Gathering the tribe

[Metaphor]

Wonderful is an understatement!!! This text made me cry.

The longing that we all have felt, dear sisters and brothers, for that special place we call HOME. It´s all there, waiting for us.

From here:
http://www.realitysandwich.com/gathering_tribe


-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once upon a time a great tribe of people lived in a world far away from ours. Whether far away in space, or in time, or even outside of time, we do not know. They lived in a state of enchantment and joy that few of us today dare to believe could exist, except in those exceptional peak experiences when we glimpse the true potential of life and mind.
One day the shaman of the tribe called a meeting. They gathered around him, and he spoke very solemnly. "My friends," he said, "there is a world that needs our help. It is called earth, and its fate hangs in the balance. Its humans have reached a critical point in their collective birthing, and they will be stillborn without our help. Who would like to volunteer for a mission to this time and place, and render service to humanity?"
"Tell us more about his mission," they asked.
"I am glad you asked, because it is no small thing. I will put you into a deep, deep trance, so complete that you will forget who you are. You will live a human life, and in the beginning you will completely forget your origins. You will forget even our language and your own true name. You will be separated from the wonder and beauty of our world, and from the love that bathes us all. You will miss it deeply, yet you will not know what it is you are missing. You will only remember the love and beauty that we know to be normal as a longing in your heart. Your memory will take the form of an intuitive knowledge, as you plunge into the painfully marred earth, that a more beautiful world is possible.
"As you grow up in that world, your knowledge will be under constant assault. You will be told in a million ways that a world of destruction, violence, drudgery, anxiety, and degradation is normal. You may go through a time when you are completely alone, with no allies to affirm your knowledge of a more beautiful world. You may plunge into a depth of despair that we, in our world of light, cannot imagine. But no matter what, a spark of knowledge will never leave you. A memory of your true origin will be encoded in your DNA. That spark will lie within you, inextinguishable, until one day it is awakened.
"You see, even though you will feel, for a time, utterly alone, you will not be alone. I will send you assistance, help that you will experience as miraculous, experiences that you will describe as transcendent. For a few moments or hours or days, you will reawaken to the beauty and the joy that is meant to be. You will see it on earth, for even though the planet and its people are deeply wounded, there is beauty there still, projected from past and future onto the present as a promise of what is possible and a reminder of what is real.
"You will also receive help from each other. As you begin to awaken to your mission you will meet others of our tribe. You will recognize them by your common purpose, values, and intuitions, and by the similarity of the paths you have walked. As the condition of the planet earth reaches crisis proportions, your paths will cross more and more. The time of loneliness, the time of thinking you might be crazy, will be over.
"You will find the people of your tribe all over the earth, and become aware of them through the long-distance communication technologies used on that planet. But the real shift, the real quickening, will happen in face-to-face gatherings in special places on earth. When many of you gather together you will launch a new stage on your journey, a journey which, I assure you, will end where it began. Then, the mission that lay unconscious within you will flower into consciousness. Your intuitive rebellion against the world presented you as normal will become an explicit quest to create a more beautiful one.
"In the time of loneliness, you will always be seeking to reassure yourself that you are not crazy. You will do that by telling people all about what is wrong with the world, and you will feel a sense of betrayal when they don't listen to you. You will be hungry for stories of wrongness, atrocity, and ecological destruction, all of which confirm the validity of your intuition that a more beautiful world exists. But after you have fully received the help I will send you, and the quickening of your gatherings, you will no longer need to do that. Because, you will Know. Your energy will thereafter turn toward actively creating that more beautiful world."
A tribeswoman asked the shaman, "How do you know this will work? Are you sure your shamanic powers are great enough to send us on such a journey?"
The shaman replied, "I know it will work because I have done it many times before. Many have already been sent to earth, to live human lives, and to lay the groundwork for the mission you will undertake now. I've been practicing! The only difference now is that many of you will venture there at once. What is new in the time you will live in, is that the Gatherings are beginning to happen."
A tribesman asked, "Is there a danger we will become lost in that world, and never wake up from the shamanic trance? Is there a danger that the despair, the cynicism, the pain of separation will be so great that it will extinguish the spark of hope, the spark of our true selves and origin, and that we will separated from our beloved ones forever?"
The shaman replied, "That is impossible. The more deeply you get lost, the more powerful the help I will send you. You might experience it at the time as a collapse of your personal world, the loss of everything important to you. Later you will recognize the gift within it. We will never abandon you."
Another man asked, "Is it possible that our mission will fail, and that this planet, earth, will perish?"
The shaman replied, "I will answer your question with a paradox. It is impossible that your mission will fail. Yet, its success hangs on your own actions. The fate of the world is in your hands. The key to this paradox lies within you, in the feeling you carry that each of your actions, even your personal, secret struggles within, has cosmic significance. You will know then, as you do now, that everything you do matters. God sees everything."
There were no more questions. The volunteers gathered in a circle, and the shaman went to each one. The last thing each was aware of was the shaman blowing smoke in his face. They entered a deep trance and dreamed themselves into the world where we find ourselves today.
****
Who are these missionaries from the more beautiful world? You and I are surely among them. Where else could this longing come from, for this magical place to be found nowhere on earth, this beautiful time outside of time? It comes from our intuitive knowledge of our origin and destination. The longing, indomitable, will never settle for a world that is less. Against all reason, we look upon the horrors of our age, mounting over the millennia, and we say NO, it does not have to be this way! We know it, because we have been there. We carry in our souls the knowledge that a more beautiful world is possible. Reason says it is impossible; reason says that even to slow -- much less reverse -- the degradation of the planet is an impossible task: politically unfeasible, opposed by the Money Power and its oligarchies. It is true that those powers will fight to uphold the world we have known. Their allies lurk within even ourselves: despair, cynicism, and resignation to carving out a life that is "good enough" for me and mine.
