Happy New Year to all of you
from the MacGregor clan!
Any takers? We’ve done several posts on these numbers– here , here, for starters.
On January 5 and 27, 2010, we did posts on predictions for 2010. In the first post, we gave our predictions and in the second, we compiled a list of the predictions all of YOU had made. Here’s the list. How’d we do? Well, not too badly! The Dems didn’t hold onto the house during the mid-term elections, but still hold the senate; Alaska did NOT secede from the union; yellowstone did NOT erupt; no attempt on Obama’s life; not sure who #21 is; #19 happened, but without the close encoounters theme( over NYC, October 10, 2010); Palin didn’t divorce the hubby.
HAPPY 2011 TO EVERYONE! Let’s dream a better world into existence!
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| From Jung’s Red Book |
Each of us received something unexpected for Christmas, a genuine surprise. Trish received Jung’s Red Book. It was created between the years of 1914-1930 and was, by his own description, a record of his “confrontation with the unconscious.” It weighs nearly 9 pounds, measures 15.7 x12x 1.9 inches, has 212 colored illustrations.Unfortunately, it’s written in German, but in a calligraphy as stunning as the illustrations.
There are 178 pages in English called Liber Novus – New Book – that include an introduction to Jung’s work and some translations from Jung’s German entries. As explained in the intro: “The overall theme of the book is how Jung regains his soul and overcomes the contemporary malaise of spiritual alienation. This is ultimately achieved through enabling the rebirth of a new image of God in his soul and developing a new worldview in the form of a psychological and theological cosmology.” The entries depict Jung’s process of individuation, an important component in synchronicity, as well as the genesis of his concept of the Self, the collective unconscious, his concept of archetypes, his experiences with precognition. The dreams and inner dialogues really give you a sense of how he confronted his unconscious.
This illustration reminds me of the tree of life. You can get a sense of the calligraphy on the left – in German. But you don’t have to read German to be struck by this image.
From a section called, Soul and God: “Dreams pave the way for life, and they determine you without you understanding their language. One would like to learn this language, but who can teach and learn it? Scholarliness alone is not enough; there is a knowledge of the heart that gives deeper insight.”
While looking for a special Christmas present for Rob, I was poking around on butternut squash’s blog, where she writes about her fascinating trips to Nepal. Not only does she buy jewelry there from the local people, she is involved in creating a library for local schools. Her Tibetan jewelry and other wares from that country are exhibited on her other blog, where I first saw a Tibetan singing bowl and knew that was the gift. Rob will be teaching a new meditation class in January and I could just hear the rich tone of a singing bowl at the beginning and end of each class.
So I called Jeri one day from the parking lot of a grocery store. She asked me some questions about Rob’s personality, his interests,and said she would find the right bowl for him. She later said she tested 20 bowls and found the one she thought would fit him. When she mailed the gift, she enclosed an explanatory letter: “Other than clothing and a prayer wheel, the singing bowl might have been a monk’s only possession. Everything that the monk needed he could obtain with his bowl because it was his begging bowl and the bowl out of which every meal was consumed. So it is very vividly represents both the physical life of the owner in providing for his physical requirements as well as the spiritual life of the owner as a meditation tool.”
The bowl is old and bowls like the one you’re about to see and hear aren’t being produced anymore. Jeri says that “old” means it was made anywhere between 1800 and 1950. She also mentioned that sometimes the monk who owned the bowl may drop in for a visit. We’re hopeful!
Here are the bowl and the tone:
Happy 2011!!
Cj, who comments frequently on this blog, alerted us to this story about Hillary Clinton and earthquakes. It’s one of those global synchros that we talk about in 7 Secrets.
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During her entire tenure as Secretary of State, Clinton has been pursued by quakes. In February 2009, during her first trip to Japan as America’s premiere diplomat, she was shaken awake by a minor quake. Four months later in Honduras, she was treated to a 5.0 quake.In October 2009, Clinton was in Pakistan at the same time that her husband was and experienced more quakes. Days before the 8.8. quake struck Chile, Clinton was supposed to visit, and that quake put her plans on hold. Yet, she still managed a brief stop in Chile to assess the relief effort.
The history of Hilary Clinton and quakes is detailed here, and prompts us to wonder if the dramatic events of the 2008 election are still playing out for her. How this will translate beyond 2010 remains an intriguing enigma.
We should add that Hillary herself is an earthmover. According to the USA Today-Gallup poll released Monday, Hillary is the most-admired woman for the ninth straight year. Number 2 this year: Sarah Palin, followed by Oprah Winfrey.
We opened the newspaper on a recent Friday to a section called ACCENT that has ‘soft’ news, consumer info, and entertainment. At the top of page 2 was a picture of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (they had the names backwards, but we figured it out – we’ve seen plenty of those two). Bumping up next to Angelina was a religious column–the God Squad–with this headline: Do ghosts exist? Judeo-Christian tradition says no.
What a let down. Here we are in the midst of writing a book about synchronicity and contact with the other side, and the newspaper informs us that we’re barking up the wrong tree, so to speak. In spite of all the books and all the testimony from ancient times to the present, God Squad columnist Rabbi Marc Gelman informs its readers there are no ghosts. But what about angels? Aren’t they part of Judeo-Christain tradition? Rabbi Gellman tells us that “angels are not ghosts, nor are they good dead guys. Angels are spiritual beings who help God run the world and keep track of our lives.”
