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Service
| Inner
focus |
knees |
| Outer
focus |
soul
consciousness |
| Color |
green |
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Welcome
Report from Cambridge, Massachusetts
Dreams of Service
Why Knees?
Film and Book Recommendations
Service in the News?
Who’s Who in Service
Annette’s Poem and Prayer
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From the Editors |
In
the study of the Principles, you may get an Aha! with
the sense that the essence of
the teaching has really been grasped. Two days later
you can return
to studying and discover the aha! has
dissipated and it is like seeing the words for the first
time. Connie teaches that the encoded words mean different
things at different times but they always remind us of
our authentic selves. It helps to remember that this
kind of study is unlike academic work which relies on
left brain thinking. Connie's revelations reside in the
land of arcana. Arcana are densely encoded symbols, images,
icons or ceremonial acts which take us into worlds
which
the mind cannot grasp. Arcana can only be entered through
the heart.
Robin Moore & Tamar Frankiel, Editors
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Report from Cambridge, Massachusetts |
This month's principle is Service. Here is a teaching from one of our dream sisters: |
Service is not what you think it is.
What Service Isn't
Do
you engage in service because you think you should?
Then it's not Service, no matter what the "should,"
no matter how good the "should" seems to be. Isn't
it good to serve other people?Not if your service makes
you holier than they. Not if your service makes you
generous and them needy. Not if our service makes you
a "have" and them a "have not." Not if service makes
you a "you" and them a "them." Can you describe service
without using the words I, me, or mine?
If your service separates you from those you are
serving, then it's coming from your ego your
idea of who you think you are, not who you really
are, and that's not
Service.
What Service is
The
Invisible Garment tells us, "Service, when understood
as a SPIRITUAL principle, is a state of consciousness,
a state of being, not an action or a state of doing."
Now take a few deep breaths. Just be.
Let your consciousness expand and reach out to the web
of all life. Feel this web respond as you touch it with
your beingness; feel life bonding to itself, sentience
interchanging information with other sentience.
Allow yourself to become conscious of yourself as a servant
to life. Your perception is a contribution to the collective.
Observe how you perceive, and why you perceive that way.
Know that "you do what you do because you perceive that in the doing you express the truth of life more fully." (TIG)
Know that your perception is becoming holy. Living from
this awareness is Service.
The dreamer who is truly in Service is one who knows that
her job is to bridge the potential we can dream and the
matrix of ordinary life. A true dreamer is always in the
principle of Service, for she is always dreaming the new
dream.
--Cammie Doty
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Dreams of Service |
We
can learn about the principles by examining our dreams.
Here are three dreams of Service:
We are being taken back to Africa as slaves.
The leaders taking us are tall, thin beings with eyes that are longer vertically than horizontally. They have an alien appearance. We are all packing our things and taking them to the shore to load on ships. There is no resentment; it's as if we just knew, "now's the time." The only people who are exempt are a few U.S. servicemen including one named "Bealy."
I go to the library to check out a book. I see on the computer screen that it has been checked out and is now overdue. The woman who has the book has kept it, despite several recalls. I dream-know she will be in trouble for this, because this is a very serious offense in the eyes of the leaders.
The
strange beings leading the project appear to be angels: We are
at last committing ourselves to Service for the angelic
realm. Africa is the source of all humanity. So the
dream is reminding us of our common source and
common project. The exemption of "servicemen" suggests
that the "service" known as enlisting
for war, is different from Service as a spiritual principle. Service
requires consciousness of all humanity as one. Meanwhile,
the woman who acts selfishly - keeping
for herself something that is common property - is
the 'criminal' in this realm.
The planet is clearly visible. It is wrapped by an intricately woven white scarf or sash. The weave is open with little spaces; it looks very delicate. The weave reminds me of a spider web in the sun. I know it is strong and will stand up to storms. The planet is swaddled in the gossamer threads of white. The white changes to many colors. There is a green scent and then a green sash. It reminds me of my girl scout sash filled with many badges of accomplishment. The planet remains wrapped.
The
earth, our green planet, appears in a delicately woven
but strong swaddling-cloth, suggesting a new birth
and a new future. When the sash turns to green and
the fragrance of green plants wafts to the dreamer,
we discover that indeed we have accomplished a great
deal already in our Service - as girl (and boy) "scouts," working
on the frontiers of soul-consciousness.