But we of the tribe know better. In the darkest despair a spark of hope lies inextinguishable within us, ready to be fanned into flames at the slightest turn of good news. However compelling the cynicism, a jejune idealism lives within us, always ready to believe, always ready to look upon new possibilities with fresh eyes, surviving despite infinite disappointments. And however resigned we may have felt, our aggrandizement of me and mine is half-hearted, for part of our energy is looking elsewhere, outward toward our true mission.
I would like to advise caution against dividing the world into two types of people, those who are of the tribe and those who are not. How often have you felt like an alien in a world of people who don't get it and don't care? The irony is that nearly everyone feels that way, deep down. When we are young the feeling of mission and the sense of magnificent origins and a magnificent destination is strong. Any career or way of life lived in betrayal of that knowing is painful, and can only be maintained through an inner struggle that shuts down a part of our being. For a time, we can keep ourselves functioning through various kinds of addictions or trivial pleasures to consume the life force and dull the pain. In earlier times, we might have kept the sense of mission and destiny buried for a lifetime, and called that condition maturity. Times are changing now though, as millions of people are awakening to their mission all at the same time. The condition of the planet is waking us up. Another way to put it, is that we are becoming young again.
When you feel that sense of alienation, when you look upon that sea of faces mired so inextricably in the old world and fighting to maintain it, think back to a time when you too were, to all outside appearances, a full and willing participant in that world as well. The same spark of revolution you carried then, the same secret refusal, dwells in all people. How was it that you finally stopped fighting it? How was it that you came to realize that you were right all along, that the world offered to us is wrong, and that no life is worth living that does not in some way strive to create a better one? How was it that it became intolerable to devote your life energy toward the perpetuation of the old world? Most likely, it happened when the old world fell apart around your ears.
As the multiple crises of money, health, energy, ecology, and more converge upon us, the world is going to collapse for millions more. We must stand ready to welcome them into the tribe. We must stand ready to welcome them back home.
The time of loneliness, of walking the path alone, of thinking maybe the world is right and I am wrong for refusing to participate fully in it... that time is over. For years we walked around talking about how wrong everything is: the political system, the educational system, religious institutions, the military-industrial complex, the banking industry, the medical system -- really, any system you study deeply enough. We needed to talk about it because we needed to assure ourselves that we were not, in fact, crazy. We needed as well to talk about alternatives, the way things should be. "We" should eliminate CFCs. "They" should stop cutting down the rain forests. "The government" should declare no fishing zones. This talk, too, was necessary, for it validated our vision of the world that could be: a peaceful and exuberant humanity living in co-creative partnership with a wild garden earth.
The time, though, for talking merely to assure ourselves that we are right is coming to an end. People everywhere are tired of it, tired of attending yet another lecture, organizing yet another discussion group online. We want more. A few weeks ago as I was preparing for a speaking trip to Oregon, the organizers told me, "These people don't need to be told what the problems are. They don't even need to be told what the solutions are. They already know that, and many of them are already in action. What they want is to take their activism to the next level."
To do that, to fully step into one's mission here on earth, one must experience an inner shift that cannot be merely willed upon oneself. It does not normally happen through the gathering or receiving of information, but through various kinds of experiences that reach deep into our unconscious minds. Whenever I am blessed with such an experience, I get the sense that some benevolent yet pitiless power -- the shaman in the story -- has reached across the void to quicken me, to reorganize my DNA, to rewire my nervous system. I come away changed.
One way it happens is through the "gathering of the tribe" I described in this story. I think many people who attended the recent Reality Sandwich retreat in Utah experienced something like this. Such gatherings are happening now all over the world. You go back, perhaps, to "real life" afterwards, but it no longer seems so real. Your perceptions and priorities change. New possibilities emerge. Instead of feeling stuck in your routines, life changes around you at a vertiginous pace. The unthinkable becomes commonsense and the impossible becomes easy. It may not happen right away, but once the internal shift has occurred, it is inevitable.
Here I am, a speaker and a writer, going on about how the time for mere talk has ended. Yet not all words are mere talk. A spirit can ride the vehicle of words, a spirit that is larger than, yet not separate from, their meaning. Sometimes I find that when I bow into service, that spirit inhabits the space in which I speak and affects all present. A sacredness infuses our conversations and the non-verbal experiences that are becoming part of my events. In the absence of that sacredness, I feel like a smart-ass, up there entertaining people and telling them information they could just as easily read online. Last Friday night I spoke on a panel in New York, one of three smart-asses, and I think many in the audience left disappointed (though maybe not as disappointed as I was in myself). We are looking for something more, and it is finding us.
The revolutionary spark of our true mission has been fanned into flames before, only to return again to an ember. You may remember an acid trip in 1975, a Grateful Dead concert in 1982, a kundalini awakening in 1999 -- an event that, in the midst of it, you knew was real, a privileged glimpse into a future that can actually manifest. Then later, as its reality faded into memory and the inertial routines of life consumed you, you perhaps dismissed it and all such experiences as an excursion from life, a mere "trip." But something in you knows it was real, realer than the routines of normalcy. Today, such experiences are accelerating in frequency even as "normal" falls apart. We are at the beginning of a new phase. Our gatherings are not a substitute for action; they are an initiation into a state of being from which the necessary kinds of actions arise. Soon you will say, with wonder and serenity, "I know what to do, and I trust myself to do it."

