Monk’s Mound, the largest Pre-Columbian earthwork in the Americas, was built by Native Americans living at Cahokia. PHOTO CREDIT: MattGush/Shutterstock

In the ancient Mississippian settlement of Cahokia, vast social events – not trade or the economy – were the founding principle.

Pity the event planners tasked with managing Cahokia’s wildest parties. A thousand years ago, the Mississippian settlement – on a site near the modern US city of St Louis, Missouri – was renowned for bashes that went on for days.

A cosmopolitan whir of language, art and spiritual ferment

Throngs jostled for space on massive plazas. Buzzy, caffeinated drinks passed from hand to hand. Crowds shouted bets as athletes hurled spears and stones. And Cahokians feasted with abandon: burrowing into their ancient waste pits, archaeologists have counted 2,000 deer carcasses from a single, blowout event. The logistics must have been staggering.

Things are quieter these days at Cahokia, now a placid Unesco site. But towering, earthen mounds there hint at the legacy of the largest pre-Columbian city north of Mexico. A cosmopolitan whir of language, art and spiritual ferment, Cahokia’s population may have swelled to 30,000 people at its 1050 AD peak, making it larger, at the time, than Paris.

Read the entire article online at bbc.com.

link submitted by Gene Savoy Jr.

“Great art is, among other things, a result of this impulse. It is only necessary to gaze with the eye of the spirit upon a Greek Temple, in order to see that in this marvel of art, material substance is so worked upon by man that it appears in every detail as the expression of spirit. The Greek temple is the ‘House of the Spirit.’ One sees in its form what otherwise only the Spiritual eye of the seer perceives. The temple of Zeus (or Jupiter) is so constructed as to present to the physical year a fitting shrine for what the guardian of the Zeus (or Jupiter) Initiation saw with spiritual vision. And it is the same with all Greek art. The wisdom of the Initiates flowed in mysterious ways into poets, artists, and thinkers. The mysteries of the Initiates are found again, in the form of conceptions and ideas, in the system of thought by which ancient Greek philosophers interpreted the universe. The influences of the Spiritual life, the Mysteries of the Asiatic and African sanctuaries of Initiation, flowed into these nations and into their leaders.” ~Rudolf Steiner

Greek Temples

The ancient Greek temples, as well as other buildings, were designed in a way that did make them spiritual, in a sense. They were designed and constructed according to the Law of Divine Proportion. Their main entrance always faced East, toward the rising sun, and the secondary entrance, or exit, was on the west side facing the setting sun. This was not just for the Temple of Zeus, but is also true of the Parthenon, the Temple of Hera, The Temple of Artemis, the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, and others. And it wasn’t limited to temples. The Great Theater of Epidaurus has been called the most perfect theater of all time because of its appearance and acoustics.

One can stand in the speakers spot and speak in a normal voice and be heard by those seated anywhere in the great theater.

Greek Arts

Steiner says that other arts in Ancient Greece were also done with spiritual vision. That is true in many cases, but not all. Not all painters, writers, sculptors, or philosophers were knowledgeable in the spiritual teachings of the mystery schools. Even fewer were actually students of such schools. But some followed the established conventions of beauty, harmony, and grace that were followed by those who were students of the mysteries. Much of that art has not survived to the present time, but some has, particularly the sculptures and philosophies. We all know of some of the great philosophers of Greece, including Plato and Socrates. We are not familiar with the great sculptors for a simple reason: their works are generally not signed. You can go to museums in Athens and elsewhere and see many examples of great sculptures that follow the rules of Divine Proportion, harmony, and grace, but you find no signature on them. Despite that fact, some of the sculptors were famous in their time. They include Myron of Eleutherae who was said to have sculpted a heifer that was so realistic, it could be mistaken for a real cow, and Phidias of Athens who’s most famous work was a 40-foot statue of Athena.

Roman and Egyptian Architecture and Art

The ancient Greeks were not the only ones who used Divine Proportion and other spiritual concepts in their architecture and other arts. The Egyptians did it before the Greeks, and much of the knowledge the Greeks had on the subject came from Egypt. And the Romans copied the classic art of the Greeks, so much of their art had it as well. Of course there were spiritual schools around Rome, just as their were in Greece and Egypt, so some of the Roman art may have been inspired by their own initiates and not simply copied from the Greeks. As for the Egyptians, they also used Divine Proportion, also known as the Golden Ratio. The image below of the Pyramid and Sphinx illustrates the use of the Golden Ratio at that sight.

