Oracle Omnibus Issue #5

• We have a beautiful new website thanks to webmaster Allan Hardy. Please be sure to watch our video on the history of the Pentacle, courtesy of Michelle Moshay.


• Oracle Press will release The Truth (2^nd Ed) in January, and our latest book, The Love: Of the Fifth Spiritual Paradigm, in February. Both books are available for pre-order at our Distributor and at Amazon.


• Oracle Press welcomes Howard Pepper, a theologian from Claremont College who will oversee a new line of books, Oracle Classics, and lead us into the new digital age of e-books.


• Oracle Institute is beginning its transition to the Appalachian Mountains by offering spirituality classes in Independence, Virginia next year. Janis Reed will be facilitating this dream come true!


• Design of our first school building and sacred space is nearly complete – the Peace Pentagon. You can help us manifest this dedicated community center by making a monetary donation or contributing your talents to our mission of promoting religious freedom and spiritual evolution.


• Intuitive Tomiko Smith has donated her metaphysical library to Oracle, an act of generosity and support which we wish to formally acknowledge.


• Futurist John Petersen gave a talk in Independence, Virginia, which officially kicked-off our Valley of Light project. Visionary residents and friends of the New River valley now meet monthly to pursue building a sustainable spiritual community. Please see our website for details.


• As part of the new website we have started two blogs - please check them out and add your comments and thoughts:
  
  
  
  1. the Laurel blog, which is a forum to comment on current events in the world of orthodox religion, New Age trends, and the effects of spiritual movements on politics; and
  
  
  2. the Valley of Light (VOL) blog, to facilitate communication between VOL members and other intentional communities around the planet.

Whew … and did I mention that Amethyst Acres is up for sale … which means we sadly bid adieu to the Lakota Sundance Sweat Lodge that Oracle has hosted for the past four years. For those of us who have had the immense honor of attending ceremony with Pete Beebe, I am sure I can speak for us all when I say that the lodge has brought us immeasurable joy, comfort, and blessings. Ha Ho!

In closing, I invite all who receive this newsletter to become active participants in our mission. Membership is now an option on our website, which simply means registering your email address. Soon, members will receive free educational materials and discounts at certain events, in addition to getting the Oracle Omnibus (quarterly) and notice of Oracle classes and events (monthly). We look forward to continuing this evolutionary journey, this amazing adventure, with each one of you.

Food for Thought

The Native American Parable of the Two Wolves

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people:
My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.
One is Evil – it is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity,
guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is Good – it is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness,
benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.

The grandson thought about this for a minute and then asked his grandfather:
Which wolf wins?

The old Cherokee simply replied:
The one you feed.

From the Editor’s Desk:

Heart Unity

by Pat Bernasconi

Recently, while reading a book on building community and nonviolence, I came across the term “heart unity.” What is it? The author describes heart unity as a desire to see another person happy, despite our differences. It is a focus that goes beyond mere acceptance to the cultivation of true appreciation for the ways in which we are different, and it includes the recognition that our differences are part of the “spice” of life. As someone once pointed out, if two people always agree about everything, one of them is actually unnecessary!

When my son was about six years old, he asked me why some of his classmates were “different.” In an effort to give him an explanation he could understand, I told him that the Earth is like a huge house with hundreds of rooms. I explained that all the people who live in the house each have a window that looks out on a different view, and the only way we can really understand another person’s view is for us to look out through his window. I told him the more windows we look through, the more we know about the place where we live and those with whom we share it. Each view teaches us how to connect more fully on a human level and express empathy for each other. How much more empowering it is when we are able to see our differences as a source of encouragement for building bridges, rather than an excuse for judgments, separation, and hostility.

The recent election of Barrack Obama would seem to indicate that many people in the United States have begun to move out of separation and division. Issues such as race, religion, sexual orientation, and lifestyle have provided an excuse for separation and a barrier to the formation of heart unity. For too long, our culture has failed to display heart unity, as we placed too great an emphasis on the “gift wrap” of life. Today, however, more and more people comprehend that it is what is inside the package, rather than the gift wrap that covers it, which defines the true value of the gift.

Heart unity looks at the gift, not the package. It rightly views concepts which separate and divide us as interfering with the creation of genuine community … a loving, cooperative community of heart and spirit where all members are valued. Yet, heart unity also encourages us to celebrate diversity as a gift – as a resource for understanding, growing, and inter-dependence. It is a world view and an approach to life that is long overdue.

