From a Sermon given Autumn Equinox Worship Service  September 2017

Last time when this community came together for the Summer Solstice, the topic was learning to co-create with God.   I talked about how as our world falls apart and as we start to even begin to think about putting the pieces back together, we are going to need to change the way we think, in order to create a new world under the direction of the light within each us, that spark of divinity within each of us that every human can access if they so desire.   I also talked about the need to let go of ego, get out of our own way, and this time, create a world in conjunction with the divine and not in opposition to it.

Today I want to talk with you about a specific system that we are going to have to redesign:  our monetary system.  Economics is only one of the systems humans have created that are now in our collective way but it is a pivotal system; and one that must be changed rather quickly in order to keep the majority of us from prolonged and excruciating suffering.

You all have been aware of the extreme weather events this summer and fall.  And I’m sure you also aware that these events are very costly in monetary terms as well as psychological terms.  At a time when the national government is telling our State that it does not have any more funds to help us fight the wildfires that are destroying our forests, the potential costs from Hurricane Harvey alone is somewhere over 200 billion dollars.

That doesn’t even take into consideration Hurricane Irma, Maria or the fact that we’re not even done with hurricane season this year; recent and upcoming earthquakes, floods, fires or the wall that the President wants to build between the US and Mexico, the 80 billion increase of the military budget that Republicans have just approved.  Certainly there is nothing set aside to deal with the economic costs of the whatever major future slaps in the face Mother Nature has in store for us until we decide to understand and respect what she has to say.   In the world of shrinking resources that we all live in, the resources that we have been recklessly squandering and consuming like there is no tomorrow have shrunk to the point that tomorrow really is in question.

All currency derives its value ultimately from the agreement of the people in the country where it is in use.  In the United States, the dollar enjoys the” full faith and credit” of the U.S. Government.   This is actually a phrase from our constitution.  But the government itself in our country is in the process of being destroyed, at least the government as we know it.  Many have speculated that we will experience a collapse of our monetary system.  We could see something like occurred in Germany in the last days of World War II after the energetic tide had turned against the Germans.   The Reich mark became obsolete; people burned them in their fireplaces for heat, and resorted to trading cigarettes to purchase items from each other.

I don’t imagine the total collapse of the U.S. dollar is going to occur.  It’s not that I’m overly optimistic about the road ahead.  It’s more that I think other factors will destroy us before our currency goes belly up.  What I do think is that we’re going to see some profound changes in how we view and how we use money.  So let’s talk about this “medium of exchange” that most of us use daily with little awareness.  Let’s look at it from a spiritual perspective and let’s see if we can help swing the inevitable changes to our monetary system in a direction that minimizes suffering.

A popular aphorism is that money is the root of all evil.  Like many aphorisms, that one is a little simplistic. . .but there is a kernel of truth underneath.  Our currency is just paper.  Are these pieces of paper the root of all evil?  Not really. As quoted in the invocation to this service, money is not the root of all evil, love of money is. Our currency is a reflection of and often the continuing source of a HUGE amount of abuse of power.

Hopefully you all have had a chance to take a look at the sermon on our website written 17 years ago about where the economic energy has been going for the last 10,000 years or so.    https://churchoftheharvest.info/2013/02/20/the-economy-i-where-were-coming-from-2/  ) For thousands of years humans have increasingly engaged in business deals that too often involve exchanging goods and services in a manner to increase glory, power, status, and hedonistic pursuits.   These days it’s just a given that the marketplace is almost exclusively about exploitation.  Our societies honor and glorify those individuals and cultures that grab up the most power, the most resources.  That energy, that way of doing business, that way of thinking about the world we create, saturates our money to its core.

Currency is paper.   It’s about 75% cotton, 25% linen.   It’s neither good nor bad.  It’s a piece of paper that can be used to create a world based on heavenly principals, or one that can be used to create Hell- on-Earth.  Our task these days is to de-energize it and strip it of its abusive qualities; and if we can’t do that over time, well then I guess we will have to burn it in our fireplaces or whatever.  How do we do that?  Simply by the way we use it.  If enough of us change our thinking and our actions, and use money as a neutral medium of exchange and not as the instrument of abuse that it has become, we will shift the economic tide in this country.

