Sadly, the second decade of the new millennium is hurtling toward us like a mindless juggernaut embraced with barely a backward glance in the rear-view mirror.
I believe historians will find that the fading decade was one of the most important in modern U.S. history. It began with Americans worried about a Y2K-meltdown but believing they lived in the most powerful nation on the planet; a beacon of democracy; a prosperous country at peace. It ended with fear over continued terrorism occurring at home and abroad, two on-going wars without ends in sight, and a continuing financial meltdown of epic proportions that left millions out of work and foreclosure signs all-too common.
The horrific attacks on 9-11 took more than lives: It destroyed America’s sense of invincibility, left it reeling, diminished and suddenly unsure of what our time-honored democracy truly means. Our independent, upstart nation was forced to come of age, losing its innocence in the smoking terrorist rubble.
It is a Brave New World in which we abruptly realized that we are part of the rest of the world and not separate from it. The aftermath profoundly changed the American landscape. Sadly, we also lost a bit of our shining armor of integrity along the way. Ethnic and religious intolerance rose steadily against those from the Middle East, especially those who follow Islam, and caused some to turn a blind eye — or even condone — torture, rationalizing away the Bill of Rights. It is in the worst of times that we need our civil liberties, the underpinnings of freedom, and due process to preserve those rights the most!
In the midst of all of that, we were also forced to grapple with the continuing death of the industrial age and the systemic changes in this post-modern era. The new age is driven by technology and information services, no longer by a production-based commerce. A prime example is the collapse of the Sacred Automobile industry. More than merely a victim of the economic crisis, Detroit’s Motor City crashed because the basis of our country’s economy has permanently changed. We need to move quickly and courageously into this new reality, not hold on with white-knuckled-intensity to the steering wheel of America’s past.
Any financial, business or industry that fails to understand this, or is unable to shift into the new paradigm may not survive to ring in another New Year. This means that financial institutions need more than a reality check, they need to understand that the rules of the game have fundamentally, irrevocably changed.
Even the vaunted Fourth Estate, the media, is on the knife’s cutting edge of disaster. The news and publishing industries have underestimated the impact of Internet blogging, in which news is truly immediate, rather than relegated to a daily news cycle. Bankruptcy has now become their banner rather than headlines. Even the staid nighttime broadcast news can be bested by anyone with a cell-phone video camera who uploads snippets to YouTube that can be viewed worldwide. Missing in these scenarios, of course, is that anyone can blog, whether or not they have journalistic training or even a modicum of ethics. Thus, there is no oversight for factual accuracy, but that hasn’t stopped the proliferation of this new medium.
Health care continues to take center stage as the country is ripped apart by rising medical costs and colliding opinions about what to do about it.
When I look ahead, I try to remember what has gone on before. To resolve to make better choices, to regain my sense of being a human being.
In a world of uncertainties, I think that we need to reconnect to, and with, each other, not disconnect even more by hiding inside our homes logged onto the Internet or plugged into iTunes.
Americans need to take back their swagger. That true sense of being an American, based on what our beloved country was founded upon. No other country on the planet began as an experiment in religious and civil freedom, writing a Constitution espousing those beliefs. Tolereance, forebearance, and just actions by government.
The swagger was not created by flexing muscles to intimidate others, including countries, to bend to our will. The swagger was real because we believed our country really did stand for democracy and justice, regardless of the mistakes that government has made in its history when it failed to adhere to those values.
Feel proud, secure, and confident again. Be an American: Embrace diversity in all its rainbow-richness, and look ahead with excitement, not dread.
Before 2010 is all too real, take a moment to reflect on real human interactions — relationships in all their gory glory! A relationship to some form of spirituality should also be considered. It doesn’t matter what faith you adhere to or which ones you reject, it only matters that you take very good care of your one and only soul.
I am an avid practitioner of Sacred Sex, or tantra. In most ancient spiritual cultures and mystery schools, its role was understood as vital to spiritual awakening. Today, numerous spiritual traditions still practice Sacred Sex. In the hieroglyphics of the Luxor Temple in Egypt you can still find symbolic depiction of sexual initiation into the truest realm of humanity. Mayan elders speak of sexuality as the force that keeps planets in orbit and connects us to the universe.
