LOVELIGHT

Magazine

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February 2007*** Vol. 4, no. 2

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Managing Editors: Richard Shining Thunder Francis and Adamaria Francis

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Contributors to this issue: Loretta Carrier, Chris Finer, Mark Franzen, Brenda Lee, Debbie Lucas, Steven McDaniel, Kathy Rice, Ty Scharrer

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LOVELIGHT MAGAZINE: WHAT WE'RE ALL ABOUT

Lovelight magazine is free, coming directly to your inboxscreen once a month, to bring a little sunshine, and at least a few laughs. So, if you discover any jokes that make you roar with laughter, please send them along.

But life is not all laughs. So, we hope also to share with you some pleasant and sweet thoughts, and life-lessons.

Lovelight wants to promote peace and harmony, and to aid you personally to overcome any problems. If you are working on any religious, psychological, or spiritual problems, we encourage you to write to us at rmfrancis@juno.com

We also want to present "miniparables" to help you grow. So, if you come across any wise or touching pieces, not copyrighted, fairly short, please share them with the efamily. Please send them to the magazine, at the same address. Also welcome are practical tips that can make life easier or safer. We also welcome short pieces on personal philosophies, interesting facts, wordplays, and spirituality, especially those that emphasize the value of compassion and other forms of Love. We reserve the right to make whatever changes that we deem necessary or desirable before inclusion in Lovelight magazine.

As a subscriber, your email name/address will not be shared. Please share, send, or copy, this magazine, or any parts of it. Share it with all your friends, and all others. Please use it on your websites. Also, if your friends are inclined, please have them send us their emailaddress and request a personal subscription. All subscriptions are always free.

This is published as a "light" introduction to spirituality. It is designed especially for those who have little or no interest in the "heavier" aspects. And it is also great, fun reading. A collection of magazines is produced once a year, and would make a sweet gift for a loved one. Happy reading!:)

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THE ABRAHAM MATERIAL: AN ANALYSIS: PART II

Like so many who are going for effect rather than content, Esther [Hicks, the "channeler"] almost never uses contractions. What superbeing would be incapable of mastering “don’t” for ‘do not”? In fact, most of her language is purposely stilted and contrived, as if an extradimensional superbeing could not quite master perfect or smooth, utterly fluent, English. Of course, any genuine superbeing could speak perfect English, without any accent. Her accent, to the aware, only makes her sound silly, and exposes her falsehood. This is done, of course, to give an artificial air of exoticity to her speaking. So, it is obvious to any thinking person that the “accent” is just a part of the “act.” But Esther exchanges the authentic for the exotic. (After all, she really wants her listeners to believe that they are listening, not to her, but to “someone else.”) But there is no conceivable reason why a super-entity would speak with an accent!

Also, when asked a serious question by a sincere seeker, “Why do you do the work that you do?” she replied flippantly, “Because we want to.” Hardly a respectful, thorough, or reasonable answer.

Like almost all “channeled entities,” Esther calls herself, rather pretentiously, “we” when speaking. Sometimes, she speaks haltingly, with repetitions and redundancies, as if certainty were absent. The material is described with hopeless genericity as “an introduction of nonphysical to physical.” While such statements tend to wow neophytes, they are actually so vague as to be meaningless. Oddly, although “they” claim to be a plurality (“we” and “us”), at one point, Esther makes a grammatical error and refers to “ourself,” which, by the way, is not a word.

This material is filled with all the usual metaphysical clichés-- each stated as if it were a brand-new discovery. Ester’s husband stands by and makes encouraging and appropriate “uh-huh” sounds. The material is peppered with dull commonplaces, such as, “There are many of us here in the nonphysical dimension.”

In primitive, uneducated societies, the most ordinary things-- cd-players-- are mistaken for “magic,” and those who bring them are seen as “gods.” So it is spiritually. Beginners are quick to recognize any “channeled entity” as a “teacher,” assuming that it has greater wisdom. This is not always the case. Someone once quipped of Souls in the afterlife, “Just because they’re dead doesn’t mean they’re smart.” The same is true for “entities.”

When Esther speaks, even in coming up with the most ordinary platitudes, the monologue is punctuated with distracting hesitations. Near the beginning of the material is an interesting admission, when Esther says, “We cannot teach you.” Did a subconscious admission slip out that she does not feel qualified to teach?

But if she does not teach effectively-- and she does not-- what does she do? She claims to “stimulate... your wanting.” As this, when amplified, becomes ordinary greed, and as it is anti-enlightenment, it is not “spiritual” at all. This “prosperity consciousness” masks itself as metaphysics, but is used by many to defend selfishness and greed. It is much easier to justify behavior than to change it. The last thing that well-to-do Americans (most of her audience) need is more “wanting.”

Esther describes herself and husband Jerry as “wondrous beings,” laying the foundation for the ego-admiration that marks every shabby and tawdry cult. She does not hesitate to claim outrageously that she, a rather ordinary-looking woman-- is a “perfectly blended” being. Jerry, her cheerleader, chimes in with a “Yes!” He describes her ordinary and confused teachings as “absolutely spectacular.” Humility clearly will not be allowed to block the ego here! (When Esther spoke of “blend,” she abused a word from mysticism that refers to “blending” of mind, Soul, and Spirit.) Clearly, the process is riddled with ego-contamination. It is safe to say that humility, which always marks a true spiritual teacher, is completely absent.

People, she says, can become the “deliberate” creators of their lives. People are encouraged to “intentionally be the Creator.” The words “deliberate” and “intentionally” make it plain that the conscious mind is trying to take over the world. This stands in stark opposition to the mystical Way of “let go and let God.” It is the principle of counterflow, resisting the Flow. It is the selfish and insecure ego, again trying to grab control of the cosmos, to control, direct, and run everything the way that you want it to be. It is the complete opposite, and absence, of faith.

