Where Angels Weep and Demons Wail the Humans Live on to Tell the Tale

Angels may lift our spirits when we feel that all hope is lost.

Demons may test our mettle until we feel that all is for naught.

But neither the forces of divinty nor damnation may hold sway
o'er the hearts, nor minds, nor wills of mankind. That's just not Creator's way.

We incarnated here 'cause we chose to learn, playing at freedom throughout space and time.
Entanglment, it ain't no sin, just a fair price paid at the boarding chime.

No, the demons may not slay you, and angels will not save you, neither wields Creator's wrath.
The Creator acts from your heart, an' seen in ev'ry eye caught whilst a walkin the path.

So honor your brothers and sisters, Mums, Dads, and relations too.
For the spirit of the Creator shines only through all that we choose to do.

Give little thought to the doomsayers, their minds a'lost in a murky wood.
Invest instead your times and actions in the working toward benefit and good.

't'ain't no armageddon comin' to release us from this plight.

That's just a mirage of heat haze, stories of suicides by dark of night.

So go forth and be responsible for all that ye feel fair.
Know the Creator's workin' through you, and through anyone else showin' care.

Fear not shoddy tools, sloppy works, nor untrimmed detail.

Nothin's begun, nor gettin' done whilst we piss, an' moan, an' wail.

Wait not for devas ta lift ye, nor daemons ta drag ye down.
They were never here to save ye, nor steal thy thorny crown.

This world is how we make it, be it good, bad, ill, or well.
The poisons we wrought, and then forgot, remain for us to cure, and tell...

To tell our children of our folly, our arrogance, our fall.
Tell them not of our heroics, but of our ignorance of it all.

Teach them instead the value of the question that moves us forward through time.
The question that brooks no certainties, let's mythologies shrivel on the vine.

For this world needs no more heroes, no primal screams o'er wartorn plains.
What this world deserves is healing through humble working human means.

But make not the mistakes of our forebearers, to think humble means ignorant or thick.
Pray instead be the faithful steward of all we developed and learned to work a clever trick.

For there's little sense in forgetting and retreading languishing paths well worn.
Instead the braver hearts, and the cooler heads, look with hope to tomorrow's morn'.

A question of Heart or Intellect, an answer of Heart And Intellect

Another way to frame this question, which may shed some additional light, is to also ask if we are "Heartless or Stupid." Do we as American citizens lack the heart, the commitment, the vision and the will to shape the laws of an immigration system that holds to the taught strictures of legal certainties in the face of the necessitative flexibility of adapting to a changing economic landscape? Do we simply throw our collective hands in the air and plead the bliss of our ignorance as the only possible solution to a complex system of changes that must be made in order to maintain the survival of our aggregate society?

Even the shortsighted among us can observe that we live in a world of vast economic and social complexity. As anecdotal evidence mounts, stories are literally littering our media channels regarding the direct and real impact of illegal immigrant laborers upon the wage rates in what used to be well paying job sectors. This problem is even larger than simply wages however, as the demand for laborers in some sectors, such as migrant agricultural work, can easily outstrip the economic feasibility of paying any laborers other than unskilled immigrants. Do we simply lack the tenacity to tackle the hydra that our legal system has evolved into, have we no heart for this fight?

Or, are we so stupid as to be blind to the obvious benefit that an increased influx of highly tenacious, innovative, cunning, adaptable, intelligent, enterprising, and entrepreneurial individuals may represent to the economy of this country? America, a country founded upon the concept of freedom of trade, the craft of creativity, the idealism of the idea itself. Have we become so blindly ignorant and stagnantly set in our ways that we assume we know all possible dimensions of economic success and enterprise? Do we presume that we alone, as natural born United States Citizens, are endowed by the creator as the sole proprietors and stewards of knowledge in the art of artistry, the craft of creativity, the demands of the 'deal'?

