Easter Sunrise in Virginia Beach

Today I visited Virginia Beach to photographer the sun rising over the Atlantic Ocean on Easter morning. To my surprise, I wasn’t the only one there. Many people gathered on the oceanfront to great the sun (Son) on Easter morning.

Afterward, I went to Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. and took numerous photographs there as well. The meditation garden, with its meandering water lily pond, arched bridge, and flowering camellias, looked lovely in the early light.

Carol Chapman

2012 a Mayan Year, Right?

I don’t know about you, but it has occurred to me that this December 21, 2012 date is on a Mayan calendar. The stela I saw at the Mayan ruin in Coba in January 2008–just two months ago–was made in the 800s or 900s way before Europeans even came to North America.

Therefore, doesn’t the date and the Mayan Long Count Calendar only refer to the Mayan civilization? Makes sense to me.

So then, why is everyone else, who is not Mayan, getting themselves worked up about the date?

Carol Chapman

2012 Maya Calendar, Niribu, and Crop Circles

Here’s a selection from what appears to be My Telegraph.co.uk by a Ugandan writer called “Kenz.” 

The Mayans never said that date was the end of the world. It was just the end/beginning of a cycle to them. Winter solstice of 2012 represents both a solar maximum, and one complete wobble of the Earth (precession, which occurs only once every 25,780 years). It is very likely that this is why that date was significant to them.

Have you heard about the end of the world in 2012?! : March 2008 : Kenz : My Telegraph

In one amazing article, Kenz writes about the Mayan 2012  and the end of the world (selected above), crop circles, and the straying planet, “Niribu,” described by Zacharia Sitchin in his controversial 1976 book The Twelfth Planet. This book is evidently Sitchin’s understanding of a translation of ancient Sumerian texts as saying that there is a twelfth planet in the solar system which has an extremely wide elliptical orbit bringing it back to the solar system every 3,600 years.

Kenz also says that 80 percent of crop circles have been discovered to be hoaxes. Still, that leaves 20 percent unaccounted for. What causes the 20 percent?

In any case, have you heard of this Niribu? Do you believe in it?

Mayan Elders Vanish into the Jungle

Gregg Braden, best selling author who bridges science and spirituality, writes, in The Mystery of 2012, that modern-day Maya say that their descendents left their temples, pyramids, and observatories, walked into the jungle and disappeared.

What does that mean? Disappeared, as in “vanished” presto, poof, gone? Or disappeared, as in walked deep into the jungle and stayed out of sight?

Carol Chapman

Twin Souls: When Love Incarnates

I like that the following selection equates the union of Twin Souls with Service. Somewhere, perhaps in Edgar Cayce’s psychic readings, I read that as a soul progresses toward leaving the reincarnation cycle, the incarnation of twins is less often as lovers and more often in a relationship in which they work together to provide service to others. One example would be Edgar Cayce and his secretary Gladys Davis. Another example would be Edgar’s son Hugh Lynn Cayce, who had so much to do with developing Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E., and his mother Gertrude, Edgar’s wife.  

The Union of the Twin Flame is one of Service. It should not be romanticized in the context by which one perceives the male and female relationship. The Service of the Twin Flame is not only planetary but also cosmic and Universal.
The Twin Soul connection is always a triad involving the Divine Spirit / All That Is.

Twin Souls: When Love Incarnates | Spirit Library

Do you know? Have you read this too? That twin souls are more likely to incarnate with the purpose of service rather than romantic love the nearer the soul comes to leaving the reincarnation cycle? If so, where did you see it? The Cayce readings?

Carol Chapman

Families and Reincarnation

One aspect of reincarnation I find especially intriguing is that all members of a family, even though they probably knew each other in numerous past lives, may not be working on the same lifetimes in this present life.

It would be simpler if everyone were working on the same lifetime. That way if, for example, they had all lived during the American civil war, they could all go to civil war reenactments together, collect civil war memorabalia, and watch movies about the civil war.

But, if, for example, the father is working on the the civil war lifetime and his son is working on an experience during the time of the pharaoh’s in ancient Egypt, you can see how the father could not understand his son and the son could be bored with the endless family excursions to civil war museums and battlegrounds.

