A Higher Focus

 "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Although I truly consider myself some kind of an eclectic expression of a neo-luddite, and oddly, that has in a way always been true, I have spent a lot of my life working with technology.  

Arthur C. Clarke's famous quote does not exactly apply to what it is I am about to say and have pondered many times and discussed on radio.  I believe technology, for those civilizations which venture that way, is likely a very brief step.  Most technologically oriented societies probably destroy themselves.  Perhaps some survive, but there simply is absolutely no comparison to essentially developing "Magic".  How we evaluate "advanced" is skewed towards materialistic thinking.  What is actually Advanced is altogether different.  In reflecting upon the vastness of the Multiverse, there are likely many civilizations that are "Advanced" which either never developed technology at all or discarded it rapidly along the way. 

This may sound like wishful thinking, to those who haven't witnessed the potentials, but for those who are on a Spiritual path, it is indisputable that Spirituality is real - and has real-world implications.  Societies like ours where materialists are dominant face significant challenges.  If we could develop our spiritual gifts, we could essentially do anything (in a different way) than any "sufficiently advanced technology".  Healing, telepathy and telekinesis are just a few practical examples - and that's just the "practical".  The possibilities are truthfully unfathomable and wonderful.  Arthur C. Clarke wrote about this as well.  I have never personally witnessed telekinesis, but I have definitely witnessed and experienced healing and telepathy.  When we notice, these things happen more than we realize.  Imagine the potentials - and ignore those who mock.  They are wandering lost in the lowlands, essentially - while some of us are already venturing to Higher ground.

We need to set our sights Higher.  And persist.

 

 

Sunbreak over LAX photo by Susan Larison Danz.
 

Transistor Radio Summer #11: All Over the World

"There's gonna be a party all over the world." ~ Electric Light Orchestra

As the summer draws to a close, the Autumn Equinox just hours away, I can't help but include a song that had a magical, expansive effect on me in my teens and still does...

"I got a message on the radio....from where it came from, I don't really know....and I heard these voices callin' all over the world...."

By the way, I found the radio.

Transistor Radio Summer #1

"For we can fly!" ~ The 5th Dimension

I will find it if I look.  My red transistor radio from radio summers long ago.  There were many radios growing up - this was only one of mine, amid the household record players.  

Music was much different then, it seems, the 70's.  It could fill a home to overflowing, or drift in through the windows from the house across the street.

I have a special memory, from a very special Source.  It was my first synchronicity, the first I can recall.  I didn't have a label for it.  But I never did forget it.

It was some time near the end of June, and I was in the basement listening to the radio in my oldest sister's room.  The basement rooms were best of all in summer - upstairs all we had were fans.  

"Up, up and away in my beautiful, my beautiful balloon...."  It was surely 1970, this song a few years old, and I was 6 years old.

Someone shouted from upstairs and then came running down. "Balloon!  S-----u-----e  Balloon!"  It  was my oldest brother, and he was already running up again.

I quickly made it up the stairs, leapt out the door to the garage, then out another door, and raced across the lawn of our backyard, to where he pointed with a smile.  He loved to show me wonders in the sky, a weatherman in training.  

And there it was - in rainbow colors, rising, silhouetted by the Colorado mountains, our partially constructed chain link fence below, reflecting in the sun.  The fence to me was almost every bit as interesting as the balloon. It was about to hold a puppy.

I marveled that the summer skies had listened to the song, and for many years I wondered.  I didn't have a label for it.  It was The 5th Dimension.

Turning Point

"It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come." ~ Field of Dreams

There is a scene in Field of Dreams when the Magic becomes visible.  The doubters couldn't see.  They thought is was "crazy".  

How could you mow over your corn?  

Because there is Magic.  And I'd like you to see.

There came a day.  The day everything changed. 

I sense we're not far from this day on this planet.  We have much of an over-thought world driven by "rationalists", when we don't need to live on mere "rations" at all. 

The Magic will find them, one Heart at a time.  They knew it as children and long, long ago.  We did too.  We do now.  They are coming.

It's the world that once was, and is, and will be again. 

P.S. I noticed a typo while previewing this entry.  I chose to keep it (or should I say, "is") very intentionally. ;-)

Winter Reflections of a "Lady" called Susan...

