We are blessed to be in the midst of our Holy Days. Hannukkah began on the 22nd, Christmas is on the 25th and Kwanzaa on the 26th of December. What a wonderful opportunity for hearts around the world to join in celebration of the Divine and heal our painful separation from Oneness!
I am most familiar with the Christmas story which speaks of the birth of love and light on Earth 2000 years ago at the inception of the Piscean Era. Spiritual texts talk of avatars, enlightened beings who incarnate to bring new wisdom and advance the evolution of consciousness. It is said that the Avatar of an age comes at the beginning of the previous age.
We are currently flowing into the Age of Aquarius. It would be difficult to pin down a specific date in a 26,000-year cycle, but the signs of a new age began arriving in the 1960’s – not only war protests and demands for social justice, but the introduction of Eastern thought into Western culture. The Beatles seized our imagination as we followed them to India where they discovered the wisdom of the Buddha. Their music changed along with their awareness. Concurrently, Richard Alpert, along with Timothy Leary and Ralph Metzger, was conducting experiments at Harvard with psychotropic agents that opened the mind to realms beyond cognitive thinking. The modern culture began to shift. We humans began exploring the boundaries of consciousness and stepped onto the path to enlightenment.
Richard Alpert evolved into Ram Das. I learned that he had died this morning, surrounded by loved ones on Maui. I went to my library and found Be Here Now, his first groundbreaking book. My 1974 copy was the 14th printing of 20,000 copies. The first printing was in 1971. Within three years his book sold 280,000 copies! Who knows how many others were exposed at the time, but an epidemic of new awareness broke out. Meditation became popular along with Yoga and holistic health. Schools developed curricula around mysticism and spiritual awareness. There was a new spirit of peace and love which flourished briefly before we turned our collective attention back to the economy and the pursuit of wealth. Nevertheless, millions of us around the world developed a spiritual practice.
I find it significant that Ram Das chose this time to leave the planet. It would be bold to say that he might be the Avatar of the Aquarian Age – the Age in which we shift our awareness from “Me First to “We First,” from Independence to Interdependence, from National to Global and begin the return journey to Oneness. Perhaps Ram Das is more of a John the Baptist equivalent, preparing the way for a new Capricornian Era another 2000+ years in our future. My instinct tells me that the Avatar will not be a single savior but a collective shift. We have all the wisdom we need at our fingertips.
Jesus spoke to us of love and compassion – for the poor, the sick, the needy. He demonstrated life lived from the wisdom of the heart and it is in this wisdom that lies the key to a flourishing future. During the Piscean Age, paradoxically, we learned about Oneness through Individuality. This was a necessary step because the path to Oneness lies within individual consciousness. Oneness is far more than getting along with one another. Oneness is achieved when we each individually turn within and discover, through meditation, that we are one with a Great Mysterious Source or Spirit that flows through the depths of each and every one of us. Then we will be able to see each other in the light of this Truth.
On Christmas Day the New Year begins – not our calendar year, but our Year of the Shadow, the year we undergo a Rite of Passage. There will be a Solar Eclipse. The Moon aligns with the Sun and blocks the light. The path of totality crosses from Africa, to Saudi Arabia, Yemen, southern India and the Southeast Asian island nations, but the eclipse will affect everyone. Click this link to read my post about solar eclipses.
Remember that it is always darkest before the dawn. The Winter Solstice and the New Moon on Christmas Day remind us that darkness is temporary. The Light always returns. One year from now Jupiter and Saturn will conjunct at zero degrees of Aquarius. A New Age will dawn. A new light of awareness is growing, but first we must take the Plutonian plunge into the underworld and encounter what lies within the darkness. This is a journey of healing and growth, an evolutionary initiation.
I wish you all the blessings of these Holy Days. Let in the Love and share the Light. We will take up the adventure again in January.
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