Archive for the ‘Religion’ Category

If you watched Glenn Beck give the keynote speech from Jerusalem this morning, you experienced a glowing moment in human history.  If you missed it, it’s not too late. The intention and purpose of the speech can be summed up in two words: Rights and Responsibilities.  I say it’s not too late because, if you understand what those words truly mean, its not too late to go live them in your own life.

As for Rights, for more years than I care to count, we have treated them with disregard.  We have failed to understand their source and, by so doing, acted as if our individuality and the power of self-determination rests better in the hands of a “capable” few over the many.

As for Responsibility, we traded our dignity and the very connection to one another that makes us uniquely human… to make free willed-based choices and live with the consequences of those choices… for the illusion that if we did not look under the rock, nothing sinister could possibly be concealed there.

We were foolish, adolescent, myopic and flat-out wrong.  The refusal to acknowledge the Source of our freedom and the willing abdication of what action freedom demands of us, has brought us to this moment. Now we must take the more difficult road home… but it is the only road worth taking… for all others lead to enslavement.

We have two choices in life. Always. To be in service or to be en-slaved.  For several thousand years we have periodically been enslaved. More so than not. This is not the first time. But it may well be the last time.  There is an expression among people who believe in reincarnation. “You do it again ‘til you get it right.” It presupposes endless chances.

I am not so sure. Sometimes we run out of “do-overs.” Such may be this time.

The technology has outpaced spiritual and social development. Violence has reared its ugly head. The world is looking for scapegoats. It has looked before and found them before…as  too many turned a blind eye and a deaf ear thereby allowing the slaughter of millions. Repeatedly.

Glenn Beck’s message is more than we can “never forget.” His message is that we cannot permit blindness, deafness and the violence that inevitably accompanies them to… this time… define who we are or to silence open acknowledgment of the Source of All That Is.

Know your rights, their Source, and the responsibility that being blessed with them requires of you.

Yes, the burden is great but the reward is greater. And just as devaluation of rights leads to enslavement… so too does refusal to bear the burden of personal responsibility lead to a world wherein violence and destruction reign by fear unopposed.

This is a do-over.  Let’s get it right this time.

Katy Perry did a good thing.

Then she did a fearful thing.

Yesterday, Katy Perry tweeted that her prayers were with the people of Israel.  According to Perry, the tweet was in response to a request by a follower on Twitter to pray for Israel.  Perry gave what appeared to be an innocent and seemingly heartfelt response to the request.

That was the good thing.

Following Perry’s tweet, she was barraged in her Twitter account with hateful and threatening tweets by other followers who clearly took offense at her offering up a prayer for the wellbeing of Israelis.  So, the pop artist quickly sought to undo what she had said by explaining that her tweet was merely in response to a request and that she opposes violence everywhere.

That was the bad thing.

Not that opposing violence everywhere could be wrong, in fact it’s commendable.  What was wrong was for her to be so intimidated, either for her physical safety or for a potential decrease in her fan base, that she retreated and sought to distance herself from her original comments.

We are moving out of a world where the “powers that be” have ruled by the use of intimidation and fear for thousands of years.  We will only succeed in that effort by refusing to be manipulated by fear any longer. It is only by knowing, with certainty, what we value and then being willing to stand for those values no matter who or what opposes them, can we hope to make the real and lasting change we desire in moving toward a more humane, compassionate and peace-filled world

Whether or not I am a fan of Katy Perry’s music (my teenage daughter is although I have, on occasion, deleted songs from her mp3 based upon Perry’s lyrics) Perry is none-the-less a role model by nature of her fame and demographic.  Therefore, how tragic that what she has exemplified by her backpedaling is cowardice and expediency rather than courage and principles.

My understanding is that Katy Perry comes from a traditional Christian home.  If that is in fact the case, she needs to return to the founding principles of that faith and stand fast in them. That will surely bring her more lasting success than either her lyrics or fan base ever will.

Today I watched Part 1 of Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Courage” rally in Israel. Before I tell you anything more, in respect of full disclosure, I’ve got a dog in this hunt. I’m a Jew.

As such, you can infer whatever you like about any bias in my observations;  however, I’m much more a mystic than I am a religious person so any bias you may think I bring is more likely your own.  It is sort of like me telling you I grew up in the 60’s, a Jewish, suburban, upper middle class girl and you assuming I’m a feminist, a Liberal and a Democrat. Sorry, I never got feminism, am somewhat politically conservative and a registered Independent. See. You’d have made that mistaken assumption, too!

