birthday. Many have generous unemployment benefits and no one living on the street. I promised to give my ideas on healthcare reform IF people requested this. Three people made that request, but I will post on it because it is very extensive and would constitute a great improvement over what we have now and it would be much more affordable!
Having undergone ever so many types of memory recall, I think my journey actually began with a whack on my buns when emerging into this incarnation. It felt hostile and unnecessary. One of the first conscious memories was of a compulsory smallpox vaccination at a fire station when three. I was resistant and accused of cowardice; but, of course, I was overruled . . . and developed scarlet fever from a contaminant in the vaccine which caused an epidemic. I was very ill, and the high fever at such a precarious time affected my vision in ways that have haunted me my entire life.
Though I don’t really remember much of my childhood, I am sure I had all the usual childhood vaccines except polio. When I saw the syringes, I decided to create the maximum chaos and managed to convince the medical team that I had already been vaccinated. I did this by changing positions in the lines and making my place impossible to determine. By the time they tried to inoculate me, I insisted that I had already had the jab. As it turned out, that batch was probably also contaminated, perhaps with SV40. I am guessing, but I heard that half my graduating class had died before the 25th reunion . . . meaning they died in their thirties or early 40s.
The clincher, however, was during Vatican II in the mid-60s. Immediately following grad school, I worked for a major investment bank on Wall Street in the research department. The senior member of our group was on summer vacation and my assignment was to cover for him. His phone was ringing off the hook with investors wanting to know which stock to buy if the Pope approved birth control. I remember feeling the shock that an issue that seemed essentially religious in nature would have such economic repercussions . . . and thus seeds were planted that seem to have germinated over many decades.
Follow the Money
Back then, the first step was to determine the types of birth control that might be affected and which companies provided which kinds of prevention. I read all the background material, like law suits against drug companies, and I will never be able to forget the images of thalidomide babies. As the years rolled by, I realized that very powerful people are behind these products and the companies that produce such heinous drugs so it was easy to predict what would happen when people with a stake in the company rose to higher positions in the political world, like Dan Quayle and George H. W. Bush.
The seeds of mistrust were planted, but I had yet to discover any alternatives to conventional medicine. That phase of the journey began in the late sixties when I was working for the State Department in India. I read my first book on Ayurvedic medicine and met homeopaths and a few individuals who had mystical approaches to healing. Medical astrology was added to my repertoire in 1972 so this has been a long and fascinating exploration.
The Gauntlet
In the early days of the AIDS epidemic, I had a client who was the art editor of a major magazine. I asked him why his magazine was not publishing his story of how he was cured of AIDS. He responded, “Have you looked at our advertisers? It is a story if a good Christian family adopts a child with AIDS but not if a gay guy is cured of AIDS.”
Almost everyone in the world was affected in one way or another by the alleged Covid epidemic, lockdown, vaccinations, and now the aftermath . . . which includes many losses, side effects, law suits, and more threats of new epidemics and vaccines. I am basically of the mindset that our bodies are our own, and we have a right to make our own decisions . . . except in the event of a real epidemic. Even then, we should have the option of voluntary quarantine versus compulsory procedures involving medical interventions. Lockdown was medically idiotic since people were not really quarantined, just restricted. This might slow the spread of an actual epidemic, but it is not a guarantee that infected individuals will not pass the disease along to healthy persons.
As it stands today, there are lawsuits all over the Planet against pharmaceutical companies, governmental employees and agencies, and corporate conspirators . . . yet the influencers promise the next round will be more severe and require even more draconian measures. We should be alert and weigh carefully the positions of the people running for elected office. Who is funding the campaigns and what are the implications for the future? If we do not know who benefits, we do not really know the positions likely to be supported. We also need to know who understands the issues and who is ignorant. A person may believe an official narrative only to find out later that it was factually flawed or skewed.
In global political terms, we have to ask who is informed and what conflicts of interest might exist . . . since as we now know, most people with authority promoted disinformation and reckless policies that, in many cases, did more harm than good.
In terms of the current electoral season in the U.S., it is clear that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Dr. Jill Stein have the broadest views on the issues of health . . . perspectives that take into account environmental toxins, revolving doors, conflicts of interest, and flaws in the science behind what is promoted as efficacious and safe. Some candidates are almost health illiterate and some policies are essentially indistinguishable from welfare programs, meaning that even if well-intentioned, compassion itself should be backed by knowledge and the ramifications of putting people on a conveyor belt that is scientifically irrelevant and/or obsolete.
For the record, to-date, no candidate has presented a plan that measures up to my vision of an ideal system for health and healing so perhaps I should post on this subject?
Sep 8, 2024 Our Food and Our Health
What we eat and how our food is prepared has traditionally been heavily influenced by culture and family habits. Many recipes were considered as heirlooms, and the feasts prepared for special occasions often involved the efforts of many people. This began to change with the commercialization of food production and the advent of gigantic supermarkets, reliance on importation and transportation, refrigeration . . . while the support of local agriculture yielded to huge corporate interests. There are many dark secrets that warrant our attention. I am basically a supporter of locavorism: reliance on what can be found within a short distance of where we live. This does not preclude some imports like chocolate, tea, coffee, and spices, but it promotes food sovereignty as well as vitality.
As mentioned in previous posts, food requirements go well beyond caloric intake. They involve balance, freshness, taste, and nutritional benefits, much of which depend upon the method of growth and time lapse between harvest and consumption. The challenge I would pose is to explain how some people can survive as breatharians if the main benefit of food is in the calories or proteins or taste preferences.
In college, I took a course with the completely misleading title that referred to the influence of Western civilization on other cultures. In reality, in the West, there was no spaghetti before Marco Polo; no marinara sauce, corn, or potatoes before the Conquistadors; and certainly no tea or coffee until trade with Asia began to flourish.
I confess I am not a locavore. I support farmer’s markets and local producers but am addicted to spices and the cuisines of many cultures. With a Sagittarius Moon in the ninth house, I have traveled a lot, maybe to 90 or more countries, and there have been totally memorable meals in many of them, everything from Zen restaurants in Japan to feasts in Kashmir and delicious food along my 100-day drive by Land Rover from England to India. Whether we are talking about Italy, Greece, Iran, Afghanistan, or India itself, there were meals to remember. I love Thai cuisine . . . and the only bad meals I had in Ecuador were in restaurants run by Europeans rather than locals.
As I write now, I am salivating because a kind lady ordered delivery of some Indian appetizers while I am recovering from a back injury from lifting something too heavy.
As matters stand in the developed world today, there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of contaminants in industrialized food and even in organic food — due to chemtrails and toxins in our water — and the situation is worse in the U.S. than in Europe and even much of world where population density is heaviest.
Green Med Info is launching a series that promises to be important: https://healingkitchen.thesacredscience.com/register/
This post is a tribute to the speech Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. gave when suspending his campaign. It was in three parts, a gracious and warm expression of appreciation for those who campaigned so hard for him; a discussion of the state of affairs with a conspicuous absence of commentary on the Middle East; and a deeply moving, spiritually inspired disclosure of his commitment to make America healthy again. This, of course, speaks to me on a deep level. He is 70; I am 82. We both have a mission along with, I believe, tens of thousands of others who have made similar investments so as to lay the foundations for the future of health and healing.
