Our world is in a process of metamorphosis - a time of radical change. The earth, the planetary being on which we live, is giving birth to a new age and form. Caught in the limbo between the death of the old and the birth of the new, and experiencing the pains of both, many of us find it hard to cope. Life is not easy and we are pushed to question many facets of it that we have previously taken for granted.

Wei Chi

In ancient China this crucial time between cultures - the ending of one civilization and the beginning of another - was known as "WEI CHI". The term implies crisis or change - the midpoint between life and death, the moment of crisis or danger in the delivery room when a woman is in labour but the baby has not yet emerged. WEI CHI also means a major initiation, a moment of choice, an opportunity to change. WEI CHI stimulates excitement and a sense of our own power, while also stirring up fear and panic: "I can, I will, I want to", versus, "I cannot, I'll make a mistake, I'll fail".

One of our greatest fears as human beings is our fear of change - our fear of loss and separation from all that is comfortable and familiar. Our terror of the unknown, especially in the form of death, prevents us from taking risks, daring to be different and living a life full of excitement and joy, independent of the approval or disapproval of those around us.

And yet encounters with danger, challenge and change are part of life. From these experiences we can emerge stronger and with a new awareness of life.

The Influence of Pluto

The past decade was under the influence of Pluto, a planet discovered in 1930. I am not an astrologer, but I know that Pluto rules the unconscious; it pushes forward transformation and evolution by bringing to the surface all which we have repressed, denied or just do not want to see. Plutonian energy brings us to a point of crucifixion, a dark night of the soul, which rips away the foundation of the persona or personality we have developed from childhood. Pluto stirs us to face our shadow, our ego, our past. It urges us to live our own truth and to let go of whatever is obsolete and outgrown.

The influence of Pluto triggers identity crises, discomfort and disruption, maybe through loss of job, relationship, money or home. Pluto represents the downward spiral of spirit into matter, and leads us to confront despair, loss and death - it is the great initiator that paves the way for new beginnings by liberating us from the past.

Dark Night of the Soul

The phrase "dark night of the soul" comes from the writings of the 16th century Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross. Today it implies a crisis that occurs when the things that used to work for us no longer do. For example, a friend lost the use of her hands which she needed for her work as a physiotherapist; a successful actor was turned down for every new part he applied for, despite his excellent track record on stage, TV and in the movies. Proud parents produced a child who developed into a drug addicted adolescent and was subsequently expelled from a number of schools. A writer with many books to his name could no longer get new work published; another writer left three years of work in a taxi and never saw it again, yet another writer lost her health.

Obviously, this crisis is going to be different for each of us. No matter how it comes we are inevitably changed afterwards. The structure we put around ourselves, the shell formed by the roles we play, that tends to enclose our humanity, compassion and understanding, is shattered. We will never be the same again.

If, when a catastrophic event occurs in our lives, we acknowledge it as a catalyst for major change, instead of bemoaning our fate or blaming God, we rob the situation of its power over us. People who blame God, life or anyone else, will always be victims. They allow what has happened, and other people, to dictate how they feel and what they do or do not do. If we could look at some of these things as if they were dreams and say, "Why? What is the message here for? What am I meant to learn? How am I meant to change? What is the difference in me now, compared to who I was, or what I was like before?" and, "No matter if I've lost my health, my job, my wife and my friends, no matter how little there seems left, I am going to use that little to the utmost of my ability, life suddenly co-operates with us. We reclaim our power.

Christopher Reeve is a wonderful example of this. Attractive, famous and charismatic, Christopher Reeve appeared to be the epitome of Hollywood success and had the world at his feet. Today he is paralysed, wheelchair bound, and breathes with the help of a machine. Initially in a coma, and when he came out of it, wanting to die, Christopher Reeve has turned his accident around and now works to publicise the plight of others who suffer crippling disability. This is true alchemy. He is also determined that one day he will walk again.

After confrontation with crisis, or, as it can seem at the time, descent into the underworld, which crucifies the ego and de-crystallizes the personality, comes re-birth. Our beliefs about life, who we thought we were, ought to be and what we should or should not do, invariably change. We develop compassion and the ability to trust and live our own truth. The word believe means I be-live. I live my beliefs, I walk my talk.

