Your Inner Light Shines Always… All Ways!

The Full Moon seems to race across the Hill Country sky like a pearlescent mothership—only of course it’s the clouds that are racing. I’m outside the house at 2:30 AM. Luna actually hovers and moves with the Cosmic Wheels among which she swims.

The Moon has powerful influences on all Life on Earth, including we bipedal primates. Police logs and ER records demonstrate the spike in unusual, often dangerous or extraordinary human behaviors linked with that beautiful satellite of our plant.

When you ride the Medicine Wheel, or the Sacred Circle of the Year, call the Powers of the Four Directions, or however you may honor your place in the world, the potent traditional imagery also tells of a deep mystery. Whether American Indian, shamanic, or Wiccan—or on any path that simply honors Nature and human nature, the circle imagery reminds you of a seeming boundary, between without and within.

This boundary does not actually exist. “The center of the circle is everywhere, and the circumference is nowhere found,” is a maxim often associated with circle workings. Likewise, “As Within, So Without,” expresses the essence of both magick and alchemy.

The current spiritual and philosophical interest in non-duality, or Oneness arrives at just the right moment. It’s something you cannot describe, define, or actually talk about effectively. True Oneness you cannot create, leave, or enter. It simply IS. One insight that emerges is that separation is the cause of all suffering.

Within you and without you are merely reflections of the same thing. Your inner light is the same as that which illuminates all you see that appears to be outside of you. It’s the light of awareness, the consciousness you are.

To simply grok Oneness (rather than try to understand it!) simply sit with the word, and expand beyond it… allow it to sort out all the stuff that politics, religion, and the intellect cannot really deal with. Try it. It likes you.

Bruce P. Grether offers a workshop called “Reclaiming Your Ancient Egyptian Soul.” Find him on Twitter @BrucePGrether. To explore some of the worlds Bruce creates in his writing and for workshop info visit www.9realities.com .

            

A Favorite Book Reborn Even Better: CREATION by Gore Vidal!

Wow! I am indeed a bibliophile--perhaps the term book-aholic is not too harsh for my addiction to reading, though in an effort to be kind to myself I should say "bookworm." I love worms! After all, since I met my partner and moved to Tejas, I do have a life and more going on than reading and writing.
      When I lived in Estes Park, Colorado, in the early 1980s I recall the publication of Gore Vidal's novel CREATION--which I still consider his finest work. I saw the juicy paperback with a cover, overall yellow with an intriguing historical figure or two rendered nicely. Already a big fan of the brilliant author, I immediately purchased it at the little McDonald Bookshop on Elkhorn Avenue.
      The novel vividly brings to life the ancient world during a key interval of the 5th century BCE and plausibly weaves a fictional character's life into events that take him on a journey to both India and China. Along the way he encounters Lord Buddha and Confucius. We even get a glimpse of Socrates as a young bricklayer, prior to his career as a philosophical teacher.
      The narrator is one Cyrus Spitama, grandson of Zoroaster. Living in his old age in Athens during the time of Pericles, while they await a decisive invasion from Sparta, Cyrus tells the story of his life to his nephew Democritus, destined to become another famed Greek philosopher.
      Nourishing, informative entertainment and a dazzling feat of storytelling, to say the least.
      Recently, after rediscovering Vidal via the film of MYRA BRECKINRIDGE that is supposedly so awful (though I find it a delightful and bizarre hoot!) I happened upon a paperback re-issue of CREATION. Turns out that in 2002 some 21 years after the original publication, Vidal was able to restore significant parts of the novel removed by a well-meaning editor who butchered his plot.
      Indeed, the boyhood and youth of Cyrus growing up in the court of Darius of Persia and becoming a close friend of Xerxes is, as Vidal said in a new author's note, "the spine to the narrative."
      What a delicious and delightful restoration! Is there any better way to enjoy history than a plausibly accurate and exquisitely written historical novel? Well, perhaps only by visiting the sites and doing your own seances or channelling, I suppose…
      Of this novel the eminent Mary Renault wrote: "it is a very long time since I read a book of more than five hundred pages with no awareness of its length, beyond a wish at the end that it was longer."

