2016 Overleaves and Overview

“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” Michelangelo Buonarroti

Motto’s of 2016

• (positive) We can do this!
• (neutral) Let’s get rid of _____.(fill in the blank)
• (negative) Let’s pretend.

Introduction to these Ideas

What is the difference between a Forecast (prediction) and an Overview? One is guessing events; the second is defining the circumstances under which events might unfold due to the energetic conditions present. In other words, if you have lots of dead wood and dry conditions, and you are determined to use match light to see by, there is a VERY high probability of fire, if not an inferno. The solution is simple – change the type of light you use!

This analogy is concrete and indeed recently experienced by those of us living in the mountains of California. Drought made our forests a tinderbox. But the point here is about likelihood of events, or at least the circumstance which make certain categories of events more probable to happen, than not. Specific events and trends can take shape in a variety of ways, while one event on a date and time may not.

As you read this, there will be moments where we suggest that a trend collapses or reverses itself. For instance, in spite of the massive gains realized by Wall Street (at the expense of Main Street and most unfortunately Sesame Street) since the Great Recession of 2007-2010, 2016 will likely see yet another round of compressions and contractions. Not all at once, but in jerking, and ratcheting series of drops and rebounds. Recent declines in various stock markets and oil prices actually reveal an interesting point of reality: life and commerce still move forward!  But in terms of power shifts and stability, as always, those at the top (1%) will show gains in their wealth particularly as they consolidate and buy-out and take over the assets of those who have lost. These declines and shrinkage’s will make many a retiree more than a bit nervous. And for a great many others that have enjoyed the privilege of depending on “the American Dream” as their primary philosophical palliative for economic good fortune, this shake-up will make them furious, as it dismantles a sacred cow assumption that: they built it all themselves. It is time to learn the flip side as well. For those who have lost: you interact with a system, and it has its own agenda. It may not be your fault, but you can still do something about it. Band together in common cause, for general welfare (as the Preamble of the US Constitution reminds us), and start working toward the objectives where everyone benefits.

Now, you didn’t need a Channeler to reveal to you something that a financial analyst could. The difference is this; we have nothing to gain or lose by telling you this information. While financial gurus have a stake in the game continuing as-is; and are therefore biased and even short-sighed. What you take away from any forecast should be whether the global implications are indeed present in reality. It is for you to decide whether what is being prognosticated here paints a distorted or illusory picture; one that could be either too rosy or too doom-and-gloom? Either way, Artisans, and the facility in everyone’s mind to interpret their own reality, are exceptionally skilled at inventing both.

2016 Overleaves

Role – Artisan

Casting – Warrior

Goal: Growth

Attitude: Pragmatist

Mode: Aggression/Perseverance

Centering– Emotional/ Intellectual – Maturity, adaptability, or justified positions, rationalization galore.

Chief Feature – Impatience/Martyrdom

Frequency: – 79

Masculine/Feminine Energy: 89-11 – Focused pointed determination vs. fixated hatred

Body Type Prominence: Venusian – How will one perceive beauty? Will societies take notice of the fat vs. famine conundrum in the world i.e. too many calories stifling citizens or too few?

Axis Orientation: Action/Expression

Scope: Ordinal – Personal concerns – Narrowed interests – Finding common ground

Theme: Creativity and Makeover

Chakras Activated: 2^nd and 4^th – Love what you are doing, create with love.

Likability Factor: 5.5 -6 out of a Scale of 10 – High points 8 in Spring between April and June.

Spiritual Directions – Forward & Inward – Imagine standing outside of yourself and looking back at yourself. We do not intend this so much as a metaphor about your mirrors in reality; but an exercise in viewing yourself from the perspective of your public image. Determining whether you like it or not would be superficial compared with your assessing its alignment with the direction of principles you advocate. If you realize that you are on the sidelines and not in the game, rest assured that anger or shame will spark a desire toward personal improvement, or trigger a further descent into self-delusion. Whatever strategy you adopt, you will feel drawn, pushed, or kicked to move toward it.

