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Hypatia, Ancient Alexandria’s Great Female Scholar

March 30, 2015 / Steven Laniers Metaphysical Directory - Main Article Directory / 0 Comments

An avowed paganist in a time of religious strife, Hypatia was also one of the first women to study math, astronomy and philosophy On the streets of Alexandria, Egypt, a mob led by Peter the Lector brutally murdered Hypatia, one of the last great thinkers of ancient Alexandria. (Mary Evans Picture Library / Alamy) By Sarah Zielinskismithsonian.com One day on the streets of Alexandria, Egypt, in the year 415 or 416, a mob of Christian zealots led by Peter the Lector accosted a wom [...]

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10 Mysterious Biblical Figures No One Can Explain

February 3, 2015 / Greg Giles / 0 Comments

listverse.com

The canonical Bible is filled with mysterious characters, many of whom drop in for a cameo, do their thing, and then slide out, never to be heard from again. Some are merely extras, but some have a contextual presence that begs further examination. And some are, well, just weird.

10 Melchizedek

Probably the single most mysterious figure in the Bible, Melchizedek was a priest-king of Salem (later known as Jerusalem) in the time of Abram (Abraham), suggesting a religious organization, complete with ritual and hierarchy, that predated the Jewish nation and their priestly lineage from the tribe of Levi. He is only portrayed as active in one passage, although he is alluded to once in Psalms, and several times in the New Testament’s Epistle to the Hebrews.
Some Jewish disciplines insist that Melchizedek was Shem, Noah’s son. He is thought of, in Christian circles, as a proto-messiah, embodying certain traits later given to Christ. New Testament writings assert that Christ was “a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek,” indicating an older and deeper covenant with God than the Abrahamic-Levite lineage.
Hebrews 7, though presents him in a more unusual light. In verses 3 and 4:
“Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually. Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils.”
Not only do these verses grant Melchizedek a hierarchical level above the most important Jewish patriarch, they assign him mystical qualities. Some take this to mean an earlier incarnation of Christ. Others see it as an ancient manifestation of the Holy Spirit. His identity, role, and theological function have long been debated.
The paucity of scriptural references have added to the mystery, making him a somewhat spectral figure. As such, newer spiritual traditions, as well as New Age quacks, have taken liberties with his persona. Gnostics insisted he became Jesus, and he is cited as a high-level priest in Masonic and Rosicrucian lore. Joseph Smith wrote that he was the greatest of all prophets, and Mormons still trace their priesthood back to him. The Urantia, a 20th-century pseudo-Bible that claims to merge religion, philosophy, and science, insists he’s the first in an evolutionary succession of deification manifestations, with Abraham being his first convert.
There is even a school of thought that Melchizedek is a title or assumed character name, sort of a theological 007, played by a series of Judeo-Christian James Bonds.

The lore of Melchizedek is confusing but deep and fascinating. Apocryphal books give us more details, some cryptic, some relatively mundane. The Second Book of Enoch is particularly informative, insisting Melchizedek was born of a Virgin. When his mother Sophonim (the wife of Noah’s brother Nir) died in childbirth, he sat up, clothed himself, and sat beside her corpse, praying and preaching. After 40 days, he was taken by an archangel to the Garden of Eden, protected by angels and avoiding the Great Flood without passage on Uncle Noah’s ark.

9 Cain’s Wife

Cain was, according to Genesis, the first human ever born. He later killed his younger brother Abel in a hissy fit over his sacrifice of meat being more favored than Cain’s sacrificial fruit basket. God put a mark on Cain and cursed the ground he farmed, forcing him into a life as a wandering fugitive.

That part of the story is fairly well known. Later, though, we read that he settled in the Land of Nod, and, all of a sudden, he has a wife. Absolutely nothing else is mentioned about her. We don’t even know where she came from. In fact, the question of where Cain got his wife, when his immediate family were apparently the only people in the world, has sent many a perceptive young Sunday schooler down the road of skepticism.

Some have posited a mysterious other tribe of people, maybe created after Adam and Eve, maybe even another race or species. But the standard response is that Adam and Eve had many other sons and daughters to populate the Earth. The only way to keep the human race going would be to mate with siblings, nieces, nephews, and cousins.

