Albino Lizard

Ode of the Dove

January 19, 2026

    The poem that follows was originally written in Arabic by Bahá’í Faith Founder, Bahá’u’lláh, or, as he was known in the mid 1850s when the poem was written, Mírzá Ḥusayn-ʻAlí Núrí.

    I discovered the “Ode of the Dove” by Bahá’u’lláh, less than a month ago, when, after being given verses of poetry to read at a Bahá’í devotional, being charmed by the verses, and surprised that I could not remember encountering them before, during my nearly 34 years’ association with the Bahá’í Faith, I searched out the source of the poetry when the meeting was over.

    The poem that got my attention was written by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, son of Bahá’u’lláh and Ásíyih Khánum, born, Abbás Núrí, in 1844, in Tíhrán, Persia.

O lifeless one, bereft of heart and soul,
Come to life, come thou to life!

O slumbering one, wrapt in mire and clay,
Awake, do thou awake!

O drunken one, so dazed and gone astray,
Clear thy mind, clear thou thy mind!

The world is filled with sweetest musk; the eyes are brightened with His light;
the heavens now are set ablaze.
From life and self be freed, be wholly freed!

Now is the time for sacrifice; here waft the breaths of Paradise;
secrets Divine are all made known.
Lead thou the lovers nigh, lead them nigh!

The sweetly singing mystic bird, upon a verdant cypress bough,
imparteth knowledge to the soul;
Commit His secrets to thy heart!
Commit His secrets to thy heart!

    The preceding poem is in the book, Light of the World, which is one of the more recent in the Bahá’í Library, translated within the past decade, and is available online at Bahá’í Reference Library.

Intrigued, I looked through the book for other verses of poetry, and encountered the following:

Either speak no more of love, or content thyself
with what hath been ordained;
Thus hath it been decreed by My command, and such is My law and My way.

    This verse reminded me of Sufi poetry, which I love! How had this gem escaped my notice until now? I searched out a translation of Qaṣídiy-i-Izz-i-Varqá’íyyih, (footnoted after the quoted verse in Light of the World), and found the entire 127 verses of Ode of the Dove, revealed by Bahá’u’lláh, on a Bahá’í Library website, translated by John S. Hatcher, Amrollah Hemmat,and Ehsanollah Hemmat. This translation prioritized conveying the meaning of the original Arabic. I enjoyed reading it silently and aloud, but longed for the meter and rhyme of the original, which had not been preserved.

    I then found the Juan Cole translation. Here, every verse was translated with consistent rhyme and meter, but some of the meanings were not as clear as I would have liked.

    The poem has the theme of love for God, being compared metaphorically to human love, a common theme of Sufi poetry. Indeed the poem had been written during the two years of the 1850s, that Bahá’u’lláh had spent in Kurdestan, and during which he made the acquaintance of a number of Sufis. A way of deepening ones intimacy to God is hinted at in the poem, which involves seeing the Face of the beloved. While studying and practicing the technique, as I studied the two different translations, I experienced the call to make a 3rd interpretation, which I have now completed.

Verses 61 – 62, Hatcher et al translation of Ode of the Dove:
“Therefore, abandon this claim of love, or else be content with whatever transpires!
Such is the rule established for those who would tread My path!”
Then ardently I called to Her, “O My Beloved!
“My fondest wish and my heart’s desire,

Verses 61-62, Cole translation of same:
[“]Cease claiming to love, or accept all this,
For thus was it ordained in My Law’s scroll.”
In private I called out to Her, “My love,
My ultimate hope and My heart’s sole goal!

Verses 61-62, My interpretation:
“Accept all this or stop thy claim of love!
If thou wouldst tread My path, walk in the fire!”
I then called to Her, O my Beloved!
My fondest wish and all my heart’s desire!

    These two verses are near the midpoint of the 127-verse of poem. Prior to this the hero made complaints. After this the complaints of the hero had become qualifications.

    Figures of speech turn up in the work, not the least among them being hyperbole. Receiving arrows in equanimity could be literal in certain instances, such as Rene Good receiving bullets in the face as she endeavors to carefully make her way home in Minneapolis a few days ago (January 2026). However, the majority of times that the principle turns up, it is a metaphor for a lesser grade of conflict, or an exaggeration of the intensity of the trial one is presented with. Often it is a verbal challenge, body language, or even a facial expression that we interpret as arrows, darts or bullets.

    Although it has been done before in poetry, it is fascinating to me that, in this work Bahá’u’lláh casts the One God as possessing the feminine gender! In other places in his opus, Bahá’u’lláh mentions the maid of heaven, and refers to his mystical encounter with her while incarcerated, because of his involvement in the Bábí movement (the awakening movement of Iran that was concurrent with the Millerite movement in the United States, however the former was brutally suppressed), but only in, Ode of the Dove, so far as I have been able to find — and there is much yet to be translated — only here does he exalt this feminine apparition to the status of God Herself!

    In most other references to, or descriptions of, God, in the Bahá’í literature (that I have encountered), God is referred to with masculine pronouns. However I believe that God is beyond gender and that referring to Him with either set of pronouns is metaphorical.

    In His Tablet of Aḥmad (available on line at the Bahá’í Reference Library), Bahá’u’lláh compares God to a nightingale, and refers to Him with male pronouns.

He is the King, the All-Knowing, the Wise!
Lo, the Nightingale of Paradise singeth upon the twigs of the Tree of Eternity, with holy and sweet melodies, proclaiming to the sincere ones the glad tidings of the nearness of God, calling the believers in the Divine Unity to the court of the Presence of the Generous One, informing the severed ones of the message which hath been revealed by God, the King, the Glorious, the Peerless, guiding the lovers to the seat of sanctity and to this resplendent Beauty.

    In His The Seven Valleys, Bahá’u’lláh tells about a lover who had lost his beloved. He compared the love of a man for a woman to the love of a believer for the Divine Friend. The lover searched everywhere for his beloved and at last found her and rejoiced. This parable comes up during the third valley discussed in the Seven Valleys, the Valley of Knowledge (available online at the Bahá’í Reference Library). For most of the rest of the Seven Valleys, the Divine Friend is discussed with male pronouns. Here is a rendition of this passage, The Watchman, in song by Julie Rosser Iraninejad.

Ode of the Dove

By Baha’u’llah, poetic interpretation by Jera Jones Igo.
(Based on translations from the Arabic by John S. Hatcher, Amrollah Hemmat, and Ehsanollah Hemmat, and a separate version by Juan Cole.)

1 & 2

Beholding light, I raise mine eyes, and see
A lovely Maiden, bright in form and face,
Her breast and arms, in iridescent glow,
Have brought the sun and stars into this place.

3 & 4

She hovers midair, wafting musk of joy,
A trumpet in Her hand, cheeks peaked and round.
I swoon in Her charisma as She puts
The instrument to lips and makes it sound.

5 & 6
“This is the best Beloved of the worlds,”
She says, lighting the dungeon bright as noon,
For from Her west effulgence of the sun
Appears, and on Her east the bright full moon.

7 & 8
She diffused the scent of Divinity.
Her eyes and face are Beauty enlightened.
She is the flaming Bush that Moses saw,
The gleam of Her face helped Moses ascend.

9 & 10
The arrow of Her eyes will pierce the breast;
And in Her tresses’ noose the neck is caught.
I long to be wherever She has passed,
The throne of Amá is the earth She walked.

11 & 12
My tears were shed for reunion with Her;
Our separation burned me in Her fire!
I spread myself out far and wide because,
That She might tread my heart is my desire.

13 & 14
I search for Her in each and ev’ry face.
I glimpse Her light, and I rejoice! Then poof!
She disappears. I fail to keep Her near.
I crave Her presence, but She is aloof.

15 & 16
And when I stretched beseeching hands to Her,
Holding a sword, She replied, “Not so fast!”
And my yearning hath been to hold Her close,
While Her intent is but to break my grasp.

