When I was a kid, my mom often got into things I was into, then ran with it in a different direction. One was that I loved the idea of spook houses at the county fairs, I liked the idea of a ride through a little world of strange wonderful creatures. When I was a teen, she actually got permission from our church to hold Halloween haunted houses in the church parlor. She strung wire and made partitions of black plastic and staged six rooms of horror scenes. She would keep them from being too gory, but i remember thinking by that age what I wanted was more of a heaven house, scenes of angels and fairies and extraterrestrial friends. This would be more like the Christmas wonderland dioramas at the local nursery that I loved as a kid. Now that I do the mystical art and talent shows annually in October, I realized that is the heaven house theme I wanted to give people as an alternative to the fearful emotions of Halloween, which has become so big here in the united states that it's being called the second Christmas.
Halloween is really the harvest time when the veil between worlds is thinnest, and it is a great time to decide what other worlds you want to invite into your life and future. The New Earth is welcoming the Hathors, an ascended civilization of love and music, for this halloween, and you are invited to help with the meditation experience now or hereafter as explained at http://tomkenyon.com/opening-the-halls-of-amenti
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Who is Emanuel Swedenborg?
Who is Emanuel Swedenborg? We just held the 18th Mystical Art and Talent Show for the 9th year in a row at a 109 year old gothic chapel founded in his name, it might be nice to know. Swedenborg (1688-1772) was a genius Swedish scientist and engineer turned religious philosopher who has been a favorite of artists and mystics for centuries; D. T. Suzuki famously called him the Buddha of the North, Ralph Waldo Emerson listed him among the 50 great men of history, and Carl Jung closely studied his works. Not many know that Swedenborg was one of the two master spirit guides, the other being the Roman physician Galen, who tutored the founder of Spiritualism, Andrew Jackson Davis, in the early 19th century in the Catskills of New York State to prepare for the arrival of modern spirit communication.
The Cambridge Swedenborg chapel in particular is in the neighborhood of many such as William James, who wrote the "Varieties of Religious Experience" in 1902 and whose father was a huge Swedenborg fan. The chapel was visited and blessed by the Dalai Lama more recently for providing a home for the ceremonies and classes of Tibetan refugees for many years before such things were cool. We hold our own events there because we were invited to by Spirit for reasons that become delightfully obvious with a little investigation. I am enormously grateful to Swedenborg's presence and impact which continues to shape the coming utopia of this golden planet, which I call the New Earth and he called the New Jerusalem.
Here's a nice podcast I came across summarizing Swedenborg's amazing life and contributions ahead of his time to both the hard sciences and advanced spirituality. If you get into Swedenborg's writings, they are enormously poetic and wise in the language of his time. Many volumes comment directly on Biblical symbolism, "Heaven and Hell" gives a wonderful overview of the cosmic order, "Other Earths in the Universe" (or similarly translated title) is a spirit tour of other planets as their peoples relate to humanity's place in the universe, and "The Dream Journal" is Swedenborg's bravely honest diary from the year 1744 in which he turned his scientific mind to his dreams to find angels and ascended masters guiding him to his own second coming, which he saw as the personal angelic transformation which everyone will enjoy sooner or later. Swedenborg's spiritual eyes were opened so that he might function equally in both the material and energetic worlds, he was a great shaman in the most wonderful and classic sense.