On the Road to Independence

By Janis Reed

Greetings! My name is Janis Reed and I am a licensed massage therapist, past-life-regression hypno-therapist, certified psychic and spiritual advisor. I have worked as a Natural Born Healer for nearly fifty years and have been honored and asked to help create and run The Oracle Institute’s spirituality school in these sacred Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia, near where I now live. By way of introduction, I have written the following short story of why and how I got to the New River Valley. I hope you enjoy my story and that it serves you well.

I first visited the Appalachian Mountains when I was just starting grade school. The mountains took my mind to places every six year old should travel. There was so much I found interesting, like the story of the old man on the mountain who slept under cloud covers, the tall and handsome Cherokee whose eyes twinkled as he beamed his red-skinned smile at me, the gushing waterfalls and birdsongs that filled the air with a mysterious sense of other-worldliness and fed my spirit. I absolutely loved it.

Along the path of my growing up, I discovered I had an innate talent to hear Spirit in every living creature. I could and did spend hours listening to the opinions of the pines and the birds that filled their branches. I learned to watch as clouds would shape themselves into answers to my questions and lovingly brush those answers to me. My family, of course, said I had an over-active imagination. I learned, fairly early, that not everyone had the same relationship to the world that I had. I lived in a magical world where God really was great, long before I knew the meanings of such words.

After living through forty years on the road, two children, and a divorce, I began to ask Spirit for a place I could hang up my traveling shoes and call home. Having lived in and visited and loved so much of the world, I was still surprised when Appalachia again called my name. When I returned, it was like I never left. The mountains opened their arms and charms and let me know they had been waiting for me. Coming home had never felt so perfect, precious, and right.

After moving to a small town in the Mountain Empire, I met the man who became my husband, partner, and soul-mate. He, too, had been called to these mountains from afar. As I began to work and develop my personal relationships with my new home and its people, I kept running into others who also had heard the call and moved here from afar. We all wondered the same thing, “Why here and why now?”

I soon learned that I live near something called a “ley line” and that it pools near my home and runs through my yard, looping through my heart. My mind and my heart opened even more, and I finally began to blossom. My hurried lifestyle quickly fell into the natural rhythms of the area and I learned how to breathe again, for the first time since I was six years old. I am truly blessed to live in a little corner of what I consider to be paradise, where air and waters still run clean and the mountains still welcome me home.

Since I live here now, I want to work here. So a couple of years ago, I walked up to the top ridge of our property, at about 2700 feet, and asked God to show me the “gold.” It was not the first time I directed a question to the Almighty, nor was it the first time I was answered so directly and with such clarity. I simply looked down at the ground, in a sort of humbled posture, and saw natural gold for the first time in my life. There it was, at my feet, yellow and shiny and just laying on top of the ground. I picked it up and laughed so hard I scared the birds. In my hand I held a small rock with a tiny bit of gold shining up at me. God had shown me the gold … literally. I still have the rock. It is a reminder to me that God answers whatever we humbly ask.

While still holding the gold, I asked God, “Exactly what am I supposed to do?” The answer was unequivocal. I am to teach what I know. Looking out from where I stood, the trees morphed into students and I saw my future. Still humbled, I told God I would do whatever I was asked, but I didn't really want to travel anymore. Could I teach without having to go back on the road?

My head was immediately filled with Celestial Laughter. I was “told” that it would be arranged for me to teach very close to my home. This was a big surprise to me, as these mountains are not densely populated. I am surrounded by private folks whose families first moved here in the 1700s and who, happily, named the nearby town Independence, because that name aptly described them. Yet, I learned a long time ago not to question Spirit when it comes to the details.

Still, I was a little surprised when I heard about a house being sold to newcomers, just down the street from me, right on the New River. News of the woman who bought it was accompanied by a lot of uproar. She was said to have wild ideas and wanted certain things to change for the better of all. I could hardly wait to meet her! Something inside me echoed with that Celestial Laughter I had heard on my mountainside only a year earlier. Something inside me said, "I told you so. Now, you can get to work." The ways of Spirit are wondrous, indeed.