Key Words of 2016: Earth, climate events, property boundaries and borders, land disputes, land pollutants, animals, habitat, sustainability, disruption, rearrangement, revision,

Earther Realm – Proof of effectiveness of alternative energy generation as a substitute for fossil fuels. An admission of the necessity of human well-being on their pets; loving them or acting out their cruelty upon them. Admissions of the source of all Earth’s problems is overpopulation of humans.

 

Key Ideas and Themes

• Renew, Re-invent and Re-energize – Whatever emerged, or reemerged, from the disintegration and clean-out of the Assimilation year of 2015, have been deposited in your laps for action. To review, in the previous 13 months (as of 2016), humanity’s collective and individual Instinctive Centers have been in a state of suspension. Catalyzing those beliefs and attitudes, and in some cases people or circumstances that have failed to represent your values (Life Tasks) and authentic Self (True Personality) to be reviewed and then discarded, rearranged or energized. The effect of which left many people in mourning for aspects of themselves, or collective illusions thought of as foundation beliefs, that have gone by the wayside. As you enter 2016 and the Artisan/Growth period, you will begin by noting the aspects now defunct, and picking up the fragments of what is remaining, and pragmatically piece them together (meaning what works in the moment or situation). A reassembly for some, an attunement for others, yet for a sizable portion of the populations, their personal or worldly reorganization could seem like an entirely different way of life; perhaps a terrifying one. Yet those who were on ‘the right track’, specifically more alignment with their actual Overleaf influences; will probably revel in the sling-shot effect of propulsion behind the activities they are undertaking.
• Emphasis on Fixing – In life, one makes mistakes. Afterwards, there is a choice available in some cases: live with it or fix it. The former will demand acceptance or capitulation into resignation. But the latter requires more vision and courage, as one first admits to the mistake, but then embarks on a course of reconstruction or bigger still, reinvention. Humans tend to mitigate problems rather than go back to the source and remove it. The fix it method of the modern era of social engineering is to repeat and promote the meme (especially when it comes to technology) that “new is better.” In the case of new medical treatments, understanding of human behavior, climate science, and renewable energy technologies, these fit that aphorism. Yet, in the cases of new mergers, new consumer technology, new leaders, new financial instruments, or new security measures, all often mitigation’s of bad ideas, with new worse ideas, can you say better tracking technology in your cell phone and greater restrictions on your ability to use cash in the marketplace! The Internet and virtual reality, opened up many avenues where problems arose, and then more complicated “solutions” were found to compound them. Money is to be made on problems, not solutions; just short term fixes rather than long term vision or planning. Of course, the weight of this mentality is typified by the terrible state of the climate and species decline: rather than stop making or perpetuating a problem: fossil fuel dependence, resource depletion, or human overpopulation; people would rather preserve their money making avenues, and simply add another layer of mitigations. Of which, in turn, spawn their own problems; and the downward self-destructive cycle perpetuates. Just because you have catalytic converters on your car’s exhaust, doesn’t mean carbon monoxide pollution has stopped. Partial truths, from facts assembled into beliefs which distort reality, are convenient for numbing- out or dumbing-down on one’s own cognitive dissonance. Yet, there comes a point when no fix to a problem is possible. You just live with the consequences. A new way of life is imposed by circumstances. A reactionary form of creative adaptation, by default. Change happens! You can influence the direction.
• Mature and Old Soul Entrepreneurs exert more philanthropic and investment influence – Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, and some others. Collaborative enterprises (a Mature Soul orientation toward problem solving) crossover traditional lines of technology and business models, with the emphasis not only on improved profitability, but social equity and ecological sustainability. However, markets and legislative power structures are still largely controlled by Young and Baby Soul interests highly invested in their hegemony. Yet successes in steering, if not modeling new avenues for human interaction, will emerge and be noteworthy.
• Politics – Bernie Sanders can pull the upset of the Year. Still, barring any cheating, from either the Republicans or the Democratic party apparatchiks internally, Sanders could draw voters if he is on the ballot. The problem will be for Hilary Clinton is if SHE splits the party and Bernie is emboldened to run as a 3^rd party candidate. If Americans “Feel the Burn” in a split of the Party – as the slogan professes, it might be they who get burned. Though Donald Trump will win the Republican Primary. Yet, in most parallel realities he does not win the White House, but he will grab many of the voters, and the schism in the American electorate will be as great, or greater, than any time since the American Civil War. Just to be clear, we are talking about those holding steadfast to the Dominance Model and the Consciousness Model.