Podcast on Emanual Swedenborg in the series Stuff you Missed in History Class: http://castroller.com/podcasts/StuffYouMissed/1579238-Who%20was%20Emanuel%20Swedenborg
And if you want to attend the church, what is a Swedenoborgian service like? Kind of like a cross between Unitarian and Episcopalian perhaps, in other words a structured traditional Christian ritual with very open-minded references to wide-ranging spiritual philosophies, plus very good music. Wonderful open-hearted free-thinking people go there for various personal reasons and you will be most welcome too. So if you can just expect it to not be New Agey or Spiritualist or whatever, it is its own lovely experience, then you may well enjoy more value on your own path, particularly if like myself you have strangely fond childhood memories of relating to church like no one else and wishing someday to revisit a more mystical and less judgmental version of Christianity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Cambridge Swedenborg chapel in particular is in the neighborhood of many such as William James, who wrote the "Varieties of Religious Experience" in 1902 and whose father was a huge Swedenborg fan. The chapel was visited and blessed by the Dalai Lama more recently for providing a home for the ceremonies and classes of Tibetan refugees for many years before such things were cool. We hold our own events there because we were invited to by Spirit for reasons that become delightfully obvious with a little investigation. I am enormously grateful to Swedenborg's presence and impact which continues to shape the coming utopia of this golden planet, which I call the New Earth and he called the New Jerusalem.
Here's a nice podcast I came across summarizing Swedenborg's amazing life and contributions ahead of his time to both the hard sciences and advanced spirituality. If you get into Swedenborg's writings, they are enormously poetic and wise in the language of his time. Many volumes comment directly on Biblical symbolism, "Heaven and Hell" gives a wonderful overview of the cosmic order, "Other Earths in the Universe" (or similarly translated title) is a spirit tour of other planets as their peoples relate to humanity's place in the universe, and "The Dream Journal" is Swedenborg's bravely honest diary from the year 1744 in which he turned his scientific mind to his dreams to find angels and ascended masters guiding him to his own second coming, which he saw as the personal angelic transformation which everyone will enjoy sooner or later. Swedenborg's spiritual eyes were opened so that he might function equally in both the material and energetic worlds, he was a great shaman in the most wonderful and classic sense.
Podcast on Emanual Swedenborg in the series Stuff you Missed in History Class: http://castroller.com/podcasts/StuffYouMissed/1579238-Who%20was%20Emanuel%20Swedenborg
And if you want to attend the church, what is a Swedenoborgian service like? Kind of like a cross between Unitarian and Episcopalian perhaps, in other words a structured traditional Christian ritual with very open-minded references to wide-ranging spiritual philosophies, plus very good music. Wonderful open-hearted free-thinking people go there for various personal reasons and you will be most welcome too. So if you can just expect it to not be New Agey or Spiritualist or whatever, it is its own lovely experience, then you may well enjoy more value on your own path, particularly if like myself you have strangely fond childhood memories of relating to church like no one else and wishing someday to revisit a more mystical and less judgmental version of Christianity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Monday, October 11, 2010
The Angel Message and show report
It's Monday 10/11/10, it's Columbus Day (observed) in the United States, and with that sense of arriving in the New World, I want to exclaim that Saturday's Mystical Art and Talent Show was fabulous, such a blessing, oh my God thank you soooo much everyone who contributed, physically and beyond! For the first time in the 9 years since the shows began, I was really in my center and able to take in all the energy. I was not nervous or exhausted, everything went smoothly and I felt so at home with all the love of all of you. We're truly helping each other Home.
It's like the chapel was bursting at the seams with the light of so many beautiful Souls. Great attendence, every corner filled with inspirational images, so much art and music and poetry from the heart. People were experiencing firsts all over the place, like artists who had never before shown publicly their deepest works, and the young poets who read for the first time who signed up in just the last few weeks when I thought hmmm, we need some poets, Universe can you send us some? And then they came from near and far! Interestingly the classical pianist, who for the first time dared to just improvise on the energies of the people and room around her, found herself pulled to the highest notes consistently.
Oh everyone was just wonderful, lots of great conversations and memories, you all thank me and I thank you, and I'm just so glad we have each other. Visit the website for details of who was there, and I'll get more information and photos up as I can. Remember I'm happy to make permanent displays for all of you on the site, so you can keep sending me stuff!
