November 8, 2000
Subject: Miscellaneous Subjects #37: Vote farce? Tampering? + Expected Vote Fraud! + Are WE Quitters? + A Wasted Vote? Give me Liberty or give me the lesser of two evils + Chemtrails - E-ThePeople Petition for Congressional Hearings + 2002 Gathering of All Nations on Australia + The Practice of Tonglen + Machu Pichu Big Hotel Development + Spiritual Journey to Macchu Picchu
Hello everyone
I'm back and have immediately prepared this compilation for you, from only *some* of all that I have received while I was out, so as to update you on some of the latest developments, especially the US elections whose final results regarding who will be the next president might not be in for many more days, as you may be aware by now.
There are some pretty interesting opinions below...
More to come soon - as usual ;-)
Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000
DAILY GRIST
08 Nov 2000
Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE
http://www.gristmagazine.com
1.
WAITING FOR UH-OH
Enviros are biting their nails along with the rest of America,
waiting to hear the outcome of the presidential race between Al Gore
and George W. Bush. It is known that Green Party candidate Ralph
Nader fell short of the 5 percent of votes that would have earned the
party federal matching funds in the next election; he got 3 percent.
Exit polls in closely contested states like Florida, Oregon, Nevada,
and New Hampshire suggest that at least half of Nader voters would
have supported Gore had it been a two-person race, so Nader's
candidacy appears to have given a boost to Bush. Speaking last night
in Washington, D.C., Nader downplayed the missed 5 percent goal and
claimed that his campaign was a success. "Tomorrow, the Green Party
will emerge as the third-largest party in America, the fastest
growing party, and the best party in its democratic spirit to take
back the government for our people," he said.
More details at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/08/politics/08THIR.html
http://www.ocregister.com/politics/nader01108cci.shtml
2.
IT'S SPRAWL DOWNHILL FROM HERE
Much to the disappointment of environmentalists, high-profile
anti-sprawl ballot measures in Colorado and Arizona were defeated in
yesterday's election. A proposed amendment to the Colorado
constitution that would have put dramatic constraints on development,
requiring cities and counties to develop growth plans and let the
public vote on them, was rejected by a margin of about 2-to-1. A
June poll of Colorado voters put support for the measure, Amendment
24, at 78 percent, but that number plummeted after developers poured
$6 million into an advertising blitz against the measure.
Proposition 202 in Arizona, which would have required most urban
areas to set up growth boundaries and all cities, town, and counties
to adopt voter-approved growth-management plans, was also defeated by
a margin of more than 2-to-1. And in Maine, for the third time in
four years, voters rejected a ballot measure that would have
restricted logging and clear-cutting.
More details at:
http://InsideDenver.com/news/1108grow1.shtml
http://www.arizonarepublic.com/news/articles/1108growth-ON.html
http://www.portland.com/news/state/001108question2.shtml
Also in GRIST MAGAZINE today:
This book may be irrelevant tomorrow, or maybe not -- a review of Al
Gore's Earth in the Balance
http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/books/books102500.stm
A last encounter with the archdruid -- a personal tribute to David
Brower -- by Tom Turner
http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/imho/imho110700.stm
From: "Kerry Boytzun" <successmachine@home.com>
Subject: Vote farce? Tampering?
Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2000
Vote tampering? Check out the following, especially the Palm Beach County
Poll. This is important! Rigging votes is very bad!
Check out how the voting looked on ballots for a key area in Florida (Palm
Beach): PHOTO: SOME PUNCHED OUT A BUCHANAN VOTE WHEN THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE
SELECTING A GORE VOTE BECAUSE THE BUCHANAN SLOT IS DIRECTLY BELOW THE BUSH
SLOT.
As to Palm Beach's confusing ballot: I did the math: in Palm Beach (as per
CNN) Buchanan received 3,407 of 431,836 votes. However, in the state of
Florida it was Buchanan 17,372 of 5,955,919 If Buchanan got the same
percentage in Palm Beach as statewide, he should have gotten 1260 votes! And
Palm Beach is Gore country, so it doesn't make any sense that Buchanan would
do extra well there. Gore and the DNC need to demand a run-off, particularly
in Palm Beach. We're talking at least 2127 votes in Palm Beach,
alone.