17 & 18
Forever, I will serve Thee faithfully!
Have mercy on me, do not spurn my love!
The two of Us united will be One,
And We shall be the two wings of a Dove.

19 & 20
Was tortured in the dungeon, strength was gone;
Was exiled, then, on foot across the snow.
Then after months of walking made a home,
But for a brother’s envy had to go.

21 & 22
Thou art my breast’s desire, my Beloved,
My Soul, my Source, my Light, my Life, my Heart!
Bestow upon me the delight of Love!
End now the pain of Us being apart!

23 & 24
My burning heart ignited ev’ry flame;
The seen world was illumined by my sighs.
The heat of craving has dried up the sea,
This raging thirst has not been satisfied.

25 & 26
I saw a lot of blood in ev’ry land,
But that which trickled from my eyes was more.
The ocean was a drop next to my tears.
Next to my burning Khalil’s was a bore.

27 & 28
Now in my grief all happiness has fled;
Afflictions stream upon my anguished heart.
My former splendor gone, my light’s gone out,
Extinguished by the scoffer, every spark.

29 & 30
My yearning for Thy care torments my soul;
My bones are brittle, dried up is my heart;
My love for Thee has sifted me to dust;
I long for union with all that Thou art!

31 & 32
Despair destroyed the path to heaven’s joy;
My constant tears give witness to my grief.
This torment has shattered my inner self;
My jaundiced face can never find relief.

33 & 34
Each night I grieve from insults scoffers hurl;
Each day I pray in tears for Thy support;
For I have reached a state of deep despair,
So that tongues falter making their report.

35 & 36
The maids in their mansions of paradise,
Because of my tribulation, wear black.
I sorrow for the grief of every heart.
I grieve for gladess, and I grieve for lack.

37 & 38
Then suddenly behind me, She said, “Stop
Recounting and lamenting all thy woes!
For countless are the Husayns just like Thee,
Among My lovers, and Alís untold.

39 & 40
“Numerous are the lovers who are Mine,
And many are superior to Thee.
But lovers who are wailing all the time
Will not enjoy a single glance from Me.

41 & 42
“Compared to Me the sun is but a star;
Compared to Me the world is but a plant;
Compared to the mystery of Myself
The mystery of earth is but an ant.

43 & 44
“I am the Beloved made manifest;
Moses’ luminous palm was inside Mine.
My Cause is the essence of Cause itself,
And Justice is the wise Command Divine.

45 & 46
“From My inner Being came the ocean;
The holy Spirit came forth from My joy.
From but a glimpse of Me did Moses swoon,
And at My glance was Mt. Sinai destroyed.

47 & 48
“By the power of My Cause do souls meet;
Before my Trumpet did the dried bones rise;
The soul of Cause circled ’round the temple;
The light of the temple flowed from Mine eyes.

49 & 50 & 51
“Exalted knowledge is contained in ’B;’
Before My Point, did ‘B’ itself prostate.
All guidance issued from My dawning Cause;
Exaltation from My decent rose straight,
And through My gift birds sing delightful songs,
And with my tune the humming bees sound great.

52 & 53 & 54
“Through vain glory thou took forbidden fruit.
Thou didst another’s love quaff, wrongfully.
And thou didst attribute to Me in err’.
Thou didst connect attributes carelessly,
Thou didst picture Me diff’rent than I am,
Thine err’ is assigning limits to Me.

55 & 56
“Thou will not attain reunion with Me
Unless thou understand Me and obey,
Imbibing from ev’ry cup of hardship,
Feeding your blood to anger is the Way.

57 & 58
“Abandon the slightest hope for respite;
Repress desire for any worldly thing.
Thou must be willing to give up thy blood.
‘I burn my heart for love,’ write on Thy ring.

59 & 60
“There are sleepless nights from slanderers’ stings,
And rebukes come for every good deed,
And deadly poison is the usual drink,
And anger is affection by My Creed.

61 & 62
“Accept all this or stop thy claim of love!
If thou wouldst tread My path, walk in the fire!”
I then called to Her, O my Beloved!
My fondest wish and all my heart’s desire!

63 & 64
I am prepared to take what Thou dost wish;
I cherish whatever Thou hast ordained.
I desire only what Thou dost desire;
I long for only that which Thou hast named.

65 & 66
Here is my chest to welcome Thine arrow;
Here is my body to receive Thy sword.
Thy fire is light, Thy wrath is my desire;
Thine attack is my solace, and reward!

67 & 68
Behold how the tears in mine eyes do flow,
Then witness the absence of ev’ry joy,
At dawn each one attacks me with arrows,
And each night I’m with rejection destroyed!

69 & 70
Each verse I read was a curse aimed at me.
Each moment I heard jeers from everyone.
Then they accused me of idolatry.
I received the arrow of exclusion.

71 & 72
All warfare had descended on my soul,
With blades of anger sharpened for my neck.
Jacob’s grief and Joseph betrayed by kin.
Job’s afflictions and Abraham’s long trek,

73 & 74
And Adam’s regret, and Jonah fleeing,
And David wailing, and Noah’s lament,
And Eve’s banishment, and Mary’s sorrow,
Isaiah’s trials, Zach’riah’s discontent.

75 & 76
All that occurred to each is but a drop
Of mine own adversity, and anguish.
Alone, I wander this remote region!
My companions in this desert are beasts.

77 & 78
From tears of mine eyes and tapping my heart
Springs gushed forth from the heavens side by side.
The force of my sorrow tore the old way.
The flame of my distress demolished pride.

79 & 80
All red came from the red of my heart’s blood.
Tears flowing from mine eyes sprouted each shoot.
Suffering in the path of love is sweet,
Pleasure in any other path is moot!

81 & 82
Scars from shackles of iron mar my neck.
And on my feet remain the marks of chain.
Not a day passed that I would not be seared
By insinuations, insults, and blame.

83 & 84
My soul was uprooted, my heart dissolved,
My inner being boiled from my distress.
I remained without spirit, soul, or heart!
That I survived, I am incredulous!

85 & 86
I wish that whatever exalted me,
And caused the torment I’ve had to endure.
That brought the adversity that hit me,
Had never come, nor such ghastly torture!

87 & 88
In solitude I found the reunion.
I rose to the apex of Unity!
I can describe how Thou appeared to me,
Thine own vision will supply proof for Thee.

89 & 90
If my understanding was limited,
That limit was imposed by Thine own light.
And from my own dejection gloom emerged,
But from the joy in my heart day dawned bright!

91 & 92
Since I was jubilant when awakened,
Being rejected now won’t make me sad.
I enjoyed Thy holiness and friendship,
Then I traveled from Tihran to Baghdad.

93 & 94
Through illumination I attained Light,
I ascended through the joy of my heart.
I call on thee to abandon this self,
O Spirit of life, ditch the empty part.

95 & 96
Amá, descend Thy Spirit from on high,
There is no greatness in my abject state.
O my heart, to thee I call out, Depart!
There is no joy behind this wretched gate.

97 & 98
Be reconciled with all thou hast endured
For the contentment of thy Beloved,
With affection and love She called to me,
“Do calm thyself! I know all thou hast said.

99 & 100
“Give up what thou hast believed and worshipped.
Idolatry acknowledges one God.
In My sight the glorious is abject,
The most luminous beam is but a fraud.

101 &:102
“Thy verses of adoration are apt,
But with the competence of a servant!
And I have eternally existed,
And I am stainless one hundred percent.

103 & 104 & 105
“I’ve seen, that many of the just are cruel,
And many of the wise don’t really know.
I’ve seen, that many of the strong are weak,
And many mystic knowers are all show.
And many worshippers do not obey,
And many mimic prayer without a flow.

106 &107 & 108
“The heavenly verses are of My self,
And all the scriptures descended from Me.
By a grain of Mine, the sun was darkened,
And from a drop of Mine was formed the sea.
All the joyous melodies created
Are nothing but the buzzing of a bee.

109 & 110
“From the song of My spirit all souls live,
From My ecstacy, all minds receive joy!
By the falling waters of My command
Do all the adored ones become viceroys!

