Creating the New Earth Together

Posts tagged ‘Paradise Remembered’

Remembering Paradise . . . Finale

Whether it happened or not I do not know; but if you think about it, you can see that it is true. —Black Elk        

I will bring this series to a close with excerpts from Richard Heinberg’s MEMORIES AND VISIONS OF PARADISE, including his Epilogue .

This haunting memory is found among the myths of the Omaha Indians, who, along with the entire Native American Nation, have held the sacredness of their Mother Earth in their hearts and in their culture:

HOLDING THE EARTH SACRED

The Omaha Indians of the North American plains also believed in the heavenly or spiritual preexistence of human beings prior to their appearance on Earth in physical form. “At the beginning,” they say, “all things were in the mind of Wakonda.” All creatures, including man, were spirits. They moved about in space between earth and the stars (the heavens). They were seeking a place where they could come into bodily existence ….  Then they descended to the earth. They saw that it was covered with water. They floated through the air to the north, the east, the south and the west, and found no dry land …. Suddenly from the midst of the water uprose a great rock. It burst into flames and the waters floated into the air in clouds. The hosts of the spirits descended and became flesh and blood. They fed on the seeds of the grasses and the fruits of the trees, and the land vibrated with their expressions of joy and gratitude to Wakonda, the maker of all things.”

A Native American vision from chapter 6 — Prophecy: The Once and Future Paradise

One of the most eloquent modern enunciations of the Native American vision is contained in these words of Hopi elder Dan Katchongva:

Hopi is the bloodline of this continent as others are the bloodline of other continents.  So if Hopi is doomed, the whole world will be destroyed. This we know, because the same thing happened in the other world. So if we want to survive we should go back to the way we lived in the beginning, the peaceful way, and accept everything the Creator has provided for us to follow ….

My father, Yukiuma, used to tell me that I would be the one to take over as leader at this time, because I belong to the [Clan of the] Sun, the father of all the people on the Earth. I was told that I must not give in, because I am the first. The Sun is the father of all living things from the first creation. And if I am done, the Sun Clan, then there will be no living thing left on the Earth. So I have stood fast. I hope you will understand what I am trying to tell you.

I am the Sun, the father. With my warmth all things are created. You are my children, and I am very concerned about you. I hold you to protect you from harm, but my heart is sad to see you leaving my protecting arms and destroying yourselves. From the breast of your mother, the Earth, you receive your nourishment, but she is too dangerously ill to give you pure food. What will it be? Will you lift your father’s heart? Will you cure your mother’s ills? Or will you forsake us and leave us with sadness, to be weathered away? I don’t want this world to be destroyed. If this world is saved, you all will be saved, and whoever has stood fast will complete this plan with us, so that we will all be happy in the Peaceful Way.

And finally, our renown author’s vision and rationale from his EPILOGUE:

DID AN EARTHLY PARADISE ONCE REALLY EXIST, or is it the product of human imagination? Even now, at the end of our investigation, we must acknowledge that this is a problem that may never be settled by archaeologists or anthropologists. On one hand, it is impossible to prove the historical reality of a Golden Age by physical evidence alone; on the other hand, the material evidence by no means rules out the possibility, and the less tangible evidences of myth and culture simply will not allow us to dismiss it. Of course, the answer we settle on depends largely on our definition of what Paradise was, is, or should be.

The myths and traditions of the ancients do not portray Eden as the sort of technological Paradise that our present civilization tends to project into the future. If the Golden Age really existed, it must instead have been, as the Chinese describe it, an Age of Perfect Virtue — an age in which

they were upright and correct, without knowing that to be so was righteousness; they loved one another, without knowing that to do so was benevolence; they were honest and leal-hearted with­out knowing that it was loyalty; they fulfilled their engagements, without knowing that to do so was good faith; in their simple movements they employed the services of one another, without thinking that they were conferring or receiving any gift. There­fore their actions left no trace, and there was no record of their affairs. . . .

Of course, there may be some trace of the First People’s actions in Mysterious ancient megaliths, and some record of their affairs may be preserved in myth and legend. Nevertheless, these are fragmentary and ephemeral clues. And yet the vision of Paradise—be it distorted, misunderstood, or even imaginary—has somehow insinuated itself into the vital core of every religious movement and every culture’s literature and social ideals. Whatever the myth’s origin—historical reality or mass delusion—it now has a life of its own in the collective unconscious.

The principal thesis presented here—which is really only a re­statement in modern terms of what spiritual teachers have been saying for millennia—is that the memory of Paradise represents an innate IPO and universal longing for a state of being that is natural and utterly fulfilling, but from which we have somehow excluded ourselves. Per­haps our most useful new clue to this lost state of being is contained in he modern study of altered states of consciousness and, in particular, of the near-death experience. The essence of Paradise is, as we have seen, equivalent to what various traditions have termed nirvana, ecstasy, divine union, and cosmic consciousness. It is the condition of the absence of the separate human ego with all its defenses, aggres­sions, and categories of judgment.

This interpretation may seem like an obvious one, but it has been only recently that developments in several disciplines have made it so. In the field of psychology, for example, the systematic study of alternate states of consciousness did not really begin until this century, and the greatest advances have taken place only within the last twenty years. In anthropology, it has also been only in recent decades that we have come to respect the wisdom of tribal peoples and to take seriously their beliefs about the nature of reality. The field of comparative religion—which has opened a view to the fundamental similarities of the core teachings of all spiritual traditions—has likewise only begun to come of age. All of these developments converge, enabling us to leave behind both the dogmatic religious ideas of the Middle Ages and the simplistic evolutionary assumptions of the last century. We are thus free to attain a new vision not only of the mythic past, but also of our own miraculous potentialities in the present and future.

One of my purposes in writing this book has been to bring together the principle myths of Paradise, Fall, catastrophe, and purification. But another was to recall the texture and nuance of the spiritual worldview of ancient and tribal peoples. Their perspective, so at odds with our modern way of looking at things, may contain some of the very elements that we in postindustrial civilization need if we are to build a sustainable, regenerative culture.

We are living not in a static world that affords us endless time for leisurely academic discussion, but in one that is busily undermining its own biological viability. We have lost our sense of proportion, our sense of the fitness of things, and our sense of being contained within a greater Knowing that provides our lives with meaningful context, and to which we are responsible not only for our actions but for our motives and values as well. We have lost, in short, the sense of the sacred. The Paradise myth is the account of this loss of the sacred dimension, this loss of innocence. And if it contains clues to help us
understand why we have come to this precarious juncture in history and how we may go about regaining what we have left behind, then a retelling of the story may now be a worthy undertaking.

Somehow the timing of this retelling seems to have an almost apocalyptic significance of its own. Many generations have felt that they were seeing the culmination of history, but never has any genera­tion had better reasons for feeling this way. Perhaps we are indeed living in the time prophesied in every tradition, when the profane world of human history and the miraculous world of myth are to be somehow reunited.

We seem to have come very far indeed from the state of innocence and communion with Nature described in the Paradise myths. Depletion of the Earth’s ozone layer, pollution of water and air, loss of topsoil and forest cover, the greenhouse effect, and mass extinctions of species all bespeak a way of existence tragically out of touch with the pulse of the planet on which we live. And burgeoning crime, mental illness, and drug abuse seem to signal some deep estrangement of society from the nourishing aspirations of the human spirit.

Our world is filled with complex political, economic, social, and environmental problems. Yet we cannot expect to solve these prob­lems without first addressing the values and motives that produced them. And how are we to approach the clarification of human values and motives? Surely, we must look to the human psyche itself–that mysterious realm whose suprarational powers and dynamics find first expression in myths, dreams and visions. We are presented therefore with the apparently paradoxical likelihood that the examination of ancient and seemingly irrational stories may be one of the most practical pursuits available to us in the modern world.

Perhaps, if we are willing to become partners once again with Heaven and Nature in the realization of an already existing design that transcends self-centered human purposes, then memory and vision may converge in a realized Paradise in which the tensions that pres­ently bedevil us—tensions between humanity and Nature, heart and mind—may be dissolved in a universal spirit of accord. If we can hear and obey a voice from the timeless source of myths and dreams, there may open before us an age not of technologically engineered comfort and prosperity, but of miraculous beginnings—a new Creation-Time. And perhaps it is only the mysterious power of Creation itself that will permit us to survive, and at last to fully live.♥ Fin

I hope you have enjoyed this series as much as I have enjoyed creating and presenting it. By some of the comments I received, I know that Richard Heinberg’s thoughts and visions found resonance with several. MEMORIES AND VISIONS OF PARADISE, along with his several other books, are available at Amazon.com. For a more current Heinberg vision and perspective, view the video clip below. 

As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments by email. Until my next post, already in the hopper, 

Be love. Be loved

Anthony

tpal70@gmail.com

Category:

Climate Changes, Ecology, Garden of Paradise, Global Warming, Golden Age, Healing Tones Blog, Man and nature, Mythology, New Earth, Origin of Man, Paradise Remembered, Planet Earth, Restoring Eden, The Paradise Myth

Tagged with:

Getting Back to Eden, part 4: The Process of Transformation

“In my father’s house there are many mansions.” — Jesus 

The passage above from the Gospel of John (14:2-4) has been a light of hope to many. The Aramaic text may be more likely what Jesus said speaking the language of the people:

“There are many lodgings in my Father’s house, and if not, I would have told you, because I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I shall come again and bring you to join me, that where I am you shall be also.  And where I am going, you know, and you know the way.” 

