Life After Death

Life After Death

After physical death there's an inherent part of the human psyche to believe that the soul, or its
equivalent, goes into another realm of being. From earliest childhood I saw beings from other worlds in dreams or with an inner sight. When I got old enough to attend school, the nuns and Jesuits replaced those visions with stories of heaven, hell and purgatory. Stories of spirits were drummed out of me. It took many years to unravel that indoctrination and resurrect the more real imagery of my childhood.

I was 25 when my grandmother "Bobo" died. Two weeks after her passing she appeared in what I thought was a dream. Except I'd opened my eyes and she was standing there in a long white gown next to my bed. She took an object out of her pocket and handed it to me. I said "It's the number 8. She said, "Turn it on its side." The message for "infinity" was clear. In April on her 88th birthday, her daughter, my Aunt Polly, died. As I wrote the numbers 88, the hair on my neck stood up with the coincidence of Bobo's infinity message.


Polly was my hero from the age of 12. She was an independent woman who did things her way. She drove a green convertible MG sports car before graduating to a big truck. She built things. She rode motorcycles. She loved fished and boating. She was All City and All State in softball and basketball. She traveled and camped in a van all over the country with her life partner. Diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 40, she told the surgeon she'd survive. She did for 48 more years until she was felled by a stroke.

Our family gathered for her funeral in Jacksonville. Most of her contemporaries had already passed on so it was a small gathering. I wanted to be alone with her for a few minutes so
waited until all the visits, tributes and accolades were over before entering the little chapel. I was now alone with her in the now dim room. 

I stood in front of the casket to thank her for the influences she had in my life; for the role model she represented to me as a strong, proud and independent woman; for teaching me to drive in her MG; and to water ski on my first try. (It helped that she told me alligators were in the river.)

I told her I didn't want to see her frail condition as she died, but would stand with Janet, her life partner, and the family in saying goodbye. Finally I said, "I love you Aunt Polly." The moment I said those words, I love you Aunt Polly, a white flower in the large flower arrangement that was on top of her casket fell. In slow motion, the flower hit the casket, bounced off, and came to rest on the floor in front of me. Intuitively I felt her, knew she'd heard me, and this was her message back to me. It was the only time I shed tears.

I went out to find the family and tell them what had just happened. They asked where was the
flower. I said on the floor. They insisted we go back and get it. As we walked into the chapel two men from the funeral home were wheeling the casket out a side door. The only thing left where the casket had been was the white flower. It now sits on our altar.

The following night I had a dream about Aunt Polly. She was dressed in a white summer dress. Her hair was curly and short. She was about 35 and looked radiant. She was "hosting" a memorial service for everyone at a swank white restaurant. Then she whispered to the family members, "Let's get this thing over with so I can change into shorts and a T-shirt. I'm going fishing then we're going to eat at a real Fish Camp." With those words, I knew Aunt Polly was just fine and had survived Life After Death!

                                                                                           Jo Mooy - May, 2017  

My Cup Runs Over

My Cup Runs Over!
by Patricia Cockerill 

India was a chaotic bubbling cauldron of overcrowding, poverty, dirt, and unpleasant and offensive smells that I grew to despise. Especially when every morning we made a pilgrimage into the "Basti" a poor neighborhood where Inayat Khan's temple-tomb was located. On the walk through the Basti I saw people living on sidewalks without even a tarp overhead. There were narrow dirty alleys weaving through the hovels with what appeared to be frightened and strange people staring back at me like I was an intruder. In fact, I felt that I was.

I could not understand how these people could live under such horrid conditions. They had so little while I had so much. My heart ached for the barefoot children dressed in rags; for the emaciated animals - goats, dogs, an occasional pig. India for me was not exotic, it was a horror. Each day I found myself withdrawing my heart deeper into my chest so I could walk through this scene without feeling the pain or the fears that were welling up. All I wanted to do was get out - out the dirt, out of the poverty, and out of the pain that I witnessed everywhere I looked.

 

One morning I asked the spiritual leader of our trip, "How can this pain exist on the planet and on this massive scale?" He saw my struggle and said, "Let me get back to you..." The next morning at breakfast he told me the answer had come to him in a dream. He said, "It depends on your perspective. When you see with the mind you are one of the patients filled with the pain. When you see with the heart you are the doctor. Through that love you able to help ease their pain."

Without words, I had been praying for an answer, and praying for help without realizing I was praying for help. When I heard his reply something happened to me. My hardened "protected" heart cracked open and I began to cry tears of joy. Everything changed in an instant. I saw a whole new India I'd not seen before. It was as though my heart grew eyes, ears and nostrils. Yes, the squalor was still there, the smells of raw sewage still existed, and everything was still covered in the pervasive dust. But I was also seeing the color, music and sweetness beneath the canvas that all of India had been painted on.