Mr. Kennedy is a class act so I will not compare myself with him except to say that taking down those who are not playing by the rules is very different from providing the services needed by those who are ailing. An immense understanding of the foundations of the prevailing science is needed regardless of the role played, but I want to give an example that I hope will explain some of the nuances of vaccination.
Several of my posts have been devoted to this topic, but I want to move the discussion forward. If you are a new subscriber and missed the post on variolation, I strongly recommend that you read it. It explains the background of vaccinations, going back perhaps as much as 3000 years, but the credit for discovery was accorded Edward Jenner and only takes us back to the late 18th century. At that time, the vaccine was novel but quickly embraced due to the virulence of smallpox, but there were no adjuvants or preservatives in the original variolation or vaccination treatments. We have to understand the difference between the actions of the infective material and the additives, many of which are highly toxic and dangerous. In sum, it is possible to accept the theory of vaccination and to reject the thimerosal, aluminum, squalene, graphene, mRNA, bluetooth devices, nanobots, and countless other ingredients found in many vaccine batches. That is all I want to say on this subject at this time. Instead, I would like to discuss what is needed to move in the direction of health.
The Path of Healing
Perhaps on the level of the soul, we have perfected our talents — our gifts to the world — but where manifestation is concerned, we spend many lifetimes putting the pieces together. As I have posted before, the first step is to remove the obstacles to cure. Thus, stopping chemtrails, eliminating toxins from our food and medicines, cleaning up the environment so we breathe fresh air and drink clean water are all important steps and will surely make a significant difference in the quality of life in our country and many others.
Learning to grow, prepare, and eat what is healthy will also make a difference. However, when it comes to illness and its treatment, nothing beats clinical trials, real trials with real remedies and detailed observations of responses and recovery rates. Believe it or not, good clinical trials are rare. Moreover, scientists often perform the bulk of their work dealing with abstractions rather than patients. Yes, they may wear white coats, but it does not mean they see real patients.
One of the dismissive terms used in modern texts is “archaic” and it implies that modern has outperformed “tried and true” so indigenous medicine, natural medicine with hundreds of years of history, and even diet and exercise can be ignored. The problems can be fixed by prescriptions requiring endless renewal. Yet, in my world, I have seen countless cases of diabetes disappear in ten days through use of Ayurvedic medicine and even paralysis has been successfully treated using many different traditional systems of healing.
I would like to see five research centers devoted to Native American medicine, located on reservations in the north, east, south, west, and center of our country. The plants that grow in one area are different from those that grow in another area so this would be one step in the direction of inclusiveness and therefore Unity, the goal of the coalition that seems to be gathering public support and momentum.
All information needs review as well as dissemination so censorship must be terminated and people should be allowed to express themselves . . . even if they are so far out on a limb that their ideas are ridiculous. The public needs the opportunity to develop discernment so they do not simply repeat what media moguls broadcast. This is possible when our inherent capacities are allowed to function as they should, without the heavy loads of toxins we currently battle. This is freedom as opposed to manipulation and ultimately tyranny.
Private publishers have the right to accept or reject papers submitted for publications but public platforms should not discriminate based on the views of the author(s). Obviously, there are some very serious contributors to the blogosphere, but there are also some nitwits. You decide who is grounded and who lacks credibility . . . in the public domain. Academia obviously needs to maintain a standard, something it has failed to do in recent years.
Over the next weeks, I hope to contribute more suggestions for how to move forward towards freedom of choice and cooperation.
Well, the campaign to increase subscriptions failed abysmally, but I have not posted anything musical in some time so I am linking the elegant Parish Alvars Variations on Bellini’s great opera “Norma”. For me, the harp is a very special instrument. Veronika Grabovskaya has a unique technique that not everyone will notice or appreciate . . . but then, the love I have for the harp goes back many incarnations and thousands of years and this is as close to heaven as it gets for me. Enjoy!
Due to cultural issues and crime, many European countries have begun a process of deporting migrants and asylum seekers. Sweden announced that it would be relocating migrants to places where they were not free to mingle with society at large and evaluations would begin to determine whether or not the “immigrants” meet the criteria for staying in Sweden. Many other countries are implementing similar programs, some a little broader. For example, Germany is cracking down hard on Muslims who are alleged to be involved in international activities involving religious fanaticism and wars.
My mother was Swedish. She talked a lot about Viking mythology and customs, and read sagas that were in Icelandic. I was sent away from home at age nine and had at that time my first exposure both to socialism and to the beginning of what might be called a revival of Baltic trade relations, many of which had been disrupted by wars on the European Continent and communism to the east. This trend became very noticeable by the 1960s when there was a revival of interest in pre-Christian customs and considerable emphasis on everything Nordic. With the advent of immigrants came crime and destruction of schools and churches, and it would seem that the once sympathetic hosts have lost their tolerance and are about to rip up the welcome mat.
I am an anthropologist at heart and am fascinated by different cultures, beliefs, cuisines, and customs, but I have zero tolerance for violence and behavior unbefitting guests in a foreign country. So, I find myself wrestling with issues of where the line is between cordial hospitality and rejection of behaviors that are unacceptable in civil society. This includes that of tourists and troops in foreign countries.
Freedom
We were indoctrinated from an early age to believe that Pilgrims came to the New World in search of religious freedom. I do not recall a single reference to the Inquisition at the time these lessons were imparted. From what I learned as a child, the issue was Protestantism vs. Catholicism. That conflict was supposedly associated with whether or not the Bible could be translated into the vernacular. Over the decades that the bigger picture came into focus, it became clear that conversion in Latin America was mainly at the end of a barrel. Further to the north, it would seem the Protestants were more prominent, but proselytizing and destruction of indigenous culture were equally rampant and insufficiently questioned.
It is tempting to speculate that the Inquisition is alive and well in a new incarnate form, probably the World Health Organization. Moreover, the countless schisms still exist . . . and the destruction of what is natural is proceeding at an accelerated pace. Those of us who studied a little more history than was taught in school realize that the underlying forces behind covetousness and the lust for control over others has not abated so even if there is no visible Grand Inquisitor today — or dare we add the Gestapo — intolerance is rampant and continues to be dangerous.
Rewinding to my childhood, I was thoroughly acculturated to the homogeneity of Nordic cultures. According to my DNA report, 99% is far Northern European with the remaining 1% coming from the area around Lake Baikal. However, that is this life, and in other lifetimes, I have been Incan, Egyptian, and many different kinds of Asians so all these threads are woven into the tapestry of the subconscious, and I see my present physicality as a useful masquerade to speak to a civilization that is completely off the rails . . . and it is much more dangerous now than even during the Holocaust; and it is therefore all the more important to preserve the little bit of freedom we still have.
I favor strict enforcement of laws that protect people from the risks of theft and violence. Deportation is a light sentence for arson, rape, and arms trafficking. This said, we might ask about karma because many of the countries that are currently completely overrun with migrants are also countries with a history of colonialism and exploitation. While this does not justify the actions of those committing crimes, it does beg us to study our shadows and to recognize the patterns that are at work in our psyches.
