"Wildfires, Families, and Stuff, Oh My!"
It’s Monday, October 29, 2007 and the wildfires that continue to burn across Southern California have persisted for nine days, though they are mostly contained. It’s been a surreal experience and hundreds of thousands of people have been directly affected. While the human death toll is very low, the amount of land burned and property or "stuff" destroyed is estimated at over one billion US dollars. While a billion of anything is difficult to conceptualize, the scope of the fires is also beyond understanding, covering some eight hundred square miles.
Try to imagine the Santa Ana winds whipping up gusts to Category One hurricane speeds (74-95 mph or 119-153 km/hr) and beyond on the mountain peaks. They began Saturday and literally rocked our house when the gusts pushed over 60 mph. The trees and shrubs were moving horizontally, with dust, leaves, and loose branches scurrying by like the Wicked Witch of the West. Complementing the winds was the drought that has left everything tinderbox dry. Together these conditions conspired to create a "perfect storm" for the wildfires, most of which were sparked by downed power lines (you’d think they’d invent power lines that are Category One resistant by now considering what was to come).
As the fire began, the winds blew sparks and fist-sized embers for a quarter mile or more and various spot fires broke out. Within thirty minutes there was no longer a single front, but a cluster of wind-driven infernos that intensified as they moved up and down the many canyons that surround us.
The first fire broke out Saturday night, October 20th to our north and in Malibu to our southwest. By Sunday afternoon the main coverage was the Malibu fire because that’s where many Hollywood stars and other wealthy people live. But within twenty-fours there were over ten fire zones raging that extended some two hundred miles from us in the northwest to San Diego and northern Mexico to our south.
Once this many fires break out, as they did in 2003, the arsonists join the act. As of today at least two of the fires are attributed to my fellow human beings, one of which destroyed over one thousand homes and killed two people. The profile of an arsonist is dominated by very low development in interpersonal and moral lines, as we say in integral. So they are loners who feel left out, powerless, and angry. Thus they create their personal power from seeing the destruction their actions cause.
Some even have erotic connections with the act. That’s right, their fires turn them on, sometimes to orgasm, which makes sense in that sex is a stimulating, creative act that results and combines with the destructive power of the fire. Life and death, yin and yang, Shakti and Shiva all tangled in one glorious, yet juvenile, criminal construction that impacts others. As we say, there is no conscious creation without co-creation.
In the midst of this firestorm, with firefighting helicopters and tankers buzzing constantly overhead, I posted a topic on NewWorldView to capture what was going on here, as well as some pictures. (I also posted a video clip of Day 1 ~ Broadband and Modem56K ~ to provide some context.) It was wonderful to hear from our online friends around the world as the news spread. We had a rough twenty-four period where the fires were all around us and we didn’t know if we’d have to evacuate. As it turned out, the fires spared us in Castaic, and there were only three homes/structures destroyed and no lives lost, minor in comparison to other parts of the state.
Tom Sherlock mentioned that he was curious what Rose had to say about the fires, and while I had thought about asking, I really wasn’t in the place to ask directly and get enough material during the worst part of it all. But Tom reminded me that I did want to know what Rose would say and so Joanne and I held a session this past Friday once things calmed down and were mostly back to normal.
I used the session title as the blog title because it captured the essence of this mass event in terms very near and dear to us. The reference to "stuff" comes from a classic George Carlin routine that hammers away at the relentless consumerism of the modern West, and also seems to be common parlance in California.
As Saturday rolled around the change of weather brought clouds and two periods of rain! This was a pleasant surprise as the initial forecasts suggested the new front wasn’t packing much moisture, just a rise in humidity, which also helped the firefighters. But when those drops echoed off our roof I felt like we jointly created them, as many well wishers prayed for rain to help alleviate the situation. And while it was a small amount, it was a miraculous turnabout, a real change in the storm’s momentum. I knew in my heart that our joint desire to put out those fires helped to bring the rain. But I also knew with growing hindsight, that our joint desires had also precipitated the wildfires to present us with imagery for our own growth and fulfillment.
