t to Polynesia, Asia and Africa and the divination of the Abrahamic religions. The Mayans, keepers of an ancient calendar, point to October 28, 2011 as an epochal turning point in the destiny and consciousness of Earth, a change, whose last sequence of “seven days and six nights” of eighteen calendar days each, began March 9, just two days before a 9.0 earthquake struck Japan’s east coast near Sendai, beginning a cataclysmic series of events that continue today with the ongoing nuclear disaster at Fukushima.

In this same period the people of Egypt wrested control of their government after thirty years of abysmal dictatorship, the United States with its allies in Europe went to war against resource rich Libya for “humanitarian” reasons while simultaneously revolutionary insurrections and governmental repressions broke out in many other North African and near Eastern countries. With most of the world’s energy reserves in the form of oil located in this region, military actions and nation state instabilities are volatile well beyond regional importance, and coupled with a shutdown of technological manufacturing in Japan are resulting in vast ripple effects in the flow of energy and money around the globe.

Japan’s environmental catastrophe impacts the sea and air of the planet as a whole, as did the Deepwater Horizon oil cataclysm of 2010. The economies of the “first world” are imploding because of monumental greed and stupidity, and although that breakdown is being held back by the massive printing of worthless liquidity, eventually that dam will break and the financial tsunami that began in 2007 will again devastate world markets.

The Hopi elders prophesied: “There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly.” The people of Sendai Japan, Christchurch New Zealand, Araucania Chile, Cairo Egypt and Tripoli Libya will attest to this surge, as would those in Madison Wisconsin and other cities and states in the US. Here a wave of economic shock doctrine is being imposed on the working and middle classes while the Titantic of the mega rich in Wall Street and the big five banks and giant corporations continue to float on a rising sea of suffering and civil unrest.

There are those who’d rather keep their heads in the sands of obscurity and denial, hoping the “experts” will solve Japan’s nuclear calamity although every day another twist of the truth surfaces in regard to Fukushima; the political chaos, though it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how easily people are manipulated by the propaganda of network medias and politicians of every stripe. As for left versus right the US hasn’t put a dent in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, schools and libraries are closing in every state, while we engage three resource wars in Asia and Africa under a rubric of democracy and freedom while our closest allies in Bahrain open fire on peaceful protesters within spitting distance of the US 5^th naval fleet.

“Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water. See who is in there with you and celebrate.” One of the remarkable things about both the uprising in Egypt and the natural and industrial calamity in Japan has been the way people pulled together and re-established community even in the shock of social upheaval, dislocation and evacuation. Japanese society was community based prior to the disaster, where a sense of mutual assistance and cooperation awaited this time when the western ethos of every man for himself is fit for Regan cowboy films and little else.

Three of the four quadrants in the Pacific Ring of Fire have sustained major earthquakes in the last few years, with only the Juan de Fuca plate in the Pacific Northwest remaining. This is my neighborhood and I’m fortunate to know many people here who make community a daily practice, not a rare disaster occurrence, and who with people around the globe are growing in awareness of the many planetary changes that are surely continuing to come.

“The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” The acceleration of change is only beginning, and whereas to some “living in interesting times” is more curse than blessing, we are in a great moving river and have the opportunity of many lifetimes to be the people we’ve always intended to be.

Knots undone,

ropes to shore released,

we sail upon an unknown sea

with faith alone as ballast;

look to the water, look to the sky,

we are sailing!

www.vantagepointdh.com/

March 27, 2011