Strangers in a strange land

I wept as I watched thousands of refugees from Syria arrive in Munich over the weekend.  My heart is so relieved Germany opened its borders with so much support, compassion and even enthusiasm to the world's most downtrodden refugees. Germany stepped up and is doing what any strong leader does in the face of crisis and adversity. It takes a stand and beams brightly to the rest of the world, a powerful light in the world's great and terrible dark night.  

One man said breathlessly to an awestruck reporter, "We are finally free!" Like the many thousands of other refugees arriving with him and his family, he had traveled the same perilous route from Syria, through Turkey, over sea and land on through Europe, despite danger on the seas, hungry and tired, yet relentless and driven to survive.

As these waves of humanity surged onward, courageously toward survival and freedom, in pursuit of life and liberty, they willingly risked everything for their lives.  Desperate, with no where else to go, they ventured into countries which centuries ago were inhospitable to Muslims. Even their brother Muslim nations rejected them, leaving them no other choice. Life grows where there is the least resistance.   

Today, compassion is the new religion and it has no borders, knows only the common human condition which will always be in pursuit of life and liberty.

Freedom is still something worth risking everything for -  along with food, water, shelter, the opportunity to go to school, find a job, and build a life and a community in peace.  The kindness of Germany along with Pope Francis' insistence that all the churches in Europe open their doors to the refugees is a most beautiful antidote to the cruelty of war, oppression, and poverty in these peoples' once beautiful ancient homeland.  One day, a generation from  now, the children we see hungry and tired with holes in their well worn little shoes, will return to Syria to rebuild.  But for now, they will learn German and go to church to say their Muslim prayers and know the kindness of strangers.  The kindness they experience today will bless the world in generations to come.

In the meantime, close to one million refugees in Jordan are in desperate need of food.  Please consider contributing to the UNHCR refugee agency. 

Defying gravity

Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. 
                                                                             - Ephesians 6: 10-18

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 
                                                                              - Galatians 5:22

You are all beautiful beings of light, together and individually rare and genuine jewels of creation.  Your joy is matched by the angelic choirs. Your pain sends waves of compassion among all the company of heaven.  You are precious beyond your imagination.  Stand strong, fight the good fight, support each other in these dark days.  When one stumbles, lift him up. Despite how weary you feel, you must complete the trek through to the end of this age.

Be encouraged. Stand up, take a deep breath, hold you heads up, and call on the Lord, and all the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, for the strength to stand another day. Don't give up.  Never give up.  Some days you will run, other days you will walk or limp or even you might fall or rest, but always carry on, always stay the course. Pray. Open your heart to yourself and each other, honor yourself and each other, stay centered in your being, and stay on the way, and always in prayer.


A strange kind of weariness overcame me.  It had seeped into my spirit while I was striving to succeed. I was reaching, stretching, trying to be so many things to so many people, trying to please my boss's petulant attitude, uncertainty, and indecision, even reluctance to lead. I felt I was at a dead end.  My boss could not be pleased nor did it seem I had the skills he wanted.

But what did he want?  Without that information, I attempted brainstorming ideas for his consideration. I sculpted my writing, my graphic design, my creativity to meet his whims, yet nothing satisfied him.  He was cruel, reticent, silent. He expected me to know what he needed without offering a clue. 

Slowly, I sank beneath the waves of my own striving.  As I took my last breath, I realized something was terribly wrong and if I didn't do something about this, I was either going to be out of a job or so terribly depressed I would not have the inner strength to find another one.

I began to feel a heaviness in my spirit, which I fought. Yet, fighting it seemed to cause it to grow stronger. Things were going from bad to worse until I could barely get out of bed.  It felt like it took the entire morning just to make a cup of coffee, pull on a pair of jeans, brush my hair and get to the car. Time seemed to stand still as a pernicious silence crept into my soul. I began to not care about my work, not care about anything. While that worried me, I also didn't have the energy to look for another job, which was long overdue. I felt like I was sinking into a kind of quicksand and couldn't stop gravity's pull on my mind and body. 

