Tag: Faith

All for One and One for All

Anne Mason and Thea Mason

Support is available and ready to assist each and every one of us, but it first requires sacrifice which is born out of courage into what is true.

TRANSCRIPT:

Anne (00:01):

Okay, we are recording. Hi Thea.

Thea (00:06):

Hi Anne.

Anne (00:09):

So I’m going to just introduce this very briefly and hand off to you. We spoke a little bit before we started recording, trying to pinpoint what it is exactly we are getting at in the conversations you and I have had, of course, in the last couple of weeks, leading up to this. And sacrifice, the theme of sacrifice, is what we’re going to discuss today, and the role of sacrifice in creation, and the nature of sacrifice and the nature of creation and transformation. And so I’m going to hand off to you here.

Thea (01:00):

Well, in our preliminary conversation, we were talking about a lot of different things. So some of the ideas that sacrifice was born out of was, “what are we here for in this life on this Earth?” We had talked a little bit about the idea of reincarnation and how does that inform our understanding of our purpose in this life.

Anne (01:29):

And I also let me interrupt just to insert this, because I have a kind of compartmentalized view of maybe three categories, and there’s a spectrum that ties those together as well. We were talking about reincarnation and how, if you perceive the world and life, your life experience through a lens of a belief in reincarnation that will give you a different approach to the significance of each of our actions here on Earth, or can. There is also a belief that may or may not include reincarnation, but at least is a belief in a world, realms beyond this material Earth plane, which may inform in the same way or differently. And my third category that I break it down into is the materialists who––and I know there’s this impulse of a humanist, humanistic belief that this is it. This is the only life. It often seems to go hand in hand with an atheism where this is it, this is what we’ve got, but still an impulse toward contributing to the stream of goodness. I don’t go for that. I think that that is myopic and limiting, but it doesn’t, it doesn’t preclude having a larger sense of purpose in the creation here. So, sorry for the digression.

Thea (03:20):

Not at all. I think it’s good. And with all of that, you know, this time and this moment right now, which we are all living in, with our eyes open to varying degrees to what part we play. And as we are now in December, this darkest of months in the Northern hemisphere, we’re now coming to this darkest night where we protect and honor the light that grows within as our external light fades. And it’s the turning moment we have once we hit that solstice until Christmas, that’s that slow turning of the light is dark until it starts to grow again. And there’s something in our mirroring of our external world and our inner world of what we’re able to see and develop and get clear on as our light, our inner light must grow to meet the outer darkness. So I think that’s where we’re at mostly––that this moment is big. And if we can open our eyes to our inner light and our purpose for being here, having courage to meet this moment, and with that courage, a willingness to sacrifice what we have thought we have in order to give the nourishment to the transformative forces that are wanting to support us in this change, changing time, this wakening time. So if we can walk with courage, those supportive forces can step in and help to carry us, but it requires the sacrifice which is born out of courage into what is true, I think.

Anne (05:27):

Yes. I want to give some context to it too, and to anyone listening. One of the things that is most challenging to me at this moment in time is how everyone, even us right now, we’re here sitting here talking as if some things are normal. We’re behaving as if there’s normalcy here, that there’s there’s okayness here in all that’s going on in the world. And of course there is some okayness, but by and large, it’s insane and it’s not okay. And I know that many of us are walking around with this external facade, in a way, of normalcy––and inside are horrified by what’s going on.

Anne (06:44):

And we all have, many of us at least, have experienced this to varying degrees in our lives from the time we’re young. You know, something really bad happens at school and we’re having to walk through the halls as if it’s all okay. Or our parents die within two weeks of each other. And the rug is pulled out from under us and we’re walking around and people are saying hello as if things are normal, but we know that something is completely…

Thea (07:15):

Altered.

Anne (07:15):

Completely altered existentially. And we’re trying to get our bearings. I believe that on a very large scale that’s happening now. And so it’s important to me to give voice to that. It’s horrifying. It is horrifying every day. It’s horrifying to wake up to this reality, and I’m going to say it again––to this, to the tyranny, to the lockdowns, to the masked, the masked assault on our humanity, on the social distancing on children, not being able to play together, on teachers not being able to teach their kids in person, on limitations on Thanksgiving and family gatherings. It’s a nightmare. It’s a horror show. And I’m saying this for those who see it, and for those who don’t… (waves them away.) So back to that, what we’re talking about in terms of this moment, you are providing context of this time of year that is parallel to what seems to be also this time of millennia, this absolutely critical point in time that we are all here to bear witness to, and to participate in.

Thea (09:02):

Just in that picture, like of time and human development. Of our abilities to perceive, think, and engage in our world, it’s like we’re sliding down. And if we don’t make a turn in a particular direction at a certain point, it’s like the stream goes farther and farther down into the dark abyss rather than the waking up of the capacity of what it means to be a divine human being.

Anne (09:40):

And so following on what you’re talking about with sacrifice, and you talked about the Christ consciousness and the Christ impulse before we started recording. And that’s why it’s so important to consider, Folks, why we are here. Life can be fun and joyful. Thank God. But we’re not here just for a fun ride. And so it requires every era, every generation, really every person, and every moment, to continue meeting the challenges and to take action. I believe, you know, we could talk about the Christ consciousness all day, but that sacrifice is an acknowledgement, a recognition, and a courageous beyond courageous statement, an undeniable statement that we are acting on behalf of something larger than ourselves.

Thea (11:45):

And then I would want to add to that the something beyond or larger than ourselves is the whole that we are, but, a mirror or a window into that largeness of being, of consciousness. And I wanted to add that courage, I am thinking is born out of love, born out of love for that which is ourselves and greater than ourselves, and is ourselves again, right? So that’s the largeness, when we talk about being one, you know, when we talk about community, it’s just, it’s everything.

Anne (12:51):

That’s exactly it. That’s all of it. So it’s very, very critical right now in this time of this BS identity politics, diversity, awareness, all of this stuff that totally confuses. And that’s false, that’s a false interpretation of our oneness and our community.

Thea (13:20):

Those gestures, while it has the tagline to be unifying is actually separating. Because we are bigger than our appearance.

Anne (13:34):

Well, just go back to just the basics of Anthroposophy. When we were talking about that. Anthroposophy at its core doesn’t need any of that from the outside, because––or that curriculum, the Waldorf curriculum––because it’s simply about understanding, reading stories and understanding another’s perspective, similar experiences that you have had and an identification with everyone and all. That we, I am you, you are me, and we are all, and, and all is one.

Thea (14:17):

And we’re all having different perspectives out the window while we’re here. We’re all having different perspectives. And I think that our goal is not to create more division, “diversity.” While what story is with that––is, you know, bringing equality to all people. We are! I don’t have the words yet because it’s not that we don’t recognize we all have different walks in our lives. We all have different challenges. Some are atrocious, some appear to be gentler and more bountiful. And yet it’s not about creating more separation. And that takes courage for me right now to even to be able to say that, because it’s about, we’re all in the same house, looking out different windows. So we see the sun rising at a different time. We have more light. (Thea’s frame cuts out a second and they pause.)

Anne (15:25):

The reason I brought up the identity politics or the diversity training and all that––I want to go back to sacrifice. There is a real imbalance in terms of what that understanding is and what sacrifice and why. We should not sacrifice, we should not subordinate ourselves to another. That’s not a productive or constructive sacrifice. And I guess we could get into a discussion and I’m sure some folks would say, “Oh, well, that is for the greater good, because some people are oppressed, and so the only way to fix that is essentially to oppress the oppressors.” That’s not how it works, and that’s really taking it down to a reductivist, atomistic, separate…it’s false, it’s false. And so I want to go back to what that sacrifice is. You were talking about the mystery of Golgotha and what it is to you.

Thea (17:18):

My understanding is that the sacrifice and therefore the resurrection. And so the way I’m thinking about it is this, this moment in time where what we can sacrifice with clarity is that substance that allows for the resurrection. You know, we each know this in ourselves through our own personal lives, right? When we’re willing to jump into the unknown, which is scary, and leave that which we have known behind us, that’s when something has a force to grow anew. But until we do that, we stay in the same groove, and to varying degrees. I think was it Carlos Castaneda who says, the great mystery is in, or the great alchemy that the initiates know is that you jump and you find that the universe supports you with a feather bed. You know, it’s through that. That’s the sacrifice–– facing the fear and jumping still.

Anne (18:48):

It’s faith. It’s the dark night of the soul in the initiation rituals throughout the hermetic tradition, it is practicing and demonstrating that faith. And we are rewarded with that faith.

Thea (19:13):

And with that, I mean, the thing that I’ve been holding and sensing more strongly is the more I do that, the more I step, I find I’m supported. It’s just like a muscle.The more we do it, the more we know it, the more we can step into greater and greater spaces of sacrifice and work, because then the more we do it, the more we can do it. One of my very favorite teachers says, “look, you know, the better we learn how to do this, the more we can work and the more we can do to keep on doing it,” you know? That’s why we’re here. To just keep on doing it.

Anne (19:59):

Yes! And so that’s the reminder and a little bit of the takeaway. In this time that is scary for so many of us, it is critical for each one of us to take a step, even if it’s a very small step, even if the step seems insignificant a step into that abyss with courage.

Thea (20:32):

And conviction. Because we have to be awake. I think that that’s a key in here––an awakeness to the step we’re taking, to not be sleepy in it. That’s what it is to have the faith as a child in a certain way. We don’t have to know what security we’re leaving in the steps sometimes. And I think that there is a necessary ingredient of being awake to what fear we’re facing.

Anne (21:04):

Do you mean that when we’re a child and have that faith and innocence of a child, that’s not the same as it is now.

Thea (21:14):

Yes. Because we haven’t come away from it yet, we’re still held to some degree. I mean, it varies, I don’t mean to say an absolute, but I notice it in myself as I’ve gotten older, the awareness of what I step into makes a difference.

Anne (21:31):

Of course. I mean the older we get, the more inhibited we get because of life’s experience, of all the dangers that face us, we are wiser. We are “wiser” in that respect, and it’s more challenging to be brave in that wisdom, but being brave in that wisdom and taking action in that, taking action bravely, is even more and more important. And I think probably even more effective because of that.

Anne (22:09):

SoI I don’t know how much more to say about it, and I know this seems a little ethereal or abstract. I’m going to say this, I’m going to bring in something from various conversations that we’ve had, but I’ll say now that my hope in this world at this moment rests with the conventionally uneducated, especially of Western civilization. I would say right now, because I’m blunt like this, the educated members of our society––of certainly the United States and the rest of the Western world––I think are the stupidest human beings on the planet right now. They are very out of touch with their instincts, with their sense. And I say this being an educated, a conventionally educated person. So I feel like I can say that. I just moved from one of the most educated counties in the country, in the world. And I’ve never been surrounded by morons, who are asleep, brainwashed. They are so indoctrinated and brainwashed. And the trick has been that they’ve been taught that this brainwashing is education. So not only are they brainwashed and indoctrinated, they are so proud of this brainwashed indoctrination that masquerades as education and critical thinking that you can’t penetrate them.

Thea (24:17):

It’s interesting what I was going to say,if I can articulate it is it’s this idea that––I saw something making fun of it recently––but that what you see before you is not what you see before you. What you see before you isn’t rea––is that training that you are thinking bigger than what is actually in front of you. Help me out. I mean, my youngest was reading “A Wrinkle in Time,” and there was so much in there too, the it, the thing that takes the feeling of people, which is like their sense, right? Our feelings are that which, if we have trained ourselves to listen and follow those senses, to distinguish between emotions that are fluctuating, but the sense feeling that we are perceiving rawly with, and to be able to bring those in and reflect upon them to understanding––that’s what I think people have been being trained out of. Instead of taking our information through our perceiving capacities and then understanding them.