From the SOLAR WIND collection by Harold Boulette

The display of 37 colors that was presented during the music–color association task.

Abstract
Experimental evidence demonstrates robust cross-modal matches between music and colors that are mediated by emotional associations. US and Mexican participants chose colors that were most/least consistent with 18 selections of classical orchestral music by Bach, Mozart, and Brahms. In both cultures, faster music in the major mode produced color choices that were more saturated, lighter, and yellower whereas slower, minor music produced the opposite pattern (choices that were desaturated, darker, and bluer). There were strong correlations (0.89 < r < 0.99) between the emotional associations of the music and those of the colors chosen to go with the music, supporting an emotional mediation hypothesis in both cultures. Additional experiments showed similarly robust cross-modal matches from emotionally expressive faces to colors and from music to emotionally expressive faces. These results provide further support that music-to-color associations are mediated by common emotional associations.

Read the entire article online at pnas.org.

link submitted by Michael McIntyre

“Even the passions become good if we wisely and diligently detach them from what is bodily and direct them towards the acquisition of what is heavenly. This happens, for example, when we turn desire into a noetic yearning for heavenly blessings, or when we turn pleasure into the gentle delight which the volitive energy of the intellect finds in divine gifts; or when we turn fear into protective concern to escape punishments threatening us because of our sins; or when we turn distress into corrective remorse for present sin. In short, the passions become good if – like the wise physicians who use the body of the viper as a remedy against present or expected harm resulting from its bite – we use them to destroy present or expected evil, and in order to acquire and safeguard virtue and spiritual knowledge.” ~The Philokalia

Passion Redirected

Passion for a thing is not bad. Passion is only bad when we let it turn us toward the material and away from the spiritual. Unfortunately, when we make little effort to direct our passion, it generally turns to the material by default. Since the mind is oriented toward the material, it directs our passions in that direction. The mind knows little about the spiritual, so it tends to ignore it. We have to make a real effort to redirect our energy of passion toward the spiritual. It is not an easy task, but it is doable, and worth the effort.

Let’s consider some simple examples. Suppose you have a passion for reading and you generally turn to novels of adventure, horror, or mysteries that are often very violent and dealing purely with the material world. You can keep the passion for reading, but start reading inspiring books and spiritual books instead. At the very least, look for books that are not violent and reflect the fact that there is a spiritual realm as well as the physical.

Suppose you are athletic and love running and walking. Instead of limiting yourself to running on an enclosed track, take long hikes in the woods or mountains. Getting away from crowds helps us awaken the spiritual within ourselves.

Acquisition of What is Heavenly

Different churches and spiritual schools seem to have different ideas about what is heavenly and what pleases God. Let’s look at it in a different way. Instead of saying what is Heavenly, look to what will awaken and develop our own spiritual faculties. That is really the most important thing we can do to become heavenly. Once we awaken those faculties, they will know what God wants and how to accomplish it. That is how we become heavenly. That is how we redirect passions. The mind can’t do it, but the soul can.

Destroy Evil

In most cases, we can’t literally destroy the “present or expected evil.” What we can do is turn away from the evil dark beings and dark forces. Demons and devils feed off our energies when we do their bidding, intentionally or not. When we turn our passions and desires to the Godly and heavenly, we deny them that energy and starve them. As more and more of us turn away from them and toward the spiritual, they will lose power and eventually give up and return to God to face the karma they have earned for their behavior before they can truly be welcomed back into the fold.

From the SOLAR WIND collection by Harold Boulette

“The religious consciousness is awakened when we encounter a network of great contradictions running through our human life. When this consciousness comes to itself we feel as if our being were on the verge of a total collapse. We cannot regain the sense of security until we take hold of something overriding the contradictions.

“Whatever contradictions we may experience they would not trouble us unless we were philosophers, because each one of us is not supposed to be a thinker of some kind. The contradictions however in most cases assert themselves in the field of the will. When we are assailed on this side, the question is felt more acutely, like a piercing arrow. When the will to power is exposed to constant threat in one form or another, one cannot help becoming meditative about life.

