Foreclosures have broken all records. Attorneys General throughout the country are conducting investigations into big bank mortgage fraud. Over 5,000,000 homes have been seized so far by banks who in fact lack legal standing to foreclose, and another 5,000,000 homes will likely be seized before this is over. That’s a lot of roofs over a lot of heads. What is happening to all those families? Do you really want to know? It’s a nightmare.

There has been a coup in this country – an insidious takeover facilitated by our belief in bottom-line profit as the only mechanism to prosperity. This Industrial Age mindset has been robbing our children of their spirits for centuries – creating educational systems that provide the workplace with the “survival of the fittest” mentality needed to operate a competitive economic system.

This entire system is collapsing – look around you – ask those smiling folks behind you at the grocery store what is really going on in their lives. We are like chickens with our heads cut off, running around as though everything is OK. Well, everything is not OK, and the chicken eventually figures out it’s missing its head and drops.

What’s been missing is the heart, and systems with no heart can’t survive. But the human spirit will prevail. There’s a new American Dream waiting to be actualized – one of cooperation, caring, nurturance, trust. We can lead the way. It’s our job, our response-ability.

Go see “Inside Job.” Director Charles Ferguson closes the film with a call to action: “Some things are worth fighting for” he says, as the camera flies over the Statue of Liberty. Are we going to let our fear rob humanity of the great promise America made in its freedom documents – a Nation of the People, By the People and For the People, with liberty and justice for all? I don’t think so!

DO SOMETHING! Use the power of intelligence, education, and Spirit gifted you to ensure that our children and their children have an economic system and a country that serves the realization of the human potential.

Video Trailer for “Inside Job.”

Article is Copr. © 2011 by Connie Baxter Marlow. eNewsChannels.com. All rights reserved.

The origin story of the first 50 years of the Plymouth Colony has been out of balance since people first starting telling it. It has been out of balance because it has lacked an understanding of the American Indian who first inhabited these lands and who the Mayflower Pilgrims met upon their arrival here.

The pendulum has now swung the other way.

First the story glorified the Pilgrims and left out the Indian. Now it is “politically correct” to debunk the Pilgrims and subsequent founders of the United States and demonize them as villains in an effort to honor the Indian. I believe that this swing of the pendulum in both directions is a result of misunderstanding and misinformation:

The idea that it was solely the Anglo-Saxon who gave birth to the “American Mind” and the “American Spirit” is in my observance inappropriate and inaccurate. That Anglo-Saxon ideals were a leading driving force in forming a new nation based on self-governance is undeniable. The Pilgrims arrived with these ideals as articulated in The Mayflower Compact, which they drafted in the cabin of the Mayflower before their first landing in Provincetown. What is missing from the equation is:

a. The relationship of the Mayflower Pilgrims with the Wampanoags for the first 50 years of Plymouth Plantation’s existence – driven by the inspired vision of the Pilgrim leaders and the Wampanoag chief, Massasoit.

b. The role that Native American thought has played in the evolution of the ideals which became the Constitution of the United States.

c. The importance to the future of what the Native Americans are carrying in their understanding of the nature of the universe.

d. The role played by the many diverse cultures who subsequently came to the New World.

Article is Copr. © 2010, 2011 by Connie Baxter Marlow. eNewsChannels.com. All rights reserved.

“This day before we come to harbor, observing that some were not well affected to unity and concord but gave appearance of faction, it was thought good that there should be an association and agreement, so that we should combine together in one body and submit to such government and governors as we should by common consent agree to make and choose. We therefore set our hands to this that follows word for word.” — Mourt’s Relation

In March of 1621 two inspired leaders sat down on the edge of a wilderness and drafted a treaty of peace and friendship that was to last throughout their lifetimes. The Massasoit Ousa Mequin of the Pokanoket Wampanoags and Pilgrim governor William Bradford proceeded to lead a unique melding of cultures that was to become the underlying model for the evolution of a great nation, honoring the principles in the Mayflower Compact and creating a society in Plymouth where blacks, Indians and women had freedoms remarkable for their times.

The 1621 fall three-day celebration of thanks in which Pilgrim and Wampanoag families gathered together to share food and games has inspired Americans and the world to gather to honor family and the gifts of abundance in our Thanksgiving holiday. On Thanksgiving Day 2008 families and friends will again open their hearts and give thanks, perhaps more so than ever before.

In 1776 an inspired Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence articulating principles of universal truth that were to signal the world of possibility, of the human potential. It was signed by courageous individuals who dared to dream, and act on that dream.

In 1787 The Constitutional Convention adopted the United States Constitution , again a melding of cultures with the principles of the Mayflower Compact combined with those found in The Great Law of the Iroquois, bringing autonomous states together in federation to serve the common good.

In 1863 an inspired Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, granting the freedoms that are everyone’s birthright and setting the stage for the breakthrough election on November 4, 2008.

