Dayle in Limoux – Day #62

Reading today about the influences of Saint-Catherine of Alexandria, beloved of the Beguines and Joan of Arc’s spiritual voice and influence. She was 22 when she was tortured and murdered because she refused to marry an Egyptian emperor. She was killed in the year 305.

Britannica: She protested the persecution of Christians under the Roman emperor Maxentius—whose wife and several soldiers she converted while imprisoned—and defeated the most eminent scholars summoned by Maxentius to oppose her. During her subsequent torture, she professed that she had consecrated her virginity to Jesus Christ, her spouse, and was sentenced to death. The spiked wheel by which she was to be killed broke when she touched it (whence the term Catherine wheel), and she was then beheaded.

The wheel was a horrific way to die a slow, excruciating death. This is why we often see Catherine depicted with a wheel.

From the book, The Wisdom of the Beguines/The Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women’s Movement, by Laura Swan,

The Beguines chose four women who they felt had proclaimed the gospel for their lives: the apostle Mary Magdalene, the martyrs Saint Catherine of Alexandria, and Saint Agnes, and the abbess of Andenne, Begga. You smile with delight (p. 50).

Beguines were a powerful expression of the vita apostolic, being ‘apostolic life’ or ‘the life of an apostle.’ They pooled their resources in order to serve the sick and destitute by building and operating infirmaries and almshouses (p. 17, 19). Many beguines used their sources of income to purchase homes near the chapel or parish church where they gathered together for prayer (p. 15).

Many women became beguines as a result of their newfound literacy (p. 21). Beguinages endured the ravages of war and plague, hostile politics and shifting cultural attitudes […] some managed to survive all the way into the twentieth century (67). Beguines were not nuns (p. 13). Nuns were steady supporters of the beguines (p.15).

Some of the beguines were considered ‘heretics,’ of course. When men didn’t agree with women’s motives or rhetoric, they were ‘heretics.’ One beguines, Marguerite Porete, a larned beguines preacher and writer, was sentenced by the Inquisition to be burned at the stake. She was a learned beguine preacher and writer, and was murdered on June 1, 1310. Her crime? Her work of mystical theology called, ‘The Mirror of Simple Souls,’ which she had composed in Old French and shared with others.

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She loves me when I act wisely, and she loves me when I am foolish. Her love is based not on how I’ve acted but on who I am. He knows who I am, for She created me. The Beloved’s love is unconditional.

My errors do not call for God’s punishment, but for His correction. As I atone for my mistakes—willing to make amends with a repentant heart—then His merciful hand will reorder events and allow me new beginnings. Such is the miracle of a merciful, non-judgmental God, the source of all good and the reason for my unending praise.

How awesome is the Beloved, for even when I have fallen from grace – from the truth within me, from the love that is the meaning of my life – She loves me still, allowing  me new life, again and again.

My gratitude is deep.

The light, pours in through the cracks.

From the Dalai Lama, a reminder this morning:

All 7 billion human beings have a common experience—we all appreciate love. We all have a seed of love and affection within us and the potential to cultivate greater love and compassion. If we want to create peace in the world it has to start with the heart, with inner peace.

Julian of Norwich called this love ‘a love without beginning.’

✠

I came across an essay in my research today I haven’t seen in a while. It is so beautifully and intellectually written by a fellow explorer who was a part of our sacred mystery tour here in Languedoc in 2019. His name is Andrew Cowie.

My first fleeting glimpse of the near-mythical French village of Rennes-le-Chateau was suitably mysterious. Perched atop a majestic cliff in the foothills of the Pyrenees, she peeked out briefly and tantalisingly from behind a murky veil of mist before swiftly vanishing again, leaving behind only more questions and very little by way of answers. This murky first encounter seemed somehow to encapsulate everything about this magical village and the labyrinthine web of mysteries which entangles it – a place full of wonder and intrigue, its secrets forever elusive, the answers always remaining just slightly out of reach. Rennes-le-Chateau attracts tens of thousands of tourists every year, many of them treasure hunters drawn to the area’s rich history and mythology.

[Rennes-les-Chateau]

Legends of buried treasure abound here, with the village thought by many to be the location of the riches of the Knights Templar or the Cathars, the resting place of the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant. Some believe it to contain the tombs of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, while others claim it to be the site of a subterranean extra-terrestrial base. The area is a conspiracy theorist’s paradise and it’s easy to see why it has attracted this reputation.

[Le château de Montségur, one of the last refuges for the Cathars, who, in mass, were burnt in giant pyres in the field below in 1244.] 

Everything about this place, and the wider region of Languedoc, is jaw-droppingly bizarre, from geological anomalies and precise geometric alignments to extraordinary natural phenomena and a chain of endless peculiar synchronicities which cannot simply be dismissed as chance. Indeed, the further I ventured down the veritable rabbit warren of the Rennes-le-Chateau mystery, the more I realised that the truth is much, much stranger than any fiction my writer’s imagination could ever conjure.

It’s a thoughtful and passionate piece. Andrew is a former journalist; he wrote this about a year after our return, in 2020. He lives in Scotland. It will give you a great foundation for learning more about the mysteries of Languedoc, sacred geometry, and Rennes-les-Chateau. Here’s a link to the full essay.

https://www.phoenixcoaching.co.uk/post/holy-grail-the-mysterious-treasure-of-rennes-le-chateau

I’ve been listening to a lot of Ani William’s music since I’ve been back in France. Ani is a world-renowned harpist and singer, and has recorded more than two-dozen albums of original sacred music based on ancient spiritual traditions. She has done seminal work in the study of sound healing and the relationship between musical tones, the human voice and healing.

Here she is singing Aramaic Lord’s Prayer at Rennes-le-Chateau. Extraordinary.

The lyrics, the Aramaic Our Father:

Heavenly Source

You Who are everywhere

Thy Kingdom come

Your will be done

Here and ow and for evermore.

Fill us with the power of your mercy

And free us from the fetters with which we bind each other.

Lead us out of temptation: free us from ourselves.

And give us the strength to be one with You.

Teach us the true power of forgiveness.

May this holy moment be the ground

From which our future actions grow.

Amen.

-The Manuscript, p. 440

From Ani’s website: The prayer knows no gender, and celebrates the Light and Sound of Creation, inviting this into our Holy of Holies within. This video was filmed in the chapel of Mary Magdalene. [https://aniwilliams.com]

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U.S. states and activists started celebrating the labor force in the late 1800’s. New York was the first state to introduce a bill, yet Oregon was the first state to codify it into their state law. ‘Labor Day honors and recognizes the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United States’ [wikipedia].

Mother Teresa:

“The miracle is not that we do the work, but that we are happy to do it.”

Some captures from earlier Labor Day honors.

Roller skates and sashes. Can’t think of a better way to celebrate. Beats buying a mattress.

And a song from Woody Guthrie, about 1,200 striking coal miners and their families in Ludlow, Colorado on April 20, 1914. It refers to the violent deaths of 20 people, 11 of them children, during an attack by the Colorado National Guard on a tent colony there in Ludlow. The clip features the late historian, author, and activist Howard Zinn.

Bonne nuit.

✌🏻

Dayle in Limoux – Day #60

From the church of Saint-Volusien in Foix, constructed in the 12th century, although the original structure was most likely constructed in the 9th. Volusien was a bishop in the regions in the late 5th century. He was persecuted by the Visigoths and placed under house arrest. He died without regaining his freedom.

‘She squatted in from of an old altar.

“Look,” she said pointing to a relief where the paint was partly peeled off. It was the scene from the Last Supper. However, in this painting there was no doubt that the person next to Yeshua was a woman. In contrast to most of the paintings, the one by Leonardo da Vinci being the most well known, in this one Mariam sat to the left of Yeshua instead of to the right which is usually the case. In this painting in the church of Foix she is looking devotedly at her partner. Everyone apart from Mariam, of course, is depicted with a beard.’