The Teacher had a great love for his disciples, whom he called friends, and desired nothing more than that they should come to know what he knew and experience what he was experiencing.  I note that he said “where I am” and not where I will be. He was on Earth in clear view of his disciples speaking with them days after his ordeal with death followed by his resurrection from the tomb, obviously in a transformed body—and I don’t think he was messing with their minds, telling them something that was not possible. As we have come to know over the millennia, transformation is possible and doable, here and now, and the “way,” as he had taken great pains to show them and all of mankind, is unconditional love: “I have only one command: that ye love one another as I have loved you.” And he loved those who came to his light just the way they presented themselves.

He had obviously ascended to a higher mansion in his father’s house, and they were yet feeling their way around on the ground floor trying to make sense of all that had just transpired so violently and unexpectedly, along with the changes they were feeling in their energetic fields just being in their Master’s presence those few years before he “ascended into heaven.” There is much teaching in this story.

The Many Mansions

We move from lower to higher levels of Being as we go through transformation, each level having its own energetic frequency—a transformed or stepped-down frequency of the ONE TONE of LOVE at the highest level of oneness with the Divine. There are those “ascended masters” who have reached that level during their incarnation, never to return again to the physical plane. All of us reincarnate until we learn to master each and every level of consciousness and are ready to ascend—and we cannot ascend from one level to the next without letting go of those coarse elements in the fabric of our outer being that are energized and maintained by the frequency of love specific to the level where we find ourselves—elements that cannot exist in a higher plane and frequency.

A friend, former associate, and colleague in the healing field, Dr. Lawrence Bakur, posted this view and perspective of the current human state on Facebook a few days ago.   

“There are many vibratory dimensions to this world, as well as the worlds of spirit, and each dimension is home to a specific level of love that we each individually carry in our souls. Those with a lower frequency of love cannot live in the higher dimensions as it would “fry their circuits” so to speak.

“I have witnessed this on many occasions when those whose soul condition is one of service-to-self rather than service-to-others are in the presence of a higher love; they tend to go a bit crazy, which can manifest in childish rebelliousness or in extreme cases, anger and violence. What is happening is that the fire of love is confronting the emotional damage of their souls and in a sense they are writhing in pain to the extent that they resist. Of course, this Love can also free their souls and lift them up if they so choose.

“This is what I see taking place in the world today. There truly is a spiritual battle happening between the forces of light and the forces of darkness that fear being brought into the light. In fact, they are kicking and screaming, plotting and planning to maintain their power even as they are in the process of being left behind, depending on their choices.

“I’m reminded of the words of Moses to the Israelites who were caught between Pharaoh and the Red Sea: “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.” Not that we simply sit back and relax. No, there may be many things to be done. But we can rest in the knowing that the victory is at hand. Why? Because Love conquers all and is absolutely unstoppable. In my own awareness of what’s happening on the planet, it’s picking up speed and those that fight it will not succeed. The Red Sea will part once more.”

And the miracle of salvation occurs by being at the right place at the right time when the sea of consciousness parts to reveal the Way across the threshold to a higher ground of being, a new and freeing perspective. In a word, a higher level of consciousness—a “new heaven.”

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow or crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” (Rev. 21:1-4)

The “holy city” and “new Jerusalem” symbolize the purified and sanctified state of human consciousness, absorbed into and reunited with Divine Consciousness in the final phase of the Restoration, at which point there will be “no more sea” of separate and isolated human consciousness, but only the dry land of a New Earth emerging from the Unified Field of Consciousness awaiting our care and stewardship. 

I love how Lawrence articulates the essences-of-the-Moment in the transformation process of the Body of Man as we enter a particularly intense culminating phase in the cycles of the Restoration of Man to God.

In those five words is defined the underlying meaning and purpose of human life on Earth down through the ages since the Fall of Man from his position in Eden as the “conveyor of spirit to earth” and administrator of creation, as my poet friend Don Hynes wrote in a recent comment on my last post: 

“I would only add that man restored is to God, becoming the conveyor of Spirit to the earth. Stewardship describes behavior but this time of revelation is calling for the return of the real meal deal!  The fall could be described as spiritual man falling into the creation. Divine man was to administer the creation, not be subject to it. Without the return to that position good works in the earth won’t matter, despite the good intentions.  I’m trying to elevate the position of Spiritual man without denigrating earth stewardship or the good works Richard (Heinberg) outlines.”

A Lesson in Mastery

Lawrence’s words bring up a memorable incident from my earlier years of attending professional workshops and seminars. I recall an encounter I had with my spiritual mentor at a time when he was apparently in the process of coming forth, just weeks before he made his transition from this earthly plane. I had just arrived to attend one of his symposiums when I met up with him and extended my hand to greet him.  He had already seen me approaching and, as he always did, was looking through my eyes into my heart, which was full of love for him and eagerness to hear him speak again.  As I approached and entered his immediate atmosphere, I was stopped by what seemed to be an invisible wall.  His dense, refined spiritual substance had completely enveloped his body, forming a protective shield around him.  I think he saw what was happening and lowered his frequency so that he could receive me just as I was.

For me it was a lesson in true mastery: meeting people at the level where the are in their journey, uncon-ditionally and without judgement, and not requiring them to meet me where I am.  It was also an exemplary reminder not to shine my light into the eyes of others but rather to shine it on the path to light the Way of transformation. He was a true master and beloved friend, the kind of teacher that appears when the student is ready. And apparently I was ready for enlightenment.

This has been a fruitful meditation for me, as I trust it has been for you. Until my next post in this series, in which I will share another excerpt from Richard Heinberg’s MEMORIES AND VISIONS OF PARADISE,

Be love. Be loved.

Anthony
tpal70@gmail.com

Category:

Angelic Identity, Apocalypse, Apocalypse of Light, Ascension, Conscious Evolution, Consciousness, Divine identity, Dr. Palombo's blog, Eden, Energy, Frequency Shifting, Garden of Paradise, Heaven, Kingdom of Heaven, Love, Man and nature, New Earth, Origin of Man, Paradise Remembered, Purification, Restoring Eden, The Paradise Myth, Transformation, Transmutation, True Identity, Union with God

Tagged with:

Getting Back to Paradise, part 2: Reading the Transition Signals

Apocalypse of light

“The peasant doesn’t cross himself until he hears the thunder.”

In bringing this series to a conclusion with this and my next two blog posts, I will share excerpts from the closing chapters of Richard Heinberg’s MEMORIES and VISIONS of PARADISE.  But before I do, I would like to share some uplifting words my friend and favorite poet Don Hynes sent to me a few days ago, as they resonate with the theme of my current considerations.

THE PROGRESSION

After the fall, which was a planetary solar progression as much as human, moving through a cloud where our current reality became possible, the Atlantean manipulations were fatal death-like steps for humanity and the planet. The trauma of those nightmares is in the genetic memory of the human race and the trajectory of that epoch was downward, from the downfall of the Lemurian priesthood through Atlantean science-abused wars to the caveman, cannibalism and the following centuries of darkness and struggle. 

We are now passing through a very similar time of genetic manipulation, of atomic and biological warfare, and are in a subconscious way re-experiencing the ancient trauma along with the current horror. However, despite the obvious implications that our current trajectory is likewise downward, thinking of this as an historic and metaphorical “V,” my sense is that we are currently passing out of the cloud where our current reality became possible, as Uranda and many mystics forecast, into the clear sky and open heaven of the seven dimensional reality. We are on the upward stroke of the V, not the downward, and so my/our word to the people is FEAR NOT as we pass through this time of collective Gethsemane in our return to the Garden.

We Pass Through Nightmares
 
There are places we enter
at the peril of our planet,
dark chambers 
where manipulation 
of life itself becomes
the deadly fascination.
What was once horror,
now scientific reality,
barely stirs
our deadened senses,
”because we can”
the blanketing rationale
for behaviors unspeakable.
We’ve been here before
and it ended badly.
Contrary to the logic
of linear progression
we pass through nightmares,
remembering and feeling
what was once left behind
and now rushes past
as we ride the currents
of disease and terror,
of compassion beyond measure
into our new place
in the universe.  —Don Hynes

 

Don’s words are a clarion call to sanity and for an about-face retreat from our mad drive toward extinction — touchstone words to keep on hand as the transitional pressure gets more and more compressed, as it will.  The birthing of a new world is in process and the contractions are beginning to be closer and more intense.  It’s time to breathe deeply and exhale expectantly as we labor in love for the truth of life on our home among the stars. 

READING THE SIGNALS

Richard Heinberg has been very active in the environmental movement since the 1980’s. He has written several books on climate and clean energy issues, including The Party is Over: Oil War and the Fate of Industrial Societies —  AFTERBURN: Society Beyond Fossil Fuel — Our Renewable Future: Laying the Path for One Hundred Percent Clean Energy — and his latest work The End of Growth, in which he examines how the expansionary trajectory of industrial civilization is colliding with non-negotiable natural limits. 

In the following excerpt, Richard takes a hard and sobering look at the shadows cast by coming events, the symptoms of mankind’s abuse of the earth’s generosity.  Keep in mind that this was written some forty years ago.  Since then climate and energy issues have gained greater attention as the environment continues to deteriorate further and time runs out on the implementation of viable solutions. His and other authors’ warnings having gone unheeded, Richard’s optimism about our future has diminished considerably. 

(For a rather sobering update on where we have come over the last several decades, you may wish to view — at a later time — Michael Moore’s recently-released film PLANET OF THE HUMANS, an hour-and-forty-minute documentary on the present state of our world and our ill-placed hope in biomass, wind turbans and solar panels; well worth watching.)

