THE END TIMES—2012 Predictions and beyond

There is talk these days about the ‘end times,’ a long time, enduring discussion about those looking out upon the world of gloom and doom.  It’s every where if you look there.

The magnetic polar shift, the speeding up of the earth’s spinning axis, the change in our gravity field, the tectonic  plate shifts, the magnetic line changes, the weather patterns creating hurricanes, floods, tornadoes and the like—all signs that something is amiss.

As such, human beings are prone to predictions, calculations, estimates, and forecasts in the interest of minimizing risk and maximizing gain. I seek them myself. We all seek safety, life sustaining precautions and a path of decision making that maintains our well being.  The I-Ching, ancient book of Change hexagram, SHOCK, describes a possibility.  SHOCK can happen anytime to anyone.  When it pervades, the goal, as described in the I-Ching, is to sustain SHOCK after SHOCK with the crystal chalice still in hand, laughing.

Harm, fear, death, loss—all elements of life’s experience we seek to avoid, defer, and escape altogether. No one can. These are the calls to our mastery that we are here to face with courage, determination, equanimity, calm, poise, strength, love and wisdom. These qualities are what the human being gains that endure through all time. We are so grateful for these opportunities to become ourselves and to show our true magnificence to ourselves and with one another. Have you noticed who we are at our best amidst our most trying circumstance? Being human is divinely inspired. I invite us to choose into what inspires us and away from our despair and overwhelm. I speak to myself.

Those who see the END TIME call all of us to become our true selves now. If life as you know ends tomorrow how has it been for you? Did you do what you wanted to do, love what you wanted to love, become the one you truly are meant to be?  Have you demonstrated mastery or just complained about how life is different than your hopes and expectations? Choose again, the END TIMES call to us!

Death and its accompanying rebirth are everywhere in our midst. We practice everyday with these concepts of eternity. Think back about the last time…the last time of anything you valued.  That was a death and you moved on into a new experience, that was a birth, a resurrection of sorts into new life.  We already well know how to die and how to be born again. Do it now, as if in the face of death.  Then you are really living.

What would it be like for you if there was no electricity, no fuel, no grocery store full of food? How would it be for you if water didn’t come from a faucet and waste didn’t flush away through a toilet? What kind of housing would be secure or required when building materials currently used are unavailable? Such reflections call us all to more self sustaining, natural life style that demonstrates a will to live and an independent approach that is more environmentally and globally sound. What economy would emerge in such circumstance? What health care is most viable? What mode of travel and communication could we create? How would we educate our children? How would we choose to live with our neighbours in community with others? These are marvelous reflections for innovation, creativity and rebirth.  We are on the cusp of magnificence with such thinking as it shifts our current paradigm, renders it obsolete and plunges us into a vast territory of new possibility and exploration. How could it really be if we created the life of our dearest dreams for all?

Why wait another minute until the END TIMES? Let our creations begin now, a stream of renewal and possibility never before seen on earth and we are it, creating together what is truly possible. We have seen it, we know it, now let’s simply become it. Step by step, day by day, we are the ones we are anew.

HARMONIZING DIFFERENCE
			The IC ‘harmonizing difference within’ approach supports those involved in conflict in profoundly shifting their internal experience and thereby actually changing the rules of engagement. The so-called opposing party is not required to shift.  Often, however, once one party shifts, the entire conflict changes, sometimes toward benefiting both in unexpected ways. For many, conflict is a paralyzing experience in business, family life and communities.  An IC understanding of the value of conflict suggests that conflict can often be the creative edge of fruitful internal growth, when handled as such. All realms of conflict resolution, from international to business and family relations, have felt the effects of ‘value based’ inquiry.  The IC approach is unique as follows: 1) We have a choice regarding our reaction to another. We can use our projections about others, whether so-called positive or negative, to gain insight into aspects of self. 2) In response to ‘what’s present’ in the moment, we accept that we make our own movie of  ‘what is.’ This position maximizes our creative choice about next steps. If it’s ‘out there,’ it’s ‘in here’ and we have the power to change our own internal experience of ‘what’s present.’ 3) We cannot ‘get what we want’ through manipulatively holding a picture that involves another independent life stream.  We are free to choose that which we assess is most constructive for our own well-being; and the other is similarly free to choose what’s in his/her perceived best interest. 4) Compassion for ourselves is bringing forward limiting beliefs and reframing them into affirmations more supportive of our heartfelt goals and aspirations.  We work with the concept that what we focus upon expands. We can choose to release being wrong or making another wrong and forgive.  Compassion for another is being present to another’s pain and accepts the other’s free choice, acknowledging they have within them all the necessary resources to heal. 5) Prizing, heartfelt listening, loving energy, forgiveness, gratitude, techniques of inner gestalt—intangible esoteric methods—profoundly shift an experience of conflict with another; even without the other’s conscious participation. This shift opens up often unanticipated avenues for resolution. 6) Changing ourselves holds the possibility of being a powerful way of introducing change between ourselves and another.

Our Hero's Journey


Rudolf Steiner's concept of the Hero's Journey is wrapped around civilization's journey and how this challenge with its forces of light and dark call the human to balance.  