Then the morning came when, while still in bed and two cats begging me to get up and feed them, I considered whether or not I would go to work that day. "Couldn't I just call in?  Isn't a mental health day just as valid as being physically sick?," I thought.  I considered the idea while opening the can of cat food. I rolled it over, pro and con, in my head while I made the coffee, while I pulled on a pair of jeans, while I brushed my teeth and headed out to the car.  "Yes. I will call in today.  I never call in," I attempted to justify my malaise. "There's only one meeting but not until late afternoon, couldn't I just go in for that meeting? That's what I'll do," I thought as I put the coffee cup on top of the car while I fished the car keys out of my purse.  "I'm going to take the day off and look for another job," I thought as I started the car and headed into my job in the city. 

Traffic was light for a change, allowing the inner dialogue to continue.  "I wonder if they'll  have that meeting in the afternoon since it has become my boss's style to cancel these meetings and postpone them to the next day or week more often than not. See, I'm at his beck and call, always there, always being pulled and pushed," I thought.  I felt so out of resources, out of ideas. 

I climbed the staircase to the second floor offices, smiled and greeted the receptionist and slipped back to my office, flipped on the light, fired up the computer, sat down, sipped the now cold coffee, and dove into cyber-mind-space.

I realized in the hard effort to please my boss, he had actually become less decisive and more critical. It had reached a tipping point. My trying had strengthened his weakness, and weakened my strength. I realized I had become so drained by the fight that I was bone dry spiritually. I also realized somewhere along the line I'd stopped the early morning writing, praying and meditation. I had stopped having spiritual breakfast.

Instead, a low vibratory worry had ensued, slowly engulfing my spirit. The distraction had worked. A heavy and dark spirit that was hunting and harassing me had gained on me, until I suddenly realized that while I thought I was still on the spiritual path, I had taken a wrong turn.  My boss's demands and criticism which seemed innocuous at first, stirring me to try harder, were slowly turning up the heat. It was now too hot in the kitchen and I was in a state of spiritual inflammation.

Somewhere between the first phone call of the morning and the time the email finally loaded, it hit me.  Like a bolt of lightning from heaven, warning of an incoming torrential storm while already in the early winds, I realized I was under spiritual attack, and had been trying desperately to please the devil. I heard in the back of my head, "it can't be done."  The bait is the lie that it can be done and the reward would be great if I succeeded.  But, the truth is, it can't be done. I started to feel panic.

"Pray," I heard whispering inside my head. "Just stop and pray. Take a moment and pray. Who cares if someone comes into your office while you're praying. Just pray."

And, so I did. I felt my head humming, like a lawn mower in the background.  I felt empty, dry, like Jeremiah's field of dry bones.  I felt like I had wandered so far away from where I used to be that I might never be able to find my way back. I felt lost.

"Nevermind. Just don't think. Just pray. You know how to do that. Try the Lord's Prayer. That's the most powerful prayer." The words flowed easily from memory, but still without any of their customary emotional inner feeling. They were just words, like saying a prayer out of the Book of Common Prayer, written by someone else several hundred years ago with little real meaning to me today. I remembered there were times in the past when I had prayed the Lord's Prayer out of desperation - different times than these - and the result was miraculous.

So I prayed, and as I prayed, I began to weep until I felt like I would drown in my own tears. Thankfully, no one was there to hear or see my complete failure in composure. 

I wept for the refugees in Europe, whose plight is worse than anything anyone could ever have imagined. I realized what they are experiencing is exactly what the Lord warned us would happen in "the last days." (Matthew 24)

Lately, as I watched the news, it dawned on me that what I was witnessing seemed graphically in alignment with these words from Matthew 24,
 
"Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes."

As I saw pregnant Syrian refugees* cradling young children, I remembered,

"But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be."

I considered these might actually be those last days, as much as I didn't want to give in to the religious right's declaration of such dramatic possibilities. I thought about the idiot Trump who was the media's favorite jokester. And then it became so obvious, so terribly obvious. We all are under a dark and terrible spiritual attack. The stakes are about as great as they can be, and I don't dare even say what that is because things could always get worse, even if we can't imagine anything worse, now.