Politics
Though it may seem like an abrupt change of subject, several subscribers have asked me to be more outspoken about the current state of American electioneering. I have been mostly mute, but the first concern that feels “safe” to mention is that the selection of a running mate should take into account the possibility that the running mate is not just pulling votes from a state that might otherwise be lost, but that the running mate could possibly become president. If we take the assassination of John F. Kennedy as an example, if he had chosen a running mate fit for high office, we never would have had a Lyndon Johnson in the White House . . . and perhaps, there never would have been a war in Vietnam.
So, while this example does not necessarily speak to schism, there was a schism. The assassination took place during a time when Martin Luther King was in the limelight; and integration, which should have been completed after the Civil War, was rocking parts of the Nation. A tolerant nation would have created a level playing field a century earlier.
Now, what I see is vicious campaigning by divisive individuals in the two main parties. There is also censorship on a grand scale, carried out mainly by the propagandistic press that for all intents and purposes controls most forms of information dissemination. In short, we do not really hear two sides of a story. We hear ranting and raving by people who cannot speak in a normal tone of voice and whose rhetoric exhibits the emotional maturity of small children. Everything is slanted in favor of one extreme or the other, but only the third party candidates seem to be rational and able to visualize a sustainable future.
Where intolerance is so evident, there will be a loss of freedom IF power is passed to such rabid individuals. Living in the U.S. as I do, this is very obvious here, but I see mirrors all over the world, and the polarization is just a form of intolerance. Yes, it is an expression of a point of view, but is the viewpoint worthy of expression?
Wrapping Up
Sometimes my writing style is not clear. I developed this style a long time ago and have occasionally tried to change it, but I think by leaving “gaps” in presentations, people have “ah ha” experiences and develop more intuition. The stakes are very high and we need experts leading, not cronies. We cannot ignore the advances of science nor the implications of peppering people with nanobots. If we do not turn on our headlights, we are risking more than civilization can afford to risk.
One person wrote to me that my vote counts. It may or may not, but millions of votes will make a difference. We gave up our belief in Santa Claus a long time ago, but why do we still believe that relatively small issues should be the basis of political affiliations when there are really huge issues facing civilization.
Due to cultural issues and crime, many European countries have begun a process of deporting migrants and asylum seekers. Sweden announced that it would be relocating migrants to places where they were not free to mingle with society at large and evaluations would begin to determine whether or not the “immigrants” meet the criteria for staying in Sweden. Many other countries are implementing similar programs, some a little broader. For example, Germany is cracking down hard on Muslims who are alleged to be involved in international activities involving religious fanaticism and wars.
My mother was Swedish. She talked a lot about Viking mythology and customs, and read sagas that were in Icelandic. I was sent away from home at age nine and had at that time my first exposure both to socialism and to the beginning of what might be called a revival of Baltic trade relations, many of which had been disrupted by wars on the European Continent and communism to the east. This trend became very noticeable by the 1960s when there was a revival of interest in pre-Christian customs and considerable emphasis on everything Nordic. With the advent of immigrants came crime and destruction of schools and churches, and it would seem that the once sympathetic hosts have lost their tolerance and are about to rip up the welcome mat.
I am an anthropologist at heart and am fascinated by different cultures, beliefs, cuisines, and customs, but I have zero tolerance for violence and behavior unbefitting guests in a foreign country. So, I find myself wrestling with issues of where the line is between cordial hospitality and rejection of behaviors that are unacceptable in civil society. This includes that of tourists and troops in foreign countries.
Freedom
We were indoctrinated from an early age to believe that Pilgrims came to the New World in search of religious freedom. I do not recall a single reference to the Inquisition at the time these lessons were imparted. From what I learned as a child, the issue was Protestantism vs. Catholicism. That conflict was supposedly associated with whether or not the Bible could be translated into the vernacular. Over the decades that the bigger picture came into focus, it became clear that conversion in Latin America was mainly at the end of a barrel. Further to the north, it would seem the Protestants were more prominent, but proselytizing and destruction of indigenous culture were equally rampant and insufficiently questioned.
It is tempting to speculate that the Inquisition is alive and well in a new incarnate form, probably the World Health Organization. Moreover, the countless schisms still exist . . . and the destruction of what is natural is proceeding at an accelerated pace. Those of us who studied a little more history than was taught in school realize that the underlying forces behind covetousness and the lust for control over others has not abated so even if there is no visible Grand Inquisitor today — or dare we add the Gestapo — intolerance is rampant and continues to be dangerous.
Rewinding to my childhood, I was thoroughly acculturated to the homogeneity of Nordic cultures. According to my DNA report, 99% is far Northern European with the remaining 1% coming from the area around Lake Baikal. However, that is this life, and in other lifetimes, I have been Incan, Egyptian, and many different kinds of Asians so all these threads are woven into the tapestry of the subconscious, and I see my present physicality as a useful masquerade to speak to a civilization that is completely off the rails . . . and it is much more dangerous now than even during the Holocaust; and it is therefore all the more important to preserve the little bit of freedom we still have.
I favor strict enforcement of laws that protect people from the risks of theft and violence. Deportation is a light sentence for arson, rape, and arms trafficking. This said, we might ask about karma because many of the countries that are currently completely overrun with migrants are also countries with a history of colonialism and exploitation. While this does not justify the actions of those committing crimes, it does beg us to study our shadows and to recognize the patterns that are at work in our psyches.
Politics
Though it may seem like an abrupt change of subject, several subscribers have asked me to be more outspoken about the current state of American electioneering. I have been mostly mute, but the first concern that feels “safe” to mention is that the selection of a running mate should take into account the possibility that the running mate is not just pulling votes from a state that might otherwise be lost, but that the running mate could possibly become president. If we take the assassination of John F. Kennedy as an example, if he had chosen a running mate fit for high office, we never would have had a Lyndon Johnson in the White House . . . and perhaps, there never would have been a war in Vietnam.
So, while this example does not necessarily speak to schism, there was a schism. The assassination took place during a time when Martin Luther King was in the limelight; and integration, which should have been completed after the Civil War, was rocking parts of the Nation. A tolerant nation would have created a level playing field a century earlier.
Now, what I see is vicious campaigning by divisive individuals in the two main parties. There is also censorship on a grand scale, carried out mainly by the propagandistic press that for all intents and purposes controls most forms of information dissemination. In short, we do not really hear two sides of a story. We hear ranting and raving by people who cannot speak in a normal tone of voice and whose rhetoric exhibits the emotional maturity of small children. Everything is slanted in favor of one extreme or the other, but only the third party candidates seem to be rational and able to visualize a sustainable future.
Where intolerance is so evident, there will be a loss of freedom IF power is passed to such rabid individuals. Living in the U.S. as I do, this is very obvious here, but I see mirrors all over the world, and the polarization is just a form of intolerance. Yes, it is an expression of a point of view, but is the viewpoint worthy of expression?
Wrapping Up
Sometimes my writing style is not clear. I developed this style a long time ago and have occasionally tried to change it, but I think by leaving “gaps” in presentations, people have “ah ha” experiences and develop more intuition. The stakes are very high and we need experts leading, not cronies. We cannot ignore the advances of science nor the implications of peppering people with nanobots. If we do not turn on our headlights, we are risking more than civilization can afford to risk.
