A small yet meaningful experience

Posted on October 24, 2023 by new desert

Dear Ones,

I had a meaningful experience last night lying in bed next to our son—he always enjoys company on the way to his astral travels.

Yesterday was a rough day. I have a nasty cold which got my nose running like a fountain of youth and I kept sneezing in and out. As fortuity would have it, it was one of those evenings when our son gets back from school late and we don’t have dinner until 10 pm—knowing I am the one preparing dinner.

Right after dinner, our happy-go-lucky teenager asked me if I could ‘put him to bed.’ Given the state of my health and my persistent headache, I hesitated and yet, for a mystical reason, surrendered to his whim.

After a few minutes, my wife came into his room and said she intended to empty the dryer where clothes had been sitting for a few hours. A twenty minute delay, at past 11 pm, when I have six potential hours of sleep ahead of me, no way, I thought.

Calming down a bit, I took an inner pulse and could clearly see two options. Either I would get infuriated and would get up to pick a fight. Or I would surrender—one more time, to yet another person—and muster as much gratitude as possible.

To be honest, I felt helpless knowing that our son was about to fall asleep and I couldn’t move, and that my wife was clearly moving ahead with her late night plan.

I ended up choosing the ‘gratitude route,’ not really knowing what I would be grateful for, and it was truly liberating. The anger volcano that would have happily erupted three years prior was silent. I soon moved to our bedroom ‘unharmed’ and ‘unagitated’ and started helping my wife fold our clothes.

It may feel like a small encounter with my inner emotional process; yet, when I look back, it was amazing to clearly envision the scenarios ahead of me—as well as their consequences—and opt for the wiser one.

Thank you!

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Meaning and the absence of consciousness

Posted on October 6, 2023 by new desert

Dear Ones,

This evening, I was reflecting on what brings or creates meaning in our lives.

Connecting, both inner and outer, is certainly an important element that allows us to infuse meaning wherever and whenever we wish—we are all, more or less, social animals.

I worked with children of various ages these past three days, as an observing substitute teacher.

On Wednesday, I took care of a class of bright and lively 5th graders. Energy was in the air and I connected well with most students. Helping them complete an assignment went a long way, not to mention letting them play soccer in the classroom while waiting for the buses.

On Thursday, I worked with two small groups of 1st graders and kindergarteners. While the 5-years old were engaged during their assignment, they didn’t seem to connect beyond class time. They saw me in the cafeteria and yet didn’t express any emotion or remembrance. I crossed paths with the first graders a few minutes after my coaching and it was all giggles and smiles. A seed had been planted.

Friday felt very different, working with mentally challenged students in a section of a high school’s special education. Many could not express themselves with words and yet there was a light in their eyes during some small activities. These were not always successful, despite their simplicity, and something wasn’t apparently wired in their brain. Could it be that outer consciousness, as most of us experience it, was shut down?

I had lunch in the cafeteria and sat across one of those students, a beautiful young woman who had difficulty eating, yet was on her own. There was a gentle stream of communication between us, all nonverbal.

After she finished her snacks, I picked up the empty bags and threw them in the garbage bin. A few seconds later, she was able to let me know that she no longer needed her jar of applesauce and I discarded it.

Later in the afternoon, while walking in the hallway, I saw her in a room where I had worked in the morning. I looked her in the eyes and waved, yet there was no acknowledgment.

Could it be that consciousness only ‘function’ in the present moment for these teenage children? Similarly, that is, to that of the kindergarteners.

It was a blessed experience in connecting and yes, an experience in exploring meaning as well.

I am not sure what it taught me about consciousness, that I would describe as a light switched on. Switched on within as well, for a few of us.

When I think about the ‘absence of inner consciousness’ in the self-glorifying masses, I can’t help relate to what I observed with these teenage students.

A light that remains unlit.

Left right human brain concept. Creative part and logic part with social and business doodle isolated on white background

Topic: Meaning and the absence of consciousness

Time: Oct 7 @ 4:00 pm Eastern Time

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Aiming for equilibrium

Posted on September 21, 2023 by new desert

Dear Ones,

As we approach the vernal and autumnal equinoxes this Saturday, I thought the picture below would be a perfect illustration of the eternal dance between the Sun and the Moon, the day and the night, the light and the dark.

These are natural rotational phases that regulate our lives and that gives us ample time to regenerate ourselves.

The hourglass is indeed a beautiful metaphor for the passage of time and of the seasons, following assiduously a cycle that has gone on for eons.

Where will you be this Saturday and how will you honor or celebrate this transition?