So, now that we can set aside all that potential rush to judgment, back to Glenn Beck and Israel.

In April of 2011, I wrote a blog post in which I referred to Mr. Beck as, perhaps, a prophet of sorts.  At the time, I clarified that I didn’t necessarily mean it in the biblical sense.  Now I wonder.

Moses gave the Israelites the vision and courage to leave behind a world they knew ( an oppressive one albeit with certain creature comforts) to head out into the unknown.  It was, as almost no one would dispute, a turning point for humankind.

Glenn Beck has also provided millions (my estimate) with a vision and the courage to leave behind, if not literally then figuratively, a world they know and head into equally unknown territory.  In this instance, what is being left behind is not so different than what the Israelites relinquished.

We, like the Israelites of ancient Egypt, became enslaved to materialism. To having our physical needs and wants reasonably met while losing sight of our spiritual ones. We too, established false idols…Alan Greenspan, various political leaders, the U.S. dollar.  But with the passage of time, we came to remember that while golden calves glitter, the glare is temporary and blinding.  In that blindness, we yearned for something more, something lasting, and something real.

Enter Glenn Beck.

Mr. Beck is a visionary (I’m still mulling over the word prophet).  He saw where we were, where we needed to go, and he said, “Okay, if I can see it, I guess I have to lead the way.” Like all true leaders, he has been a reluctant one.  For that he will surely be rewarded when and how it counts…whether or not we appropriately acknowledge our gratitude for his foresight and willingness to serve.

Glenn Beck is shining a light upon the Light that is Israel.  He and others regardless of religious affiliation, who are connected to Source in their hearts, know one of the most important messages Moses reminds us in Deuteronomy: When the Jewish People are exiled from the land, not just the land suffers but the whole world suffers.

With the reestablishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the world began an unprecedented economic and technological expansion. During that same period, the world lost its spiritual and moral compass. Those two realities have led us to this moment in time when the dark forces of the world want to annihilate the State of Israel to once and forever drive the Jews from their land.

Glenn Beck saw this convergence on the horizon but more importantly, he has done something to impede its design.  The world would do well to heed the message he brings and, if it’s not too much to ask, to also thank the messenger.

Permit me my moment.

Thank you Glenn Beck.

 

If you can’t see this one… you are likely overdue for an eye exam.

Within the last year, recently disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) made it his mission to lead a personal assault against Glenn Beck in an attempt to destroy Mr. Beck’s career by undermining his sponsors.  In particular, Congressman Weiner accused Beck of an “unholy alliance” with Goldline, alleging the company was a “multimedia rip off” and that Beck was using his radio and television shows to manipulate listeners into investing with the company.

Weiner’s attack was designed to destroy Beck by raising questions, through innuendo, about Beck’s integrity, truthfulness and motives.  It turned out there was no factual basis for the Congressman’s allegations and he likely knew there was no such basis when he made them.  The charges faded into oblivion.

The Congressman himself was not so fortunate.

With the now infamous photos of Congressman Weiner and his shameful “sexting” revelations, he has become what he set out inflict upon Beck: a pariah whose integrity is revealed to be nonexistent.

(If you cannot see the Divine aspect and irony of this reversal you need to stop reading and call your optometrist to schedule that eye exam).

I have been listening to Glenn Beck for several years and am certain of a few things as a result.  He loves his country, does his homework, is sincere, and is the bearer of Light in a darkened world.  I call such people “Lightworkers.”

It’s a fulltime job with no days off.

Congressman Weiner, by his actions, has demonstrated that he represents the antithesis of what Glenn Beck stands for.  The Congressman, it turns out, is a participant in, and therefore a promoter of, Darkness.  Now there’s the real “unholy alliance” in this story.

As with all darkness, the Light shining upon it reveals it for what it is.

Congressman Weiner has inadvertently served his country well.  He has, by his actions, given credibility and added strength to Glenn Beck’s purpose and thereby empowered the Light.

In the final analysis, this was a classic and eternal clash of opposing energies.  It has always been the case and always will be that Light reveals, and thereby transcends, all that is dark.

 

 

This one is personal.

Time Magazine’s cover story this week is “Sex, Lies and Arrogance:  What Makes Powerful Men Behave So Badly?”  It’s been prompted by the recent revelations of Arnold Schwarzenegger and the alleged criminal behavior of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.  Perhaps, if we use the moment wisely, and exhibit more than the attention span of a five year old, we as a nation (and maybe even a globe) can finally embark upon a long-overdue discussion upon which literally rests our future.

