TRANSFORMING THE BIRTHPLACE OF EMPIRE

Two combined images from Anodea Judith's Waking the Global Heart

TRANSFORMING THE BIRTHPLACE OF EMPIRE

It was a tough choice last week between writing about Valentine’s Day and the liberation of Egypt. Valentine’s Day was about love itself. Egypt is about the transformation from a dictator’s love of power to the people’s greater power of love. As technology and those who use it evolve, hierarchical power structures fall to the power of social self-organization. The one ruling the many, typical of the third chakra era, is evolving to the many ruling themselves.

What struck me is that Egypt is the land where the third chakra era began. Here grew the first empires that many mark as the birthplace of modern civilization. Though stable far longer than any civilization since then, Egypt was built upon a top down power structure from the God-Kings to the masses. Most believe the pyramids were built on massive slave labor, while kings, queens and pharaohs lived in elegant palatial complexes. (How’s that for a gap between rich and poor?) The fact that this edifice of imperial organization is giving way to what the world hopes will become a functional democracy is richly symbolic for the world at large. Historians may mark this as the shift in power from the third chakra empire to the birth of a fourth chakra collective global community.

It is still far from certain what will emerge in Egypt as a result of this upheaval. Will one oppressive regime be replaced by another or will the people have the maturity to rule themselves with peace and justice? The first instances of youths in the square taking their own initiative to clean up the litter after the 18-day demonstration was encouraging. We are no longer children, needing to be ruled by a stern parent, but emerging adults, literate, capable, infused with a vision of freedom and justice, and ready to take responsibility.

An essential key to this awakening is the reclamation of free will. An army, trained to obediently function as a unified force, wielded at a ruler’s command, is still made up of individuals. These individuals can listen to their conscience and take a moral stand. Since armies have long been instruments of imperial power, they may be the very place where that power turns. But that free will exists in all of us, and we all face moral decisions every day. Do we choose to serve power or love?

Common people of today are anything but common. This uprising was not made of any single faction but represented every strain, segment, and class of Egyptian society, from Muslim Brotherhood to Coptic Christians, from disenfranchised youth to successful professionals. Furthermore, it happened non-violently – at least on the part of the protesters, a miracle in itself. The “common” individual today holds more power than at any time in history. We have the power of information and access; we have the power to communicate and organize; we have the tools of power—computers, cell phones, and cameras-- for printing, broadcasting, writing, traveling, and organizing, once limited to only an elite class.

The revolution in Egypt did not happen in a vacuum. The entire modern world was watching and was also a part of it. The spark of fire that blew up the old regime is now spreading across the Arab world. How that fire burns may depend on how we all hold it. I am holding that we have entered a window of transformation where the evolution to our next organizing principle is ripening like a plump fruit. The time has come for that fruit to fall from on high into the hands of the people.

It’s up to all of us what we do with it. 

Anodea Judith
Feb 17, 2011

  

Photo/Artwork by Will Zero

Fair Trade Flowers

 

Late last week, we mentioned that the largest florist in the world, 1-800-Flowers, was oppressive to women farm workers. Apparently they responded to 54,000 Change.org members and agreed to begin selling Fair Trade flowers and insist on a strong code of conduct for all their suppliers to counteract the deplorable working conditions that thousands of female flower workers face in South America. They’ve promised to offer Fair Trade flowers in time for Mother's Day, making 1-800-Flowers a leader in the industry.

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OPENING TO THE POWER OF LOVE!

Still shot from Anodea Judith's The Illuminated Chakras

 

OPENING TO THE POWER OF LOVE!

Every day should be a celebration of love. Yet, once a year on Valentine’s Day, we pause to remember this quintessential element of the universe in whatever ways we can make it special. Mostly this holiday reflects romantic love, with infantile forms of Eros as a baby-fat Cupid flying across Hallmark greeting cards. Nothing wrong with romantic love but it’s just one slice of the major force in the universe. And by the way, if you’re going to send flowers, be aware that the largest flower distributor (1-800-FLOWERS) is quite abusive to farmworkers. Is this what it means to really love?