Will it be a transition to a more inward-looking attitude in the northern hemisphere?  And outward-looking, or nature-oriented in the southern hemisphere?

Below is some information from an astrology newsletter about the equinox. Its author is—interestingly named—Raquel Spring.

We are rapidly approaching the Autumn Equinox, which falls on either September 22nd or September 23rd, depending on your location in the world. The Equinox and Solstices serve as significant points in time when cycles are both marked and measured. Each time we pass through an Equinox or a Solstice, we usher in a new chapter.

After the retrogrades of Venus and Mercury, many are feeling a newfound sense of clarity and of completion. Now, we open up to a new chapter, brought about by the upcoming Autumn Equinox. This chapter will be marked by the entry of Black Moon Lilith into Virgo, followed by her opposition with Saturn, then a series of eclipses, and the concluding T-square formation involving Pluto in Capricorn and the Lunar Nodes.

The Autumn Equinox ushers in this new season.

Topic: Aiming for equilibrium

Time: Sep 21 @ 3:30 pm Eastern Time

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Acceptance and non-acceptance

Posted on August 30, 2023 by new desert

Dear Ones,

Thanks to the Creator’s post (please see below), I was reflecting this morning on the notion of ‘acceptance’ and its twin sister, ‘non-acceptance.’ There are things and possibly people we can accept and there are others, possibly situations, that are simply unacceptable. Think of exploitation, for instance. If we let it happen, it can only create inner damage and possibly enrich (in whatever ways) the exploiter—be it a corporate boss, a politician, a religious leader or a friend.

Then, a compassionate thought arose and went to those families in the US that are split across the political divide; one member leaning Democratic and the other parent or spouse supporting the Republican agenda. It must be very difficult to survive such a chasm and perhaps the best tactic is to sweep that difference under a heavy rug—till the next election comes. I am fortunate not to be part of such a family. I know there are many and I am not sure acceptance does help in this case. Agreeing to disagree is a small step that doesn’t always bring peace.

And then my reflection moved to more personal feelings, thanks to this explanation from a Gene Key – Gene Key 22, Grace under Pressure.

Within this Gene Key, the progression goes from Dishonor (Shadow) – to Graciousness (Gift) – to Grace (Siddhi).

“Many so-called spiritual teachings suggest that you should subdue your negative emotional states in favor of sweeter, more virtuous frequencies. In fact, this is the basis of most of the great religions. But to subdue any state or feeling is to “dishonor” and distrust that feeling, which prevents acceptance.”

Acceptance and integration at play here? Or possibly questioning the origin of the emotion, in the first place, with fresh curiosity?

Having a negative thought doesn’t make one a bad person, does it? If it does, then we will all agree that the world is doomed!

This morning, I observed the formation and burgeoning of such a negative emotional state—irritation. One I have been consciously working on. And our son soon offered the perfect experiment.

It was 6:55, we were on our way to the bus stop and Alex was still strolling around, as if life was unfolding at his own pace. We arrived at the bus stop 30 seconds late, just as the school bus was leaving.

What happened to my friend ‘irritation?’

I could sense it, it was palpable and I wasn’t happy. Yet it didn’t burst into anger and died within minutes. It is what I call a “work in progress,” a great inner experiment and you can tell I have helpers (or irritators) close by.

Can you think of a similar situation when a ‘helper’ assisted you in your process of accepting [acknowledging] and perhaps assessing something you carry within?

Something that, at times, you may have difficulty to accept.

Knowing that—acceptance is key and yet, sometimes, it isn’t!

“Your spirituality, way of life and how you view your Earth plane existence is yours and yours alone. How you choose to honor The Universe and those within it is unique, beautiful and as individual as you. You may not agree with another person’s ideas on the subject and that is okay. Acceptance is key! This does not mean keeping your mouth shut if you witness something inherently wrong…it does mean allowing others to have their own beliefs systems without judgment. You may not agree but, then again, it is not your life, correct? Let this be the beginning of peace for yourself and everyone around you.” ~ Creator

The Key | The Creator

Topic: Acceptance and non-acceptance

Time: Aug 31 @ 3:30 PM Eastern Time

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Perhaps not so fractured after all?

Posted on August 23, 2023 by new desert

Dear Ones,

I have come across a cascade or rainfall of synchronicities this afternoon, all within 30 minutes.

What is the probability of that happening in a fractured, broken, paralyzed world?

This cascade involved a person in Washington state, one in Alaska, an astrophysicist in New York city, an astrologer in France, and a nexus (yours truly) in Virginia.

A couple of days ago, I emailed our healing intention group, asking for intentions in a ‘fractured world.’