[JoyAnna]

Thank you, Metaphor. Reading this tale and your comments brought calm to my aching heart and soul this morning. Longing for my tribe and our loving world grows stronger and stronger as each year, month, day passes. Sometimes I feel I must have chosen to perform the task of living out this particular human lifetime as an example of solitary, firm holding to the memory of that place from which I came where my tribe lived in beauty, peace and love. Can I live the remainder of this journey loving my tiny parcel of earth, creating beauty where possible, holding my thoughts and words out of the morass of fear and resentment, and accepting that this path may require loneliness? Can I remember that the shaman promised to send support and encouragement when needed so I will be able to persevere and finish my mission? I long to go home.

[Metaphor]

Originally Posted by JoyAnna

Thank you, Metaphor. Reading this tale and your comments brought calm to my aching heart and soul this morning. Longing for my tribe and our loving world grows stronger and stronger as each year, month, day passes. Sometimes I feel I must have chosen to perform the task of living out this particular human lifetime as an example of solitary, firm holding to the memory of that place from which I came where my tribe lived in beauty, peace and love. Can I live the remainder of this journey loving my tiny parcel of earth, creating beauty where possible, holding my thoughts and words out of the morass of fear and resentment, and accepting that this path may require loneliness? Can I remember that the shaman promised to send support and encouragement when needed so I will be able to persevere and finish my mission? I long to go home.

We are on a deep sea mission. Sometimes the preassure down here gets too much, I know, but its up to us to help and support each other. Doing this all alone will not do for most of us. We are to work in teams, small or big teams depending on the task.
There are those who have and can manage solo-operations I believe, but I think for the most this is the time of re-gathering.

[rhythm]

i been away
how
tully
wonderfull
to find
this thread
here
this
morning
thank you .most beautifull
touched my being deeply ...
:thumb_yell o:

[bushycat]

I am about to embark on an around the world trip.I will gather with you all as I fly over your part of the Earth. You are in my heart always at home and maybe some day there will be a meeting here.
This is a precious moment and we stand at the summit.
Love always, Bushycat/

[rhythm]

Originally Posted by bushycat

I am about to embark on an around the world trip.I will gather with you all as I fly over your part of the Earth. You are in my heart always at home and maybe some day there will be a meeting here.
This is a precious moment and we stand at the summit.
Love always, Bushycat/

sooooo loverly

i await your arrival

at my door ...

[avyaktam]

That was a nice metaphor, thank you Sweden.
End yes it feels very much like were are pressure cooked.
The negativity will be there as long as it is needed, I guess.
We have our moments of Remembering, but we still carry walls of resistance in us. A lot of work. Because we are not going anywhere, we are staying, and we will change and Matter will change.
It is the Force that works, that does the Work, but our effort is needed.
I can see how the enemy "desire'' pervades still so much of my life and what I do.
It is great to have Moments, but to become in all detail, in our full personality..
that's still a full different job.
It is a Big Change we have to go through.
I try to open up, but wow change can hurt, it is if you are fighting a collective resistance and at the same time it is your own resistance you have to shoot your arrows at.

[Anchor]

Hi metaphor - fantastic post.

Hi fellow tribes-people!

Let me just say...

I know what to do, and I trust myself to do it.

There said it!

A..

[mudra]

I love your thread metaphor,

The shift is occurring .. I can feel it everywhere..
It's from within .. within our hearts ..
I can see these opening one by one..
and here we are souls companions flying harmoniously as one flock of birds... one tribe !
Let the old world drift as our Love forges the new ONE.

One day Ananda, who had been thinking deeply about things for a while, turned to the Buddha and exclaimed:
"Lord, I've been thinking- spiritual friendship is at least half of the spiritual life!"
The Buddha replied: "Say not so, Ananda, say not so. Spiritual friendship is the whole of the spiritual life!"
Samyutta Nikaya, Verse 2

Kindness
mudra

[Metaphor]

Originally Posted by avyaktam

The negativity will be there as long as it is needed, I guess.