And now, without further ado, here’s an excerpt from chapter 12, “To Get Back to the Garden.“

Warnings from the Collective Unconscious

When we diverge from the way we were designed to function, Nature sends warning signals. For example, when we eat foods we are unable to digest, our stomachs rebel; when we use our limbs in ways in which they were not designed to be used, our muscles and bones protest. When we do such things habitually over time, we are likely to receive not only external signals in the form of pain, accidents, or disease, but we may also receive internal signals. Such signals may take the form of nightmares and premonitions through which the body’s own unconscious wisdom attempts to alert us and to influence our behavior.

If this is true for us individually, perhaps it is also true for human­ kind collectively — that is, if humanity is ignoring an innate paradisal design (by envisioning and working toward a world characterized by artificiality, separateness, and the suppression of Nature), then we should expect to be receiving both external and internal warnings. On the collective level, such external warning signs might take the form of war, environmental degradation, famine, or plague; internal warn­ing signs might appear as widely occurring visions of apocalyptic events.

As Norman Cohn showed in The Pursuit of the Millennium, apoca­lyptic visions have tended to appear in profusion during historical periods of political and religious oppression, social upheaval, war, and pestilence. The Hebrew prophets lived in an age of defeat and captiv­ity; Jesus lived at the height of the decadent and oppressive Roman Empire; and medieval millenarian movements seemed always to flour­ish in places and times of unusual hardship. We see the same associa­tion of apocalyptic vision with societal stress among tribal peoples: in North America, Africa, and the Pacific islands, new spiritual movements that have arisen during the last century in response to the onslaught of civilization have invariably been prophetic and millenarian in character. 

There are many reasons for thinking that contemporary Western civilization is approaching a period of maximum divergence from the paradisal ideal. Instead of simplicity, innocence, and the ability to work in harmony with natural processes, industrial civilization values sophistication, abstraction, the concentration of wealth, and the complete subjugation of Nature. These values have not appeared suddenly or recently; rather, they can be traced back to the beginnings of civilization itself. But we do seem to be witnessing the culmination of their influence. And as we actualize the ultimate implications of long-term trends leading toward the centralization of social power, the technological domination of Nature, and the fragmentation of human consciousness, we find ourselves on what appears to be a collision course with a deeper reality.

We see external warning signals appearing everywhere around us. We hear, for example, of the death of thousands of lakes and forests from the effects of acid rain. As the thinning of the ozone layer creates an epidemic of skin cancer, we simultaneously discover that a greenhouse effect — created by the carbon dioxide released from the burning of fossil fuels — is altering global weather patterns. We hear of the disappearance of tens of thousands of species as the result of the clear-cutting of rain forests, and of the loss of millions of tons of irreplaceable topsoil due to modern mechanized agricultural practices. These and other warning signals portend catastrophes of truly apocalyptic dimensions, catastrophes that can be averted only if immediate steps are taken to change our fundamental relationship with the natural environment. 

At the same time, we are seeing an unprecedented eruption of what could be interpreted as internal, psychic warning signals. The past two decades have seen burgeoning numbers of people turn to millenarian fundamentalism for a sense of meaning and purpose. Christian fundamentalists look toward the imminent end of the world, the destruction of unbelievers, and the restoration of an earthly Para­dise characterized by all the qualities of the original Eden — peace, happiness, and, above all, the opportunity to dwell in the immediate presence of the Lord.

But while fundamentalist millenarianism draws upon apocalyptic scriptural visions from eras past, we are also surrounded by fresh and original prophetic utterances. The classic apocalyptic scenario — a final battle between the forces of good and evil, followed by the advent of a restored condition of peace and beatitude — appears, for example, in numerous science-fiction plots and in the psychic predictions of Edgar Cayce and the “channelers” of the 1980s. Moreover, near-death experiences are making their own contribution to what amounts to a contemporary explosion of apocalyptic prophecy. 

While conducting his NDE studies, Kenneth Ring began to hear reports of prophetic visions (PVs) of humanity’s future, and he de­cided to collect and compare them. Ring found that PVs seem to occur most frequently during core NDEs, and that there is an “impressive similarity” among the visions. In Heading toward Omega, Ring summa­rizes the common elements of the classic PV:

There is, first of all, a sense of having total knowledge, but specifically one is aware of seeing the entirety of the earth’s evolution and history, from the beginning to the end of time. The future scenario, however, is usually of short duration, seldom extending much beyond the beginning of the twenty-first century. The individuals report that in this decade there will be an increasing incidence of earthquakes, volcanic activity, and generally massive geophysical changes. There will be resultant disturbances in weather patterns and food supplies. The world economic system will collapse, and the possibility of nuclear war or accident is very great (respondents are not agreed on whether a nuclear catastrophe will occur). All of these events are transi­tional rather than ultimate, however, and they will be followed by a new era in human history marked by human brotherhood, universal love, and world peace. Though many will die, the earth will live.

Ring then quotes several PV reports. The following is from a woman whose near-death experience occurred in 1967: 

The vision of the future I received during my near-death experi­ence was one of tremendous upheaval in the world as a result of our general ignorance of the “true” reality. I was informed that mankind was breaking the laws of the universe and as a result of this would suffer. This suffering was not due to the vengeance of an indignant God but rather like the pain one might suffer as a result of arrogantly defying the law of gravity. It was to be an inevitable educational cleansing of the earth that would creep up on its inhabitants, who would try to hide blindly in the institutions of law, science, and religion. Mankind, I was told, was being consumed by the cancers of arrogance, materialism, racism, chauvinism, and separatist thinking. I saw sense turning to nonsense, and calamity, in the end, turning to providence.  

At the end of this general period of transition, mankind was to be “born anew,” with a new sense of its place in the universe.  The birth process, however, as in all the kingdoms, was exqui­sitely painful. Mankind would emerge humbled yet educated, peaceful, and, at last, unified.

Ring attempted to find a rational explanation for the remarkably consistent patterns of imagery in the PVs he had collected. Could these experiences be projections of unconscious fears? Or, perhaps, do individuals who perceive themselves as dying somehow generalize the experience as being “the death of the world”? Ring found both of these explanations unconvincing: Why not a greater variety of global-future scenarios? The PVs are just too consistent to be personal projections.  Could they, then, be eruptions of unconscious Jungian archetypes?

Ring found this explanation more plausible, but he was still uncom­fortable with the specificity and paranormal character of PVs. After examining all of the explanations he could devise, Ring found himself left with the interpretation the NDErs themselves insist upon: that PV’s are in fact exactly what they seem to be: inspired prophe­cies of future events.  

If this is the case, why is humanity propelling itself toward a cataclysmic day of reckoning? Ring invokes a sobering metaphor: he suggests that humanity is approaching — and subconsciously preparing for — a collective near-death experience. As we noted earlier, NDErs almost invariably undergo a sudden and radical restructuring of values. A typical comment is this: “My interest in material wealth and greed for possessions was replaced by a thirst for spiritual understanding and a passionate desire to see world conditions improve.”

Throughout history, moral reformers have sought to inspire hu­manity to change its collective values and to regain its sense of the sacred. Despite occasional and temporary successes, such exhortations have generally been ignored. We seem convinced that greed and aggression are constants, restrainable only by the force of law. But Ring’s hypothesis implies that human nature, when it comes face to face with annihilation, may dissolve to reveal a deeper and more profound nature, one that has been hidden for millennia behind the veil of the human ego. 

The Russians have a saying: “The peasant doesn’t cross himself until he hears the thunder.” That is, people tend to make basic changes in attitude and behavior only when their backs are to the wall. This observation seems as true for society as a whole as it is for individuals. Often, only a crisis will awaken us to the results of a destructive habit. In the case of late-twentieth-century humanity, the habitual behavior (and the potential awakening) is at a critical level and underlies all of our social, economic, scientific, and political realities. This crisis amounts to far more than just a serious inconvenience, or even a catastrophe on the scale of the Great Depression or the two world wars. Religious prophets and scientific futurists alike envision what amounts to the end of our entire way of life, and, conceivably — in the event of an all-out nuclear conflict or the irreversible destruction of the environment — the death of the human race itself. 

We recall the prophecies of the tribal peoples concerning a Great Purification, which will cleanse the world of human depravity but will also reunite Heaven and Earth, ushering in a new age of spirituality and light. Is this what we are all unconsciously laboring to bring about?

Yes — and with a large “critical mass” of humanity, that labor is conscious and deliberate, done with joy and a sense of mission and purpose; truly a labor of love.  Apocalypse means revelation.  Every death is an apocalypse of light — only the light is revealed in the invisible realms. What is needed is an apocalypse of light in the visible realms — as above so below — on earth as it is in heaven.  I see this occurring as this pandemic brings out the best of the human spirit. May it continue long after the crisis is over. 

I leave you with this tidbit of common-sense wisdom: “Like the proverbial bar of soap when squeezed, looking downward we go down; looking upward we go up.”  So, remember to look up when the squeeze is on.  Until my next post,

Be love. Be loved    

Anthony

I think you will find solace in this video clip.  “Death is not an end-point. It’s a transformation moment.” 