The
Service aspect of the following dream is flagged by
the reference to knees:
I was in a desert with a traveling companion. In every direction, we could only see miles and miles of sand. I knew, however, that in a certain direction there was a village. I said, "Even if we have to travel on our knees, we'll continue in this direction. " Shortly we did get down on our hands and knees. We were thirsty and exhausted but kept moving. As we crawled, the village was moving toward us, as if the sand were a rug that we were pulling/pushing under us while our bodies stayed in one place.
Finally, before us stood a picturesque cluster of seven adobe houses. We knocked on a door. A dream sister brought us in, gave us food and water, and explained that a group of people had decided to create a perfect community. She told us we could stay as long as we liked. I exclaimed, "Don't you think this is wild? I mean, that I show up at YOUR DOOR? I didn't even know you were out here, and in the middle of the desert I intuited how to get to you? She seemed to think it perfectly normal.
I looked for a place to nest. The house was very cluttered with no empty space. Even the laundry room had so much stuff on the floor that one couldn't' get to the washing machine. I wondered where on earth I would find room to sleep. I desperately needed a nap so I cleaned off a couch and went to sleep.
My dream sister awoke me gently. "They've come." she said. I sat up. A long line of people stretched far out into the desert, waiting to see me. They all had questions about their dreams. The first girl, about fourteen years old, told me they'd been waiting for me for as long as she could remember.
One by one, I listened, discussed the desert dreaming with people, and one by one they left and went about their work with a sense of inner peace. I was amazed, again and again, as each person came to talk. I had no idea why I was there or really even how I got there. In fact, everyone BUT me knew. This
dream is complex, but it's clear that the dreamer's
Service was a surprise to her - an amazement
at discovering that the world was waiting for her,
in the words of a teenager, 'as long as she
could remember.' She wondered 'where on
earth' she could sleep, then simply cleaned off a couch.
Similarly, we don't know where on earth our Service
will be, but the important thing is to know that the
world has been waiting for us - that each of
us makes a unique contribution to the work of the Soul.
Look
in your dreams for references to the knees
... to connections among all souls ... to the colors green or peridot.
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Why
Knees? |
Even
though the knee may look like a simple joint, it is
one of the most complex. When the knee moves, it does
not just bend and straighten, or, as it is medically
termed, flex and extend. There is also a slight outward
rotational component when the knee is extended. This
was not known until about forty years ago. Symbolically,
the rotation suggests that one must turn around or
turn at least slightly instead of just moving
straight ahead. Our walk must open toward the outside,
the margins,
because all and everything is included in Service.
-TF
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Film and Book Recommendations |
Bobby, written and directed by Emilio Estevez
With an ensemble cast portraying fictionalized characters from a cross-section of America, the film follows 22 individuals who are all at the hotel for different purposes but share the common thread of anticipating Robert F. Kennedy's arrival at the primary election victory party.
"One learns (or remembers) from watching the film
that Bobby Kennedy went through quite a deep soul-searching
after the assassination of his brother, and actually found
his passion and his life-purpose in the faces of the poor
people of our country."
Connie Kaplan
Bobby
Kennedy's Sun and Moon were in Love. When we surrender to the work of our Sun Principle, we undergo a powerful transformation which then shifts us into the frequency of our Midheaven principle. That seems to be what happened to Bobby. After many years of devotion to ideologies, his love for his brother became the driving force of his life -
and then his Midheaven shone through. It
was the principle of Service.
Asteroid Goddesses: The Mythology, Psychology, and Astrology of the Re-emerging Feminine, by Demetra George & Douglas Bloch.
This book traces the patriarchal programming
which denigrated powerful goddesses from whole, fertile,
self-sufficient keepers of the sacred fire to "dutiful"
daughters.
Connie
writes of the principle of Service: "Our truest
Service is really found in our own self-knowing. Reclaiming
a cosmological framework of the feminine gives us a resonance
for a deeper, more mythic understanding of self in relation
to Service. The chapters on the goddess Vesta are particularly
pertinent to one's path of Service.
--RM
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Service in the News |
Ask
yourself regarding the following stories from recent
news items: Is Service appearing in its common meaning,
or in its spiritual meaning as a basic principle of
form?
- Headline: A Walk in the Park: Taking Down a Skid Row Stronghold
Senior Lead Officer Deon Joseph campaigns for tougher enforcement against drug sellers in San Julian park in Los Angeles' "skid row, insisting that "the people that live, work and frequent this area deserve the same protection and quality of life as anywhere else in this great City."
