Stars of the Apocalypse
How did the word apocalypse get such a bad rap? The meaning of the word is NOT negative.
Actually meaning “unveiling” or “revelation,” this word is frequently used to describe the end of the world as we know it. Though many apocalyptic scenarios depict a terrifying, destructive end, some are rather gentle, having to do with the enlightenment of the human race or the dawning of a New Age. This term is also used to refer to the Book of Revelation.
See, when I hear the word apocalypse, I don’t confuse it with armageddon – I hear Ascension, Rapture, and New Age. Even more specifically, and literally, I hear about the approaching Technological Singularity.
The Ascension of the human race is a very real, impending shift in our reality; it represents the graduation of our God-given task in co-creating the Universe — to name everything. With the first of Sophia’s Trees, we “fell” — and what went down will rise again on the great Wheel.
Have you ever wondered about the Two Trees in Eden? Why those two trees — the Knowledge of Good and Evil and Everlasting Life? One down… My spirit guides have been telling me for a few years now about how close we are to gaining the fruit of Tree Number Two. The elementals have been telling me tales since 1999 of a great shift that occurs beyond Apocalypse which they call the Seaming — the re-impregnation of matter with ordered consciousness. The climate change and other planetary moans and groans are not the death throes of Mother Nature — she stirs in a great foreplay — a preparation for another round of love making with consciousness. Matter and Energy are about to get it on, big time — they are waking up in bed together and they are both quite turned on at this point. Our little civilization is built on the folds of the bed clothes, and strung between the crevices of Earth’s slumbering body. She’s never stopped breathing, sighing, moving, dreaming — but we’ve never witnessed Matter and Energy waking up together and going at it on a global scale. Hang on, there’s a reason why vulcanism occupies a position of poetry within our understanding — hot and heavy…
The Mother Goddess speaks to me of the Pen of the gospels — the godspells — the stories of God — God imploded and spewed itself into a great unraveling fabric of consciousness of which we are all a part. We are the way by which God discovers itself; our stories, collectively, are the Gospels. It’s been a slow but steady process handing out the Pens, the tools of language — what was once the stone tablets, cave paintings, parchments, and quills — precious, rare, held in the hands of the few — have evolved into the extensions of our hearts and minds we call tablet computers, screens, keyboards…
Our technology has a literal, virtual, tangible spiritual agenda. Mother Mary speaks to me of this time when the Pen of the gospels are manned by the millions of individual expressions of God. That time is not the future, it is now — a great shift has already started. It may sound a little silly — at first — to tell you that I am a mystic, a prophet, a Marian Visionary who has been told that blogging is a spiritual maneuver. It has taken me close to four years to adjust my own belief system, and get my ego and my thinking mind to sit down in the back and shut the hell up and let the Lady speak through me.
Do you see that this New Age we speak of is not a Moment or a Day — it is a veil, a curtain parting before us? The unveiling — the Revelation — the Apocalypse is a stage — the stage is already set, the players have been writing, rehearsing, practicing for all of human history — the show is starting. We’re not waiting in the audience with no glimpse of what is to come — we are hard-wired and wirelessly interacting in the game from our seats. The edges of the curtain are moving away from one another — WE are controlling the march to the full view of what our spirits, armed with the mighty Pens of language (our greatest technology), has made — IS collectively making — right now.
The Pen of the gospels has leaked the strands of the Web; even if you do not blog, you are participating and co-creating this opening scene of the New (Virtual) Reality. See, we already GET it — the quantum physics of it all, the metaphysical — the Secret is not a secret anymore. Bloggers are very visibly spinning the fabric of our collective Gospel — the stories of god — our stories.
This is why the phenomena of the Web is what it is — this is why blogs are a spiritual revolution. Publishing is spiritual. The greatest works of all time are sacred texts. Once a very expensive, rare physical power — the hand-carved wisdoms — the elaborate labor of a minority of literate scribes — the printing press of mass publishing — the power in the Pen of the gospels is still special, but it has become commonplace, too.
The story of god is our story. We are the fire and the spirit. We are all sparks, candle flames, stars. The individual lights can be replicated, infinitely; what we call lightworkers are those who put their sparks to use — those who make a conscious decision to amplify their lights — to be the lantern bearers — to light the way at the edge of darkness.
