Chaos and Creativity: Imagining a New World

October 12, 2024 / Church of the Harvest

From a Sermon given at the Autumn Equinox Worship Service on September 22, 2024.

Welcome to Fall, 2024.

Autumn is the season when individuals are typically beginning to wind down from the more physically- active spring and summer months of production and in-the-moment adventures. . .and drifting towards the fall and winter months where there is more rest, reflection, and dreaming of what is to come. That is the natural rhymical trajectory for individual human beings going about their life.

This year though, 2024, things are a bit more complicated. There are some complexities and unique challenges going on as a result of what is happening not only inside, but largely outside and around our individual selves.

As you all know, each one of us on a spiritual level creates an entirely unique experience of our own, a world enjoyed through our senses, an idiosyncratic and completely unique universe of actions and reactions that each of us sets in motion and then undergoes, in order to learn the specific lessons each of us individually have come to this planet to explore.

Additionally, as a group of individuals who have decided to transgress life on Planet Earth, we collectively share the natural world outside of our physical body in conjunction with the divinely-created natural order. As individual spirits, we do not get to touch down on a ground level via our physical embodiment and benefit from the natural world here on this planet unless and until we have signed on to an agreement with the Creator-of-Us-All. Before going through the hassle. . .and yes, it can be quite a hassle. . .of birth into human form, we entered into this binding agreement with our Creator in regards to our behavior here on Mother Earth.

I sometimes refer to this agreement as “the frame.”

You can think of it like a picture frame—a beautifully ornate, intricate, golden framework. We human beings get to choose what we want to create in this frame. We can use whatever colors we want. We can draw or paint an infinite number of portraits, landscapes, abstract images, scribbles, or whatever else. We can leave the canvas blank or wash it with a thousand different blends and shades of colors. We can use any technique we want, any kind of watercolors or acrylics or other paints or supplies.

The frame, however, does not belong to us. It can and does change, but only when the divine decides the picture has changed enough that it is time for the frame to be rebuilt and the picture to get a new suitable outside edge.

Cocreating with the God-of-Us-All is one of the areas where humans tend to be the most confused, even or especially among folks who identify as religious. Humans write a great deal of our own story. . .but it is within the context of a larger story that we cannot really understand.

This morning, I want to look a little closer at how the frame is illuminated by the picture and how the picture and the frame interact. However, if we might, let us focus our conversation on the shared aspect of the picture within the frame.

Yes, we each create our own unique reality. But we also create a shared reality with all the other individuals in our world. Some people call this world outside of themselves “the collective energy.” In the past I’ve often labeled it “the consensus reality.” But maybe I need to update my language here, because the shared life experience that most of us are undergoing right now feels very far from consensual. It feels divisive. It presents as combative. It is awash with interpersonal and intrapersonal conflict. There is heart-wrenching cultural strife, both on the ground and in the heavens. Currently we find ourselves and the society around us reflecting a state of endless spiritual warfare.

Our collective space right now is the epitome of chaos. We are far beyond just disagreeing with each other about issues. There often seems to be very little point to even having conversations about things these days, as we have all seen in the political arena. We not only no longer share an agreed-upon set of rules about how to engage with each other in civil discourse, we don’t even share what true engagement looks like. Nearly every discussion seems to break down into name-calling, attempts to force others to take responsibility whether or not it is merited, an endless variety of petty squabbles at best, hate-mongering and calls for violence at the worst.

The chaos is so pronounced that it transcends and nullifies any actual issues. If you look closely, what you see is a wide-spread lack of consensus right now about what reality even is. You can’t move forward in a shared world, when you don’t even agree on a vision of which parts of the world are real and which are not.

As a result of the chaos, many individual souls are leaving the planet. They are in too much despair or fear or some such and are not able to maintain a physical presence in a world where the old structures are massively breaking down and the new world order has yet to emerge. There are many groups of individuals, whole regions and countries and other geographic areas who are creating an end to their physical forms, leaving the planet via extreme weather events. With great trepidation and a gut-wrenching sense of loss, others are relocating to places where they can ride out the storms and the additional aspects of the bone-crushing chaos reflected back to us from the natural world.

Many or most people are sensitive enough to feel anxiety without necessarily having enough information to identify to what their system is actually reacting. It is not always important to understand the source of your anxiety, but it is usually important to learn how to calm yourself down so as not to cause undue hardship on your body. . .or spread your misery onto others. Image used consistent with Fair Use principals.

