Spring Festival
Warm greetings from your Editors, Curtis Lang and Jane Sherry.
The Divine Mother
This is a Holy Week of Spring Festivals celebrating the rising energy within Mother Earth. People around the world observe Religious Holidays according to a variety of traditions. We have entered into the season of Spring Rites which included a full moon earlier this week and Passover, Good Friday & Easter Sunday.
April 1 has been known as the Roman Feast Day of Veneralia, dedicated to Venus, a form of the Great Mother as she was known in Roman antiquity. Women washed a statue or image of Venus, goddess of love, death, orchards, waters and sexuality, in rivers and lakes, adorned her with precious jewels and long robes, then burned incense in honor of the Goddess. These practices, in celebration & veneration of the fecundity of the Great Mother, were done to secure happiness in love, popularity, ease in birthing and abundance in the home.
Venus, as the Goddess of Love can certainly make fools of us all which may have led to the holiday known as April Fool's Day. (Read more about the month of April, All Fool's Day, Love & Divine Unity in a previous Satya Center newsletter.
This week, as well, the planet Venus has been shining so brightly just after sunset that at first sighting, we mistook it for the lights of a plane! But there She sat, sparkling like a beacon in the late twilight sky, reminding us again, to listen to our hearts, to do nothing but act from a place of love & loving kindness.
April 2 was the Festival of the Sun in Aries/Full Moon in Libra, known by Esoteric Astrologers in the West as the Moon of Restoration and Resurrection. This is the first of the three most important full moon festivals celebrated in the Western Wisdom School tradition.
This full moon preceded Passover, celebrated April 3 this year, which is the Feast of the Liberation of the Jewish people, and the celebration of their deliverance from bondage in Egypt, and follows directly after Palm Sunday, which celebrates the moment when Jesus was proclaimed Messiah during a Passover festival over 2000 years ago.
The Aries Sun Festival inaugurated the new year, in the Esoteric Astrological Calendar of the West, and this festival celebrates the moment when the incoming energies of Spirit wax stronger and stronger as the Sun rises higher and shines longer each day in the sky.
This year the Aries Solar Festival occurred with the Sun at 12 degrees Aries. The Sabian symbol for 12 degrees of Aries is “a triangularly shaped flight of wild geese.” The wild goose is a mystical bird in the Hindu tradition, known as “hamsa”. The hamsa is the high-flying Indian goose Anser indicus, known for its qualities of discipline, stamina, grace and beauty. The hamsa is the vehicle of the Supreme Deity, Brahman, and in the Vedas and Puranas, the hamsa is the symbol of the Soul.
This is a very propitious symbol for the spring season of 2007, indicating that groups of soul-oriented Lightworkers and spiritual aspirants around the world will work in well-co-ordinated group activities, infused with the love and wisdom of the Supreme, and that their group work will organize spontaneously just as the flocks of geese form in such beautiful flying formations overhead at this time of year, and that their work will flow in a harmonious and orderly fashion, progressing with the speed and majesty of the soaring Soul-birds. Prepare yourself to be guided to join such a group this spring. This year will be a time when golden opportunities to be of maximum service in the world will abound, and when like-minded souls will gather in groups to pursue the work of Spirit.
Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, the Festival of the Resurrection of Jesus the Christ. Ask and it shall be made known to you, make a request and it shall be granted to you, open your heart and the chains of ego will fall away. Ask for your freedom and you shall be freed. This is Christ’s Easter promise. You can read an Easter message from Satya Center about the esoteric meaning of the Resurrection and about how you can walk the path of uniting with the Cosmic Christ in our article, “Uniting with the Cosmic Christ”.
This is a season especially sacred to the Divine Mother. All through this first week of April, the Divine Feminine is adored as Cybele, the Great Mother Gaia also known as Rhea and by many other names. In Japan & China, this is the week to worship Kwan Yin, the Lady of Compassion. Kwan Yin is known to many in the East and West for her unselfish action upon reaching the final spiritual goal of enlightenment. She refused her own personal Liberation to become a Bodhisattva--one who works for the liberation of all before accepting it for herself. Kwan Yin brings her Compassionate Service to all in the hopes that their souls will evolve & receive liberation from the endless cycles of despair. Call upon her in your hour of need and she will respond, for that is her nature, her service, and her highest desire.
It is no accident that Our Lady is Worshipped at this time of year, when the Life Forces are rising, when the chi is evident in the first golden hues to paint the weeping willow branches, when the birds' song serenades you at dawn, when the first robin is sighted, when animals & people alike mate & seek union. The fecundity of our fields, farms, hearths & bodies is very much present in our consciousness, our daily tasks & all around us for "those with eyes to see” and hearts to hear.