It goes something like this. Women are not property and no one, confidant or stranger alike, has the right to take what they want when doing so infringes upon the person of another.

That’s part one.

Part two is that an exclusively male dominance in ruling nations, setting governmental policy, establishing religious tenets, administering academic institutions, controlling the private business sector and even writing history, for over two thousand years, has resulted in a world woefully out of balance.

The attempt to subjugate, demean and obscure the Divine Feminine role in everything from Creation to spouses has led us to the precipice of moral blindness and, potentially, the inevitable extinction that must follow.

Poor behavior and shameful choices require neither financial success nor notoriety.  Someone I knew and trusted, a very ordinary guy of average means, tried to rape me.  While so doing, he actually expressed his belief that “our relationship” gave him the right to have sex if he wanted it.  My rights didn’t seem to be a consideration.  Miraculously, while being physically overpowered, I had the presence of mind to somehow speak and act in a way that gave him pause, which allowed me to ultimately escape the moment.  I will never understand how I had the ability to forgive him, which in my heart I did, although it changed my ability to trust him.  In hindsight, he said it never happened… but denial is one of many mechanisms for abdicating personal responsibility when the truth is too painful to bear.

In the final analysis, sex, abuse of power, violence, greed, deception…a whole host of behaviors… are about Free Will.  They’re about the choices we make every minute of every day because every choice is an act of self-definition.  We are who we choose to be.

If male energy is about survival, and if left unchecked mutates into dominance, then it’s time we acknowledged and, yes, honored the critical and necessary standing due female energy, which is about nurturing and compassion.  Together these energies co-create a framework in which their combined efforts exceed, by leaps and bounds, what either could accomplish alone.

Co-Creation. Balance of Power. The Divine Feminine. The Sanctity of Male and Female Alike.  These are the timely and necessary topics of discussion.  Without such discussions, and without resurrection of the Divine Feminine role in co-creation, we are all dinosaurs on the brink of extinction.

 

 

 

History can be instructive. So can dreams.

It was Joseph’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream that led to ancient Egypt’s readiness when it encountered seven years of famine following years of plenty.  Joseph, a Jew, was appointed Viceroy of Egypt and put in charge of the grain supply.  He ordered that grain be stored in anticipation of a shortage and, sure enough, the shortage followed and Egypt weathered the storm.

Instead of condemning the naysayer…Pharaoh promoted him.

Instructive? Maybe.

The price of oil is rising and with it the cost of almost everything else.  Inflation is on the rise and the dollar is on the wane.  The U.S. economic outlook has been downgraded from “stable” to “negative.” We don’t have 7 years of grain reserves. In fact, we have about 15-18 day’s worth with grain production for ethanol use being about 5 times the amount we’re using for food.

While I don’t know if President Obama has had any dreams such as Pharaoh did…I do know where I got all the above facts.  I got them from Glenn Beck.  And while many people, including the President, are busy condemning Mr. Beck for his naysaying they would be wise to take a lesson from Pharaoh.

The saying goes, “Don’t kill the messenger.”

Mr. Beck may irritate some and infuriate others, but there are a significant percentage of us out here who know that he is, and has been, copious in his fact checking and amazingly prophetic in his outlook.

I use the word “prophetic” not in the biblical sense and yet… one has to wonder why we would be any less deserving of Divine intervention than were those ancient Egyptians.

 

 

The Egyptian Revolution has been spellbinding. Watching the “power of the People” is an uplifting and inspiring global experience. Now that the preliminary goal, Mubarak’s removal, has been achieved the real work and challenges begin.

History provides us instruction.

In ancient Egypt, the Hebrew slaves agonized for freedom from the tyranny of Pharaoh as have modern day Egyptians from Mubarak’s rule. Once achieved, the Hebrews made initial efforts to organize and proceed with solidarity toward a common goal of personal freedom.  However, when their interim leader, Moses, was delayed in his return from Sinai, the impatient Hebrews were quick to revert to what was comfortingly familiar… idol worship.  Only Moses’ personal commitment and charisma were able to set the Israelites back on the road to freedom. And ultimately, the desired outcome became a reality in Divine timing, not theirs.

The lesson? Patience.