This is the recycled and time-worn fantasy, so attractive to the insecure ego, that the ego can control everything. This is a major metaphysical mistake, and has ruined many minds and lives. In psychology, this childlike belief is called “magical thinking,” and prevents real spiritual growth. Most people outgrow it by age six. Esther goes so far as to recommend that you live as if you already are what you want to be. This is perilous advice, if you have only fifty bucks, and rush out to buy a new car-- or new house!

Again, the ego rears its ugly head (in the life, as well as the teaching): Esther describes her teaching as “great and glorious guidance.” From the viewpoint of ordinary metaphysics, it is not “great,” and contains nothing new; from the view of ordinary philosophy, it is far from “glorious.” Only those who have been misled will tend to see the rehashed ideas as even having any value at all.

Esther has an annoying habit of speaking condescendingly, continually repeating the phrase, “You see...” This gives her an air of superiority, and it is probably designed to do so. She also goes the extra mile to give a quirky sound to her words, as in saying, “It matters not,” when, “It doesn’t matter” would be more natural. She uses (and misuses) the word “awakening” as if she has just coined it!

She is also not a very good actress. For example, when she wants to feign enthusiasm, she comes across as angry rather than excited. But volume cannot compensate for absence of clarity or meaning.

Like the core-teachings of every other cult, and every other “channeled” collection of words, the teaching claims to be “the key to all that you seek.” This tends to comfort those who have run out of other religious options. But they also gratify those who can never get enough-- a demographic that marks many of Esther’s followers. For she teaches the virtue and value of naked greed. This also gratifies a third group of spiritually unbalanced people-- those who want to control everything.

“The law of attraction is the most powerful law in the universe,” it is claimed. It is stated, again, rather ungramatically, as, “That which is like unto itself is drawn.” Stated with clarity, Like attracts like. That this is nothing but recycled positive thinking from the 1950’s appears to have escaped attention. And this “attraction” is applied to the world of materialism and greed which, as in other cultic ideas, is the center. People do not follow Esther Hicks because they want wisdom, Love, or spirituality; they follow her because they want fatter wallets! This “attraction” has nothing to do with selfless, spiritual Love. It is a mechanical, or, as Esther says elsewhere, “magnetic” effect. It has nothing to do with warmth, tenderness, kindness, or friendliness.

The “second law” is that of “deliberate creation.” This is where Esther starts to regress into primitive magical thinking. For this is nothing more than the childhood “Santa Claus” fantasy of just asking, and receiving anything-- or better, everything-- that you request. During the twentieth century, this enormously, immensely popular idea has appeared in a hundred different forms. It is literally absurdly simple: You can have whatever you want! Name it, and claim it!

This ends instantly the problem of having to solve your problems. You do not have to work, to meditate, to reform and revise your personality, even to learn. No discipline is required, except that required to get into a self-centered mode and work the “magic” of “correct thinking.” You are called upon to do nothing spiritual, to work on relating to, or manifesting, the Lovemind deep within.

You do not have to be a loving or kind person to do this. You can be even a criminal, and it will work, because it is a purely mechanical system. So, there is nothing “spiritual” about it. Predictably, these systems do not always attract the best, or brightest, people. Believers burn with greed, but not with the flame of Love. In fact, at times, these systems attract the worst, the most greedy and selfserving.

Almost all channelers speak in a combination of archaic English and nonsense. They mistake obscurity for profundity. If you cannot understand a word they say, it is not because of their quirky obscurity. It is not because the average channeler cannot manage to say the simplest thing clearly. Oh, no! It is because what they are saying is so “deep”!

Anyway, a channeler will never say clearly in ten words what she can say obscurely in a hundred. As a single example of dozens of the most obscure sentences, Esther says, “All that you are living is adding unto that which we are about.” Another: “As the combination of that which you are and the combination of that which we are which is ever changing comes together, we are setting forth or launching new creation.”

False "pearls" drop from the mouth of Esther. She begins one teaching with, “Birds of a feather...” She also uses an Americanism when she talks about ‘beating up on yourself.’ In another place, she uses the phrase, ‘going through the motions.’ These sound suspiciously American, and suspiciously twenty-first century! Hardly the wisdom of the ages!

Esther is terrified of illness. Stunningly, but commonly, among positive thinkers, she has actually talked herself into believing the incredible idea that people get sick because they talk about it! (Esther thinks that, to be forever healthy, all that you have to do is not talk about sickness!) As in so many schools of shallow and shoddy metaphysics, the ego is seriously overempowered. “No matter how sick a body is, it can achieve perfect health.” Then, she meanders off into fantasy-land. But the ego simply does not have this kind of control. Neither does its parent, the conscious mind. It is just not that powerful.

Of course, childish magical thinking is very attractive to the “inner child.” Esther’s message that you can be instantly, effortlessly, perfectly healthy appeals to the sick; that of instant wealth to the poor; and that of instant weight-loss to the overweight. But you will never grow up as a spiritual adult if you are letting your “inner child” make your decisions or guide your life! The archetype of the “genie in a bottle” is the oldest, most powerful, and most attractive, of archetypal fantasies. But no matter how much you affirm or pretend, the conscious mind cannot control the world. It has never been demonstrated that the conscious mind has any control over the structures or activities of any physical thing. (The world is created by the much more powerful Unconscious.)

***End of Part II.***

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I BELIEVE, by Brian Tracy, sent in by Chris Finer

 I believe that every person has within herself inexhaustible reserves of potential that she has never even come close to realizing.

I believe that each person has far more intelligence than she has ever used.

I believe that each person is more creative than he or she has ever imagined.

I believe the greatest achievements of your life lie ahead of you.

I believe the happiest moments of your life are yet to come.

I believe the greatest successes you will ever attain are still waiting for you on the road ahead.