‘It may very well be that the Catholic Church in general has had its problems with Mary Magdalen. However, this does not seem to be the case here in the south of France.’

-The Manuscript, pp. 569-570

“We went under the porch supported by a few symbolically decorated pillars, which formed an impressive entrance.

“Take a look at this.”

She pointed to a star of Mariam hanging on a pillar next to us.

“And, here as well.”

“Who?”

“Yeshua and Magdalene!”

Sure enough and here they were one on each side of the same pillar…”

-The Manuscript, pp. 572-573

This book is beyond, truly. A trilogy bound as one book, the hardback, which I have, is only available from the author, Lars Muhl, in the book shop at Rennes-les-Chateau.

Gaining new levels of knowledge and taking so many notes; building bridges between my research from the last seven years for a new heart-based paradigm for journalists, intersecting a radical compassion for a homo spiritus species.

Marianne Williamson posted this earlier today from her essay titled, ‘Growing our Wings.’

When we were kids at school we had textbooks that showed human beings evolving from apes, then transforming over time into homo sapiens. On the left side of the page was a sort of hunched over looking ape, then on the right side of the page was a human being standing erect.

Okay, but I don’t think that’s the whole story; I think one day home sapiens standing erect will be seen as the middle of the page. We’re not done with evolution until we’ve evolved from ape to angel. One day, on the right side of the page there will be a human being having grown wings…

Now I don’t think those wings will be literal, of course. But I think we’re only at maybe the midway point in our evolutionary journey. We have physically evolved, but spiritually we are somewhere between an infant species and something just past barbarian. Evolution is spurring us on but we sure better hurry up.

We’re burning through all that insanity now. We have to or the species will not survive. […] The world is so clearly laboring now – a difficult labor indeed – as we struggle to give birth to the next version of who we are.

We’re not done yet. We’re transforming. No longer can we simply hug the ground. That is not our destiny. We are growing our wings.

Julian Lennon speaks to this in his own way, too, with a new album dropping on the 9th simply titled, ‘Jude’, in reference to the song Paul McCartney wrote for him when his dad, John, and his mum, Cynthia, were divorcing, ‘Hey Jude.’ This is a single from the album, ‘The Lucky Ones.’ #Jude @JulianLennon

Everyone is searching, trying to find a new religion
Some peace of mind, 
Don’t wanna let go of all of my intuition
I need a sign ’cause love is blind

I feel a change is coming, I know
A new revolution’s knocking on my door

Everyone is hurtin’ tryin’ a find a real solution
Well, you might find that love ain’t blind
The world is burning while we’re dancing in our own pollution
Well, is there time, or did we cross the line?

We gotta find a way to get better
The only way through this is together
It’s not too late, so never say never

I know that we’re the lucky ones
Look at us, we fucked up the weather
If we unite, we’ll get through whatever
We need this world to last us forever
I know that we’re the lucky ones

✧        *    .    *    ✧     .   *   .   *
 .  *   .    * .       .   ✧        .
 ✧  ✧   *    .   *        .       .     *.     .   
✧   *    .     .     ✧     .     * .  *   . 

Today was reading, writing, researching, hanging laundry (ℒℴve ! the scent of clothes after drying on the line…the best…using only the energy from the sun.),

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meditations, contemplation, and plotting the next Languedoc adventure. :)

Chapter 4

More from Marianne:

Take a good look at your life right now. If you don’t like something about it, close your eyes and imagine the life you want. Now allow yourself to focus your inner eye on the person you would have to be in order to create your preferred life.

Notice the differences in how you behave and present yourself; allow yourself to spend several seconds breathing in the new image, expanding your energy into this new mold. Hold the image for several seconds and ask the Beloved to imprint it on your subconscious mind. Do that every day for 5 minutes or so. If you share this technique with certain people, the chances are good they’ll tell you that it’s way too simple. It’s up to you what you choose to believe.

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And for September’s Power Path, a message from Lena.

The main theme for September is: “CRISIS”

The definition of crisis comes from the word “to decide”. It is an intense time or turning point where a decision is made, there is a decisive point, and a change takes place. There is always an action component to crisis and often a need to make a choice that influences a course of action. In a healing crisis, you either get better or worse sometimes depending on that choice. In a financial crisis you may need to make hard decisions that change your usual habits and patterns. In relationship crisis you may be forced to look at some truth and face choices that produce needed change. A health crisis is often a wake-up call to change something significant in your life that puts you on a different path.

When we hear the word crisis it often brings up a negative response. In truth, crisis is often the catalyst for much needed change supporting movement towards necessary and positive evolution. Our physical nature is designed to respond to crisis with reaction and action, the instinctive response of fight or flight. Crisis often brings up fear. If we can work through the fear, there is power on the other side. This month is a good one to work proactively with the theme of crisis and use it as a catalyst for making whatever change is needed instead of being crippled by the fear it may temporarily produce.

Think of this as a month of potential breakthroughs as we are forced to go within for deep reflection and introspection regarding our values, habits, patterns, beliefs and actions. Much of the work this month will be around relationships and our perceptions of who we are, who we are with and what our work here is on this planet. Crisis that affects a community will either bring people closer together or fragment what is ready to reorganize itself differently. Crisis brings truth to the surface that can clear the decks of calcified attitudes and support new insights. Aspects of this month are conducive to clearing the mind of old beliefs and ways of thinking, opening us up to new and more inspired ideas.

As much as the crises occurring this month could be manifested outwardly, the work triggered by them is internal. Even the action component points to internal movement and change as a deep purification of the mind and our beliefs takes place. Crisis is an intense experience brought about by sudden news, a dramatic unexpected event, or some situation that has gathered enough energy to itself that you can no longer ignore it. The only way to deal effectively with crisis is to face it proactively with curiosity, confidence, trust and humor. The worst thing you can do is to withdraw into a fearful state of blame, shame or anger. 

This is not an easy month but the end result of your inner process can be extremely rewarding. The key is to work with the influences instead of against them. If crisis comes into your life, watch your reactions. Get to neutral as quickly as possible, don’t take it personally, but do use it as a catalyst to do something differently. Crisis requires flexibility as your decisions may not be ones you usually make. Use curiosity as a proactive way to lean into the crisis with the intention of bringing a creative solution or decision to the process.

We do not expect every moment of this month to be full of crisis, however this is an energy that is permeating much of the common experience, and we as a collective need to move through it proactively beginning with our own inner transformation and positive change. Being in conflict can cause a crisis and the more we can resolve our own inner conflicts the more we can be a positive influence on others. This is a month of taking responsibility for our relationships, for our actions and for our personal experience of crisis.

There will also be periods of heightened awareness, increased intuition, a celebratory sense of gratitude, and rich experiences in relationship, intimacy and connection to spirit. Cherish those times of expansion and beauty, and use them as a point of reference when you find yourself in the trenches of crisis.

Balance is another necessary support this month. Practicing balance between being and doing, between the mind and the heart, and between obsessive overthinking, overcontrolling and over organizing, and the potential chaos of too loose of a container are all important. Use the natural elements as support and try and spend time between inner and outer expressions. It is good to express spiritual needs but maintain order at the same time. A good routine that handles both will be helpful during any crisis. [thepowerpath.com]

Found this on my phone, a random shot wandering the medieval streets of Arles earlier this week.

Thank goodness. :)

Bonne nuit.

♥️

Dayle in Limoux – Day # 57

Matin à Limoux.

