Insecurity All Around Us

I was watching a video that was posted by my spirit daughter, Keiya Mavita, on Facebook by Eve Ensler on Ted TV. The video really set me back in my chair and got me thinking about how insecure the whole world is. In other words, our collective shadow in the world is really scared! What are we so afraid of? I think Eve Ensler was mostly referring to our physical security and how there are many villains that appear to threaten our very existence. Citizens in countries throughout the world are relying heavily on their governments or local law enforcement to protect them, only to find out, in some cases, that their perceived protectors are the perpetrators. Oddly enough, the citizens of this world have given up certain rights in order to gain some sense of feeling secure.

This has certainly happened in the US following 9/11 with Patriot Act 1 and 2. For example, law enforcement authorities can detain you indefinitely with no probable cause, call you an "enemy combatant," and never be allowed to see a lawyer or go to trial. The definition of an "enemy combatant" is very vague and left open to interpretation. When I think about the freedoms that we have given up, I am reminded of a quote of Ben Franklin's that goes something like this,..."those who sacrifice liberty for the sake of security, deserve neither..." Yet we, as citizens of the US and the world, will give up our liberties over and over again when we are presented with a perceived threat to our lives. Why do we do this?

When the Iraq War was getting cranked up in early 2003, our government was trying to convince us that Saddam Hussein was a bad guy, had something to do with 9/11 (not sure what),  had "weapons of mass destruction," (don't know where they are), and that Iraq was an imminent threat to the US. I thought, so the US is the only country that can have WMDs? I also felt that if Iraq actually had WMDs, that our government should show the weapons inspectors where they are and prove it once and for all. That never happened and we went to war under a "perceived" threat. Myself, I never bought that sales pitch.

Maybe this is the kind of thinking and feeling that we have to summons within ourselves in order for us to withhold our liberties for ourselves and maintain our freedom. These kind of events give us an opportunity to call on our spiritual warrior to determine if the battle and sacrifice is a worthy cause or not. We can no longer trust the actions and words of our governments to tell us the truth about the reasons for going to war or giving up our liberties. Because, as it turns out, going to war in Iraq had nothing to do with the reasons that our government told us. It was all about the oil and money. Oh yeah, and about the fact that Saddam Hussein was trying to re-denominate Iraq's oil from the US dollar to the Euro, which would have crashed the US dollar. Hmm, this sounds a little familiar to the current events in Libya. Apparently, Qadaffi has tried to do a similar thing by coaxing other African countries to re-denominate and refuse the US dollar and the Euro and use the gold dinar in trading for oil.

The point is, these wars and Patriot Acts have nothing to do with making us more secure, because exactly the opposite is happening. Personally, I fear my own government more than I fear any terrorist or perceived outside threat. I want my liberties back! Some of the things that have happened globally in the last 10 years make me feel less secure and less free. Not because of what some terrorist did, or possibly didn't do, or is going to do. But because of how governments all over the world have reacted to these "perceived" threats.

As always, whenever I get into things like this, it's about me...and you. Our world is but a mere reflection of what is going on inside of all of us. For myself, I definitely have had and still have, to a certain extent, feelings of insecurity. I have wrestled with these feelings all my life. In the past, I have had my insecurity issues brought up in my face around being in intimate relationships. As a matter of fact, love was intertwined with security. Whenever I felt secure in relationship, I mistook it for love and vice versa. I can honestly say that today, I no longer do that. I am now more secure within myself and therefore have the ability to love without any agendas.

But I do still have insecurities around money and have all of my adult life. Financial security has always alluded me. There have been times that I have felt more secure than others and that feeling of security is directly related to how much money I have in the bank. It is now time for me to disconnect the feeling of security from money, because I know that money is a "perceived" sense of security and the lack of money is a "perceived" threat.

So where does this sense of insecurity come from and how can I and humanity move beyond it? I think this is a big one for all of us. As I'm writing this, I have no idea what the answer is. It is deep and burdensome. But my insecurity comes from a fear that all my third dimensional needs will not be taken care of. When I think back on my life, there has never been a time when my needs of food, clothing and shelter were not met. That I am truly thankful for! But I believe all of us can think of a time in our childhood when our emotional needs were not met. Could my, or anyone's, financial insecurity be connected to emotional needs not being met as a child?

Let's talk about it this way. If our emotional bank has little or no currency in it, how does that make us feel? If emotional deposits were not being made, or in some cases, not being sought after, how is it possible to feel wanted or secure in ourselves? As adults, we can no longer expect our parents or someone else to just fall over themselves to come to our emotional rescue and make "deposits" in our account. But sometimes we do just that to fill our holes or "emotional bank accounts" of insecurity. It is time for me and all of us to seek out emotional connection and take action in making "deposits" into these nearly empty emotional bank accounts. We have to take chances to be honest and bold about who we are and how we're feeling with the significant person in our life, which is sometimes a therapist. This in turn, I feel, will make us feel better and more secure about ourselves. After all, we are who we are in the context of relationship.

