Carol Ann Ciocco ~ Annular Solar Eclipse May 9/10, 2013

 

3Moon Ocean May 4 2013

Hi everyone, as you know from my last newsletter (http://ow.ly/kvztG) we are in the middle of a Tri-eclipse portal which spans April 25 – May 25, 2013. The bookend eclipses are minor lunar eclipses which serve as subtle doorways in and out of the portal. But the central eclipse – coming up this Thursday and Friday May 9 and 10 – is an Annular Solar Eclipse and is very powerful both in its visual quality and its effects.

In a Total Solar Eclipse, the moon blots out the sun completely. An Annular Solar Eclipse is similar to a Total Eclipse, but the Moon is further away from the Earth so the disk of the Moon isn’t quite big enough to fully cover the disk of the Sun. This creates the mesmerizing “Ring of Fire” effect, a sight sought by eclipse chasers the world over: a dark Moon completely surrounded by the brilliant light of the distant Sun.

Those in Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands will be able to see the coveted Ring of Fire during this eclipse. In it’s totality, the moon will obscure 95% of the sun’s disk. A partial eclipse will be seen in a much broader path, which includes Australia, Indonesia, Oceania and much of the central Pacific Ocean.

If you are in the pathway of this eclipse (as described throughout this newsletter), go to this link to find out the time of visibility in your area (weather permitting of course) http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2013-may-10. Hawaii will be the only state in the United States to see this eclipse. The city of Hilo will see a 36% obscuration. The partial eclipse in Hilo begins at 2:27pm local time with maximum occurring at 3:53pm. The eclipse will end at 5:05pm for the people living in Hilo.

The Ring of Fire looks like a portal to another realm. It looks like a hoop that you could jump through. The energetic qualities of this (or any) eclipse show where opportunities for initiation into higher consciousness and deeper compassion might occur. We will explore the nature of our opportunities in this newsletter.

The closing eclipse in this Tri-eclipse portal is on May 25, 2013. Although completely indiscernible to the naked eye, it is juiced up by the power of the 3rd historic Uranus-Pluto square which occurs on May 20. There will be more info on this event in a forthcoming newsletter. Suffice it to say, May is an intense month!

Note: this newsletter is reallllly long. Normally I would divide it in several parts, but I don’t have the energy/time to do that right now. I’ve been working on the content of this newsletter for some time and just decided to send it in it’s entirety in one fell swoop, due to time sensitivity. I.e. this is a very, very powerful eclipse and I want to get the info out to as many people as possible before the event. Due to it’s length, this newsletter will most likely be easier to digest if you print it out- if you are so inclined you can do that. If you want to skim it, notice that I’ve made some suggestions for possible meditation focus in various areas that are beneficial no matter where you are on the day of the eclipse.

Blessings to all!
Carol

Eclipse1 Cosmic Eye

The path of any eclipse tells a tale, especially annular and total solar eclipses. These eclipses are like a spotlight or “cosmic eyeball” that is casting its gaze on specific places which resonate with specific energies. With its glance, the eclipse suddenly lights up important themes critical for the time of the eclipse (as well as at least 30 days before and 30 days after).

For a glimpse of the “cosmic eyeball”, check out this mesmerizing animation of the May 9/10 Annular eclipse: http://shadowandsubstance.com/ it really gives you a feel for the precise focus of the eclipse. Eclipses do appear as partial eclipse outside the path of totality or annularity, but the true power lies in the laser spotlight of the sun and moon as they sweep their Eye across earth.

The May 9/10, 2013 Ring of Fire Solar Eclipse makes its first landfall in Australia. And so, once again, the cosmic eyes, and our eyes, turn toward Australia, just as they did this past November (November 13/14, 2012) when there was a powerful Total Solar Eclipse in Scorpio with the shadow-path over Australia. My newsletter (in 4 parts) on that eclipse can be found here.

Eclipse2 Family

Eclipses are grouped together in “sets” of two or three eclipses. This is a Tri-eclipse portal as described above. Eclipses have many other kinds of relationships as well. They even have families: every eclipse belongs to a series of similar eclipses that are 18 years and 11 days apart. This is called the Saros Cycle.

The May 9/10, 2013 is the 31st eclipse of Saros 138. The family began June 06, 1472 and will end on July 11, 2716 (when we are fully in the Aquarian Age). The most recent eclipses in this series occurred 18-19 years ago, in 1994-1995. Think back to that time because the trends of now have their underpinnings then. What were you doing 19 years ago? Did you resolve something, or repress it? You have the chance to break out of the frozen habits of the past, release long-held tensions, and put down an old burden forever.