So, let’s back up here, shall we, and attempt to examine from a spiritual perspective what is happening. Why the chaos? What is really going on?

Climate scientists and those engrossed in news stories often debate, sometimes ad nauseum, about a mysterious “tipping point” after which, presumably, life on Planet Earth is no longer really possible. Have we passed it? Is there still hope? Bless their hearts, these folks are trying in their awkward way to manage the fear and chaos right now that threatens to overwhelm all of us.

Here is what I have to say about this matter, take it as you will. Yes, indeed we have passed a tipping point. It is not, however, a “real life” turning point resulting in the Earth moving to a place where its human and nonhuman living forms will not survive. It is an energetic point. It is an energetic point that has already occurred, the unfolding of which is causing much of the confusion, much of the chaos.

The planet will be here for a long while longer. Increasingly it looks like some life on the planet will remain as well. . .but the “world order” per se will look very different for those embodied souls who remain, those willing to adapt to the new ways of being.

We are resetting the frame, folks. Or maybe I should say the Supreme Being is resetting the frame for Mother Earth and all of her inhabitants.

Is it because we’ve been bad, we human beings? Are we being punished for our stupid, greedy, self-indulgent, hateful, God-rejecting ways? Not exactly. “Stupid” maybe, if you are inclined to want to caste dispersions on a lack of self-awareness. There are certainly many individuals and huge sections of human civilization that have acted in greedy, self-indulgent, hateful ways for a very long time because they have been unwilling and/or unable to look at themselves or their effect on others with any degree of clarity.

However contrary to popular opinion, the divine does not punish anyone. It does not punish individuals and it does not punish groups of people. The frame is not consistent with this type of interaction. But the divine does see all, keeps track of all, and brings the necessary elements to bear when corrections need to happen to keep the picture human beings are creating, in harmony with the frame.

And here is the REALLY interesting part, at least to me: Essentially, we are ALL resetting the frame. That energetic tipping point about which I was talking? That was something that occurred in the hearts and minds of individual human animals.

Enough people began to believe in our shared humanity. Enough folks said that other person that looks unlike myself is still worthy of respect. Enough people in positions of institutional power decided to listen rather than talk at those “beneath” them in the increasingly-outdated hierarchy. Sufficient numbers of families with more-than-enough resources began to see that they were diminished by ignoring those living in poverty. A larger number of men began to realize that confining the women in their lives to an inferior role was not in anyone’s best interests. We created a surge of interest in companion animals to get us through COVID and through that experience enough people accrued new first hand knowledge of the importance of other species, learning from them how to live in present time. Etc.

We, the inhabitants of Mother Earth, have always been a part of one big picture. Right
now there has been enough love and therefore light, brought into the world that many
of us are beginning to better understand this unity, creating many more possibilities
through the unifying nature of Love. Image by Lorri Hetteen used in conjunction with
Fair Use Principals.

We have always had prophets and visionaries, artists and geniuses “ahead of their time” who have spoken of the need for humans to forge a new path in which we embrace all “others” as a reflection of ourselves. Now enough of us are walking that path that whole new roadways are being forged. It’s ordinary people, not just those on the top of the pyramid who are now setting the energy. Time to move on to a new picture.

The Supreme Being is not punishing us by resetting the frame. Rather we might say it is rewarding us. The “Great Rebalancing.” of our individual and collective lives will go on for many years. It remains deadly for some and painful for many. But the new picture that is in the process of being painted also allows unlimited possibility, including great joy and happiness for those among us who embrace their creativity.

What is this picture going to look like? Where is the new frame leading us? Get real, folks. How can we know that? We are only just now picking up the new paintbrushes.

It is often important to acknowledge the past, but fighting with it? Not so much. Meanwhile, it is very important to live in the present while periodically focusing on what you want to create moving forward.

Great chaos sets the stage for great creativity. As each one of us continues the healing journey of clearing disharmony from our individual space; many of us will find our way to the new natural order, the new frame of reference in which we join hands and hearts with Mother Nature with all her divinely-inspired inhabitants. We will come to know the new framework. This framework is of connectivity and relationship, so in a sense, it will find us.

Actually, Calvin, you can turn on the infinite flow of creativity at any point. Fear is not necessary, except to the degree that human animals believe it to be. Calvin and Hobbes cartoon by BIll Watterson used in conjunction of Fair Use Principals.

