Cosmic Sunshine

The sun is a rare and most welcome sight in Oregon.  For many long months, sunshine is completely blocked by the area's cool temperate rain forest.  When, in spring, the sun finally bursts through the winter clouds, everything seems to wake up and join in an amazing celestial sun dance.  Everything comes out of a quasi barren state,  cabin fever is lifted, and empty city streets are now flooded with sun-worshipers out on noontime strolls through beautiful downtown Portland.  There is no doubt that the sun is at the center of our lives, whether we admit it, consciously or unconsciously. 

In ancient Egypt the most powerful god was Ra (or Re) who was the Sun god.  That powerful mythological deity influenced the religious courts of the Greco-Roman era so much that Rome's religion later centered around Apollo, their sun god; and later other names, which the early Catholic Church, following Constantine's legal endorsement of Christianity, absorbed in its own cult of the Son of God, circa A.D. 323.

"The Egyptians differentiated among the aspects of the sun, and had several gods associated with it: Khepri for the rising sun, Atum, the setting, and Ra, at noon. The Greeks and Romans also had more than one sun god. It seems that most sun deities are male and counterparts to the often female moon deities, although there are goddesses of the sun and gods of the moon."  *

It's interesting to see in this picture of Ra several of the Egyptian symbols, the sun on Ra's head, above the falcon which has the "third eye" or "eye of Ra" which symbolizes the power that is deity.  In his hand is the ankh, symbol of life; and in the other hand, is his scepter, a strong symbol of his power and authority. 

Civilizations throughout the millenia have placed so much emphasis, even fear of the power of this solar, seemingly masculine deity, that the sense of shadow, rest, deep inner creative spirituality, as symbolized by the moon, has left its raw almost fear-based power, which Ra evokes, to go unchecked.  Today, we are reclaiming the feminine aspect of spirituality, as symbolized in the less visibile, nurturing, almost incubating spirituality of the moon. 

While we assume these ancient myths about the various dieties, reflecting natural elements in our solar system and even into the further outreaches of space, were purely mythical, when I look at these pictures of the sun taken by NASA, I can't help but see a face on the sun, looking at Earth almost sternly.  At first, I sensed in myself a rising awareness of an instinctual fear.  It is just no wonder that the ancient Egyptians depicted their most powerful deity, Ra, as fearsome with his "eye" of Ra.  Some people fearfully associate that personification of deity with the harsh power to destroy, but might it be that the strongest power is to create.  Perhaps we are terrified by raw power and associate it with destructive injustice rather than love and creativity.  The answer may be in the deeper, universal, meaning of his "third eye."  Ra's power is in his ability to look within with his mythical inner vision and see.  He almost seems to be promoting having "eyes to see," a common term in the Gospels.

Perhaps any instinctual fear could be more about meeting and  unleashing the creative power within.  Maybe, as Marianne Williamson suggests in her book, A Return to Love  our greatest fear is of our own magnificence and creative deity-power.  Are we afraid of our own divinity? When we see it projected back at us in the most powerful celestial orb in the sky, we shake in terror at who we might be? I wonder if that awareness remains in our individual and collective unconscious, it just may be time to bring it out into the light of life. It seems our fear of our power is reflected in our projected fear of external power figures, especially those with a religious meaning. It was for me, anyway. 

My initial instinctual response to that beautiful NASA photo was that the sun almost seemed to be watching us. It led me to wonder if, like Ra's third eye of his falcon, it was urging us to claim our power, which is within us, found through our inner eye. While the idea of the third eye was first developed in Egyptian spirituality, it has also been embraced by all major religions and indigenous cultural spirituality.  It is also interesting, that associated with Ra was the graceful heron-like Bennu bird (also hailed as a Phoenix) which was the symbolic bird for eternal life.  This symbol, like that of a sun god, seems transcultural.  

You may remember in the legend of the Phoenix that this most beautiful bird dies in a funeral pyre and then resurrects.  