‘In the Talmud it is written, “During the times of darkest night, act as if the morning has already come.” When the world is chaotic we can find peace within our hearts. And then we can share our peace with each other. We can forgive, we can bless, we can love, we can create, we can make space for the new in ourselves and in the world. And miracles will follow. This is a moment of chaos, yes, but simultaneously it is a magic hour. It is the sunset of one world and the dawning of another. Day has turned into night, now the night is turning into day.’

-Marianne Williamson

Pour Guillaume Henri.

First light in Limoux this morning before catching an early train to Arles. So many sites to share, the ancient Roman ruins, and Van Gogh’s cafe. This capture, though, needs its own day. 

Bonne nuit. 

♡

Dayle in Limoux – Dayle #43

  * .  .   ✧

* ✧  ✧   *    .   *   * .  .   ✧ ✧   *    .     .     ✧     .     * .  *   . ✧  ✧   *    .   * ✧  ✧   *    .   *   * .  .   ✧

* ✧  ✧   *    .   *   * .  .   ✧ ✧        *    .    *    ✧     .   *   .   *✧  ✧   *    .   *   * .  .   ✧  * .  .   ✧ .  *   .    * . .   *   * .  .   ✧

.  *   .    * . There is magic in this world and you’re part of it.     *    .   *

 ✧        *    .    *    ✧   * .  .    -Sydney Azari    .   *   .   * ✧  ✧   *    .   *
 .  *   .    * .  .   ✧        .✧  ✧   *    .   * ✧  ✧   *    .   *   * .  .   ✧   * .  .   ✧
 ✧  ✧   *    .   *        .       .     *.     .✧  ✧   *    .   * ✧  ✧   *    .   *

 ✧   *    .     .     ✧     .     * .  *   . ✧  ✧   *    .   * ✧  ✧   *    .   *   * .  .   ✧

  * .  .   ✧

‘I use my body as it was meant to be used, as a vessel of light, to express ℒℴve. I protect my body against the assaults of modernity from thoughts of

  c h a o s

to the contaminates of the physical environment, infusing my body with the light of the divine.’

-Marianne Williamson

🌼

Marianne’s prayer is basically a Cathar approach to their beliefs. There’s a devil and a god and that everything material (including the body) was the domain of evil, and the ethereal soul was the domain of God and that life was about the keeping the soul GOOD and PURE. To be a light and a conduit for spirit. Baptism was a vessel of purification. They revered John the Baptist. If in this life they did not achieve their goal, the goal of purity, they were reincarnated. Not unlike the Hindus belief of samskaras (earthly conditioning) and moksha, ending the cycle of death and re-birth through purification at the Ganges River in Varanasi, India. The underlying similarities between many religions and faiths is truly remarkable, especially in the Jewish faith and practices in Egypt and Iran. There was a lot of borrowing and re-shaping over the centuries, and yet, the ugly inhumane violence and destruction in the name of those beliefs is beyond understanding. The Cathars would probably just say, “Well, yeah. That’s the Rex Mundi part of this existence, the evil…the devil. The human experience.”

Might be a good time to listen to the ever optimistic Coldplay with their song ‘Humankind.’ I listened to it today after Rolling Stone posted about the group’s new video for the ‘Music of the Spheres’ track. They’re holding on to h o p e for the humans.

Rolling Stone

Coldplay Break Out the Fireworks for Euphoric ‘Humankind’ Video

I know, I know, I know
We’re only human
I know, I know, I know
How we’re designed
Oh I know, I know, I know
We’re only human
But we’re capable of kindness
So they call us humankind

Some of us, especially in the u.s.a., just need a lot more practice.

It rains in France!

And it’s 72 degrees!

Woo-Hoo! Doing the Languedoc happy dance. :)

Now, bring on the flooding since the drought has dried everything and the earth can’t absorb. You know, I think the river already looks higher. They run these test sirens for flooding that sound like WWII air raids. Glad I had been told me about them early after my arrival or I would have taken shelter under the bed thinking Putin had gotten feisty.

From France 24 and AFP News:

‘The French weather service warned Wednesday of flash flooding risks across much of the south, where a historic drought has parched the rugged Mediterranean hills, a day after fierce rainstorms lashed much of the country.’

And the fires. Spain firefighters are having a harrowing effort battling blazes as have many in France this summer.

The Independent

‘Firefighters ran from towering flames as they tackled the Bejís fire in Castellón, eastern Spain, on Tuesday afternoon, 16 August. Footage shows firefighters repeatedly shouting “fuera”, which means “get out,” as huge flames and plumes of smoke close in. The fire has burned over 1,900 acres (800 hectares) so far. Around 1,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, Valencia’s president Ximo Puig said. At least 11 people were injured after they evacuated a train travelling near the flames through Castellón.’

There’s always music in Limoux! ..•*¨`*♫.•

´*.¸.• .¸. ❥❥¸¸.☆¨¯ ♫.¸.¸¸.☆¨¯`❥❥

With the rain, lots of reading and research today. One of my favorite things is unlimited time and be surrounded by books and journals. Divine grace. Learning so much about the deeply layered history of this area, along with Egypt and Spain. I hope to visit a number of the ruins and villages I’m reading about, although getting there is going to be tough without a vehicle; cell phone service is precarious in some of these places too, to be able to fetch a ride from a taxi service, if…big if…they want to drive to the places I need to go for drop-off and pick-up. I’m going to look into some day tours, too.

http://www.enigmatours.com/EnigmaTours-Rennes-Le-Chateau_en.html

And found another site, too, with great visuals and history of the Cathars and Languedoc/Occitanie region.

‘And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.’ -F. Scott Fitzgerald

My favorite place to be.

https://www.payscathare.org/en

‘I believe the spiritual realm is so enmeshed with the physical that it is imperceptible. I believe in the mysterious nearness of my ancestors, but I believe they are located at the site of my own blood and bone.’ -Fr Richard Rohr

Oui! Or, as they said in Languedoc before they were overtaken by French kings and the Catholic church, ‘Oc!’ Yes. They had their own language, although not far from some of the French language. The dialect is so different here in this region and most likely the reason NOBODY UNDERSTANDS MY SIMPLEST OF FRENCH WORDS. Pronunciation. It’s mauvais. <sigh> Just wrong. It’s going to take me awhile. There’s a food server here I’ve gotten to know and she’s helping with my French pronunciation. So kind. She has trouble saying my first name. It’s very ‘flat’ sounding, I think…just kinda falls, well, flat. But! When I told her my middle name and try putting both together, it was beautiful! Dayle Ann…only she said it with her French accent and blurred the two names. It was parfait! Perfect. I think my new French name is now DayleAnn. My family once called me that when I was a little girl because I was named after my dad, Dale. So, DayleAnn it is. :)

À bientôt.

❀

Dayle in Limoux – Day #42

Just finished my first France journal my daughter made for me at Christmas.

🌸🤍🌸🤍🌸🤍🌸🤍🌸🤍🌸🤍🌸🤍🌸

#Deux!

‘If you think one noble thought in a mountain cave, then it will form vibrations throughout the Universe and will do what can and must be done’ [p.95, The Manuscript].

Again.

‘We all take part in the cruelty of the world. Even when we think we know nothing about it. We all carry a Hitler and a Yeshua in us. At one time or another each person must stop and face their own failures and cruelties. Otherwise they are just projected on’ [The Manuscript].

Indeed. When we forgive and offer grace, and it is not received, it is gravity. [Dualism] ‘Earth is a half-way house.’ And then, it is no longer ours. Forgive: to let go. If the other does not, it is their path now, not ours.

From Marianne Williamson today:

‘With every breath, I breathe in the holy substance that infuses all things.

On this day, I remember and will not forget that love is all around me. I acknowledge love’s presence in myself and others, and breathe in with every breath all the power it bestows.’

