PARCHMENT

2020, CHOICES, CROSSROADS, TOOLS

PARCHMENT, 2020 MAY 07

PARCHMENT

     ~the textures supporting what is written

Upon what grounds do you store your information?

From what conditions do you draw it?

How does a Life leave Its mark,

and how does Eternity record it?

Take pen to a cold-pressed heavy paper and feel how it slows, responding to the dappled surface as if waking the distant trees from which it was made. Apply this same pen to Parchment and the skin of the slain animal reveals its echo. A pencil to notebook paper; paint to a canvas; ink to glass; iron tools to a stone wall; chalk to a board; they each have their Song. They each have a weight and a gravitas, a Soi-Disant, or self-styled collective effect.

With which tools do you write your stories, and on which surfaces do you record them? What has formed the substrate onto which you express your self?

Think of the many texts produced over all of existence. The ideas meant for transient life have been compiled with grounds and tools meant to dissolve as time passes. That which stands Time's tests have been given more forethought, have been made with complex ritual, with sacrifice, and with tender and wise patience.

What do you create while here, embodied? What will you leave behind? And how will the Great All record your experiences? Is there a book labeled with your many names? In how many other stories are you cross-referenced?

You are here not by accident but by accord. Considered and planned, your Life has been the work of Masters, each contributing to how your Song begins in this incarnation . . . and how it might conclude. Between the end plates, you become your own composer, even if you have boarded the train at a set station, and end it at pre-planned other.

What thus far does your story tell? Are you brave and strong, a local hero? Are you the character who though given the opportunity to rise many times, has not? Are you the victim, or the debutante, or the evil stepmother, standing perpetually offsides and away from the traffic of others? How often do you shift roles? Who are you? Are you more a Verifier or a Vilifier?

To understand your dialogue, you must understand your character. You must understand your character's motivations. What does your character want? By what factors is he or she compelled? Which conditions work for this character's ideals, and which work against them?

Acknowledge the grounds and substance with which the character's Life is recorded. You write upon your tenets. Therefore, being poor in money does not mean you must record your Life on what is quickly destroyed by Time. Being rich in money does not mean you will record your Life on what is Everlasting.

Take a quick survey of your Life. What have you experienced something you would leave in a message for your grandchildren's grandchildren? How might you seek out more meaningful experiences, study them, apply them in your Life, and leave a record that will cause others to resonate?

Harmony. Discord. Illumination. Each day contains these things. Do not blather on to fill time. Let Time fill you. Let down the end-caps of your Life and stretch. See where Life is leading you. Make strong choices at each crossroads. And as the experiences become relevant, record your Illuminations to Light the way for others.

Be a Voyager

Go Walk About

Record Life as a proclaimed arbitrator 

of a singular Song,

needing no external permission

to play in Great All's symphony.

 Blessed Be This Day

This is a Direct Voice Communication from my Tribe, Spirit Elders who share their wisdoms with me from the other side of the veil.

     Archive: May 07, 2020

 

visuals by Walks With Fire

VERIFYING & VILIFYING

2020, OBSERVATION, THE INCONCEIVABLE, THE KNOWABLE, THE UNKNOWABLE

VERIFYING & VILLIFYING, 2020, MAY 06

VERIFYING & VILIFYING

     ~source, reaction, and reduction

As you contact new information, through observation,

dialogue, or experience, you will attempt to Verify.

Is this information True?

When Verifying something new, we rely on the databanks of our experiences, filtered through our core tenets and beliefs. We may observe something objectively: that animal is a bear. Or we may go beyond observing and react to the same experience: that angry bear is in the wrong place and is dangerous. The first observation will be easier to Verify than the second, which is a type of Vilifying your conclusion about the experience.

Why does this matter? Isn't it likely that a large bear, in your proximity, might be a threat? Yes, of course. And, this large bear may just be crossing the street, little aware or uncaring that you are in his immediate area. Either way, unless you draw the bear's attention and provoke a heightened response, you may not be able to Verify the urgent aggression of the bear. Just witnessing the bear changes the outcome, and certainly, provoking the bear will decidedly shift the outcome.

