Austerity is an Affront to the Gods

Here is a video I made entitled "Austerity is an Affront to the Gods," which refutes austerity-mongers who are presently to be found in control of both the "right" and the so-called "left" (who are not really left) in most nations of the global west.

The term "austerity" as used here means "fiscal austerity," which seeks to limit the ability of elected governments representing the people to use fiscal policy (including sovereign spending and tax policy) to influence the economy for purposes of full employment and economic benefit. 

Austerity in practice involves increasing taxes and reducing sovereign spending on infrastructure and on social welfare. 

Austerity has been implemented to a greater and greater degree since the rise of "monetarist" policy beginning in the late 1970s and especially after 1980; the monetarist school wants to supplant fiscal policy (implemented by a nation's elected representatives) with monetary policy (implemented by central banks), using monetary policy almost exclusively to manage the economy and trying to encourage full employment and price stability, even though monetary policy is a very clumsy instrument for these tasks and actually admits to using increased unemployment as a counter to inflation.

Austerity reflects a vision of scarcity rather than a vision of plenty. It is enabled and sustained by a general lack of understanding of the abundance of the natural resources given to a nation by the gods (or, if you prefer, by Nature), including the most important gift of all which are the talents and abilities and ambitions of the men and women whom the gods (or Nature) allow to be born into that nation.

Advocates of austerity (whom we could legitimately label "austerity mongers") seek to limit the ability of a nation to implement fiscal policy to such a degree that spending on infrastructure and social welfare is drastically curtailed, taxes are increased (or threatened to be increased for any increased spending on infrastructure or social welfare, which we are told we "cannot afford" otherwise), underemployment and unemployment rise which means that men and women are unable to fully use their gifts (given to them by the gods, or -- if you prefer -- by Nature), and standards of living are dramatically reduced.

Ultimately, the end result of austerity policy, as explained by Professor Michael P. Hudson in a quotation included in the above video and cited from an interview he gave in February of 2014 (the entire interview is linked in this previous post), is the straitjacketing of representative government to the degree that it must sell off natural resources to private parties (corporations or hyper-wealthy individuals), a process known as privatization -- which has, not coincidentally, increased at a steady pace since the implementation of monetarist austerity regimes beginning around 1980.

Professor Hudson explains:

And stage two is when the governments have to pay by selling off the public domain: the land, the natural resources, the forests, the ports, the electrical systems, the natural monopolies, and the infrastructure -- the roads and the bridges -- and the economy's turned into a tollbooth economy, and so you're going very rapidly back to feudalism.

Austerity mongers on the right typically argue for privatization and for drastic cuts to spending on social welfare (but not cuts to spending on military arsenals and standing armies). Austerity mongers on the supposed "left" typically argue for increased spending on social welfare but for simultaneous massive increases in taxes on the people, consistent with the paradigm of austerity -- and they are usually not opposed to privatization either (in fact, many of them argue for more of it).

Ultimately, as this video attempts to demonstrate, the entire paradigm of austerity is built upon a false and even "upside-down" vision of the world, including the role of the sovereign government in the creation of money, as a small but growing group of economists in the so-called Modern Monetary Theory school have demonstrated. The MMT economists show that men and women have been basically deceived with a bunch of claptrap about how macroeconomics operates, and which actually has nothing to do with reality.

I would argue that this situation is very much illustrative of many other situations in which our "conscious mind" has accepted a false paradigm or framework which actually goes against reality and nature itself. In these cases, I would argue, we actually know deep down (in our gut, in our bones, or in our subconscious) that the vision we have accepted and under which we are operating is completely false -- and yet our conscious mind may not know it. 

Our conscious mind is quite capable of accepting a false paradigm, reinforcing it, and operating as though it is true -- even to the point of filtering out evidence which challenges that false paradigm, in some cases to the point of actually not seeing something (or telling ourselves we didn't see something) which would upend the false paradigm in which our conscious mind is operating. 

Meanwhile, our subconscious is not so easily fooled, and actually knows the truth -- creating an internal schism and a kind of alienation from one's own self which is extremely characteristic of the modern world. 