• Physical Senses to Pay Attention to:Auditory (Emotional Center). When people have emotions they do not want triggered, a common response is “I don’t want to hear it.” Well, exaggerated to a broader media scale, most segments of the American population self-segregate even further: conservative vs. liberal, racial oppression vs. racial privilege. On other fronts about hearing, sound and emotion, many will judge 2016 as having produced some of the greatest music in recent times, of all genre’s. Indeed, use music, listening to it, playing it, or singing it as a mechanism to help elevate you out of any undesirable emotional state, or to deliberately guide you inward to face them and heal them.
• Be Mindful of your Mind– The only way to become master/friend/interpreter of your emotional states is to remember that they do NOT communicate in words. Therefore, finding a way to suspend erratic thought and learn to concentrate on Observing the images and they are attached to them, will give your mind a meta-purpose and thus allow you to to deepen your focus, and stay more reasonably clear of ones sentimental morass.
• Rise of alternative technologies meets entrenched interests. Solar, wind, and battery storage of them has finally become a viable (and sustainable) contender in energy production terms. But when the largest companies in human history, like Exxon, Dutch Shell, BP, and Aramco, have trillions (that’s right with a “T”) locked-up in fossil fuels, particularly oil and natural gas, you might find them a bit unwilling to yield market share and give up pumping oil. Climate be damned! BTW, for those lucky few (that is right, you heard us use the term luck) alternative energy has an amazing trajectory that if caught you will be able to translate into great career and financial advancement.
• Makeover Image and hopefully substance. One not go any further than the Jeb Bush campaign to see this makeover phenomenon in action. Trying to look less like a patrician and more like an “average guy” to ingratiate himself with Donald Trump’s constituents, shows the desperation of a captain, not wanting to go down with his sinking ship. His will not work, but for other’s whose intentions is to share and enhance who you are is a process can be a very positive one for those trying to lose weight, reshape themselves, get rid of that which is done, and move on. You already got the learning; you just forgot to get it out of your energy field.
• The New Planet and Mars and the Moon – With Elon Musk’s SpaceX company will step up a full-fledged campaign to declare a Mars expedition. The Chinese will be announcing a manned space flight to the Moon for 2017-2018. Both Astronomers and Astrologers re-think their understanding of its effects upon the solar system and Earth.
• Mistaking Bravery for Bravado – How have we come to confused these ideas? One answer is when people are afraid, really afraid of standing out in a crowd. Yet, someone who voices the opinion of that crowd, and then incites that crowd, is seen as a liberator. In a way, they are. They act as a giant vent. Can you think of anyone beside Donald Trump who is doing that? Bernie Sanders for one, just on the other side of the political spectrum. Isis, for millions of economically disadvantaged and politically repressed Muslims across the world. They call it bravery because it seems that someone willing to spray the same vitriol they experience within, must be a courageous hero in the face of their own self-imposed silence, or shame-based denials.
• President Obama will have a very active last year. It has begun with the (minor) Executive Order he issued on Gun Background checks. Eventually, his role as a target of massive racial prejudice and obstruction by Republicans, will become a matter of national shame discussed in the history books.
• Massive Self-delusion by Baby Soul populations in relation to God’s permissions and edicts, continue to fuel justifications for selfish and aggressive action. In the US, incidents of reported police brutality of minorities and justice system abuses will further raise the specter and discussion of “white privilege”. Current conflicts in the Middle Eastern will starkly expose the dominance of Euro-centrism (white privilege in world cultural and politics), as the Young Soul hierarchies sponsored by the West Saudi King – US, Assad in Syria – Russian, and Mansur Hadi in Yemen the US and Russia alternately, and increasingly – the military dictatorship which supplanted Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, is now courted by the Chinese financing of the Suez Canal expansion. Is it any wonder that most right wing extremist groups are white? They believe they have the most to lose. Yet for Baby Soul religious extremist groups, they believe they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Both viewpoints transfer the costs of their actions onto the Earth and with civilians.