Maybe if we all make a choice to do this, we will be taking back our power, become more secure and free within ourselves, heal the collective insecurity shadow and feel safe and secure within our own skins dispelling any threats, no matter where they come from.

Getting Ready for 2012 - Dealing with My Shadow

I felt like there were some things that I had not mentioned in the previous 2012 post, so I'd like to elaborate.

I had wanted to mention what I know to be the Christian perspective of the "end of the ages," which even some Christians believe may happen in 2012. Although it is true that many Christians do not believe that Armageddon or the end of the world can or should be predicted, there is a feeling that "the end," is not far away. The general consensus is that Christians, and/or those that accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior,  will experience the Rapture and be taken up to heaven before the final day or days of Armageddon begin. I invite any Christian out there to correct me on this if what I have just stated is not the case, but this is how I understand it. As you know, there was a recent prediction by Harold Camping of The Rapture happening on 5/21/2011, which came and went uneventfully. There has been another approximate date set by the same group of Camping Christians for sometime in October 2011. The date of 10/28/2011 is a date that some of the Mayan calendar experts talk about as the "end of the creation cycles." This date is supported in the work of Carl Calleman and Barbara Hand Clow. So we may actually have some agreement of a future date of significance. But it remains to be seen what will actually happen when that date rolls around. It may just be like 5/21/2011 was, without any significant historical events happening. But I think it is interesting to note the similarities of dates between two completely opposite thought and belief systems.

There is also another significant date that I was made aware of by a Bolivian friend of mine, who said that 6/21/2011, the southern hemisphere's winter solstice, is the end of the Inca calendar. From my friend, there was no indication that anything significant was predicted to happen on that day. At least if there was, my friend never communicated anything like that. It seemed to be just a day of great celebration not unlike New Year's Eve 1999. And we all remember the Y2K things that were predicted and never happened.

This all brings me to my bigger point... our collective shadow. I believe that there is this feeling inside all of us that something really big is about to happen and none of us can really completely grasp what that is going to be. There is a stirring in our souls that feels the volatility of almost every aspect of our world, both in our personal spheres of influence and the global collective. I am reminded of the environmental bumper sticker I've seen on so many cars, "Think Globally, Act Locally." I believe the same holds true for us to use that same thinking when it comes to our personal relationship with ourselves as well as with our friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, etc. If we as individuals can heal and make all of our relationships work, we have made a huge step in healing the world as well as prepare for whatever is to come, whenever it comes.

So the question is, how do we do that? Let me share with you how I've dealt with my some of my shadow pieces in an effort to answer that question. Over 20 years ago, I came to an awareness that the world was not as it seemed. It started with leaving the Roman Catholic Church as my religion after my daughter was baptized in the church that I was baptized in. There was some politics involved with regards to the church priest needing a "permission slip," if you will, from the priest of the church that was close to where I lived at the time. I thought, "what does God care what Catholic Church my daughter gets baptized in?" It made no sense to me and my internal pendulum swung to becoming an Atheist. But it wasn't long until I felt that I was being a bit rebellious and then became an Agnostic. It was shortly after that belief system was in place that I found a Unitarian/Universalist Church close to where I lived. But it was shortly after my family and I had become members there that my wife at the time had become ill and had a rather long recovery process of personal and family therapy. This is really when my own spiritual journey began on a path of personal growth that continues to this day.

In order to deal with my personal "crap," that was coming up, I tried a wide range of therapies...everything like prayer, meditation, personal talk therapy, couples therapy, family counseling, group therapy, Native American sweat lodges, chanting, reading, hypnotherapy, re-evaluation counseling, journal writing, men's groups, breathwork and there are probably a few I've forgotten about. Whew! You'd think after doing all of that, I would have been canonized by now or have gotten my wings! But no. Come to find out there are many layers or levels to what Eckhart Tolle calls our "pain body." I've heard an analogy that the healing of our psyches is like peeling away the layers of an onion.

But of all of these healing modalities listed above, the ones that I keep in my "tool box" when I'm "stuck," and that give me the most bang for the buck are breathwork, men's group work and journal writing. I also cannot overstate the value of one-on-one therapy with a talented therapist who can get you to emotionally release in a cathartic fashion any pain, anger, grief, loss or sadness that has been trapped and hidden away inside of you. These cathartic releases have been where I've found both God and the devil inside of me. Besides, just think about how much better you feel after a good cry, for example.

The stirring in our souls, that I talked about earlier, could be our own shadow begging to be recognized and dealt with. Shining light on our own darkness and healing our inner demons are what we are being called to do at this time, above all else, in order to be prepared for whatever may be coming our way. The beautiful thing about this is it doesn't matter whether you're a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Atheist, Unitarian, whatever. We all have a shadow and it's up to us as individuals to seek help, whenever we need it, to heal those dark parts of ourselves and be made whole! Aho.

2012 - Disasterous Ending or New Beginning?