We think that because love is an innate need within all human beings, that we are born knowing how to love. Not so. We are born wanting it, but learning how to get it, give it, and keep it alive are acquired skills that take a lifetime to master. Moving beyond our ego based needs for attention and approval to genuine care for another’s well-being is the challenge of our time. Our future depends on it.

Every situation is an opportunity to find your way to love. Looking for the perfect one is a way to discard all the wonderful learnings you can get from each person you meet – or the perfect way to be perfectly lonely. It’s a way to avoid looking into that person’s pain, and saying, “What can I do to make this person’s day a little brighter, a little happier, to make this person feel loved and appreciated? What can I do to help, what can I offer?”

In Easten Body, Western Mind, I say: “If everyone were perfect, there would be no need for love.” For love is that which comes in the darkest night of the soul, when it is least expected and most needed. Love doesn’t seek the light, it lights up the darkness. Love is the demonstration of the universe that keeps all this complexity running in absolute harmony despite our ignorance that keeps messing it up. It is that which keeps things in relationship, which means they keep relating in a kind of perpetual reciprocity that continues to sustain our reality. 

Still shot from Anodea Judith's The Illuminated Chakras

It is innate to feel attracted to some and not to others – and much of this is programmed by society’s magazine ads, romance novels, and movie scripts. Our biological urge to procreate has us wired to search out the best genes with which to make children.

But how many of us are still operating under this genetic imperative when we have already raised our children, or have no intention of doing so, or are in Gay relationships? Here’s some statistics that put this in perspective for our future:

Estimates for cutting world hunger in half with clean drinking water for all come in at around $35 billion. Meanwhile, the industries of make-up and perfume take up $33 billion annually. When you throw in the purchase of furs, it’s another 1.8 billion. Add in the 10 million plastic surgeries augmenting breasts, tucking tummies, or staying young with facelifts, at an average of $5-10 thousand per surgery and you can throw in another $10 billion, enough by itself to supply reproductive health care for all women and control population. Aren’t these the tactics of a culture that wants to be loved and thinks these superficial elements are the way to find it? (Statistics from Yes! Magazine and internet sources).

This Valentine’s Day do an act of selfless service as love. You don’t have to forgo getting dressed up for that romantic date, but you can donate a $20 to the beggar on the street. You can volunteer at a soup kitchen. Clean trash from the neighborhood. Give extra attention to your kids, or your neighbor’s kids. Give a valentine to a stranger who looks lonely and watch him light up. Distribute your love in unexpected places. 

You may be surprised at how the power of love fills your heart. Today and everyday.

Anodea Judith,

Valentine’s Day 2011

 

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I PROMISED YOU A MIRACLE!

I PROMISED YOU A MIRACLE!

Well, actually, I promised to write about miracles and how to create one. Even more to the point, how we all need to create miracles right now in our world, because they are so urgently needed. Is humanity ready to learn the spiritual technology of miracle making?

The first step is to realize that miracles happen everyday. The fact that you are here, reading this email, your eyes making sense of invisible electrons blinking on and off across your screen, 100 trillion cells within you, working together as a whole, with all that it takes to keep you alive somehow all around you, is several miracles right there. It’s a miracle that food gets to the grocery store, your garbage gets taken away somewhere, water comes out of your tap, and the sun provides just the right amount of heat and light to keep life going. The uprisings in Egypt are a miracle. If you have children, you look at a miracle every day. One might even think there is some kind of divine coordination going on.

So we begin by believing that miracles are everyday occurrences. Which is to say we begin by noticing them when they happen. The more you notice, the more you align yourself with their possibility. What’s a miracle you can name right now that happened recently?

Miracles are generally defined as something that occurs outside your current level of understanding. If we went to a primitive village with a tape recorder hidden in our pocket, they would think it a miracle that we could portray a voice. Some pathway you hadn’t considered, produces something beyond your expectations. Healing occurs, despite the medical prognosis. Funds appear from a source you didn’t know existed. A chance encounter brings you essential information at just the right time.