The Clowns of Samhain

"The veil is thin," Hyperion says to me while we sit not far from the large Pentacle of Pearl inscribed on the ground of the yard. (It's after dark on 11.1.11.)
      "Most definitely," I say, and switch on the small lantern that is part of my Samhain costume. "You know, if you think about it, it's not only the Dead--everything in existence is our Ancestor… we're related to All Things."
      Of course, Hyperion already knows this. He's a wise Elf.
      We've enjoy a meditative ritual walk along the points of the Pentacle, which are: Love, Law, Knowledge, Liberty, Wisdom, and back to Love. At each apex of the circle a priestess (or in one case a priest) welcomes is, offers some insight, then ushers us to the next point.
      "This is one of those universal holy days, a truly archetypal thing that directly reflects the actual cycles of Nature, huh?" I say.
      Hyperion says, "Most definitely!"
      Indeed, it's the reality behind Halloween, the Day of the Dead in Mexican and South American traditions, and even those 3 Catholic feast days of honoring ancestors, which also have pagan roots. All boil down to this time of energy shifting inward, from the outer cycle of growth to the dying-back of vegetation, the glide within to meet the inner light, regenerate and eventually re-emerge more brilliant than ever.
      Timely how this time it comes not long before 11.11.11--an interesting date that look like intense synchronicity when you write it in Arab numerals! Actually, Hyperion and I tend to go by the astronomy rather than the calendar, so the actual Cross-Quarter Day is on 11.7.11, @ 12:27 PM. Only we do love this celebration with our pagan cohorts.
      Indeed, what we experience as "Time" does seem to accelerate now while we approach the Singularity when it goes exponential. Alignment with Galactic Center and all! Exciting times on Planet Earth; not scary unless you're still sleepwalking.
      To the mind in an awakening process, it's an adventure fraught with both danger and opportunity.
      And total uncertainty in which no one really knows what's coming.
      Occupy the Universe, right?!
      Let the doors open…

“From apex point of sex doth flow

The gifts of love that we would know,

That lures us ever toward our pride

Which shines as law and does provide

Awareness of our self’s domain;

And knowledge of all things arcane.

A move toward power stirs within

Power shared with other kin.

As waves of passion fill our souls

We grow in wisdom; life’s true goal.

By the Iron and by the Pearl

I claim my being

I claim my world.”

Bright Blessings!

      

New Summary of THE PURCHASING MOTHER'S SON

New Summary

An apparently young Englishman who claims to be 274 years of age approaches an American anthropologist in modern Bangkok, Thailand. Though the scholar cannot believe this assertion, the Englishman displays his torso covered with magickal tattoos, and then demonstrates inexplicable supernatural powers by literally vanishing before the scholar’s eyes. He leaves behind a flash-drive that contains his story. According to his account, John Nathaniel Perch, the purported author, was born in 1736 at Ayutthaya, the capital city of the mysterious Far Eastern kingdom then called Siam.

The novel is John’s story told in third person. In its heyday the fabulous city of Ayutthaya, built on a river island, boasts 360 gold-covered stupa spires, an immense royal palace for the divine King of Siam, and an adjacent palace just for the sacred white elephants. Though considered a "hidden and forbidden" kingdom, the capital Ayutthaya also hosts communities of Europeans who represent the various Occidental East India Companies. Unknown to John's birth mother, the native women of the household conduct a traditional rite to appease a spirit of infant mortality called the Purchasing Mother. The rite seems to be successful, however it is only partly so…

John grows up to become a self-indulgent and unmotivated young man. After his mother Cynthia is widowed, rather than return to England, she chooses to marry the Frenchman, Bruno Therieux, a childhood friend who has always adored her. Bruno, who has tutored John and long been a friend an mentor, now becomes his stepfather. When an old friend from Paris, now Father Titus of the Jesuits visits on his way to China, ripples are set in motion that willlead to the destruction of the city. Beset by the Purchasing Mother that has returned for him despite his maturity, John loses his temper with Bruno and becomes alienated, much to the distress of both men.

Moving from his parents’ house, the young man lives in a brothel and becomes addicted to opium. The persistent demon returns stronger than ever seeking to claim him after all. His only hope lies in acquiring magickal tattoos that cover his entire body, believed to provide extraordinary powers. So he undergoes the ordeal of acquiring the “sua yantra” and is transformed. In his case, the ability to become invisible and the invulnerability promised prove surprisingly real, and he is able to see into the animistic Spirit World of the ancient native culture. Persuaded to move back into his parents’ home as the final Burmese invasion closes in, John marries a Chinese woman named Jao Jing-li whom he that he truly loves. Soon she become pregnant with his child.

When the Burmese besiege the city in a final conquest, John helps his stepfather in a valiant attempt to rescue an elderly royal friend who lives on the island, and is captured by the invading army. John’s wife leaves the compound in search of him, and is captured by the Brumese. In a prison camp for slaves Jing-li dies giving birth to twins, the second of which survives. Other women manage to get the child out of the camp into safe hands.

Even as the city is being annihilated in 1767, the Burmese must withdraw because the Chinese Emperor has invaded their own kingdom from the north. As John is marched towards slavery in Burma among thousands of Siamese captives, he looks for an opportunity to use his powers in order to liberate his fellow slaves. At last the Purchasing Mother appears to him and instead of loathing, he views her with compassion as a tragic figure. He realizes that she may not be so evil after all. She urges him to do what he can for his fellow captives. He succeeds by the full employ of his powers and turns the slavers’ weapons against them, though the experience becomes a tortured memory thereafter.

John’s whereabouts remain unknown to his agonized parents, who at last reluctantly plan to depart from Ayutthaya forever. Finally he leaves them a letter and makes his survival known to them, with a promise that after they return to Europe he will visit them when his own young son is old enough for such a journey. He survives into the present day and decides that he must tell his extraordinary tale.