During the school year 2007- 2008, ten Sedona, Arizona middle school students, inspired by the model of 50 years of peace and friendship between the Mayflower Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians in Plymouth, put the principles to work to bridge cultural differences in their school. They created a DVD of their experiences and in May traveled to Boston and Plymouth where they issued a challenge to The Massachusetts Historical Society, the Plymouth Board of Selectmen, the leaders of America and all Americans:

Peaceful Coexistence
DVD Narration: Written by Alex Bindrim, age 14. West Sedona Middle School:

Fifty years of peace between cultures, unseen and unrivaled anywhere in the confines of history. Not a shaky peace either, but a full-fledged symbiotic relationship surrounding Plymouth Plantation that for some reason history chooses to ignore. This speaks, of course, about the fifty years of peace between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Native Americans, during which two completely alien cultures resolved to set aside their differences and work together for common good.

What was it that created these unique circumstances: mutual trust? Visionary leadership? Religious beliefs? All of these? A better question may be; does it matter? A lesson is here, that different cultures can get along for relatively long periods of time.

There is fundamental common ground between all men, women, and children on this Earth, and even if we know this in our hearts, we must learn it in our minds. The implications of this revelation, this understanding, have remarkable potential. Yet for some reason, we all have chosen to take the message for granted, as if we as a species already understand, and the lesson has already been applied. Has it? This documentary will dare to analyze the world today, using the newest generation as a prime example, and put forth the answer to that all- important question.

To demonstrate the practicality of the lessons of the first fifty years, we have brought together adolescents of different cliques, castes, and races, to finally do what should be done and promote understanding, peace, and cooperation. They have come to a family picnic, bringing their trademark dishes, skills, and stories. You will see many deliberate exchanges of information, skill, sharing of culture and lifestyles, reminiscent of Pilgrim and Wampanoag interaction, among what society imagines are the most vicious, intolerant people of all; the common teenager.

What you will see in our film proves a point – saying that the lessons of the first fifty years can be applied to the tragedies of our Earth today- intolerance and separatism. If adolescents have managed to overcome their differences, even in the harsh, divisive world they live in; why can adults not do the same? What the fifty years of peaceful coexistence shows is that, indeed, they can. Yet of all the great lessons, stories, and morals that this example has set down, we choose only to take the one that fills our stomach (a mere holiday). So much more should be done. When this program ends, and you turn away from the screen, will your undertaking be one of forgetfulness, or will you choose to take this video at face value and set out to change the world as the Pilgrims and Wampanoags did long ago?

It will be through the inspiration of individuals on a large-scale basis that world change will occur. Definition: in-spi-ra-tion – an inspiring or animating action or influence; a divine influence directly and immediately exerted upon the mind or soul.

This Thanksgiving may we each listen to that divine influence as it speaks through our hearts and may we each have the courage to act upon our inner promptings and through this inspiration bring humanity to its highest potential as loving beings, inspired by those who have brought us to this time in the evolutionary upward spiral leading to Peace on Earth.

[tags]author Connie Baxter Marlow, Uplifting Ideas eNewsChannels column, holistic articles, history of Thanksgiving, Pilgrim and Wampanoag families[/tags]

A synopsis of the ideas presented during: “Let’s Talk. A Public Forum Series on the Subject of Education,” Aspen, Colorado. Fall/Spring 1993/4. Speakers: Alden Naranjo, Wallace Black Elk, Dr. Emily Bornstein, Dr. Harold Whitcomb, Tom Crum, Jon Seigle, Connie Baxter Marlow. Drafted by CBM 5/94

The dominant Western cultures currently base actions and decisions on a model of economics which has the bottom line as its principal determining factor. This is the profit-based model of a growth-oriented economy in a world of “scarce” resources using supply and demand as the “invisible hand” to regulate and control the outcome, determining “profit”, “success” and survival in the short term. This Keynesian Model might be called “Bottom-line Economics”. Proposed below is a model called “Top-Line Economics”. This model takes the highest aspirations of humanity, integrates the principles alluded to above and below, and places them as the dominant features in the interactions between individuals who are in the process of flourishing in a world of abundance.

Top-Line Economics
When the principles of trust, generosity, respect, inspiration, love, cooperation and gratitude are actually the dominant factors of human interaction in the workplace, at home and in schools the resulting abundance will allow all aspects of the world to flourish in a manner heretofore unimaginable.
Taken from an open forum entitled: Pan-Indigenousness and its Relevance for the Future: Envisioning a New World led by Connie Baxter Marlow and Arnie Neptune. University of Maine, Orono. Drafted by CBM 11/01

The above can be accomplished once we commit to treating each member of the human family with the following understanding:

The Expanded Family
Global/National/Workplace/Schools/Home/Self
A unit of independent, autonomous individuals, all seeking their unique destinies within the context of caring, consideration and respect for others achieved through conversation, listening, patience, kindness, empathy, compassion, playfulness and truthfulness, allowing the Universal Laws of perfect balance, abundance, harmony and win/win to manifest through letting go of fear, separation and doubt, moving into total trust of a universe driven by unconditional love. Drafted by CBM 2/98.