Its 48 hours since Mubarak’s fall and already there is renewed confrontation and remaining unrest on the streets of Cairo and elsewhere as demonstrators, so effective at bringing down the regime, are impatient with the inevitably slow process that must follow in successfully moving a People from bondage to freedom.

Technology made their success possible.  If the People do not exercise restraint and patience, that same technology may be the reason they too find themselves quickly returning to the familiar… dictatorial rule in calf’s clothing.

Technology, by its inherent speed, makes our human nature’s inclination toward instant gratification all that more immediate. We want everything NOW and if we can’t get it, we immediately go elsewhere… and not always to our advantage.

The generation that affected the Revolution in Egypt has been raised with technology.  They expect things to happen quickly.  My concern is that youth, in the absence of real leadership, will follow the modern day version of what seduced the Israelites.  And further, absent a Moses, will fall prey to those dressed as the Golden Calf.

All growth takes time. It is only human hubris that thinks it occurs in anything other than Divine Time.

Recently, I had surgery and my recovery prevented me, for about two weeks, from posting a blog.  I lost readership in that time and fielded emails complaining of the absence of new material. When we are used to getting what we want, and expect, our impatience leaves no room for the natural unfolding of events.

Let us pray that those in Egypt, who have so wisely used the tools of modernity, will translate that wisdom into knowing that the hard work begins now and impatience leads only to arriving in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The past two weeks have been challenging.  First recovering from a virus followed by a sprained shoulder… it’s been a lot of “non-activity” to ask of someone who is inclined to always be working on something. However, since I make it a practice to walk my talk I have to ask myself, “What is the higher lesson to be learned here?”

I think I have it.  The Universe has a rhythm.  In order to successfully live within the Universe, and in harmony with its rhythm, requires us to feel it and more importantly align with it.

I have a tendency to try to move things at my own pace.  This translates into impatience.  It’s kind of funny that I still find myself impatient since I tell my clients that impatience is “the absence of trust in Divine Timing manifested as a need to control outcomes.”

You’d think I’d remember and follow my own advice.

But, like everyone else, I have an ego that occasionally enjoys getting in my own way.  When I fail to recognize or acknowledge the rhythm of the Universe (also known as Divine Timing) I am under the illusion that my will can oppose Thy will and prevail.  And while I use terminology that is religious or spiritual to make the point, it’s somewhat misleading.

Energy is the source of All That Is, including us.  When we fail to align with the Universal or cosmic flow of energy, it’s like attempting to swim upstream.  Better to move in tandem with that energy, or wait it out, until there is a change of either speed or direction that is more supportive of where it is we want to go.

Nature is great example.  Plants have no ego.  They have a time to germinate, a time to grow, a time to bud and a time to bloom.  They make no effort to impose alternate timing or an alternate outcome.  If I can take some liberty and attribute to them a quality they may not exactly have… they trust the Universe.

I think someone tried to tell us to do the same when they said “To everything there is a season…”.

So, its now two weeks into this “slow down period” and the smartest thing I can do is align with it.  Having tried to do otherwise for these past fourteen days, I’ve decided today to begin doing just that.  I meditated for half an hour this morning and now have written this blog.  It is 10:30am.  I am about to spend the rest of the day on the sofa reading, watching uplifting DVD’s and… well…  not much of anything else.

Except awaiting a change of speed and direction, that is..

Our history has been selectively written for as long as we’ve been writing it, with the most selectivity occurring around the deliberate exclusion of the Divine Feminine.  There are more examples than I have space or time for here, but let me point out a few:

1.     Archaeological artifacts subjected to carbon-dating have identified worship of female deities as far back as 10,000 years B.C.E.

2.     Cleopatra spoke 9 languages, inherited a bankrupt country and turned it profitable, allowed women to be property owners and granted citizenship for meritorious service to the country.

3.     Victoria Woodhull, not Geraldine Ferraro, was the first woman to run on a Presidential ticket… and she ran for President!  Her V.P. running mate was a freed, black slave, Frederick Douglas.  It was 1872. Woodhull was also the first female stock broker on Wall Street.

But let’s revisit the archaeological finds for a moment.  Somewhere between 10,000 B.C.E. and the compilation of the Hebrew, Christian and Muslim religious writings, those female deities were unanimously and deliberately written out of our heritage… or at best relegated to minor, and sometimes troublesome, characters.

There is a spiritual (and I believe also religious) adage that goes “As above so below.”  Following that logic, what we see manifested here, in our world of matter, must necessarily exist on higher spiritual planes. 

