Sunday Runecasting - Feb. 23, 2014

Left to Right: Uruz, Tiwaz and Raidho

Uruz (Issue), Tiwaz (Action) and Raidho (Outcome) are today's three-rune casting. Uruz is considered the rune of becoming and survival; Tiwaz is our moral compass, respect for truth, and alignment with Source; Raidho reflects our journey. 

Uruz is thought made manifest. It's the world in which we live as well as our own bodies that make up the world. It's how we influence the environment to not only survive but to also flourish as we do so. The downside of Uruz is, with all our efforts to survive, we tend to hang onto old patterns of behavior that don't serve us well and negatively affect how we go forward. If our lives are governed by the past, it's difficult to respond appropriately to issues that arise.

It would seem then the casting is suggesting with Tiwaz that old patterns, while necessary for a particular time, need to be viewed dispassionately to assess their true value. Do they reflect an alignment with Source? In other words, is any of this working anymore? Have we made everything about us, or are we still capable of extending love to others? If we are in alignment with Source, then Tiwaz suggests that our moral compass should drive right minded behavior. As a navigation rune, Tiwaz guides us as we navigate our messy lives, emphasizing ethical and moral behavior, urging us to stand up for what is right. Sometimes survival is more about letting go of what we think we need and letting the needs of others prevail. Tiwaz reminds us to look at the big picture and not just at ourselves.

Raidho represents life's journey and positive forward momentum, and reflects the inner moral compass that is reinforced by Tiwaz. It encourages us to actually live our lives, instead of waiting for one thing or another to happen before we can go about the business of living. With Tiwaz as our guide, the journey will take full advantage of the positive energy that Raidho expresses, mindful of the fact that life is about change and we should be ready for anything. We live in the present and take responsibility for our choices.

In closing, thought creates form. The form we create can reflect an alignment with Source where positive growth is assured, or it can be something else entirely. Our journey..our choice. Choose wisely..

~Blessed Be! )O(

Oneness and the Course..

I became a student of A Course in Miracles in the mid-eighties. I heard the name of the book and I knew it was real. Yes..I know..but empaths do that sort of thing. We just know. I have spent around thirty years of my life trying to complete it because it's required. I'd get through most of it, and then I'd become sidetracked by my ego and come back to it, sometimes years later. Once you know about it, you have to do it. No matter how long it takes. I drove my family nuts with all the "things only have the meaning you give them" comments. Although not a religion, it references Christian terms, but it's more than that. The Course redefined my understanding of God and myself in a way that I had never thought of before. Honestly, if everyone knew what the Course says, our view of religion would change completely. And it probably should given how people have used religion for their own nefarious purposes. Religion, in and of itself, is fine. It creates community and teaches people to be loving to each other. But as we all know, this can go awry and all kinds of destructive things can result. 

I've always been interested in the "how" of things. How is even more important to me than "why". So when it became clear to me from my study that oneness was more than just a spiritual concept, I was intrigued. And after you know that, just try and get mad at people. Go ahead..try to condemn them completely. Pretty soon, you start thinking about how they became so awful that they deserve your wrath in the first place. That gives way to, say it with me now, understanding. Anger gives way by then to forgiveness and pretty soon, not only can you not be mad at anyone, you actually find yourself becoming concerned about them instead of condemning them. How is that even possible when you felt so justified? Of course those who are immersed in their "me-ness" might have a problem with all of this, but separation, divisiveness, and disunity are at the root of the world's problems, so individuality be damned.

So back to the notion, we are one. What does that actually mean? I attended a lecture last May given by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, where he affirmed this very premise. In my study of A Course in Miracles, I discovered that oneness actually exists on the metaphysical level. We are one, because we are one. We only look separate because we chose to be separate. The Sonship is actually all of us, as one. We are also one with the Holy Spirit, the Voice for the Creator, as well as with the Creator. We can choose to forgive (the Atonement) and return home, or delay that return by choosing the ego (body). We cannot choose both. It's either one or the other. We either choose oneness with the Creator (which is reality) or oneness with our ego (unreality). The Course says:

Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.

