The Truth Will Set You Free - Cabal of the Westford Knights Book Review

“If you don’t get in the car and go to CCD class, you can pack your bags and leave MY house!”

Such were the words of torture from my mother, the Catholic Nazi Police. I endured two years of CCD class, taught by a husband and wife team named Fran and Charlie who talked about their sex lives the whole time. I don’t think the word spirituality made it into the class discussion once. Of course, sex must be between a man and his wife only—and a woman’s place was making babies and satisfying her husband…according to Fran and Charlie. My sister, who is 10 months younger, also had to endure the completely useless catechism class with me. She was responsible for keeping me from coming unglued every time they opened their mouth. I think Fran got verklempt when I declared during class that I had no intention of having children—that I intended to be a career woman. Stuttering, she told me that a woman’s rib came from a man (someone named Adam) and that it was her duty to have children. My sister was ready to crawl under the kiddie desks we sat at and disown me as a relative.

When I was a senior in high school, it was time for the official Confirmation” which first required that I tell my sins to a priest before the church would make me an official member. I protested to my mother, “I don’t want to be confirmed. I will never be a Catholic and you can’t make me be one!”

To which she replied, “You will be confirmed or you can pack your bags right now!”

After much hissing and realizing I had nowhere else to live, I was forced to have an audience with the priest and drum up some kind of Sin. I never believed in the concept of Sin. I was always of the Marianne Williamson/A Course in Miracles school that Sin should be known as an Error in Judgment, to which we all have the ability to Choose Again, or as Wayne Dyer says, “Be better than we used to be.”

I never believed we had to share that experience with anyone else publicly…but in this case, my mother was serving me an eviction notice if I didn’t go through the motions and play the part of a sinner who was begging to be confirmed as a member of the Catholic Church. So, I did.

I waited in line at the church with the other potential evictees and I tried to drum up a good sin while I was waiting. I think the first Sin that came to mind were the thoughts I was having about my mother, the landlord. I sat down with the priest in his intimidating black robe and he asked, “So Robin, do you attend church every Sunday?”

To which I replied without hesitation, “No, I don’t believe I have to attend church. I believe that you can speak to God wherever you are.” You would think I insulted the Wizard of Oz himself.

“Who are YOU to determine where you worship!?”

He actually screamed at me.

“I tell YOU where YOU should worship! Attending Sunday Mass shows your commitment to God.”

I was bold. I replied, “People only show up for church to show off their new outfit and gossip,” and that, “Very few people actually listened to the Mass.” I told him that we would have to, “Agree to disagree on this matter.” Talk about making the Wizard of Oz mad!

This guy was so furious, he called my mother in and screamed at her—“Who does your daughter think she is? She thinks she knows better than ME on matters of faith!”

If I remember correctly, I think the priest made me say some Hail Marys or something like that and my mother gave me the evil eye all the way home in the car. I hardly remember talking about my Sin with him. I guess once you try to usurp the authority of a priest, a made up Sin seems inconsequential. The whole ordeal didn’t endear me to the Catholic Nazi Police, but I was being authentically myself—to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth...so help me God!

On the day of the official Confirmation ceremony, I was kicking and screaming out the door, “You can’t make me be Catholic just by forcing me to go through this ridiculous process. Religion and spirituality are a commitment of the soul!”

The Nazi Police/Mother said, “You will be Catholic whether you want to be or not! You will be confirmed!”

In her mind, she was saving me from going to hell. In my mind, I was already in hell. I was forced to take a Confirmation name—as if my own wasn’t good enough for God. I chose the name Joan of Arc—the only person I could think of who fought as hard as I did for a spiritual position and who burned at the stake—something similar to what I was facing if I didn’t march my butt down the church aisle. I rolled my eyes the whole time and opened my mouth at the appropriate time to take communion. My mother got me to walk the plank for show and tell, but to this day, my spirit will never be Catholic.

Which brings me to David Brody’s book, Cabal of the Westford Knight-Templars at the Newport Tower. Brody’s book is a breath of fresh air for those of us who have endured the antics and controlling nature of the Catholic Church and the passion of their ardent followers. The book picks up where the Da Vinci Code leaves off. It’s a fictional story based on factual archeological finds that have turned up in the New England area that point to the presence of Pre-Columbian settlers with a connection to the Templar history. Based on Brody’s research, many of the Templar Knights may not have been so Catholic either.

Brody takes us back to the 1300’s when Templar Knights were under attack by the Catholic Church to steal their fortunes and take back the power of the masses. In France and England, Knights were being tortured and put to death as Heretics, by the very church they were protecting. There is some historical support to suggest that a group of Knights were able to escape to Scotland. When the Catholic English attacked Scotland, the Templars needed a new home where they could go undetected by the church. Brody and others speculate the Templars sailed across the Atlantic to America—carrying with them the Templar secrets of the Jesus bloodline and the treasures from King Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem.

The fascinating conclusion to the Templar story and the spirituality of Jesus as outlined in the Cabal of the Westford Knight makes the reader think differently about the history of a religion they’ve been taught in school or catechism class. In order to get to the fascinating conclusion, the reader has to wind around an adventure similar to the Da Vinci Code.

In the end, the author makes the reader think differently about Jesus in a more spiritual way than the Da Vinci Code did. Any explorer of spiritual metaphysical topics will love how the author unites Native American spiritual beliefs and the real spiritual beliefs of Jesus as told by those who carry the Jesus bloodline (in the book). These beliefs tie into the teachings of Jesus as outlined in the Gnostic gospels, not the selective and manipulated teachings fed to the masses by the Catholic Church.

The Cabal of the Westford Knight sets your mind free to consider a different view of Jesus and spirituality which connects spirit with the natural world—something most people know intuitively. As the Knights Templar always said, “Veritas Vos Liberabit,” The Truth Will Set You Free. Sometimes it takes a few centuries.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

R. Ann Rousseau writes about metaphysical, spiritual and astrology topics on her blog Explore Beyond the Usual. She is author of the new novel Portsmouth, A Love Story.  