--Bush Watcher
Something similar to this happened during the primary fight between Bush and
McCain in North Carolina.
--Politex
Congressman Robert Wexler who represents the Dade County/Palm Beach area was
interviewed on CNN this morning and he said he witnessed total voter
confusion at the polls yesterday in southern Florida. He said that there
were voters in his area who weren't sure where to vote or if they selected
the right hole on the ballot. He thinks 3,000 or so votes could have been
affected just in his area. ......Warren Christopher is heading down to
Florida for the Gore camp to oversee this mess. You have to wonder what
happened with those ballot boxes that were lost for a while in Southern
Florida. They were found by a police officer.
--Bush Watcher
Check out these links:
http://www.bushwatch.com/
RECEIVED EARLIER: THIS WAS PREDICTABLE ;-)
Date: Mon, 06 Nov 2000
From: Vadim Nemirovsky <vadimsky@mindspring.com>
Breaking News - Expected Vote Fraud!
The countries of Rwanda, Bulgaria, Boznia-Herzegovina, Russia and
Indonesia have agreed to send in their election officials to oversee
U.S. elections.
According to these and a few other countries, U.S. voter fraud is
running rampant, especially in the area of misinforming the public
and misrepresenting the candidates.
Both major parties promised to supply their liaison officials to
help educating the newcomers.
Cheers,
Vadim
Joy is the most infallible sign
of the presence of God.
- Tielhard de Chardin
From: "David Harris" <year2020vision@earthlink.net>
Subject: Last minute Plea; Are WE Quitters?
Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2000
Hi Jean, Thanks for all of your good work. This is my first reply and
hopefully not the last:
Last minute Plea
Are WE Quitters?
I know we do not like to think about it or look at it, however it is thrown
in our face all the time even by the politically correct news media.
The government of the United States Is Criminal.
If you just suspect this and are not quite sure PLEASE check it out.
We can do something about it NOW.
The reason I do not want to admit that the government is criminal is because
they are my employees and I am guilty and an accomplice to the crimes
especially if I vote for them.
Also people go to prison for not being politically correct.
Lots of rationalization for me to being a wimp or lazy and irresponsible.
I thought I was being responsible by voting for the lesser of two evils
every year.
I did not want to throw my vote away by voting for a Nader.
So at this rate we will always have a GROWING evil government.
I noted that more and more people are voting their conscience each year.
Soon people will say WOW! there are so many people feeling good about
themselves by voting their conscience that there is a chance for us all to
win.
It is not that there are a lot of sinister people out there. We have
sinister systems.
Now we can join together and all fight the systems.
Ralph Nader said the following and it is no secret:
"Our political system has degenerated into a government of the powerbrokers,
by the power brokers, and for the power brokers, and is far beyond the
control or accountability of the citizens."
Lets all continue praying
David J. Harris
year2020vision@earthlink.net
NOTE FROM JEAN: The following opinion - and statement of facts IMHO - is really, *really* excellent. Network as you see fit...
Date: Mon, 06 Nov 2000
From: Mirage <mirage@PObox.com>
Subject: A Wasted Vote? Give me Liberty or give me the lesser of two evils
Hi Jean,
I'm soooo tired of all the endless debate over which candidate will be the
greatest liability. If people would stop buying into the system, voting for who
they feel is the lessor threat to the 'free' world, then we could make a
powerful statement that we reject the alleged choices we've been given. This is
where the power of choice resides.
Below is an article I wrote about this matter.
Also, thank you so much for the wonderful work you do connecting so many of the
caring and wonderful 'lights' of our world.
Love and the Light of a New Dawn,
Mirage
~~~~~~~~~~
A Wasted Vote? Give me Liberty or give me the lesser of two evils
Rather than being diverted by endless debate over which of the two corporate-sponsored candidates is the dumbest or the biggest liar, we might instead act as if we know that this is a 'dog and pony show' designed to give the impression of a contest an extravaganza for the media and brainwashed masses obscuring issues that will impact us greatly while manipulating public opinion with tabloid tactics, while corporate fascist globalism proceeds smoothly, and will continue to, regardless of which candidate 'wins'.