I felt a connection with every being in every shop, in every rickshaw, and in every humble person sweeping debris on the streets of Delhi. In the ramshackle hovels I  now saw a business enterprise supporting a family and I became part of the ebb and flow of that life. I realized it was the God within me that was seeing India anew. It was not me, nor this ego that judges everything as good or bad while pushing away anything I could not understand.

Because of my fear and anger at the horrors on the streets of India, I had missed almost a whole week of India. I had pulled inside and shut the door; missing out on the Qawali musicians that play chants at the mosques where everyone gathers around and joins in joyously. All that I had been able to feel was the oppressive heat, the crush of strangers invading "my" space, the extreme poverty and the ever present odors.

Our local guide Sanjay who grew up in India though he now lives in Boulder,  explained how life works in India, how the people live, how they think, and what their expectations are. He said, "Notice how everyone smiles. They don't know they have nothing." What he said was true.  I saw more smiles on these faces than I usually see from people at home who have so much. Sanjay's lessons were to continue for most of the trip.

Traveling by bus from Agra to Ajmer, we had to stop and pay local taxes as we went from one region to the next. As the driver left the bus to attend to the taxes, I noticed a small shop on the side of the road. The shop had tree branches holding up a roof made of black plastic and twigs. The counter-top was an old worn wooden plank with a few items for sale. Sanjay explained that the whole family lives in the back of the shop. He also explained that in the East they believe that every guest is God and that it is an honor to serve the guest.

In the hut an old woman smiled at us. Sanjay said she was offering us her hospitality so he got off the bus to sit with her. I watched them laughing and talking. She offered him a small terracotta cup, home made and fired in the woman's cook-fire. She was about to pour hot tea into the cup. But as I watched him he shook his head "no." Instead, he pressed a few rupees into her hand while taking the empty cup. Then he returned to the bus.

When he got on the bus he handed me the terracotta cup. He said he'd told the old woman it was for someone on the bus so she would be remembered.  I held the precious cup in wonder as my heart melted in my chest. Sanjay could see how much it meant to touch such a simple offering from someone who I considered had nothing. Yet, it was the most precious gift that I brought back from India. 

   

In that moment, when he saw my eyes fill with tears, he knew. With this simple offering, I had shared a spiritual experience with a fellow human being - a woman who gave her guest (God) a cup of tea, and a man who understood that a small terracotta cup, made by a strange woman sitting in the dirt, had transformed me.   

Her terracotta cup now sits on my personal altar, reminding me of the indelible life lesson learned on the side of the road in India. 

Trust The Messages

TRUST THE MESSAGES

The long seven year routine had been intense and of late, seemingly never-ending. Before it became habitual or lost its fervor, Patricia and I needed a break to replenish sorely drained batteries. So, we decided to take the summer off.  The decision immediately created a sense of relief, joy, and freedom. But, even as the outer intention was easily put forward, hours of disquiet soon followed.

When an eighty-four month routine is suddenly halted, questions arise as to what might happen next. How long should the break be? Will things be the same or different when the break is over? Should all routines be halted or just some of them? Might you lose your way doing this? What if the splendid feelings of alignment with spirit suddenly disappeared during the break? What if, in this quest to do something totally different, you lost what was most precious? That question was the most difficult. Especially because the last time I took a "time-out" it ended up being a twelve year detour from the spiritual path. Yet, what I learned from that detour was there was no detour! Living life was the spiritual path!

Experience and maturity create a useful walking stick on any trek. Armed with that, and the indelible memory of a "Being" who visibly appeared in 1979 during a meditation and announced, "Do you not know that I am always with you?" before disappearing, it was time to make plans for the sojourn. 

Sitting at an outdoor cafe, we talked about where to go and whether or not it would be affordable. Conversation turned to the nature of reality and that life seemed to be a dream construct. We asked abstract questions during lunch, like who was actually doing the dreaming and were we players in the dream? Or was everything an illusion and we were simply a dream? Just then, a young boy came towards us wearing a red T-shirt. The unmistakable answer to our discussion was printed on the front of his T-Shirt. It said:Living A Dream. It was the first of many spiritual messages that were about to unfold.

Our first stop? Disney World! Looking back, it was the most comical of choices. Disney is the punctuation mark of destinations after big events like the Super Bowl. One cannot get further away from an immersion in spiritual work than going to Disney World. And yet, the choice was not made by us but by "the Universe." An unexpected free four-day weekend came along just as the last of our classes were over. In perfect timing, we learned that messages were soon to be delivered.

