Gotterdammerung and Dec 21, 2012

A View of the Upcoming Apocalypse

In the modern era we see economic collapse, climate change, and energy crises. These less frequently seen as acts of God, but are depicted as the inevitable failure of our human consciousness to conceive alternatives, a failure of the imagination on an enormous scale.  We are depicted as on a collision course with our demise because of our unlimited greed and unrestrained growth.  Thus, in a LINEAR description of history, the only result of a genesis is an apocalypse when all that has been created has been used up.

The word for Apocalypse in German is Gotterdammerung.

Mircea Eliade sees that what marked the pivotal break of Hebrew religion from Hellenistic and ancient pagan ideas of cosmology, was its rejection of the narrative of eternal return. Before that, all life could be framed around the promise of regenesis, as seen in the idea of the Egyptian solar year or the Near Asian (Egyptian and Babylonian) creation myths.

Once this break occurred, it brought about the idea that violence, suffering and ecological disorder were no longer arbitrary, no longer part of an endlessly repeated process, but were a punishment.   Dangerous climate changes—such as those seen in Biblical plagues, or even the Great Depression were a direct result of “sins” committed against either God, or the earth, or both.

Even world wars and bloody injustices and catastrophic events were Gotterdammerung, revealing the Apocalypse as the logical conclusion to Genesis.  Because this consciousness is so ingrained in the human psyche now as a result of Biblical proselytizing, it has been categorized as inevitable.  And if the end of the world is nigh and its destruction inevitable, then why bother with its trash and depletion and pollution anyway?

This world view is actually not one that believes in salvation; its faith rests in damnation alone. The only shred of faith is in an individual egoic consciousness that might survive by crossing oneself like a “dotted I and a crossed t” just before the big one blows its last gasket.  Then I will be saved, but the rest of the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

Please, please, tell me you are not one of those people.  If you do believe in faith, love and personal responsibility, if you can handle the idea of the cyclical nature of reality and the Eternal Return, then work with me now to envision some renewed life beyond December 21, 2012 that will include a commitment to the environment, to others on this planet, to the children of the generations who will follow after.

The ancient Egyptians believed in a concept called Zep Tepi, or “The First Time” and it happened over and over again, when the Nile flooded every year to replenish the valley, to prepare it for new growth, and to give sustenance to its people.

If there is a community garden in your area, I invite you to join them. If there is an environmental preservation organization in your area, please support them. And check out the website for Interfaith Power and Light.  Whatever you do, become a co-creator of your life with the divinity of your choice.

Night Crossing into Egypt

We just returned from one of the best trips to Egypt ever.  Still feeling the heady rush of having been rapt in 18 days of wonder, sailing long into the night toward God source. A few poems.  (Please be kind and do not copy, although I appreciate your posting the blog note.)
--Normandi

Hymn to the Universe

Here I am amid your thousand splendors.

Here I am longing for love that says a holy “Yes”

because there is no fear.

Hand of God, hold mine.

Push yourself into my body, penetrate me

with the sacred conjunctio of heaven and earth.

The body longs for the divine with a thingly language,

having forgotten the shrine that it is.

The god within is

a subtle shift of breathing.

Full Moon Sonata

Did the Moon god nibble on his reed pen

and write with moonlight in the Nile all night?

Or were we simply drunk with dancing?

Were we in love with our imaginations and  memories?

All night long the music danced across the skin of water;

All night long we held our breath at the amazement of it--

Furious white script on the liquid black canvas of the Nile.

Orion lay on his side asleep in the yellow sand hills.

Sothis whispered chansons, “Arise, Beloved. Arise.”

I leaned over the deck to trail my fingers in the water.

See Thoth. I am your scribe up late, writing all night, too.

You were there with me, dancing, smiling.

Did you see the moon writing a poem full of light for you?
Did you see me write this one, too?

Nuit

In the secret bones of her skull

pasts and futures intertwine

mothers and fathers

in hot desires turning

souls into stars,

turning their magic into me.

With sky blue eyes

the Great Wife appears,

starlight streams over her breasts,

runs in rivulets between her legs.

She sighs and arches

from horizon to horizon,

arms above her head,

reaching into invisibility.

She comes

whispering

ancient mother songs;

Stretch out your arms

and touch the sky humming.

Shadow. Leaves. Vine. Window.

Window is the way you look at the world. When there is a curtain, there is a veil between you and what lies beyond the window. When you are looking at the rays of the sun directly, it hurts your vehicle to do so. The magnitude of the light vibration and its energy are blinding. This is how The Goddess or the Master Teachers might appear to us without a filter.

Yet through the curtain you are able to glimpse the light that streams toward you from the other side. This is light your eyes can use and adjust to using. This light can reveal that which exists on the other side of the window frame. It can impress images onto the curtain--shadows, if you will. They are not "dark" shadows, but the shadows of things that live and exist in the light that emanates from the other side.

This is the principle behind spiritualist philosophy. Truly there is life that exists on the other side of the window frame. That life is just as real, or more real as our earthly lives. That life is, as we are, in need of light source vibrations to live as we live. 