In addition, this eclipse is connected with Pleiadean Annular Ring of Fire Solar Eclipse that occurred last year, on May 20, 2012. This weeks’ eclipse on May 9/10, 2013 occurs near the Pleiades, in the sign of Taurus (19* Taurus) See below for more info on the Taurus energies of this eclipse.

The May 20, 2012 Pleaidean Ring of Fire Annular eclipse was quite potent and beautiful. It seemed to open a direct and clear highway for consciousness travel to the Pleiades. Humans throughout time have felt connected to the Pleiades, but last year’s Pleaidean eclipse seemed to blast open a Ring of Fire portal, unparalleled in our history, to that beautiful blue region of space. Here is my newsletter on the Pleaidean eclipse: http://ow.ly/kvzBb Meditation on our connection with the Pleiades and what we experienced last year can be very fruitful under this eclipse.

Eclipse3 Australia ~ Red Centre Ring Of Fire

In a stunning way, this eclipse highlights the vast open spaces of the Australian Outback, the dry interior of earth’s red baked ancient bones, i.e. the vast Red Centre of Australia. (I am using the spelling of Center that most fits the true energy of the region.) This eclipse could be called The Red Centre Ring of Fire. It’s blazingly hot and goes back to the beginning of life on earth.

Note: the material to follow was sourced from the PBS Nova series “Australia’s First 4 billion years”, which aired over the past four weeks – and oddly synchronistic simulcast with these Australian eclipse energies! http://ow.ly/kHVas

Australia is nearly as old as the earth itself. No other continent has preserved the saga of our planet and the process of evolution than Australia has. When align your consciousness with this land you get a profound sense of DEEP TIME. This sense of time takes us back father and farther, deep into the past, past the aboriginals, past the dinosaurs (250 million years ago), back even further to more than 500 million years ago when all life was in the oceans. Although there are many places around the planet that can take us back to those times in the history of earth, Australia takes us back to the very first stirrings of life on this planet – 4.5 billion years ago, when the earth was first created, and all was darkness.

In Australia geologists can date the first day on earth! The Jack’s Hills area of Western Australia carries a unique record of the planet’s earliest days. Here we find the world’s oldest ZIRCON crystals. (Zircon is similar to diamond) Microscopic Zircon crystals are found in the red rock of Jack Hills; and, ike diamonds, they last forever. They contain the earliest remnants of the early earth ever found. Just a whisk younger than the earth itself.

For instance, Zircon W74 (The Earliest Piece of Earth) has resisted everything the earth threw at it in its long and violent development. This ancient crystal has kept a diary of the earth’s earliest days, locked away literally for 4 billion years. The earliest Zircon records at Jack’s Hills show the earth’s molten continental granite cooling rapidly against the presence of liquid water – i.e. molten lava hitting the first oceans. The ZIRCON at Jack’s Hills holds the energy of waves breaking against the future Australian shore – within 150 million years of earth’s formation! The discovery of ZIRCON here was revolutionary. It rewrote geology, giving us a new picture of the young earth.

In addition, the Australian fossil record from Late Archean Era (2800 – 2500 million years ago), which is found at Karijini National Park in Northwestern Australia, reflects a cosmic biological moment and one of the earth’s great turning points. At this point in time in earth’s history, oxygen began being released into the air from the sea. Because earth’s atmosphere contained a lot of iron, the oceans began to rust. (Oxygen + Iron = Rust). This happened for 100′s of millions of years as rich red ooze settled softly onto the ocean floor. When we look at the striations in the rock here at Karijini, we are literally seeing THE PLANET BREATHING! The first breaths of the biosphere!!

As the Red-Hot-Centre Ring of Fire Eclipse sweeps across Australia, THIS is what’s being revealed to us! DEEP TIME, and the perspective it gives us is one of the sounding notes of this profound eclipse.

Eclipse4 Aboriginal ~ Warubunga

A *mere* 50,000 – 60,000 years ago, the first humans stepped onto Australian soil. “They came from the setting sun” and touched down on Arnhem Land, in the northeastern corner of the continent (Note: Arnhem Land was highlighted in the November 2012 Total Solar Eclipse. Click here to see how the Aborignes in Arnhem Land celebrated that eclipse: http://ow.ly/kIb3w). Arnhem Land is the location of the oldest-known archeologically-retrieved stone axe, which scholars believe to be 35,500 years old. Of all the peoples of earth, the Australian Aborigines have the record of the longest continual occupation of humans on land.