Something beyond Logic

Usually the "dark night of the soul" experience brings us to a point of despair and helplessness which forces us to move beyond total reliance on logic and rational thought and search for answers within and beyond ourselves. This is the key to life as we move into the 21st century.

Some years ago I worked in America with Paul Solomon, an American healer, teacher and mystic. Paul Solomon has been compared with Edgar Cayce (founder of the A.R.E. - Association of Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach, USA) because their breakthrough into altered states of consciousness came about in a similar manner. Both were at a standstill in their lives, both were hypnotized, and in each case a "voice" spoke through them, during their first hypnotic sessions, giving specific instructions as to what must be done to effect a cure.

In the case of Paul Solomon, the voice when asked, "Who are you?" replied, "I am the source of Paul's intelligence, a part of Paul's consciousness that knows everything from the beginning of time." Questioned as to whether this intelligence was unique to Paul because he was a genius, the voice said, very firmly: "No. This intelligence is available to every single human being, but most people are either unaware of it, or unable to contact it."

This intelligent soul, or source part of our minds, is like a teacher, similar to an older brother or sister, who knows more than we do. Instead of wringing our hands and crying, 'Woe is me. Why do all these things keep happening to me? What have I done to deserve this?' We can find out. We can ask the teacher. Meditation, prayer, visualisation, dreams and imagination are all ways of picking up the telephone to dial the teacher's number, and also enable us to listen to the answers.

How did we get to this point?

The 1990's pushed us to make a quantum leap in consciousness, to clear ourselves from the fears that bind and blind us from recognising that we are multi-dimensional beings, moving from self to cosmic consciousness; that we came here as midwives, custodians, god-parents and caretakers for the new planetary consciousness now emerging.

The year 2000 brings into sharp focus the fact that the old way of religion, education, health and politics are rapidly becoming obsolete. Ethnic massacres, torture and starvation of thousands of people, wars, earthquakes, cyclones, political scandals, aeroplane crashes, (as I write this an Air France plane crashed outside Paris with 113 or more dead), bombings, UFO sightings, BSE (mad cow disease), life-threatening viruses that do not respond to antibiotic treatment, have all contributed to a shift from personal to global awareness. Threats to survival force us all to question the meaning of life - are we spiritual beings having a physical experience or physical beings having a spiritual experience?

Magazines and newspapers increasingly focus on unusual phenomena, from global patterns of weather change, the appearance worldwide of crop circles, to men and women who claim abduction by aliens, and the conspiracy theories that government and big business hide much information about what is happening from the world at large.

Global communication via television, telephone, radio, Internet and satellite gives us instant information on events that occur thousands of miles away. Surgeons have virtually mastered the art of transplanting organs and limbs. Satellites in outer space reveal that planets such as Mars may have supported not just life, but a highly advanced civilization. New ways to treat cancer and Aids, non-toxic means of boosting the immune system, herbs and vitamins to stimulate mind power and memory, as well as prevention against Alzheimer's and senility, super-learning, speed-reading, subliminal messages that affect our behaviour from over-eating to the prevention of shop-lifting, hypnosis and music played before and during surgery, are no longer pie-in-the-sky ideas. Ozone and oxygen therapy, regression into past lives, acupuncture and deep relaxation techniques are amongst myriad 'alternative' solutions to curing illness, popular with open-minded doctors and their patients.

Parallel with all the transformational discoveries and inventions is the fact that we have also dehumanised life and made it increasingly competitive. We have destroyed nature, hunted animals to the point of extinction, relied on material success and possessions as a sign of a good life, instead of developing an inner state of peace and well-being. The result is that life is both confusing and deeply unsatisfying for most people. We have separated our hearts from our minds, cut ourselves off from contact with the earth and nature to such an extent that depression leading to suicide has become a worldwide epidemic. A recent study of 38 countries by the World Health Organisation showed that after violence and car accidents, suicide was the third highest cause of teenage deaths.

Now scientists have discovered that the sun, as well as the earth, is changing. The 1994 the Ulysses probe showed that the sun was losing its magnetic field or polarity and was causing solar flares to increase. When these flares erupt, vast magnetic storms rage, changing the earth's magnetic fields. According to research done by Sheila Ostrander and Lyn Schroeder, authors of 'Cosmic Memory', these changes produce abnormal behaviours in humans and animals. Apparently when solar flares occur, they stimulate old emotions, grudges, fears and memory loss.