Anne (25:49):

Hey, I mean, it’s very simple. From birth on, we are, traumatized first off. So, whether it’s the birth practice that is now––conventional birth practices and hospitals are, it’s another horror show. And we say that having had all of our children at home, thank God. But we both had a great deal of experience in the medical, industrial complex and in that whole paradigm. But that whole paradigm is set up to make people go against their instincts. “Here, take this shot. It’s good for you. It hurts. Here. Let me draw blood from you. It’s all for your own good.” Making us all against our instinct. And then, you know, conventional schooling is another one. It’s the opposite of what learning and discovery and curiosity and creativity is about, but kids are made to do it, you know? And, and so when I say the most educated are the dumbest ones, or the most stupid, I don’t say that without compassion. I know that we have been systematically brainwashed to detach from ourselves and our knowingness. But I’m just simply saying, there’s no surprise in it.

Anne (27:34):

And it goes far beyond that and you add media to it and then add the technology. And I would say from 2008 on really, it’s exponentially ramped up because that’s when the iPhone was introduced. And I’m not saying that there isn’t, you know, there’s two sides to the sword. But it has been used to separate ourselves from ourselves. And I won’t go deeply into this. Maybe we can talk about this more in detail next time, but we talked a little bit about Steiner’s lecture on Lucifer and Ahriman and how they work together, hand in hand. And Ahriman, a being, from another realm, incarnating around now, who we’ve seen throughout myths of the Middle East––you can read more about who Ahriman is there––myths or history––but the Ahrimanic method of using “preserving jars” as Steiner puts it, preserving jars. And, and so, whereas Lucifer is concerned with man’s stomachs, and that sensational aspect of this––those are his tools, right––off this existence. Ahriman uses preserving jars. And by preserving jars, it’s explained that, you know, books are preserving jars, libraries are preserving jars. When we take our knowing out of––and I come all the way down (gesture with hand)––out of ourselves and put it in books, and then take those books and put those into libraries, in computers, that takes it away from ourselves. it separates it from us. And when our world is full of experts, who take someone else’s knowing in a book and then take that in and then go through the training and the schooling and the testing, and then writing their own thesis of preserving jar and put that in something else, our knowing keeps getting more and more abstract. And so we’re living in a world full of experts where people go to experts for everything.

Anne (30:37):

We’ve touched on this in other talks. parents go to parenting experts. People go to doctor, medical experts. People go to experts for everything. And his is like the culmination of all of it. Experts are telling people to cover their––smother their breath and cover their faces and walk six feet apart from each other and not be human and not hug and not touch and not kiss and not play together. Experts are telling them all this and far too many people are doing it, because they don’t trust their own knowing and their own instinct. Even though the stats show no evidence to prove any of this, they will believe it because the experts are telling them that. So I sure digressed, but I’m just going to go back to the fact that the hope of humanity is in all people who are in touch with their own knowing.

Anne (31:53):

And I don’t mean that the educated––many educated folks have been able to hold onto that. And I would say that people who work with the land get that reinforcement of knowing. I think people who work with their hands, I think people who work with people––you have much more of an opportunity to stay in touch with your own knowing when it’s reinforced all the time. But people, trust your instincts. Don’t listen to these experts and don’t listen to these educated folk because they’re not where it’s at.

Thea (32:39):

Yeah. It’s it that courage to trust yourself, have courage for what is true. And now’s the time. And the support is there. We don’t know what we’ll have to sacrifice, but we have to be willing to sacrifice to be able to support the evolution of this world.

Anne (33:07):

Of humanity. It rests on every one of us in every step, in every deed now. So don’t wait, don’t wait for anything to change. Do it. Sacrifice and become part of that Christ consciousness, get merged with the Christ consciousness. It’s a good company.

Thea (33:26):

But what you said is no matter how small those steps. And some days, they’re very small. Even if it’s simply to decide to have faith and find the good in the day, right? that takes courage. To meet what is before us.

Anne (33:49):

Yes.

Thea (33:49):

Thanks. I went all over, but…

Anne (33:52):

I really went all over, but so it goes.

Thea (33:55):

So it goes, all right. Love you. Bye.

Anne (33:59):

Love you. Bye.

0

Courage, Love, Faith

And let us each play our part…

Anne Mason and Thea Mason


TRANSCRIPT BELOW:

Anne (00:01):

Hi, Thea.

Thea (00:04):

Hi, Anne.

Anne (00:04):

All right. So it’s been a very long time. We’ve both been in transition. I haven’t had a decent enough internet to do this in the new location I’m in, in a very rural area. So here we are, after a lot of time and a lot of stuff happening in the world, that’s, uh, insane. And to cut to the chase, I think most people who know me or have listened to anything that I’ve said or written know that I believe tyranny is descending upon us or attempting to. I mean, it’s descending and it’s not here yet in a real way. We are still at a crossroads and we can shift this. And I can also just speak briefly to the fact that I am in opposition to all restrictions that have been imposed on us. My approach to health is holistic. I have a fairly deep understanding of transmission of infectious disease. I also am aware of the importance of what we put in our bodies and how we support our immune systems in terms of how we handle and navigate anything that comes our way health wise.

Anne (01:35):

So, having said that, I think that what you and I have been processing together as we always do––and again, this is a dialogue. It’s just a pretty rambling dialogue. We have these conversations all the time, sisters and friends that we are, and for whatever it’s worth, if it’s of any benefit to anyone to, you know, kind of participate in the dialogue or hear a little of this, it may trigger something in our examinations and in our quest to continue on a right path as it relates to the large and the center, I guess, our, our lives, our small lives, our individual lives, I should say.

Thea (02:30):

And the purpose and goal of humanity at large. What are we here to be and do, and work with the cosmic forces that imbue life in the universe.

Anne (02:49):

Right. What role do we play in all of this, in this very critical time, in this incredibly intense time? And I’ll share that I spoke with an elderly friend of mine, 75 plus years old. And I’d asked her if she was reminded of any other time in her life in history, now. Does this time seem like any other time she’s lived in? And she said, no. I had hoped she would tell me that, “yes, it seemed bad this time, it seemed by this time and we got through it.” No, she said she’s never felt so afraid for her freedom as she does now. And so, yes, it’s a critical time. And so one of the things that I think that is frightening, or alarming let’s say, for her––and for me––is not that the government is trying, or not that people in power are trying to take more power and trying to exert more control. That is just the way it always is throughout history.

Thea (04:05):

When people that are in power are seeking more power for power’s sake.

Anne (04:16):

Yes. That’s why we have the constitution that’s pretty remarkable.

Thea (04:21):

To keep that power in check, and allow the human being to pursue its own development and purpose.

Anne (04:31):

Yes. And to move humanity forward in so being free to do so, right? In being free to contribute our individual efforts to the world, to move the whole of humanity forward.

Anne (04:51):

So, they’ve done quite a number on it. As I’ve talked about, written about, I’ve been involved in activism for years, that alerted me more than it may have other people that medical fascism was the way they were going to try to do this. And they sure have. So, what do we do? And for those who resonate with where we’re at and what we’re seeing, how do we play a part in this to move things in the right direction? I would say that, let’s also acknowledge that there’s quite a spectrum of our capacity for each one of us. One of the wonderful numbers, or I shouldn’t say wonderful. One of the brilliant numbers they’ve done on us is really make our livelihoods contingent on compliance with these tyrannical measures

Thea (06:04):

And these measures also being inherently dehumanizing of the other. So, so many ways that we gather our strength and inspiration and purpose to live our lives fully is through the relationships and connections we have with others that bring meaning and purpose to our lives. And so when you remove the opportunities for real and frequent relationship and relating to others––the isolation that occurs and the lack, the purposelessness that can descend on people, which then eliminates health, mental health, emotional health, social health, wellbeing, and makes for a weaker people, and less full of fight.

Anne (07:12):

And, it’s so obvious why these curfews now are being put into effect. And of course, it’s so obvious why the lockdowns were put into effect. To stop people from coming together, sharing their ideas about what’s going on, sharing their feelings about what’s going on, coming together in solidarity and affirmation and reinforcement and connection. This is all by design, but especially this new nonsense of these curfews, of stopping people from being together after 10 o’clock out and about, when we let down, when the rhythm of the day moves into those late hours of relaxation and…

Thea (08:12):

…Contemplation.

Anne (08:12):

Yeah. And quiet connection. You know, those are the dangerous times for the tyrannical forces, because that is when we are most open to each other. That is when we can share and we can strategize, and we can…

Thea (08:38):

Be inspired and spark each other to let that light travel and grow. You know, it’s through connection that we grow. And if we are limiting that, it makes that connection that much more difficult and that much more necessary and vital for those of us that are seeing this to pursue it and to shine it out to one another––to be beacons, to be lighthouses in a way, to share and stand up where we see fit so that others are heartened and strengthened by that.

Anne (09:27):

Yes. So to continue connecting with each other, in whatever capacity and way we have. And there are many different forms of communication. I mean, certainly one is facial expression face. Which is also why they are pushing these masks on us.

Thea (09:56):

What’s also interesting about that––because I’m somewhere where I do have to comply to be able to live…

Anne (10:05):

And to do your work, your very important work.

Thea (10:08):

Yes, to connect, to be a teacher and to connect with young people. Though you know, I abhorred the idea of even purchasing a mask, and I don’t want to make an official mask, but I found these clear ones because as a teacher, I wanted my students to be able to see me. And those are no longer acceptable. Not because I don’t think it’s…I think it’s really because there is a gesture to not see the face. People that are wearing these––I mean, you don’t get to see all this––but face shields, right? To keep the droplets from being exposed. But it’s not sufficient any longer. You can’t go into certain grocery stores. Not all. Certain grocery stores you can’t go in if you have a clear mask. Because it’s about the humanity of the face. It’s, it’s not, I mean, I can’t. Anyway, I digress.

Anne (11:13):

I know, I know. And, yeah, we could go down a rabbit hole right now, but to keep it short––I was also speaking with this woman, the same woman I was talking about, who will in certain situations wear a mask to make people feel comfortable and other times not wear a mask. And I explained to her that for me, what’s important to do is demonstrate where I stand. I think politeness is overrated at this moment in time, provided we are not harming anyone else. And I feel certain I am not by not wearing a mask. I want to let others know––others who suspect that this is nonsense or wrong, or certainly should not be mandated. I mean, that’s of course my main issue. My main issue is any mandate like that. If somebody wants to walk around breathing through a mask, more power to them, whatever.

Anne (12:39):

But I want to demonstrate that I do not abide by these mandates, and I also don’t even abide by wearing them. And I want to let others know who suspect the same that there are more of us out here than they may realize. So I think that it is important right now that we––in whatever way we can––demonstrate what we believe, what our convictions are and where we stand. In every single way that we can. Because if we do not do that, now, if we take steps to, “Hmm, let’s just do this because it’s makes things a little easier,” or “I don’t want to make people uncomfortable” or, you know, in my case, “Uh, I want my daughter to have this opportunity and maybe it’s not so much to ask me to do this or that.” Uh uh uh. I feel it’s a black and white issue right now, and that it’s such a slippery slope. For anyone with any critical observation powers, we can see the slippery slope already this year. Let’s look where we were in March…

Thea (14:04):

It’s been very, very slippery and very quick.

Anne (14:10):

It’s now like a steep ice hill, right? So it’s now or never, folks. Take tiny steps, take larger steps, take whatever step you can to exercise your freedom to be who you are and to do what you know is right. That’s it. That’s what we can do right now because we still can. We still can.