Now I just want to repeat the message from Archangel Uriel that I got the day before the show, starting with the opening phrase that made me cry so much that I knew I had to share it, which was a first for me. Thank you all for letting me read this and lead the meditation to become your whole and perfect self, which came to me in the healing room of John of God from Brazil at Omega in NY the week before. So many of you enjoyed the meditation that I will record it and put it on the show site soon enough for download. I know that some of you had amazing dreams and meditations the next day as evidence to how much you let in the energies of that special night, so I'm honored to have done all I could for you, the spiritual friends for whom I do everything. Our love transforms the Earth.
Message from the Angels to The Mystical Art and Talent Show 2010
Daughters and sons of the Earth, we greet and welcome you to this special time and place, a place in time made so very special by each and every one of you. Yes, it is you whom we come to see and celebrate, you collectively and you individually, for the Spirit does know you and support you more than you had imagined. Become more of your true selves, we invite you now, for that is what you seek.
Daughters and sons of the Earth, we thank you for your courage to be here, at this time, in this world that cries out for your Love and Light. Remember you are needed here, remember you belong. By the grace of your hearts which you manifest in arts, you have already transformed this world more times than you know, and so you do again. Witness and be changed.
Dearest tender ones, concern yourselves not with much more than having a good time among your fellows at this blessed evening, but rest assured that what you do here has impact far beyond these walls that you can see. This room exists in many dimensions, countless are those who are willing to be touched by the spirits of your Souls which radiate in all directions. You are the creators of the new Earth, a precious jewel among so many worlds, all interconnected by your endless and expansive Love. You are more beautiful and brave than even we had dared imagine, and we are deeply honored to assist you now in every way. Tomorrow will be different because of what you share today.
Many blessings to you, we stay now among you your silent partners, unseen friends, and constant companions in the Light.
It's like the chapel was bursting at the seams with the light of so many beautiful Souls. Great attendence, every corner filled with inspirational images, so much art and music and poetry from the heart. People were experiencing firsts all over the place, like artists who had never before shown publicly their deepest works, and the young poets who read for the first time who signed up in just the last few weeks when I thought hmmm, we need some poets, Universe can you send us some? And then they came from near and far! Interestingly the classical pianist, who for the first time dared to just improvise on the energies of the people and room around her, found herself pulled to the highest notes consistently.
Oh everyone was just wonderful, lots of great conversations and memories, you all thank me and I thank you, and I'm just so glad we have each other. Visit the website for details of who was there, and I'll get more information and photos up as I can. Remember I'm happy to make permanent displays for all of you on the site, so you can keep sending me stuff!
Now I just want to repeat the message from Archangel Uriel that I got the day before the show, starting with the opening phrase that made me cry so much that I knew I had to share it, which was a first for me. Thank you all for letting me read this and lead the meditation to become your whole and perfect self, which came to me in the healing room of John of God from Brazil at Omega in NY the week before. So many of you enjoyed the meditation that I will record it and put it on the show site soon enough for download. I know that some of you had amazing dreams and meditations the next day as evidence to how much you let in the energies of that special night, so I'm honored to have done all I could for you, the spiritual friends for whom I do everything. Our love transforms the Earth.
Message from the Angels to The Mystical Art and Talent Show 2010
Daughters and sons of the Earth, we greet and welcome you to this special time and place, a place in time made so very special by each and every one of you. Yes, it is you whom we come to see and celebrate, you collectively and you individually, for the Spirit does know you and support you more than you had imagined. Become more of your true selves, we invite you now, for that is what you seek.
Daughters and sons of the Earth, we thank you for your courage to be here, at this time, in this world that cries out for your Love and Light. Remember you are needed here, remember you belong. By the grace of your hearts which you manifest in arts, you have already transformed this world more times than you know, and so you do again. Witness and be changed.
Dearest tender ones, concern yourselves not with much more than having a good time among your fellows at this blessed evening, but rest assured that what you do here has impact far beyond these walls that you can see. This room exists in many dimensions, countless are those who are willing to be touched by the spirits of your Souls which radiate in all directions. You are the creators of the new Earth, a precious jewel among so many worlds, all interconnected by your endless and expansive Love. You are more beautiful and brave than even we had dared imagine, and we are deeply honored to assist you now in every way. Tomorrow will be different because of what you share today.