This message feels timeless, hidden somewhere within our collective unconscious, yet something innate in our psychological being as a species that is being revealed to us as we evolve as a people, spiritually.  It is no wonder that the early Catholic Church was willing to absorb some of the Roman sun cult and replace it with its own cult around its Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth because His message may not have been so different in terms of spiritual truth.  While Jesus said that the kingdom of God was spread out before us on Earth, in and through everything, He strongly directs us to look within, where the pearl of great price is buried, where the treasure is. There within our inner temple we will and can connect to the most holy of Holies, which for Christians, Jews and Muslims, is the Holy Spirit.  Maybe here, in this long reflection over a NASA picture of the sun, I find the most ancient of ancient metaphors for eternal life looking back at me. Perhaps, just as the sun brings life to the physical world, the Spirit of God, found in our inner vision, connects us to our greater power. 


Later, Christianity balanced the raw force of the masculine power of Yahweh with a feminine counterpart by blending two feminine personalities from the early Jesus myth in the composite of the Blessed Mother in Mary of Nazareth and the beloved spouse in Mary Magdalene.  Jesus' spirituality seems feminine in its equanimity of all people, peace teachings and call for active unconditional love. Yet, despite His lamb-like  gentleness, the truth and urgency of His teaching is as powerful as a Lion.  (Myth is used here in the sense that the story of the birth, ministry, death and resurrection of the  historical Jesus of Nazareth carries with it a more profound cosmic, spiritual message in the way myth does)


Today, when I look at these remarkable images of the sun, with its terrible power, I am awed and admit more respect for the ancients fear/awe of the sun to the extent that they would deify it and discover in some inexplicable way the way to the inner kingdom  through the inner vision, where we meet the spiritual phoenix, the Holy Spirit.  


After deeper reflection, I saw that my best reaction would be to embrace in my own faith the power of the holy, that which I understand as the Holy Spirit who is met in our most interior spaces. That power is the power of the universe, and that awesome power of creation,  inherent in love, also contains the ability to protect creation with an unwavering patience, passion, joy and faithfulness, even "until the end of time."  


Top photo: is "A full-disk multiwavelength extreme ultraviolet image of the sun taken by SDO on March 30, 2010. False colors trace different gas temperatures. Reds are relatively cool (about 60,000 Kelvin, or 107,540 F); blues and greens are hotter (greater than 1 million Kelvin, or 1,799,540 F). Credit: NASA/Goddard/SDO AIA Team."  (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/news/first-light.html)

 * from: Sun Gods and Sun Goddesses, by N.S. Gill, for About.com Guide,

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/sungodsgoddesses/a/070809sungods.htm

THE ROBE, Wes King

Out of the Chrysalis

Invisibly, a tiny being sleeps, wrapped in a soft gauze-like material, unaware of what it is to become.  Day after day, it seems to incubate alone in its tight, dark cocoon.  Once seeded there, it sleeps for a long time, long enough, until it outgrows its tight little sarcophagus-like cradle, hanging perilously in mid-air.  

Then, one day, unexpectedly, it seems to stir, moving just the littlest bit, until a tear opens the chrysalis that had been its home for as long as it has been. Suddenly, the sweet spring air rushes in, lifting it, holding it, carrying it aloft into even more fragrant fields, where it alights on languid lilies, sunbathing near the peonies and other colorful garden delights.  

Joy pulsates through its tiny wings.  It is alive and has discovered that everything else is alive. Life, in the wide expanse of light, sound, scent and movement are breath-taking, beyond anything it could have ever imagined back in its dark cocoon.

Is it possible that our lives here in our world are really like living in that chrysalis, in a tight, dark cocoon existence, moving around as shadows, dreaming that we're alive, when we're not.  We struggle, we extend our hearts and minds, we believe we are creators and we grow.  In fact, all our lives, we are growing.  At first we grow visibly, physically, and then we grow mentally and intellectually, struggle with relationships of all kinds - parents, siblings, family, friends, lovers, spouses, and children.  