Finally, we know there are no accidents – there's meaning and purpose to everything under the sun, moon, and stars. In addition to helping us appreciate the many blessings we have, recent events nudged us to share this first full Rose session with you all, whom we also deeply appreciate being in our lives as extended family and community!
In love and service,
Paul
(PDF version available)
Friday, October 26, 2007
Session 167
"Wildfires, Families, and Stuff, Oh My!"
Participants: Joanne (Tyl) and Paul (Caroll).
(Rose arrives: 11:05 AM)
(Paul’s note: this session was prompted by the recent and ongoing wildfires that have ravaged Southern California since last Saturday evening.)
ROSE: We are wanting to speak about your fiery situation, so we’ll allow your questions if you’d like.
PAUL: Sure.
ROSE: We will say you do have a geanius (1) way of finding drama in your lives, so you’ll do well to include your bit about theatrics in your question.
PAUL: Well, the first question I want to ask comes from something Ellen Gilbert posted in a topic on NewWorldView that I’ve been using to update people on our status here, and she mentioned doing a nodi, a mass-nodi practice (2) on her own, in the sense of her perception was the need for healing on a mass scale, which then triggered an impression on my own part in terms of probing into the mass creation of these wildfires that continue to burn today, Friday. They’ve been burning now for six days. The word "correction" came up, it is a correction, a release of energy of some kind and focusing energy into other areas that if you just continued in your regular everyday pattern you wouldn’t do so, you collectively select something like this to reorder our priorities, what we appreciate and take for granted, and so on. So that’s just a preamble of my impressions of what we’re creating collectively and even personally.
ROSE: We’ll say you did do a geanius (pause) sense of finding an impression with your way of suggesting priorities. Indeed, this is the point. In many ways the wonderful priorities you’ve made for weany girl (3) as well as her individual priorities would beautifully connect with essence should you pay attention. In this you learned that your wonderful priorities so want to continue in your lives that you needed to shake yourselves up a bit in order to refine them in some respects.
You also, weany boy, did allow a great many times in your thoughts to be connecting with essence yourself. Indeed, we mean yourselves, for you have a great many individuals who help you even if you don’t sometimes feel you do. We suggest you did allow some fear into your thoughts, so you found a way to treantea (4) your ideas hopefully so as to allow more possibilities into your psychological framework.
For you did need to shake yourselves up in a big way. You were not feeling contented in some respects. You felt as if you were working too hard, indeed you do, but you also wanted to share, in your terms, the way of spirit with other individuals. In this we mean your Wildfire Media (5), there’s no accidents there in regard to your choices. So your Wildfire Media inculcates into your observances of your lives in a big way as well. Trust your wildfires will continue in ways you’ll find beneficial, even though it may not seem that way all the time. We trust you will.
Now with regard to your mass events, we will say you’re also correct in your impressions about your wanting priorities. In your terms, many individuals who were finding losses were having trouble with their lives in some ways. They needed to let go, indeed, in allowing your fires. Some of them died, so their choices were enacted in ways that would be somehow linked to other lives. In this they found refuge in dying, in your terms, but their neighbors found refuge in living. They therefore allowed a way to share, in some respects, the beauty that their lives brought them.
The way the wildfires were set was an act of terrorism. Indeed, local terrorists, not imported ones, were responsible for (pause) eighty percent of the damage. They did allow….
PAUL: That just blows my mind. I just have to say that.
ROSE: In terms of coverage, yes, eighty percent. We will say also they did allow a great many ways of spirit into their actions, for even the terrorists in some ways, we’ll put a giant disclaimer on this, but in some ways terrorists do follow their own ways of spirit. So while their actions are indeed terrible, they have some preoccupations that only allow them access to distorted messages about their activities they would find satisfying. They want the way of spirit, they can’t allow themselves the love, as well as sometimes great fulfillment, that’s allowed in connecting with essence. They only get partially close to their [own] essence exchanges. Therefore, they want only the worst forms of expression.