To illustrate using the brilliant characters created for the popular television series "The Office" (united states version), without implying that these actors would in any way agree with things asserted in this blog, I have in the past compared the conscious mind and its constant chatter to Michael Scott, who often appears to "believe his own line" even when it is obviously ridiculous, with a kind of unshakeable good humor and cringe-worthy self-confidence:

via GIPHY

Meanwhile, our subconscious mind (which is aware of much more of what is going on around us and even in the wider universe than is the conscious mind), is not so easily amused, and not so ready to accept the elaborate paradigms and constructs which the conscious mind buys into:

via GIPHY

If we see increasing numbers of hungry, homeless men and women in the streets and yet continue to tell ourselves that the economy is just fine (and even "nearing full employment"), then I would suggest that it is very likely that we have (in our conscious mind) bought into a false construct of one sort or another (see top picture, above) but that deep down our subconscious mind knows better (see bottom picture, above) and we will then be living with a kind of "schism" within our own psyche, creating a background level of angst or anxiety which our conscious mind cannot necessarily even detect or explain, but which will influence everything we are doing and feeling as we go about our lives.

The same situation would apply to a man or woman who knows deep down (at the level of the subconscious, which detects much more than does the conscious mind) that his or her wife or husband or boyfriend or girlfriend is having an affair, but whose conscious mind refuses to see the evidence, in order to maintain a paradigm or world-view or sense of self which is not in line with reality and which eventually will likely come crashing down (but, until it does, the disconnect will create a deep sense of background anxiety and general psychic discomfort).

I would argue that much the same thing is going on with regard to massive criminal events such as the collapse of three steel-frame high-rise buildings into their own footprints on September 11, 2001, supposedly due to "fire": our conscious mind can (desperately) cling to the false narrative which is constantly repeated for our acceptance (see top picture, above) even though our subconscious mind knows deep down that this narrative cannot possibly match reality (see bottom picture, above). The threat to our paradigm and vision of the world is so great that our conscious mind will resist looking at or even refuse to see things which threaten the paradigm or structure or vision of the world which the conscious mind has constructed.

The good news is that the ancient myths given to humanity are all about showing us how to heal the schism between our conscious mind and our subconscious mind, in every way.

This fact explains why the ancient myths remain so relevant to those who are trying to fool humanity, impose austerity on men and women, and take for themselves and their cronies the gifts given by the gods (or, if you prefer, by Nature) to the people of various nations.

And it explains why going to the ancient wisdom given in the world's myths, scriptures and sacred stories points us to the solution for the schism we find within ourselves, and in the wider world around us.

Happy Lunar New Year and Propitious Year of the Pig!

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

Happy Chinese New Year, a Lunar New Year, to all readers far and near!

Chinese New Year is determined using a lunisolar calendar, in which the actual date is determined by the New Moon, but anchored to the solar cycle.

This year, the 12-year cycle of the Chinese animal signs brings us to the twelfth sign of the cycle, the Year of the Pig.

The Pig is a propitious animal in Chinese culture, associated with Yin energy, compassion, and generosit

The Pig is also associated with wealth. Those who have taken the time to learn Chinese characters know that the symbol for the word which signifies family or household, pronounced jia in Mandarin and gaa in Cantonese, is a symbol representing a pig underneath a roof:

While dogmatic advocates of the ideology of materialism typically resist any suggestion that the heavenly cycles (including the annual cycle related to the earth's relationship to the sun and the changing background of stars "behind the sun" as we travel through our orbit each year, as well as certain longer cycles including the background of stars through which the faraway planet Jupiter will move as it goes through its roughly twelve-year orbit around the sun) could have an impact on our feelings, behavior, or situation here on earth, the nearly universal belief exhibited by ancient cultures around the world that the changing positions of our planet relative to the other planets and the sun and moon can have an impact on events in our lives suggests something beyond mere "superstition" or "pre-scientific groping for explanations" about our natural world.

Indeed, as pointed out in the preceding post, the fact that our subconscious mind can sense and perceive information which is overlooked, ignored, or even actively filtered out by our conscious mind (which has its own agenda, including defending its own self-constructed "identity" and world-views or paradigms which it has built up or borrowed or adapted in its attempts to make sense of the world in which it finds itself) is beyond dispute. 

Often, our subconscious will provide us with answers, insights, or intuition which does not come from the efforts of our conscious mind. For instance, pioneering chemist August Kekule (1829 - 1896) reported that one day while pondering the problem of the chemical structure of the hydrocarbon benzene, he slipped into a kind of reverie or daydream state in which he saw a snake grasping its own tail in his mouth -- and upon waking realized that this vision provided him with the solution to the problem (the benzene molecule consisting of a hexagonal ring of six carbon atoms and six hydrogen atoms). 