I realized the Lord's Prayer was working. I was less panicky and beginning to see with more clarity. Despite how despondent my thoughts were at that moment, the awareness was important. While it didn't diminish the heaviness I felt, it lent a greater understanding of what we're dealing with.  At least the enemy was being identified. 

I realized at last that I will try again, today, and most likely everyday. But, never again will I ever attempt anything without prayer. The risk is too great and the dark forces too clever for the gentle and forgiving ones who have been seduced and reprimanded by our insidious media to be tolerant of every imaginable evil, worse than anything ancient Babylon could ever have dreamed up. 

The war of the ages is upon us. There can be no doubt now. If we think it's only on the other side of the planet, and not here in our own country, our own city or community or in our own personal lives, we are being duped and remain unprepared, as lamps unlit, sitting like vulnerable prey. Only God can equip us for this battle.  Only prayer, and perhaps the Lord's Prayer is best, will cut through enemy lines. 

I only share this morning's reflections to give you a wee bit of guidance drawn from my own will to carry on as a servant of the Lord.  If I am going through some tribulation, most likely everyone is in some way. Only with God, can we overcome the dark heaviness of the decadent power vacuum engulfing our globe. Only God can give us the vision, the spirit, and the strength to rise up as on eagles' wings and soar above the madness, beyond the drag of the oppressors on our light spirits and into his magnificent wisdom and holy realm of love and light.
Amen
_______________
*On one news cast, the reporter told about a woman who gave birth and then got up and walked 11 miles!

 

Peace of Christ

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give

you. I do not give to you as the world gives.

Do not let your hearts be troubled and

do not be afraid."

            - John 14:27

  

 

Peace is so close to love.  It is an inner space, a quiet, fluid place, like a tranquil lake in the early morning.  It is still, perfectly still, yet so alive.  It is the breath of divinity entering and living in your soul.  It is a state of mind, of being.  It is Heaven and it is grace.  That's all.  And, yet, it is everything - the entire universe in a single breath. 
 

Peace is a miracle.  We cannot give it to ourselves.  The best we can do is invite it, wait for it, prepare for it as we prepare for a guest, set the table, prepare the wine and food, and open our hearts. We can pray for it and hope for it. 

When peace comes, we will know it is the presence of divinity in our human lives. It is the magic of the universe in our presence and nothing else matters - not then, nor ever. And, suddenly, we are awakened to something so much more wonderful than anything we'd known before and so grateful for the presence that reaches into us and draws us closer to ourselves, igniting a love beyond this place and time.

Peace comes with the message that we are loved beyond our wildest imagination and that we cannot earn it nor chase it away. We need not worry so much, or strive so much.  Sadly, we measure ourselves by perishable standards and miss it all while we are pursuing the world's so very temporary values.

 

When we honor ourselves and each other, the earth and all of life, when we stand in the midst of life, honoring it all, cherishing the air we breathe, we are on the threshold of grasping a scent of that great peace that only the divine can give us . . . and the world can't. 

It is the whole reason for being alive - to experience the perfect peace of God and feel God's love, unlike any other love we could know. 

 

'Water is sacred,' NO Nestlé

Photo from No Nestlé in Cascade Locks' Facebook* 

 

Poised on sacred ground, Native Americans from the Columbia River tribes stand defiantly against illegal water usage by the multinational corporate giant, Nestlé, who, you might recall from a previous Tiger Lilies post, (1/9/15) still purchases chocolate harvested by children trafficked in slave labor in Africa.

Nestlé has filed a proposal to the City of Cascade Locks in Oregon to build a water bottling plant which would draw water from Oxbow Springs in the Columbia gorge.

 

“They’re blatantly violating the Treaty of 1855,” Anna Mae Leonard (third on right in photo above) with the Columbia River Tribes said.

According to that treaty,  the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla tribes, "gave up, or ceded, to the U.S. more than 6.4 million acres in what is now northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington. In exchange, a parcel of land was designated as the Umatilla Indian Reservation which the tribes would retain as a permanent homeland."