The 18^th century philosopher and cultural critic Fredrich Nietzsche may have said it best. As he reminded us: “You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.” All those here today and those reading these words, and indeed all embodied souls on this magnificent Third Rock from the Sun are made of starlight. Some of you even know a dance step or two.

Indulge in your creativity, any way you see fit. Dance with others when there is that opportunity. And dream. Above all right now in this season, dream.

As we slumber and rest through the fall and winter months we will be communicating with each other about the new picture we want to paint together, and making some decisions about it. We will also typically be learning from the God(dess) within about our individual role in it.

“May you dream of lovely things and wake to find them real.” Art by Amanda Clark used in conjunction of Fair Use Principals.

Dream on, my friends. Dream on.

Enjoy your creativity as you also swim the collective stream of dreams common to all life on Earth.

Whales are the species on Planet Earth given the role of planetary recordkeepers. In this image, our fellow inhabitant is perhaps dreaming that for the sake of all of us, individuals find their universal truth with as much ease as humanely possible. Image is used in conjunction of Fair Use Principals.

Dancing on the Strings of Time; When it comes to Karma, payback is a bitch

January 17, 2023February 3, 2023 / Church of the Harvest

From a Sermon given Winter Solstice Worship Service on January 1, 2023.

It could be argued that American singer and songwriter John Denver did not completely master the time element of the time-space continuum. . .but he sure got closer to the Truth than many or most. Through his commitment to Mother Earth he accessed many essentially elements of the All-That-Is and used his clairvoyant abilities to forge a path for the rest of us to follow. It is no coincidence that he is singing here directly to the Russian people in 1985, as the contemporary world reels from the shock of the slaughter of Ukrainians. This battle has been generations in the making. It is a crucial healing opportunity for humans all over the globe as we decide whether to support violent or peaceful solutions to conflict.

Recently I had the opportunity to work in a healing clinic with a young woman in a great deal of torment who was seeking help in regards to her relationship with her family. This woman had a brother who had become the legal guardian of their mother and the mother’s estate; and was blocking contact between the mother and daughter and siphoning off family funds to his own financial benefit. As you could imagine, the woman was in horrendous pain, a big component of which was due to something in psychology we would label cognitive dissonance. She just could not understand what was happening, and it was rocking the very foundation of her worldview.

In these sessions there is a very limited amount of time, usually less than 15 minutes. For me it’s always a question of how I can make the best impact in such a truncated time frame. I watched the other healer in the room talk to the woman about society’s current collective energy space, in which the toxic male is coming out from the corners swinging to eradicate all that could become the sacred feminine. This was a framework the woman could understand somewhat. I could sense she felt a bit of relief from her pain as she recognized she was part of a bigger picture.

But her central disorientation remained. She wanted to know why the situation was happening specifically to her. On some level she knew that we all as individuals create our own reality, even when we do that in a group context. Spiritually she recognized that there was more to the story than just her family going along with how people are doing things these days. I could see her struggling with guilt and ongoing confusion, and more importantly, I watched her getting lost to the perspective that she was the victim here. This can be a problem in that many seekers after the Truth fall prey to the blame-others game that is so prominent in human cultures. Believing one is a victim can significantly slow down the ultimate resolution for individuals for many years in any one lifetime, or even many lifetimes to come.

So, what I talked to her about was the fact that she and the soul that is her brother have been in an escalating situation since Babylonia. For centuries they have been playing a kind of psychic ping pong game. I saw the two of them as part of a snowballing joint venture, where the actions of the one led to the next lifetime in which the other had the opportunity to respond in kind or add a different element to the story. They were drawn to each other like moths to a flame both getting burnt over time, without awareness of the full picture.

In other words, the elements of their cosmic dance were not confined to fun adventures. The “good times” were there, but they were increasingly overshadowed by the painful events. Brother and sister had had many mishaps in which they had harmed each other. The sense of betrayal and distrust from these wrongdoings built up and escalated to the point that it overwhelmed the real spiritual connection behind it all, such that in in 2022 the dance had became all about revenge.

In 2022 and now in 2023 I am increasingly running across folks like this sister and brother, in agony and screaming for help without knowledge of what is causing their distress. Given that we are living in the apocalypse, the time in which all that has been hidden is being revealed, many people are peeling their particular onion, weeping as they go. Individuals who have been victimized through criminal acts or dehumanizing actions are rightfully finding their voice in demanding an end to the abuse. Society as a whole has been working through layer and layer of excruciating heartbreak as we wrestle with the revelations and details of how various groups of people have done horrible things, seemingly inhuman things, to various other groups of people.