A New Energy
All of this is possible because there is a new energy available on Earth which supports the manifestation of the infinite balance, abundance and unconditional love that are at the foundation of Universal Law. Individuals are beginning to experience this in their lives which, step-by step will influence them to make new choices on how they will live day-by-day:

Spontaneously
Trust will replace fear.
Ease will replace struggle.
Serenity will replace tension.
Generosity will replace hoarding.
Abundance will replace scarcity.
Unity will replace separation.
New Systems will develop.
New Relationships will replace out-moded ways of being.
An understanding of the
interconnectedness and sacredness of all things will begin to emerge.

It is in this way that true peace and profound freedom will come to prevail on Earth.
Taken from “How Peace will Come to Prevail on Earth” Drafted by CBM for “The Reverent Journey for Peace and Healing in the Americas.” 2/95

“No problem was ever solved in the same consciousness in which it was created.” Albert Einstein

“We must become the change we wish to see in the world.” Gandhi

“Perhaps we have built a house of cards on a false foundation.
Examining our assumptions is key.” CBM 8/02

[tags]Connie Baxter Marlow, Uplifting Evolutionary Ideas, Journey for Peace and Healing in the Americas[/tags]

We must examine our assumptions.

What if the following precepts became the foundation for how we are in relationship with each other. I have named it “The Expanded Family” and see it as the evolutionary step beyond the nuclear family concept:

The Expanded Family
A unit of independent, autonomous individuals, all seeking their unique destinies within the context of caring, consideration and respect for others achieved through conversation, listening, patience, kindness, empathy, compassion, playfulness and truthfulness; allowing the Universal Laws of perfect balance, abundance, harmony and win/win to manifest through letting go of fear, separation and doubt, moving into total trust of a universe driven by unconditional love.

The practical application of these concepts can ultimately create a community that intrinsically understands and trusts:

* The inherent goodness of each child/adult.

* That each child/adult is a genius in his/her own way and at some point before the end of his/her life this genius will flower and the world will be a better place because of it.

* That every person is an eager and natural learner and teacher.

* That every person has different interests, different needs – intellectual, physical and emotional – at different stages in their lives and that these are ever-changing.

* That adults are “enablers of learning” as well as teachers, parents, employers – their role is to allow the natural flowering of each person’s natural gifts of wisdom, knowledge and talent.

* That change is the one constant that everyone must embrace and prepare for.

* That extreme care must be taken from birth to ensure that each individual is provided with conditions which will encourage the development of balanced, open, thoughtful people who will naturally contribute to his/her community in an appropriate manner, by creating systems that:

* Provide a smorgasbord of information and experiences from which a child/adult may choose and then respect his/her choices as appropriate for his/her development.

* Encourage people to take risks and make mistakes, understanding that one learns more from wrong answers than right answers, thereby relieving the stress associated with having to be right and eliminating the fear of being wrong.

* Orient means of educating children and motivating employees around the inner satisfaction of learning rather than the outer rewards of grades and material gain.

* Encouraging excellence through connectedness, choice and discovery, abandoning models of perfection and judgment.

Living these ideas is the challenge, taking each word literally and acting accordingly. In this way, perhaps, we can each be part of the process that will allow peace, beauty, balance and abundance for all to come to pass on Earth.

“We must become the change we wish to see in the world.” – Ghandi

“No problem was ever solved in the same consciousness in which it was created.” – Albert Einstein

“This is a great nation and a strong people. Any who seek to comfort rather than instruct, promise satisfaction rather than reveal frustration deny that greatness and drain that strength. For today as it was in the beginning, it is the truth that makes us free.” – RFK

[tags]Uplifting Evolutionary Ideas, Connie Baxter Marlow, The Expanded Family[/tags]

From my 15 year association with visionary Native American elders of the Americas and my extended visits with the Hopi in Arizona, the Wabanaki of Maine, the Ute of Colorado, the Lakota of South Dakota and the Maya, Huichol, Tarahumara of Mexico and the Kalahari Bushmen of South Africa I caught a glimpse of a reality based on assumptions radically different from those I was raised with. I discovered a conscious, loving, interconnected, abundant universe. I sat in conversation with people who remembered the beginning, experienced the present and could see into the future. It occurred to me that if these people see and experience what I have come to call an “expanded reality” then why can’t I – why can’t everyone. My reality, where what these elders experienced on an everyday basis was called phenomena, superstition, magic and discounted as unreal or inapplicable to life in the 20th century, became untenable for me. Especially when I became a mother and it was my responsibility to teach my children the nature of things so they could become contributory members to the evolving human condition.