How this Year Affects the Roles

Artisans – Regardless of Soul Age, each will encounter a distinct surge of energy. The Masculine oriented convergent nature congeals intention toward more concrete opportunities, courses of action, or real events to be dealt with. Artisans who prefer the safety of intellectual musings may feel pressure to actually do something, or express their ideas, or reveal their creations, rather than continue to fanaticize. Others experiencing the shake-off of the past, will encounter an upwelling of interest in the remaining aspects that Essence surfaced for them. Overall, the effect will be appreciated and, if not hopeful, at the very least, startlingly motivating.

Sages – Pragmatism sets in for the Sage and a line must be crossed. Younger Sages, being the employers of situational ethics, find that such fluidity is neither effective nor advancing for them any longer. It is time to pick a side and head to the front lines of their truth. Notice we did not say “the truth”. For them, the cornerstone of their principle alignments centers upon economics. All will declare a desire for stability, but the battle will rage for whose ideologies and methods should govern. Old Souls version of the truth can reveal profound observations but fall face down on the floor if unasserted. Simply knowing the truth, or more specifically what their conscience tells them, is no longer sufficient. Discourse and exchange of ideas is what is being called for. Yet Baby Soul Sages, afraid of losing the securities of traditional beliefs continue not to engage in debate, but to pontificate and demonize; as if shouting constitutes communication. The underlying message, of course, is “I am so afraid of not being herd, maybe if I get louder, you’ll do as I say.” This tactic is not reserved for Sages. But in the Sage institution called ‘politics’ all of the candidates are employing it with varying degrees of effectiveness.

Warriors love a good rivalry and contest. Remember that it is also an Olympic year. Brazil’s hosting of the Games has a very volatile quality to it. Besides the athlete’s ( a distinctively Warrior institution), Warrior’s of all Soul Ages will descend to mount various kinds of battles. Environmentalists or eco-warriors, will point to the pollution in the main oceanic bays where boating and triathlon events will be staged. A setting of this prominence sets the stage for, and certainly invites, those wanting to piggy back the public exposure. Terrorist plots seem inevitable. Whether acted out or foiled, the presence of opposing warrior forces, i.e. military and police, make explicit the confrontational character in the world today. The proximity of Indigenous peoples to the events make it a show case for staging a confrontation of those representing the have-nots, broadcast over the medium of the halves, television. How much airplay or attention they receive and how it will be ‘spun’ by the talking heads, of course remains to be seen. And, the harried and intensified influences of Aggression Mode, Masculine energy, Emotional Center, coupled with the highly charged expectations of Impatience and Martyrdom give this year a contortion that looks combative. Artisans like to destroy or wipe away an old artifice before building a new one. Warriors of all Soul Ages will assist them in that task.

Kings – A King’s effectiveness, and certainly feeling of enjoyment, depends largely on their casting position and frequency. The whirlwind of controversies do make an attractive place for them to want to standout in a crowd and lead it. The Ordinal quality of 2016 with its “what’s in it for me” orientation acts as the dividing line between what we have termed the division between the Dominance Paradigm versus Consciousness Paradigm. Yes, versus! At this juncture of human awareness (or lack thereof) the former considers ‘consciousness’ merely an attribute of cleverness, inventiveness, or an ability to be glib, witty, or controlling of others. But no deep thought, no self-analysis, no consideration of the effects of actions for the long run. The best Kings have a vision for the future. For Mature and Old soul Kings who lack one, it will be a time of despair and cynicism.

Servers – Workers, ordinary citizens, undervalued minorities, are classified as the ranks of the ‘common man’, comprise the energy that the Server best represents. Empowered by the gains made in the issue of Gay marriage, and the heightened awareness of (extreme) wealth inequality, new and returning waves of movements converge and become loud and forceful in the public arena. Old Servers will feel compelled by the anger of impatience and from it output hope, or driven by desperation. Yet, their opportunities to act at the vanguard of any social cause they perceive aligning with their values

Priests  – Will enjoy the opportunity for controversy. Some others raise their voices to assert positions that seek common ground. Others still will inspire strife.

