Cut and Paste Fun

Exasperated by the frequent and difficult-to-dismiss interruptions to my  play-store solitaire game, I made my own on a Google sheet. It is just as addictive and fun, without ads, and has the added advantage of appearing, to anyone who happens to look over my shoulder, that I am engrossed in something useful, rather than frittering my time away playing games with myself.

A Partially Played Game

On the top left are available tokens to be used at will (the game began with 24 of them). At the top right is the (in progress) final ordering of 4 categories of 13 tokens each, each category (H, S, D, and C), numbered from 1 through 13. When this is completed (or it is obvious that it can be) the game is “won.” (At the beginning of the game this area was empty.) At the bottom left is the main working pattern of the game. At the beginning this area contained 28 tokens laid out in a triangle, with one token in the left-most column, 2 in the second column from left, 3 in the third, and so on, and 7 in the right-most column. The player can move the token at the bottom of each column, or any portion of a column that has been ordered, if doing so preserves and continues the ordering. The ordering of the lower left section of the game board consists of placing tokens in descending order top to bottom by number, where an alternating pattern of grey and red is maintained. There is no enforcement of rules in this version. Any token can be physically moved anywhere at any time (or tokens can be deleted and created). It is up to the player to follow rules as he or she chooses. Movement of tokens is most easily done by “cut” and “paste.”

Building the Game

To build the game, open a new Google sheet and mark off the playing area. To do this create a line between columns N and O from row 1 through row 23. Do this by highlighting cells 1 through 23 on column N, then select the icon at the bottom of the screen that looks like a window with 4 panes. Open border style and select a medium heavy line and back out once to choose the pane with the heavy line on the right. Back out once more and view the line on your spreadsheet.

Then highlight row 23 from A through N. Tap the four paned window icon and select the pane with the heavy line on the bottom, after selecting the slightly heavier line.

Bottom right corner of the playing area.

Make the Game Tokens

Navigate to cell W53. Type the 52 token names in the consecutive cells of column W. Do not specify colors or backgrounds at this point. (That will be done in a later step.) Type 1C in cell W53, 2C in cell W54, and so on until 13C is in cell W65. Copy cells  W53 through W65 , and paste in cell W66, then paste again into cell W79, then a third time into cell W92.

Now go back to cell W66, and change 1C to 1D. Continue changing C to D until you reach cell W78, making it D13.

Change C to H starting with cell W79 until you have created 13 Hs.

Starting with cell W92, change the Cs to Ss. Type S1 in W92, and so on to cell W104, making it read S13.

Create the Game Staging Area

Navigate to cell P1, and begin creating the staging area for the game token  pattern by typing, =W53 in that cell. Press enter and, 1C, should show in that cell, unless the tokens have been shuffled.  Cell P2 should be highlighted, type, =W54 in that cell, then enter.

Creating the game token pattern

Complete the game token pattern by continuing to type =W53 through =W76 in  cells P1 through U4. This makes the top rectangle of 24 game pieces which will be utilized in the two ordered patterns to be worked in the game, once they are shuffled and copied to the playing area.

Next make the space configuration for the triangular shaped main playing area of the game.  Start with the row P6-V6. Type =W77 into cell P6, =W78 into cell Q6, and so on, typing =W83 into cell V6. Row 7 will span between columns Q and V. Type =W84 into cell Q7, =W85 into R7, and so until =W89 into cell V7. Start the 8th row with R8 and =W90 (It may be easier to save the = signs for last) Start the 9th row at S9 and =W95. Start the 10th row at T10 with =W99. Start the 11th row at U11 with =W102. Then put =W104 on cell V12, completing the triangle.

Configuration of staging area

Then put a dotted line border around the staging area by highlighting between P1 and V12 the. Select window panes icon, then dotted line, then the pane with a heavy line around its perimeter. Then reduce the width of columns A through  X. To do this highlight the entire columns A through X, then up at the top, drag column X to a third of its width. The other columns should be narrowed as well

Game staging area

Shuffle the Deck

Now we will shuffle the deck. Make a set of random numbers  Type,  =RANDARRAY(52,1) in cell Y1. This will produce a column of 52 random numbers, one in each row of the Y column between 1 and 52. They will be different numbers every time, and will change fairly often.

Put zeros in each cell from X1 through X52, so that when we sort column X  it won’t mess up the game board and the staging area.

Zeros and random numbers

Then copy the random numbers, Y1 through Y52. Tap cell X53 twice and select paste special, and select values only from the menu.

Random numbers next to game token names (values will vary)

Now we are ready to sort column X, which is done from the top of the column, slightly above cell X1. Tap the blue area at the top of the column twice. You may have to pull the menu out to select sort A-Z. If you accidently select sort Z-A tap undo. Look At the staging area. It should no longer be in the same order, but the token names should occupy the same cells as before.

Example of a shuffled staging area

Now select the staging area along the dotted lines we drew and copy. Then tap cell A1 twice. This is another paste where we must use paste special and choose values only.

Even without the formats, the game is playable, using cut and paste to move the pieces one at a time. C and S count as black, and D and H count as red.

Format Game Tokens

We will apply conditional formatting to the playing area. We will apply three formatting rules:
Text ends with D
Text ends with H
Text is not empty
To do this:

• Highlight from A1 through N23
• Tap icon at the top that looks like a capital A with five short horizontal lines on the right side of it
• Tap conditional formatting
• Format cells if: text ends with
• Value or formula:  D
• Tap +
• Choose text color dark red
• Choose fill color dark red
• Choose 2rd hue from the lightest
• Accept with ✓
• Click Add
• Format cells if: text ends with
• Value or formula:  H
• Tap +
• Choose text color dark red
• Choose fill color dark red
• Choose 2rd hue from the lightest
• Accept with ✓
• Click Add
• Format cells if: is not empty
• Tap +
• Choose text color black
• Choose fill color black
• Choose third hue from the lightest
• Accept with ✓
• Accept with ✓

Game Rules

Order the tokens in ascending numerical order in one column, per each of D, H, C, and S suits in columns I through L, starting with 1. The player may not place a piece in this area, other than a 1, unless the previous number of that suit has already been placed in the I-L columns.

The player has free access to the tokens in columns A-F, rows 1-4, however, using these is not always the best strategy.
Player is to access only the bottom pieces in rows 6-12 columns A-G, or, those already ordered in the red-grey, numerically descending order pattern, by either the player or by the deal (as long as there are no out of order pieces in the same column below them). (Alternate rules can be played, but the game is more entertaining if a consistent set of rules is agreed to and followed.) Order the pieces in descending numerical order, alternating red and grey.

When a column from row 6 down, column A-G, is empty, Player may place one of the 4 13s in row 6 of that column,
providing it comes from rows 1-4, A-F, or is the bottom piece in columns A-G, row 6 or below, or has already been
ordered in descending numerical. order red and grey, or grey red with other pieces. In the latter case, Player may move all of those particular pieces together. Below the 13 may be placed a 12 of the other color. Below a 7 may be placed a 6 of the other color, and so on.

New Game

select A1:N23
clear
select Y1:Y52
copy
select X53
paste special – paste values only
select column X
sort A-Z
select P1:V12
copy
select A1
paste special – values only

Play the Same Game Again

select A1:N23
clear
select P1:V12
copy
select A1
paste special – values only

Let’s play!

The 12th Planet, by Zechariah Sitchin, Book Review

The 12th Planet, by Zechariah Sitchin is about alien landings on Earth, starting about 500,000 years ago. It makes references to the book of Genesis of the Bible, and the clay tablets of ancient Sumer. First published in 1976, the book makes some remarkable statements about the composition of the solar system, and the origin of mankind on Earth. 

The 12 planets are: the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Earth’s Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Marduk. Having 12 bodies in the solar system is important religiously, according to Sitchin. There seemed to always be a Pantheon of 12 gods and goddesses in every culture including Sumaria, prior to the more recent ideal of monotheism. The 12th planet has an orbit like a comet. It orbits around near the sun once every 3,600 Earth years. It travels in the outer reaches of the solar system during most of its orbit. In spite of this, the planet is warm and habitable, probably from radioactivity in its surface. Marduk is about the size of Neptune. It may be a brown dwarf.

Marduk is the name usually used for the 12th Planet in the book, the 12th Planet, although this planet is often called Nibiru. Nibiru, comes up from the south, once an age, and crosses the planetary plane between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The plane of Nibiru’s orbit is retrograde and at right angles to the orbits of the other planets. Far in antiquity the 12th planet collided with Tiamat, (the planet that once existed between Mars and Jupiter) dragging a big piece of it and its Moon to Earth orbit. There was originally an empty space where  Earth and its Moon are now.

