“Where there is Peace, there is Culture;
Where there is Culture, there is Peace.”
—NICHOLAS ROERICH

Painter, writer and peace builder, Nicholas Roerich believed that it was possible to create peace through art and beauty. He said, “When the whole earth will be covered by the Banner of Peace, protecting cultural treasures, there will be no field for war.” As a consequence he wrote the Roerich Pact.

On April 15, 1935, the Roerich Pact was signed in the White House. Agreed to by twenty-one nations of the Americas, the treaty was signed in the presence of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It is now international law. Since that date many other nations have signed the treaty which agreed on preserving and protecting the cultural produce and activity of the world, in both war and peace.

The desire for peace never leaves us. There are always those among us who strive to create a better world for us all. On September 21, 2010, we will be celebrating Peace Day, (see video) a 24 hour-window of opportunity for life-saving activities around the world, and an opportunity for individuals – particularly young people – to become involved in the peace process.

This UN International Day of Peace, was started in 1999 by Jeremy Gilley, an actor and filmmaker. It is a day of global ceasefire and non-violence. This year Peace Day is also part of the UN Millenium Development Goals Summit in New York. There are 12 Goals nominated by the UN as those most important to all humanity: end hunger and poverty, universal education, improve maternal and child health, combat AIDS, create a sustainable environment, gender equality and a global partnership for development.

Our human journey to create and sustain peace on Earth continues unabated. But what do peace days, culture, art, beauty and development goals have in common? They’re all a product of the soul of humanity, of our collective desire for something greater and better than we have now. It’s the energy that drives us to want to do something, to create something that is uniquely our own expression of the highest and best that we can believe in; our vision of what may be.

According to Alice Bailey, the soul is the creative artist. 1 “Our modern civilisation is the result of this creative activity of the soul’s desire nature, limited by form”. All concepts and ideas that evoke a response of beauty are the products of the soul. They draw out from the deepest parts of ourself feelings of love, harmony, joy and aspiration. Beauty is our way of expressing and acknowledging truth – the best and highest to which we can all strive.

Art is our human way of touching the divine. As Thomas Merton puts it, “Art is not an end in itself. It introduces the soul into a higher spiritual order, which it expresses and in some sense explains. Music and art and poetry attune the soul to God because they induce a kind of contact with the Creator and Ruler of the Universe.” 2

Nicholas Roerich understood that culture and art are the keys available to every human being, to help them unlock the beauty within. Once the door is opened, the energy released by beauty can express itself in the outer world, transforming it for others who can then also see the beauty, previously veiled, now made tangible.

“Art is science made clear,” said Jean Cocteau.3 Both art and science are intrinsic to culture. That’s why Roerich’s Banner of Peace is so potent a symbol of humanity’s collective striving for betterment. This banner of three circles is an ancient diagram symbolising the trinity – in this case the triune reality of Love, Beauty and Action, and of Art, Science and Spirituality.

What is culture? It has been defined as the service of the light – Cult = service and Ur = Light. “Spiritual culture is the highest form of service to Light. Spiritual culture is a diverse and uninterrupted communication of the higher with the lowest, the spirit and the matter.”4

Although at present treated as separate disciplines, art and science share a common heritage and a united goal. They both strive to express truth and the beauty therein; the highest that humanity can know and try to manifest in form at any time. Whether the beauty is expressed through art as painting, writing, sculpture, photography, music, or through science as inventions, knowledge and theories, all are different ways of expressing the same soul urge to draw forth that which is hidden.

The soul is the creative agent and both science and art are expressions of the soul and of spirituality which – the spirit hidden in matter and form. Science creates in atomic matter, the energetic and the particular, while art creates in the world of the forms made up of the atomic, the energetic and the particular. Both are striving to make sense of our world, to make our lives better, more meaningful, and both aspire to understand what lies behind the outer veil that covers the daily, mundane world. Both seek to reveal something more: interesting, helpful, beautiful, wise and meaningful.

