The sacrifice Isaac's point of view

 

Until the last day of his life there were nights when he would wake up, sweating and trembling,as if he was still about to be killed by his father - lying on his back, staring at the older man waving a knife.

He saw clearly. There was no shadow of a doubt. His father would have killed him without hesitation. His own father, whom he trusted with all his young boyish soul, would have cut his throat.

It was not the first time Isaac had accompanied his father on top of a hill for a burnt offering. It all seemed quite normal. Rituals are routine.

He believed he was the cherished son. He would never believe it again.

At the last moment, God stopped Abraham. However, God did not stop him before Isaac felt stabbed in the back and in the heart. He would have done it.

God wanted to test Abraham. Faith was what mattered. Isaac, son of Abraham, would have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.

Isaac didn't want descendants. He wanted to have a father who would do anything to save him.

He knew there was no way to thwart the Almighty, but couldn't his father have fallen on his knees and begged? Couldn't he have offered his own life to save his son's?

When God planned to destroy Sodom, Abraham did argue with the Lord, wondering whether the Almighty would destroy the righteous along with the wicked... At that time, God listened to Abraham and acknowledged the validity of his plea. Isaac had heard the story but on that day, on the mountain, there had been no attempt to bend the Lord's will.

Isaac was extremely relieved when God stopped his father just a split second before he plunged the knife in his throat. However, something within him had died.

What kind of man was Abraham? Was he jealous of his son to comply so willingly? Was he envious of his youth?

In Isaac's view, and maybe in God's, Abraham did fail the test.

A ram would take Isaac's place. Abraham's son would watch, with infinite compassion, the fate of the scapegoat...

 

A good listener is a healer

A good listener is a healer. 

I am a good listener. I don’t mind saying it, I know it’s true. 

I wouldn’t say I am a healer though. It sounds pretentious. It sounds like “I am special. Look at my pretty aura!” 

However, if I wear the label “astrologer” it’s actually because of my interest in the healing process of the soul, or psyche. My life has been a quest for it. I had to because I was in pain. 

I have not become an enlightened being, life offered me some moments of light. I’ve walked my path the best I could. 

I am good at reading charts, not to predict dates and events but to understand people. I am good at explaining what I understand, and I’m good at holding space. 

When I am a gardener, I don’t pull on the leaves of the plants to make them grow. I don’t use pliers to force rosebuds to open at the right time. I make sure to plant a rose where it will get enough light. I may water it if the weather becomes too dry, but I don’t do the growing and the blooming. I respect nature’s rhythm. That’s what being a good listener is about. It’s simple actually. 

Many people believe that if there is a problem, they must do something about it; they end up talking instead of listening, telling what to do instead of offering an opportunity to breathe at ease, they suggest better ways to fight against oneself instead of suggesting peace. 

My idea of astrology readings is that they are healing moments. 

Jean-Marc

The story of a crocodile who hated being a crocodile ()

   This is the story of a crocodile who hated being a crocodile. 

 It was so unbearable to be a crocodile that he used to hide under the surface of a lake day and night. Only his eyes popped above the surface. 

 He used to watch with immense envy a group of gracious dancers above the water, lovely women in amazing tutu dresses. They danced on the lake, turned into swans, then became dancers again, at will. The crocodile was filled with wonder. He absolutely loved the show. He too wanted to be a swan and be able to turn into a dancer, and then become a swan again.

 The crocodile once overheard a conversation between two swan-dancers. One statement in particular struck him: “You are what you eat"

 There are many problems in the world, one of them is to take statements too literally. 

 In the beginning, the swan-dancers didn’t notice. There were so many of them that a few disappearances went unnoticed. The crocodile would catch his prey and devour it undisturbed but he kept being a crocodile, the poor thing. 

 What the crocodile did not know was that he was not truly a crocodile. He was actually a dreamer dreaming he was a crocodile.