There is a remarkable connection between the Australian Aborigines and the geological events recorded in the primordial rock of the continent. In the Flinders Ranges of Southern Australia a section of the sea floor reveals a fascinating record of life in the Ediacaran era (635 – 542 million years ago). And here at Flinders ranges we find some of the oldest multi-cellular organisms in the world. What is striking about these fossils is their resemblance to Aboriginal symbols! For instance, see the picture at right of a Flinders Range fossilized creature, which is a near replica of the Aboriginal spiral (see my previous newsletter describing the Aboriginal spiral: http://ow.ly/kvzDq. In addition, Kangaroo Island in South Australia holds the fossil record of The Cambrian Explosion in the primordial seas also these fossils also look like Aboriginal symbols.

It is clear that the Australian Aborigines drew their sacred powers from the ancient lands of their walk-abouts, almost as if they their feet were sensing and reading the fossils beneath them, unseen to the naked eye, but resonating within their bones.

To enhance your meditative experience during this eclipse, the following music video captures the Aboriginal energy encoded in it. As we will discuss below, the Warumungu (Warumunga) Aboriginal peoples are illuminated here because the eclipse path scans their lands. This video is a Warumungu-focused project.

The video is here ~ (Shellie Morris & the Yanyuwa Songwomen with the Gondwana Children’s Choir at the 2011 Deadly Awards in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House)

• The story of the making of Song People
• Warumungu man meets Song People

This music captures the Red Centre Ring of Fire eclipse. It brings to mind the Centrality of Song; and that The Dreaming Stories of the Warumungu remain, and within these songs we can hear the primordial heartbeat of the Earth itself.

Eclipse5 Newman ~ Sunrise

Here, and in the next few sections, are the high-points of this eclipse’s gaze. The history and energy of each place holds potential information to be used meditation or contemplation during the time of the eclipse:

The shadow of the eclipse first touches down over the Northern Territory of Australia, a bit to the east of the small settlement of Newcastle Waters.

Soon after, the central part of the eclipse shadow will strike the Earth in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia on the east side of Collier Range National Park. The nearest major town is Newman, a modern mining community of about 4,200. Australia Western Standard Time will be 6:31am on May 10 and, if the skies are clear, residents will witness “a most unusual sunrise”:

Note: While annular solar eclipses lack the extreme drama of a total solar eclipse (when the solar corona becomes visible and day turns to night), they nonetheless provide a dramatic view. The most spectacular view of an annular solar eclipse is at sunrise or sunset when framed against a landscape.

So, “at 6:31am on May 10, 2013, those gathering in the area will see the sun will emerge into view from beyond the east-northeast horizon. It will first resemble a pair of lobster claws and then when in full view, a horseshoe with upturned pointed tips. Finally with the dark disk of the Moon appearing to move down as opposed to the Sun moving up and off-centered “ring of fire” materializes, sitting just above the horizon. This wonderfully weird effect lasts 109 seconds, ending when the ring appears to “break” at the Sun’s lower limb. Within minutes the Sun again resembles a horseshoe, but now the pointed tips are directed downward.” – Guy Ottewell

This eclipse is a sunrise, a rising of something into awareness, a birth into light.

Eclipse6 Karlu Karlu

If you come to help me, then don’t waste your time. But if you have come because your liberation is tied up with mine, then let us work together. – Aboriginal activist group, Queensland

Don’t be frightened, come in. – Warumunga Aboriginal saying

The eclipse shadow will then cross over Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory of Australia. Here we find the lands of the Warumungu, a group of Indigenous Australians.

The landmark in this area is the Devil’s Marbles Conservation Reserve. The site is known as Karlu Karlu to the land’s Aboriginal peoples. The ‘Karlu Karlu’ is a remarkable landscape, with gigantic, rounded granite boulders, some spectacularly poised. Scattered clusters of these ‘marbles’, including many balancing rocks, are spread across a wide, shallow valley. The Devils Marbles is a nationally and internationally recognized symbol of Australia’s outback.