I can only agree. I guess it is up to humanity how long negativity will rule the planet.

It´s not out of our hands as I used to think.
Seashores "victim menatality" thread connects with this.

http://projectavalon.net/forum/showthread.php?t=14029

Originally Posted by avyaktam

Because we are not going anywhere, we are staying, and we will change and Matter will change.
It is the Force that works, that does the Work, but our effort is needed.

Yes, indeed. But perhaps it is not only that we desire to go home, home has a desire to come to us. Perhaps thats part of the goal. Anchoring a part of home here. Like a permanent prescence of this "force"

Originally Posted by avyaktam

I can see how the enemy "desire'' pervades still so much of my life and what I do.
It is great to have Moments, but to become in all detail, in our full personality..
that's still a full different job.
It is a Big Change we have to go through.
I try to open up, but wow change can hurt, it is if you are fighting a collective resistance and at the same time it is your own resistance you have to shoot your arrows at.

Yes, yes and yes. I´m totally with you on that one. It´s a tough match against ourselves sometimes.

[Metaphor]

Originally Posted by Anchor

Hi metaphor - fantastic post.

Hi fellow tribes-people!

Let me just say...

I know what to do, and I trust myself to do it.

There said it!

A..

How lovely for you Anchor. I wish I could say the same. Still searching. But the amnesia is strong. I have found many pieces to the puzzle though.
I´m beginning to see the full picture. I sense a new beginning. Not like before, this is going to be different. Not only for me, but for all of us. Thats my intent and mission statement.

[bushycat]

Originally Posted by rhythm

sooooo loverly

i await your arrival

at my door ...

I'll think of your words as I fly near your shore. My trip has taken on new

meaning. Into dimensions.....

Love, Bushy

[bushycat]

Originally Posted by mudra

I love your thread metaphor,

The shift is occurring .. I can feel it everywhere..
It's from within .. within our hearts ..
I can see these opening one by one..
and here we are souls companions flying harmoniously as one flock of birds... one tribe !
Let the old world drift as our Love forges the new ONE.

One day Ananda, who had been thinking deeply about things for a while, turned to the Buddha and exclaimed:
"Lord, I've been thinking- spiritual friendship is at least half of the spiritual life!"
The Buddha replied: "Say not so, Ananda, say not so. Spiritual friendship is the whole of the spiritual life!"
Samyutta Nikaya, Verse 2

Kindness
mudra

Perfect vision, Mudra. Love, Bushy

[Metaphor]

Originally Posted by bushycat

I'll think of your words as I fly near your shore. My trip has taken on new

meaning. Into dimensions.....

Love, Bushy

Have a nice trip Bushy.
I´m curious is this a physical journey? A trip around the world sounds extravagant

[mudra]

I found the text below inspiring as to how gathering that tribe and what to expect ?
All it takes maybe is to surrender to that call we hear from within ..Let it be and
we would soon discover that beyond our differences the language of the Heart is ONE.

Kindness
mudra

Fire Tribe Gathering
Firedance

by Angus McMahan

"How to prepare, how to prepare?" I stand by my drum and wonder. Darkness has long fallen. The perimeter torches eagerly lap up the air, hungry for the tall, dry cone of branches and logs in the center. Across from me, at the entrance to the circle, the sage smudge floats thickly, tendrils reaching out, looking for the dancers, the rattlers, the chanters.

They all have been hidden, ensconced somewhere for some time, but now they are coming: Oh yes; they are surely coming. In the preparatory stillness of the circle we can feel them approaching. I stand by my drum and wonder: how to prepare for this unknown. I am not alone with this thought, however.

Opposite the entrance 'neck', across the several radii of the circles, is the large and broad 'V' of the drummers, forming the bass of this alchemical beaker. We are no mere drum-circle though, nay, we are a percussion orchestra, 60 hands strong! And carefully placed like to like....to like: Large and deep drums at the well of the 'V', medium tones along each wing, staccato snappers at the tips. We radiate out so: Bass - Tone - Slap. 30 odd drummers from several countries, with several more countries of instruments between us all. Five continents of percussion, two hemispheres of rhythm, all the one tribe of propulsion: the universal heart - beat.

I stand, touching my drum in silence, feeling my fellow drummers around me in the flickering blackness of the moonless night. And then from somewhere, from everywhere, from over there we hear all 200 of them through the darkness: the villagers approacheth. We drummers, each touching their drum, quickly find each other’s eyes. A wave of wicked smiles washes over us.

We are mostly strangers, in the civilized sense of the word, but wordlessly we will soon become closer than many families or lovers. And yet I wonder if I am the only one who feels unprepared for the absolute unknown that will soon transpire, the loving chaos that will transform us all during this long blank slate black night.

Firedance is a mixture of several known things that combine to create something unknown, indeed something different on each night it is enacted. At its base is the idea of gathering together 250 or so folks, and camping for three or four nights up at the Cutter Boy Scout camp above Big Basin. Workshops, meal plan, swimming pool, vendors, the usual suspects of these things are all well supplied.