Are you humming the hymn yet?
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine
That’s right — Rock On!
The Big Picture you seek, the Mystery you ponder — the Unveiling, the Revelation, the Apocalypse — is simple, obvious. It has never changed.
Want to see the history of the Universe? Want to stare into the face of God? Want to see what Heaven looks like? Want to gaze into the crystal ball of the Future? Want to manifest Heaven on Earth? Want to travel to the Stars? Want to discover New Worlds?
This Window, this Great Mirror is in the same place it has always been — in your eyes, reflected in the Sky.
The poetry is everywhere — the windows of the soul, the dome of Heaven — you’ve been looking up into it your entire life. Every human spirit has looked to it for as long as we can recall. Remember the gorgeous opening sequence of the film Contact – the flight away from the Earth, out of the Milky Way, that terminates by backing out of the eye of a young girl gazing at the heavens through a telescope?
If you want to see Forever, simply go outside and look up at the night sky. Look into a telescope, look into a microscope, look into the code of the Matrix, look at those groovy graphic depictions of what the Internet looks like — do you see the pattern? The image is essentially the same.
The Sky is the mirror of God. Armageddon may look like a mushroom cloud — but the Apocalypse is the opening curtain of a simply heavenly scene.
This blog is where I weave my part of the web — it’s where I write my gospel. This is my star, and all of you who link your own to it form visible virtual constellations. What you create doesn’t have to be spiritual in content — your contribution can be literally anything — any part of the collective consciousness is valid — even the ugly stuff, the hate, the fear. It’s all material.
Now, interestingly, I was asked to present this piece by K-L Masina, as part of a meme that originates with the UrbanMonk, about a Blog Apocalypse. The original intention may have been within the context of an Ending. But again, who said anything about an End? I know of no End that is not a beginning. The only thing that Ends with Apocalypse is an illusion. Apocalypse is a cause for celebration. A Blog Apocalypse to me means that we’ve pulled the curtain all the way back, and the next amazing Scene in the Greatest Show on Earth is happening.
My “final” post would mean we’ve finally managed to raise our world to the point that my consciousness is jacked directly into the collective spirit, and that this clunky, primitive mode of translation is no longer necessary. In which case, my message would be something of a rerun — or one of those annoying best moments clip collections pretending to be a fresh episode:
You are already everything you’ve ever wanted to become. You fulfill your life purpose with every breath you take. You’re not missing anything. Your creativity is your divinity. You are God; act like it. The time has come to shift your spirits and transform the life you are already living into the creative spiritual mission you know it’s supposed to be.
Look into the light, look up at the sky, and wonder at all that we are.
My God — it’s full of stars.
Seek Wisdom — Practice Love
I can think of no one more appropriate to tag with this meme than Jason, the editor of Spiritual New Earth
You may all find the original assignment at the UrbanMonk; proceeds from your participation go to charity. Thanks to K-L Masina for drawing me in.
What does the Internet look like?
A Flickr photoset of drawing exercises
Check out all the various visualizations returned by Google
Contacting Your Spirit Guide 101
Free resources for Shift Your Spirits readers:
- Read the eBook by Slade Roberson especially for beginners who want to know who/what spirit guides are and how to communicate with them
- Listen to the mp3 preview of the Spirit Guide Attunement portion of the Talking to Your Spirit Guides class by Slade Roberson
- Try the meditation to Meet a Guide contributed by Jeff Lilly of Druid Journal
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30 Responses to “Stars of the Apocalypse”
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[...] I have a feeling once we start to fly, we won’t need to worry so much about being grounded; we’ll stop obsessing over falling as soon as we adjust to weightlessness. Then we’ll see the potential of the Greater Direction — flip over when you’re finally floating and you realize that the sky is totally open – it goes All the Way. [...]
Wow! Absolutely beautiful, Slade. I got such a sense of expanse reading this; like a door that opens, and then opens wider, and then wider and wider, and the doorframe itself is expanding, faster and faster, until the edges of the door are disappearing at the limits of sight…
Yeah.