Cue The Troggs. :)

—

From the book, ‘The Beauty and Mystery of the Languedoc:’

‘The Languedoc region has a very extraordinary history, full of tragedy, conquer, drama and mystery. When you drive through the sleep villages today, it is hard to imagine that this region was once a metropolis of the highest importance and was at other times the seat of power from which large parts of the world were ruled. That is why it is worth while to have a closer look at its amazing history, because if you know what to look for, you can still find relics of these high times hidden in the most remote places.’ -Julia B. Kingsley

C’est vrai.

Look what I found. This ancienne église (ancient church) in Limoux, set back, and fenced off from the public due to safety concerns. I believe there is a renovation plan in place. Gorgeous. Even the tile. In many apartments and homes in the Occitanie region, the buildings are original, like the building I’m staying in, and often the original tile and flooring is in place, as well as stone walls and cobbled streets. In France they preserve and honor their history. How I wish the stones could speak. If we vibrated just a little more slowly, perhaps we could listen!

I want to hear their stories. It was once a convent in 1358.

I remember what Sir Henry Lincoln once said to me, ‘Stop looking, and see.’

Oui.

“The Holy Grail ‘neath ancient Roslin waits / The blade and chalice guarding o’er Her gates / Adorned by masters’ loving art, She lies / She rests at last beneath the starry skies.”

Bonne nuit.

🌹

Dayle in Limoux – Day #41

One of my favorite writers, Rebecca Solnit, posted this on social media–a quote from Robin Wall Kimmerer, a cherished essay called, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.

More from Robin…

‘Grieving is a sign of spiritual health. But it is not enough to weep for our lost landscapes; we have to put our hands in the earth to make ourselves whole again.’ 

‘Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.’

🌹There is no death. There are only new beginnings. As the sun sets it rises somewhere else. Whether it’s dawn or dusk, the light is always burning, always evolving into greater love.

-Jennifer Rose

‘We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.’ 

-Buckminister Fuller

Reading this quote again earlier today, my mind wallowed to Poussin’s own discovery of the Sacred Architecture in the Languedoc/Occitanie region of France and his painting, Les Bergers d’Arcadie (The Shepherds of Arcadia). Some consider it to be one of the greatest mysteries in France.

Et in Arcadia Ego

‘Even in Arcadia, there am I’

[Images are from the book, ‘Poussin’s Secret.‘]

“Seeing this complex harmony of trigonometrical, geometrical and doctrinal factor so brilliants interlaced, forcibly reminds one of the face that even Louis XIV went to considerable lengths to pursue this mystery. He knew that the Poussin painting held clues to a great secret, and he eventually became its owner.

His interest was no doubt precipitated by a strange letter which his Superintendent of Finances, Nicolas Fouquet, received from his brother, the Abbe Louis Fouquet, after the latter had met with Poussin in Rome. Part of the letter reads:

‘He and I discussed certain things, which I shall with ease be able to explain to you in detail. Things which will give you, through Monsieur Poussin, advantages which even kings would have great pains to draw form him and which, according to him, it is possible that nobody else will ever rediscover in the centuries to come. And what is more, these are things so difficult to discover that nothing now on this earth can prove of better fortune nor be their equal’ [p.23].

❦

Marianne Williamson:

‘According to ancient Asian philosophy, life is not a straight line but a spiral.’ (A go-to doodle!)

‘Every life lesson that has ever been presented to me (which means everything I have ever been through) will come back again, in some form, until I learn it. And the stakes each time will be higher. Whatever I’ve learned will bear greater fruit. Whatever I’ve failed to learn will bear harsher consequences.

Whatever didn’t work in my life before this point was a reflection of my failure to integrate the different parts of myself. Where I didn’t yet accept myself, I attracted a lack of acceptance in others. Where I hadn’t yet dealt with my shadows, I manifest shadowy situations. Broken parts of me encountered broken parts of others. But now I know! That was then and this is now.

The situation is what it is, although we will invariably cycle through stages of denial, anger, bargaining, resignation, and (hopefully) acceptance. The suffering might feel wrong, terminal, absurd, unjust, impossible, physically painful, or merely beyond our comfort zone. Can you see why we must have a proper attitude toward suffering? So many things, every day, leave us out of control—even if it is just a long stoplight. Remember, however, that if we do not transform our pain, we will surely transmit it to those around us and even to the next generation.’

Here endeth the lesson. :)

18 degrees cooler than the average over the last two months, which is actually, or was, the normal temperature this time of year. Read this earlier from AXIOS:

A new study reveals the emergence of an Extreme Heat Belt from Texas to Illinois, where the heat index could reach 125°F at least one day a year by 2053.

• That sweltering region includes St. Louis, Kansas City, Memphis, Tulsa and Chicago.
• By 2030, some coastal areas in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic may also experience days with a heat index above 125°F, the report found.

The findings come from a hyperlocal analysis of current and future extreme heat events published today by the nonprofit First Street Foundation.

And from director and co-writer of the film, “Don’t Look Up”, Adam McKay posted this earlier on social media:

“This is full on as terrifying as anything I’ve ever seen.”

The recent droughts in Europe once again made visible the “Hunger Stones” in some Czech and German rivers. These stones were used to mark desperately low river levels that would forecast famines. This one, in the Elbe river, is from 1616 and reads: “If you see me, cry.”

[Shoko Asahara Appreciation Consortium]

‘Even a wounded world holds us…’

À bientôt.
❀

Dayle in Limoux – Day #22

T

O

D

A

Y

William Henry Ashfield IV

‘Modeling the Effects of Flare Energy Release and Transport Through Chromospheric Condensation and Ultraviolet Coronal Emission.’

‘When we grant ourselves permission to live the life we want, there is little in the world that can stop us.’ -Marianne Williamson

Not even a plague. :)

Félicitations Guillaume Henri! Je t’aime.

ღ

At 5 pm today in France and 9am in Montana, William Henry defends his thesis. After 24 years of organized academics, he has reached the pinnacle. He is 27. He is brilliant. And those who know, knew. His teachers at Blaine County Schools in Sun Valley, Idaho. Reed College in Portland, who gave him the validation he needed, confirming his brilliance when he doubted. And his mom, who knew from the beginning, when I was holding him and he pointed at the dark sky and said, “Moon.” His first word. I am with you every moment, William Henry, my heart lifted to your gifts and possibility, your service and humility. You chose your life brilliantly. The planet, Gaia, needs you! Your Stanford/Lockheed post-doc awaits.

Here you G R O W!

“The ability to perceive or think differently is more important than the knowledge gained.”

-Dr. David Bohm

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

-Albert Einstein

Denver ℒℴve.

@BlaineSchools
@Reed_College_

Dayle in Limoux – Day #21

When we grant ourselves permission to live the life we want, there is little in the world that can stop us. Our weakness is often just a lack of faith – believing more in the limitations of the world than in the limitlessness of spirit. 

-Marianne Williamson

Vérité. Truth.

Sometimes, it takes a long time to unfold, but it will.

B

E

L

I

E

V

E

—

So, what are your feelings about public loos? Annie and I spotted one in Grenoble.

🤭

I said to Annie they need those for chicas, too.

Well, guess what. Reading in The Connexion French newspaper today they are!

Tres chic. But. Will they have a view?