I have always believed in the human potential. Early in my life I was struck by extraordinary acts of love displayed by significant people in the world – I remember it was Florence Nightengale who triggered this knowing in me.

I believe there is a life of beauty, balance and harmony awaiting the human race and the path to this life is within the grasp of each of us, in fact, it is within each of us, in our dreams, our hopes, our highest aspirations. It merely awaits our taking up the courage to walk these ideas in our daily lives through our choice to honor our hearts and our spirits.

When I came upon the Native American “way of life” or cosmology I knew my search for the missing pieces of the paradigm I had been raised in had turned up something significant. As a teenager I started an active quest for more than what my reality had to offer. The quest led me to Berkeley in the 60′s, to Europe, the mountains of Wyoming and Colorado and finally to my own backyard. In New Mexico I discovered 500 Indian nations that knew something important, something that resonated to my heart and my knowing.

I came from a family who gave their money away. My ancestors were politicians who lived and acted according to their hearts and championed the animals, the earth, women, the poor, the water. What made these men extraordinary, I wondered. Growing up a Baxter in Maine where sacred mountains and parks and libraries and boulevards were given to the people by my ancestors gave me a mandate: “Find a better way. Take action. Live your life based on what you believe in.”

My journey has been a long and thoughtful one. “Listen” the elders said. “Listen to the Silence”.
What does that mean? It took me many years to figure it out. When I heard stories from Grandfather Wallace Black Elk that described his reality I sat in awe and listened. Then I began to act on what I heard. I began to believe this reality was possible, and my life transformed. Could animals and trees and rocks really speak. If Grandfather could have two-way conversations with rocks and beavers, what does that mean? When he hears the trees singing what amazing world does he inhabit? When he honors the rocks in the sweat lodge, calling them stone people, when he uses sage to cleanse the aura of a person, place or thing – what do these things mean? When Grandmother Bertha Grove, Ute Elder picked up a glowing hot rock from the fire and handed it to her son, when she read the smoke rising from the fire and prescribed a remedy for a skin disorder that the medical doctors couldn’t treat – what was happening? After many years, many experiences and much listening and pondering I had what many call an epiphany. I got it:

The Native American way of life, their understanding, their experiences are not a religion nor a belief system – they are manifestations of the true conscious, loving interconnected, abundant nature of the universe. They are symbols of what can be. If we pay attention we can find clues to laws that we can integrate into our own lives and boldly use them to transform our systems into systems that enhance our humanity, our beauty, our spirits. The giveaway so prevalent amongst native cultures became a symbol to me of the abundant universe. So this is what those Baxters were resonating to when they gave most of their wealth away. If we live in an abundant, loving, interconnected universe why would we hoard money? If we knew, if we trusted that there would be food tomorrow – would there be? If we are loved by this conscious universe wouldn’t it care for us?

I’m not a Christian – but didn’t that quintessential hippie out in Galilee tell anyone who would listen a few things about the nature of this abundant, loving, interconnected universe?

“…Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink… Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” Jesus : Matthew 5: 25

The Hopi elder Grandfather David Monongye, religious leader of Hotevilla expressed it in 1976 as “The True Path – living in harmony as brothers and sisters, sharing our Mother, the Earth with all other living things. In this way, he states, we could bring about a New World. A world which would be led by the Great Spirit and our Mother would provide plenty and happiness for us all.”

The Hopi sum it up in their “Life Plan” or Prophecy – a drawing on a rock on Third Mesa that came into my life in 1990 during my first of many visits to Hopi Land.

“This rock drawing shows part of the Hopi prophecy. There are two paths. The first with high technology but separate from natural and spiritual law leads to these jagged lines representing chaos. The lower path is one that remains in harmony with natural law. Here we see a line that represents a choice like a bridge joining the paths. If we return to spiritual harmony and live from our hearts we can experience a paradise in this world. If we continue only on this upper path, we will come to destruction.” Excerpt from the Hopi message to the United Nations General Assembly. Submitted by Thomas Banyacya. December 10, 1992. See www.alphcdc.com/banyacya/un92.html

Again, the “little hippie guy” as Grandfather Black Elk used to call him expressed the same understanding in his words 2000 years ago:

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against the house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it.” Jesus. Matthew 8:24

Do these two passages describe the same condition? Are they both trying to tell us something?

Do we have the ears to hear such a message? The courage to live in alignment with universal law?

Universal law? You ask. Grandfather always spoke of “man-made” law – which suggests something not created in the mind of man. What could that be? This I pondered. Over the years I came to understand that there are laws of the universe -absolute and irrefutable laws – which are the mechanics of how the universe works. The Hopi call it the “True Path of the Great Spirit.”