The rest of Tiamat’s mass (about 4 times the earth total) created the asteroid belt. The planets, other than Earth, were fully formed and most of them already had life on them during the time the earth was forming. The evolution of mankind and agriculture on Earth were advanced by tutoring from, and breeding with, an advanced alien culture from the 12th Planet. Homo sapiens on Earth would have taken much longer to develop had it not been seeded by the Anunnaki from Nibiru. Agriculture, and its many domesticated plants and animals would have taken much longer to develop if Earth wasn’t visited by an advanced culture and gifted with its domesticated plants, trees and animals. 

When Nibiru is close to Earth, the Nephilum (or Anunnaki) make their way to Earth using rockets. They mine our precious metals for themselves (or force us to do it.) Many or most of them leave and return to Nibiru by the time their planet is gaining momentum Southward, after its passing around the sun. When it is not in the lower solar system, Nibiru is difficult or impossible to see, because it hides in front of the bright stars of the milky way. The  lifespans of the Anunnaki are longer than ours, but any children or grandchildren they leave behind eventually become indistinguishable from the rest of us. 

According to Zechariah Sitchin, in the 12th Planet, every reference to God, Elohim, or Yahweh in the book of Genesis is actually a reference to a space alien from Marduk. These aliens are the gods. The obvious source material for the book of Genesis in the Sumarian clay tablets is unabashedly polytheistic, with gods discussing and arguing among themselves, while Genesis has apparently been edited to make it appear as if there is only one god.

I do not agree that space aliens are gods. They are humans like us, but coming from an advanced culture when earthlings were still relatively primitive may have made them appear godlike. That being said, there is a real God and He is Spirit. I needed to remind myself this while reading Sitchin, because every biblical reference to God, and the Sumarian references also, are interpreted as referring to aliens. 

The “gods” wanted laborers to work the precious metals mines in Africa, so they manipulated the humanoids on Earth at the time to be more like themselves. Although there was a genetic modification described, the easiest way to modify the humanoids of Earth at the time, the Homo Erectus, into beings with enough intelligence, communication ability and manual dexterity for mining and other tasks, was for the male aliens to impregnate the female humanoids. Soon there were modern humans in Africa, Sumaria and elsewhere, used as laborers by the aliens. A couple, Adam and Eve, were placed in the garden of Eden near Sumaria (Iraq). They were there to care for the plants and trees in the garden. They were asked not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge but they did anyway, realized they were naked, and were banished from the garden. 

One of the appearances of Nibiru was associated with severe flooding. That appearance was approximately 11000 BC. and caused, first droughts and food shortages, then massive flooding and solar disturbances, during the approximately 1000 Earth years while the planet was close. Atlantis was destroyed in 9577 BC, during that same time of upheavals. Subsequent appearances of Nibiru (and the Anunnaki) were associated with rapid improvements in human culture: rapid advances in pottery approximately 7400 BC, a sudden Sumarian civilization developed around 3800 BC. The last appearance was around 200 BC, and the next is expected approximately 3400 AD.

The book was interesting to read. The points made, although controversial, were very convincing. A PDF is available online as a free download: https://www.booksfree.org/zecharia-sitchin-the-12th-planet-pdf-free-download/

Atonement

This study of A Course in Miracles (ACIM or the Course), that I recently began, has given me new insight into Who God is. I am very grateful for my new understanding. Even though no longer active in organized Christianity for over 3 decades, I still have managed to hang on to a mental icon of the Old Testament Jehovah, the God of judgment, a God to be feared. Long ago it was suggested that I fear this god as if he were a monster out to get me. The God revealed by Jesus in ACIM is a loving father who affectionately corrects us, never harshly, and whose love is to live for.

I tried to get into a series of books called the Law of One, 6 months ago, but the text of the series was dictated through a medium in a trance state, and the channeling work was hard on  her both physically and emotionally. This bothered me. Why not just listen to the words and write them down, rather than allow some foreign entity to invade your being? I thought.

With the Law of One I had also balked at the concept of forgiveness and mercy to those on the negative path. I had encountered this information in the first book of the series, all of which is attributed to an entity called Ra, who channelled himself through the medium. According to Ra, at some point each one on the negative path comes to realize that he would be happier on the positive path, and simply makes the switch. Ra is an ancient group entity, much of which lived on the surface of Venus ages ago, but it also includes ascended humans, naming Jesus of Nazareth as being among them. I was suspicious that Ra was promulgating propaganda to the effect that there are no negative consequences for evil doing. However recently, after beginning my ACIM study, I received the revelation that this information is true, and Ra is correct after all. God is merciful. He is not a judgmental tyrant. He is a tenderly loving father, different from the father I had growing up. But my father would have been different too, if he knew then what he knows now. So would I, with some of the parenting I did.

HOW ACIM WAS WRITTEN

A Course in Miracles was scribed by Dr. Helen Schucman, a clinical psychologist, during the 1970s, and first published in 1976. She claims no credit for the composition of the large volume (two or even three volumes sometimes), but attributes the words she wrote down to Jesus Christ. She was not in a trance state as a medium would have been, but was conscious. It was not what is called automatic writing, because she could write or not write. If she chose not to, the same dictation would be presented at a later time. She was helped in the typing up, of her many hand-written notebooks, by a work colleague.

I was happy that  A Course in Miracles had come through a conscious person enabled to hear the voice of Spirit, but I wanted to know, was it really the words of Christ that she listened to and wrote down? I’m about 10% of the way through a large ebook edition of A Course in Miracles. Although sceptical at first, I now believe I am reading the words of Christ.

ACIM EDITS THE BIBLE

“Many are called but few are chosen” should read, “All are called but few choose to listen. Therefore, they do not choose right.”

A Course in Miracles, Text Chapter 3, The Innocent Perception, Section IV, Error and Ego, paragraph 7.

I have to agree. I always suspected that there was something off about that passage from Matthew (Matthew 22:14). It didn’t make sense. Something was lost in translation, and now that something is cleared up.

Another example of Jesus editing the gospels through ACIM is the following:

These are some of the examples of upside-down thinking in the New Testament, although its gospel is really only the message of love. If the Apostles had not felt guilty, they never could have quoted me as saying, “I come not to bring peace but a sword.” This is clearly the opposite of everything I taught. Nor could they have described my reactions to Judas as they did, if they had really understood me. I could not have said, “Betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?” unless I believed in betrayal. The whole message of the crucifixion was simply that I did not. The “punishment” I was said to have called forth upon Judas was a similar mistake. Judas was my brother and a Son of God, as much a part of the Sonship as myself. Was it likely that I would condemn him when I was ready to demonstrate that condemnation is impossible?

ACIM, Text Chapter 6,  The Lessons of Love, Section 1, The Message of the Crucifixion, paragraph 15.

Jesus is saying, through ACIM, that he did not say, “I come not to bring peace but a sword.”  nor “Betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?” and that these quotes from the Bible are misquotes, thereby breaking down a pillar of any Christian sect that depends on the infallibility of the New Testament. Following is another example of the impact of A Course in Miracles on religious thought.

INDEPENDENT NATION OF ISRAEL AND THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST PROPHECY

Israel became a nation in 1948. According to some predictions, Christ was supposed to have returned within a generation of 1948. I was born that year. My first child was born in 1972. I am now a great grandmother. Perhaps we can adjust our thinking on just how Jesus was supposed to have come within a generation of 1948. Suppose he came very close, and dictated a large book to one of his followers? And that book edited the Bible? Well yes, there is more fulfillment than that (but on a different timeline). This at least answered the sincere prayers of those who accepted the pretext that an apartheid state of Israel has something to do with the message of Jesus Christ. God does love his children and he does answer prayers.

DEPENDENCE ON GOD

One facet of right thinking is dependence on God. To answer the call of God, to choose to be chosen, is to recognize his absolute sovereignty.

“Except ye become as little children” means that, unless you fully recognize your complete dependence on God, you cannot know the real power of the Son in his true relationship with the Father.

ACIM – Introduction to Miracles, p.173.

BE LOVING TOWARD OTHERS

The Golden Rule is the rule for appropriate behavior. You cannot behave appropriately unless you perceive correctly. Since you and your neighbor are equal members of one family, as you perceive both so you will do to both. You should look out from the perception of your own holiness to the holiness of others.

ACIM, Text Chapter 1, The Meaning of Miracles, Section III, Atonement and Miracles, paragraph 6.

Do unto others as you would have them do into you, in your thinking. See others as holy, beautiful, capable, strong, intelligent, healthy, happy, and pray that they become more so.

ONENESS WITH OTHERS

All human beings are one species and one in Spirit. Right thinking acknowledges this. There is no hierarchy, no caste system, no excluded class, race or sex in true reality.