The main attraction here though is an outlandish proposition: Create a large and elaborate fire circle, supply a carefully placed drum troupe along one edge, fill in the rest with people, gather at oh, say, 11pm, and drum and dance and do-what-thou-wilt till we raise the sun the next morning. Then get up the next night and do it again. Then get up for the third night and do it some more.

And then just see what happens, individually and collectively.

Who would do such a thing? Who could? Who would want to? All sorts of people from what I saw: children, elderly folks, teenagers, and whole families were there moving and whapping for as long as they could. I saw several paths cross that don't normally do so: Wiccans, Rainbow Gatherers, Ceremonial Magicians, Burning Man Techno Primitives, Desk Jockeys, Drop Outs, and all manner of miscellaneous Hippies and Pagans were present. The Magician, the Magickian, and the Magus all playing nice. Grandma and the downtown panhandler side by side, banging on their drums, grinning like fools. I had a blast, and by next year I will have forgotten the heat, the dust, the dryness, and the bugs.

I stand behind my drum, hands on. Across the circle the long, chanting procession files through the smudge cloud at the entrance neck. And I suddenly have my answer: there is no preparation for the unknown. There is only glorious surrender. (If you could predict the unknown, it wouldn't be unknown.) Am I fed? Watered? In tune?

Relatively free from emotional or physical discomfort? Yes? Then Celebrate! Push off from this solid foundation and lets go exploring. It is only when we step out of our comfort zones and push the envelope that we grow. There are 250 people here, in silence, at the witching hour, and nobody is sure what is going to happen between now and then; between the dark and the light. That is Adventure. There is no electricity here, at least in the regulated sense of the word. No beepers, no pagers, no cell phones, no watches; how will we survive till the morn?

And then four blazing torches are brought from the four cardinal directions and they are plunged deeply into the center. Gentle people, we have a fire! Start your engines; we have liftoff. A song starts in the now crackling silence, and the dancers slowly begin their clockwise rotations. Along the far edge of the dancers the rattlers pick up the rhythm and begin their ceaseless motion. At the center of the 'V' the jun-juns pick out the bottom rhythm and begin measuring it out. The djembes layer in a syncopated middle, and the congas and doumbeks flash around the top. The dancers respond to the drum, and the drums respond to the dancers. Chemistry and Physics take place, and Time goes away. It is replaced by a succession of moments, an endless series of Nows. And our beaker pulls away from the shore of civilization and sets sail for the seas of Chaos: that restless void from which transformation and innovation emerge. Fore and aft of our swirling craft there is only the enormous night.

Who brought such a wild idea to Santa Cruz, the home of wild ideas? The Firedance emerged from the desert, shepherded by a restless Master. He is Magnus, He is a Magus, but you can call him a Magi. He is also Jeff McBride, based out of Las Vegas. By day a well known stage magician, a purveyor of tricks and illusions, by night a mover of ancient energies within secretive sects. But he seems to have gotten it all mixed up somehow. Now his stage magic is full of wisdom and truths that connect with each audience member separately, and his Hermetic studies are now full of flash and fire and swarms of people being delighted. Most contradictory of all from a background of stage illusion and Ceremonial Magic is the startling fact that Jeff/Magnus is not in control here. He sets it up, we do it together, and neither of us knows what'll happen next. And what transpired at last nights Firedance is no indication of what will happen at this one. Each night’s blueprint is reduced to ashes by the cold dawn. Magnus is not in charge, but he does provide a gregarious and loving re-assurance that we'll all be sound when we emerge from this musical movement maelstrom. Magnus as in Magus as in Magi, but also Magnus as in Magnanimous.

The rhythms grow. The dancers whirl. The fire itself dances, fed by our energies as much as the wood brought by its attendants. The tempo swells. Between the circle of dancers and the 'V' of the drummers a triangular pocket emerges. It is the cross fade between the music and the movement, the everyone's-land where anyone can step up and testify for a time. Dancers step in to inspire the drummers. Drummers step in to the pocket to propel the dancers. The tempo retracts back to whatever it needs to be, and the churning syncopation continues on for however long it will. Then, silence.

The fire takes the lead for a time. Then another song or chant from the circle, which the drums will then pick up and we're off again. Somewhere along in the night however, the party took a deeper turn.

It's hard to say when; we were in radial time. In the still of the night perhaps, some transformations occurred. A dancer would suddenly careen off and collapse, crying into the dust, flinging away excess baggage, false assumptions, lingering guilt, a rattle, parental expectations, co-dependencies, and lousy boyfriends, like a lizard shedding its skin. Emotional molting. These people were cared for with a circle of shakers, a rattletrap, a human chrysalis as they underwent their transformation. Hallelujah.

After that though, the real work began for the rest of us. Our core tribe of 250 was down to about 100, as the sensible folks had long since gone off to bed, and the early risers had not yet shown. Dawn showed no signs of coming anytime soon, and perhaps not at all. The drummers drummed and the dancers danced, and the drummers danced and the dancers drummed, but one could feel that our collective wheels were slowly coming off.