Follow R. Ann Rousseau on Twitter @RAnnRousseau 
Facebook. www.facebook.com/PortsmouthALoveStory

Other Blog Posts by R. Ann Rousseau: Throw Your Unforgiveness into Stinky Creek, Awakening the Luminous Mind - Book Review, Follow Your Dreams - Interview with Photographer Sharon Seaward, The Gift of Criticism - Does it Belong to You?, The Real Rules of Life Book Review, Tales of Everyday Magic - My Greatest Teacher (My Dad) Movie Review, What Did You Do Tomorrow? A Hay House Radio Show Discussion, Yes! Energy Book Review, Are You a Women’s Libber? Oprah’s Next Chapter with Gloria Steinem Discussion, What is Spirituality? - Oprah's Life Class Tour with Deepak Chopra, I Believe - Book Review,  Hay House Radio Show Discussion, Living On Purpose - Oprah's Life Class Tour Discussion, My Titanic Family Legend, Pearls of Wisdom Book Review, Enough Already - The Power of Radical Contentment Book Review, Wishes Fulfilled - Oprah's Super Soul Sunday Discussion with Wayne Dyer, A Facebook Message from a Friend in Spirit, Are You Having a Life Crisis? Do You Know What Integrity Is? Wishes Fulfilled -  Mastering the Art of Manifesting Book Review, Authentic Power - Oprah's Super Soul Sunday Discussion, KEM - Sophisticated, Sexy, Soulful and Spiritual, Are You Out of Alignment? Choice Point Book Review, The Middle Lane, Clean Your Mirrors, Three Feet From Gold - Book Review, Do You Need a Most Benevolent Outcome?, We Are All Connected Oprah's Super Soul Sunday Discussion, Release the Anger: Oprah's Super Soul Sunday Discussion, One Big Global Blogging Family, Book Review - Psychic Exploration A Challenge for Science, Hay House Radio's New Show SoundWave A Bit Hit!, Do You Believe in Soul Mates, The Future of Astrology, You Always Had the Power- Oprah's Life Class Discussion, Love Doesn't Hurt - Oprah's Life Class Discussion, The Unconditional Love of Animals-Oprah's Life Class Discussion, Your Life is Whispering to You. Pay Attention. Oprah's Life Class Discussion, The Power of a Second Chance: Oprah's Life Class Discussion, Aging : Oprah's Life Class Discussion, Connecting the Dots- Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Speech, The Truth Will Set You Free, Discussion of Oprah's Super Soul Sunday Premiere: The World Beyond, A Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom Moment, Breaking Out the Top Shelf Advice for Rough Times, Eat Dessert First -The Art of Extreme Self Care, Queen of the Law of Least Effort-Seven Spiritual Laws of Success Book Review, The Secret of Instant Healing Book Review, Transforming Fate into Destiny Book Review, Awakening the Lightworker Within Book Review, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane Book Review, Trust Your Gut Book Review, The Spirit Whisperer Book Review, Astrology for the Light Side of the Brain Book Review, How to Be Inspired Book Review, Infinite Quest Book Review, Biology of Belief Book Review, The Morning Breeze Has Secrets to Tell, The Gentle Way II Book Review, Do You Fear or Respect Mother Nature?, You Can Heal Your Life Movie Review,    Impossible Situations are Great Opportunities, Do You Have Enough?,  A Wright Brothers Moment! The Sacred Promise Book Review

A Guide Book for Advanced Angel Readings Foreword

Note: I was honored that Elizabeth Foley asked me to write the Foreword for her new book A Guidebook for Advanced Angel Readings. I have provided a copy of the Foreword for you here on my website.

If you are picking up this book at this point in time, it is probably because a series of synchronistic events led you here. You may have picked up a package of Angel oracle cards and found the results fascinating, and now you want to take your knowledge to the next level. Nothing happens by accident. When you work with the Angelic Realm you quickly learn that everything happens in Divine Order.

I met Elizabeth Foley through a series of synchronistic events. I had called my local Barnes and Nobles bookstore to see if they had a copy of Ask Your Guides by Sonia Chocquette to give to a friend going through a tough job search. I tried and tried to get through by phone and finally I said to myself, “Too upstream. You must want me to be there in person for some reason,” speaking to my own Angel team. I had just started working with Angels as a result of reading Sonia Chocquette’s book and listening to Doreen Virtue on Hay House Radio.

I jumped in my car and went to my local Barnes and Noble book store. I found the last copy of the book Ask Your Guides on the shelf and proceeded to the check out area when a sign caught my attention, “Author of Angel Readings for Beginners and Awakening the Lightworker Within Here Today.” I said to myself, “Hmmm…now I know why I had to come in.” Sure enough, Elizabeth was just about to kick off her book signing presentation. “How timely,” I smiled knowing there were no accidents. I popped my head into her group to see if there was a seat available and noticed the room was packed. Elizabeth saw me peek in and said, “Come on in. As a matter of fact, there is one more open chair right here in front of me.”

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear…and have a seat waiting for you right up front! From that day on, I got to know Elizabeth, take her classes and become an Advanced Angel Healing Practitioner through the certification program she teaches. Life has never been the same since. All because I paid attention to the signs from the Angels.

The Angels are now giving you a sign that they want you to advance in your spiritual development and your knowledge of them. Know that this book is your ticket to advanced guidance and wisdom that can only come from a close connection to a wise teacher and mentor.

You picked up A Guidebook for Advanced Angel Readings and have read thus far, so know that this book was written just for you. It’s time for you to explore your connection with the Angelic realm in more depth with the intention that the student will eventually become the teacher and healer.

Elizabeth Foley, the Master Teacher, will only show up in your life when you are ready and class begins now.