In fact, though the Holy Bible is silent on her identity, the apocryphal Book of Jubilees tells us exactly who was Cain’s wife: his sister Awan, who bore his son Enoch.

8 Joseph Barsabbas

After Judas Iscariot turned in his resignation by selling out his boss, Jesus’s disciples rushed to fill the open position and bring the number back up to a more theologically apt 12. The remaining disciples, including the newly convinced Thomas, looked over the candidates from the 120 or so adherents who followed Jesus. Then they cast lots to pick who would fill the position.

It went to Matthias, a fairly mysterious character himself. We don’t know where he came from or his previous occupation. Some think he was actually the diminutive Zacchaeus, the tax collector who climbed a sycamore tree to get a better glimpse of Jesus’s ride on the donkey.
The man who lost out was Joseph Barsabbas, also known as Joseph Justus. We know nothing solid about him, even less than we know about Matthias.
There is, however, one bit of interesting speculation. A list of names presented in Mark 6:3 includes some of Christ’s earliest and most loyal adherents. One of these is a man named Joses, and another is James the Just. Biblical scholar Robert Eisenman suggests that James carried on Jesus’s work, and the writer of the Book of Acts assigned him an alias to minimize his importance.

7 The Beloved Disciple

In the Gospel of John, several references are made to “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” This particular favorite is present at the Last Supper, the crucifixion, and after the resurrection. The writer of the Gospel of John even states that the testimony of this disciple is the basis for the text. But there is considerable debate over the identity of this mystery figure.
The most obvious nominee is John the Apostle, one of Christ’s inner circle of 12 and the namesake of the Gospel. But none of the 12 apostles were present at the crucifixion, so that crosses him off the list. Lazarus, resurrected by Christ, is also considered. He seems to have been present at the cited events and is referred to specifically, in the story of His death and resurrection, as “he whom Thou lovest.”
Mary Magdalene, Judas, Jesus’s brother James, or an unnamed disciple, possibly even a Roman or governmental official, have all been considered. There is even a school of thought that John is an interactive gospel, with the reader being the beloved disciple.

6 Simon Magus

“Simony” is the selling of church position or privilege. It is named for Simon Magus, or Simon the Magician, who makes only a brief appearance in the Bible, in Acts 8:9–24. Simon has since become synonymous with heretical thought, and religious exploitation.
He is presented as a powerful magician with a large following of in Samaria, who converts to Christianity and wishes to learn from apostles Peter and Phillip. When he sees the gifts of the Holy Spirit, including speaking in tongues and an ecstatic spiritual state, he offers the men money if they will give him the secret to passing these gifts to others. They are not amused.
Apocryphal texts reveal quite a bit more, like his alleged ability to levitate and even fly, emphasizing that he was something akin to a cult leader in his hometown. It is suggested that his conversion is more for economic purposes than spiritual, and he set himself up as a messianic figure himself, competing for the Jesus dollar with his own homespun theology.
He is thought by some to be a founder of Gnosticism, a patchwork of various religious systems that relied heavily on Judaic and Christian symbolism.

5 Onan

Not unlike Simon Magus, Onan’s brief appearance inspired a name for a particular action.
He was the second son of Abraham’s grandson Judah, the patriarch and namesake of one of the 12 tribes of Israel. His older brother, Er (yes, just “Er”) was “wicked in the sight of the Lord,” so God killed him. What he did to deserve such an execution remains a mystery.
Tradition at the time dictated that Er’s widow, Tamar, become Onan’s wife. Onan had to impregnate her to keep the lineage alive, but he was not as wild about the idea. Maybe it was the thought of impending fatherhood, or Tamar just wasn’t his type. So, taking matters into his own hands, he committed the first recorded act of coitus interruptus. Or, as Genesis 38:9 so poetically put it: “And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.” God was displeased and slew Onan.
The whole tale gets even more sordid. Onan had a younger brother, Shelah. Customarily, he would have been next in line to impregnate Tamar, but Judah forbade it. Tamar, rather than graciously accepting forced spinsterhood, seduced Judah and (became pregnant) by the old man. Judah fathered twins Zerah and Perez, the latter of whom was listed by Matthew as an ancestor of Jesus’s earthly father Joseph...
Some have even suggested that Onan’s death warns that sex is meant only for purposes of reproduction, and not for pleasure.