“’What is the meaning of life?’ then demands not an abstract solution but comes upon one as a concrete personal challenge. We then abandon all the contradictions that appear on the plane of intellection, for we must feel in a way contented with life.” ~Daisetz T. Suzuki

Awakened Consciousness

Rather than “religious consciousness,” I think it would be more accurate to say “Spiritual Consciousness,” especially today when many people think of religion and spirituality as two different things. There are also different ideas about what a Spiritual Awakening really is. What Suziki is talking about seems to be simply the sudden awareness that things are not quite what we have been taught and what we believed to be true. That to some of us is the beginning of a Spiritual Awakening, but is not the culmination of it. True Spiritual Awakening happens when the Soul becomes conscious, and that rarely, if ever, happens overnight.

Network of Contradiction

I’m not sure we can claim that everyone begins their spiritual awakening through the discovery of a “network of great contradictions,” though that certainly is one common way that it happens. Sometimes, it happens gently and slowly, other times it happens with a great shock. I think that it was the shock kind that happened to St. Francis of Assisi when he went off to war and suddenly faced the horror of humans killing each other on a battlefield. That started the process that culminated in his true awakening while watching a sunrise from his bedroom. In my case, I think it was a combination of both. First, I had a gentle and limited awakening to the network of contradiction when I was in my teens and we moved to a new town. I found that this small town that should have had only one Catholic Church actually had two of them just a few blocks apart. I leaned that the reason for it was that a few decades earlier, when the population of the town was made up mostly of French people from either France or the French-speaking parts of Canada, and Irish people, the two groups didn’t get along with each other, so each insisted on having a church of their own. This made we question the truth of the Catholic Church as it seemed to me, even as a teenager, that a real Church that believed in the teachings of Jesus would not have given in to such prejudices. My greater awakening came nearly thirty year slater when my younger brother died. That was the shock type of awakening that made me start questioning just about everything.

The Contradictions Assert Themselves

I’m sure there are many others who lose a family member and start questioning the meaning of life, but quickly get over it and get on with life. For a few of us, the contradictions continue to assert themselves and we have to delve into them. We can’t just let them go and get back to being a robot of capitalism and materialism. If you are reading this, you are probably such a person also.

I had read some spiritual books before, and even practiced Transcendental Meditation for a time, but now I turned even more to seeking out the truth in spiritual development. Eventually, that led me to answer an ad for Cosolargy, and I soon joined that spiritual school. I am still with it more than thirty years later, so needless to say, I think it has helped me find many of the answers. It has helped not by telling me everything as most churches do, but by teaching me how to experience the spiritual on my own and learn through experience, the only way we can truly learn about the spiritual sun and learn about through experience, the only way we can truly learn about the spiritual.

From the SOLAR WIND collection by Harold Boulette

Pope Francis officially launched the process at a Mass in the Vatican PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

Pope Francis has launched what some describe as the most ambitious attempt at Catholic reform for 60 years.

link submitted by Gene Savoy Jr.

“Spirituality is not living in dreams, or living in the clouds, or having a pale face and languid air, as if the things of the earth were beneath one’s serious consideration, and were rather endured than enjoyed. Spirituality means the greatest acuteness of intellect, the greatest foresight, the greatest amount of spirit or power gathered in a person, and the wisest expenditure of that power. It means the greatest governmental ability, be that ability exercised in the small empire of a household, or the larger empire of a nation. Spiritual gifts mean all talents, all powers, and all methods of using those powers.

“That is a spiritual gift which finds out healing properties in plants, roots, and herbs. All nature expressed in substance, seen of the physical eye, is an expression also of mind or force. … But all seen things are expressions of the lower or relatively cruder form of mind or spirit, and therefore have a limited power; and, when any material remedy is applied, the main dependence should not be on the remedy, but on the power of mind, and, above all things, one’s own mind or force to put the body above the reach of disease.” ~Prentice Mulford

Spirituality

Mulford says that spirituality is not “living in dreams,” etc. If he were living today, he would likely add to that list, playing a tambourine, meditating, or saying “Namaste” all the time. Not that there is anything wrong with doing those things, but in themselves, they do not make you spiritual. People didn’t spend years, even decades, in the great mystery schools of the past if that was all there was to do and study, but it isn’t. There is much more to real spiritual development than those simplistic approaches.