Whether or not Kekule was just making up an anecdote or actually slipped into a dream state and saw the serpent he described, these "answers from the land of dreams" are actually a fairly widespread phenomenon which many readers will recognize as having occurred at some point in their own life, as discussed in this previous post. More than once, I myself have had similar revelations in which an answer is present after waking up to a problem I was thinking about the night before. These insights and answers cannot be said to have come from the conscious mind, since the conscious mind is "unconscious" when we sleep, although the subconscious continues to operate.

Indeed, the subconscious mind is so sensitive, powerful, unfettered, and wide-ranging that in some cases it seems to perceive or tap into sources of information that "should not" be available to it, if its only source of input comes from the five physical senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and scent. The subconscious mind at times appears to be able to gather information available "at a distance," or even perhaps available to the subconscious mind of other men and women. In some cases, it is possible to argue that the subconscious mind at times appears to be sensitive to information that comes from the Invisible Realm itself.

Given this understanding, it is not unreasonable to consider the possibility that the subconscious can and does gather information regarding the impact of phenomena, motions, and alignments far beyond those perceived by the conscious mind, or even considered possible to detect by the conscious mind -- to include the arrangements of the planets or the relative positions of the earth and the moon or the earth and the sun. 

If our subconscious receives information, feelings, sensations and vibrations from our surroundings including the height of the ceiling or the arrangement of the furniture or the shape of the room in which we are standing or sitting or working at any given moment (and I would argue that our subconscious most certainly does receive and absorb such information), then it is certainly possible that even more distant arrangements, including the various geometries and gravitational tugs created by the relative positions of sun, moon and planets, could perhaps be registered in our subconscious, regardless of the fact that our conscious minds tell us that such a thing is completely impossible.

Presently, from our perspective in the inner solar system, the mighty planet Jupiter is positioned such that it is located "in" the constellation of Scorpio (in other words, the stars that we see as the constellation Scorpio form the "background" or "backdrop" for the planet Jupiter when seen from our perspective). Last year at this same time, the planet Jupiter was in the preceding zodiac constellation, of Libra, and next year at this time Jupiter will have moved along its roughly twelve-year orbit to a position "in" the constellation of Sagittarius (which follows Scorpio in the zodiac). 

Is it not possible that the position of this enormous planet, as well as the positions of the other large bodies in our solar system (to include the central sun, as well as our nearby moon, and the other planets on their orbits) might create subtle changes in the environment around us which our subconscious can read and absorb, even as our conscious mind remains blissfully unaware of such changes (and even as most of the constructs we create as part of our identity as a "modern man or woman" exclude without any hesitation the very possibility of such perception, let alone the possibility that these changes could impact the way we feel or behave)?

This question is all the more intriguing in light of theories put forward over the course of the past century or two which suggest that the actual orbits of the planets themselves might be responding to influences from other dimensions beyond the three dimensions which we normally acknowledge (but which may not be the only dimensions that exist, at all). For more on that subject, see this previous post entitled "The gods are real."

As that post suggests, it is very possible that there are certain actors on the world stage who are very much aware of the sensitivity and power of our subconscious (and its possible ability to make connections that even go as far as other dimensions and other realms), and who may be incorporating such alignments into their own plans.  

However, the ancient wisdom available in the world's myths indicate such power can (and indeed should) be used for beneficial purposes, in order use our own gifts as effectively as possible, for our own benefit and for the benefit of others (see for example this previous post).

As we reach the point of another Lunar New Year and Chinese New Year, these are very important subjects to consider. It is certainly a part of the year which is taken very seriously in a large part of the world -- a time for giving respect and reverence to the gods, and to one's own ancestors who made our own existence possible.

At this start of a new Lunar New Year, I am grateful to all who interact with the ideas I share in this blog and in my books and videos, and wish all of you a very Happy New Year and a propitious Year of the Pig!

Paul Selig reveals a secret menu that's available to all of us

Here's a fascinating interview conducted by Andy Zaremba of Vancouver Real with Paul Selig, who has learned to listen to the voice or voices of what he calls "the Guides" and to convey the message of what he hears for the benefit of others.

Below is an audio version of the same interview, if you prefer (as I often do) to listen while driving,  while taking a walk, or while doing a task such as washing dishes:

As you listen to the interview, you will at times hear Paul beginning to hear the Guides and repeating their message verbally, with the words sometimes coming through so rapidly that it is almost impossible to distinguish the words, which he will then repeat at a more conversational rate for the benefit of the listener.

Where are these messages coming from?

It would seem that the words are coming so fast and yet with a meaning so coherent that it is difficult to imagine that they are the product of Paul's conscious mind. Having listened to the interview more than once, I would suggest that Paul has either become capable of hearing and repeating messages from his subconscious mind or capable of hearing and repeating messages from outside of his own mind entirely (from what the world's ancient myths and sacred stories refer to in various ways, as the Other Realm, the Invisible Realm, the realm of the gods).

