The people are rising up. They are questioning the status quo, protesting against the inequities and injustices of a capitalist system that serves the few at the expense of the many. This mass Occupy movement is awakening and invigorating a grassroots sense of power, the power of the people.
Personally, I feel the energy of this awakening movement very deeply, yet I fear that its intent is becoming as splintered as the multitude of factions that are now involved. I ask for a message of guidance regarding this energy of mass protest that, at its root, does indeed seek justice and change for all.
I am proud of the younger generation that is choosing to lead us in this brilliant way, using the technological tools that are in the hands of everyone. These protests are indeed worthy uses of the interconnected ability that is now so readily available to all of us.
If we are to use technology to remain connected and united in changing the world, what is the single most important and worthwhile thing for all of us to understand as we ride the current energy of change at this moment in time?
Here is how Infinity responds:
The power remains in the masses staying together, united in intent. Do not split into factions. Do not separate one from another, by country, religion, ideology, or political party. Do not disperse into groups of race, color, creed, or educational background. Remain instead as ONE.
Only in remaining strongly, centrally interconnected, as one group with one mission, will change be accomplished. Each day a new directive must circulate and all must act en masse. This is not only possible, but will also have the greatest impact, for a globally interconnected movement will be unstoppable.
However, personal agendas and egos, indecision, and disputes of the world you live in, must be swept aside. It is only in total acceptance of all beings as ONE being—one energy, one mind—that change will happen. Humanity must become one without borders for this movement that you speak of to surpass all other movements.
The potential is great, but success will only come with pure intentions and true acceptance of all peoples as one. You are all the same, even the opposition. All of you have equal greed inside you. The desires that the few exhibit and the many abhor must be accepted as occurring in all human beings, for they are part of the human makeup. All must ask the question: Where lies my own greed?
You are all the greedy few and you are all the masses. You all seek fairness, color blindness, borderless unity, with one direction for all humanity to now proceed in. The direction of fairness for all can only be achieved by acceptance of the unfairness that now exits. Greed exists and evil exists in all things, just as beauty, love, and goodness exist in all things. It is only in acceptance and balance and, of course, as ONE that any lasting change will succeed.
Find the ONE within the self, but find also the greedy self within before demanding change. If one does not acknowledge and realize the truth of the self at the deepest level, how can one trust the desire of the masses? In order for true change, the masses must unite in the core truth of being human.
If there is to be fairness for all then let it be for all. Honesty, openness, fairness, acceptance and love for all beings must ride this energy. There is enough energy already stirring to power this movement. Don’t lose sight of the original intent, set long ago: Change for all.
Chuck and I live in Red Hook, New York, a rural community in Northern Dutchess County. We are surrounded by fields and rolling hills, with nature at our door. There is another Red Hook, New York, in Brooklyn, quite a different environment. Sometimes people think we live there. Although Chuck and I have both had our city experiences, at this point in our lives we are quite contented with our rural existence. But that does not mean we are free of the issues that Red Hook, Brooklyn faces in its urban chaos of growth and change, as rustic an environment as our own in many senses. We too have our gangs, coyotes that roam the neighborhood at night, owls that swoop down and grab the unsuspecting ones. We have the unseen hovering always over us, destructive forces of nature and environmental catastrophes abound. At any moment something can happen, just as it can happen in a city of millions, in a rural Red Hook just as in an urban Red Hook. These two places with the same name represent contrast and sameness, two worlds equally offering darkness and light.
Today as I sat and meditated, gazing out into the backyard from my favorite spot, I allowed my eyes to note what was outside, when normally I would have turned my gaze inward. It felt important to take note of what which was happening in the outer world rather than refuse its insistent, distracting call.
King of the Sky
I heard the blue jays, like warning sirens, loud and clear. I saw the squirrels leaping from tree to tree, their mouths full of large green hickory nuts that seem to have grown in abundance this year, perhaps portending a harsh winter. I breathed in the colors of the changing leaves and accepted that autumn is now in full swing. I noticed the large black crows, calling to each other as they swooped low over the house.
I noticed another bird, lighter in color yet the same size as the crows, flying across the sky, going in the opposite direction from the crows. I was struck by its struggling, flapping wings, looking more like the fluttering wings of a butterfly than a bird. I couldn’t remember when I had ever seen a bird fly like that. It did not soar as the crows had done, but seemed singularly intent, flying in great, breathless haste.