We shroud the understanding of these laws in religion, in dogma. We negate them by calling them magic, coincidence, phenomena. People who see them and try to help us understand them are more often than not removed from the planet. Ghandi, Jesus, Martin Luther King, Jr., JFK, RFK, John Lennon, the indigenous peoples. It has not been time for the heart. Not quite time for humanity to choose to walk in balance. For 50 years in Plymouth Massachusetts in the 1600′s inspired Englishmen and women and the Wampanoag Indians led by a visionary leader lived together in peace striving for a world which served an individual’s connection to the divine, through his conscience – and a great nation was founded on these principles. And what have we done with these principles, how are we as a nation showing up in the world? It is said we promise according to our desires, and fulfill according to our fear. Would assumptions aligned with the heart bring America closer to living out her promises?

Could it be time now to exercise our free will and decide to live our lives in alignment with our own knowing? The Maya say it is in their Mayan Calendar that predicts the end of the world as we know it in 2012. That is the time we will collectively take the leap into our hearts, into trust, and transform life on Earth. Several Native American prophecies speak of purification and the coming of 1000 years of peace.

The Bushmen of the Kalahari in Southern Africa, the world’s oldest people and one of the most amazing, heart-centered cultures I have ever encountered shared their understanding of the possibilities with Bradford Keeney of the Ringing Rocks Foundation:

Brad states in his book “Kalahari Bushmen Healers: “…The most powerful experience shared by all Bushman healers is the deep bond and love of relationships among all people. This ecstatic bliss arises when you throw yourself into the spirit of shaking and dancing, which opens your heart to the whole of life.”

“My last visit to Motaope was on January 3, 1999. He again asked me to tell everyone about Bushmen healing. He wanted everyone to know that it is possible for all people to experience what the Bushman experiences. His final words to me were as follows: ‘God brought you and me together. This makes me very happy. I see you in my dreams. I know what you are doing and I protect you. You must tell everyone about our medicine. That’s why we were brought together. Please teach them to dance, shake and touch. Everyone needs to meet god through this experience. It teaches us to forgive and love everyone. Go and touch everyone as a Bushman. Go and love everyone as a Bushman. Let the dance show that we are truly one people, one family, one love.’”

Taken from “Kalahari Bushmen Healers” “Profiles in Healing” Ringing Rocks Press. Afterward. p, 125.

Once I made the “leap” I started seeing this “Truth” everywhere. In Hollywood – Star Wars, for example is in my estimation a handbook for how to live “The True Path”, as is Field of Dreams – in advertising – Nike – says “Just do it.” “No Fear” Gear brings us a command from the divine. I started to remember stories I’d heard from the Bible, notice it in the essence of all religions, in America’s Freedom Documents, in our classic literature, our children’s books, in our own experiences day- to- day that we negate with our doubt – our “what if”. “What if” it isn’t true, what if I’m not loved by these energies, “what if” there isn’t any food tomorrow? It becomes our choice whether to live in trust or in doubt.

Now one might ask – what steps do we take to transform our lives?

The first and most critical step: We must change our assumptions.

I will throw out a “what if” – What if we applied the principles found in indigenous thought to our lives and to the systems we create? I will list the prevailing characteristics I have found that underlie the indigenous cosmology. This was well expressed by a Native American writer Donald Fixico in an article titled ” Call for Native Genius and Indigenous Intellectualism.” There are concepts here which are180 degrees off from our prevailing assumptions.

To access the reality our indigenous peoples see – we can only see it if we believe it – it is a point of view – as a photographer I live every day with the difference a slight shift in perspective can make to the content of a photograph – the same is true with life. You can change what’s in the picture by changing your perspective.

The concepts below reflect an understanding of an alignment with the Universal Laws of perfect balance, abundance, harmony and win/win. When we choose to implement them in our lives we will let go of fear, separation and doubt and move into total trust of a universe driven by unconditional love.

It is our lack of understanding of the nature of this love that has us see it as not love. The nature of unconditional love is that it MUST give everything that is asked of it. Our assumptions are our requests. Below you will see the “requests” given this energy of love by the two paradigms: the path in balance, the path out of balance.

Respect and reverence for all of life and the gifts each being brings -
vs. Dominance of concern for profit
Trust in the love of a Higher Power manifested in all action -
vs. Fear, doubt
Living in balance with the rhythms of life –
vs. Being driven by a man-made concept of time.
Understanding the interrelatedness of all things and all actions –
vs. Separation
An understanding of the co-creative power of thought-
vs. Random Coincidence
Equality between all aspects of life –
vs. Human dominance
Incorporation of the metaphysical into physical reality -
vs. Bound to the limits of physical reality
Sharing –
vs. Hoarding or Saving
Concern for the common good –
vs. Individualism at the expense of the common good.
Cooperation –
vs. Competition
Concern for the future impacts of present action -
vs. Instant Gratification

Quantum physics describes the quantum reality that scientifically explains this sort of thinking. It has to do with frequencies and vibratory levels. The trust frequency is a high vibration that accesses a reality unavailable to those in the lower vibration fear frequency. It is fascinating and in my experience entirely real. One can put one’s life on the line in the trust frequency. This places one solidly in the vibration of abundance and beauty. Try it, it’s fun ! I have touched on these ideas in my column “The Secret Purpose of History.”