Scholars – In the same way that a child feels powerless to tell the story that would stop his parents arguing, when he is told to “shut up, this isn’t your place”;  the Scholar encounters the cold shoulder in wanting to bring facts to any discussion. In a period where fabrications of self-image is at the forefront (and Artisan energy), emotionally, a Scholar is likely to experience depression when those that request input, ignore it once given. Old Soul Scholars could float over to Cynicism in such an environment, perceiving others to be foolish or stupid. Yet, what is useful is that it can also cause some to modify their approach and remember to employ the Scholar’s own nested attitude, and featured this year, Pragmatist, to dole out information in smaller, digestible portions. The payoff will re-establish their sense of value, and reignite their willingness to contribute, rather than horde, information.

Emotional Centering

A commentary on Emotions, Love, Fear, and Getting to Meta

“It is the recognition of the presence of fear, but not reacting to fear with fear, that will be the most important self-awareness step that any person can make in this, or any, New Year.” Michael’s Consortium

Quixotic changing of moods. Many moments of exhilaration and yet with equally present erratic outburst of angers. But a key difference of the quality of those feelings lie on what they are founded upon. Anger, in the face of deception, cruelty, oppression, or attack IS the appropriate response because it is pro-survival, pro-truth, pro-freedom, and therefore actually healthy! If short temperedness rises for the genuine well-being of another, even if they are deceiving themselves, it is better than the apathetic and dishonest stance of falling back on “well, it’s their lesson.” Copouts are cowardice, or fear as is much more PC within self-help circles. As Warriors and Kings primarily, bluntness to evoke real, and even base emotion, is a foundation of trust between us. Violence would not be.

Emotions are seductive. Thus suggesting positive emotions as a way of blunting the sting of a perceived flaw, or enhancing the acceptability of bad habit, promotes a favorable image, including an addiction to positivity itself. A major case in point is Coca Cola’s new ad campaign “Taste the Feeling”. A secondary effect upon emotions anchoring in certain sentiments is the use of music, especially familiar or known songs, to fuse two potentially non-related, or even conflicting ideas together. In the case of Coca Cola ad, it uses the Queen/Davie Bowie song “Under Pressure”. As the music plays, images showing persons in tense performance situations somehow getting relief by drinking a beverage full of sugar, phosphates, and caffeine? A cocktail of elements that for most people’s physiologies are stimulants which may “jack-up” some short term ‘good feelings’ but hardly do anything to calm anxiety. But when emotions are appealed to, by god, any combination is possible.

On the other hand, when fear (of loss) is merged with the resentment (of blaming someone) and anger (of wanting resolve) is used as a masquerade to appear strong in the face of perceived weakness; alchemy of the worst kind takes place. The product is called hatred. If you don’t believe how easy it is to seer in it, just think of how many times you say automatically “ew, I hate that…”. Hate is the category of fear that propels Chief Features toward other people. Like a kettle boiling under the pressure of inner hostility and fed by the fires of loathing and disgust, it soon spills over out of you onto others. There is nothing neutral or simple about emotional states this Earther energy year as humans everywhere are more disabused of their affluenza, believing that Growth can cure all ills, while a finite planet declines in its ability to support life. The best thing one can do this year with the Artisan/Warrior/Masculine energy is to use anger productively. Together, harness them in the furnace of your life force, let them heat the raw material (Overleaves) and forge your ideas into tangible outcomes to build the world you want to be a part of. Otherwise, those fires are liable to consume you. Use it on the behalf of others but walk the samurai tight rope between right intention and falling into self-righteousness. The expression of anger, indeed, outrage will be common. Brace yourself this year for those episodes. Move out of the way of hatred.  Almost always, they will not be personal toward you. But one should not tolerate aggression toward you, either. Defending against an attacking foe is ethical, and even if necessary, banish those who perpetrate it.

Sub Personalities: watch for their influence.