Judgment implies a lack of trust, and trust remains the bedrock of the teacher of God’s whole thought system. Let this be lost, and all his learning goes. Without judgment are all things equally acceptable, for who could judge otherwise? Without judgment are all men brothers, for who is there who stands apart? Judgment destroys honesty and shatters trust. No teacher of God can judge and hope to learn.

ACIM, Manual For Teachers, Chapter 4, What Are the Characteristics of God’s Teachers? Section III, Tolerance, paragraph 1.

“…are all men brothers,” might be expressed as, “…are all people  brothers and sisters,…” The meaning is the same, and the former has better word economy. The exclusion of women has been hurtful, and we are understandably sensitive about it, but no exclusion of women is intended by the masculine nouns and pronouns used in the Course.

SONSHIP

The specialness of God’s Sons does not stem from exclusion but from inclusion. All my brothers are special. If they believe they are deprived of anything, their perception becomes distorted. When this occurs the whole family of God, or the Sonship, is impaired in its relationships.

ACIM, Text Chapter 1, The Meaning of Miracles, Section V Wholeness and Spirit, paragraph 3.

The term, Sonship, refers to the body of people, of both sexes, who have attained Oneness, with God and each other. There is no exclusion on any basis. Anyone who includes himself or herself is included.

MIRACLES

Miracles arise from a mind that is ready for them. By being united this mind goes out to everyone, even without the awareness of the miracle worker himself. The impersonal nature of miracles is because the Atonement itself is one, uniting all creations with their Creator. As an expression of what you truly are, the miracle places the mind in a state of grace. The mind then naturally welcomes the Host within and the stranger without. When you bring in the stranger, he becomes your brother.

ACIM, Text Chapter 1, The Meaning of Miracles, Section III, Atonement and Miracles, paragraph 7.

POWER OF THOUGHT

It is hard to recognize that thought and belief combine into a power surge that can literally move mountains. It appears at first glance that to believe such power about yourself is arrogant, but that is not the real reason you do not believe it. You prefer to believe that your thoughts cannot exert real influence because you are actually afraid of them. This may allay awareness of the guilt, but at the cost of perceiving the mind as impotent. If you believe that what you think is ineffectual you may cease to be afraid of it, but you are hardly likely to respect it. There are no idle thoughts. All thinking produces form at some level.

ACIM, Text Chapter 2, The Separation and the Atonement, Section VI, Fear and Conflict, paragraph 9.

I cannot let you leave your mind unguarded, or you will not be able to help me. Miracle working entails a full realization of the power of thought in order to avoid miscreation. Otherwise a miracle will be necessary to set the mind itself straight, a circular process that would not foster the time collapse for which the miracle was intended. The miracle worker must have genuine respect for true cause and effect as a necessary condition for the miracle to occur.

ACIM, Text Chapter 2, The Separation and the Atonement, Section VII, Cause and Effect, paragraph 2.

Miscreation refers to using the power of thought carelessly and creating — or reinforcing — something unwanted. Any thought can create something, and it is even more powerful when it is voiced. For example a parent might say to a child, “Don’t climb the tree, you’re going to fall.” This could create the fall that the parent is trying to avoid. Thoughts and words are creative and need to be chosen with a full understanding of their creative power. The parent could say, “When you climb the tree I want to be there so I can watch you.”

REAL AND UNREAL

Assault can ultimately be made only on the body. There is little doubt that one body can assault another, and can even destroy it. Yet if destruction itself is impossible, anything that is destructible cannot be real. Its destruction, therefore, does not justify anger.

ACIM, Text Chapter 6, The Lessons of Love, Section 1, The Message of the Crucifixion paragraph 4.

Although this world seems real, it is actually as ephemeral as a dream. True reality is within reach, and it is beyond the material. Flying into a rage because someone insults me is ignorant. What if instead of an insinuation against my character it had been a bullet? I would have to forgive, even though my unreal body would be lying at the feet of my real body.

UPSIDE DOWN THINKING

Upside down thinking is the opposite of right thinking. It fancies itself independent of God, even the concept of God, or else it tries to fashion a totally fictional god. It holds itself aloof from others, imagining a hierarchy, denying the oneness that actually exists. It is dominated by fear.

GUILT

Whenever you are not wholly joyous, it is because you have reacted with a lack of love to one of God’s creations. Perceiving this as “sin” you become defensive because you expect attack. The decision to react in this way is yours, and can therefore be undone. It cannot be undone by repentance in the usual sense, because this implies guilt. If you allow yourself to feel guilty, you will reinforce the error rather than allow it to be undone for you.

ACIM, Text Chapter 5, Healing and Wholeness, Section VII, The Decision for God, paragraph 5.

We must be humble but not humiliated. Too extravagant a posture of repentance, obeisance or groveling is incorrect. God created us noble; we are not to abase ourselves. I simply send love to the person I slighted when I recognize my error. This requires no apology and no words, but at the right time the right words may be spoken if the Holy Spirit guides me to do so. The technique of sending love is the same if the person is right next to me, on the other side of the world, or no longer on this plane of existence. It might also be called praying for the person. I go into meditation with that person as my focal object. I pay attention to any associations that come up, for instance other people. I discern what the original person needs with regards to the other person. I am alert to any health issues or housing problems. I recall the situation of his or her neediness seeming to exhaust my poor ability to manifest love when I became impatient. Now, I manifest the patience I failed to then. Now, I manifest the love I failed to then. Should this person feed so aggressively on me that I become exasperated? I set that question aside and ask God for more love.

ATONEMENT

A Course in Miracles makes frequent mention of Atonement. It’s an important concept to understand for the Course. In its usage in the Course, Atonement seems to mean something good. The word is frequently used, in other settings, for something good that makes up for something bad, or cleanses and obliterates something bad, but this is not necessarily what it means in the Course. Learning how to attain Atonement is important because It is the gateway to miracles and abundance.

An early meaning of the word atonement, probably more than 500 years ago and on another continent, was at-oneness, at-one-ment. This is close to the meaning of the word as used in ACIM. Some kind of oneness between ourself, Christ, and God, focusing on Christ’s miraculous resurrection, is the vehicle for miracles. Being in tune, in-tune-ment, might be closely related. Intoning, chanting or praying out loud, may also be a related word. This concept is not limited to Christianity, even though it is described in Christian terms in the Course. Anyone of any religion can use the ascended Mediator of her or his own religion for the Oneness described.

ESCAPE FROM FEAR

We tend to withdraw because we get fearful. We are afraid that complete openness makes us vulnerable. But complete openness makes us whole. It works because  we channel the flood waters of righteousness when we are connected to the Source. Nothing can penetrate the rushing water that flows through us and to all of creation as we determine not to withdraw from anyone or anything.

All fear is ultimately reducible to the basic misperception that you have the ability to usurp the power of God. Of course, you neither can nor have been able to do this. Here is the real basis for your escape from fear. The escape is brought about by your acceptance of the Atonement, which enables you to realize that your errors never really occurred.

ACIM, Text Chapter 2, Section I, paragraph 4..

What a powerful Atonement! Not only are your sins forgiven, but they never even happened! They were not real! And all you have to do is accept the Atonement!

I suppose the catch is, you have to extend the same forgiveness to others. The wrongs against you “never happened.” Well okay then. If I’m really healed of all the ill effects of the wrongs against me, there is no reason not to have forgiven them. The body may still bear the scars, but this is the unreal body.

I often pray to my Lord to fix what I messed up, supply the love which I failed to, undo the negative creations of my untamed mind. And then I ask Him to fix and heal the people hurt by other people like me, who carelessly and ignorantly destroy the earth and our fellow man. I believe He does and He will.

Ultimately, every member of the family of God must return. The miracle calls him to return because it blesses and honors him, even though he may be absent in spirit. “God is not mocked” is not a warning but a reassurance. God would be mocked if any of His creations lacked holiness. The creation is whole, and the mark of wholeness is holiness. Miracles are affirmations of Sonship, which is a state of completion and abundance.

Whatever is true is eternal, and cannot change or be changed. Spirit is therefore unalterable because it is already perfect, but the mind can elect what it chooses to serve. The only limit put on its choice is that it cannot serve two masters. 

ACIM, Text Chapter 1, The meaning of Miracles Section V, Wholeness of Spirit, paragraphs 4-5.

We are both material and spiritual, but we can only serve one master, either the eternal or the temporal. But apparently a person can change his mind anytime he likes, from temporal to spiritual, but not the other way around, I wouldn’t think. Once you have committed to eternal, spiritual and real, that’s it. If I find out I’m mistaken I’ll edit this paragraph.

