Rose Potluck Dinner, Session 266
July 05, 2008, 4:36 PM.
Castaic, California
Participants: Joanne, Paul, George, Sarah, Mike, Joyce, Ursula, Rumi the cat, and Eric (in Pennsylvania by phone).
This week it was only 100 degrees by session time 
, so we were delighted that our new air-conditioning system kept us cool! What was also cool, but in a different sense, was that our postman delivered a registered package earlier in the day from Kriston Laszlo in Budapest, Hungary. It contained two copies of Elixir magazine from last October and November. Inside were articles on the nine “families of consciousness” introduced by Seth, and greatly developed by Elias and now Rose. I was delighted to see them, even though I couldn’t read a word!
Kriston contacted me by email over a year ago and was very interested in metaphysics – particularly the notion of “families of consciousness.” I pointed him to various resources in the NewWorldView Library and Elias forum, and he asked many questions about the usefulness of the “families” concept. He was researching his articles, and they were accepted for publication in Elixir. Great job Kriston!
The three page article in the October issue was an introduction. The November issue had two side panels on the Milumet, so he is elaborating on each family one at a time. I mention this because it was the first time this very important concept, originally published in 1979 in The “Unknown” Reality, Vol. 2 by Jane Roberts, has gotten some international exposure. Though it’s almost thirty years old, it’s hardly well known in New Age, New Thought, or Integral circles, much less the mainstream in the West.
Moreover, it mirrors a recent trend in books, workshops, and programs based on “a purpose driven life.” For instance, the best-selling books by Dan Millman (The Life You Were Born to Live/1993), Rick Warren (The Purpose Driven Life/2002), Eckhart Tolle (A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose/2005), Jim White (What’s My Purpose?/2007), and many more in the self-help field. In this larger context, then, the “families’ metaphor” provides an imaginative way to explore purpose from the conscious creation perspective.
Now we all know there’s a shift – an unsurpassed acceleration of change, consciousness evolution, and widening awareness – in this new millennium. What is clearer to me is that Seth’s nine families provide a way to tell the story about our purpose in life, our raison d’etre, in a new way – one that brings Causal Consciousness back into purview. It incorporates many more elements than what sells in the self-help marketplace, and I’ve written extensively about that elsewhere. In that sense, they are like the amps in Spinal Tap that go up to eleven, they are obviously one better than all the rest! 
But seriously, the bottom line is that when we follow our intent, we know our purpose, and that leads to a deep and meaningful life. This is opposed to the current mainstream modern worldview that says our universe was born in a Big Bang by accident, and therefore there is no purpose, no intent, no other meaning in life other than to fight the battle of the survival of the most adaptable species. The fact that cosmic dust clouds would end up writing symphonies is merely a random, chance, and utterly meaningless event. Enjoy it while it lasts, then you die, and it’s all over. So you might as well get as much as you can while you’re living because that’s your only shot.
Those beliefs result in the cynical, egocentric worldview that has led to many of the current social, political, economic, and spiritual issues we now face.
Now it’s no accident that Rose began our group session this past Saturday with a riff on discovering personal intent, and learning how to deeply connect with our purpose for being. She’s been using the nine families for months as a means to connect with essence (through our “belonging to”) and our selves (through our “aligning with”) to better understand why we chose to be born in this time, and truly “follow our way of spirit.”
Therefore, Rose equates our “way of spirit” with following our innate intent as expressed in the nine families’ metaphor. This is a key part of the foundation she has been laying for months and continues to build upon. The core idea is that when we “live a purpose driven life” we are better able to develop our abilities to their greatest potentials. While it’s always a choice to live whatever way we please, simply put: understanding our intent is foundational to learning to directly connect with essence, follow our bliss, and make the physical world a better place.
Next Rose queried the group to see if they did their homework. Did anyone do the “Discover your intent name” exercise? I laughed out loud because the participants didn’t know they had been assigned any homework! But it was just Rose’s way of getting peoples’ attention. Then she suggested that people check out the new practice on the website, and proceeded to go around the room one by one and make suggestions. It was an informative process, because it showed that getting a really apt “intent name” takes time and persistent self-reflection.
As such, the actual name will change as we get deeper and more closely in tune with our intent. For example, Eric was playing with the name “The Doer,” and Rose gently guided him to be more specific about what he would actually do. What would he actually choose and do? Would it be healing, based on his Tumold alignment, or teaching based on his Sumafi belonging to? Or some variation of both? And then, what name or description would most aptly fit those choices and actions?