The dreamer could become anything he liked. Once a dancer, once a swan, once a tree, once a fly... But when the dreamer found himself dreaming that he was a crocodile, he was suddenly seized with horror. Being a crocodile was so awful! In his state of shock, he lost the ability to change.


 When the swan-dancers discovered that the lake was haunted by a greedy crocodile, they flew away. 

 The crocodile is still all alone in the middle of the lake, and he will stay there until he dares to count its teeth to the exact number. 

  Only then will he be able to remember it is a dreamer who can change its dream at will. 


 Jean-Marc

Storyteller, also Astrologer 

https://www.jeanmarcpierson.com/

Buy less, eat less, love more ()

Hello friend!

We need a radical change in lifestyle. We have to become a decent species. This change won't happen without you and me, and it won't happen without them.

Them. The individuals.

Expecting governments to declare climate emergency and take appropriate measures is not enough. There role is crucial, and there is only so much that they can do.

But if people don't change, societies won’t change.

Animal agriculture is an important part of the climate problem. The great power that has been making industrial beef farming grow and grow, deforesting and burping methane, is not sitting among world leaders at the United Nations. This great power is scattered. It belongs to millions of voracious mouths. Would these mouths accept to turn their daily consumption of meat into a weekly or bi weekly treat to save our lives and theirs?


They would do so, I'm sure, if all their neighbours did. All their neighbours would certainly do it as well, provided all they neighbours did. Most of us, members of the human species, conform. It's an instinct. We are only reasonable at the level of the tip of the melting iceberg.

 Below the surface, we are irrational beings. We respond to influences, for the better or for the worst. What we need is an epidemic of lifestyle change.
 

I wish to contribute my spark to a fire in the mind forest.

Of course, our climate problem is not a question of animal farming only. It almost all boils down to the fact that we are burning fossil fuels. We travel by plane, we are buying products made in factories still powered thanks to fossil fuels and shipped all over the world by means of fossil fuels. Renewable energies are on the way, that's great, but we don't have all the time in the world. We need to stop buying oil, and stop buying things that cost oil or gas, or coal...

You're going to tell me: "Wait! That's not possible! ...."

I agree. We can't stop buying. But it is always possible to buy less. Our footprints should be so light that they quickly disappear behind us.

Buying less, eating less goes with loving more. We really don't need that much to find reasons to smile. We only need to grow the right feelings and attitudes. We are gardeners of our minds. We can create happiness without burning oil. We can reduce our consumption of stuff and grow love and happiness in the process.

The greatest power is the psyche. 

Anxieties

There are moments when they are overwhelming, the moments when we choke, when we feel like we are dying, falling in the void, when we startle for the least little noise and call for help to God without pride.


There are moments when they seem to have disappeared... but they are still there, like a background program always running...


Without knowing it, we behave so as to keep them hidden in the background, contained. We stick to reassuring routines, which don't cost much energy.... 

We need the energy to keep them under control. This routines can take many forms, sometimes they are called addictions, and sometimes they are just "comfort zones"  


Anxieties. Feelings of feeling horrible, feelings of having to but having not to, feelings of waste, of fear, of damnation.


There are remedies. Long term remedies, Things to practice when we can, when we think of it, when suddenly we have no choice. Making a stop. No thinking, no distraction. No action. Just feeling. Being where we are, not where we strive. Slowing down, breathing, just being where we are. That's meditation. And maybe, maybe, calling for help and trusting we are heard.

 

 

This too will pass...

Sometimes the feelings that come up to the surface are burning like hell, and sometimes cold like drowning in a swamp at night. (Even though drawing in a swamp in broad daylight is probably not much of a treat)


This too will pass...


If karma is a reality, maybe all that was well deserved after all?


Shame is far worse than fear. Without shame, fear would be just a difficulty to deal with. With shame, fear becomes unmanageable.


This too will pass....


Shame is worse than guilt, With guilt we can somehow find ways to pay our debt, but shame doesn't work like an overdraft on a bank account. Shame is a hot iron mark.


This too will pass....


