 Easter morning, April 2020...
As I sit on my screened porch this morning, I’m looking out over the beauty of redbuds and dogwoods, marveling at all the new birth around me. So uplifting to my heart and soul, so filling….. This newborn Spring all around us seems to be an alternate reality to what we humans are experiencing. With the pause of humanity’s relentless urge to “go forth and conquer,” the Earth seems to be taking herself back a little, clearing away our encroachments for a time that is beginning for us to seem timeless. Long enough for her to catch her breath, to breathe in and out more deeply without the “collateral damage” of our relentless deeds and endeavors choking her soil and skies. She is so beautiful, this literal grounding for all we dare to dream and do. Gazing upon the redbuds every day now as I sit outside writing and studying, I feel as if the whites of my eyes have turned magenta. Even with closed eyes, the imprint of magenta remains. Even my dreams have become magenta-colored. As I think on that, I think about all the Earth teachings I’ve received in my years of walking through the woods and mountains. I suddenly recall my very first encounter with what I have come to refer to as “Earth-speak.” It was my first Fall in New York’s Hudson Valley, having moved up to the small Hudson River village of Cold Spring after living in New York City for over 20 years. As I was walking around the top of a small mountain forest, drinking in all the incredible Fall aromas, basking in the sun-drenched gold and red maples, the swishing of the Fall breezes through the leaves and my own hair, I began to feel a palpable presence. And as it filled me, my lungs whooshed open to the deepest breaths I may have ever taken. As then, I came around a bend in the path and my breath caught at the spectacularity of colors. I stopped in my tracks, mesmerized by the fire-and-amber light and the seasons of layered earth-scents, still warm from Summer. The presence of an "allness" was so near and intimate. And then suddenly I heard, “Ah yes, the very things you humans admire us for – our different colors, shapes, smells and sounds – are the very things you often abhor in each other. Alas, you have lost touch with your beauties because you have lost touch with us.” ....Stunned to my core, I sat down on a stone and wept for the terrible truth of that in myself, and likely in all of humanity. What have we done to ourselves, I remember crying out inside of me. That startling encounter began a conversation with nature – that particular forest – that would go on for 16 years, as I walked that mountain almost daily waiting for her flora-and-fauna voices, letting her light seeds of wisdom drop into my listening heart and thirsty soul. She taught me many things during those years, and I came to deeply understand how the natural world is meant to be a constant teacher for our human nature, and that we have too long benched her, ignored her, and especially, hurt her, in our consumption games of life. Yet, we cannot sustain ourselves without her—not only what she provides in sustenance to our bodies, but for the spirit that resides within her that also lives in each and all of us. She is shepherdess to the ongoing cycles and seasons of our lives. Embodying her own wisdoms, she shows us how to lean into life in all its expressions. How to reach up and branch out, yet also how to draw near to each other for shelter, caring and nourishment. She offers us her bounties of earth and sky, soil and soul, for our nourishment and strength. She shows us how to withstand tempests and storms and bend to the winds of change without breaking – or when we break, how to mend ourselves again and again. How to be here in trueness to our individual natures, so that we might also contribute our uniquely diverse gifts of being and doing to community. How to be resilient and how to come back from our seemingly dormant and dying times, for even from our own barest bones we can bring forth new life with a reborn will to live and love. This time in our world is a gift, because there is nothing that is not if we have eyes to see and heart to receive. It is a gift of contrasts, to be sure. For that is the nature of life itself. We ebb and we flow, and both are necessary to move us not only forward, but deeper into the consciousness and bounty of life. For we each represent a unique and irreplicable beingness that all the rest of humanity needs in order to be whole. Those of us who fall away during this time are not leaving us completely. Their spirits, their love, their laughter, their particularities, live on in our hearts and in the more we become because of them. Like the fallen tree in the forest that gives way to the sapling growing from its own decaying roots, we honor what was by embracing life anew with more deeply furrowed hearts. Ahh, and now I hear the message of the magenta…this is the time given to us by our Earth to bring on more magenta-caring for each other--for magenta, in the philosophies of color, is about the mutual, exquisitely personal and yet universal love that embraces all. Someone said to me, "It's as if Life Itself scolded all of us one day like run-amuck toddlers, 'go to your room and think about yourself!'" This Spring, perhaps for the first time in all our lifetimes, the Earth has moved into her rebirthing ahead of us, while we are re-forming anew in the womb of this waiting. May we not emerge the way we were, but become more now...because of this gift-time of deepening. In love and gratitude, that we might all recognize the blessings before us. xoTerah
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Dear friends,