Lately I have talked with this community quite a bit about the need for folks to take the healing one step higher, the need to distinguish between justice and revenge. Today I want to add in an important consideration–the dimension of time. Unless you truly understand that time is an illusion, real justice is evasive. Unless you understand that time as an illusion, you are stuck on what some label the carousel of time.

So back to my story about the healee in a great deal of turmoil about the relationship with her brother. When I attempted to reframe her situation from what is happening in the contemporary moment to what had been happening over time, she drew a blank. My words did not appear to make sense to her in any immediate sense. I could hear the telepathic communication from her. Her response more or less was along the lines of “I don’t know if I believe in reincarnation, but if it is real so what? So what if we have been in relationship since the dawn of civilization, since when does what he is doing now make it OK?”

Thing is, it doesn’t. Nothing about the choices this brother is making to isolate and exploit the members of his family is OK. That said, what is going to permanently stop the abuse and is going to make possible a real level of healing for all is outside the boundaries of time.

Ironically, one of the main “tricks” to transcending time is to give yourself enough of it. This is because you as spirit exist independent of time even though your body can only really understand life in the present moment. It takes a solid relationship with its “owner” before a body will gracefully go to places it does not understand as life; and it often takes a lot of experience before an energetic spirit will learn to slow down enough to build that relationship. Ultimately, it is all about self-love, people. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principals.

I’ve been at that place where she lives, the place where very little information about time and about how reincarnation really works can get through the massive amounts of societal programming to the contrary. I understand the mindset where the only thing that is considered real is what has occurred in the life experience of the body in which one is inhabiting. Decades ago as a seminary student I did over two years of reading hundreds of past lives in others. The only way I could make sense of what I was seeing was by setting aside the strident, outraged objections from my analyzer about how crazy what was coming out of my mouth sounded. I knew I had to be true to myself and the person I was reading in the sense of accurately describing what I was seeing. Disconnecting my brain from my mouth was the only I could figure out to not let my cognitive dissonance destroy what I recognized as my vital, emerging spiritual perspective.

Many Eastern religions that recognize reincarnation often talk about Maya the “veil of forgetfulness,” the energy that works to protect human beings by helping us forget our past life experiences, and thereby not get lost to all that we have thought, felt and done over sometimes millennia. But the thing is, the energy of this veil itself is shifting under the apocalypse, the great time of revelations. It is no longer universally protective for us to forget what has occurred through other of our physical bodies. We have more important challenges now. . .challenges related to finding entire new ways of making sense of the world around us.

As much as I get overwhelmed episodically like the rest of humanity, I have to say I am glad for the new challenges. I don’t know about you, but I personally do not want to explore the same lessons over and over and over and over and over and over again because I keep forgetting what I learned. Yes, the infinite Godhead who operates outside of time and space allows spirit who has incorporated into a human body to reexperience toxic relationships with ourselves, each other and the environment around us as much as we want, as many generations and lifetimes as we desire. But know this–some of us are figuring out that we no longer value chaos and pain as the price of our forgetfulness.

Mastery of time involves accessing the past with discernment, setting your intention for the future, while living as fully as possible in the present moment. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principals.

In the present time frame, enough of us are saying enough is enough. Most are not aware that it is time we are attempting to transcend. We just know our individual and collective lives seem at best, like a hamster madly dashing-on-its-wheel-for hours-or-at-least-until-it-is-exhausted kind of thing, getting nowhere real; at worst a painfilled death-enhancing rat race with others. Many want to jump off the wheel, that carousel of time.

Folks in the Eastern part of the globe often recognize that the wheel upon which they are stuck has to do with time, or what is often referred to as karma. Before you get inundated with perfect pictures or illusions that those folks have it all together about karma though, let me assure you otherwise. As someone who has recently been binge watching dozens of Netflix series from Japan, China and Korea, most of which directly explore spiritual themes like the astral plane, ghosts, guides, demons and other spiritual players, reincarnation, and the afterlife, I can tell you this is definitely not the case. These cultures may have a significant heads up when it comes to openness towards considering concepts about karma. However, they are no farther along with fully incorporating how to work with it; how to resolve it from a place of neutrality. I would love to teach a few million people in Asia how to approach embodied life on Mother Earth from the center of one’s head.