We do, most certainly, not hold sovereignty or patriarchal right over these characteristics. In fact, as Americans, and indeed now as Human Beings, Homo Sapiens Sapiens, citizens of Earth, and (possibly most importantly) as stewards of Gaia, we should recognize that no single individual holds the keys to all of the locks on human capability. This is a responsibility in which we all share our own unique part. None of us can solve these problems individually, but we can all of us solve them by each carrying our load in trade of that which we know how to do well. So long as we realize that we are not at all Heartless, we are not in the least way Stupid, contrastingly we then become wise beyond our individual experience, mighty in spite of, and quite possibly because of, our frailties.

The freedom to prosper and express our ideas is one of the greatest gifts of human capacity. It is an unstoppable tide, and irresistible force, and it is innate. We can count on this very natural and evolutionary energy source just as we can count upon the gravity of our home-world, as we can count upon the winds caused by her coriolis spin. It is the most natural energy source of any that we humans can tap. Not a "Green" energy, but a pink, violet, orange, red, brown, white, yellow, and black energy. We might even call it a form of rainbow power. So, friendly (at lest I hope by this point) reader, I put the question to you. If there exists this massive store of energy within human capability, why, in the name of everything that we hold sacred and dear, are we attempting to tap it with a base, mundane, scarcity mentality parlour trick like damming it up, and constricting its flow?

At this point of unprecedented historic requirement for adaptability, innovation, evolution, and plain ol' common sense would we not be better served to open the gates and get some energy into motion? Of course it is going to be difficult. Nothing worthwhile has ever been accomplished easily. Yes, it is going to require work of all of us. Some of that work will be in cleaning up the messes of criminality and base human usury that accompany population increase and natural social balancing. There are many who will preach and proselytize that their academic understanding or (possibly worse) their theological insight grants them a link to the divine truth of the folly of our ignorance. Human history does not have an equal for the changes we face, and the decisions which we, as global citizens, are now equally empowered and required to make.

I, for one, believe that we can make the right choices. I believe that you can see through to the truth of your own circumstances, speak your truth, make the right decisions, and take the right actions. I believe these truths, and there is nothing that anyone can do to stop me. I humbly submit to you, dear reader, that this is a very good and important mythology for us all to hold as sacred truth.

Be Well, Do Well, Know Truth

Cameron Owen Johnson

This white knight rides a Trojan steed

Daniel C. Jones, of the inhabitat blog, has posted an interesting follow up to Amy Cholia's initial inspection of Cella Energy's new nanometric hydrogen encapsulation technology and hydrocarbon fuel additive/replacement tech (that's traditional fossil fuel additive and/or replacement made from hydrogen infused microbeads for all you kids playing at home, {winks}). The commentary from the internet peanut gallery on both of these articles seems to range between noncommittal to overtly hostile and pessimistic. I personally believe both of these attitudes to be flat wrong, and here's why.

It seems pretty clear what's going on here with a simple glance at the surface details. Rumor states that the oil industry has worked behind the scenes for years to keep technology off the shelf that, if refined, may pose a threat to their supply chain infrastructure. This while maintaining a widespread influence over volatile prices in a highly comoditized market sector. A practice which, while unproven to do so in public knowledge, stands capable of allowing investors who are capital flush to trade in oil futures based upon insider market information, thus permitting such investors to grow and maintain vast fortunes. Now, we know why the individuals who operate the sectors would have an interest in technology that would upset their marketplaces since they not only have a great deal of capital invested, they also are beholden to very widespread social responsibilities like family relationships, business relationships, employee relationships and so on.

Now we see that Cella is accepting $64k in funds from Shell, which is a drop in the bucket in terms of Cella's likely requirements for start up capital, however, it gets Cella on Shell's radar, and, more importantly, into the boardroom conversation. Additionally the microbead tech is now being presented as a supply chain 'enhancement' to the current refinery process. A hat tip to current infrastructure, existing unions and job-holders, multitudes of government and military contracts, entrenched business empires, as well as the overall design and delivery process for all forms of automotive transport, maintenance, and repair.