This is an important correlation in our conversations with the world. While conclusions may be dangerously wrong, falsely believing that you have intelligently and fairly considered a situation can be more dangerously wrong. This happens if you have used a skewed line of questioning, and could lead you to an aberrant conclusion. Thought and method themselves do not guarantee an accurate outcome. Our best hope is to arrive at a plausible theory.

And the more foreign an observation is, the higher our tendency to divide it into parts that make sense to us. If you were studying an off-world being, your first inclination would be to arrange your questions according to what you already believe that you know. You may ask how it breathes, eats, excretes, and reproduces. You might spend a great deal of your life pursuing answers to these questions, but what if this off-world being does not breathe, nor eat and excrete, nor reproduce? How do you consider the inconceivable?

This is the Mystery and Magic of Great All. Much more will remain unknown to you than will ever be know. Is this okay? Do you feel not knowing marginalizes your existence? Can you prove that you live, that you are, that you think?

What about your daily tasks? How do you know that this food you have prepared is safe to eat? How do you know what is knowable and what is unknowable? You cannot Verify everything, just as you can't Vilify everything. You strike a balance between the two. You have adapted your process for surviving and creating.

What do you struggle with today? Let us say it is your health. How do you determine what will support you and what will harm? You will make projections. You will seek out group ideas that support theories you find probable. You will tend towards the least repulsive and least harmless ideas, and your plan will certainly differ from your neighbors'. How can you live in the world with such uncertainty?

You will likely not feel uncertain. You will likely feel emboldened by your plan, your research, and your conclusions. This allows you to move forward. And many others will support you. You will find a pattern and stick with it.

But . . . what if you want more? What if you want to rise above group consensus and seek out Higher Ideals? Can you consider the many unfamiliar aspects of an experience? Can you attempt to Verify without immediately Vilifying? Can you use a different pathway to complete your Theorems, even if it means you reach the same conclusion? By observing anything through a Higher order of thought, you will increase values, and come closer to Verifying the experience.

Use this for a neighbor whose behaviors conflict with your own ideals. Instead of diminishing them, try to understand what is at work in their lives. Instead of saying you believe something because "it is right," explore 

why you believe it is right. Likewise, if you believe something is just "wrong," explore why you believe it is wrong.

Attempt to reduce your reactions and build your responses. Attempt to find the Source from which these outer rays of thought and behavior arise. Trace the journeys. See how backtracking differences can lead to the Unity of the Source.

To grow, unite, and harmonize, we must concentrate on solving the issues that most negatively affect each of us, and the organic incredible world of which we are made. 

You are a Co-Creator. Lead with Love and Understanding.

 Blessed Be This Day

This is a Direct Voice Communication from my Tribe, Spirit Elders who share their wisdoms with me from the other side of the veil.

   Archives:  May 06, 2020

  

 Photo by Francesco De Tommaso on Unsplash 

ARRYHTHMIA

2020, AWARENESS, BALANCE, GROWTH

ARRYHTHMIA, 2020 MAY 05

   ~balancing peaks through awareness

When your heart races, as it does in the Fight-or-Flight response, are you in a life-or-death situation that requires immediate management, or are you reacting, rather than responding to, information that conflicts with your belief system?

We have established that most of us are operating from a duality of core tenets and the influences gained in living our lives. Adaptation to these influences has happened over time, moving our central ground in response. Be that traditional (so to speak) or non-traditional (against the grain of current trends in society), each of us has a central point from which we accumulate and study data . . . and our behaviors will reflect how we react or respond to it in whole.

Remember the last time you experienced an Arrhythmia: be it that your heart began to race, or something in your gut-knowing kicked you, stopping you mid-thought and giving you the opportunity to consider new information. This is the physical response to outsider ideas, large enough to be noticeable and sometimes large enough to create an overwhelming chemical condition: seeing red; sick with bile; burning with anger; the heartache of hopelessness and grief.

Because these Arrhythmias are chemically-induced (from the reptilian/survival self), most of us do not control them. Only after many decades do Masters attain the ability to sort the animal self out from the logical and intuitive self. For most, they are an indicator of distress. This is not to say that joyful Arrhythmias do not occur, but for today, let us consider the negative (or less helpful) effects of our response to our world.