The following illustrates the principles really well. Written by Amorah, founder of the Dolphin Star Temple Mystery School, I have selected a sampling:
“Without male and female equality, love, adoration for one another, trust, respect, and shared innocence, full communion with Oneness is impossible as are peace, freedom, and joy. The lust-seduction control games; sexual attitudes of distrust, shame, lovelessness, and separation; as well as lack of spiritual presence during intercourse are literally destroying your soul's ability to experience wholeness and health in the third dimension...
“If you are on a spiritual path, meditating regularly, clearing your emotions, healing your past lives, and seeing the finest of healers, you will still only be able to attain to an unsatisfactory level of spiritual awareness and wholeness if your sexual energy is not moving freely, fully, and lovingly through your body and soul. You need not have a partner in order to experience this, but your gendered relationships, both internal and external, must be balanced and healthy...
“What you call sexual energy, or sexual expression, is the stuff of which existence is both made and sustained. When a couple in love experiences total surrender one to the other during a heightened sexual experience, they become blended into a single consciousness containing equal parts male and female. The original experience of Oneness, or God, awakening to its own existence, and responding, was , ‘I am,’ meaning, ‘I exist.’...So is the sacred function of your sexuality intended to bring about the same ecstasy and experience of Oneness as the original awakening of existence...
“Trust and respect have been so long lost that you spend more time testing one another, making each other prove yourselves, finding reasons to doubt each other, and vying for control than you do creating and enjoying your love relationships. And these things you call love relationships are often little more than addictive pain patterns being acted out...
“Love does not need to possess, control, degrade, withhold, prove anything, distrust, or conquer. Love simply loves. It flows. It is uninhibited, uncontrived, natural, innocent, and spontaneous. And while discernment is needed in the selection of a partner, it need not prohibit you from loving everyone. Did you know that humans are terrified of feeling the totality of unconditional love? You have been taught to restrain yourselves lest you make a fool of yourselves. You have been taught that it is impossible to love fully without hurting if the other person does not return your love and promise to stay forever. Without 100 percent guarantee that you will not ‘lose,’ you hold back a little or a lot. It does not really matter how much. The point is that the flow has been dammed and therefore controlled...
“What if love were only possible by forfeiting all guarantees? What if love could only exist in the presence of surrender? What if there were no such thing as loss, only change? What if you had to let go before the other person did without knowing whether he or she will ever let go or not? You would risk disappointment; but that is all. If you have healthy self-esteem and self-love the person you love cannot devastate or humiliate you. He or she cannot make you feel unworthy; only you can! The object of love is not to win someone over, break through their barriers, make them need or desire you, or make sure you don't lose. The object of love is to love, to cherish, to honor, to adore, to respect, to never harm, to appreciate and never depreciate another...
“This is the nature of your true being, your soul, your spirit. To experience love for no apparent reason and for no ulterior motive is a great sign...To fill your life with friends and/or a partner who naturally inspire you to love is a wonderful thing. To surround yourself with sacred objects of beauty, to live in a place you enjoy, to be in nature regularly, to do what you really like to do are all important ingredients in life that can help you become a more loving person...
“The essential nature of the unrestrained soul is tantra. This leads to being in a constant orgasmic state in your whole body. In this state, energy blocks are dissolved, emotions released to flow naturally, and spiritual experience of love and Oneness are the norm. And it is what you and Earth most need at this time ...As always, our intention is to make your process of awakening as loving, effective, and gracious as possible while facilitating a deepening within yourself with yourself, others, and Oneness. ...Ecstatic tantric love returns you to Divine Flow and enlightenment.
Dolphin Star Temple Mystery School is a modern interpretation of the ancient Egyptian Mystery School. She is author of The Pleiadian Workbook: Awakening Your Divine Ka; The Pleiadian Tantric Workbook: Awakening Your Divine Ba; and Pleiadian Perspectives on Human Evolution.
Giving loving kindness to yourself, friends, family or a significant other is the best way I know to ring in the New Year, or for that matter, any brand new day! Have a very Healthy, Bright and Happy New Year!
—The Curator
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