  

It's always wise to remember that wherever we go, it's a spiritual journey, and Disney World was no exception. Surrounded by exotic birds in splendid plumage, Silver-back Gorillas on the Serengeti, Tigers and Komodo Dragons living in close proximity, and surprisingly few tourists, Animal Kingdom was a delightful detour into the world of nature. At Epcot we sailed into a world of hydroponic gardens and symbiotic animal/plant relationships clearly demonstrating that the world could be fed in even the most unlikely climates and terrains. We explored gardens ablaze withcolor, gentle butterflies flitting around us and the sounds of laughter, drums, dancing, and languages from every corner of the world. We witnessed people enjoying life and realized, that is what living in spirit is about - finding the joy, seeing the beauty, hearing the song that is life.

  

In order to get the free weekend at Disney we had to endure a two-hour Timeshare presentation.  But imagine our surprise when the discussion with the sales staff easily turned from selling a timeshare to matters of metaphysics, dreams, psychic phenomenon and ultimately to the nature of spirituality. After a lengthy discussion without purchasing anything, we left with big smiles in our hearts knowing that meeting those specific sales people had been no accident.

  

While in Epcot, another message occurred in a most vivid way. While in the park, I forgot to get a very necessary map of the venue. The maps were only available at the entrance but we were far inside the park. As the desire became a thought, "I wish we had a map" a map literally floated out of the sky in slow motion and landed at our feet. If there was any doubt that spirit was going to remain in contact the doubts were quickly fading.

  

But the best was yet to come. As we left the park, we continued discussing our time off, the plans we'd made, and whether this was the right thing we were doing. We knew there was a need that had to be fulfilled, not only for ourselves to come back recharged, but also for those we were leaving behind. As our discussion wentback and forth a skywriter appeared overhead. We watched the plane begin to make huge white letters against the blue sky. First a large T, then an R, then a U. In a few minutes, there above us in enormous letters, was the word TRUST written out in the sky.

  

This is what we know as this leg of the journey begins. Whatever happens, it's the right thing. We never know how the universe is lining up the patterns in our lives. All we can do is TRUST, show up for the call, and allow the alignment to take place. For some of us, years may go by before we realize that something that happened a long time ago influenced the activity we're currently involved in. But the most important is to follow the desire, TRUST the outcome, and know the Universe stands ready to serve all needs! Like "the Being" said, "Do you not know that I am always with you?"

Trust the messages!

   

Jo Mooy - July 2012 

13 Clanmothers

The 13 Clanmothers

In many ancient cultures the role of mother and medicine woman is honored, butmore specifically, in the northern Native American tribes, the Mothers of the Clans were held in sacred reverence.  These Clanmothers were the historians, the faith-keepers, spiritual advisors, and the ones who chose tribal leaders.  They served in rituals, ceremonies, medicine and spiritual events.  As life-givers, their role was keeper of the culture and history of the tribe. 

The Clan Mother was a leadership hereditary role, passed down from grandmother to mother to daughter.  In a sacred ritual, the baton was passed, impressing each woman with the importance of just rule, honoring the spirit, animal and earth kingdoms, keeping the stories of the lineage alive, and insuring the tribal leaders were functioning in alignment with the great laws of spirit and earth.  Because they were responsible for selecting the chief of the tribe so too would they remove the chief if he was not serving for the good of all.

Solar-Lunar Cycles

The Clanmothers like the Druids, Incas, Maya and other cultures dating back 5,500 years, honored the sacred rhythms and cycles of earth.  It was a natural process for them to follow the moon's rotation every 28 days because 28 days was also the female biological cycle.  This explanation led to a more harmonious indigenous calendar of 13 moons in a solar year.  In time, a specific Clanmother with a distinct role and message was assigned to each moon.

Clanmothers 

Each Clanmother has a purpose and a moon month.  The Clanmothers beginning with January are:  She who Talks With Relations, Wisdom Keeper, She Who Weighs The Truth, Looks Far Woman, Listening Woman, Storyteller, She Who Loves All Things, She Who Heals, Setting Sun Woman, She Who Weaves the Web, Walks Tall Woman, She Who Gives Praise, and the 13th and last one, She who Becomes Her Vision.

Each Clanmother has a specific color associated with her role and her mission.  That color holds a vibration that represents the month of that moon.  The Clanmother also brings a teaching message to men and women who wish to heal themselves and to prepare their own personal cycle for the coming new earth.