Things of the Earth

Mulford is also correct in saying that real spiritual people do not reject the things of the earth as beneath them. It may be true that St. Francis rejected his father’s wealth, but he didn’t live naked in a cave and eat bugs thereafter. Real spiritual people always put the spiritual needs before the physical, but they don’t reject the physical. As long as they have physical bodies, they know that they need to take reasonable care of them, yet without becoming attached to the physical. That is the difficult trick sometimes called “walking the razor’s edge”.

Spiritual Gifts

This is one area where I think most real spiritual leaders and teachers will disagree to some extent with Mulford. The problem seems to be that Mr. Mulford either doesn’t recognize the existence of a spirit and soul, or he thinks they are but names for part of the human mind. Both of those beliefs are incorrect. But due to this belief, he places too much importance on the mind and the intellect. So he says that “acuteness of intellect” is a spiritual gift. While a good intellect is of value to spiritual people, it is not a spiritual gift. It is the more universal form of intelligence called consciousness that is important to the spiritual person. And consciousness is not measured by an amount but by levels of consciousness. There are very low levels of consciousness in simpler beings than humans, and much higher levels of consciousness found in Light Beings or Angels. A great spiritual gift, therefore, is to achieve higher levels of Consciousness, not intellect.

Mulford goes on to say that spiritual gifts include all talents, powers, and ways of using such powers. Here I must disagree. Using our abilities for strictly material and materialistic pursuits is not at all spiritual. Such usage may be necessary while we are in physical form, but that doesn’t make them spiritual. Real spiritual gifts include such things as being able to communicate with animals, being able to predict the weather and other future events, being able to recognize when someone else is telling the truth, or not, etc. Most of all, a spiritual gift is the ability, desire, and courage to move forward on the  often difficult path of real spiritual growth. That is the gift that is truly spiritual.

From the SOLAR WIND collection by Harold Boulette.

First of a special four-episode arc to explore certain unique aspects of the Polar Configuration. Beginning with ‘As Above, So Below’—the well-known phrase of legend and myth—this episode analyzes the planetary origins of the king and the bizarre rituals of kingship.

To achieve a fact-based history of our solar system, comparative mythologist Ev Cochrane finds it necessary to forsake the scriptures of modern science, while paying careful heed to the testimony of the ancients.

Watch the entire video at youtube.com. (10:47)

link submitted by Robert Petrovich

Resist The Beast and Antichrist

“Take heed of the seeming holy Hypocrites and Flatterers, for they are Antichrist’s (and not Christ’s) Ministers; for Antichrist has set his foot upon the breadth of the Earth, and rides upon the abominable devouring Beast, which is as great as himself, and indeed greater. Therefore, it is highly necessary that everyone should feel in his own bosom, and consider his heart, how it is inclined, that he does not deceive himself, and unknown to himself, yield to be the servant or minister of Antichrist, and fulfill that prophecy; for he stands now in the Light of Life. And beware of covetousness, for thou shalt not enjoy it; for the Wrath of the Beast breaks the mountains and hills to pieces; and the covetousness will partake of the fierceness; the time is near.” ~Jacob Boehme

Holy Hypocrites

The problem of what Boehme calls “Holy Hypocrites” is even worse today than when he wrote this. We have people calling themselves ministers of God who actually know nothing of God. That would be bad enough if they were at least teaching the true teaching of Jesus, Buddha, or other real holy person, but most of them are not. Many are simply teaching what their congregation wants to hear as they know that is what brings in donations. We have preachers taking in millions of dollars a year teaching what they know is not at all what Jesus taught. But they are not trying to preach truth and save souls, they are simply running a profitable business. That makes them servants of the Antichrist, willingly or unwillingly. But it doesn’t end with ministers, preachers, and spiritual gurus. We also have political leaders today sprouting absolute nonsense in an effort to divide and conquer. By pitting one group against another, they maintain control. Of course, they are not really in control. They are just the puppets of the super wealthy, the super greedy, who are also servants of the Antichrist.