Headline:
Tennis Star Andrea Jaeger's New Life as a Nun
Twenty-five years ago, Andrea Jaeger was the brat of the women's tennis tour. While rising to No. 2 in the world, she tells People, she sometimes screamed at linesmen and was standoffish to competitors.
Cut to the present: The former tennis star, surrounded
by a gaggle of young cancer survivors, strolls the
halls of Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Jaeger's
world view has changed dramatically: On. Sept. 16
the former tennis terror became, officially, Sister
Andrea, an Anglican Dominican nun. Now 41, she has
dedicated her life to the care of kids in need, visiting
hospitals and running camps for kids with cancer.
Editor's
Note: Jaeger used to "serve" the
tennis ball to make a lot of money. What a shift
to dedicate her life to serving God, as well
as children with cancer!
- Headline: A Higher Calling Than Duty
Mark Daily, who died in Iraq in January, wrote in MySpace of his call to join the Army and go to Iraq. His words about selfless service are being read around the world. He wrote that our soldiers are working "to uphold the universal legitimacy of representative government and individual rights by placing themselves between Iraqi voting lines and homicidal religious fanatics. . . . Don't forget that human beings have a responsibility to one another and Americans have a responsibility to the oppressed."
You Make News Too!
Since
we have a whole 'service sector' of our economy -
defined as that which produces "intangible goods," we can find many examples of claims to service which are not really Service at all, nor do they necessarily produce "good." This month, try to use the words "serve" and "service" much more cautiously. And when you receive service (such as room service or financial services), see whether you can create a true experience of Service - recognizing
that you all are part of one human soul.
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6.
Who's Who in Service |
Famous
people through whom Service came to life – these
have sun in Service:
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton
19th century abolitionist and women's rights activist, organizer of the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848
- Henry David Thoreau
19th-century writer whose Walden became a classic of nature writing, and whose espousal of nonviolent resistance later inspired Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Joan Baez
Folk singer, anti-war activist, and lifetime advocate
for justice, from the campaigns of Cesar Chavez to
Julia Butterfly Hill.
- Margaret Thatcher
Longest-serving British prime minister in the twentieth century (1979-1990), known for her conservative economic policies, forfeited part of her salary every year.
- Fidel Castro
Cuba's famous leader, whose belief in the ability of communism to relieve the economic plight Cubans led him to foment a revolution and become the country's dictator.
Interesting
how many of these individuals were interested in the
significance of economic patterns in accomplishing
their aims!
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Annette's Poetry |
Annette Hulefeld, a dreamer from Chicago, has written poems
and prayers for all the thirty principles.
Here is her contribution for this month.
Service
I'm alive
to serve Life,
to serve others
as an authentic "be-ing" -
an individuated sparkle
from the stars in the Universe -
from God.
I express the potential of Life in fullness and grace.
My prayer is simple:
Here I am Life, I come to be your Gift.
I know my human-ness
is made
of the same matter as the cosmos.
We are one and the same.
As I interact and serve others,
I appreciate the sacredness of Life,
the intelligence of all life forms.
Most likely, I'll be an avid gardener -
needing spaces where I can kneel in reverence, in silence -
earthly places
that help me clear out pessimism, doubts, and dualistic thinking.
Planting and digging will re-charge my soul,
so
I can be a beacon of light radiating into the world.
In service, I can either "do" a lot or "be" a lot.
What's important is that the "doing"
be rooted in my soul's authenticity.
My mind considers the bigger picture first, the personal, secondary.
My feelings are barometers that remind me of healthy service.
I am neither a doormat nor available to all.
I share, give, and include others without a lot of selfish need.
Being the center of attention is not my cup of tea.
A Prayer for Service
Good morning
Sun, Sky and Earth!
Glory be to
Life!
Today
I awaken
to be your gift -
to be sparkling stardust
wrapped in skin, knowing in bones
flowing in peace.
Today
the garden may call me,
Earth
ready to hold and re-new
the knees that bow and sink into her richness.
Today
as I kneel in silence,
as I uproot weeds,
plant seeds, admire the flowers -
Today
as I sink into snowdrifts,
laugh with the squirrels
chattering on icy telephone lines,
watch plump chickadees pecking at birdseed -
Today
as I walk
shivering in cold, biting rain
saying yes to heaven's cleansing tears -
I remember
all life is sacred
all life is intelligent
all is real
authentic
unspeakable
Today
I serve life
Just being alive,
doing unselfishly for others,
radiating
as the Sun
gently loving
as the whispering winds.
ahulefeld 12/05
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