And, I believe through learning and application of what you learn, you can solve any problem, overcome any obstacle, and achieve any goal that you can set for yourself.

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GASPS, SNORTS, AND CHUCKLES: MORE HUMORTHERAPY

The twenty-oh-six darwin awards, Sent in by Ty Scharrer

These awards are given each year to bestow upon (the remains or estate of)

that individual, who through single-minded self-sacrifice, has done the

most to remove undesirable elements from the human gene pool. until these events, these same people were walking the streets like normal

people.

Fifth RUNNER-UP: Goes to a San Anselmo, California man who died when he hit a

lift tower at the Mammoth Mountain ski area while riding down the slope on

a foam pad. Twenty-two-year old David Hubal was pronounced dead at Central Mammoth Hospital. The accident occurred about three a.m. The Mono County Sheriff's

Department said. Hubal and his friends apparently had hiked up a ski run

called Stump Alley and undid some yellow foam protectors from lift towers,

said Lt. Mike Donnelly of the Mammoth Lakes Police Department. The pads are

used to protect skiers who might hit towers. The group apparently used the

pads to slide down the ski slope and Hubal crashed into a tower. It has

since been investigated and determined the tower he hit was the one with its

pad removed.

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Fourth RUNNER-UP: Goes to Robert Puelo, 32, who was apparently being disorderly in

a St. Louismarket. When the clerk threatened to call the police, Puelo

grabbed a hot dog, shoved it into his mouth and walked out without paying.

Police found him unconscious in front of the store. Paramedics removed the

six-inch wiener from his throat where it had choked him to death.

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Third RUNNER-UP: Goes to poacher Marino Malerba of Spain, who shot a stag

standing above him on an overhanging rock and was killed instantly when it

fell on him.

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Second RUNNER-UP: "Man loses face at party." A man at a West Virginia party

(probably related to the winner last year, a man in Arkansas who used

the .22 bullet to replace the fuse in his pickup truck) popped a blasting cap

into his mouth and bit down, triggering an explosion that blew off his lips,

teeth, and tongue. Jerry Stromyer, 24, of Kincaid, bit the blasting cap as a prank during the party late Tuesday night, said Cpl. M.D. Payne. "Another man had it in an

aquarium hooked to a battery and was trying to explode it. It wouldn't go off; and this guy said, "I'll show you how to set it off." He put it into his mouth, bit down, and it blew all his teeth out and his lips and tongue off. Stromyer was listed in guarded condition

Wednesday with extensive facial injuries, according to a spokesperson at

Charleston Area Medical Division. "I just can't imagine anyone doing

something like that," Payne said.

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First RUNNER-UP: Doctors at Portland University Hospital said that an Oregon man

shot through the skull by a hunting arrow is lucky to be alive and will be

released soon from the hospital. Tony Roberts, 25, lost his right eye last weekend during an initiation into a men's rafting club, Mountain Men Anonymous (probably known now as Stupid Mountain Men Anonymous) in Grants Pass, Oregon. A friend tried to shoot a

beer can off his head, but the arrow entered Robert's right eye. Doctors said that had the arrow gone 1 millimeter to the left, a major blood vessel would have been cut, and Roberts would have died instantly. Neurosurgeon, Doctor Johnny Delashaw, at the University Hospital in Portland, said the arrow went through 8 to 10 inches of brain with the tip protruding at the rear of his skull, yet somehow managed to miss all major blood vessels. Delashaw also said that had Roberts tried to pull the arrow out on his own

he surely would have killed himself. Roberts admitted afterwards that he and

his friends had been drinking that afternoon. Said Roberts, "I feel so dumb

about this." No charges have been filed, but the Josephine County district

attorney's office said the initiation stunt is under investigation.

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Now, THIS YEAR'S WINNER: The late John Pernicky and his friend, the late Sal Hawkins, of the great state of Washington, decided to attend a local Metallica concert at the George Washington amphitheater. Having no tickets (but having had 18 beers between them), they thought it would be easy to "hop" over the Nine-foot fence and sneak into the show. They pulled their pickup truck over to the fence and the plan was for Mr. Pernicky, who was 100 pounds heavier than Mr. Hawkins, to hop the fence and

then assist his friend over.

Unfortunately for the late Mr. Pernicky, there was a 30-foot drop on the

other side of the fence. Having heaved himself over, he found himself

crashing through a tree. His fall was abruptly halted (and broken, along

with his arm) by a large branch that snagged him by his shorts. Dangling from the tree with a broken arm, he looked down and saw some bushes below him. Possibly figuring that the bushes would break his fall, he removed his pocket knife and proceeded to cut away his shorts to free himself from the tree.

Finally free, Mr. Pernicky crashed into holly bushes. The sharp leaves

scratched his ENTIRE body; and now, without the protection of his shorts, a

holly branch penetrated his rectum. To make matters worse, upon landing, his

pocket knife penetrated his thigh. Hawkins, seeing his friend in considerable pain and agony, threw him a rope and tried to pull him to safety by tying the rope to the pickup truck and slowly driving away. However, in his drunken haste, he put the truck into

reverse and crashed through the fence, landing on his friend and killing

him. Police arrived to find the crashed pickup with its driver thrown 100 feet

from the truck and dead at the scene from massive internal injuries. Upon

moving the truck, they found John under it half-naked, scratches on his

body, a holly stick in his rectum, a knife in his thigh, and his shorts

dangling from a tree branch 25 feet in the air.

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IF MEN RAN THE WORLD, sent in by Ty Scharrer

1) Birth control would come in ale or lager.***2) Garbage would take itself out.***

3) Regis and Kathy Lee would be chained to a cement mixer and pushed off the

Golden Gate Bridge for the most lucrative pay-per-view event in world History.***4) Instead of "beer-belly", you'd get "beer-biceps".***5) Tanks would be far easier to rent.***6) When a cop gave you a ticket, every smart-aleck answer you responded with would actually reduce your fine. As in:

Cop: "You know how fast you were going?"

