of the much bigger picture; and, it is most often deceptively portrayed as something it is not.

I have no way of knowing this in an absolute sense, but I believe every one of us reaches places in our lives where we think we've finally gotten it figured out. Then, as we proceed a little farther down the path, what we thought we knew turns out to be quite different. There may be individuals and even groups of people in indigenous societies where this is not the case; however, I believe there is a high probability that most people in the modern world have experienced this.

Western civilization has made its imprint in every part of the world – not only the West, but the East as well. This left brain rationalism has induced neuroticism and made it endemic in the human population. We are a driven people that have lost our way. What's going on? What am I supposed to think? What should I do? Who am I? Questions, many questions haunt us. We are driven first this way, then that way, all in an attempt to find meaning and to feel as if we fit in somewhere. Or, some just throw up their hands and make no effort to find anything except the next high that may give a respite from the perplexity of life. Is there meaning, a purpose to all this madness?

Yes, I believe there is. A part of me knows it is true. However, being a neurotic human, I have never been too far removed from my doubts and skepticism either. Like it or not, that is the nature of the collective consciousness, which, until relatively recently, was pretty much unconscious. Most merely followed their routines from birth to death, generation to generation. That seems to be changing. What is happening, I believe, is that the Soul of Mankind is awakening. Human culture is being transformed as it undergoes a process of psychic and spiritual metamorphosis. No one on the planet, in fact no thing on the planet, will be exempt from the changes that are taking place, if my gut feelings have any relevance.

This has been called the shift of the ages, the dawning of the age of Aquarius, and other labels. To me, it is the culmination of a 16 billion year cycle in the evolution of consciousness. I do not only mean human consciousness either. I mean Consciousness itself. The Creator, expressed as manifest Creation, is knowing itself for the first time. The manifest God, if you will, is evolving as Creation reaches the apex of its destiny. This is why I say: the way it is, or at least the way it appears to be – isn't that way at all! There's more going on here than meets the eye; and the transformation occurring is exponential.

Yes, things are changing that fast; and we haven't seen anything yet. It has been written, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of Man the things that God has prepared for those that love Him." I would change one thing with that statement. God has not prepared these things so much only for those that love Him, as for those He loves. And who does God love? Is it conceivable that God would not love His entire creation? I don't think so. My heart cannot conceive of a God that is not all-loving or of a love that is conditional. Conditional love is an oxymoron.

While I have used masculine pronouns so far in referring to God, I am more aware than ever of the importance of the feminine aspects of Deity. It is the reawakening of the nurturing Goddess that comes, first as Kali, the destroyer, to tear asunder all that is not real and eternal, for the express purpose of embracing and fostering that which is immortal. It is the stirrings of the Divine Child within the Womb of the Great Mother that we are feeling and experiencing as she prepares to give birth to a new Humanity in a new world. It is certainly a most exciting time to be alive; yet at the same time, for those who are clueless as to what is happening, it is a fearful time indeed.

Fear is the natural result of ignorance. When we do not know something, especially when we are aware that we do not know it, it produces uneasiness that we feel as fear and anxiety. We have been well-trained in our culture to fear fear: "There is nothing to fear but fear itself!" Perhaps it might be better to try to understand it. Without understanding it, it controls us. However, once we perceive its reason for being here, we can begin to understand the why. The why is simple: we are going where we've never been before. There's nothing bad, and nothing wrong. It's all part of the process, the evolution of consciousness ... and the way it has been is not the way it will be. Right now we are living in the time of awakening to the reality that the way it is – isn't going to be that way any more. Almost nothing is what we have thought it was. No wonder the earth and its people are so restless. The caterpillar is becoming a butterfly, and does not understand why it feels as if it's dying. We are the caterpillar being birthed into a new dimension of consciousness that integrates heretofore mostly invisible aspects of Reality, as the apparent opposites merge into a beautiful and fascinating wholeness.

So, what's going on with you, in your life? Can you feel the changes? Are you able to perceive the cracks that are appearing in the structures of society? Do you sense that something big – really big – is happening?

For me, it's as if I am revisiting much of my past in a very compressed timetable. I'm being given an opportunity to see my life from a new perspective… again. I'm asking myself the question: What do I really want? Some of the answers that I have given to that question in the past may not fit anymore. Events and circumstances in my life are allowing me to see from perspectives not previously considered. While my basic answer to the question, who am I? Has not changed – I still see myself as a son of God – what, exactly, I want to co-create seems to be fine tuned day by day. Things that I have perceived as solutions in the past are now seen as mere escapes, not real solutions at all. As more and more aspects of me come into play, I find I have more tools to work with than I thought previously. So, for me the way it is – isn't what I thought it was.

Do I know, exactly, what it's going to look like? No, I don't. I realize that it's being created; and I still have not remembered how to use all of the gifts and abilities I have been given that had fallen into dormancy. I am being re-created, reborn into a higher version of myself. My job, as I see it, is to be willing to allow the changes with as little resistance as possible. Along with an unknown number of other individuals that are undergoing the same metamorphosis, I am being Christed. In other words, the Christ consciousness working in and through me is allowing me to see with greater clarity the firstborn of all Creation, which is the Christ; and as has been promised, I shall be like Him, for I shall see Him as He is – as He has always been.

Jesus began to show us the way 2000 years ago. It has been written that he was the firstborn among many brothers, and I add sisters. Is it this Advent season or the next that the promise of his second coming will burst upon the world scene, not as a single individual returning, but as thousands upon thousands of men and women who have been willing to be transformed while living in their current embodiment – without death? To me, this is the real dynamic and meaning of the Christian message. It's not about a single individual that lived a long time ago, but rather about a new humanity that he merely prefigured then. This is not at all about religion!

In closing, let me challenge you who call yourselves Christian, or Muslim, or Jew, or Hindu, or Buddhist, or Taoist, or Baha'i, or atheist, or agnostic, or modernist, or any other name or label you choose to place upon yourself: none of you within those ideological structures have seen the whole picture of reality. We've only seen parts, myself included. Right now, we have the opportunity to allow those parts to come together, sort of like the vision of the valley of dry bones in which something new and living comes forth from that which had seemed to be dead. I say "allow" – yet, it's going to happen whether we allow it or not. This is the cosmic Apocalypse, the revelation of the mystery of Christ. It can either be about destruction or about transformation. How you experience it depends upon your willingness or unwillingness to go with the flow. Of one thing I feel very certain: the way it is – isn't! He that sits upon the throne of the Cosmos has declared, "Behold, I make all things new!" This is the time of change.

© By Ron Van Dyke, Paradox Publications, Saturday, December 11, 2010 . All rights reserved.

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Dec. 11, 2010