What an amazing concept! If true, then this world is an illusion and apparently only necessary so that we can forgive ourselves for separating from the Creator in the first place. We accomplish this by forgiving others. Since we're all one anyway, by forgiving others, we forgive ourselves. This is the miracle the Course speaks of. It brings love to each of us and undoes fear. It acknowledges the worth of all. Miracles are thoughts so loving that they heal involuntarily, apart from our own direction. True healing we leave to the Holy Spirit. All we're asked to do is to remember that we are one and as such cannot judge anyone. If we are indeed one, then any judgment we make of others is judgment upon ourselves. 

We blame and attack each other for problems that, more often than not, arise from our own perceptions. We make this stuff up out of whole cloth, creating drama in an effort to dominate others. Instead of understanding this is all a script that was written long ago that we come back here time and again to relive, we view what's happening as real. Except that drama is often threatening. And as we know from the aforementioned quote, if the drama was real, nothing about it can be threatening. In other words, if the drama were from the Creator, then it would be real and all-encompassing. Instead, it's from our minds. We create the mess that doesn't actually exist and if we only turned away from it, we would be fine. We would remember that we're part of something that is so much greater than anything we can conceive of here in this existence. We exist in peace and love. We can exist that way here by viewing everyone and everything as holy and engage in the Holy Instant with everyone, free from judgment, and full of love.

And that's not always easy, and we're always looking to see if forgiveness "took". Unfortunately, that's also judgment, and considered to be an attack upon the very person we're forgiving..as well as ourselves (that whole oneness thing again). And really, is there a choice to be made at all? We tell ourselves that there is, but there isn't if we want to live in truth. Life here in corporeal existence is hard. We dodge minefields everywhere. If we actually believed that we were part of a greater spirit that is complete love and joy, wouldn't we focus on that? Somehow, we've decided the world of the ego is more interesting, so we focus our efforts on building that world, instead of turning back to the only world that really exists..Heaven. 

All that happened was misdirected thought. When everyone understands this, this world will no longer exist because it won't need to. Learning will have been accomplished and oneness will again be all that is.

NOTE: Quotations are from A Course in Miracles. Foundation for Inner Peace. 2007.
Contact them at PO Box 598, Mill Valley, CA 94942 or on the web at www.acim.org

Thoughts on A Course In Miracles..

I first discovered A Course In Miracles in the eighties. I have begun the Course many times over the years. I've heard that's not uncommon. It's a "required course" as they say, and once I heard that, I was on board. I'm nothing if not obedient. Well, sometimes.

This time, my husband is also doing the Course with me. If that's not proof that there is no order of difficulty in miracles, I don't know what is. I bought the book for our IPods and we're both listening to it and reading the text.

The thing is, so much has happened in my life that returning to the source is necessary. And that's how I view the Course. It redefines everything back to its original state. It clears up what our role and responsibility is in this world. It says:

                                                 Nothing real can be threatened
                                                 Nothing unreal exists
                                                 Herein lies the peace of God

What this says to me is that if it's not of God, it doesn't exist. It's not about our perceptions or ego. It's about living on the vertical plane, rather than the horizontal plane. The horizontal plane involves perception and ego, as well as time. Miracles collapse time and move us to the vertical plane. We only need to remember what we already know. It's as if we're in a darkened room and all we need to do is open the curtains and let the light in.

The Course tells us that our "natural inheritance" is love, and that love is "all-encompassing".

Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them. In this sense everything that comes from love is a miracle. ~ ACIM Ch 1, Sect. 1 Principles of Miracles

And..

Miracles are natural. When they do not occur something has gone wrong. ~ ACIM Ch 1, Sect. 1 Principles of Miracles

Yep, definitely a redefinition of things.. miracles are not a spectacle and should never be viewed as such. They should not be used to create belief in others. They are an exchange of love amongst the sonship. Yes, another redefinition. The sonship refers to humanity as a whole. We can call it anything we want. The Course is Christian in similarity, and although it appears to use traditional Christian terms, it seems like it redefines Christianity in its entirety. I've never identified myself as Christian, so I'm not completely sure about that, but that's how it seems.

I'm going to blog about my journey, so forgive me if something offends..it's certainly not my intention. I believe that although each of us is on our own journey toward consciousness, we cannot do this alone. It's not possible. We're part of a collective consciousness that is so interrelated and interdependent that we simply cannot live without each other. We cause the separation from each other. Our journey is to understand this and embrace each other as family.


Excerpts are from A Course in Miracles, from the Foundation For Inner Peace. 1992.