Many of the world's myths and mythologies have portrayed direct interactions between the gods and humans as possible only when the god disguised himself/herself in a form that would be relatable to a human. Sometimes the disguise was another human, sometimes a swan (as in the story of Leda) or any number of other creatures. The reasoning behind this was that no human could receive the totality of Divine Light and remain in physical form to tell about it. All our circuits – let alone our entire physicality -- would be obliterated by that much light. Over a thousand years ago, the Angelic Kabbalah began to address this concept by revealing how we can interact with more humanely receivable “light-bytes,” or “angles” of Divine Light for transformation and ascension while still in the body. 20th century Kabbalah mystic, scholar and teacher, the late Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov, picked up this thread in his own work. He referred to the 72 Angels of the Tree of Life in two ways. The first was to characterize them as “two-way [step-down/step-up] transformers” that enable the energies and vibrational communications of the Divine Light to be stepped-down for our human “receivers,” and likewise our human communications, desires, feelings, thoughts, etc. amplified vibrationally for reception in the heavenly realms. His second frequent reference to the 72 Angels was as the “edible fruits of the Tree of Life” which enable us to consume, digest and incorporate the Divine within our humanity. Which takes the whole idea of “you are what you eat” up a notch! After "throwing God out with the Bible Belt bathwater” as a child, I was energetically baptized in my late 20’s through visionary Christic encounters that included uncanny, even supernatural experiences with “winos, bag ladies and remarkable strangers of consequence” on the streets of New York City. After months of life-altering urban miracles which showed me that not only is the Divine real, but that it knows who I am and who everybody else is too, I finally one day said, “I get it, but no more visions and miracles, I don’t think my nervous system can handle it!!!” And immediately the inner “voice,” which had shown up to guide me through this spiritual adventure said, “Good! Now it’s time to learn to live on Earth!” (A place I had always felt weird to be.) My early days of Christic visitations and adventures evolved into years of “inner tuitions” and research into the world’s traditions, along with continuing mystical experiences and lots of opportunities for practical application of what I was learning. This brought me eventually to the Angelic Kabbalah and an over 20-year immersion into learning and experiencing a system of “practical mysticism” for daily life. Long and winding road short, what I have found most remarkable about this tradition is that it is energetically alive – and through the mere awareness and slightest engagement with the 72 Angelic Energies, things – synchronicities, coincidences, uncanny encounters, transformative events and more -- begin to happen in our lives before we even do or practice anything! Here’s the paradox for me as a writer and speaker: I have experienced in my own life a spirituality that transcends religious, or even “spiritual” dogmas and vocabularies – but in order to speak of and organize these things into communicable content, I must use words. Words that are at least somewhat recognizable by other humans. Paradoxcially, however, because of the intrinsically Divine origin and nature of words, we can use words to share ways/energies for transcending words – as in this little ditty that came to me one day about “What Love Would Say If It Could Talk:” I will always be here if you let me. I will go anywhere, if you take me. I can say anything, if you give me the words. I can say everything, if you don’t need words. Human beings, i.e., "souls with legs to stand on," are imprinted to seek otherness and communication. The source of words as vehicles for the transmission of energy and meaning is perhaps revealed in the first chapter of John in the Christian Bible: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This is also foundational to the mysticism of the Kabbalah Tree of Life, which regards the Hebrew Alphabet as the first Creator Sounds that revealed and expressed the diverse nature of God and brought forth life throughout the cosmos. Early Kabbalists discerned the “Names of God” as Hebrew codes in the Old Testament chapter of Exodus which not only represented but could energetically transmit the very presence of God (sometimes referred to as the “Faces of God” or “Angels of the Presence”) – which are thus also imprinted throughout Creation in every soul of humanity. Hence, through these 72 Angels, or “angles,” of Divine Light, our “image and likeness” to the Divine is imprinted and continually amplified. “God so loves the world,” I was told inwardly, “that It meets us upon whatever path in whatever vocabulary we choose.” For a long time I had difficulty with the word “angel” because it has been used for so long to promote the idea of weak, puny humans that must prevail upon something higher and better outside of us to save us from ourselves – essentially encouraging Divine-Human divisiveness!! But what both Jesus and the ancient and medieval Kabbalists were trying to reveal to us was that the Divine is as much within us as around us, and that our nearest and most personally relevant route to the “above” is in the “below” of our own inner being. And so, the goal of my first live webinar series on the 72 Angels tradition is to introduce you to an expanded view of the Divine – and thus an expanded view of your own unique humanity. And then to guide you into dynamic relationship with these 72 “angles” of Divine Light that will ultimately enable you to BE an expanded, more loving and true, fulfilled version of yourself. I invite you to join me for the first live webinar course September 21st (22nd for Asia/Australia/NZ) or Sunday the 23rd (US, UK/Europe). Fee for the first course or the bundle option of all three courses is discounted with registration by September 5. I will love to share all this and more with you if you're so inclined! Blessings, love and light ~ Terah  Dear friends,
