The Serpent’s Forked Tongue

In the Garden of Eden myth, the original drug-pusher encourages Eve to eat the hallucinogenic fruit from the tree of the perception of duality by pointing out this truth: “You will not really die!”

The implication of the seductive duality idea is that, yes, you will think you are going to die, but your experiences while on this far-out trip will be so new and different, and you will eventually come back to your senses, so why not go ahead and try it? As a holy, immortal spirit being, you know nothing can really go wrong and it will be an exciting, dramatic adventure!

While everything the wise serpent said is true, what he left out was that she would need to so completely disconnect from the other tree, the source of life, there would be bitter side effects such as feelings of loneliness, depression, pain, sickness, torture and death. At times these feelings would be so overwhelming that self-annihilation would seem to be a welcome solution.

Myth aside, we are one-by-one beginning to comprehend what actually happened that led to this feeling of paradise lost. “God”, which is timeless, dimensionless, genderless conscious energy, in contemplating its own nature, extended the thought of a mirror with which to study itself. It desired self-knowledge, self-awareness, self-consciousness.

This is what we are! We are the reflection in the mirror that reveals to our Self who we are. Is not to “know thyself” the highest objective given us by philosophy?

Like a mirror image, in order to understand what we are, we are also revealing to ourselves what we are not. That is a necessary part of this mental exercise, or “game”, if you will. The objects in the mirror are not what they appear.

Returning to the paradise myth, Adam, who was really a hermaphroditic spirit (angels are genderless you know), fell asleep and dreamed he had a body that divided into two bodies, male and female. The male body symbolizes God, and the female body is a knock-out drop-dead-gorgeous mirror-image of God, with whom He is infatuated. But she is self-conscious to the point of feeling naked and vulnerable. She does not trust Him one bit, and blames Him for all the painful side-effects she is experiencing.

We cannot understand why God wants to be inside us and we have continually cried “Rape! Rape!” for unremembered millennia. But there is nobody listening, nobody to come rescue the poor victim from her imagined villain.

What we need to understand about ourselves is that we played this game very willingly. We were excited by the idea of reflecting God. We prepared ourselves as best we could for this game of duality in which we momentarily forget all about wholeness, and immersed ourselves in the idea of separation. But the nature of the game is this amnesia in which we limit ourselves to a particular location in space and a tiny allotment of time, to act out very specific scripts.

The game gets so much easier when we relax and listen to His quiet whisperings in our inner ear, let Him gently caress us and slowly woo us back to love. When we constantly practice listening to His voice, the noise of the world subsides, the plot of the story turns from tragedy to comedy, and He begins to wake us up to an awareness of our true nature, and eventually to a complete knowledge of the Reality that we are, in fact, All That Is, and there is no "other".

And then we live happily ever after. We are complete. End of story.

🌙 “This Is Your Dream: How Relationship Conflicts Can Reveal—and Heal—Your Inner World”

 What if your life was a dream?

Not in the sense that it’s too good to be true—but in the deeper, metaphysical sense that the people and events around you are reflections of your own subconscious mind, projected outward like characters in a story your soul is telling. What if the conflicts you experience with others are not actually about them, but about you?

This is not just a philosophical musing. For many people, relationship struggles feel deeply real, painful, and often impossible to resolve. Yet the key to peace in these relationships may lie not in changing the other person, but in changing our relationship to the part of ourselves that they unknowingly represent.

The Mirror of Relationship

When someone’s behavior triggers us—whether it’s a partner, friend, family member, boss, or even a public figure—it often feels like they are the problem. But in the dreamlike nature of consciousness, what if their role is to reflect back an unresolved pattern, belief, or emotional wound hidden within us?

You might be seeing:

• A controlling boss who mirrors your fear of power or visibility.

• A distant partner who reflects your own difficulty with vulnerability.

• An angry sibling who embodies the rage you were never allowed to express as a child.

We aren’t saying these people are figments of imagination. They are real, with real lives and real struggles. But our reactions to them are shaped by our internal story—and that story is editable.

🧠 Gestalt-Inspired Self-Hypnosis for Relationship Healing

Gestalt therapy is traditionally used in a client-therapist setting to bring unconscious dynamics into conscious awareness by role-playing both sides of a conflict. But what if you could do a simplified version of this on your own, for free?