Deprived of a watch, I got very into astronomy about then. (Not transformation, but regression: A hominid can always find a clock of some sort.) There was no moon that night, but I watched Venus come and go across the sky, I watched the Pleiades make their way over our circle, and I watched Orion's belt as it hunted across the sky.

I started to lose it. I would be playing a particular pattern on my drum, gray out, and then snap back playing a completely different pattern, which nonetheless fit perfectly. Wild. My eyes got really tired from the brightness of the fire and the darkness of everything else, and so everything started to get bright or dim to shifting degrees. My hearing too started to fiddle with its own EQ as it slowly overloaded on the ceaseless loudness of it all. At one point I remember asking myself: "Am I really seeing a topless belly dancer with a snake wrapped around her? Yes. I guess I am. But am I seeing two belly dancers with snakes? Sure looks that way. Okay, but am I seeing three live snakes right now?" And I do believe I was. (Hmmm. Topless belly dancers with snakes in the middle of the night: Not the normal fare for a Boy Scout Camp!)

Sometime eons later, as I came back to awareness and found myself dancing in the circle with a rattle, I saw the outline of a tree at the Eastern end of the circle, on the small ridge above our natural amphitheater.

It took me a few more revolutions until my freshly primitive brain registered that the only way I could be seeing the outline of a tree is if it had light coming from behind it. Light! From another source! We did it! But oh, there is such a stretch of time between false dawn and the actual sun entering the circle. No matter though, strictly a case of endgame. We were re-energized now, and the party began anew.

Pre-dawn cast a strangely blue light on the world (or perhaps my poor rods and cones had run out of red), but I enjoyed the novelty of seeing the color spectrum from the side, as it reloaded for another Technicolor day. Less enjoyable was seeing my brothers and sisters in this most unforgiving of casts.

Why we looked as bad as if we had stayed up all night drumming and dancing! But the wicked smiles of the drummers had returned. The sauciness of the dancers was back. Now the celebration could begin. I watched my friends the stars wink out one by one. I saw the trees turn green again. I watched the fire happily die down. The circle again filled up with early risers. I saw the sky turn gray, then white, then blue. And I saw the blessed sunlight kiss the top of that Eastern tree, and slowly make its way down that 100 feet towards the ground. Waiting there for the sun was Magnus omnipresent as he had been for this entire enormous night, smiling and joking, looking fresh as a daisy. Now that's Magic. He carried a beautiful, large mirror, shaped like a fiery sun. The dancers crowded the side of the circle, arms upraised, feet stomping. The drummers thundered out the final climax, and finally, finally were silent.

And the first rays of morning landed on the mirror and were reflected straight into our cold and silent circle, onto the dusty faces of the all-nighters, reflecting off our lunatic smiles.

Yesssss...I kissed the head of my drum, covered it tenderly and staggered back to my tent to sleep the Sleep of the Just.

Originally Printed in Community Seed Magazine, Fall 2002.
www.communityseed.org
Copyright 2002. Reproduced here by permission.

[Unified Serenity]

Thank you so much for this, all of you! We are so close and yet at times it can feel so far away, this change of understanding oneness, and having each eye open to the truth.

Much love and blessings to each of my family.

[Metaphor]

Originally Posted by Unified Serenity

Thank you so much for this, all of you! We are so close and yet at times it can feel so far away, this change of understanding oneness, and having each eye open to the truth.

Much love and blessings to each of my family.

[Metaphor]

Hi all
Just found this. Basically the same stuff as in my first post in this thread. The similarity is stunning. Makes me wonder if this could be floating around "out there" as a message from home?

THE GATHERING:
A TRUE STORY

From afar, Earth's Universe pulsed like an open wound. Like a cancerous cell, its influence was spreading to the life forms around it. It was 1947 there on Earth. Here, on Questar, it was no-time. It was existence in its all. Overseers came and went and discussions were many. A decision had to made. Divine intervention was decided upon. It was understood that it would take over a thousand years to complete the mission. But left undone, the society of Earth would annihilate itself and all other life in its vicinity.

"Make them aware," was the murmur among the Masters.

"Indeed," solemn voices agreed.

+++++

Questar's two moons glistened silently in the soft, indigo night. The slim finger of the silvery stream that separated the path from the forested area on the other side reflected the light of the northernmost moon. The beauty didn't go unnoticed by those who were walking by, slowly moving toward the final meeting that would be held before the mission on Earth would begin.

This was the final meeting of the Elders. The meetings and conferences that would follow would iron out all of the details for those who had volunteered to populate the mission. There would be six million volunteers from Questar Universe alone. The numbers from other areas of existence would not influence the task the Questarians had set for themselves.

The details would take months, possibly years, to decide upon. The task would unfold in phases, various groups of souls taking their places on Earth at predetermined times, like waves pouring onto a shore, slowly changing the shoreline as its influence altered that which once seemed permanent.

The first point had been decided upon long ago. The souls who would volunteer for the mission must be those who had no interest in playing a karmic role there on Earth. For karma, as we know, perpetuates an imbalance, even as it works to correct an imbalance.