4 Nicodemus

Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin, a council of men who ruled on Jewish law and governance. He became a friend, follower, and intellectual foil for Jesus, whose egalitarian teachings often ran counter to the Sanhedrin’s rigid decrees. He was also a Pharisee, a leader within the Jewish community who toadied up to the Roman government at the time of Christ’s arrest and subsequent crucifixion.
He is mentioned three times in the New Testament, all in the Gospel of John. He subtly defends Jesus as the Pharisees discuss His impending arrest. Later, he helps prepare Jesus’s body for burial, indicating he had become an adherent to Christ and His teachings.
The first time he is mentioned, however, is in dialogue with Jesus, and these conversations reveal some of the most important aspects of Christian theology, such as the notion of being “born again” and the most famous reference to the divinity of Christ, John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
This detailed conversation explores the divide between the Old Covenant’s dogmatic and exclusive Jewish Law and the New Covenant’s spiritually inclusive concepts. But for a vital contributor to such an important passage of the New Testament, Nicodemus remains a mysterious figure. Some scholars have suggested he may be Nicodemus ben Gurion, a Talmudic figure of wealth and mystical power. Christian tradition suggest he was martyred, and he is venerated as a saint. His name has come to be synonymous with seekers of the truth and is used as a character in many works of biblically inspired fiction.

3 James The Just

He is considered, next to Paul and Peter, the most important apostolic figure in the Church’s history. The Book of Acts specifically names him the head of the Christian church in Jerusalem, and he is frequently cited, both scripturally and apocryphally, as being consulted by both Paul and Peter. So who is he?
Traditionally, he is thought of as Jesus’s brother (or, more precisely, His half-brother). Jesus is listed, in the Gospels, as having siblings, some younger than Him. One was named James.
But James was a common name, and there are several mentioned in the Bible. Two of the 12 disciples were named James, but both are listed as having different fathers than Jesus, and neither went on to become James the Just. James the son of Zebedee went on to be known as James the Great, and James the son of Alphaeus was called James the Less.
It is known that he was a contemporary of Jesus, although he seems to have had no real inner-circle status during Christ’s ministry. The apocryphal Gospel of Thomas says Christ Himself designated James to lead the movement upon His death. The Apostle Paul initially seems respectful, even subservient, to “James the Lord’s brother,” calling him a “pillar” of the movement, even though he was later to disagree with him on matters of doctrine.
Some, though, have suggested the “brother” designation was spiritual, rather than physical. St. Jerome, among others, suggested that the doctrine of perpetual virginity indicated James could be a cousin, which, given the tribal associations and clannishness of the Jewish community of the time, seems valid. Such a relationship would indicate a certain social proximity without necessarily being a true sibling.

2 Simon The Zealot

Of Christ’s 12 disciples, none are more mysterious than Simon the Zealot. His name was meant to differentiate him from Simon Peter and has come to symbolize, for some, that he was a member of a similarly named political movement that advocated Jewish defiance to Roman law. Some have speculated that he acted, within Christ’s inner circle, as a political adviser. His presence then indicated that Jesus had a revolutionary political agenda.
The truth is much less exciting. The “Zealot” movement did not take place until long after the time that Christ would have given Simon his sobriquet, and there has never been any serious evidence that Simon, despite the designation, was a political radical. The name, and the word upon which it is based, did not take on those aggressive undertones until the movement itself was in full swing. More than likely, Simon was given his name because of intense spiritual devotion, rather than any radical political stance.
Nothing else is known of him, at least not with any surety. The Catholic Encyclopedia mentions him as possibly being a brother or cousin of Jesus, with no real evidence. The Eastern Orthodox tradition says he developed his zeal when Jesus attended his wedding and changed water into wine. Some legends say he was martyred; the philosopher Justus Lipsius somehow got it into his head that he was sawed in half.

