Tag Archives: Consciousness

When Netanyahu attacked Iran

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When Netanyahu attacked Iran, I believe he knew this action would be the beginnings of a violent retaliatory exchange, potentially leading to war. I believe that Netanyahu wants a war with Iran. He wants America and the West to support such a war. I believe that Netanyahu’s  mind – and the minds of some of the other leaders in the world – are given over to an ancient mind virus that knows only violence, manipulation, murder and enmity. Netanyahu’s conscience seems to be completely identified with this deadly mind pathogen. And this virus is not just human avarice. It is at work within collective human consciousness to varying degrees, but is especially active within geopolitical systems.
 
This action against Iran by Netanyahu could destabilise the Middle East even further and will draw other nations into the conflict, potentially leading to a dangerous international situation. This danger could include the risk of a Third World War. For people with emotional intelligence and deep humanity, this is obvious. Nonetheless it is not obvious to many others in the world, especially powerful and wealthy influencers who are political actors.
 
For those of us who are alive to our humanity and our deepest spiritual nature, this conflict is like watching something horrible unfold before our eyes over which we have no immediate power to prevent.
 
There is something deeply malignant at work in the global systems of power, which is beyond broken human nature. This malignant phenomenon – the mind pathogen – wants humanity to be in a state of conflict and separation. It feeds on the energy of fear and hatred. This malignant energy has manifested itself more vehemently, historically, in systems of control such as Stalinism, various forms of nationalism, the rise of the tyranny of religious fundamentalists (like ISIS and end times Christian nationalism) and is influencing the brutality of the State of Israel against the Palestinians (which has lasted 76 years, but which has intensified). The murderous actions of Hamas on the 7th
October 2023 were a manifestation of this psychospiritual mind pathogen, too,
 
I humbly believe that each one of us needs to understand how the pathogen operates in our own consciousness, becoming familiar with how it directs our thoughts, feelings and emotions. In loosening the power of the mind virus over our own mind, we disarm the mind virus’ influence over the world. As Bohm suggested, we each possess the entire universe within ourselves., Understanding the toxic effects of the mind pathogen and healing it each day in ourselves, in each moment in our lives, destabilises its power in the world. This makes us more powerful than we can imagine.
 
 
 

Francis: An Icon of True Humanity

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St Francis’ lasting legacy was to teach humanity the sacred lessons of unconditional and boundless love. He especially taught love through his humble service to the vulnerable peoples in his own time who were held in contempt by the powerful and comfortable. He demonstrated the indestructible power of love, which overcomes our primal egoic thoughts of fear and separation, when he conquered his revulsion and fear of leprosy, kissing and embracing a leper. He then dedicated his life to the service of this most vulnerable, outcast and reviled community of his age. His freedom to undertake this service of love so powerfully was inextricably linked to his detachment from worrying about what others thought about him. This was an incredible freedom.

Francis radical non attachment to material possessions of the world was an antidote against the manipulation and control agenda of the world expressed in the cultural norms of his society. He was an advanced being of divinity and light who came into the world to change the course of the world for centuries beyond his own age. He is especially relevant to the world of today which sits on a dangerous precipice. This is why Francis appeals to people’s of all spiritual traditions and none. His message is that of non-partisan love. He demonstrated to us all how the living Christ present in all living beings, can be activated and actualised in a single lifetime.

Francis exuded light. He was consciously united with Eternal Light and this light shone on all whom he encountered. This Divine Light dwells within each one of us, and which is our deepest true self (but which is dormant in most of us). He was a mystic, healer, teacher, Bodhisattva and a dear father to the despised and disposable of his society. Francis is an icon of our own journey towards illumination. He is a pointer to our spiritual awakening. When we heal from our internal fear, judgment, harshness and violent self-criticism and embrace simplicity of heart we strip away the ego and superego, and fear-based defences such as cynicism, pessimism, chauvinism and narcissism. When we become light we warm and illuminate the lives of others. Francis can be a dear companion to us on the journey, gently helping us to deconstruct the unreal to reveal the real. Allow him to draw close to you.

Three Spiritual Leaders & St Michael The Archangel

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The visionary, polymath and mystic Rudolph Steiner (1861-1925), the founder of the esoteric discipline of Anthroposophy; Pope Leo XIII (1810 – 1903) a champion of the rights of workers and social justice, and the current Pope, Leo XIV, all have two significant synchronous connections: St Michael the Archangel and social justice for the ordinary citizens of the world.
 
Steiner who was a contemporary of Leo XIII described the concept of an age of St Michael encompassing the 20th and 21st centuries. According to Steiner, Michael was crucial for the spiritual evolution of humanity, protecting us from the toxicity of parasitic demonic forces, (especially relating to the rise of the antichrist, Ahriman in the 21st century). Steiner referred the defeat of satanic powers under the leadership of St Michael, and his ascent as cosmic ruler from the defeat of the “dragon” and the spirits of darkness, as the beginning of the Michaelanic age. Steiner was also a proponent of social justice for workers rights. According to Wikipedia:
 
“Steiner was concerned that businesses should not be able to buy favourable laws and regulations, and that governments should regulate the economy and protections for workers impartially and not be corrupted by participating in business”.
 