RESTORATION

For perfect effectiveness the Atonement belongs at the center of the inner altar, where it undoes the separation and restores the wholeness of the mind. Before the separation the mind was invulnerable to fear, because fear did not exist. Both the separation and the fear are miscreations that must be undone for the restoration of the temple, and for the opening of the altar to receive the Atonement. This heals the separation by placing within you the one effective defense against all separation thoughts and making you perfectly invulnerable. 

ACIM, Text Chapter 2, The Separation and the Atonement,  Section III, The Altar of God, paragraph 2.

Separation is the concept of the fall, that may have happened long ago in the Garden of Eden. Anything real is eternal, but the things of the temporal world can be undone through the Atonement, which comes from Christ (or the Founder of one’s religion). You must ask for it and believe you have received it. In a different context Atonement might be called an awakening, an enlightenment, a mystical experience, salvation, receiving the Holy Spirit or love. The experience should include joy and a feeling of oneness with God and other enlightened souls.

CONDEMNATION IS IMPOSSIBLE

Spiritual vision literally cannot see error, and merely looks for Atonement. All solutions the physical eye seeks dissolve. Spiritual vision looks within and recognizes immediately that the altar has been defiled and needs to be repaired and protected. Perfectly aware of the right defense it passes over all others, looking past error to truth. Because of the strength of its vision, it brings the mind into its service. This re-establishes the power of the mind and makes it increasingly unable to tolerate delay, realizing that it only adds unnecessary pain. As a result, the mind becomes increasingly sensitive to what it would once have regarded as very minor intrusions of discomfort.

ACIM, Text chapter 2, The Separation and the Atonement, Section III, The Altar of God, paragraph 4.

Helen Cohn Schucman, Ph.D. – Autobiograpy

A Course in Miracles

Thanksgiving or Day of Mourning

When the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock they were enabled to survive with the help of the people indigenous there. Then a generation later, the descendents of those friendly Indians were massacred by the descendents of those pilgrims helped and subsequent European arrivals who had joined them. When was the original great feast called Thanksgiving, that is still celebrated today in November? Was it during the early period of the pilgrim colony in Massachusetts while the newcomers were apparently on friendly terms with the Indians? Or was it later, after massacring the natives and appropriating their ancestral homeland? When we celebrate Thanksgiving, are we celebrating cooperation, or are we celebrating subjugation, murder and theft?

The natives lived simply. Their houses were no larger then necessary for shelter. They respected the plants, trees and animals in the environment. They lived in harmony with the web of life. We could have learned a great deal from them, if only their understanding of harmonic existence with the land, and their complex, specific knowledge of plants, animals, seasons and survival techniques had not been so completely stamped out, along with their forests and their ecosystem.

The same scenario of ancient wisdom destroyed by opportunistic newcomers was repeated over and over throughout the breadth of the continent, until at last, we got to California in the mid to late 19th century. Here natives were slaughtered and lands were stolen just as had already been done along the swath of destruction from the east coast. The race to get the most land and extract the most value from it has taken its toll on our collective soul.

For a moment can we imagine a different scenario? Instead of chopping down more and more trees to build more and larger houses, fences, barns, ships, railroads, warehouses and towers, suppose we learned to live with those ancient trees still in the ground?

The Indians had complex herbal lore and knew how to keep families small so the land would not be overwhelmed by too many humans. The newcomers had effective weapons which facilitated the elimination of anything in their way. Being  spiritual, being one with the Great Spirit and one with creation was not enough to ward off the great evil that came upon our indigenous grandparents.

This evil was not the people that came in need of homes. The evil was the -isms that came with them: feudalism, capitalism, Zionism, the doctrine of discovery, and manifest destiny. It was the arrogance that threw out the spiritual values of reverence for life and cooperation; and instead took on racial supremacy: white supremacy.

The Doctrine of Discovery was based on statements by the pope in the late 15th century to early 16th century regarding 15th and 16th century Spanish and Portuguese explorations. These statements, called  Papal Bulls, had been enshrined into law, and were regarded as infallible by superstitious Europeans of that era and beyond. The doctrine stated that any land discovered through Spanish or Portuguese exploration could be claimed for the sponsoring country, and any wealth seized in the explored land would be legitimately acquired property IF the citizens of the explored land were not Christians!  Any murders committed during the enforcement of this doctrine, would, of course, be overlooked. The Catholic Church has, in recent years, tried to distance itself from this doctrine, but has yet to abrogate it. The ruthless treachery and slaughter against the Aztecs, in what would become Mexico City, by the Spanish conquistadors, and many other atrocities committed during the history of the European colonization of the Americas, reveal that the European conquerors took the doctrine of discovery very seriously.

The term, manifest destiny, was first used in the mid nineteenth century, by editorial writers, to inspire a takeover by the United States of all the land between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Inherent in the meaning of the term is the goal of white supremacy. The rights of others are trampled in a brazen white takeover, although the blatant racism is obscured by what might pass as lofty ideals.

Zionism seems to be a biblical, holy term. But hidden in the word is the goal of genocide. The “others” must be cleansed out so the “chosen ones” can have their monocultural paradise. It’s another code word for white supremacy. The old Testament has stories of acts of war that took place several thousand years ago. It is time to put such thinking behind us. Zion belongs to everyone, not just a “chosen” few. Unless we become universal in our thinking, we are throwbacks to another, less enlightened time.

Let us embrace the diverse colors, shades and variations of the human family. We are one. Murder is wrong. The historical thefts of lands and resources was wrong. Living in ostentatious wealth while others live in squalor is wrong. We have taken without giving, in our game, which we have defined as getting the most regardless of the amount of destruction and slaughter in our wake. It is time to find another way.

Our First Woman Pope

Our First Woman Pope by Victor Villasenor

This book is enthralling to read, funny, insightful, deep, but the frequent mention of alcohol irritates me. I don’t want to know about that kind of spirits. And yet the relationship between culture and language is fascinating. Watching formerly celibate clergy open to romantic love and marriage is heart warming. Learning about Oceanside’s first mango tree is enlightening. The anecdote about the author telling a group of children that they are angels would be wonderful if it didn’t take place right after the partying with tequila and beer. I wondered, was he staggering and slurring his speech during the charming encounter with the children? Mystical experiences were described during the book. The description of alcohol consumed makes real mysticism dubious to me. How much is holy spirit and how much is alcohol? Yet I loved the book, and sent links for the free version to 4 adult children and 3 adult grandchildren. But I’m fed up with the drinking.

Of course sobriety is important to me, and it is rare to find a book or a movie that meets my criteria.

I dreamed I was in the room studying Latin. After pondering the dream for awhile I realized that that room, the master bedroom of the house I grew up in, was the room I had studied Esperanto in, and that the dream message is that Esperanto is a Latin-derived language.

Latin may have been the first language to have a word for “the”,  a European construct, according to Victor Villasenor in Our First Woman Pope. Indigenous languages don’t have it, he asserts, and neither did Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. Although he is translated in Greek gospels saying, “I am the way, the truth and the life,” in the Aramaic spoken by Jesus, this statement may have been rendered closer to, “I am way, truth and life.” It is a little harder to justify killing for Jesus when you don’t chop experience into discrete lingual boxes using nouns and defining articles. Indigenous languages rely more on verbs. Latin, English and related European languages are languages of empire. Europe (and now America also) has lost most of its indigenous language and thought.

Law of One Exposed

I was sitting at breakfast eating a banana thinking about what I had been reading. I thought about the doctrine of ultimate reconciliation. Apparently an entity can exploit, oppress and even kill. Then, at some point in its evolution, it realizes that it must become altruistic in order to receive a bright shining aura. At that point it does a quick turn around and joins the good side. Poof! All the oppression and murder it committed wiped clean by that little decision, “Guess I won’t be quite so self-serving anymore.”

Now what kind of an entity would want me to believe that? A sales-entity for the negative path, that’s who! What kind of an entity would bribe another entity to use her vessel in order to “channel” some information, some of which happens to be affirmations about the inviolability of another’s free will? I’m not referring to inspired utterance. During inspired utterance the orator is consciously present in his or her own vessel while channeling the holy spirit. Contrast that to medium channeling. The medium is not present during the oration. She has abdicated her volition for that period of time. In order for free will to be untrammeled it must be free to express itself at any moment. Clearly this is not the case with medium channeling. Once she has agreed to vacate her body she does not get it back until the invading entity is finished with it. Any pretense of regard for the channel on the part of the entity is just pretense. 

So the first red flag for me with the Law of One material was, before I finished the introduction, I had become aware that it had been channeled through a medium. But there is a lot of medium-channeled literature around that seems good. The Course In Miracles seems good. Seth Speaks seems good. The Law of One seems good. David Wilcock promoted the latter, and he seems good. Maybe it’s time I challenge my long-held bias against channeled work and read the Law of One with an open mind, I thought.

