After what I can only call a shitstorm of a week in politics and world events, I find that I need some way of thinking about my place in the world that keeps the exercise of hope alive. Here are some thoughts I recorded before running off to bury my head in the ground.

To shake things up a little, here's a very silly naughty bit from a gathering we went to, where all the blind folks had penned up their guide dogs out back. In her defense, Kathy was tired, and she is not responsible for anything she says or feels (ahem!) in that condition.

Looking into An Endless Trace by Christopher Bamford again. This passage is interesting because it suggests that in reading the natural world and in reading the Bible, we are learning about events that take place within ourselves. Again, we're trying to crack the glass that makes us feel as if we're separate from the past; trying to see all of creation as wise and deeply involved in humanity.

Japa, the man and mind behind www.pythabacus.com, sat down at the end of last summer to talk of many things. In this piece of the conversation, he talks about the different kinds of death, all of which involve surrendering our consciousness to something outside of us, be it Luciferic or Ahrimanic in nature. The deed of Christ that our churches tell us about begins to come into sharper focus as we consider what... read more

This one is more of a commentary than a reading. I'll admit up front that I haven't done full justice to Erik Reece's book An American Gospel by picking select passages to respond to. Still, there is a tendency among those who (rightly) criticize religions for being corrupted to throw out the original message along with the corrupt messengers, and I'm trying to pull some of it back from the scrap pile.

I'm no scholar, theologian or historian--just a simple caveman, really--but I've heard that the truth of reincarnation was widely known and accepted in earlier times. Did something happen to stamp out this knowledge? I don't pretend to know. But I can't see anything demonic or anti-Christian in exploring how the idea of reincarnation and Christianity can be compatible. Maybe this kind of exploration can even enliven our understanding of the more difficult (and misused)... read more

There is a lot to consider here in this short passage from a lecture by Rudolf Steiner. I think there's a connection to the earlier themes of sacrifice, in that we're asked to give love in the greatest measure possible without any personal reward coming from it.

Just a few songs from some carolers who showed up, to our great surprise. I think it's a nice old tradition.

All the big hairy questions about the mind, matter, the reality of reality, trees falling in the forest, consciousness, and so on will probably not be fully answered (not even by these podcasts)for a long time to come. Still, it's interesting to see that science often has to step outside its own borders to develop explanations for the newer discoveries, and how close this sometimes takes it to the territory of philosophy and spirituality.... read more

This reading comes from An Endless Trace by Christopher Bamford. This being autumn, maybe our thoughts turn naturally to images of releasing and transforming. I'm thinking now about sacrifice, both the outer, visible kind we may make and the inner, invisible kind Bamford suggests we are always experiencing.

I (Fred, that is) am starting a new thing with this installment. I plan to post some readings of written passages that appeal to me, or spark my interest in some way or another. The idea is not to preach but to sow ideas around in a way that gives people food for thought, or for play, or imagination.

There is enough intellectual debate already on the Internet. There are a lot of scholars... read more

My parents' house was robbed a few weeks ago, evidently in broad daylight. The thieves knew what they were after--silverware and nothing else. The job was neat, quick, not too thorough, and overall creepy.

Our good friend Doug told this tale from his days on board ship in the later years of the Vietnam war. Boys will be boys....

I intended to write a story; it was to be a story of a powerful dragon, called Word, who outlasted all attempts to conquer it, though there would be one warrior who would alter the tale forever, of course. The dragon was neither malign nor benign but simply vast, maybe unknowable, and champions fell and died at its base the way climbers die on forbidding mountains, and for the same reasons.

Before the story began,... read more