Equinox March 20, 2012 

In 2012, every one of the seasonal cycles becomes more refined, especially by the intentions we are setting forth for the year.  We are part of the great awakening of human consciousness.  On the Spring Equinox of March 20th, the rebirth begins in earnest.

Join in this sacred ceremony at South Lido Beach State Park at 7 pm.  Hear and take into your hearts the message from each of the Clanmothers.  It is the season of renewal, one that calls to us and to all we aspire to be. 

   

Jo Mooy - March 2012  

Every Position is North

Every Position is North

 

The late night news bulletin surprised the entire world.  "Osama Bin Laden Killed!"  In moments, every other news story that had been "hot" just days before - the Royal Wedding, Tornado Damage, Midwest Flooding, US Debt - fell to the back pages.  His death opened old wounds for many who had lost family and friends on 9/11.  The reaction of thousands who gathered in front of the White House chanting USA, USA, USA, was understandable.  It was a cathartic primal release for them.   

My reaction however was much more subdued.  Maybe it was even hollow.  I thought about how the world we knew changed on 9/11.  I thought about Bin Laden, the mastermind.  I thought about the fact that I was supposed to be in the north tower that morning. I thought about the people I knew who were lost.  I didn't feel like cheering.  Instead, I experienced a great sadness for what the world had become since that horrible day.  In that sadness I needed to do something, to ponder the meaning of it, and to make sense

of it all.  

Pondering is an interesting past time that brings about revealing insights and changes perspective.  My ponderings often occur at the beach and this was no exception.  Most people on the beach are sun-bathers in swim suits or shorts so I wasn't sure what he was when I first saw him.  His hair was long, stringy and gray and his very thin body was a deep copper color as though burnished by the sun.  He was fully clothed but his shirt and pants, almost the same color as his skin, were in tatters.  He squatted on the beach near the edge of the water directly in my path.  Instead of going around him, I watched him.

He drew a diamond outline in the sand and placed four objects on the points.  He put a small coconut in the west, a date pit in the north, a scallop shell in the south and a round, brown spiky pod in the east.  I asked him if the objects in each position meant something significant.  He shrugged.  Then I asked him why he'd chosen to place each of them in the assigned position.  His reply was, "Every position is north."  He could tell I was mulling his answer so he elaborated further.  He said, "A position just depends on where you're looking.  It's how you're perceiving."  He never told me what the objects meant but his short answers were thought provoking.

In an attempt to find out more about him I asked his name.  He only laughed in response.  Eventually he offered up a few facts.  He had lived near the beach his whole life.  He said he washed up there eons ago.  I wondered why he'd never left the area.  He said he didn't need to.  He had learned about all of life's teachings by living alone and being near the ocean.

He squatted further down with his eye against the sand.  He told me he could "see universes in a handful of sand."  Then a remarkable thing happened.  He picked up one grain and placed it in mine.  As I studied it, the grain seemed to grow at least six inches large.  Then it dissolved into many grains.  Still wondering who he was I asked him his name again.  He laughed again but this time responded, "Oh call me Sam."

As time went on and the news about Bin Laden's death became more probing and soul-searching on the part of the media I thought about "Oh call me Sam" and what he told me about perspective.  If every position is north as he said, then maybe all we need to do is look "up" (or north) for guidance in interpreting any of life's situations.  I did that in relation to Bin Laden's death and my perspective shifted.  All I felt was a deep sadness and tearful compassion for everyone involved on that fateful day. 

I later read that the Dalai Lama said Bin Laden's "actions were destructive - - - and his action must be brought to justice."   He also said, "we must have compassion and concern, even for terrorists like Bin Laden."   In compassion I found myself offering up the Hawaiian Huna prayer much more frequently: I love you; I am so sorry; Please forgive me; Thank you!   

Maybe that's the universe Sam perceived in a handful of sand.  It was a very temporal one.  Like he said, "it depends on where you're looking."  Or in the Dalai Lama's words, where your heart is.

 

Jo - June 2011

Ascension Revisited

Ascension Revisited

My well-ordered world shifted in late 2005 after the death of my mother.  At the time, I couldn't explain what was welling up from inside but sensed my life was about to dramatically change.  It did.  A stellar job, a long term relationship, life-long friends, and a lifestyle that left me wanting for nothing, ended. 

Suddenly unencumbered,  I relocated to Sarasota Florida, moved into an empty house with my "desert island" books, some CD's and a few folding chairs.  In the uncluttered serenity of the house I spent hours in meditation trusting in the unseen and unknowable.  Within a very short time, new friends appeared who had similar interests in spiritual topics.  (You know who you are!)  They felt more familiar than people I'd known all my life.   

