The Flower of Self-Awareness, Giving & Forgiving

Hollow Horn Bear - 1907 (by Edward S. Curtis)

"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is in the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself at sunset."

~Crowfoot Blackfeet

Thanksgiving seems to have become more of a sad and worrisome time than the celebration it was originally meant to be. As a therapist I hear so many stories of trauma and dread about having to to figure out how to go spend time with troublesome family groups—as if it's a done deal of damnation—and then again when everyone returns, confused, battle-worn and beaten up, in need of solace, healing and peace.

 I recently watched a documentary about new and startling findings about Stonehenge. Seven years' worth of digging by archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson and his team revealed clear evidence that there were two monolithic sites: one being the well-known stone installation, and the other, a timber replica, situated a few miles away. It is now strongly believed that many thousands of people gathered for the winter solstice, and not the summer solstice as previously believed, to first ritually celebrate the "dead" at the stone circle (or as we would say, the Risen) and then walk en masses to the timber circle to celebrate life and the living at the wooden one. Apparently the life celebrations were exceedingly non-stop food fests and sensually rambunctious, resulting in many new births nine months later. The findings have been published in a new book, Stonehenge—A New Understanding.

We of the 21st century are in desperate need of such rituals—any rituals, really at this point. Rituals provide so much, including a sense of belonging, of meaning, of structure—things that are almost gone for many on this planet. Native Americans lived daily with the conscious awareness of gratitude, and were able to communicate through their rituals with their Risen loved ones on a continual basis for guidance and an enlarged sense of self and community.  I'm  reading the biography of Edward S. Curtis, Short Nights of the Shadowcatcher. He was the photographer who made it his life's mission to record in image and sound all the last remaining Native American tribes. It is beautifully written, but a hard read, because the greed and ignorant depravity of the so-called "civilized" white man (and I do mean "men," the partriarchs of US government and untaxed multi-millionaire industrialists) is overwhelming.  And let the record show that non-white cultures also invaded and decimated many tribes across the country as well. "Indian experts" of the Smithsonian actively denied that Native Americans had any religious sensibilities at all, and yet the Government simultaneously punished them for partaking in any of their religious ceremonies, and even language, in such severe and unconscionable ways that give me nightmares. Nonetheless, Curtis relentlessly strove to win the trust of many, but not all, tribal leaders and medicine men, to participat in their ceremonial dances, while recording their lives even as they faded to shadows before finally winking out. The real grief I feel while reading this book leaves me bereft and sad beyond words. Some of the feelings are softened by the knowledge that many Native Americans, now Risen, still choose to offer their support and wisdom as spirit guides to those of us open to them.  As I write this, I can hear Canadian geese talking and calling to each other as they do some last-minute grazing in the park's fields just outside my window. Like the tribes of ancient Stonehenge and of North America, they have a deeply innate understanding of the journey of life, for they live it.

Those who have read The Risen will be aware that it was the Risen Collective—an association of more than 1,500 various entities—who managed the orchestration of the book, at the request of an even higher-vibrating congress, The Risen Assembly. There were also several other "gatherings" or groups of spiritual beings who contributed in various ways, notably one that called itself  "Cloud," offering solace and words of healing through conscious gratitude. There is a curious feel to Cloud's words that suggest a Native American influence.

“As for those left behind on the earth—you are never responsible in any way for their state of vibration—only for your own. In your freedom you may know their grief as keenly as if it were your own. You will no longer have the body with which to embrace theirs in comfort, and this may be a mental agony that requires much healing, both for those in spirit bodies and those in earthly bodies. Medium, you are aware that we have influenced much of what you have shared about grief. We re-echo your words here as a gift for your own benefit. Be aware of opportunities to begin the healing while together on the earth. Ask. Always, simply, ask for help, for giving is what the universe builds upon. You will always receive this forgiving, and it will arrive in some form, regardless of your expectations. Most often help has arrived long before you ask for it, and it is gentle and subtle, intent on not interfering and only with assisting. If you do not want it you will not receive it, but you will still be watched and guided, even in the darkest of moments. You are always loved, even if you have withdrawn love from yourself. As you would give the flowers the space and elements in which to thrive, strive to see yourself and others as flowers. Know that you are a flower with self-awareness. It is this self-awareness that enables you to live in conscious awareness of grace, which is the gift of self-awareness, as well as the ability to live in a continual expression of natural gratitude.” (The Risen, p. 107)

Thoughts of Consolation from Hans Bender

Following are some of the consoling words of guidance for the bereaved offered by Hans Bender during several of the sittings of Kai Mugge that August attended this summer. The full report may be found here.

