Ballantyne’s Inspired Musings #54
September 2008
Vox clamantis in deserto
The voice of one crying in the wilderness
The Mount Everest of Spiritual and Philosophical journals
An oracle for the wise
Subscriptions $25 or more – the more you send the more you get. Available only by email .pdf
Lilly Strengths
William Lilly was a famous English astrologer in the 1600’s. Lilly caused much controversy in 1666 for allegedly predicting the Great Fire of London some 14 years before it happened. For this reason many people believed that he might have started the fire, but there is no evidence to support these claims. He was tried for the offence in Parliament but was found to be innocent. Lilly had a way of classifying planetary strengths in a natal horoscope giving a weighted numeric value to each planet in a person’s horoscope.
Certain of the horoscopes in my large database have Lilly Strengths worth mentioning. From my studies any Lilly Strength over 20 is notable and will express itself in the life. Roughly one horoscope in 25 has a Strength over 20 of one of the planets.
George Soros Mercury 27 & Jupiter 28
Father Terry Mercury 25
Ruth Y. Mercury 25
Pat Allen Mercury 24
Suzanne Caffee Mercury 26
Ashley Robbins Mercury 25, Jupiter 24
Susan M. Mercury 27, Mars 25
Osama bin Laden Mercury 33
Dr. Pirnazar Mars 28
Donald Angle Mars 28
Silda Spitzer Mars 26
Princess Anne Mars 24, Mercury 21
Dora W. Mars 29
Brugh Joy Mars 24
Betsy H. Mars 23
Warren Buffet Mars 23, Jupiter 21, Venus 20
Julie Poole Jupiter 21
Kevin Ryan Jupiter 23, Venus 21
Chris Robbins Jupiter 27
Tony Robbins Jupiter 25
Anna Smith Jupiter 26
Dr. Julie Ralls Jupiter 26
Karl Rove Saturn 27
All the people I know with high Mercury Strengths are extremely intelligent AND they have a capacity to express and create in the world by their writing and speaking. The mental gifts extend to the intuitive. Simplistically, they are very F’ing smart - to a greater degree than you CAN be aware. In other words we judge people and situations from our own frame of reference. Few have a frame of reference to judge Lilly strengths over 20.
Those with high Mars Strengths are dangerously unaware of their willfulness and capacity to move events to their liking – and their destructiveness to themselves and others. They MOVE things the way they want and it all seems correct – ‘Oh, this IS God’s will. It’s all going just how I wanted it to’. Strong Mars have a limited capacity for true surrender. The tough events they INEVITABLY BRING TO THEMSELVES are a result of - “That which we do not bring to consciousness appears in out lives as Fate.” K. Jung A good suggestion to these people is ‘DO nothing and look within’, BUT the Martian personality NEEDS resistance in order to experience itself so they constantly seek it out and create it when it’s not there. Ill health from middle age on seems to be the unconscious way of taking down the inner stress level – sometimes permanently.
Those with high Jupiter Strengths seem to blithely meander through always getting saved from any real bad luck, usually just in the nick of time. The problem is that of excess. “Jupiter is not always the cosmic Santa Claus it is made out to be.” Doris Hebel, Celestial Psychology. My Jupiter is 22 – high but not over the top. I have been miraculously saved ‘in the wink of an eye’ from 2 deadly diseases - polio and alcoholism. I also experienced a quite miraculous recovery from a bad case of Lyme’s disease - unless I have it now and don’t know it. ANYONE with a Jupiter Strength over 20 should be considered rich regardless of their actual financial circumstances. Bill Gates has a 19 Jupiter, Melinda, 21.
One of the most extraordinary cases is that of Susan M. who I met soon after I moved to Mammoth in 2001. It was not until some time afterwards I noticed her Lilly Strength readings. Curiously, Susan is about 4’ 9” and it has been difficult to get much information. A Berkeley Ph.D. in Art History and then the director of a large college museum Susan unexpectedly came back to California and lives in her parent’s house in Mammoth. From her energy and looking at her palm my deduction is she had a mental breakdown – as I told her the first time I met her when I looked at her palm – and has been taking fairly heavy mood altering medications ever since which has severely blunted the extraordinary powers and mentality indicated by her horoscope. This guess on my part fits exactly the fated ‘burn out’ or illness scenario I suggest is the tempering of those immensely Martian.