The following behaviors will follow from the above assumptions:

We will stop co-operating with and enforcing fear-based behavior in our child rearing practices, our education, our workplaces and our international relations.

We will understand that circumstance loves us and is guiding us. That there has been a secret purpose of history. We will trust our hearts and our intuition and allow things to unfold while we take bold action from this place of trust.

We will stop hoarding and using our perceived wealth as a means of power and control over others.

Our hearts will open and peace will come to pass on Earth !
Thank you.

P.S.

[tags]Connie Baxter Marlow, Uplifting Evolutionary Ideas, Indigenous Cosmology, Ringing Rocks Foundation[/tags]

For most, Plymouth on Thanksgiving symbolizes a time of peace, of friendship and thanksgiving. It calls families to come together to feast and be thankful. It inspires a nation whose origin story is one of the quest for freedom and a bridging of cultures. It is a symbol of birth, of something new. For others it symbolizes the end of an era, the end of a way of life that had been operating freely on this land for millennia. This is a significant dichotomy, confusion from a core wound of a nation that perceives itself as an exemplar of democracy – allegedly pluralistic, with every nation of the world and every religion represented and respected here.

But on Thanksgiving, the American Indian is crying out to be heard. The Native American who is barely noticed before or after the third week in November; who all but disappeared from the pages American history after King Phillip’s War until the present when they stand up to be noticed on Thanksgiving Day in Plymouth. The First Americans who now have an equal voice at Plimoth Plantation (www.plimoth.org), the living museum in Plymouth, perhaps even a dominant voice there. Who is the American Indian? What role have they played in the evolution of America before, during and after that harvest celebration in the fall of 1621?

In our zeal to create a symbol with Plymouth and Thanksgiving we have lost the facts of the actual circumstances that occurred so long ago. We have not taken the time to look closely at the hearts of the people who played out the birthing of a nation.

Who were the Mayflower Pilgrims who arrived in Plymouth that November of 1620? A small ship of 102 people – mothers, fathers and children – 50 of whom were seeking to start a nation based upon freedom of conscience, freedom to relate to the divine individually through direct experience – seeking to establish” a pure and democratic church.” These Separatists (importantly distinguished from the Puritans who came later) – farmers and Cambridge-educated individuals – who escaped from England to Holland – had read the Bible (newly translated into English) and had discovered that God intended for humanity to live in freedom. In England they committed treason by leaving the Church of England which they found to be corrupt and inappropriate, were jailed by King James, published seditious books against the king- did everything in their power to challenge the status quo. Do we have that kind of courage today? Are we willing to go to jail for what we believe in? Henry Thoreau did. Who else has? Martin Luther King, Ghandi, John Lennon, JFK, RFK all died for seeing a higher truth and acting upon that vision.

Who did the tiny band of English rebels encounter upon their arrival in the New World? The American Indian with whom they shared much common ground in religious understanding and in their connection to the earth.

In conversation with Conbatant,Wampanoag leader, at the time of the Massasoit Ousa Mequin’s near-death in 1623 Edward Winslow in Good News From New England relates: “Here upon I took occasion to tell them of God’s works of creation and preservation, of his laws and ordinances…I also told them, that whatsoever good things we had, we received from God, as the author and giver thereof; and therefore craved his blessing upon that we had…This all of them concluded to be very well; and said, they believed almost all the same things, and that the same power that we called God, they called Kiehtan.” Earlier that day, Winslow had saved the Massassoit’s life with an herbal remedy.

Oddly enough, the Pilgrims came to Plymouth – in error, perhaps – as they were heading for northern Virginia – in Plymouth they encountered an Indian, Squanto, who had lived honorably in England, who spoke English and who was living with a strong leader of high vision, Ousa Mequin, the Massasoit of the Pokanoket Wampanoags. Hobbomock, who later lived near the Pilgrims as Massasoit’s emissary spoke to Winslow describing the Massasoit at the time of the Massasoit’s near death: ”My loving sachim, my loving sachim! Many have I known, but never any like thee.’ and turning to [Winslow] said whilst [you] lived, [you] should never see his like amongst the Indians…”

The inspired leaders of these two cultures created a peace treaty upon their first meeting three months after the arrival of the Mayflower. A treaty of peace and friendship that was to last 50 years. The simple farming folk from England, who knew the land, how to honor the land and live from the land, who sought freedom to relate directly to the divine, met a culture who also lived from the land and honored the land and whose way of life reflected a direct connection with the Creator. From the outset hey shared food, they shared knowledge. In the first days the Pilgrims often fed the Indians. Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to plant Indian corn – something the Pilgrims had not seen in England.

