A Rose by Any Other Name

I love this time of year. Spring has sprung, and the air is scented with a mixture of wildflowers, rosemary, and sage. When I got up to feed the cats this morning, I was greeted by the pink and white roses that Joanne had bought the other day in our kitchen. Outside our kitchen window I could see our neighbor’s red and yellow roses. Across the street a five foot wide white rose tree is exploding, along with our rose garden.

I’ve just finished my second semester at The Fielding Graduate School/Integral University in the Integral Certificate program. I wrote an 80-page draft of my “Five Phases of Wilber” paper, plus and a shorter version that’s more introductory. So my writing process was an intense nine day retreat with seven of those days writing for eight or more hours. I meditated for close to two hours a day and switched between basic Witnessing or vipassana, and mantra meditation led to many insights into Wilber’s AQAL-5 model.

During this period, Joanne began to work her Ouija Board, as she has on occasion. She wanted to obtain essence family names (Seth/Elias) and orientations (Elias) for coworkers and friends. She began to make some progress in moving the planchette without thinking about it, and evolved her own method of spelling. At some point the essence of Rose (Elias) supposedly came through, and since I was in the midst of concentrating on my paper, I was only peripherally interested, but encouraged her as best I could.

In one of the earlier sessions, she came out of the bedroom and announced that our girl kitty, Maya, has been a pig in a previous life, or something to that effect. I was very skeptical, sort of rolled my eyes wondering at her accuracy, and if she was just going off the deep end. It has been a busy year for us! But to her credit, she continued to work the board for nights at a time, and I gave her some space and support.

So I got my paper in last Monday, and immediately had to prepare for David Tate’s arrival to record four piano demos for his and Jo’s musical in process The Game of Life. But Jo had already begun telling people about her breakthrough, and I still hadn’t had any time to read her journal. Jo kept me informed, of course, but began to do some practice readings for several friends, and learn what’s involved.

She posted initial info on Ellen Gilbert’s NewWorldView forum (Inner Visions Journal) on a topic called Nun’s Ways. Rose, it turns out, had started from Day 1 to use a metaphor from Jo’s Catholic background, but a redefined version that seems more aligned with the authentic contemplative traditions of women “nuns.” So I’m struck by the feminine connotations and its potential to express the rising Divine Feminine principle that is part of the current edge of evolutionary unfolding. In other words, we are not talking about dried up old virgins clueless about the ways of the world, but those who were deeply involved with Christianity’s esoteric traditions, and earlier. Rose’s definition of a nun is not limited to female gender, as she considers me a “nun” as well (much to my amusement). So it seems to be a much broader definition. These are only initial impressions and it will take some time to get used to her word shadings and other idiosyncratic behaviors.

Still, it became quite clear by last Tuesday that we were dealing with a new “member” of our immediate family; Jo, Rumi, Maya, myself, and now Rose. That is, it wasn’t a temporary plateau experience that would fade after days or a week. Like a little energizer bunny, or should I say, nunny , this Aspect seems as though it’s here to stay. So we’ve begun a transitional period of adjustment for all three of us.

We know there are no accidents, and we have both been working hard to understand what this development may involve. While Jo began on the board, just a week ago today (Monday) she began autotyping at her computer, and last Thursday night she began her first, though very limited, voice transmission.

Just last Friday, Jo got up and autotyped four new pages of material, she was resting on the bed, and she air-typed and spoke for 6-7 minutes. By air-typing, Jo puts her hands on her thighs, and just types the words, and can then speak them slowly. So what appears to be happening cognitively is based right now on her auto- or air-typing, and she is just able to rapidly give voice, but is still very present and reacting to the flow, which is a whole other process to watch unfold.

The wonderful thing is that we both have access to the precedents set by Jane Roberts and Rob Butts, Stan Ulkowski and Michael Steffen (in terms of using the Ouija board), Mary Ennis, Serge Grandbois, Emmy Van Swaaij, to name a prominent few that form quite a gestalt, or “lineage mind” that outlines how this phenomenon may unfold. So Jo and I have a roadmap of the stages of development that we can use to guide us as her abilities continue to blossom.

While it feels like it is happening very fast, we are still very much in the “Frank Withers” stage (or early Seth/Jane light trance). Even though Jo can voice the words, she is still mentally typing and translating what she gets through her fingers. Sometimes they move, sometimes they don’t, but the cognitive, translative process is pretty much the same. So this Rose/Jo is still has a long way to go before we can determine what’s really going on. But all initial indications are very positive, and authentic.

