PLANETARY EMPOWERMENT
The deepest implications of the worldwide crisis humanity is now facing is that a new frame of reference is needed which can be experienced as a concrete reality. The term concrete, however, should be given a broader than physical meaning. The new frame of reference should not only be "planetary" in a geographical sense: it should refer to a being, the Earth-being.
Dane Rudhyar
There are threshold moments in a life when virtually everything we think and hold dear changes, almost instantaneously. That is how it was for me in the late sixties, when, as a young undergraduate at the University of Calgary, I saw photographs of the whole Earth for the first time.
Uplifted and inspired by the primordial majesty and beauty of what I witnessed in those photographs, I suddenly saw myself as an "Earth person," an identity far more expansive than those offered by my culture-of-birth. Instinctively, I seized the moment and began what has become a life-long quest to understand what this broader identity entailed.
Far more interesting and complex than anything I could have imagined, my quest has taken me down a long and winding road of self-discovery. Now, as I pass through my sixty-first year, in gratitude to Mother Earth for sustaining me on what has surely been an adventure, I offer this website as a giveaway to the global community.
Included in this gesture is a harvest of insights, images and information I consider pertinent to the transformative times in which we dwell. My intention is to share these things in support of the manifestation of a public that honors and nurtures individual human sovereignty and creativity, a public that cares about what we as a people leave to our descendants, a public that acts on behalf of the Earth itself.
The old gods are dead or dying and people everywhere are searching, asking: What is the new mythology to be, the mythology of this unified earth as of one harmonious being? … The only myth that is going to be worth thinking about in the immediate future is one that is talking about the planet and everything on it.
Joseph Campbell
THE POWER OF MYTH
Our culture has little understanding of the purpose of myth or the role of the myth-maker. Myths are not for believing or disbelieving. They are for using. If a myth or metaphor works in revamping our deepest values, it is truer than the evening news or the textbook fact. Myth, poetry, art and music are truths of a different dimension - sustenance and regeneration for the tired spirit. The human brain learns best by story, by game, by a framework of meaning.
Marilyn Ferguson
What I present you with here is an opportunity to become actively engaged in an emerging planetary mythology. It is a mythology that gifts you with an astrologically-determined, spiritual birthright integrating some of the most ancient and revered wisdom teachings our species has ever produced.
In publicly presenting this material, I am mindful of the life-work of the late Joseph Campbell, considered by many to be the planet's foremost mythologist. In his widely acclaimed book, The Power of Myth, Campbell defines four major functions of myth:
The first function of myth is mystical: "Myth opens the world to the dimension of mystery, to the realization of the mystery that underlies all forms. If you lose that, you don't have a mythology. If mystery is manifest, throughout things, the universe becomes, as it were, a holy picture. You are always addressing the transcendent mystery through the conditions of your actual world."
The second function of myth is cosmological "....the dimension with which science is concerned -- showing you what the shape of the universe is, but showing it in such a way that the mystery again comes through."
Campbell explains that a third function of myth is sociological: "supporting and validating a certain social order."
Fourthly, we have the pedagogical function of myth: "...how to live a human life under any circumstances." In other words, how to get along to assure social survival.
Campbell believed that the pedagogical function of myth is its most important function in our era and that it can act as an important antidote to the dysfunctions that arise in the sociological realm where myth often gets lost in ethics and dogma.
Dreams are private myths, myths are public dreams.
Joseph Campbell
WEBSITE OVERVIEW
There are four major sections to this website, each of which is accessible via the hyper-linked titles below or from the menu portion of the sidebar, top left:
1) Earth Child Emergence relates the story of my discovery of what I call The Lightning Path, a path of mythic regeneration -- a synthesis of astrology, the I Ching, the chakra system and the Mayan Sacred Calendar. Each of these systems has been utilized by humanity for millennia but to my knowledge, they have never been revealed as an integrated working unit until now. And because the synthesis includes as a basic component, the Mayan Sacred Calendar, The Lightning Path reveals a previously hidden dimension of that calendar.
2) The Lightning Path section introduces this synthesis and makes apparent some of its most important features as a path of mythological ritual. A much more detailed explanation of those features is in the works but for the moment, my focus is on introducing you to your Lightning Path birthright. This is facilitated through The Book of Electrum.
3) The Book of Electrum enables you to astrologically determine important elements of your Lightning Path birthright. This includes symbolism drawn from the Mayan Sacred Calendar (Tzolkin). Additionally, you will be able to locate past or future events within the context of The Lightning Path and thus to give meaning to those events by referencing the symbolism associated with them. This is also a feature of The Lightning Path Timebeam, where additional commentary and links to online resources are included.
4) The Lightning Path Timebeam is a timeline where each thirteen Moon cycle is represented as a distinct, triangular element within the whole timeline. I have assembled, and will continue to assemble, digital resources hyper-linked to specific Moons. (Special thanks to Barry Saxifrage for creation of the innovative software used to render this portion of the website.) These resources are accessible to you by clicking on individual Moons represented on versions of the following timebeam graphic :
All resources linked to the timebeam are meant to draw your attention to possible synchronistic relationships between events of a given Moon cycle and the corresponding Lightning Path symbolism for that Moon. Any and all synchronicities found in this way can act as clues to further exploration and revelation.
The resources I place on the timebeam come out of my own direct experience and I invite you to join me in this process. The timebeam is designed to gather momentum as more and more people contribute to it. So please, feel free to contact me with your own comments and suggestions for further additions. If enough interest develops, perhaps an interactive blogging site can be created to further the broader discussion of what this approach reveals.
For your convenience, you can "catch the wave" of the current Moon cycle on The Lightning Path timebeam by simply clicking on the following image anywhere you find it on this website. Because the page associated with this current Moon cycle will be updated regularly, please refresh your browser each time you access it to get the latest version:
DEDICATION
This website is dedicated to my grandson, Logan Rex Dwayne Jones, born June 4, 2004 in The Temple of Star Harmony.
Logan, it will no doubt be quite a while before you are capable of understanding and of making such a choice, but if you at some point in your life choose to embrace The Lightning Path as your own, I encourage you to take the following words to heart. They are from one of the world's foremost pioneers of consciousness research, Dr. John C. Lilly and are from his 1972 book The Center of the Cyclone.
I call what he says here, the “explorer’s credo”. It condenses into one simple statement most everything you will ever need to know about the nature of believing. Simply bearing it in mind as you make your way into the mysterious adventure that waits you on The Lightning Path , will assist you to remain free, unencumbered by preconceptions and their attendant misfortunes.
In the province of the mind, what is believed to
be true Is true or becomes true, within limits to be
found experientially and experimentally. These
limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the
province of the mind there are no limits.
In peace,
Dwayne Edward Rourke
Temple of Thunder
Cumberland, BC, Canada
December 21, 2009.
Dwayne Edward Rourke Photo by Teresa Wild
THE GLOBAL BRAIN - Peter Russell