111 & 112
“The land of the spirit was trod by Me.
Mount Sinai became the place where I walked.
Because of My light, the daystar shone forth,
The splendid sun in its happiness rocked!

113 & 114
“Those illumined signs of revelation,
That descend when My revealed verses come,
Are the dawning places of holiness,
And manifestations of all wisdom.

115 & 116
“The command that instigated all these,
Where they derived from, is the command ‘Be!’
Thou turned away from My Face, when thou didst
Indulge in thy vain made up fantasy.

117 & 118
“Secure thyself in Divine light which I,
For thee, implanted and concealed within.
Hold fast to the Cause as it doth appear.
Know the Face of light in its place therein.

119 & 120
“Free of illusion, tear apart the veil!
Behold the tear-eyed Face within thyself!
Be thankful because this hidden power
Has been awakened and loosed for thy help!

121 & 122
“Within thyself is a transcendent truth
That’s hidden where it will be found by few.
This holy mystery brings joy and peace.
Enjoy My gift, it makes life fresh and new.

123 & 124
“If the full glory were made manifest
All of creation would be dumbfounded.
From the kingdom of the grand mystery
Of power, this command emanated.

125 & 126 & 127
“Blessed are those who have joined this new Cause!
Blessed are those who remain in the light!
Blessed are those who have shed their life’s blood!
Blessed are lovers who with Me unite!
Blessed are the chaste ones who have hastened
To enter the shade of My holy might!”
My Book Publishing Experience

December 24, 2025
- Use docs and a micro sd card on phone to write book
- Use Google docs to collaborate with a co-creator
- Use Unsplash (Internet site) for cover images, and (if used) illustrations
- Use computer running Paint Shop Pro to produce ePub cover
- Utilize Facebook Beta Reader Group for suggestions and light editing
- Input book into Reedsy (Internet site), chapter by chapter, in order to format ePub
- Go to Bowker (Internet site) to purchase isbn for ePub, and to register the electronic book
- Post the completed ePub on Gumroad (Internet site) to collect payments and dispense ePub copies
- Utilize Reedsy for print ready PDF
- Use the computer Paint Shop Pro program to make the print ready cover
- Use Blurb (Internet site) to print-on-demand the book, Blurb will supply isbn for the print book, accept payments, and ship the books
- Utilize WordPress (Internet site) for blog and writer website
    I just completed these steps to the point of publishing an ePub on a site that specializes in dispensing electronic goods.

    To write the book, I used the docs app on my phone and a micro sd card. Docs prefers to keep its files on the Google drive, but I prefer the micro sd card in the phone because it works even when the Internet is patchy. I do back it up to the cloud drive from time to time.

    I live in close contact with another person. For that reason I don’t find myself using speech-to-text very often while writing. He would think I’m talking to him, and would be disturbed if he happened to be sleeping next to me at the time, or if awake would probably have plenty to interject on whatever subject I happened to be writing about. Most often I use Google keyboard, dragging a finger from letter to letter to spell a word. Typing on a computer might be faster, although not by much, I don’t believe, and you can’t very well type on a computer while in bed, or even sitting in a car waiting while your love partner shops a computer would be awkward. However the biggest reason that I don’t use the computer as often is because the computer battery doesn’t last long, and it needs the generator to charge, while the phone charges on the solar array, or in the car while the car is running. I hadn’t found a good way to make the cover on the phone though, beyond browsing for images.

    I have 3 books in development right now. One of them is my husband’s bio. He is editing that one on Google drive.

    I used Unsplash (Internet site) for the cover images for my novel, “Beyond the Dream”, and used them for some of the illustrations in my history of religion titled, “The Word Through the Ages”. I used Paint Shoo Pro on my computer to produce the cover for the ePub, “Beyond the Dream”. When I make the print book cover, if I get to that, it will just be a matter of resizing the ePub cover and adding spine, back, and flaps.

    I did utilize Facebook Beta Reader Group for suggestions and light editing for the autobiography I am ghost writing for hubby.

    I wrote “Beyond the Dream” in 2019, briefly publishing it as “Love and the Human Spirit” in 2022. Then I set it aside for several years while I worked on other projects. Then last week I looked at it with a fresh pair of eyes, edited a few things, input the chapters into Reedsy with the new name I had decided to change it to several years ago, and finished the new cover I had started several years ago. I found the isbns I had purchased from Bowker 3-1/2 years ago on an old email. Wow! After a few minutes of panic wondering if I had lost them, I found them and registered one of them for the ePub, “Beyond the Dream”: 979-8-9867560-2-8

    Reedsy formatted the ePub for me for free, and I posted it on Gumroad.
Link
    Three years ago was when I had Blurb print a copy of each of the two books I had then: “Love and the Human Spirit”, and “First Nations Native”. I had bought 10 isbns from Bowker (for almost $300) but Blurb supplied them so I didn’t need them after all. There was a procedure for making the print-ready cover in electronic form, and I did it on the computer running Paint Shop Pro. Blurb gave the directions on their site. IngramSpark also does print-on-demand, and also has instructions on their site. I haven’t done it in awhile, but it involves some specific measurements, depending on the book size you choose, and how many pages of that size are in your print ready PDF which is free from Reedsy. A print on demand book costs about from $15 to $25, less if you buy quantity.

    I set up my writer’s website in my About-Me page on WordPress, although it is by no means finished and I might decide to move the book information to its own page.
Link
    I don’t like hearing that some publishing companies are abusing their workers. If I learn that any of my companies are doing that I’ll find someone else.
Save the Children!

September 14, 2025

    For the future of this country it is necessary to save our children from the sicknesses caused, or contributed to, by forcing way too many injections into people, particularly between birth and coming of age. Reversing the mandates, imposed by governments, regulators, and the pharmaceutical companies, is just and will save lives and health.

    Some of the more liberal and progressive, among our government office holders, have been assisted, in their political campaigns, by the food and pharmaceutical industries, since these particular politicians don’t resonate as well with the other class of wealthy donors in our system, the oil and weapons industries. A loss of funding for the more liberal politicians, those who have benefited indirectly from an aggressive immunization program, is likely to come about when that program is scaled back, due to concerns about the declining health of the younger generations. Maybe this is what has to happen in order for a popular, nonpartisan, centrist movement to gain footing. Government in the hands of the nation’s wealthiest corporations has been a feedback loop to bring us more and more deadly weapons, war, toxic food, and poisonous drugs. Fundamental reform is needed. Our children are suffering an escalation of autoimmune and neurological diseases. Without healthy young people, how can we forge ahead into the future? We must stop damaging our kids! And we must allocate the funds to find a way to safely and effectively remove aluminum, mercury, and other poisons, from the brain and body. It may be too late for many damaged ones to regain their health, but perhaps a few can be saved. In any case we have to try! We can’t just continue to let each generation get sicker and sicker, just so a few tycoons in big pharma can enjoy an opulent lifestyle and fund a few political campaigns.

    In addition to pharmaceuticals, overly processed foods, drinks, and those from crowded feedlots and dairies, provide fodder for disease. Electrical and chemical pollution also contributes to disease.

    Fresh organic fruits and vegetables, processed as little as possible, is best. The whole-foods, plant-based diet, free of pharmaceuticals and other synthetics, provides natural immunity.
Cut and Paste Fun

March 24, 2024

    Exasperated by the frequent and difficult-to-dismiss interruptions to my play-store solitaire game, I made my own on a Google sheet. It is just as addictive and fun, without ads, and has the added advantage of appearing, to anyone who happens to look over my shoulder, that I am engrossed in something useful, rather than frittering my time away playing games with myself.