 

Category:

Apocalypse, Apocalypse of Light, Ascension, Atlantis, Cataclysms, Catastrophism, Climate Changes, Cosmic Energy, Cosmic events, Death, Dr. Palombo's blog, Eden, Evolution, Global Warming, Golden Age, Healing Tones Blog, Near Death Experiences, New Earth, Transformation

Tagged with:

Getting Back To Paradise, part 1: Purification First

“It may be that some little root of the sacred tree still lives. Nourish it then, that it may leaf and bloom and fill with singing birds.”  Black Elk

In the quiet stillness of these times, I will continue sharing my current stream of thought around the theme of “Paradise Remembered.” In this post I revisit Richard Heinberg’s MEMORIES and VISIONS of PARADISE to start bringing this series to a positive finale, starting with this promising passage: 

A new Paradise awaits, but humanity must first undergo a cathar­tic cleansing. Few prophets have looked beyond the day of Purification to describe the events of the restored Golden Age, for the world to come will be inconceivable in terms of the present one. With the return of Paradise, history — as a chronicle of wars and intrigue, of plots and villains — will be finished. Humanity and Nature, Heaven and Earth will once more be joined in peace and harmony as a new Creation-Time begins. 

PURIFICATION OF THE HEART

In the biblical story of the Fall, an angel with a flaming sword was placed at the entrance to Eden guarding the way to the Tree of Life, lest fallen Man partake of its fruit and live forever in his fallen state.  The angel represents the ONE I AM; the sword represents TRUTH; the fire represents the purifying SPIRIT OF LOVE. The story, of course, is a metaphor indicating that in order to return to Eden, we must pass through the fire of purification and prove that we can be true to the Truth of Love, true to our true Self.

The first order of business is the cleansing of the heart, especially of immune-crippling fear and shame. Buried deeply in the heart of humanity are fearful memories of a cataclysmic past in which the human race and all living things were nearly and literally wiped off the face of the earth, such as what occurred in the days of Noah with the Deluge.  We carry shame in our hearts for having brought this calamity, and all those that followed, upon our own heads by forgetting to live by the Law of One, and fear that calamity will happen again. It was said, however, that the Creator would not destroy the world again by water, and that this generation is “reserved unto fire.” What are some of the implications of this prophecy, and by what possible means would such a fiery cleansing take place?

THE CREATING PROCESS

In addressing these questions, I turn to a consideration of the Creative Process in which matter is drawn together for a season and then undone and recycled for future creative purposes.  Integration is an equal partner to dis-integration in this process—and their cycles run concurrently, only integration tends to be a bit more subtle, and dis-integration tends to gain a lot more attention.

As examples: devastating forest fires make news headlines, while new growth in their wake receives little if any media coverage.  Plagues, like the current pandemic, devastate our sense of security, along with the human population — although to little extent compared to the 1.4% current population growth rate — and the daily death toll makes leading story for the morning news. On the other end of the population spectrum, we’re less likely to see announcements of new births in our daily newspaper as we see obituaries. 

Ironically, while we all celebrate new births with congratulatory sentiment, we may harbor reservations about the wisdom of bringing a child into this turbulent and overpopulated world.  We are, after all, leaving our children a mess to clean up.  My concern for our grandchildren is that they will suffer painful hardship in the collapse of this un-civilized world—and I don’t think there’s any doubt remaining that this will come to pass, if not in our lifetime, in theirs.

On our walk a few days ago we met up with a young friend who, with his wife, have agreed not to have children and bring more human beings into this world. Such conscious thinking and wisdom are exemplary.

As a species, we do need to curb population growth, and the starting place is with individuals.  Family-planning is essential, with conception-and-birth control taking precedence over abortion.  For those who do not wish to bring more children into the world, adoption is a beautiful way to fulfill a couple’s desire to have children and a family. If we the people do not take this matter into our hands, the powers that be, that manipulate the masses for profit, will do it in ways that are ungodly and do irreversible damage to the genetics of our species. 

Dan Brown’s INFERNO may be fiction, but the reduction of the human population by means of a viral epidemic, or vaccinations, has been conceived in human consciousness, the matrix in which the patterns of human civilization are set, and out of which our world is born. That said, let us not energize that conception by focusing our mental judgments on it, nor on those “evil-doers out there,” lest the conceived possibility take on a life of its own and become our-worst-fears-realized.

The creating processes of integration and disintegration are unfolding continually.  The question I pose is this: “Is there a ‘critical mass’ in place on earth sufficient to move the Creating Process in a more dominantly integrative direction?”  I sense that we’re getting there, if we’re not there already.  

FOUR WORLD AGES COME AND GO

Historically, ages end with cataclysmic events. According to the Ancients, there have been four Ages in our history.  Richard Heinberg cites them:

World Ages

If the magical landscape fixes Paradise in space, its position in time is defined by its placement at the beginning of a series of world ages. We have already noted the Greek and Hindu conceptions of the ages or yugas of the world, respectively; there are also close parallels among other cultures. The Iranians, for example, knew four cosmic ages that, in a lost Mazdaean book, the Sudkar~nask, are referred to as the ages of gold, silver, steel, and “mixed with iron.” In the Iranian conception, as in the Greek and Hindu, each age is a step in the world’s deterioration, a process that is leading to a final apocalyptic cleansing.”

The Mayans counted their world ages as consecutive Suns­ — Water Sun, Earthquake Sun, Hurricane Sun, and Fire Sun — according to the nature of the catastrophe that closed the epoch. The Hopi also spoke of four worlds — Tokpela, Tokpa, Kuskurza, and Tuwaquchi — the first of which is described in paradisal terms.  Following their creation in the Tokpela world, the first people went their directions, were happy, and began to multiply. With the pristine wisdom granted them, they under­stood that the earth was a living entity like themselves. She was their mother; they were made from her flesh …. In their wisdom they also knew their father in two aspects. He was the Sun, the solar god of their universe …. Yet his was but the face through which looked Taiowa, their creator …. These universal entities were their real parents, their human parents being but the instruments through which their power was made manifest . . . . . 

THE END OF A WORLD AGE

We are the generation to see the end of the “mixed-with-iron” age and the beginning of the “Information Age”– the age of “Artificial Intelligence” or “AI.” That has such a foreboding sound to it.  Are we actually relegating our intelligence to the computer?  Sounds like a final step downward in the devolution of our species — from spiritual beings who had access to all knowledge — past, present and future — down to the level of these animal bodies with brains that have limited vision, and down further yet to the mineral kingdom where we hand over our “intelligence” to a computer silicon chip in which our vision and view of reality is determined by “data” rather than spiritual discernment.   

Returning to the question I posed earlier, by what possible means will this generation be cleansed by fire? Heinberg speaks to this question in the final chapters of his book. I will conclude with these excerpts in two or three posts.

To Get Back to the Garden

EDENIC CONSCIOUSNESS MAY BE RECOVERABLE by individuals in rare moments of spiritual insight. Perhaps nearly everyone glimpses Paradise at some instant during his or her lifetime. But is it also possible for all of us together to live in the Garden once again — to return and stay? This final chapter will offer two reasons for thinking that it is possible. We will see, moreover, how signs of strain and disintegration in the founda­tions of our present civilization, together with some intriguing developments at the growing tips of society, suggest that a new Golden Age may already be struggling to be born.

The Attainability of Paradise

The evidence of anthropology and archaeology may not prove (though it certainly does not deny) the former existence of a Golden Age — that is, of a unitary culture in which people were universally and continually telepathic, lived close to Nature, and possessed miraculous powers. But, as we saw in chapter 8, anthropological and archaeologi­cal discoveries have shown, almost beyond a doubt, that two of the most destructive aspects of civilization (the use and justification of violence as a means of social change, and the desire for dominance over other human beings and over Nature) were acquired only re­cently. The findings of archaeologists show that in the past human beings did live — and therefore in principle are capable of living — in peace and harmony both among themselves and with Nature.

Moreover, the evidence of psychology suggests not only that a subjective condition of oneness, peace, and innocence is attainable, but also that it is the natural and healthy mode of human consciousness. If the human body functions best in the absence of the ego-states of blame, fear, and resentment (as medical experiments show that it does), then the fact that we are living in an ego-based world, in which Paradise is the exceptional experience, must therefore be an unusual and temporary state of affairs.

If we were able to live in Paradise once, we ought to be able to do so again. And if the most natural and healthy way of life available to human beings is defined by the expression of the essential paradisal qualities of character and the subsequent experience of universal harmony, then what is natural should in principle also be attainable. In short, we may be designed to live in Paradise.

Why, then, do we routinely assume that Paradise is beyond our reach? Perhaps it is partly because we have an unrealistic concept of what that state is or should be. We tend to think of Paradise as a place or time in which all human desires are satisfied; since people’s desires tend to conflict, we therefore assume that Paradise could never actu­ally exist. But the Paradise of myth and vision is not a state in which conflicting personal desires are somehow all fulfilled. Rather, it is one in which all human desires and motives are completely subsumed within a larger creative purpose. If individual desires are satisfied in Paradise, this is only because it is the overwhelming desire of all individuals that the consummate accord of Nature and Cosmos be nourished and maintained.

The inhabitants of Paradise — whether in myths of the First Age or in near-death visions — are universally characterized by their expres­sion of specific values and qualities of character. And, as Aldous Huxley (among others) has shown, a comparative study of the relig­ions of the world reveals that these values and qualities — honesty, compassion, and love — are universal and innate. Whether it was a historical reality or not, Paradise exists in the eternal present as an image expressing our deepest sense of what is right and true about ourselves.

Looked at in this way, Paradise may be seen as serving a specific function, as a design for living embedded in the circuitry of human consciousness. All biological organisms, including human beings, contain elements of design. We know, for example, that the pattern of the DNA molecules in our cells governs the basic design of our physical bodies. Perhaps we also contain within us a neurological or psychic program for the optimal design of social and spiritual relations between ourselves, the Cosmos, and Nature — a design of telepathic oneness and interspecies communion that represents the goal toward which our individual and collective experience would naturally tend to unfold.