A couple of weeks ago after the lunar eclipse, I went to sleep with the shades wide open so that I could “moon-bathe” in the full moon, as a friend had suggested earlier that day. My dreams during the night were remarkable, but what woke me in the morning was an inner illumination that I had been eclipsing the fullness of my own light over the last few years with hesitation about doing deeper teaching on the 72 Angels tradition. Some of my reticence had to do with imagined, even remembered, fears about how I would be received. I had always been a heretic of sorts, exploring non-traditional perspectives on the human and the Divine, meaning and matter, life, love and truth and all things seen and unseen – and my perspectives and passions for these things were not always comfortable for others. As I came fully awake into the clarity of that thought, suddenly a voice from somewhere within asked me a startling question: “Would you be a fool for God?” As I lay there stunned, the question was repeated. And then a third time, more softly and intimately, “Would you dare to be a fool for me?” The question pierced my heart, and as an aching emotion welled up in me I understood that what I was really being asked was “will you dare to be yourself for God, for the Divine, for the inner other dwelling inside you?” The voice continued, “I cannot experience who I am through you, as you, and especially for you, unless you are willing to be you.” In keeping with the moon-tides and the effects of truth on a hiding heart, that transformative day took me through a flood of emotions as I began opening to the more of myself that was longing to take its full place in my life. Sometimes we are afraid to take on our own uniqueness because we fear rejection and aloneness, that being who we truly are will take us away from a place of belonging in our family, work and social circles. And yet, so many of us spend our lives yearning to know who we are and what our purpose is for being here. Thus we are drawn to self-discovery systems that inspired humans have designed across the eons to help ourselves decode the mysteries and meanings of self on earth and in the cosmos – systems like numerology, astrology, the Tarot, the I Ching, the Enneagram, the Aura-Soma system of self-revelation through color, the Seven Rays of the Ageless Wisdoms, the Human Design System that shows us how to move around in the world with the correct strategy and authority for who we are, and a multitude of other ancient and modern esoteric sciences and mystical traditions. And then there is the Angelic Kabbalah, an interactive, self-revelatory, practical-wisdom aspect of the Kabbalah that was hidden for over 500 years since its suppression by the Spanish Inquisition. Through a series of uncanny coincidences, this remarkable tradition showed up in my life and has not let me go for over 20 years. But it has been especially in the last nearly five years of giving the 72 Angels “voice” through the 360 Daily Wisdoms in the 5-volume Book of Days series that my relationship with them has deepened and reshaped me in ways that have enabled me to receive their deeper mysteries. In coming to understand the origin and purposes of the 72 Angels of the Tree of Life as “angles” of Divine Light dwelling within and among us, they have shown me who I am, what my purpose is here and that I am never alone because there is always someone here within me. They have shown me the dual nature of the Divine, the composition of Its Light and Its own urges for Self-Knowledge and Expression that are reprised within our humanity. And thus most profoundly, they have enabled me to experience that none of us are “only human,” but Divine-Human beings, carrying within us unique configurations of Divine light-qualities that have rendered each of us into a particular “image and likeness” of the Divine on Earth. And that the collective diversity of humanity and all of Creation is a reflection of the inherent diversity of the Divine Itself. The One within the many, and the many as the One. In our commingling with these 72 “angles” of Divine light, and our personal Birth Angels, we are invited to experience the Divine not as something higher / better / outside of us that we have to drawn down or into us, but something magical and yet very real inside us that knows and loves who we are. And so we are not asked to “get out of the way” to let what is “higher” come through us, but rather we are invited to become the way – because the higher is already here within us, only waiting for the willingness of all the parts of ourselves to engage so that we might experience and share the fullness of who we truly are. As those know who work with the Tarot or love the old stories of kings’ courts and jesters or the tricksters of mythology, the fool’s challenge is to spark the truth of people and things without getting beheaded for his audacity! I’m hoping that my protection against the latter, as the 72 Angels have shown me, is to “let the words pass through my heart before they leave my lips.” For the heart is where the Angelic Divine reveals the greaterness of all truths that can only be found in the all-seeing of love. The heart that is in me and you and every "other" in the world is where our samenesses lie in wait to be recognized and shared. And so, the three foundation courses I am offering through Sep-Oct-Nov, along with the 2019 courses to be announced later, represent me taking the lampshade off my light to be a fool for the Divine. I hope you can join me to learn more about this remarkable tradition and to experience the I AM of the Divine and of yourself through these beautiful angelic lights that attend each of us so truly and lovingly. For in all this, it is not just the self we are seeking, but an authentic way to be of service to others that calls on the best of who we are, the truth of who we are, and the love inside us that longs to offer something meaningful to our fellow beings. Click here to view the foundation courses, the free and discounted offers that are included, and to register. (Discounts for registration by September 5.)  The new year is a once-a-year opportunity to share our endings and new beginnings with so many others at the same time -- whether in-person or virtually. For many of us at this moment in time, however, saying goodbye to 2016 also includes a little, if not a lot, of trepidation about the coming year.