In 1884 Pope Leo XIII had a mystical experience in which he witnessed Satan boasting to God that he would destroy the Church in a hundred years which led to Leo formulating the exorcism prayer to St Michael which was to be recited at the end of every low Mass. The prayer was recited to ask for Michael’s help in the spiritual battle against the forces of evil.
 
Pope Leo was a champion of the rights of workers and trade unions, especially outlined in his social justice encyclical, Rerum novarum.
 
Pope Leo XIV was elected to the papacy on the 8th May 2025, which is the feast of the apparition of St Michael the Archangel on Mount Gargano, in Apulia in 492. Pope Leo XIV, like his predecessor Pope Francis (and Pope Leo XIII) is a champion of social justice and humanitarian endeavour in relation to the poor and disenfranchised of society. In fact he clashed with the vice president of the United States, JD Vance about the definition of what it means to be a Christian: Vance posited that Christian love begins at the individual level and then broadens out from there. Cardinal Prevost (Pope Leo XIV) corrected his definition stating that Christian love is collective in its essence, especially encompassing the most vulnerable.
 
We know from the work of psychiatrist, mystic and spiritual teacher, Carl Jung, that synchronicity is an important phenomenon through which divine wisdom speaks to humanity, at both the individual and macro levels. There is a theme between these three figures, Rudolph Steiner and the two Pope Leo’s: the Archangel St Michael in the cosmic struggle with evil and the protection of ordinary people from the greed and selfishness of corporate greed and corruption. Interestingly, Ryan Selkis, a former crypto CEO and MAGA activist, called Robert Prevost a “Woke Marxist”.
 
I think we can see the deep connections between these three spiritual figures, Rudolph Steiner, Pope Leo XIII and Pope Leo XIV. They all appear to be connected to the age of St Michael the Archangel as described by Steiner and they all highlight the importance of social justice for the wellbeing of humanity. The importance of the Archangel Michael in our current age, and Pope Leo XIV mission in today’s world, are inextricably connected. The stand against evil isn’t only esoteric but political too. Pope Leo XIV mission will likely include the importance of standing against billionaire corporate greed and grasping (as did Pope Francis before him) which is a parasitic disease leaching from the soul of humanity. This papacy likely includes a penultimate confrontation with evil in our time, especially the Ahrimanic evil which will seek to utilise technology to crush the spirit of humanity. Many of the billionaire elites are engaged in financially leaching from the masses and destroying the spiritual impulse of humanity through oppression. The misuse of technology will be key in this endeavour. Some elites are engaged in unimaginable evil in order to maintain their power and wealth. The demonic is parasitic in nature. Parasitic oppression is core to the evil of our time. St Michael, pray for Pope Leo. Protect all your children who claim your defense against the powers and principalities of the world.

The Symbolic Journey of St Teresa’s Interior Castle

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The 15th century mystic, Teresa of Avila, loved the usage of archetypal symbolism and metaphor in her writings to describe her understanding about the nature of the divine, the state of heaven, the substance of the soul and the stages of the spiritual life. The Interior Castle was one of her finest teachings on the nature of the soul and prayer and is beautifully written in symbolic language. Of this interior castle, Teresa wrote:
 
I began to think of the soul as if it were a castle made of a single diamond or of very clear crystal, in which there are many rooms, just as in Heaven there are many mansions.1
 
She described the crystalline image of the soul as consisting of seven domains or mansions which define developmental points of growth for the soul in the process of spiritual evolution. This evolution is the souls’ movement towards deeper union with God. The soul which has reached the first mansion is in the earliest developmental stages of the spiritual life.
 
It is important to note that developmental stages are a helpful metaphor for broadly describing something of our reaching particular milestones or goals in the psychological or spiritual life. However, the experience of deeper union with the Divine is not a linear process. Human beings often learn and grow through patterns of circularity rather than in a linear manner. People often repeat and revisit life-lessons and experiences several times over before fully integrating them into the psyche.
 
The metaphorical journey into God doesn’t presuppose that there is an absence of God within the human soul which we somehow correct by the efforts of the ego, which is incapable of undertaking such an endeavour. As Julian of Norwich reminds us, the soul was created out of the substance of God, bearing within itself the divine image. We are, as Thomas Merton said, shining more brightly than the Sun. We are inseparable from our Source, though we might experience ourselves as separate. As St Catherine of Sienna said:
 
The soul is in God and God in the soul.
 