Thea (14:45):

To shine that courage for truth. Because we each can shine that light the world at large and to one another to grow it. I mean, that’s how we have to do it. We have to grow it.

Anne (15:04):

Yes. Yes. And I can promise that every step we take with courage helps us be more and more courageous for the larger and larger challenges we face that require more and more courage. If right now we don’t take courageous steps where we think that it doesn’t matter that much, then if and when a time comes that we need some heavy duty courage, it won’t have been stored there.

Thea (15:48):

Well, it won’t have been exercised and won’t be accessible. So courage, and you know, when I say that, I want to say love because with love, love gives courage to us when we don’t think we have it. So I’ll preach love and courage today.

Anne (16:11):

Yeah. I, I agree with that. I believe that what I am doing is certainly for the greater good. I certainly believe that the steps I’m taking to exercise my freedoms is for the benefit of all. Right?

Thea (16:36):

Yep. Love, love for humanity and humanity’s potential, my own potential, my children’s potential of what we’re here on earth to do and be.

Anne (16:52):

Our grandhildren’s potential and our great grandchildren’s potential and so on and so forth. And you know, I would say along with the love and courage, faith. Faith in whatever way you’ve developed it, whatever way it resonates to you, whatever way you find it. Faith that there is something deep inside and connecting to all that cannot be taken away. Recognize that. It is our humanity. If we insist on holding onto that, it cannot be taken away, no matter what one is put through you, you always have that. Because I believe that that humanity also contains that divine spark and that connection. So we always have that, provided, we claim it. And even if it is for our great, great, great grandchildren. Even if we live through greater darkness and challenge, let’s hold on to that. Let’s exercise that humanity. So, okay.

Thea (18:23):

Oh, okay! That’s good. Have a good one!

Anne (18:31):

Okay. (Laughter)You too. I love you. Bye.

Thea (18:35):

(Laughter) Bye.

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Eradicate Fear and Move Forward

Anne Mason and Thea Mason

We can meet each moment with courage and hope.

A Verse for Our Time

We must eradicate from the soul
All fear and terror of what comes towards man out of the future.

We must acquire serenity
In all feelings and sensations about the future.

We must look forward with absolute equanimity
To everything that may come.

And we must think only that whatever comes
Is given to us by a world-directive full of wisdom.

It is part of what we must learn in this age,
namely, to live out of pure trust,
Without any security in existence.

Trust in the ever present help
Of the spiritual world.

Truly, nothing else will do
If our courage is not to fail us.

And let us seek the awakening from within ourselves
Every morning and every evening.

                  -Rudolf Steiner

TRANSCRIPT:

Anne (00:01):

Hi, Thea and folks who are connecting with us. We wanted to just say a couple of things in a short one today. First off, everyone is impacted by what’s going on in the world, and what I want to make clear is that Thea and I are dramatically impacted by what’s going on in the world. And I’m not saying that for sympathy, but to just make it clear that these recordings are not coming out of a place of comfort and ease, but in spite of some lack of that. In order to also demonstrate that we can meet each moment and each day with courage and hope, no matter how you know, how insecure one may feel given one’s situation. And I won’t go into all the details about that right now. But that being said, I want to also talk about something that is becoming clear to me. Carlos Castaneda wrote of what his teacher taught him were called the flying fish in this world. Rudolph Steiner also speaks of these beings as do many other seers and, and wise folk throughout humanity, and the ancient religions and texts and cultures. And essentially these beings are, for want of a better description, psychic parasites.

Anne (02:00):

And what is clear to me right now is that––whether one’s fear is of a virus, or one’s fear is of economic instability, or one’s fear is of descending totalitarianism––or all three, these fears must not be fed if we are to move things in the right direction. And in order to help with that, I’m going to ask that you read or recite a Steiner verse, a very short Steiner verse addressing this.

Thea (02:45):

Okayj. We must eradicate from the soul all fear and terror of what comes toward us out of the future. We must acquire serenity in all feelings and sensations about the future. We must look forward with absolute equanimity to everything that may come. And we must think that whatever comes is given to us by a world directive full of wisdom. It is part of what we must learn in this age, namely to live out of pure trust, trust in the ever present help of the spiritual world. Truly nothing else will do if our courage is not to fail us. Let us develop our will and let us seek the awakening within ourselves every morning and every evening.

Anne (03:48):

Thank you. And finally, I’d like to conclude with the fact that Thea sent me a couple minute video of her yesterday dancing in the rain. Moving and dancing in the rain. And I was so struck by it and struck by its demonstration and inhabitation and celebration of our humanity. And it inspired me. And I want to tag this on the end of this in hopes that it inspires you. In the face of adversity, in the face of insecurity, in the face of anxiety––we must embrace our humanity, exercise our humanity, and celebrate our humanity. It’s important now more than ever, I assure you. Okay. All right. Thanks so much. Until next time, Folks. I love you.

Thea (04:48):

Love you.

0

Is Scientism the Secularist’s New Religion?

Have folks replaced traditional religion with an unquestioning faith in the doctrine they call “Science?”

Anne Mason, Thea Mason and Drake Mason-Koehler discuss.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT BELOW:

Anne:                           00:01                Okay. Here we are again with Drake on the East coast. Thea down in Southern California, me, Anne, up here in Northern California. And last time we got together we talked about organized religion. And again, I want to just briefly preface this dialogue just like all the others with an explanation of why we’re doing this. It’s, it’s really just an examination. It’s asking questions. It is an attempt to find perhaps new language for a growing, ever expanding consciousness as we––as I understand––are moving into a new age. And so here we are again. We spoke about organized religion last time and while I have a great deal of respect for the practice of organized religion, all that it offers, a foundation of morality and a guideline for growing, positive living. I also see some downsides to it. And what we discussed last time was the tendency sometimes to get stuck in a fixed set of beliefs which don’t then promote continued examination and looking at things from a new perspective, which then in turn doesn’t support learning. And for us to expand our consciousness, for us to continue moving forward and grow, we need to keep learning. And so following that, I’d like to discuss just briefly in this brief conversation what I see as a kind of new secularist religion called “Scientism.” And it’s a term that is being bandied about more and more these days. It’s a distinction between actual science––which is a method of observation and measurement and theory based on those observations and measurements and experiments––versus a doctrine. And before we started recording, Drake and I were talking a little bit about my experience––and I think we’ve all had this experience where, whether it’s climate change, whether it’s medicine,vaccines or really any area where science has brought us to an understanding and a practice and a theory––I’m finding that when people challenge those theories, whether it’s in social media, online debates, or in person, often, even if I, for example, provide studies that challenge the consensus, the response will be “It’s science. Don’t you understand science?” Do either of you have this experience?

Drake:                          03:48                Yeah. Something that came up for me when you were talking, Anne, was the way that people appeal, not so much to the method of science, but to science as some sort of credible, accepted institution. Right? That things need to be peer reviewed and pass through a certain number of tests or examinations before they are accepted as, you know, science. And in thinking of what it means to challenge that practice––because really if one’s going to have faith in a methodology, it seems to me that you need to actually examine what that method is taking for granted. Like what, what a certain type of methodology is taking for granted. And something that I’ve been learning over this past year, as my education has continued, is that every single science has its presuppositions that it has to take for granted. I wouldn’t pretend to know anything very complex about any of these sciences like biology or physics or chemistry but I do know that, or I think I know, that for example, biology takes the existence of life for granted, right? Like it goes back to very basic presuppositions that it has to assume that, or the science can’t work. And I think there’s other suppositions that kind of weave themselves into the method of science.

Drake:                          05:33                And if those aren’t examined then I think science can result in wrong conclusions. Like, I think of like if you’re, if you’re trying to draw two parallel lines and it’s a little bit off in the beginning,, then a mile down the road, it’s going to be way, way off. Well and something I thought of that I learned about last semester was a guy named William Harvey in England who basically figured out that the blood was a system of circulation. You know, he figured out that the blood, that the heart pumps the blood through, you know, that it passes around the lungs. Then it goes to the other, you know, different ventricles of the heart, goes through the entire body and then circulates back to be re oxygenated. And he figured that out by questioning the established doctrine of the time, which was Galenism. And because Galen said no, the heart does this specific function only and that was it––and that was the accepted thinking in the universities––and Harvey started cutting open, he started dissecting animals and going, actually that doesn’t make sense. Like he had to question the method of actually, the method of the practice of the anatomical science at the time to make this breakthrough. And so it seems like that should still apply.

Thea:                            06:52                And we could then take that same gesture or standpoint of not just going with what you’re given. It’s that you have to continuously be testing and making observation about your practice of religion, your practice of science or the method of science.

Anne:                           07:15                Drake just left us for a moment. Okay. He’s back.

Thea:                            07:24                So I was just saying that it seems like that’s the same sort of point that we were talking about––organized religion––is that, stay awake! Stay awake and pay attention that you don’t hand over your own seeing to another. And in terms of the practice of science and observation, that has to continue, you know, recognizing this is a presupposition, this is where we’re starting from, but that’s not the whole totality of whatever it is we’re observing or studying because you’re given this presupposition to start from.

Anne:                           08:01                Yes, absolutely. I agree. I try to constantly question. But even within those sciences, which are founded on a presupposition, I’m seeing a dangerous lack of critical thinking when people are working with these theories, discussing these theories. Let me go on a little bit of a tangent. There is a lawn sign I have been seeing a lot up here––I don’t know if you guys have something similar down there––which makes a few, there’s a few statements. I find it absurd. It seems like a virtue signaling type of thing, but it says something like “women’s rights are human rights,” “black lives matter,” “love is love,” whatever that means. And “science is real.” And “science is real.” What does that mean? And so, you know, that’s what I’m, I’m focused on right now. It’s beyond the fact that Drake, what you’re saying is, is absolutely true. We need to constantly question even the foundations of our working theories. Otherwise we’re going to get stuck in a more and more narrow framework of theory. So we have to constantly question even its foundation, re-examine it. But beyond that, we have to recognize that science itself is simply a method. It is not a truth. I don’t really even know how to get my head around saying something like, “science is real.” I don’t understand it when people say to me––in response to me challenging germ theory even, right? We are developing a new understanding of our immune system and the human microbiome, virome, and the fact that the environment of our body is a huge factor in terms of whether or not one person contracts a disease versus another person who is exposed to the same virus or bacteria. Right? So that is is shifting, that is growing, that is expanding. We’re developing a new understanding of this. When I present this information or present studies that demonstrate, that challenge, the idea that, “Oh, it’s just the germ that makes someone sick,” someone will say “It’s science. Don’t you get science?” Without even having to discuss the argument.

Drake:                          11:40                Well that’s funny, for it seems like they’re not even, they’re not even discussing the science then. Because the science, science is just a chain of reasoning within a certain set of parameters. Like, to do science is to reason your way with certain parameters that, you know, at least in modern science, that you’ve set for yourself and to the conclusion that follows. So, when you’re talking about these lawn signs that are saying “science is real,” that sounds to me like putting a sign in your lawn that says, you know, “logic is real.” Like absolutely, logic is real. But logic can be wrong. You can have, you can have conclusions that are logically true, but if your premises are wrong, the logic is false. Like, so same thing. A chain of reasoning is real. Yes, definitely real. But it can still be wrong.

Thea:                            12:29                Well the combination of statements on the sign is curious to me. What does science have to do with, you know, rights of human beings having the right to be, and be safe, you know? But it also then leads to that thought that that’s really just that “science is real” is a belief. So it is now outside of the scope of logic or reason. Saying, “science is real” is like, that sounds like a doctrine.

Drake:                          13:00                Not science.