Laura George and her mother Pat have quickly and easily become my good friends. They operate Oracle Press and work to bring balance and a fuller understanding of Spirit into our lives. They are my kind of people. I smile now, as I recount this to you. One of the first things Laura said to me was that I would be teaching at the Oracle Spiritual School, which she was going to build in the shape of a Pentagon … and at the end of my street! She said this without my asking, without my prompting, and without much extra explanation. Like me, Laura is answering a call of Spirit and simply recognized me for what Spirit told me I am. I might even get to ride a horse to work!

The new school will be called the “Peace Pentagon,” and it will be built over the next couple years. Oracle has been holding classes in northern Virginia, where Laura and her family have lived for the last decade. But now, the time has come for the classes to move to Independence. Things are really rolling now, just as Spirit told me they would. Soon, Laura will move into her house on the New River. I look forward to having her here.

In the meantime, we will start having spirituality classes in Independence, Virginia. The New Year will find me teaching near my mountain home, just as Spirit told me I would. I hope to offer myself to you and folks just like you, as a teacher of hope and joy, a spiritual advisor, and a healer on a full time basis.

Won't you join us in paradise, near the ancient New River, to learn and re-member yourself, how to relax, heal, and be who you were meant to be? You can reach me anytime by e-mailing me at: GoddessJanis@hotmail.com. Spirit and I are here waiting to meet you … on the road to Independence.

Meditation, Music, and More

By Tom Hansen

One approach to raising human consciousness makes use of what is called the “Violet Fire” or “Violet Flame.” For the past twenty years, I have seen and used the Violet Fire as a healing modality. I have used it at meetings at the United Nations and in Washington, D.C., and I have accessed it with my family and friends. The Violet Fire helps to heal our separation consciousness.

One theory as to how it works is that the Violet Fire actually transmutes into light the dross that is inside the atoms in our bodies and in our auras. The dross has accumulated for thousands or even millions of successive incarnations as humans and as other cosmic races. When the dross is transmuted to light, the electrons move faster, and thus we live at a higher vibration. Whether or not this “atomic” explanation is the reason why the Violet Fire works, my experience and that of many others is that it does indeed work. The use of the Violet Fire helps us demonstrate that we come in peace to the world, with the purpose of healing separation and moving to a new level of consciousness.

To help others experience and utilize the healing properties of the Violet Fire, I wrote a song entitled Violet Fire of Freedom. The lyrics and Media Fire mp3 link for the song are listed below. If you feel drawn to the Violet Fire, just follow the simple guidance in the song or create your own affirmation.

Violet Fire of Freedom

By Tom Hansen

I AM a being of violet fire, I AM the purity God desires

You are a being of violet fire, you are the purity God desires

My country is a place of violet fire, my country is the purity God desires

Your country is a place of violet fire, your country is the purity God desires

Earth is a planet of violet fire, earth is the purity God desires

The cosmos is a place of violet fire, the cosmos is the purity God desires

Say it, feel it, imagine, first in your heart, then all over

Stand in the violet fire, heal yourself and all of life

Get MP3 Recording of Violet Fire

The affirmation "I AM a being of violet fire! I AM the purity God desires!" is from The Science of the Spoken Word by Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet (Summit University Press © 2004). The affirmation and variations are copyright of Summit Publications, Inc. and are used by permission. For more information, go to www.SummitLighthouse.org

Creating Community

by Laurel Dee Snyder

In 1997, I had a unique opportunity to observe and participate in the culture of India as a member of a holistic nursing delegation that toured medical facilities from Delhi to Bombay. At the time, India had a population of close to one billion people with 250 million people living on the streets, foraging for food in enormous piles of refuse. The average income was $3.00 per month for the homeless who worked any available job, mostly manual labor. Yet despite the extreme poverty, I observed a quality in the spirit of the homeless people of India that I rarely see in the United States.

In Bangalore, the city of gardens, we met with the Pranic healers association. After an evening of sharing and comparing concepts of energy healing, one of the Pranic healers invited us to attend a celebration at the local Sikh Temple. This special celebration occurs only once every fifty years and was scheduled to start at 2:00 a.m. Since the delegation was scheduled to leave the hotel at 5:00 a.m. for a long and arduous journey to Agra and the Taj Mahal, only seven of us chose to forgo sleep for the once in a lifetime opportunity to be part of the Sikh celebration.