1 Og

Cited twice specifically, but alluded to frequently in general terms, the Nephilim were a race of violent giants that lived in the pre-Flood world at the same time as humanity. Were they, as some suggest, the offspring of demons and human women? Fallen angels themselves? Or simply the descendants of Seth mentioned in the Dead Sea scrolls, a tribe of cranky cases cursed by God for their rebelliousness? Regardless, they evolved and became known by other names, like the Raphaim, and frequently battled humans for land and power.
The most storied of them was Og, the King of Bashan. He was killed, along with his entire army, and his kingdom was ransacked. All of the survivors—men, women, and children—were put to death, and the strongest and most powerful line of Nephilim descendants was eliminated. Some Nephilim bloodlines continued to do battle with the Israelites, though they were becoming less powerful and dying out. One tribe, the Anakim, allied themselves with the human tribes in Philistia. Goliath was thought to have been one of the last few descendants of the Nephilim.
Goliath’s height is given in the earliest manuscripts as 275 centimeters (9′). That’s hardly as awe-inspiring as the creature laying in Og’s bed, which measured, according to Deuteronomy, 400 centimeters (13′ 6″). That’s basically Yao Ming sitting on Shaquille O’Neal’s shoulders.
Biblically, descendants of the Nephilim could not have survived the Flood, even though Og and other giants are post-Flood figures. Some biblical literalists have attributed their later existence to the descendants of Noah’s family hooking up, once again, with demons. Or, being fallen angels and not human, they did survive the flood.
Jewish tradition gets deeper into information about the Nephilim and their descendants, going against the grain of the biblical account. It tells of Og booking passage on the Ark by promising to act as a slave to Noah and his family. Other accounts have him hanging on to the side of the Ark and riding the flood out rodeo-style.

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My baby saved my life

July 16, 2011 / Lit Corner / 0 Comments

{mainvote} Article is viewed {hits}4349{/hits} times

By Aileena Wong 7/14/11

This is a true story of my life experience. I did not choose God, but God had chosen me for Him. I was brought up in a pagan surrounding, but God has destined ...

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Kryon – The End of History

February 11, 2011 / Lit Corner / 0 Comments

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a message from Kryon

channeled by Lee Carroll

Monday, 20 December, 2010

at Seattle, Washington (posted 27 December, 2010)

At the top of every channeling page is a statement that it is a transcription of a live c...

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MATTHEW’S MESSAGE – MAY 19, 2010

May 20, 2010 / snoedel.moorelife.nl / 0 Comments

Channeler: Suzanne Ward

May 19, 2010

This is Matthew, with loving greetings from all souls at this station. Let us speak about something that affects the United States but is of great concern to peoples throughout your world, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. We know of the various speculations as to what caused this grave environmental situation: the work of corporate saboteurs; another Illuminati “black ops” tactic to further delay official recognition of space beings’ presence; some dark civilization is the culprit; and some are wondering if God had a hand in it, like a strong wake-up call, while others have defined it as a wrathful God punishing sinners.

Simply, the ultimate cause was a mechanical malfunction, but most assuredly this was no “accident.” During the past decades of increasing numbers of seismic events, extracting oil from a mile beneath the waters was deliberately courting disaster—it was not a matter of “if,” but when strong planetary movement would disrupt mechanical operations at that depth.

The root of this environmental destructiveness is the intention of a few minds steeped in greed to keep your world dependent upon petroleum, and to that end, they have suppressed the developments in free energy that would have eliminated their source of mammoth fortunes. The relentless pursuit of monetary wealth has withered their conscience, thus there is no consideration given to the potential effects of desecrating the environment; and they don’t understand that Earth is a highly evolved soul, a sentient being whose blood is the fluids within her planetary body.

We cannot say exactly when attempts to end the spewing of the oil will be successful, but this manmade disaster requires a manmade solution. We know of your visualizing marine life safe in pristine waters and your prayers that the oil will not reach coastlines. By all means continue—never underestimate your power to change any situation!