Does it matter whether these messages are coming from the subconscious or from another realm?

I would argue that this distinction is actually not very meaningful, since we don't really even know "where" the concept we call "mind" actually resides.

The question of whether these messages are coming from "within" Paul's mind or from "outside" of it will primarily be of interest to those individuals who want to deny the possibility of the existence of anything outside of the material plane of existence, those committed (at an ideological level) to the categorical rejection of even the possibility that anything might exist outside of the realm of matter.

Those committed to such a dogmatic position will reflexively deny any explanation which leaves open the possibility of anything which operates beyond the laws of physics which help us to explain the operation of matter in the physical universe. Those committed to the doctrines of materialism to such a degree will often claim that even the barest admission of the possibility that anything could operate on a non-physical level would undermine everything we know about physics and shatter any scientific progress that has been made in understanding the way matter operates, which is actually false and quite an illogical position to take.

It is particularly illogical in light of the fact that overwhelming evidence has demonstrated that the phenomenon we refer to as "consciousness" cannot be explained as being generated by physical, chemical, mechanical interactions in the structures of the body alone, and indeed overwhelming evidence suggesting that consciousness appears to operate and reside in some sense "outside of" or "beyond" the physical structures of the body. Two previous posts touching on just a tiny sliver of the evidence for the ability of consciousness or "mind" to transcend the physical limitations of the body include "The ideology of materialism" and "Crazy for the Storm, and the inner connection to the Infinite."

Even if we want to argue that the messages Paul is receiving are coming from his subconscious mind, we should by no means discount the power of the subconscious to perceive and to know things which completely escape our conscious mind -- and the ability to listen to what is already present in our subconscious would be potent and life-changing.

In addition, our subconscious (if that's what we want to call it) seems to at times have the ability to tap into knowledge which, by the strict laws of physics, would be beyond what could be gathered through the five physical senses of sight, hearing, taste, scent, and touch -- such as when we receive a premonition regarding a family member or loved one who is far away (a phenomenon which has been documented so many times that it cannot be dismissed as simply a coincidence or an illusion). 

Thus, I would argue that whether we want to say these messages are coming from "the subconscious" or from "the realm of the gods" is actually immaterial. It might be more accurate to say that we make contact with the realm of the gods through our subconscious -- and that any technique or practice which enables us to tap into that source of information, whether that technique is clairaudience, meditation, or any of the numerous ways of entering into a shamanic trance state which have been practiced in all cultures around the globe for millennia, should be considered valid, particularly if it provides access to the unbelievable power of the subconscious mind, and through it the divine realm.

While I am convinced that certain individuals appear to have a specific gift giving them special levels of access to the hidden realm, the Other Realm, it is also quite certain that every one of us has a subconscious -- and thus access to realms of knowing that are beyond what we normally perceive with our conscious mind. I myself have had many occasions while thinking about a particular myth when I went to bed thinking about a certain question or problem, and woke up with the solution the next morning (insights into a myth and its meaning often far beyond where I had finished the night before) -- a solution which clearly could not have been delivered to me by my conscious mind (which was not operating while I was asleep) but rather by the subconscious.

So, I myself don't really get hung up over the question of whether the Guides that Paul is channeling are "outside of" his own mind or not: I certainly do not think the channeled messages are the product of his conscious mind, and if we want to say that they are coming from his subconscious mind, I would say that the subconscious mind is incredibly powerful and that the subconscious mind appears to have access to information beyond what can even be gathered by the physical senses -- which means that it appears to be in contact with the realm of the gods, and to be a channel through which the gods can make contact with men and women.

Materialist science at this point cannot even tell us where consciousness resides or how it arises, and thus if a materialist feels more comfortable saying that these messages come from the subconscious mind, that's pretty much the same thing as saying that they come from the realm of the gods, in my opinion.

Wherever the messages are coming from, the things Paul is relaying in some of the things he has heard, and which he discusses in the above interview, appear to me to be very much in accordance with many of the central themes of the messages conveyed by the world's ancient myths, scriptures and sacred stories -- such as the reality and existence of a Higher Self (or, as Paul refers to it, "the True Self") with whom we can become more attuned during this incarnate life, helping to free ourselves from our own self-imposed (or societally-imposed) limitations on what we can actually accomplish and what we should be accomplishing.

