 Dear Friends,
We were in the middle of writing this magazine when suddenly, out of a blue sky with only a few clouds, there was a huge flash of lightning and a terrific crash of thunder right outside the building. No warning before it, no rain or further thunder after it, just that one almighty crash. Our electricity fuse blew and our computer network was damaged, and it took us most of the day to get everything working again.
‘What was that about?’ we wondered. Such a dramatic, one-off event surely had to have some symbolic meaning, over and above the practical one, which was that we lost a day’s work!
Searching our hearts, we came to the conclusion that our experience indicated a need to allow greater harmony between earth and heaven; a need to eliminate habits of diet and thought, feeling and action, that were standing in the way of a balanced flow of energies between our bodies and our souls. Actually, fulfilling this need was at the forefront of our minds in any case, so the lightning strike acted as both a confirmation that we were on the right track, and also an indication that we had jolly well better hurry up!
As human beings we have the opportunity, and also the responsibility, to bring earth and heaven into harmony in conscious ways, and yet how often do we, instead, stand as barriers between the two? What other reason is there for the devastation humanity has wrought upon the earth?
To remove these barriers we need somehow to get our conditioning, habits and preconceptions out of the way, so that we can listen truly to our bodies, as well as our souls, and be guided by them to find new, more light-filled ways of living. Yet how are we to respect the needs of our bodies when so many of us feel compelled – by the need to provide a roof over our heads and food on the table – to work long hours in totally anti-natural conditions? For our bodies to become the perfect earthly mirrors of heaven they are destined to be, they need sunlight, fresh air, pure foods and lots of exercise and contact with nature. How can we provide these essential things, given modern lifestyles and the financial pressures we all face?
Well, each of us needs to find our own answer to that question, but what I do know is that a doorway into this new way of living must be found, and soon, not just for our own sake, but also for the sake of the earth.
Living in balance
To help you, as you reflect on ways to find and walk through the doorway that leads to a new, balanced way of living, this issue of the Cygnus Review brings together a great deal of useful information. On the level of your own physical body, you’ll find Life from Light by Michael Werner and Thomas Stockli. This is about how Swiss scientist Michael Werner gave up eating food and what his life is like without it. We are sure it will inspire you – if not to give up eating altogether – to reflect more deeply on whether your body really needs or wants all the food you are putting into it. This will help you to free yourself from the cultural and commercial conditioning which tends to have such a huge influence over our food choices. Eating less has been recommended by sages throughout all times, the idea being that – as heaven-connected beings – it ought to be possible for us to draw at least some nourishment directly from the ethers, via the air we breathe and via our senses of taste and smell.
Having loosened some of the cultural conditioning surrounding food, we can then move on to freeing ourselves from unconscious addictions to foods we believe we like and need, but which are actually harming our bodies. A book that has helped us to do this more than any other is The pH Miracle by Robert O Young and Shelley Redford Young. Robert explains very convincingly the theory that a healthy body needs to be slightly alkaline, and that as long as it remains so we will be far less susceptible to illnesses of all kinds. When the alkalinity of our bodies is correct, illness simply cannot thrive. However, as Robert says, many of the foods considered normal in the West are highly acid-forming and therefore disease-inducing. Thus we can free ourselves from many health problems simply by reducing our intake of these acid-forming foods to less than 20% of our diet. Young’s explanations give us the necessary motivation to see through many of our unconscious food addictions and attachments, and move on to a way of eating that truly pleases our bodies and not just our minds.
To help you clean out the detritus of no longer helpful eating habits, William Bloom suggests a marvellous liver cleanse (click here).
Befriending the earth
As well as learning to treat our bodies with the respect and kindness they deserve, we also need to deepen our connection with the natural world, and find ways of living in a way that befriends and heals our earth and all her creatures. To give you ideas about connecting with the animal kingdom, you’ll find Diana Cooper’s description of how she made contact with tigers in Thailand recently (click here). You may also be inspired by the accompanying book, Animal Wisdom.
We are also thrilled to be able to tell you that, from now on, Maddy Harland, editor of Permaculture Magazine, is going to be writing a regular column in the Cygnus Review in which she explores ways of allowing greater harmony between heaven and earth in our daily lives (click here).
Turn the key, open the door, walk through
It almost always happens that, when the Cygnus Review focuses on a particular facet of the spiritual journey, we afterwards discover that very many of you are focused on that same issue in your personal lives. That’s the power of synchronicity for you! So we wouldn’t mind betting that – if you review your recent experiences, you’ll find situations that are urging you to focus more intently on allowing greater harmony between earth and heaven. And, whether these situations are pleasant or less pleasant – like our lightning strike! – let’s remind each other that all of them can become doorways for us – doorways to the world of harmony and balance we long to create – the second we choose to see them that way. And the second we make that choice, all the help in the world will be right there beside us, so that we can turn the key, open the door and walk through. As our friend Jehanne Mehta writes in her song, The Bunch of Keys:
Doorways, gateways there to find
Into the world or into the mind,
Into the space at the back of the wind,
And all you need is a bunch of keys.*
And you know, don’t you, that if we are shown a doorway in our lives, however difficult it may seem to us to pass through it, we are also given all the keys we need.
With much love,
Ann, Geoff and the Cygnus Team
* Three of Jehanne’s CDs – Emblem, Rose in Deep Water and Green Jack are available from Cygnus. Learn more about Jehanne’s poetry and music on www.jehannemehta.com
|
Messages from 