Money is a major symbol in our country.   We even recognize that factor by stamping it in indelible ink with some of our dearest images.

So let’s talk about symbols for a bit.  As a community of meditators you all are somewhat aware of the incredible power of symbols.  One symbol can contain billions and trillions of bits of energy.   Symbols are to the world of energy what super hard drives are to computers.  When we want to store a lot of thoughts, emotions, programming, and other bits of energy in our bodies or in the world at large, we create a symbol as the shell that contains that energy.  A symbol is like a humongous compressed file.

You can create a symbol that is stored in your own space for your personal use; or you can be subject to a symbol that is outside your body that is collectively shared by thousands or millions of other people. You may or may not have noticed that our country is quite interested in symbols these days.  It’s a part of the waking up process going on, the learning that many are doing on how not be fooled by surface appearances.  Recognizing what is really going on underneath has always been the important part but many people have not known that until recently.   But after all, we are living in the apocalypse.  I remind you that the word apocalypse comes from the Greek, meaning the uncovering of hidden knowledge.  Humans are waking to the fact that symbols are full of power, although like any manifestation of energy we often greatly disagree at what to do with all that power.

Symbols can be incredibly useful and they can also be divisive. They can keep people confused about reality because while some of them are static, many symbols change their energy and therefore their meaning over time.  The rose is an example of a symbol that has changed very little over the centuries. The rose depicts the soul or individual spirit manifested in life.  An example of a symbol that has changed a great deal is the swastika.  The swastika was a symbol for good luck and well-being used for thousands of years in sacred Sanskrit and Buddhist texts, by ancient Greeks, Christians, Nordic cultures and the Navajo,

was adopted by Coca Cola, the Boy Scouts and the Girls Club of America before being hijacked by Nazi Germany.

If you want to see how confused people are about symbols, all you have to do is watch people argue about confederate statues, whether it’s OK or not for athletes to sit during the national anthem, students to refuse to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, or whether or not we should be celebrating Columbus Day as a national holiday.  We are not really arguing about history or what are correct social actions, what we are arguing about is how the power of a symbol is going to be used, what you will sometimes hear me refer to as “setting the energy.”   In the previous example, for example, is the swastika going to be used to promote a sense of well being or to promote hatred?

 

 

 

 

 

You see the biggest problem with symbols, apart from the fact that they can confuse things because they can have different meanings for different people,  is that they can and often are used to control the minds of individuals who have not yet found themselves.  Symbols have SO much energy that they can overwhelm people and almost poison their thinking.  If you want to see an example of that, watch films of Hitler addressing the Germans during Nuremberg rallies from 1935 on.  You don’t have to speak German or even know what he is saying.   The symbols are intimidating, the emotional sense of the rallies is terrifying, and you can almost see the brainwashing that is occurring as the energy of the symbols overwhelms any rational thought process.  The audience becomes a mob willing to do whatever it takes to please Hitler.

Our currency is a major national symbol that has accumulated energy over 200 years and more.  In our country we have so lost our space to the dollar such that it is essentially worshiped. 

We need to change that, to topple the American dollar off its pedestal, to return it to its rightful status as just a shortcut to fair exchanges between people.   Ironically, this would be returning the dollar to one of the symbols we have printed upon it:  In God We Trust.

I have LOTS of ideas on the topic of how to change the energy of the US currency but this morning  I primarily want to talk about three economic areas. . .and then maybe hit you with a bonus round.   These are things you all know, but hopefully after our time together, you will see them more from a spiritual perspective, and be more able to help our country and world heal.

FIRST:  Spend less. Figure out how to cut down on the amount of money you actually use in pursuit of your life. Make sure that everything you acquire is something you actually need and not something you bring into your life because you can. Don’t allow your desires to be in charge of your monetary practices; or submit to the programming we all receive in massive quantities to be consumers.