Jeff,
What would I do without your encouragement? I can’t imagine it. Thank you.
Okay — leave it to you to invoke the perfect image in a single sentence (with only one semi-colon) you show off!
: )
Seriously, you are a GateKeeper, after all…
Have I shared Stevee’s art work with you before? It’s the Tarot Deck I am most partial to — the author and many of the models are also known to me from the Radical Faerie Community. There is an image in particular which is one of my favorites — the Hermit — it reminds me of your description.
(You have to go to his site to view each of the images in the deck — http://www.stevee.com — so I just snagged it without his permission.)
I am SO GLAD I tagged you with this one - that is one of the most beautiful and inspiring and illuminating piece of writings I have ever read.
Thank you so very very much for writing that for us Slade. I’ll be doing my best to get it out there to people who are ready to read and understand the message you bring.
I’m fascinated by what you say too about the two trees in the Garden of Eden (have you read my piece on this?). When I read the story of the Garden of Eden… it sounds half finished to me. Like everything since is just an interlude until the rest unfolds.
I can’t wait to read more of your work on your new site.
Much joy,
Kara-Leah
You are welcome, Kara-Leah!
(There are a couple of tags I’ve had to turn down recently — please understand the timing plays a big part)
K-L,
Will you leave that link to your Eden piece here in my comments? Cause I would love to read it — I’m sure others will too — and I’m just a little bit lazy… Make it super-easy for us.
: )
Sorry - didn’t knowif it was kosher to link to one of my articles in your comments section…
Here it is Now is the time to re-enter the Garden of Eden
Hope that works!
KL
Thanks for the link — please feel free to create those links you find relevant. I welcome and encourage it.
[...] And to read an inspired account of where humanity is going, check this beautiful piece, Stars of the Apocalypse, from Slade at Shift Your Spirits. [...]
Slade,
I figuratively remove my creative hat and bow to your numinous art. I see the change has served you well and sense that you have ascended another tier on the tree of life - whoosh, the vigour and vibrations you emanate flow so much more freely now.
The imagery speaks volumes to the inner *me* and this piece acts as an absolute confirmation that soaring into the Community of Blog was a necessary phase for my own evolution. Spirit is flowing throughout the web and sparking the synapses with heavenly fervour – I’m just thankful I’m here to embrace it.
The power of the Word has been recognised through many cultures as a method of invocation and from the mere tip of the Blogging iceberg I’ve already experienced, I can establish that our kinship has many magicians.
Continue weaving that inspirational snare my friend – the awakening is here, the connections are kicked in and we are all freebasing on Insight and understanding.
Take care and just be YOU,
Damian
Damian,
Wow. What can I say?
Thank you.
Wow…one of the best posts in the Apoc I’ve read. (And yes I didn’t properly research the word before I used it, hehe.) I’m really glad that KL tagged you as well, I’ll be adding your blog to my regular reads. Thanks for participating!
[...] The website of Slade Roberson, Shift your Spirits has just changed addresses. Slade’s first post at his new location is one of the most inspiring and beautiful blog articles I have read. Ever. Something about it just touched my soul, so if you haven’t yet read Stars of the Apocalypse, make sure you do. [...]
UrbanMonk,
It was a very interesting assignment, man. I was planning to take the rest of April off from writing, to focus on moving to this new site and coding CSS, etc…
But when I read your post, I had an immediate response. So you and K-L inspired me to christen the new site with your tag. The premise was imaginative and open, with specific parameters — taken all together that’s a recipe for a great writing exercise, in my opinion.
And I like your UrbanMonk brand/identity/concept — I half-jokingly think of myself as a Suburban Shaman.
: )
Here’s to the post-modern mystics of the Web!
Haha Suburban Shaman. Glad you enjoyed the concept. Here’s to meeting new friends on the web!
This is certainly a thought provoking entry. Lots of good ponderable stuff in here. I’m curious about the Seaming though, the “re-impregnation of matter with ordered consciousness.” That little clause makes me think about what exactly consciousness is. I usually think of consciousness as self-awareness or the ability to percieve the world or perhaps the ability to produce meaningful words. Of course even a book fulfills some of these criteria. To what extent, then, would a book have a consciousness? What do you/your spirit guides mean by this Seaming? Are we talking A.I. here? Other stuff? The new semi-self aware conglomeration of blogs?