Beginning at approximately the 0:59:00 mark in the interview, in response to a question from Andy about how we can go into the unknown if we don't know what's possible, Paul says:

Well that's because the "small self" knows itself through history.  And the Guides say again and again, you know, nothing can be claimed until it's first a possibility. So the example that they've used fairly often, you know, when they teach, is that we're always "ordering off of the menu of what we think we can have." Now, you know: clairaudience wasn't on my menu when it showed up -- it really didn't exist: I didn't think in those terms -- it was an odd thing, and I had to understand it, through the experience with it in an ongoing way. But it exists! And it can be had. And there are people who come to the workshop sometimes, and they're opening up psychically after the fact, and perhaps only because, you know, they're with somebody who says, "You know, this is possible." And suddenly it "becomes" possible. It's always been possible, but it's been unclaimed. So imagine, you know, you're going to the Thai restaurant, and all of a sudden you want the pasta, you know, you want the meatballs. You assume you can't have it. But you don't know: I mean, there may be a whole other menu that's available to you, and to all of us, of potential, that we haven't begun to claim.

A little while later in this same part of the discussion, Andy asks if it is when we begin to align with our True Self that other possibilities begin to open up for us?

Paul responds:

I get: "Yes!" Absolutely: because you're not limiting yourself to what you've had. 

This would appear to be some very important wisdom to contemplate carefully.

An example from ancient myth which comes to mind (to me) might be the situation we see in the Odyssey, Book Five -- when we are first introduced to Odysseus in person, and find him languishing on the island of Ogygia, in the middle of a trackless ocean, a prisoner of the nymph Calypso. He is stuck in the same place that he has been stuck for many years, seemingly unable to move forward or to go back, tormented by the knowledge that he has something else he should be doing (namely, being a husband to his wife Penelope, and being a father to his son Telemachos, as well as civic responsibilities he should be performing as the king of the island of Ithaca).

What changes?

A message comes from the gods, delivered by divine Hermes, and Calypso releases Odysseus and tells him he can go home. In other words, the ancient myths themselves illustrate to us a situation in which breaking out of being stuck takes place as a message from the divine realm "puts an option on the menu" which previously seemed impossible.

Thus begin the memorable adventures of Odysseus on his journey home recounted in that ancient epic, during which time and time again Odysseus himself admits that he would certainly have perished, had he not been attuned at certain critical points to the voice of the gods (particularly the goddess Athena, and also on occasion Hermes). Indeed, it can be argued that one of the things which distinguishes Odysseus from all others in that epic is his willingness to be attuned to the messages from the divine realm and to listen to what they are saying to him.

Thus, the Odyssey can quite convincingly be argued to show to us that each and every one of us needs to be attuned, like Odysseus, to the messages from the gods (or, if you prefer, from the subconscious, which I personally would argue is a conduit for the divine realm, but which at the very least has access to information and knowledge far deeper than that available at the superficial levels on which we usually operate and upon which we often base our decisions and our actions).

How can we listen more regularly to our subconscious -- and perhaps to messages coming from that realm of the gods to which Odysseus was listening?

I would suggest that one way is through regular practices which help us to tune down the constant  scurrying and chattering of the conscious mind and to spend time with our subconscious, such as through various types of meditation, or through shamanic drumming, or the repetition of mantras, or chanting, or through many of the other disciplines which men and women have used for millennia for this very purpose.

I would also recommend considering the important concepts Peter Kingsley explores in his amazing book In the Dark Places of Wisdom, some of which I discuss in a recent video here. 

And, if you want to learn more about Paul Selig and his means of listening to the messages from the Guides, you can check out one of his workshops, one of which is coming up in Vancouver on February 23 and 24.

Finally, I would suggest regularly spending time with the world's ancient myths, which by their very nature (as stories) speak more directly to our subconscious than to our conscious mind -- and may well have been designed to help us to see beyond the menu of what we previously believed possible.

Descending into Darkness

Above is a new video I've just made, entitled "Descending into Darkness."

The video explores celestial aspects of Revelation chapter 9, in which the bottomless pit is opened, and the constellations and region of the sky which it is describing, as well as its connections to other mythological themes relating to the same heavenly features, and some aspects of the profound message these myths may be trying to convey to our understanding.

I hope you will enjoy it, share it with anyone who may find it to be helpful, and investigate some of the concepts it is discussing.

Previous posts which relate to some of the themes examined in "Descending into Darkness" include:

• "The peace of utter stillness . . ." 

• "Whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell . . ."