Anne:                           13:00                Yeah, and I don’t remember now what, I think there was a climate change statement on that one too. Right? So, you know, and that’s where I’m––for the sake of time we won’t get too much into it––but that’s where I am wanting to explore what I do see as kind of a new religion. So Scientism often––it includes the doomsday prophecy of climate change, right? I’m not on any level suggesting that the climate isn’t changing. But whereas peak oil theory was Scientism’s doomsday theory prophecy in the naughts, right? The two thousands. Now it seems like it’s, “Ah! Climate change! We’ve got to change our ways!” It’s kind of, it’s the new religion’s Apocalyptic prophecy and warning. So we’ve got that going on. And then we also have this very fixed set of beliefs that…what I am seeing you know, I see the priests of Scientism––and not saying the good ones, the good scientists, the good doctors are always examining, are always questioning––but I am seeing people grant authority over themselves. I think they are giving the authority to doctors, to scientists, to the experts to tell them what is and what isn’t, what they should and shouldn’t do.

Thea:                            14:58                Creating a reality there.

Anne:                           14:59                In a similar way that the downside of organized religion, I think, handed that over to the priest. So we’re coming up to 15 minutes and I know Drake has to get going, but I think this is something to examine. I think that for all of the secularists’ focus on rejection of organized religion, to me it seems as if they simply replaced it with a new religion.

Drake:                          15:40                New authority. Right?

Anne:                           15:43                It’s a new authority. So that’s what it is, Drake. It’s a new authority. Whereas God and the priests are not their authority. Science as a God, almost? And the priests of that Scientism is the authority? Is that right?

Drake:                          16:08                I wonder. Yeah. It’s like, it’s just, it seems very comforting to me to think of people who don’t screw up. You know, like I didn’t grow up in organized religion so I didn’t, I guess I didn’t grow up with a conception that there’s always someone watching out for me doing the exact right thing––of a God figure or a priest figure. But a lot of people that I speak to, just lately, talk about science as if it’s some group of people somewhere who don’t mess up. And that’s appealing, right? Like that’s nice to think that there might be people that don’t mess up, but it’s not true.

Thea:                            16:46                Well, because it’s taking it from the religious realm, where there was faith involved and the unseen––to the realm of “it’s reason and logic and that is above all what we can trust. And it’s real.” So it’s interesting because we do believe in reason and logic and those are good. But like you said, Drake, if the beginning realm that the reason follows is off, then you have something that’s false and now you have people believing it, or saying “it’s real” in particular arenas.

Anne:                           17:25                Or simply if we missed something in our observations, that we then finally pick up, well that’s going to change the working theory and that’s going to change the entire model. Right?

Thea:                            17:39                Can I say one more quick thing? The thing that always––and science is not my practice, I mean observation is though, so I guess in one way it is––the thing that has always blown my mind learning the scientific method was that you could only test that which you could conceive of. And so everything is limited there in terms of creating theories and working theories. It’s only based upon what you already know or think you know, and that right there is like, what?

Anne:                           18:15                Right. Your own reality. It’s only based on the reality that you can observe at that moment. And as we all know, even from the time, like we said in the last one, from the time you’re five years old to the time you’re seventy five years old, our consciousness, our perceptions, our realities change. We perceive more, differently. Right? So the same goes every day. So anyway, let’s get going and pick this up I think next time, as we’re kind of formulating the discussion for next time.

Thea:                            18:50                Sounds good. Thanks so much guys. Nice to see you.

Drake:                          18:53                Alright.

Anne:                           18:53                Alright, let me, let me stop recording. You too.

0

Does Organized Religion Move Us Forward?

Anne Mason and Thea Mason –– — with Drake Mason-Koehler

How does consciousness grow if we subscribe to a fixed set of beliefs?

Anne Mason, Thea Mason and Drake Mason-Koehler examine and discuss.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT BELOW:

Anne:                           00:00                Okay. Hello there. We’ve got Drake from the East Coast. Thea down in SoCal. Me up here in Northern Cal. We’re going to try to make this quite a short one because Drake has to leave. So I want to start this out by talking just a little bit about why we’re doing these, this series of discussions, Thea and I often talk like this all the time anyway as do Drake and I when we have a chance to be together and we thought it would be a good idea to just share it with others who might be having some of the same streams of thought or questions and want to join in to the discussion. The tagline on the website, on the Sacred Osiris website is: Into the Age of the Fifth Sun, and that refers to the Mayan calendar, the Mayan elder prophecies that we are in transition and moving into a new age, which corresponds to many other prophecies of ancient texts and religions.

Anne:                           01:15                Even astrologically moving out of the age of Pisces into the age of Aquarius. So I perceive us––of course, we hopefully are always moving forward in consciousness. Hopefully we are always growing and developing and expanding our consciousness. Evolving. But if we are between ages, marked ages, this transition is likely even more dramatic. And perhaps we could use even a little bit more attention and effort as we, as we find new language to express this transition and perhaps new conceptions and new consciousness that we may be emerging into. So, so it’s a dialogue and it’s, it’s just a lot of questions and obviously we don’t have the answers and obviously we have some opinions. But the topic I wanted to talk about is organized religion.

Anne:                           02:29                And I say that having a lot of respect for the practice of organized religion but not subscribing to one particular set of beliefs that have, has been initiated by someone else or organized by someone else, but rather kind of an amalgam of my own study and practice and sense and faith and belief. And 49 years of life experience. So the question I guess, or my, my issue with organized religion as relates to what I just said is that––and let me back up for one second. Something I love about Anthroposophy, Waldorf teaching is the, the approach to teaching the approach to answering questions, especially when the child is young. You know, “Why is the sky blue?” Rather than answer with an explanation of the way light reflects, refracts off molecules in the air. One might say, “I wonder?”

Thea:                            03:46                As opposed to answering with a finite sort of dead answer that stops the questioning.

Anne:                           03:55                That stops the wonder. Right? I think the idea in Waldorf teaching is to just let it keep going in one way or another. Right? Whether it’s as the children are older and you are having a discussion that takes you down many pads or not, but if we answer anything with, with just like a hard and fast fact, well, that’s done, right?

Drake:                          04:25                Yep. Interesting. I remember having a discussion in class this week that left me feeling sort of unsettled. And it’s funny that you’re mentioning Waldorf because Waldorf education has been on my mind a lot this week––because my verse, I think it was my verse in fourth grade, came back to my mind: To wonder at beauty, stand guard over truth. Look up to the noble, resolve in the good. And I think that was the first line that we would say everyday when we, when we left class…When I was getting kind of embroiled in the deep that, you know, the intellectual details of something. I’m getting stressed out about it. You know, I can’t figure out this, this one little thing. And I was like, well, how about I wonder at the beauty of it? Let me just look at––of this mathematical proposition or whatever it was and just kind of sit in that. And sure enough, I understood it a little bit later. Once I stopped the frenzied, you know, logic because it can, you know, when you’re trying to figure out a problem, you can get very stuck and not see what you’re missing or what presupposition you missed.

Drake:                          05:35                And Anne, when you’re talking about different ages or people switching the way that they think about things, what came to my mind was presuppositions. Because if you want to have a mode of thought or a doctrine that’s going to allow you to evolve, it seems important that it would be a motive thought or a doctrine or philosophy or whatever it is that urges you to examine the presuppositions of the philosophy itself or the doctrine itself. And maybe that’s what organized religion doesn’t do. Maybe that’s something it really explicitly doesn’t do––is urge you to question why you’d be associated with that particular organized religion. And that’s supposition on my part, I don’t have evidence to back that up right now. I don’t have a lot of life experience with a particular organized religion, but just from my reading of different texts, that seems something that perhaps the actual teachers, you know, like, like Buddha or Krishna from the Bhagavad Gita, Christ. I think they do, they do urge people to actually think about things. But then the customs or laws laid down after those teachers by other people who embrace those religions maybe don’t as much.

Thea:                            07:12                It makes me think a little bit, Drake as you say, that like that the teachers themselves were teaching, one of it was to maintain interest in things and questions. That space of wonder. And what seems to be one of the things that people in general, one of the places where we get tripped up is that wanting to claim something entirely or, or be secure. I wonder if it comes from a sense of wanting to be secure in some finite existence that the wondering stops. Like it’s a failing of humans. Maybe not a failing, but it’s a habit. It’s not necessarily what the teachings are at all. Right? That the teachings and that thread, stream of wisdom isn’t finite like that, but that’s what we’ll do to it––like hanging on to the image of it rather than penetrating to the essence of it.

Drake:                          08:20                Yeah. Or just, I mean, and that seems to be simply like staying in your comfort zone, right? And that doesn’t have to be something that is totally seen as negative. Like, yeah, all of us humans are going to do that, want to stay in our comfort zones, but if we can understand that it applies intellectually or religiously or spiritually as well. Because I feel like we, at least personally, I don’t often think about it applying to those areas as well. Like, oh, you know, I wanna stay in my comfort zone in terms of I don’t know, how hard I’m working at something or some other aspect of my life that’s maybe more external and easier to examine and I might not realize, “Oh, wow! It might also be my natural tendency to stay in my comfort zone religiously or spiritually” or whatever these other aspects of, of life that are less tangible.

Anne:                           09:17                Yeah. I mean, humans have this kind of dichotomous relationship with change and the unknown. So we are drawn to it because we are curious and we have an innate need to grow, as do all beings. But it’s scary too. So we like to find answers that we can rest upon, I’d imagine. Right? I really like your point, Drake, that probably the original teachings and teachers we’re conveying a truth and spirit to others who then took that and fixed it. I mean, when I say fixed, put it in a fixed organization that can be handed down and worked with as a framework, always difficult to do. So I guess, since I don’t practice an organized religion either and my main experience is with Catholicism, but I didn’t get that deeply involved in it. I can’t speak to the tenets of all the different religions. I do agree that a foundation of morality is critical to a society, a family, a religion, anyone. Right? But those can be principles that are not challenging to understand. But when we get into pedantic details, even of…I was having a conversation with someone whose religion does not subscribe to a belief in reincarnation. And the first thing that I think I remember him saying is we don’t believe in reincarnation. Right? And so that, that just saying, “we don’t believe,” to me that’s problematic because, I mean, I’m not a collective. I work with people and I need people, and I I learn from people, and I also share some beliefs with people, but I don’t like saying “we believe.” I believe. So far, too. I believe, so far. Best I can ascertain. Here’s what seems to make sense to me. Sorry, go ahead.

Drake:                          12:50                Well, yeah, that’s just what jumped to my mind when you said, “we don’t believe,” for some reason, I thought of the “royal we,” how a lot of a lot of literature when kings are speaking, from like older times, they use the “royal we” and it like is it from themselves? And I was like, oh, well, obviously, royalty, authority. You know, like if you’re saying “we don’t believe,” it’s like this credence of authority that you’re like interweaving with your opinion. Your opinion is the authority, and an authority kind of seems like something that’s less likely to be questioned.

Anne:                           13:23                Well, yeah, right. Also, you know what I think of though? I think of the Borg from Star Trek, right? The collective, hive mind, “we believe.” Right? Anyway. But back to that topic, for example, reincarnation. Look, I don’t know. For sure. To me, there’s enough evidence out there and certainly enough has been passed on through the hermetic traditions by many that I respect to suggest that reincarnation is something. Does exist. However, as I pointed out to my friend, maybe the ultimate goal is to stop cycling. Perhaps the goal is to stop reincarnating. Perhaps, perhaps that’s the goal for humanity. Perhaps that’s the goal for each individual soul––if you subscribe to that belief that there’s a soul––and perhaps it was interpreted somewhere along the way that because the goal is to not cycle, it doesn’t exist. But, but doesn’t want one need to leave room for the possibility that it does? Doesn’t one need to leave room for the possibility that there is something contained in every religion––every current modern religion being practiced, and every ancient religion that we have learned about, and every future one going forward––that there is some, some piece of the puzzle there that cannot be ruled out?