When we’re stuck and we need a miracle, we need to think outside the box. We need to go to the infinite, to the crown chakra, to the Divine, which is limitless possibilities. There’s no way we can contemplate all those possibilities, we can only open to them.

What draws the particular solution out of the infinite field is your finite need. When you type a word into Google, it searches an infinite database to match your particular request. When you withdraw cash from a bank, you ask for a finite amount that comes out of the bank’s pool of money.

So after getting the top two chakras going, (believing and seeing) you then need to ask (communication, chakra five). A Course in Miracles says, “Prayer is the medium of miracles. It is a means of communication of the created with the Creator. Through prayer love is received, and through miracles love is expressed.” The communication of prayer brings us into relationship, and through right relationship, miracles occur naturally. 

That brings us down to the heart. Love is the medium through which miracles occur, and the reality that miracles express. It is our love for something that calls forth the miracle. What do you love about this world that is threatened? Is it the taste of strawberries, the peace and quiet of the forest, the sound of birds? Can you send your love out to that place right now, like a lasso from your heart?
Again from A Course in Miracles: “Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them.”


Anodea Judith
February 7, 2011







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ARE YOU MANIFESTING YOUR HIGHEST PURPOSE?

ARE YOU MANIFESTING YOUR HIGHEST PURPOSE?

January was a time for new year’s resolutions. Discipline, exercise, meditation, dieting, or finishing that project are all common goals that tend to fall away by the beginning of February. How do we keep our attention focused and on track?

From the perspective of the chakra system, manifestation of our dreams is a top down process that begins in consciousness, or 7^th chakra and then goes through increasing layers of density until it becomes whole and real. This step-by-step process, if followed, can be exhilarating -- because it brings results.

Here’s how it works:
First we have to think of something. We call this an idea, which is what we get when the Self (I) connects with the divine (Dea). Connecting with the Divine brings us infinite possibilities. We can “think of” anything – being an opera singer or flying to the moon. But that doesn’t mean we can manifest it. Bringing our ideas into fruition requires condensing them into ever more specific levels of reality.

Once we think of something, we can’t help but imagine it (chakra 6). Here we imagine further details: color, shape, timing, even how it feels and sounds. Our idea becomes a little more real because we can “see” it.

Once our visualization begins to take shape, we start to talk about it (chakra 5). We relay our ideas to others who may be part of the process and this brings us right into relationship (chakra 4). As we communicate our ideas within relationship, we may meet resistance, refinement, or support. That depends on how we communicate.

Finding the right relationships to manifest a goal is an important part of the process. You may need a real estate agent, a graphic artist, a coach, or a mentor. Maybe you’re looking for your soulmate or wanting to start a family. But once you find those relationships, the next step is the actual doing (chakra 3). Every project has tasks, and this is where most people fall down. “I didn’t want to have to do that part.” How we keep our will intact has to do with the clarity we bring down from the top combined with the energy we draw up from the earth. How much energy do we give our obstacles and distractions (phone, TV, Internet, food, sleep, chores) versus our chosen goal?

Once the will is focused and activated, the dream begins to take shape. We find ourselves miraculously drawing in what we need as we bring things together (chakra 2). This is where the popular law of attraction comes in – which is just one law among many.

If we complete every step and fulfill all the tasks on our to-do list, our project comes into manifestation. This brings us home to the first chakra, to completion, to having our finished form and to enjoying the fruits of our efforts.

What’s difficult is that we meet resistance at each level. Just as a meteor meets resistance from the atmosphere and then the denser ocean, each chakra layer carries obstacles that must be cleared. Limiting beliefs, lack of imagination, poor communication, inner voices, unbalanced relationships, weak will, lack of passion, and failure to complete are the most common ones.

Creation is ecstasy when the obstacles are removed. It is what we are here to do – to create from the Divine for the Divine and become avatars on earth.

The times are calling all of us to become Master Manifesters. It’s time for a miracle. Come learn how to create one.

(Stay tuned for next blog on miracle making!)

Anodea Judith
February 1, 2011



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