A Partially Played Game

    On the top left are available tokens to be used at will (the game began with 24 of them). At the top right is the (in progress) final ordering of 4 categories of 13 tokens each, each category (H, S, D, and C), numbered from 1 through 13. When this is completed (or it is obvious that it can be) the game is “won.” (At the beginning of the game this area was empty.) At the bottom left is the main working pattern of the game. At the beginning this area contained 28 tokens laid out in a triangle, with one token in the left-most column, 2 in the second column from left, 3 in the third, and so on, and 7 in the right-most column. The player can move the token at the bottom of each column, or any portion of a column that has been ordered, if doing so preserves and continues the ordering. The ordering of the lower left section of the game board consists of placing tokens in descending order top to bottom by number, where an alternating pattern of grey and red is maintained. There is no enforcement of rules in this version. Any token can be physically moved anywhere at any time (or tokens can be deleted and created). It is up to the player to follow rules as he or she chooses. Movement of tokens is most easily done by “cut” and “paste.”

Building the Game

    To build the game, open a new Google sheet and mark off the playing area. To do this create a line between columns N and O from row 1 through row 23. Do this by highlighting cells 1 through 23 on column N, then select the icon at the bottom of the screen that looks like a window with 4 panes. Open border style and select a medium heavy line and back out once to choose the pane with the heavy line on the right. Back out once more and view the line on your spreadsheet.

    Then highlight row 23 from A through N. Tap the four paned window icon and select the pane with the heavy line on the bottom, after selecting the slightly heavier line.

Bottom right corner of the playing area.

Make the Game Tokens

    Navigate to cell W53. Type the 52 token names in the consecutive cells of column W. Do not specify colors or backgrounds at this point. (That will be done in a later step.) Type 1C in cell W53, 2C in cell W54, and so on until 13C is in cell W65. Copy cells W53 through W65 , and paste in cell W66, then paste again into cell W79, then a third time into cell W92.

    Now go back to cell W66, and change 1C to 1D. Continue changing C to D until you reach cell W78, making it D13.

    Change C to H starting with cell W79 until you have created 13 Hs.

    Starting with cell W92, change the Cs to Ss. Type S1 in W92, and so on to cell W104, making it read S13.

Create the Game Staging Area

    Navigate to cell P1, and begin creating the staging area for the game token pattern by typing, =W53 in that cell. Press enter and, 1C, should show in that cell, unless the tokens have been shuffled. Cell P2 should be highlighted, type, =W54 in that cell, then enter.

Creating the game token pattern

    Complete the game token pattern by continuing to type =W53 through =W76 in cells P1 through U4. This makes the top rectangle of 24 game pieces which will be utilized in the two ordered patterns to be worked in the game, once they are shuffled and copied to the playing area.

    Next make the space configuration for the triangular shaped main playing area of the game. Start with the row P6-V6. Type =W77 into cell P6, =W78 into cell Q6, and so on, typing =W83 into cell V6. Row 7 will span between columns Q and V. Type =W84 into cell Q7, =W85 into R7, and so until =W89 into cell V7. Start the 8th row with R8 and =W90 (It may be easier to save the = signs for last) Start the 9th row at S9 and =W95. Start the 10th row at T10 with =W99. Start the 11th row at U11 with =W102. Then put =W104 on cell V12, completing the triangle.

Configuration of staging area

    Then put a dotted line border around the staging area by highlighting between P1 and V12 the. Select window panes icon, then dotted line, then the pane with a heavy line around its perimeter. Then reduce the width of columns A through X. To do this highlight the entire columns A through X, then up at the top, drag column X to a third of its width. The other columns should be narrowed as well

Game staging area

Shuffle the Deck

    Now we will shuffle the deck. Make a set of random numbers Type, =RANDARRAY(52,1) in cell Y1. This will produce a column of 52 random numbers, one in each row of the Y column between 1 and 52. They will be different numbers every time, and will change fairly often.

    Put zeros in each cell from X1 through X52, so that when we sort column X it won’t mess up the game board and the staging area.

Zeros and random numbers

    Then copy the random numbers, Y1 through Y52. Tap cell X53 twice and select paste special, and select values only from the menu.

Random numbers next to game token names (values will vary)

    Now we are ready to sort column X, which is done from the top of the column, slightly above cell X1. Tap the blue area at the top of the column twice. You may have to pull the menu out to select sort A-Z. If you accidently select sort Z-A tap undo. Look At the staging area. It should no longer be in the same order, but the token names should occupy the same cells as before.

Example of a shuffled staging area

    Now select the staging area along the dotted lines we drew and copy. Then tap cell A1 twice. This is another paste where we must use paste special and choose values only.

    Even without the formats, the game is playable, using cut and paste to move the pieces one at a time. C and S count as black, and D and H count as red.

Format Game Tokens

    We will apply conditional formatting to the playing area. We will apply three formatting rules:
Text ends with D
Text ends with H
Text is not empty
To do this:

• Highlight from A1 through N23
• Tap icon at the top that looks like a capital A with five short horizontal lines on the right side of it
• Tap conditional formatting
• Format cells if: text ends with
• Value or formula: D
• Tap +
• Choose text color dark red
• Choose fill color dark red
• Choose 2rd hue from the lightest
• Accept with ✓
• Click Add
• Format cells if: text ends with
• Value or formula: H
• Tap +
• Choose text color dark red
• Choose fill color dark red
• Choose 2rd hue from the lightest
• Accept with ✓
• Click Add
• Format cells if: is not empty
• Tap +
• Choose text color black
• Choose fill color black
• Choose third hue from the lightest
• Accept with ✓
• Accept with ✓

Game Rules

    Order the tokens in ascending numerical order in one column, per each of D, H, C, and S suits in columns I through L, starting with 1. The player may not place a piece in this area, other than a 1, unless the previous number of that suit has already been placed in the I-L columns.

    The player has free access to the tokens in columns A-F, rows 1-4, however, using these is not always the best strategy.
Player is to access only the bottom pieces in rows 6-12 columns A-G, or, those already ordered in the red-grey, numerically descending order pattern, by either the player or by the deal (as long as there are no out of order pieces in the same column below them). (Alternate rules can be played, but the game is more entertaining if a consistent set of rules is agreed to and followed.) Order the pieces in descending numerical order, alternating red and grey.

    When a column from row 6 down, column A-G, is empty, Player may place one of the 4 13s in row 6 of that column, providing it comes from rows 1-4, A-F, or is the bottom piece in columns A-G, row 6 or below, or has already been ordered in descending numerical. order red and grey, or grey red with other pieces. In the latter case, Player may move all of those particular pieces together. Below the 13 may be placed a 12 of the other color. Below a 7 may be placed a 6 of the other color, and so on.

New Game

select A1:N23
clear
select Y1:Y52
copy
select X53
paste special – paste values only
select column X
sort A-Z
select P1:V12
copy
select A1
paste special – values only

Play the Same Game Again

select A1:N23
clear
select P1:V12
copy
select A1
paste special – values only

Let’s play!
Atonement

December 1, 2023

    This study of A Course in Miracles (ACIM or the Course), that I recently began, has given me new insight into Who God is. I am very grateful for my new understanding. Even though no longer active in organized Christianity for over 3 decades, I still have managed to hang on to a mental icon of the Old Testament Jehovah, the God of judgment, a God to be feared. Long ago it was suggested that I fear this god as if he were a monster out to get me. The God revealed by Jesus in ACIM is a loving father who affectionately corrects us, never harshly, and whose love is to live for.

    I tried to get into a series of books called the Law of One, 6 months ago, but the text of the series was dictated through a medium in a trance state, and the channeling work was hard on her both physically and emotionally. This bothered me. Why not just listen to the words and write them down, rather than allow some foreign entity to invade your being? I thought.

    With the Law of One I had also balked at the concept of forgiveness and mercy to those on the negative path. I had encountered this information in the first book of the series, all of which is attributed to an entity called Ra, who channelled himself through the medium. According to Ra, at some point each one on the negative path comes to realize that he would be happier on the positive path, and simply makes the switch. Ra is an ancient group entity, much of which lived on the surface of Venus ages ago, but it also includes ascended humans, naming Jesus of Nazareth as being among them. I was suspicious that Ra was promulgating propaganda to the effect that there are no negative consequences for evil doing. However recently, after beginning my ACIM study, I received the revelation that this information is true, and Ra is correct after all. God is merciful. He is not a judgmental tyrant. He is a tenderly loving father, different from the father I had growing up. But my father would have been different too, if he knew then what he knows now. So would I, with some of the parenting I did.