I continued reading as a student wanting to learn. The second red flag was seeing the words, love and light, repeated at the end of every section, and not feeling any love or light. True there were some inspiring passages that I made notes about, but the being, Ra, seemed devoid of any personal charisma. However, the inspiring passages sprinkled rather thinly through the material kept me going for a while. 

Now, the final straw for me is realizing I am being misled about the judgment of God. There may be an ultimate reconciliation – I’m not discarding that idea – but for the wicked it won’t come without a noticeable period of penance and repentance. It won’t just be a, “Woops, I’m on the wrong path, guess I’ll just jump over to the other one and keep going.”

I may finish the series (I’m about half way into it), but then again I may just put in a few search terms to see if any of my criticisms are addressed, or maybe I’ll just read something else. 

Epilogue, December 3, 2023: Ra is a very old entity, He may have arisen at a time when virtually no one was literate. Therefore finding someone who could write his words as they were spoken, and then finding a literary audience who could read them would have been unlikely. Mediums were condemned in both the Old and New Testaments. Possibly before the time of the Old Testament mediums were used by authentic teachers of righteousness, because of the relative immaturity of mankind at the time. That would have been one of the few ways to reach them. That doesn’t explain why Ra is still operating that way in modern times, but perhaps there is an explanation, although I’m only part way to understanding it.

After reading about A Course in Miracles, and also reading part way through it, I understand that it was not channelled through a medium, but dictated to a conscious person. This is certainly preferred, in my opinion, to medium channeling. I had an epiphany two days ago (right before I posted my review of ACIM entitled, Atonement) that revealed to me that it is true that a person on the negative path simply decides to leave the negative path behind and become positively orientated, and that’s it. There is no condemnation, no hell, none of that stuff, just the eternal opportunity for positive evolution, just as Ra had stated.

The Law of One, Book I

The author of the five “Law of One” series of books is stated on the covers as being Ra, but the copyright information for book one of that series is as follows: “Copyright © 1984 by James Allen McCarty, Don Elkins, and Carla Rueckert.” Carla channeled the words of the entity that calls itself Ra.  Carla was referred to as the instrument in the transcripts of the sessions which comprise the Law of One set of books. The one asking the questions was referred to as the questioner. The questioner was either James or Don, and they both may have participated. The questioner frequently asked the entity what could be done to make the instrument more comfortable. This seems to imply that she suffered while doing this work. James did a lot of the transcription of the recordings they made of the sessions.

Since Ra was speaking through a medium (Carla), who theoretically could surface at any time, Ra prefaced all of its remarks with, “I am Ra.” 

I feel like I’m in way over my head with book two, but I felt the same way with book one when I started, but by the end of the book, I was starting to grasp it. The beginning of book two references the work of Dewey B. Larson. I looked him up and apparently he promoted a theory of the physical universe (physics) that postulates motion as the basic building block, rather than matter or energy. 

Book one of “the Law of One” was equally puzzling in the beginning, but now that I have finished it, I can summarize the basic truths it imparts. There is only one people populating the various habitable planets of the physical universe, and the various realms or dimensions (such as after death.) (And more mystically still, there is only one being comprising all of us.) Some people (including some aliens) appear evil, but in truth they are just like the rest of us, and we are just like them. The difference between good and evil is so slight that we will just call it positive and negative. It is an almost imperceptible difference in focus. You can be self seeking, or you can seek to serve others. Even if you are self seeking, you still have to serve others, to a certain extent, in order to get what you want. And conversely, if you primarily seek ways to serve others, you still have to take care of yourself, because without a self, how are you going to do anything for anybody else? So what is the difference really? It can be hard to tell for sure which camp a given person belongs to, and maybe it is not even necessary to know that about another, but I should determine it about myself. 

The book discusses aliens and UFOs a great deal. The word “density” comes up a lot. We humans on Earth are in thé “third density”. Soon we will transition to the “fourth density”. The evolution of human beings from primates represented a shift from the “second density” to the “third density,” and occurred  75,000 of our years ago. Also at that time (75,000 earth years ago), humans from Mars were transplanted to Earth. At that time the human population on Earth was 50% Martian, 25%  Earth evolved, and 25% from various other planets. The entity being channeled throughout the book (Ra) is Venusian.

Aliens from another star system invaded Earth about 36,000 years ago. These are the negative, self serving ETs (extraterrestrials) that hoard the Earth’s resources, extracting, exploiting and seeking to dominate. They are called the Orion group, after the approximate location of their home planet. The alien abductions that are sometimes reported generally involve this group.  The ET being channeled for “the Law of One” series of books is a positive group of ETs, part of a Confederation of positive ETs and (ascended) earth humans who seek to serve others. They monitor the activities of the negative ETs. The opposite polarized groups do thought battle with each other. But the positive entities will not distort the free will of another. The negative entities don’t mind depriving another of its free will. This is the epic battle of light and darkness that we have been in the middle of for over 3 millennia! Can we settle this please! With victory for the positive side of course.

There is some kind of a 75,000-year age where a dynamic event causes major changes on the sun, Earth, and the entire solar system. A similar but lessor event occurs at the two 25,000 year marks in between. We are in line for the big one. The book, which was channeled during the 1980s, predicted 2011 would be the approximate year of the big event, but I didn’t notice anything that year except for my marriage to my husband. That rocked our world, but was not on the scale predicted. What is predicted is something like the Rapture taking place, with the positive people being pulled up to levitate in a cloud, while total destruction takes place below. When the dust settles we return with a huge upgrade to our DNA. 

I’ll believe it when I see it. Meanwhile, we must navigate this world with devils filled. When we die we are being translated to the fourth density. So maybe another way of describing the Rapture event is to say it is a holocaust that kills everybody. We levitate into the clouds because we are dead. The negative people sink into the inferno below. We land on a more perfect planet in our more perfect ascended bodies.

Two more repeatedly used words in “the Law of One” are “distortion” and “illusion”, often together as “distortion illusion.” Hey, that can come in handy when someone accuses me of something. “Yeah, in your ‘distortion illusion’ I behave that way.” Aside from sarcasm, the point is repeatedly made in the book that the third density is a state of distortion and illusion. We forget our past when we are born into this realm. Material seems real when it is actually an illusion. Spirit seems ephemeral when it is actually solid reality. Christians, Baha’is, and, I’m guessing, Jews and Moslems, don’t believe in reincarnation. However, if we are each an eternal piece of God with an eternal future, we must have had an eternal past right? If I am missing something, it probably has to do with time being an illusion, and our being separate individuals also an illusion. The densities beyond the third don’t have the illusion of separate individuals. The Ra entity is a group entity of the sixth density, a group which, according to the channeled Ra, contains the ascended Jesus of Nazareth. Another example of the blurring of individuality is the most recent Lord recognized by the Baha’i Faith, Bahá’u’lláh, Who uses the first person plural (We) when referring to Himself in His writings. 

“The Law of One” series of books are freely available as ebook downloads in several forms at:

https://www.llresearch.org/library/the-law-of-one and also available from several internet book vendors.

Another book with a similar subject matter, although much lighter reading, is, “Stranger at the Pentagon,” by Dr. Frank E. Stranges, Ph.D. This book tells the history of the author’s contact with a positive, friendly ET. Although these contacts did involve some telepathy (but no medium channeling), there was also the actual physical presence of the individual ET and a few of his friends. He is pictured several times in the book, and I couldn’t tell, just from the pictures, that he was an extraterrestial. This ET was from Venus. I read, “Stranger at the Pentagon,” before I started reading the “Law of One” series, and the former was a nice introduction to the latter.  First printed in 1967, “Stranger at the Pentagon,” is available for download in pdf form here: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://ia801909.us.archive.org/11/items/stranger-at-the-pentagon/Stranger%2520at%2520the%2520Pentagon.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwj0x-eux_b-AhWoElkFHf8XBuwQFnoECGYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3jX-4rT47zF897MC2bj_kF

And can also be found, in various formats, on Amazon and Audible. 

The most modern divine dispensation, the Baha’i Faith, affirms the presence of life on other planets and in other star systems. The following words are penned by the Divine Manifestation Himself, in “Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh,” chapter LXXXII:

“Know thou that every fixed star hath its own planets, and every planet its own creatures, whose number no man can compute.” https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/bahaullah/gleanings-writings-bahaullah/

The planet Venus was the origin of the entity Ra, and yet some notable historical terrestrial humans were named as being among group called the Confederation, so there are still some facts or facets I have not completely reconciled. Never-the-less I’m going to let this bird fly. A few minutes ago I was driving to a rendezvous when a trash truck tried to enter the narrow driveway I was exiting. Fortunately the driver saw me in time to stop. But I reflected on what might have been. I could have been levitating up to join the cloud of witnesses with my body smashed against the steering wheel thinking, “Oops I never posted that blog. It’s still on my drive where it will never be seen by anybody but Google’s data mining robots!”