Thea:                            15:17                What it draws to my mind a bit is there’s certain stories––and I know Drake can relate and probably you––that I like to reread every few years, even novels or whatever, to come back to a story. And every time I read it, as I live more life, I see more in the story that was always there, but I couldn’t, I didn’t have the experience within myself to reflect it and see it. And so it makes me think a little bit of the teachings of these different lines, these different religions, that that’s why there has to be a continuous study and penetration of the wisdom that’s passed to us. Because if we take it at face value, we see it in the way we saw something when we were five or ten or fifteen or twenty five or whatever it is. Instead of allowing it to just continue to work on us and for us to work with it in that expanding depth of anything that’s true or you know, that has that seed in it.

Drake:                          16:36                That’s funny. That makes me think a couple people last night were talking about a certain Homer translator that is disliked in my dorm. And part of the reason for that, and this is debatable, is that part of her philosophy of translating is that when Homer repeats these epithets that he did because it was an oral poem and he was remembering he needed to remember what came between. So he would have these easily repeatable lines “dawn with rose red fingertips” or the “wine dark sea”, like things that he would draw on––the sea, it’s the wine dark sea. Dawn, it was this dawn. But this one translator, she translates it completely differently every single time, because she wants the reader in English to be struck with the image as if it was a new image every single time. So she’s giving different words to it.

Drake:                          17:33                And I think I, I get, I think I understand why she’s doing that because it’s more impactful for the reader. But the flip side is it seems like that takes some of the work of the person reading the book away, right? You really try, you can read it and get something different out of that image or be struck by that image, equally, if you’re actively (inaudible) every single time in one of them lesions. And so this seems to get into, like, if you’re going back and rereading a text, whether it’s a religious text or some other thing that’s helping guide your morality or your spirituality or anything it takes effort to read it differently, right? Like it naturally happens if you let years, if years go by and then you go back and read a book you’re probably gonna get something out of it just cause you’ve changed as a person in that time. But if you’re, if you’re a practicer of a religion and you’re doing it every single day or every week or something like that, it’s hard. Like, it’s hard to read the same things over and over again and have it, you know, hit you like have it really stir something in you every single time. Like it seems to be a difficulty of prayers too. Like if you have a prayer you repeat, it’s a really good practice and I, and I admire it. But to feel it every single time instead of having it be habit. And maybe, maybe the habit’s not bad as well, but it came up when I was hearing you guys talk about that.

Anne:                           19:04                Yeah, and that’s also why the, the curriculum, the Waldorf curriculum, there’s, there’s a new verse every year for the growing, the changing consciousness of the child to say. A new prayer. Right? So we’re going to wrap this up so that Drake, you can go on to practice and we can make this shorter for people as well. I think that something that’s always been very helpful to me is, I mean, this is not a new concept. That’s why comparative religion, comparative religious studies is something that people do in university. I hope they still do. I don’t know. But I think that doing whatever one can, to stimulate thought and reconsideration so that we can continue looking at things from a slightly new perspective, a fresh perspective, whether it’s engaging with new people, other people reading the texts of other religions that are different than the one that you practice, and allowing for possibility. To me that would temper the problem that I have with a strict dogmatic practice that organized religion often becomes. And dead. A deadened one, I found that with Catholicism, and I’m sure that that was my experience with it. And it’s not many people’s, because I know some Catholics who blow my mind with their connection to so many dimensions of realms and spirit and God and faith. Like blow me away. So it’s not Catholicism that is the problem, but certainly how I came to it or how it was introduced to me or the priest that was heading things up, I guess. Butso anyway, I guess that’s the conclusion for now and we can continue this discussion in another, we can continue this dialogue in another discussion. Thanks guys.

0

Can We Be Our Own Priests?

Anne Mason and Thea Mason –– — with returning guest Drake Mason-Koehler

What does a priest provide that we can’t provide ourselves?

Sisters Anne Mason and Thea Mason discuss––with returning guest Drake Mason-Koehler.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT BELOW:

Anne:                           00:01                Okay. Here we are again, we’re going to dive into some possibly controversial topics. I want to ask the question, can we be our own priests?

Drake:                          00:18                Yeah. Remembering what we were talking about last time where we, we sort of discussed different spiritual paths that people might have, whether they, I believe in God, whether they don’t believe in God whether they’re agnostic and whatever they’re sort of moral guidelines or a spiritual path might be. And coming back to this question of whether we could be our own priest, I feel like that leads me to think about what are the things that I would want a priest to do. ‘Cause I’ve never been a part of an organized religion. I’ve never had a priest. I’ve gone to church a couple of times, I’ve talked with a couple different priests, and it seems like a very important thing is that you would confide, right? And I know that that’s different in Christianity depending on whether you’re Protestant or Catholic in terms of things that confession and stuff like that. But that kind of leads to this difficulty of building up a relationship with yourself where you actually confide things or dialogue about things with yourself, whatever that would look like. Would it be a journal? Would it be a prayer? Would it be a conversation with a loved one? I feel like these are all different spaces that you could sort of hold that confidence with.

Anne:                           01:45                So in that’s the context of a counselor almost. Right? So a priest serves as a counselor and a guide to people. And we all need that sometimes. The reason the question comes up for me is that I have a difficulty with the idea of a middleman between me and my source. And maybe I have it wrong. Maybe the priest doesn’t get in the way of that. I don’t know. But Drake has gotten me reading The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky, and I’m only about halfway through. Drake has read it and there’s a particular chapter that came to mind when we were talking about this before we started recording. Drake, could you describe it briefly?

Drake:                          02:59                Yeah. Well, we were talking about about The Grand Inquisitor (chapter), and I remember I first read that book in high school and then re-read it recently. And it’s pretty life changing. But I do remember that chapter where one of the brothers presents a poem to his younger brother. And in the poem––it’s set in the Inquisition in Spain where many heretics have been burnt––and Jesus appears. And the Inquisitor instead of celebrating or kneeling down or anything like that, sends Jesus off to prison. And then comes down later, I think it’s later that evening, to interrogate him and tell him how in refusing the temptations of the devil––which is in I think Matthew and Luke section four or something like that––how they damned mankind to be free and who they choose to worship, to have freedom of conscience and have to try to be their own conscience. And he, the Inquisitor talks about how the church has stepped in to be that authority and to be what he thinks Jesus couldn’t be. Keep in mind, I mean I have to keep in mind this is all Dostoevsky’s view of the church. But what the Inquisitor lists off that he thinks that the church has provided for people, that Jesus refused to give, is miracle, mystery and authority. And so I feel like in Anne’s question of, “Can we be our own priests?”, well then we have to ask like, is that necessary? Like do we want the authority of a priest? Do we want miracle to come from, cause that’s another thing when you’re talking about, you know, not wanting a priest. I feel like, I mean I know human beings can be incredible, but I don’t look at them as exalted in that way. And I feel like that’s something that rubs me the wrong way. If someone was to tell me I needed a priest to have a relationship with God, I’d be like, well, I know he’s studied the text more than I have, but what makes what makes them special?

Thea:                            04:54                We’re all creations of the, out of some divine.

Anne:                           04:58                Right. If we all have a divine spark in us, if we are all God’s children, why should one have more authority over that relationship than another?

Thea:                            05:14                And I mean, and that’s wherewe were talking a little bit about the priest or whatever the Holy person is in a tradition that they do provide that quality of being a wise person, an elder or some sort of a guide like we just spoke of. And then there’s also that these are people who are dedicating their lives to this practice of this religion, of this tradition. And so therefore they’re giving their time and energy and efforts in a daily practice that maybe strengthens…The reason I’m saying this is because when you were saying that, it’s like, yeah, do they have a direct line to God? Is it like their channel’s a little clearer? And maybe that is what it is a little bit. Maybe their channel and frequency is tuned in a little bit more clearly, and in a stronger path to it because it’s been practiced.

Anne:                           06:30                Well, and because they are devoting themselves to that. Right? Whereas we’re raising kids, we’re doing the work in the worldly world that is not giving us that time or allowing that, allowing us to become as learned first off in that way so that we have so many resources to draw upon, but also that we are not spending as much time in prayer, in meditation, and perhaps in direct connection with source.

Thea:                            07:05                I mean that’s a question. That’s a possibility.

Drake:                          07:09                I think at least on the moral side of things. And in speaking to that sort of like need for authority, like if we do have a need for authority, because it seems especially like today, it seems a big claim to say that people have a need for religious authority. It’s like you can just look around and be like, plenty of people don’t seem to have that need. Right? But it seems fair to say that we at least have some sort of tendency to want to, to look to a moral authority when it comes to things. And we might want to escape it. But we so often, like at least I know I so often want to appeal to something, to be able to judge actions. To be able to look at myself, you know, have I treated these people right? Like what am I going to compare that to? And when you’re talking about people who’ve dedicated their life to something, it seems like that’s an easy way to, to feel trust. Like this person is going to hopefully tell me the right thing to do. They’ve dedicated their life to being able to tell me the right thing to do.

Anne:                           08:10                Yeah, yeah. They’ve been studying this so much. They intimately understand it. They have dissected it, they have contemplated it.

Thea:                            08:19                And they’ve observed, right? And had experience. And seen others.

Drake:                          08:25                Well, people are busy, right? Like, yeah, it’s hard. It’s hard to be able to do your whole day at work or do whatever it is you’re doing. Take care of your kids and then check in with yourself and be like, you know, how am I holding up to this moral standard? That’s a whole extra level of work to do and trust in yourself. That’s difficult.

Thea:                            08:44                And that takes us a little bit too, and I don’t know if I segue too much right here, but the need of, what was it you said? Magic, mystery, authority? Miracle, mystery and authority. But that we were talking about a little bit in terms of this idea of being our own priest or priestess is having ritual, having a practice of some sort that brings us back to that space of reflection or meditation or whatever it is. Something that is part of our daily rhythm that brings us to a space of that observation really, or contemplation in some way. And I was saying that that’s what, you know, Hatha yoga came out as, I mean that’s a practice for the householder to attain self-realization. You know, because you are busy with life works of managing a household and children and all of that. But then ritual, magic, when you were saying the need for a moral authority, that, I mean our sense of that checking in with ourselves, but also, I mean, we look at our world, we have a need for mystery and miracle, you know, that is huge. And we see it in people’s excitement of tech, technological advances. We see it in all sorts of these things that show a little bit of mystery that we go Ooh. And miracle. Okay. So anyway, I went all over.

Drake:                          10:42                So that’s a funny thing looking at the, at the modern world, like I mean, so few of the people that I know are a part of organized religion, and I know they’re still so many people that are and have that as a part of their daily life. But it seems like generally, or in many cases, we don’t want the miracle, mystery and authority all in the same place. Like we still want those things, but to have them all in one figure, it seems like, I mean, so when you’re talking about us being our own priests, it brings back the conversation to like, well would I want a priest to do that if I was going to have a priest, I don’t know.

Anne:                           11:33                Well so correct me if I’m wrong. I think where you’re going is that so the miracle and mystery, well we can perceive certainly the mystery, right? We can perceive that there is the mystery, and we might be able to bear witness to the miracle. Right? But do we also then want to answer the question? Do we want to then appeal to our own authority in making sense of all of it? Is that kind of what you’re saying?

Drake:                          12:06                Right. Yeah. Cause I mean that, that at times that seems impossible. Right? To, you know, at the end of the day, come back and have yourself as the authority.

Thea:                            12:20                Yeah. Well, I wonder if there’s something else in that authority is that that’s a thread to community and not being alone. When there is an authority and you, if there are many that link to an authority figure in some way, that builds community.