Ironically, we do not have enough time in our short worship service today to explore much of what karma is and what it is not. So let me jump to a bottom line. If you think something bad that is happening to you or someone else needs to be met with some kind of payback; if you find yourself thinking some distressing event is due to your karma or some one else’s, you are still lost to the spinning of the wheel of time.

Both action and nonaction can create karma, as they can both lead to other events that at another time need to be resolved. In the current time frame, there is a myriad amount of hurt we are trying to purge from our individual and collective soul from our ignoring of historical social injustice played out between individuals, countries, ethic groups, and other human societies. Just be sure that whatever action or inaction you are choosing as a consequence for the past does not continue the strife. As Martin Luther King Jr. frequently reminded us, only love can resolve hate. Image used in conjunction with Fair Use Principals.

Whether you use the increasingly old-fashioned term “ego” to describe that stuck place where the hurt seems bigger than the solutions; whether you are now talking about the solutions for individual trauma or “complex trauma” for extraordinarily harmful events; whether you are focused on multigenerational transmission of limiting concepts like scarcity and hatred; or whether you are fond of working through a big-picture symbol such as Kali, the dark Mother Goddess–it’s all about time. After all, in the Hindu pantheon Kali is not only the ultimate energy behind both creation and destruction. She is also known as the Goddess of Time. Why? Because spirit cannot fully explore creation and destruction without also mastering time.

So, what did I do with my healee who did not understand the dance with which she and her brother have been engaged? I cleared the pain from her energetic body so she had the best possible chance at ultimately getting beyond the blame-game. I considered sharing something of my own story of my brother’s abject treatment towards me, which included stealing several thousand dollars of my inheritance. She might have felt less alone if I did, but I realized that she had already gotten some of that sense of connection. The next important step in her healing had more to do with other things. Rather, telepathically from soul-to-soul I thanked her profusely for bringing up my matching pictures in regards to my hate-filled brother. And then I planted what seeds she might find useful for a a new way to look at the situation. I worked with her future self for when she is ready to address what she has been creating with her brother for 4,000 years.

As to those of you here today and here at some point in the future, this is what I have to say about transcending time. Learn to dance. Give up the marching towards an endlessly-repeating cycle in which others are in charge of the reality you are creating over all eternity. Rather, tiptoe your own way through the tulips, lightly, with as much awareness and amusement as you can muster.

Image of the Solar Plexis or Third Chakra by Brenda Erickson used in accordance with Fair Use Principals. When the soul has cleared enough programming that says power over other people is useful or even needed, that soul can get to using the third chakra for what it was designed: locomotion through the physical world. As you move your body you make the choices of how to do so. You can do so by marching in lockstep or flail around seemingly randomly. You can move to the tune of others or make up your own music. You can dance gracefully nimbly around the veil of time or stick to a particular frame of reference. You can dance solo, in line with others, or in a highly interactive format like the waltz or tango.

Fox trot, do the Texas two step, swing your arms around madly in your private space, I don’t care. Just get out there and dance. Move that body. Listen for the beat of the music. Be in the present moment as fully as you can, and notice what sensations you get from your body where the past has perhaps dulled your aliveness. And then dance some more, lightly. Live that life, noticing the flow, changing steps as you need for your healing. Explore your essence to whatever extent you can. Let the rest play itself out.

You have all the tools you need. You know what to do if you falter or miss the beat. You have the life-affirming support of those in this community and in other spiritual and other kinds of communities, including in the spirit world. You have the blessings and full and ever-present support of your Creator to meet any and all stumbling steps and as-of-yet unmet challenges.

Dance on the strings of time like your life depends upon it.

(Pro Tip: Please feel free to listen to this beautiful song with discernment. In other words, absorb the intent of the song and save triggered thoughts and feelings either for or against the concept of God being presented as masculine, kneeling as a form of surrender, prayer as the major means to change, etc. for your healing meditations.) Thanks be to Reba and Lauren et. al. for this important reminder that we are seeking to return to Paradise.

Copyrighted by the Rev. Dr. Resa Eileen Raven, 2023.