Now is the time to practice walking meditation. Go out into nature & observe the earth as it awakens. Here in the northern hemisphere, snowbells peek out amidst the snow in the northeastern region, daffodils are poking through the ground in our backyard, alliums emerge in the front garden, the iris shows us her blades in the front bed for vegetables & the first shoots of purifying spring plants make their appearance in the herb garden on our sloping side yard, bursting through the sometimes still frozen ground.
Our slumbering winter selves need spring herbs: hyssop, angelica, mullein & dandelion as they too begin their springtime emergence from the awakening earth to help enliven our bodies. Time to purge the accumulations of sloth, the energetic residue of the heavy foods of winter & to emerge from the gestation of the inner worlds of wintery contemplation. Now is the time to rejoice as we move into the increasing sunlight, feast upon early spring green shoots & move our bodies with renewed vigor.
Lightworkers, meditators, and all those who are sensitive to world events have also been connecting to the sometimes turbulent energies we feel around us, not just from spring's energy breaking up our frozen places, but also from the broader changes our Garden Planet & Humanity are undergoing at this point in Gaia's Soul evolution.
This spring, at Satya Center, our hearts are full – we sense increased planetary sorrow when we hear about & think of our sisters & brothers, our grandmothers & grandfathers and all of our children around the world who emerge from winter without enough to eat, with no place to sleep, no fields to plow or small piece of earth in which to grow healthy food.
We weep for the people of Iraq who still suffer the indignities ofoccupying forces and a war based upon greed & fear that seems to have no end. We pray that our Mid-Eastern sisters & brothers remain safe.
The devastation American occupational forces have inflicted upon Iraq is especially poignant, on this Easter Good Friday that I write this, as we meditate upon how the occupational armies of Rome put Jesus the Christ to death for bringing a message of Love to the world, for wanting to live his life in a new way, a way which wasn't deemed good for the Roman Empire. We want the people of Iraq to find freedom from oppression whether from their own despotic rulers or our own military occupation of this foreign land.
Now, during this Festival Season celebrating both Christ and the Divine Mother, more than ever we feel the need for the re-emergence of the energy of the Divine Lovers and the need to usher in a time of balanced male & female relations. (Those who want to understand more about the ancient Wisdom School teachings of the Divine Lovers, and their significance to the New Aquarian Age, can read our article, “The New Age of the Divine Lovers”.)
The last gasp of the patriarchal-dominated war-mentality of the Age of Empire with its emphasis on wielding 'power-over' others is fast coming to an end. More and more, the ugly face of Imperial greed shows itself naked to the world. It seems that the wealthy among us are waging war against the rest of humanity and upon Mother Nature herself in an endless quest for more and more profits. Greed seemingly takes the upper hand in political decisions to divert water from people and gardens to industrial farming operations that deplete the soil and produce nutritionless food, in political decisions to displace thousands to create dams that will power environmentally unsound industries in the Third World, in the power of unscrupulous landowners in communities large and small to blast gravel mines deep within the earth, in the willingness of nations large and small to wage wars to usurp natural resources -- the list is endless.
Unfortunately, this greed leads to assaults by the predatory and warrior classes upon the great bulk of humankind and upon our environment. In this undeclared class war, many casualties & horrors are perpetrated every day. This class war cannot continue unabated without destroying our human civilization around the world.
The fallout from this unrelenting war of the greedy against the rest of the world is spiritually and factually related to the tumultuous changes taking place both politically & environmentally across the globe, from both human created disasters to Earth changes taking place in order to cleanse the many toxic assaults made upon our Mother Earth.
However, there is something else going on, sometimes more subtly than the cacophony of war & greed that seems so overwhelming. Something is taking place in the auras & the hearts & minds of many of us as well as in the etheric body of the earth itself; something which acts to bring the unbalanced state of human existence into balance. Something Divine seeks to restore equilibrium between humanity and the natural environment. Something Divine seeks to bring peace to the warring classes of humanity. Something so sacred, so subtle, yet so powerful that in its global balancing act it is both disruptive & healing at the same time. This subtle energy is the energy of rebirth, the prelude to the restoration of the Dominion of the Divine Lovers -- it is the Sacred Emergence of the Divine Feminine.
Eastertide & Passover Season is the perfect time to speak about the need to recognize, name & embrace the return of the Great Mother. Whether your belief system is secular or new age or if you are celebrating traditional religious practices, it is time to hear, acknowledge & awaken to the in pouring energy of the Spirit of the Divine Mother!