                             In this map, the small area in the center is the current site of the

                             Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. The

                             larger yellow areas are the traditional lands of the Cayuse, Umatilla

                             and Walla Walla.

                                               

In the treaty, the tribes "reserved rights to fish, hunt, and gather traditional foods and medicines throughout the ceded lands. The Tribes still protect and exercise those rights within the 6.4 million acres of ceded land in what is now northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington." As you can see from the map, the Columbia River runs through the northwestern sector of their ceded lands to which they have retained their rights to fish, hunt, gather traditional foods and medicine, and protect.

Anna Mae has fasted and stood vigil outside Cascade Locks, Oregon, since Monday (8/17) urging that city's leaders’ not to allow Nestlé to bottle and sell water from the nearby Oxbow Springs. She has been joined by a growing group of tribe members and others in her stance to protect the water and stop Nestlé.

The Columbia River and its water is sacred and protected by the treaty, the tribes assert.

“It is intrinsically a desecration to sell that water,” Anna Mae said to a KOIN reporter. “It is specific to our spiritual, cultural practices right here.”

The proposed water bottling plant would siphon off 118 million gallons of water from Oxbow Springs every year.

“It goes against our beliefs to sell water,” Anna Mae said to the television reporter . “You cannot sell water. It’s wrong, we have to have water to live.”

And, as if the violation of a treaty isn't bad enough or that the Columbia gorge is one of the most beautiful and pristine places in the world, the Columbia River is slowly being poisoned by seepage from the Hanford nuclear remediation plant in Washington. Already, the salmon are dying due to high water temperatures in some of the area's rivers.

Oregon and Washington states are virtually militant in protecting the environment as evident in late July when 13 people suspended themselves off the St. John Bridge in Portland to protest oil drilling in Alaska.  They protested by attempting to block the departure of Royal Dutch Shell PLC icebreaker 'Fennica,' which is part of Shell's exploration and spill-response plan off Alaska's northwest coast.

They were, as are Anna Mae and the Columbia River tribes, crying out to the president, the country, and the world to stop the exploitation of the natural environment by faceless, soulless multi-national corporations, such as Nestlé and Shell Oil Company - among others - which have bought their way to rape, pillage, and exploit our Earth. 

Are we, the people of the Northwest, the people of the U.S. and the people of the world, so complicit in this great and terrible evil that we would silently sit by and do nothing, say nothing, turn away while our Earth is slowly being desecrated?

Perhaps the Columbia River tribes and Greenpeace activists are crying in the wind - their voices snuffed out by raging wildfires, record-breaking temperatures and a 50-year drought. But, isn't that the point?  Isn't the state of the climate directly related to our doing nothing to stop this kind of exploitation by corporations?

People are encouraged to sign a petition opposing the Nestlé bottling plant in City Hall, 140 SW Wanapa St., Cascade Locks, Oregon 97014. (541) 374-8484

_________________________________

Updates:

 

1.  Re:  Shell Oil drilling in the Arctic:"Our Climate, Our Future": As Obama Visits Arctic,

Alaskans Urge Him to Reverse Shell Oil Deal mail@democracynow.org at Democracy Now!

Weeks after approving Shell’s plans to drill in Alaska, President Obama is heading to the state to warn about the dangers of climate change. "Alaska’s glaciers are melting faster, too, threatening tourism and adding to rising seas," Obama said in his weekly address. A protest is scheduled today in Anchorage to urge Obama to reverse his decision on Shell and stop all exploratory drilling in the Arctic. We speak to Richard Steiner, an Alaskan marine conservation biologist, who is speaking at the "Our Climate, Our Future" rally.

2. It seems the City of Cascade Locks also has concerns about the strain the water bottling plant would put on its water system, according to a statement on its website.  

"The City of Cascade Locks' current water system cannot  handle the amount of water Nestlé would bottle from the waters of Oxbow Springs.  It shouldn't.  It's not designed to."