Energy of Light
I was struck by the light and dark of the world we live in, the urban and the rural, the soaring black crows equally as intent as the flapping white bird, though their practiced, narcissistic moves appear so calculated, their stature as rulers of the sky taken for granted. I was struck by the synchronicity of this scene before my eyes and that which is happening in our own world, in our earthbound world, the grassroots Occupy Wall Street movement taking up residence in the narcissistic world of money, fledgling white birds daring to own the sky too.
I’m struck by President Obama’s fight against the dark crows of republicanism, his every effort to enact the change we all want shot down again and again, the struggling white bird constantly knocked from its perch. In our electing him as our president we set the intent to fight this fight that now is being waged, the light against the dark, the fledgling prince of the skies against the dark kings who so easily swoop over us, dismissing the kind of change that is so right for all humanity. We did indeed set the intent for this clash of worlds.
I see it as no different from setting the intent to change our personal world: to recapitulate or not, to divorce or not, to move or not, to change jobs or not, to become a spiritual being or not. The time has come to realize that we must change because even if we are not personally choosing it, change is happening.
We have to change. It’s not a choice anymore. Everything about the world, as we know it, is changing. It’s not fair, in my opinion, to argue that President Obama is not bringing the change he promised, because, as I see it, he is bringing us the greatest change we’ve probably ever seen. Simply by us, the American people, electing him as our president, we also elected to engage the universal energy of change. We set our intent to change along with him and his slogan: Change we can believe in.
Change Direction
So where do we go from here? The first thing to do is to embrace this change, to indeed believe in it and to accept its inevitability on a national and a personal level. We must all allow ourselves to be engaged by it, both innerly and outerly. We must find out why we live during this time of change and what it might mean to us personally.
I think we are all being asked to let go of the old world and flow into the new, but we can only do that by acknowledging that the old one no longer works for any of us. When we get so fed up with our own lives, when the way we function no longer gratifies or fulfills us, when we finally accept that we have reached a point of total despair, boredom, frustration, sadness, anger, or whatever else comes as a catalyst, we must be ready to open to new ideas and new ways of living. These are the moments of enlightenment that we all need, but the trick is to handle them properly, in balance and with pragmatism, so that we don’t just create a new wall, so we don’t just construct new structures impossible to penetrate or scale.
We must not turn from one darkness into another. We must find the light in all of us and use that to change the world. But we must all face our own darkness first, even as we ask the government to do the same. We must reveal our own deepest truths to ourselves, even as we ask others to be transparent. We must all become honest, with ourselves above all. For if we, the people who are protesting the dishonesty and the backhandedness of those we consider the culprits, the evil ones, do not face our own darkness we will not have a leg to stand on when it comes to the final battle.
I exposed my deepest self in my book, The Man in the Woods, and yet each day I am confronted with still more work to do on that deepest self, for that self offers endless opportunities to explore and discover who I really am, why I do what I do, why I conclude the things I conclude. It’s a little daunting to be so exposed, but I know it’s right in alignment with the times we live in. It’s time for all of us to face the truths of what we hide inside us, to free ourselves of that which keeps us stuck, so that we can be the change we so desire in our world. We can only be a world of truly changing beings if we each individually change ourselves too.
So the white bird fluttered away, butterfly-like in its insistence on getting where it needed to go. I didn’t see where it went, somewhere beyond the trees, but like the butterfly spirit it embraced it had set its intent and nothing was going to stop it.
As I watched it fearlessly make its way across the sky I sent my own intent to ride along with it. It was only then that I turned inward and asked myself to take up that intent, to never stop challenging myself, even though, on some days, I must force myself to confront the uncomfortable questions that arise within. I know that I must respond by facing my fears and questioning myself once again with the universal question that never seems to be fully answered: what am I so afraid of?
I’ve already learned that change is good, that each time I face down a fear I face down something that has been standing in my way. I’m as fascinated by the rural Red Hook that I live in now as I was fascinated by the urban Brooklyn I once lived in, not far from the other Red Hook. Life flows in both places and right now we’re all living in the same place. It doesn’t matter who we are or where we live, the place we’re in is the place of change.
Let’s go for it, in whatever way we can, personally first and then universally, because we are going anyway. I prefer to go openly and honestly, challenging myself to face what I do not like in others, learning from them what I must also face inside myself.
Find solace in quietude today, for it is only in inner calmness that the deeper self may be realized. There is need for such inner seeking of self and not only now during the times in which you live. This is a truth for all times. It is only through experiences of the deeper self, the spiritual self, that humanity will realize the eternal connection that all human beings possess, not as a gift, but as a reality of being human.
In moments of quietude seek the deeper self, the universal self, and ask for guidance of this deeper universal self, which is the source of all knowledge.