In addition to all of this truly miraculous synchronicity, Cella is offering an additional engineering development potential in the microbead recapture and recycling hardware mentioned in the article. A technology that governing organizations can mandate be installed on existing vehicles before they can be approved, licensed, and taxed to run on the new fuel formats. I mean that plural 'formats' as the obvious product deployment cycle would be a gradual product phase in over a period of decades to cover the time required to slowly wean the feudal regimes of the Middle East from their addiction to Western World capital infrastructure investment.

Looks to me like all the bases are covered on a global, capital, economic, infrastructural, and governable scale. No one gets singled out, everyone who currently pays keeps paying, and everyone who currently gets paid keeps getting paid. In fact, this tech, if viable, even stands to give the western world a working economic 'handbrake' on oil producing warlord states. Just up the microbead additive production to compensate for any necessary embargo on foreign oil.

My advice? Invest in Cella. The oil industry is, and there's too much noise on this subject to make it disappear. I think this is big oil, big transport, .GOV, and .MIL's chosen savior. Watch and learn folks. If you want to survive in the new world you have to work as broadly as possible. Cella is clearly marketing in this direction.

Be Well, Do Well, Be Aware

Cameron Owen Johnson

These are a few of my favorite things...

This is one of the most profoundly grounded and sensible observations that I have heard in recent memory regarding any of the Myan prophecy or 2012 calendar mythology. It rises above the noise-some chaff parroted and mimic-ed by humans too distracted and addicted to be bothered with manifesting their own evolution. This circumspection by Phillip Coppens appears in a promo for the documentary "The Galactic Alignment" on the DVD "2012 Mayan Prophecy and the Shift of the Ages". Phillip's words speak to me on a level that feels very honest in an age when so many individuals act in possession of an apparent certainty that everyone but themselves is doing the exactly the wrong thing.

In the promo Coppens states:
"Now, one of the things about 2012 which needs to be pointed out is actually that this galactic alignment is Earth centric. It's us seeing the sun in the galactic center from the position of the Earth. It's a symbolic event. It's not meant to be taken as literal fact. Like so many things about ancient civilizations and their obsession with the skies, it involves this element of symbolism." He goes on to clarify his understanding of the Mayan's possible intentions "They were using this as a metaphor of giving us a truth perhaps for example that this pool at the galactic center was once the birth of our sun, but it's a symbolic message it haven't to be taken litterally far too many things in this day and age are taken litteral, and that is a problem when we try to understand ancient civilizations and why they try to go on about 2012, or calendars, or anything else for that matter."

Now, if only some of the conspiracy theorists, schizophrenics, prophets, symbolic truth addicts, or other mental indigents of our modern age would grok this simple truth of mythological, symbological, and metaphorical flexibility, then we might have a vast army of healty and creative minds, instead of rank, inneffectual, psychological terrorists running amuck on the information repositories of our world. Frankly, my fine internet friends, if you are certain that you are doing the 'right thing' then you have an excellent measure for why it is probably the entirely wrong thing to be doing.

Seek truth people. Seek it within, and, once you find it, guide yourself to health and wellbeing. Preaching your personal truth, removed of fact and interpersonal understanding, is simply base terrorism, and I think we can all agree that there is an unnecessary abundance of such willful abuse in this world. Seek personal health, sacred time and space, balance, and tranquility. You will discover that you have achieved these states not by your own knowledge, but because someone, eventually, will ask you how you did it, and when they do stop and ponder for a moment before answering. You will have to ponder, not because you do not have an answer, but because you will want to answer them in a way that only they will understand, and that, simultaneously, they will understand perfectly.

Be Well, Do Well, Know That You Are Loved

Cameron Owen Johnson

P.S. While you're at it, learn a language or two. Mathematics and calculus are good places to start, but so are drawing or singing. Don't take my word for it. Captain your own ship toward the point that best serves you. The world will make sure your efforts fit in perfectly.

Rising Kundalini, and the second childhood

My life has experienced tummult and turmoil in the past few years. In June of 2005 I ended a twelve year relationship with a woman whom I thought I loved deeply. I have found over the past three and one half years that I had no idea what love was at the time. This fact made the breakup entirely healthy and necessarey in retrospect. The healing process for me, however, has been one long... strange... trip...