So, here’s my understanding… and my dilemma.

But for the amoeba, wherever there is reproduction in the physical world, there exists a male, a female and an offspring.  If you’ll allow me, more commonly thought of as a father, a mother and a child.  Not once have I ever heard anyone say that an offspring was created by a male and a holy ghost. That being the case “below”… why is it that for 2000-3000 years, or more, we have been repeating and perpetuating a creation story (“as above”) that ignores and even denies the existence, role and contribution of the female?

I like to play with words.  Its a lifelong pastime.  Yesterday I was thinking about all of this and the word “mother” kept going around in my mind.  As I was pondering “why” this obvious omission of the Divine Feminine pervades our history, I was asking “why” when the letter “y” suddenly inserted itself in the word mother… between the “m” and the “other”… so it now read “my other.”  And I paused.  “My Other.”  The Father, the Son and My Other (Mother)!!! 

Much more plausible, isn’t it?

We are living through troubled and transformative times.  We need all the help we can get.  Even someone as near prophetic as Glenn Beck has been on unfolding events, was asking yesterday on-air where is a contemporary George Washington to lead us out of this mess. Beck then said, “Where is he? Where is that leader?”  Immediately followed by my yelling at the radio, “Or she Glenn…or she!”

Yes, we need help.  To that end, I have looked around thoroughly and cannot find one holy ghost anywhere.  But we have a globe populated with Mothers.  If we are pressed for time and cannot re-write the history books, perhaps we can make history instead by resurrecting to full status the Divine Feminine and the necessary contribution She was intended to make, and the role she was designed to fulfill, in maintaining the ongoing balance and harmony of all existence.

Now, I also have an issue with the whole “Son” thing… but that’s another blog, isn’t it?

It comes as no surprise to anyone who reads my posts that I like Glenn Beck.  If there was any doubt about that fact it was put to rest last night, Saturday night, when I turned down an invitation to go to a movie and dinner because the timing would have interfered with FOX’s live coverage of Beck’s speech as keynote at the CPAC conference.

I am willing to go out on a limb here.  I think Beck is a prophet.  Prophetic as in the biblical sense?  Yes and no.  Now, before you think this is all about Mormonism, Christianity or any other religion, let me tell you what I mean by that statement. 

In the biblical sense, I believe he is facing down the entrenched “powers that be” and speaking truth to power… even if the message is at times dire.  He is showing us the “pug-ugly” side and consequences of our poor choices while holding out hope that by combining faith with a course correction we can embark upon a higher road that will lead us to a grander view.

I believe his strength, insight and courage come from profound inner guidance.  He is Self-sourced and Self-directed.  What I mean is that through a personal and treacherous inner journey, he has accessed a voice within himself whose origin is the Source of All That Is.  For millennia, we have been taught that the Source is outside of ourselves.  Its not.  Its our birthright, as individual aspects of All That Is, to tap into that energetic Source and know for ourselves what thoughts, words, and deeds support the ongoing growth of life towards Its highest good. 

Beck has gone within and opened that line of communication.  Which is why I call him a prophet.  While he might not see or describe that Source as I do, I think we could agree on one thing.  He seeks the highest good for all concerned.

Where I would differ with him, and enlarge his message, is that its not just political in nature or application.  The messages of liberty, individualism, charity, forgiveness, dedication to higher principles, respect for differences, integrity and truth are universal and timeless.   They need apply and be the priority in every moment and in every nation. We are not just at a critical juncture in the story of the United States… we are at a critical juncture in the story of human consciousness. 

We, each one of us, is being given the opportunity to awaken to a new reality.  To understand our inherent connectedness and responsibility to everyone and everything else.  Not in the individual-deprecating manner of socialism…but rather in the full expression and celebration of individuality and personal responsibility within a framework of Oneness.

If the prophet analogy makes you uncomfortable, try Paul Revere. 

Beck is, and has been for several years, figuratively riding from town to town ringing the bell of awareness shouting “Change is coming. Change is coming.”  So much of what he has presaged thus far has turned out to be accurate.  Whether that prescience will continue or not, I don’t know.  What I do know is that if we step back and see the larger picture, he can be of enormous value in two ways.

The first is by his example of inner guidance.  The second by his fearlessness.

If we allow him to teach us nothing other than those two lessons, I think history will find a worthy place for him… regardless of whether he turns out to be a prophet or not.