Many blessings to you, we stay now among you your silent partners, unseen friends, and constant companions in the Light.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Poems for the Show
For the 2010 Mystical Art and Talent Show, the first poem of two that I will read is called Tenebrae '97, from 1997 when one of my spirit guides came clearly to me, the 12th century mystic nun Hildegard of Bingen. She told me the word Tenebrae which I had to look up, it is Latin for darkness or shadows, and it is a distinctive Catholic service in the final three days of the Holy Week before Easter. In Tenebrae, psalms from the Book of Lamentations are chanted as candles are gradually extinguished until the church is plunged into total darkness; later, one candle is restored for the light of the resurrection.
This mood fit with the poem I received, which is about what went wrong in this garden Earth, and the hope that remains in knowing what must be accomplished. The Word must be made manifest; the energy of the Universal Soul must be made visible to guide the lost and lonely home. Fortunately, this is the theme of the Mystical Art and Talent shows, for which Hildegard led me to the Swedenborg Chapel to offer so that we might all feel more of our belonging in this world.
As further evidence of the word becoming manifest, we are blessed in 2010 with the publication of "The New Metaphysicals: Spirituality and the American Religious Imagination" by Courtney Bender, a Columbia University sociologist who joined our Mystical Experiences Discussion Group in 2002 to document some of the journey that my friends and I were on. She connects us with the greater lineage of guiding spirits in the Cambridge area, including Emerson, the Transcendentalists, and William James, as well as a current crop of some 60 mystics that she interviewed for the purpose of revealing for further study this new American spiritual movement, loosely connected as it is and intuitively guided to do no less than do our part to help and heal the world.
Tenebrae '97
What sent the wills of the hominids astray?
The hearts of the men in darkness.
What sent the hearts of the men astray?
The souls of the women worshipping lost.
What sent the women worshipping astray?
The Children gone too late before God.
What sent the Children of God astray?
The Word unmanifest.
The Marionette
Oh dear noble puppet,
always did you look,
to where that hand did enter you
and whose it was to love.
Oh dear open heart,
turn your face now prouder all around to see!
My God you have arrived!
They always knew you here;
they were so awkward too.
Oh dear sweet marionette,
ashamed to be alive,
whose strings were but too long.
This mood fit with the poem I received, which is about what went wrong in this garden Earth, and the hope that remains in knowing what must be accomplished. The Word must be made manifest; the energy of the Universal Soul must be made visible to guide the lost and lonely home. Fortunately, this is the theme of the Mystical Art and Talent shows, for which Hildegard led me to the Swedenborg Chapel to offer so that we might all feel more of our belonging in this world.
As further evidence of the word becoming manifest, we are blessed in 2010 with the publication of "The New Metaphysicals: Spirituality and the American Religious Imagination" by Courtney Bender, a Columbia University sociologist who joined our Mystical Experiences Discussion Group in 2002 to document some of the journey that my friends and I were on. She connects us with the greater lineage of guiding spirits in the Cambridge area, including Emerson, the Transcendentalists, and William James, as well as a current crop of some 60 mystics that she interviewed for the purpose of revealing for further study this new American spiritual movement, loosely connected as it is and intuitively guided to do no less than do our part to help and heal the world.
Tenebrae '97
What sent the wills of the hominids astray?
The hearts of the men in darkness.
What sent the hearts of the men astray?
The souls of the women worshipping lost.
What sent the women worshipping astray?
The Children gone too late before God.
What sent the Children of God astray?
The Word unmanifest.
The Marionette
Oh dear noble puppet,
always did you look,
to where that hand did enter you
and whose it was to love.
Oh dear open heart,
turn your face now prouder all around to see!
My God you have arrived!
They always knew you here;
they were so awkward too.
Oh dear sweet marionette,
ashamed to be alive,
whose strings were but too long.
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