You: "All I know is, I was spilling my beer all over the place."

Cop: "Nice one, That's $10.00 off".

7) People would never talk about how fresh they felt.***8) Daisy Duke shorts would never go out of style again.***9) Telephones would cut off after 30 seconds of conversation.***10) It would BE perfectly legal to steal a sports car, as long as you returned it the following day with a full tank of gas.***11) The funniest guy in the office would get to be CEO.

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THINGS THAT I'VE LEARNED FROM MY BOYS, SENT IN BY Ty Scharrer

1) A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 sq. ft. house 4

inches deep.***2) A 3-year old boy's voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded

restaurant.***3) If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong

enough to rotate a 42 pound Boy wearing Batman underwear and a Superman

cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can, to spread paint

on all four walls of a 20x20 ft. room.***4) You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on. When using a ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit. A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way.***5) The glass in windows (even double-pane) doesn't stop a baseball hit by a ceiling fan.***6) "Play-dough" and "microwave" should not be used in the same sentence.***7) No matter how much Jell-O you put in a swimming pool, you still can't walk on water.***8) Garbage bags do not make good parachutes.

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IMPORTANT REMINDERS, sent in by Debbie Lucas

This could probably be taped to your bathroom mirror where you could read it every day. You might not realize it, but it's 100% true.

   1. There are at least two people in this world that you would die for.***2. At least 15 people in this world love you in some way.***3. The only reason anyone would ever hate you is because she wants to be just like you.***4.  A smile from you can bring happiness to anyone, even if she doesn't like  you.***5. Every night, SOMEONE thinks about you before she/he goes to sleep.***6. You mean the world to someone.***7. You are special and unique.***8. Someone that you don't even know exists might love you.***9. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something good comes from it.***10. When you think the world has turned its back on you take another look.***11. Always remember the compliments you received. Forget about the rude remarks.
 So...........If you are a loving friend,  Always remember: When life hands you Lemons, ask for tequila and salt and call me over! Good friends are like stars. You don't always see them, but you know they are always there. I would rather have one rose and a kind word from a friend while I'm here than a whole truck load when I'm gone!

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LOVELETTERS FROM BUDS, PALS, AND FRIENDS

From Brenda Lee:

Good afternoon, shi.

…Unfortunately, this will have to be brief, but I wanted to get back to you.

Yes, we have had too much snow lately. I am looking at 6' snow piles that have been here since mid-December. When we flew over Colorado by airplane, the ground was solid white. You couldn't see a patch of dirt. It was rather impressive.

Here is something you may print in your Lovelight Newsletter. Feel free to edit down if necessary:

My mother joined the Jehovah’s Witnesses when I was nine, and I was subsequently drafted into membership. At ten, I was asked to commit my life to this man-made organization, which I did through baptism. For the next eight years I experienced emotional and physical abuse; and [I] saw the lack of love (shunning, hypocrisy, fanaticism and arrogance). The isolation and persecution I was expected to endure as a JW child became almost unbearable. I considered suicide and even homicide at one point as a means to escape. I knew I could never raise my future child someday under these circumstances. How could I inflict this agony upon another human being? For nearly a decade, I wasn't permitted to be part of "the world," nor did I consider myself a Jehovah’s Witness. I felt utterly alone.

However, through self-love and a dash of tenacity, I hung in there and escaped the clutches of this cult when I was eighteen years old. As a consequence, my family shunned me because I chose not to be a Jehovah’s Witness. They haven't spoken to me for 25 years. The cult's rules haven't affected only me. My sister and brother have never even met my son, who is now sixteen.

Today, I’m forty-four, and I cannot describe the joy I have in my heart. I've learned how to love unconditionally through the "conditional love" that I experienced as a child. I've learned to forgive. And I've learned that family and loved ones are the most precious things we have in this world…. My goal is to help others find their path out of dysfunctional cult environments.

In January 2006 my book, "Out of the Cocoon: A Young Woman's Courageous Flight from the Grip of a Religious Cult" was published. This past summer I produced a series of seminars for Colorado Free University called, "Understanding Cults: What You Need to Know to Heal Yourself and Protect Your Family." I also write/edit a monthly newsletter for former Jehovah’s Witnesses and other cult survivors; [I] encourage articles and stories of survival from my readers. If you'd like to contact me directly, go to my website at www.outofthecocoon.net. There you can listen to my radio interviews and/or receive educational material that might help you in your own personal journey to truth, love and light.

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From Kathy Rice:

Dearest Shi,

Thank You for opening up those sayings to the deeper meaning within.  It was enlightening, comforting, and motivating all at the same time. 

I agree the time to follow one of our greatest teachers ever, Jesus, is endlessly, timelessly NOW! And by keeping our base feeling for every thought, word, and deed coming from the Pure Love within allows us, even in the toughest times, to focus on what is right and true.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s the president, the pope, or any other. If it doesn’t match what the Love within knows without question, then it does not serve us.

Life is blossoming here. Thank you, Richard. Thank you, Kenny. And above all, thank You, God!

I Love and Miss You Both,

Mega Bunches of Love, Kisses, Hugs & Blessings,

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From Steven McDaniel:

Hi my brother,

I have been curling up like a bear in a den, of late, reading one of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver.  She is a Pulitzer Prize winning writer-- and for very good reason:  Her writing allows for the recognition that good writers with powerful insights glide into the soul with such grace to the peaks of the human condition; to speak out beyond our mere words with a presence of Love.  Enclosed is a very special piece to share, as I took the time to type from her book, Winter Hours.  Amazing when someone can speak so eloquently for some of our deepest feelings.