We have lived through many thousands of years where the Mother has been denigrated, disempowered & disenfranchised; where girl children have been dismissed as inessential or far worse, times when girl children have been maimed, killed, sold into slavery or abandoned. There are still places today where young girls are mutilated as part of their circumcision rites of puberty, robbing them of any future pleasure they may take in the act of sexual pleasure itself, or the union which creates new life or in childbirth.
For thousands of years our very language has been subverted to empower only half of the human population & to heap abuse & violence on the female half of the human family, and on Mother Earth & her creatures as well. Even the word devotion has lost its original meaning of consecrating oneself and instead has come to more commonly mean submission to the Divine Patriarch. The Latin word ‘mater’ the root of the word Mother & Matter has been defiled to its current meaning of substance, devoid of any Divine origin.
It is no accident that Feminism has been trying to find its way and give women a voice, (really since the 1920's) or that a film like the Da Vinci Code has found a popular cult following. And it is no accident that the Divine Mother makes her presence known in a new way among Catholics in the reemergence of the Devotion to the Magdalene.
According to many modern Biblical scholars, Mary Magdalene was Christ’s most beloved disciple. It was Mary Magdalene who anointed Jesus as Messiah on the Mount of Olives during Holy Week with the spikenard she carried in her alabaster jar. The word Messiah means ‘the anointed one’. On Easter Sunday, it was Mary Magdalene who enjoyed the visitation of the risen Christ when she came to his tomb in the garden to anoint his body. It was Mary Magdalene who proclaimed the miracle of Christ’s resurrection to the other Apostles.
This Easter, let us say a prayer in Her name. For Mary Magdalene, the Bride of the Christ, embodies the Sacred Union of the Divine & His Bride. The Magdalene is the perfect female example of the Bride of the Divine, the Goddess celebrated in the Hieros Gamos, the Union of the Divine Lovers.
Esoterically, this Sacred Union celebrates the union of the individual soul with the Holy Spirit, with Sophia and the Christ principle, the eternal energies of Divine Wisdom and Divine Love. As Margaret Starbird writes so eloquently in Mary Magdalene: The Bride in Exile "The ultimate union of flesh and divinity occurs in the 'temple of the Holy Spirit'--each human person."
For that is the true goal & the true meaning of the Sacred Marriage or Hieros Gamos-- the union of our lower & higher selves. The alchemists were attempting to unite the microcosm and the macrocosm. The ancient alchemical workings were based upon the wisdom teaching encapsulated in the phrase 'as above, so below' and those few words picture their true work – the true meaning of their search to create gold from base matter. For the base matter is our own lower nature, our egoistic personality, and the gold is the human being completely connected to the Higher Self, refined through the fires of existence on this beautiful, difficult planet of learning, purified by experience and suffering, and perfected by the exercise of love, love in accordance with Divine Will, according to the Divine Plan of Love and Light, which is celebrated during the Festival of the Sun in Aries every year at this time.
Each of us, on our own spiritual path, has been given that momentous task of alchemical transformation as part of our birthright. Each of us walks our own labyrinth to find our own center & in so doing, we find we are not alone, not separate, but instead we find that we are always in Union with the Divine. As we work to purify our hearts and bodies, we will find that we, ourselves, are Spirit; in our center and in our devotion, we will find God.
That is the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. For the Divine is immanent. Goddess/God is everywhere informing& sustaining all of the Universe. Each of us has access to that knowing of the Divine within ourselves. By turning inward will find our own Divine Higher Self & in so doing, we will each of us, perform that Higher Marriage of uniting Soul with Spirit.
And we can extend our efforts to fulfill that inner spiritual work to the outer world by being loving, mindful and wise in all of our relations: with our children, our neighbors, our families, with all those with whom we come in contact every day. And we must & can, especially, strive to reach & speak to the Divine in our Beloved love partners as we reach to the Divine spark within ourselves.
We are each of us housed in a sacred temple – the human body, mind and aura. Spring is the time to clean that Sacred House! Pray that we can all spiritually evolve as individuals, with our loved ones, as communities & in our body politic, so that we may begin to let go of the outmoded patriarchal models of power.
As you renew your springtime Devotions, dedicate yourself lovingly to your Highest Self, to your loved ones, and pray to open the inner door of the Soul completely to the Divine Mother. Pray that the suppression of the Divine Feminine can finally be ended and a new era ushered in, where the Female is no longer denigrated.
This year let us pray that in Her spring rains & spring floods, the Divine Mother will wash away the soul sickness of war, slavery, mindless consumerism, rage & fear that has dominated our culture for so long.