At first we struggle from being alone to being part of a single union with our mother, then our family, growing and expanding into union with larger and larger groups and also  into a single significant intimate relationship.  As we search for our own identity, we almost immediately relinquish more of ourselves, more pieces of our life-less dense matter for the larger group, and with each expanding relationship we grow more divine in soul and spirit until one day we are no longer who we were.  We have become mature and are something wholly divine, less definable, less objectified, someone far more beautiful, complete, loving and loveable. 

We are finally ready to leave for our real world in the divine kingdom for which we had been preparing these many long years in the earthen chrysalis.  

We are ready to break through the final last shards of our dark cocoon that we once thought was life. Then, in a single magical moment, perfectly synchronized, a gust of light rushes in, bursting open the now stifling womb, lifting us up into the fragrant freedom of a life we couldn't have known existed.  In lightning speed, we fly out of our womb-tomb into real eternal life.

We thought we had grown old and died, we may have been afraid of death, but we had only lived in a physical earthly chrysalis for as long as we needed it, for as long as it took to mature our souls and spirits, to grow into a fullness of being. Then, when we were done, we burst out of our physical form to fly away into the real light, into eternal spring, where we live and breathe and exist in joy, peace and ecstatic blissful free abandon in an ineffable forever love state.  

We thought we had companions while we were in that physical cocoon we thought was life, yet now our companions delight in our presence, thrill at our glowing fire-fly beinghood.  We don't have to do anything to be loved by them.  We just are and they just are and all that is, is love. It is the air we breathe. 

As we take flight with our wings into this new life, we glance back, and for the first time, see how dull the struggle had been. Yet that struggle provided the very lessons we needed to develop the spiritual wings we would need to fly now.

Now, surprised and overjoyed at this twist of outcomes, we're off to explore the endlessness of this new life that stretches out before us, within us and among us.  There are no human words for such beauty.  It is spring.  It is always spring.  The flowers in our previous life were only a hint of what was to come. Like ambient ambassadors from the real world, they bloomed and radiated its truth, hinting at what lay ahead for all of us someday.  The colors of the new feeling are indescribable.  Only one word comes close.  It is a unifying, holy, enrapturing, gorgeous thing. It is love, a kind of angel-glue that holds us all together, each with his or her own color, yet all together as one, pulsing with a life we could never have imagined before. 

If we had one wish, one single wish, it would be to tell those back in the chrysalis, that they are only incubating. Their lives are lived as in a womb, preparing for the real life and not to sweat the small stuff - the job, the house, the kid's education, even what you are to do or wear or be, what career you should do, what good work you are to do.  None of it matters really, other than the opportunity it offers you to grow more in the ability to love. It is that ability to love that will lift you up out of your cocoon one day. 

Love put us here, and love will carry us away.  If we could remember this, we would not be so troubled by all the worries that are of absolutely no importance except to teach us to love.

Love lights the way to Life

Softly, light filters through the still dark morning. Its emerging glow lifts the heavy heart, as a mother would lift her young child's tear-streaked face to  hers. Time stands still as this moment stretches open the curtain between worlds, revealing an eternity reaching out beyond our vision, more beautiful, more wondrous, more hopeful, more promising than anything we could ever have imagined.

In that eternity, among stars and glittering lamps of far away star systems, He stands, arms outstretched, radiant with love beyond our wildest dreams, eyes full of the compassion that comes from personal experience.  We wanted to believe this.  We'd always hoped it was true - that this rich conscious experience of living would continue long after our frail human bodies wear out, like old clothes from a lifetime of hard wear.  

Beyond this moment, now, in this radiant encounter, there is nothing else.  Suspended in time, held lovingly by a force beyond our conscious understanding, we enter a new, awakened, reborn, consciousness.  Love is born in us today.  Earth's womb has labored through a lifetime, many lifetimes, and today at the break of day, we are reborn along with He who shows us the way to life, He who is the light, He who taught us that only love is eternal and that is the only life there is. 

Hell has no power, now; we can see that.  