…So many secrets that unfold in time within me that I can't know, or care to know anymore.  I just try to cherish the time to live a beautiful life.  Utmost, it is such a gift as I work to cleanse the eyes of perception into the open fields of wind and grace to see with the one, and only, heart.  Finally, I feel strong enough now to head to the cabin and manage those beautiful routine chores I never take for granted and the little things that teach me simplicity and wonder.  I am planning on leaving in a few days.  You are so right about mystics needing to be with each other-- especially you and I need that time.  I hope when I return we can come together and laugh again and poke fun at King George or whatever else our hearts delight.  Read some poetry, or listen to the wind flutter the bare trees like magnificent, stationary wings.

 Love to you and Ada,

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And now, Mary Oliver.......

 "I could not be a poet without the natural world.  Someone else could.  But not me.  For me the door to the woods is the door to the temple.  Under the trees, along the pale slopes of sand, I walk in an ascendant relationship to rapture, and with words I celebrate this rapture.  I see, and dote upon, the manifest.

Persons environmentally inclined have suggested that I am one of them.  I don't argue with them, but it's not quite a fit.  My work doesn't document any of the sane and learned arguments for saving, healing, and protecting the earth for our existence.  What I write begins and ends with the act of noticing and cherishing, and it neither begins nor ends with the human world.  Maybe I would be an environmentalist if I thought about it.  But I don't.  I don't think in terms of the all, the network of our needs and our misdeeds, the interrelationship of our lives and the lives of all else.  On the contrary, I am forever just going out for a walk and tripping over the root, or the petal, of some trivia, then seeing it as if in a second sight, as emblematic.   By no means is this a unique way to live but is, rather, the path found by all who are mystically inclined."

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.--Mary Oliver

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From Loretta Carrier:

Richard,

Thanks for sending this.  I have not bought from Wal-Mart in many years, and don't intend to change.  I have even seen a couple of PBS programs about them, showing how they rip off small communities by making them promise to not charge them property tax for 10 years, say, and then at the end of the 10-year period, pulling up stakes and leaving, after they have driven out all the smaller businesses, and deprived the state and local governments of the tax dollars.  One former manager said they have a huge binder full of info about government programs, private programs and such that employees can avail themselves of, which will help them feed their families.  Things like cheese give-aways, free clothing, etc.  Wal-Mart denies having such a binder of info, but it is obvious they are lying.  No other retailer has so many people trying to get food stamps, free food and clothing, etc.  They also have a habit of going into a community with a regular-sized store, and then after 10 years or so, moving to a new location with a super store.  This leaves the original store vacant for some time, since there are few companies that need a space that large.  I am glad to hear that they are having financial trouble. 

But, to be honest, if Americans weren't so eager to get merchandise for practically nothing, they might not be doing that.  They get most of their stuff from China, which has a miserable record of human rights, and who recently has shown that they have the capability of destroying our satellites, which could cripple this country. And then, [they] pay their people nothing. [This is] in order to satisfy the stockholders by selling at such a low price that people flock in there in throngs.  As long as people continue to buy from them, they will not change.  Maybe that is changing now!  We can only hope.

*** 

From Ty Scharrer:

To shi, from Ty:

Last year, I replaced every light bulb in our Michigan and Florida homes with the low wattage small fluorescents. I don't know why environmentalists haven't been shouting the merits of the small fluorescents from the housetops to everyone who owns a home or business. The replacement bulbs only use 13 watts of power verses 60 watts from the old bulbs.

I still believe the electric generation companies don't want everyone to use those bulbs, content to keep rolling in the money for high power uses by customers.

To keep warm during the occasional cold nights we have in central Florida, I turn off my furnace which heats my entire house. I close the bedroom door and close the bathroom door which also opens to the bedroom, before turning on an electric oil filled radiator heater. I have the heater on a timer, setting the heater to 600 watts. The heater comes on for only a half hour, three times a night, keeping the bedroom in the low sixties. For added protection, I put a smoke detector in our bedroom. In the morning, unless it is terribly cold in the house, I open our curtains, exposing our patio door which allows the sun to shine in, warming up the house. There is no reason to heat an entire house when energy is only needed in one room.

I think it is obscene how Americans waste energy. Shopping centers are cold enough to wear coats in the summertime, when they could be set at 78 degrees with air conditioning. In the winter months, shopping centers are warm enough… Yes, lets tout the merits of saving energy!

It's supposed to be 83 degrees today. The warm sun feels good!

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From Mark Franzen:

Any thoughts on this article Richard?

A Brief History of the King James Bible

By Dr. Laurence M. Vance.

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE KING JAMES BIBLE, by Laurence Vance, sent in by Mark Franzen

As the reign of Elizabeth (1558-1603) was coming to a close, we find a draft for an act of Parliament for a new version of the Bible: "An act for the reducing of diversities of bibles now extant in the English tongue to one settled vulgar translated from the original." The Bishops' Bible of 1568… was still rivaled by the Geneva Bible. Nothing ever became of this draft during the reign of Elizabeth, who died in 1603, and was succeeded by James 1,… James was at that time James VI of Scotland,… He was born during the period between the Geneva and the Bishops' Bible.

One of the first things done by the new king was the calling of the Hampton Court Conference in… 1604 "for the hearing, and for the determining, things pretended to be amiss in the church." Here were assembled bishops, clergymen, and professors, along with four Puritan divines, to consider the complaints of the Puritans. Although Bible revision was not on the agenda, the Puritan president of Corpus Christi College, John Reynolds, "moved his Majesty, that there might be a new translation of the Bible, because those which were allowed in the reigns of Henry the eighth, and Edward the sixth, were corrupt and not answerable to the truth of the Original."