Karlu Karlu/Devils Marbles are of great cultural and spiritual significance to local Aboriginal people. Although Karlu Karlu is within country belonging to Alyawarre people, Kayteye, Warumunga and Warlpiri people also have spiritual connections and responsibilities for the area. Aboriginal Dreaming stories concerning Karlu Karlu are alive and well today, and are passed on from generation to generation of Traditional Owners of the Land. Only a handful of the Dreaming stories are considered suitable to tell to uninitiated visitors.

One of the main Dreaming stories for the area which can be told to the public relates to how Karlu Karlu was made. This tradition tells of ‘Arrange’, the Devil Man, who came from a hill nearby and traveled through the area. Whilst walking along, Arrange made a hair-string belt (a kind of traditional adornment, worn only by initiated men). As he was twirling the hair to make strings, he dropped clusters of hair on the ground. The clusters turned into the big red boulders at Karlu Karlu that have become so famous today. On his way back to his hill, Arrange spat on the ground. His spit turned into the granite boulders in the central part of the reserve. Arrange finally returned to his place of origin, a hill called ‘Ayleparrarntenhe’ where he remains today.

This Warumunga Dreaming Story is very powerful for meditation during this eclipse. The title “Devil’s Marbles” also foreshadows the darker part of the eclipse’s journey to follow.

Eclipse7 Tanami ~ Grey Falcon

The eclipse shadow then passes over wide stretches of rather sparsely populated regions including the Gibson and Tanami Deserts. The Tanami Desert is “one of the most important biological areas to found in Australia, particularly as it provides refuge for several of Australia’s rare and endangered species.” (Wiki)

The most compelling species here is the GREY FALCON, an intensely rare bird that isdescribed as an enigmatic ‘mystery’, neither easily nor predictably seen. As we speak, scientists are patiently studying and gathering further information on this elusive bird.

The Grey Falcon is very secretive. It is likely that many pairs have gone unnoticed to those seeking them because they will frequently let you walk right beneath them without moving. Most pairs live in remote locations on Cape York and may never be discovered. Without doubt they are contenders for some of Australia’s rarest birds.

Most of the times that Grey Falcons are encountered, there are two birds. This falcon seems to spend much of its time with its partner, even out of season when they have no need to keep in contact. It was quite obvious how strong the bond was between the pair as they were together as much as possible.

There have been observations of a pair of Grey Falcons just appearing out of the desert haze, flying low over the dunes then disappearing just as quickly never to be seen in that location again. Ornithologist John Young has been tracking this bird for years (http://ow.ly/kHZTe)

He writes: “You think back later and question whether you actually saw them at all because the encounter was so brief. There is much we do not know about this bird, and during the many years I have spent searching for them, my encounter with this ghost of the desert have been few indeed.”

He describes an encounter with one of the few Grey Falcons he’s ever seen – highlighting the powers of its velocity: “It stayed for a while then saw something off in the distance, and left the perch with a sudden burst of acceleration. It was a reminder of just how fast this spectacular bird is. Within seconds it was flying through the trees at tremendous speed till it was out of sight… Some times it would just fly off in a straight line, and other times it immediately began circling till it was so high that you could barely see it, then with a sudden burst of power off into the horizon.”

Young’s encounter with the Grey Falcon was punctuated with bursts of elation over having seen such an elusive creature that he’s been pursuing for years. And even with just a little bit of study, I myself felt mesmerizingly drawn toward this ghostly bird. It seems to beckon to other worlds and dimensions that are unfathomable to us. All of the characteristics of this Grey Ghost can be meditated upon. This bird is a guide to many mysteries! It kind of reminds me of Merlin, or of Gandalf the Grey, or The Great White Whale, aka Moby Dick.

The quality of sudden acceleration and the emphasis on partnership are also important themes here.

Speaking of rare: Please NOTE: After the eclipse shadow crosses the Tanami Desert, it then crosses the track of last year’s Total Solar Eclipse (on November 13/14, 2012). I.e. Amazingly, the eclipse track passes over the very same area that experienced a powerful Total Solar Eclipse less than six months ago! This is quite unusual. The places that fortuitously find themselves within the paths of both eclipses include Kowanyama, Maramie and Dixie. These areas are of particular significance to the energies/effects of this eclipse and I offer them to you for further study.

Eclipse8 Heart Of Darkness

The eclipse shadow then crosses over Papua New Guinea, The Solomon Islands and the island of Tarawa in turn. I am referring to this section of the eclipse journey as “The Heart of Darkness” not as a reflection of the peoples there, but because the history of these islands carries a strong dose of the dark, ancient, unprocessed shadow of humanity.