The Roerich Pact and Banner of Peace symbolises this common striving across disciplines, cultures, races and nations; striving for a world that is peaceful, beautiful, harmonious, loving and joyful. Some call it the Golden Age, others the New Age, others think it’s a fantasy that can never be, but all dream of it because it’s part of our archetypal memory and our collective hope that there is a better life for all.

Thomas Carlyle suggested that, “The great law of culture is: let each become all that he was created capable of being.” 5 If we accept that we are each in essence a soul in a physical body, and that the soul is the part of ourselves that creates, then art and science, are both creative. Whether they contribute to the highest culture of our time, or try to keep us chained to the rocks of materialism and the status quo, depends on who is creating. If it’s the soul – the light part of ourselves that’s aware of its shared humanity – then the created work is worthy to be added to the cultural heritage of our age.

Initiatives like Peace One Day and the Millenium Development Goals are proof that the lighted soul in many is alive and well. Like Nicholas Roerich before him, Jeremy Gilley used his creative imagination, powered by his soul, to manifest something beautiful in the world. This something is beautiful because it is inclusive, joyful, loving, meaningful and much needed right now. Its energy spreads waves of fun, laughter, and light that automatically create a sense of wellbeing and harmony, if for some it’s only one day.

These qualities of beauty and joy are part of the emerging culture. This is a world culture that doesn’t belong to any one person or nation, it belongs to the whole world. Whereas in the past nations have claimed certain people, works of art, science or philosophy as their own, in the world we are now creating, culture will recognise its spiritual base as being inherent in all humans. Simplicity of forms is true beauty and truth, giving a closer expression of divine meaning and purpose. 6

To create there needs to be peace. It’s difficult to create anything but more dis-harmony when all around guns are firing and corpses are lying in the street. The UN Day of Peace and the Millenium Development Goals reflect our collective understanding of this fact. In their ideals of sharing peace, resources, personal freedom and liberty, these and other similar initiatives show us the best that is human. Our common humanity, our in-built knowing that we can’t live here alone, that we need each other and that wherever there is war and suffering, all are at war and all are in pain. Many also understand that to achieve these noble goals, we need to take personal responsibility for them by choosing to live more simple, sustainable lives.

The Banner encourages all humans to beautify all aspects of life. Wherever it is displayed, it recognizes the great achievement of the past, the present, and the future. It encourages all individuals to strive to fulfill their highest potential; it encourages each person to take responsibility for the evolution of the planet; it signifies the peace-builder; and it symbolizes the transformation of the individual and of society. It represents cooperation—the cornerstone of the emerging planetary culture—in all aspects of human activity.7

Art, science, philosophy, the highest and best that any period in history can create, is our shared culture, our spiritual culture. Roerich’s Banner of Peace is used by many individuals, groups and associations around the world to promote awareness of the Pact, the Banner and their underlying principles. Symbols speak to the soul and the Banner of peace resonates with humanity’s un-faltering desire for cessation of fighting between individuals, groups, tribes and nations, so that all can witness the flowering of the new age.

Nicholas Roerich, like Jeremy Gilley and thousands of others, believe that peace on Earth is a prerequisite to planetary survival and the continuing process of spiritual evolution. Now many believe, as did Roerich, that the symbol of peace unites all humans, across cultures, in the common language of Beauty and Knowledge.

“Art is to create beauty, through beauty we gain victory, through victory we unite and through beauty we pray.” Nicholas Roerich

1. Bailey, A. Esoteric Psychology II. Lucis Trust, New York, 1970,
2. No Man Is An Island, The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, Florida,1955.)
3. Le Coq Et L’Arlequin, 1918.
4. World Forum of Spiritual Culture, Spiritual culture is the new ideology of the renewing world, , retrieved 7 September, 2010
5. Great Ideas of Western Man, 1965.
6. Bailey, Esoteric Psychology II. p. 247
7. Centre for Peace through Culture, www.centerpeacethroughculture.org,
retrieved 6 September 2010

Please register
Please consider registering your participation in the global Meditation Vigil for UN Peace Day on Tuesday, September 21st. This will be part of a wider Vigil for the Day involving many different spiritual and religious groups from around the world.

