Visions 3

I saw a roller painting a wall whte, later I saw a hand presentng me wth a ring of several five, I think, keys. The interpretation: You are being made pure and innocent again and I am handing you the keys that will unlock and open the doors I am preparing for you. i will not open the doors, but I will lead you to them. Your part is to unlock them open and enter in. I will show you throughout the way which resources you already have and how to use them in order to make my way plain before you.

1986

"Now", says Tron, "May I get on with my tale?" "By all means", says Kenny. We were standing, visiting with Thaddai's mother in her grain and bread shop.  She was telling us that some recent droughts had reduced the harvests, she had to raise her prices and there was scarcity.  Thaddai's father was a maker of pots and vessels, one of the finest in Damascus, so that even the Roman proconsul had become one of his most diligent clients.  But with his death, that income completely dried up.  Thera was pausing, hesitating as though she did not know how or whether to proceed, when a dark shadow came in through the awning.  I looked more carefully, and all I could see was someone veiled in a black mantel edged with gold embroidery.  I could see at its hem a green silken garment, emerald green and the exquisitely sandaled foot of a young woman.  The figure said nothing, but handed Thera a small linen purse that appeared to be full of coins.  She left it on the table, then turned and noticed us.  Then, throwing back her veil, revealing a beautiful dark young woman with eyes painted with kohl., she screamed "Thaddai!", and like his mother clutched and clung to him in a tight embrace.  She was weeping silently.

It's All About Me (of course it is dear, of course it is!) 6

As a species, we humans have really totally blown it.  Climate chaos is upon us.  Europe is broiling under yet another killer heat wave.  Last year on that continent, seventy thousand people perished from heat-related causes.  Our last eleven years have been the hottest in recorded memory.  Here in Canada,as well as elsewhere in the world, killer wildfires have become the norm.  Every summer in major cities the sun gets hidden or turns a ghastly copper-orange, by clouds of health-destroying smoke.  For a couple of days Vancouver had the world's worst  air quality   topping Mexico City, Beijing and Delhi.  Meanwhile, government leaders go on signing and approving deals with the fossil fuel industries, meaning more pipelines, more fuel, more contaminents, more heat,  As if they are completely tone-deaf to what we are doing to our planet, to ourseves, to the entire web of life.  In Europe and in China there is a surge of  renewable energy, solar, wind, etc, but this really reads like too little too late. I could go on, but there is no need to. How did we get this way?  Well, fire has a lot to do wih it.  The Greek myth reads that the titan god, Prometheus, stole fire from the altar of the gods on Olmypus and gave it to humankind, so that they or we would no longer be completely subservient, but become the master of our own lives, our own destiny.  As punishment, he was chained to the face of a mountain where an eagle would come to devour his liver for all eternity. That gift of fire turned us into apex predators.  Meat, till then eaten raw and difficult to digest and rather disgusting, became tasty and easy on the stomach.  We turned from being a prey species into beasts of prey.  Our brains grew, we became more inventive, more adept and more adaptable.  We left Africa for other climes.  In many cases, places of bitter and biting cold, since the ice age was upon us.  Fire helped our paleolithc ancestors adapt and adjust to some of the most hostile climates imaginable.  Even after our prehistoric ancestors were nearly wiped out by cold and pandemics, a remnant survived and went on killing and eating, and taking down trees to warm themselves and survive the bitter cold of Europe, Siberia, and northern Canada.  Our population grew, doubling, tripling, quadrupling and so on.  We cut down more rees, burned more wood, deforested mountains and hillsides, destroying ecosystems, and even then we were starting to foul the very air that keeps us alive.  It never occurred to anyone that we might be a species adapted and designed exclusively for tropical qnd subtropical climates.  No one was about to move back to Africa, or stay in India or indonesia.  Fire made us masters of our destiny.  Fire was the first catalyst to help separate us from God. Our numbers grew.  exponentially.  We continued to hunt to extinction a whole myriad of species of the most magnificent animals that ever graced our planet.  We continued deforesting, destroying ecosystems, and then came agriculture, the big ecological deal breaker.  Most of the British isles and many other parts of the world became deforested.  but we wanted to stay warm and cook our meat.  Bye bye forests, bye bye ecosystems.  Then coal was discovered, and entire cities in Europe became almost uinhabitable from the reulting smog.  Then petroleum game along and gangbusters!!!!! i almost forgot to mention that not long afer, we learned how to split the atom.  Bye bye Hiroshima.  Bye bye Nagasaki.  Hello global nuclear terror.. We could, especially in developed nations, cut our energy demands and needs in half, and with just a few small trade offs and sacrifice, we would be living within our means and climate catastrophe could be forestalled, perhaps indefiniltely. But no one wans to do this or even hear about it.  Prometheus's gift of fire was the gift of hubris, and ever since then, our species has gone its own destructive way, completly engulfed in greed, selfishness and fear, because hubris does not unite humanity.  It splinters, balkanizes and divides us.  Every rat for himself. And now we have this lovely age of narcisism to survive.  i tend to think here of the closing lines of the song by King Cimson, Epitaph:  "Knowlege is a deadly friend if no one plays the rules.  The fate of all mankind i fear is in the hands of fools." We have always  like small children playing with adult size tools and weapons.  This is not going to end well