Leaked facts from the past political scandals for today's headlines do not represent reality in its entirety. What about all the information that has not or will not emerge due to the protection that influence and money ensures? Ever wonder about all you don't know and never will about these priviledged candidates?
Why waste time and energy arguing over the illusions of smoke and mirrors? The compliant denizens of Plato's cave were sure the shadows were reality, enslaved by the false perceptions they themselves continued to defend. Perhaps the unknown, however better it may be, is too great a threat for most.
You want to know how the corporate candidates perceive you the citizen, the voter, the public? They are interested only in how they can use you, your energy, emotions, money and vote to further their personal and political agendas. Do you think the issues that will negatively impact your life will effect their lives? If so, think again. They believe they are exceptions to the rules and see to it they are, with only each other to contend with. They are immune from the consequences of diminishing prosperity and liberty. But you will not be. Enacted and pending legislation, under the guise of wars on terrorism, drugs, hate, gun violence or disease are building an infrastructure that allows for legally unquestionable persecution of all who speak out against corporate government policy.
Has either 'major' candidate addressed his commitment to the rights guaranteed US citizens by the US Constitution and Bill of Rights? Or the issue of US sovereignty over global policy agendas such as are being promulgated by the WTO, IMF, UN, etc.? Have either of them even been asked by the media to comment on these issues?
What about the fact that allopathic medicine in this country is the 3rd or 4th leading cause of death and debilitation of US citizens, thanks to the industrial/military/pharmaceutical complex with the complicity of our elected representatives and federal agencies? Who profits from the medical deathmill? Certainly not the citizens of this country. Yet first amendment rights are ignored as the corporate/government medical complex seeks to limit and control access to and information about alternative health treatments. While second amendment rights are threatened with erasure by hypocritical feigned concern over gun deaths and injuries a mere drop in the proverbial bucket compared with the devastation done by our traditional allopathic 'health' system.
Has either candidate taken a stand on genetically engineered food? We recently have seen unnatural and repugnant GE foods surreptitiously integrated into the food supply without the benefit of truth in labeling, which hasn't been imposed by the USDA in spite of great demand expressed by informed consumers. This, of course, is to our great disadvantage but to the advantage of the multi-national corporations that seek ultimate control of the food supply and the engineered default of the bounty of nature to their profit driven agendas. Where are our elected representatives or governmental public health and welfare institution officials that 30 to 50% of our incomes are extorted to support? Who among them administers on behalf of the health and welfare of the population and the environment? Or even listens to concerns of the public it serves? The FDA, the USDA, the NIH, the EPA, the BLM, your elected representatives? All but a handful of individuals have made it abundantly clear they have no interest in our concerns, health and future, but instead represent the interests of the corporate power complex.
What about escalating government secrecy and the development of biowarfare/genocidal/biocidal programs funded with US taxpayers' money? Who profits from the control of amoral science? The war machine. We work 4 to 5 months of our work year to pay for our own demise and the end of representative democracy in exchange for an encroaching corporate totalitarianism. The corporate elite intends to continue to rule us with diminishing subtlety, relying on systematic state 'education' and our dysfunctional tendency to trust and believe the 'feel-good' lies and media theather we are being fed by their bought-and-paid-for agents and agencies.
Before he was a VP candidate Joe Lieberman, at the request of his constituents, promised to look into the proliferation of ubiquitious artificial clouds that form from the deliberate dissemination of of anomolous contrails in grid or circular patterns over our communities. In fact, he wrote a letter March 9th of this year to Carol Browner, the administrator of the EPA, requesting a response to this issue on behalf of his concerned constituents.
See it at http://www.islandnet.com/wilco/joe.htm
Has there been any follow-up from Sen. Lieberman since March?
There is nothing about this matter listed under the category of "issues" on the Lieberman2000 campaign website nor does his Senate website yield any information in regard to the anomalous contrails. How many other elected representatives or government agencies will even acknowledge this obvious phenomena? Is it atmospheric modification or biowarfare experimentation? Or a combination of a few programs all secret. Based upon declassified records of numerous documented incidents of this country's covert experimentation upon its own citizens and revealing congressional records and testimony it is not unreasonable to assume the worst, especially in light of many constant correlations of heavy overhead spraying with community illness. Yet this issue has been the subject of both ridicule and silence by our officials as unknown substances rain down on our homes, families and communities while figures correlate consequential community illness.