Register at: Intuition in service

Using the Great Invocation Every 15 minutes
When you register you will be asked to choose a time for meditation (a minimum of 15 minutes). During the selected time please use the Great Invocation (or a world prayer of your choice) every quarter hour – at the start and end of each 15-minute period. You can register for 15, 30, 45 minutes, and an hour or as long a period as you like. You can also register for as many different periods as you like.

A Pulse of Invocative Energy
From every part of the planet there will be a pulse of invocative energy from meditators, a rhythmic call to divinity for the light, the love and the spiritual will needed to enable humanity to bring to birth a culture of peace. Remember this initiative will be just one small part of a much wider concentration of prayers and meditations for peace from spiritual and faith based groups in all parts of the world.

24 Hours
The Vigil begins at midnight on the morning of Tuesday September 21st in whatever time zone you live and ends at midnight your time Tuesday night. Wherever you live on the planet you, your co-workers and your groups are invited to link in with the fifteen-minute rhythm.

For information and to register your participation for specific times visit the web at: http://www.intuition-in-service.org/peaceVigil.cfm

Journalists are asking themselves who they are now that the internet and digital recording technology is making everyone a citizen journalist.
They ask: whats the difference between ‘old’ and ‘new’ journalism. They call this the difference between vertical and flat news.
It questions the line between deliverer and receiver of information, the journalist and the audience, and who is the authority and why.
Essentially journalism, news, media are terms for how we communicate whether its over a cuppa with a friend or via breaking world news.

Vertical news is news from above, from authorities and experts, while flat news is the information and communication that happens everywhere from everyone. With access to flat news, most of us have the opportunity to shape and interpret the fantastic parade of life’s events for ourselves. I wonder whether this means that as individuals and cultures we are becoming more intent on reinforcing our perspectives and attitudes to life, or whether we will access a broader range of information that challenges us to re-think them. Are we using the tools of the internet and technology as a means to broaden our communication and ability to learn about the world and other cultures and perspectives, or is it just a means to maintain our little status quo?

One way that the internet may assist is in the sometimes random way that search engines (often due to broadly worded queries), cause us to stumble on information that is outside our comfort zone. Providing this is not because we’ve been delivered a porno site or similar, then the find may be useful in helping to broaden our personal horizon.

Intrigued we may have the opportunity to take in information that hasn’t been sanitised and prepared for our consumption, or that fits with our normal world view.
Access to flat information may help us to broaden our ideas about who else is in the world, what they’re doing, and why they’re doing it.
I think we need to remember that both flat and vertical information is tinged with the perspective of the mind that wrote/shot/spoke it. This means we’re all being influenced all the time by each other’s thoughts about life and events.

Whether it’s been reported by a qualified journalist, a citizen journalist or a blogger, all information that we access is a secondary source unless it’s our own first-hand experience, and so it’s only one person’s perspective.
The benefit of flat information, in my view, is that the information is easier to de-construct, than that served up by reporters paid by media organisations.
The audience has only to sift through the veil of one perspective, than the many veils of corporations with a particular culture-shaping agenda.
The disadvantage of flat information is that this one veil can be more elusive than the conglomerate. It’s often difficult to know who wrote, shot, or said it – what’s their frame of reference, their bias?

An audience can choose to shun vertical information delivered by experts or qualified journalists, for the freedom of surfing the plethora of flat information available via the internet. But with freedom comes responsibility.
In this new dynamic, fluidic world of the internet, the media’s purpose in reflecting a society or culture back to itself is unclear. Who is doing the reflecting? We all are. We’re all becoming the media, the medium and the message.

There’s a world-wide interaction going on and if we wish to claim the right to report and air our views in the flat news environment, then, in my view, it’s up to each of us to hone our skills in communication, and to broaden our knowledge of what’s happening. Then we can analyse and contribute in a consciously and critically intelligent way to this great and exciting global conversation.

Each of us, as audience, will value this interaction on an item-by-item basis, rewarding and reinforcing the contributor accordingly asking ourselves, how did this add to my sense of what’s going on in our world, and how can I more effectively relate with it?