1985

"I'm not sure if I quite follow you, Ethan", says Erik. "Who is here in this room with you?" "Why, you guys of course", he says with that dumb helpless smile of he who really does know better. "And we are your neighbors.  And when you are in Stockholm or Malmo walking the streets, who do you see on your left, on your right, and walking ahead of you." "strangers?" "And...?" "Other people." "Who are those other people?" says Carl. "How the hell should I know?  In Sweden no one talks to each other." "No one talks to their neighbour", says Tron, a little grin hovering on his lips. "But.. I didn't mean, I don't...What?"  and as though his deep brown eyes have just discovered light for the first time, they both widen, and Erik says,  "Ohhhh!" "You are not far from the Kingdom of Heaven, my son", says Kenny, chortling...

1972

Says Carl, "You're just like that young smartass in Luke's Gospel who inspired Jesus to tell about the Good Samaritan." "The good what?" "You mean you don't know the parable about the Good Samaritan?" "Erik comes from Sweden" say I, which is a country full of atheists, and very few there have ever heard or read the Bible or seen the inside of a church." "The Good Samaritan", says Carl, "Was a member of an outcast people in the time of Jesus, whom the Jews, especially the Pharisees or religious leaders, really despised.  Their ancestry was mixed, so they were considered impure or traitors.  And Jesus often taught in parables, or little stories, so he told about a man who was robbed and beaten and left for dead on the road.  Two different jewish religious bigshots passed by and ignored him.  Then came a despised Samaritan, who took care of him and made sure he was okay.  That really tweaked the Pharisees because they knew he was telling them off for their hypocrisy." "Much like modern church leaders", scoffs Erik,  "We still have a few of them in Sweden and they are such a joke. No wonder no one in that country believes any more." "So then, Erik", says Tron, fixing on him his beautiful flaming amber eyes, "Who then is my neighbour?..."

Visions 2

Yesterday I saw two erect wooden poles with netting between them and a grapevine growing up on them and bearing an abundance of ripe grapes.  Then I saw a rushing stream of pure crystalline water, and the stream grew to  river, a waterfall and eventually to a broad mighty and slow flowing river with deep muddy water and all kinds of herbiage and trees growing on its banks and then  flock of beautiful white birds, like terns or doves taking off into the air. today I saw a closed fist, slowly opening and revealing a handful of golden wheat, and even before the grain was scattered on the ground it began to sprout and germinate and some green to all manner of plants and trees when it hit the ground, some produces beautifully coloured birds flying away and some turned into gemstones.  Then I saw several large urns, brightly coloured.  Each was being uncovered and an angel began to clean the inside.  The lids were to remain off because the urns were going to be filled with wine. You are going to bear an abundance of fruit in your remaining years of earthly life, and I have created for you a structure that will support you in this endeavour because as a grapevine cannot flourish without something to grow on, so must you have external supports for my work to flourish and be complete in you.  Your daily discipline and the people I have brought into your life and the place where you live are all going to contribuñte plus I will be bringing to you new supports.  Your life is represented by that river,, in your youth you were not ready to produce anything lasting for me buñt through the course of your life you have gained and grown in depth, knowledge and wisdom and now, even though you are moving more slowly it is with thoughtful and prayerful consideration and the harvest that results from this overflow will be abundant and as with the white birds, a great blessing shall spread to many. the closed fist is your heart slowly opening to me and revealing the seeds of life I have planted in you. As you continue to open to me and to others these seeds are going to germinate and grow into a variety of blessings.  The urns represent the talents, gifts and abilities I have given you, and s each gift is surrendered and opened to me so will I cleanse it of the world's corruption renew and reconsecrate and sanctify it to my use, and it will be like the wine of My Spirit, My blood and My holiness.

1971

"What are the two great commandments?" wonders Erik. "Hear O Israel".declares Carl, "The Lord thy God is One God, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.  and the second commandment is like unto it: thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." "The law and the prophets?" Says Tron, "All the writings of the Old and New Testaments spring from the same source.  The love of God, for God is love.  Regardless of what humanity has done to mar or distort these beautiful truths.  They still all consist in God who is love.  Our command to love God and neighbour is simply our native response to the love that God has for us.  For God is love; it is God, or love, that created the universe and all that is in it; it is God who is love who birthed into being this beautiful planet we call earth, it is God who is love who created our kind and breathed into us the very life of his spirit, our souls.  And though we plunged this beauty into chaos when we followed the prince of shadows in our rebellion against God who is love, he came to us as Jesus. that selfsame youth who is also our lovely host, to wear our human flesh and suffer and die in great humiliation our very human death.  But love could not and would not stay dead, so that Love, as Jesus, descended to hell, set free the captive souls and rose again triumphant over the grave, death and hell...." "And who then is my neighbour?", argues Erik.