How can we balance these peaks, or spikes, in reaction? How can we learn instead to respond, with the intention to fully consider information that may seem threatening, but is not life-threatening in the moment?

What do you want? What do we all want? Beyond the basics of survival, can we agree that most of us idealize harmony, compatibility, valued exchanges, and opportunity? Do we not feel more comfortable, and happy, when we are surrounded by those who are similar to us, who share beliefs with us, whose communities are in line with our ideals and tenets?

Can we survive like the animals in the wildlands, broken into hierarchies of prey and predator, in populations that are either growing or diminishing? Can we create islands where we separate ourselves into belief cultures, never wandering into the territories of other belief cultures? This is not likely. Earth is currently existing in a globally-interactive state. We move about and exchange.

This is good news, if we let it be. How better can the world evolve than through shared ideas in thought, philosophy, science, medicine, technology, and communication? Diversity serves us.

In order to maximally serve us, diversity must operate without false restriction. Culturally diverse thinkers, in collaboration, create more comprehensive outcomes. Problems, and successes are better considered as a group: when island-A presents a problem to island-B-C-D, and they present a resolution; how a success in island-C allows it to share with the other islands.

Open your mind and your heart. Think as a whole being. Think as those being marginalized. Think as those "in power." Think as those in the middle-muddle who long to experience a better world but don't know how to begin.

Begin where you are. Understanding is first. Work to see your self clearly and to understand the world more clearly. This requires not only an open mind, but an open heart, and the ability to step outside our false sub-cultural standards and regulations.

The world has its own Arrhythmias. Can you hear its response to our sorrows and burdens? Can you quiet your self long enough to listen to the world's Songs?  

Remember that you are stardust and that this world from which you were raised and created knows you intimately: how could it not? You are made from its building blocks and vibrate with its rhythms.

Be bold. Each day, step outside your self as you know it. Listen. 

Do not guard your self from new ideas. Embrace them. 

Build your core, growing what is possible.  

You are here, and you are possible.

 What else is possible?


 Blessed Be This Day
This is a Direct Voice Communication from my Tribe, Spirit Elders who share their wisdoms with me from the other side of the veil.
    Archives: May 05, 2020 

visuals by Walks With Fire

SUSPICION

2020, BEHAVIOR, BELIEF, INFLUENCE, SUSPICION

SUSPICION, 2020 MAY 04

SUSPICION

     ~sorting source from influence 

 

Why does information sourced from conflicting belief-groups elicit Suspicion? How does a Lie differ from an unfamiliar and/or foreign Belief? How does the seeker study data's many facets to reach the clearest and least-tainted theories?

In studying the Self, do you study what others believe of You? Beyond the core tenets of your society, your sub-culture represents belief structures that conflict with others. You are aware of this . . . but have you taken the time to explore what you believe, how those beliefs interact with local and international ideas, and why so many beliefs vary?

In fact, idea/thought/belief systems not only vary, many sub-cultures defend their own ideas as unique and obvious . . . and (therefore) "right."

Let us say that you are a four-footed mammal who occupies an evolutionary rung as a prey species. Your reality is framed by the idea that to survive, you must stay low and quiet, eating and drinking only as you need and keeping sheltered in small, inaccessible underground dens. Each day is a lesson in survival.

Compare this mammal's life with that of a predator species, who walks in the sun with little fear and has great confidence in its ability to hunt and consume smaller animals for its food. How does the lion experience the world compared to a rabbit? How might their ideas about mating, offspring, and hierarchy differ?

Perhaps the lion, living in the open, choosing its indolent sun and shade, feels superior. The rabbit may enjoy its blue sky and its dappled shade . . . but is it possible that the rabbit partakes of sky and shade in measured moments, knowing that each second exposed is a risk to its continued existence? Still, without the prey animal, the predator cannot live. This is symbiosis: more than cooperation; more than agreement.