These two shots are from Paris. Wait for it. Another Emily in Paris reference. She’s surprised while talking with her U.S. boss on her cell when a guy behind her starts to urinate publicly in one of those stalls. Couldn’t find a clip. BUT learned they are in Paris right now filming season III. Can’t wait. :)

—

Covid has hit 22 Maison. The owner of my building who lives downstairs is quite ill, trying to determine if she needs to go to the hospital. She absolutely should. I’m trying to encourage her to go. Not yet. She’s from he UK and her French is weak, and it’s difficult for her to communicate with them. Her breathing is quite labored and she’s coughing a lot. She had some health afflictions before I arrived and they have seemingly gotten worse. Now we know why. She found out a French friend tested positive today who she was near on Friday and Saturday. The owner didn’t have any tests so I took her one of my boxes. Almost instantly positive. So I tested, too. Negative. I have cold symptoms now, so I’ll test again tomorrow and on Friday. Drag. I was near her on Saturday. And although outside, we share a common space inside. I’ve been so careful, for so long…masks inside anywhere, and on public transportation, as well as outdoors if there’s a lot of folks, like marches (ourdoor markets). Yet this BA.5 is highly contagious as we know, and cases are going up 50% in France every week. Monkey Pox is also prolific. Humans, we are a mess.

This virus is not going away. Only morphing. And no one…no one…is wearing masks inside or out. Or social distancing. Seemingly, just me. <sigh>

I’m vaxxed and double-boosted, so, hoping for the best.

À bientôt.

❀

Saturday, May 14th, 2022

Like nature this time of year, abundance is all around you and the possibilities for all of us, together, are bountiful, if only we believe.

H

O

P

E

Not easy, is it. This thing called hope. Collectively, we can grow it together.

Can you feel it?

🌒

Tomorrow, the full moon lunar eclipse. From Lena at Power Path:

The Super Moon marks the bookend of this eclipse window that has brought powerful and unexpected change in endings, beginnings and transitions. Whatever you have set into motion over the last couple of weeks has tremendous momentum and will have far reaching effects. It is important to honor and acknowledge any endings and completions, whether they are initiated by you or not. It is also crucial to focus and place some attention on the space created for new beginnings by those completions. Stay out of any judgment or resentment or martyrdom if what has left your life was not of your doing. Instead, notice what is coming into your life and honor it as part of something new. If you only dwell on what you have lost, you will likely create the same thing for yourself, losing the opportunity to create something new, something that marks an improvement in your life. Be careful what you ask for during this powerful time and make sure it is from your heart and not a calculated thought process.

It is a good time to take action and to refine the intentions you have been working with since the new moon at the beginning of the month. This is a transformational time that can expose issues that need to be addressed, processed and changed. You can also be inspired to manage your obstacles in a new creative way. Be encouraged to think and problem-solve outside the box with a focus on improvement and innovation. Creative thinking will be rewarded with new solutions to old problems.

Whatever else happens, keep your energy light, your vibration as high as possible and your thoughts positive. Bring beauty into your life and fill yourself with inspiration and the intention to move forward in a positive way no matter what.

‘In the spiritual Universe, we only keep what we give away.’

-Marianne Williamson

J

O

Y

‘I would not sacrifice my soul / for all the beauty of this world. / There is only one thing / for which I would risk everything: / an I-don’t-know-what / that lies hidden / in the heart of the Mystery.’ -John of the Cross

Noche Oscura del Alma

‘If we stay the course and go through this [dark night], we find our way deeper, deeper, deeper, and then we can see that at any given moment in these ways, through marital love, through parenting, through solitude, through oneness with the world, through silence, through service to community, through art, in any given moment, there can come flashing forth our unexpected proximity to this mystical dimension of union.’ -James Finley

C O V I D

Summer Surge

1,000,000 U.S. (at least) – – let’s lower the flags and move on.

Yet, the virus continues to mutate and infect, and kill. In our small community, zero masks indoors. As if Covid is…gone.

“COVID-19 Rates Rising as Super Contagious Variant Gains Ground”

KRLD News Radio 1080

With Dr. Peter Hotez, Baylor College of Medicine, with his own breakthrough infection.

“This new BA.2.12 sub-variant is the most transmissible one we’ve seen to date and it’s up there with measles in terms of its reproductive number and its ability to infect. So when you have something this transmissible, even a good vaccine is going to be tough to fight.” Any individual shedding that virus is likely to infect 12 other people.

BA.2.12 is now poised to become the dominant variant in the United States. Dr. Hotez says prior infection from Omicron doesn’t offer much in the way of immunity.

“I have to believe this coming summer we’re going to be vulnerable yet again. Don’t screw around. Get vaccinated, get boosted and get your kids vaccinated.”

In Texas? The testing positivity rate was below 2% in the middle of March. Now it’s up to 8.4%. Keeping in mind, many are ‘home’ testing and positive results are not being recorded.

Too few boosted. Too many more will suffer from long Covid complications. And too many more will die.

#

‘You might as well start packing now…’

‘…and practice being alive.’

How To B/e/l/o/n/g Be Alone
Written and read by Pádraig Ó Tuama

~

It all begins with knowing
nothing lasts forever,
so you might as well start packing now.

In the meantime,
practice being alive.

There will be a party
where you’ll feel like
nobody’s paying you attention.
And there will be a party
where attention’s all you’ll get.
What you need to do
is to remember
to talk to yourself
between these parties.

And,
again,
there will be a day,
— a decade —
where you won’t
fit in with your body
even though you’re in
the only body you’re in.

You need to control
your habit of forgetting
to breathe.

Remember when you were younger
and you practiced kissing on your arm?
You were on to something then.
Sometimes harm knows its own healing
Comfort knows its own intelligence.
Kindness too.
It needs no reason.

There is a you
telling you another story of you.
Listen to her.

Where do you feel
anxiety in your body?
The chest? The fist? The dream before waking?
The head that feels like it’s at the top of the swing
or the clutch of gut like falling
& falling & falling and falling
It knows something: you’re dying.
Try to stay alive.

For now, touch yourself.
I’m serious.

Touch your
self.
Take your hand
and place your hand
some place
upon your body.
And listen
to the community of madness
that
you are.
You are
such an
interesting conversation.

You belong
here.

---

‘In truth, the purpose of any relationship is that love itself be served, in the lives of all concerned.’ -Marianne Williamson

The generous heart does not collapse into the easy things, but rises up in adversity. – Mirabai Starr [Glosa a lo Divino, John of the Cross]

‘The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.’ -Kahlil Gibran

Thursday, March 24th, 2022

Slava Ukraini

‘Perhaps Sartre was not far wrong in saying that where freedom is abused, society itself turns into hell.’

L’enfer c’est les autres.

Richard Rohr, Center for Action and Contemplation:

“When you say you love God, you are saying you love everything (being Gaia). That’s why mystics can love the foreigner, the outsider; in fact, they cannot not love them, because they see truthfully and fully!”

“Return of the Divine Feminine (Mary Magdalene). As the late physicist David Bohm put it, ‘Something more than siren is needed.’ Values are needed, as well as the passion and courage to live them and put them into practice.”

-Matthew Fox

“Meister Eckhart, “Nature is grace.” Creation spirituality. A return to love.

Gnostic gospels of Thomas, Philip and Mary, right practice v. right behavior, the Canonical gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Cynthia Bourgeault, Episcopalian priest:

‘Mary Magdalene’s place of honor is so strong that even the heavy land of a later (300 years), male-dominated ecclesiology cannot entirely dislodge it. […] The high position she held among the close followers of Jesus is more explicitly shown in the Gnostic Gospels where Mary Magdalene is seen as “First among the the Apostles”, not because she was the first on the scene at the ressurectioin but in a more fundamental way: because she gets the message. Of all the disciples, she is the only one who fully understands what Jesus is teaching and can reproduce it in her own life. Her position of leadership is earned, and it is specifically validated by Jesus himself.’

Again, it’s right belief v. right practice. Spiritual Creation is practice. “When you love god, you love everything. That’s why the musics can love the foreigner, the outsider; in fact, they cannot not love them, because they see truthfully and fully” (Richard Rohr).

“The world will only change as we change.”