The Ascension Mysteries, by David Wilcock

I read the Ascension Mysteries by David Wilcock (2016), a fascinating read that was hard to put down. This full length book is available from many sources as an electronic book or a print book. 

Is ascension—a graduation into a higher level of existence—your ultimate goal for being human? And are there negative forces in the universe that feed on your fear, anger, guilt, and shame and will stop at nothing to prevent you from achieving this quantum leap in your evolution? Are we witnessing a tremendous competition over who gets to control our planet? Would these negative forces literally die without our selfishness, jealousy, materialism, greed, and loneliness providing them with an energy supply?

David Wilcock, the Ascension Mysteries

The big bang theory is not proven, and not all physicists agree with it. Some favor an ongoing creation. David describes an interesting idea where the seed of the universe is a geometric shape. This article on David’s website, Divine Cosmos, was footnoted in the first chapter of the Ascension Mysteries, because the structure of the universe was discussed in both:

https://divinecosmos.com/davids-blog/1157-decloaking-lucifer/

There are no particles in the atom, David believes, only energy patterns in geometric shapes, as discovered by Dr. Robert Moon in 1987. The 8 protons in the oxygen molecule form a cube.

Pulsing tones through sand floating on a drop of water can produce geometric shapes. “Most of us still believe matter is made of particles that are hard, solid, and tangible. If we retool our scientific models to see that atoms are geometric energy patterns, then that means all matter could be formed by something akin to a sound wave—that has reverberated throughout the entire universe. This is exactly what the ancient spiritual traditions tell us.

David Wilcock, the Ascension Mysteries.

This nest of shapes cranks out some of the most stable and abundant elements on Earth—oxygen (cube), silicon (octahedron), iron (icosahedron), and palladium (dodecahedron)—and solves an impressive number of quantum physics problems.

David Wilcock, the Ascension Mysteries.

It is certainly very possible that we are not alone in the universe, as David points out in the Ascension Mysteries, providing proof that there are many habitable planets in the universe that could have life like ours, and I have no doubt that potentially disturbing events, such as encounters with ETs have been covered up.

Approximately 55,000 years ago a group of aliens crash landed on earth and were unable to leave. Owing to their advanced technology they became kings and shamens, and their descendents still rule nations from the shadows. 

It took a great deal of time, energy, research, insider testimony, and personal risk for me to discover that there is a vast, secretive cult on Earth that considers Lucifer to be the good guy. Some people call this group the “New World Order,” the Bilderbergers, the Trilateral Commission, or the Illuminati, but here we will call them the Cabal.

David Wilcock, the Ascension Mysteries

Symbols such as the all seeing eye on dollar bills are increasingly being recognized as being Luciferian.

…[M]illennials are now being inundated with a seemingly nonstop bombardment of Luciferian symbolism in movies, music videos, Super Bowl halftime shows, music awards ceremonies, video games, and television shows.

David Wilcock, the Ascension Mysteries

In spite of a massive coverup, there are such things as extraterrestrials (ETs) and their spaceships (UFOs). There are two basic types of ETs, benevolent (positive) ETs and evil (negative) ETs. Some may prefer to call these same forces as angels and demons. We really know very little about either. But like the atom, which we have never seen, with study, it becomes apparent how the geometry of its structure effects the things we can see.

The negative ETs (demonsl) feed on unhappiness and misery. They promote wars, fights, sicknesses, accidents, crimes, pedophilia, prostitution, addiction and anything else that causes misery. There is a blood relationship between the negative ETs and the cabal, who sponsor music, movies and fiction – sometimes by abuse and force – that encourage violence.

The people who pull the strings and make the real decisions in our government are not elected. Our elected leaders are told what they must do or else. 

[Scientist and inventor, Dr.] Pete  [Peterson] … revealed that a very provocative meeting took place between [then President elect] Obama and the surviving former US presidents on January 7, 2009. Up until this point, Obama did not know what he had gotten himself into. According to Pete, he was taken into a half-hour private meeting with George H. W. Bush in which he was severely verbally abused and threatened. 

…Up until that meeting, Obama did not know much, if anything, about the Cabal. He was told that he and all of his family would be tortured and killed if they resisted. Obama apparently staggered out of this meeting into a room in the White House that he thought was private. He held his head in his hands and cried, saying he had been made into a scapegoat. … Pete also said the vast majority of insiders working for the Alliance know that this happened. US presidents are generally given very little access to the real secrets, and the Cabal is masterful at trying to pin the blame on elected officials, thereby diverting attention from themselves.

David Wilcock, the Ascension Mysteries

The Alliance consists of some positive members of the US Pentagon, certain leaders and associates world wide, who are working together, and with the positive ETs, to unseat the cabal.

Ancient gods and mythical traditions, such as Lucifer and Osiris, are worshiped by the hidden rulers of the world, who somehow convince themselves and each other that they are the good, the faithful ones, that plundering and hoarding the Earth’s precious gems and metals, exploiting humanity, and even a depopulation agenda, are virtues! 

Though I have heard David Wilcock speak on Internet videos, and felt that he had earned my respect with the compassion he expresses and his love for the truth, my most recent interest in his material was sparked by an online book that he wrote in 2014, Financial Tyranny: Defeating the Greatest Cover-Up of All Time.

https://divinecosmos.com/davids-blog/1023-financial-tyranny/

In 6 lengthy chapters, the book explains why we on earth are overworked, underpaid, poor, and isolated, compared to how we might live if a huge injustice were not being perpetrated against us.

Í hàd been thinking about the government. There seemed something wrong with partisan politics. Each party sides with industries that are problematic for personal and environmental health. It is as if the industries are divided up between the political parties, and one party may weakly challenge certain industries but others not at all, and with the other party it is the opposite. They may weakly challenge the industries that the first party may not speak ill of, and they are constrained from challenging the others. For instance the Democrats must not challenge the pharmaceuticals industry at all, unless it is the high prices, but not the quality of the drugs themselves. However the Republicans can point out a few inconvenient facts about drug side effects. With the weapons industry it is the opposite. The Democrats can bring up the opacity of the defense budget, but the Republicans are not to challenge it. One party disparages brown and black skinned people, the other party blames Russia for everything from social media robots to nuclear arms proliferation, and now the war in Ukraine. Neither party has much tolerance for any kind of socialism, since corporations built on the capitalist model are running the government. The situation is that no matter which party is in power, the weapons, pharmaceuticals and banking industries get their way, and the people lose. I was pondering this and remembered hearing David Wilcock say, in an online video I had watched a year or more ago, that two families prominent among the elite, the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds, are feuding against one another, but it is secret. When one of their members is killed in the feud, both families cover it up. He also seemed to imply that one of the families is a little more Democrat and the other is a little more Republican.

The book, Financial Tyranny, explained so much more about how all of this works that I was amazed. There are some horrible things going on but they are kept secret. The Ascension Mysteries continues in the same vein. 

The cabal have ancient, proven and horrible ways to ensure that their children also grow up as psychopaths. Certain types of trauma are particularly effective to this end, as covered in the online book, Financial Tyranny, by David Wilcock. The upper echelons of secret societies are part of this hidden government. They too have some traumatic initiations for new members and subsequent generations. 

Lucifer can represent different things. The planet Venus, the morning star, can be called Lucifer. The same name can represent a fallen angel, and to some, a good, helpful angel.  Lucifer can be the antagonist, the worthy opponent. In the hero’s journey, the protagonist is challenged by the antagonist, and the intrigue between the two make the plot of the novel, the play, or the movie. 

The negative ETs (the demons) control the cabal that secretly runs the world, even though this cabal is divided and fights among itself. The benevolent ETs (the angels) are waiting to help us free ourselves, but they won’t do it for us. We must take the initiative.

The Luciferian cabal who secretly hijacked the wealth of the earth, and the free will of many of its leaders, has been in existence from ancient times. Can it be loved away? The poor things were made into psychopaths by carefully applied traumas when they were young. Can love heal them? Certainly this evil cabal has raped, abused and missused many, and will continue until they are stopped. Love must be fortified with much wisdom.