Some of you are pleading for our space family to come down and save the day, while others are disappointed, even distressed, that they aren’t already there. They have not landed en masse only because it is not yet safe for you if they do so, but they are indeed helping! They are keeping the currents gentle and the oil away from the shore to the extent possible without creating unwanted side effects, and they have a watchful eye on the ones who might be persuaded to produce storms or seismic disturbances in the Gulf. They are doing what they can to lessen the toxic effects of the surface oil and the pools floating beneath; however, only after their technologies are in use on the planet can total eradication of the oil polluting the Gulf waters be achieved.

If every cloud has a silver lining, as your expression goes, then you could say that this cloud is surrounded by a brilliance that is billowing ever outward through your skies. The oil spill has given rise to demands for changes to insure that never again will such a disaster imperil your natural world. “Big Oil” will not be able to stem the growing tide of people curtailing gasoline consumption and looking for substitutes for petroleum-based products.

This is adding impetus to efforts to create a “green world” through renewable energy sources; clean manufacturing; ending pollution from all sources; expanding recycling and stopping wastefulness; preserving rain forests, which are essential not only for animal habitats, but your very breath. You see these recent or extended developments as promising, and rightly so. We wish you also could see how lighted beings throughout the universe are cheering on the “grassroots movement” as it surges in many directions.

Along with growing emphasis in those crucial areas is the ever louder outcry to end corporate control of governments; negotiate resolutions instead of wage war; eliminate massive impoverishment; end the reign of chemicals; and dig deeper into the pockets of corruption and deception, where only the tips of those icebergs are apparent.

Originally the Golden Age master plan created by the highest council called for a gradual emergence of the many truths during the process of world transformation and spiritual renewal. However, the tenacity of the dark ones has created a time crunch of sorts, as many profound revelations still must come forth so that once again the peoples will know they are powerful gods and goddesses, inseparable parts of the universal family of souls.

Even with considerable time to assimilate that ultimate truth, it would be difficult for many, and perhaps impossible for some, to believe it. Yet, that reality and many others of shocking nature have to be disclosed within a brief period so that myriad changes of a magnitude you can hardly imagine can be accomplished, and all of those changes are gathering momentum. The 2012 timetable for Earth to exit third density’s darkness is much less than the two and a half years your calendars indicate. Time as you perceive it will continue to pass faster and faster the closer you approach the continuum wherein linear time’s past, present and future are happening simultaneously in different energy planes.

Our beloved Earth is right on target on her ascension pathway, that we can assure you, but we don’t know who will choose to see the light of universal truths and who will not. The light brings spiritual clarity and changes cellular structure from carbon-based to the crystalline form that enables bodies to survive in the vibratory levels of the Golden Age. Those who choose the light will physically accompany Earth and those who do not will go to other worlds where they will have as many opportunities as they need “to see the light.”

I think it is pertinent at this point to address a reader’s comment—many minds are pondering much the same: I don’t understand how you can be so sure about something happening in the future, like the Golden Age, but you can’t predict what will happen in situations existing right now.

We do not predict anything. When messengers of the light tell you something with total assurance, such as the advent of the Golden Age, it is because that already exists in the “timeless” continuum. At soul level you do know this, but you do not consciously remember your excitement about being selected to participate in this unprecedentedly swift passage of a world out of deep third density into fourth and continuing apace to fifth, and you can’t perceive as “completed” anything that in your linear time is still underway. And even “underway” in this regard is evident only to the relatively few of the world’s population who understand that all the upheavals in your world are the old ways disintegrating during Earth’s rapid transition to a glorious new era.

When we speak of an ongoing situation and cannot give you a timeframe for the outcome, or perhaps cannot even tell you what the outcome will be, it is because those are not conclusive in Earth’s energy field of potential, where varying energy intensities and directions are in perpetual motion. Energy, the essence of everything in existence throughout the cosmos—the indivisible consciousness of I AM Creator Creation—is neutral. What gives energy streamers direction and enables them to manifest in substance are the positive and negative charges, or the “light” and “dark” attachments, and those are continuously being formed by individual and collective thoughts, feelings and actions. That is why we repeatedly have urged you to focus on what you WANT for your life and for your world, not what you don’t want!