(For more concerning this extraordinary novel I began to draft 25 years ago + ro read a FREE sample, please click HERE.)

Fog Unbound

When hilltops vanish into fog

Real Magick happens…

The Language of Birds

Gets automatically translated

By the heart—

Occluded brilliance is the Sun Dog;

Luna, a feline principality

Beyond words.

Breathing is Fine Art!

Oh yes—birdcalls echo through

Ravine muffled and softened at the edges.

All of the morning becomes no more,

No less than me and you

Tiptoe along limestone ledges;

The layer-cake of Mother Earth’s

Trillions upon trillions of fossilized lovers…

This life is no game, nothing to rehearse

It’s the real deal now and here

Under the covers!

Yes, Father Earth, let me pull back your mask

Let me undress all your reasons

To withhold any particle of love;

You are all 3 X 3 colors of quarks

In the innermost Temple of the Atom—

Mute labyrinths

You offer in darkness:

Soft and hazy brilliance of your blue elliptical soul—

This White Dove

Of mystery

You call down with open arms

Avalon’s
Adam.

Abide, abide, abide…

Honor unspoken names of Mother Eve—

Here’s the thing to spread your wings:

On such a hilltop hidden,

Forever twilight

There is no Other Side

And the crack between the worlds

Remains open

Wide…

What You See Is What You Are!

See what's in the photo above? The truth is, it's you… and before you object, let me dance around a little here… plus, you may already know this dance!
      Paradise Garden, where I live, shows new signs of growth and regeneration: tendrils, leaves and buds--now that autumn is in the air! Sounds like springtime, huh? Well, it is kind of a rebirth feeling. The Plant Kingdom and its animal kin have perked up and show signs of renewed vibrancy after months of extreme heat.
      We're still in drought conditions, despite the blessed 3 inches of rainfall last weekend. Perhaps it's also the nice cooler nights, sometimes in the upper 40s, along with days no longer so hot and dry that summons tiny green leaves. Things now bloom where during the summer buds did not even form!
      There is always more to things than meets the eye. the truth is it's not only beauty that's in the eye of the beholder… everything is in the eye of the beholder!
      All these natural wonders--the huge tarantula hawk wasp that buzzes up and flies away, the elegant earth star fungi that constellate around the base of the live oak, the baby spiny lizard that darts up onto a rock to bask in the sunlight--everything I observe requires me as observer to exist in my reality.
      It still fascinates me to realize that everything I view as "out there," beyond the boundaries of my body, is actually images created in my mind with the help of my brain. All I see is actually within me.
      Likewise, life does not "happen" to me.  I am life.
      The truth is a handful of immediate realities that you have no good reason to doubt actually exist. Your body (unless you're a disembodied spirit reading this!) is a truth. Matter may be the dancing emptiness of atoms that science describes, not a solid object as it can seem, yet it does exist. So does Nature and the Earth, the Moon and Sun, the planets and stars. Beyond that it's just beliefs, ideas.
      What you see is what you get? Not necessarily. You may not get everything you see, however you are everything you see! What an astonishing awareness!
      What truly matters is there's no such thing as separation.
      You are the little tree frog in the photo above.
      The frog and you are One.
      Form is emptiness.
      Buddha said.

Balance on a Swiftly Tilting Planet

Where I often find balance and get centered these days is by really tuning in the Plant Kingdom. In particular the Egyptian Blue Lotus that grows in my pond, the Maid of Orleans Jasmine in the greenhouse, and the Dolly Parton Rose in front of the kitchen window. Even when the breeze is tossing it around, you can sense the deep inner stillness of a plant. That stillness touches into the limitless and the infinite…

            Most people have noticed that not only is time accelerating (along with so many other global factors) but lately wherever our planet is heading, it seems out of control. Of course it is not controlled—except perhaps by Gaia itself, as well as our collective will as Gaia’s youngest and perhaps most errant children.

            There are a number of things anyone can do to regain balance on our swiftly tilting, rapidly evolving planet. First, as so many factors such as human population, technological advancement, and environmental degradation accelerate measurably, everything heads toward what mathematics calls a “Singularity.” This means a sudden shift so extreme we cannot predict it. (No one can!) You can consciously work to slow down, as a means to recover balance. Turn off some devices and connections, especially to mainstream media. Let go of so much “doing.” Be.

            The consumer culture that feeds the corporate hegemony is based on dissatisfaction. No matter what you have, you need something else, the next thing, instead of what you have. Consciously shift your focus to the good things you do have. Express gratitude. Tell your loved ones and your beloved how much you love them.

            Don’t buy into faddish beliefs about end times or impending dates. No one knows! If we knew the future for sure, we’d have no choice now. Surrender the need to know. Choose to express gratitude, slow down and yes—tune in plants.

Wake up and smell the flowers!