Darkness is just the absence of light, there is no embodiment of evil. There is one God, not two – not a God of good and another god of evil. There is no Lucifer, no Satan, no embodiment of evil in actual eternal reality. Our liberty will come through forgiveness, compassion, and understanding

But this ideal reality seems out of reach at times. Sometimes the person next to me takes on the role of the antagonist. When this happens, the platitudes, there is no antagonist, darkness is merely the absence of light, don’t really help. I’m not convinced. My emgrams are being triggered, and I struggle to prevent my pain body from governing my consciousness.

SPOUSE IN THE ROLE OF ANTAGONIST

When my spouse, perhaps unwittingly, takes on the role of the antagonist, I, equally unwittingly, have already taken on that role in his eyes. I still want to be loved at those times, and so I must love. Christ’s command to love your enemies is difficult to obey when a dear one becomes an enemy.

I was walking away and was already too far to understand speech. I heard the phrase, patch of grass, and assumed he was pointing out the interesting patch of grass near the top of the snowy field I was walking through. As he pointed out after I came back, anyone else would have understood him, but I just walked away.

He was triggered because, in his mind, I ignored him and “ran” away. Due to my light weight, I walked easily on the top of the snow, while he sank 12 inches or more with every step, adding to his frustration. He probably is correct that anyone else would have understood him. We both know my hearing is below average. We were there to do a task and I wanted to get the job done. We had recently bought a half acre lot in Julian, California, a mountainous area an hour’s drive from our residence. More recently we had acquired some fence posts, fencing and gates. My understanding of the errand was that we would store the fence posts and 25 feet of fence in a small fenced enclosure pre-existing on the property. We had left the gates behind. Apparently the scope of our errand had evolved, in his mind, to also erect the 25 feet of fencing. I learned this later, to his exasperation, since I hadn’t promptly understood.

I was heading down the area that I think would be appropriate to make a sledding course for kids, next year maybe, when he spoke. I was carefully finding my way through the snow drifts with a fence pole in one hand, when he commented, I thought, about a patch of grass. I was too far away to carry on a conversation, with my hearing the way it is, so I continued on down to the former animal corral, where we had planned on storing our fencing.

When I returned to the area near the street where the car was parked, I encountered an unhappy face and incriminating words. I had skipped my 15 minute meditation that morning because we had both awakened late and wanted to get started with our errand as soon as possible. I haven’t become a screaming reactive mess for some time. The meditation really helps, and I should never skip it. I became a screaming mess, but didn’t realize it. I thought he deserved being screeched at, and that I was “in control” of myself. 

My feelings were hurt repeatedly for the rest of the day to the point where I seriously considered giving up on us. When I finally did meditate, after supper, I started sobbing audibly, because I was so deeply unhappy. Very concerned, he asked me what was wrong. I told him, it just isn’t working, we aren’t making each other happy anymore. He told me I scared him, he thought one of the kids had died. 

We talked and talked. I felt understood and now I understand. There’s no way we are letting each other go over this. My antagonist melted into my beloved again and so did his. But I’m not going to take the blame. He knows I don’t hear well. He reminds me of that so often and so bitterly that I felt he was really unhappy with me and my hearing handicap. Since he knows, why does he try to communicate with me over a distance? He claims he doesn’t expect me to drop what I am doing and trot up close to him to hear what he has to say; so what does he expect? I could just stand still and let him catch up to me, but that is only if I have a clue that he wants to communicate something beyond casual conversation – which this time I didn’t. I thought he was remarking about the landscape; I didn’t know he was asking me to drop the pole in the spot so I could help him with the roll of fencing – that is so big, bulky and heavy that I felt intimidated by it. Do I have a strong, independent nature that wants to follow my own bliss, not take orders from someone else? Yes, definitely! I spend enough of my life complying, let me have a taste of freedom once in a while! Okay, there you have it. Then, I need to be able to take the backlash that may occur! God help me.

The Reactive Mind

I read some of my blog posts and noticed that a recurrent  theme is my powerlessness in getting my reactive mind triggered. I had no difficulty understanding what was happening, I was just powerless to prevent it. I’m happy to report a change for the better! 

I attribute the change to having taken the Silva Ultramind training on Vishen Lakhiani’s Mindvalley website. I had taken other distance healing classes in the past, such as Reiki, and also Vipassana meditation. These helped, but the Silva technique as taught on Mindvalley, sealed the fate of my reactive mind.

The material on Mindvalley Silva Ultramind is similar to what is in the book, The Silva Mind Control Method, by José Silva, published in 1977. The book is about  using your mind for healing, yourself and others, through meditation. There are some wonderful truths and insights taught in the Mindvalley course that go  beyond even the advanced techniques taught in the book. The Mental Video Technique is a way of making a video mentally. It’s just for you, it’s never shown to anyone else. It helps you visualize and understand what it is you are seeking, and is also part of your communication with higher intelligence. The Three Scenes Technique is a way of presenting a question – and getting an answer – to and from higher intelligence. Dreamwork is involved.

The Mental Video Technique, taught in the Mindvalley Silva course, teaches that communication with higher intelligence can be achieved by making a mental video of a situation or problem, then attaining the alpha state in meditation, and replaying the video while in that state. I made a cartoonish mental video of my reactive confusion, and determined to find a better way. 

The determination to find a solution is expressed in the Three Scenes Technique. The first scene is the replay of the mental video of the problem done while in meditation. Silva taught that the future is seen as coming from the left, the present moves to the right, becoming the past. This is the opposite of my Google Maps program. In Maps, the next street, for sequential driving directions, comes from the right while swiping left. In the Three Scenes Technique, the future comes from the left (while swiping right if the Maps analogy is useful). José Silva taught the concept based on observations of his children when they were regressed during hypnosis. He wrote about this in Silva Mind Control. The Three Scenes Technique grew out of that knowledge. It may have been described in Silva’s later book, Silva Ultramind, published during the 1990s, and it is stressed in the Mindvalley Silva Ultramind course. The second scene of the three, another creative mental scene, this one created during meditation, is visualized just to the left of the first scene. The second scene is a promise of an action that will be taken in order to address the problem in the first scene. I promised to meditate 15 minutes a day, so I saw myself sitting in meditation every morning. As the meditator focuses on the second scene, the first scene (the problem) seems to disappear to the right. The third scene is a creative visualization of the final result, the desired outcome. The meditator visualizes this into being using active meditation. I see myself maintaining my equanimity even in trying situations.

The Mental Video Technique can also be used to ask a question. Which way shall I go with a given situation? The meditator ponders a dilemma, using mental video, before going to sleep. Upon waking, any dreams or mystical experiences are analyzed to find the answer.

An additional use for the Mental Video Technique and the Three Scenes Technique is to send healing to another individual. Healing others is emphasized in all the Silva classes and books. A subject is visualized and scanned up and down with clairvoyant visualization. Any observed or suspected issue is visualized as improving. The book, Silva Mind Control, describes the creation of imaginary office space for psychic healings.  The office is fortified with Imaginary equipment, such as examination scopes and healing lasers. Two spiritual counsellors are invoked, one male and one female. The book describes how participants in the Silva workshops would pair off into two-person teams. Then one team member would clairvoyantly examine and treat a person known to the other team member with distance healing. Then the two would trade roles. I was disappointed that I was not introduced to another online participant in the Mindvalley online version of Silva Ultramind. Instead I spend 24 hours of frequent meditation focusing on a close friend or a member of my family, considering his or her issues, and visualizing his or her healing. Then I move on to another person for the next 24 hours. I am on day 8 of doing this and love it. I see no reason to ever stop. 

The things I like about Vishen’s Silva course are that it reinforces meditation and journaling. I like his redefinition of meditation as an active creation by visualization.

All My Relations

An album of 9 Songs

Music by singer-songwriter, Jera Jones Igo, and her husband James Michael Igo. Jera wrote the music, featuring passages of Scripture in some of the songs and original lyrics in others. James plays woodwinds, and Jera sings, plays guitar, keyboard and percussion. Jera did the recording and mixing.

The expression, “All My Relations,” is a Native American statement or greeting that affirms the connection we all share. James is indigenous to the area now known as Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties. After meeting James, Jera learned about the tragic history of those native to the American continents. They were slaughtered and their lands were stolen. The trauma suffered during the Spanish invasion, in California, and, a short time later, the invasion by the United States, is deep, and still affects subsequent generations. It is with a desire to help, bless, and heal, that we offer our prayer, All My Relations, the first track on this album. James plays the quena, a wooden flute indigenous to South America, which is an open tube from one end to the other. The tone is produced by blowing across the top. Jera sings, plays guitar, clapstick and keyboard.

All My Relations

Is This Not The Fast, is a quote from the Bible, Isaiah 58. Jera first began singing this passage while studying Scripture with John Robert Stevens, and the Living Word organization, many years ago. She had a Bible in which she had written guitar or piano chords in this passage of Isaiah, and a few other places.