Petulant Child– Also, referred to as “Baby Wants More” – its’ need is always about wanting to dominate situations to feel secure, especially because it never feels safe. By the nature of this Sub, they demand attention and do whatever obnoxious and reckless behavior, throwing tantrums to get their way. The Baby Souls in Oregon occupying the federal game sanctuary demonstrate the selfish belief of this Sub that because “I said so” must make whatever reality they profess, as true and right to everyone. Within your psyche the Petulant Child reacts to anyone telling it what it can or cannot do with obstinacy to either. If you let it convince you it is a victim, it will ally with the Angry Father and make your inner life, and probably the lives around you, a living hell. Tough love here means not giving into hatred when you are actually feeling lonely and afraid. Do not resist this state. Do not act out on it either.  It is important to nurture this child, even when it squirms.

The Angry Father – On a grand scale, we are speaking about the mind set called Patriarchy. In many Abrahamic religions, their God is an angry father. As such, his frightened children may cower with shame and subservience, or become righteous zealots, taking up the punishing mantle of this archetype; and want to lower the boom on whomever they deems as sinners or evil. It is VERY authoritarian and demanding inside one’s own mind. Trotted out in the public eye, you see elements of this aspect in Trump supporters, ISIS and the growing number of those flocking to it, as examples of the harsh and absolutist quality of this character. Beware of the allure, combined with the Sludge to convince you that any mean or harsh act that you commit, or befalls another, they deserved!  Impatience and Martyrdom can poison even moderate minds with the belief that “father knows best”. Women, you too have this same Sub inside yourself as men do. Don’t deceive yourselves into believing that just because you are female or a goddess, you can’t issue stiff condemnations, or have resentments distilled into a venomous hatred relishing the pain of another. BE VERY CAREFUL! The Father Angry Sub, like the Petulant Child only sees others as culpable, never itself. Inside your own skin, it might justify any number of nasty acts committed on others, or goes to battle against the Child.

Sludge –  It’s motto could very well be “fuck ‘em or kill ‘em”. Not necessarily a nasty brute so much as it could be a cunning poser waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting prey that has something it wants. But the Sludge is a loner. It feels no allegiance. It trusts no one. It is the hunter. It believes life is unfair, lonely, and immediate; so get what you can when you can. It can be patient, but not for long. The need to keep its edge or advantage will want to make it engage in potentially damaging ruthless behavior. Within one’s psyche, the Sludge is the inner narcissists which casts itself as deserving whatever it wants. It schemes and lusts but is usually prepared to take whatever it needs. Making a person susceptible to say “fuck you” if someone points out any acts which are hurting yourself or hurting someone else.

However, the fears of each of these 3 aspects differ accordingly, they are all polarized. Finding balance will be difficult. Hard physical labor or exercise to the point of exhaustion may be the only ways to shut off the noisy mind or expel the heightened agitation of both pleasurable and painful emotion.

Effects upon Soul Ages  

• Old Souls – Excited, inspired, scared, and really motivated to participate in getting others to calm the hell down! It is their nature to learn by terror. Trying to hide that terror is the challenge that many will be forced to deal with.
• Mature Souls – Battles royale! Adversaries of the Mature principles of justice are Baby Souls regressive need for security, top-down hierarchy, and predictable rules. Even if those rules favor the those in power and are contrary to their own concerns.
• Young Souls ­– Generally energetic, ambitious to capitalize, and wanting to find adventure, if not fun, in whatever they undertake, it will take the energies of those idealistic and aspiring persons who realize the playground of Earth and their individual liberties are threatened become a crucial lynch pin group for tilting the balance of power toward progressivism. They will be responsible for confronting and reigniting legal challenges, like Citizens United, around the world. It is
• Baby Souls ­ Often do well in environments when creativity has an outlet for making tools. But when feeling stifled, or fearful, or intimidated, they squirrel away or attack wildly. In interpersonal relationships, Baby Soul Servers will seek a chance to make new relationships or repair old ones.
• Infant Souls­ Retreat further into and backward away from the overwhelming aspects of technological and industrialized society. They too are part of the mass extinction event spoken of in the next section.