I was blessed to spend this New Year's Eve with extended family who I dearly love. As we sat around the dinner table for several hours in animated conversation, thoughts and concerns about the near future of our country -- and thus our own interests, passions and livelihoods -- emerged. The beauty of our little company last night was that as we shared our fears and disappointments, we were also exploring different perspectives with each other for greater understanding. While it may seem that the ideals of our country's founders, and the "higher angels" of our personal strivings for love, compassion and "goodness" are being trampled upon -- there are other, bigger-picture ways to look at what is happening in our country and our world. For example, that there is a gift of opportunity in EVERY happening. And that bad acts have a shorter shelf life when we meet them with love and understanding. And that hurts which have been too long ignored, pushed down and buried eventually must come to the surface so that they can be addressed and healed. For we cannot fulfill our utmost potentials as individuals, communities and nations until they are. You would think that my goddaughter, who is graduating from Amherst this Spring with credentials, experience and an upcoming Fulbright Scholarship for climate change research, would be especially concerned. And so she is -- but she also sees the sudden climactic change of government in our country as an opportunity to work at local ground-root levels by educating ourselves and our neighbors about simple, doable Earth-and-humanity-friendly initiatives and committing to actions that can improve not only a seemingly far-off future, but our present daily quality of life. There is a comfort in our personal strivings and even seeming setbacks at times to feel that we live in a community or country where our ideals, dreams and desires always have second chances. But when we cannot look to our governments and institutions to uphold our ideals or address our most basic needs, then we must certainly look to ourselves. If "they" are not going to hold our light, then we the people, as collective individuals, must hold it for ourselves, our children and our neighbors near and far. In the willingness to be accountable to our personal values and ideals, we can create change that will enable all of us -- not just a few -- to not only survive, but even thrive. Love, compassion and creativity, after all, are not creations of a government, but of the human heart. And so, as we enjoyed a delicious vegan cheesecake ("the best I've ever had," the non-cheesecake lover among us remarked), we talked about the common urges we've all been having recently for "random acts of kindness," as the patriarch of the family called it. Kindness. Both the giving and receiving of it. There is probably nothing that dissolves our fear, resentment or attitudes more quickly and sweetly than kindness. Kindness has no ideologies -- it is simply an emergence of heart. And as we talked about the challenges of civic education, especially in an environment when facts often seem to be overcome by emotionally clung-to fictions, I recalled something that was given to me inwardly and is an ongoing powerful life lesson for me: "whatever truth we may think needs telling, what wants to be heard is love." Love is the best education, and it has the power to transform anger, resentment and even willful ignorance. CNN journalist Van Jones recently traveled the country talking with people who were "tired of being unheard and ignored." Not only tired, but angry -- and other things that are sometimes hard to fathom. Their votes brought about a radical change in our upcoming government that upset so many others of us in ways that we have not felt in our lifetimes. But our best defense and offense, Jones concluded, is not to fire back our own brands of arrogance, anger, resentment and hate, but rather to create a "love army." For love is the only force that truly unites. In the space between endings and new beginnings are always moments for greater-seeing of ourselves and each other. We are each a seed of humanity. Who we are is what the world becomes. And if we don't like what our world has become, then we must cultivate better seeds of ourselves. It all starts with a softening of heart -- and a choice to be a seed for something love-and-life-affirming in the encounters, events and interactions of this day, our daily bread. And especially, we must do work we love, or come to love the work we do. For in all our strivings, if we bring to the world what we love, then surely the world will be more loving. I wish for myself and each of you that our harvests in 2017 and beyond may be not just the crumbs of life's potential, but the whole loaf! Adapted excerpt from Volume 4, Birth Angels Book of Days (2 JELIEL ~ Love and Wisdom), by Terah Cox "...Love is not only about feelings. Love is the ‘prime-mover’ of our evolving truths, our powers as a human being and the light in all our relatings. And yes, feelings are the compelling compass, and sparkle, in the wonder of love. By love’s guidance system of feeling, we are drawn to romantic partners, friendships, creativities and endeavors that are most true for us. But though it is the feeling of love that makes us cherish and seek it out, it is love’s multifaceted nature that makes it so valuable and necessary to the fullness of our life and our relationships. Indeed, love is like water – taking the shape of whatever it fills -- and also filling the invisible and seemingly impenetrable spaces where love has been forgotten, not only within us but also in the space between oneself and another.