[Now on Netflix]

Marianne Williamson:

“America has lost its capacity to respond to an emergency. Materialism and consumerism have made us dense and sluggish and unable, or unwilling, to collectively respond to even dangers in our midst.” ❁

Wednesday, March 16th, 2022

[Church of the Voyager, Coronado, California.]

Ukraine’s colors remind us of light, in so much darkness.

Marianne Williamson:

Pave a way for me out of darkness into l i g h t. 

‘Great people are not those who have never fallen down. Great people are those who, when they do fall down, dig deep within themselves and find the strength to get back up. Today may I be someone who rises from the ashes of (the) past.’

#StandingWithUkraine

‘I’m with Meduza’

Defend the Truth

Independent Russian news.

From Meduza:

“We need your help. Right now.

The Kremlin is doing everything in its power to hide the truth about its war against Ukraine. Russia is under military censorship. The authorities prohibit the press from calling this full-scale invasion of Ukraine a war, and they threaten journalists who publish independently verified information about the conflict with up to 15 years in prison.

Meduza was launched in Europe in 2014, shortly after Russia annexed Crimea. For eight years, we have worked to produce independent journalism under the most unfavorable conditions. Millions of people in Russia now rely on our reporting. But a few days ago, our journalists were forced to leave the country.

Since the outbreak of this war, transferring money from Russia to Europe has been impossible. We lost 30,000 donators. At the moment, we get no money from Russia at all.

In this situation, we turn to you. We ask you to take the place of our dedicated supporters in Russia. Save Meduza for our Russian readers — and for yourself.

We have a duty to tell the truth. We have millions of readers in Russia who need us. Without independent journalism, it will be impossible to stop this monstrous war.”

https://support.meduza.io/en

“We are, like Dante, lost in a dark forest, with no sense of orientation. An increasing process of abstraction has demolished our human values, leaving in total command that ultimate abstraction which is the general exchange value for all goods and services: money.

And it may well be that, like Dante, we will have to go through hell and purgatory in order to access our true nature, which is, all wisdom traditions teach us, love.

It will not be an easy journey. It is our collective spiritual task and It will require that we recognize not just the evil which is out there, visible and obvious, but the subtler forms of its inner counterpart, the subtle ways in which we are all partaking of the collateral damage.

We need to be inner and outer warriors, so that pure love may shine, l’amor che muove il sole e l’altre stelle (the love which moves the sun and the other stars).”

Shantena Sabbadini, Director

The destruction and murder deepens today.

“More bodies will come, from streets where they are everywhere and from the hospital basement where adults and children are laid out awaiting someone to pick them up. The youngest still has an umbilical stump attached.”

From British journalist Carole Cadwalladr:

Oh my god. You can see the words written perfectly clearly, both in front & back of the building: “DETI” = “CHILDREN”

From AP News:

By MSTYSLAV CHERNOV, EVGENIY MALOLETKA and LORI HINNANT

MARIUPOL, Ukraine (AP) — The bodies of the children all lie here, dumped into this narrow trench hastily dug into the frozen earth of Mariupol to the constant drumbeat of shelling.

There’s 18-month-old Kirill, whose shrapnel wound to the head proved too much for his little toddler’s body. There’s 16-year-old Iliya, whose legs were blown up in an explosion during a soccer game at a school field. There’s the girl no older than 6 who wore the pajamas with cartoon unicorns, among the first of Mariupol’s children to die from a Russian shell.

They are stacked together with dozens of others in this mass grave on the outskirts of the city. A man covered in a bright blue tarp, weighed down by stones at the crumbling curb. A woman wrapped in a red and gold bedsheet, her legs neatly bound at the ankles with a scrap of white fabric. Workers toss the bodies in as fast as they can, because the less time they spend in the open, the better their own chances of survival.

“The only thing (I want) is for this to be finished,” raged worker Volodymyr Bykovskyi, pulling crinkling black body bags from a truck. “Damn them all, those people who started this!”

More bodies will come, from streets where they are everywhere and from the hospital basement where adults and children are laid out awaiting someone to pick them up. The youngest still has an umbilical stump attached.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-mariupol-descends-into-despair-708cb8f4a171ce3f1c1b0b8d090e38e3

From Pope Francis:

ℒℴve.

“The chain reaction of evil — hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars — must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”

—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

‘Extreme political polarization. Weaponized misinformation. Media incentivized to divide. And growing inequality. Our democratic experiment has seen better days. How do we reimagine it for the betterment of all?

Spiritual thought leader, activist, and political writer Marianne Williamson says it begins with love.’

-Rich Roll

Thursday, February 17th, 2022

‘Our minds our like crows. They pick up everything that glitters, no matter how uncomfortable our nests get with all the metal in them.’

-Thomas Merton, 1961, Seeds of Destruction

Apropos for contemporaneous news cycles and destruction of social media. -dayle

For the thousands who die everyday from the pandemic still, whose deaths are only felt in numbers, not souls…1,000,000 total as of today. -dayle

‘Any disaster you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life.’

-Joseph Campbell

‘What is to give light must endure burning.’

-Victor Frankl

A prayer from Marianne:

‘I place my relationship with him in your hands. May my presence once again be a blessing in his life, and my his be blessing in mine. May my thoughts toward him be those of innocence and love, and may his toward me be the same. Amen.’

❀

Monday, February 7th, 2022

“At least the global pandemic brought us all together.”

-Ricky Gervais

Rumi:

The human shape is a ghost

made of distraction and pain.

Sometimes pure light, sometimes cruel,

trying wildly to open,

this image tightly held within itself.

Emmanuel Macron, President of France:

“…a response that makes it possible to avoid war, to build the elements of confidence, stability and visibility. Together.”

Marianne Williamson:

“The role I want to play right now is citizen.”

“When we grant ourselves permission to live the life we want, there is little in the world that can stop us.” -Marianne

(C’est vrai.)

Reading this from Seth, reminded of Matthew’s book, which I loved. -dayle

Thomas Berry:

“We will not save what we do not love.”

And from Matthew Fox:

“In Invoking the divine feminine, Julian of Norwich is of course informing us about how we need a balanced sense of gender to survive and even thrive in a time of pandemic and after a pandemic has left us. […] All human life on the planet is born of woman.“

Holocaust Remembrance Day 🕯

Today marks the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz on Jan. 27, 1945.

Wreaths were placed in Berlin today at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

President Biden said: “Today, we attempt to fill a piercing silence from our past — to give voice to the six million Jews who were systematically and ruthlessly murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators.” [AXIOS]

Halina Birenbaum, a 92-year-old Polish-born poet who lives in Israel, recalled her suffering remotely. She was 10 when the Germans invaded and occupied Poland in September 1939, and was 13 when she was taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau after being led out of the gas chamber of the Majdanek camp thanks to a malfunction.

“I saw masses of the powerful but arrogant army of Nazi Germany as they marched cruelly, victoriously, into the devastated and burning streets of Warsaw,” she recalled.

“The countless experiences of infinite suffering on the brink of death are already a distant, unimaginable story for new generations,” she said.

Commemorations everywhere took place amid a rise of antisemitism that gained traction during lockdowns as the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated hatred online.

German parliament speaker Baerbel Bas said the pandemic has acted “like an accelerant” to already burgeoning antisemitism.

French President Emmanuel Macron, center, flanked by Auschwitz concentration camp survivor Esther Senot, second left, and Bergen-Belsen concentration camp survivor Victor Perahia, right, stand at attention at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe to mark the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022 in Paris. . Holocaust survivors and politicians warned about the resurgence of antisemitism and Holocaust denial as the world remembered Nazi atrocities and commemorated the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp on Thursday. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, Pool)

Miejsce Pamięci i Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau

Official recording from the LIVE stream of the commemoration event for the 77th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz (January 27, 2022, 16 CET).