Osama’s Mercury Strength is 1.5 to 2 ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE higher than any other strength for any other planet for anyone else in my database. If everyone else is on a scale of 70 to 100 this is 1350. As the Jewish talk of the Lamed Vov[1] who rule the world creating the triumph of righteousness, and the Yogis speak of Himalayan ascetics seated on simple blankets in a cave unobtrusively bringing truth to human affairs, such also is the obeisance we must accord this overarching intelligence.
In case you didn’t get a specific invitation I have created a Yahoo Group named Astrolos and posted there a number of essays, including this one, I’ve written about astrology over the years – most fairly recent. You can join the group without having a Yahoo account and you may be able to read the essays without even joining. They are .pdfs in the Files section.
What Are You Thinking
“For those of us attempting to live in the world in a more conscious way, there can never be enough reminders, for we humans are such forgetful creatures. Michie delivers the message, make us smile and feel like we are walking with an old friend. That morning I was given both reminders and some loving encouragement.
The page I opened to was where Michie is quoting his teacher, Rinpoche Geshe Trungpa, "We all tend to have habitual thoughts, or attitudes, and we need to be very careful about these. Often they build up and have a cumulative effect which is immense. As Buddha said in the Dharmapada:
'The thought manifests as the word
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And habit hardens into character;
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
And let it spring from love born out of concern for all beings...
As the shadow follows the body,
As we think, so we become.'"
And as Michie points out in the section about karma that follows, "Our mindstream, our choice...we are the authors of our own future happiness or misery." How empowering the "thought that we have the opportunity to transform our whole experience of reality." With this in mind, my reality (which was never really so bad to begin with) and my day got a whole lot better.” Kay Goldstein, MA teaches meditation and writes poetry, fiction and articles addressing the challenges and joys of daily living and spiritual practice. www.kaygoldstein.com From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kay-goldstein/what-are-you-thinking_b_118935.html
My Commentary - It may be that the Lilly strengths point to inner repetitive mindstreams which inevitably manifest. I know I have an inner attitude that I will always be taken care of. I even hear a small voice inside asserting that when I get doubtful or under duress. When I was losing a house I loved living in in the mountains of New Jersey in 1980 - a 28 year Saturn cycle ago – I found a deck of tarot cards my wife had left behind. I laid out a spread and the top card was the 10 of Pentacles – the most good fortune you can have. I said to myself ‘nothing bad can ever happen to me, I can do anything I want and will always be taken care of’. I acted on this months later by ‘retiring’ at age 39 vowing to not work anymore.
I suspect this is the mindstream of those with high Lilly Jupiter Strengths. In other words, George Soros had the repetitive thought ‘I am going to make $XXXXXX pounds on a trade’ and just happened to be there when the Bank of England broke, making a billion dollars for himself on a single, albeit large, leveraged currency bet.
I can only extrapolate that the mindstream of those with high Mars strengths, having lived with a Mars 29! runs something like ‘I can do this, I can MAKE it happen, I ……’. The underlying problem can be too much ‘I’, despite the MANY accomplishments they have experienced. The Mars 29 had been divorced 4 times by the age of 35, 5 by 42 and it’s quite certain it was the totally right thing to do each time – from the ‘I’ perspective.
I suggest the high Mars, needing resistance to experience itself, CREATES the problems to surmount. This is a far different mechanism than that of the Jupiter which is essentially one of surrender. In the Jupiter case you are attempting to make your will the same as God’s – in the Mars case you are attempting to make God’s will the same as yours. Note that both methods or paths are the same, but only at the highest level of spiritual consciousness. Clearly, the easiest path seems to one that of Jupiter. Paramahansa Yogananda talks about God’s bounty being like a gentle rain. Some people go around catching it with teaspoons, others with large buckets. The Jupiterian motto might be ‘Trust in God and carry a big bucket’.
Look at the result [Warren Buffet] of both a high Jupiter AND a high Mars! And with Warren’s high Venus he managed to marry and have kids with a nice Aquarius, Susan, who he did not live with for the past 25 years AND as soon as Susan died Warren at last married the Latvian waitress of his favorite restaurant in Omaha, with whom he had lived for many years. Susan’s house in Laguna Beach got sold soon after she died. When questioned about successors at Berkshire‑Hathaway Warren has said there is a plan written out but it won’t be opened until after his death. He and his high Mars quipped "when they open that envelope the first instruction is to take my pulse again."