The values of love are seeded by compassion and forgiveness of self and others. From these are harvested kindness, mercy, wisdom and well-being at the expense of no one, including the Earth itself. Without love, anything or anyone may be broken and infringed against. And when brokenness occurs between us, only love can make us whole again. Because love is the author of wholeness, it is love’s nature to be inclusive in order to show us the underlying unity that connects us to each other – even while we express the diversity of the Divine Itself through our own diverse beings, paths and ways. It is love which transforms the knowledge and experience we bring to it into the wisdom of greater knowing and seeing. Despite anything we may think we know about another, love’s wisdom fills out the rest of the story with a more whole truth. For love sees not only what is visible, but what is still evolving in the unseen realms of heart and soul. Thus love’s wisdom within us sees not only who others are, but who they long to become. And love’s understanding knows that there is an essential goodness in each and all that is love itself. Thus, when we allow the wellspring of love that shimmers inside us to rise up and flow, it naturally seeks itself in the other. Love knows no gender and yet includes all gender expressions as the diverse possibilities of incarnation. As our interior aspects of Sun (masculine) and Moon (feminine) are explored within, they find their outer reflections and expressions in relationships. For many of us, it is only when we leave behind our forms and return to our soul-bodies that we will leave off our fears and judgments and realize that life is Love manifest – and that there is nothing or no one that is not more truly seen, known and increased by the all-inclusive diversity of Love. Finally and ongoingly, love is the revealer and reconciler of all life paradoxes, the alpha and the omega of existence and all that is possible between and among beings. Love is God’s creation energy, the verb of all that is Divine (and there is nothing that is not!). As such, love is the prime and quantum mover of creation, essence, matter and the ever-evolving truths of all souls, beings, bodies, minds and hearts – that even when seemingly immoveable long to soar. It is only with the powers of love that anything or anyone can begin, and it is love which transforms all endings into new beginnings again. Only with love may our relatings be renewed and restored. Only with love may the truth of a being, a relationship, a community or world be fully revealed and expanded, even into a new truth. ...Each and every soul, without exception, were conceived and brought forth by love. And thus, it is love we must return to in order to fulfill the truth of ourselves in relationship with each other. And though...our job is not to change others, but to change ourselves – here is this most fertile quantum potential in our relatings: others will be changed, in their own way and time, if we each allow love to change us first. For from the blossoming of love within will come the scattering of love's light-seeds unto all we encounter. Thus...while we may sometimes see ourselves and others ‘through a glass darkly’ in any moment or season of life, it is always Love we are looking at – on its way to becoming more and more the Truth of itself. To know this is the ultimate wisdom. "Who are you that tells me these things? What is your name?" I asked. "I have infinite names. Which name would most interest you?" "How would I choose from infinity?" I replied. "The same way you choose who to be in this lifetime. But if you must have a name, I go by the name of any who has the heart to hear. What would you ask of us at this time?" "Who is 'us?'" I asked. "You and all of me, of course." "I want to know about what some of us call the 'Second Coming,'" I said. "So you want to know if there is such a one, who it shall be, and the name it shall carry?" "Well, yes, I guess so, though to hear you put it like that seems perhaps a little, well, limiting." "Exactly right! But that's what your life on Earth is about, you must know -- the magnificent challenge and opportunity to experience the eternal even in the limitations of time and place. That is the great creation experiment here -- to see how much of your soul and its purposes you can bring into physical beingness. How much of the seemingly impossible you can make possible. What of the unseen you can make visible. How to find the sameness underneath change and in all that seems different from you. How forgiveness among you can transform the past and release you into the present, where time and timelessness meet. And where all your power lies." "So the 'second coming' is irrelevant, then? "Ah, well, as to that, it's of UTMOST relevance -- in truth -- your salvation. For the second coming shall come from within. And its name shall be called Love." "Wasn't that essentially the message of the 'first coming?'" "Exactly. We have a merciful saying here too, 'if at first they don't succeed...' That said, you are at a time now when the numbers of people on Earth who are most awake to love are greatest, while those who aren't are most destructive. The good news is that, at this time when you most need love -- is also the time when individually and collectively you are most capable of it." Excerpt: From Within ~ Inner Tuitions from a Not-So-Small Voice (in progress, 2017 release)  When I moved from the noisy concrete and steel canyons of New York City to a small Hudson Valley village with its serenely-forested highlands, I was stunned by the radical change of scenery. As late summer turned into fall, my favorite season, nature’s magic began its work on me. From one of my first autumn walks along the wooded mountain path behind the old Victorian house that was my new home, I was introduced to the uncanny voices of the natural world.  