One person wrote to me that my vote counts. It may or may not, but millions of votes will make a difference. We gave up our belief in Santa Claus a long time ago, but why do we still believe that relatively small issues should be the basis of political affiliations when there are really huge issues facing civilization.
My experience as an astrologer is that the time before one’s birthday is one of reflection, currently doubly potent due to Mercury being retrograde. We have paths and are equipped to travel through life if we take time to reflect and to understand ourselves. In today’s world, this can entail separating one’s original experiences from the input of a society gone amok with disinformation, misinformation, conformity, schisms, and now this very challenging intrusion of artificial intelligence into our space, literally our space. I don’t know about you, but I am tired of robotic narratives and pictures that are unrelated to the stories being told. Authenticity involves connection to reality so even if we are living in a world of maya or a simulation or a holographic projection, I am perhaps old fashioned enough to want at least the semblance of familiarity to what we deem to be real.
This video was featured on my youtube, meaning the algorithms chose to display it boldly to me today, but perhaps not to you. It’s apparently not new, but it is salient; and if we take time to reflect, it could help us to make better decisions for the future. This is important in a world torn by rhetoric and schisms that aim to control through polarization around mostly less important issues than the ones hardly discussed much less taken seriously.
Every action we take is either in harmony with Creation or misaligned. After a spiritually powerful experience in Mexico five years ago, I posted a message from an angel who said, “Prepare to align.” I felt it was for everyone, not just for me. Yes, I should heed the advice, but so should everyone. This is far more important than we imagine because our destinies are very complex and span countless incarnations so the quicker we are to align, the less the stress for ourselves and those around us.
I will deluge you a bit because I started several other posts and will send them in the days ahead. However, this short video may lay a foundation for how we choose to look at the future. To give this more context, you may recall that I launched my Substack channel with a pdf on Homo Borg Genesis. This was because we are a risk of forfeiting some of our nature to technology . . . and we must be very careful about the choices we make.
Sometime in the 70s when Saturn was transiting Cancer, it seemed that people were becoming increasingly rigid about food. The days when a potluck would be successful seemed to be disappearing. Looking back, those were relatively simple challenges compared to what we face today. We were all born into families with food customs. Right, these may vary from peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to gourmet feasts, but whether influenced by convenience, ethnicity, taste preferences, or health, food sanity can be elusive and habits may be highly resistant to change.
Almost every client insists that his or her diet is excellent, but if one compares the menus and modes of food preparation of one claimant and another, there is no consistency. In the U.S., we were were schooled about four food groups. These groups are not particularly logical nor do they meet the needs of people whose diets vary tremendously one from another.
Keeping this as simple as possible, we can group foods in three categories, rather than four: proteins, fats/oils, and carbohydrates. These categories are obviously not consistent with the food groups, but they do correlate to the Ayurvedic concept of having very specific effects on how the body functions. Proteins, for example, are vatagenic, meaning they cause the elements of air and ether to elevate. If we adhered what we were taught in school, we would probably be overconsuming proteins, but these are necessary for tissue building. Vegans can meet their dietary requirements by eating nuts, seeds, and legumes, some of which are excellent meat substitutes and very nourishing. Vegetarians have a few more options since they can add dairy products and eggs to the vegan fare. Omnivores can add meat and fish products, but there are additional factors to consider here because food can also be classified as dulling, invigorating, or harmonizing. The Sanskrit term for dulling is tamasic and this includes are foods that are dead as well as those with very little prana, meaning there are calories but little or no vitality. The pranic loss occurs when foods have been stored a long time or reheated. This is easily seen in Kirlian photography by noting how the aura gradually dissipates as a leaf is separated from the live plant: the longer the separation, the less aura that remains.
When becoming a vegetarian, I was very fortunate that I had lived in India for a couple of years and come to appreciate not just the cuisine but also the remarkable difference in aging among those Indians who were fortunate enough to have sufficient food for their nourishment. I was utterly convinced that the life styles supported graceful aging and mental clarity well beyond what we see in many seniors today.
Fats and oils are one of my obsessions. I have often told people that they can generally make a 50% improvement in their diets simply by changing to higher quality oils. This is not simply a matter of avoiding saturated fats but of understanding that all oils are sensitive to light, heat, and air. This means that from the processing of the oils to their use, the oils should not be exposed to light. They need to be stored in bottles that do not permit light penetration. Think of what you see in supermarkets and how very few oils are properly bottled.
Oils should also be cold pressed, meaning they are not exposed to heat. Every oil also has specific temperature tolerances, usually measured in smoke points, but this is not the whole story. This said, two very popular cooking oils have lower temperature tolerance: olive oil and coconut oil. Safflower and avocado oil are at the other end of the spectrum. Ghee is also very heat tolerant.
We should be consuming 15-30% of our caloric needs from oil, but many people are phobic about weight gain. In actuality, oil is a fuel and high quality oils will burn clean and not promote weight gain.
Carbohydrates are the mainstay of our diets. Most people consume them as staples such as rice, potatoes, pasta, bread, tortillas, cassava, beans, etc. They are found in breakfast cereals, many snacks, and such popular mainstays as popcorn and crackers. Many people have had to become knowledgeable about glycemic indices and gluten-free alternatives to stickier foods. Think about buckwheat and how drying it is compared to oats. Try to slice cornbread without it crumbling and you get the point.
These are the basics, but on top of this, we have to consider how the food was produced. Is it organic, wildcrafted, ethically harvested, genetically modified or free of industrial adulteration. Where was the food grown? It might be grown without pesticides but perhaps in an area with chemtrails. How fresh is the food? How was it prepared: raw, cooked, microwaved? Convenience may come with penalties so my rule is whatever I cannot finish eating, Jinzu, my dog, gets. Nothing is stored and reheated. Jinzu was a rescue because she was “allergic” to almost everything. I think she was allergic to food that was not wholesome. I make all her meals for her and she has no signs of any allergies at this time, not for years actually. I bought expensive kibbles but when I read the ingredients, I decided the manufacturers are crazy. High-end dog food contained ingredients like Aspergillus niger! I spend hours every week helping people to deal with mold. How can it even be legal to sell such stuff?
There is much more to food than how it affects our dosha balance and appeal to our taste buds. All food also has a greater or lesser impact on our capacity to deal with free radicals. These foods are antioxidants and their colors give clues to their flavonoids and impact on our health, the purples and blues often having extremely beneficial effects, especially for those who have amalgam fillings or who use prescription medications, but they are good for everyone and can be best consumed fresh, whole or juiced.
Today’s post is about how knowledge and belief systems that are perpetuated by nodding heads . . . often with the distinction of peer reviews. However, before lunging into the deep end of the pool, I would like to request a little help from you. I have a birthday coming up soon and would like to increase our readership by 10%. Can you share and recommend this initiative to friends and colleagues? Thank you! It would make my day, 82nd time around the Sun!
In today’s world, we are deluged by input from countless sources, most of it being irrelevant to our interests and purposes in life. The question is whether the “noise” is credible or propagandistic or merely intended for entertainment. This pattern establishes itself very early in life and is reinforced by family and ethnic traditions, religion, academia, and politics. When there are disparities in content, people tend to polarize around the societal norms or whatever appeals to their personal preferences.