In this moment, it is all so clear.  We pray that we can take this back with us into the dim twilight of our lives again.  The gift of the ages is this truth: life is eternal.  We do not die; we cannot die.  He did not die; He could not die. All the blind fear, cold, mean, petty cruelty of ego's raging hatred had no power over the Master of Life.  The plague of fear cannot cross the heaven/earth barrier because it simply isn't real. It isn't there.  It diminishes, dissipates in the brilliance of His presence. It was an illusion we believed for so long that we are hard pressed to release it, like an old familiar habit is hard to break.  We are sometimes too afraid, too steeped in, too controlled by the illusion, to believe the truth. 

Only joy, only the love behind those tears you once wept for love lost, will carry your waiting heart across the river where He now stands, today, brilliant, waiting for you, drawing you, loving you.  He is here, now, today, and everyday. But, today, you wanted to see; you wanted to believe.  Like Thomas, you did believe; you were only a bit afraid to believe and hope with all your heart. It was such a big hope that if it weren't true, you knew you couldn't bear another broken promise.  

He takes your hand, lifts your face, wipes your tears, and promises that He is true.  He will never, could never, would never be anything other than true and the power He has, He will teach you to find within yourself.  Only love.  All else isn't worth your while.  

"You too, are a child of Our Father," he says to you.  "You always were and you always will be.  Just like Me.  You too will champion over death and fear and all those things in this dense existence here that would limit your flight to heaven. Be like that child you once were, when you fell and hurt yourself and your mother held your head.  Your God loves you even more than she did."

Today you are free, in love, born again into heaven's arms.  Be still and know that you are loved, beyond your wildest dreams.  You are loved.  Today, you are alive because He is alive and He is in you, and you are in Him.  You are one with Him as we are all one together.  There is only One mind.  We are only One mind and as He stands there this morning with his beautiful welcoming love, He would remind you that you and He are One.  You too will rise up from the cruelty of this dark world that has lied to you, that has led you to think you were a slave, when you are a freeman, more powerful and alive than you ever knew.  

Take His hand and walk with Him and he will show you the way to life.  His  truth is that you are eternal, made of light, designed to love, born with a real power in an instant, that fires you - and all of us - into a real life, unending eternal life, stretching out beyond the bounds of your own imaginary limitations.

Today, take His hand and walk with Him.  Leave your tired worries behind you.  Be in Love today and maybe tomorrow and the next day and the next, you will remain in this permanent, eternal, beautiful moment, forever. 

Photo: "THE LIGHT OF CHRIST "
by Arnold Friberg; 

available at

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Choose life, breathe in love

Today is what surrender to love looks like. It's not pretty from this side of heaven.

The heaviness of this day is what on a large global scale ego can do. It is the cause of all the wars, poverty, racial injustice, exploitation of the Earth, animals, water, women and children everywhere. The good news is that it is not real. Yes, it exists on the Earth, but only that which lives in eternity is really real, lasting, permanent. 

Ego, as I've heard described, is a global tapeworm that gets into you and depletes your vital spiritual energy until it finally takes over your body and your life. Spiritually, it kills you.  Globally, it is obvious what it has done.  But, obviously, you wouldn't invite it in, so it sneaks in, insidiously disguised as a good work ethic or as a detail-oriented designer, planner, builder, banker, whatever. It is no innocent bystander.  It, collectively, is killing the planet.  

In most cases, it's root is in plain old ordinary worry. So, if we can practice being attentive to it when it begins, we can be vigilant and stop it from taking over our spiritual lives. We can break the cycle of competition, exploitation, thievery, control, lies before they even happen. Worry is just a mistake your mind makes because it has temporarily forgotten that worry comes from lack of faith. You just forgot. Now, you can remember to remember. 

To begin with, take a deep breath and as you exhale, feel the tension dissipate from your neck, shoulders, face. You felt that, didn't you? You could feel all that tension you had only when you exhaled. Now, do it again, and again, feel the tension release, feel it flow away from you as you exhale.

Worry may be more insidious than fear because it's less obvious. Fear comes with a quick palpitating heart rate, constant anxiety, looming failure or devastation on the horizon and fight or flight reaction. But, worry, creeps up on you and while you're wondering where all your good energy went continues to wear you down and you may not even know what's happening. Meditation, prayer, doesn’t seem to help - at first, anyway. I really think that sometimes we hold onto worry and don't realize it.