So here’s a Jupiter story. A few years ago I got pissed at Warren, for no apparent reason, - Oh yes, it was about my Geico insurance bills - and decided to DO something about it. I thought for a month or longer where Warren’s sensitive point might be using one of my background mindstreams. At last I had it. I wrote him a longish, nasty letter explaining how his conglomerate had wrecked a nice little insurance company I had been insured with since the 1960s when I lived in Washington, DC. I then launched into an excoriating rant about how Warren had never done anything for ANYONE, had threatened to essentially disinherit his children so they had to work, AND that, conversely, Bill Gates was using his intelligence and scientific methods to eradicate polio. I went on to say I had been on a remote island in the Andamans at the Millennium and had seen a graffiti-ish notice to get polio vaccine. I related my own case of polio and went on again that Warren had never done anything for the world except create a number of millionaires through their ownership of Berkshire-Hathaway stock. AND as a final insult I called him the Mr. Magoo of money. Some four to six months later Warren announced he was turning his entire fortune, estimated at $40 billion, over to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The point is, me with a 22 Jupiter, relatively penniless and homeless, camping out in a friend’s office for months at a time, thinks nothing of writing a letter like that to the wealthiest person in the world fully expecting a result – and it happens. How? Who knows? Note I DID write the letter as an 8 ½ x 11 postcard using the Strathmore card stock I mentioned in the previous BIM.
I refer anyone who wants to investigate further the powers of the mind to ‘The Holographic Universe’, mentioned in BIM 20, September 1997
Indeed if the universe is a holodeck, all things that appear stable and eternal, from the laws of physics to the substance of galaxies, would have to be viewed as reality fields, will-of-the-wisps no more or less real than the props in a giant, mutually shared dream. All permanence would have to be looked at as illusory, and only consciousness would be eternal, the consciousness of the living universe. Pg. 159, The Holographic Universe [THU]
"The world is nothing but an objectified dream," says Paramahansa Yogananda, "and whatever your powerful mind believes very intensely instantly comes to pass. THU
The idea that we can psychokinetically alter events that have already occurred is an unsettling notion, for we are so deeply programmed to believe the past is frozen as if it were a butterfly in glass, it is difficult for us to imagine otherwise. But in a holographic universe, a universe in which time is an illusion and reality is no more than a mind-created image, it is a possibility to which we may have to become accustomed. Pg. 226, THU
Ram Dass, of whom I am not a great fan, possibly due to my envy, has a great concept of unasking questions. I sometimes now will say, "I'd like to un-ask that question", in the brief space between having asked a question whose answer I really don't want to know and the answer not having yet been given. Questions suitable for unasking could be, "How much did you have to drink last night?” "Have you been with anyone else since we started going together?” "Why?” etc. - you get the idea?
Ram Das’s guru, Neem Karoli Baba, was from the same city in India as my guru. Neem Karouli Baba came to visit Gurujii’s ashram on one of the peak mela days when 5 million or more bathe in the Ganges and the small ashram fills with HUNDREDS of people. Gurujii went to clear the place and threw out everyone he did not recognize, including Neem Karoli Baba, who dressed like a begger wrapped only in a cheap blanket. Gurujii was later to say it was the biggest mistake he made in his life.
Somewhat happily, my writings about Gurujii and the ashram have not created the buzz and commercial stir that happened to Maharajii, NKB, after
Ram Das’s writings, when thousands of Westerners descended on the crumby little place NKB had in Allahabad. Almost no Westerners have been to OUR, my guru’s, crumby little place on the banks of the Ganges outside Allahabad.
The picture on the left is the ashram in 1989, the right in 2000. The conical structure at the far right is the tomb of Gurujii who was buried yogic style seated in the full lotus position then the grave filled ½ in sugar and ½ in salt, covered with dirt and then capped with the monument.
A Few Concluding Thoughts
The whole of this world and all the schemes of the mind are but creations of thought. Discarding these thoughts and taking leave of all conjectures, O Rama! Obtain peace. As camphor disappears in fire, and rock salt in water, so the mind with the atma loses its identity. All that appears is the knowable, the mind is called knowledge. When the knowable and the knowledge, are both destroyed equally, then there is no second way (i.e. Duality is destroyed). All this movable and immovable world is the vision of the mind. When the mind has attained to the unmani avastha there is no dvaita (from the absence of the working of the mind). Mind disappears by removing the knowable, and, on its disappearance, atma only remains behind. The Hatha Yoga scriptures as quoted in 'Hatha Yoga', Theos Bernard, Rider & Co., London, Pg. 76.