Drake:                          12:43                Right. I feel like elders that I’ve known, you know who I’m thinking of. But like they can be that figure in a community to some extent. I mean in a different way, but still someone that another young person and I can look to and, and go, you know, we’re going to be reverent to this person because look how much he’s lived and look what he has to say. Let’s listen. Because if we’re both doing that, it’s somehow affirming both of us, both of our experience in the moment, right? Like if we’re both, we’re both hushing down when this older man is talking or we’re both, you know, offering to help this older person. Like it’s a shared reverence that shows we’re both kind of on the same wavelength.

Thea:                            13:27                And that’s one of the things that I think is so important. And I think maybe that’s one of the things that comes out of the need for something outside of ourselves. Is that sense of togetherness that we feel with others when we are having something shared, something profound that we share.

Anne:                           13:51                Well so makes me think of a couple of things. Number oneI suppose this might seem obvious, but the priest is channeling, presumably channeling communication with God, connection to source and representing in some ways. A representative. The priest is a representative in the same way, you know, you might say parents are also representative to the child of the divine. We are an earthly manifestation to channel that perhaps. And speaking to your point, Thea, and yours, Drake, that, together we all revere, rightfully revere our elders, first of all. Our elders and those who have experienced and become wise. And so even in revering them, they do become elevated, right? And so…go ahead.

Drake:                          15:13                Well, right. And in that sense, they seem like a representative too, right? Like if someone has made it to 80 years old and they look happy, they’re healthy. And they’re talking about, you know, whatever it is, some experience or you know, they’re telling their grandchild that was the wrong thing to do. And explaining something to them. It seems that they’re representative of living a good moral life. Right? And I’m sure there’s immoral old people…

Thea:                            15:43                Well, not all old people are wise. I mean, not all old people shine.

Drake:                          15:50                Well and not for everyone would you hush your voice as they, when they start talking, because you have some sort of reverence., And I feel like with many, many elderly people, that’s my initial reaction because they at least seem like a representative of that. So when Anne’s talking about the priest being a representatives and parents being representative, like you were thinking about parents also as a representative of wisdom, too. Right?

Thea:                            16:16                And that’s what I was saying––or is it the same thing really like that not necessarily only that vessel of communication from the divine or the source, but the wisdom that comes through experience and observation, but from my experience so far in the moments where I feel like I’m exercising wisdom, when other things fall away and what’s left is that wisdom or that experience or that compassion of truth, when the other things fall away, that to me there is something in that that that is a channeling of what is good and true and, and is. Regardless.

Drake:                          17:05                Well, it’s like, I mean to look, I feel to look at something similar to that in a different way is like, it’s almost just like giving different things different weight, right? Like seeing what’s really most important or what’s truly relevant. Right. The other things falling away and being left with a single thing in a given moment, in any given moment that this is the most relevant thing right now. Even being in any dire situation and your wisdom or your past experience is telling you, okay, this is exactly what we need to do right now. And nothing else is important. It’s kind of going to one thing by itself all of a sudden.

Anne:                           17:41                Well and so I would like to not go a whole lot longer this time. So I also am hearing that the priest serves as one we can dialogue our experiences with. So that we can find some objectivity to our subjective experiences. And I explained, one of the reasons that I felt that having a priest, having a middleman there to me is problematic––the other reason ismaybe this is too long a conversation right now, but going back to The Grand Inquisitor the Grand Inquisitor who was actually also the Cardinal, right? The Cardinal, the Bishop? We find out later as he relates to Jesus that actually about 800 years ago they started working with the other guy, right? And they are basically, they are, they are working with Satan. And, and the people are none the wiser. So having a priest in that capacity, in that role––it is ripe for corruption. Right? So, you know, maybe this is something to explore beyond this conversation, but so I see ideally now, and I understand even better ideally why we have a priest outside of us to help us dialogue and relate to our source. But I do see some problems with it. We have all seen the corruption around us and how that power and authority can be and has been misused.

Drake:                          19:47                Right. And I feel like that that highlights again, looking for ways to be your own authority because you can follow, you can, you know, through every chain of like of authority, you can find someone for this authority to be accountable to and someone for this authority to be accountable to and so on forever. And it’s never going to be infallible, right? No person is going to be infallable. Right? So it seems like, I don’t know, I feel like my takeaway right now is that I’m my best shot in some ways.

Thea:                            20:21                Well, I think so. I mean, even when we have someone who we revere, we can hear that, but then we still have to be coming to our own process.

Drake:                          20:34                It’s hard though. It’s hard to revere someone and not sort of fall into a blindness regarding their faults.

Thea:                            20:40                Well, we have a tendency to that. But I think if, I mean, when I think of the teachers I have who are doing it well, they don’t allow people to put them up there and worship them. You know, they remember and remind of their humanity and failings. Not that they have to lay their failings out, but there is, it takes a real something to not let people worship you if you’re doing some powerful work. And so I think in that, in ourselves as people who are looking towards having elders and wise leaders among us, we have to remember that we still have to bring it into our own process. I mean we’re talking about, at the end of the day, that part of the practice of becoming our best self and being of service to the world in a right way is to be able to have that checking in. And strengthening that, that compass, I guess, of ourself, of our own priesthood, priestliness.

Anne:                           21:54                And perhaps to remember that it’s a relationship that we are required to participate in fully, at least equally with any authority that we have granted. And so that we have to continually be checking them and making sure that they are also doing the work to deserve that authority.

Thea:                            22:24                Right. That we don’t hand it over blindly.

Anne:                           22:27                Yeah. Or get lazy after we’ve handed it over consciously, but then over time it’s very easy to get lazy. So, I’m not sure what we’ve concluded on this one, but it was a good exploration.

Thea:                            22:47                Well, it is. And I think that the one other thing I’d love to add to it though is that in order for us to be our own guides and authorities or then even in equal relationship to those that can offer that to us, is to have those spaces just being in nature too. Because we were talking a little bit, and I won’t go into it, but talking about creating places of worship or places that are Holy, and nature is one of those that we all have. To make an effort when we’re living in cities to be in that because it gives us that sense of connection, like a direct line. I mean, that’s my experience of it anyway. You know, and it charges that, it strengthens that current in us as people.

Anne:                           23:47                Yes, it is very grounding. It is the grounding, I think.

Thea:                            23:51                And uplifting. It’s grounding. I mean, it’s the whole thing. It’s like we become clearer to be able to perceive what is there.

Anne:                           24:00                Truth. Truth. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I like that. Okay. Let’s end on that. I mean, you know, you can’t go wrong with advising that people spend more time in nature. That is, there is the quiet, there is the reverence automatically or just laid out there for us. Right? It is creation.

Thea:                            24:25                Creation. Observation. I mean, when I think of the things I want to practice more, it’s that, that quiet observation and I mean, observing anything in its natural state is a good exercise.

Anne:                           24:40                Yeah. It’s a good reference point. Going back to references, right? Drake, it’s resetting in nature and seeing this unadulterated creation gives us some perspective to bring back into our manmade world to check it, to see if it kind of stands up to truth.

Drake:                          25:06                Right. And when you were talking about representatives too, right? Like in nature, if you can look at a natural, any little scene, right? Like a little pocket of trees in a brook somewhere, it’s kind of in a harmony, right? So you can, you can look at it as representative of things. Yeah. It does seem like nature seems to work.

Thea:                            25:27                It does seem to work!

Drake:                          25:29                When left to its own devices. So when you were talking about priests as representatives, and then we were talking about elders as representatives, to just kind of look at these things as examples or exemplary of something good that we might want to emulate, that seems like a path that it can take as well.

Anne:                           25:45                Yes, what, and that, that nature and being there in nature and witnessing all of that perfection we can see that pattern and want to find that particular beautiful, perfect pattern in at least the ideals of those that we grant authority to?

Thea:                            26:17                And even then in relationship, right? In the dynamics of relationship and the way relating is happening, those dynamics of nature, the balance. Am I losing something here? Maybe?

Anne:                           26:31                We’re just, we’re just getting very abstract here, but yeah. Okay. All right. All right. Let’s cut it here and we’ll continue this dialogue in another one at some point. Thanks you guys.

Thea:                            26:45                Thanks. Love you.

Anne:                           26:46                Hold on one sec. Love you. Hang on one minute.

0

Let’s Talk About God

Anne Mason and Thea Mason –– — with special guest Drake Mason-Koehler

To move beyond the limited options of agnostic spirituality, atheism, or fundamentalist religion––we need to talk about it. And before we can talk about it, we need to think about it.

Sisters Anne Mason and Thea Mason discuss––with new guest Drake Mason-Koehler.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT BELOW:

Anne:                           00:01                Okay. Here we are with a new guest Drake Mason-Koehler, my nephew, first and foremost Thea’s son. He’s home on break and he’s going to join the discussion. We’ve been having chats, discussions as we always do about some of the subjects that we’ve been talking about. And today we’re going to talk about God. And we’ve had a few discussions about this already, so we’re going to try to kind of just hit a couple of the points and go from there. I have lamented to these guys that––I live up in the Bay area in California and I don’t think people talk enough about God. I think that God, discussions about God, is met kind of with derision and suspicion. There is an atheist tendency up here and an emphasis on secularism that I think is throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Anne:                           01:10                And I say this as someone who has gone through myriad perspectives and explorations and examinations. I was not raised in any particular clear tradition really. And I’ve come to my own faith very experientially. And as anyone who is familiar with Anthroposophy––I’m a homeschooler who follows a Waldorf Anthroposophic curriculum and Drake was raised in the Waldorf schools, Thea teaches in the Waldorf schools––we understand that religion, from the Anthroposophic perspective, all religions are valid and are a manifestation and expression of the consciousness of the time, the evolution of humanity. And no religion is regarded as––even the ancient myths––they’re not regarded as fables or misunderstandings, but an understanding of our connection to our source at the time. So that being said you know, both Drake and Thea brought some interesting points up. Drake, can you talk a little about your experience being raised in Southern California?

Drake:                          02:37                Yeah. Well, and this is because we’ve spoken about this a couple of times now. Just recalling that when you, initially were talking about the atheism that you’ve run into up in the Bay area, just in your experience, my immediate sort of complement to that growing up in Southern California ––and although I went to a school where we learned old Testament myths or old Testament stories in third grade, along with all the Greek and Norse and other myths that were part of the curriculum––I still have grown up with so much agnosticism and not even just agnosticism, but spiritual tendencies in the adults around me and gradually in many of my peers as well. And not that I think that’s necessarily a bad thing, but when it comes to discussions about God, I think that that led me to not even really start thinking about God until just towards the end of high school. And more lately.

Anne:                           03:45                Can I interrupt you just so that you can make it clear? I think what you’re saying is when you, when you talk about this kind of agnostic spiritualism or spirituality, sorry, you’re referring to a kind of nebulous spirituality that doesn’t follow any, certainly any organized religion or firm tradition. Yeah?

Drake:                          04:11                I feel like I’ve run into a lot of that. And then also a lot of, “well, I just don’t know. And I’m also not really interested in having a discussion about what I don’t know or what I do know.” So it’s kind of maybe, I don’t know what the, what the split would look like in terms of people who are going, you know, “I’m spiritual. This is my belief which is kind of hard to put your finger on exactly what it is. But they might, you know, hold it very precious and that might be very good for them. But I think the emphasis of my point would be that there hasn’t really been much on either end of the spectrum. I haven’t known a lot of people who are very religious and I haven’t known a lot of people who are very clear cut in their atheism. It’s all been somewhere in between. And the majority of that in between has also seen an unwillingness to stop and talk about it or to think about it because I think the thinking about before the talking about it. So, yeah, that was, that’s kind of where I came into this discussion.