Although the Interior Castle is Teresa’s narrative of the soul’s journey of growth and maturation in God – even with the divine journeying with the soul into the purifying experience of painful darkness – it is a love story between us and divinity. God pursues the soul and gifts it with divine love; with an experience of oneness and unity with God. It is not our effort but God’s graciousness -with a little willingness and perseverance from us- that effects the complete experience of union.
 
In the Teresian language of the Interior Castle, the First Mansion is considered to be the furthest dwelling place away from the seventh dwelling. According to Teresa, the soul experiences a sense of full unification with the divine in the seventh mansion. Each mansion between the first and the seventh describe something of our progressive growth into the love and mystery of the divine.
 
In this first mansion Teresa considers the soul as still dwelling very much in the superficial realm of life, overly concerned with the ephemeral though possessing some desire to find a way forward in the spiritual life. Teresa recognises that through grace the person who has entered the first mansion has the desire for the spiritual life but they are still neophytes and they are easily susceptible to self-doubt and fear. She refers to these influences as being like reptiles that bite at the resilience of the soul. For Teresa, the importance of the cultivation of the spiritual life helps us to build spiritual resilience in the first mansion in order to progress forward into deeper union with the indwelling divine presence. Patience, dedication and self-compassion are important qualities to cultivate in building our resolve to make this inner journey, knowing that this journey is our birth right to undertake. And we need to remember that we are creatures of circularity, insofar as we move around and between these metaphorical mansions (backwards and forwards too) reinforcing our learning, and developing familiarity with our mind and emotions and how they operate.
 
Each movement through the mansions would indicate an increasing level of spiritual consciousness in which the influences of the individual ego and the challenges of life-circumstances decrease in strength against our endeavours, resulting in a gradual increase in the souls’ resilience and experience of divine consciousness.
 
1 Teresa of Avila. Interior Castle. Ed. and Trans. E. Allison Peers. New York: Dover Publication, 2007.
2 Catherine, of Siena, Saint, 1347-1380. (1907). The dialogue of the seraphic virgin, Catherine of Siena : dictated by her, while in a state of ecstasy, to her secretaries, and completed in the year of our Lord 1370; together with an account of her death by an eye-witness. London :K. Paul, Trench, Trübner,

The Cathars of Languedoc: The Blooming of The Laurel

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Originally written for the Lynn News, Thought for the Day
 
The Cathars of Languedoc were a group of medieval Christians who have been very close to my heart since I first learned of them in 2011. The Cathars were called the good people by friends and neighbours. They were a Gnostic Christian community who lived in the South of France in the 12th century. Cathars were divided into two groups: the parfait (perfected) who were men and women who lived a strict life of simplicity, celibacy, prayer and vegetarianism and leading activities of worship and faith. Men and women were equals in Catharism. The second group of Cathars were the ordinary followers who did marry, but attempted to live according to the Cathar ideals as best they could. Most, however, would usually wait until being close to death before committing to the rigors of becoming parfait. Becoming parfait happened through a ritual called the consolamentum.
 
My sense of closeness to this medieval group has grown considerably over the past few years, driven by a sense of sadness at witnessing the growing polarisations within our own society and the progressive breakdown of a palpable sense of interdependent community. The Cathars were able to be a community in a very real manner. I have deep respect for their commitment to peace at a time when war was bloody and unmerciful; for embracing simplicity, compassion and cohesion. They were respected and loved by their Catholic friends and neighbours, despite having very significant theological differences with them.
 
The Cathars loved their spiritual beliefs despite the growing threat to them from the increasing power of the Inquisition. The Cathars had not been silent in confronting the corruption of the medieval Church which made them especially vulnerable. Over a century, a million Cathar men, women and children were exterminated, many burned at the stake. The inquisition said of them the smallest trace of ‘sin’ had to be extirpated and the corrupt body had to be destroyed and evil exorcised in the flames.
 
On March 16, 1244, around 200 Cathar perfects at the Montségur Castle embraced death rather than renouncing their faith; murdered by the Inquisition, they faced death by fire.
 
On the 21st August 1321, Guillaume Belibaste, the last of the Parfait, was burnt at stake. While dying he proclaimed this prophecy of hope:
 
After 700 years, the Laurel will become green again on the ashes of the martyrs!
 
Those words were spoken 700 years ago. The awakening of consciousness he proclaimed is happening now.
 
My intention is to visit Montségur as a pilgrim in order to honour our martyred Cathar brothers and sisters, to especially pray for an end to war, violence, persecution and division on Earth, and for an increase in compassionate, resilient communities to flourish and spread the fragrance of loving-kindness. At this moment I send my prayers of peace to Israel, Gaza, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Myanmar and all places where there is conflict. I pray for the victims of trafficking, modern day slavery and violence; for all children hurt and abused, for all refugees and migrants. My hope is we bring them all into safe, loving and resilient communities where they can heal and recover from trauma and loss.