WikiLeaks is a destroyer energy. Its actions perform a valuable public service in helping to reveal and tear-down outmoded forms. A wiki is a collaborative website designed to provide knowledge, and Julian Assange and his team are providing us with information we need to know.

According to some Assange is a hero (see Ted Talks interview), while to others, like the White House he is irresponsibly threatening national security.

In the confusing and chaotic times we live in, many of us are wondering what’s really going on – we don’t believe what we’re told in the news, by politicians or CEO’s – but how do we find out the truth?

Wikileaks provides an important source of information that helps us put the soothing, soma-inducing and apparently benign voices of those in power into a bigger, clearer perspective.
The leaks are helping many to question these voices or maybe they’re just adding to the already jaundiced view we have of ‘authority’. Many are now saying it’s time to destroy or at least take the best from, the old, outmoded institutions and belief systems so that they can make way for the new.

There’s another form of energy we can call the builder energy. Those working with this energy are taking their cue from the destroyers. Now’s the time for the builders to get really busy. They’ve been quietly creating the forms for many years, waiting for the time to come when the new age is ready to be revealed, and by now they’re not just isolated individuals but groups and they’re building in numbers.

The builders are the non-government organisations, groups and organic collections of individuals who are working to help create an equitable, sustainable and purposeful life for us all. They are the environmentalists, educators, scientists, financiers, businesses, philosophers and spiritual groups who are working with different but complementary methods and all with the same aim.

These groups of builders rely on the destroyers to dig out the dying, decaying debris that’s no use to us anymore. The destroyers are clearing the path so that the young, green shoots of a strong, beautiful and harmonious new world can emerge. It’s embryonic and experimental because that’s how all new life begins, and this gives us all cause for joy because we’re all needed to help in the rebuilding.

We can listen and perhaps support the destroyers if we feel they are destroying in a responsible way that will benefit the many, rather than the few. And we can each decide how we can do our bit to help create a new way of living life on our shared planet – a way that enables us all to share resources, engage in meaningful activity and better understand our individual and collective purpose in being here.

A Spiritual Perspective on the Burqa Veil

As European countries debate whether or not to ban the burqa, or burka – the complete covering of the head, face and body, we can see that the issue can get pretty heated. In order to make use of this opportunity we can take a step back and try to get an objective perspective by pondering what the term ‘veil’ symbolises to us on a deeper level.

Is the controversy about religion or does it touch the nerve of our often subconscious social and cultural values of what is and isn’t acceptable? Let’s drill-down to try and find what underlies the actions being taken to legislate against the wearing of a particular item of clothing.

What is the burqa? It’s a veil isn’t it? A veil is an ancient symbol which means to shroud something – usually a clearer sense of reality. So we have the veil of mystery, glamour and illusion.

When brides marry they sometimes wear veils, we veil monuments and thrilling achievements just before they are unveiled by a dignitary. The mist veils the moors and streets in a mystical shroud of natural secrecy, and we cover our naked bodies in the veil of clothes, sometimes out of embarrassment, hoping to improve on our inheritance. Animals and soldiers employ the veil of camouflage to protect from the enemy, and our lies veil the truths we prefer to keep hidden.

So what is the mystery that the veils seek to protect? In all the instances cited above, the veil is used to cover-up something to provide physical, emotional or mental protection. And there seem to be myriad reasons for the cover-up.

The veil is sometimes interpreted in erotic terms as veiling something to make it more alluring and desirable (1) such as the veil over a bride’s face, or the transparent veil over the harem women’s faces.

According to the Ageless Wisdom texts, the veil is interpreted as a separation between the physical and spiritual worlds or realities.(2) In this case, the veil is intended as a temporary but effective means to prevent humans accessing the spiritual realities before adequate preparation has been made to understand and withstand their power.

Often there is more than one veil. Spiritual mysteries are veiled in secrecy and as the veils are withdrawn, the truth is revealed. As with everything the axiom ‘as above, so below’ can be applied. The veils are like peeling an onion; we remove one layer only to find another until eventually we come to the ultimate Truth in the centre.