In this, they would benefit from a great book we do have in process that will allow individuals to connect with their essence. This is a weany girl plug for her book (laughing). We had nothing to do with this endorsement. (6) We’re joking, but in some respects, the way of spirit will assist in your wildfires, because they’ll allow only the most connected essences, in some respects, to respond in ways they’ll find most satisfying to the individuals involved. They’ll find that they will be allowing greater essence connections so as to follow their bliss. Indeed, there should be no terrorists in your terms ever, but they’ll always be some. They’ll always be terrible, so you can only imagine the future without your terrorists, but you’ll never, indeed, wipe them away completely.
The fires weren’t accidental in some ways, but in other ways they were. They were wanting fire, in your terms, because you wanted to start anew in some ways. You wanted to cleanse your California landscape in order to allow new growth. (A firefighting helicopter flew over the house as this was delivered, something we’ve gotten used to over the last five days.) This was indeed protected in some respects by those who wanted only some development. They didn’t allow the new growth to occur, hence your Mother Nature intervened. The new growth will allow greater allowance of realization of prosperity, in your terms, for the new growth indeed is for the rich, but it will indicate in many ways that the prosperous ones will be your local citizens without too many funds. In this, you will humanize your landscapes in some respects.
For why do you need such huge houses that have no social value, indeed have some value to families, but don’t allow social gatherings to reach out to your many needy individuals? Indeed, your communities would do well to begin to commune in your terms. Your houses sometimes don their cattle (laughs) in ways you’d call cattle-prodding your citizens into their pokes, for they have only commanded a range in which they feel stifled, as do cattle in your pokes. (7) So your cattle have said they want to mooove (Jo laughs) – M-O-O-O-V-E – into the areas of allowing more natural space, more communal space, as well as finding ways to downsize indeed.
The people who found themselves burnt to the ground will rebuild in ways that will provoke them to think about what they really need, not what they want. For they need to have humanly inspired spaces, not organized tract-homes that do not show any dominating way of finding their own expressions. They wanted to be done with the homes, in some respects, so they found a way to do so.
This doesn’t mean they didn’t suffer. They did, but their essences were indeed allowing their best expressions to bloom. Indeed that’s always a big thing to get past – that your essences don’t allow anything they can’t handle along with you. Indeed, they’re always finding ways to assist even though it sometimes doesn’t feel this way. So trust their essences were involved totally in the expressions.
We’ll allow your next question Caroll.
PAUL: I’m also curious about the impact, you mentioned the impact on the economy and even the psychology of people, and what they need and want, and the housing market in Southern California is ridiculously expensive and so on. But also I realize that’s part of the creation. I’m also wondering about the wildlife. Something like 600,000 acres have been scorched, and so there must be an incredible departure of all sorts of wildlife in this event. And I’m curious how that impacts the overall choice in creation.
ROSE: Your wildlife are fine. They have been excellently extinguished, in your terms, by your fire, but they‘ll be back in full force. They needed to protest the entire result of the housing encroachment on their territories. They needed to protest that. They need their space indeed. They will have it now that the fires will eventually allow less building in their areas. So they did a good job in their protests, for they were successful in driving some invaders away from their areas. They will find a greater abundance of resources by allowing the new growth as well.
So don’t fret about your animals. They’re fine, they never really knew what hit them. They did have a few moments of terror, indeed, when they sensed the fires, but they have their own wonderful ways of finding that the way of spirit allows them to not suffer. They have a way of finding their inner spirit animals, if you will, to help your animals get through the trying times. They have inner resources, as you do, that kick in when the alerts don the hats of emergencies. They don’t worry. They don’t worry especially about death. They have a built in "suffering monitor" that kicks in when they feel under stress that allows them peaceful feelings. So don’t worry about the animals. You’d do well to emulate them, in your terms, for they know they never die. They know they’re loved. (Humorously) They know they’ll "be back" like your governator says. (8)
PAUL: (Laughs)
ROSE: (Laughing) So trust that they’ll be back in a big beautiful way.