Harmony in Times of Chaos

June 30, 2021July 1, 2021 / Church of the Harvest

From a Sermon given Summer Solstice Worship Service on June 20, 2021

Today we celebrate the beginning of summer, strawberry season, the time when Mother Earth begins to bring forth the fruits of her bounty; and we human animals who are her caretakers see what we have created in the spiritual realm the previous winter; what we have dreamed of, agreed to, and begun to manifest into the physical world in regards to some of the first major waves of new blessings. Fruits and vegetables are ripening, but in a deeper sense so too are our fears about the Great Balancing, as I like to refer to the current time in history.

In the last three or four years I have been struck by how many people were using the word “chaos” to describe their worldview. More recently many people have now decided that we are settling back down, we are no longer living in a pandemic, and that we can now return to “normal.” That clearly is not the case and is not going to happen.

There is still a tremendous amount of chaos in our collective lives but I think some of us have gotten a little more acculturated to it. It’s gone underground a bit, become less apparent for some. A few of us have worked through enough resistance to the changes within us and around us to have a temporary respite. As you know, resistance always makes changing more difficult. Global changes however, are ongoing and profound, with many more to come.

The drive to return to normal is an indication that many people still suffer from resistance to change. Get real, folks. Life on Planet Earth has irrevocably altered, thanks be to God. Image from Green Peace New Zealand used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

This morning I want to remind you that chaos has its place in the universe, some might even say a beloved place of honor. I want to impart some hints about how to not only “weather” it–(pun intended)–but maybe even begin to learn to enjoy it. Chaos is what happens when you need to make huge shifts, when you need to destroy things but have little or no permission to destroy.

Seattle-based mythologist Michael Meade embraces the deep spiritual truth that threads through the stories of all cultures. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

Chaos is a precursor to great creativity. Out of chaos arise enormous possibilities. The birth process can be smooth, joyful and full of wonder; or it can be painful and disheartening; or anything in between. Humans still have lots of decisions to make, but the threshold upon which we are currently teetering is nothing less than miraculous.

At one point billions of years ago our planet was poised on another foundational threshold. Our universe was a swirling mass of gases and Mother Earth was simply water. Then the Creator brought to this chaos its abundant endless creativity, and thereby fashioned a framework that spurred a paradise of life forms.

In our ignorance and ego-driven desire, humans have largely decimated that paradise, causing a kind of retreat to a state of primordial chaos, at least emotionally-speaking.

So here we are. We get to begin anew, each one of us individually with our own free will, and decide whether we are willing to learn to co create with the divine as his/her children, to begin to access our corner of that abundant endless creativity, or continue to fight a losing battle against the inevitability of needed changes for the good of the whole.

I want to talk a little bit now about individual creativity. What does it mean to be a chip off the cosmic block? For those of us who are working with our own individual energy systems and trying our best to do so in junction with rather than opposition to God’s will, how do we actually go about harnessing our creativity in the service of the divine?

And what do we need to create?

Here’s a thought. How about a whole new relationship with ourselves, each other, and Mother Earth?

Let me start by reminding you that everything outside of you is a reflection of what is inside of you. It’s not the other way around. If you look at the political and economic structures around us you will see a tidal wave of people that want to convince themselves and each other that other people are the problem. The blame-game is HUGE at this time.

Unfortunately this perspective is not only incorrect, it is dangerous. A lot of the souls that are choosing to leave their physical body right now, are doing so because they cannot see a pathway to healing themselves which will allow them to remain on the Planet.

Great spiritual leaders around the world have attempted to teach us that our true life resides within, and therefore changing anything disharmonious has to addressed from within. We engage in group creativity by interacting with others and the entire world around us but it is up to us ultimately how we experience that interaction. Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

We’ve all been so tremendously programmed to believe our answers are outside of ourselves, and therefore our problems have to be solved by others. Then there is a whole cadre of folks that understand theoretically that creating a full and rewarding life for themselves is possible and up to them. . . but they don’t know how to make the changes they seek happen.

In this community I would say that most of us have a lot of the basics down about our individual creativity, but are maybe missing a few important pieces of the puzzle to take things into the collective world.

Image used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

So let me talk about putting those puzzle pieces together by talking about your individual chakra system.

You all know that there are seven major chakras in the human body, kind of like little powerful spinning hard drives that contain a humongous amount of information, all the information you need and then some.

Many people sort of have their favorites, areas upon which they tend to focus because that is where they feel the need to do the most healing. Other people are under the impression that certain chakras are intrinsically more important than other chakras. For example, it’s common for people to assume that the upper chakras, the fifth, sixth and seventh, are more important than the lower chakras, the first, second and third. That is often because they have gotten lost to the dichotomy that “up” is more important than “down.” Lots of folks have been programmed to believe the “higher” chakras are associated with “Heaven” and therefore of greater value than the “lower” chakras associated with the Earthly realm.