With the massive control over content and, where the web is concerned, visibility, the question is whether matters that are critical to our well being are at the forefront, i.e., top on the search engine results . . . or perhaps so far down the list that they sleep in obscurity.
The catalyst today is a claim some of us have heard many times before, but most of us only know one side of the story. It involves viruses, with a few experts here and there insisting that their existence has never been proved. Most of us would regard such notions as ignorant, not iconoclastic; however, they are being espoused by highly credentialed experts in the field of virology and vaccines. Since I do not know the correct answer to the question, I will not venture an opinion. Like everyone else, I was indoctrinated from childhood so suspending judgment takes an act of will. Settling the debate is a matter for specialists, most of whom make their livings by upholding the prevailing points of view.
Science and mysticism are both ostensibly dedicated to Truth, but we always start with a frame of reference that was, for all intents and purposes, inherited, meaning we did not make the original observations and come to conclusions. We began with a curriculum and then tried to fit pieces together. Being in the health field, I would argue that nothing beats very well constructed, long-term clinical trials. If these are skipped, we are dealing either with opinion or hypotheses that rest on arguments in which most heads nod the same direction.
These matters are important to our well being and involve diet, life style, and the strategies we use to overcome risks to our health and complications when such arise. Keep in mind that many claims involve conflicts of interest, such as who benefits from which conclusions.
Politics is another game, different underlying motivations but still slanted to appeal to bases. As Machiavelli wrote more than 500 years ago, a prince must appear to be what the people like. Speech writers have mastered this dictum so discerning audiences must differentiate between reality and empty promises about jobs, lower taxes, and a solution to homelessness, drug addiction, and crime. In short, it is one thing to read pretty words off a teleprompter and another to have a viable agenda for security and sustainability.
If we keep in mind the fact that the “health” industry and “defense” industry are major funders of candidates and constitute a large part of the economy, we should also see that modifying those behemoths would take enormous planning and strong will power. For most people, nodding is easier. For me, disentanglement to the maximum extent possible is the solution. In my more realistic moments, I see a division occurring between the so-called 15-minute cities and communities that strive to have the best of both worlds: modern conveniences and smaller environmental footprints.
In the interim, I exercise my disdain for the status quo by boycotting the top players in the game of power. This includes everything from groceries to search engines. Sometimes, there are inconveniences involved, but I try to support the efforts of those whose views align with my own. For instance, I try to find organic and sustainably grown food, not just for myself, but for my cockatoos and dog as well. The birds are very discerning and easily recognize GMO corn. They investigate organically grown corn carefully, sometimes for 20 minutes or an hour before taking a bite. They love corn, but know the consequences of diving in without exercising the precautions they have learned are necessary.
People have differing food preferences and knowledge about food. What we learned in school was not very helpful. Also many studies fail to differentiate between raw and cooked food; between frozen, canned, and fresh food; and between genetically modified and sustainably grown food, some of which might be wild crafted or grown without chemicals and some might be certified organic. The studies rarely take into account the method of cooking such as fried, baked, steamed, etc. In short, we have to further our educations in order to be on top of what is needed to be healthy. In the next essay, I will discuss constitutional needs and balance.
Aug 2, 2024 Where Angels Fear to Tread
As noted in a recent post, my parents were rarely on the same page; but they underestimated how good my hearing is, and I overheard their discussion about religion and what church to choose in our new community. It was a political decision. Eisenhower was president, and he was Presbyterian so the children would go to a Presbyterian church where “they would meet all the right people.” I was horrified but never let either of them know that I had heard their conversation. Neither of them went to any church so this was strictly for the kids. One day, my father picked me up after Sunday school and asked what I had learned. I told him; and he blurted out, “You don’t believe it, do you?” I was so tactful that I did not say anything like, “If you wanted me to have the same views as you, you should have considered that . . .” I was very young, perhaps only eight or nine, and knowing how volatile he was, I kept my mouth shut.
As time went on, I developed very clear standards for choosing who would be permitted to influence my spiritual understanding. At minimum, the preachers, ministers, priests, pundits, whoever they were, should themselves be enlightened. Otherwise, why should we trust them to guide us. That set the bar pretty high, but an event came to pass that became a turning point. I was sent to a youth training camp. After dinner, there was to be a half hour discussion on the missionary budget. I said it should go for health. Others favored proselyting, and I objected strenuously, insisting that we should respect the beliefs of others. The debate went on through the night until breakfast the next morning, and involved some rather harsh words from the grown up who was leading the discussion. His eyes became bloodshot, and he told me I was going to hell. I said, “Hell is a state of mind, not a place.” This infuriated him even more, but I felt my arguments were sound so I did not budge.
In actuality, the issues that arose clarified the path ahead. Returning to my church, the minister asked to see me. I was expecting praise for my arguments, but he said I had embarrassed him and he had been reprimanded for putting strange ideas into my head. I was less tactful than with my father. I said, “I guess you don’t really understand the words you say when standing in the pulpit.” I burned some bridges and explored other churches and even a mosque and synagogue. None met my standards.
For those who doubt a child could handle a debate of this nature, I would highly recommend a book by Marie Corelli, the favorite authoress of Queen Victoria. A rare edition was gifted to me by an attendee at a seminar in Chicago. “Master Christian” is a novel involving a small boy who goes to the Vatican and debates the pope. This is sort of the theme of many of Corelli’s novels. There is often a mystic and a magician who view the same situations through vastly different frames of reference. I highly recommend her books IF an open mind is something of value to you.
Finding a Path
Some years passed and I was introduced to Zen through one of my high school classmates, a girl who was regarded as quite eccentric. I was intrigued and ended up spending ten years practicing Zen, but being curious about everything, I later favored Tibetan Buddhism since profound cosmological questions were addressed in erudite scriptures and commentaries.
While extremely passionate about my own beliefs, I am quite certain I never tried to convert anyone else. Of course, I do admit to referring to tenets of various religions when the right occasion arises, but as a philosopher rather than proselytizer.
Given the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics and various efforts in some European countries to prohibit the use of mosques, I think it is time to have an open discussion. The reality is that my God and your God and the God of all other religions must be the same God — and, it is inconceivable to me that He favors some beings over other beings. We understand Him according to our own experiences, and these experiences differ for each individual and no doubt for every life form in the Created Universe. The problem is not that someone is Jewish or Christian or Moslem, the problem is the behavior of those who fail to interact in a civil and respectful manner.
I know people of everything imaginable faith who are clear, centered, composed, courteous, and compassionate. I hope these are virtues we aspire to express to the fullest extent possible. If we succeed, there would not be conflicts. Personally, different ideas are stimulating to me. Also, it would be impossible to be a good astrologer if I tried to change people instead of helping them to understand the patterns in their horoscopes.
Taking this into the political arena, I have to wonder how once the votes are counted, the rhetoric will become conciliatory and unifying. We can never agree on everything, not until we are in a much higher state of awareness, but we can listen, discern, and learn. I don’t know about you, but I think the global economy is in a precarious state. We are not going to crawl out the current mess without some original thinking. Slogans and mantras will not have the desired effect. I have yet to see a better plan for sound fiscal policy than that proposed by Ellen Brown. It is so simple and painless.