Learn to speak with the Mother & in turn learn she will teach you to listen to your own Higher Intelligence. Make room for your intuition to bloom along with the flowers of springtime. Encourage your heart to learn to flow with the seasons & listen to the Voice of the Divine. Listen to the voice of the Beloved & learn to love yourself as you in turn nurture your family & your land.
Plant a garden with the intention of healing your own heart, that of your family, your community & our Mother Gaia. Pray for balance, work for change, embody Grace & Courage, stand up for what is moral & ethical, do no harm & Let Love Lead. If you have no access to land, find a community garden or plant a pot with herbs in it & place it on your windowsill.
Make offerings to the Divine Mother by sending a flower or song or prayer down a stream or sewer or across a rooftop. Honor yourself & your beloved by embracing the Divine within yourselves & those around you.
As the Christ is risen on Easter Sunday, so too the Mother rises from the depths of the collective unconscious & walks the new path for us all, of a Life of balance, where the hidden, intuitive & deep knowledge is honored along with the light.
We wish you a happy Spring.
Top Satya Center Stories of the Week
In his new article, “Perestroika in the West” (http://www.satyacenter.com/perestroika-in-the-west), Lightworker, peace activist, and astrologer Palden Jenkins argues that Western civilization, now arguably the most conservative and ossified force dedicated to preserving the deadly and deadening status quo on planet Earth, is impeding absolutely essential changes necessary to save the environment and promote social justice, and must be restructured root and branch. There is no alternative.
“Fundamental, root-and-branch changes are necessary, ultimately down as far as matters of the soul,” Palden explains. “Yes, it could hurt at first, until a majority of people see things in a new way and come to understand how much simpler things could be than they are now. And yes, I risk being regarded as a crank for suggesting this. A key ingredient is to prioritise collective interest - not just vested interest. 'Collective' doesn't mean only the social dimension, but the complete planetary dimension.
“Such a transformation would shift the motivations, priorities and emotional needs of humans in such a way that our problems with over-consumption, social disintegration, ecological damage, cultural intolerance, identity and human purpose might become largely self-adjusting. At present, the world is scared of really facing this possibility and all that it implies.”
Palden believes that we in the West can find inspiration and examples of 21st century planetary civilization emerging in Europe, Asia, Latin America and, yes, the Middle East, and that we Westerners would do well to emulate the best of the emerging new wisdom, new green technologies and new social justice movements in these areas – the NEW leaders of the free world.
In “Four Years Ago Today”, peace activist, and Wiccan witch Starhawk, now a columnist for “Newsweek” magazine, discusses the current state of the American peace movement and recalls the tragic death of American peace activist Rachel Corrie at the hands of the Israeli Defense Forces in Palestine. Starhawk was in Palestine at the time, working for peace, and Rachel’s death affected her deeply.
“I cry now, every spring, here in California as the daffodils bloom and the plum trees flower,” Starhawk says. “The beauty of spring is forever tinged, for me, with the grief and wonder and horror of that time. . .
“I cry, and then I get I mad. Four years have gone by, and the killing still goes on—in Palestine, in Iraq, and if Bush has his way, in Iran. Ghosts haunt the green hills, shimmering like heat waves under an unnaturally hot sun: all the uncounted dead of this uncalled-for war, all those yet to die.
“I’ve got a garden to plant, and a thousand things I’d rather do, but once again this spring, I’m gearing up for action. The peace marches have become boring, strident and predictable. To be absolutely honest, I hate marching around in the street chanting the same slogans I’ve been chanting for forty years. I’m going, anyway. I’m so tired of die-ins and sit-ins and predictable speeches shouted over bullhorns that I could scream if I weren’t hearing in my ears the far more bitter screams of the dying. I’m even tired of trying to drum and sing and make the protest into a creative act of magic. It’s not creative—it’s a damn protest, and I have real creative work to do: books to write, courses to teach, and rituals to plan. Nonetheless, Sunday will find me trudging along on the peace march and Monday will find me lying down on Market Street in some picturesque fashion with a group of friends and our requisite banners.
“Why? So I can look myself in the mirror without flinching, and answer to those hundred thousand ghosts. But more than that, because it’s time, friends.”
If you want to join in the difficult, demanding, draining and necessary work of protest and peace activism on any level, please read the rest of Starhawk’s article for starting points so you can hook up with this growing movement. And don’t forget to check out Starhawk’s blog (http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/starhawk/) on the Washington Post/“Newsweek” website.