By entering a relaxed, meditative state (what many call self-hypnosis), you can begin to imagine not just your own feelings, but the life and perspective of the person you’re struggling with.

Here's a powerful process you can try:

1. Create a Safe, Quiet Space
   Sit comfortably, close your eyes, and focus on slow, even breathing. Allow your body to relax and your awareness to draw inward.

2. Enter the Dream
   Imagine that your life is a dream, and everyone in it is a symbolic expression of your own subconscious. Let that image settle in.

3. Bring the Person Into Focus
   Call to mind someone you are currently in conflict with. Picture their face, their posture, the way they speak to you. Allow the emotions that arise to surface, without judgment.

4. Step Into Their World
   Now imagine being them. See through their eyes. What are they afraid of? What do they want? What pressures or traumas might they be carrying that you’ve never fully considered? What might they be mirroring back to you?

5. Dialogue With Compassion
   Still in this altered state, gently allow a back-and-forth to unfold between your perspective and theirs. You might be surprised at the wisdom that surfaces when you stop resisting and start listening—not just to them, but to yourself.

6. Find the Gift
   Ask yourself: What is this conflict teaching me about me? What subconscious part of you needed to create this dynamic in order to be seen, felt, or healed?

7. Return With Insight
   When you're ready, thank the characters in your dream and slowly return to waking awareness. Jot down what you experienced, especially any shifts in perspective.

🌱 Healing the “Other” to Heal Yourself

The beauty of this process is that the external situation doesn’t need to change for you to change. And when you change—when your energy shifts—often the people around you begin to behave differently, or their actions stop having the same sting.

It’s not magic. It’s consciousness.

This kind of work doesn’t mean you excuse harmful behavior or abandon healthy boundaries. But it does mean that you stop giving away your power by believing others are responsible for your peace. You begin to reclaim authorship of the dream.

---

🔁 Final Thought

If your life is a dream, then every conflict is a coded message—from you, to you—about what’s ready to be seen, loved, and integrated. The people who challenge us most may actually be our greatest allies in awakening.

Declaration of Intent to Establish My Legacy Land

I, a citizen of Florida, have been inspired by the philosophy presented in the "Ringing Cedars of Russia" book series, which envisions a sustainable and harmonious way of life. The idea of creating tax-free legacy land to pass down to future generations in perpetuity has motivated me to take meaningful steps toward this vision.

Currently, I own a small plot, about 80 by 100 feet, where I reside and cultivate my suburban home garden, which I affectionately call my "Yarden of Eatin’." This space is comparable in size to a traditional Russian dacha garden plot, on which much of the food of that country is grown by the dachniks every summer. Over the past four years, I have been slowly but steadily transforming my small plot using permaculture design methods, with help from my permaculture friends in the area. However, this is not enough land to sustain me, let alone a small family. Also, my neighbors do not share my vision.

I plan to acquire a larger plot of land, at least two-and-a-half acres, in a rural area, with the goal of establishing a legacy land for myself and my descendants, and in memory of my ancestors. On this land, I will create a thriving ecosystem that will provide for my family’s needs and nurture the surrounding environment. I intend to lay out gardens, establish a pond to support aquatic life, and cultivate fruit, berries, vegetables, and pollinators such as bees. I will also cultivate a relationship with a variety of animals to live on and support the land with me and the family I will establish there. All cultivation will rely on natural, sustainable methods of fertilization, grounded in native and regenerative practices.

I envision a future where many families with the skills and commitment to work the land will cultivate legacy lands near both large and small cities. These families will have the ability to supply urban populations with ecologically sound produce, positively influencing food security and local ecological health.

I am concerned that millions of acres across our country are left uncultivated, while a significant portion of our food is imported, often at the expense of quality and safety. I believe this situation jeopardizes our food security and undermines the resilience of communities nationwide.

Instead of focusing on government errors, I believe we must each consider concrete steps we can take to foster positive change. History has shown that economies centered solely on profit-driven agriculture have led to harmful practices, such as the use of pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers and genetically modified crops, which compromise public health. A family cultivating its legacy land, however, has a caring, direct relationship with the land, growing food primarily for its own use and that of loved ones, resulting in healthier and more responsibly grown surplus for the community.