Returning to our explanation, let us say that “light” energy streamers around a specific situation are gathering momentum. The “dark” streamers affecting that same situation will diminish or increase in accordance with the intensity of consciousness put into them. That is what lets possibilities evolve into probabilities and, in turn, into realities when the momentum becomes unstoppable. It was that unstoppable momentum that enabled us to tell you before the primary elections in the United States that Barack Obama would become that country’s president. The same kind of momentum was reached several months prior to the invasion of Iraq; that is why I could I state at that time that despite peace rallies and other efforts to preclude that happening, the war could not be prevented [Part VI, “War” in Illuminations for a New Era].

However, even when it appears that the energy surge in a specific direction has minimal opposing force along its way to “unstoppable momentum,” it is folly to conclude that its direction cannot be changed by an abrupt infusion of conflicting consciousness. I fell into that folly. Activity in the field of potential strongly indicated that then-President Bush, whose Illuminati faction had bought the presidency, would be removed because his rhetoric so often made him look foolish in the eyes of other world leaders, and that didn’t serve the best interests of either his faction or the one that opposed him. With the energy of both factions strongly aligned in this respect and nothing in opposition, I stated in a message that George W. Bush’s term in office would be one of the shortest on record.

Everyone knows that he completed two full terms, but very few know what went on behind the scenes. The Bush clone was removed from office according to the agreed-upon plan, but the adversarial faction hadn’t expected the sudden betrayal by the Bush faction, which put in a “new, improved” clone simultaneously with removing some of the individuals who were acting on behalf of Vice President Cheney. Nevertheless, the outcome was that a succession of Bush clones held the office that Cheney clones actually ruled.

I think a bit of background here will be helpful. At one time the Illuminati was a tightly knit group with the same aim—world domination. That aim has never changed, but as one generation succeeded another and their numbers grew with marriages and other alliances, egos, greed and lust for power began to unravel the original unity. Eventually the infighting resulted in a split into two competing factions, one in Europe and the other in the United States. The same infighting that caused that split spilled into each faction, and they splintered into smaller factions. In the United States, Bush is in one, Cheney in another.

A natural product of the fierce competition among the various factions were life-threatening situations for the most influential principals in each splinter group, and that gave rise to cloning those individuals so that if an assassination attempt succeeded, a clone would take the place of the person. This also served the Illuminati’s purpose of maintaining the public appearance of continuity of their people in high offices. [If you are interested in the cloning process, that and other information about clones are in “Human Cloning,” Revelations for a New Era.]

Now then, readers who are dismayed that the greatly respected Stephen Hawkings expressed distrust of alien civilizations want to know if he has been taken over by the dark side; will his opinion be taken seriously by the planners of the TV announcement about other civilizations; will this delay the arrival of ETs or dissuade them from coming; does this bode ill for them if they make their presence known. I don’t know why Stephen said what he did, but there is no darkness within the heart of this dear soul, and it is only surmising that it may have been similar to what motivated Carl Sagan to claim that there is no firm evidence of intelligent life existing elsewhere: threats to his family. But nothing will delay, much less deter, our universal family members from joining you as soon as they have absolute assurance of your safety!

A reader who has heard a great deal about Pleiadians would like to know more about them. This may not add to her knowledge, but it may be enlightening to others that many of you have ancestors who came from the Pleiades in antiquity to participate in the planetary population seeding program, and some of you came to Earth directly from that group of star nations specifically to play a role in this unique time in the universe. So there is significant Pleiadian influence among the populace, but it is not exclusive by any means. Other civilizations that had a large hand in those early stages include Arcturus, Sirius and Lyra, and their progeny have incarnated on the planet time and time again, including these recent years for the same purpose as the Pleiadians.

I have been asked if the universe’s astrological aspects are as significant as some people believe. Without knowing how much importance each individual ascribes to planetary movement, I can only say that their changing positions do indeed affect your lives. You choose your birth time in accordance with celestial activity because its influences, with which you are energetically aligned, enhance other choices in your soul contract. The juxtaposition of some planets is favorable for evoking positive feelings, high energy and meaningful productivity, while other alignments present considerably more challenges in those respects. Knowledge of the various astrological influences can be helpful in decision-making, but dependence upon daily “readings,” even from a chart with meticulous accuracy, would be suppressing the spiritual growth that comes from recognizing and heeding inner guidance, your soul’s messages that come as intuition.