Thea:                            05:10                And that came after also you articulating that we grew up in the Midwest where there were a lot of very fundamental religions around us. And while that was around us, we didn’t grow up with that in our home. Ours was sort of a nondescript sense of God and faith, but not any clear delineated path within that I guess.

Anne:                           05:35                Yes. We were raised by liberal academics so who were as you point out, I’ll let you speak to this, but I think who were, as many people from that generation, turned off to the hypocrisy of the organized religion that they had grown up around or even with.

Thea:                            06:02                Like, like a lack of breathing within it. I think, you know, I mean, and that was mirrored in a lot of aspects of the culture, too. I mean, the religious aspect kind of, and the structure and strictures of life in this country. I mean, just thinking of the social changes that were occurring in the fifties, sixties, you know, so all of that was a reflection of all of it in a way, too. And so there was this pushing away from that hard and fast structure and form because of the many injustices that were seen and condoned by religious practices one way or another. And that’s throughout all of history.

Drake:                          06:47                I remember, Anne, yesterday you were talking a little bit about sort of pendulum swings, like going all the way to the other end of an extreme. So wherever you might grow up you might go the other way, like both of you guys growing up in the Midwest and then coming out to California where it’s a very different consciousness than what you grew up in when it comes to spirituality and God. And my follow up thought to that has been, well, what if you grow up where it’s all agnostic? What if you grow up where there’s no, you’re not at any extreme to swing from. Right? You don’t have that, like, trajectory to go look for. Right? ‘Cause I think, needless to say, we live in a world where, you know, if you’re so blessed that you have the opportunity to, to go to college or to go and work in our world you get to forge your own path and you’re talking about this kind of like forging your own religion or your own outlook on religion or spirituality, whatever that might be.

Anne:                           07:51                Okay. We had a little technical difficulty. So Drake, would you just start from, you were talking about, you know, for those of us who are blessed to forge our own path I mean blessed to go to college, to forge our own path, that allows us to…go ahead.

Drake:                          08:09                Well, I was thinking even just looking back at the beginning of this discussion, you said your approach to religion or spirituality has been very experiential, right? Like throughout your life, it’s changed or you’ve done work with it based on your own experiences and what you’ve read, who you’ve talked to and where you’ve been. And I think similar for you. So those are kind of like individual trajectories that you guys have had and you’ve been able to come out from your upbringing growing up in a more religious place, a different type of environment, and then sort of forge your own way. So it almost, it seems like that upbringing gave you a momentum, and I know it wasn’t like, you didn’t grow up like super strict Catholic or anything like that. Also people don’t have to escape it, like they don’t have to swing away from it, but it seems like when it comes to coming to your own understanding of something or your own beliefs where do you get that movement that would make you want to establish beliefs in the first place? Is it just life happening to you that makes you want to, “okay, I need to figure out, you know, what I believe is right and wrong? How I think about children, marriage, grief, like all these other things and scriptures and religion has a lot to say on that. And it’s not necessarily all you need to be followed, but there’s a lot of good in it too.

Thea:                            09:34                Yeah. Well I don’t know if my thought quite follows precisely. I mean it still is in there, but it gives me a picture of, you know, he was speaking about the pendulum, that swinging and you were talking about earlier the streams. And with that pendulum swing you have this momentum kind of like you’re shot out of something, you know, so you have this force carrying you one way or another. And then I was thinking that when there’s this sort of work that’s coming from your individual experiences, it’s a little bit more like picking up a shovel and digging, and you don’t want to be too far from the stream ’cause you still need the current if you’re trying to create a channel. But it just gave me the picture, ’cause today we went for a walk and it rained a lot last night. So this path was just flooded and there were so many streams flowing. And I’m just thinking that sometimes to forge a new stream, you know, you do have to pick up a shovel for a bit and then it can kind of be filled in and have some of that carrying from, not the pendulum, but just from the movement of the stream itself. So that you can kind of, I don’t know, it’s not quite there, but a picture that came with that.

Anne:                           10:51                Well so drawing both on our conversation from yesterday and what you just, you both just said. So we talked a little bit about the fact that like, for example, especially the last couple of generations in this country, given the nature of the economy and the world more and more often people leave the places they grew up in, leave the traditions, the families intermarry, live abroad, live on the other side of the country. Meet, mingle and marry people who have come from widely different backgrounds. And so one is exposed to many different streams and traditions. At the same time, like Drake brings up scripture and these traditions that have come up throughout humanity’s development, understanding and need to figure out ways, codes guidelines and guideposts, those are also valuable. And the flip side of us all moving away and finding new streams is, the downside is that we also sometimes lose and abandon that which came before us. So I think that we kind of concluded when we were talking yesterday that what we’re starting to realize is that there needs to be––so we’re, we’re entering the age of Aquarius. I think I brought up the fact that, you know, as I see it, each epoch is about 2000 years long. And so we’ve come to that end of our current form of Christianity––do we need, I mean, I’m talking about in the Western tradition because we’ve all grown up in the Western tradition, so that’s all I can really speak to, right? So is what we’re seeing around us is that indicating a need to create a new stream, a new path that perhaps for the first time in recent human history is informed by our individualism as equally, if not more than our group…What’s, what’s the word I’m looking for, Drake?

Drake:                          13:53                I don’t know. Like our need for community or something like that?

Anne:                           13:57                Well, you know, we need, we need community, right? But, well, Thea and I had done a talk a while back on claiming our authority and we emphasized the fact that––certainly for us, we see the need to we have lived and, and strived to, be our own authority, rather than look to the experts, rather than look to the doctors the lawyers, the teachers, the priests. Not that that means we reject what they have to offer, but I will put my authority above them all in my final decisions about anything. And I think that this, there is a lot of that, there is a lot of that impulse in people and they’re finding that groove in different ways. Maybe one of them is simply and embrace of atheism, because they are rejecting everything that came before them. Because they’re saying, no, that didn’t work. But perhaps what needs to happen is we need to find something that doesn’t then throw the baby out with the bath water. Because we are spiritual beans, which I will say again only for my own personal, my own experience, but I believe we are spiritual beings or we have a spiritual impulse, a spirituality and we do need to speak to that. And materialism, reductivist materialism, doesn’t answer that need in us.

Thea:                            15:48                Well it doesn’t hold the space for that mystery that is always present in some way. But I’d like to go back just a moment, ’cause I think there was something you said yesterday in our conversation that was really important to distinguish when we’re talking about this sort of age of coming into this individual sense of seeing. I want to find a better way to say it. It is reclaiming our authority or claiming our authority, but also really the honoring of our own seeing is part of that. But what you said yesterday, was there’s a difference between individualism that is just self-serving and sort of narcissistic, as opposed to a group of individuals coming together––I mean maybe you want to say it––as opposed to a group of people who are all thinking the same or don’t have their own responsibility of self quite there. But when everyone is an individual and their work has been done through themselves to come to where they are, there’s more power in that group of people working together towards a shared goal than there is in a group of people following someone with a somewhat shared goal.

Anne:                           17:13                So, basically that, you know, there’s a difference between a group of individuals bringing their own unique skills, talents, perspectives, experience to the table toward a, a shared goal––the evolution of humanity, let’s say that––versus a collective of group think that is following one idea and path. And so I think the way we concluded, and we want to wrap it up just to keep this short, but we want to keep this going, I think, this is a good start. I think what we determined perhaps is that there’s gotta be, there has to be another path now. And so, you know, there’s, there’s a path beyond just the choices of atheism, fundamental religion, nebulous, agnostic, spirituality. Something else maybe needs to emerge and be formed. And new language must be found for a new, experiential understanding of God, or our connection to source, whatever that is for you. And the way to do that is to start talking about it more.

Thea:                            18:28                Thinking about it.

Anne:                           18:29                Well exactly. Like Drake says, you have to first want to even think about it before you can want to start talking about it.

Thea:                            18:36                Well, and then that’s where the conversations come ’cause you have to show up, you have to show up for the––now I’m thinking of baseball––show up for the game. You know, you have to be able to stand at the plate and be like, yeah, let’s bring this discussion up. Let’s bring this topic.

Drake:                          18:50                Yeah, ’cause I was going to say, if you don’t––and it can be totally reasonable to not want to be thinking about these things at certain times. But if you’re not wanting to think about it and people start, you know, asking you questions, pointed questions about your beliefs or what you think and presenting you with what they think and all of that. It can feel like an attack or sort of like a barrage of something coming in at you. And if you haven’t even wanted to start thinking about it, I mean it’s going to feel weird. It feels like people are trying to get you to think like them. Which is I think why discussions about this stuff can be like…it’s so vulnerable. It’s so vulnerable for people to say what they believe or that they don’t know what they believe and they’re like, it feels like it’s a difficult thing to get past that before you say, I want to figure out something for myself, whatever that might be. Because when you were talking about materialists, I mean, I feel like, there’s so many different types of people and there’s so much out there in terms of what people have thought about these things. Like, I know there are ancient authors that I haven’t read yet that don’t believe in God, but have a system of morals and ways of thinking about things that is beautiful and can totally work for someone to read and think about and be inspired and not necessarily adopted as a sort of creed, but to feed into their own understanding of what their work in the world is. So it’s like, yeah, starting to think about it.

Thea:                            20:27                Yeah, and if this ties in just a little bit. Yesterday we had briefly spoken about this, which led to that reflection you had about the normalcy of leaving one’s, place of birth and upbringing. And that came after us speaking about Arjuna and his quest towards his seeing…

Anne:                           20:52                For anyone who doesn’t know what you’re referring to. Arjuna from the Mahabharata epic tale of ancient India, right. As Krishna’s talking to him too, right?

Drake:                          21:04                Yeah. He’s about to, if I recall correctly, I think he’s about to fight his own family, he’s about to fight, you know, half of his family members and he’s like, how, how am I supposed to reconcile myself to this? Then I was remembering from, I think it’s Matthew in the Bible where Jesus says that he’s coming to take, you know, son from father and daughter from mother or something along those lines.

Thea:                            21:30                So those pictures of having to let go of that which is familiar, to forge one’s own path with honor and truth and dignity. And that is, you know, there’s a part that’s necessary to throw off these things so you can see what’s sort of left standing. And I feel like maybe that’s what epoch we are stepping into now. It’s like, what, what’s left standing? What is there, something that we can really protect and nurture and grow for humanity from this point? And what is that relationship with God, source, a structure of morals.

Drake:                          22:12                Well also all these situations that we keep bringing up, it seems like there’s something to do with, when you run into like, contradictions, like very irreconcilable things like Arjuna having to fight his family and wanting to be a virtuous person. Those seem to be impossible to reconcile those two things. So it’s like, what does he do in that situation? And whether you want to do exactly what he does is beside the point, but just getting to see what other people do in these stories? And if that leads to conversation too, with other people like, “Oh, what did they do when they ran into a super sticky moral scenario? Where did they turn? How did they get through it in a way that they thought benefited themselves and others?

Thea:                            23:01                Where the seemingly obvious gentle, compassionate route is actually the cowardly, unhonorable or dishonorable route. Not to not have compassion. That’s not what I’m trying to say, but what seems to be a general kindness may not truly be a kindness.

Anne:                           23:20                Absolutely. And, and the only way to really kind of push through those kind of black and white choices, and push through to, to understand, embrace the complexity, but still take action, one has to examine and explore that. And I think what Drake has brought up to some degree speaks to the fact that we should not throw all of that out in forging our new path, but take that, benefit from everyone’s experience from history, humanity’s experience. Take it, examine it, discuss it, discard, try it, try something different. And then form something new. Correct?

