by Berenice Andrews
The Cosmic Tapestry
In the language of metaphysics and metaphor (the ages-old expressors of spirituality), the on-going creation of the universe could be compared to the weaving of a tapestry—a Cosmic Evolutionary Tapestry—constructed by a Cosmic Weaver.
Since the very beginning, it has been an immense undertaking! Each one of the macrocosmic warp threads—Life, Light, Love and Law—had to be strong and stable enough to carry the entire tapestry yet remain concealed within the construction. From the beginning, this has been accomplished. Meanwhile, each one of the microcosmic weft threads—life, light, love and law—necessary to form the entire design had to be interlaced into the warp at the exact time and location. Since the beginning this, too, has been accomplished. Meanwhile, the evolutionary tapestry has slowly developed and the Weaver has ceaselessly labored on.
When the weft design had progressed far enough (not without a few “glitches” along the way!) there came a complex new addition. It was to be a focal point in the tapestry.
There, in the area of the tapestry depicting the Milky Way, with its solar system and its planet Earth, the human segment had been incubating for countless eons, as microcosmic life (being), light (knowing) and love (heart awareness). At last, the threads for the human design were ready. More so than for any other design, they were to be the expression—“the image and likeness”—of the Weaver’s own attributes.
The Human Design
We pick up the story at the Peche Merle cave paintings. These Ice Age masterpieces had already indicated a shamanic awareness of a primitive heart connection between people and animals. But the tapestry required many more interwoven evolutionary threads…
Thought Teachings
In order for people to become a fully human image and likeness of the Creator, the evolution of a thinking mind was necessary. For this to happen, the centers of consciousness (chakras), which had (probably) started with the Earth’s first cellular life forms, had to develop.
Thus, there had slowly emerged in the evolutionary tapestry the design we know as the root chakra (masculine/physicality) consciousness closely accompanied by a sacral chakra (feminine/emotionality) consciousness that was predominantly fear-based because physical survival was essential. But, in this splendidly conceived holistic system, despite appearances to the contrary, the solar plexus chakra (masculine/mentality consciousness) necessary for the mind had slowly been making headway. And always the androgynous (masculine/feminine consciousness) heart connection—the breath of the Weaver—had been present.
The interlacing of life, light, love and law within the macrocosmic threads of Life, Light, Love and Law continued without ceasing. Even when “god was a woman” and the female of the emerging human segment was dominant, the masculine and feminine energies were evolving. In all this time, while the necessary human thinking mind was developing, the Weaver was being expressed by shamans, prophets and other holy helpers (including Jesus, the Great Teacher, Hildegard of Bingen and Julian of Norwich). They prevented the feminine heart consciousness energies from being lost entirely. And the weaving continued…
On planet Earth, there were many centuries of “learning,” while people formed societies and came together for mutual benefit and mutual destruction. The Weaver incorporated all of it into the tapestry. Then, after humanity had progressed into the beginning of “new thought” and quantum physics, the design in the tapestry became especially complex.
It was the lifetime of Ernest Holmes and many other great teachers who were exploring how “spirituality” could express through mind. It was also the lifetime of Albert Einstein and other remarkable scientists who were exploring how “mind” could express through spirituality. At long last, metaphysics and science were starting to “dance” with each other! After that, the speed of tapestry making greatly increased.
Computer technology began creating a global village out of planet Earth. Huge changes of awareness began forcing people, especially in the Western Hemisphere, into new and often paradoxical patterns of thought. To speed up that process, there was emerging a new breed of thinkers. They perceived that while “mind” might be starting to flourish mightily, “emotion” was still stuck in the ancient ways. These were predominantly expressing the consciousness energies of the archetypal victim, prostitute and saboteur. They had prevailed at least since the Ice Age, and they required healing if humanity was to survive.
With the holy helpers and the Weaver hard at work, the necessary healing work, i.e., the restoration of balanced consciousness energies, has very slowly come along, right into this year of 2017. The “lost” feminine threads are making their reappearance. They are the glorious new heart threads—human heart empowerment and transcendent knowing—that have required evolving past their fear-based, primitive beginnings.
While the Weaver has been ceaselessly interlacing the threads of metaphysics and science into a new design, we have been the recipients of brilliant brain/heart gifts from many thousands of people. Those holy helpers have included Nathaniel Branden, Ken Wilber and the people of the HeartMath Institute. They are bringing us forward into a new, enhanced consciousness about ourselves—who we are and why we exist—on this earth plane.
Compassionate Rationality
What these people have been teaching us about compassionate rationality has brought us into a more immediate awareness of the evolutionary tapestry…of which we are an inextricable part…and with its Weaver.
Slowly, we have been realizing that the idea of an anthropomorphic “god” who punished and rewarded “his” children for bad or good behavior (but managed to “love” them anyway) was probably needed in an earlier, less enlightened, state of awareness. Now that idea can be replaced by those indicating a new paradigm.