"But, first, remember, remember, remember the signs. Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night, and when you wake in the middle of the night. And whatever strange things may happen to you, let nothing turn your mind from following the signs..." 

~ C.S. Lewis 

 

 

This is part of the view from one of my windows.  At night, a golden glow seeps in.  

I could choose to reflect on the "starkness" of winter (or the "starkness" of a view).  

Or I could choose to reflect on "Narnia".  

Did I mention the stand-alone "wardrobe" upstairs?  

There exists a magical forest...

Independence Day

To truly embrace freedom, we must first release our fear of it...

I saw the moth immediately first thing this morning above my kitchen sink.  Alternating between resting and frantically throwing itself against my window, it clearly knew the sight of freedom but not the route to get there.  Some would choose to let it be or even kill it.  I immediately chose to set it free.  

Opening the window screen can be a rather complicated thing, so that I didn't attempt.  Instead I did what we always do with the occasional bug or spider we find.  I set about capturing it in a cup.

I caught it right away, and I even thought to write about it later, pondering this Independence Day.  How so often we see freedom, see an illusive (and elusive) way to get there, but the real route is something we can't even begin to know.  Liking the sound of this lesson, while holding the cup in one hand, I grabbed my iPhone in the other, planning to document the journey with a picture. 

Lately, Nature has been attempting to teach me a lesson about my camera.  I love to take pictures out in Nature with my iPhone, a practice that spontaneously skyrocketed all by itself in November (though with deep roots going all the way back to childhood).  It is a sacred practice.  And I have taken well over 3000 in about 8 months.

A couple days ago, I encountered deer on the trail, just as I had the day before.  The day before, I was so hasty to take a picture, I hardly had a chance to enjoy the presence of the deer.  But I got another chance.   The deer appeared again, immediately on the trail before me, astonishingly close, an open invitation in the eyes of one I have come to know.  

"Follow me..."  

I couldn't help but listen, a mystical moment - yet Real - my camera at rest. The deer gently walked around the bend and paused, waiting.  Sacred.  Still.  Magic.  I allowed the moment to BE for as long as it needed to BE.  And then as if by permission...knowing...I snapped a picture, only then...

The deer disappeared right after, as if on cue, and I stopped to immerse myself in one of my favorite groves of trees.  A particular tree caught my attention as the trees often do, the light of the sun on one side, so I did what it is I do and took another picture.

I don't always check the pictures I take right away, but for some reason, I did this time.  What was it I immediately saw?  Magic.  Pure Magic.  Captured on my camera.  The image of the deer as clear as day, even clearer than the picture on the trail, a Magical Presence gazing peacefully in the midst of the Light.  This was the Gift of my sacred forest, which frees my spirit almost every day.

I have since learned this image is rather elusive for the rest of you, but trust me, it is as clear as clear can be.  Keep looking...it is Real.

That was yesterday.

So today, as I carried my frantic friend from Nature in a cup to the door, about to take a picture of the cup in my hand, the moth immediately escaped of course.  Lesson learned.  Again.  Let the camera be.  

Determined, I captured it again in the living room and this time raced to the door.  When the door opened, the moth disappeared so fast, I didn't even see it go.  Free!

Independence Day doesn't always arrive in the way we expect.  As souls, we even choose to trap ourselves to better know what it might look like.  Love will set us free, no matter what the route.  Love sets us free each and every time.

P.S.  Might I mention the doe and two fawns I saw for the very first time today in the meadow by the forest?  This time, I didn't even try to take a picture.  But they surely set my spirit free...

I will be talking about the remarkable picture of the "Light Deer" with the wonderful Tracie Mahan on a radio program she is guest hosting Monday, July 14 at 11 AM Pacific.  Stay tuned for details on FrontierBeyondFear.com.

All photographs copyright Susan Larison Danz, 2014.

The Catalyst

"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed." ~ Carl Jung 

"A catalyst is like adding a bit of magic to a reaction." ~ Chem4Kids.com

Today I'm in a state of Gratitude and Grace, and this will be a simple post. 

When I was young, I learned about the concept of Heaven on Earth.  The Divine spark within us is The Catalyst, yearning to activate Heaven.  True Heaven on Earth is not just about "I" or "me" - it has everything to do with "We".