Within a few short years thousands of Puritans came from England to settle New England. They came to Cape Ann, settled Salem, Boston and formed The Massachusetts Bay Company/Colony, a business venture as well as a colony. These were moneyed people of vision seeking prosperity in a new land. Conflicts began between cultures, the Puritan did not share the commonalities enjoyed by the Mayflower Pilgrims and the Wampanoags in Plymouth – there was an unbridgeable chasm between cultures that led to war by 1675 and a subsequent divergence of understanding that has continued to this day.

Plymouth Plantation became absorbed into The Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Indian became marginalized, much as the Separatists had been in England, but in the evolution of democracy on American soil both the Indian and the Separatist ideals were to play a significant role.

The principles of self-governance – equal and just laws serving the common good – that were the driving principles of the Mayflower Pilgrims – articulated in The Mayflower Compact in the cabin of the Mayflower before they landed in Provincetown Harbor, became the inspiring principles 150 years later as a fledgling nation attempted to gain independence and draft a document that would guide a free people in the evolution of a nation – with a government of the people, by the people and for the people. The creation of this document, The United States Constitution, which was to bring 13 independent states together, took in concepts already in practice amongst the five nations of the Iroquois who had combined sovereign tribes together in confederacy hundreds of years prior.

The quest for freedom of the individual to decide his own fate, religiously and politically had a jump start in Plymouth with Indians and settlers living together, working together to maintain peace. Visionary leaders taking the high road with their people. The American Spirit had been born. The American Mind was developing as something radically different from the mentality of the European on the continent. Now, many generations later, what do we, as Americans, profoundly influenced by these visionary people, do with the heritage they gave us as articulated in our freedom documents – The Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, and the US Constitution. Are we ready to listen to the voices of the Native American and the Pilgrim visionaries and use Plymouth as a symbol to draw us together to walk forward into our highest potential?

Let us join hands this Thanksgiving as brothers and sisters, as family, and do as the great Ousa Mequin and the Pilgrim leaders did long ago. Let us feast from the common table of love, friendship and the birthright of the human spirit to be free.

[tags]Connie Baxter Marlow, Uplifting Evolutionary Ideas, Plimoth Plantation[/tags]

Ours is only a suggestive language attempting to grasp and describe concepts that are beyond words. Our ability to conceptualize is derived from the words we use and the construct we have created to analyze and categorize experiences. The concepts proposed here are outside of the commonly agreed upon construct and beyond any words we might have to describe them.

Please consider the term “vibratory levels or frequencies” – There are vibratory levels that determine the reality we experience. Think of them as waves, parallel realities. Every belief we have, every assumption concerning the nature of the universe, every resulting thought determines our energetic frequency and therefore the reality we will experience. In his book “The Holographic Universe” Michael Talbot describes this concept. The movie “What the Bleep do We Know” confirms that perception determines reality in a very real sense. The science of quantum physics is developing to explain this, and the indigenous shamans have lived it for millennia.

Close your eyes and imagine a world of loving support for all you are and desire to be. Feel the vibration, describe the feeling. Then imagine the world that is presented to us in newspapers, on the news – the history of humanity as it is unfolding daily. How does that feel? Those different feelings determine one’s vibratory level. John Lennon gave us a reality in his song “Imagine”. If we could imprint the words of that song on our brain, with the knowing that they describe the “truth or trust frequency” we would, given the power of our thoughts, become instrumental in bringing this reality to pass in our own lives and then collectively we would bring it to pass on earth.

Every action has two purposes – one to serve the higher/love vibration which you may have felt a few moments ago – which is really all there is – the coming of peace on earth/ heaven on earth – and one to serve the lower/fear vibration or the illusion we have created that we call reality which you also may have just experienced. We have been given the free will to choose which vibratory level we put our attention on, thereby creating our individual reality and ultimately the collective reality,

There are tools to lift oneself into the higher frequency where the conscious loving universe is waiting with a silver platter to give us everything we need, want and desire – and more than we can fathom.

How? Why? You might ask. On the high frequency the “true, absolute nature of the universe” is infinitely abundant and loving – THERE IS ONLY LOVE. It is our lack of understanding of the nature of that love* which has us see it as “not love” and this misunderstanding lowers our vibratory level and puts us in a reality “out-of-balance” with the true nature of the universe. With free will we have the choice as to which vibratory level we want to align with and thereby experience as our reality, History has been a record of humanity playing out its response to the doubt/fear vibration – which appears to be a downward spiral – but since it is completely out of alignment with Truth or the true nature of the universe – this reality is only an illusion. One we can stop aligning with at any moment.