Provided there are no significant interferences, the design inher­ent in the DNA molecules in our cells is expressed automatically and accurately in the formation of our physical bodies. Perhaps the same is potentially true of the neurological design of Paradise: provided its expression is not blocked, the pattern of oneness with the universal currents of life, as well as of miraculous abilities, should be automati­cally and accurately reflected in our ordinary experience.

At present, however, it is not. As we have seen, nearly all of the world’s spiritual traditions agree that the innate paradisal design is being thwarted in its expression by certain now-universal patterns of attitude, thought, and behavior.

Could it be that simple?  Could Paradise be, as Scott Peck imaged, A World Waiting To Be Born ?  Awaiting our expression of it?  Of its Spirit?  Is the “fire” unto which this generation is reserved the fire of Spirit in expression through us?  The spirit of love, of truth and of life?  Energetically, cosmic conditions are just right for the birth of a new world and a new human race, with our conscious participation as “spiritual midwives,” as we travel with the planet and solar system, at breakneck speed, into uncharted waters in space.  Our once clouded vision is clarifying and expanding to encompass the image of a Golden Age coming down from God out of a New Heaven manifesting a New Earth.  Let us welcome it with joy and celebration.

Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. . . .  Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices. (Song of Solomon) 

The Teacher taught that fear is cast out of the heart by “perfect love”— unconditional love consistently expressed in living.  Shame is cleansed by forgiveness. That’s one means of purifying the heart of humanity.  Another way is by the fire of nuclear fission.  But then there would be no flesh left with which to start over, as in the days of Noah and his family.  Let us opt for the fire of Love — and grant God his wish that none should perish but that all should come to enjoy life eternal in Paradise restored — for, as Black Elk encouraged, “It may be that some little root of the sacred tree still lives. Nourish it then, that it may leaf and bloom and fill with singing birds.”

Until my next post,  

Be love. Be loved.

Anthony

tpal70@gmail.com

Category:

Alchemy, Apocalypse, Cataclysms, Creation, Dr. Palombo's blog, Eden, Garden of Paradise, Golden Age, Love, Mythology, New Earth, Overpopulation, Paradise Remembered, Plagues, Purification, Purifying your heart, Restoring Eden, Truth

Tagged with:

Paradise Remembered, part 4: Return to Grace, Stature and Dominion

“For in the day thou shalt eat thereof thou shalt surely die.”   Genesis 

As I watch this coronavirus “pandemic” consume fearful minds and hearts, and hear the daily tally of the numbers of those infected and dying, I marvel at the resilience of the human spirit that consistently and predictably rises to the occasion in the presence of a common threat—real or only perceived.

At the same time, I also marvel at the level to which Man has fallen from the grace, stature and dominion over creation we once shared with our Creator and enjoyed in the Beginning when we were divinely created and fashioned and given a Garden of Paradise to call Home and habitat.  Not that we haven’t been given ample opportunities to repent of our aberrant ways and restore Paradise, because we have.

Such an opportunity is with us now in this global crisis that has halted us in our tracks and shut down our survival-and-greed-driven self-activity.  From what I’ve been seeing on social media and the news, there seems to be an awakening to this opportunity in many and an expressed intention, if not commitment, to not return to “business-as-usual” when this pandemic is over.  Some have noticed, as I have, that the level of air pollution has dropped considerably—as much as fifty-percent here in the US according to a recent national weather report—and noise reduction is pleasantly noted as well.  Wow! What an eye-opener and blessing this crisis is giving us just in these two results of reduced human activity on the planet! Not to mention the social impact globally.

This pandemic can be seen as humanity’s 9/11—but it doesn’t come without a caveat that we not to be deceived by the “trickster” yet again.  The caveat in this episode is “Follow the money.”  As someone wrote in a social media post a few days ago, “If you don’t use your mind, someone else will use it for you.” So, let’s use our minds and do our own research, and not follow the proverbial herd of sheep over the cliff.  Fear paralyzes our ability to think for ourselves. (See the video clip below and learn how Science is manipulating the human genetic material in order to control the human population.)

Along these lines, I received  a rather thought-full commentary, entitled THE VAST MAN. from one of my blog followers “across the pond,” as they say in the UK, Peter Watson, a portion of which I will share and see where it takes us:

THE VAST MAN

Logic and reason would suggest that original man, male and female, would have been of far greater stature (if designated to ‘have dominion’, as it was put, over Eden), than the human species that now inhabits Earth. Confirming this, we have extensive mythology speaking of gods and goddesses, giants-in-the-land, men of great renown, crowned by the Gods-of-Olympus ruling the first civilization. Also tending to validate the hypothesis of a vast man, male and female, and of greater stature, there is biblical mention of “Sons-of-God”—surely a reference to those designated to ‘have dominion’—who “saw that the daughters of men”—(certainly a reference to the Adam strain produced to till the ground and dress and tend a garden; hardly in the order of having dominion)—“and took unto them all they chose”—not unlike the sheiks and sultans of mankind’s world.

Historically, between the completion of Eden, and the host of original man, male and female, stretches an unrecorded blank, known in mythology as The Golden Age of Man, that spanned the period between the Sixth Solar Day—midway in the First Universal Age [a cycle of 310,464 years]) and the latter millennia of the Twelfth Solar Day (a cycle of nearly 26,000 years)—at which point an unauthorized garden is planted eastwards in Eden, where “there was not a man to till the ground.”

In the midst of extraterrestrial upheavals that wiped out and submerged two civilizations, reducing survivors to the cavemen-stage beginning of the present civilization, spans a feasting-ground for extraordinary mythology, including fire-breathing dragons, witches riding their broomsticks across the night sky, and a temporary race of dinosaurs; all hallmarks of globally-acclaimed recognition.

Little or no memory or recognition of the greater portion of man’s history is now available, other than in myths and legends, a state of mind to which professor Velikovsky ascribes amnesia. With NASA’s computing power, and Hubble’s space-penetrating telescope, we can now trace evidence of past upheavals within Sol’s galactic family of planets to confirm such events as the parting of the Red Sea, and the day the Sun and the moon (apparently) stood still in the sky in Joshua’s record. Slowly but surely parts of mythology, extraordinary as it may seem, can now be confirmed.

The “First Time”

The “First Time”—when Man lived in the Garden of Paradise—spanned a considerable length of time before the “Fall” took place and Man, outside the Garden and hiding from the Creator, began to create living things out of his own imagination and physical desires. In her BOOK OF GRACE, Grace Van Duzen writes evocatively about that sad day:

Gen. 6:1,2:  And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

This incident portrays the obsession which engrossed divine Man as he surrendered to the temptation to control the outer planes of his own being for his own pleasure and purposes. It depicts a further step in the Fall, wherein his expression became subject to that over which he was created to have dominion and thus doomed the earth and its people to the fallen state. It lowered the vibratory rate in human beings, so that the physical forms lost much of their power and beauty.

All of this was a reversal of the working of God’s Law. The self-activity which has character­ized mankind’s function since that time is described by the act of taking “wives of all which they chose.” The basis for the function of human beings, especially in the most intimate areas (as of “wives”), is that of personal choice, desire, wants, without regard to a design inherent in the divine nature of each one. Described later as the “will of God,” that has a reputation of being something imposed, undesirable, when in fact it is the only possible way of fulfillment, joy and satisfaction.

The reference to “multiplying” indicates the exponential process, with the results of self­-obsessed function, divergent from the original state.

Edgar Cayce was a man with a remarkable and accurate ability in the subconscious levels. In a book Edgar Cayce on Atlantis, written by his son Dr. Edgar Evans Cayce, he referred to man­kind’s advent in Atlantis:

The first disturbing forces…in the continent [Atlantis], through the application of spiritual things for self-indulgences of material peoples. . .were the periods as termed in the Scripture when “The sons of God looked on the daughters of men, and saw them as being fair.”

He spoke of the “sons of the Law of One” and of the “sons of Belial.” All were created as sons and daughters of the Law of One. It was the departure from that One Law, indulging in union with the “sons of Belial,” the devil or the wrong use of the serpent in the tree that produced all the mis­ery in the world.

That state included the introduction of slavery, “servitude to many through the aggrandizing of those things that pertained to the gratification of material things, material desires in the body.” 

Gen. 6:3-22:  And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

This verse declares the drastic change in human form and substance” for that he also is flesh,” accompanied by the reduction in his life span. Rejection of the ordained process of birth and ascension resulted in the gradual decrease from approximately thousand-year cycles to “an hundred and twenty years.” There was the transition from a high vibrational substance to what is called flesh. This was recorded previously when it was said that God made them “coats of skins.”

The bodies of human beings as originally created were formed “of the dust of the ground,” the purpose being to utilize the substance of this planet to create a vehicle for the Lord’s do­minion in this part of the cosmos. It was the absorption of the consciousness at the physical level that interfered with the vital control from the higher planes, described as “my spirit, saith the Lord.” This reversed the upward movement of the “living soul” to a dying one.

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagi­nation of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

[The process of the Fall was literally clothing evil thought-forms with Earth’s substance: “heaven and earth” became “heaven and hell.”]