Geophysicists have told us that the centre of the Earth is crystalline in structure. Its inner and outer cores rotate at different speeds and generate magnetic fields. In 1994 a fragment of 'something' from Jupiter fell towards earth, breaking into 21 fragments as it did so. As the earth's magnetic fields were hit by those fragments the resultant shock waves or vibrations triggered enormous unconscious emotional reactions in countless numbers of people on earth. In other words, scientists can now explain why everyone feels that 'something is going on'.

Our physical bodies, as well as every particle of life on earth, are being accelerated in energy, vibration and consciousness to the maximum that we can stand in every 24-hour period. Spiritually we are going through a form of crash course to prepare us for our solar passage into the fifth dimension. (Dimensions are the inner plane equivalent to the charkas or energy points in our body). Planet Earth has been moving from the third dimension through the fourth, and the fourth and fifth are now interfacing. When this occurs, we experience 'no-time'.

Since the beginning of the century we have lost 20% of the time we used to have. Most of us, including children, sense time speeding by so fast there is never enough time. It can also induce a sense of loss of control over one's life. Not only are our relationships falling apart, but everything appears to be in chaos from kitchen to office desk. We can no longer keep cupboards and drawers as tidy as we used to. Relationships are increasingly difficult to sustain. Most of us project onto others our own imbalance and then blame others for the mirror reflection we do not accept in ourselves. One of the most important acts we need to do now is to bring into balance both our inner and outer male and female energy. We must become whole within ourselves and not dependent on another to make us feel whole. A relationship is a journey of self-discovery and must begin with self-love and self-acceptance. If I honour myself, I will honour my partner and give us both the space to grow and to be.

The acceleration of time causes physical discomfort in the sense of chronic, glandular-fever type tiredness, dizziness, scratchy eyes, 'flu-like symptoms, aches and pains, especially in the back and legs, sore throats and breathlessness.

Insomnia, forgetfulness and emotional vulnerability are three more very common symptoms as the planet lifts to another level. We go to bed tired and yet jolt awake at 2 or 3 am, as if hit by an electric shock and then remain sleepless for the rest of the night. We go into the supermarket and forget what we came to buy, we introduce our oldest friends to strangers and forget their names, or leave our fare money behind when on a bus or train. The interface of dimensions increases not only forgetfulness, as if we suffered a planetary Alzheimer's, but also the incidents of synchronicity.

Synchronicity, a term coined by Jung, implies "clusters of significant events occurring together." For example, I may think of something, switch on the radio and hear an announcer simultaneously saying the very words I am thinking. Or I may think of a friend and a second later he or she telephones or knocks on the door. Instant manifestation is another aspect of synchronicity. Whatever you need in the moment appears. Things also disappear - especially keys. You know you put them on the table while you put on your coat, but when your hand goes to pick them up, they are no longer there. Hours later, after much searching, they reappear in the bathroom, or under your pillow. So called inanimate objects appear to stroll about day and night, changing positions so they are never where we think they are, only to return when we have long given up hope of ever finding them again. When I was a child, my Irish grandmother used to tell me that it was the gremlins. If so, the gremlins are now teasing us all.

Today, synchronicity also means instant karma. Karma is the law of cause and effect. For example, if I express impatience with a person, I will later receive the same treatment from someone else. If I see the supermarket checkout girl has given me too much change, and choose not to tell her, I am likely to have my bag or purse stolen or maybe I will be short changed after my next purchase in a totally different store.

Emotional vulnerability is yet another common symptom of the vibrational changes taking place around and within us. We may find ourselves with tears rolling down our cheeks while listening to music, watching television, reading a newspaper, or gazing at a particularly beautiful scene in nature. It is as if our masks have been stripped off and we are becoming increasingly sensitive and empathetic to one another. Not only are we more emotionally sensitive but physical sensitivity makes many of us allergic to synthetic fabrics and toxic, acid-forming foods. A diet of 80% alkaline and 20% acid is a good balance. To eat simple, fresh, live foods 'full of water foods' - will not only improve our health and immune system by will stimulate mental and physical alertness.