PAUL: Great. The only other question I have is that I realized early on that this mass event was not about a lot of focuses checking out. There have only been seven confirmed deaths to this point due directly to the flames and smoke unlike, say, the tsunami event of several years ago or even Hurricane Katrina where thousands perished. So if you would just comment on… it’s certainly a release and transformation of energy in a huge way, and yet why was the decision made to not have that many people to disengage, which I’m very happy for?
ROSE: The excellent question is wanting another aspect, which was indeed, why did the fires take so many homes?
PAUL: Right.
ROSE: That’s the answer. Indeed, the homes were the thing, so to speak. They needed to be leveled. They needed to be sorted in some ways as well, for your homes were selected in a very specific way. Notice that the fire skipped some homes…
PAUL: Yes.
ROSE: …and took some other homes. They wanted that. The homes were the thing as well as a few businesses, but the homes were what needed leveling, not lives. Indeed, the reasons were priorities as well as finding communities as we’ve said. So that’s why the loss of your lives was so very minor. Indeed no firefighters died as far as we can tell. They were indeed excellently providing services in ways they’ll find resources to do next year.
That’s right. It takes this kind of disaster to get funding where it’s needed for firefighters. So this was also part of the excellent creation.
PAUL: Right, because we had the Cedar Fire four years ago in 2003 that burned nearby here, Val Verde into Simi Valley and went on for ten days. It was an incredible event. There was a blue ribbon panel that met with recommendations, some of which were implemented but many were not. So perhaps now some Federal funds, we’re spending billions on the Iraqi incursion, some federal funds will come our way to help deal with the situation, which occurs every year. But this is the worst with the Santa Ana winds and the drought. It was a "perfect storm."
ROSE: You’re correct that your federal funds are best spent at home. But what’s your home after all, your world? Indeed, that’s your home as well. So you’ll be able to count on one’s hand the number of things the government can do well. Reassuring the proud citizens…
PAUL: (Belly Laughs!) Thinking of FEMA and Katrina.
ROSE: (Humorously) …that have lost things in fires is one of them. So while your federal government will step in, they are only doing so much. Your California state is the, by far, best example of disaster recovery in your recent history. You showed the world how well this could be done. So you did! Your government was interested in assisting, so your California is a gold standard for your way of spirit. In many ways you’ll find a great home here, so trust that you’re in the very best state possible now.
You’ll see in your future that your fire will inculcate in some ways a new philosophy in your Southern California. It will be one of "fine ways" that aren’t as only interested in your rich. Indeed your rich did open their homes. They learned that service is a good thing. They learned that being served in a big way is a good thing. So your rich, indeed, weren’t spared the disaster. They learned in the process what it means to be a community. Indeed this is partly the allowance of your lessons of your fire. (Pause)
That’s what we wanted to say. The allowance is in your fire’s path, not your fire itself. It’s the cleanup as well as restoration that will hold the promise of your fires. We would also allow your questions if you’d like, Caroll. We will say we missed you again. (9) We want to speak with you any chance we get. Be aware you’re a very important part of this lover’s triangle, so trust we want you in our lives as much as you want us in your life.
PAUL: I missed you too. It’s good to speak with you today for the first time in two weeks with Joanne’s trip and the fires.
ROSE: Yes. You’re wanting another question?
PAUL: Just two comments for the record. The sense of community is something I’ve observed and heard about on the media, you know, people stepping up and helping out neighbors and each other and volunteering. In fact, there was one report in San Diego that the Red Cross had to turn away volunteers, and so on. That was a very nice thing to see.
The other comment, too, on the state, local, and federal level there was a great cooperation between the firefighting resources. Apparently they’re using similar radio frequencies now (unlike the first responders in New York City on 9-1-1) for command and control on such a big, big scale in the midst of something as severe and intense as these fires. You have split-seconds to make decisions to get resources and so on. Life and death decisions are being made every second.