So what does this have to do with the burqa? This item of clothing is just another veil. Like all other veils, it is designed to obscure reality. And, as Einstein showed, reality is relative.

Mohammad Qadeer says that the burqa is a tent-like cloak that completely drapes a woman’s body and face, with only a crocheted screen as an eye-piece. It has been worn by women to go out in public for almost a century or more in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and parts of the Arabian Peninsula. It literally draws a curtain around a woman and allows her to move about outside the family compound, while conforming to the religious-cultural custom of remaining secluded from men”. (3)

The burqa is used in this context to create or retain an illusion agreed upon by those conforming to the tradition. What is the agreement? That depends on who’s been conditioned and how because our social and cultural upbringing creates our prejudices, beliefs, fears, hopes and desires – our collective veil – until we decide to unveil ourselves. We can ask: Is the burqa being used so that men can own their women; is it to protect women; or maybe because she’s having a bad hair day? Then again it may be so that men can pretend to be women?

In all societies and cultures the veil has been used as a convenient means to cover for unsociable or even culpable behaviour. Be it the balaclava, scarf, mask, sleeping with the enemy, corporate lies in memos, ‘read my lips’ whoppers, or promises made on the campaign trail – where does the veil really end? It all depends what we have culturally decided is an okay veil, what lies and deceit, norms of behaviour or prejudices, we have collectively agreed to protect or turn a blind (veiled) eye.

So in the west enough of us have agreed it’s okay for women to wear makeup, low cut tops, short skirts, and be available for sex 24/7, but it’s not okay for them to cover up their face. That is our collective veil – our agreed belief system about how the world is and should be.

The veil is about protecting illusions. Sometimes we don’t know why we’re condoning the veiled behaviour or attitude, like allowing banks to charge interest, or polluting our waterways, but we’ve collectively agreed to cast a veil over such actions – it’s just expeditious, but for who’s benefit?

To wear a burqa or have a boob-job; to perpetrate corporate crime that’s covertly concealed by layers of veils, or to detonate a car bomb that enjoys no such protection – all are actions that are supported or condemned based on veiled beliefs. But who can really point the finger and condemn one veil as being okay and another as not?

It may be clear to some, but to others the issue of how we legislate is based on often deeply hidden motives. What laws do we want to see enacted, how will they affect our social good (the highest good of the greatest number), and on what values are they really based? This question needs to be at the forefront of our minds because whether it’s about women’s freedom, cultural fit or religious freedoms, the burqa debate is just another veil to be lifted.

May 2010

Sources:
1. The Lure of the Veil, A History and Examination of the Practice and Pleasures of Veiling, http://www.talesoftheveils.info/lure/lure.html, retrieved 11.5.10
2. The Torn Veil, Jean Borella, The World Wisdom online library: www.worldwisdom.com/public/library/default.aspx, retrieved 11.5.10
3. The Evolution Of The Burqa, Mohammad Qadeer, http://iramz.wordpress.com/2006/10/05/the-evolution-of-the-burqa/ March 23, 2002, retrieved 11.5.10

Nicholas Roerich’s painting, Madonna Oriflamma, or Great Mother of the World holding the Banner of Peace Through Culture. The Mother of the World represents the biosphere, our planet, solar system and beyond – all we rely on for life and sustenance.

PAX CULTURA

“In Beauty we are united,
through Beauty we pray,
with Beauty we conquer.”

- Nicholas Roerich

This banner of three circles is an ancient diagram symbolising the trinity – in this case the triune reality of Love, Beauty and Action, and of Art, Science and Spirituality.

“The Banner of Peace is the official flag used around the world and displayed at all events, gatherings, and centers which
promote natural time and planetary peace.

The Roerich Pact and Banner of Peace was designed by Russian artist and humanitarian, Nicholas Roerich (1874 – 1947) as a response to the destruction of the first world war and the Russian Revolution.