R. Ann Rousseau

Explore Beyond the Usual™
2009

  

R. Ann Rousseau reviews books and writes about spiritual, metaphysical, and astrological topics on her Website: http://www.explorebeyondtheusual.com and

Blog: http://www.explorebeyondtheusual.blogspot.com/

She is the President of the Seacoast Astrological Association and completing her first novel Portsmouth – A Love Story

Other Blog Posts by R. Ann Rousseau: A Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom Moment, Disappearance of the Universe Book Review, Breaking Out the Top Shelf Advice for Rough Times, Eat Dessert First -The Art of Extreme Self Care, Wayne Dyer Needs the 12 Step Quotaholics Program-Excuses Begone Book Review, Queen of the Law of Least Effort-Seven Spiritual Laws of Success Book Review, The Secret of Instant Healing Book Review, Transforming Fate into Destiny Book Review, Awakening the Lightworker Within Book Review, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane Book Review, Trust Your Gut Book Review, The Spirit Whisperer Book Review, Astrology for the Light Side of the Brain Book Review, My 9/11 Story, How to Be Inspired Book Review, Infinite Quest Book Review, Biology of Belief Book Reveiw, The Morning Breeze Has Secrets to Tell, The Gentle Way II Book Review, Do You Fear or Respect Mother Nature?, You Can Heal Your Life Movie Review, Hereafter Movie Review, North Wind Blowing -Time for a Change, Just Say NO to Straws, Presence University, Impossible Situations are Great Opportunities, Do You Have Enough?, Moon Tides Soul Passages Book Review, Compromise with the Varmints! Yankke Doodle Discord Book Review, A Wright Brothers Moment! The Sacred Promise Book Review

Disclosure: I am a Hay House Book Reviewer. I am an affiliate of Hay House Publishing and Amazon. This means I receive a commission if you purchase Hay House or Amazon books from this website. My credibility is extremely important to me. This site is independently owned and the opinions expressed here are my own. Sometimes that's very obvious

A Women's Bodies Women's Wisdom Moment

It was the scream heard round’ the world…well maybe just the neighborhood. I’ve been advocating to have a state law changed that would secure the same property rights for condominium owners that single family home owners have for being notified about land board hearings when they are considered abutters. In New Hampshire, only the Officers of a Condo Association are notified, and they don’t always deliver the notices to other condo owners in the building. That becomes a problem when you wake up one morning to find construction starting on a new Walmart across the street, and you never knew about it. I appeared before a committee of the State Legislature to speak about the Bill. Now, my story was appearing in the local newspaper—something most advocates would love to have happen. Only there was a catch.

The local newspaper wanted me to have my picture taken in the city square for the article. It also happened to be my birthday. I thought it was no big deal, so I agreed. Being a single girl, I hadn’t had my picture taken in years. The photographer showed up promptly and had me do a series of poses. I felt like a model enjoying her one minute of local fame. People were driving by honking horns and watching us. It was a fun thing to do on your birthday.

Within hours, I got an email from the reporter, “Your story is online, but we couldn’t get the photo in. The photographer hasn’t gotten back from another job.”

I followed the link to the article—and there it was. No big deal about the picture not being in. I just wanted my issue noticed by the community.
All of sudden, I get a Skype message from my friend Donata, “Nice picture in the Herald.”

“Picture?” I asked, “What picture? The reporter emailed me that the story was going out without the picture. I saw it that way online.”

She said, “No, there’s a picture.”

I immediately looked on line and sure enough, the most horrendous picture I had ever seen of myself was now available for all the world to see—not that they would want to but in my mind it was global. “Holy Sh..! That’s not me! Oh my God…Oh my God!!! It’s horrendous!” I don’t think my description here does justice to the melt down I had when I looked at that photo. I called Donata. “Oh my God. I look old and tired! I don’t look like that! I held the picture up to my face in the mirror and that’s not what I see! Jesus Christ! I’m single. If any guy Googles me, that’s the picture they’re going to see! Oh my God,” I said crying to my poor friend Donata.

“Robin, it’s not that bad. Really. You’re overreacting,” She said in her Lithuanian accent.

Maybe it was the fact that I had my period that day or maybe seeing a picture of myself on my birthday at age 46 was just a completely eye opening experience, but I was having an official melt down…on my birthday!

Being the wise 30 year old Yoda that she is, she said, “You know, you have to accept the fact that you’re not 30 any more. We all get older. It happens to everyone. There’s a spiritual lesson in this.”

I said, “I know. I know. I was thinking about that myself. But, I think it’s a combination of a spiritual lesson AND an outrageously bad photo!”
She said, “Well, there’s nothing you can do about it. What’s done is done. You have to accept it.”

After hanging up with her, I thought, I don’t HAVE to accept that this is me. I’m going to have my friend Mel Snodgrass, a professional photographer, come over and take some good photos of me. If I don’t like those, then I need to lose weight or do something to accept the way I look, because I wouldn’t go out on a date with that picture!

Armed with my battle plan in mind and a call to Mel who agreed to drop by on Sunday, I felt some relief. I decided that I needed to treat myself well to change the energy, so I took a walk downtown on Saturday morning. I bought some jeans at the Gap and some earrings at a local shop. It was a warm winter day so I decided to take a walk to my favorite park on the river. I was happily walking in my own little world towards the park when I saw a newspaper box on the sidewalk next to the entrance. As I walked closer to the park, the newspaper box and front page came closer into focus. All of sudden, I let out a scream—that scream heard around the world/neighborhood, “Oh My GOD!!!!” My ugly picture was plastered, larger than life, on the front page of the Saturday Herald staring up at me from the box. Meltdown #2. It’s one thing to look at your tiny picture in a story online. It’s another thing to see it a half a page large on the front of the local newspaper.

My feel good day turned somber. It made me even more determined to get some great photos of myself sooner rather than later.

The next day, Mel showed up. “I saw the front page of the Herald. Yeah, bad picture,” he said.

We got down to business immediately. He took a series of shots. We played with the lighting and poses. He was patient and very willing to get just the right shot that would bring me some peace. I found one that I could live with but I had to admit that maybe it was time I lost ten pounds.