Dr. Nathaniel Branden
For half a century, until his death in 2014, Nathaniel Branden wrote and lectured extensively about the vital need for us to recognize and revere our thinking minds. Supporting his thoughts with sound psychology, Dr. Branden laid down what amounted to a lifelong course of study for those who were ready to learn.
In brief, he taught us to live consciously, to accept and value ourselves, to acknowledge our self-responsibility, to assert ourselves, to function purposefully and to uphold our personal integrity. (For more detail, see “An Inside Job” in the November 2016 issue of Transformation Magazine.)
{When these principles are understood in the light of an evolved awareness that we are “already in heaven” (Ernest Holmes), we can see that the human path of rational spirituality has likely been part of the Weaver’s design plans since the beginning!}
In his later years, when Branden began to recognize that human heart feelings, especially kindness, might not be amenable to rational analysis or control, he modified his thinking somewhat. Yet, his principles of rational human beingness remain a good grounding foundation. They have become part of the evolving tapestry.
Ken Wilber
Into that segment came Ken Wilber. For him, Spirit-in-Action has always been what human consciousness is all about.
Like Branden, Wilber has focused on enlarging the context and content of human mind. To that end, he has developed and promoted his Theory of Everything, within which any statement about any reality in this world can be situated and comprehended.
Because he sees Spirit-in-Action as an unceasing forward movement, Wilber teaches us that while we are living now on this planet Earth, we’re also living in a multidimensional and multileveled “post-metaphysical universe.” In other words, human evolution with Spirit leading the way has progressed into its next stage. To support this idea, his Theory of Everything includes a description of our “Kosmic Address,” i.e., our expanded centers of consciousness (chakras) complete with colors. He then notes that the inner “altitude” of each human perceiver determines his/her awareness of the realities, including the spiritual, in each dimension and level (“worldspace”). Thus, the higher we go in our own inner development and understanding the more we can know about ourselves and our spiritual ground-of-being. (Eventually we will see that they are one and the same.) He teaches us that “the history of the entire “Kosmos,” is the history of your very own being and becoming; you can feel it in your bones because you know that is what you are.”
Clearly, Ken Wilber has been, and remains, a mighty contributor to the progress of the evolving tapestry! (For more detail, see any of Wilber’s publications including Integral Spirituality: A Startling New Role for Religion in the Modern and Post-Modern World.)
The Heart/Math Institute
Then we get to the work of the HeartMath Institute in which a blend of metaphysics and science has produced new parts in the tapestry.
So far, the work has been splendid. Now we are relearning about the balanced “dance” of the masculine and feminine energies (the androgynous consciousness) out of which we are made. Slowly, the feminine “face of god” is being restored to our lives and to the evolutionary tapestry.
Until now, the Institute has given us the teaching that:
- the human heart radiates an electromagnetic signal that can be detected by other people (and by animals);
- information relating to our emotional state is encoded in the magnetic field radiated by the heart;
- the human heart and brain are connected to a source of information that operates outside the classical boundaries of time and space;
- the heart receives this information before the brain receives it;
- people possess “non-local intuition” that empowers the human heart and brain to respond to future events before they happen;
- a heart coherent state relates directly to the power of our intent and produces harmony in our physical and subtle bodies (emotional and mental);
- learning how to generate a “heart coherent” state requires much concentration and effort but can be accomplished with attentive breath work and visualization (which are ancient yogic practices);
- our higher vibrations naturally generate “heart textures” such as gratitude and compassion, which are two of love’s greatest powers;
- with heart-connected thoughts and with an inner stillness, love matures into its highest vibration, whereby we are capable of creating our own joy and fulfillment while supporting others to do the same.
Indeed, these are exciting times with more to come!
(See Joseph Chilton Pearce, The Heart-Mind Matrix: How the Heart Can Teach the Mind How to Think. See also Doc Childre and others, Heart Intelligence Connecting with the Intuitive Guidance of the Heart.)
Conclusion
It would appear that humanity has been slowly coming into an awareness, appreciation and even acceptance of what the world’s holy helpers have been trying to teach for many millennia! Now we are finally catching up.
And here is the Weaver patiently and doggedly interlacing the threads into what more and more of us are realizing is the tapestry in which we live, move and have our being. In short, we are “getting the picture” that we, as part of an evolutionary design are being created all the time, while at the same time, we are the co-creators of the design.
Berenice Andrews is a shamanic teacher/healer. For more details about the healing practices mentioned above, see her book Rebirthing Into Androgyny: Your Quest for Wholeness…And Afterward. See also her articles “Finding Your True Self: A (Sort of) Socratic Dialog,” September, 2014, and “Understanding the Human Energy Being,” June, July and August, 2015 in Transformation Magazine. If you are interested in reading more and/or becoming her student, see her web site: thestonecircleclassroom.com.