The Prophecy of Orpheus I know, I know, I left the previous post as it was, and incomplete.  I had actually intended to finish writing it all of the way through, but when I hit the half way point, I had to change directions.  This is one of the challenges of speaking through a one-sided conversation, and that is only half of the story is being told.  I decided to leave the lavender in place for my growing batch of hyacinth, and to serve as a reminder for the plant medicine that we'll be talking about.  And that's one of those things that you'll find with any type of spiritual power, and that is you're only able to claim what is already your own, and that's one reason why it's called power, it comes from within and doesn't rely upon external phenomena for its validity. As many of you have seen, and especially with today's internet, it's very easy to hide behind an anonymous identity, and often in an attempt to take another person's power aw...

As some of you know, and many of you won't, the backstory to what I do is mostly contained within the Matrix.  There is more that one matrix to consider, however, and it's important to realize that the one that I'm specifically referring to is the training matrix that's found at Zen Mountain Monastery, and reflects a lifelong effort of the late John Daido Loori, Roshi.  Although I can't speak on his or his organization's behalf, I'm being quietly reminded of his own call to serve and the founding of his monastic setting that began in the early 1980s. I'm being asked to consider alternate timelines when mirroring his own movement throughout space and time, and how his presence in Spirit continues to affect us to this very day. And for those of you wondering, and for however briefly we worked online, I also have the pleasure of connecting with the late Bernie Glassman, who remains in Spirit as well.  Although this could be taken as a counter-intuitiv...

The Curtain Keeper Sometime during the late '90s or early '00s, and while I was exploring shamanic realities, I had a dream that included a curtain, a giant hand that pulled at its seams, and a podium that stood center stage that included the promise of an Oscar, if I were to pursue it.  Never having been an acting type, or ever having explored my thespian attitudes towards the arts, I brushed it aside.  The dream was very vivid and served as a direct pointer to what would become an interest in the following years. I never saw myself as an actor though, and when I would engage in dialogues with my inner self, it never seemed to be a realistic approach for me.  I was a glassblower, and then a car salesman, and the visual cues that would set off my creative spark were far less performance indicated, and much more colorful and hands-on in their approach.  The messages from upstairs were always very clear about this, go through that curtain, and see what opportunities come to...

I'm being quietly encouraged to open up on the Matrix, both the film franchise and the psychologist in question, and in an attempt to shed light on the topic, and what's brought us to this point in time.  Of course, with a background in shamanism followed with a lay practice in Zen Buddhism, it's easy to confuse the facts surrounding my trip to the hospital in 2006, and how those assumptions have lead many members of the audience into the false belief of mental illness. For those of you that are suffering from more severe cases of mental illness that include schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, and manic depression, I encourage you to seek real help.  For those of you that are on an awakening path, and for those of you that can see the similarities that clinical psychology labels it as, I encourage you to continue reading this post.  And for those of you that have been deluded into thinking that a Jewish psychologist's half-brained attempt at diagnosing me with somethin...