Perhaps the spiritual purpose of the meltdown was to make me wake up and look at myself physically. Mel is a spiritual guy. He and I talked about the whole melt down week. I mentioned that I was aware that focusing on physical appearance so much this week may be a little superficial. But, we both agreed that we have a physical body…a face, so it’s important that we feel comfortable with the one we see in a photograph. It’s important that we take a look at a photograph every now and then to see how the world sees us. It was a wake up call that I needed to accept the 46 year old me.

I don’t think my issue is unique. After talking to my older Yoda friend Jean who is in her 80’s, she said it still amazes her when she looks in the mirror. She told me she frequently asks herself, “Whose older body and face is this?”

Our physical bodies never seem to reflect the age our inner spiritual body feels. We always seem to feel that we’re younger than we look.

At dinner parties, I often ask my friends, “If you didn’t know your real age, how old do you feel?” Many times I’m shocked. I’ve had a 90 year old tell me age 18. I’ve had a 28 year old tell me age 40. My 80 year old friend Jean feels 35. Perhaps our real age is what we feel inside. That would be all well and nice if our body reflected the way we felt. On days like my birthday meltdown, I am reminded that I’m really not 28 anymore-the way I feel, and I have to accept that—at least for just a moment.

After I went through my whole meltdown spiritual awakening, my friend Donata called again. “Don’t forget we’re going to see Christiane Northrup tape her PBS special at the Music Hall Saturday night. Do you have your ticket?”

I said, “Yes Mom.” Remember, I said that I was the 46 year old. She is 30 year old.

She said, “Maybe she’ll have something to say in her lecture about your meltdown. The program is called Women’s Bodies Women’s Wisdom after all. Maybe she’ll tell you to get some wisdom about turning 46.”

Wisdom about my body? I’m never sick. I go to the doctor when I feel like it which is never. Quite frankly, the last thing I think about is my body which may have contributed to my little picture drama. I remember Oprah called Christiane Northrup’s book “The Bible,” for women’s health.

I had never bought the book, because I don’t focus on illness. As a result I’m healthy. After this meltdown, I was thinking that maybe I needed to have a peek at the book and see if it could tell me how to have a 28 year old face on a 46 year old body.

Donata and I went to the PBS taping. The Music Hall was packed to the rafters with women of all ages, shapes and sizes. Camera men were walking up to audience members and taping them. They felt like movie stars for a moment in time. The big bright theatre lights were shining on everyone and the room was electric. Donata turned to me and said, “This is very exciting!”

I was thinking, “This is what a successful author looks like.”

We sat through a few hours of taping. What you don’t see in the final version of the PBS broadcast is a lot stops and starts. As kids, we would call them do overs. It’s not a sausage making process but it is choppy.

The spiritual lesson I got from the taping was that many times in life, we get do overs. We don’t have to accept our first “take.” We can look at it and if we don’t like how it looks or sounds, we can do it over, edit it, divorce it, or get another picture taken. We don’t have to accept less than our best game face. We don’t dwell on what was, what could be, our mistakes or failures. We buck up and start over and get the picture the way we want it to look. It requires fortitude and the willingness to be the best we can be.

When we’re young, we would get upset if a man leaves us, we lose a job or we flub a presentation, as if it were our last chance at success. This woman’s wisdom tells her to go back behind the curtain then come back out on stage and start again. That’s what I did to deal with my meltdown. I didn’t accept that the picture in the Herald was the best me, so I proactively got some more pictures taken. After I lose ten pounds, I’ll invite Mel over for some wine and say CHEESE again, and I’ll gradually get to the point where I won’t need another “take.” It will be a final cut—maybe by my 47th birthday. I’ll release it on my Linkedin page as a way to share it with the world…or at least my 100 contacts who already know what I look like. The bottom line is, I’ll be happy with a great picture and that’s all that counts…at least as an ending to this story.

Disclosure: I am a Hay House Book Reviewer. I am an affiliate of Hay House Publishing and Amazon. This means I receive a commission if you purchase Hay House or Amazon books from this website. My credibility is extremely important to me. This site is independently owned and the opinions expressed here are my own. Sometimes that's very obvious

Subscribe to Explore Beyond the Usual™ by Email

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

R. Ann Rousseau writes about metaphysical, spiritual and astrology topics on her blog Explore Beyond the Usual. She is author of the new novel Portsmouth, A Love Story.  

Follow R. Ann Rousseau on Twitter @RAnnRousseau 
Facebook. www.facebook.com/PortsmouthALoveStory