Perhaps, we've set high standards for our lives, our relationships, our projects and, if we're not careful, those high standards can become obsessive, possessing our whole mind, generating their own energy of perfectionism, spinning wildly out of control on the wings of judgment and criticism. It's a downhill battle from thereon. It often fuels the ego, if we're not careful, and may reduce our spiritual energy as it symbiotically raises the ego's attention.

The life of peace, serenity, joy, love and creativity flourish in an inner environment of surrender to the Spirit. When you have lived in that serenity, you will know instantly when it's gone. When worry has taken you over, you feel your inner source to Spirit closed off. It's like the well has dried up or the door has closed on your interior realm.

One moment in that stagnant place, dragged and left there cold and lifeless by worry feels like Jeremiah's barren desert to me, that metaphorical spiritual graveyard of dry bones.

Clearly there are physical outcomes of living in worry, steeped in concerns about what others think, about not having enough money, of succeeding in your career aspirations, or at being the best at anything you pursue. See, what a silent stalker worry can be? Next thing you know, your pride is puffed up and you have visions of being "better than" someone else. That is the first symptom of life in the ego. 

In our ego-based world, where being best, being top dog, the ego is in charge and the consequences are rampant.  How can we stay aware and alert to it. I think whenever we feel ourselves separate from another, when we try to outrun them to the bank, to the realtor, to the boss's office in whatever insane way it happens, you can be sure, you've slipped under control of the ego. 

Since the world is completely under its control, it’s hard not to slip now and then. But, on the big screen, slipping can mean sentencing an innocent saint to torture and capital punishment. That is what put Jesus on the Cross. It was ego that put this awesome, beautiful, holy, saint, this very son of God, on the Cross. He taught love all the way to the Cross and when he reappeared to his disciples long after his dead body was removed from the tomb, he showed us all that death is just another lie the world has taught us. There is no death and the ego is a liar. Only love is real, and since love is God's very spirit, it is as eternal as God is eternal.

We each contribute to the consensual reality matrix, the world as it is today. If every Christian on the planet unsubscribed to the ego, there are enough of us, there would be more Easters than Good Fridays every day.

Unfortunately, its very insidiousness is a big part of the problem. We slip into it, unaware. It slowly takes us over and we don’t realize it. But, you can check for it on a frequent basis and correct your perspective. One way is to ask yourself, often, if you are in perfect peace? Do you feel joy, love, serenity, peace? Yes? Good. No? Then, get back to breathing and centering in peace, centering in God, Source, love.

As you exhale all that accumulated tension, worry's residue, you may want to surrender all your concerns, needs, hopes and desires to do a good job at whatever you're doing, to God. Exhale, and breathe into your body God's Holy Spirit, His light, His love, His guidance, His direction, His power and His peace.

Allow His love to fill you up, like a stream brimming up over the riverbanks. You might even want to begin a daily practice of intentionally releasing all your worry, all your accumulated tension, and then ask God to replace it with His Spirit and His love. 

Just as tension and worry can contract your muscles, arteries and organs, equally, love can relax and heal then. I suspect that we are all carrying so much tension and worry in our bodies that we aren't even in touch with it. That first simple breath might have released the topical, obvious, first layer of tension and worry, but there may be layers and layers below that first one. Some of that worry and tension that's deeply buried, seething away at muscles and organs, may be the source of many of our illnesses. So, while spiritual healing might begin with simple release of worry, so might physical healing.

This practice might be your commitment to make a clear and intentional statement to your soul, spirit and body that you will not participate in the matrix of darkness, worry and fear that put Christ on the Cross. 

Today, we can be reminded of what we once did, as all humans have always done, which is to fall prey to the ego; and then choose not to do it anymore. We can be like the centurion at the foot of the cross who realized the error of his ways, and chose again to live in love with faith in the on-going providence of our Source of life, our God and Creator.