A United Methodist Church pastor asked if I can “shed any light on the future of the Christian Church in the U.S. in light of the many changes that are taking place.” I could say that this dear soul replied to himself in part by twice using “light” in his request. My response is not restricted to his native country or Christian churches, however, because it is immensely heartening for us to observe that church leaders and congregations of different denominations and faiths around the world are responding to the intensity of light on Earth.

Because the religious teachings of old cannot provide satisfying answers to today’s questions, church people are starting to listen to their inner voice. In resisting the long-held view that homosexuals have no place in church leadership, women and men of that orientation are being welcomed into those positions. Increasingly “You are your brother’s keeper” is going well beyond church doors, establishing new or enlarging community outreach services. Individuals are holding onto the godly aspects and discarding the dogmatic rules of their respective faiths as hearts and minds are transitioning from religion to spirituality.

The historic side of religion is not that positive. The radical beliefs of some individuals are the distortions passed down through generations of hatred and oppression; but the basis of religion did not derive from noble purposes. The intent of the originators, who then ruled church and state, was to control the masses through rigorous religious rules. They decided what should constitute sinning and claimed that whoever sinned would feel the wrath of a vengeful God. When Christianity arose, the people in power altered the records that became the Bible so it would suit their purposes, portrayed Jesus as the “only son of God,” and put layers of “authorities” between the people and God. They also were greedy and amassed great wealth by instituting tithing and other means of extracting money from the believers.

The influence of religion through the ages has been so powerful that it led to the Crusades, persecution, execution, torture, imprisonment, assassinations. The divisiveness, caste systems and ostracism that religions have caused still exists, and so do fear of disobeying “God’s laws” and guilt and remorse when one strays from strict adherence. In the Mormon Church, families of the deceased can pay to have their beloved souls assured one of the limited spaces in heaven; and, despite glowing accounts from some celebrities, the Church of Scientology basically is a mind control organization. Even Satanism is officially acknowledged as a religion!

Of all that the darkness has devised throughout the ages to capture souls, religions have been the most effective in keeping believers in bondage. Once back in spirit life, souls realize that they had fallen into that spell still another time and once again they choose to break religion’s hold when next they incarnate.

Although some of the foregoing has been mentioned in previous messages, it bears repeating because the religiously devout will become lightworkers’ greatest challenge. There will be widespread disbelief and confusion, and likely militant resistance in some quarters, when ancient records are brought forth as evidence of what we have been telling you. The souls whose religion is the foundation of their lives will need compassion, patience and kindness—simply by living your light you can assist those whose minds are ajar. We shall rejoice with you when they embrace the truth of their power and unlimited potential as parts of God, but if they choose to deny that, it would not be a failing on your part. Or theirs. No experience, however different from soul contracts, ever is wasted, and each soul in its own timing will return to the pure love essence of its Beginnings.

You are supremely prepared to deal with everything on the near horizon! During your multiple lifetimes you have amassed wisdom, strengths and abilities that may surprise you when they pop up, and they will when the occasion is ripe, you could say. That is why your fervent request to be where you are was granted by the highest council when many other souls just as eager as you were not chosen. It is true that some of the chosen are lingering in a state of unawareness, and that is all right for them and for you. They will have other opportunities to bring light to struggling civilizations, and you are so eminently qualified to carry the ball, to use your expression, that in the continuum you are enjoying the thrill of success.

Never for an instant are you alone. Countless souls in spirit are traveling by your side and countless others in physical worlds are helping you in other ways along your journey. Our beloved brothers and sisters, what a joyous, exciting time this is for all of us!

____________________

LOVE and PEACE

Suzanne Ward

MATTHEW BY Suzy Ward

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http://matthewlatvian.blogspot.com/ - LATVIAN
http://matthewinchinese.blogspot.com/ - CHINESE
Original and translations of the Galactic Messages available on
http://peacelovelove.blogspot.com/