Life is fragile. Live is vulnerable. Life too will pass.


Human beings have invented all kinds of tortures for themselves, since the world is world. Shame and guilt are like though weeds - terrible invaders with long long roots and flowers of pride.


Life is not a spontaneous hero.


Who taught us fear for the first time? The wholly mammoth? That's quite understandable...


This too will pass...


During World War 1 people had not given the name of "Shell shock" to a certain state. Those who were affected were considered cowards - and they thought of themselves as "cowards" because there was not other way to understand being overwhelmed by fear...


During World War 2 they invented the expression "Shell Shock"


Nowadays, we even acknowledge the existence of "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder" and that's a good antidote to shame to see it like that.... if you can.


Everything will pass.


Life if fragile and the effects of all unhealed traumas are passed down through generations...


This too will pass...

Mahikari

When I was 25 I met friends I hadn't seen for five or six years. Loads had happened since I last saw them: they were married, had children and he had multiple sclerosis.


They also belonged to a new religion, created in Japan in 1962, called Mahikari. The main practice was spiritual healing, with a lot of Japanese style rituals, prayers and so on.


They told me that since they belonged there, his state as multiple sclerosis sufferer had stabilised and that he even had been able to stop medication.


I was not very attracted by getting into religious stuff, but I didn't want to be close minded either so I decided to give it a try. I joined Mahikari.


A few months later I was initiated, I received a sacred object - a medallion -


This medallion was a real problem. You were supposed to have it on you all the time, but it couldn't touch any part of the body lower than the navel, it couldn't be touched by another person and couldn't be wet either.


To take a shower, it was necessary to say special prayers to ask for protection, put the sacred object in a sacred box on the highest shelve of the house, say another prayer, go take the shower, then without wasting time, say a prayer to thank God for the protection and put the medallion back on. All the prayers were in ancient Japanese....


The amazing thing was that the spiritual healing worked. The moment of my "initiation", when I received the sacred medallion that had been consecrated somewhere in Japan, I felt pins and needles switched on in my palms


I started experimenting, with success. I remember a child who was crying because she had an ear infection - Five minutes of my hand at 20 cm of the ear and the pain was gone. A guy with a medical metallic device getting out of his leg - he had had multiple fractures was in great pain. Five minutes or so or my hands sending "divine light" ... and he was smiling. I had many similar experiences. It was like magic!


I even changed the taste of wine... It was really bad wine, the cheapest brand that my sceptical and atheist friends were drinking to get drunk when they had no money for weed.


I poured a glass, put it aside, put my hands around the bottle for about 10 minutes.... It did not turn into good wine but It didn't burn the throat anymore, like the wine left in the glass still did. My friends had to admit the difference was obvious. They remained as atheists as they were anyway, but I didn't care about that. I was really enjoying the experience!

I remained a member of Mahikari for about one year, but it was quite a pain in the arse to follow all the rituals, and the people in there were everything but wise.


The teachings, which were supposed to be revealed for the first time in the history of humanity, were just a rewriting of traditional esoteric or religious teachings. Nothing new.


The little chiefs really believed that they were as infallible as the catholic pope when doing their little chief job.... I heard a woman once say: "God is talking through my mouth, so shut up and listen to me!"...


One day I had enough. I profaned the sacred medallion. I opened it (something nobody should never do) I put the little consecrated piece of paper with a sign on it in the bin with the medallion and I was done with it.


However, later on I noticed that I could still feel the pins and needles in my palms. So I carried on practising spiritual healing or energy healing, whatever we call it, without any ritual or prayers in ancient Japanese. Sometimes, it works, headaches or belly aches vanish. However, long term conditions don't evaporate in five or fifty five minutes of hands imposition indeed... Those who expect that should remember that standard medicine doesn't heal you with one pill either. 

One day someone told me that this experience simply unlocked a gift I had. Maybe. Today, many people do energy healing, with one appellation or another. Well, I do it as well!... 

I even do it from a distance... (just ask!)  Life is surprising!