It is an international treaty signed by India, the Baltic states, and 22 nations of the Americas including the United States. The Roerich Peace Pact established an international agreement allowing any nation to protect its cultural or artistic heritage with a symbolic banner, the Banner of Peace. Signed in 1935, this treaty is international law today.

Just as the Red Cross protects hospitals, the Banner of Peace was implemented to protect culture.”

“Let us be united – you will ask in what way?
You will agree with me: in the easiest way,
to create a common and sincere language.
Perhaps in Beauty and in Knowledge.”
Nicholas Roerich

Source: Reviving the Roerich Banner of Peace http://www.13moon.com/banner%20of%20peace.htm

The next World Forum of Spiritual Culture will be held in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, from October 18 – 20, 2010.

Organised by the Kazakh government, this Forum calls on representatives – people who are inspired to be part of positive change – to streamline their efforts, to make the Spiritual Culture a priority over other values in human civilization. Ideals of cooperation, nonviolence, and a belief in the victory of common sense and light are suggested as those to which we can all aspire.

On the Forum’s site is a letter written by V. Augustat – the president of the international society “Peace through Culture – Europe”. He says that the basic idea for the Forum began in the early 90s as leaders in various countries realised that new knowledge and attitudes were required for the development of Civilization and Culture. Thus a series of intercultural and international conferences were born to encourage global dialogue and active cooperation.

There is also a letter from Michael Gorbachev dated 30 April, 2010. He says that although a lot of things depend on government policy, without participation of civil society, policy can’t fix the challenges facing us all now.

The Forum’s programme is a three-day event that offers a range of topics and speakers that are as refreshingly tantalising as they are broad and deep, with headings like, ‘The spiritual culture of mass media’, and ‘Family and upbringing of the spiritual man’. There’s also the city of Astana to explore with its spiritually inspiring architecture.
I’m going!

Here’s the website for more info: http://www.astanaforum.kz/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=73

What Caused the Global Financial Crisis?
We are collectively bumping into the other side of our long-time enjoyment of the treats and treasures of the physical world. The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) is the painful realization that it hurts when we’re hit in the face. So we recoil, rubbing the spot, whimpering at being caught unawares. That’s how many of us felt about the 2008 collapse in the financial markets.

But there is a positive side to this apparent ‘downturn’ as the economists call it. Many of us are familiar with the phrase, ‘there’s always another side to it’. This is great news when you’re not liking the experience, but bad news when you want it to go on for ever. But as we know, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is commonly referred to as opposites attract, the law of karma, you get what you give, reap as you have sown, give and take, cause and effect, and now, as the law of the pump.

“The process of intensification of energy is similar to a pump. Thus, the upward striving of energy is absolutely conditioned by the downward pressure. People usually regard this pressure as misfortune, failure, whereas, this is the physical threshold of ascent.”1

There’s the answer – simple isn’t it? We can see the world as a giant pump and the ups and downs of life being the effect of pumping water. In technical terms when the pump lever is lifted up the water is drawn into the pump and when the lever is pushed down, the water is expelled.

What causes the water to be drawn into the pump? A vacuum. The air flows out making room for water to flow in because, as we have been told, ‘nature abhors a vacuum’.

If we apply the law of as above, so below, we can say that the vacuum is another word for change or that point of critical mass where events take on a different hue.

What is the Sustainable Solution?
If the water can be equated with resources, money, things we want, stuff we desire, items we ‘must have’, then we’ve been pumping it happily for aeons. The business cycle of boom and bust is like changes in the pump’s flow as business and governments try to control it to their benefit. But as many know, this is neither sustainable nor equitable.

“The dark forces have brought the planet into such a condition that no earthly solution can restore its conventional prosperity. None can regard the earthly standards of yesterday as suitable for tomorrow. Hence, humanity must understand anew the meaning of its transitory sojourn in an earthly state. Only through a fundamental defining of one’s existence in the carnate form and through an understanding of the Subtle and Fiery Worlds can one strengthen one’s own existence. One should not think that the delusion of trading can even temporarily insure a secure existence. Life has been turned into trade, but who of the Teachers of Life has ever been a shopkeeper? You know the great symbol of driving the moneychangers out of the Temple; but is not Earth itself a Temple?”2

As nations and citizens we are becoming inextricably entwined in a global market and the GFC is affecting us all. The pump can’t be as readily controlled and instead of continuing to deliver a regular supply of good, clean water, at our command, the handle’s ceased and the water’s unreliable. Is that because we’ve squandered the water, hoarded by the few at the expense of the many, forgetting to maintain the source from whence it flows?