Other Blog Posts by R. Ann Rousseau: Throw Your Unforgiveness into Stinky Creek, Awakening the Luminous Mind - Book Review, Follow Your Dreams - Interview with Photographer Sharon Seaward, The Gift of Criticism - Does it Belong to You?, The Real Rules of Life Book Review, Tales of Everyday Magic - My Greatest Teacher (My Dad) Movie Review, What Did You Do Tomorrow? A Hay House Radio Show Discussion, Yes! Energy Book Review, Are You a Women’s Libber? Oprah’s Next Chapter with Gloria Steinem Discussion, What is Spirituality? - Oprah's Life Class Tour with Deepak Chopra, I Believe - Book Review,  Hay House Radio Show Discussion, Living On Purpose - Oprah's Life Class Tour Discussion, My Titanic Family Legend, Pearls of Wisdom Book Review, Enough Already - The Power of Radical Contentment Book Review, Wishes Fulfilled - Oprah's Super Soul Sunday Discussion with Wayne Dyer, A Facebook Message from a Friend in Spirit, Are You Having a Life Crisis? Do You Know What Integrity Is? Wishes Fulfilled -  Mastering the Art of Manifesting Book Review, Authentic Power - Oprah's Super Soul Sunday Discussion, KEM - Sophisticated, Sexy, Soulful and Spiritual, Are You Out of Alignment? Choice Point Book Review, The Middle Lane, Clean Your Mirrors, Three Feet From Gold - Book Review, Do You Need a Most Benevolent Outcome?, We Are All Connected Oprah's Super Soul Sunday Discussion, Release the Anger: Oprah's Super Soul Sunday Discussion, One Big Global Blogging Family, Book Review - Psychic Exploration A Challenge for Science, Hay House Radio's New Show SoundWave A Bit Hit!, Do You Believe in Soul Mates, The Future of Astrology, You Always Had the Power- Oprah's Life Class Discussion, Love Doesn't Hurt - Oprah's Life Class Discussion, The Unconditional Love of Animals-Oprah's Life Class Discussion, Your Life is Whispering to You. Pay Attention. Oprah's Life Class Discussion, The Power of a Second Chance: Oprah's Life Class Discussion, Aging : Oprah's Life Class Discussion, Connecting the Dots- Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Speech, The Truth Will Set You Free, Discussion of Oprah's Super Soul Sunday Premiere: The World Beyond, A Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom Moment, Breaking Out the Top Shelf Advice for Rough Times, Eat Dessert First -The Art of Extreme Self Care, Queen of the Law of Least Effort-Seven Spiritual Laws of Success Book Review, The Secret of Instant Healing Book Review, Transforming Fate into Destiny Book Review, Awakening the Lightworker Within Book Review, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane Book Review, Trust Your Gut Book Review, The Spirit Whisperer Book Review, Astrology for the Light Side of the Brain Book Review, How to Be Inspired Book Review, Infinite Quest Book Review, Biology of Belief Book Review, The Morning Breeze Has Secrets to Tell, The Gentle Way II Book Review, Do You Fear or Respect Mother Nature?, You Can Heal Your Life Movie Review,    Impossible Situations are Great Opportunities, Do You Have Enough?,  A Wright Brothers Moment! The Sacred Promise Book Review

Magus of Stone

Gulf of Mexico.
The bright Gulf sun splashes its sharp light through the waving palms.
It dances atop the broken marble of the tomb
It slashes a pulsating light down into the morbid abyss with jagged knives of sun and shadow.
Deep inside something moves.
A skull…the light slashes again and a fat black roach is seen scurrying from one eye socket to another only to dig and claw his way under a brackish mass of
the nasal septum.
His, fat, black, greasy body is bloated and it is covered with green sticky dust.
He seems not amused that we are here, and given the circumstances neither are we.

We set the gin pole of the old truck over the collapse and get to work.
A blues tune blares from the coastal am station from the dash of the truck
“Wah-dah, Wah-dah round my do.” It’s Bessie on a 78, scratching out the blues.
The sand is dazzling white, and in the distance, an emerald green Gulf beckons with coolness.
It’s not for us

All around remnants of twisted fences and broken tombs show themselves under a mass of wild and ancient vines whose hungry roots snake in and out of the crypts searching for water and the sticky green dust of the dead.
By the emerald gulf "da Wad-ah" by our door is a paradise.
Yet just Here, it is a torrid jungle of broken cemetery and tortured landscape.
Remnants of oyster shell paths meander to no where and fallen angels with bleached and blackened faces point upwards in mocking jest.

Underneath there is a hidden underworld of rabbit warrens where ugly armadillos, toads and feral wild cats make homes in its labyrinth.
The cats scurry and hiss at our arrival.
They seem to be the guardians of this macabre and morbid sub terrain

The day is hot.
Thor beats his anvil across a bright blue sky as the men work shirtless with their naked torsos glistening in sweat and sun.
Their picks rise and fall with muffled cadence as the white sand glares their eyes.
Their trousers are moist at the belt ring, making wet the curvature of their muscular backsides.

The air is salty and thickly perfumed with honeysuckle and Camilla.
Its sickly sweet smell carries with it, the humid musk of sea weed and the stench of drift wood. Dust of saw grass sticks to their skin.

At break, the men take their cigarettes or drink eagerly from the field canteen, letting the water dribble their chest and glisten their hard bodies and tight abdominals
They smoke and tell bawdy stories, laughing with life
While the dead sleep below.

We were working tombs and state prisoners in a two week project on this tortured landscape of toppled tombstones and sand.
The job says we are allowed to use convicts.
At 5 am, I show up at the prison yard of open air holding tanks and pick 5 men from the Mississippi state farm satellite system.
A Marshal Deputy with a shotgun rides atop a large mule.
He nods from his lofty position on his magnificent jack
which prisoners we get to pick and which we must refuse.
Under old arc lights, we make our pick of their shapeless forms.

It’s a daunting task to train men in stone.
People whose live s are broken by age twenty and their hearts are already hard.
Trailer trash and babies of teen agers who had nothing and will most likely never have anything
Here, we teach them stone.
If lucky, the stone teaches them about themselves.
Here we teach them stone repair and stone setting.
Cleaning and restoration-- mortar and brick.
Stone is the great teacher. The Magus
of all that is hard to overcome and create
The Magus and the Master

Lesson Number One is
No matter how hard this life is…. stone is harder.
Its wisdom is infinite.
Its spirit is its strength
And its spirit is
unbridled.

Stone teaches us in order to make anything of ourselves,
You have to understand the medium of Self.
This means
To know what you’re made of.
To Be able to identify your strengths and your weaknesses, and like stone,
Know the cracks and crevices
To cut, shape, mold and form stone,
You must become intimate with tools.
Your Tools.
You are not born with skills, but you are born with Tools.
Learn to use them.
And the first Tool to learn is Patience.

To be successful in Building, you must have Patience and Self Confidence.
There are many stones.
Be willing to make mistakes.
Hard work and Self Confidence alone is not enough.
The building blocks of stone are geology, science, math, chemistry, and engineering
Practice Perseverance and Faith.
Psychologically, you must feel yourself Alive…
beware of addictions.
And one must have Awareness that there is a greater order at work in the universe,
A Supreme Architect, if you will,
Of God, as we know him.
You must align with this greater power to do great things you were meant for,
So you have to discover and work on your Higher Self.
This takes practice and Mastery of Tools.
To become this Master, you must do the work of Mastering Yourself,
learn the skills of Education and Practice.
Above all The inner must reflect the outer.