Your guidance will come from within the self, though your outer reality will signal your way. Your direction in life and the necessary steps to discover the deeper meaning of your life will be in alignment with your outer reality.
Perhaps your outer reality signals a direction that will lead you to a new level of awareness or perhaps your outer reality signals that it is time to take a new direction. Your outer reality will approve or disapprove of steps you are considering. You will be offered choices that may or may not be right. How do you choose? How do you know what to do next? How do you know if one step will lead to growth or to disaster?
Inner quietude will bring the answers you seek. The trick is to know just what such inner quietude feels like for you. Seeking inner quietude as often as possible will train your awareness to know what to do. Eventually, you will feel this inner resonance immediately arising upon questioning. In inner calmness you will learn that all the answers lie waiting within.
Often the answer may be accompanied by discomfort because it will, of course, be challenging you to change, to choose something out of the ordinary, to perhaps greatly disrupt the life you have been leading, daring you to face a new direction. Discomfort-in-resonance is perhaps the most challenging inner place to be.
Be aware that such moments are evolutionary ones, the moments when you are fully aware that you must change, that you are being challenged to go beyond the present self. They can be frightening moments, but if you stay firmly attached to the resonance of the moment—the clear voice of your spirit calling—you will find the strength and guidance you need.
Training the self to listen and act on your spirit’s call to change will lead to greater awareness of your spirit’s ways and means of guiding you and you will also have learned a new step in acquiescing to your journey.
Pay attention to your spirit calling you. The call today may be for you alone, a call to grow, but in the future it may lead to the growth of others as well. As we all evolve upon this earth, as we all listen to the truth of the spirit’s call, a greater sense of ourselves as interconnected beings, all desiring the same things in life and in spirit, may arise as a new reality of being human. This is already a known truth: that we are all just struggling to become more than we are; that, in reality, we are all on the same journey, but as humans we become so wrapped up in our personal woes that we forget that we all suffer.
Do not forget that each one of us is on a similar journey, the point of which is to grow in awareness of why we are here. And that is why inner quietude is such an important tool in both our spiritual practices as well as in our lives in the world. Through inner quietude the two worlds may merge and we may begin to flow through our lives more seamlessly each day.
Find inner quietude, heeding the spirit’s call, as often as possible. Find the calm self and the calm mind and let the knowing mind of this state of being human guide you. We are all readers of infinity and our training is in our own lives, in the circumstances that make up our realities and the choices we make.
May you find quietude and make a decision based on your spirit’s call today. Even if it is only a small or seemingly insignificant shift in self-awareness, such a step may offer more than you can imagine. It may release you from the place you now find yourself so caught in. Change the inner self and find how easily the outer self grasps at the opportunity for a new and different life as well. If we are hungry for anything, truly that thing is change.
When we lie awake at night, steeped in worry, can we accept that our spirit is calling us to change? When we are confronted by change, can we accept that it is not only necessary but truly desirable? Who are we anyway but a spirit seeking to evolve?
When change comes knocking at our doors we must embrace it like a well known guest, invite it in, sit at the table with it, and discuss the next step to take on our journey. We must ask change itself to lead us. We must remember that we did invite it though the invitation may have been sent out a long time ago. We must remember that change will never desert us nor ignore us. Keep in mind that its timing is always perfect.
Listen
We must sit across from our welcome guest as if before a mirror, look closely, listen closely, and question change intimately, going as deeply into our souls as possible to hear the news that change brings us.
Only in such close encounters with truth will change reveal why it has come knocking. If we turn change away it will only return, bothering us, urging us, scaring us and needling us in myriad ways until we open the door and let it in.
We must open our arms wide to change, acquiesce to its offerings knowing that our soul needs it, our heart knows and desires it, and our body craves it. Perhaps only then, in acquiescence, will the path become clear, the landscape before our eyes revealed, and the world we live in become recognizable. Until then our conflicts will not resolve. Our problems will loom ever larger and our inner turmoil will clutch at us in the wrong kind of embrace. We must allow ourselves to reject the embrace of fear and accept the embrace of a new journey.
The first lesson in becoming a reader of infinity is learning to listen. Listen without fear. Listen without judgment or doubt. Make no decisions, simply allow for listening. And that entails listening with the whole self.
See what happens as the world unfolds its beauties, as the universe presents its diamonds, and as your own spirit shows you the way.
I dare to evolve, to take the next step. The reason I am writing this blog today is that my personal next step involves what I have been writing on this website, as myself and as a channel. I have been in training, as I see it, for the past ten years or even more, depending on how you look at it. I accepted what was presented to me and began a journey of a lifetime, which has led me through the past several years where I communicate with an entity and publicly post her messages, that entity being Jeanne.