‘Holocaust Remembrance Day was designated by United Nations General Assembly resolution 60/7 on 1 November 2005. The resolution came after a special session was held earlier that year on 24 January to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps and the end of the Holocaust.’ [wikipedia]

From Marianne Williamson:

Dear God,

On this day of painful remembrance,

Please bless the souls of those who died in the Holocaust.

Bless the souls of those who were targeted,

and bless the souls of those who helped them.

Heal the hearts of those who carry the scars of evil,

and awaken our hearts and strengthen us

for the work that we must do today.

Help us

to create a world in which evil such as that

will occur no more.

Amen

In the words of Elie Weisel, a survivor of Holocaust who dedicated his life to our deeper understanding of its significance,

“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness. Not only are we responsible for the memories of the dead, we are responsible for what we do with those memories.”

Today, we must do a lot with them. Today may we all bear witness.

Auschwitz Memorial Podcast

“The official podcast of the Auschwitz Memorial. The history of Auschwitz is exceptionally complex. It combined two functions: a concentration camp and an extermination center. Nazi Germany persecuted various groups of people there, and the camp complex continually expanded and transformed itself. In the podcast “On Auschwitz,” we discuss the details of the history of the camp as well as our contemporary memory of this important and special place.”

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/on-auschwitz/id1568273147

Online lessons: http://lesson.auschwitz.org

From the Auschwitz Memorial, Saturday, January 29th, 2022

29 January 1936 | A French Jewish boy, Michel Ejzenberg, was born in Paris. He arrived at #Auschwitz on 26 August 1942 in a transport of 1,000 Jews deported from Drancy. He was murdered in a gas chamber after selection.

Please follow them on social media. Everyday, they post a photo on the birthday of a prisoner from the concentration camps during WWII. On Twitter: @AuschwitzMuseum

We honor their memory, and remember their promise.

-dayle

MLK DAY 2022

Life takes pride in not appearing uncomplicated. If it relied on simplicity, it probably would not succeed in moving us to do all those things that we are not easily moved to do.

-Rilke

Seth Godin:

“The Way Things Are…”

That’s how culture perpetuates injustice and indignity. Because that’s just the way things are around here.

But the status quo isn’t permanent. The world doesn’t stay the way it was. It changes.

And it’s been changing faster than ever.

It doesn’t change because the status quo sub-committee had a meeting and decided to change it.

It changes when someone decides that the way things are around here needs to change, and simply and bravely begins to do something differently.

And then someone else follows along.

Dan Rather:

I fear that the elevation of Dr. King to the pantheon of great Americans who have national birthday celebrations has come at a subtle cost. These days almost no public official would dare speak ill of Dr. King. However I worry that this universal acclaim has deadened the radicalism of Dr. King’s message. And by radicalism, I mean that what he espoused was far outside what was then the mainstream. It still is.

We must remember that he was a deeply contentious person at the time of his death. Dr. King would not, could not, suppress the moral clarity with which he saw the world. His messages about racial prejudice and social justice were not welcome in most corridors of power. He was a danger to the status quo and many who benefited from it. He not only preached powerfully about the necessity for racial healing and integration. He also issued stirring rhetoric from his pulpit on the need for economic fairness across racial lines. And he was a fierce critic of the Vietnam War.

So today, please don’t revere Dr. King the American saint. Please engage with Dr. King as the unique vessel for a message America was long overdue to hear.

[Steady/Substack]

https://steady.substack.com/p/remembering-dr-king?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo3NzQxODc2LCJwb3N0X2lkIjo0NzE0OTE5OCwiXyI6Imc5NzkxIiwiaWF0IjoxNjQyNDUxOTY0LCJleHAiOjE2NDI0NTU1NjQsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yNDc4ODEiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0._IKTFNkcwaZtjY4vR8egOl8Fssc0Ssv3U-tauVb9tEA

Our Turn Now

Marianne Williamson:

Those words should ring like clarion calls to all of us today. Our task is not merely to celebrate the ideals of Martin Luther King Jr., but to commit ourselves to their realization. And that means much more than just tweeting a quote, or making an instagram post. It means developing what Dr. King described as “tough minds and tender hearts.” It means committing to routing out not only systems of injustice in the world, but also the hatred in our own hearts. Dr. King said that a basic tenet of non-violent philosophy is that “self-purification must precede political action.” In his words, we need both “a quantitative change in our circumstances and a qualitative shift in our souls.”

Dr. King was the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., remember, a Baptist preacher whose political vision was rooted in his understanding of the gospel of Christ. “It is time,” he said, “to inject a new dimension of love into the veins of human civilization.” That love – that new love – was a social love, a love that would heal not only personal but also political and social relationships as well. He found inspiration for that possibility in the work of Mahatma Gandhi, traveling to India to study the principles of non-violence and bringing them back for application to the struggle for Civil Rights in the United States in the 1960’s.

So many of the struggles to which Dr. King dedicated his life, and for which he ultimately died, are struggles that are with us still. Surely he could be talking about America today with comments such as this: “If they give it to poor people, they call it a handout; if they give it to rich people, they call it a subsidy.” Or, “If it happens to rich people, they call it a Depression; if it happens to poor people, they call it a social problem.” Or how about this? In describing America in 1967, Dr. King described the “three evils” of racism, consumerism/poverty, and militarism/war. As those not the main challenges that are with us now? He called for a “radical revolution of values” then, just as we need to call for one now.

The struggle is in our hands. The dream is in our hands. The hope is in our hands.

MLK Day 2022. It’s our turn now.

‘…the ultimate goal (was) the establishment of the beloved community.” Such a notion was not a religious platitude; it was a political strategy.

For a full look at Dr. King’s writings and speeches, I highly recommend A Testament of Hope.’ -Marianne

The longer I live, the more urgent it seems to me to endure and transcribe the whole dictation of existence up to its end, for it might just be the case that only the very last sentence contains that small and possibly inconspicuous word through which everything we had struggled to learn and everything we had failed to understand will be transformed suddenly into magnificent sense.

-Rilke

Sunday, January 16th, 2022

Marianne Williamson:

Not every lesson feels fun while it’s happening, and at times I have resisted growth fiercely. But I remain open today to the miracle of transformation. I know that as I move forward into a new realm of being, Love itself will aid me in my progress. Spirit will erase the patterns of fear that have sabotaged my past.

“Freedom without consequences is a myth.

Our actions always have consequences.

The question is: who will bear them?” -Seth Godin

From https://www.suleikajaouad.com newsletter this week.

Suleika, your name is on my alter as you continue to ease back into health. February v i b e s  strong. Only love and healing and wholeness. -dayle

“When you’re suffering—enduring some kind of rage or heartbreak, disappointment or plain human idiocy—it can feel like you’re alone, like you’re the only person who’s struggling this way. Often, the impulse in those moments is not to share or create but to hide.”

-Suleika Jaouad

Diving deeply into a dynamic unity, Father Richard Rohr writes:

In the early Christian era, only some few Eastern Fathers (such as Origen of Alexandria and Maximus the Confessor) cared to notice that the Christ was clearly something older, larger, and different than Jesus himself. They mystically saw that Jesus is the union of human and divine in space and time, and the Christ is the eternal union of matter and Spirit beyond time. But the later centuries tended to lose this mystical element in favor of dualistic Christianity. We lost our foundational paradigm for connecting all opposites.

Since we could not overcome the split between the spiritual and the material within ourselves, how could we then possibly overcome it for the rest of creation?

The polluted earth, extinct and endangered species, tortured animals, nonstop wars, and constant religious conflicts have been the result. Yet Jesus the Christ has still planted within creation a cosmic hope, and we cannot help but see it in so many unexplainable and wonderful events and people.