• "To keep the connection alive between this world . . . and reality"

• "It is above all during trance that he becomes truly himself"

• "The centrality of ecstasy, according to ancient wisdom"

• "The shamanic foundation of the world's ancient wisdom"

• "The Bible is essentially shamanic"

• "Eros and Psyche"

• "You may have a Higher Self, and He or She wants you to know it"

• "The Therapeutae"

• "The Ghost-Dance and contact with the spirit world"

• "Eleusis transcendent"

• "Two visions"

• "The entire Revelation 12 / September 23 flap points to the truth that all of ancient scripture and myth is built upon celestial metaphor"

• "Revelation chapter 22 and the Egyptian Book of the Dead"

• "A celestial exposition of Revelation chapter 12"

• "The incredible importance of the inner connection to the Infinite"

• "There is no member of mine devoid of a god"

90 years after the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it is up to us to continue his work towards creating a society where "the achievements of the human mind and heart would be limitless"

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

January 15 is the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. -- born this day in 1929, ninety years ago this year.

As everyone knows, Martin Luther King, Jr. was a towering champion of justice, democracy and human dignity, and a courageous and tireless opponent of oppression, racism, segregation, poverty and colonialism.

His life and message was one of opportunity for all. His message was against fear, against violence, and against the idea that giving opportunity for one group necessarily required taking away opportunity from another group.

In a text he wrote in 1961, entitled "After Desegregation, What?" speaking of those involved in the movement on college campuses against segregation, he declared:

The problem is not merely a racial one, with Negroes set against white; rather, it is a tension between justice and injustice. Therefore, their movement is not aimed against oppressors but against oppression.

In his participation in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, he stood against segregation -- and also for full employment. 

His message was not just against the oppressive structures of racism and oppression, but also included a positive vision of creating a society in which men and women could attain their full potential, and "the achievements of the human mind and heart would be limitless" (see "After Desegregation, What?" page 7).

This focus on the positive was absolutely essential to Dr. King's message and plan of action. Indeed, in the same text he declares:

This constructive program is a basic part of any genuine non-violent movement, for non-violence is essentially a positive concept. Its corollary must always be growth. Without this broad range of positive goals, non-cooperation ends where it begins (5).

Dr. King's message was so powerful because it realized that violence is only a negative tool, and that it could be overcome by positive action -- indeed, that it could not stand against positive action, if only enough people could be awakened to what is right, and emboldened to act on behalf of what is right. 

This same message can be heard very clearly in one of his very first public speeches calling for a stand against injustice, at the mass meeting of the Montgomery Improvement Association in December of 1955, in which he pointed to the unjust arrest of Rosa Parks for refusing to relinquish her seat on a public bus, and called for a non-violent boycott of the buses of the city and municipality.

At that meeting (transcription here), Dr. King announces:

We are here, we are here this evening, because we're tired now. And I want to say that we are not here advocating violence. We have never done that. [. . .] The only weapon that we have in our hands this evening is the weapon of protest.

The power of that message was such that it woke people up, around the country and around the world, in a way that violence never could have done. 

But it is now up to us to heed his message and continue his work, to prove that justice is stronger than violence.

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

See previous posts about the life and message of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

• "Martin Luther King's urgent message to us today"

• "The urgent and ongoing importance of the message and life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr."

• "The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice"

• "Two Visions: Beyond Vietnam, by Martin Luther King, Jr."
  
  
  

嫦娥 visits the far side of the Moon

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

Congratulations to the people of China, whose space program appears to have successfully landed a spacecraft on the far side of the moon, which has never been done before.

The mission and craft are known as the Chang Er 4, named after the immortal moon goddess 嫦娥 whose name literally means "Chang the Beautiful."

Her story is discussed in this previous post from 2015.

The myth of the goddess 嫦娥 is significant, because it falls into a myth-pattern found around the globe, of a pairing of a mortal and an immortal, usually appearing as one of the following combinations:  a mortal husband and immortal wife, or a mortal wife and an immortal husband, or a living husband and an undead wife or vice versa, or (very commonly in the world's myths) a set of twins in which one twin is mortal and the other is divine.

I am convinced that these myths are intended to convey profound and important truths for our understanding -- truths which are beneficial to our present condition in this incarnate life -- and that these lessons include the reality and accessibility of our spiritual nature, our divine nature, our  Higher Self, and our inner connection with the Infinite.

Other previous posts dealing with this important subject include:

• "The Dioscuri"

• "You may have a Higher Self, and He or She wants you to know it"

• "Eros and Psyche"

• "Self, the senses, and the mind"

• "Who is Doubting Thomas?"