You’re right about the apocalypse stuff too. The first line of the book of Revalation should read ‘the apocalypse (revealing) of Jesus Christ.’ Of course the word sometimes gets confused in translation.
Rob,
The Seaming is the title of a series of novels I started writing in 1999, which is under contract with a literary agent and a commercial publisher. I have to tread carefully when discussing those books — I am the author, but to some degree I do not wholly own them as a product.
One of the reasons I moved my web site to this new domain — under my name — marks some moderate success in promoting myself as an author. To make a long story short, I now have permission to begin promoting the Seaming along with my other projects and to expand my audience to include those novels.
The Seaming novels are “elemental gospels” — they revolve around my interpretation of faerie lore.
To understand the context of how I am using the word consciousness, here, in terms of matter, technology, nano- and bio-engineering, etc, I recommend you explore the work of Ray Kurzweil and other futurists who discuss the science of the Technological Singularity.
The Seaming is my own exploration of the environmental, spiritual, and mystical phenomena that come become the point of the Singularity. Even though this is quickly approaching and will occur well within the lifetimes of those living right now, the details of what human reality — and nature/matter itself — will look like beyond that point remains an enigma.
Although many scientists and mystics both predict this approaching physical Ascension, it is a doorway we are about to open, and what we will find/create on the other side of it, is a mystery of the near future.
Envisioning that great shift is still the domain of science fiction writers, futurist, mediums, and creative visionaries.
Yes, yes, yes, and then some…
I would preface many wisdoms beyond the Bible, or any individual book or mythology, with a purer, broader, more-inclusive use of the word Revelation…
Wow! Looks like I got more than I bargained! The Seaming just seemed (no pun intended) like a term that encapsulated the ideas that I wanted to know more about. I wasn’t intending to ask about your unpublished novel deal! Honest! But it’s cool to hear about it though. The list of futurist thinkers and concepts does help quite a bit. There’s some good wikis on them.
It seems like in some ways we’ve been creating transhumanal technologies for a few thousand or maybe million years now. Transhumanal technology, if I understand the term correctly, means people plugged in to other technologies and to other people in new and unique ways which improve the lives of people, at least toward some specific ends. The Internet and the subsequent blog universe is one type of transpersonal technology. A democracy meeting in an assembly would be another. This one can be rather an upgrade on a kingship since we can think better if we put our heads together and line up the nerve endings that experience the effects of corporate actions with the power to change them. An army, driven by weapons and a certain kind of chain of command would be still another kind of transpersonal technology. (With many variations and upgrades based on other kinds of technologies and organizational techniques.) And then there’s the factory and the bureaucracy, new kinds of animals still.
And to me these things – the internet, the democracy, the army, the factory - all seem like larger than human entities, newly evolved creatures or animals if you will, ones built on restructuring human interaction through technology, ones that have their own needs and motivations and interests. Would you agree?
Wow! Found out about this post by reading KLMasina. You’ve given us an awe-inspiring vision. I had a related - but much smaller-scale - vision with a similar message and wrote about it a few weeks ago on my blog. If you happen to be interested, you can find it at http://walkstheedge.com/?p=63. Hadn’t taken it to the mind-popping level you have (!) but interesting that it’s on a similar wavelength. Thanks to K-L for turning me on to your site!
Rob,
All fascinating! You’ve touched on a lot of my favorite subjects. It might surprise you to know that I haven’t read a New Age title in years — my interests have been motivated/balanced by studying these much more tangible phenomena.
Since this particular blog — Shift Your Spirits — began almost a year ago, I’ve been playing catch-up on what I contemplated and digested two decades ago… But I am eager to catch up with myself.
I just wrote to Jeff Lily yesterday telling him about how eager I am to shift my focus into a Futurist mode (the exact word I used). If I can maintain the interest of the mystics and introduce them to futurism and the intersection of spirit + technology… Well, I’m seriously nurturing a nest filled with these topics, and I’m encouraged by your enthusiastic response to see that they start hatching soon.