Everyone is encouraged to sign a petition opposing the Nestlé bottling plant in City Hall, 140 SW Wanapa St., Cascade Locks,Oregon 97014. (541) 374-8484

Furthermore:

 

Nestle Pays Only $524 To Extract 27,000,000 Gallons Of California Drinking Water

(left) The Arrowhead Mountain Water Company bottling plant, owned by Swiss conglomerate Nestle, on the Morongo Indian Reservation near Cabazon, Calif., (AP/DamianDovarganes)

Activists have called for a boycott of Nestle Waters and all Nestle products until they are held accountable for their actions in California.

By Claire Bernish | AntiMedia | August 21, 2015

 

(ANTIMEDIA) Los Angeles, CA — Nestle has found itself more and more frequently in the glare of the California drought-shame spotlight than it would arguably care to be — though not frequently enough, apparently, for the megacorporation to have spontaneously sprouted a conscience.

Drought-shaming worked sufficiently enough for Starbucks to stop bottling water in the now-arid state entirely, uprooting its operations all the way to Pennsylvania. But Nestle simply shrugged off public outrage and then upped the ante by increasing its draw from natural springs — most notoriously in the San Bernardino National Forest — with an absurdly expired permit.

(Go here for the rest of the article)

 

*https://www.facebook.com/pages/NO-Nestle-in-Cascade-Locks/1634554230089491?hc_location=ufi
*http://koin.com/2015/08/19/anti-nestle-protesters-gather-in-cascade-locks/

The Lion's Gate

 

"I am . . . the bright and morning star"  

Revelation 22:16

Aslan, Mufasa, Judah? There are no words to express the sadness of the terrible killing of Cecil, the lion. Images speak loudest, I guess, and this portrait is rich in meaning.

Yet, I can't help wondering if this tragic slaughter of such a magnificent animal is timely and spiritually archetypal. It seems like an icon of what we're doing to the world as a whole. Why are people still killing the animals? Haven't we evolved past that by now?

And, the children and the poor and the oppressed and the millions who are sick and dying due to poor nutrition are also at risk, living precariously at the mercy of the world's wealthy hunters - corporate, political, and military. Cecil is a symbol of the natural world - the Earth, the animals, the children, the women, the powerless, voiceless, oppressed  - struggling to just survive. They are the children of the Earth, the divine mother. They are those who suffer from wars and famines and are powerless to stop them.

And yet the Lion, the ancient and universal image of the Divine in our midst, that Lion of Judah, the king of nature, holds a powerful prophetic message on many levels.

It is certainly a call to stop the mass killing of the poorest of the poor on our planet through neglect, capital exploitation, and political and military aggression. It's a huge statement, maybe larger than a selfish American hunter's cruel killing of the beloved Cecil.

The slaughter of the lion is reminiscent of the slaughter of Christ who surmounted the grave, who lives eternally. While he is always calling us to step up to the gate to our own inherent divinity, he is equally showing us who he is. In the Gospel of John, he is the gate to life itself.  He is the way to authenticity, abounding joy and peace, all that is real, and eternal life. (“I am the way and the truth and the life." John 14:6 NIV) That door, that way, that gate, is the Lion's gate. It is a way, unlike any other we know.

While the long, slow, excruciating death of Cecil is extremely emotionally troubling, it points the way to the great and eternal Lion's Gate. We all will stop and look up and then be directed to look within, to our hearts.  Do we conspire to kill the innocent or are we courageous, with a lion's heart and stand up and speak out on behalf of those who can't.  Certainly the Earth itself and the animal kingdom is voiceless, as are the human women and children. That is, unless you have eyes to see and ears to hear their voices in their overall deteriorating vitality, dramatic climate change, extinction of species. 

What will we do when we see the Lion's gate? That too is metaphoric of the inner realm, where the true gate is - and is a kind of star gate.  If you see it out there, that means you have found it in here.

Yes,  he is in the heavens, as Aaron Blaise suggests, but he wasn't the first to see that.  C.S. Lewis saw the resurrection of Aslan as a symbol of Christ's eternal realm. He is who He is, the great and eternal Lion.

But even on the most mundane, the commonest of levels, the kind that CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, or the BBC, will pick up on, the lion's death was not in vain. The world's outrage will insist on change. The conscience of our global community has been awakened. Thankfully, finally. And, hopefully the world's outrage will effect change.