Life in my world has always been taken with a tint of strangeness. I have lived in great appreciation of all things occult and metaphysical. My inquisitive mind and unquenchable curiosity together with a love of all things ghostly, psychic, or haunted have given me a great appreciation for stories of the undocumented capability of mankind and the lingering nature of spiritual energy.

In my youth I enjoyed pushing the philosophical limits of any adult unlucky enough to find themselves an arbitrary figure of authority in my presence. Members of the clergy and religious teachers bore this hardship most keenly. I sought real and concrete answers, and in the face of a lack of answers I sought admissions of ignorance. Now, nobody likes a smartass, especially one who weighs half as much as you do, is your junior by over twenty years, and possesses a significantly more developed vocabulary. Here in west central Minnesota people volunteer to teach Sunday School out of a genuine love of the community and a desire to give that love in the form of guiding and supporting the spiritual growth of the children of that community. To attack the spiritual underpinnings of that teacher's faith would be quite rude. Little did I know...

Keep Armistice Day

Greetings all!

Here's a little well timed holiday cheer I found quoted on Elizabeth Bear's Livejournal site.  Please enjoy, and be well.

"I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

"It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one and another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.

"Armistice Day has become Veterans' Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans' day is not.

"So I will throw Veterans' Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don't want to throw away any sacred things.

"What else is sacred? Oh, Romeo and Juliet, for instance.

"And all music is."

--Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut, 1973

Thanks Kurt, wherever you are!  Had you not found the courage to write this I may never have known that Veteran's day, like many holidays, holds deep and spiritual meaning at the core of its secular roots.

Be Well, and Know Truth

Cameron Owen Johnson

Write a Book

Enjoyment of life is inevitable. Until the very moment of death we can each take solace and support from the idea that, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves to be in, our state is temporary, and that there is surely something better in store further down the temporal line. We all exist in a state that constantly reacts to, and drives the creation of, external events. Like swimmers in a lake of quantum fire our bodies cast waves of energy outwards, and react to the energies reflected back to us.

A follower of a follower of Christ once accosted me outside of Chicago Lake Liquors on a warm and sunny summer afternoon.

"Do you know if your name is written in the Book Of Life?" She inquired pointedly.

"Do I know what?" I asked.

"I said, 'Do you know if your name is written in the Book Of Life?'." She quoted herself.

"I'm not sure what that question means." I replied. In my mind I could hear the massive oaken doorway to conversation she sought creaking open ominously as if on formidable and ancient hinges.

"Well, did you know that if your name is not written in the Book Of Life, that you will be cast into the Lake Of Eternal Fire?" She inquired with all the meekness of a jaguar crouched taughtly in preparation for the final murderous leap upon its unenlightened prey. Her hand tightly gripped a stack of Jack T. Chick pamphleture that flapped unceremoniously in the warm August breeze.

What I now realize is that, as Delmore Schwartz once theorized poetically, "Time is the fire in which we all burn." Tycho Brahe, alter ego of the esteemed Jerry Holkins, yesterday asserted that "We are being digested by an amoral universe" Both of these observations share a very dark inspiration at their root, that of living beings consumed, destroyed, or eaten by an uncaring process.

The process, however, is just, and only, that; a process. As Holkins observes it is, quite simply, amoral. The very judgment of believing amorality to be a 'bad thing' is quite simply a childish demonstration of total ignorance of the definition of the aforementioned term. Indeed one could also infer that such judgments show a lack of resolution in one's understanding of definition.

The truthful interpretation of Mr. Holkins, Mr. Schwartz, and my born again fundamentalist friend is that to exist as a consumer only, in this real and very present universe, is to burn in a lake of eternal fire. However, if one wishes to see their name inscribed eternally in the book of life then all that one need do is to pick up a tool or implement of some sort and create something new. Then share it with someone else, if joy it brings to them, then share it they will also.