In the ridiculous curriculum to which I was exposed in college, the issue for governments is guns or butter. If we stop fighting, we will have more funds for comfortable living. It is that simple. Yes, industry has to adjust, but can we call ourselves civilized when our history is about one war after another and another. Isn’t it time to be constructive rather than destructive? How could anyone in his right mind oppose building a more beautiful future. Do we really have a need to dominate anyone else? Can we interact without trying to enhance our own power and diminish that of others?
Jul 27, 2024 Responsibility for Health
As mentioned in previous posts, as someone in her 80s, I have had the great good fortune to have had time to study many subjects, including medical history. Included in this pursuit were investigations into the beliefs surrounding health and healing, changes in emphasis and views over time, and challenges we have faced as a species. When taking the long view, malaria has allegedly been the number one killer of humanity, but we all know of the Black Death and the devastating consequences of both smallpox and syphilis, which initially was nearly always fatal.
From one point of view, responsibility for health is essentially a personal matter. We decide what to eat and perhaps why. We address issues of hygiene and habits. We manage our environments to keep them as safe as possible; but we turn to professionals if something serious arises. In former times, annual checkups, routine inoculations, and prescription drugs were not typical; but are we healthier now or not?
The boundary between personal and public is generally where there concerns over epidemics. An epidemic is generally attributed to a pathogen, perhaps a microbe or contaminant. If, for instance, the water is unsafe to drink, this is a local issue to be addressed by the owner of a well or public health authorities and the supplier of municipal water. If there is a genuine pandemic, it is a national and international issue so the question is where the authority to prevent spread begins and ends.
I firmly believe my body is my own, and no one has the right to force any type of treatment on me. However, I do acknowledge the need for quarantines and safe management of diseased bodies, something that would have definitely limited the ferocity of the Plague that we may or may not have studied in school.
This is my boundary, meaning locking down certain individuals or geographic regions can be a realistic safety measure; but forcing someone to accept specific medical procedures crosses the line. This is where free will reigns, and the boundaries must be vigorously protected.
Freedom of Choice
During the last few years, many people were denied freedom of choice despite the availability of numerous alternatives that were more successful than the mandated procedures. In an erudite society that espouses free will, this never should have happened.
Parallel to this shameful episode, it is questionable in my mind that any government has the authority to insist upon health insurance. Every government has the option of providing health care, but not of dictating what conditions and treatments are covered. This infringes our right to determine how to manage our challenges — and dare I add income — in an allegedly free society. It is one thing to have humanitarian objectives and another to override the right of individuals to make decisions on their own behalf.
I first heard of socialized medicine as a child in Sweden, age nine perhaps. The alleged ideals behind this cannot be disputed, but the science and economics are another matter. The U.K. and Sweden were pioneers in this initiative, but I think the systems have failed the public’s need for quality care and choice.
There is no question that in today’s plutocratic circles, profits and power reign supreme over humanitarian concerns. We should be wary of this!
We should also be wary of politicians and people in white coats who kowtow to those who are prophesizing pandemics and declaring the need for involuntary measures to control alleged risks. As data for the recent alleged emergency is still being crunched, we should not fall for the same propaganda as before . . . fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
Rewinding
More than 70 years have passed since I first heard of socialized medicine. In general, feel it is a noble idea that has failed to meet expectations. The playing field has never been level, the costs have been extraordinary, and the benefits have not been evenly experienced. In theory, science is always progressing in its understanding of our world and finding new ways to manage challenges. In reality, we need to look at who finances the research, which advocates suffer from conflicts of interest, and who is raking in the treasures. In short, unless the system itself has integrity, the findings are almost irrelevant.
I am in favor of total freedom of choice, meaning that all options available to humanity are permitted regardless of how they are viewed in the halls of ivy . . . or dare we mention Big Pharma. This means that if we want a shaman to clear our energy fields, we have every right not only to seek this form of healing but to have it covered in the same way an insurance. Otherwise, insurance benefits its authoritarian cohorts at the expense of our beliefs and preferences.
In more than a half century of clinical experience, I have little faith in most mainstream treatments. Almost without exception, they come with risks than are understated, and outcomes that are less than satisfactory. This is obviously a very broad statement but rather than quadruple the length of this post, let me simply say that the body is organic and cannot assimilate anything that is not organic. This means that what is not natural to the body comes with risks, and resources that could be used for healing are devoted to detoxification instead of recovery and regeneration. Radiation, synthetic drugs, suppressants, and so on and so forth all create problems for the body and thus interfere with healing. We then have to make a distinction between what is a treatment and what is a reasonable approach to cure.
Little Update
After posting about how easy it is to grow potatoes, I planted a few about a week or two later. The tallest is three feet tall already, no flowers yet! I expect a good harvest.
Jul 25, 2024 Politically Correct
Election season tends to be very politically divisive, the present situation being no exception. This is true in most countries, not just the U.S. We are to believe that the winner will unite the populous despite the rhetoric used during the campaign season to demolish the other contenders for high office. A field of vipers are expected to become dignified and worthy of our respect after months of vicious assaults on opponents. Will it happen?
As a lover of peace, I am not going to comment on individuals though I know several subscribers wish I would stick my neck out and disclose my personal views. I am sorry to disappoint you, but if you read between the lines, you will figure out where I stand.
I grew up in a family with a volcanic father and placid mother who were hardly ever on the same page on anything: not on religion, not on education, not on diet, not on investments or priorities, and definitely not on politics. I learned to observe, but it is not only the content of the attempts to persuade but also the style. One or the other parent may prevail on a relatively minor issue, but rarely on a major one. My mother nearly always came out as the more civil and dignified debater.
Ultimately, the way battles are lost or won is almost as important as the positions because in a country that allegedly offers freedom to its citizens, we permit differences of every kind; but we need to be much more careful when it comes to respecting differences. It is one thing to allow people to have their own views and another to acknowledge the basis of their views without prejudice.
In the U.S., issues that are not actually political have been used to draw lines between the two major parties. In my opinion, this is not a prudent way to establish platforms since there are much more important issues that will be faced when one actually gets sworn into office. Also, as we see, it is not the opinion of the either the legislative or executive branches of government that have the final word, but rather, the Supreme Court that decides.
In theory, the task of the executive branch is to maintain economic stability and promote opportunities for growth . . . and to cultivate cordial relationships with foreign countries that assure peace and long-term stability. Keeping one’s feet on the ground is not an obstacle to either innovation or progress; but it is a way to avoid disenfranchisement and dissidence. Anyone who is marginalized is, of course, inclined to disrespect the system.
Personally, I do not like rallies. I think they are silly. People shout and chant and get excited over slogans and banalities, but they do not return home wiser for the time spent waving flags and wasting adrenaline. High office is serious business, and debates, unfortunately, do not allow candidates to finish expressing their thoughts. They have to come up with a string of five or six sentences about war, and then their microphones are silenced. How about people talk for an hour or two in a normal tone of voice and discuss their positions on immigration, health care, the environment, foreign trade, the economy, and domestic and foreign violence? Unless we see the depth or lack thereof in the positions, we will not be able to judge who has the maturity and clarity needed to represent our people at home and abroad.