Photon Light

In addition to solar flares and the rotation of the earth's core, we are also experiencing the effects of the Photon belt. The Photon belt is a band of light discovered by satellite in 1961. A photon is a quantum (smallest particle) of electromagnetic energy with zero mass - ie. no electrical charge and indefinite lifetime. Deepak Chopra, the American MD and spiritual teacher, said the following about the Photon belt:

"Before the sun throws out light where is the light? Photons come out of nowhere, they cannot be stored, can barely be pinned down in time, and have no home in space whatsoever. That is light occupies no volume or mass. The similarity between a thought and a photon is very deep. Both are born in a region beyond space and time, where nature controls all processes in that void which is full of creative intelligence."

The spiritual power of the Photon band of light is similar to illuminating an area with a searchlight. Suddenly all sorts of things, good and not so good, are revealed. They were there all the time but unnoticed. It is similar to making a soup stock from bones. You put the bones in a pan, cover them with water and switch on the electricity or gas underneath. With the heat on, as the bones simmer, a froth or scum comes to the surface. When the heat is extinguished this froth is scooped off and underneath is a beautiful clean stock. Photon light, as it penetrates the earth, is putting the heat on, collectively and individually, so that all the negativity can come to the surface to be seen, transformed and removed. It is a wonderful opportunity to clear ourselves of all negative karma - from this and other lives, if you believe in reincarnation.

I believe Photon light is the light of the Christ consciousness, the Holy Spirit, the light of God, the source of all life. It is available to all peoples, all religions and brings with it an increasing realisation that we are not alone, but have limitless help from invisible worlds. This is partly why books, talks, TV and radio programmes on angels are so popular at this time.

All LIfe is Energy and Vibration

Sir George Trevelyan, regarded as the father of the awakening of new spiritual awareness in Britain, once said:

"We are discovering that this planet is not just a tiny unimportant speck in the universe, nor are we the only civilisation. This earth is of paramount importance as a channelling point through which spiritual beings on all levels can flow and evolve. Humanity is to be seen as a great experiment of God going through the illusion of separation from the divineness, and evolving self-consciousness to achieve conscious reintegration with the divine will, in free creativity, as co-creator and companion to God."

These words remind us that we are all spiritual pilgrims with the same soul purpose - reunion with God. Each life-purpose is unique and is the term used to describe the life experience we have created that will ultimately lead us back to God.

Instead of feeling apprehensive or afraid of the accelerated energies and light that now affect life on planet Earth, we need to remember that all of life is energy and vibration. If we keep our own vibratory fields, or wavelengths at high levels, we will move through these transition times with ease.

We can compare ourselves to an electric fan which, when not plugged in or activated, is just a lump of metal. Once switched on, the blades become invisible, but we can feel their effect. And if our fingers accidentally touched them, we'd be seriously hurt. In the same way, fast spinning vibrational fields, invisible to the naked eye, deflect negativity - and harm - away from us.

Homeopathy, Aura-Soma, bio-active vibrational healing, flower remedies such as those developed by Edward Bach, the South African gem and flower elixirs, the Australian bush essences, amongst others, not only keep our vibrations high, but also catalyse both self and spiritual awareness. Flower gem elixirs remove blocks which inhibit the free flow of energy in our physical and subtle bodies. Sun worship, crystals, bathing in the sea, streams or pure spring water, all boost our immune system and revitalize our inner and outer selves.

The greatest prerequisite for mental, physical, emotional and spiritual well-being is unconditional love for self and others. "I love you as you are and not as I would like you to be." Part of unconditional love is treating every single person and creature who comes into our lives as if they matter. In fact, flowers, plants, cars, kettles and all material objects respond to love and appreciation. Bless everything you do and see. Eg. bless the newspaper you read, the letter you post, the bill you pay. Live what is true for the highest within you, your soul or spiritual self, your heart-feeling self. Visualise the world you would like to see and behave as if it were already here. Purify your physical body by looking at what you put in and on it - decide only the best will do. (Not the most expensive but the most beneficial).

Don't take any of the disaster predictions too seriously. Use your common sense and have a sense of humour. True spirituality is light, joyous, humorous - it is not heavy ritual or rules, regulations and dogma. Wear clothes and colours you like. Do not save your best clothes, china, glass, linen etc., for best. Use the today and give away what you no longer use. Do not have anything around you that does not mean something to you or that does not give you a buzz.

Above all, celebrate life. Laugh. Enjoy yourself. In this way, not only will you move through the no-time space, the time of Wei-Chi with joy and excitement but you will also become a planetary healer, sparking joy and delight in everyone and everything around you.

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