Which of these two lesser evils would have the Humanity, foresight, wisdom, intelligence and concern to monitor the activities and goals of science and technology in regard to the potential harm they pose to the health of the population and the environment?
The allegorical frog is oh so drowsy in a pot of simmering water, soon to be boiled to death.
Patrick Henry said, "Give me liberty or give me death." Although this implies there is an ethical choice to be made between the two, I doubt he realized he spoke as a prophet. It is now beyond rhetoric; the luxury of leisurely philosophical consideration is a thing of the past. This is our choice. To complicitly become 'blameless' victims of a dysfunctional system of lies or to stand by the dictates of our individual and collective wisdom and conscience. That is exactly what it's come to today.
As far as who to vote for... why waste time on discerning which of these two candidates is the lesser evil? Why not vote your conscience, even if it means a 'lost vote' for the lesser evil? If informed US citizens were to vote for the candidate who most closely represents their view, it could revolutionize the politics of this country, perhaps even inspiring an apathetic and demoralized populace. If 20 to 30% of voters chose to opt out of the pathetic 'choices' we are being given by voting for a third party candidate or a write-in candidate would either presidental 'winner' ever be able to claim public victory and the rights it implies? Would this not send a message to the world that we were through with the canned, hollow and meaningless 'choices' we are being presented with?
If you are willing to accept business as usual, then by all means vote for the lesser evil, a cardboard cutout created by the industrial/military/entertainment/chemical/pharmaceutical complex and the few elite families that run it. Or don't vote at all, giving the impression of self-absorbed disinterest to the wannabe masters of the universe who will then have a greater excuse to go ahead and pretend they represent our best interests, unchallenged, since to them this would represent our capitulation to their agendas.
Go ahead, continue to be an outraged victim, complaining and whining about the erosion of your liberty as long as you present no real threat to the machinery of the bureaucracy of corporate rulership. However, if in the future, you do pose a threat to the corporate dictatorship status quo, it may be too late, for there are new laws being made every day that can monitor your every move, chew you up and take you down no matter how innocent you may be of any real crime.
But if you're tired of the status quo, vote your conscience, make a statement.
Mirage
From: Sh0shanna@aol.com
Date: Tue, 7 Nov 2000
Subject: Chemtrails - E-ThePeople Petition for Congressional Hearings
Please go to the following URL and sign the petition for Congressional Hearings to uncover the mysteries of Aerial Chemtrail Spraying.
http://www.e-thepeople.com/affiliates/national/index.cfm?PC=PETFV1&PETID=454959
Thanks!
Blessings,
Shoshanna
NOTE FROM JEAN: I also received the following URLs from another source:
http://www.egroups.com/group/VancouverChemTrails - Vancouver Chem-Trail study group
http://contrailconnection.com - Pictures
http://www.chemtrailcentral.com - NEWS reports
http://www.islandnet.com/wilco - Local reporter
http://www.carnicom.com - Blood cells in samples
Date: Tue, 07 Nov 2000
From: "World Peace 2000 (Australia)" <world-peace-2000@lycos.com>
Subject: Re: PAN ALERT: Meditation Focus #26: PROTECTING ALL MARINE LIFE ON EARTH
Dear Jean,
I am so please to have received your information! Please keep it coming, I will certainly pass your on!
I also wish to add a letter that I have sent to my friends around the World as I am already commited to contributing to World Peace which includes the whole of life!
---
Dear Friend!
The Venues are reserved!
By now you must know that I am fully committed to creating the World Peace, "2002 Gathering of All Nations" at the Melbourne MCG in Australia. I am doing it because I believe PEACE is important for our Planet's safety and for the improvement of our Global Economy. All of us can stop Hunger and Poverty!
In my Honorary positions UN Regional Coordinator One Day In Peace, UNESCO Manifesto Messenger and Founder of World Peace 2000 (Australia), I have been an Honored Guest at a number of events. Through these events I have met with a large number of Elders and Official Representatives from Australia, Alaska Canada, New Zealand, Spain and South American Countries. After a year of my voluntary work they are now offering me their cooperation and their assistance.
So let me know how you can contribute with me to bring this event to:
Richard A. Fletcher
UN Regional Coordinator One Day In Peace / World Peace 2000
Founder World Peace 2000 (Australia)
UNESCO Messenger 2000
Richard A. Fletcher,
UN Regional Coordinator, One Day In Peace
Founder, World Peace 2000 (Australia)
UNESCO, Messenger Manifesto 2000
Please sign UNESCO MANIFESTO 2000 at our site: http://www.geocities.com/worldpeace2000_au
MANY PEOPLE ON THIS LIST MAY FIND RELIEF IN THE FOLLOWING TIBETAN PRACTICE OF TONGLEN, ESPECIALLY WITH THE CURRENT CLIFF-HANGING ELECTION SITUATION IN THE US.
Date: Wed, 08 Nov 2000
From: Antares <Antares@tm.net.my>
Subject: The Practice of Tonglen ~ by Pema Chodron
[Well, it can't possibly hurt....]
The Practice of Tonglen
by Pema Chodron
From 'When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times'
Each of us has a "soft spot": the place in our experience where we feel
vulnerable and tender. This soft spot is inherent in appreciation and
love, and it is equally inherent in pain.
Often, when we feel that soft spot, it's quickly followed by a feeling of
fear and an involuntary, habitual tendency to close down. This is the
tendency of all living things: to avoid pain and cling to pleasure. In
practice, however, covering up the soft spot means shutting down against
our life experience. Then we tend to narrow down into a solid feeling of self
against others.
One very powerful and effective way to work with this tendency to push away
pain and hold onto pleasure is the practice of tonglen. Tonglen is a Tibetan
word that literally means "sending and taking." The practice originated in
India and came to Tibet in the eleventh century. In tonglen practice, when we
see or feel suffering, we breathe in with the notion of completely feeling it,
accepting it, and owning it. Then we breathe out, radiating compassion,
loving kindness, freshness; anything that encourages relaxation and
openness.
In this practice, it's not uncommon to find yourself blocked, because you
come face to face with your own fear, resistance, or whatever your
personal stuckness happens to be at that moment. At that point, you can change
the focus and do tonglen for yourself, and for millions of others just like
you, at that very moment, who are feeling exactly the same misery.
I particularly like to encourage tonglen, on the spot. For example, you're
walking down the street and you see the pain of another human being.
On-the-spot tonglen means that you just don't rush by; you actually
breathe in with the wish that this person can be free of suffering, and send
out some feeling of good heart or well-being. If seeing that other person's
pain brings up fear or anger or confusion, which often happens, just start
doing tonglen for yourself and all the other people who are stuck in the
very same way.
When you do tonglen on the spot, you simply breathe in and breathe out,
taking in pain and sending out spaciousness and relief. When you do tonglen
as a formal practice, it has four stages:
1) First, rest your mind briefly in a state of openness or stillness.
2) Second, work with texture. Breathe in a feeling of hot, dark, and heavy,
and breathe out a feeling of cool, bright, and light. Breathe in and radiate
completely, through all the pores of your body, until it feels synchronized
with your in- and out-breath.
3) Third, work with any painful personal situation that is real to you.
Traditionally, you begin by doing tonglen for someone you care about.
However, if you're stuck, do the practice for your pain and simultaneously
for all those just like you who feel that kind of suffering.
4) Finally, make the taking in and the sending out larger. Whether you're
doing tonglen for someone you love or for someone you see on television,
do it for all the others in the same boat. You could even do tonglen for
people you consider your enemies--those who have hurt you or others. Do tonglen
for them, thinking of them as having the same confusion and stuckness as your
friends or yourself.
This is to say that tonglen can extend indefinitely. As you do the practice,
gradually, over time, your compassion naturally expands-- and so does your
realization that things are not as solid as you thought. As you do this
practice, at your own pace, you'll be surprised to find yourself more and
more able to be there for others, even in what seemed like impossible
situations.
Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2000
From: "Amethyst Freeman" <rainbowgold@angelfire.com>
Subject: Machu Pichu Big Hotel Development
Dear Jean,
It is with a sad heart that I have just heard the news that the go ahead has been given to a big development company to build a hotel on Machu Pichu in Peru. Tourism is the world's biggest industry and last year it grew to $439 billion dollars. Surely there needs to be some guidelines to this types of development on sacred sites. According to http://www.mpicchu.org/ who has current information on there site, Machu Pichu was listed as a World Heritage site in 1983. There is also a group called Rethinking Tourism who are at:
http://www2.planeta.com/mader/ecotravel/resources/rtp/rtp.html
which is devloping a network of Indigenous and non-Indigenous support groups to share information and resources about tourism.
Thank You,
Love and Light and blessings,
Amethyst Freeman
AND TO TAKE A REALLY BIG STEP BACK FROM ALL THE CURRENT ELECTION "MAYA"...
Date: Tue, 07 Nov 2000
Subject: 5th World Journal excerpt
From: Brian <brian@5thworld.com>
Dear 5th World folks,
Issue 2000.3 of the 5th World Journal is in your mailboxes.
Below is an excerpt for your reading pleasure.
Spiritual Journey to Macchu Picchu with Anna Hayes
by Brian L. Crissey
The ancient city of Machu Picchu lay black and motionless before us in the
soft moonlight of the tropical night, soundless, save for the eerie,
quavering tones emerging unfiltered from Kumara’s throat. High upon the
Intiwatana, the hitching post of the Sun, the most sacred spot in this most
sacred of places, Kumara called in the blessings of the Apukuna, the
mountain spirits, and we felt them stirring among us…
My life partner and best friend Pam, whose spiritual name has become Athena,
sat on a precipice overlooking the old ruins, 8,000 feet high in the
Peruvian Andes. It seemed like ages ago and light-years away that we had
boarded the flight from Greenville-Spartanburg, bound for Miami, Lima, Cusco
and here. Like hot dry stones dropped into a deep, cool well, we plunged
unaccountably into the world of the Inkas. They are here still. We feel
their energies around us as we meditate here quietly under the tropical
winter moon.
I rose and respectfully approached the Intiwatana, the solid granite “sun
dial” that tethers the Earth to Inti, the Sun. Here the Inkan priests
gathered to honor our sacred relationship to All That Is. The Old Ones knew
that the Earth and our solar system are part of a much greater Cosmos that
is rich in complex energetic relationships that are crucial to the spiritual
growth and evolution of runakuna (humankind). They knew, too, that Machu
Picchu is one of the most sacred energy portals of the planet. Here they
established the vital heart of the Inkan Empire and built the Intiwatana at
the closest point of spiritual connection to What Is Above. I placed my
hands on the monument and inwardly asked to receive what wisdom and guidance
Spirit had for me.
The stone beneath my hands—in my perception—began to gently rock and shift
like a boat at anchor in choppy water. My mental monitor stopped by
momentarily to remind me that this stone is part of the two-mile-deep solid
granite mountain out of which Machu Picchu is carved. It cannot move. It is
not a pile of stones brought here from elsewhere. The Intiwatana is the
mountain. The plaza around it was lovingly and carefully carved away from
it, leaving this monument to the Sun purely connected to the heart of
Pachamama—Mother Earth—and directly pointing to the Sun. The mountain cannot
move in our Fourth-World reality. But here, in this Fifth-World reality, it
was moving under my touch, undulating sinuously, gracefully, breathing and
living as it has since pre-Columbian times.
In my mind’s eye a silvery tower of energy roared vertically from the stone,
showering the night sky with glitters, streaks, and sparkles. All the
energy of the world was coursing through its grid lines like planetary
lifeblood in Gaian arteries, driven by the insistent, deep-throated drumbeat
of the Earth Heart far below us. Flowing all around the Earth, these
energies spiraled into Machu Picchu, erupting at the Intiwatana, connecting
our fragile globe with the intensity of Galactic Reality.
This Galactic Reality is why we all came on this journey, a mind-blowing
reality that is conveyed clearly by the enigmatic Anna Hayes, whose Voyagers
books have captivated and motivated thousands. These thousands would no
doubt have loved to have accompanied us here, but only a few were so blessed
as to actually be here in the flesh. We felt so honored, so enriched, to be
included.