And one minor problem of getting the resource deployed initially is that there’s military in San Diego, but they’re on a different frequency, and so they needed a civilian spotter in some of the aircraft and so on, and that took a couple of days to work out. And so perhaps that’s another silver lining in terms of all this wealth and abundance we have in this country. And yet, there’s still, even in this event, that frustration within the first forty-eight hours, and even with the howling winds keeping planes grounded, but still these other factors of just not being able to get the resource where it could be used. So perhaps that’s another silver lining in this creation.
ROSE: Yes, your communities indeed want to form in your governmental ways, so you are picking up on your communal ways of finding frequencies that speak the same language, in your terms. Your sometimes tribal agencies don’t allow themselves always to be communicating with each other. So your green ways (10) in your California in this respect will also serve as a gold standard for the rest of the world. Indeed, so trust you’ve picked up on another aspect of the silver lining in the fog.
PAUL: The only other comment I have is that I was struck last night by a ten year old girl who understood that she had lost her home but it was only "stuff." And she said… (Moved to tears) "My home is not in a house; my home is with my family and pets." It’s not the stuff! This ten year old girl got that, it was unbelievable! It’s just that there’s so much hope for her and young ones like her that got that. And I also got that her parents have instilled those values, so it was very moving.
ROSE: (Somberly) Indeed. That’s what we want you to tack up on your walls in case you allow forgetfulness, for that’s exactly what you needed to get to.
PAUL: There’s always such beauty like that in the midst of the horror, it’s so… the double edge is always there. So I was really pleased to see that story make it on the media.
ROSE: You don’t allow your way of spirit in your families sometimes. You need to realize that your families are extensions of yourselves. Your families are your bread and butter, too, sometimes, but in spirit they’re always wanting in ways you need to address. So trust that your homes are indeed your families, whatever way you decide to define that, for they will be there always as well as in your afterlives. So trust they are incorrigibly linked with you no matter what happens. We trust you will.
(Softly) Indeed, your home is your castle, but your family is your finding of your spiritual castle. So trust you’ll do well to find them as well as to tell them you love them. Indeed, your wonderful pets will be an important part of that as well. Indeed, you found beauty in your pets being found in your fiery ruins. You found beauty in the pet rescue efforts that would be considered miraculous ways that individuals find to realize the way of spirit. Indeed, for your animals are important parts of your lives.
We trust you know this, but in getting out of harm’s way you sometimes neglect the very family members we love the most. Indeed, possibly because they don’t give us much trouble. So they’ll be important as your individual lives progress. So trust they’ll always be there in spirit for you as well. Trust that your way of spirit includes a great many family members of all kinds that will always be there for you no matter what. Indeed, we will always assist in spirit.
Now we have one more thing to discuss today if that’s okay with you Caroll.
PAUL: That’s fine by me.
ROSE: We’d like to recommend that you take some time off from your work. We suggest you take Sunday off as you’ve planned, but also allow another day during your week to find a nice place to drive to; find a place to get away; get to a very good movie, something like that so you can enjoy yourselves. You need to get some relief from the stress you’ve been under. We wish you will.
We wanted to say that because we want you to enjoy us as well! It does seem like work having your Roses around (laughs). So trust that you can find a balance soon. We want you to know we love and want you to have very good times. So we will say adieu for now unless you have any other questions?
PAUL: No. Thank you for the advice and the conversation and the information. It’s always greatly appreciated.
ROSE: You’re very welcome. We want to say adieu for now, but will also be discussing things with you tomorrow if you’d like when we speak to Eric as well as Joyce. (11) We will have a good time then. We love you. Rose.