Drake:                          24:17                Yeah. I mean, it just seems like we’re going to have to take action, no matter what. Right? We can’t just hide in our rooms forever. We’re going to have to go do things. And so it seems like it might help us make better decisions as opposed to just going, “I don’t know.” ‘Cause if you just say, “I don’t know,” you’re going to find yourself in situations where you have to do things, anyway. So, at least trying to know might…

Anne:                           24:48                Because you can sit in your room or you can sit in your community, and you can say it’s all good and you know, and decide to not make a decision toward judgment, which leads to action. But if you do that, the world is going to eventually exert its influence on you and you’re going to have to then react. So let’s get out in front of it. Let’s start talking about this more in a new way and find some new language and new concepts to examine and discuss and go from there.

Thea:                            25:31                And I would even just say maybe they’re not new concepts, right? But maybe we do need to find a new language so that those old concepts that are probably timeless and ever present just need to be understood and digested and reused in a way that we can understand now more easily.

Anne:                           25:54                Because truth is eternal, right? So truth is eternal, but our consciousness is ever changing. And so we need to develop some new understandings, I think, in order to incorporate those truths and most beautifully, powerfully, and positively manifest them going forward into this new age. Into the Age of the Fifth Sun. So let’s wrap this up. It’s getting too long, but let’s keep going. Okay? All right. Thanks you guys.

Thea:                            26:35                Thanks. Bye.

Anne:                           26:35                Let me stop recording. Bye.

0

Responding to Change

Anne Mason and Thea Mason

Our response to challenge and change is informed by our perspective––are we part of an infinitely complex, purposeful design or is our existence merely accidental?

Sisters Anne Mason and Thea Mason examine and discuss. Holiday style and in person:)

TRANSCRIPT BELOW:

Anne:                                         00:00                       Recording to the cloud. So we’re doing this a little differently this time because Thea’s here, we’re hanging out, and we’re very relaxed here in a circle of redwoods. So what we’ve been talking about is how we respond to change, responding to change, responding to challenges, obstacles that life presents us with and recognizing that something helpful to inform one’s experience in reacting to change is to recognize that this is either intended to be a school or there’s certainly opportunities to learn and grow from these experiences and that it makes it much easier to move through without resistance, as much resistance––or to move through with more grace, to move through with a focus on understanding the experience as much as one can and moving through it rather than resisting it or dwelling…

Thea:                                         01:30                       And even moving with it while it moves through, I think, is something as opposed to resisting, but to be able to see when there are these obstacles or challenges that come into our lives that are pushing us into areas that are more uncomfortable or unknown, how to sort of listen to the signals, listen to the current that’s moving with you and use the current to continue your movement wherever it is your goals are or…destinies as opposed to trying to turn around in the current, as opposed to pushing past it. I don’t know. I’m losing the analogy.

Anne:                                         02:28                       No, I agree. I mean…

Thea:                                         02:30                       …Which allows for a bit more harmonious, enjoyable moving down…

Anne:                                         02:35                       You also have the opportunity in that then to find your true path. I mean, it rarely looks exactly like you thought it was going to look like, right? And so to be open to the possibility that you’re being redirected in ultimately a positive way, if you can just kind of work with it, you know?

Thea:                                         03:05                       Right. That what comes to you is of a good nature and you are to find ways to work with it. To continue your becoming.

Anne:                                         03:17                       Yeah. Right. And even the things that come to you of a bad nature, we can speculate that that will assist our growing as well. Depending on how we respond to it, and identify and recognize it.

Thea:                                         03:29                       Well that’s what I’m saying––how we respond to it I think is what makes it good or bad, more than it may be. That’s what I’m just wondering. It’s like everything that comes up is there to show you something. Now it may be that you veer a little bit away out of that sector, you know, maybe it shows itself so you can go, “Oh, I need to reroute a little bit like this.” But that everything that comes is of a nature that is there for you to see and to utilize it, is basically what you’re saying.

Anne:                                         04:03                       Absolutely. I mean, I don’t think we’re here by accident. Let’s put it that way. Or you can choose to, you know, live that way. Good luck. You know, if you think that this is just an accident, I don’t know, whatever works for people. But it certainly resonates much more for me and makes much more sense to me that there is a purpose to it because whatever I observe around me demonstrates that there’s a perfect purpose to everything, you know, to the interaction of, you know, these trees to the earth, to the earth to us, us to the trees and all. It’s a pretty perfect design. So the idea that we’re some accidental blip in it sounds ridiculous, but anyway.

Thea:                                         04:54                       Sounds just preposterous.

Anne:                                         04:54                       It’s like the most make-believe fairy tale, right? That doesn’t make sense. That sounds like fiction. Anyway, we’re getting off on a tangent.

Thea:                                         05:08                       A little bit. So it started with, how did we start this, finding grace in the movements and change of life.

Anne:                                         05:16                       How we respond to change, basically, and what can help us, what can inform us?

Thea:                                         05:22                       And we can take that to an analogy of birth a bit. I mean it’s a little bit like, here comes the next phase. It’s uncomfortable and difficult and scary, cause you don’t know. It’s, I think, what did I say last conversation we had was it’s unbelievable, the space that you’re being asked to go into. You don’t have a reference for it. You don’t have anything you can liken to it. And then still the only way through it is to unfold a little more.

Anne:                                         06:00                       Well the only way through it is forward. That’s the main thing.

Thea:                                         06:04                       Forward. But the forward comes with a pushing. There is a pushing, right? And there is a contracting, but simultaneously there’s an opening, there’s a letting go in the contracting. So you’re having both those forces at the same time, practically. Right? This and this. The gloves, sorry.

Anne:                                         06:27                       No the light’s moving. It’s a pretty light, but it’s kind of like…can’t see us at all.

Thea:                                         06:31                       Blinding?

Anne:                                         06:35                       Oh, look what happens there. When I do that and move it slightly. Let’s see.

Anne:                                         06:40                       This is to continue on from where we were because we started building on this.

Thea:                                         06:47                       And we wanted to clarify and explore a little bit more what we were discussing about when something comes. That essentially the nature of reality, what comes to us, what thoughts, what challenges, whatever it is, is good. And that doesn’t, it’s not, or maybe it is the same as “It’s all good man,” because it is, but there is distinction.

Anne:                                         07:18                       So my point was like, I’m loathe to get into, you know, relativity because I think that can go astray so quickly, but like we were touching on in the discussion sometimes yesterday. I sense, I’m eager to get beyond the duality, too. Like, there’s more to it, there’s more dimension here. And so I think you talking about then accepting that the ultimate nature of reality is good. Well, and is God right?

Thea:                                         07:52                       And is God. And so that that comes, is good. And it’s in how we meet that which comes, that determines our experiences of good or bad, but the good is there as the foundation of it. And so do, do we struggle with it? Do we rail against it? Do we look at what it’s asking us to bring, to show, which then allows the good to come. I mean, I don’t know, I felt like I was more clear about it a little bit ago, but there’s, there’s like the layers of it as they come to us. It’s like the underneath current, that which is existing all the time. That is good.

Anne:                                         08:45                       And that’s what I feel like it relates to the whole point of me saying, you know, I don’t believe we’re accidental. You know, the idea of us being accidental, of there not being an infinitely complex plan at work or design at work seems absurd––I think if you’re walking through life fairly aware.

Thea:                                         09:07                       I mean, and then if we even think of just an ultimate-ish plan being the macro of the microcosms that we’re living in every moment, I mean.

Anne:                                         09:18                       It all contributes, it’s all part of it. Existing on so many levels and layers within ourselves, within our stages of development, of humanity’s development, within every and all. It’s complex. But I suppose what it comes down to is, you know, I think probably it’s looking at it one way or the other. It’s either that this is by design and therefore purposeful. Every moment is an opportunity to act with purpose.

Thea:                                         09:54                       True. Yeah, I think that’s huge. That’s liberating. That’s empowering. That’s everything really. Because if all those things, I mean, and I’m even talking like the little thoughts, you know––and we’ve shared this living and knowing each other for so long––you know, if you’re leaving the house and there’s that little blip that says check, check if the whatever, the window’s closed or the fire’s off or grab your keys or grab a hat. Those times that we don’t listen to those little things, we then look back and go, Oh, I did know. I’m taking that as the thread of all of it because it’s there.

Anne:                                         10:44                       It’s intelligence. There’s an intelligence there.

Thea:                                         10:44                       There’s an intelligence and intelligibility. It’s there for us to pay attention to or to ignore, and that sort of sets our route.

Anne:                                         10:53                       And so getting back to moving through challenges, meeting challenges, how we face our obstacles and move through life. That is what sets the tone. That is what informs the way we do it.

Thea:                                         11:12                       Yeah. And is it purposeful? Is it meaningful? That depends on what we choose, like how we’re able to perceive it because it is, we’re either aware of it or we’re not.

Anne:                                         11:26                       Right. And probably learning and growing either way. Right? Hopefully. Sometimes we can get pretty stuck.

Thea:                                         11:38                       And God, I mean, It’s like even those getting stuck, Oh, we were likening this to an analogy of birth later on in our conversation. We didn’t get there yet, but even that, right? Is there some something that getting stuck for a moment and then you find a new route through it, but you have to sometimes surrender then to that being stuck. I am stuck, and then something else can move or you can get back into the movement or be picked up by the movement.

Anne:                                         12:12                       Well because you know, a theme that has come up in other discussions I’ve had recently is just that everything is moving, and so it’s when we try to when we put on this pretense of it being static, it makes the whole thing way harder, right? It’s always moving. So we just have to––I mean this sounds, it always gets down to the platitudinal, trite cliches.

Thea:                                         12:50                       Well there’s truth in those.

Anne:                                         12:50                       Yes, they’re here for a reason, but that’s the “going with the flow.” And you know, I don’t mean it in that way.

Thea:                                         12:58                       Well, here’s the thing though, as you were saying, being static, being without movement, that’s what creates the static and what earlier in some conversation we were having, I was thinking that’s part of––oh, talking about the birth or the moving through obstacles, the unfolding or the shucking off of that which is staticky. Like those little pieces that aren’t in the flow. The more we let go of those with less and less of our own resistance to them being let go, the freer we are in that flow, the more strong the current is and the clearer it is, whatever it is, however, moving.

Anne:                                         13:42                       Totally. Well that’s also you know, it’s casting away expectation of what one thought it was going to be, look like, or whatever. That’s one thing, is being able to do that quickly. It makes you get through things a lot more quickly and more easily I think with less resistance. But also, it strikes me to then bring up the fact, the importance of then what foundational principles are you holding onto? Because we have to hold on to something, right? To get us through whatever it is. So what is the foundational principle that allows you to just with grace, with dignity, with courage, with faith, faith, faith. That’s the biggest part of it, right? With faith. So are those? Those are the foundational principles, right?

Thea:                                         14:39                       Like every religion has these tenets, ways of being that you hold onto. And so those are the framework. Those are the structure. That’s like the bones of it all for everything else to work around.

Anne:                                         14:57                       Exactly. But you know, the words can stop losing their meaning. Right. And that’s the problem with organized religion.

Thea:                                         15:06                       And that’s why there are aspects that we’ve had conversations about. It’s like we’re in a time of developing a new language. Language is constantly moving because things start to mean different things when they lose their, their root to the meanings. So sometimes we have to find ways to revitalize those meanings. And even maybe it’s just bringing the depth and breadth of these things to go with the flow. I mean all these phrases. They’re all in it.

Anne:                                         15:45                       The Tao, yeah. I think we should cut it.

Thea:                                         15:58                       I think it’s done. I think it’s done. Yeah. Well, there might be more thoughts that come up.

Anne:                                         16:03                       There may be! All right. See ya folks.

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