Actually, what is ultimately important is that your chakras work in harmony. They are a system, one designed where every cog of the machine is important for the smooth functioning of the entire machine. When you have even one chakra that is really screwed up, really dysfunctional in terms of what you need to use in your life, the information that is supposed to be in that center will go elsewhere. It can be absorbed by other people, gumming up their energy system. It can bleed into other of your own chakras and screw those up. It can end up enervating and throwing off balance any of your body’s organs, muscles, nerves and other physical structures and systems. Like a river in a flood, information–a form of energy–simply overflows onto other pathways when dammed up at its natural flow site.

In a society where we are not taught how to work with our own energy system, and accordingly have done a rather substantial amount of damage to ourselves for many centuries, our energy system is typically hugely fragmented to the point that it is essentially at war with itself. For example, one part of us wants things to go a certain way while other parts want to take us in a completely alternative direction. We sense or feel we should stay away from a person or a substance like alcohol or the situation that we know to be toxic; we may have second or even third thoughts as to where we are going but we still find ourselves drifting into a maladaptive universe anyway. Part of us wants to rest more, eat healthy or exercise regularly but somehow “something” gets in the way of our following our intention. Much of the time we are even unconscious or unaware of what is driving our life choices.

This is the internalized chaos to which we are all prone. We all do this until we have cleared enough from our energy space for the different pieces of our information to be compatible rather than contradictory with each other, for our chakras to work together in the service of our higher good.

Then of course, this chaos gets projected outwards. Don’t get me started on the wars, violence, social injustice, environmental disasters and so on that are made possible as our individual internal warfare combines with other individuals at war with themselves, increasing the conflict exponentially in the collective space.

Collective chaos can lead to places of great suffering. Art used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

So you all are on the journey towards wholeness. You have committed yourselves to cleaning up the mess inside you from years in this body and centuries of neglect in others. You have been kicking out the energies that don’t belong to you or no longer serve your purpose to live in wholeness. Congratulations! Mazel tov! Keep up the good work!

But how do we get the individual pieces of our life into a even more complete (although by definition, changing) picture? You all know what my answer to that is: one step at a time. Meditate daily. Run your energy frequently. Cultivate humility and patience. Ask for help from the divine and its helpers whenever you need it or just want it. Commit yourself to God’s service including devoting yourself whenever you can to the wellbeing of others, not at your own expense but rather because all cogs of the machine are ultimately important for our world to work. . .and because what blessings you impart will return to you in kind.

And here’s a little tip. . .or preview of what is to come for the members of this community, including those who participate energetically but not with their physical presence. Every chakra is important. But if your goal is living in harmony, pay attention to your fourth. There is a reason why medieval paintings were so obsessed with portraying the burning heart of Jesus.

The Christ understood that the heart chakra was the bridge between the lower chakras that regulate more of the energy system’s responses to the Earth; and the upper chakras that regulate more of the energy system’s responses to the Heavens. He modeled for us someone who crafted complete unity in his own space irrespective of the enormous personal cost to him, and by doing so, embodied unconditional love with all of God’s created order.

If you want to experience Heaven-on-Earth. even if for brief periods of time . .if you want to be a soul that helps bring paradise back to Mother Earth, pay attention to this important piece of your individual puzzle board.

The fourth chakra is all about setting one’s identity in relationship to everything there is, everyone and every aspect. It is about the peace that occurs when the free will of the individual soul chooses to dwell in unity with everything inside its body and energy system and thereby extends that unity outside.

A well-defined fourth chakra in harmony with all within and outside of an individual soul is a thing of great beauty. Image by Alpha Channel used in accordance with Fair Use Principles.

In other words, learn to love all the parts inside of you, even as you change those that are no longer useful. Don’t go down the rabbit hole of thinking that your yucky parts are the responsibility of others. Others can help you but they cannot do your work for you. Don’t compound your problems by giving away your power to change. Whatever part others played in the creation of these bits of discordant energy is no longer relevant.

Also avoid the major detour of thinking you can achieve wholeness by adopting the false illusion of perfection. Stare your faults, your dark places, your sins, your shadow, your wounds/thorns, whatever you want to call it/them straight in the face. And wink back as you say goodbye.