A person (in Washington state) took this offer to heart and made a suggestion this morning, acknowledging our fractured situation.

Then the person in Alaska emailed me a link for a video of astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City. 

They won’t teach you this in any school

Early on in his speech, Tyson mentions the risk of ‘ossification’ for our students, a theme we addressed last week in our gathering. Later on, he says, “we are living in a very fractured world.”

At about the same time I was watching the video, the astrologer in France responds to one of my comments on her blogsite. It has to do with the successful landing of Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 on the south side of the Moon. She wants to change a reference that I made and contacts me through the Ossification and Consciousness post that I wrote last week. How uncanny!

All this mystical communication, either about ossification or fracture, seems to refer to bones—and possibly an in-not-such-a-good-shape world.

Yet, the way it flowed this afternoon is simply extraordinary—as if the Divine, or anyone we may want to refer to—had a special, kind message to deliver.

Our world may be physically fractured and, paradoxically, in the process of hardening, many folks and organizations clinging on to the status quo; yet the spiritual part of who we are (the grassroots) seems to be well and alive. Alive and receptive!

Don’t you think so?

Perhaps, as I invited us to reflect, not as fractured as we would think?

We still have some juice, dear Ones, and it is carrying us forward and upward!

Topic: Perhaps not so fractured after all?

Time: Aug 24 @ 03:30 PM Eastern Time

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A special dream

Posted on August 23, 2023 by new desert

Dear Ones,

I usually do not post dreams on my blog, yet this one feels somewhat special.

It is not that dreams are too personal, it is that they are complicated to interpret, unaware that we are of the many variables that come into play in such an invigorating subterranean journey.

If there is one aspect I cannot fathom in this dream, it is the ‘marsh-thing,’ which came out very clear; both the word and the plot of water. Not that I could see it clearly though but its presence was felt and the vision was couched in a shell-word.

To fully appreciate what I am narrating here, one may have to be familiar with the Netflix series Locke & Key. Locke is the name of the family that moves into a gigantic house, the Key House, a few months after the death of the husband / father of three. They move coast to coast, from Seattle, Washington, to Matheson, Massachusetts.

‘Going into one’s head’ means that either Bode or Kinsey (sister and brother) use a lock in the back of their neck and a key Bode found in the house to unlock a hardly-accessible part of themselves. One version of them remains petrified while the other travels into another environment—a marsh perhaps—where things happen.

I had a long dream of befriending a young blond girl. I was visiting her parents right before Christmas. Their apartment was right below the roof of a building.

It was Christmas eve and I still needed to work; I worked in what looked like a marsh; a woman was my supervisor and she reminded me that Christmas eve was a workday; there was someone swimming in the marsh (possibly another woman) and I wasn’t sure I wanted to swim or work that day.

I was going to spend Christmas at my friend’s family yet still had my parents alive. I needed to stop at their home to pick up something on the way to work. It looks like I was young.

The girl (my friend) looked like the one in the Locke & Key tv series, with shorter hair – her name in the series is Kinsey.

Interestingly, in last night’s episode, Kinsey went into her head with a key, retrieved her ‘darkness’ (per our son’s Alex words), came back out, killed it and buried it into the snowy ground. It’s uncanny that I asked Alex for confirmation. I obviously knew what Kinsey was doing because she previously went ‘into her head’ along with her brother Tyler, and her personified anger then attacked him. This is when she came to his rescue and killed ‘anger’ with a fire poker.

Kinsey came to mind this morning, August 23rd, when I came across ‘Fear of Lack,’ a defilement I am striving to remove in my daily tantric meditation.

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Ossification and consciousness

Posted on August 16, 2023 by new desert

Dear Ones,

The experience I went through during the past nine months, being part of a monolithic (read well-structured, americano-American) organization made me reflect on consciousness—as well as the rising of consciousness—in an organization.

How do we help consciousness spread, and what are the levers that become actionable, once the whole scenario is in place? And once the actors become willing agents.

Not that I have any plans of that sort, but you may think of organizations that you deemed ossified and that you tried to uplift, or that you left, for that very reason?

I can think of one that I left after 18 years of fruitful and assiduous practice; one I couldn’t change, despite my good intentions, and one that I never returned to.

How do we prevent, not so much bone loss, but “spiritual bone” formation?

Please have a look at the definition below, if of any help 😊 and think of ways we can keep our tissues, spiritual and other, healthy and flexible!

the process of ossification

1 a: the natural process of bone formation

   b: the hardening (as of muscular tissue) into a bony substance;

2: a mass or particle of ossified tissue;

3: a tendency toward or state of being molded into a rigid, conventional, sterile, or unimaginative condition.