We next took a short dinner break at 5:28 PM. as we had been snacking before and during the session. We ate pita bread and different kinds of hummus, smoked salmon with cream cheese on fresh bread, and a quinoa veggie dish. Dessert consisted of a chocolate strawberry pie in honor of Sarah’s 12th birthday, and cheese-filled crumb coffee cake. We washed it all down with the usual assortment of wines, beers, and iced tea.
(I will also note that during the first half Rose used several of her new words, and we now have The Rose Glossary on the website so folks can better understand how she’s using them.)
We resumed around 6 PM. and Rose spoke for roughly another hour and ten minutes. She opened with another riff based on intent in which she challenged us to “tell the world what you’re here to do.” In other words, how we can best express our life’s intent, change ourselves, and in the process change the world for the better?
(Rose makes no qualms about there being “better or worse” in our physical world. She acknowledges that at the essence “layers” there is no good or evil, better or worse, just endless creativity, choice, and becoming. However, in very real terms, in our physical belief systems we very much hold beliefs about better and worse, and the sooner we understand what our preferences and opinions are, the sooner we will act in accord with our deepest intent.
(I was reminded of Elias saying repeatedly that the belief system of duplicity, which is one of the ten main belief systems, is not going away ever. In other words, we will always be dealing with belief and value systems permeated by better/worse dualities. So while our values of good and bad, right and wrong are indeed relative to our expressions in the physical world, they still ARE quite real. To deny them or to suggest there is no better or worse in absolute terms is itself an absolute! This is called the performative contradiction, a fancy word for hypocritical arguments that violate their own logic. So Rose is teaching us to discern what our purpose is, and what belief systems will help us live our most fulfilling lives – our way of spirit.)
Next, George asked a question about an interaction with a hawk fledgling where he rescued the floundering bird, and in the process had a profound sense of unity with the creature. Rose acknowledged that he had engaged an exchange with the hawk, and in a sense, saw himself through the hawk’s eyes with a love and compassion similar to how essence views us as physical expressions.
I asked if this was a “gift of Rose” in the way that Elias uses it, and Rose suggested that there was no extra manipulation on her part, and yet she does maintain an “energy fleck” in all birds that have ever been or ever will be.
George went on to talk about ”accidentally” running over a squirrel and earlier an rabbit, and Rose pointed out that when our hearts break over such events that’s when “you realize you are more than you currently understand.” That is, we begin to realize that the other is us, and we begin to empathically connect with other living things as us, as aspects of All-That-Is.
Rose said that we are gods-in-training, and that “God is love” in the sense that there is a profound fealing tone that permeates All-That-Is, and learning to identify that within ourselves leads us to be more compassionate, loving, and caring to our self, and then others.
Rose acknowledged our heart aches as well as our laughter. Both are important expressions in the physical world, and not something to be repressed. Also, there’s no need to fear that we make the animals suffer during these kinds of “accidents,” as both creature and person participate in agreement to the experience. In George’s case, the animals didn’t suffer and they passed into a nonphysical state different than what humans experience, because there is no need for an “action of transition” (that Seth and Elias have talked extensively about).
Animals are indeed “actors in our show” in supporting roles. They don’t co-create in the way that people and essence do, but are still “of essence.” This led me to ask about the differences between animals and focuses of essence. In the process I realized that while essence does indeed create the entire biosphere of life forms on our planet, including animals, those lifeforms are not as directly connected to essence that same way that humans are.
(Another way I understand this is that both animals, humans, bacteria, hydrogen molecules, and quantum fields are ALL “of Consciousness,” and as such it’s a reminder that even essence is not the ultimate expression of All-That-Is, that simple always already Consciousness is the common element. Seth used the CU or “consciousness unit” metaphor to express the same thing. Elias calls them links of consciousness, and Kris uses CUs. Rose hasn’t really gone into this area, only because no one has asked yet.
(To return to the ontological differences between humans as focuses of essence, and animals as having a different relationship, in the end they are all united within Consciousness as All-That-Is.)
Rose challenged us to “fearlessly” intuit (i.e., conceptualize) the answer to this riddle, and not get too hung up on the maps and metaphors we use to ballpark and try to explain things.
The session ended around 7:08 PM. and we said our “goodbyes” to Eric who was on a conference line from Pennsylvania helping us test out a phone connection for future group sessions. Thanks Eric!
We broke up into small groups as usual and continued talking about the session and related ideas. We even got a short game of Balderdash in before the last folks left just before 10 PM.
Finally, a reminder to all that we publish a free MP3 audio podcast on the Monday after each session, and you can find them on the Podcasts page on the Essence of Rose website. Here's a link to this week's Podcast: Rose, George, and the Fledgling Hawk. Enjoy!