HOW ACIM WAS WRITTEN

    A Course in Miracles was scribed by Dr. Helen Schucman, a clinical psychologist, during the 1970s, and first published in 1976. She claims no credit for the composition of the large volume (two or even three volumes sometimes), but attributes the words she wrote down to Jesus Christ. She was not in a trance state as a medium would have been, but was conscious. It was not what is called automatic writing, because she could write or not write. If she chose not to, the same dictation would be presented at a later time. She was helped in the typing up, of her many hand-written notebooks, by a work colleague.

    I was happy that A Course in Miracles had come through a conscious person enabled to hear the voice of Spirit, but I wanted to know, was it really the words of Christ that she listened to and wrote down? I’m about 10% of the way through a large ebook edition of A Course in Miracles. Although sceptical at first, I now believe I am reading the words of Christ.

ACIM EDITS THE BIBLE

    “‘Many are called but few are chosen’ should read, ‘All are called but few choose to listen. Therefore, they do not choose right.’”
A Course in Miracles, Text Chapter 3, The Innocent Perception, Section IV, Error and Ego, paragraph 7.

    I have to agree. I always suspected that there was something off about that passage from Matthew (Matthew 22:14). It didn’t make sense. Something was lost in translation, and now that something is cleared up.

    Another example of Jesus editing the gospels through ACIM is the following:

    “These are some of the examples of upside-down thinking in the New Testament, although its gospel is really only the message of love. If the Apostles had not felt guilty, they never could have quoted me as saying, ‘I come not to bring peace but a sword.’ This is clearly the opposite of everything I taught. Nor could they have described my reactions to Judas as they did, if they had really understood me. I could not have said, ‘Betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?’ unless I believed in betrayal. The whole message of the crucifixion was simply that I did not. The ‘punishment’ I was said to have called forth upon Judas was a similar mistake. Judas was my brother and a Son of God, as much a part of the Sonship as myself. Was it likely that I would condemn him when I was ready to demonstrate that condemnation is impossible?”
ACIM, Text Chapter 6, The Lessons of Love, Section 1, The Message of the Crucifixion, paragraph 15.

    Jesus is saying, through ACIM, that he did not say, “I come not to bring peace but a sword.” nor “Betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?” and that these quotes from the Bible are misquotes, thereby breaking down a pillar of any Christian sect that depends on the infallibility of the New Testament. Following is another example of the impact of A Course in Miracles on religious thought.

INDEPENDENT NATION OF ISRAEL AND THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST PROPHECY

    Israel became a nation in 1948. According to some predictions, Christ was supposed to have returned within a generation of 1948. I was born that year. My first child was born in 1972. I am now a great grandmother. Perhaps we can adjust our thinking on just how Jesus was supposed to have come within a generation of 1948. Suppose he came very close, and dictated a large book to one of his followers? And that book edited the Bible? Well yes, there is more fulfillment than that (but on a different timeline). This at least answered the sincere prayers of those who accepted the pretext that an apartheid state of Israel has something to do with the message of Jesus Christ. God does love his children and he does answer prayers.

DEPENDENCE ON GOD

    One facet of right thinking is dependence on God. To answer the call of God, to choose to be chosen, is to recognize his absolute sovereignty.

    “’Except ye become as little children’ means that, unless you fully recognize your complete dependence on God, you cannot know the real power of the Son in his true relationship with the Father.”
ACIM – Introduction to Miracles, p.173.

BE LOVING TOWARD OTHERS

    “The Golden Rule is the rule for appropriate behavior. You cannot behave appropriately unless you perceive correctly. Since you and your neighbor are equal members of one family, as you perceive both so you will do to both. You should look out from the perception of your own holiness to the holiness of others.”
ACIM, Text Chapter 1, The Meaning of Miracles, Section III, Atonement and Miracles, paragraph 6.

    Do unto others as you would have them do into you, in your thinking. See others as holy, beautiful, capable, strong, intelligent, healthy, happy, and pray that they become more so.

ONENESS WITH OTHERS

    All human beings are one species and one in Spirit. Right thinking acknowledges this. There is no hierarchy, no caste system, no excluded class, race or sex in true reality.

    “Judgment implies a lack of trust, and trust remains the bedrock of the teacher of God’s whole thought system. Let this be lost, and all his learning goes. Without judgment are all things equally acceptable, for who could judge otherwise? Without judgment are all men brothers, for who is there who stands apart? Judgment destroys honesty and shatters trust. No teacher of God can judge and hope to learn.”
ACIM, Manual For Teachers, Chapter 4, What Are the Characteristics of God’s Teachers? Section III, Tolerance, paragraph 1.

    “…are all men brothers,” might be expressed as, “…are all people brothers and sisters,…” The meaning is the same, and the former has better word economy. The exclusion of women has been hurtful, and we are understandably sensitive about it, but no exclusion of women is intended by the masculine nouns and pronouns used in the Course.

SONSHIP

    “The specialness of God’s Sons does not stem from exclusion but from inclusion. All my brothers are special. If they believe they are deprived of anything, their perception becomes distorted. When this occurs the whole family of God, or the Sonship, is impaired in its relationships.”
ACIM, Text Chapter 1, The Meaning of Miracles, Section V Wholeness and Spirit, paragraph 3.

    The term, Sonship, refers to the body of people, of both sexes, who have attained Oneness, with God and each other. There is no exclusion on any basis. Anyone who includes himself or herself is included.

MIRACLES

    “Miracles arise from a mind that is ready for them. By being united this mind goes out to everyone, even without the awareness of the miracle worker himself. The impersonal nature of miracles is because the Atonement itself is one, uniting all creations with their Creator. As an expression of what you truly are, the miracle places the mind in a state of grace. The mind then naturally welcomes the Host within and the stranger without. When you bring in the stranger, he becomes your brother.”
ACIM, Text Chapter 1, The Meaning of Miracles, Section III, Atonement and Miracles, paragraph 7.

POWER OF THOUGHT

    “It is hard to recognize that thought and belief combine into a power surge that can literally move mountains. It appears at first glance that to believe such power about yourself is arrogant, but that is not the real reason you do not believe it. You prefer to believe that your thoughts cannot exert real influence because you are actually afraid of them. This may allay awareness of the guilt, but at the cost of perceiving the mind as impotent. If you believe that what you think is ineffectual you may cease to be afraid of it, but you are hardly likely to respect it. There are no idle thoughts. All thinking produces form at some level.”
ACIM, Text Chapter 2, The Separation and the Atonement, Section VI, Fear and Conflict, paragraph 9.

    “I cannot let you leave your mind unguarded, or you will not be able to help me. Miracle working entails a full realization of the power of thought in order to avoid miscreation. Otherwise a miracle will be necessary to set the mind itself straight, a circular process that would not foster the time collapse for which the miracle was intended. The miracle worker must have genuine respect for true cause and effect as a necessary condition for the miracle to occur.”
ACIM, Text Chapter 2, The Separation and the Atonement, Section VII, Cause and Effect, paragraph 2.

    Miscreation refers to using the power of thought carelessly and creating — or reinforcing — something unwanted. Any thought can create something, and it is even more powerful when it is voiced. For example a parent might say to a child, “Don’t climb the tree, you’re going to fall.” This could create the fall that the parent is trying to avoid. Thoughts and words are creative and need to be chosen with a full understanding of their creative power. The parent could say, “When you climb the tree I want to be there so I can watch you.”

REAL AND UNREAL

“Assault can ultimately be made only on the body. There is little doubt that one body can assault another, and can even destroy it. Yet if destruction itself is impossible, anything that is destructible cannot be real. Its destruction, therefore, does not justify anger.”
ACIM, Text Chapter 6, The Lessons of Love, Section 1, The Message of the Crucifixion paragraph 4.