The bedrock of the great Masons is the building of good character,
Men who will keep their word…keep that safe I tell these men,
And you will be served you all your days.

Other blog posts by Michael: Buried Alive

Michael Drummond Davidson is a historic masonry conservator whose work takes him all over the world. He lives in the deep woods of Mississippi on a 65 acre horse farm with his wife and preservation architect, Belinda . Michael considers his real work raising his 11 old daughter Mary aka “Peanut."

Musings on Mindfulness

I keep telling myself that I wish to live more mindfully—from exercising to eating, from meditating to interacting with others. But, I keep being brought up short by the fact that my mindfulness comes and goes. The monkey mind intrudes on my mediation. I don’t quite pay enough attention while executing a project. I lose myself in thought while I should be counting numbers of repetitions of an exercise, thus loosing track of where I am. I become distracted by a new toy.

I have had some reminders lately of how fragile my mindfulness practice (or rather my desire to live mindfully) is. My first reminder was on the day recently that I bought a new cell phone that has a lot more features and is, hence, more complicated than my old one. I went for walk that evening taking my cell phone with me. I do that because I never know when I might need to make an emergency call – say trip and hurt myself (I tend towards clumsiness frankly). I put the phone in my pocket with the intention of only having it if needed— god forbid. A young woman was walking the other direction as I started out. She was texting and clearly not paying attention to the beautiful evening that was happening around us. I noted that and thought what a shame. Yet, despite all my intention to only walk and be mindful of the evening and my surroundings, I kept pulling the phone out to play with some feature as I walked. I kept having to say stop this and put the phone back in my pocket. Thankfully, as I become more familiar with the phone, I have fewer tendencies to want to play with it.

I also recently was finishing a beading project. I was quite happy with the way it was going. I wove in the ends of the threads that were sticking out of the necklace. I created and attached what I call the dangles on each end of the necklace including the toggle closure. I was quite pleased with it. What I did not notice is that I cut a thread when I cut off the remainder of a woven in end. That, of course, led to beads starting to fall off the necklace. I did stabilize it, but one side was, to me, noticeably narrower than the other side. This was certainly a lesson in mindfulness. I decided after some careful consideration that this just would not do as a present that I intended it to be. I looked at the necklace carefully and decided that the “dangles” would hold together on their own, that I can cut threads and take off all the beads, that I can start the beaded portion all over again, and that I can reattach the “dangles.” The necklace will be saved, so to speak, and it will be what I intend it to be, but I would have saved myself a fair amount of time and effort if I had just focused and been mindful.

I do wonder as I type this how many more reminders I will have to be focused, to be mindful over the course of my life before I become more successful at being mindful.

Kathryn Samuelson is an intuitive who uses spiritual or automatic writing to receive guidance for her clients from the angels and guides. She is also a certified life coach certified by the University of New Hampshire. Kathryn does workshops based on the set of meditation cards and book created by her and her friend, Linda Lewis. For more information: http://www.kathrynsamuelson.com/, klsamuelsonATyahoo.com, or 781-799-7332.

First Cues - Making an Artform of Instinct

Ask people how they recognize intuitive guidance and some will say they depend on their tactile sense of good or bad “vibes,” while others swear by their “little voice.” Many suddenly have a “flash,” “get the picture,” or “see the light.” Still others, though more rare, rely on their sense of smell or taste, like the chairman of the board of Sony Corporation, who solves problems by pretending the potential solutions are pieces of food, then tries to “eat” them. Receiving insights via the five senses is a large part of intuitive perception, but what if you could pick up cues from your internal and external worlds at an even earlier point?

When you pay extremely close attention, you’ll notice that intuitive information first makes itself known through what we commonly call “instinct”—the deep yet subtle language of your cells. Just as animals sense an imminent earthquake, your body knows what’s happening in the world long before your mind does and it transmits instinctual signals constantly from the cells to the most ancient part of your mind—your “reptile brain.” Learning to recognize these primitive body messages can give you the edge in knowing who to trust, what’s true for you, or when it’s time to take action.

Intuition, contrary to popular belief, doesn’t usually descend from above. I experience it almost always occurring in the body first, then percolating up into consciousness. I jokingly tell the people in my classes that “your mind is the last one to know”! If you’re “in your head too much” doing mental, analytical work, you may literally overshoot your intuitive, instinctual messages because they’re so subtle and preverbal. It’s as though you’re the high-flying bird and the message is in the mud at the bottom of the pond down below.

Some years ago when I was writing my first book The Intuitive Way, I decided I should have a snappy anecdote to open a new chapter, something that would demonstrate the body’s important link to intuitive ability. My impatient mind wanted the perfect story to instantly appear out of the recesses of my brain and march in an orderly progression onto the page. Search as I might, I couldn’t retrieve a thing from my memory banks. After a prolonged period of staring blankly at my computer monitor, I realized I was actually daydreaming about a special hiking trail near my home. Managing to overcome my “shoulds,” I took a break to play hookey for a few hours.

It wasn’t until I was three quarters of the way through what had become a truly magical nature walk that I realized my mind and body were once again equally activated. I felt totally alive, absolutely involved with my world, easily inspired, and full of an enthusiastic creativity. By noticing my body’s immediate responses to the environment—sometimes attraction, sometimes repulsion—and by allowing myself to become engrossed with the elements of nature I encountered—the delicately-marked baby snake on my path, the regal, high-stepping waterbirds, the sound of the dry grasses in the wind––I remembered an important lesson. It is only through deep connectedness and a personal, physical resonance with life that we know what is real and true for us, that we derive our sense of direction. Lose your body’s live connection to the world and intuition and creativity stop. To jumpstart it again you may need to look to your deeper animal nature. This experience, as it turned out, became the very anecdote I needed for the book.