Cause and Effect
Perhaps it’s our familiarity with the law cause and effect or karma, and its workings, that causes many world-weary economists, short sighted politicians, hopeful traders and greedy brokers to repeat the mantra, ‘it’s only another cycle; it will right itself all we need to do is …’. What else can they say?

So some economists see the solution in more growth – but it’s got to be sustainable.
“The lesson from the GFC is that this was an unsustainable financial system, based on shonky assets, accelerated by poor information and allowed to burn through under-regulation. In short, it was unsustainable. So too are the majority of our economic activities in the west, and it is this point that pushes us to finding ways of doing economic activity that will be sustainable, and not just with regard to oil, but with regard to the big elephant in the room — the forgotten environment. We need to find economic practices that continue the progress of growth and prosperity dispersal around the world which will be sustainable for the next 50 or 100 years.”3

If the answer to the GFC is to continue growth but do it ‘sustainably’, how is this to happen? At present we are conditioned to filter life through financial eyes meaning that everything – money, food, clothing, housing and resources – our basic needs plus, are a commodity to be traded.
The GFC is like a blockage in the arteries of the world. It’s the pump, offering us information about our state of health. We find that we may be on the brink of a heart attack, and the pump appears to be running out of water, so why do we keep on band-aiding the symptoms?

The Hanged Man
In the 1960s James Lovelock presented the western world with a new perspective based on an ancient and indigenous belief: that our world is a dynamic, living entity – called Gaia. The theory asserts that living organisms and their inorganic surroundings have evolved together as a single living system that greatly affects the chemistry and conditions of Earth’s surface. Some scientists believe that this “Gaian system” self-regulates global temperature, atmospheric content, ocean salinity, and other factors in an “automatic” manner. Earth’s living system appears to keep conditions on our planet just right for life to persist.

The only trouble is that since the release of Lovelock’s initial theory he’s published another book, The Revenge of Gaia, Lovelock asserts that our planet’s homeostasis is now being disrupted by our brief binge of fossil fuel consumption, which has released a huge amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. He believes that we’re pushing our planet over the brink.

Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis was a step towards helping us see with a new vision. But as with all theories, it is part of a stairway of knowledge upon which others can build. Now another step is due; a new way of seeing must emerge. This next step takes us beyond the limitation of planet-bound homeostasis, beyond the scarcity of an enclosed system based on laws of thermodynamics and gravity.

The new theory could be called, Fohat or the Fohatic principle and it basically contends that electric force is everywhere, and it influences all matter, from subatomic particles to galactic clusters. Rather than being an insulated sphere, our earth is part of an electric circuit within the Milky Way solar system alive with ever moving electrical excitement. The universe and planet earth are not limited by the laws of lack and scarcity but rather, by the laws of abundance and never-ending galactic electric energy.4,5,6

How Does This Help Us?
With this way of looking at things we can see that the pump’s not really running out of water and we’re not really running out of resources, or money. We’re not really in debt nor do we really need to starve or work ourselves into a grave, or suffer the inequities of our current system that is based on the law of scarcity.

This is because electricity underpins all life including our planet’s resources. In essence, there is enough for everyone, but because we haven’t understood the law of the pump, we’ve cut ourselves off from that divine flow of universal energy that’s free to all.

That’s why conversations around sustainability are so important and need to be widened to take in this broader perspective on planetary and cosmic life. Obviously there are many entrenched interests who are not going to let go the reins without a battle. An electric universe paves the way for a money-less world where all have access to all resources, where work is no longer required, leaving time for pursuing and participating in the real meaning and purpose for life.