And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

With His creation in this part of the cosmos at a crucial point, it appeared to the Lord that it might not survive the inevitable working of the Law, resulting from man’s own wrong func­tion, pictured as the Lord destroying man.  All of Earth’s kingdoms are dependent upon the outcome of man’s advent on this planet: “both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air.” It was obvious that without a change in man, in the “thoughts of his heart,” this glorious creation would self-destruct. The function of the mind (serpent) is the vital key in the restoration of mankind, which is not separate from the heart, the emotions, the passion which is the substance of first form, as palpable in the subconscious level as the more familiar physical one. When that is “continually evil” the material form and atmosphere cannot be oth­erwise.

My attention was piqued as I read “The process of the Fall was literally clothing evil thought-forms with Earth’s substance: ‘heaven and earth’ became ‘heaven and hell.’” That’s still going on today. Scientists exercise little restraint and take presumed license in their laboratories toying around with they-know-not-what.  Yet does curiosity and desire for fame and fortune compel them onward in their search for the Pulitzer-prize-winning discovery of the day. “Let us make things in the image and likeness of the thoughts and imaginings of our own hearts and minds.”  Those imaginings and thoughts are to this day “only evil continually.” And this self-activity is not limited to science alone but is going on everywhere—in commercial agriculture, for instance. 

Consider, for example, the DNA Sequence recently deciphered, and the tampering of the genome to produce genetically altered foods, even clone animals.  The spiraling DNA helix can be seen as a “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”–or evol.  We were warned not to even touch it, much less eat of its fruit?  The “fruit” would be the end product of genetic engineering, which has had deadly consequences.  “For in the day thou shalt eat thereof thou shalt surely die.”  I think that was a warning rather than a threat by an angry and vengeful God.  To this day our lying serpentine mind whispers “Thou shalt not surely die.”

Some have speculated that this virus may have been created in a laboratory and escaped by accident. I rather suspect that man’s perpetration and rape of the Earth’s natural resources has triggered a global immune response from the Natural World.  Earth is, after all, a living, breathing entity. A viral pandemic could well be her way of giving us pause to reconsider our chosen way or living—or dying.  Let us face the fact that whatever is not in harmony with, and strives against, the Natural Order is constantly being undone and eliminated from the Earth. We fight it to our peril. Yielding to the Natural Order, we live—hopefully to restore benevolent grace, noble stature and loving dominion to Man, God’s representative in this corner of the Universe.  

I will close with these uplifting words of Grace:

The creation of this planet and its inhabitants was unique in the cosmos, with a very special function in the solar system. Man is created with the ability to let the control of the cosmos, “God Almighty,” be operative on Earth, and consequently have vital impact in the entire solar system.

With that, I will leave you to your own thoughts and meditations.  Until my next post,

Be love. Be loved

Anthony

tpal70@gmail.com

Category:

Creation, Dr. Palombo's blog, Garden of Paradise, Global Adversary, Golden Age, Golden Race, Healing Tones Blog, Law of One, Man and nature, New Earth, Origin of Man, Paradise Remembered, Plagues, Restoring Eden, Viruses

Tagged with:

Paradise Remembered, part 3: The Origin of Man

“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion . . . over all the earth.”

Grace Van Duzen portrays Man as being first spirit, later to be clothed with form. Spiritual Man clothed with an earthen body—God incarnate on earth—to continue God’s work of creation as a steward of the creative process and keeper of the Garden. That’s the biblical story of Man’s origins.

Grace tells her “Story of Man” in THE BOOK OF GRACE from a cosmic view: 

“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion . . . over all the earth. . . .  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” 

“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. . . .

“And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”

At the conclusion of each creative Day, God saw that “it was good.” After the creation of Man the comment was that He saw every thing that he had made, and. . . it was very good.

On the Sixth Day, then, we have Man (and Woman), a perfect creation. In the sixth cycle divine Being was clothed in earth substance, in position to let God perform His cosmic creative acts on this planet through His earthly image and likeness—the means whereby the invisible things of heaven could be brought forth on Earth.

Dominion over every living thing is the result of obedience to the command to multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it, which indicates a state where perfect control is operative in the act of multiplying, which involves sexual activity at all vibratory levels. 

The opposite has occurred, with overpopulation the primary cause of hellish distortions rampant in every corner of this planet which was created to be a paradise. The results of aberrant function in the most vital area of man’s creative activity, the limiting of that act of creation to the physical level, are taking their toll in increasingly massive numbers.

According to this command, dominion over all creatures and kingdoms of the earth is entirely dependent upon control in this central function of life. Multiplication is an essential aspect of all creation, the “seed within itself,” and without the control that causes the design in the heaven to take material form, the result is self-destruction, tragically obvious in man’s present function on this planet.

The fact that Man, male and female, was created with the faculties to extend the control and guidance of a wise and loving God to all the kingdoms of the earth causes one to look at the situation in today’s world, of misery and violence. Something went wrong! Man is afraid, not only of many creatures of the earth but of his own shadow; there is not much dominion in evi­dence. The drastic change in the being designed to control the earth and its creatures inevitably included that over which he was to have dominion. Animals took on the nature of their “fallen” god. It can also be seen how quickly a “creature” will return to the state of “grace” when in the presence of a human being expressing the Spirit of God.

The Being that incarnates into this planet at the present time assumes a much denser sub­stance than that in which man was first created. A finely tuned body, clothed with the highest vibrational substance natural to this part of the cosmos, would be equipped to travel vibra­tionally wherever the Spirit directed. Could this be the origin, deeply buried in the subcon­scious mind of man, of the concept of angels, radiantly robed in white, with wings that enable them to fly? It is an image that has persisted throughout the ages, and I was awed when I became aware, some years ago, that someone had perceived, in the aura of another’s body, the outline of a shape that resembled wings, extending from the area of the shoulder blades. I am not suggesting that the physical form of man’s imaginary wings would be the vehicle for his transportation, but the essence of the design is present, regardless of all that has been done, and cannot be dissolved by fallen human beings. It is still present.

CREATION IN MYTHS

Richard Heinberg tells the creation story as memorialized in myths.  Myths paint a much more colorful and imaginative picture. According to myths about “The First Time,” man’s abode was the heavens, the sky, in which we moved about like birds in the air—spiritual beings made by God—before diving into the water-covered planet Earth. That’s one scenario of Man’s origins. There’s a second scenario that has man emerging from Mother Earth—physical man formed by “the makers.” Heinberg cites both in Memories and Visions of Paradise:

The Earth Diver

Earth Diver myths tell the creation story from the perspective of a representative from the upper world who dives into the primordial chaos to bring forth the first seed of order. The Earth Diver myth tells of how a divine being (usually an animal) descends into the water to bring up bits of mud, which grow to form the whole Earth or even the entire Universe. Earth Diver myths are common among the northern North American tribes, whose cosmologies feature an original upper world inhabited by the immortal Elders and an unformed chaos of water below.

The symbolism in Earth Diver myths is often whimsical: the Diver is often pictured as a muskrat, a duck, or a turtle. Yet the underlying meaning of the myths is nonetheless profound. Water is the unformed reality out of which matter appears, and the descent into the abyss is analogous to baptism, in that it is at once a cleansing and a creative act. “In the beginning there was nothing but water,” says a Huron myth.

Similarly, the Hindu Vishnu Purana tells of an original chaos of waters:

He, the Lord, concluding that within the waters lay the earth, and being desirous to raise it up …. He, the supporter of spiritual and material being, plunged into the ocean.

The Emergence

The Emergence myth centers around the symbolism of Mother Earth, from which human beings emerge through various stages or levels of underworld. Emergence myths are found among the Hopi, Navajo, Pueblo, and Pawnee Native Americans, and certain groups in the South Pacific islands. In the Emergence myth the Earth is the fertile source of being, containing within herself the essences and potencies of all life. The lower world is described not as a hell, but as a previous mode of existence, a womblike paradise. Neither is the underworld considered to be a literal subterranean cavern, but rather a place “where at death we will all return,” another plane of existence “under”—that is, underlying-the perceptible physical world. Sun or Corn is often the agent of transformation and quickening, leading the First People up into the light. “Before the World was we were all within the Earth,” begins a Pawnee myth; “Mother corn caused movement. She gave life.”!’

In part, the Emergence myth is a metaphor for the journey from a spiritual plane of existence into manifestation in the material world. But the myth also epitomizes the role of the feminine in Creation: it is a symbol and a memory of the primordial Mother, the Earth herself, as she originally was—fresh, new, fertile, the source of all form, the receptacle of all seeds, the nurturer of all life. The tale is told from the perspective of the Creation, emerging from the womb of Earth Mother. . . .

Among nearly all of the variants on the creation-from-clay story, the breath of life is a common feature. For example, according to a Hawaiian myth, Kane and Ku breathed into the nostrils and Lono into the mouth of a clay image, which thereupon became a living being. In an Australian Creation story, Bunjil, the All-Father of the southeast­ern tribes, is said to have made two clay images, male and female, which he shaped onto pieces of bark. He looked at them, was pleased, and danced around them for joy. Finally he lay down on them and blew into their mouths, noses, and navels, after which they stirred and arose. Likewise, the natives of the Kei islands of Indonesia say that their ancestors were fashioned out of clay by the Creator, Dooadlera, who breathed life into the earthen figures. . . .

In many languages, the words for “spirit” and “breath” are identi­cal. Creation-from-clay myths imply that the breath within us—the essence of our being, our life—is a divine gift, a spark of deity. “I am Osiris,” declares the God of ancient Egypt. “I enter in and reappear through you, I decay in you, I grow in you.” The fundamental message of the Hindu Upanishads, similarly, is that Atman (the individual’s innermost Self) is identical with Brahman (the ultimate Cause of All-That-Is). Tat tvam asi—“That thou art”—perhaps the most famous phrase in Sanskrit, is a proclamation of this underlying oneness of God and man, a oneness that ultimately extends to all creation:  

You are everything … O self of all beings!