• "The Gospel of Thomas and the Divine Twin"

• "The Gospel of Thomas and the Everlasting Spring"

• "The gorgeous night sky of June and July -- and mythical links from Greece to Kauai"

Returning to the landing of the Chang Er 4 on the surface of the moon's far side (near its southern pole), this recent article gives some additional detail. It does not mention, however, the detail provided in this other recent article, which states that the Chang Er 4 lander carried with it six live species from earth: cotton, rapeseed (aka "canola"), potatoes, a flowering plant species called arabidopsis, and fruit flies! 

I'm not sure why that little detail was not more widely reported, since it seems like a fairly noteworthy item. Personally, I'm not sure its such a good idea to send fruit flies, which breed notoriously rapidly, up to the moon -- but, as they say in many science fiction and horror stories, "Really, I mean, what could go wrong?"

What has been getting a lot of reporting is the fact that the so-called "dark side of the moon" is a misnomer (as owners of the famous Pink Floyd album have already known for years, since the album itself informs us that "Matter of fact it's all dark"). The moon turns on its axis just as the earth does, allowing the sun to illuminate the entire surface in turns, just as we on earth experience night and day. The mechanics of that process, as well as some interesting detail on why we are actually able to view about 60% of the moon's surface from our vantage point on earth (not all at once, of course) are included in this very first episodeof the "Exposing PseudoAstronomy" podcast from Stuart Robbins (archives here).

Returning briefly to the goddess 嫦娥 to finish this brief discussion, note that in the painting above, a poem about Chang the Beautiful has been inscribed in the upper-right area of the artwork. The calligraphy reads as follows (according to a translation provided with the image on Wikimedia commons):

She was long ago a resident of the Moon Palace,
Where phoenixes and cranes gathered and
Embroidered banners fluttered in heavenly fragrance.
Change E, in love with the gifted scholar,
Breaks off [for him] the topmost branch of the cassia tree.

This beautiful poem may contain hints of celestial elements, since this story (I believe) is based upon celestial metaphor, as are virtually all of the world's other ancient myths, scriptures, and sacred stories.

The phoenixes and cranes would probably refer to the constellations Aquila and Cygnus (respectively). The Moon Palace itself may refer to the constellation Ophiuchus, which sometimes plays the role of a tent, a pavilion, a great gate, a house, or a palace. The breaking off of a branch of the cassia tree may refer to the beautiful constellation Coma Berenices, discussed in this previous post. If so, that would indicate that Chang Er might be associated with the constellation Virgo, the Virgin (at least in this poem), since Virgo's outstretched arm reaches towards the nearby constellation of Coma Berenices.

The (mortal) husband of Chang Er is traditionally 后羿 (Hou Yi in Mandarin or Hau Ngai in Cantonese), which means something like King Archer. This name hints that he would either be associated with Sagittarius or Orion, and I would guess Orion might be most likely, since Virgo is rising when Orion is setting on the opposite horizon, and vice versa (meaning that they can never actually be together anymore — a poignant touch to this ancient story).

Proclaim liberty throughout all the land

image: Wikimedia commons (link).

Above is an image of the Liberty Bell, which rang out in the Old State House of Pennsylvania (a building which later came to be known as Independence Hall) to summon the people to the first reading of the Declaration of Independence in July of 1776. The Declaration of Independence was itself adopted in the same building, as was the later Constitution.

The words imprinted on the Liberty Bell, when it was forged in 1753, come from the text of the scroll of Leviticus chapter 25 and verse 10:

Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.

You can see these words on the image above, if you zoom in enough (they wrap all the way around the bell, and at the end of the verse itself is stamped LEV XXV X, which you can see coming around from the left at the top of the bell).

As Professor Michael P. Hudson points out, in an important interview recorded with Bonnie Faulkner of Guns & Butter from September 26, 2007 (interview #141, embedded below), the word translated "liberty" in the King James version of Leviticus 25: 10 is the Hebrew word "deror" or דְּרוֹר (Strong's number H1865), which means "uninhibited flow" and, by metaphorical extension, the forgiveness of debts. Later, the same Liberty Bell and its ancient message became a powerful symbol among the movement to abolish slavery in the decades prior to the Civil War.

As this article from 2017 by texas university (t.u.) Professor Jonathan Kaplan explains (and as Professor Hudson also points out in his 2007 interview), that specific Hebrew word for the forgiveness of debts is cognate with an earlier Akkadian terms dararum and andararum, which also refer to the forgiveness of debts and which appear in proclamations on ancient Mesopotamian tablets dating back to the second millennium BC. 