The second point was more difficult than the first. The volunteers must be the strongest of the strong, able to resist the threads of illusion that had been spun like thick yarn around the planet. Holding onto the soul's truth under the onslaught of the emotional illusions that currently played upon Earth would be no easy task. In addition to that, the volunteers must be strong enough to overcome the ridicule and challenge of those who did not want the illusions to change, the truths to be known.

The last of the Elders to step out of the cool evening air into the vast, crystalline meeting area was Rastasia. (pronounced: rah-stach-ea) Rarely seen outside of her dwelling, the others fell into a hush that felt like reverence. Metatron separated himself from the small group he had been conversing with and stepped to her side. Much taller than she, he gazed down at the woman he revered, adoration plain on his face. She was the Most Ancient. And at barely five feet tall, her elegance and wisdom reached far, far beyond the field of her physical influence.

He noticed immediately that she was paler than usual, her manner seeming to be troubled, which was highly unusual. As she touched his arm, he was inundated with such a vast flood of pure love that he himself trembled. For an instant they stared into each other's eyes with the clearest of understanding, these two friends who had shared the history of existence together, often side by side. Rastasia nodded slightly and the two of them turned to greet the others.

Later that night, Metatron stood silently looking out over the vast pasture of night's meadow, his hands clasped lightly behind his back, his thoughts far, far away. The news of Rastasia's decision to take part in the physical presence upon Earth troubled him greatly. However, he knew that no one, himself included, had the influence to change her decision. Tomorrow the six million would begin to gather, Rastasia among them. The mission would begin.

+++++

Common threads of energy connected the six million souls. Each of them had, at one time or another throughout history, known the others. Many of them had been on missions together in the past. But this mission was different. To inspire radical change within an entire universe was something most of them had never attempted before. But each of them realized that they would not have been chosen had they not been found capable.


The first wave of volunteers was gathered, each of them intense and focused, anxious to learn more from those who had designed the mission. Metatron, as overseer of the mission, was seen walking slowly toward the large group. One by one, the group members fell into silence, knowing that now was the time for them to learn more about the part each of them would play in the healing of Earth's energy.

They were many and, due to their number, the gathering was being held in the meadow beyond the cluster of low hills that bordered the stream. The crisp white of the distandia trees against the rich burgundy of the wild grasses made a dramatic setting. Metatron stopped upon the low rise of the small hill overlooking the meadow and gazed knowingly around at those gathered.

With a slight wave of his hands, he formed the glistening shape of his geometric trademark, the diamond. The crystalline diamond hovered in the air beside him, casting the reflected light of the pale blue sunrays through the crowd as it gently swayed. "This is what you won't want to forget," he advised. "The energetic overlay of the diamond grid over the current energy grid upon Earth is your primary task. The next wave of volunteers will follow up on the foundation you build. You'll be building both horizontally and vertically. Remember that you are not there to overwhelm or overpower. You are there simply to lay the foundation of a higher frequency grid for the purpose of providing a platform that can be built upon.

"The frequency of this particular geometric shape, as you know, is capable of not only breaking down, but healing and transmuting, the dense layers of chaos surrounding Earth. In addition, it serves as a building block, if you will, for higher frequencies. It's ability to contain, with integrity, the energy of pure intention, is unequalled. Which is precisely why it's been chosen as the primary tool for this intervention."He paused, studying many of the faces individually.

"When your particular part of the mission is complete, you'll exit Earth's energy via this 'vehicle.' Your souls will be well served by the task you're about to undertake. This is not a sacrificial lamb type of situation, though it may feel like it once you arrive there. This is not a task of martyrdom either, though, again, it may feel like. This is a task of love. You see an inconsistency in the vibration of love within the body of love/existence and you desire to heal that inconsistency back into divine alignment. It's that simple. The key, the one thing you cannot forget, is that if you are there to heal the energy back to the vibration of love, you must yourself consistently be the vibration of love."He gestured toward the crystalline diamond still hovering beside him in mid-air. The diamond, as though it were consciously aware of his thoughts, responded by spinning clockwise slowly.

"One of the key things to remember is that the energy of divine alignment spins clockwise." He stopped and looked at several puzzled faces. "It's a term they use on Earth. The reality of Earth is such that it is monitored and calibrated to a thing that is called 'time.' Some of you probably remember. At any rate, the thing that calibrates time is what is called a 'clock.' The clock turns in a direction that is referred to as 'clockwise.'" He smiled slightly at the few who still seemed puzzled. "You'll understand when you get there. For now, simply tuck this information into your energy field. The movement of divine alignment is clockwise. The sacred geometrical shape of this diamond will assist you in realigning energies so that they fall back into the clockwise movement. When you encounter an energy field that appears to be chaotic, simply mind-create the energy of this diamond, place it around the energy field, and allow it to transmute what it can."