From the Creator (Brahma) to the blade of grass all is your body, visible and invisible, divided by space and time. . . .

O Transcendent Self! We bow to you as the Cause of causes, the principal shape beyond compare, beyond Nature (pradhana) and Intellect ….

We bow to you, the birthless, the indestructible, You are the ever-present within all things, as the intrinsic principle of all.

We bow to you, resplendent Indweller (Vasudeva)!
the seed of all that is! 

While the story of the animation of clay by an all-powerful Crea­tor describes the union of spirit and matter from creation’s standpoint (matter receiving the breath of spirit), the story of the descent of spirit beings to Earth, sometimes described as their taking on coats of flesh, describes the same process from the heavenly view of the Creator. According to the Molama clan of the Zulu, their remotest ancestors were a man and woman who came down from the sky and alighted on a certain hill. A similar idea is met with among the Wakuluwe, who live between lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika; they say that the first human couple came down from Heaven and produced their offspring from parts of their bodies.

Heinberg waxes eloquent in this summation:

In the beginning there is One—a preexisting Intelligence, alone and limitless. The One, in which the polarities of existence are united in perfect harmony, exerts a conscious act of will and becomes Two—masculine and feminine, active and receptive, Heaven and Earth. The Two work as equal partners in initiating the cyclic cosmic pulsations from which all life emanates.

The reciprocal—one could say sexual—interplay of the Two gen­erates a multiplicity of divine beings, whose further activity, based in the same creative principles, results in the appearance of a manifest Universe of infinite scope and detail. The divine beings plunge into the watery abyss of chaos and return with the first seeds of physical form. Attaching themselves to these nuclei of substance, they continue to gather material about themselves and gradually emerge from the inner, invisible realms of eternity into the visible, tangible world of space and time.

Through this grand process, the One Intelligence differentiates itself into a myriad of self-conscious beings incarnate in material form. And thus there is generated a Universe of limitless diversity, of which each minute part is grounded in a single ultimate Reality.

As I bring these things forward, a question in the back of my mind asks “Why is this brought to me now at a time when the entire world is in the throes of a pandemic of historic proportion?” Actually, I started this series before the Coronavirus made its public appearance.  Perhaps its value lies in remembering that we are immortal beings incarnate in mortal flesh bodies. That design hasn’t changed. God incarnates yet on Earth through Man. The question might be “When are we going to return to our divine commission as keepers of the Garden of Paradise?” 

I will continue with this series in my next post. Until then,

Be love. Be loved.

Anthony

tpal70@gmail.com 

Category:

Creation, Divine identity, Eden, Evolution, Golden Age, Healing Tones Blog, Man and nature, The Paradise Myth

Tagged with:

Paradise Remembered, part 2: The Garden of Eden

“And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he placed the man whom he had formed.” (Genesis 2:8)

Most of us today are awake sufficiently and quite able to bear the “many things” the Master Jesus had to share with his disciples but could not due to their limitations of consciousness.  After all, we’ve experienced more than two-thousand years of awakening in consciousness and spiritual maturity since then. What I’m about to share, then, concerning Man’s origins should not disturb anyone, and may even free some from limiting beliefs. Just for one, that it was Eve, tempted by the “serpent,” who then tempted Adam in the Garden of Eden to disobey God’s command that they not partake of “the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” thereby initiating the “Fall” that resulted in the loss of Paradise for them and their progeny.

Contrary to this belief, it was Adam, Divine Man, created in the image and likeness of God, a son of God, enamored by the beauty of the forms they had co-created with God, who acted contrary to the Law governing Creation by reversing his polarity with the Creator and polarizing his outer mind in Eve and in Creation itself, and then proceeding to judge the forms, no doubt with Eve’s full participation, as the forms were evolving toward becoming good and complete.  (I take writer’s license here in spelling the word “evil” as “evol,” as it is a habit we humans seem to have inherited of judging and interfering with the Creative Process, thereby creating something evil.)  And their eyes were opened and they saw that they were naked, which apparently they didn’t think was a good thing, seeing as how they covered their nakedness with leaves. I’ll pick up on this later on.  First I would like to give thought to the two different versions of the creation of Man as recorded in the first and second chapters of Genesis. 

In chapter one, on the sixth day of Creation, God created Man.

“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion . . . over all the earth. . . .  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” 

Now, a “day” of Creation was a lot longer than an Earth day of 24 hours. Some 25,872 years longer, as author and biblical historian Grace Van Duzen explains in her epic work and legacy, THE BOOK OF GRACE — A Cosmic View of the Bible:

Cycles of time have been recognized, such as an “age,” consisting of 2,156 years; a “solar age” of 25,872 years; and a “universal age” of 310,464 years. The solar age is made up of 12 ages, and the universal age of 12 solar ages. It is the solar age that is referred to in the Book of Genesis as a “day,” with the seven days of Creation totaling 181,104 years. 

The word us in this passage indicates that God, the Creator, was not a single entity but more like a conclave of Creator Beings. Grace offers a more precise explanation:

The word us in this text, “Let us make man in our image,” is derived from the word Elohim, plural of the ancient word for God, El—a designated number of God Beings under the focus of One, El.  A term used later, and consistently, in the Bible story, will be LORD of Lords, referring to this same Being. Elohim was a group, or body of divine Beings who created a body of human beings, for the purpose of indwelling in physical form to continue God’s work on this planet, His image and likeness. Other derivations of the word El have come through varying religions, as for example, Allah, designating the supreme God or ultimate point of focus for the universe.  

In chapter two of Genesis, we find this version of the same creation of Man, male and female: 

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he rested. . . . 

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in  the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,

And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. . . .

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2: 1-7)

A question one might rightly ask, then, is “Why was there a need for a ‘man’ to till the ground if the Garden of Eden yielded up food for foraging literally upon demand?” What’s going on here?

We find a fascinating answer to this question in Grace Van Duzen’s book, and further historical details in Richard Heinberg’s.  So, between these two authors, I think we will come away with a deeper and more vital understanding of our origins in Genesis, and what caused the “Fall” and the expulsion of our first parents from the Garden of Eden. This will take several posts, so stay with me.

The Garden of Eating

So many legends and myths tell of a time when Man lived in a Garden of Eden before agricultural practices of tilling the ground to plant seeds for food became vogue.  Food was plentiful in the Garden.  And yet, reading the second version of the creation of Man from the second chapter of the Book of Genesis, supposedly written by Moses, one is left asking, “Why was a ‘man’ needed to till the ground?”   

Here are a few excerpts from Heinberg. (I will share excerpts from Grace’s book in the next post):

Somewhere down in the underworld we were created by the Great Spirit, the Creator. We were created first one, then two, then three. We were created equal, in oneness living in a spiritual way, where life is everlasting. We were happy and at peace with our fellow men.  All things were plentiful, provided by our Mother Earth upon which we were placed. We did not need to plant or work to get food. Illness and troubles were unknown.  (Hopi Elder Dam Katchongva)

Under the subheading The Golden Race there is this: 

The third-century B.C. Neoplatonist Porphyry said that the Greek philosopher Dicaearchus, of the late fourth century B.C., spoke of

men of the earliest age, who were akin to the gods and were by nature the best men and lived the best life, so that they are regarded as a golden race in comparison with the men of the present time … of these primeval men he says that they took the life of no animal. … Dicaearchus tells us of what sort the life of that Age of Cronus was: if it is to be taken as having really existed and not as an idle tale, when the too mythical parts of the story are eliminated it may by the use of reason be reduced to a natural sense. For all things then presumably grew spontaneously, since the men of that time themselves produced nothing, having invented neither agriculture nor any other art. It was for this reason that they lived a life of leisure, without care or toil, and also—if the doctrine of the most eminent medical men is to be accepted-without disease …. And there were no wars or feuds between them; for there existed among them no objects of competition of such value as to give anyone a motive to seek to obtain them by those means. Thus it was that their whole life was one of leisure, of freedom from care about the satisfaction of their needs, of health and peace and friendship. Consequently this manner of life of theirs naturally came to be longed for by men of later times who, because of the greatness of their desires, had become subject to many evils …. All this, says Dicaearchus, is not asserted merely by us, but by those who have thoroughly investigated the history of early times.

The classical Roman authors Ovid, Cratinus, Pausanias, Tibullus, Virgil, and Seneca expanded freely on Hesiod’s story of the original golden race, always emphasizing those qualities that characterize the benefits of the simple, primitive life—freedom, self-sufficiency, and lack of dependence on technology and complex social organization. Ovid’s Metamorphoses was for centuries standard fare in all Euro­pean schools, and his description of the Golden Age in Book I became the definitive form of the myth for the Middle Ages and the Renais­sance: 

The first age was golden. In it faith and righteousness were cherished by men of their own free will without judges or laws. Penalties and fears there were none, nor were threatening words inscribed on unchanging bronze; nor did the suppliant crowd fear the words of its judge, but they were safe without protectors. Not yet did the pine cut from its mountain tops descend into the flowing waters to visit foreign lands, nor did deep trenches gird the town, nor were there straight trumpets, nor horns of twisted brass, nor helmets, nor swords. Without the use of soldiers the peoples in safety enjoyed their sweet repose. Earth herself, unbur­dened and untouched by the hoe and unwounded by the plough­share, gave all things freely …. Spring was eternal … untilled the earth bore its fruits and the unploughed field grew hoary with heavy ears of wheat.