The window is a border -- a frame -- that we can use as a focusing lens.

In your meditations, you might want to use the window "frame" as a visualization tool. It will help you focus on the dualities of whatever states of being you are contemplating.  For example, you might wonder "What about that thing, idea, quality over there in the subconscious (dimly visible) exists also on this conscious side (more visible)?  What shadow of a reality are you seeing? How does it, in a supraconscious way, respond in its truest Self  in relation to the shadow and light?

Definition: Self is a quality of being.  Self is the allness of you. Mostly you see the material dense self--with a little 's'; that is, the You that you equate with the vehicle. This other Self exists beyond and in addition to what you know as self.

You see, you are the leaf -- both as shadow, and leaf, and idea. Even at that, you have yet to see all that you truly are.  Rejoice in your complexities and quiver in the gentle wind and light.

Normandi/Ptahmose
For another take on truth ane light, See Plato's Allegory of the Cave.
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/platoscave.html
 

Getting Back in the Groove

Okay, its been nearly 9 months since I posted on this blog.  I've been busy promoting the three new books I wrote within the last year --Imagining the World into Existence (just out), Invoking the Scribes of Ancient Egypt, and Going West. Really that is no excuse.  There is more going on than that, as well. I want to share with you this life that I am continually discovering and uncovering and exploring.

Will begin with this entry, only to say I am planning to use this space in the next few months to post
a) bits of my novel as it comes about;
b) ideas for sermons in the works--yes, I am working on becoming an associate spiritualist minister;
c) some full moon meditations;
d) Egypt trip info (This photo of Steve Bass and me was taken during an annointing ritual in Abydos June 2012); and
e) whatever tidbits from ancient days surfaces. 

Will also be posting some material for those who are attending a number of workshops I am teaching.  Thank you for reading my posts. Please check back in every now and again. And do drop me a line on Facebook.

When It's 2012...

Recently I had the opportunity to talk with Karen Tate on her show, Voices of the Sacred Feminine, which was the last show of 2011 (Dec 28). We had a great discussion about the concept of my recent work: Egypt,  'magical' thinking, and words of power. By the end of our time together, the talk turned to the question of now that we are entering the year 2012, what does that mean?

I am not sure that I answered as completely as I would have wanted. So I want to continue that conversation here.

I believe that the most important thing to know about 2012 is what with all of the internet articles and books written on the Mayan prediction that time ends on 12-21-12, and what with all of the speculation about whether the event will spell disaster; or if not, what it will mean? With the majority of people musing about the subject, our thoughts about the subject have already raised the conscious awareness of most people. We believe that something is afoot.  A change, a transformation is about to take place, and many people are poised for that to happen. Whether they are aware of it or not, their thoughts are spring loaded and waiting for whatever event will jettison us into the transformative cauldron.

It could be a physical, planetary change, or something more sutle like a spiritual vibration that attunes us to deeper information and understnding. The Law of Vibration suggests that like attacts like, and so with global consciousness and multiple energies poised for a transformative experience of some kind, one will occur. The question is which one?

Are there more doomsayers who see mass destruction and environmental degradation, or are there more of us wanting to pool our resources and work with healing energies in love and cooperation? Which kind of life do you want to wake up to after 2012? One grasping for the last resource in your neighbor's hand, or one that joins hands to work toward a common goal? Mine is the later, and it is my task--and I hope it will also be yours--to envision that peace and communion every day. I intend to set aside each full moon for meditation on how I can best serve others and align with the divine plan.

When the ball drops us into the coming year, it is my fondest dream that a wave of peace and fellowship of man will surge across us all. And it is my deepest desire that all of our 2012 transformations be made for the benefit of the planet and all sentinent beings in the spirit of abundant life and love. May we live enlightened and shepherd in the Great Light of the Divine.

To hear my interview with Karen go to her webpage and search for the program dated Dec 28, 2011.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/voicesofthesacredfeminine

Thoughts on Winter Solstice--Lightening the Dark

                                            I am an Osiris, too!--Awakening Osiris

For initiates into the Egyptian mysteries, the great rites culminated in contemplation of one’s own death—mysteries that were never spoken aloud, never recorded on the temple walls and were only alluded to in later times. They may have been similar to initiation rituals enacted by the Golden Dawn, the Rosicrucians, the Masons and Knights Templar, all of whom attribute their mysteries to an Egyptian origin. When mystic Earlyne Chaney began to explain her understanding as an initiate of the Mysteries, she said, “To the postulant of the Mysteries the ‘dead’ referred to souls entombed in the physical form… To be ‘resurrected from the dead’ meant that the superstructure could be raised to transcend that of the lower personality.”