The kingdom of God is WITHIN you

"Neither shall they say,
Lo here or, lo there! for, behold,
the kingdom of God is within you."
                         - Luke 17:21
 


"If your leaders say to you,
'Look, the (Father's) kingdom is in the sky,'
then the birds of the sky will precede you.
If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,'
then the fish will precede you.
Rather, the (Father's) kingdom
is within you and it is outside you. 
 When you know yourselves,
then you will be known,
and you will understand that you are
children of the living Father.
But if you do not know yourselves,
then you live in poverty,
and you are the poverty."
                                   - Gospel of Thomas, 3

A sign in the desert

             

                           

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.  

Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days. 

                                        Revelation 12:1-6

There is an urgency, a quickening of the spirit, pulsating through the world today.  It is a kind of drumming, a heartbeat, an expectancy. The very pervasiveness of it, inclusiveness of it, and power of it is terrifying to those who have the eyes to see and ears to hear what is coming. The shifting of the ages is on our doorstep.

And yet, does humankind welcome change?  Wouldn't we rather stay in a danger zone than move?  It is denial, I guess, and somehow sounds a bit like the ancient Hebrews who failed to listen to the prophetic warnings. I can't help thinking our denial, reluctance to listen to the times and wake up, is like the Hebrew story about an ancient city destroyed for its exploitation and rape of the innocent. Today scholars are clear the story is about God's disgust at the exploitation of the innocence and the heinous abuse of life for its selfish pleasure, greed and gluttony. Aren't we in so many ways, doing that to our Earth, animals, environment?  

In Genesis, we're given dominion over the animals (and Earth) not to rape and use, but to support, nurture and honor.

It's so hard to write those words. It's hard to see that we haven't changed much in the thousands of years since that event. I wish we would all wake up and not argue over whether or not it's global warming because the radiation in our water and pollution in the oceans and toxic chemicals in our food, the extinction of so many animals species, is NOT natural.  

Even if the planet might be warming due to the solar systems rotation in the galaxy, that position isn't polluting the rivers, oceans and land. We all think government is responsible for everything.  We shirk responsibility. We can embrace simplicity of living, which is an ongoing consciousness that prioritizes the natural world and sees our place within it, as part of it, dependent on it, and vitally important to its preservation.   That idea might be considered "feminine" which is to flow with, rather than the "masculine" which is to power over. As God is both, God's creation is both as well.  The exploitation of the powerless is exploitation of life itself.  Empowerment releases the balance of both forces. Today, we are in a state of gross imbalance and nature cannot sustain such imbalance.  It is failing badly, in critical condition, even dying.

Maybe we are already in the desert of the spirit, Jeremiah's desert of dry bones.  When will we have the courage to step out of our collective denial and awaken to the spirit that waits within our hearts?  That spirit calls for balance, healing, nurturing, growth and on-going awakening to the presence of God among us in nature and in our relationships - with ourselves, each other and the larger global community.

The woman of Revelation may be she who will give birth to a spiritual awakening, which will have many aspects - from a personal rebirth to a global rebirth of what is essential to life and the elimination of what is destructive.  

As today is the feast day of St. Mary Magdalene who was the one to whom Jesus entrusted his mission, who was the very representative of His ministry rather than Peter, she may very well be the woman in the desert. Her life is evidence of His promise that the Holy Spirit would return and bring His words again to lead us into a new life, a life of spiritual empowerment which will support, honor and embrace life which includes a call for the balance between the masculine (solar or external) and feminine (lunar or internal) principles.  

She is the archetypal Divine Feminine who carries the Holy Spirit and perseveres throughout time and tragedy until the time to birth that light of life within her. She is the human chalice into which the Divine has poured His Spirit for the world. She is the expectant mother of our new world. It surely seems the world is in some kind of birth pains presently.  

While these lines from Revelation could be about our current time and circumstances, they may be just as much about the hoped for birth of the Divine presence into the world. It is time that what was hidden will be brought into the light. Until then, the Spirit waits expectantly for us to awaken and birth a new world among us.