The king rejoined that he "could never yet see a Bible well translated in English; but I think that, of all, that of Geneva is the worst. I wish some special pains were taken for an uniform translation, which should be done by the best learned men in both Universities, then reviewed by the Bishops, presented to the Privy Council, lastly ratified by the Royal authority,…"

Accordingly, a resolution came forth:

"That a translation be made of the whole Bible, as consonant as can be to the original Hebrew and Greek;… and only to be used in all churches of England…"

The next step was the actual selection of the men who were to perform the work. In July of 1604, James wrote… that he had "appointed certain learned men, to the number of four and fifty, for the translating of the Bible." These men were the best biblical scholars and linguists of their day. In the "Preface" to their completed work it is further stated that "there were many chosen… that sought the truth rather than their own praise." Again, they … "were thought to come to the work, learned, not to learn." Other men were sought out, according to James, "so that our… translation may have the help… of all our principal learned men within this our kingdom."

…Only forty-seven [began]… translation…. Ten at Westminster were assigned Genesis through 2 Kings; seven had Romans through Jude. At Cambridge, eight worked on 1 Chronicles through Ecclesiastes, while seven others handled the Apocrypha. Oxford employed seven to translate Isaiah through Malachi; eight occupied themselves with the Gospels, Acts, and Revelation.

Fifteen general rules were advanced for the guidance of the translators: 1. The ordinary Bible… Bishops' Bible, to be followed, and as little altered as the Truth of the original will permit.***2. The names of the… Holy Writers, with the other Names of the Text, to be retained, as nigh as may be, accordingly as they were vulgarly used.***3. The Old Ecclesiastical Words to be kept, viz. the Word "Church" not to be translated "Congregation" &c.***4. When a Word hath divers Significations, that to be kept which hath been most commonly used by the most of the Ancient Fathers,...***5. The Division of the Chapters to be altered, either not at all, or as little as may be,…***6. No Marginal Notes at all,… but only for the explanation of the Hebrew or Greek Words,…***7. Such Quotations of Places to be marginally set down as shall serve for the fit Reference of one Scripture to another.***8. Every… Man… to take the same Chapter… and having translated… them… all to meet together, confer what they have done, and agree….***9. As any one Company hath dispatched any one Book in this Manner they shall send it to the rest, to be considered of seriously and judiciously, for His Majesty is very careful in this Point.***10. If any Company… differ upon any Place, to send them Word thereof; note the Place, and withal send the Reasons, to which if they consent not, the Difference to be compounded at the general Meeting,… at the end of the Work.***11. When any Place of special Obscurity is doubted of, Letters… to send to any Learned Man… for his Judgement…

***12. Letters to be sent from every Bishop to the rest of his Clergy, admonishing them of this Translation;… and to… charge as many skilful in the Tongues; and… to send his… Observations to the Company, either at Westminster, Cambridge, or Oxford.***13. The Directors in each Company [are] to be the Deans of Westminster, and Chester;… and the King's Professors in the Hebrew or Greek in either University.***14. These translations to be used when they agree better with the Text than the Bishops' Bible: Tyndale's, Matthew's, Coverdale's, Whitchurch's, Geneva.***15. …Three or four of the most Ancient and Grave Divines,… not employed in Translating, to be assigned… to be Overseers of the Translations as well Hebrew as Greek,…

The work began to take shape in 1604 and progressed steadily. The translators expressed their early thoughts in their preface as:

"Truly (good Christian Reader) we never thought from the beginning, that we should need to make a new Translation, nor yet to make of a bad one a good one,...but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones, one principal good one, not justly to be excepted against, that hath been our endeavor."

They had at their disposal "all the previous English translations to which they did not disdain:

"We are so far off from condemning any of their labors that travailed before us in this kind,… that we acknowledge them to have been raised up of God,…

And,… they had a multitude of sources…: "Neither did we think much to consult the Translators or Commentators, Chaldee, Hebrew, Syrian, Greek, or Latin, no nor the Spanish, French, Italian, or Dutch." The Greek editions of Erasmus, Stephanus, and Beza were all accessible, as were the Complutensian and Antwerp Polyglots, and the Latin translations of Pagninus, Termellius, and Beza.

Four years were spent on the preliminary translation by the six groups. The translators were exacting and particular in their work, as related in their preface:

Neither did we disdain to revise that which we had done, and to bring back to the anvil that which we had hammered: but having and using as great helps as were needful,… we have… brought the work to that pass that you see."

Nine months were spent at Stationers' Hall in London for review and revision of the work by two men each from the Westminster, Cambridge, and Oxford companies. The final revision was then completed by Myles Smith and Thomas Bilson…

The completed work was issued in 1611…

The King James Bible was, in its first editions, even larger than the Great Bible. It was printed in black letters with small italicized Roman type to represent those words not in the original languages.

A dedicatory epistle to King James,… recalled the King's desire that "there should be one more exact Translation of the Holy Scriptures into the English tongue." The translators expressed that they were "poor instruments to make GOD'S holy Truth to be yet more and more known" while at the same time recognizing that "Popish persons" sought to keep the people "in ignorance and darkness."

The Authorized Version, as it came to be called, went through several editions and revisions. Two notable editions were that of 1629,… and that of 1638 which was assisted by John Bois and Samuel Ward, two of the original translators. In 1657, the Parliament considered another revision, but it came to naught. The most important editions were those of the 1762 Cambridge revision by Thomas Paris, and the 1769 Oxford revision by Benjamin Blayney. One of the earliest concordances was A Concordance to the Bible of the Last Translation, by John Down-ham, affixed to a printing of 1632.