(Rose departs 11:45 AM)
Endnotes:
1
Paul’s note: Rose likes to play with words and sometimes creates new, hybrid words to help break us out of our conventional linguistic patterning. So the word "geanius" is a combination of "genes" and "genius":
ROSE: Your word "genius" sounds like it sometimes comes from a source outside of you. But the genes in your body carry around information as much as we genius ghosts do, hence the word genius plus genes equals geanius. So your "geanius" would be defined as genius in your way of spirit that includes your mind, body, and the very genes sontering your beautiful essence in ways that provide introspective information that you would call inspired…. [session 166, October 26, 2007]
2
Paul’s note: the concept of nodi was fleshed out at a
Kris Workshop on June 26, 2006. Nodi are subtle energies that are not perceived directly through the five senses, but our inner empathic senses. They form an "invisible lymphatic system with nodes" between all physical forms. As such, they exist simultaneously inside and outside our physical bodies and space-time. Together they form "A large network of interconnecting pockets of potentiality... information, knowledge, wisdom of many different kinds... stored in these very many different pockets," and can be used for healing and other purposes. For more information see: http://www.krischronicles.com/ToolBox/nodi.html
3
Paul’s note: Rose lovingly uses the term "weany girl" and "weany boy" to describe Joanne and I sometimes. The essential idea is that we are learning to wean ourselves of fear and limitations.
4
Paul’s note: this is another of Rose’s neologisms. As a verb, it is the action of exploring additional probable outcomes to any situation, exploring roads often not taken before coming to a final decision. For more information see: http://www.newworldview.com/blogs/rose/archive/2007/06/01/treantea-poker-players-practice.aspx
5
Paul’s note: Wildfire Media is the name of our company that we use to support NewWorldView, the Elias forum, and various media projects. The name was coined in a conversation with Joanne, David Tate (Mylo in the Elias transcripts), and myself in early 1998. We were working on the Elias shift book at the time and were thinking of publishing it ourselves. So the imagery of spreading the ideas like wildfire, which is indigenous to this area of Castaic, California, was something that gripped our imaginations. It was also inspired by a Seth quote:
SETH: This material will take its place in the conceptual and emotional life of Western civilization, and finally will make its way throughout the world. New ideas are not accepted easily. When they take fire however, they literally sweep through the universe." [session 82, The Early sessions: Book 2 of the Seth Material]
We create wildfires every year in Southern California, and have had several close calls in the ten years we’ve lived here. But so far, our community has escaped any serious damage as the local firefighters do a wonderful job protecting property and lives. Still, the imagery of fiery, rapid transformation abounds every year as the fires unfold in the Southland (as greater Los Angeles, San Diego, and neighboring counties are called).
6
Paul’s note: Rose refers to the short books we’ve been working on over the past few months. Stay tuned for more!
7
Joanne’s note: I’d never heard this term before, and didn’t find it in the regular dictionary. I ended up discovering The Dictionary of American Regional English that contains archaic words, and found out it means "A yoke or collar put around the neck of a cow to prevent it from jumping or breaking through a fence."
8 Paul’s note: Rose refers to our local nickname for our Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was an actor in The Terminator movies that coined a famous line "I’ll be back."
9
Paul’s note: as Joanne prepared for this session, she was sitting and "resting in Rose." And Rose came through before I had a chance to start the recorder and mentioned that she was ready to speak to me and had missed me. This was due to the fact that Joanne had been on a business trip to Orlando the preceding week where she presented a Spiral Dynamics integral workshop. So with the preparations for the trip, the trip, and then the fires, we had not held a private session in almost two weeks, hence it was good to get back into session mode.
10
Joanne’s note: "Green ways" is Rose’s reference to the pluralistic self defined in the Spiral Dynamics stages of development. The pluralistic "green" self seeks to bridge differences between individuals, so bridging language of the various "tribal" governmental agencies would be an accurate way to describe one of the many values of the pluralistic self. For more information see: Emerging New Worldviews ~ An Excerpt from Integral Conscious Creation: Rocket Science for the Soul.
11
Paul’s note: I included this bit of personal material at the end to show how this part of the phenomenon continues to develop. Rose does offer advice on occasion, and as always, it’s up to us to follow it or not. We are never forced to do anything.
Eric is my younger brother, and Joyce is a good friend. They are having Rose sessions tomorrow, as Joanne continues to practice and develop her voice channeling abilities along with her autotyping.