The ongoing global economic crisis threatens social stability in many nations. To navigate this, I believe we need a renewed vision for family life and land use. The philosophy set forth in the "Ringing Cedars of Russia" book series offers such a vision, and I am committed to taking steps to bring it to life.

I will support any efforts by Florida and other state governments to establish policies encouraging families to build sustainable homes and cultivate legacy lands beyond city limits. I believe each plot should be no less than two-and-a-half acres to enable families to establish thriving, self-sustaining ecosystems.

If families are not allocated a large enough plot of land, the legacy land communities will remain net consumers instead of becoming producers, which will only exacerbate the food, ecological and social situation in the state. I consider it essential for us to urgently ask our state governments to consider work in this direction and adopt the necessary laws regarding legacy lands.

I urge the governor and legislators of Florida, the president and congress of the United States, representatives of the United Nations, and all states and countries invested in the well-being of their people to consider the potential of legacy lands. I recommend that they examine and embrace the idea that creating legacy lands for their citizens is the most effective plan for enabling humanity to come out of the global economic crisis, avert the approaching ecological catastrophe, and avoid a food crisis.

With hope and determination, I join countless others around the world who are dedicated to creating legacy lands. Together, we work toward a beautiful future for our families and for our shared planet.

Signed,
/s/ DaVeed Montané

(posted on election day, 2024)

Significance of Broken Glass

Late in the evening of Wednesday, August 17, 2021, “Nadia M.” asked this question on the Channeling Jesus Membership private subscription group:

Does anyone know what broken glass means spiritually? In the last 3 weeks, my family has broken 1 glass water bottle, 1 glass jar, 2 wine glasses, 1 glass food container, and 1 glass bedside table lamp. I also broke a ceramic horse shoe - not sure if that has any relation to the glass. The first couple of things we broke while on vacation. And the rest of the things we broke at home but are getting ready to leave for another vacation tomorrow. Any insight is much appreciated!

I was maybe the first person to see the post and no one else had responded. I was inspired to write the following response:

You seem to live in a fragile world, where thought-forms are easily shattered and the life you thought was stable is starting to come crashing down. Not much can be depended on. It all seems up in the air and before you can react to changes in your world, opportunities slip through your fingers and then there's nothing you can do but clean up the broken pieces.

The solution to the problem lies in the very temporality and vulnerability of your present experience. A Course In Miracles, Lesson 153: "In my defenselessness my safety lies." "We look past dreams today, and recognize that we need no defense... In defenselessness we stand secure, serenely certain of our safety now, sure of salvation, sure we will fulfill our chosen purpose ...”

On this vacation, celebrate the music in the sounds of glass and in each other's sensitivities. Propose lots of toasts, clinking your wine flutes many times. Thank each other for qualities you've noticed that you'd never mentioned before. Rub the flute rims with wet fingertips until they hum. Plan major life changes with each other. Try to break a window by singing as loud and high of a pitch as possible, Plan your next lifetime if you died in your sleep. Set the glasses and bottle on the hotel room floor and dance barefoot around them. Reveal seemingly risky secrets with each other.

Live in and for this holy instant.

When I finished writing this, I was ready to go to bed. I noticed the time was 12:34 AM (number series: 1-2-3-4). If I haven't already written a blog article about the significance of number series, I will!

Haiku for the People

 Fear kills. Masks stifle.

Distancing is unsocial.

Truth sets free. Live free.

Image by Vikramjit Kakati from Pixabay 

When the Week Lost the Moon

Today, Monday November 16, is the day the moon reappears again after being invisible for a couple of days. So ironically, this time around, New "Moon Day" happens to coincide with a new "Monday" (Moon Day) in our schedule of never-ending, back-to-back-to-back, 7-day cycles.

This weekly cycle has not always been disconnected from the lunar cycle or "month". Ancient Babylonian astronomers selected two men who were dedicated to watch for the first sliver of crescent moon just above the sunset. Every 29 or 30 days, they would see the "new moon" after it had been hidden in the brightness of the sun.

When the watchers saw the new moon they would blow loud trumpets throughout Babylon. This was to announce that the following day would be the New Moon festival. Seven days later marked the waxing half moon (or close enough), so the 8th day of the month was the next festival. The 15th day was the Full Moon feast day, the 22nd day was the waning half moon celebration, and the 29th day was the Dark Moon holiday. About every other month there would be a 30th "between" day; otherwise, the new moon would be sighted on the evening of the Dark Moon holiday at sunset, and the following day would be a New Moon festival.