The Essence of Yoga
Concentration: Its Spiritual Uses
1 - Now yoga is explained
2 - Yoga is the restraining of the mind stuff (Chitta) from taking various forms (vrittis)
The true organ of perception is the brain not the secondary instruments, the sense organs such as the eyes and ears. What is thought? Thought is a force like gravitation. The mind is not intelligent. The Soul uses the mind as its instrument to perceive the external world. The real universe is the occasion of the reaction of the mind. A book form or an elephant form or a man form is not outside; all that we know is our mental reaction from the outer suggestion.
The real man is behind the mind; the mind is the instrument in his hands. It is his intelligence that is percolating through the mind. It is only when you stand behind the mind that it becomes intelligent. When you give it up it falls to pieces and becomes nothing. Thus you understand what is meant by the chitta. It is the mind-stuff, and the vrittis are the waves and ripples rising in it when external causes impinge on it. These vrittis are our universe.
The bottom of the lake we cannot see, because its surface is covered with ripples. If it is clear and there are no waves , we shall see the bottom. The bottom of the lake is our own true Self; the lake is the chitta, and the waves are the vrittis.
The chitta is always trying to get back to its natural pure state, but the organs draw it out. To restrain it, to check this outward tendency, and to start it on the return journey to the Essence of Intelligence is the first step in yoga, because it is only in this way can the chitta get into its proper state.
3 At that time (the time of concentration) the Seer (Purusha) rests in His own (unmodified) state
As soon as the waves have stopped and the lake has become quiet, we see its bottom. So with the mind: when it is calm, we see what our nature is; we do not mix ourselves with the modifications of the mind, but remain our own selves.
4 At other times the Seer is identified with the modifications.
For instance, someone blames me; this produces a modification, vritti, in my mind, and I identify myself with it, and the result is misery.
The numbered paragraphs are from the ancient Hindu scriptures, the Sutras of Patanjali, the italicized commentary following is by Swami Vivekananda From ‘Raja Yoga’, Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, New York
My commentary - At the yogic level of aspiration the quest is to NOT manifest through thoughts in the mind. Once all thoughts stop the Seer becomes Himself. At my currently much lower level of consciousness, that is, the level of attempting to create ‘positive’ thoughts, my important mindstream remains;
· This is my last lifetime. I will not have to come back again.
· Everything I need will come to me
· I may have to live for a long, long time to finish up in this lifetime.
· I will remain healthy and pain free
Again, the point is, if the mind does create your Reality then choose POWERFUL, fulfilling mindstreams for yourself. After all, your therapist can’t do it for you!!!! LOL
A Little Note on 28 Year Saturn Cycles
David-san
I am going to have to abandon my storage locker in Irvine but would like you to pull a few things from it for me before Sept 9.
I’d like to keep;
- Canoe paddle
- Yellow handled axe
- Blue hanging clothing bag with a few jackets etc
- Black briefcase with old Dell Laptop – You can keep or throw away the computer but I’d like the briefcase. I don’t want the info on the hard drive to get out.
- the book ‘Gods of Change = Pain, Crisis, and the Transits of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto’ by Sasportas
- Pair of cowboy type boots probably in one of the blue round bags on the floor
- a new pair red and yellow running shoes also in a blue bag
- A small ammo case of hand tools
If you want the Canon printer or office chair take them otherwise I’ll give them up
Just leave the key at the office after you exit telling them I’ve made my last payment.
Many thanks
Carlos
Ah yes, to live in India AND the US at the same time is dicey!!!!!!!
LOL
Supplement Update
8/12/2008 I ate a 2 cup bowl of muesli at 8:30 AM after arising in the backcountry outside Bishop. I ended up at Mono Lake at 3:30 pm to go bike riding and had not eaten since the muesli. What I took;
24 oz. black tea with 1 scoop of CytoMax Natural Electrolyte, cool citrus flavor
2 scoops CytoSport Recovery mixed in about 20 oz water
2 Electrolyte Stamina tablets
1000 mg. calcium ascorbate
I cycled for 30 miles climbing about 1500 vertical feet at 6500’ to 8000’ altitude in the next 2 hours. The point here is the newer high tech nutritional supplements are worthy of looking in to by EVERYONE. For example, I routinely take a large 24 oz bottle of water with one or 2 scoops of the electrolyte mix just to stay hydrated in the mountain sun.