I feel that spiritually-motivated people, armed with a willingness to embrace technology, will be uniquely positioned to lead the way in a positive transformation of our reality. Religion and Science started out with a shared agenda, have taken increasingly diverse paths, and at some point they simply need to meet again — not in opposition, but in full collaboration. At this point in our evolution, to continue to separate fields of wisdom — to exclude, to wage war — would simply be ass-backwards — is there a word for suicide + extinction?
Thanks for the link, EdgeWalker — I am always thrilled to hear about this kind of resonance. It’s a wonderful affirmation.
[...] We Are The Ribbons The Elders shared with us in Circle the morning before the May Pole ritual that this year the ribbons represented the intersection — the Web — of the individual stories of our lives. Considering the post I’d written just prior to Beltane, Stars of The Apocalypse, the image resonated. The braiding of the ribbons around the pole were to be the tapestry of our gospels — the individual stories, the sparks of god, the collective autobiography of the Creator expressed through the synergy of each one of us. Past explanations of the meaning behind the May Pole ritual have often been mired in various (too literal) hetero-mechanically-sexual interpretations — a big hole, a big pole, and elaborate embellishment and decoration that represents fanfare and noise. [...]
[...] the orbs could be the spiritual bloggers who comment and link here — the constellation in web space I described in Stars of the Apocalypse [...]
[...] Not much to add to that… just that it curiously reminds me of a certain blog post. [...]
Alas, justification for all the time I spend online.
Wow Slade,
This is just one kick-butt piece of writing. It is so here and so now. Any words that I could write about it would just detract from your words. But I am humming Moby - no one can stop us now ’cause we are all made of stars…..
How in the world do you write so beautifully, so eloquently? I am continually amazed each time I read your articles - there is no other possible explanation other than your spirits working through you. You write like a celebrated author. It’s amazing!
The one thing that really jumped out for me here today is that blogging compounds anything you write about . What that means is if you write about what you’re grateful for, the power of the Internet, as a spiritual medium, is compounded because those words, once published continues out indefinitely. It travels and travels forever because it’s “out there” for millions or billions of people to see, assuming, of course, they are online. But even if they aren’t online, the universe “hears” us because of the awesome power of the Internet.
I echo your thoughts in that regard - amazing power right here online. Thank you Slade. I love you and what you represent. You are magical - a magical spiritual being having a human experience.
Bless you.
Stephen,
That’s one of the Most Awesome, Super Encouraging comments I’ve ever received! Thank you so much for posting this. Wow.
A spiritual message unfolded within to remind me of implications of chirality. Two spiritual beings, mirror images of each other were climbing up a vertical wall and performing synchonized acrobatics. The whole thing was in vivid color. Regardless of the nature of elastic stretching or other fantastic body movements, each being always kept one body part connected to the central wall and simultaneously, to each other. Stars also surrounded this energetic exchange. It was about new beginnings and continuations more than endings. Something within resonated and communicated only what was necessary. Matter was constantly shifting, renewing and reenergizing in new directions and dimensions. The depth of this vision is impossible to translate here.
Stephen Hopson says it well when he expresses how each thought and comment triggers a perpetual domino effect. Your perspectives on consciousness, matter and energy, all reverberrate in directions no person could ever foresee. You are a blessing to share what you do. Others expand themselves as the result.
Liara’s comment drew me back here and it’s odd reading this post which I tagged you on so long ago… different name and all…
Liara’s comment sat in my inbox for nearly a month. The vision she describes. I know this. I’ve lived this. Or am I just projecting my perspective on to her words?
Who knows?
But it brought me back
And I feel expanded.
I clicked on the first link with photos of what the internet looks like. (The “photoset” link was: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cambodia4kidsorg/sets/435706/) ….
Analyzing the little pictures, I could hear the words in my sub-conscious: interconnectedness, togetherness, colorful….creation….we are all ONE.
Looking at those photos and thinking of the internet in that light (after reading this meme) was like a huge revelation. Look at it through the eyes of a child…
look at it with spiritual eyes.
It brings a message of hope