Jews "On Strike"

When the Jews were captured by the Babylonians, they integrated the Babylonian festivals into their religious ceremonies. The Torah (for which evidence points to having its origin during the Babylonian captivity), declared the New Moon a sacred day along with the seventh-day Sabbaths. 

I imagine it was out of protest that the Jews declared the same festival days of the Babylonians to be religious holy days of rest from all work, refusing to serve their Babylonian slave masters on the feast days, and creating a cover story that their God had long ago commanded them to keep those days holy and not do any labor.

Reconciling the lunar cycle with the four seasons of the solar cycle has always been tricky work. The new year started with the first lunar cycle of spring, the equivalent of the month of March on our current Gregorian calendar, giving some years 13 months. The Gregorian calendar is only slightly different than the Julian calendar which took effect at the beginning of 45 BC during Julius Caesar's reign.

Dividing each year into four seasons of three months each, for a total of 12 months, has severed the relationship between the lunar cycle and the month. With that severing also came the separation of the week from the lunar cycle, and also from the solar cycle with its seasons.

The Jews followed the Babylonian pattern of lunar-based New Moons and Sabbaths until some time during the Roman rule. The Roman month was not tied to the lunar cycle, nor to the 7-day week. But at some point the Romans and the Jews agreed to a 7-day week to protect the Jewish Sabbath, which was also the early Christian Sabbath, because many of them of course were Jewish. 

When Roman emperor Constantine made Christianity the state religion in the early 300's, the never-ending 7-day weekly cycle was officially associated with the Julian Calendar, but the week started at midnight (a Roman tradition) instead of at sunset (a Jewish tradition). The Romans also chose to celebrate the first day of the week as "holy" instead of the last day.

Some Jews, Christians and pagans have rediscovered the lunar-based week and have returned or at least tried to return to the ancient celebration of New Moons and lunar-based Sabbaths. However, since the New Moon can land on any day of the Gregorian week, celebrations are extremely difficult to practice without separating from mainstream society. 

The current widespread loss of jobs and small businesses may actually lead to more freedom to choose one's own calendar. And the eventual disintegration of big agricultural corporations, which will lead to more and more people leaving the big cities and returning to the land to grow our own food, may also lead to a transition back to the lunar calendar. Or maybe each household or small community will decide for themselves which calendar they want to follow, rather than mindlessly inheriting a calendar created centuries ago by the Romans.

To prepare myself for this eventuality, and to get back in touch with nature, I enjoy looking up at the sky day or night as I get the chance, to check in on what phase of the moon we are in. This evening at sunset I plan to go to a hill I've located from which I can easily see the horizon in the direction of the setting sun, then locate that thin finger-nail clipping of a moon. Knowing it's an ancient ritual gives me a sense of connection with natural wisdom, Mother Earth, the vastness of the universe, and the eternal nature of All That Is.

The Demise of Majority Rule (or, Why I'm Not Voting Tomorrow)

 A man said to [Jesus], "Tell my brothers to divide my father's possessions with me."

He said to him, "O man, who has made me a divider?"

He turned to his disciples and said to them, "I am not a divider, am I?"

Gospel of Thomas, Logion 72

We are living in the Divided States of America. With the intensely heated political tensions between those who would trump all others and those who have been biding time to have their turn, it seems the perfect moment to announce that the pinnacle of the majority-rule method of electing leaders has been reached and it's all downhill from here. Or should I say, this boulder has built up speed for decades and has finally cracked in two at the bottom of the mountain.

We know all too well the election process is subject to manipulation. I sensed this as a 4th-grader when the annual "Principal-for-the-Day" election was held, and I found out the older grade students had gotten together and elected me. I was startled but flattered. At first it seemed so innocent: "A little child shall lead them."

I was thrilled to be sitting at the principal's desk until a phone call from a complaining parent came in and I had to take the call. I had no idea what to say! Then I was told a bunch of 9th & 10-graders had run off to play in the orchard and everyone was looking to me to somehow corral them back to their classrooms!