Ancient civilizations -- and ancient scriptures -- had a very clear understanding of the significance of debt, and of the importance of keeping debt from devouring the people of a society. In the gospel account recorded in the text of Luke chapter 4, when Jesus is described as beginning his ministry with the reading of a text from the book of Isaiah in the synagogue, the text that he reads is Isaiah chapter 61, verses 1 and 2, which also contains the same phrase, translated "proclaim liberty" using the word "deror" (forgiveness of debt). The ancients understood that credit in society was necessary, and that it could serve productive purposes, but that it could also become predatory and lead to a downward spiral which could only be corrected through the cancellation of certain types of debt.

Recently, Michael Hudson has released his latest book exploring this very subject, entitled . . . and forgive them their debts, taking its title of course from the verse in the Lord's Prayer, which Michael Hudson points out is often mis-translated as "forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us" rather than as "forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," even though the Greek words employed in the original text itself are opheilemaand opheiletes, which unequivocally mean "debts" and "debtors." 

In that interview from September 2007, when the global financial crisis was just beginning, Professor Hudson explained how issuance of mortgage credit at levels far beyond anything that would have been permitted in previous decades led directly to the housing bubble and subsequent collapse -- and how the dismantling of the Glass-Steagall provisions in the 1933 USA Banking Act invited the types of securitization of mortgages that played a central role in the financial crisis. 

Now, more than ten years after that earlier interview, Professor Hudson has recorded a more recent interview on Guns & Butter, which goes even deeper into the ways that credit can be used productively instead of destructively, tying the discussion in to the larger context of economic rent and neoliberal fiscal austerity. 

Tying the question of government spending (fiscal policy) to the subjects of economic productivity and the reduction of rentier interests (defined in the interview) or their proliferation, Professor Hudson explains during this interview that:

Classical economists saw the proper role of government as being to create social infrastructure and upgrade living standards and productivity for their labor force. Governments should build roads to minimize the cost of transportation, not private companies creating toll roads to maximize the cost by building in financial charges, real estate and management charges to what users have to pay. [ . . . ] The great question is, what is the government going to spend money on, and how can it spend money into the economy in a way that helps growth? [ . . . ] Instead, the rentier classes have hijacked the government, taking over its money creation and taxing power to spend on themselves, not to help the economy at large produce more or raise living standards.

These are concepts which impact every one of us in modern society, and which it would behoove everyone to understand, but which are rarely if ever explained. Indeed, as Michael Hudson makes quite clear in that second interview, the neoclassical economics doctrine which is almost universally taught in schools (all the way up through college and postgraduate level economics) is deliberately deceptive -- hence the title of this most recent Guns & Butter interview, "The Vocabulary of Economic Deception," and the title of Professor Hudson's second-most-recent book, J is for Junk Economics: A Guide to Reality in an Age of Deception.

The divide between the conventional neoclassical "orthodox" economists and the so-called "heterodox" economists such as Professor Hudson is clearly laid out and explained in another essential text which will help make some of the points he brings up in these interviews much more understandable: Modern Monetary Theory and Practice, by Professors William Mitchell, Randall Wray, and Martin Watts. 

As long as people do not understand these concepts, it will be much easier for those who have in Professor Hudson's words "hijacked the government" to continue running it into the ground, and running the people into unsurmountable debt.

It is quite clear, however, that the ancients understood these concepts, and that they included them as central themes in the Biblical scriptures -- as well as in texts from other, even earlier cultures (you can even see debts involved in creating the central crisis in the Mahabharata of ancient India). They knew that it was a societal issue, and that the very structures of society had to be designed to ensure that debt did not end up enslaving the majority of the population.

The period of the New Year (albeit often observed around the period of the equinoxes rather than around the period of the solstice) was the time when deror or andararum was proclaimed in the ancient traditions. Thus, as we prepare to observe another New Year, it would be very appropriate to take some time to examine these concepts more deeply, in order to prevent the kind of economic deception which is presently being practiced on a wide scale, and which is in fact being taught in  even the most respected of economics departments, with very few exceptions.

As resources, I would recommend the two Michael Hudson interviews discussed above, and embedded below, as well as the three books linked above, and also the eBook entitled Diagrams and Dollars referenced in this previous post.

And, of course, we also have the precious resource of the world's ancient wisdom, entrusted to our ancestors in remote antiquity, and preserved for our use today as a treasured inheritance, as relevant and necessary to our lives today as ever in the past -- and perhaps even more so than ever.

"Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."

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Guns & Butter #141, September 26, 2007:

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Guns & Butter #395, December 12, 2018: