Pirates of the Caribbean, man. What more could you want?

Apropos of nothing, here’s an off-the-cuff rumination on a decidedly black pearl of our modern popular culture.

In one of my favorite Disney movies, the classic second installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy (we won’t mention the painful travesty that was the ill-executed fourth money cow which even the great Ian McShane was unable to redeem from its morass of confused storytelling and pointless spectacle that pushed the limits of absurdity a bit too far and a bit too blindly, finding itself too often merely chasing the magic and glory of its predecessors in unfunny self-parodyland, and may I be forgiven if memory colors it unfairly thus in my mind), the cynically pragmatic and deliciously nonchalant Banal Evil Incarnate, Lord Cutler Beckett, throws this unforgettable, superbly smug, melodramatic gem in the faces of the protagonists:

“The immaterial has become... immaterial.”

He means the mysterious forces of the supernatural, but it could just as well be read, “The invisible has become of no consequence.” In esoteric parlance, this is of course a lie and a dangerous delusion which leads the believer of it only to their own eventual correction and/or to the ultimate undoing of all their wrong-headed plans for the external. And even if those plans were to come to fruition, that fruit would be ashes in their mouth, an empty victory devoid of satisfaction or endurance. “All is vanity, saith the preacher.” (Yeah, I like to quote the Bible. I grew up with it. No apologies; it’s too rich and poetic a source to pass up. And sprinkled with awesomely truthy bits, once you acquire the taste. Jesus in particular kicks ass.)

Consistent themes in these Johnny Depp fantasy flicks are the fear of death, what people are willing to do to cheat their mortality and gain personal wealth, and where those efforts drive them.

Even though Depp is ostensibly the star, Bill Nighy steals the show for my money with every tentacular scene he mournfully and balefully stomps and splutters his way through. The organ-playing scene with the music box and the key is easily the most memorably poignant moment in the trilogy for me. His humanity and pain come through so undeniably, with such intensity and nuance, that I am hard pressed to watch it without getting a lump in my throat and mist in my eyes.

The slightly contrived-feeling but no less educational subplot of Mr. Flavorless and Kind of Forgettable Orlando Bloom Character and his poor dad, Bootstrap Bill, does not fail to strike chords of truth and pathos with its sacrificial resolution. Was the kid worth it? Only a father would know, and thank God for that. Love knows no bounds in what it is capable of in those who give themselves over to it, and the choice of a single moment, like Vader’s betrayal of his mentor in Star Wars 3 (what prequels?), can overturn the legacy of a lifetime of waste and error.

I’m getting rather hungry for some second breakfast, so I’ll leave this here and go on to the next thing. See you soon!

A Way Out of Pain

If it's even possible for a Matt Kahn video to bring me into more intense bouts of laugh-my-ass-off hilarity and deeper cleansing tears than any previous video, then this one did it. Watch it. This is powerful stuff.

Energy Update - Ascension 2015

Resonating. Deep sigh of relief, so much tension has fallen away. The future is now, all open. Thanks, Matt.

Striving and breaking through: a word of encouragement for seekers

There’s no time like the present. You know why they call it the present – it comes as a gift and you have to be present to receive it.

Those are almost clichéd statements, but as is so often the case with clichés, they are also very true. We nod our heads like we know what’s being expressed and then go right on living as if we hadn’t a clue. Well, we’re not to blame. It’s the pervasive, oppressive net of crushing mental and emotional tyranny that covers our world most anywhere that’s within reach of our so-called civilization. If you don’t have a critical mass of inner certitude vis-à-vis the truth to counter its effect, you will succumb to its soul-sucking influence.

I’m going to use myself as an example today, not because I am special but because I am not. I am essentially just like you. Of course, I have my own unique set of gifts and talents – but then, so do you and so does everyone else. The only difference – if difference there be – is a matter of degree in the intensity and direction of their use. And even that’s a little bit beside the point.

I wrote a comment recently – maybe a couple of months ago – at one of Les Visible’s blogs where I said I felt like a caterpillar soon to turn pupa. This was mentioned partly in relation to the activities of reading and writing – consuming and producing content – but also meant in a general way regarding the journey of spiritual evolution. I was ravenously devouring material at the time: Matt Kahn’s work was a big one, key to the whole shift I’m going to tell you about, but I was really eating up everything that came my way and drew my interest. I was really intensive in my search; I felt the compelling need to find the missing pieces and fit them into my worldview and thinking habits, desperate for a cure for the malaise I’d been suffering more and less throughout my post-early childhood life.

With Matt Kahn’s work, I hit pay dirt. The energy I felt being conveyed in his videos was the most peaceful, sublime, nurturing, forgiving, unconditionally loving and affirming, accepting, liberating, and empowering feeling I had encountered in as far back as I could remember. No artificial syrupy sweetness, no demands or pressure, just refreshing, grounded honesty and a sense of being gently coaxed and welcomed home after a long and wearying journey. I drank in that energy like a man dying of thirst in the desert.

Finally, here was someone telling me stuff that really made a difference, that I could really put to use, both instantly and over time. The transformation inside was palpable. I began to seriously apply the teachings he offered, to meditate daily upon them while walking and doing ordinary things, and to reflect upon the things I encountered in my everyday life through the mirror of that wisdom.

It made a difference. I began to have regular peak experiences beyond anything previously available to me, realizations and even activations. I was smoking cannabis rather regularly at the time, too, and I believe that gave me a huge extra boost as well. I did not feel I was dependent on it psychologically; rather, I used it as a tool, ally and sacrament for conscious self-work and exploration. I left no room for guilt or uncertainty about using it, but set my intention to the highest good of my growth and healing, accepting whatever came with open receptivity, and maintaining clarity and groundedness as best I could in the moment without trying to control the flow of the experience from a place of fear. Control was intuitively guided and natural, simply by remaining alert and watchful of my impressions, applying whatever wisdom felt called for.

I have always had a close therapeutic relationship with this plant, ever since the first time I tried it. Yes, there have been times I naïvely, recklessly, and less-than-respectfully abused it, but those times are long over. “The path of excess leads to the tower of wisdom.” I learned, from the ass-kickings those lapses in good sense cost me, how not to use this sacred plant. So I was well equipped to benefit from its synergetic consciousness-boosting effects at this stage of my personal path. One of my friends and teachers says cannabis merely inflates the ego. I can’t disagree, but I can’t discount the positive effects I’ve experienced either. It’s a very individual thing. Set and setting. Also, what’s wrong with ego in itself? All it is is the subjectively separate mind. Why not evolve that if you can? Get it closer to alignment with the superconscious by following the intuition. Anyway, that’s my spiel on that topic for now. Moving on....

What was it that finally triggered this sudden shift just a few days ago now? My sense is that a critical mass of self-inquiry, self-work, and transmutation of energies had been attained. Also that a cosmic countdown timer with my name on it had finally run out and hit the buzzer. So the good news to take home from that is that we can expedite our own awakening and activation through some kind of consistent, sincere spiritual practice, and that the more intensely we apply ourselves, the faster it goes. The bad news – not even bad news, really – is that the timing of the actual shift is out of our hands.

In the past, I would have felt apprehension at saying something like this, for fear of jinxing the good that’s come my way, but now such thought patterns feel simply outdated and obsolete. The pupa has cracked open and the butterfly is beginning to emerge. This is a time for celebration, on my end. That’s partly why I’m sharing: it comes with the territory to want to spread the good word and radiate positive vibes to everyone I meet. The other part of the reason, as you probably know, is that this is my calling and has been for some years. Actually, as far back as I can remember, but this dedicated blogging specifically started back in 2009.

So all this is just my word of encouragement to anyone who struggles with anxiety, depression, lethargy, lack of self-confidence, addiction, or any other black swamp of that nature stretching seemingly endlessly on in their life. There comes an end to all things, even to such sorry states of mind and habits of thinking that seem to control us willy-nilly and repeatedly drive us to the edge of despair and beyond. Keep faith. Don’t lose hope. Your savior is inside, waiting to make contact. Strive to attain that connection. Do whatever it takes. Follow your intuition. Pay attention to how you feel. And, above all, forgive yourself. It is not your fault you are in this condition. It is simply the journey you are on – and there is a higher purpose to everything that happens, whether you can see it or not.