The details of the trip would be a book in itself, and I can provide here
only a small taste. Details of workshops and lectures will be covered
later.
Every day was full of adventure and surprise. The first day in Cusco, in
the Sacred Valley of the Inka, at 11,000 feet elevation. we chewed coca
leaves and drank coca tea, and breathed a lot. The group took a walking
tour of the old ruins, to see where the Inkan temples were, from the days
when this city was the capital of the Empire. They are always easy to spot.
Locate any great cathedral, and look underneath. The energy is still there,
and the local Quechua people know that. They absorbed the force-fed Spanish
Catholicism of the fifteenth century, and today they practice their ancient
beliefs beneath the modern patina of saints and virgins. They are Catholics
on the outside, but underneath they are Incas, honoring the Apukuna and the
Pachamama. While the group viewed one of the old ruins beneath a cathedral,
Anna received the information that the third and fifth mountain spirits
would be accompanying our group on our journey. Ubaldo, our Shaman-priest
Quechua guide, understood completely, and nodded sagely. We looked at one
another and knew that before us lay a very special adventure.
We learned that Machu Picchu was never desecrated by the Spanish, that it
survived the invasion, only to die of unrecorded reasons much later. We
learned that it was built communally, not by slaves. Everyone who lived and
worked there did so out of love for the spirituality of Pachamama and the
Apukuna. It was considered an honor to be able to work for high purpose,
and the highest honor was to work on assembling lasting stonework to honor
the gods. The word ayni means “today for you; tomorrow for me.” It is a
principle that still dominates social life in Peru. It means that we help
one another whenever there is a need, so that tomorrow our own needs will be
met. It is a social trust, and a model for the cooperative Fifth World we
are building.
Throughout the old city we saw everything in threes, honoring the three
worlds of the ancients: Hanaq Pacha, the upper world of spirits; Kay Pacha,
the middle world we live in; and Ukhu Pacha, the lower world of the dead.
While these three worlds are definitely not Heaven, Earth, and Hell, the
conquering Christians felt it was close enough to fit, and they superimposed
their understandings on the old ways. As usual, the locals adopted the
overlay, and remained true to the truth beneath the veneer.
The Quechua see Earth history as a sequence of worlds, or pachakuna, that
transition into the subsequent world through a turbulent “turning of the
world” time known as a Pachkútekk, named after Pachkútekk Inka, who
organized the Inka state. The period of Spanish invasion was a Pachkútekk.
Now, at the beginning of this new millennium, we are in the midst of another
Pachkútekk, during which great changes are expected. The Quechua see that
failure to practice the ancient traditions of respect for the Earth will
lead to a new (Fifth) world in which material pursuits and money will be
worthless, and where “City dwellers will have only their money to eat.” If
humankind helps heal Pachamama, a new era will emerge, an era of light,
peace, love, and caring. Sound familiar? Here, high in the Andes, once again
the Fifth World surfaces in yet another guise.
Stay tuned to Part Two for more Andean adventures.
About…
Dr. Brian L. Crissey received his B.E.S. in Mathematical Sciences and his
Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Johns Hopkins University. He worked for
the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon during the Vietnam conflict, and
for the National Academy of Sciences on the Committee on Nuclear and
Alternative Energy Systems. He worked as a senior systems analyst for
industry, and he taught computer science at Illinois State University and
Linfield College in Oregon. He and his wife Pam established Wild Flower
Press and Blue Water Publishing in 1989, and added the Swan•Raven imprint in
1992. The publishing endeavors became centralized into the Granite
Publishing Group in 1999. He currently lives in North Carolina. Email
brian@5thworld.com.
+++
The 5th World Journal is available for $3 per issue, any number of issues,
from
5th World Journal
POB 1429 Columbus NC 28722
800/366-0264
Best intent,
Brian L. Crissey, Ph.D.
The Granite Publishing Group
POB 1429 Columbus NC 28722
Ph. 828/894-8444 FAX 828/894-8454
brian@5thworld.com
http://5thworld.com
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