We all have Osirian events in our lives and feel this need to understand loss and renewal on both a psychological and a spiritual level. Yet, we are more than the actions of our bodies and minds. We are spirits having a human experience. We are the way that the divine can understand matter and its consciousness by seeing what matters to us and how we act and react to loss and return. Humans are the hands of God, the conduits for change. Every change is a loss of something other. Time is an Osirian experience of aging, of summer turning into fall then winter, of dying plants and dried seeds. It’s all a falling away. I can remember standing at the Osirion at Abydos ten days after my mother had passed and tangibly, physically feeling her leave the world and me. I felt

Regardless of the degree of initiation, spiritual celebrations and communion still have a profound psychic effect on the individual. The mysteries always call upon us to turn inward and to face the unknown with strength. There was an outer ceremony for nearly every Egyptian, but there was an inner articulation of the mystery for only a few. That’s not surprising. Religion is probably the most misunderstood concept of all—primarily because religion is a subcategory of a larger concept, which is spirituality and unity with the divine.

The ancient Greek philosopher Herodotus recalls a solstice ceremony in which a bull, a symbol of Osiris called “The Good Being," was sacrificed and its carcass stuffed with flour cakes, honey, raisins, figs, incense, myrrh, and other herbs. It roasted over a fire as the priests of Osiris poured oil over it and upon the flames to keep the fire going. Afterward, they ate the ox. The ritually sacred body and fluid of the bull of Osiris has become the bread and wine given for all. Anglicans and Catholics might find a resonance with the Eucharistic sacrifice of Christ. The seed is the container of the mystery. Knowing the God has died, the God is risen, and the God shall come again is the essence of the mystery tradition.

In death initiations one contacts the sorrowful mysteries, but the joyful mysteries lie beneath them. The sarcophagus in which the body is placed bears upon its coffin lid the image of the sky goddess bending over the dead. Literally, the word sarcophagus means "sacred eating." At the end of the day, the goddess ingests the sun and it travels through her dark body in the same way that the soul of light is swallowed by death and returned to its source. There, in the dark and stillness, one gestates a new life. The tomb is the womb of the goddess—an entrance and exit. In the words of the hierophant Hermes Tresmigestus, the 'There where everything ends, all begins eternally."

Such was the way of mystery initiations performed under the veil of night. Moving beyond the dark night of the soul, one may burst forth into ecstatic states of poetry, illumination, and wisdom. It is the darkness that provides new meaning to the light. To spend the darkest night of the year inside the temple of the Goddess, in the sanctuary that represents her body, and to rise renewed at dawn the following day may facilitate all manner of psychological and spiritual transformations that leads one to die to the old life and embrace each day anew.

---------
If you are interested in attending an all-day Saturday event in which we “Lighten the Dark” through journal practice, please email me: ellisisis@aol.com with Jan 8 Journal Event as the subject line. I’ll send you price and information.

When Isis Wept for Egypt

How is it that I have no words to speak of the trouble in Egypt? I look for a healing light within me to cast as a balm upon the open wounds I see. I look to my Isis statue (black basalt) and, oddly tonight, I see it. Running like a gash across her forehead, dried white salt falls as if it were blood or tears of the goddess. In truth, the marks may have been made by holy water, during the last 30 days; but the symbol strikes me with its poignancy now.

On December 21, prior to my meditation with Isis (lunar eclipse at winter solstice, if you recall), I went to my altar to work with an Isis crystal and found it had broken, resting as it was all by itself in the case. I put the broken wand upon the altar and left the room to find matches for the candle. I did not intend to use the wand. When I returned the wand moved by itself, rolled off the altar and the other half of the crystal broke. It occurred to me that that something was afoot, that a life I had known had just been irrevocably broken.

Two weeks later on the day of the solar eclipse in January, during the Coptic Christian celebrations of Christmas, we learned of attacks against the Alexandrian congregation. And now 30 days later at the full moon in January, these shadows that passed over Egypt are passing again across the hearts of every one of us as we watch the demonstrations in Cairo. Much larger darkness looming over Egypt, but it breaks my heart to be its witness. 

Inside my head, I hear the keening of Isis, the wail for the shattered body of her husband, the wail for the brother who takes arms against another brother, the calling down of some good to come from out of all this sorrow.  And in that moment, while Isis grieves, Horus is conceived. He is the healing to come.

I believe that healing is coming to Egypt, and I believe that change will accompany it. We are watching an aeon turning. The divine exists in all things, even in the broken crystal, a broken body, a broken country, a broken heart.

Imagine. A new constellation has arrived, Ophiuchus, the wounded healer who holds the head and the tail of the serpent in his two hands even as the snake encircles his waist. He is the Islamic snake charmer Al Hawaa, the Greek father of medicine Asclepius and the Egyptian god of healing Thoth.  Wisdom comes from the hero's battle with Apophis and Set. We must pass through the trial that eventually leads to a new understanding and brotherhood.  

How can we respond to the change? Stand still in the midst of its challenge. Hold out your hands and fill them with light. Know that truth is always more than one thing. Hold the opposition while you stand in balance. Bless what your heart tells you and what you do not yet know. And with your light-filled hands offer the highest and best to the Creator of All, who in Infinite Wisdom already knows the prayer in your heart and will answer it.