My first encounter with what I call “Earth-Speak” was nothing less than phenomenal for its impact on my life and sensibility. As I came around a bend at the top of the mountain, the lush goldenness of maples along the trail nearly took my breath away. They colored the very air around them. As I stood transfixed, it seemed that all the flora of the woods began to sway toward me. The dramatic red-orange-gold hues in all shapes and sizes were pulsating with light, sounds and scents so intoxicating that I wasn’t sure if I was breathing or drinking. Suddenly, I “heard” a whispering of words that I will never forget: “Ah yes, the very things you humans love about us – our different colors and shapes and smells and languages – are the things you often hate about each other. Alas, you have lost touch with your beauties because you have lost touch with us.” Having just moved out of a city teeming with the tensions that densely-populated diversities of culture, creed, economy – and yes, race – too often provoke, this message was stunning and timely for me. During that first year of “life in the country,” I became unusually acquainted with this sentient world. In my daily walks with pen and paper, the presences of nature enfolded me in their lushness while I chronicled their wisdom-teachings. As these “inner tuitions” invited me to consider some of life’s most paradoxical mysteries, they required only one thing of me – to be utterly present and receptive. I didn’t know to call it that at the time – I was only aware that I felt light and free, as if all the space around the trees and the flowers and blades of grass was also around, and even inside, me.  During one spring afternoon forest-walk, I received the ultimate present that awaits our being present. As I came upon a multi-colored field of flowers that surely had not been there the day before, I suddenly experienced a palpable wave-force come at me. As it hit, I felt a kind of energetic “hello” – and instantly a sense of being deeply recognized and known. And then an incredible feeling of being loved washed over me. As that feeling surged, I was startled to realize I was being shown what it would feel like to love myself – not merely self-acknowledgment or self-acceptance – but to actually feel an emotion of love for my own self, as a particular beingness within all being. As I stood there in the middle of the path that would lead to the end of loneliness, I felt that all-encompassing love wind its way through and out of me – but without leaving me behind. Rather it held me in its flow as it traveled to and through everything around me. And it was the same love loving me that was loving everything else too. In that spectacular moment, I saw and knew and felt the perfection in our simultaneous urges for individuation and unity. I was shown how in our seeming separateness we are each given the opportunity to blossom into ever-expanding renditions of our unique beauties, talents and gifts. And I was given to understand that as we each “go forth and multiply," the Energy of Creation that brings us forth also gets to experience what more might be made of It through each of us and our own unique creations. Perhaps this is why when we are individuating with the love and truth of who we are, we feel the eternal destiny-nature of our purpose.  And it is then, paradoxically, when our true selves are emerging and expressing, that our purest urge for community and service also emerges. For as we are becoming who we truly are, we not only have the most to contribute to a higher-conscioused unity with others – but the greatest urge to do so! Ultimately, in the heightened quality of cooperation that is inspired by what can be given rather than gotten, the final stage of fullness that individuation seeks is attained. In the paradoxical language of Earth-Speak: “the more vibrant and beautiful the single flower, the more magnificent the field – and in the magnificence of the field, the single flower is justified.”  