We don’t want a bloody battle – that’s the way of the old age. The new way is now being paved for a bloodless coup. Alternatives to the current systems are being built from the ground up, based on this electrical, unified, infinite way of looking at life.

The law of the pump shows us the problem and the solution. By our own actions in line with evolution, we have basked brilliantly in the sensuous enjoyment of all things physical. Only trouble is it’s been only a small percentage of the world who have benefitted from the orgy. But we’ve done such a good job of greedily indulging, raping the environment and brutally pillaging our fellow man, that we’ve fulfilled the law of the pump. Now it’s time for the other side of the equation to kick in.

Changing Perspective
It’s time to change our perspective and see life as a continuous flow of life-sustaining electric energy with the capacity to nurture all necessary growth, provide all necessary power, and give real meaning to our often jaded sense of who we are and why we’re here. In so doing, the sustainable down flow of life-giving water is assured.

This new way of seeing the world is based on the law of synthesis – that everything is connected, all is in abundance, and all are equally unique, important and divine. Flowing from this it’s clear that everything needed for an equitable world for all humans and all kingdoms in nature is available. In other words, life is not sad, painful, cruel or unjust; life is benevolent, nurturing, fair and joyful.

There are already many groups experimenting with sustainable ways to take the world and all its people into the next age. Examples include:

In science & environment – the Venus Project and Findhorn Foundation
In education – Arcane School and Robert Muller School
In politics & government – World Government of World Citizens and World Resources Forum
In arts and culture – New Earth Creations and World Spirit Forum
In spirituality and religion – Lucis Trust and The Global Interfaith Movement.

These individuals and groups have heeded the vision; they have understood the trumpet call of their own heart connected with the heart of humanity, to recognize their power as the heart of the planet. They are visioning and creating positive, viable alternatives that are sustainable socially and environmentally. They have understood the law of the pump, and they are applying that law with wisdom and great intelligence to the problems and challenges of our time.

References:
1. Heart, Agni Yoga Society. Sutra 45
2. Fiery Worlds 1, Agni Yoga. Sutra 83.
3. Lessons from the GFC for the GEC, Dept of Economics, Monash University. Melbourne, Australia 7 April, 2009. http://www.econnow.com/wp/?p=53 retrieved 18.6.10
4. The Electric Bridge, Lucis Trust. http://www.lucistrust.org retrieved 28.6.10
5. The Electric Universe, 2007. http://www.thunderbolts.info/resources.htm retrieved 28.6.10
6. NASA’s Dim View of the Stars 22.12.08. http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=b8zgwr0h retrieved 28.6.10

Creative Resourcing – balancing the will with the way.

If you’re a Creative Change Maker with a great idea for a project but lack the money and resources to make it happen here’s some good news.

Changemakers.net is a citizen based initiative offering an online forum for social entrepreneurs and civil society activists who, “seek to apply the same creativity to finding and building local resources as to tackling the problems at hand”.

They offer information, ideas and dialogue with others working with the same passion, to find, “creative strategies for mobilizing resources locally”.

How do I create positive social change?

How can I change a little part of the world, or maybe a big part of it? What can I do to leave the world a better place for my being here?

Resonate with any of these questions? Quite likely. Because if you’re here – other than as an accidental ‘bounce’ – then it’s because you like the sound of creative change.

I’m reading a book called, “Social Change 2.2″ (2009) by David Gershon called “How To Create Social Change”. It’s a largish book with some big ideas. But he’s not an academic, he’s both a thinker and a doer and that makes him a Creative Change Maker.

We may not all be of Gershon’s stature and profile in the world, but if you’re reading this site, then there’s a high probability that it’s because you’re ready for change. And having got his far, it’s likely to be the type of positive, soul-inspired change that this site supports and promotes.

So, welcome fellow Creative Change Maker. I hope this site benefits you so that your journey of self discovery is enhanced a little, your ideas for how you can do your bit to create positive change is advanced somewhat, and your heart sings even more loudly with the joy of bringing spirit into matter, so life’s a lot brighter for us all.

Caroline