With deep reading in myth and literature, one's cognition becomes as a rich mother loam wherein spirit can dwell and build that interior castle, from which the indwelling spirit begins to speak through the imagination, the body, and the intellect of the individual. Over time, body, mind, and spirit become one. Then this 'one' can and often does experience the merging within the One. Through the merging of intuition and intellect, we will comprehend the acceleration of consciousness that is overtaking us. Functioning within a state of universal awareness of our oneness will, in the long run, prove to be much easier than defining ourselves into small groupings of discordant persons and nations. The education and evolution of vibrant communities is our beginning task. The creation of a world with a universal consciousness of oneness is our ultimate realization. To act in accord, to make a bridge to new ways of thinking, and in the belief that the reported experiences of individual journeys in our studies, and in our consciousness, can be of great significance now-at this point in time with the world in a general state of confrontation and conflict-we offer this report from our own research and from within this frame of reflection.
Conscious Evolution
The Dance of Intuition and IntellectBy Sheldon Stoff Barbara Smith StoffiUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2010 Sheldon Stoff and Barbara Smith Stoff
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4502-6390-0 Contents
Preface........................................................................................................xiIntroduction...................................................................................................xvPART ONE — LOOKING AROUND................................................................................12. We Engage the World: How We Do So Is Our Choice.............................................................13PART TWO — LOOKING BACKWARD..............................................................................233. The Lost Golden Age: Equality, Harmony and the Goddess......................................................254. Significant Contributions to the Rise of Patriarchy: How We Created Our Current Dilemma.....................35Alphabet Literacy—The Damaging Effects of Such Exclusive Focus...........................................36Judaism—The People's Religion Was Suppressed by a Patriarchal Elite......................................43Christianity—The Message of Jesus Was Hijacked by a Self-Centered Patriarchy.............................49Islam—Deeper Understanding through a Closer Look at its Origins..........................................79PART THREE — LOOKING FORWARD.............................................................................955. Building Blocks: Creative Partnering........................................................................97Matrix: Evolution within Consciousness.........................................................................100Meditation: Engineering the Building Blocks and Bringing Together the Inner and the Outer......................106Education: Process and Subject Matter for Benevolent Evolution.................................................113Vision: Community—The Core of Progress...................................................................119Relationship: The Final Frontier—Love and Compassion.....................................................127Unity: Drawing Together from the Within........................................................................131Sheldon's Afterword............................................................................................137Barbara's Afterword............................................................................................141Bibliography...................................................................................................143About the Authors..............................................................................................155Index..........................................................................................................157
Chapter One
Hope Creates the Future: Individual Responsibility Comes of Age
As in the legend of the appearance of the White Buffalo Woman to the Sioux, we seem to trust, historically, that when we are in need of a correction, a time period of harmony and peace, the benign feminine energy emerges once more into the forefront. Harmony and peace are our deepest longing today and the search for the feminine energy is the greatest hope of many. We long for transformation. When we are truly in need we understand the input of the feminine energy as the solution. It is our greatest force, the force of love. With the feminine permeating our mind and body, we have our spiritual power, the power of love, to bring our inner hope into our outer accomplishments. All limitations are shattered. There are no limitations to the power of love. Such love power, our fulfillment, cannot be abused if the "love power" is real. We long to see the self-centered ego become transformed into love through our growth process.
It may be interesting here to relate Hassrick's interpretation of the appearance of "The Beautiful One," the Buffalo Maiden, to the Native American Sioux. It offers illustration of how a society dealt with its inner conflict. According to their legend, she made her appearance more than ten generations ago and the people still follow her instructions for religious ceremonies. She told them many things but the heart of her message dealt with the position of women in the society. The women are consoled for their difficult life and told that, by these very difficulties and hardships, they help life find its way and give much comfort to others. The men are instructed to be "kind and loving to women and children." The Sioux male apparently lived with an inner conflict of greed and lust versus respect and temperance.
The Oedipean nature of The White Buffalo Maiden legend may owe part of its origin to the masculine character of the society ... That the Sioux chose for their tutelary deity a woman, rather than a man, indicates their concern to revere feminine qualities. The occurrence of such a divine figure among any people may be due in large part to a critical need for reform that the people themselves cannot effect. The code of behavior which the Buffalo Maiden brought suggests the social crisis which the Sioux at one time faced. Furthermore, the Sioux goddess brought her people a code of behavior, a set of commandments which included interpretative information which explained the commands. Interestingly, they appear to have been phrased in the positive "Be kind to women, for they are weak" rather than in the familiar "Thou shalt not"—without explanation. That such commands should have been forthcoming at all seems to indicate an internal moral problem among the Sioux at the time. (Royal B. Hassrick. The Sioux: Life and Customes of a Warrior Society. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964, pp. 217-225)
We are in need of a correction now. Let us call for the emergence of a new archetype. Let us envision, rising from the mighty seas below our conscious creativity, the birth of Venus and Adonis with hands joined—standing together upon the Double Sunrise Shell. Let us imagine the guidance of this double archetype, like Baucis and Philemon guarding the temple, as we turn to our tasks of building the future.
Note: We are aware that some of the embodied representations of archetypal feminine energy, currently ascendant in the political scene in the U.S.A., may represent a less than benevolent view of what is possible for humankind. Discrimination is always in order.
We hope, in our present human condition, for the future, and, at a deep level, we understand that the individual who does not share love shrinks as a person and becomes as if dead. Such a person perishes though he or she still walks the earth. To find the way of spirit requires living in the "divine matrix" by giving and receiving the force of love. This love comes from the spark within and the cosmic force without. Consciousness, our most precious gift, also comes from the spark within and the cosmic force without. It is our proof that we are continually connected to the spiritual. This love is ours to pass along. It is constantly replenished. This is the great lesson of life. It is our great hope to fulfill our responsibility in the chain of hope and of love. To live in hope is to wish to experience the reality of love, and then to share that love.
Clearly, we are given the choice to destroy or to walk in...