Much has been said about the coming 2012, more specifically December 21, 2012. Some of what has been written about this subject has been complete speculation and there have been many projections about what will happen.

That being said, I guess I have to throw in what is my projection and speculation after looking at a lot of information from a variety of different sources from a scientific perspective to a Christian perspective and all the way to a New Age perspective as well as everything in between. First of all, let's look at the date of 12/21/2012. That is supposedly the date at which the Mayan calendar ends. That has been the date agreed upon by many scientist, researchers, archeologists, Mayan elders and authors.

But it's not just about that one day and what all the experts say. It's also about what is currently going on around those of us now who are the "lay people" of this world and what we have the ability to observe, perceive and deduce, because not all is how it is presented to us in the media. It's obvious to most of us that the world is not what it was just 10 years ago. There have been dramatic shifts of all the institutions we have held dear and supported for a very long time. Institutions such as...government, education, health care, religion, the economy, the environment and mass media, just to name the big ones, have all been going through volatile changes over the last 10 years or so. As the song says, "the times they are a-changin'," although it seems quicker now than back in the 60's. So what is going on?

I've been noticing, that most if not all of these institutions no longer come close to serving us in the way that they were originally intended. Take our federal government... no really, please take our federal government. <Rim shot> One of the main purposes of government is to protect its citizenry. Given the rounds of economic bailouts to failing financial institutions using our tax paying dollars, do you feel protected or robbed? What about education? The national dropout rate in 2008 was 25%! I've noticed that kids are not being taught real world skills to help them succeed at even the most basic things like balancing a check book, credit cards, buying a house, investing, signing or drawing up a basic lease, buying a car, etc. It's obvious our current educational system no longer serves kids or our country and needs a major overhaul.

But I have digressed a bit. What are the dates about and what do they mean? According to many experts, the Mayan date, 12/21/2012, is the end of a long cycle of time. You see, just like the Earth and all the planets take a certain amount of time to revolve around the Sun, and the Moon to revolve around the Earth, so does our solar system move through the Milky Way Galaxy. At the center of our galaxy is a black hole, which has a very subtle, but detectable, gravitational pull. My understanding through my research is that our galaxy has an equator that our solar system travels around in a sideways "S" shaped fashion. The time it takes for our solar system to complete one quarter of the "S" cycle is 5125 years. This completion happens on 12/21/2012. There is also an alignment of our Sun, Earth and the center of the galaxy on the same date, 12/21/2012, which only happens every 26,000 years and would be the full completion of our sideways "S" shaped cycle. This info is confirmed by Gregg Braden, John Major Jenkins, Jose Arguelles and others. So it is no wonder that the Maya decided that 12/21/2012, the date of our alignment with galactic center, would be a good date to end their long count calendar.

So what does this mean to us on planet Earth? Should we expect something catastrophic to happen? The answer that I have is, yes and no. We have already noticed significant changes in weather patterns and earthquakes, which may at least be partially due to our solar system moving closer to galactic center. The subtle gravitational pull that the center of our galaxy has on the Sun could certainly be causing some of these disturbances. According to NASA, the cause of sunspots, which are the precursor to solar flares, is from subtle changes in the magnetic field around the Sun. This in turn causes a subtle cooling effect, which results in solar flares sometimes in the form of coronal mass ejections. Solar flares of any kind can have a huge impact on the Earth's gravitational field, which in turn impacts weather patterns as well as the stability of the earth's core and fault lines. You can track the activity of the Sun at: http://www.spaceweather.com  The Sun has certainly been more active in the past year or two than normal. Given this information, it appears that we are in for a bumpy ride.

But here's where we come in and this is where the fun begins! We actually have a choice as to whether the coming 2012 and beyond can be a bumpy or a smooth ride. I know...now you think I'm crazy. How is it possible that we can choose to make the Sun "behave?" Well, I am of the belief that we are all intimately connected with each other, everything and the Creator. Some of you will have trouble with this because you can think of people, places and things that you don't or can't possibly have any connection with. If so, name them right now. More than likely, these are all people, places and things that you either disagree with, don't understand and don't want to understand, dislike or even hate. Those, my friends, are all shadow parts of yourselves that need recognized as part of you and are in need healing. They are your mirror! Ouch! Yeah, I know...it hurts me too.

We are approaching our inner and outer alignment with our own black hole, which is where our shadow resides. There are many aspects of our shadow, but one of the biggest, defining aspects is that of our belief systems. These beliefs have been what have held up the institutions of the patriarchy for millenniums and have also been what has held us back as a species. It is time for us to look at our shadows and let go of belief systems that no longer serve us. For those of us that are unable to do this, it will in fact be a "bumpy ride." For those that are willing to take a good hard look at themselves to promote healing and the ability to let go, will have a smoother ride and can look forward to a new beginning. Once we arrive to this healing point, it is important to thank and honor those old belief systems, institutions, the patriarchy and your own shadow, for they have gotten you this far and have served you very well! Aho!