That move and those friends set a spiral in motion that allowed me to know Ascension not from what I'd read in books but as an experience.   I learned Ascension was about rising up out of the old to something much more beautiful, like a butterfly emerging from the caterpillar state. 

It's been five years since that move.  My personal changes were evident in 2005, but in retrospect the energies of Ascension moved me into completely new spiritual directions.  I still had the old skills that had served me well, but now I was using them differently.  Instead of organizing business projects like I did in my old life, I was now organizing spiritual events and ceremonies.  Instead of training new managers I was now teaching others how to use meditation and dreams to find their life purpose.  Instead of climbing the corporate ladder with an executive mentor, I was now on a level path with a spiritual master.  I discovered that I could live cheaper and on much less by getting rid of clutter and things I no longer needed.  I found I didn't have to be a consumer to be happy, instead joy was found through simple things like the magic of scent, sound and color in my small garden.  Most importantly, I learned that my beliefs, thoughts and actions affected not only my small circle of influence, but also had consequences in the unseen world.

 

Ancient texts and modern oracles said that in this time called Ascension the earth and humanity would move from the 3^rd dimension to the 4^th.  Today, it certainly feels like we're living in two worlds.  Part of humanity continues to squarely inhabit the 3^rd while the other is gently sliding into the 4^th.  While the 3D world continues to be stable and solid, has laws governing it, and functions in old familiar ways, it is visibly changing.  Physically, the oceans are warming, ice caps are melting, and food sources are drying up.  Mentally there's angst, fear and uncertainty about the future.  Emotionally, wars continue to be fought at a personal and tribal level.  On the spiritual level religion is being questioned as individuals struggle to understand its long held role amid their personal search for truth.

On the 3^rd Dimensional level, we continue to react to old problems with stagnant ideas.  Fear and anxiety govern most actions.  When changes do happen, most feel powerless to do anything about them.  In that dimension it's hard to hope for better solutions or to experience a better life. 

In the 4^th Dimensional level ease predominates.  In that dimension, form is shaped by thought, time is instantaneous, and consciousness alters both the third and fourth dimensions.  On the physical level disease is managed energetically or is non-existent.  On the mental level the nature of the soul is explored.  On the emotional level high ideals drive behavior.  Finally, on the spiritual level the goal is experiencing enlightenment.  Those in fourth dimensional consciousness know they are part of a mystical journey that will birth a lighter and more refined state of human. 

So where are we collectively on Ascension?  We're in the initiation phase.  But how we move through it is up to each individual.  If you're reading these articles on Ascension, you're probably aware of some of these changes.  Thirty years ago very few people would have seen the articles much less known about the topic.  Today thousands of articles and websites like it are widely read online.  The entire world has become wirelessly connected by keystrokes or through the latest images on nightly news. 

If you Google "Ascension of Earth" 4.8 million references appear.  A search on "Spirituality" generates 32.5M results while a search on "Life Purpose" yields 92.7 million references.  If you type the word "God" on the Google reference line 427 million hits occur.  All of these "hits" tell a story, provide information, or share obscure or arcane knowledge on spiritual topics.  If you spend focused time online, in meditation, or in intensely creative endeavors, you'll find yourself existing between the alpha and theta brain-wave stage where you'll often lose track of time, space, or even your physical needs.  These activities take you out of the 3^rd dimension and into the 4^th where a fluid world, filled with new concepts, inspiring ideals and endless possibilities exist.

But in 4^th Dimensional consciousness, there's a noticeable change.  What we think about the universe and our relation to it is much more heart-centered.  We're able to feel compassion for the global family that is desperately trying to erase feelings of lack, separation, and fear.  More than that, we are actively engaged in a solution, and committed to making the world a better place.  Through effortless efforts our thoughts, our behaviors, and our beliefs are focused on that goal!

During this time of Ascension, more and more people are searching for and finding spiritual ideals, teachers, masters or practices to guide them.  They've heard the real call of their life's purpose and are acting upon it.  No longer slaves to the rational world, they now work with complementary "Soul Groups" offering self-less service and loving healing to others.  They know they do not have to be physically present to affect change.  They only have to be present in consciousness. 

These are the initiates of Ascension whose thoughts and behavior, flowing freely through the 4^th dimension, entrains others who are on the same wave-length.  In this quantum field filled with hope and love, global consciousness is collectively uplifted.  Ascension means courageously living from the heart center, and compassionately caring about the plight of our fellow humans. In that dimensional place, a new world built on love and harmony evolves and together we all ascend.

Jo - December 2010