For more and more people, union with the divine is first experienced through “the Universal Christ”—in nature, in moments of pure love, silence, inner or outer music, with animals, or a primal sense of awe. 

Our encounter with the eternal Christ mystery started about 13.8 billion years ago in an event we now call the “Big Bang.” God has overflowed into visible Reality and revealed God’s self in trilobites, giant flightless birds, jellyfish, pterodactyls, and thousands of species that humans have never once seen. But God did.  And that was already more than enough meaning and glory.

From journalist and former CBS news anchor Dan Rather today:

Steady is about taking the world as it comes, trying to control what you can but recognizing much is beyond your ability to shape. It is about joining with others to leverage the power of collective action. It is about caring for yourself when you need to regain your footing. It’s about understanding that others have struggled in the face of injustice and despair. Steady is about recognizing that progress is possible, even when it feels ungraspable. It is also about having the humility to understand that joy can be fleeting, so you need to find it and hold on to it when you can. 

I don’t know what the next year holds in store, for me, for you, or for our country and our planet. I hope it is one of greater justice, peace, and health. I know that it will undoubtedly be one of challenges, in ways we can predict, and in ways that are unknowable.

Emerson:

God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please…you can never have both. […] There is no history. There is only biography. 

“Caution is like a disease, it kills ideas. Be daring. And caution will disappear.” -Yoko

Howl. Go ahead.

 

Full Moon in Cancer is Monday, January 17 at 4:50PM Mountain Standard Time (MST) Also known as the Wolf Moon, this full moon suggests a deeply emotional time giving opportunity for some serious emotional clearing of pent up frustrations, past disappointments, regrets, judgments and feelings about what has or has not happened. It is a good time to sort out the difference between your mental thoughts and judgments and the true nature of your emotional center and what it holds. This year (2022) is an emotionally centered year and we see it anchored in this full moon. Since the theme of January is about values and what is important, this will also be highlighted during the full moon window. Beware of self-judgment around what you should have paid more attention to or put more energy into. What is past is past. Clear the emotions around it and move on. This is also a good time to receive the higher emotional energies of gratitude, love, awe, beauty and inspiration. Do some self-care during this time that includes some higher-centered possibilities. Since Mercury is now retrograde, this is a time for more being rather than doing and a good time for reflection and study of where your true power comes from. What is important to you? What do you value? What do you love? What do you love to do and where do you love to be? And with whom? Blessings, Lena PowerPath.com

🌕

Marianne Williamson:

Today I choose the light, and turn away from darkness. 

I know there is a force within that lures me toward the light, yet there is a competing force within me that would keep me bound to darkness. May the love of God cast out the fear that is lodged inside my consciousness, and deliver me to peace. May the light of love cast out all fear and darkness in my mind.

2021’s last day. Exhale.

She isn’t letting us go gently as she finally releases her grip. Colorado. ♡ -dayle

From Marianne Williamson:

“I embrace each moment as an opportunity for a miracle. 

Infinite opportunity is built into the nature of the universe.

It is not lack of opportunities, but rather the ways I have sabotaged them, that has obstructed the flow of miracles into my life.” 

December 31, 2021

A Revelation of Heaven on Earth

“We return today to CAC teacher Brian McLaren, who illustrates how one of the Bible’s most challenging books—Revelation—can be a source of wisdom and hope for us today:

There’s a beautiful visionary scene at the end of the Book of Revelation that is as relevant today as it was in the first century. It doesn’t picture us being evacuated from Earth to heaven as many assume. It pictures a New Jerusalem descending from heaven to Earth [see Revelation, chapter 21]. This new city doesn’t need a temple because God’s presence is felt everywhere. It doesn’t need sun or moon because the light of Christ illuminates it from within. Its gates are never shut, and it welcomes people from around the world to receive the treasures it offers and bring the treasures they can offer. From the center of the city, from God’s own throne, a river flows—a river of life or aliveness. Along its banks grows the Tree of Life. All of this, of course, evokes the original creation story and echoes God’s own words in Revelation: “Behold! I’m making all things new!”

Rather than giving its original readers and hearers a coded blueprint of the future, Revelation gave them visionary insight into their present situation. It told them that the story of God’s work in history has never been about escaping Earth and going up to heaven. It has always been about God descending to dwell among us. . . . God wasn’t a distant, terrifying monster waiting for vengeance at the end of the universe. God was descending among us here and now, making the tree of true aliveness available for all.

Earlier in the year, Richard shared the shocking hopefulness of the Bible’s apocalyptic literature:

God puts us in a world of passing things where everything changes and nothing remains the same.

The only thing that doesn’t change is change itself. It’s a hard lesson to learn. It helps us appreciate that everything is a gift. We didn’t create it. We don’t deserve it. It will not last, but while we breathe it in, we can enjoy it, and know that it is another moment of God, another moment of life.

People who take this moment seriously take every moment seriously, and those are the people who are ready for heaven.

Brian offers this final encouragement:

What was true for Revelation’s original audience is true for us today. Whatever madman is in power, whatever chaos is breaking out, whatever danger threatens, the river of life is flowing now. The Tree of Life is bearing fruit now. True aliveness is available now. That’s why Revelation ends with the sound of a single word echoing through the universe. That word is not Wait! Nor is it Not Yet!or Someday! It is a word of invitation, welcome, reception, hospitality, and possibility. It is a word not of ending, but of new beginning. That one word is Come! The Spirit says it to us. We echo it back. Together with the Spirit, we say it to everyone who is willing. Come!”

-Brian McLaren

-Father Richard Rohr

~

‘We’ve been studying war for centuries, we must now study how to create peace…conditions for a deep and lasting peace.’ -Brian McLaren

Plan for U.S. Department of Peace

Ending the scourge of violence in the United States and across the planet requires more than suppressing violence. Lasting peace requires its active and systematized cultivation at every level of government and society. The U.S. Department of Peace will coordinate and spur the efforts we need to make our country and the world a safer place. Nothing short of broad-scale investment and government reorientation can truly turn things around.

Both domestically and internationally, we must dramatically ramp up the use of proven powers of peace-building, including dialogue, mediation, conflict resolution, economic and social development, restorative justice, public health approaches to violence prevention, trauma-informed systems of care, social and emotional learning in schools, and many others.

“I believe our country’s way of dealing with security issues is increasingly obsolete. We have the finest military force in the world, however we can no longer rely on force alone to rid ourselves of international enemies. The planet has become too small for that, and in so doing, we overburden our military by asking them to compensate for the other work that we choose not to do. We are less effective, and less secure, because of that,” said Williamson.

As its mission, the U.S. Department of Peace will; hold peace as an organizing principle; promote justice and democratic principles to expand human rights; coordinate restorative justice programs; address white supremacy; strengthen nonmilitary means of peacemaking; work to prevent armed conflict; address the epidemic of gun violence; develop new structures of nonviolent dispute resolution; and proactively and systematically promote national and international conflict prevention, mediation, and resolution. In short, we must wage peace. “Large groups of desperate people,” said Williamson, “should be seen as a national security risk.”

The Department will create and establish a Peace Academy, modeled after the military service academies, which will provide a 4-year concentration in peace education. Graduates will be required to serve 5 years in public service in programs dedicated to domestic or international nonviolent conflict resolution.

The Secretary of Peace will serve as a member of the National Security Council and will be empowered to coordinate with all Cabinet agencies – including the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education, Justice, and State, and the new Department of Children and Youth. 

In 2022, let’s pledge to making this our reality. -dayle

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

May all beings be happy.

May all beings be free from disease.

May auspiciousness be seen everywhere.

May suffering belong to no one.

Peace

Shanti~Shanti~Shanti