Things of the natural world inherently participate in both individuation and unity; but human nature must offer its own “free will” to allow these seeming opposites to co-exist in order to experience the fulfillment within the paradox. As my time-built walls of self-protection melt in the commingling of the natural world with my own human nature, I am shown again and again the gifts of shelter and interdependence that living things and creatures can offer to each other… “Observe our formations, the ways in which we group together and stand apart. We are not so dense in our togetherness that we shut out the light, for then we could not nourish ourselves and our saplings into our unique blossomings. And we are not so separate that we cannot share our nutrients and shelter each other in a storm -- lest we all one by one perish.” I have learned that every thing and presence in the natural world embodies a message that corresponds to the seasons and cycles of our lives, our dreams and challenges, our individual and collective choices. In everything we feel, think and do on this planet, we are all participants in the dance between individual and community, separateness and unity, you and me and us. Beyond the illusions of a humanity that has forgotten its inner divinity, there is no “they” or "them" – there is only “we.” And we can come together to contribute to the preservation of wildlife and natural resources, development of eco-friendly energy sources, and the rich purposes of diversity on all levels – or we can continue to ravage our resources with the non-humanitarian effects of acquisitional politics and power. If we choose the latter, we must know that we are at a point in our technological evolution when we “cannot make a stink in one part of the world without smelling it in another.”  When we listen to the language of Earth-Speak, the secrets of life are revealed to us. And whether they come rumbling, roaring, thundering – or gliding like a butterfly into the heart of any who are willing to listen – there is not only a global but a deeply personal resonance in the messages. We are shown how to become willing partners in the rhythm of seasons and cycles…how to revel in our fullnesses and recover from our losses…how to balance too much and not enough. And how to see our sameness of heart beneath our multitude of expressions, so that someday, we may come to not merely tolerate or accept – but delight in – each other’s diverse beauties. Then we might collaborate, all of us together, with the Earth herself, as allies in the continuation of life on every level.  And so what is this thing called life for, really?, I asked the wind and the water and the expanse of mountain sky. An old question we've been asking likely from the moment time was born out of timelessness. In the pregnant silence, I stood looking out at the sensual rippling of highlands on the other side of the river. Suddenly the letters “E-A-R-T-H” appeared across the treeline. Then the “H” jumped up on its legs and hopped to the front of “EARTH” to spell “H-E-A-R-T” (!) It rested there long enough for me to see it – and as my laugh echoed across the valley, the “H” started jumping gleefully on its two legs back and forth between the front and back of the word. “EARTH–HEART–EARTH–HEART...,” it danced! And then the rest of the message appeared: “...where Love comes to put down roots.”
 How often have we heard each other say, to excuse some imagined failing or falling short, "I'm only human!" The irony is, however, that we're not. It's just that when we feel that way or say those words, we have in that moment forgotten all the rest that we are – the soul-stuff on the inside that we can't see but which makes all the difference to our humanity and to our time and purposes on this Earth. Every one of us is composed of both an inner and an outer – essence and form, the unseen and the seen, feeling and fact, soul and body. Our whole life we are in a continual exchange between these. Our original primary “directive” comes from the inner – our soul-urges and purposes – which are broadcast into our heart as intuition, longing for meaning and purpose, and what we might call our personal heart-truths. These are always striving to be acknowledged and expressed outwardly, even while inviting us to bring our outer experiences inward to make sense and meaning of them. However, we often forget or suppress aspects of our softer, more diffuse, inner nature in the demands of our daily lives and the needs and preoccupations of the physical vehicle that is our interface with the world. As we become consumed by the responsibilities, pleasures and challenges of the visible outer world – our inner realms can sometimes seem like a swampy soup of feelings, thoughts and desires that we often put off sorting out. The thing is, we're not here to be perfect. We're here to use our so-called imperfections as creative tools to explore how much more we can do with the seeming limitations of flesh, bone, matter and time when we tap into our built-in Divine power-source. This is the great paradox of being human – that the more we awaken to and engage with the inner divinity that is our own soul, the more "super-charged" our humanity can become. Why are we here? We have been asking this since at least humankind began to record thoughts and feelings. Why are we here in this foreign outpost where we have to walk-not-fly, with eyes veiled, inner ears deafened, true self muffled and mostly forgetful of everything we already know – to muddle through this quicksand-like obstacle course of becoming who we already are and trying to remember what we already know!?" As this question lingered within me, one Spring morning I was walking through a Hudson Highlands forest in upstate New York admiring all the newborn life around me when I began to “hear” these words. I sat on a stone wall to capture them on paper….