I found out about the Electrolyte Stamina tablets from the owner of a health food store in Joshua Tree who told me she got all the UPS drivers on them as they had to drive around in 115 degree weather in the high desert with their doors open. I recommend these for anyone. As I recall this was the first case I asked someone if they could tell me about something I didn’t know I didn’t know about.
And a bit more about olive oil. It has been found that olive oil can cure H pylori, the cause of stomach ulcers and stomach cancer. You can look it up.
WOW MOM
A friend of mine was sharing how she always wanted to get a tattoo on her butt - W on one cheek, O in the middle, and W on the other cheek so when she did naked cartwheels across the front lawn to show her mother her tattoo it would flip from WOW to MOM to WOW to MOM…………
“It's alarming when the media tries to remove voter participation from the political process, when they shift from reporting the news to making it themselves. I'm reminded of the old Groucho Marx line about the fellow "who stuffed spaghetti with bicarbonate of soda, thus causing and curing indigestion at the same time." William Klein
“The gnarlination began right across the street there.” Someone describing the beginning of a tough period in their life
“Those days of spiritual midgetry still occur.” heard around the campus
$$$$$
"If banks feel they must keep on dancing while the music is playing and that at the end of the party the central bank will make sure everyone gets home safely, then over time the parties will become wilder and wilder. That might not matter were the consequences limited to the partygoers. But they are not." Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, June 2008 - or as Nouriel Roubini has put it ‘profits have been privatized and losses have been socialized’.
Most Americans think this stuff has nothing to do with them.
And more brilliant financial and geopolitical essays from http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/
Dear Candidate Obama
If you select Joe Biden as VP I will vote for McCain [and hope he has a stroke while in office].
1. Biden is too old to be an agent for change
2. Biden is a blowhard, self-aggrandizing Scorpio son-of-a-bitch VERY incompatible with your Leo energy.
3. Biden is ignorant about foreign affairs AND was responsible for the deaths of 000’s of Nepali civilians due to his backing of that war-mongering Aunt Jemima Colon Powell’s $millions of military aid to the alcoholic dysfunctional King of Nepal and the Army.
Carlos. Etc.
Actual postcard sent to Obama HQ. I sent it as an email also and got a thank you for sharing my thoughts about the vice presidential nominee.
Adventurama Drama
It’s hard to write about the adventures of the past several days at Lake Tahoe. I arrived at the Lake late Sunday afternoon and swam and lolly-gagged around until after sunset. Arriving back at the swimming hole Monday afternoon I dove into 4 foot swells and battled currents and surf crashing over the rocks for almost an hour. Again I had not eaten since 8 hours before but had plenty of energy from CytoMax electrolyte drink and CytoMax carb gel. Late in the afternoon I drove to Mammoth stopping at the Bridgeport hot springs around 9 pm. Incredible silky mineral rich water, perfect temperature, a planet and star filled sky to look at while soaking in the outback springs. I woke up this morning and ……….who could I possibly tell. So I didn’t.
Dear Innermost Self, Bhajananand,
Divine love and blessing to you. Here all the ashramites are fine. By the grace of the Almighty and our Gurudev, we are enjoying our divine life peacefully and hope the same for you. Convey my heartfelt pranams to Almighty Mother Dakshineswari of Laguna Beach at Her lotus feet.
After a long time I am sending this e-mail. I hope that all the programs at Kali Mandir have been done successfully by Mother’s grace and by the cooperation of devotees, disciples and coworkers.
…I pray to Almighty that He may grant you good understanding, happy life, peace of mind, good health and wealth with your friends, your disciples and with your coworkers.
Convey my blessings to Parameswar, Rampriya, Sadanand, Kalyani, Shambho, Devadas, Jayashree, Usha, Milli, Chandan, Ridhi, Irene, Nandu, Tarini & Carlos.
Rest all is OK.
Rest all is OK.