Okay, now we know it’s not Obama or the Republicans running things in the U.S. We can blame the angels for the high unemployment, enormous deficit, and the war-mongering. But the God Squad was just getting warmed up.
We learn from the rabbi that guardian angels are either “cheering us on or ratting us out,” depending on our behavior. Hm, they must not have very much to do. Some of them apparently weren’t looking forward to their work following us around and became demons, “angels who didn’t want God to create us in the first place.”
But let’s move on to ghosts. “Ghosts are supposedly the souls of dead people ‘trapped’ in this world, unable to proceed to their final destination in heaven or hell. Both Judaism and Christianity hold to the belief that ghosts are not real because souls can’t linger in the world after death. According to Hebrews 9:27, our destiny is to die once and then face judgment.”
Apparently the God Squad isn’t high on the idea of purgatory, which seems like a traditional religious way of explaining phenomena such as ghosts.
Now for all the mediums and medium-goers out there, the rabbi has this to say: “Consulting the dead is a sin.” He added that most psychics are charlatans “using grief to extract money from vulnerable people.” We could say the same about religions.
Finally, the rabbi concludes: “I believe that consulting with ghosts or spirits wherever they reside is a spiritual boundary mistake. We’re in the world of the living until we die, and our total focus must be on this world.”
It sounds as if Rabbi Gelman wrote himself out of a job with that last comment. However, he’s probably telling us not to question religious authorities or to explore spirituality on our own. Our next book on spirit contact coming out in 2011 probably won’t be looked upon favorably by those of like mind.
For our part, we suggest you keep your feet on the ground and your head in the sky and beware of priests, gurus and rabbis telling you otherwise.
…my true love gave to me…
three girls in prom dresses holding chickens.
If hundreds of people start Googling: Girls in prom dresses holding chickens, we’ll let you know.
…we explore the space between with an interesting article about how we are all one.
It made me realize that former U.S. senate candidate Christine (‘I am not a witch’) O’Donnell actually said something quite astonishingly on the mark in that same silly campaign ad when she ended it saying: ‘I am you.’
It was cold here last night (the 15th), at least for South Florida. Our neighbors brought out their fire pit, which was loaded up with woods and logs, and suddenly it turned into an impromptu party. We had marshmallows that we roasted on skinny sticks, wine, even music from the radio. At one point, Janette was telling us how she and her son had just watched Christmas Shoes, a movie none of the MacGregors had heard of, not even Megan, who’s an expert on movies.
“What’s it about?” Megan asked.
“About a boy who loses his mother,” Janette replies. “We’ve got it on DVD if you want to watch it.”
“Sounds too sad,” I said.
“Well, it’s sad,” Annette (the other twin) said. “But it’s really good.”
And right then, just as I remembered that the twins had lost their mother when they were only 10 – a very sad story–a song comes on the radio and the twins glance at each other and shout, “Synchronicity! That’s the theme song to Christmas Shoes!”
OK, it’s not a huge synchro. But just that day, after we had posted Sylvester, Darren, and Peter Gabriel, a post about song synchros and a cat, I was thinking that I couldn’t recall ever having had a song synchro. It bugged me. And then, a few hours later, there it was.
Merry Christmas to everyone!
Our cat, Simba, has found his favorite spot beneath the Christmas tree.
And to all dog lovers out there:
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all!
A Medieval depiction of St. Nicholas (above)
An 1886 painting of Norse God Odin (right)
Supposedly, St. Nicholas of Myra is the primary inspiration for the jolly red-suited sleigh driver and gift-giver. He was a 4th century Greek Christian bishop of Byzantine Anatolia (now Turkey).
But let’s go back farther in time to the pagan days and the Germanic god Odin. When the Germanic people were Christianized, it’s believed they carried forward elements of their pagan heritage, surviving now in the form of Santa Claus.
Let’s take a look at the evidence. Odin supposedly participated in the Germanic holiday, Yule, by leading a hunting party across the sky. The Prose Edda, written by 13th century writer Snorri Sturluson, described Odin riding an eight-legged horse named Sleipnir that could leap great distances, which could be compared to Santa’s reindeer. Odin was also referred to by several names, which meant ‘long beard’ and one name that meant ‘Yule figure.’
According to Phyllis Siefker, children would place their boots–filled with carrots, straw or sugar–near the chimney for Odin’s flying horse, Sleipnir, to eat. Odin would then reward the children by replacing Sleipnir’s food with gifts or candy. Siefker maintains that the practice continued in Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium in post-pagan times and became associated with St. Nicholas in a syncretism of pagan and Christian traditions.
So, if Santa is a pagan at heart and we look at the ‘truth’ about paganism, as proselytized by fundamentalist Christians, then we better jumble those letters around: S-A-N-T-A = S-A-T-A-N= Satan! There you have it, folks.That’s what we call a Mercury Retrograde Merry Christmas from the MacGregor clan! Up is down, and down is up. A reality play.