It was several weeks ago that I wrote that the friction had already exhausted my capacity to observe. Of course, the suspense over who is running and who will become the running mate does make one tune in from time to time. The assassination attempt is a cogent reminder of just how high the stakes are and the lengths to which some people will go to assert themselves. Unfortunately, this is not a new playbook but the presstitute media will probably never reveal what is known . . . so we go to Rumble and listen to a variety of opinions based on secondhand “intel” that is often superficial and incomplete.
All this said, I agree that this time in history is pivotal. However, what I see is mostly highly conventional thinking that is polarizing and usually significantly out-of-date. By this, I mean that technology is moving faster than the imagination of the candidates so comfortable as this is for the unawakened, it does not promise to deliver the wisdom and skill needed to steer the ship of state into the future we all deserve and crave.
The last weeks have been intense so even if bits and pieces of the bigger picture are missing, the overall view is starting to come into focus. If this were to take place on a very wide global scale, realities on Earth would shift quickly. The trick, of course, is to find one’s own niche so I am going to take the opportunity today to explain the energy behind the choice of the name Institute for Invisible Epidemics.
Without getting tangled up in what our current reality is and why, let me explain where my focus is and why. However, first I want to say that at almost 82 years of age, I have had the luxury in this incarnation of having had time to study far more than is normal for academia. Being intensely curious by nature, I have studied medical history and often referred to fashions in medicine, changes in views and understanding, and attempts to force one’s professional opinions on others. Obviously, I favor freedom over coercion and wisdom over profit. Zooming out as far as I can, I believe the 20th century will one day be viewed as an era of ignorance, but I will not elaborate upon this now. I will merely suggest that since the advent of the germ theory of disease, there has been a tendency to put the emphasis on the diagnosis . . . which, in turn, dictates the protocols to follow. In other essays, going back perhaps 30 or more years, I have argued that the main benefit of this view has been to reduce the stigma of sin by putting the emphasis on indiscriminate vectors and pathogens that randomly affect some people but not perhaps everyone. They probably do affect everyone but in different ways so the symptoms will not always be the same even if the causes are similar.
More succinctly, by focusing on naming the disease, the power of the protocols is supposed to rise to the challenge of eliminating the disease . . . so we have wars on microbes but seldom on commercially profitable and other various challenges to our existence . . . and perhaps even to the survival of the natural world as we know it.
Some of the “invisible epidemics” are masqueraded as beneficial. Fluoridation is an excellent example of this. It is highly toxic and dulling to cognition, but ubiquitous. Radiation is another example. There is no safe level of exposure, but it has been used “therapeutically” for over a century. It is sometimes inserted into the body and even more often used for diagnostic or alleged treatment purposes. It is also pervasive due to nuclear testing and unsafe reactors used to provide expensive energy to drive the industrial revolution to the brink.
On top of nuclear radiation, we also have electromagnetic radiation. It is pervasive and reckless. I don’t have a cell phone or router, but that does not mean that I am not exposed because EMF pollution is widespread and correlates to epidemics of conditions that are studied and treated without connecting dots to the underlying causes.
For the most part, “invisible” — in the context of the name for the Institute — refers to conditions that are overlooked by most of mainstream medicine. Lyme disease is an example of a very serious condition that is rarely diagnosed. Even when it is correctly brought onto the radar, the treatments are usually superficial and ineffective.
When I was very young, I had a mystical experience of hearing a voice telling me that compassion is more important than justice. The issue at the time was fairness as my parents were much harder on me than on my sister. The reality was probably that equal treatment was not in the cards so I needed to work on compassion and put aside justice. Interestingly, my sister became a lawyer so one can conclude whatever one wants from this little factoid.
In short, whether Lyme disease is caused by a bioweapon and/or negligence is not part of my Dharma to decide, but healing people who are suffering is part of my Path in life. To this end, I have had time to study . . . and study . . . and study. I have also had a clinic and consulted in other clinics and had the unique opportunity to observe the effect of herbs, music, and meditation on the plasma and blood cells.
When creating the pdf for the Institute, I had to comb the Internet for images and immediately fell in love with an image of a garden in Japan. I knew nothing about the place at the time, but little by a little, the tapestry I have been weaving for countless incarnations had a few more stiches and some memories came into focus. The place is Oyaku-en Garden in Fukushima Prefecture Japan. The words mean “medicinal herb garden” and the history goes back at least 600 years and includes tremendous emphasis on containment of smallpox, another subject I have studied in depth because what we learned in school is out of context of the historic realities. I posted two Substack essays on this in February last year. This is the link for the second of the posts.
Past Lives
For those of you who enjoy connecting dots as much I do, let me say that when we have a strong feeling about something, it often arises from memories carried over from other incarnations. I majored in Asian Studies and learned to speak Japanese. I think I have made ten trips to Japan, the first in 1962 right after graduation. I spent almost nine months traveling around Japan which remains one of my favorite places on this little Planet. I did not, however, go to Fukushima. I did go to both Hiroshima and Nagasaki and saw the devastation. More importantly, I felt the Japanese people were fully committed to peace. We must be very careful of our motivations because revenge very rarely restores either honor or justice whereas commitment to a path of integrity does.
The Seminar
I cannot imagine how many phone calls, emails, and Zoom sessions Kitzia has had, but finding a venue for our original dates was simply not in the cards so we are now working it from the opposite direction. We will choose the most suitable venue and arrange our dates to the availability of rooms, probably early 2025. Stay tuned!
Jul 13, 2024 The Path of Non-Violence
Topics for today’s post had been building up in my mind until receiving an email about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. I do not think any comments are necessary; but in a free country, it is the people who should choose their leaders. Taking matters into one’s own hands is inconsistent with democracy and right of the electorate to express its preferences.
Though all the details are yet to be known, it is incomprehensible that someone could bring a weapon to a rally so there is no doubt a lot still to unfold.
Just to set the record straight, I have not made a decision on how I will vote so this is not about which candidate I prefer and why. It is about the need for respecting the wills of others and not using force to achieve one’s goals or to express one’s preferences or disdain.
The Retreat in San Miguel de Allende in September 2024
The dates have been set. The staff and some guests will be flying in on the 11th and the open to the public preview will be the following Friday evening. Then, the full program begins, ending Saturday morning of the 21st. On the 22nd, I will offer a seminar for practitioners on darkfield microscopy. Then, two days have been set aside to visit clinics and interact with practitioners who are interested in my work.
More will be posted when a little more dust settles.
Only 10% of subscribers are paid subscribers. If you would like to make a one-time donation, you can use this link. Recently, some of my IT work had been partly funded by a patron, but this was abruptly terminated leaving a great shortage of funds for completing the work that was underway. Please note, all subscriptions and donations are going through the Institute for Invisible Epidemics, and this is how the gifts will appear on your credit card statements.
Jul 10, 2024 The Path of Synthesis
After Vietnam, I was posted to India. Being adventurous, I took 100 days and drove a Land Rover from England to India. I spent a lovely, absolutely memorable, Christmas in Afghanistan and arrived in India just before the end of 1968. Instead of reporting to the embassy immediately, I went to the home a friend whose father was on his way out the door to meet one of India’s foremost scholars, Prof. Dr. Lokesh Chandra. He asked me to accompany him and thus began my studies of Tibetan and Indian religion and medicine. It has now been 55 years, and two people this week told me to stop referring to myself as a “student” of Ayurveda!