Thy Innermost Self,
Guruji Omanand
I’ve migrated to last on the list but at least I am still there. Letter from my guru’s successor to a disciple who lives at the Kali Temple in Laguna Beach.
more disappointed by the things that you didn't do
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain from the Airstream website
also "Don’t stop. Keep right on going. Hitch up your trailer and go to Canada or down to Old Mexico. Head for Europe, if you can afford it, or go to the Mardi Gras. Go someplace you’ve heard about, where you can fish or hunt or collect rocks or just look up at the sky. Find out what’s at the end of some country road. Go see what’s over the next hill, and the one after that, and the one after that." Wally Byam, founder of Airstream Trailers, from the website
The camping season here is about to move south from Mammoth which, despite the lovely warm days, will become much cooler, usually in a short storm from that moves through in lat September. I hope to be out of here next Tuesday or so and will move the cloud of uncertainty surrounding me to Lone Pine and then to a week or so in the Saline Valley at the hot springs. I’ve become mildly obsessed with trailers again as a guy showed up in the last days the camp was open with a 1954 Silver Streak.
He said he bought it from a shepherd in New Mexico a year ago after looking for a year or longer. It was in great original condition with the 50’s yellow Formica counter and table tops and a working shower. I found a 1947 Spartan trailer for sale on eBay and sent the listing to a friend whose family had been involved in manufacturing them.
Me in front of the Mammoth Lakes post office Saturday 9/6 looking to see if any birthday presents arrived a day before my 66th birthday. An interesting thing happened on 9/7, the actual day – I got email congrats from 5 actual people over the course of the day AND 4 emails from web sites I had signed up for including
Guardian Soulmates dating site
British Blades custom knife site
MTBR – the mountain bike review
TTORa – the Toyota off-road forum
For my birthday I drove up to Mono Lake and then cycled 30 miles in glorious warm high mountain sun exulting in just being alive. After all, not everyone is.
9/10/2008 We’re closing down the camp – mostly schlepping stuff around, dog work. This morning early we were turning large wooden picnic tables on their sides leaning against trees. Several of the trees are old growth pines – 80 to well over 100 feet tall. My workmate was telling me how the Indians used to hug trees to get some energy in ‘The Time Before Horses’, when they ran everywhere. I hugged two giants this morning and as I went to grab each one I had this feeling of strength and immensity come to me and an inner vision that I, my life, was deeply rooted into life. The second tree sat on a small hill alone, As I hugged it it were as though it spoke to me that that’s how I was, up above, looking down, with roots going way into the earth.
confident that we won't be powerless.
Just had to send you my daughter Mary Ellen's blog. (We're all just fine, by the way. I lost half of a tree; Mary Ellen lost many shingles off her roof and still has no electricity.)
I just thought I'd pass along my blog from today.
Aware that we may lose electricity, but confident that we won't be powerless.
Love,
Mary Ellen
The Contraflow
Today, as of 4AM, all of our Louisiana interstates went contraflow. That means that the southbound lanes all flow North. Everyone south of us is heading North. The interstates are packed but creeping forward. The view inside cars shows not only passengers, but all of the possessions they deem vital.
The sun still smiles upon us, but an eerie anxiety cloaks people on the streets. If you examine their actions, you'll see common purpose behind it. The man on the corner is not weeding his garden, he's removing limbs that could fall through his window. The other is not cleaning the gutter, but extending the pipe so that the water won't back up into his house.
Yesterday my son had a birthday party to attend. Normalcy is reassuring for children; it was nearby, so we went. On the way, we stopped by a local bakery. The owner's first words were, "Do you want a free cake?" I laughed, not thinking he was serious. Then I looked at his face. His eyes said that this wasn't his first hurricane preparation weekend. "Seriously," he continued. He guided my daughter to the most gorgeous chocolate cake, removed it from its case and boxed it as he spoke. "We lost it all in Katrina," he explained. "The building was okay, but our freezers are the important thing. All of their contents were lost." He closed the box to seal in the over fifty dollar cake. "Then, who wants to stop in a deli-bakery after a storm? It's not like anyone will be coming by to buy cakes once we do have power." His recovery from Katrina had taken a long time. He braced himself to do it again. As he spoke, I encouraged him to bring the remaining cakes to the fire department where people had been filling sand bags all day. "The Police Station too," his assistant piped up. Although they would do their best to send off their remaining delicacies, the memory of the last hurricane's hit was etched on the kind man's face.
In the car, once again headed to the birthday party, my son had no hurricane worries. My daughter held the cake. At eleven, she was old enough to understand the hushed phone conversations and the news bulletins. From her seat she said, "Mom, maybe this means God is telling us that is really will be okay." I told her that I believed that it was a reminder that God is definitely here, and we said a special prayer for the bakery owner and his family.