“All dimensions are in the same location—this is the ultimate Act of Love. So upon transition one is instantly reunited with those on Earth, who don't see this. They are literally blinded by their grief. We want them to open their eyes and see that we live, and that we live more than ever!”

“When you grieve you cause your loved ones pain. They suffer from your grief. So you must work very hard to transform your suffering into being happy for them.”

“Love can be used destructively as well as constructively. Use your love to leave the grief, for the grief is destructive. It does not help your loved ones, but hurts them deeply. You must become filled with joy for them—it is the right way.”

“We do not wish to invalidate your very real and painful grief process, but it should not go on for months or years, for this is not good for you or for your loved ones—use your love to leave the grief.”

“Do not let yourself be dominated by fear, but be filled with joy and awe.”

“All of us are All-One, which is the end result of the ultimate act of love.”

Grief, Tapestries, and Astronauts

The following is a brief excerpt from a new Risen book in progress about grief.

   The Risen themselves once lived on the Earth, and their collective experiences have contributed to this book in your hands. The words in it arise from the feelings they experienced when they were on the Earth, and from insights they now find in their present state of existence. It is a Risen gift to assist in navigating the mysterious, stormy waters of grief. It will not reveal any secret answers to the mysteries of grief. Grief is not meant to last long enough to stay mysterious, because we are not meant to stay on this Earth forever.

Grief is a doorway; an opening that is meant to be passed through.

      Of course we seek answers. But answers typically give rise to more questions—and who needs more questions? When we achieve a way of living where we no longer feel the need to ask any more questions, we also realize that answers were never needed. This way of behavior is sometimes called “surrender.” The ultimate result of surrendering is a way of living and feeling called serenity.

      Surrender means “I am consciously putting down my weapons and getting off the battlefield.” Surrender means we are finally willing to hand our weapons over to Creator Source, which will transform them into musical instruments and other tools of positive communication.

      Our words—and the way in which we use them—can be seen to be tools or weapons. Are we using them positively or otherwise? As the light of conscious awareness is turned upon the alleged darkness, eventually it will be seen that so-called negative things are actually positive, waiting in the shadows to be revealed. This essentially means that there is really no such thing as a “bad negative.” Rather, it means there is only one power in the Universe, which we can experience in an infinite number of ways. This power is Life, for that is all there is—there is no “death”—only and simply transition from one form of life to another form.

Death is transition from one form of life to another form.

      Apparent negativities are always in the process of developing into something else—they are unfolding. When something positive is not yet fully formed we may feel it as something less-than-positive, or negative. In spite of appearances we must believe that there is something happening that is on its way to become positive, and then let the previously perceived negative experience transform into its true manifestation, or truth. This has sometimes been expressed as “Let go and let God.” Faith is the act of asserting and affirming a belief. Even if we don’t believe the belief, repeating it over and over will eventually change into a feeling of acceptance, which is faith.

Fear is faith trying to unfold.

      The idea that the negative is really an unfinished positive might not make sense, even though it’s true. It may be easy to think it’s true, but we really must come to feel that it’s true. If it doesn’t feel right, this is evidence that one has not yet surrendered to allowing oneself to fully feel. It is evidence that the positive has not yet finished forming. So surrender and let it finish.

      For example, take the feeling of regret—a feeling that arises from thinking about failed expectations in the future that have departed into the past. Choosing to remain focused on thoughts and feelings of regret will exclude your awareness from the present, causing a downward kind of feeling. However, choosing to forget about the regret—to let go of it—is to release it. This act of release will then give rise to the higher-vibrating, positive feeling of acceptance. Allowing oneself to feel the acceptance then gives rise to relief, one of the most powerful and positive feelings a human can have. This “giving rise” is actually an aspect of a Risen experience while still on the planet. The feeling acceptance is also another transformation—that of fear into faith.

      How does one forget something once it’s happened? Isn’t that denial? Yes, it is—but it is an affirmative use of denial. It is using denial instead of letting it use you. It is using denial as a way of effectively saying, “I let it go back into the nothingness from which it arose.” Untying yourself from something will set you free, like an astronaut freed to float in space. The significance of this kind of personal power—of being able to say “no” and have it unconditionally accepted by the universe—is staggering. But as long as it frightens you, you will never be a fully functioning and happy astronaut in your universe.

      If you can forget something hurtful a child once did to you, then you can forgive. This also includes your inner child. Very likely the child has already forgotten all about it and is no less the happier for it. Are you disappointed that it sounds too easy? Untie your attachment to disappointment and see what happens. If you can say “it was nothing” and believe it, then it is done.

      Think of your life as an immense tapestry, unrolling itself before you. You can’t see it all at once, nor will you ever be able to see it all, because it is never-ending. This is why the Risen ask us to accept that

All Life—which includes my life—is unfolding perfectly, no matter what.