Elsewhere, Ovid speaks of the peaceful amity of Nature herself, before the degeneration of humankind. “That ancient age,” he writes, to which we have given the name of Golden, was blessed with the fruit of trees and the herbs which the soil brings forth, and it did not pollute its mouth with gore. Then the birds in safety winged their way through the air and the hare fearlessly wan­dered through the fields, nor was the fish caught through its witlessness. There were no snares, and none feared treachery, but all was full of peace.

Under the subheading Paradise of the East there is this Indian legend in the Vaya Purana:

In the Krita age human beings appropriated food which was produced from the essence of the earth …. They were character­ized neither by righteousness nor unrighteousness; they were marked by no distinctions. They were produced each with authority over himself. They suffered no impediments, no susceptibilities to the pairs of opposites (like pleasure and pain, cold and heat), and no fatigue. They frequented the mountains and seas, and did not dwell in houses. They never sorrowed, were full of the quality of goodness, and supremely happy; they moved about at will and lived in continual delight …. Produced from the essence of the earth, the things which those people desired sprang up from the earth everywhere and always, when thought of. That perfection of theirs both produced strength and beauty and annihilated disease. With bodies which needed no decora­tion, they enjoyed perpetual youth …. Then truth, content­ment, patience, satisfaction, happiness and self-command prevailed …. There existed among them no such things as gain or loss, friendship or enmity, liking or dislike.”

In China, we again find the Paradise myth flavored somewhat according to local cultural sensibilities, but nevertheless characterizing humankind’s earliest condition as one of ease, plenty, and free­dom. Taoist philosophy, profoundly and often sardonically primitivist, has permeated Chinese thought for at least the last two and a half millennia. According to the earliest Taoist sages, Lao Tzu and Chuang
Tzu, it is Nature herself who is wise, and the intelligent man knows better than to impose on her creative rhythms. “Profound intelli­gence,” according to Lao Tzu, “is that penetrating and pervading power to restore all things to their original harmony.” (Emphasis mine)

I will take up from this last paragraph in my next post—and share some of  Grace Van Duzen’s perspectives from THE BOOK OF GRACE. Until then, 

Be love. Be loved.

Anthony

tpal70@gmail.com 

Category:

Creation, Dr. Palombo's blog, Eden, Elohim, Evolution, Garden of Paradise, Golden Age, Golden Race, Man and nature, Mythology

Tagged with:

Paradise Remembered

“Myth is the history of the soul”  

William Erwin Thompson penned those words. The Paradise myth, along with all the legends and stories about the “First People” handed down through the ages, are vivid and haunting reminders of our origins.  Who among us does not have a deep desire to live in Paradise—or for Paradise to be restored here on Earth?  It’s the unconscious impetus in our quest for the American Dream: “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  It’s what we seek and hope to find in most of our endeavors to make a comfortable and happy life for ourselves and for our families—and why we go to the wilderness and camp out in the forests and national parks.  We want to be in Paradise, if only for a few days and nights filling our eyes and hearts with “Kodak moments,” camping out under the stars, and sitting by a stream of cool, clear water drinking in the golden silence and peaceful beauty of the Natural World. 

Ken Burns has performed an outstanding service bringing the pristine peace and beauty of the natural world to the television for all to enjoy with his documentaries on the National Parks and Monuments airing on PBS again this weekend. Thanks primarily to John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, thousands of square miles of undeveloped lands and mountain ranges have been preserved and set aside for us and our progeny to visit and be nourished by and reminded of the Paradise our planet Earth still is—inspired even to do our parts in keeping it that way.

VISIONS and MEMORIES of PARADISE

I’ve been reading my friend Richard Heinberg’s MEMORIES and VISIONS of PARADISE for the second or third time since it came into my hands many years ago, and my longing for Paradise has been quickened once again, this time with even deeper yearning.  Reading some of the stories about a once Golden Age when we were more angelic than human, and we spoke with the animals who “spoke” with us, I can almost taste the clean, fresh air and feel the pristine, magical Eden atmosphere. Here are a few memories from Richard’s book of what our ancestors, the “First People,” were like in the mythical Garden of Paradise:

“The myths and traditions of the ancients do not portray Eden as the sort of technological Paradise that our present civilization tends to project into the future. If the Golden Age really existed, it must instead have been, as the Chinese describe it, an Age of Perfect Virtue—an age in which

they were upright and correct, without knowing that to be so was righteousness; they loved one another, without knowing that to do so was benevolence; they were honest and leal-hearted with­out knowing that it was loyalty; they fulfilled their engagements, without knowing that to do so was good faith; in their simple movements they employed the services of one another, without thinking that they were conferring or receiving any gift. There­fore their actions left no trace, and there was no record of their affairs.” *

They were kind and affectionate:

“The ability of human beings and animals to understand one another resulted in a condition, according to fifth-century B.C. philosopher Empedocles, ‘All were gentle and obedient to men, both animals and birds, and they glowed with kindly affection towards one another.'” *

They were radiant and could fly:

“According to virtually all accounts, human beings in the paradisal age were possessed of qualities and abilities that can only be called miraculous.

“They were wise, all-knowing, and able to communicate easily not only with one another but with other living things; moreover, they could fly through the air, and they shone with visible light.” *

They were wise and godlike in appearance:

“In contrast to the contemporary view of early humans as dull and brutish, the myths speak of them as sages. In Jewish folklore, Adam is described as being so wise and so beautiful to behold that the creatures of the Earth mistook him for the Creator and, together with the angels of Heaven, bowed down and chanted, ‘Holy, holy, holy.’ It is also said that God revealed the whole of the future to Adam, as well as the geography of the entire Earth. In these respects, Adam resembled Adapa, the Babylonian First Man, who ‘was equipped with vast intelligence …. His plane of wisdom was the plane of heaven’” The ancient Mayans similarly described the four First People as wise and all-knowing. According to the Popul Vuh, the Mayan book of lore and customs, the people of the first age were so perceptive that when ‘they lifted up their eyes … their gaze embraced all; they knew all things; nothing in heaven or earth was concealed from them.’ These created ones rendered thanks, saying,“‘Truly, thou gavest us every motion and accomplishment! We have received existence, we have received a mouth, a face; we speak, we understand, we think, we walk; we perceive and we know equally well what is far and what is near; we see all things, great and small, in heaven and upon the earth. Thanks be to you who created us, 0 Maker, 0 Former!'”*

AN AGE OF INNOCENCE 

The Golden Age was an age of innocence; its inhabitants simple and childlike—much like the late and memorialized Mr. Rogers as portrayed by Tom Hanks in the movie “Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” With Richard’s permission, I will share a few excerpts from his thoroughly researched and captivating book, with little if any commentary from me.  I invite you to just read the stories and let the magic they still hold enchant your heart as you ponder them deeply in your imagination.  They may even trigger up memories of Paradise from out of the collective unconscious, as they did for me, and quicken in you an inspiration to live as though in Paradise.  Perhaps the adage “To become, act as if” may apply in our shared work of creating a heavenly home for our Creator here on Earth. Legends tell of a time when the Creator lived with his Creation and walked with Man in the Garden of Eden.  Listen to these stories.

ONCE UPON A TIME all human beings lived in friendship and peace, not only among themselves but with all other living things as well. The people of that original Age of Innocence were wise, shining beings who could fly through the air at will, and who were in continual communion with cosmic forces and intelligences. But a tragic disruption brought the First Age to an end, and humanity found itself estranged from both Heaven and Nature. Ever since then we have lived in a fragmented way, never really understanding ourselves or our place in the Universe. But occasionally we look back, with longing and regret, and dream of a return to the Paradise we once knew. . . .

The tribes of central and southern Africa preserved myths of an original time when the celestial God and human beings were friends, before the separation of Heaven and Earth. It was an age that was typified in the saying of the Ngombe tribe of Zaire: “In the beginning there were no men on earth. The people lived in the sky with Akongo and they were happy.” Ethnologist Paul Schebesta recorded the following tradition from the Bambuti Pygmies of central Africa:

After God had created the world and men, he dwelt among them. He called them his children. They gave him the name of father. … He showed himself a good father to men for he so placed them in this world that they could live without much effort and were above all free from care and fear. Neither ele­ments nor animals were inimical to man and foodstuffs grew ready to his hand. In short, the world was a paradise as long as God dwelt among men. He was not visible to them but he was in their midst and spoke to them.”

Summarizing African myths about the First Age, folklorist Herman Baumann wrote:

In the view of the natives, everything that happened in the primal age was different from today: people lived forever and never died; they understood the language of animals and lived at peace with them; they knew no labor and had food in plenitude, the effortless gathering of which guaranteed them a life without care; there was no sexuality and no reproduction—in brief, they knew nothing of all those fundamental factors and attitudes which move people today’

It was only when the people set themselves against the other creatures that God was driven away and the original harmony of Nature was destroyed.

And that will be the consideration of my next post in this series. Until then,

Be love. Be loved

Anthony

tpal70@gmail.com

Credits: 

* Richard Heinberg, MEMORIES and VISIONS of PARADISE — Exploring the Universal Myth of a Lost Golden Age. 

Category:

Dr. Palombo's blog, Eden, Garden of Paradise, Golden Age, Golden Race, Healing Tones, Healing Tones Blog, Heaven, Mythology, New Earth, Paradise Remembered, The Paradise Myth

Tagged with:

Tag Cloud