The Authorized Version eclipsed all previous versions of the Bible. The Geneva Bible was last printed in 1644, but the notes continued to be published with the King James text. Subsequent versions of the Bible were likewise eclipsed, for the Authorized Version was "the Bible" until the advent of the Revised Version and ensuing modern translations. It is still accepted as such by its defenders… Alexander Geddes (d. 1802), a Roman Catholic priest, who in 1792 issued the first colume of his own translation of the Bible, accordingly paid tribute to the Bible of his time:

"The highest eulogiums have been made on the translation of James the First, both by our own writers and by foreigners. And, indeed, if accuracy, fidelity, and the strictest attention to the letter of the text, be supposed to constitute the qualities of an excellent version, this of all versions, must, in general, be accounted the most excellent. Every sentence, every word, every syllable, every letter and point, seem to have been weighed with the nicest exactitude; and expressed, either in the text, or margin, with the greatest precision."

As to whether the Authorized Version was ever officially "authorized," Brooke Westcott, one of the members of the committee that produced the Revised Version, and the editor, with Fenton Hort, of an edition of the Greek New Testament, stated that:

"From the middle of the seventeenth century, the King's Bible has been the acknowledged Bible of the English-speaking nations throughout the world simply because it is the best. A revision which embodied the ripe fruits of nearly a century of labour, and appealed to the religious instinct of a great Christian people, gained by its own internal character a vital authority which could never have been secured by any edict of sovereign rulers.

This article was taken from the book A Brief History of English Bible Translations by Dr. Laurence M. Vance.

Dr. Laurence M. Vance's Publications are available from:
Vance Publications
P.O. Box 11781
Pensacola, FL 32524
850-474-1626

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TOWARD THE INFINITE LIGHT: POETRY, PART I, by Steven McDaniel

The twentieth century brought us an array of powerful poets that stands unequaled in any other time. [This was the result of] the deep, shadow-bruise of two world wars, the perceived threat of industrialization, the control by the rich over the mechanical clones of the working class, and the specter of the atomic age. All fed the yearning souls of many writers. The awful desolation and disillusionment of the times pushed artists to reach higher toward the divinity of a concrete meaning in our lives.  This unusually intense movement toward the sanctity of order amidst such chaos is unprecedented in history as much as the pronounced acceleration of information in this age of computers and digital technology.

When we think of the royalty of poetry who lived in the 1900’s, we naturally migrate to T.S. Eliot, William Butler Yeats, and a few others.  The early Eliot warned of the hollow, habitual thinking, industrial Man that humanity was fast becoming.  He warned of the illusion of the lost and found, and its ultimate desolation, and he paved the way toward a true perception as to what is authentic in our lives.  Later, the elder Eliot came to the river of light and drank like a wise Buddha negating knowledge for actual being.  Easily, we also think of Yeats and his incredible blast of presences and magic, as some of the wonderful gifts he gave his readers.  Many of his works are truly breathless with visions and spirits.  Then there is the old sage of insight, Wallace Stevens, whose metaphors of light inspire one to see without blinders.  And don’t forget Dylan Thomas whose power of paradox and contradiction, fused with vision and biblical oratory, inspired an entire generation of poets to read poetry aloud.  His command of the English language was nothing less than blazing transcendent bodies of artistic works that have no parallel.  And the poems were as melodious and rolling as the hills of Wales where he spent much of his life.  On and on, great poets lifted like cream to the top of humanity’s milk.  Astounding poets, such as Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, D.H. Lawrence, Pablo Neruda, Kenneth Patchens, Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsburg, Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Garcia Lorca and others graced the age.  At their best, the voices resound like a chorus of similar, uplifting music.  But there was one poet, one incredible, magnificent writer who wrote, much of the time, as if he were writing from the hand of God-- one poet who stands out much like Beethoven stands out in the nineteenth century: his name is Ranier Maria Rilke.

Rilke is the finest of the German language poets of recent times and, perhaps, he is the greatest poet of the twentieth century.  Many scholars and renowned poets share this view that some might consider, certainly, an ostentatious opinion.  But the understanding that Rilke stands supreme is for good reason.  No other poet went to the depths of solitude or was able to put the sacred muse into words as deeply as Rilke.  He is the poet of poets and a true conduit of the immense silences of light.   His poetry is full of trap doors that open to the edgeless sky.  Immortally, beyond the senses, Rilke mapped the way out of the senses into the throes of intuition and truth.  His work, like the spirit of life itself, is a dramatic, creative act, and leaves one standing in awe and surprise time and time again.  His poetry teaches mysticism and allows readers to behold his intimate journey as their own in grace and poetic beauty.  Rilke’s works, quite simply, are remarkable in their expressions of the scope and depths of the inexpressible.

Rilke was born in Prague in 1875.  He spent time in Germany and many other countries, and although he wrote in German he considered himself, vehemently, an Austrian and detested being called German.  Because Rilke, as a child and an adult, moved often he never felt a certainty about a real home.  This probably helped fuel a deeper search in his soul for an ultimate home, or place of no place, far beyond the external world of measures he and other great writers and mystics have alluded to with their works. His father was a failed military career man and subsequent railway official and his mother was an adoring but over-bearing primary figure in his early life.  Rilke became a man of deep introspection and solitude.  His spiritual affections led him to live many years mostly alone and in remote settings in Russia and elsewhere.  Friends and patrons offered up many of these secluded settings whereas he ultimately left his wife and daughter and other close relationships, although he regularly maintained correspondence with a number of literary interests. World War 1 affected Rilke deeply, as it did many artists of the times, and he seemed to leave the outside world for the solitude of his inner reflections.  He hated being trapped in Germany, by circumstance, throughout much of the war.

A big turning point came early in Rilke’s life when he was a secretary for the famous French sculptor, Auguste Rodin.  He was guided by Rodin who told him that to be a better poet he must find God in the simple things of the world, to write more about the vast in the small, and find an empirical union with the object.  In some ways, he began a new, spiritual quest by abandoning his inspirational emotions for the higher art of universal meaning and truth in the things of the world.  Rodin was instrumental in his example of, every day, making his world with the tools of discipline, hard work and introspection.  Rilke’s subsequent collection, New Poems attested to this rising transformation within him.  Another instrumental influence on Rilke’s life was his first love affair with the older, Lou Andreas Salome, a leading, world therapist and protégé of Freud.  Her mentoring of Rilke with her deep insights of human analysis helped set the stage for the blossoming of this remarkable poet.