Our education in the majority-rule method begins in the classroom, with the annual election of offices such as class president, vice president, secretary, sergeant-at-arms, salutatorian and valedictorian. Near the end of my junior year of private high school ("academy"), the time of campaigning for student body president came up. 

Although I had not been elected to any significant class offices, I developed an impressive list of ideas for the next year's student body activities and posted it on the campaign board. A lot of students got very excited about my list, promised to vote for me, and even volunteered to campaign for my election, which meant suggesting to their friends that they also vote for me.

The popular student body president who had been elected the previous year knew me well because earlier in the year he had arranged with me to look over my shoulder to see my answers on a math test, knowing I was good at math and he hadn't studied. The math teacher saw what was happening and verified that James had made the same math errors I did, and so the faculty ousted him from his post. (I got suspended from math class for a day.) 

James was also my neighbor, and he called me up the street to meet with him in his bedroom so he could help me rehearse for my campaign speech. The next day in my speech I said something about my popular opponent's inaction as our junior class president that year, so the majority sided with Joe in a disappointingly close decision. Although I don't remember this, James insisted that he had warned me not to say anything negative about Joe. I guess I thought I was just pointing out the obvious.

In 2009 I became enraptured with libertarian philosophy, which is based on live-and-let-live principles. I joined the local Libertarian Party in Georgia and by the end of the year an unusual opportunity came up to run in a special election for the Georgia State Senate seat for District 42 against Jason Carter, to be held in mid-May of 2010.

Although I had fantasies about going on The Tonight Show as the juggler who was running for office against Jimmy Carter's grandson, my main intention was to use the opportunity to teach fellow citizens about the systemic manipulation of the economy by the Federal Reserve, and what returning to sound money policies could do for the state of Georgia.

I ended up being convinced by my manager to campaign on other subjects of more interest to the die-hard Democrats. I knew I didn't have a chance to win no matter what I said or did, but my Libertarian friends consoled me anyway, saying I got an unusually high vote for a Libertarian at 8% in a four-way race, and yay, I didn't come in last! (Jason won "by a landslide", with nearly 2/3 of the votes.)

I learned much about politics in that 2010 campaign, but one thing stands out as pertinent to 2020. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), based in Atlanta, was in the heart of my senate district, and I remember going to a pre-election gathering at a restaurant nearby. A man in a position dealing with public health told me that if someone gets sick with a communicable disease, government laws give him the right to lock that person up in a quarantine cell. I was shocked by that statement, which ran so counter to my libertarian way of thinking.

With conditions being what they are in this presidential election year that will not be soon forgotten, it seems a prime time to introduce to the American psyche an alternative method of decision-making that leads to peace and harmony. There is a better way than the majority-rule method. I have discovered and participated in such a method.

As I was traveling the world in 2017 as roving Political Ambassador for Ubuntu Planet USA, my good friend Maro in South Africa convinced me that studying permaculture would be the best thing I could do for the movement. She told me about an online course available at that time at no charge unless you want a certification at the end of the course. In studying that permaculture course, I discovered the key to harmonious role selection in a democratic decision-making method called Sociocracy.

The way this works is that a group of people get together in a circle, like the Knights of the Round Table in King Arthur's Court. This is also the way the electoral college was designed to work, and would work, were it not for the fact that the electors in the college are elected by the majority-rule method. 

The Sociocratic decision-making method, which includes the role selection method, works well for neighborhood associations, communities, businesses, schools, or any organization -- even families -- that need to make decisions of any kind. A circle can be up to 40 participants, but 20 is a more optimal maximum. 8 seems to be ideal.

Here is a link to a complete description of the process, which always leads to a consensual, satisfying outcome: 
https://www.sociocracyforall.org/selection-process/.

This process could be used by several groups to select a representative to sit on a circle with a wider reach (not higher, just larger), such as neighborhoods selecting representatives to sit on a circle that would then select one of their members to represent their area of the county on the county commission circle. 

In turn this method could be used to select a county commissioner to represent the county in the state Circle (rather than "House") of Representatives. Then those trusted representatives would select the electors for the electoral college, and one of them would be selected for President of these united states.

The amount of psychic energy, mental attention, discussion and activism -- some of which has gotten completely out of hand -- that we put into a system that never works for everyone must someday come to an end. I am choosing to put my energy into a new system of democracy that will work for everyone!