Gratitude is my watchword now. Sometimes it arises spontaneously, sometimes I have to remind myself. But it feels important, like the secret key to a further opening somewhere down the road.

Thanks for coming by. I wish you all the luck, strength, wisdom, and support you need to get through whatever it is you may be struggling with. Remember, together with me, to give thanks for all that we have received, for it is truly abundant beyond our ability to comprehend.

Namaste and happy trails,

William

How to read this blog

Hello there!

Whatever this blog business has been has been what it’s been. My task, which I undertake with pleasure and to the best of my ability, is to show up when I’m called and share what comes out. As for you, dear reader, only you can be the knower of what brings you here and what you seek to gain by coming here. I am not going to coddle you, control you, tell you what to think, or allow my assumptions of what you might think put a damper on the message. The message is why I’m here. My employer would know the why of things better than me, but certain bits of knowledge do come my way. The rest is the product of my own cognition, subject to my own personal limitations. I do pick up some of the stuff you see here from quite a clear channel, but certainly not all of it. How you take anything here is your call. Discern. Pay attention to how it makes you feel when you read it. That’s how I write, by the way, to a large extent: by feel.

All creativity is from one source. Credit for any truth value in this blog goes to the originator of it, who lives in the same place as the originator of me and you. They’re the same dude/gal/thing/force/thingummybob/you-name-it. So no worries. We’re all in this together. Everyone just playing their roles. No blame, no shame, no debts, no frets. I owe you nothing and you owe me nothing. Whatever happens is the interplay of manifest forces. The Tao. The Dance.

Dance with me. Feel. That’s right, feel what’s going on in yourself and let it play out. Respond inwardly, feel your own response to what you read. You feel already without thinking about it, but if you pay attention to the response, you can pick up what it’s telling you. About the text, about you, about life. What you think of as your thinking mind, where words happen, is a part of that. But only a small part. Your physical body is just as important, if not greatly more so. Impressions are received with the total instrument. The more open and relaxed you are, the clearer the impressions you receive. To attain objectivity, undo resistance to what is.

This is something I endeavor to facilitate here, by illuminating the keys to the kingdom, so to speak. Binding and loosing. The latter is what we’re after, the former requires that we recognize what it’s done to us and how so that the latter can do its work more effectively.

Love is all you need. I emphasize Love because it is the truth we seek, it is the one universal solution that knows the specific solution to any particular problem and has the power to make it happen. It is that which affirms what is, which cannot be out of alignment with itself. It is invincible and can allow itself any form, even the most horrifying. You need not be under the spell of horror. Love is what you are, and when you live as that Love, then you need fear nothing. Indeed, you cannot fear in that blessed state. Love sees itself in all things. What could threaten that which created all and is all?

My dear brother, my dear sister: believe in your Self. You are never far from home. You need only turn to see Love, the beautiful shining perfection of all.

The capacity to perceive and enact Love is on a dimmer switch from 180-degree total darkness at the bottom to zero-degree true north at the top. There is no limit to how much Love and light there can be. That dimmer switch is inside you. Ask the Divine to help you turn it up.

My work here for today is done. Thank you for being here now. May you be with God, as God is with you, and within you. Shalom.

certitude (put it on)

the certain knowledge that your true, original, ultimate, enduring, and eternal nature is that of Love

regardless of how you appear to be in this moment

makes how you appear to be in this moment

ok

worthy of your own loving attention

even if you feel like you can't love

then simply love the one who feels like they can't love

no need to force love to appear where it isn't, to attempt to apply some contrived, imaginary overlay of love

that masks the bare reality of what's there

or measures it against some ideal

and demands there be something else, something better

just love the one having the experience you seem to be facing

be it circumstance, emotion, action, or whatever comes into your awareness

receive it as it is and let it be what it is

it, too, shall pass in time

when you see with the eyes of Love

you can do no wrong

your experience is alive with this truth

it is what underlies all things

go and sin no more

but forgive

and be the blessing you are here to be

for the sake of all the world

and rejoice

for all has been redeemed

in the still and mighty arms

of eternity

Breaking Free

You are ready to come home.

You begin to realize, deeper and deeper, that home is within you.

The holy guardian angel, your higher self, the crystallization of the godly being that you are, guides and protects your every step. You now perceive this guidance and protection where once it was not so apparent to you, and you feel a growing sense of gratitude and security.

One by one, layer by layer, inner tensions and conflicts are resolved. Your sight becomes clearer, your steps lighter, your joy fuller, your peace more profound.

You make mistakes like before, yet not like before: you begin to forgive yourself. Not a self-indulgent license or excuse for doing wrong, but the knowing that even though you messed up in a relative sense, you only did what you were meant to do at the time and that one power does all things, no matter how it may appear, for the perfect outworking of a perfect will. You are not the person who did those things now. You are the person who has traveled that path and is willing to make a better choice next time. You set yourself free of moralizing judgments, and notice how much easier it becomes to forgive others.

You see that karma is balance, cause and effect, a mirror, perfect justice... and, ultimately, unreal. Grace is available every second. It comes from beyond time. It is your shelter from the wrath of form, liberating without exempting, translating the inner quality of your experience into the language of heaven. It is the voice of the all-forgiving Christ.

What will you do when you finally come home? Will you stay? Of course you will, for as long as you so desire and as long as you possibly can. You’ll have gone through all the suffering and have no personal taste for going back to it. But so long as even one soul is lost in the wilderness, someone’s going to have to go and shine a light for them. Someone is going to have to meet them where they are....

Do I speak as a fool, from a place of ignorance? Why do I speak on behalf of personal suffering? Why can’t souls just stay in heaven permanently once they’re there?

Heaven is no-time, just now. We’re always there, even when we don’t think we are. Thinking makes it so, said the Bard. And he was right. Our experience of something that’s not heaven comes about because our mind has taken some illusions on board. Can illusions hurt you? Only subjectively, and only inasmuch as you believe in them. (There are, of course, levels upon levels of belief....)

Heaven is no-place, just here. The manifest world is a story created by the mind. The first mind – prime creator of the cosmos – tells the story, but always remembers that it’s only a story. The characters are a different matter: for the purposes of the story, many if not most of them will, for whatever part of the duration, remain unaware of the truth beyond the story: that they are products of one mind; that they can potentially awaken to what lies beyond, which lies within.

Identity. Who am I? The One appearing as one among the infinite parts of the All that is One.

---

“Limits of an Infinite Self.” This was the name of my old blog. You can still read it. I just don’t identify strongly with the person who wrote it. A past version of me, somewhat more caught up in existential angst and conditioning. There are some pearls in there worth saving, regardless, in my present opinionated opinion. The value to the reader of anything, of course, is up to the reader. Even now, what I write is, as it was then, an upwelling of whatever happens to come out in the moment. Good, bad, indifferent – I’m not here to judge it. Just to be the instrument of its arrival. All is of One, and all credit goes to the same address.

The infinite Self takes on limitation. This is mind-boggling, a paradox that will drive you mad as you ponder it. Don’t try to understand it. God knows I have, and here I am, still at it. Perennial fool that I am. Oh well, one is a slave to one’s inner drives, and there is nothing wrong with that. It’s how God works. That crazy-like-a-fox dude, eh? You’ll never get the best of him. It doesn’t work that way. Doesn’t stop some of us trying, of course.

Well, I was navigating some sort of thread back there, and I took a little detour, got all meta on myself. Uhm, let’s see...

(Isn’t this fun?)

Why do you think you came here? As an infinite being, to be incarnated in this time and place... you’ve come a long way just to be here the way you are now. Why?

(Just a caveat: the personal you never can be, never was, and never will be equal to the One in All. That’s the ineffable. Which is also you, but infinitely beyond you at the same time. That’s because the notion of a you is just a crazy notion. We are One. Please do remember to laugh. The worst thing we can do is to take our personal selves seriously. The fact that we do is the cosmic joke. So don’t forget to laugh at the fact that you forgot to laugh!)

Obviously, you are no stranger to heaven. It is your home, and a home knows its master. Master of heaven? Well, yeah. Nothing special about that. We all are. (At least originally. Can’t speak for the children of darkness, but then that’s just duality creeping in. We’re not going that route. Perhaps another time. Disregard it, it has nothing to do with what we’re talking about. Now I’ve only succeeded in confusing you. See how tricky this is? That dual mind is a real trickster.)

It’s the story. The story dictates that a certain character be in a certain place at a certain time, doing or saying or thinking a certain thing. That’s all.

Now it’s nothing to whine about, to feel sorry for yourself for having all these layers of limitation placed on you. Sure, you can do that. It’s just not the best use of your time – if you want to have a good time. And who doesn’t?

Since all the sincerely good times are happening in the heavenly realms, many of the happy souls who inhabit them are quite willing to go out on missions to help others get there too. Sometimes those missions involve taking upon themselves whatever conditions envelop the souls they’ve come to assist. Being born here, for example. Often the mission profile entails first being subjected to exactly the same kind of programming that put everyone else there into such a non-heavenly state. Next they have to get their mind deprogrammed, and that can be a heck of a slog. It helps if they didn’t get too damaged in the first place, but their makeup does give them an edge in breaking free from the matrix.

All that is just another story-within-a-story. My gift to you, passed on from wherever it came to me from. If you’re reading this, you are breaking free. And that’s damn awesome. Welcome to the party. I will now shut up so you can get back to celebrating who you are in your own special way. Thanks!

Traitors to Truth

We are hunted. We flee and hide from that which we fear the most. But time is not on our side in this hunt. Our time runs out eventually. The monster comes upon us. The terror finds us. That which has been exiled, buried, and denied demands to be seen as it is, demands that we address it by name, demands that we own it as part of who we’ve been.

The gears of time, from the heaviest to the finest, grind out truth and justice from what took root, sprung forth, and played out as error and imbalance.

Truth will be reconciled to itself. No part shall remain apart from its wholeness. Not even the most recalcitrant, unwilling stone will remain unturned. The lights will go on and we shall see what we shall see, according to what we have, until then, refused to see. This process accelerates in times of apocalypse.

Make your excuses. Put on your buffers. Hide behind your mask. Spew your righteous indignation, attack those who know and threaten to reveal your unseemly secrets. This will do you no good in the end. The inevitable cannot be put off indefinitely. You would be wise indeed to be prepared when the moment comes.

The foolish man built his house upon the sand. The winds and the storms and the waves did it in, whipping and wearing and pounding it into the insubstantial, oblivious dream of nothingness that it always was. Kali the Destroyer felt no pity, no sympathy, no remorse for what she did to the lies she was sent to undo. Her task was simple and ruthless: a divinely ordained ceremony of scouring, disarming, cutting, slashing, tearing, crushing, blowing to bits, flaying, decapitating, violating, dismembering, bleeding out, sucking dry, pulverizing, and scattering the remains of the ghouls, demons, and behemoths of abomination. All the while dancing her terrible dance, the unstoppable whirling of the implacable dervish of the consummation of the follies of a dying age, for a new age requires their transmutation.

Traitors to truth, tremble. The time of your correction is nigh at hand. Welcome it, for it is here to save and set free your undying soul from the shackles of dreamed-up nonsense in all its disguises. You may have the wind knocked out of you for days on end, gasping for breath as you struggle to assimilate the ugly truth. You may be stripped of things you’ve been holding onto for dear life. Your ego may wail and gnash its teeth. But it is for your own good. You will pull through, humbled and purified of encrusted layers of self-importance, self-interest, self-adulation, self-pity, and self-deception. The false self cannot stand, it must give way. Only then can the real you step forth.

Bon voyage to us all. Amen.