Many of Rilke’s works were created with amazing bursts of creative energy.  Then, there would be long lulls as if a storm were brewing a flood.  Time and time again Rilke would stir into a blazing lightening-rod of divine insight where he would write most of his collections in relatively small durations measured in days.  A couple of exceptions include The Book of Images written over a period of about eight years (1899-1907) and the incredible Duino Elegies that took twelve years to write.  Yet, most of the second half of the Duino Elegies and the entire writing of The Sonnets to Orpheus were “dictated”, as Rilke called it, in a matter of weeks.  These are two of the most amazing poetry collections ever written, as Rilke seemed to transcribe the poems from a deep, mystical state.  Rilke’s very first larger collection of poems, known as A Book for the Hours of Prayer (Bly) and more recently published as Love Poems To God (Barrows) shows the magnitude of the man as a young poet. 

                       “I love the dark hours of my being in which
                       my senses drop into the deep,” and  “In the silent,
                       sometimes hardly moving times when something
                       is coming near, I want to be with those who know
                       secret things or else alone.”

Other Rilke works include the prose writings of The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Rilke, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge (his only novel) and others. His Letters To A Young Poet is a prose classic and a must-read for aspiring poets. 

Rilke has been criticized for being too introverted, or inward, as the trend of the 20th century leaned to the extraverted insights unleashed from the outer experience.  And even though Neruda was critical of Rilke’s complete aversion to the politics of the world, he later recanted, as have most critics. After all, Rilke was dealing with a higher politics of experience, revelations and awakening, and many on levels that requires its readers to be as deep as the writer in order to really understand the works.  But this is true of all poets.  A poet is only as good as his audience.  But Rilke’s work is much too amazing for any intelligent, adverse criticism for he speaks too eloquently to the inward silence in us all. 

Major translations of Rilke’s works include various editions by Edward Snow, Robert Bly, Franz Wright, Stephen Mitchell, and others.  I highly recommend, Ahead of All Parting: The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke by Mitchell as a companion book for all poets and true lovers of poetry.  This collection includes the complete Duino Elegies and Sonnets To Orpheus, and other selections.

Personally, I feel the The Duino Elegies is Rilke’s greatest works.  It reads like many poems contained in one and it is a movement inside and toward spiritual realization on a scale so extremely rare in poetry.  The collection is, truly, a most solemn prayer encompassing a vision of the unseen beauty behind all beauties.  Because of the scope of this work, unprecedented except for the writings of perhaps, Wordsworth, Blake, and Whitman, I am going to give an unusual, succinct and highly edited account of the ten elegies. I urge you to read, or re-read this man’s work in its entirety.  Please do not rob yourself any further of the best of the best poetry ever written.  In hopes of inspiring those who are not very familiar with Rilke, and for those looking for deeper insights not previously revealed, I begin a most audacious attempt to bring some light upon this great body of poems.  So, we begin . . . toward the infinite light.

The first of the ten elegies begins with Rilke asking “Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels’ hierarchies?”  He goes on to write further in the stanza, “I would be consumed in that overwhelming existence.  For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror . . . and we are awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us.”   Immediately, Rilke surrounds us with a great truth: that the power of the unseen, our creator and destroyer, is our paramount beauty and source.  To be our beauty and our annihilation, as one power, leaves us with nothing less than awe, wonder, and a startling sense of fear in our observations. Rilke moves on to deep insights about what animals know (he dances in and out of these themes in much of his works) and what we can learn from them.  He speaks of our longing for understanding, for the immortal life beyond the living, and our seeing beyond death with praise for the simple light of things.  And he reveals how there is a great height and inspiration in the loss of a beloved that allows us to go far beyond the metaphors of our lives, and to find the truth of love with, ultimately, no object.  He implores us to embrace our death and sufferings as necessary and beautiful for they direct us to God, the source of all beauty.  “Voices.  Voices.  Listen, my heart, as only saints have listened, until the gigantic call lifted them off the ground.”  Rilke invites us, “ To listen to the voice of the wind and the ceaseless message that forms itself out of silence.  It is a murmuring toward you now from those who died young.”  On he writes, relentless in his haunting pursuit, “We for whom grief is so often the source of our spirit’s growth . . . could we exist without them?”  Yes, those who died young, “Carried off no longer needing us . . .weaned from earth’s sorrows and joys, as gently as children.”  This and much more in just his first elegy!

Throughout the Duino Elegies, Rilke talks of angels and to the angels.  In the Second Elegy he chants, then urges, almost pleading, “But if the archangel, perilous, from behind the stars took even one step down toward us: our own heart, beating higher and higher would beat us to death.  Who are you?”  Rilke implores this invisible presence to reveal itself although it has the power to annihilate us with its mere presence, as it must for us to be our truth.  He goes on to lament and rejoice that image and world comes and goes as we, too, vanish as flames into a bigger light.  “When moved by deep feeling, (we) evaporate.”   Rilke mourns, and yet, rejoices in his catharsis, that “Everything it seems wants to hide us” from our realization of truth, and he begs us to prove our truth of being.  “You hold each other.  Where is your proof?’   He takes us to what never vanishes; yet it is unseen and cannot be proven by the transitory image of things, but by its invisible presence of a feeling within.  This is the inner union of life and death, of all that disappears into the infinite light.  It is the light of our souls.  Not as the narcissistic rant of reductionism into nothingness, but of the unending life-energy at the end of the organic, living tunnel, of the absolute everything in presence, understanding and grace.