Papua New Guinea has a history of headhunting and cannibalism. Although these practices have been practically eradicated, in the past they occurred in many parts of the country as part of ritual practices. According to the writer Marianna Torgovnick, “The most fully documented instances of cannibalism as a social institution come from New Guinea, where head-hunting and ritual cannibalism survived, in certain isolated areas, into the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and still leave traces within certain social groups”

Here we see some of the most taboo, ancient, primal and bloody rituals, dating back into the dark mists of time. But Papua New Guinea still holds the remnants of this heart of darkness core of humanity in the present day. In a deeply disturbing and tragic turn of recent events, they are still burning witches! As recently as last month!

This literally happened a few weeks ago, and has been happening for over a year. Note: be careful looking at the pictures on these websites as they are graphic:

• Papua New Guinea Told: ‘Stop Burning Witches‘
• Papua New Guinea Witch Burnings

“It’s 2013, and They’re Burning ‘Witches,’ ” – the Global Mail, an Australia-based online news site.

I am horrified. I have no words. The eclipse calls our attention to this heinous modern-day occurrence. It’s hard to look at it and it’s hard to look away. The key thing that comes to mind: here in stark unflinching relief we see the destruction of the Divine Feminine. We are in need of healing on deep, deep levels in reference to our treatment of the Feminine. The destruction of the Goddess and of the Earth must stop.

The next place of eclipse shadow touching down is in The Solomon Islands. Here, Lesbian, gay bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights are limited and LGBT individuals persecuted. Same-sex sexual activity is illegal – even in private – and punishable by imprisonment. The Law Reform Commission proposed legalizing gay and lesbian status in December 2008, but the move was strongly opposed.

As this eclipse passes by, the case concerning the right to same-sex marriage is now before the Supreme Court. Equality, Marriage and the balance of Masculine and Feminine energies are highlighted here. This synchronizes with the Grey Falcon’s emphasis on partnership and speaks of the primary task for humans on earth: the balancing of duality.

Then the eclipse shadow crosses over Tarawa, an atoll in the Gilbert Islands, best known by outsiders for the World War II Battle of Tarawa in Nov 1943. This battle was the first American offensive in the critical central Pacific region; and nearly 6,000 Japanese and Americans died on this tiny island in the fighting.

The path over Tarawa shows us the themes of war and death, two very key parts of the unprocessed shadow of humanity. Both MARS (war) and PLUTO (death) are not sacred planets. All other planets are… except EARTH. On earth we are learning to handle duality, as evidenced in the equality issue mentioned above. As the eclipse eye directs our gaze to “the heart of darkness” aspect of this eclipse, we find illumination into the darkest corners of collective consciousness. The Red Centre Ring of Fire eclipse brings a purifying initiative fire (red being a deep, root chakra, primal color). The Red Centre Ring of Fire is a symbol that sums up the tension that we are struggling to release.

Eclipse9 Taurus ~ Venus

What is the Answer, as we raise our eyes upward to meet the scanning cosmic eye of this eclipse?

The May 9-10 Red Ring of Fire eclipse encompasses Australia in several profound places, and then reaches into The Heart of Darkness with the under-current of deep dark ancient taboos and of war, death and human brutality. But the eclipse ends over the ocean, where it is cleansed and the Ring of Fire purification process is cooled and soothed. And before it ends it touches on the Tabuaeran (Fanning) Islands where it is believed the Polynesians who first settled Hawaii stopped on their journey to the paradisaical and loving energy of the Hawaiian Islands. The eclipse ends in an ocean of love, which cleanses the Heart of Darkness and floods our primordial past with the potential for a true heart connection with Mother Earth and the life that tenaciously persevered here in full bloom.

And so the answer lies in the beautiful sweet, loving energies of Taurus, the sign of this eclipse. Taurus holds pure love for Earth, enjoyment of the sacred garden of Earth, and the ability to interact with our environment and each other kindly, gently, lovingly.

To add even more emphasis on the loving energy of Taurus, the Love-drenched, sweetness Goddess planet Venus (which is associated with Taurus in astrology) emerged from ‘the Underworld’ (i.e. too close to the sun for us to see it) on May 6, 2013. It will have its first meeting with the moon on May 10, 2013, in the eclipse window.