I’m not talking here about deprivation.  I am talking about being mindful and frugal.  Give your body everything it needs in terms of the basics of good food, well-designed clothing and a decent home that allows you to rest and recharge; and also feed your soul with great company, music, art, traveling, whatever. You don’t have to be a Mahatma Gandhi with only a robe and a tattered copy of the Bhagavad Gita to your name.  That was his path; you have yours.  Create and use shared resources when you can:  tool banks, renewable energy coops, community land trusts, etc.  And live more simply.

Don’t spend money you really don’t need to be spending even if you have it.  Because when you do spend money recklessly, the energy of money is controlling you, not the other way around.

Would any of you feel anxiety if I tore up a dollar in front you? That’s the programming speaking.  That’s the stuff that says these pieces of paper have intrinsic value that might go away if you don’t hoard them or convert them to other “valuable” items.

Cover the financials basics and accumulate enough of these pieces of paper for a small safety net for you and your family.  And then give the rest away to the people and causes that don’t have the basics.   You don’t need much of a safety net.  Because trust me when I tell you that if the world makes it through the next couple of years, it will be because we have actually integrated the knowledge that we each of us is connected to all other life, human animals and non human animals; and we have taken our commitment to that Truth and translated it into the action of sharing what we have with others.  And if we don’t come to the realization of that essential Truth, no amount of money is going to save us, not even the millionaires and billionaires among us.

SECOND:  Figure out how to cut down on the amount of money you actually use by getting money out of the middle of your transactions with other people whenever you can.  It’s cleaner that way; and it de-energizes currency.  Obviously you are going to have to send your mortgage payments to some anonymous worker at a financial institution somewhere and meet certain other obligations in “cold, hard cash.”  Acting like that for all of your financial interactions, however, is like people who have a lot of casual sex and never experience the real human connection of intimacy.

Essentially, we need to be creating a peer-to-peer economy where all of us are both producers and consumers, with minimal use of intermediaries.  So get your produce from the farmer down the street or join a Community Supported Agricultural network if you are in an urban area.  Sell or give to your neighbors  the extra flowers or the raspberries you have grown at your place or the hats and scarves you have knit.   Or if what you have to give is time rather than money, pick the apples off the trees that your elderly neighbor owns but no longer has the mobility to harvest, bake fruit pies for yourself and your neighbor and the local food bank.  Bartering is how humans did financial transactions for centuries before money came into the picture and “dirtied up” the process.

THIRD:  Connect the dots.  Those of us with money have been telling each other for years to become informed consumers.  Mostly, however, what we have meant is that we want to learn how to get the best possible deal.  Our financial transactions have gotten lost in the power struggles.  So we think we’re really smart when we get a good deal from a store; rather than being really dumb and not noticing that who is really paying the extra money we think we are saving.  Are we profiting off the employees of the store that are paid less than a living wage, the prisoners, the children, or other slave labor that produced the goods we are buying;  the orangutans or tigers that were burned alive in their habitat for the palm oil that makes our baked items just a tad cheaper?

We’re better than this.  We have to be.  We are being called to a higher level.   Connect the dots.  And yes, it’s a lot of time and attention to do something other than consume mindlessly, but our ignorance is destroying our world. Whenever you need to purchase either goods or services, make sure your transactions are based on fairness for every part of life touched by that transaction.  With your dollars and cents vote for the world you want to see; not the one that allows you a bigger share of the economic (power) pie.

AND FINALLY, here is the bonus round:  Every now and then give your money away in a manner that brings you nothing whatsoever.  Make donations anonymously and/or to groups that need money but cannot give you a tax write-off or aren’t in a position to thank you for your gift. We all need to be doing this not only because it is the right thing to do, but because each of us needs to practice giving unconditionally.

Each of us needs to be creating the energy of unconditional love, in atonement for our past sins, in anticipation of a future where we are more able to accept unconditional love ourselves; and in the joyful companionship with that part of us that is aligned with our Creator. 

In case you haven’t noticed, that’s the big picture.  That’s what the apocalypse is all about.  We are attempting to transition our world from conditional love of a few, to the unconditional love of all.  GO THERE NOW!  God bless the entire world, no exceptions.

 

Copyright 2017 by the Rev. Dr. Resa Eileen Raven