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Topic: Ossification and consciousness

Time: Aug 18 @ 03:30 PM Eastern Time

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A Sleep of Prisoners

Posted on August 10, 2023 by new desert

Hello dear Ones,

A late call for today’s communion and a poem that was given to us (spiritual folks) a short time ago. It follows in the footsteps of Martin Luther King’s words that I shared last week.

See you soon!

Love & much Light

“Ask yourself this: What has to happen in the world for your trances to break? Or perhaps I should say, for you to break out of your trances? When will humanity have had enough of the insanity?

As Micah, the prophet of old, asks, “What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God?”

I might add, “walk humbly with all your brothers and sisters.”

I will close with a poem from yet another wise being. His name is Christopher Fry, and he is an English poet, Quaker by faith. The poem is very short. It’s entitled A Sleep of Prisoners.”

Dark and cold we may be, but this

Is no winter now. The frozen misery

Of centuries breaks, cracks, begins to move.

The thunder is the thunder of the floes,

The thaw, the flood, and the upstart spring.

Thank God our time is now when wrong

Comes up to face us everywhere,

Never to leave us till we take

The longest stride of soul men and women ever took.

Affairs are now soul size.

The enterprise is exploration into God.

Where are you making for? It takes

So many thousand years to awake . . .

But will you wake, for pity’s sake?

A Sleep of Prisoners is a 1951 verse play by Christopher Fry. It concerns four English prisoners of war locked up in a church overnight, and the Old Testament style dreams they have springing from an argument between them.

Topic: A poem from Christopher Fry

Time: Aug 10 @ 03:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

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The evolution of consciousness

Posted on August 2, 2023 by new desert

Dear Ones,

I was listening this evening to a lecture that addresses the evolution of consciousness on our planet. While it would take quite a bit of time to summarize it, I wanted to share a quote / more than one quote from a person who had a significant impact on the evolution of the country where he lived. And the world as a whole.

I will not give you his name – it’s a man – yet it should be easy to figure out who he was.

Looking forward to sharing a few moments of “evolving consciousness” with you all tomorrow!

Love & much Light,

Gilles

Here is a quote from a more recent sojourner on the planet. It is worthy of  consideration in the context of the evolution of our planet.

“An individual has not begun to live until he can rise above the narrow horizons of his particular individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. This is one of the biggest problems of life, that so many people never quite get to the point of rising above the self. Thus, they end up the tragic victims of self-centeredness. They end up the victims of distorted and disrupted personality.

Life has its beginning, and its maturity comes into being when an individual rises above self to something greater. Few individuals ever learn this, and so they go through life merely existing and never living. Now, you see signs all along the way in your everyday life with individuals who are victims of self-centeredness. They do not have the capacity to project the “I” into the “thou.” They do not have the mental equipment for an eternal, dangerous, and sometimes costly altruism. They live a life of perpetual egotism, and they are the victims all-around of the egoic predicament.”

And a few more quotes that defined this person’s legacy.

“Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.”

“Peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”

“It is not enough to say that we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and to sacrifice for it.”

“Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

“We are not makers of history, we are made of history.”

Gilles Asselin is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: The evolution of consciousness

Time: Aug 3 @ 03:30 pm Eastern Time

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The luminescent energy of Forgiveness

Posted on July 19, 2023 by new desert

Dear Ones,

In a week that feels utterly flat, the energy of Forgiveness came to pay a visit.

Forgiveness is a mystery in disguise, one that works wonders behind the scenes. Perhaps Forgiveness is carried both upward and downward by celestial beings? That is, once we sent it out.

As I was listening to a lecture that invited us to forgive, even people we feel (or felt) remotely connected with, some folks came to mind.

Richard Nixon came onto my radar two days ago and then his wife Pat Ryan yesterday. I was mesmerized by the fact that Pat was born 10 months before Richard, in 1912, and that she died 10 months before her husband, in 1993. It must have been a special relationship.

I sent compassion to Pat Ryan Nixon, not really knowing what her attitude was during the tumult of the 1973-74 years. I assume it wasn’t an easy situation for her.

Interestingly, August 9th this year will mark the 49th anniversary of Richard Nixon’s resignation. It may not be something worth celebrating, yet it is an opportunity to send an additional flow of that luminescent energy into the universe.

In the end, the person benefiting from Forgiveness is the forgiver. Forgiveness sets her or him free.

Free of resentment, free of heartaches, free of a sometimes very heavy burden.

May we all be enveloped in the luminescent energy of Forgiveness!

Gilles Asselin is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: The luminescent energy of Forgiveness

Time: Jul 20, 2023 03:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

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