In the Venus cycle, this conjunction is a gateway to the balancing of the root chakra (red in color) which is displayed in its un-integrated form during part of this eclipse – and represented by the holy red earth of Australia. Venus helps us to harness the healthy energy of the root chakra – to feel more secure, less frightened, and deeply confident that Mother Earth supports us. Venus during this eclipse can help us to realize that it is safe to be on Earth and in a body, and that we don’t have to destroy others or the planet out of fear & insecurity.

Eclipse10 Earth Overview

Once a photograph of the Earth, taken from outside, is available, we shall, in an emotional sense, acquire an additional dimension… a new idea as powerful as any in history will be let loose. – Fred Hoyle, Astronomer and writer, 1948

Very recently (in February 2013) a short film by UK production company Planetary Collective was released. It reached more than a million views on Vimeo.

The timing of this video is remarkable, as it expresses the true solution to many of our problems and is specifically relevant to this powerful Taurus eclipse. I must say that this video moved me to tears. It achingly captures Humanity’s striving to Become and Embody the new awareness described above – love and compassion for Earth and all life on it.

The video is called ‘Overview’ and describes the “Overview Effect”, a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts and cosmonauts during spaceflight. The effect is described by astronauts who have taken that holy journey.

Please take some time (only 19 minutes) to watch this video

And here are some quotes from the video:

When we originally went to the moon, our total focus was on the moon, we weren’t thinking about looking back at the Earth. But now that we’ve done it that may well have been the most important reason we went. – David Beaver

I think you start out with this idea of what it’s going to be like. And then when you do finally look at Earth for the first time, you’re overwhelmed by how much more beautiful it really is when you see it for real. It’s just this dynamic, alive place that you see glowing all the time. – Nicole Stout

To have that experience of awe is, at least for the moment, to let go of yourself, to transcend a sense of separation. So it’s not just that they were experiencing something other than them, but that they were at some very deep level integrating, realizing their interconnectedness with that beautiful blue-green ball. – David Loy

On earth we see the Sun in a blue sky. In space you see the Sun as a star – you see the sun in a black sky. So you are seeing it from a cosmic perspective. – Jeff Hoffman

When we look down at the Earth from space we see this amazing, indescribably beautiful planet. It looks like a living, breathing organism. But it also, at the same time, looks extremely fragile. Anybody who’s ever gone into space says the same thing. Because it really is striking, and it’s really sobering to see this paper-thin layer, and to realize that that paper-thin layer is all that protects every living thing on Earth from death, from the harshness of space. – Ron Garan

There’s this very poetic concept that a lot of people express: that there are no boundaries from space. And I’ve heard a lot of my astronaut colleagues say that. Unfortunately, it’s not true, you do see boundaries. They’re mostly the result of human impact: you can see erosion and clear-cutting of forests. – Jeff Hoffman

After I came back, and tried to understand what this experience was all about, I could find nothing in the science literature about it, and nothing in the religious literature that I looked at. So I turned to the local university and asked them to help me with what I saw. They said, “Well, in the ancient literature we found a description called ‘savikalpa samadhi’. That means that you see things as you see them with your eyes, but you experience them emotionally and viscerally, as with ecstasy, and a sense of total unity and oneness. And I said, well that’s exactly what the experience was. And so it was rather clear to me, as I studied this, that it wasn’t anything new, but was something important to the way we humans were put together. – Edgar Mitchell

Definiton of’ savikalpa samadhi’ :: the highest of spiritual states of consciousness (each a samadhi), second only to nirvikalpa samadhi (infinite bliss). Descriptions online abound – “In this state the conception of time and space is altogether different. For an hour or two hours you are completely in another world” or “The body is in a trancelike state, but the consciousness is fully perceptive of its blissful experience within”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savikalpa

Again I am at a loss for words, but for a very different reason. The concept of deep time which I talked about at the beginning of this newsletter gives us the same kind of perspective as The Overview Effect. We can suddenly get a mind-blowing flash of insight into how fragile humans, the earth and all of its creatures are. And yet how tenacious life is. Life took hold 4.5 billion years ago on the Red Earth and has continued to expand and grow against all odds. Evolution has brought us from a microscopic organism, out of the sea onto land, and into the blissful samahdi awareness of our exquisite planet hanging in space. Earth, softly suspended and whispering in deep black space, seems to say to us:

Don’t be frightened, come in. – Warubungu Aboriginal saying.