People do the same. Some labor/ some lead. Some aggress/ some concede. Some elevate one gender above another. Some elevate certain gifts about others. Some eliminate the weakest/ some protect them. Therefore, an entity's self-belief and cultural beliefs influence and construct their life-belief.

When you encounter a person or group who believes differently than you do, do you ask yourself how their influences have affected their source ideas? Can you blame a rabbit for believing that the safer place to shelter is its underground den? Can you deny that a lion might grow more fierce when its game has grown scarce? But . . . can you also understand how each mammal has formed their ideas and acknowledge that these ideas are their Truths, and possibly the Truths of their community? It helps them to survive and thrive.

When you study the world, you see passion and desire. If you see deeply, you will understand that the common thread runs through each fibre of Great All, and that each culture uses it to weave something unique.

So . . . is it Suspicious that a speaker from Culture-A might propose an agenda that is radically different from Culture-B, or is it expected? If your culture values authoritarianism as a primary agenda, its idea of freedom will differ when compared to a socialist or communist system. Who is right? How much of their system is inborn and how much is based on tradition? If we cannot separate Influence from Source, how can we see the inner workings of things, especially when we seek to know our Selves?

How Suspicious are you of those within other belief groups? If I want to be a baker, will some see the community service in my talent . . . and will others fear I intend to poison the king? In order to communicate, we must level the field.

While many people act with aggression and selfishness, many more act from kindness and generosity. Can you study the Source of their affirmations, calculating how their Influences affect the outcomes? In this era, it is a critical part of unbending and unblending information.

Do you say that the rabbit is rude to dig dens, which may endanger the lion, who could break his ankle if snared while running? No. Do you say that the lion is rude to hunt the rabbit, when nature has designed him as a predator? No.

So . . . how do we accurately and compassionately communicate with one another across cultural boundaries? How to we care for our world and All Living Things, when we harbor such Suspicion for one another?

We cannot harmonize our World until we harmonize our Selves. Study and understand how you have come to believe as you do. Understand how your influences have affected your Source materials. Allow for commonality before branding an idea with its fragmented beliefs.

Be Suspicious, but begin with Self. Be Influenced, but understand how those Influences affect your behaviors. And most importantly, understand your Source. 

Understand The Source. 

Life is a puzzle . . . but it is not unsolvable.

 Blessed Be This Day

This is a Direct Voice Communication from my Tribe, Spirit Elders who share their wisdoms with me from the other side of the veil.

     Archive: May 04, 2020

 

 photo by Craig Whitehead on Unsplash 

AUTHENTICATION

2020, BELIEF, CULTURE, TENETS, TRUTH

AUTHENTICATION, BELIEFS, CULTURE, TENETS, TRUTH

 
AUTHENTICATION     

   ~studying drivers for truth  

To Authenticate a person, place or thing, you must compare its qualities to the resonance of Truth. From whence does this person, place, or thing arise, and what is the investment /pay-out for its reward?

You are birthed into societies that have established Truths and normatives, forming and revising your drive under these templates. Your culture may be primarily peace-keeping, or aggressive, but throughout the population, both polarities will be represented, and if you could step back and look inside the secret vessel as would an outsider, you would discover what you could not otherwise. 

So, how do you study the driving forces for any subculture's cohesion with the Greatest Reality, the underlying Song of the Earthborn?

Many conditions are inborn to us: survival-drive, reproductive-drive, and the belonging-drive, which tells us we must have purpose in the society, an exchange that is essential, and that the giving and receiving of worth-feelings are as necessary as the food, water, and shelter we seek and protect. 

Then, as Life experience urges, we expand our tenets. How is your community doing, on Whole? Do you feel that its tenets support its ecosystem? Do you find its core tenets are generally truthful, or are they eclipsed by outdated and irrelevant ideas that favor the few? And how do you successfully compare the two?

An Eternal Truth does not expire. 

Eternal Truths are simple and inclusive:  value all Life; take no more than you need; speak honestly; speak out against UNtruth; do no harm; protect those who cannot protect themselves. Borrow your pride but buy your integrity. Forgive. Act for the Highest Good, even when you are afraid. Know your journey. Know your Self. Know your Name. Be the expression of Realized Love.