As the retelling here takes me back to that moment, I am flooded again with awe and humility. We are not ever “only human.” On this Earth we are the all of it, both Divine and Human! Divine-Human beings expressing howevermuch of either or both of these we choose to express in any moment of time. What an amazing paradox we are! And so yes, Earth life does pull us toward the denser vibrations of matter – but it is the heart and soul within us that shows us which matter really does matter to us! And it does seem that the more we allow our inner to weigh in with our outer choices and expressions, the lighter and more fulfilled we become. And the more of ourselves we become, the more of ourselves we are able to give away and still keep! And ultimately, as our relationships and creations flower with more and more light and meaning, the more love and wisdom is rooted within and among us. And surely, hopefully, the greater our world can become.  Partial excerpts from Birth Angels Book of Days Daily Wisdoms with the 72 Angels of the Tree of Life Volume 1 March 21 - June 2 Relationship with the Divine Messages that illuminate and amplify our true soul nature as a spark of the Divine Itself, and help us to bring soul-awareness into the details and doings of our daily lives.  I was having breakfast in a diner one morning when I noticed a woman intently discussing a situation with her companion. I couldn’t hear the details, but suddenly she said, a little louder and with more emphasis, “truth be known….” Since I have a particular liking for the word "truth" and its often colorful applications and appropriations, it immediately set me to wondering what truth was being made known in that moment. I kept thinking about it after I left the diner and went walking in the woods, ruminating on those very common, even cliché, words and all the different kinds of things that happen when a truth is made known – especially if it has been long unexpressed, repressed or ignored.
Sooner or later, truth will have its way with us. Sometimes it makes itself known slowly and quietly over the course of days, weeks or years. Sometimes it bursts forth epiphanously and joyfully, or scandalously and unwelcomingly. In my own history, I've seen how untold truths in families can fester for years, causing some family members to become estranged, some to be in a perpetual state of anger or illness, and some to act out in extreme and hurtful ways toward him/herself or others. All because of a truth unspoken, a secret harbored, a lie perpetuated. And if as individuals we are "seeds" of our collective humanity, it isn't a far reach to understand where our societal trends originate. Lots of truths have infamously emerged in the media over years of journalistic and tabloid tell-alls about sexual exploits, power-and-greed mongering, ponzi schemes and other financial frauds and more – and most of them involving elaborate cover-ups sometimes for years. But when the truth is finally told – does it really “set us free?” I have observed time and again the interesting dynamics of that famous Biblical phrase, “the truth shall set you free.” The rippling effect of a truth-telling can be vast, sending catalystic (if not cataclysmic) ripples out into our relationships with family, friends and community, and sometimes the world at large. So no, it is not always freedom we feel at a truth’s first revelation. A truth expressed can turn lives and organizations upside down and inside out, wreaking havoc on “life as we knew it” the moment before the truth was told. But while the effect of a truth-telling may initially be one of chaos, sooner or later the transformative gifts of truth emerge if we let them. However long may be our stubborn or grief-stricken focus on the damage a "truth told" has seemed to create, ultimately it yields an enormous and even miraculous potential for relief, acceptance, closeness, joy and new life. Furthermore, when we let truth have its purifying way with us, it seems to beget some truth in everyone around us. When one person speaks his or her truth, there is a kind of invitation in the air for others to express theirs. And in the end, we discover that it is only the covered over truths and the untruths – the lies – that leave scabbed-over festering wounds. Truth may hurt at first, but it always heals us if we let it. And here’s a paradoxical step further with “the truth shall set you free.” One of the miracles about truth-telling is that a truth expressed sets truth itself free. For the nature of truth is not static – but fluid. And as soon as we allow a truth to flow and do its healing work, we find that there is another truth just around the bend that has been waiting for the expression and release of that which came before it in order for this new truth to be realized and expressed. For example, have you ever harbored a thought or feeling about someone, only to realize after you finally expressed it that you suddenly didn’t feel that way anymore? Or you’ve fought and worked for something that at one time you desperately and truly felt and wanted – only to discover when it was finally possible that you didn’t really want it anymore? Something had changed – YOU had changed – and you didn’t know it because you'd been fixated on that old unrequited truth for so long that you had actually outgrown your need or desire for it. Somehow it was only in finally expressing it that you got to see and feel that it was no longer true – and surprise! – a newer, truer truth begins to emerge. There is much truth-telling to be told in all our lives. Telling and living our truths – and allowing those truths to change with us – is part of the daily wonder of truing up our lives at every level. For truth-telling is about coming out of the closets of our hearts and souls and daring to give wings to what lies within. To express and be more of who we are, and to invite others in our lives to do the same. For the truer we are with ourselves and each other, the truer and more whole we might all become. So I invite you if you’re so inclined: tell me your own truth-telling story – perhaps a long-harboured truth finally expressed? Or maybe a truth you tried to tell your whole life, but you were not believed…..until finally you were? How did you feel, how did others feel? What/who changed? What ended, what new thing began? |
Terah CoxLover of words & music, mountains and meaning, good friends and food, co-creative timeless talk and the more than meets the eye of everything! Archives
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