Is This Not the Fast?

Celestial Youth, was composed after reading The Hero With A Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell. According to Campbell, mythology and religious beliefs from all areas and epochs praise a hero who has certain archetypal characteristics. At the time of composing, Jera had recently discovered the Baha’i Faith, which also stresses the commonalities of the different religions. The Dorian mode provides a mystical backdrop to this mystical concept, with James on quena and Jera on guitar, keyboard and voice.

Celestial Youth

Maker of All Things, is a quote from a passage of Scripture, a prayer by Baha’i co-founder, the Bab. Bluesy guitar chords accompany the upbeat song, featuring James on the quena.

Maker of All Things

Garden in Paradise, features James on the clarinet, with a long, solo. and Jera on voice and keyboard. The words are inspired by the Hidden Words, of Baha’u’llah, the primary founder of the Baha’i Faith.

Garden in Paradise

A New Song, is a hymn of praise for the birth of a new religion 200 years ago, which Jera wrote upon discovering it. Jera sings three voices, plays keyboard bass, records and mixes.

A New Song

Intone, is a quote from a passage of Scripture from Baha’u’llah. The harmonic minor lends an Oriental feel reminiscent of Persian chants, although this chant is in English. James plays quena, concert flute, and clarinet. Jera sings and plays keyboard.

Intone

Just for Today, is an upbeat song based on the principles of Alanon, a recovery group for people who have substance problems in the family or among friends. Jera wrote the song while being helped through the loss of her mother, and her expected inheritance, by a local Alanon group. James plays clarinet,Jera sings, plays guitar and keyboard.

Just for Today

Rainbow of Light, is a slow, meditative song that provides seven affirmations in seven short verses, each one pertaining to a chakra, from the sole to the crown. Jera began the study of yoga during her teens, which has enriched and inspired her ever since. James plays flute, Jera sings and plays guitar.

Rainbow

Audio files (mp3 versions) of the songs are available here

Routes to Shelter Valley

My father chewed me out about the phone bill. My brother said he wouldn’t like to have to pay for someone else’s $9 long distance call either. After that I tried calling my ex collect, but his mother wouldn’t accept the charges. Clearly I had to let him go, but it was difficult. I wanted him. Could he promise to treat me nicely? Could he treat our daughter nicely even when she got a little older and started getting into mischief? Was I to raise her as a single mom? Were our differences indeed irreconcilable? 

My parents had paid for the setting and casting of my broken finger. My mother had seen the bruises on my buttocks. They had taken me and 7-month-old Sheila in, even paying for the airfare across the country from Cleveland, Ohio to San Diego, California, had given me cab fare from Wooster to Cleveland and had picked us up in San Diego. A valuable guitar had been left behind, a gift from my mother, a Congo drum also, another gift from my mother. Would my finger heal enough to play the guitar or the drum again someday?

A big deal was made of the expensive long distance phone call, the other things all but overlooked. Eight dollars and 57 cents was a lot of money in 1973. Now, in 2022, I still reflexively hang up quickly, even though I love talking to my children and grandchildren, and my cellphone has unlimited voice, text and data!

I’m old. I have teeth missing. My voice is funny when I don’t wear my partial and a different kind of funny when I do. I don’t hear well. I’m embarrassed trying to guess what someone said and  respond inappropriately. I can hear okay with the phone speaker on, but I miss a lot if I try to hear the regular way. I really don’t like talking on the phone and would do almost anything to avoid it. I don’t know why I don’t like it. I’d rather be with someone. I don’t write a lot of letters either, or even emails, or even texts. I just want to blog.

I may or may not publish this. It’s just a way of exploring my mind.

I forgot about the exhaust. I sat too long idling in the car while my friends outside were getting my exhaust. I should have moved on. It wasn’t that far for him to walk.

Got a “no” again for my offer of woodwinds, guitar and vocal music for the Farmers’ market. Jim got $150 for his presentation for Indigenous People’s Day with the Unitarians. We went to more Indigenous People’s Day at the Wild Animal Park the following day. I’m learning to appreciate the ethnic songs of those indigenous to this place. I hadn’t been to the Wild Animal Park since I had small children. Uncle Mel met us and bought us lunch. That was nice. I didn’t get too polluted from the fish taco. Think the intermittent fasting helps. 

Today, I don’t know about the burning ritual. I don’t know that I have anything appropriate to wear. I should probably shop for clothes more often. It’s just that the tiny closets in this one room travel trailer are crowded. Glad to have this though!

Yesterday, after writing the above, we went to see the Julian Shelter Valley property again. The realtor let us inside the double wide parked on the property (unpermitted). On the way back I wanted to take San Felipe Rd. (the route that both the realtor and Google Maps recommended). Jim did not. He started scolding me for recommending that route and for allowing my maps program to direct him that way, distracting him from the route he had determined to go. He scolded and scolded. He kept it up for 30 minutes or more. He would stop for a while and then start in again. When I tried to speak he would interrupt at loud volume. I would calmly repeat the same phrase over and over until I was at last able to finish my thought without my words being obscured by his. I’m learning how to deal with this behavior. Too often in the past things have descended into a yelling match. I don’t like being interrupted when he has had the floor for so long that he is repeating what he already said, and I try to say a few words in my defense after being repeatedly scolded and blamed. 

We discussed it just now. He said he was trying to explain to me why he wanted to go through Julian but I kept bickering with him. I said that as soon as he turned left instead of right I knew I had lost the argument about which route we would take. I said I was a little disappointed, but I yielded cheerfully. I didn’t like being scolded and blamed repeatedly during about a 30 minute volley of words during which my participation in any discussion did not seem welcome. I did not want to go a different way just to hurt him. I wanted to go a different way because I am a curious person and I wanted to experience the other route. All I wanted, after I realized we weren’t going to go the way I had wanted to go, was respect as a human being, and an acknowledgement that I am a good person, even though I wanted to take a different route than he did.

There were a couple times, during this more recent discussion in our bedroom, when I got up and paced the floor feeling rage for having been muzzled effectively by a barrage of loud speech shutting off the words I was trying to express. I confessed my rage and begged to be allowed to talk. He actually was silent while I spoke for a while. Wonders never cease!

Part of my growth on this was realizing that the poor decision I made the other day, when I left the car idling while dosing our friends with exhaust, was because I was petrified that I would upset him if I drove on to the coach without him. The rules one must follow in order to avoid upsetting him are so many that it is difficult to remember and abide by them all. I do try, or did, until recently, when I realized that I must detach from my need that he not be upset, because the decision I made, about whether to let the car idle in the middle of the road or drive on to the coach, would have been more rational without my fear of upsetting him. That’s why I left the GPS on even though there was a danger that he would be upset by it. I wanted to leave it on because I was curious about the route it was recommending. So I made a decision that was not egg-walking around his susceptibility to becoming upset. He did get upset and scolded me for a long time. But I never actually got upset like usually happens. I think that what happens with me sometimes is that being scolded puts me in a memory of trauma and then I become reactionary. My father used to scold me while hitting me or right before he started hitting me. The father of my first (now adult) child used to beat me severely while scolding me. The father of my remaining three (adult) children used to hurt me while scolding me. He would make it  appear accidental, like the time he hit a shelf above where I was sitting while working on making a bamboo flute, and knocked a lamp down on me, which cut into my face as it broke, and then my forehead required stitches.

I’m aware of this “button” that I have involving scolding, where I can be put into a memory of trauma and become reactionary. He accused me of nagging, although I don’t see how defending myself while being scolded constitutes nagging. If I just accept whatever negative label that he wants to put on me then that’s not nagging I suppose, so disagreeing with the label, and saying so, is nagging according to him. However, I don’t think it’s healthy for me to agree that I am a hateful back-stabber. I am a loving person who, God help me, is curious! I have become a screaming mess, in the recent past, from him scolding me and interrupting anything and everything I say in my defense. I’m working on this and I’m getting better.

He’s a good man. We just have a few things to work out together. We’re making progress. We’re both making progress. I had a father who hit me way too much, then I had terrible relationships and marriages, but each was a little better than the one before. Getting hit by a falling lamp  40 years ago with my second ex-husband was a little better than having a Congo drum hurled at me by my first ex-husband 50 years ago. My current marriage is the longest in duration, and I don’t want out, even during times like the one I discussed here, living without him is unthinkable. We have a very deep bond of love, and it gets better every day. He has trauma too. He was shut up in hospitals while very small. This may contribute to his fear of getting lost. He very much prefers a familiar route to “going exploring”. He has never hit me, although I hit him once recently after he interrupted me for the umteenth time. Then I was really sorry.