What is Authentic? It is the seed from which you were created. 

It is a driving force that perpetually supports the Highest Good for All. Any divergence from this map can be manipulated.

To Authenticate input, whether old or new, study its drivers. What does the tenet "do no harm" have to gain? What does the tenet "harm all outsiders" have to gain? Who are you now, and Who will you Be?

Study the tenets under which you live. Embrace the Truths. Separate Self from the lies. Be you Whole. Be you Wise. Be you a Warrior.

In Presence and in Light, may you come to know your True Name.

 Blessed Be This Day

This is a Direct Voice Communication from my Tribe, Spirit Elders who share their wisdoms with me from the other side of the veil.

     Archive: May 03, 2020

visuals by Walks With Fire

PROSCENIUM

2020, APPARENT/NON-APPARENT, BELIEF, DIVISION, EXPANSION/ CONTRACTION

PROSCENIUM, 2020 MAY 02

PROSCENIUM

~understanding the divide between the apparent and non-apparent

In Greek terms, the Proscenium is the division on a stage that signifies what is in front of the forward curtain from what is behind it. The scenes given by the actors to entertain are planned and devised for certain effect. Whether that effect be to move your compassion, invoke deep thinking, motivate outrage, or merely to inform, the forward stage wears its costumes, advising and building anticipation for what will happen on the great stage itself.

Within the stage proper, the story unfolds. You will follow the characters and track their messages. You will be entertained, and if done well, you will lose your self in suspension-of-disbelief. You will decide to agree with the story's elements, even the ideas that seem impossible, such as Peter Pan's flight. You will want Peter Pan to fly and for Tinkerbell to gather enough hand-claps to sustain her magical life.

Such is this Earth Stage. Your headlines work in front of the Proscenium. Your stories work behind it. And behind the stories are the workings of the theatre. From whence came the costumes, and the idea of the costumes? What informed the set? How does the music, or lack thereof, create the mood . . . and why was the specific mood created? How have the authors, the actors, the builders and the makers commingled their ideas, and to what end? No story ever told has been free of agenda.

Story is powerful. It teaches. It tells us how to live and how to die. It tells us what to believe, and when to revolt. But quite often, the stories we seek out dovetail with our established beliefs, further deepening the beliefs we already hold to be true.

What happens when we engage stories that cause us to question our beliefs and stretch the boundaries of our world, and our world-view? Like fables passed down to youngers in order to teach, train, and warn them, a good story causes us to think new thoughts--thoughts that expand the consciousness and bring oxygen to what might be stagnant. A good story acts as a Catalyst for growth.

What is your story? How much of your story lives at the front of The Proscenium? What is the face you show to the world? What do your actors play out? How deeply do the activities on your stage reflect your social, cultural, theosophical, and experiential normatives? And most importantly, what is happening in the back of the house, in the beehive of activity one might equate to the unconscious and/or superconscious mind?

Do you fight your deepest urges? Is the face you put in front of your Proscenium a mask so false it bears little resemblance with the main stage itself, and little to none with the backstage activities? Fragmentation comes with the pairing of disparate parts and with denial. Enlightenment occurs within harmony.

How often do you inventory what is apparent, and non-apparent, in your life? Have you ever used any phrases like these: "it's the way I was raised" ... "that's how I was taught" ... "everyone knows that's wrong/ right" ... "those people are uncivilized/ less than/ stupid" ... ? Socio-cultural templates are powerful indicators for behavior, particularly where mis-behavior (against the Highest good for All) is concerned.

A willow grows straight until its environment shapes it. Look at your own twists and turns. How have you bent in the wind? When you look out upon your world, do you see beyond the grass? 

Do you connect with the roots and the minerals, and the creepy-crawlies? Can you feel the symbiotic heartbeat of every part of Great-All's Tapestry? Can you absorb and conduct the Love that is ever-present and infinite?

And . . . will you?

Blessed Be This Day

This is a Direct Voice Communication from my Tribe, Spirit Elders who share their wisdoms with me from the other side of the veil.

     Archive: May 02, 2020

 

visuals by Walks With Fire