It’s been interesting to watch her begin to relax, either sitting or lying down, and try to get out of the way, get deeper so that a light trance state develops. So we expect to see some state changes down the road.

Jo has been writing up notes and gets new Rose info the past few mornings, which I then read to start my day. For example, there was information given about dietary changes we can make, that we’ve been considering for some time, and will try out gradually at our own pace. There are other things too, that will verify her accuracy with simple predictions. As I was reading Saturday morning’s info back to Jo, at one point I raised a question about integral conscious creation, and Jo said Rose wanted to come through, so I grabbed the recorder and we had our first 25 minute session during which I mostly listened and observed.

Jo sat upright on the couch, closed her eyes, had her hands on her legs, as if to air-type, but they didn’t move the entire time. She just spoke slowly, and carefully. Afterward, Jo said she was mentally typing out the letters still.

I have to engage my active listening process during this early phase, as I told her several times that my thoughts are moving ten times faster than Rose/Jo’s. So I have to be patient, and allow the process to unfold. Still, it’s fun to just Witness the process. Interestingly, Rose caught me off guard and actually stopped and asked me if I had any thoughts. This was really our first conversation, and I mumbled something about taking the process in slow steps, finding it amazing, and how deeply appreciative I was.

So along with my semester ending paper, David’s visit, and Rose’s joining our family, it’s been an intense, yet marvelous two week stretch!

I also want to mention that I reread the first half of the Rose Digest a couple days ago, and was reminded that Elias claims that Rose has an ability to manipulate all birds. I thought back to last Tuesday, when I went out onto our deck to enjoy some down time, and saw a big bird sitting on our ash tree. We were both startled for a moment, and stared at each other for several seconds. As this bird majestically flew away, I saw it was a red-tailed hawk. I can see them circling above the house, and even hear their piercing cries on occasion. But I’ve never seen one that close before. A coincidence?

Last weekend Jo shared her news with Mark and Serge in Toronto, and Kris confirmed that this is an energy exchange (he had mentioned in a private session that a dream ancestor, as he calls them, had been trying to contact her in her dream state).

So we’re taking it one day at a time and will see how things unfold. Since we are blessed with Elias, Kris, and Defrene, there won’t be any private or group sessions right away, as Jo, Rose, and I get to know each other, understand the phenomenon better, and learn what the potentials may be. In the mean time, we are taking it all with a grain of salt. Jo is just beginning, and there’s a lot more to come.

I also want to acknowledge Bill Ingle, a long time Seth reader and proponent of channeling who provides information and practices for anyone interested. I printed out one of his missives 6-7 years ago for Joanne, as she has expressed interest in learning how to develop this intelligence for a long time. So those seeds have been gestating for years.

I’d like to close with one of my favorite Seth quotes from The Early Sessions whose wisdom has guided me for years, and informs our movement forward as the Rose of Joanne develops further:

“Truth contains no distortions, and this material with all my best efforts, and with yours, of necessity must contain distortions merely in order to make itself exist at all on your plane. I will never condone an attitude in which either you or [Jane] maintain that you hold undiluted truth through these sessions.

“Any material, to exist on your plane, must to some extent don the attire of your plane, and in the very entry to your plane it must be somewhat distorted. I must use phrases with which your minds are somewhat familiar. I must use [Jane’s] subconscious to some degree. If I did not take advantage of your own camouflage system, then you would not be able to understand the material at this time.

“Inner data, even this, must make its entry through some distortion. We must always work together, but you must never consider me as an infallible source. This material is more valid than any material possible on your plane, but it is nevertheless to some degree conditioned by the camouflage attributes of the plane.

“... I want to make it plain that we are certainly not setting up a new dogma.” ~ The Early sessions: Book 2 of the Seth Material, session 47.

By “new dogma” I should add that “this material is more valid than any material possible on your plane” doesn’t mean “the only,” “the best,” or “the final say” so I continue to take this initial phase with a grain of salt, and read between the lines.

Finally, roses are a double-edged sword; they have thorns as well as lovely, fragrant flowers. Jo and I are taking our time, getting used to a new member of the family, and learning to handle “her” with great care. More information will be posted on Joanne's new blog In the Rose Garden as it becomes available.