Sensing a movement on his right, he turned and gazed into the distance. Rastasia was walking slowly toward the crystalline structure that he called 'home.' Turning back to the group, he wished them well, knowing that the assigned leaders would lead them from this point forward. Turning away, he walked slowly, thoughtfully, to meet his most ancient friend. He imagined, rightly so, that she would have much to discuss with him.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++++

Source:
http://blog.laurenzimmerman.com/

Thx to mntruthseeker for sending me in the right direction, via this thread:
http://projectavalon.net/forum/showthread.php?t=14328

[Metaphor]

This one connects with this also. Inspiring movie, that has some elements of "truth" in it.




http://www.youtube.com/user/TheGreenBeautiful

[mntruthseeker]

Well I was just going to thank you for sending me to this thread

I am truly shaking now with such wonderful vibes after reading all on this page. Muda, thank you for the beautiful story.

I love you all You have truly made my day and I need this in my life right now so bad. I am the crazy one living on earth per my family. LOL I think you all know what I mean

Truly this is a wonderful thread

Lauren is truly blessed and so are all of you

[Metaphor]

Originally Posted by mntruthseeker

Well I was just going to thank you for sending me to this thread

I am truly shaking now with such wonderful vibes after reading all on this page. Muda, thank you for the beautiful story.

I love you all You have truly made my day and I need this in my life right now so bad. I am the crazy one living on earth per my family. LOL I think you all know what I mean

Truly this is a wonderful thread

Lauren is truly blessed and so are all of you

Yes, Mudras story is truly beutiful. A most welcome contribution to this thread.

We all need to know more about our origin, and it seems to me that the more we learn, the harder the task seems. Me personally, for the moment, is in for a hard time when it comes to balancing family, career (or what it is now called when you sell your time for money) and spirituality.

Blessings to you all.

[rhythm]

Originally Posted by mntruthseeker

Well I was just going to thank you for sending me to this thread

I am truly shaking now with such wonderful vibes after reading all on this page. Muda, thank you for the beautiful story.

I love you all You have truly made my day and I need this in my life right now so bad. I am the crazy one living on earth per my family. LOL I think you all know what I mean

Truly this is a wonderful thread

Lauren is truly blessed and so are all of you

I share you sentiment here IN DEED !!!!
great thread !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mudra]

Originally Posted by Metaphor

Hi all
Just found this. Basically the same stuff as in my first post in this thread. The similarity is stunning. Makes me wonder if this could be floating around "out there" as a message from home?

[SIZE="3"]THE GATHERING:
A TRUE STORY

From afar, Earth's Universe pulsed like an open wound. Like a cancerous cell, its influence was spreading to the life forms around it. It was 1947 there on Earth. Here, on Questar, it was no-time. It was existence in its all. Overseers came and went and discussions were many. A decision had to made. Divine intervention was decided upon. It was understood that it would take over a thousand years to complete the mission. But left undone, the society of Earth would annihilate itself and all other life in its vicinity.

"Make them aware," was the murmur among the Masters.

"Indeed," solemn voices agreed.

Hmmmm.. I remember .. do you ?
Still a few miles to go folks.
Let's stick together until job done.
Love to you all.


Kindness
mudra

[Metaphor]

Well,

I have just begun to remember. Fragments. And all this. These texts. they resonate deep within. They say something to me, shout it loud, right into my ear, though with a whispering at the same time.
My walls tumble down and I hope to find my mission on the other side. I know there is a very special task, that can only be best performed by me only. Its the same with all of you.

The only thing I know now for sure is that the job is gonna be well done, with a smile on our faces. No matter how hard the task is, I´m not satisfied until true love and freedom is anchored, and can reach into the hearts of the sleeping man.

I feel that there is something unfair with all the karma put on humans while they/ we are in deep amnesia and trance at the same time. Its like putting infants in debt to the banks while they are to young.
It troubles me daily, and any thoughts on his is most welcome.

/Meta

[Luminous]

Metaphor wrote:

"One of the key things to remember is that the energy of divine alignment spins clockwise." He stopped and looked at several puzzled faces. "It's a term they use on Earth. The reality of Earth is such that it is monitored and calibrated to a thing that is called 'time.' Some of you probably remember. At any rate, the thing that calibrates time is what is called a 'clock.' The clock turns in a direction that is referred to as 'clockwise.'" He smiled slightly at the few who still seemed puzzled. "You'll understand when you get there. For now, simply tuck this information into your energy field. The movement of divine alignment is clockwise. The sacred geometrical shape of this diamond will assist you in realigning energies so that they fall back into the clockwise movement. When you encounter an energy field that appears to be chaotic, simply mind-create the energy of this diamond, place it around the energy field, and allow it to transmute what it can."

This puts me in mind of a meditation given to Ton Kenyon via the Hathors, linked here:

http://tomkenyon.com/the-holon-of-ascension

He also conducted a group meditation with this Holon. Even though the date has passed, you can do this on your own (after a bit of practice). Instructions here:

http://tomkenyon.com/the-holon-of-planetary-ascension

You can also download the recording of that actual group meditation and follow along here:

http://tomkenyon.com/planetary-meditation

This is a very loving and powerful meditation. At the very least, (in my experience, anyway) it helps clear the detritus that clouds our memory of who we are and what we're here to do.

Enjoy.