Each soul agreed to come to Earth to fulfill a divine purpose – to bring a precious gift to the party of life. In the high frequency – or trust frequency – because it is TRUST (Truly Rely Upon Spirit Timing) that will take us there – as divine, autonomous, sovereign beings we – individually and as a species – were born to become that gift. In the Big Ball Game no one else can play that position – no one else can bring that gift, so the all-loving energies in the universe support our learning, our growth, our journey to wholeness – as individuals and as a species. Hence the secret purpose of history – the energy of unconditional love coming to understand itself and ultimately manifest its true nature on Earth through free will – perfect balance, peace, infinite abundance – Heaven on Earth. The catch is – we must choose it, and we must walk it. We must trust in the love that we are and we become it, and in becoming it the human race will bring a gift to the universe that can come to pass no other way.

Every experience, therefore, is to lead us inexorably toward the fulfillment of our divine purpose – as individuals and as a species. Circumstance is a manifestation of divine love. It forces us on our journey to our highest potential (it loves us more than we do) – if we accept and grow from the events in our lives.

The human heart is carrying pure love and once we see and understand how much we are loved, our hearts will open. This love will enhance the rest of creation. All of creation is awaiting that day,

That day is soon to come to pass. It is in the prophecies, it is in the Bible – the fifth world according to the indigenous peoples, the world of unity and peace – the fifth kingdom according to the Bible – the Kingdom of God. One thousand years of peace. The Mayan calendar points to December 21, 2012 – it appears that on this day the Earth will have transitioned to a place in the heavens where the love energy will become the only frequency available on Earth and those who have chosen to cleanse, heal and walk in alignment with this frequency will participate in the unfolding of Heaven on Earth – the alignment with the trust frequency where only perfect balance, infinite abundance and pure love can thrive.

So, you ask, how does this all relate to the events of history, our current reality as it is playing out in our lives?

What about war, violence, famine, poverty? Looking at these aspects of human history from a “divine perspective” – from the assumption that “there is only love” – they become manifestations of our beliefs: our belief in separateness, and our belief in scarcity – our doubt, our fear. This combined with the power of our thoughts to create the reality we experience has brought us the circumstances we need to learn and grow so that we have the courage to align with our heart’s desire – this alignment is like the gossamer thread that will lead us through the maze of life – with ease and grace at every turn.

Our belief that we are separate from one another – when in fact we are all different aspects of the whole – the consciousness of love- has led to war. Our belief in scarcity has led to power struggles and a desire to dominate others so that we have more, and therefore more power. The belief in scarcity has led to scarcity, poverty and famine. This is how much the conscious loving universe loves us. It must manifest our requests, that is its nature.

But, through it all – the higher purpose has led us to this point. The point at which we have chosen to bring peace on Earth. And we are now simply playing out old thinking and old habits based on fear – something is dying and something is being born – all at the same time – and our lives are playing out this process.

The atrocities of history have shown us the result of our thinking, and have taught us that this is not the world we want for our children. And if we look closely, listen attentively we will see the heart coming forth as a result of these apparently negative circumstances.

An example is 9/11. From the lower vibration this looks like terrorism – them against us – victim/perpetrator. From a higher perspective this event shifted humanity at its very core and has taken us into playing out the last vestiges of our fear while at the same time, opening our hearts. Each natural disaster rattles the core of our attachment to this reality and opens our hearts to the plight of others. The current war has us questioning the validity of war at deep levels. Every apparent “loss” in our lives takes us to levels of grief and transformation we could not attain without this “gift”. The atrocities of Hitler and his followers showed us our deepest shadow and tell us we never want to go there again. The example of Judas – we have always looked at Judas as the “bad guy” who betrayed Jesus – it is coming to light with the discovery of the Judas Gospel that Judas was, perhaps, a hero – the person chosen to play out the important role of sending Jesus on his soul’s journey. Does this mean that Hitler was a hero? And what about the “terrorists” who flew the planes on 9/11?

Another example is America. It is said “We promise according to our desires and fulfill according to our fears.” The inspired founding of America, the creation of our freedom documents which articulate the “high vibration” of this nation’s destiny are merely words on paper at this point. Extraordinary circumstances and inspired individuals came together in the trust frequency to form this nation based upon universal truths. Our actions since that time have played out our lower vibration – our fear, our greed, our separateness – it remains to be seen when America and Americans will step up and realize the higher vibratory model we promised the world we would be.

In the end it has to do with each of us, our free will and our choices. What reality do we choose to create for ourselves, for our children?

Thank you.

*The nature of the love that IS the universe: It is unconditional. It is conscious. It MUST give everything that is asked of it. Our beliefs are our requests. We are so loved we are supported in destroying ourselves if that is what we choose. Free will gives us the right to NOT align with the divine energies and one’s higher self.

[tags]connie baxter marlow, uplifting evolutionary ideas, the baxter project, perception of reality, futurist article, enewschannels[/tags]