It gets even more complicated in the area of human emotions if family member A is working on a previous lifetime in which the family member A was betrayed by family member B and family member B is working on a lifetime in which they both had a deep love relationship.  Family member A will not be able to trust family member B and family member B will feel hurt because family member A is not reciprocating the love family member B feels for family member A.  

These are the kinds of scenarios that make life interesting.

Carol Chapman

More on Reincarnation

More on the idea that progression through lifetimes is not linear: Just because a person is living a relatively easy experience in this lifetime, does not mean that in a previous life they made some choices they will have to balance in experiences their soul chooses in a future incarnation. This present lifetime may be a life of rest for them.

I think it is very important to realize that a difficult experience in the present lifetime does not mark a person as lower or worse than a person having an relatively easy experience in the present life.

It might be that the person undertaking the difficult life has chosen to tackle some deep issues, for example, some of the very difficult situations undertaken by, for example, Joan of Arc or Saint Francis of Assisi. Furthermore, they may have taken on an easy resting life before the one in which they tackled the difficult issues.

As always, it is best not to judge or to compare ourselves with others. 

Carol Chapman

Is Our Reincarnation Progression linear?

Today, I have been thinking about reincarnation. As I understand it, our progression through different lifetimes is not linear–that you keep getting better and better with everylifetime–the idea that in a previous life you were a worse person and are working on getting better. This would mean that a person living a very difficult experience in this life must be at a lower level than a person living an easy life.

However, in the Edgar Cayce psychic readings, he says that in this present lifetime, we are often working on a number of lifetimes. Usually, as our life progresses, we work through issues in one lifetime then another, some of which were more difficult than another.

Because I have remembered a number of my own past lives, I know that our progression from one life to another is not in a linear manner. Sometimes, if we have made some regretful choices in a certain life, we may take a number of incarnations to prepare us to deal with the mistakes we made in that lifetime.

Therefore, just because a person is living a relatively easy life in this present lifetime, it does not mean that they will not have a future incarnation in which that have many issues to face and deal with.  

Carol Chapman

An Interesting Blog Post on Beliefnet the largest Religion and Spirituality online community

I found the demographics interesting especially the age range.  

Second Life is beginning to attract a diverse cross-section of businesses and organizations, including banks, retailers, news organizations and non-profit groups.

Debra Mason, director of the Center for Religion and the Professions at MU, mentioned that the center has a presence on the virtual reality Web site.

Rebecca Phillips, vice president of social networking for Beliefnet, spoke about how social networking sites have changed religious communities. With 3 million users, Beliefnet is the largest religion and spirituality Web site in the country. Phillips said Beliefnet has a liberal definition of social networking.

“It’s not just about users connecting to other users, but users connecting to the content,” she said. “If you want to express yourself on a page, that’s social networking.”

Phillips said Beliefnet allows members to connect to people with similar beliefs using message boards, blogs and prayer circles. Prayer circles allow users to request prayers for loved ones or share their thoughts with people who have posted prayers.

“On Beliefnet, a lot of our users are lost socially,” she said. “They can find members of the same community. I’ve been astounded by the amount of real friendships that start on Beliefnet.”

Phillips also debunked some of the myths concerning social networking, particularly that all users are teenagers or young adults. She noted that the demographic of Beliefnet users is typically 30- to 50-year-old women.

Additional information:

Phillips also highlighted the active political discuss on the Beliefnet Community. She noted that some of the posts are heated opinions and not always in best taste. However, the Web site doesn’t have to do a lot of policing of offensive posts because the most dedicated users handle most situations within the online community.

Phillips said that some of the site’s members expressed concern over the recent acquisition of Beliefnet by News Corp, which incorporated the site into the Fox division. The site provided a forum for members to discuss their response to the acquisition.

Faith in Focus

Dream Interpretation-Looking Out to Sea

You’re on the edge of the ocean looking out to sea.

Interpretation–you’re ready to undertake a wonderfully creative enterprise. 

Carol Chapman