Eventually, I did show up at the embassy and was in the cafeteria when a Sikh lady noticed someone new in room. She approached me and said, “You are different from the others, were you born in India?” I don’t think the culture wore off on me that fast, but surely I had had past lives in India.
There was a small bookstore in the lobby of the embassy and I was its best customer. I remember the first book on Ayurveda. The only recognizable words were prefaces to profundity that might begin, “Before commencing this protocol, be sure . . .” and the rest was all in Sanskrit which, alas, I had not studied in college.
We can say perhaps that during these 55 years as “student”, my goal had been to discover the underlying principles of Ayurveda, not to memorize slokas which is how the curriculum in Ayurveda colleges is taught. There is no precise starting point unless we begin with the philosophy of Creation itself as an interaction between an ideational masculine energy and a receptive divine feminine. To minimize the associations we have with gender, I have referred to these forces as radiatory and magnetic. The ratio of will to receptivity is hierarchical, meaning one could be anywhere on the spectrum between Heaven and Earth or the movement of energy and its ultimate manifestation as a person or plant or stone. Density is a reflection of vibration and when the vibration changes, everything else follows suit.
More to the point, where humans are concerned, we have unique constitutional types that contribute to our appearance as well as our proclivities. Imagine for a second that you are sitting at a table in a restaurant and the wait person is refilling water glasses. One person requests, “no ice, please” and another wants to risk breaking his teeth on cold cubes. The question is whether the preferences are conducive to balance or whether they simply appeal to our typologies.
Constitutional type is relatively easy for a properly trained medical astrologer to determine because it is based on the elements, all of which have unique properties. For example, the air element is light and dry whereas the water element is heavy and moist. Our bodies are roughly two-thirds water but some people have less water and are thus thinner than those with more water. They are often very happy being as they are, but there are specific risks associated with too much or too little of anything.
This is perhaps Introduction 101, but believe me, it becomes more and more subtle and interesting as we progress in our understanding. What has been obsessing me for the last fifteen years or so is what I can see in the darkfield microscope that explains “obstacles to cure” and regeneration. So, these are the topics for the forthcoming retreat in San Miguel de Allende which I heard last night has once more been declared the best city in the world in which to live. It won the award in 2021 and apparently still does not have serious competition. It’s an historic place by continental American standards and is certainly culturally rich and enchanting.
To forge a connection between body, mind, and soul, the meals for the retreat as well as snacks served during breaks will make a direct connection to the subject matter of the day. For instance, if we are talking about awakening spiritual awareness and the need to decalcify the pineal gland, the beverages and dishes served will include tamarind.
Connecting dots is one of my favorite pursuits so in this case, Kitzia will direct the botanical tours and cuisine while I try to take complex ideas and turn them into art.
The pièce de résistance will be the availability of the darkfield microscope and an all day workshop for health care practitioners.
We recognize that some people will be from out-of-town and will require accommodations whereas some will be local. We are tackling the numbers and will announce them soon, but the full tuition, meals, and lodging will probably be around $3000 for a program that actually spans about ten days. Locals will obviously not have their pockets dinged to the same extent.
Jul 4, 2024 From Tiny Seed to Regeneration
Yes, it’s the Fourth of July, but it is very quiet here, no fireworks . . . at least, not yet. I am not sure we are “free” but I surely wish freedom for every creature on the Planet, including all those who are the victims of wars, corporate corruption, and abusive life situations. We are all created by the same Great Source of All and we all deserve a chance to explore our potentials. This is my Prayer for this special holiday.
This is a not an essay, but there will be one on Sunday. Today, I am announcing a retreat that Kitzia and I will be hosting in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, in September. We have not finalized all the details, but she is a master gardener and cook and is thinking in terms of seeds to palate. I love the idea because going back almost 25 years, she told me about games she played with children in which they learned about seeds when still pre-school. Now, her children are grown up but she is about to launch Cozina Botanika in La Ribera, Baja California. This would be her version of a farm to table restaurant on her 11-acre botanical paradise.
Her idea is to begin by tasting the fruits and vegetables grown on an organic farm. Out-of-town participants have the option of catered meals, and there will also be occasions to visit organic restaurants in this charming town.
My program contribution revolves around the Path to Regeneration which is in two parts (five days). In addition, there will be a brief introductory talk and a day devoted to practitioners who want a deeper understanding of regeneration as seen through the lenses of a microscope.
Removing the Obstacles to Cure
In today's modern world, a patient is examined and diagnosed. It is the diagnosis that determines the next steps, the treatments that are supposed to cure the patient. No one asks why the patient became ill and what might have to be addressed before the patient can become well.
During the late 1970s and early 80s, I spent many years with a kahuna lapa'au in Hawaii. Morrnah Simeona left an indelible impression on me. The two most important gifts were teachings:
Before a patient can heal, the obstacle(s) to cure must be removed.
Whatever does not feel good to the psychosomatic part of the patient will be resisted by the subconscious.
In this three-part series, there will be attention given to oral health -- amalgam and composite fillings, dental and periodontal infections, and products used for oral hygiene. In the second part, emphasis will be on the environment. Is there mold? exposure to toxic substances? electromagnetic frequencies impacting the body? In the third part, parasitic infections and detoxification will be the focus.
Strategies for correcting each health hazard will be addressed by a combination of practical measures, dietary adjustments, and herbal remedies. All the recommendations will involve safe and natural means for removing the obstacles to cure.
The Spectrum: Degeneration and Regeneration
Think of everything we do and everything we ingest as contributing to health or undermining health. We are running late and grab a snack to eat en route to our destination or appointment. It comes wrapped in aluminum foil and contains ingredients we never heard of before, but it is sweet and perhaps a little salty and fulfills a fleeting craving. These patterns persist day and night from the moment of birth until we go to our final destinations. Each careless action risks moving the lever in the direction of degeneration while each conscious measure moves the lever in the direction of health.
On the first day, the emphasis will be on recognizing our constitutional types and the specific needs of our type. We recognize that some people want to unwind by going wild on a Friday night and others might prefer to order a take-out meal and listen to their favorite music in the comfort of their own homes. We have different preferences and different needs. Health requires balance so we can maintain that balance by knowing which life style choices, including foods and herbs, best support our needs.
On the next day, we will learn about the sequence of regeneration using the Ayurvedic system of tissue types. Everything begins with what we ingest. Think of an aquarium with fish. When you feed the fish, you just sprinkle a little food into the tank and the fish dart for the food. There is a parallel in our bodies. We eat a variety of food but the food gets broken down and goes into the plasma where it becomes a nutrient for the blood cells. The red blood cells deliver the nutrients where they are most needed. The white blood cells use the nutrients to detoxify from all they have ingested so as to protect their hosts, you and me and all the other life forms on the planet. Stem cells use the high quality nutrients to proliferate. They, then differentiate to repair all tissues of the body. These processes continue with more and more refinement until we reach the level of neurological and psychospiritual regeneration.
Stay Tuned
Please let us know if you will are interested in participating in this event.