Today the contraflow begins. We act counter-contra to the way we did only yesterday. Cakes we would have sold, we give away. We take what we have and see who it may help. We remember other storms and press on, heading upward, upstate, up with prayer. Our direction is not centered around the hectic haze of daily lives, but contra to that, our direction is for all those around us, all those we love. Today Gustav is still in the gulf, and the sun still shines.
Why does it take a pending storm for us to begin a contraflow?
Turning things around to head an upward direction-
Mary Ellen
The sun still smiles upon us, but an eerie anxiety cloaks people on the streets. If you examine their actions, you'll see common purpose behind it. The man on the corner is not weeding his garden, he's removing limbs that could fall through his window. The other is not cleaning the gutter, but extending the pipe so that the water won't back up into his house.
Yesterday my son had a birthday party to attend. Normalcy is reassuring for children; it was nearby, so we went. On the way, we stopped by a local bakery. The owner's first words were, "Do you want a free cake?" I laughed, not thinking he was serious. Then I looked at his face. His eyes said that this wasn't his first hurricane preparation weekend. "Seriously," he continued. He guided my daughter to the most gorgeous chocolate cake, removed it from its case and boxed it as he spoke. "We lost it all in Katrina," he explained. "The building was okay, but our freezers are the important thing. All of their contents were lost." He closed the box to seal in the over fifty dollar cake. "Then, who wants to stop in a deli-bakery after a storm? It's not like anyone will be coming by to buy cakes once we do have power." His recovery from Katrina had taken a long time. He braced himself to do it again. As he spoke, I encouraged him to bring the remaining cakes to the fire department where people had been filling sand bags all day. "The Police Station too," his assistant piped up. Although they would do their best to send off their remaining delicacies, the memory of the last hurricane's hit was etched on the kind man's face.
In the car, once again headed to the birthday party, my son had no hurricane worries. My daughter held the cake. At eleven, she was old enough to understand the hushed phone conversations and the news bulletins. From her seat she said, "Mom, maybe this means God is telling us that is really will be okay." I told her that I believed that it was a reminder that God is definitely here, and we said a special prayer for the bakery owner and his family.
Today the contraflow begins. We act counter-contra to the way we did only yesterday. Cakes we would have sold, we give away. We take what we have and see who it may help. We remember other storms and press on, heading upward, upstate, up with prayer. Our direction is not centered around the hectic haze of daily lives, but contra to that, our direction is for all those around us, all those we love. Today Gustav is still in the gulf, and the sun still shines.
Why does it take a pending storm for us to begin a contraflow?
Turning things around to head an upward direction-
Mary Ellen
How the U.S. Garrisons the Planet and Doesn't Even Notice
At the height of the Roman Empire, the Romans had an estimated 37 major military bases scattered around their dominions. At the height of the British Empire, the British had 36 of them planet wide. Depending on just who you listen to and how you count, we have hundreds of bases. According to Pentagon records, in fact, there are 761 active military "sites" abroad.
The fact is: We garrison the planet north to south, east to west, and even on the seven seas, thanks to our various fleets and our massive aircraft carriers which, with 5,000-6,000 personnel aboard – that is, the population of an American town – are functionally floating bases.
And here's the other half of that simple truth: We don't care to know about it. We, the American people, aided and abetted by our politicians, the Pentagon, and the mainstream media, are knee-deep in base denial.
Now, that's the gist of it. If, like most Americans, that's more than you care to know, stop here.
The failure of two empires
…The recent Russo-Georgian war was the last straw: from now on, Moscow, the Third Rome, the capital of the Eurasian empire to which all the numerous people of the empire have had a feeling of awe, a feeling that Moscow is also their capital, became a city of a foreign state. This feeling of Russia's foreignness is shared not just by the people of the Caucuses and Central Asia, but also by friendly Belarus, which offended Moscow by not supporting the Georgian war.
Now, Russia is more alone, more alienated and hated among the republics of the former Soviet Union than at any other time in Soviet and post-Soviet history.
Now, Russia is more alone, more alienated and hated among the republics of the former Soviet Union than at any other time in Soviet and post-Soviet history.
…Still, the US's inability to defend its proxy Georgia, which it implicitly encouraged to attack South Ossetia, setting off the war, is a reflection of the broad geopolitical burden of Iraq and Afghanistan on the US's shoulders. These geopolitical debacles are related to America's increasing economic problems, for which no viable solution can be found in the context of present social-economic arrangements. The collapse of the American global imperial presence is structurally similar to that of the collapse of the Soviet empire. Neither Russia nor the US can be true imperial powers.