As Starhawk says, spring time is gardening time, and when gardeners get their hands dirty, it’s also time for invigorating springtime foods – green dandelions, and other delicious energizing treats to put us in sync with the rising sap in the plants poking their slender stems aboveground in our garden plots.
In “Aries Foods” (http://www.satyacenter.com/aries-foods), astrologer and food-lover Jonathan Pearl discusses some really cool ways to savor springtime bounty.
“If you shop in farmers markets, you know it is spring,” Jonathan proclaims from his vantage point on the temperate West Coast. “Baby carrots, fresh onions, new leeks, green garlic, the first fava beans and asparagus all remind us that new life is bursting out of the ground.
“Taking in these energies of exuberant growth is what time in Aries is all about - a zest for life, the sense of potential, that every day is a fresh start. Why eat packaged food chemically designed to last for 6 months on a supermarket shelf? This is not Aries. Better to have the salad picked yesterday, which sometimes will make you sing. Since Aries is the first sign of the zodiac, we can be aware of freshness. Even those dedicated to eating well are not always used to thinking this way. We eat steaks that have been in the freezer for months, potatoes from last year's crop, water bottled a year ago. This month try making an effort to eat as much fresh things as you can, and sense the new life.”
In her new article, “Green Tea, The Elixir of Life?” (http://www.satyacenter.com/green-tea-elixir-of-life), internationally renowned scientist and healthy food activist Dr. Mae-Wan Ho explains the science behind the green tea craze and why green tea may be the best tonic for springtime and for those of us in the autumn and winter of life.
“Green tea, the everyday beverage for hundreds of millions in Japan and China has emerged as the latest ‘miracle drug' for preventing just about any ailment humans can suffer from,” Dr. Ho explains. Dr. Ho says green tea is recommended for reducing risks of heart disease, cancers, Alzheimer’s, obesity, arthritis, diabetes, infections, malaria and AIDS.
“Unlike patented medicines, green tea has no toxic or harmful side effects, not surprisingly, as its use goes back thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years,” says Dr. Ho.“It is cheap and widely available, and if the avalanche of scientific evidence proves right, it could do more than anything else to deliver health to the nation. So why aren't governments in the industrialised nations encouraging people to drink green tea for health? It would cut down on sicknesses and death, avoid drugs and drug side effects that have come to be accepted as almost inevitable, improve national productivity, and save billions from the national health budget.
“It would also put the pharmaceutical industry out of a lot of business selling numerous expensive patented drugs targeted at the individual diseases.”
Those who are interested in purchasing green tea can find several delightful varieties, ranging from Green Snow Buds to Japanese Sencha on our own website, in the green tea section (http://www.satyacenter.com/store/rishi/white_green) of the store. We will be adding more new green tea varieties this week, so be sure to check back around Wednesday or Thursday to try out the new goodies!
Meditation Moment: Spring Giddiness
Spring Giddiness
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don't open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don't go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don't go back to sleep.
-- Rumi
Top Spiritual Stories From Around the Web
[Ed. Note: These are excerpts from long articles Jane and I feel are exceptional messages of love and light, with important information for all Lightworkers. If you resonate with their energy, click on the links for more. . .]
Network 2012
http://www.n2012.com/n2012/lightweave_writings/Galactic_Fairy_Tale.htm
A Galactic Fairy Tale
by Michael Lightweaver
A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away there were all of these little light beings just hanging out enjoying life in that joyful & timeless dimension. And then one day a very large, magnificent angel came to them. He had a very serious look on his face. He was looking for volunteers for a very important cosmic mission.
"We have this small - but very special - planet out at the edge of the Alcyon galaxy called Gaia. It is quite unique like a beautiful garden and it is teeming with hundreds of thousands of different life forms. It has been something of an experimental station in the galaxy and it has a most interesting humanoid life form that incorporates the very highest and lowest frequencies known in the cosmos. It is in fact the very epitome of dualism. On the one hand it is an incredibly beautiful life form and is capable of carrying the highest frequencies of love, light & joy known throughout the whole Universe. On the other hand it is capable of carrying the densest and darkest frequencies the cosmos has ever experienced - frequencies which the rest of creation evolved beyond eons ago.
Here is the current situation. Within the domain of time, this planet goes through periodic cosmic cycles. It is now coming to the end of two major cycles - a 2,000 year long age of Pisces and the 25,000 year long cosmic year in its journey around Alcyon, the central sun of the milky way galaxy.
With the completion of this cycle, many things are coming to an end and many things are about to begin. But most importantly, the planet is experiencing an infusion of light that is dramatically increasing it's frequency. As during any major time of transition, there will be a certain amount of turbulence. Some of this will be geological, for Gaia herself is a livin