Over the past month or more I have struggled with intense restlessness. All of my personal inner work has been focused on achieving balance between my two selves, my inner self and my outer self, and getting them in better alignment, fully accepting who I truly am now and being always open to who I might become. It’s a lifelong process as I see it, leading always to deeper experiences and deeper meanings. Why am I in this life and who am I supposed to become? This is a question I ask myself constantly because, as I see it, I have so much more to do.
I’ve always expected to live a long life. The women in my family live into their nineties, in full mental awareness, and I expect I will too. That means I have thirty plus years still to live upon this earth. My question to myself every day is: What am I supposed to do with those thirty years? Many answers have come through. One of them is that I must clarify who I am and continue to evolve to my fullest human potential, which involves evolving to my fullest spiritual potential as well. So that is what brings me to this day in my life when I declare that I am taking the next step on that thirty year journey.
Steppin' out
My recent period of restlessness has led to a breakthrough in my personal inner work. I have discovered that my spirit has been pushing me to take the next step in my spiritual development, daring me to go beyond the place I now find so comfortable. Yes, this is all about allowing restlessness and discomfort to guide in an ever-evolving process leading to fulfillment of greater potential. Here is the present challenge: Can I accept the role that I find myself in, as spiritual guide?
Jeanne and I have had quite a history together. She came to guide and teach me. The first thing she taught me was learning how to trust, which involved challenging myself to let in what was appearing in my life: people, signs, and her own guidance. I elected to pay attention and that was my first big lesson in understanding the universe, infinity, and the greater interconnectedness of all things. Throughout that process I learned to detach from the old and allow for the new, old worlds, old habits, old expectations of self and others being shed along the way. Jeanne’s position has been one of master teacher, mine as student.
Jeanne told me, about a year ago, that I didn’t really need her anymore, but at the time I still felt quite dependent on her guidance. I also felt that I had to uphold the expectations of others, many others, by being her channel. In essence, I was upholding an old world, one that I knew would have to change.
She told me that when I was ready I would let her go, that the time would be right for both of us and everyone else involved as well. I’m electing to pay attention now to what Jeanne told me last year, my spirit in alignment with her prediction that I would, in essence, go solo, take the solo journey as a spiritual guide.
This is not an ego thing, I have very little ego invested in what I do. I am bent on finding ways to use what I’ve learned to help others, and that’s why I’m daring myself to declare this personal challenge publicly. I’m not leaving Jeanne, nor is she leaving me, but I am facing the challenge of mergence now, moving more fully into being a reader of infinity without needing the master teacher constantly by my side. I am electing to take the next step alone. It’s what we all have to do.
I have already long been practicing this merged self. When I meet with clients for hypnosis or just to talk, as many request, I don’t go as Jeanne’s channel, though I have also done that in the past. I go as myself and seamlessly flow with what comes through me; whether it comes from one entity or another makes no difference.
The master, Jeanne, has been waiting for me to take up the greater challenge of becoming me, a spiritual being who is fully aware that she has access to infinity. It’s what she taught me to understand and practice so well. It’s what she dares me to accept now and fully live. I feel that I have no time to waste, thirty years or not, it can all go by in the blink of an eye.
This is an evolutionary thing. And I say that because, as readers of this blog, you know that we are all readers of infinity. This is what Jeanne has taught us all. It’s what don Juan taught Carlos Castaneda and his cohorts. It’s what anyone with a spiritual practice or bent on having experiences beyond the body discovers: We all have access to everything, ancient wisdom, and the ability to read the present and predict the future.
If I am in fact going to live upon this earth for thirty more years I must, because I am me, keep evolving. I must leave the last vestiges of an old world and an old self behind and find out what else I can do. I want the next thirty years to be as spiritually driven as possible for reasons I have yet to discover, but I guarantee will be pretty exciting as long as I keep challenging myself. I also know that, by my example, others may dare to challenge themselves to live lives of meaning, spiritually seeking greater possibilities for themselves and others as well.
We all have a voice. We must discover how to use our own voice to change the world. That’s where I’m challenging myself, declaring myself as an evolving spiritual being capable of reading infinity, just like everyone else.
So, in the future there won’t be messages from Jeanne posted on the website. Instead I’ll be taking over in a new blog called Readers of Infinity. I’m accepting the challenge. I look forward to taking all of this to a new level. Let’s see what happens!
On behalf of Jeanne, I want you all to know that she is there for you, just as she is and was for me. Call on her for help anytime. She has not left any of us. She’s carefully watching as we take our first steps.
Love to all of you as we take those next steps,
Jan