The geopolitical structure of the global order created by Stalin and his American adversaries in the aftermath of World War II is collapsing, not just on the Russian side but also on the American side. This implies that the future - at least the immediate future - is not so much for Pax Russika or Pax America, but most likely a push for increasing global anarchy. Dmitry Shlapentokh, PhD, Indiana University South Bend. He is author of East Against West: The First Encounter - The Life of Themistocles, 2005.
Hornswoggling Obsidian
I thought I’d grab a unique piece of the countryside here to take back – wherever back might be. A nice large piece of obsidian seemed good so I drove up to the top of my favorite hill the back side of which is littered with huge pieces of obsidian.
This is what the hill looks like – AFTER I got done creating the huge ruts and furrows trying to get my Toyota unstuck. The surface was smooth before I buried the thing up to the frame in loose obsidian and high mountain scree. Happily the Toyota – THE most capable off road off the shelf vehicle on the planet – was able to drive itself out – after 30 minutes of scary 30 degree down slope sliding.
Oh, the rock –
note the size 11 Blundstone boot attached the Horse year leg
Maybe 120 lbs, 24” x 10” x 14”. Once I located this purrfect piece I spent over an hour rolling it end over end up the hill 50 yards. It was so heavy even 2 people couldn’t lift it PLUS there’s no damn purchase on it.
So the next day, after thinking about it, I returned with my plywood bed board and rolled the rock onto it. Then, end-by-end, I levered the rock higher and higher, frantically shoving pieces of firewood and then large rounds of lodge pole pine under the ends of the bed board attempting to get one end higher than the tailgate. Taking a break I noticed that because the hill was so steep the downhill side WAS already high enough IF I backed the truck up to it from below. That’s where the problems occurred. I drove the Toy downhill a bit and experimented with backing up 3 times - no problema. So I confidently drove downhill past the rock on the elevated board and attempted to back up again. NADA. I dug in each wheel 12” or so while facing downhill the 1500’ slope. I won’t bore you with the rest of it – I got the G.D. rock, it’s in the back of the truck now. It takes up so much space I may have to abandon some of my stuff at camp when I leave tomorrow.
Oh, and why leave tomorrow? This morning when I emerged from my crumby trailer in the pine forest and walked toward the staff kitchen a large hawk flew about 20 feet away from me down the driveway opening in the 60-80 foot pines. It was unbelievable except it happened right in front of me.
I texted a friend who I knew was not driving a train at the time and got an instant Googleation. “Time to move on – follow the Hawk! Native American Hawk – spiritual guide when important direction change or decision about something must be found – Spirit of Truth, awareness, perceptiveness – the great messenger – ruthless & majestic.”
I’m outta here, I got THE ROCK, I managed to pay the fee for the next month on my storage locker, and enough gas money to get to LA.
[1] There are not less than 36 tzaddikim/righteous persons in the world who receive the Shekhinah/the Divine Presence Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 97b, Sukkot 45b
The Lamed-Vovnik Andre Schwarz-Bart
RIVERS OF BLOOD HAVE FLOWED, columns of smoke have obscured the sky, but surviving all these dooms, the tradition has remained inviolate down to our own time. According to it, the world reposes upon thirty-six Just Men, the Lamed-Vov, indistinguishable from simple mortals; often they are unaware of their station. But if just one of them were lacking, the sufferings of mankind would poison even the souls of the newborn, and humanity would suffocate with a single cry. For the Lamed-Vov are the hearts of the world multiplied, and into them, as into one receptacle, pour all our griefs.
Thousands of popular stories take note of them. Their presence is attested to everywhere. A very old text of the Haggadah tells us that the most pitiable are the Lamed-Vov who remain unknown to themselves. For those the spectacle of the world is an unspeakable hell.
In the seventh century, Andalusian Jews venerated a rock shaped like a teardrop, which they believed to be the soul, petrified by suffering, of an 'unknown' Lamed-Vovnik. Other Lamed-Vov, like Hecuba shrieking at the death of her sons, are said to have been transformed into dogs.
When an unknown Just rises to Heaven, a Hasidic story goes, he is so frozen that God must warm him for a thousand years between His fingers before his soul can open itself to Paradise. And it is known that some remain forever inconsolable at human woe, so that God Himself cannot warm them. So from time to time the Creator, blessed be His Name, sets forward the clock of the Last Judgment by one minute. The Last of the Just