Rides the Beast

Boehme says the Antichrist “rides upon the abominable devouring Beast.” I think most of us thought the Antichrist and the Beast were two names for the same being. Boehme seems to think differently. So who is the Beast? As best as I can tell, Boehme is saying that the Beast the Antichrist “rides upon” is his flock, his followers, those who do his bidding, knowingly or unknowingly. Unfortunately, there are millions of people in the world who are doing the bidding of the Antichrist without realizing it.

Do Not Deceive Yourself

Boehme advises that we not deceive ourselves by falling for the schemes of the Antichrist and his minions. He tells us to do that by the feelings in one’s own bosom and one’s own heart. In other words, we must trust our own intuition. If it were that easy, the devil and his minions would not have the control of millions. Unfortunately, few have developed their intuition, or learned to know when they are being advised by it, and not by a demonic minion whispering in our ears. Nonetheless, it is the most reliable method we have, so we should all learn to recognize when our intuition is advising us and, more importantly, to listen to its advice. The more we use and trust our intuition, the stronger and more reliable it gets. And fully awakening our spiritual faculties using the Light of the Spiritual Sun will make it even more reliable.

From the SOLAR WIND collection by Harold Boulette.

“The rupture between faith and knowledge is a symptom of the split consciousness which is so characteristic of the mental disorder of our day. It is as if two different persons were making statements about the same thing, each with his own point of view, or as if one person in two different frames of mind were sketching a picture of his experience. If for ‘person’ we substitute ‘modern society,’ it is evident that the latter is suffering from a mental dissociation, i.e., a neurotic disturbance. In view of this, it does not help matters at all if one party pulls obstinately to the right and the other to the left. This is what happens in every neurotic psyche, to its own deep distress, and it is just this distress that brings the patient to the analyst.” ~C. G. Jung

Faith and Knowledge

We often here that there is a rift between religion and science, and that is quite true. But most would relate faith to religion and knowledge to science in Jung’s statement quoted above. But Jung wrote this several decades ago, and things have changed since then. What has changed is mostly on the part of science. Many in the scientific community talk about, and actually treat, science as if it is a religion. To question a long-accepted scientific query requires that you have overwhelming evidence. Otherwise, the community of science will label you a crackpot or charlatan. Science today is more like a religion than they choose to accept, yet they laugh at the unscientific approach of religion. Perhaps if both groups started listening to the other, they might find that they are not so different after all.

Sketching a Picture

We have probably all heard of, maybe even participated in, the experiment of whispering something to one person, who then repeats it to another and so on until eight or ten have heard the secret. I remember doing this in Junior High. When the last person in the line says the story out loud, the first person is shocked to find it has dramatically changed. This is partly due to mishearing what the other person says, but largely because we each have to add a bit of our own beliefs and personality to the tale. I’m sure the same would be true of Jung’s sketching example. This is especially true if you rely entirely upon their imagination. If you tell ten people to sketch a building they are standing in front of, the sketches will be similar, but never identical. But if you ask them to sketch a woman holding a rose, the sketches will be very different—and revealing if you know what to look for.

Now consider a spiritual example. Ask them to sketch God, or an angel. The sketches will vary greatly, but will likely resemble some picture they have seen in a book or a statue in a church. They really won’t use their imagination very much for this one, yet they should. But that is why a spiritual awakening is something each of us must experience so we can gain spiritual knowledge first hand, and not rely on the descriptions from others.

Neurotic Society

When Jung wrote this, probably many doubted his claim that society is suffering from “a neurotic disturbance”. Today, I think most people would agree. We have become more divisive than ever before. Many don’t even try to get along with others to have different beliefs, different behavior, but instead try in every legal way possible to get rid of THEM. And if they can’t get rid of THEM, they try to isolate them, make them live only in certain locations, prevent them from voting, etc. While some of this can be blamed on the masses, a lot of it can be blamed on the leaders and on the natural tendency of governments and businesses to start functioning like a living being. What that means is that consciously or subconsciously they develop the idea that the most important thing is for the society to survive—at any cost.

Spiritual Society

That is why the only solution is the growth of a spiritual society that values humility and truth above self-preservation. Such a society must begin with spiritual individuals forming spiritual communities. Spiritual communities can then grow into spiritual societies and, finally, spiritual nations.

From the SOLAR WIND collection by Harold Boulette.