First light, then dark, then light, then dark and so on through history, through time, and through a human being's life span the challenges arise.  As individuals and as society, we are called upon to bring a balance to civilization in growing Christ consciousness (the divine esence in all faiths) on Earth.  We are all doing our part.


Most students of Steiner are familiar with his seven Post-Atlantean Epochs and the course of human development that each epoch calls from us.  According to Steiner (Zurich, 10th October, 1916, How Can the Destitution of Soul in Modern Times be Overcome--Social Understanding--Liberty of Thought--Knowledge of the Spirit), we are in the 5th Epoch where 'our' present task is the cultivation of  'Consciousness Soul' that requires mankind to 'work together.' 


As with every hero's journey where success hinges upon achieving the seemingly unachievable, 'working together' is challenging us.  


In the 4th Epoch, the preceding Greco-Roman period where humans developed an intellect and common understanding as a matter of course; now we must work to develop our intellect and our common understanding-to demonstrate our greater thrust forward in our spiritual freedom of choice and independence.


The risk we face as a civilization and as human beings in this epoch is that we fail to reach social understanding, deeper compassion and love for one another, and we fail to gain 'liberty of thought,' free from the dogma of our era.


In Steiner's body of work, our development as a civilization is likened to the development of each human along his/her own personal path of incarnation.  Steiner looks deeply into the forces of light and dark that play in civilization and in human events.  For example, he sees the role that Judas played in the Mystery of Golotha and calls us to deeper appreciation for Judas.  But for Judas, human beings would not be as clearly aware of life after death nor of the possibility for resurrection.


Once incarnated, a human's individual journey matches the development of our civilization's journey as played out in the four fold nature of human development.  First, a child, age 0-7, is primarily developing his/her physical form, a time which children most dearly resonate with the fairy world and beings of the elements and learn through imitating.  Next, ages 7-14, the individual has an 'enfolding etheric body' where a child becomes aware of suffering and through successful transitioning of this phase, learns to work with strengths within that allow him/her to find ways of overcoming suffering.  Ages 14-20, the human encounters astral body development, the emotional and passionate forces within that can unravel an individual, but if successfully transitioned lead to true Ego--individuality development and mission for this life. Age 21-41, the individual's quest is focused upon the 'development of Soul' (Biographical Phase and Inner Development-Archetype: 9-Fold Man-Life Chart). According to Steiner, the Ego works in the  "sentient soul, intellectual soul and spiritual soul and enables man to feel an outpouring of human brotherly love." (The Christ Impulse and the Development of the Ego-Consciousness, Lecture 4, Berlin, 8th February, 1910,  The Sermon on the Mount). 


Each phase of human development, as with civilization's development, brings with it forces of light and dark as embodied in the concepts of Lucifer and Ahriman.  According to Steiner, it is our karma, our life mission, to balance these forces and bring to earth an ever deepening divine consciousness. According to Steiner, we are the carrier of the Christ consciousness on earth (embodied in all divine essence of faiths in the world) and as such are called upon to successfully transition through our various challenges of light and dark and deliver through ourselves the gifts of this consciousness to human kind. (see Three Streams of Human Evolution, http://www.kheper.net/topics/Antroposophy/Steiner-3streams.htm) 


In Ahriman we have the forces of materialism and tangible, physical life so dense that little light or spiritual insight penetrates the world. In Lucifer, the glamours of light are so pronounced as to prevent incarnation on earth.


And here we are, as human being, upon our own life paths so seemingly insignificant in this vast array of civilizations working themselves out for the greater good.  Yet, as with every human incarnate, we each have our own karmic role and, in tiny part, our own successful playing out of these roles contributes to the greater success and well being of civilization.  


Awareness of our own karmic challenges, our own hero's journey, allows us to see others more clearly, support each other more appropriately, and teach others more consciously.  It is our duty to explore our own karmic journey and to clear ourselves, thereby lessening the risk of damaging others with whom we enliven with our own energies.


I forgive myself as failing myself and others so often.  I embrace the greater truth of our mutual redemption and willingness to stay the course through time.  I acknowledge that although there may be turns and tribulations, for each of us, our love and devotion calls us back again and again and again.


I am deeply grateful to be drawn into association with others that are travelling similar life paths, despite the seeming difficulty of our 'social understanding' as it often disharmoniously permeates in the greater sphere of life, .  Among us, we are doing our part to bring the Christ consciousness (the divine of all) to Earth,  however we may each individually perceive it--an ever-expanding concept of One and Atonement.


Each transitional phase is fraught with risk and failure. I myself have gotten stuck in fear, despair, grief and anger.  Still the light calls me forth from the dark and I am here in the present able to contribute to the greater good in whatever ways I can be of service.  I am doing my best and, in the end, that is all I can ask of myself.


Nothing more can be asked of any of us.  Success and failure, just nomenclature, is determined not so much in outcome as with our willingness to 'get up' an try again. In this, we are rich.  We have 'the will to live' and we have chosen to be 'guardians of the Light' come what may.  With such insights as Steiner and others provide us, we can use everything that manifests for our growth and upliftment and in this I am so grateful.