 Likely Nexus turning points this year:

• Feb 18 –- Convergent
• May 22 – Erasure
• July 9 – Divergent
• October 10 – Convergent

Closing Commentary

TAO, whatever it is, creates! We accommodate, invent, modify, mold, and adapt to those creations. Are we on a path of our own making as a race? Increasingly, I believe that the binary ‘yes or no’ answer is far too simplistic and misleading to accurately gauge the complex milieu of factors that sums-up reality. Whether it measures the collective group reality or what one might call our individual reality. How then might one be more effective in grasping the tiller which one might navigate through these seas of change? Can we even call it our own destiny? The first step is to seemingly commit the first Cardinal sin of the New Age – Human Potential movements…recognize limits; and more specifically your limitations.

However, admitting one’s limitations invites feelings of vulnerability and might add a defensive recognition to painful reality. Then fear gets compounded. You have a fear of fear itself! It is this second aspect, your relationship to fear where you have the most volition to learn to become Meta. Specifically, the concerns regarding lack of access to resources, also called scarcity; or fear of being attacked, also known as weakness or incompetence; or the fear of being abandoned, deserted, or isolated also known as the fear of death, extinction, or oblivion. Much of what is classified as religious or spiritual musings seeks to explain, justify, nullify, or provide psychological mechanisms for coping with, or denying the existence of, these fundamental aspects of physical life. Efforts which seem to continually lead us to circle the wagons to fight an enemy “out there” while armed and dangerous “in here.” It is a strategy which has, in the long run, always failed! Why? Because we were either overrun or ended up shooting ourselves.

Come on, can’t we just face our fears? It seems not. Once confronted by thoughts or situations we deem threatening fear ignites our animal programming and galvanizes its defenses to polarize against it. It is what physicist would term stimulus/response, action and reaction, or cause and effect; while the metaphysicist label the same phenomena as Cycle of Karma, the Wheel of Fortune; and the most recently, the Law of Attraction. Any of these definitions fail to capture that the gravity of the implied threat perceived in them is met with the same fear that seems to confront them. Does anyone see the problem here? Fight fire with fire, and everything burns down. But running away from a wild fire without trying to extinguish it also results in the same disaster. No, you put water on flames to dowse them, metaphorically of course, it means we bring love to fear, and stand with hot resolve against cold hatred. Cold because it numbs oneself to anything, it has frozen out love, and eliminates empathy.

Acceptance offers as surrender of those things that the Idealistic Inner Child, full of fantasy and pretense, otherwise clings to in the mind, while avoiding life’s actual gifts and potential options. Embrace of what is offers a concrete foundation to work with what you have, who you are, and where you are. One can meet present time realities with actual resources. Yet, the result of accepting what is, should never leave one with a sense of futility. Resigned to circumstances one deems unlikable or unfavorable, one is likely to fall into apathy, indifference, and even worse a sort of numbness to life that can distill neglectful carelessness, into a cruelty by degrees.

Fears’ many disguises take root in the same imaginary space as hope, inspiration and fantasy. They all assemble  the pieces of coulda, woulda, and shoulda into a projection onto a future not yet availed. It clouds the possible with the improbable for the sake of evading some state of “less than” (fill in the blank), that one tries to elude. The demon chasing is the same one that may create either “the light at the end of the tunnel” and “the fire underneath your ass.”

Finally, let us acknowledge the grand clearing of the creation slate: the 6^th Great Extinction event. In the 5th – 65 million years ago, it took a giant asteroid hitting the Earth to raise enough pollutants to fowl the water, poison the air and block the sun. Yet now, it is just a bunch of giant assess fowling the water, poisoning the air, but instead of blocking it, we make the sunlight deadly to ourselves with more heat and less ozone to protect us against cancer. Way to go human race! Let us hope we can turn our learning toward transformation of ourselves into the next step of evolution: the Humane Being. Otherwise, we are likely to perish as Homo Idioticus. And, since we are here to learn about choice, it seems only fitting that we named the two choices left for us to make. There is no real 3rd option.