    Although this world seems real, it is actually as ephemeral as a dream. True reality is within reach, and it is beyond the material. Flying into a rage because someone insults me is ignorant. What if instead of an insinuation against my character it had been a bullet? I would have to forgive, even though my unreal body would be lying at the feet of my real body.

UPSIDE DOWN THINKING

    Upside down thinking is the opposite of right thinking. It fancies itself independent of God, even the concept of God, or else it tries to fashion a totally fictional god. It holds itself aloof from others, imagining a hierarchy, denying the oneness that actually exists. It is dominated by fear.

GUILT

    “Whenever you are not wholly joyous, it is because you have reacted with a lack of love to one of God’s creations. Perceiving this as “sin” you become defensive because you expect attack. The decision to react in this way is yours, and can therefore be undone. It cannot be undone by repentance in the usual sense, because this implies guilt. If you allow yourself to feel guilty, you will reinforce the error rather than allow it to be undone for you.”
ACIM, Text Chapter 5, Healing and Wholeness, Section VII, The Decision for God, paragraph 5.

    We must be humble but not humiliated. Too extravagant a posture of repentance, obeisance or groveling is incorrect. God created us noble; we are not to abase ourselves. I simply send love to the person I slighted when I recognize my error. This requires no apology and no words, but at the right time the right words may be spoken if the Holy Spirit guides me to do so. The technique of sending love is the same if the person is right next to me, on the other side of the world, or no longer on this plane of existence. It might also be called praying for the person. I go into meditation with that person as my focal object. I pay attention to any associations that come up, for instance other people. I discern what the original person needs with regards to the other person. I am alert to any health issues or housing problems. I recall the situation of his or her neediness seeming to exhaust my poor ability to manifest love when I became impatient. Now, I manifest the patience I failed to then. Now, I manifest the love I failed to then. Should this person feed so aggressively on me that I become exasperated? I set that question aside and ask God for more love.

ATONEMENT

    A Course in Miracles makes frequent mention of Atonement. It’s an important concept to understand for the Course. In its usage in the Course, Atonement seems to mean something good. The word is frequently used, in other settings, for something good that makes up for something bad, or cleanses and obliterates something bad, but this is not necessarily what it means in the Course. Learning how to attain Atonement is important because It is the gateway to miracles and abundance.
    An early meaning of the word atonement, probably more than 500 years ago and on another continent, was at-oneness, at-one-ment. This is close to the meaning of the word as used in ACIM. Some kind of oneness between ourself, Christ, and God, focusing on Christ’s miraculous resurrection, is the vehicle for miracles. Being in tune, in-tune-ment, might be closely related. Intoning, chanting or praying out loud, may also be a related word. This concept is not limited to Christianity, even though it is described in Christian terms in the Course. Anyone of any religion can use the ascended Mediator of her or his own religion for the Oneness described.

ESCAPE FROM FEAR

    “We tend to withdraw because we get fearful. We are afraid that complete openness makes us vulnerable. But complete openness makes us whole. It works because we channel the flood waters of righteousness when we are connected to the Source. Nothing can penetrate the rushing water that flows through us and to all of creation as we determine not to withdraw from anyone or anything.”

    “All fear is ultimately reducible to the basic misperception that you have the ability to usurp the power of God. Of course, you neither can nor have been able to do this. Here is the real basis for your escape from fear. The escape is brought about by your acceptance of the Atonement, which enables you to realize that your errors never really occurred.”
ACIM, Text Chapter 2, Section I, paragraph 4..

    What a powerful Atonement! Not only are your sins forgiven, but they never even happened! They were not real! And all you have to do is accept the Atonement!

    I suppose the catch is, you have to extend the same forgiveness to others. The wrongs against you “never happened.” Well okay then. If I’m really healed of all the ill effects of the wrongs against me, there is no reason not to have forgiven them. The body may still bear the scars, but this is the unreal body.

    I often pray to my Lord to fix what I messed up, supply the love which I failed to, undo the negative creations of my untamed mind. And then I ask Him to fix and heal the people hurt by other people like me, who carelessly and ignorantly destroy the earth and our fellow man. I believe He does and He will.

    “Ultimately, every member of the family of God must return. The miracle calls him to return because it blesses and honors him, even though he may be absent in spirit. ‘God is not mocked’ is not a warning but a reassurance. God would be mocked if any of His creations lacked holiness. The creation is whole, and the mark of wholeness is holiness. Miracles are affirmations of Sonship, which is a state of completion and abundance.”

    “Whatever is true is eternal, and cannot change or be changed. Spirit is therefore unalterable because it is already perfect, but the mind can elect what it chooses to serve. The only limit put on its choice is that it cannot serve two masters.”
ACIM, Text Chapter 1, The meaning of Miracles Section V, Wholeness of Spirit, paragraphs 4-5.

    We are both material and spiritual, but we can only serve one master, either the eternal or the temporal. But apparently a person can change his mind anytime he likes, from temporal to spiritual, but not the other way around, I wouldn’t think. Once you have committed to eternal, spiritual and real, that’s it. If I find out I’m mistaken I’ll edit this paragraph.

RESTORATION

    “For perfect effectiveness the Atonement belongs at the center of the inner altar, where it undoes the separation and restores the wholeness of the mind. Before the separation the mind was invulnerable to fear, because fear did not exist. Both the separation and the fear are miscreations that must be undone for the restoration of the temple, and for the opening of the altar to receive the Atonement. This heals the separation by placing within you the one effective defense against all separation thoughts and making you perfectly invulnerable.”
ACIM, Text Chapter 2, The Separation and the Atonement, Section III, The Altar of God, paragraph 2.

    Separation is the concept of the fall, that may have happened long ago in the Garden of Eden. Anything real is eternal, but the things of the temporal world can be undone through the Atonement, which comes from Christ (or the Founder of one’s religion). You must ask for it and believe you have received it. In a different context Atonement might be called an awakening, an enlightenment, a mystical experience, salvation, receiving the Holy Spirit or love. The experience should include joy and a feeling of oneness with God and other enlightened souls.

CONDEMNATION IS IMPOSSIBLE

    “Spiritual vision literally cannot see error, and merely looks for Atonement. All solutions the physical eye seeks dissolve. Spiritual vision looks within and recognizes immediately that the altar has been defiled and needs to be repaired and protected. Perfectly aware of the right defense it passes over all others, looking past error to truth. Because of the strength of its vision, it brings the mind into its service. This re-establishes the power of the mind and makes it increasingly unable to tolerate delay, realizing that it only adds unnecessary pain. As a result, the mind becomes increasingly sensitive to what it would once have regarded as very minor intrusions of discomfort.”
ACIM, Text chapter 2, The Separation and the Atonement, Section III, The Altar of God, paragraph 4.

Helen Cohn Schucman, Ph.D. – Autobiograpy

A Course in Miracles
Thanksgiving or Day of Mourning

November 17, 2023

    When the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock they were enabled to survive with the help of the people indigenous there. Then a generation later, the descendents of those friendly Indians were massacred by the descendents of those pilgrims helped and subsequent European arrivals who had joined them. When was the original great feast called Thanksgiving, that is still celebrated today in November? Was it during the early period of the pilgrim colony in Massachusetts while the newcomers were apparently on friendly terms with the Indians? Or was it later, after massacring the natives and appropriating their ancestral homeland? When we celebrate Thanksgiving, are we celebrating cooperation, or are we celebrating subjugation, murder and theft?

    The natives lived simply. Their houses were no larger then necessary for shelter. They respected the plants, trees and animals in the environment. They lived in harmony with the web of life. We could have learned a great deal from them, if only their understanding of harmonic existence with the land, and their complex, specific knowledge of plants, animals, seasons and survival techniques had not been so completely stamped out, along with their forests and their ecosystem.