As you begin to open your intuitive perception, or your “direct knowing,” the first rudimentary messages will always come from your body’s instinct. Learning to pick up data at this earliest stage of perception can save you time, energy, and worry. When you learn to trust your first responses to new people, situations, places, and ideas you’ll discover an important truth: your body never lies to you. “First thoughts,” as writing teacher Natalie Goldberg calls them, are fresh, accurate, and full of genius.

EXERCISE: LET YOUR BODY DECIDE

The next time you go out to dinner, pick three or four different possible restaurants. Head off in the general direction of food, without deciding which one you'll go to. Let your body and natural instinct make each choice along the way. If one restaurant is to the north and the others are south, when you get to the intersection where you must turn, see which way your body wants to go. At the next juncture point, perhaps you'll find yourself not being able to get off the freeway at the exit that would take you to the Chinese restaurant. Continue on, realizing that it's probably the Mexican restaurant downtown that your body prefers tonight. Yet, as you park the car and start toward the restaurant, you might happen to notice a cozy little cafe down the block that you've never seen before, and as you do, your body perks up with enthusiasm. Go for it! And thank your intuition for leading you to a brand new experience.

TRUTH AND ANXIETY SIGNALS

How do you know when something is really right for you? Or when you hear the truth? How do you know that you want to do something, and that you’re actually going to do it? Conversely, how do you know when someone’s lying to you? Can you tell when timing is off? When a situation is being forced? When there’s a high possibility of failure or danger?

Your body communicates with you constantly, giving you feedback about the relative safety and appropriateness of every option you consider. Its messages contain either survival information that comes from the body’s rapport with the natural environment, or higher guidance about your optimal self-expression that comes from your soul and the collective consciousness of the planet. Most of us never take the time to know how we know or what we know; we just act. Yet our bodies are speaking volumes—just not in a language we immediately recognize. To develop intuitive skill, we need to be able to decipher our body’s information cues, to know quickly and directly, without taking time to “figure things out.”

The body’s language is a simple binary one—there are only two modes, two “words”: yes and no. You will recognize these messages through feelings of expansion or contraction in your body. When a choice or action is appropriate and safe, you’ll experience expanding energy: you may sense energy rising, becoming active or bouncy, or perhaps you’ll “warm” to an idea, get “light-headed,” or feel flushed with enthusiasm. Have you ever had the “hots” for someone, or had “butterflies” of anticipation, or been “up” for a new adventure? Perhaps you’ve felt magnetically drawn toward someone or a new situation. Have you ever said, “I’m leaning toward this option”? The body’s yes often feels like health and vitality, even good luck: “I’m rarin’ to go; let me at it!”

When I ask people how they know something is true for them, and exactly where they experience the feeling in their body, many describe a warm, spreading sensation across their chest. Others feel energy bubbling up from below their diaphragm into their chest, or from their chest into their throat. Some even feel it bubble up further, resulting in tears of happiness. Some feel the blood rush to their neck and face, making them blush. Still other people describe a variety of “clicks and clunks” as if something out of alignment suddenly snapped or dropped back into its rightful place. These feelings most often occur along the vertical center line of the body and seem to be related to that other oft-described sensation of something “ringing true,” where the body silently “gongs” like a huge reverberating bell. One of the other most common truth signals is the sudden movement of energy up the spine or along the arms and shoulders, giving the sensation of “chills” or gooseflesh.

But what about when something is not true or not appropriate for you? When the body answers no, the message is unmistakable. In fact, most people are more aware of their anxiety signal than their truth signal. When an option or action is unsafe or inappropriate, you’ll experience contracting energy: you may feel energy drop, recoil, darken, or tighten. Maybe you’ll act coolly, even coldly, to someone, or get a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. When something is not true for you, your body will try to withdraw and back away. You may feel repulsed, or become “leaden” or “turn to stone.” Instead of blushing, you may blanch as the blood drains from your face. You may get tired, feel gray, blue, even depressed. You may actually feel pain in a specific area of your body. Common anxiety signals are: a stomach ache or nausea, a “pain in the neck,” chest pain, headaches, or a feeling like a tight fist in the solar plexus area. Yet another anxiety signal is a prickly feeling of the “hair rising” along the upper spine and neck.

Why is it important to know your truth and anxiety signals? First, you need a fail-safe way to discern which options in life are best for you, to be able to make authentic choices, straight from your soul’s wisdom. Truth and anxiety signals are your inside pipeline to the highest knowledge. Second, by learning to discriminate clear answers more quickly and directly, you won’t waste so much time, energy, and so many opportunities for happiness. Third, by learning to absolutely trust your body’s first response, you will soon find the guidance you get is of a very high quality. Goethe said these deceptively simple words: “Just trust yourself. Then you will know how to live.”

EXERCISE: YOUR TRUTH AND ANXIETY SIGNALS

1. Start a journal or diary, and write about the different ways you know when something or someone is true, safe, or purposeful for you. Where in your body do you experience the signal? Does the signal move from one area of the body to another?

2. Write about the different ways you know when something or someone is false, unsafe, or not purposeful for you. Where in your body do you experience the signal? Does the signal move from one area of the body to another?

3. Notice the truth and anxiety signals you get today and write about them.

MAKING AUTHENTIC CHOICES

Tonight you may make dinner for yourself, or go out and choose food from a menu. What will you eat? How will you know what to pick? Perhaps instead of having what you usually have, you might question your body. “Body, what’s your feeling tonight about fresh lettuce? Tomato soup? Pasta with cream sauce? Steak and potatoes?” Let your truth and anxiety signals inform you of your body’s preferences, and see if you can pick up on the most subtle signals. Maybe your body would prefer a handful of crisp, cold radishes or half a grapefruit.