In the starlit darkness of night, the Sikh temple was a beacon of light with thousands of people waiting to place their shoes into a growing pile at the entrance. We carefully observed how people walked into the Temple, and we added our own prayers to those of the people as we followed the crowd to the center of the Temple where the holy man stood, before finding a seat on the stone floor. Wanting to be as unobtrusive as possible, we sat on the floor against the wall and listened to the cadence of the holy man as he chanted prayers. Although we could not understand the language of the words, we listened through the language of the heart, which is Universal in nature.

At some point, we noticed people around us stand up and begin giving out candy, cookies, pastry, etc. “A sharing part of the celebration,” I thought. Because we did not have anything to share, we squeezed closer to the wall to make room for the bustle of people and observe this part of the celebration.

Then an old woman caught my eye. She was dressed in rags, a stark contrast to some of the beautiful sari's some women wore. Her back was stooped, something commonly seen amongst the elderly homeless who for years carry enormous bundles on their backs until their bodies are permanently bowed. In her gnarled hands she held a small something which she gave to some of the people around her. Suddenly, she walked towards us. The warmth of her spirit was reflected in her deeply brown eyes. Her inner beauty revealed itself and the illusion of rags fell away as she extended a hand towards me to present me with a gift … one sunflower seed.

One sunflower seed. Precious because although she had no worldly goods to share, out of a small handful of sunflower seeds – her worldly possessions – she shared with strangers. She shared her heart and her spirit. I was deeply and profoundly touched.

The quality of heart centered spirit enables the homeless people of India to thrive beyond their poverty. While they do not have material things, the challenges of their environment foster a spirit of working and sharing together to survive physically and spiritually. 

The creation of community in Independence is simple. All we need do is follow the example of the old Indian woman who shared with strangers the warmth of her heart centered spirit in the universal language – the language of love – which is all inclusive and opens doors of opportunity.

Laurel Dee Snyder BSN, RN, HNB-BC
Sigma Theta Tau; American Holistic Nurses Association; A.R.E. Wayshower
contact: BSNRNHNC@hotmail.com

The Oracle Recommends:

1. Look at the "wolf" you are feeding. Our habitual thoughts and behaviors can create an unintended and negative response to life. If we condition ourselves to “feed” an attitude of joy, peace, faith, compassion, and love for all life, we will manifest the utopian world we seek.


2. The Oracle Institute is an Ambassador for the new official Mayan website. For those who would like more information regarding the Mayan Calendar and the mystery surrounding the year 2012, we recommend checking out the following links:
   
   
   
   • Official site of the Maya (plus they have a movie coming out): www.shiftoftheages.com
   
   
   • The Maya's video response to the Hollywood disaster movie 2012, in which their elder predicts a period of darkness lasting 60 – 70 hours: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcaez8jn2Zg
   
   
   • Carl Calleman's site (endorsed by the Mayan Elders) and his article on the Sixth Night of the Galactic Underworld


3. Time for all of us to get ecologically active! See the latest information on global warming and the worldwide response to the Day of Climate Action sponsored by Bill McKibben – one of the contributing authors in our upcoming book, The Love: Of the Fifth Spiritual Paradigm: Day of Climate Action


4. Are you interested in reincarnation? Check out this video on the interesting case study of Paul Gauguin and his wife Mette. Incidentally, our video on the true history of the Pentacle was done by Michelle Moshay – the woman highlighted in this video. Our continued thanks and gratitude to Michelle for her generous and creative contribution to our new website.


5. Attending our next spirituality class entitled New Consciousness for a New Millennium, taught by Reverend Lowell Smith. This class will take place on December 5 at the Olive Branch Mason Lodge in Leesburg, Virginia. Please see our website for details.

The Love explores the core message delivered by all the world’s prophets: Love is the way. Over seventy selections are included in this narrated anthology, including the work of Nobel Peace Prize and Pulitzer Prize winners, poet laureates, global spiritual leaders and activists:

As Laurel explains, “We must learn to love our brothers and sisters on the Earth Plane before we may join with God in the Ethereal Plane. It is that simple.” The Love will be released for Valentine’s Day and will make a perfect gift.

Thank you for your ongoing interest in The Oracle Institute. We hope you enjoy this newsletter and will join us at our upcoming events. As a 501(c)(3) educational charity, we are always looking for talent, expertise, and resources that can help us promote Truth, Love, and Light. So if you would like to help or make a donation, please contact us: www.TheOracleInstitute.org

Copyright 2009 The Oracle Institute