    The same scenario of ancient wisdom destroyed by opportunistic newcomers was repeated over and over throughout the breadth of the continent, until at last, we got to California in the mid to late 19th century. Here natives were slaughtered and lands were stolen just as had already been done along the swath of destruction from the east coast. The race to get the most land and extract the most value from it has taken its toll on our collective soul.

    For a moment can we imagine a different scenario? Instead of chopping down more and more trees to build more and larger houses, fences, barns, ships, railroads, warehouses and towers, suppose we learned to live with those ancient trees still in the ground?

    The Indians had complex herbal lore and knew how to keep families small so the land would not be overwhelmed by too many humans. The newcomers had effective weapons which facilitated the elimination of anything in their way. Being spiritual, being one with the Great Spirit and one with creation was not enough to ward off the great evil that came upon our indigenous grandparents.

    This evil was not the people that came in need of homes. The evil was the -isms that came with them: feudalism, capitalism, Zionism, the doctrine of discovery, and manifest destiny. It was the arrogance that threw out the spiritual values of reverence for life and cooperation; and instead took on racial supremacy: white supremacy.

    The Doctrine of Discovery was based on statements by the pope in the late 15th century to early 16th century regarding 15th and 16th century Spanish and Portuguese explorations. These statements, called Papal Bulls, had been enshrined into law, and were regarded as infallible by superstitious Europeans of that era and beyond. The doctrine stated that any land discovered through Spanish or Portuguese exploration could be claimed for the sponsoring country, and any wealth seized in the explored land would be legitimately acquired property IF the citizens of the explored land were not Christians! Any murders committed during the enforcement of this doctrine, would, of course, be overlooked. The Catholic Church has, in recent years, tried to distance itself from this doctrine, but has yet to abrogate it. The ruthless treachery and slaughter against the Aztecs, in what would become Mexico City, by the Spanish conquistadors, and many other atrocities committed during the history of the European colonization of the Americas, reveal that the European conquerors took the doctrine of discovery very seriously.

    The term, manifest destiny, was first used in the mid nineteenth century, by editorial writers, to inspire a takeover by the United States of all the land between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Inherent in the meaning of the term is the goal of white supremacy. The rights of others are trampled in a brazen white takeover, although the blatant racism is obscured by what might pass as lofty ideals.

    Zionism seems to be a biblical, holy term. But hidden in the word is the goal of genocide. The “others” must be cleansed out so the “chosen ones” can have their monocultural paradise. It’s another code word for white supremacy. The old Testament has stories of acts of war that took place several thousand years ago. It is time to put such thinking behind us. Zion belongs to everyone, not just a “chosen” few. Unless we become universal in our thinking, we are throwbacks to another, less enlightened time.

    Let us embrace the diverse colors, shades and variations of the human family. We are one. Murder is wrong. The historical thefts of lands and resources was wrong. Living in ostentatious wealth while others live in squalor is wrong. We have taken without giving, in our game, which we have defined as getting the most regardless of the amount of destruction and slaughter in our wake. It is time to find another way.
Our First Woman Pope

July 27, 2023

Our First Woman Pope by Victor Villasenor

    This book is enthralling to read, funny, insightful, deep, but the frequent mention of alcohol irritates me. I don’t want to know about that kind of spirits. And yet the relationship between culture and language is fascinating. Watching formerly celibate clergy open to romantic love and marriage is heart warming. Learning about Oceanside’s first mango tree is enlightening. The anecdote about the author telling a group of children that they are angels would be wonderful if it didn’t take place right after the partying with tequila and beer. I wondered, was he staggering and slurring his speech during the charming encounter with the children? Mystical experiences were described during the book. The description of alcohol consumed makes real mysticism dubious to me. How much is holy spirit and how much is alcohol? Yet I loved the book, and sent links for the free version to 4 adult children and 3 adult grandchildren. But I’m fed up with the drinking. Of course sobriety is important to me, and it is rare to find a book or a movie that meets my criteria.

    I dreamed I was in the room studying Latin. After pondering the dream for awhile I realized that that room, the master bedroom of the house I grew up in, was the room I had studied Esperanto in, and that the dream message is that Esperanto is a Latin-derived language.

    Latin may have been the first language to have a word for “the”, a European construct, according to Victor Villasenor in Our First Woman Pope. Indigenous languages don’t have it, he asserts, and neither did Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. Although he is translated in Greek gospels saying, “I am the way, the truth and the life,” in the Aramaic spoken by Jesus, this statement may have been rendered closer to, “I am way, truth and life.” It is a little harder to justify killing for Jesus when you don’t chop experience into discrete lingual boxes using nouns and defining articles. Indigenous languages rely more on verbs. Latin, English and related European languages are languages of empire. Europe (and now America also) has lost most of its indigenous language and thought.
Law of One Exposed

May 23, 2023

    I was sitting at breakfast eating a banana thinking about what I had been reading. I thought about the doctrine of ultimate reconciliation. Apparently an entity can exploit, oppress and even kill. Then, at some point in its evolution, it realizes that it must become altruistic in order to receive a bright shining aura. At that point it does a quick turn around and joins the good side. Poof! All the oppression and murder it committed wiped clean by that little decision, “Guess I won’t be quite so self-serving anymore.”

    Now what kind of an entity would want me to believe that? A sales-entity for the negative path, that’s who! What kind of an entity would bribe another entity to use her vessel in order to “channel” some information, some of which happens to be affirmations about the inviolability of another’s free will? I’m not referring to inspired utterance. During inspired utterance the orator is consciously present in his or her own vessel while channeling the holy spirit. Contrast that to medium channeling. The medium is not present during the oration. She has abdicated her volition for that period of time. In order for free will to be untrammeled it must be free to express itself at any moment. Clearly this is not the case with medium channeling. Once she has agreed to vacate her body she does not get it back until the invading entity is finished with it. Any pretense of regard for the channel on the part of the entity is just pretense.

    So the first red flag for me with the Law of One material was, before I finished the introduction, I had become aware that it had been channeled through a medium. But there is a lot of medium-channeled literature around that seems good. The Course In Miracles seems good. Seth Speaks seems good. The Law of One seems good. David Wilcock promoted the latter, and he seems good. Maybe it’s time I challenge my long-held bias against channeled work and read the Law of One with an open mind, I thought.

    I continued reading as a student wanting to learn. The second red flag was seeing the words, love and light, repeated at the end of every section, and not feeling any love or light. True there were some inspiring passages that I made notes about, but the being, Ra, seemed devoid of any personal charisma. However, the inspiring passages sprinkled rather thinly through the material kept me going for a while.

    Now, the final straw for me is realizing I am being misled about the judgment of God. There may be an ultimate reconciliation – I’m not discarding that idea – but for the wicked it won’t come without a noticeable period of penance and repentance. It won’t just be a, “Woops, I’m on the wrong path, guess I’ll just jump over to the other one and keep going.”

    I may finish the series (I’m about half way into it), but then again I may just put in a few search terms to see if any of my criticisms are addressed, or maybe I’ll just read something else.


    Epilogue, December 3, 2023: Ra is a very old entity, He may have arisen at a time when virtually no one was literate. Therefore finding someone who could write his words as they were spoken, and then finding a literary audience who could read them would have been unlikely. Mediums were condemned in both the Old and New Testaments. Possibly before the time of the Old Testament mediums were used by authentic teachers of righteousness, because of the relative immaturity of mankind at the time. That would have been one of the few ways to reach them. That doesn’t explain why Ra is still operating that way in modern times, but perhaps there is an explanation, although I’m only part way to understanding it.

    After reading about A Course in Miracles, and also reading part way through it, I understand that it was not channelled through a medium, but dictated to a conscious person. This is certainly preferred, in my opinion, to medium channeling. I had an epiphany two days ago (right before I posted my review of ACIM entitled, Atonement) that revealed to me that it is true that a person on the negative path simply decides to leave the negative path behind and become positively orientated, and that’s it. There is no condemnation, no hell, none of that stuff, just the eternal opportunity for positive evolution, just as Ra had stated.
The 12th Planet, by Zechariah Sitchin, Book Review

July 1, 2022

    The 12th Planet, by Zechariah Sitchin is about alien landings on Earth, starting about 500,000 years ago. It makes references to the book of Genesis of the Bible, and the clay tablets of ancient Sumer. First published in 1976, the book makes some remarkable statements about the composition of the solar system, and the origin of mankind on Earth.

