I don't know about you, but I was a big fan of the X-Files. To some extent it was because I knew that much of what they portrayed was true, either from my own experience or from my contacts within the halls of the Russell Senate Office Building. Even when I had no direct experience of the subject matter, I always suspected that many topics presented on the show were "truths" hidden between lies, or "...a lie convincingly hidden between two truths."

X-Files quotes, such as the above, and Scully's, "I'm afraid that God is speaking...but no one's listening," may form the basis for one of the more truthful television programs that have aired.

God is speaking, but no one's listening.

This newsletter, the first in over a year, is taking shape because over the past few months I have made a point to listen, and try not to ignore (or deny) what I hear. I'm also taking time to see the spirits who walk among us...people, animals, spirits. (Or maybe we are walking among them in their world; we just don't know it.) I don't think it's fantasy, or that I'm nuts, and I'm definitely not on a drug. I'm just old enough now to believe in the old saying, "Show up, tell the truth, and don't be attached to the outcome."

Now here's the appealing factor in all of this. When I listen, really listen, or watch spirits move among us, it's comforting. It's comforting, even though dramatic changes in our world are happening much faster than I anticipated even two years ago. At times I wonder what life will be in four weeks, two weeks, tomorrow? It is very clear that we cannot turn around, or go back to our "old" normal life. Unpredictable weather patterns (super storms), our fiat currency (the end of money as we know it), species extinction, intensively to each other, unprecedented loss (of jobs, wealth, lifestyle, and relationships) are the new "normal." A friend commented yesterday, " I think we are living the end of normal."

This Divine mystery has been showing her self in many ways, not just the chaos we see in our media. Over the last year, the Tower Card has been a regular visitor to my personal and private readings. This image can be disturbing-a tower cracking, tumbling,  lightening bolts striking, people and animals leaping from the tower.

The message is  "Cosmic Intervention-a spiritual shakeup is taking place." The implication is that we need to have faith in things that can't be seen, but nevertheless exist. To me, it is the secret meaning making itself known, suggesting that we can only know the ultimate truths through experience.

 

Certainly these days the Universe is intervening to shake up the status quo. In the short-term, the energies of the Tower are stressful and challenging, but over the long-term the situation is improved. (I am inclined to think that, in this instance, long-term means years, not months.)

 

Another facet of the Great Mystery, the study of astrology, closely aligns with the meaning of the Tower. In a recent post, astrologer Bill Herbst wrote, "Currently Uranus and Pluto are about to radically disrupt the cozy arrangements of "business-as-usual" for those in positions of power and privilege. Only two previous Uranus-Pluto transits were comparable: a seven-pass transit from 1755-1758 that set up the American revolution, and a nine-pass transit from 1496-1500, that marked the beginnings of colonization of the western hemisphere by Europeans. The 2010s will be just as important."
 
Regardless of the lens that we use: Greece, Wall Street, the Tower Card, the Uranus-Pluto cycle, or Pluto in Capricorn (suggesting meltdown, collapse of major institutions), all suggest a blinding flash of insight, or a moment of truth so overwhelming that there is no way to ignore it. What is false and rigid cannot survive. And, as with all endings, there will be a new beginning-a period of restoration, healing, and rebuilding with major internal change and restructuring. (Credit: The Tower text is adapted from The Tower Awakening.)

So we are living at an extraordinary time. It's time to cultivate a strong connection with Spirit, with the Divine.  It will be through this connection, and our intuition, that we forge the new path, a new way of Being. Along with this connection, we will continue to find ways to get closer to our family and friends, and to establish closer communities. It's time to return/relearn simple ways of living. There is something much, much greater going on than anything we can see with our physical eyes.

Bill Herbst said to me recently that what I was trying to do was ahead of my time, but that I would do it anyway...as practice for what would be needed in the future. For the past three (or more) years I have felt "called" to facilitate the strengthening of the intuitive process with hands-on, practical, preparedness skills.  No doubt there is comfort in being relaxed, hearing our inner voice, stepping out of our busy lives...but there is also reassurance in knowing that I have a larder, a four-season greenhouse, and solar hot water.

These self-sufficient things will mean nothing if I don't have community. There is comfort and community in sharing our fears and our strengths (I can help you design/plant a greenhouse if you will teach me to make cheese. But even that isn't enough.)  We need Spirit and we need heart-felt connection. As Carolyn Baker would say, "Emotional resilience is essential in turbulent times. Those who are able to connect their existence to something greater than their ego are much more likely to persevere through adversity."

For now, and into the future, I will offer "new normal" retreats. The new normal embraces our roots, our connection to Spirit - the voice that is always with us, the part of ourselves that stretches before and beyond time. Like comfort food, we return to our roots for reassurance and strength when everything around us seems to be falling apart. It is our roots that help us prepare emotionally, physically and spiritually for a future of global and local change.

If you feel called, I hope that you will join us at one or more of the programs highlighted below.