Perhaps you’re thinking that you “should” move from an expensive house you’re renting, and 1) find a less expensive neighborhood locally, 2) move out of state, 3) get a roommate, 4) get a studio apartment, 5) try to buy a house, 6) move back in with your parents. As you ask your body about each option, your stomach contracts, you get a headache, you want to take a nap, you get nervous and irritable. What is your body telling you? Perhaps it’s not time yet to make a decision. Can you let it be for now?

Maybe you’re job hunting and you’ve turned up several possibilities for work. Each one looks feasible to your mind, in a variety of ways. One job will let you use your people skills, another will pay more but you’ll be stuck at a computer all day, a third option will give you a chance to be innovative and work with a team of creative people. When your body responds, it gives you instant feedback: imagining sitting at a computer gives you a pain in the neck. The job with people skills feels lukewarm; there’s no tension yet no real excitement either. The third choice, working with the creative team, makes your body sit up at attention and almost salivate. What are you going to do? Will you override your body’s direct knowing with “yes, but’s” about not making enough money, or not knowing anyone there, or never having done this before, or not thinking you have enough talent? Or can you trust that your body might know more than your mind right now?

The more you validate your body’s answers by acting on its information, the more your body will trust your conscious mind, and the more easily it will provide expert guidance next time.

EXERCISE: VALIDATING YOUR BODY

Several times this week make a point of noticing when your body gets a message through to your conscious mind. Maybe you instinctually pulled over to a slower lane on the freeway and just ahead in the fast lane is the debris from a blown-out tire. Or, perhaps you got a sense to leave the house ten minutes earlier than you normally would for an appointment, then encountered an unexpected delay on the way--and you were right on time for your meeting! Thank your body out loud, and pat or stroke it tenderly, like you would a favorite pet.

DISCRIMINATING NONVERBAL INFORMATION

Nothing in life is really that complicated, especially from your body’s point of view. For the body, it’s always just a matter of one moment, one piece of information, one motivation at a time. And in each moment, there is just one choice, one solution that’s a perfect fit. In the next moment the choice may be different, so don’t be impatient and jump ahead. You’re not there yet. Anticipating future choices is a fruitless waste of time. When you need intuitive guidance, relax. Ask the body’s key question: What’s most interesting and crucial for this moment? Let that answer lead to the next most interesting thing. Choosing to work with the creative team might lead you to take a new training program the company offers, which gives you a new skill set, which leads you to greater confidence, which leads to a promotion, which brings you new clients, who offer you an opportunity to start your own business. . .

EXERCISE: YOUR BODY’S KEY QUESTIONS

1. Get quiet, centered and grounded, and breathe. Ask your body: What are you most worried about right now? What would you like to feel reassured about? Wait expectantly, and a “knowing” will begin in you, perhaps with feelings, sensations, images. Write about your body’s preoccupations and what you can do to help relieve these concerns. In what specific ways did your body make the answers known to you?

2. Ask your body: What are you most excited about right now? What activities would feel the most rewarding and engrossing? Wait expectantly, and a “knowing” will begin; notice feelings, sensations, images. In your journal, write about your body’s most real motivations and what you can do to help manifest these experiences. In what specific ways did your body make the answers known to you?

You may have noticed in the previous exercise that as you paid attention to your body you became aware of subtle sensations and perhaps had fleeting, ghostly images that all blended into an instinctual “knowing” that couldn’t be traced by logic. The answer just popped up into your awareness like the answers in the window on one of those magic eight-ball toys for children: “By all means,” “Highly unlikely,” “Try again later.” Perhaps your body was concerned about having enough protein to function properly, since you’d only had coffee and a sweet roll for breakfast, and during your morning meeting it gave you an image of a chicken breast sandwich, complete with the experience of smell and taste. You got a strong hankering and couldn’t wait to take an early lunch break and rush over to the fast food restaurant.

Or your body may have transmitted to you that it was most excited today about creating a new flowerbed, and it released to you a feeling of “hunger” for the feel of soft, well-turned dirt, for the moist smell of the nursery where you’d go to buy plants, for the thrill of the colors you would combine, and for the pure enjoyment of being in the sunshine and fresh air. You might even have had glimpses of the design of the bed, the placement of the flowers and how they might look in a year’s time. And yet, all this probably came to you in such rapid sequence that it seemed almost simultaneous, with little separation between ideas, sensory triggers and images. Because of the body’s shotgun-style, visceral way of communicating, we often miss its messages, especially if we’re caught up in worry or preoccupations.

To help make intuitive information more conscious, you might develop the habit of talking with your friends about “interesting perceptions I had today” or “interesting similarities I found between experiences I had this week,” or asking, “What do you think this means?” Assume that you have the right to feel “at home” in your own body, that you do not have to live with even the most subtle levels of discomfort. You can become conscious of the data in the tissues of your body by simply having conversations in your imagination with various parts of your body. Personalize your belly, or the bottoms of your feet, or your thyroid. Let them tell you what they know about life. Make an agreement with yourself that the moment you notice an anxiety signal, you’ll stop and discover what the message is. Make it a way of life to keep your body clear of blockages, ignorance, and negativity. Follow your truth signals!

Practice dropping below the surface of your normal daily distractions to find a deeper, more direct experience of knowing. Cultivating the habit of including your body in every decision-making process, and even trying to feel your cells talking, will help you honor your body as a living being. By respecting its innate consciousness, and “conversing” with it, you’ll have a reliable source of intuitive guidance and a new best friend.

Penney Peirce is an internationally respected author, visionary, and clairvoyant empath, known for her pioneering work in intuition development and her common-sense approach to spirituality and the development of expanded human capacities. She has trained and counseled business leaders, scientists, psychologists, and those on a spiritual path since 1977. Penney is the author of the ground-breaking book, FREQUENCY: THE POWER OF PERSONAL VIBRATION, and THE INTUITIVE WAY: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO INCREASING YOUR AWARENESS, THE PRESENT MOMENT, and two books on Dreams.

She lives near San Francisco. Her websites are: http://www.penneypeirce.com/ and http://www.thefrequencybook.com/