    The 12 planets are: the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Earth’s Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Marduk. Having 12 bodies in the solar system is important religiously, according to Sitchin. There seemed to always be a Pantheon of 12 gods and goddesses in every culture including Sumaria, prior to the more recent ideal of monotheism. The 12th planet has an orbit like a comet. It orbits around near the sun once every 3,600 Earth years. It travels in the outer reaches of the solar system during most of its orbit. In spite of this, the planet is warm and habitable, probably from radioactivity in its surface. Marduk is about the size of Neptune. It may be a brown dwarf.

    Marduk is the name usually used for the 12th Planet in the book, the 12th Planet, although this planet is often called Nibiru. Nibiru, comes up from the south, once an age, and crosses the planetary plane between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The plane of Nibiru’s orbit is retrograde and at right angles to the orbits of the other planets. Far in antiquity the 12th planet collided with Tiamat, (the planet that once existed between Mars and Jupiter) dragging a big piece of it and its Moon to Earth orbit. There was originally an empty space where Earth and its Moon are now.

    The rest of Tiamat’s mass (about 4 times the earth total) created the asteroid belt. The planets, other than Earth, were fully formed and most of them already had life on them during the time the earth was forming. The evolution of mankind and agriculture on Earth were advanced by tutoring from, and breeding with, an advanced alien culture from the 12th Planet. Homo sapiens on Earth would have taken much longer to develop had it not been seeded by the Anunnaki from Nibiru. Agriculture, and its many domesticated plants and animals would have taken much longer to develop if Earth wasn’t visited by an advanced culture and gifted with its domesticated plants, trees and animals.

    When Nibiru is close to Earth, the Nephilum (or Anunnaki) make their way to Earth using rockets. They mine our precious metals for themselves (or force us to do it.) Many or most of them leave and return to Nibiru by the time their planet is gaining momentum Southward, after its passing around the sun. When it is not in the lower solar system, Nibiru is difficult or impossible to see, because it hides in front of the bright stars of the milky way. The lifespans of the Anunnaki are longer than ours, but any children or grandchildren they leave behind eventually become indistinguishable from the rest of us.

    According to Zechariah Sitchin, in the 12th Planet, every reference to God, Elohim, or Yahweh in the book of Genesis is actually a reference to a space alien from Marduk. These aliens are the gods. The obvious source material for the book of Genesis in the Sumarian clay tablets is unabashedly polytheistic, with gods discussing and arguing among themselves, while Genesis has apparently been edited to make it appear as if there is only one god.

    I do not agree that space aliens are gods. They are humans like us, but coming from an advanced culture when earthlings were still relatively primitive may have made them appear godlike. That being said, there is a real God and He is Spirit. I needed to remind myself this while reading Sitchin, because every biblical reference to God, and the Sumarian references also, are interpreted as referring to aliens.

    The “gods” wanted laborers to work the precious metals mines in Africa, so they manipulated the humanoids on Earth at the time to be more like themselves. Although there was a genetic modification described, the easiest way to modify the humanoids of Earth at the time, the Homo Erectus, into beings with enough intelligence, communication ability and manual dexterity for mining and other tasks, was for the male aliens to impregnate the female humanoids. Soon there were modern humans in Africa, Sumaria and elsewhere, used as laborers by the aliens. A couple, Adam and Eve, were placed in the garden of Eden near Sumaria (Iraq). They were there to care for the plants and trees in the garden. They were asked not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge but they did anyway, realized they were naked, and were banished from the garden.

    One of the appearances of Nibiru was associated with severe flooding. That appearance was approximately 11000 BC. and caused, first droughts and food shortages, then massive flooding and solar disturbances, during the approximately 1000 Earth years while the planet was close. Atlantis was destroyed in 9577 BC, during that same time of upheavals. Subsequent appearances of Nibiru (and the Anunnaki) were associated with rapid improvements in human culture: rapid advances in pottery approximately 7400 BC, a sudden Sumarian civilization developed around 3800 BC. The last appearance was around 200 BC, and the next is expected approximately 3400 AD.

    The book was interesting to read. The points made, although controversial, were very convincing. A PDF is available online as a free download: https://www.booksfree.org/zecharia-sitchin-the-12th-planet-pdf-free-download/
The Love Habit

April 23, 2022

    It’s a new habit — well not really, I always knew that this was the right thing to do — but I often allowed my emotions to play in me. Love is not an emotion, it’s a decision. I knew that too.

    What’s new is an insight I had recently about how to apply this specifically. I had been getting my feelings hurt about little things that, in the big picture, don’t really count. I had the amazing ability to stew about totally insignificant, even imagined, slights that, if written on a ledger along with the real gifts and blessings of my life (and a few major losses), were not even worth their own line.

    Doing an about face and loving the people involved was the ticket to bliss. I mean, loving them in a state of meditation, sending love to people as they come to mind. Habits develop slowly, and I still have to remind myself fairly often. The meditative state can be achieved any time and anywhere. It is nice to have a quiet space and time to sit, but once the meditation habit is developed, the meditative state is always available. When I see someone in my mind’s eye, I can send them love.

    I’ve been doing that more and more. I sent love to the attendant at the laundromat while she was in front of me physically. She turned around and gave me the sweetest smile. She had been wearing a mask for two years, and this time she was without it. But I think I’d recognize a smile, even with the mouth covered.

    See somebody or think about somebody. Then see their spiritual essence. Then send love to the spiritual essence. The person will often respond in a loving way, if it’s an in-person contact. When it’s not an in-person contact, there will be a warmth when you do see them again.

    I used to be quarrelsome. And I’d swear it was the other person being quarrelsome. I was aloof, but if you’d ask me, it was the other person being aloof. All my relationships have improved, but especially the one with the person I spend most of my time with, my husband.

    We don’t fight over little things any more. I have a new way of handling insults, or what I used to perceive as insults, like people telling me what I should do, or someone comparing me unfavorably to themselves. Those things used to make me angry. I would get defensive and shriek my resistance. Now I just find something to be thankful for before I speak (or shriek). He’s kind of good looking, even when he seems to scold me the way my father used to do.

    What a horrible habit I used to have of resenting people! What was I thinking? I was forgetting about the millions of things I have to be thankful for, and obsessing on one small detail that didn’t seem to go my way.

    The escrow officer made an arithmetic error that cost me $366, and benefited the lien holder by that amount. My anger about that eclipsed my thankfulness for the windfall we had reaped in the deal as a whole, until I wrote out a ledger of what we had paid and what we had received. Now what do I do about the angry emails I’ve already sent? God doesn’t want me humiliating myself. I’ll just quietly repent for my lack of gratitude, and send love to the parties involved.

Amma

    Amma is my role model. I saw her once, in 2004. I drove to someplace, in the Los Angeles area, where she was appearing. The venu, it may have been a church, was packed with people. I had lost my home and was hurting. She hugged the people one at a time. When my turn came she held me in her arms and on her lap like a baby. She spoke tenderly to me, telling me I was loved. I could access that moment again and again, even after it was over, and did so many times. The home was restored, temporarily, a few years later. Then in 2015 it was taken away again, right before my mother died of Alzheimer’s.

    But the experience of being in Amma’s arms stayed with me, growing within, until I too have become a love ministry.

    There are those who have not yet had a spiritual awakening. They will not be as receptive to an energetic blessing as those who are spiritually awakened. We bless them with the intention that their spirits open to the Divine will. This may be problematic for them and they may resent it. But this is what I would want were I spiritually dormant. I would want to be awakened. Even if I didn’t understand why my world was being turned upside down at first, I would want spiritual awakening. So this is absolute obedience to the golden rule of Christ, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”