Sometimes my itchy skin, problematic backaches, gimp, and fuzzy eyesight make me tired of being a physical being in a physical world, with tiring emotions, and too busy mind.

But oh the uplifting sensation of looking into the unknown within and before me….

Published in Sparrow Hawk Villager, August-September 2010 – © Brenda R. Cutrell

There is a large gap in time between this continuation of the article series because Part 4 was inadvertently republished in the next issue of the Sparrow Hawk Villager.

Part Five

In the interconnectivity and relationship between Kingdoms we inevitably come to that place that leads us inward into our deepest heart, and we connect with and come into relationship with the Inner Kingdom.

The Inner Kingdom

This kingdom is not fully present on the Earth we superficially recognize and acknowledge, as are the Mineral, the Plant, the Animal, and the Human kingdoms. The establishment of the web of life that connects all other kingdoms to this one is still ongoing. The complexity and subtlety of this interrelationship is so tender for all the kingdoms vibrationally below it (e.g., human, animal, plant, mineral, and others not recognized), that it cannot always withstand the harsh oscillations inherent to living in a dense reality.

We, as humans, achieve threads of connectivity with this kingdom through our hearts. I am not referring to the emotional storms we generate in our “emotional or astral” level of existence. This latter is that highly distorted and contaminated area that the animal kingdom tries so hard to assist us with. Instead, I am referring to a vibrating center of being that we experience as an expansive, all-embracing feeling that we mistake for emotion. We mistake it because we still are responding to old group programming that declares that if we are not connected through emotion, we do not exist as aware and loving beings. This is a legacy of our animal bodies carried into our humanness, and given validity by our minds (our greatest controlling consciousness).

Instead, the threads of connectivity with this kingdom, this level of consciousness, are woven when we move into the inner silence. This silence is not “ceasing to speak,” but is rather an attentive listening with body, emotions, and mind. This is a skill that we work hard for! We meditate, we pray, we contemplate, we witness, we listen inwardly. The pulses of energy that we experience are given names, are described as visions, are given colors and scents. But ultimately, we really do not know what those pulses are, except the sounding of a signal that we are touching upon something other than the kingdoms and interconnections we are so familiar with here in our Earth life.

There are many, many stories told by people of their inner kingdom experiences. Their descriptions are always colored by the life, culture, belief system, and needs of each of those individuals. Instead of one inner kingdom, there seem to be many, of all different types, all just behind that veil that parts for an instant. Those many apparent layers can be called the “intermediary planes of existence” that veil our true center.

Just as with the webs of life we have built between the kingdoms here on Earth, we are also shaping those that we are building with the Inner Kingdom. At first it was only a few individuals who did this. Currently there is a cascade of personal experiences, all very bewildering in their variety.

But what matters is that we are actually touching those inner connections, remembering our experiences as we do so, and continuing to affirm and strengthen our relationship with an important, vital level of awareness.

What is most exciting is that in this subtle interrelationship with the Inner Kingdom we are seeing that it is merely a doorway into many more levels of existence, quite unimaginable to our everyday lives. Just as the webs of life between the various terrestrial kingdoms seem just myth and fairy tales to sleeping consciousnesses, so those distant kingdoms at first appear as myths to us.

(Last installment: The Distant Kingdoms)

Said another way, at this time, my experience of everyday living is no more real than the games I play on Facebook. But this, of course, is only true if I experience everyday life at its most shallow. If I pay attention, and see the overlays and the forces that move in a hidden way beneath everyday life and experience, then the Facebook games are just a sketch, an attempt to make an everyday activity be pleasant and have no repercussions (except rotted fruit or hungry animals that are not REALLY rotted or hungry. No sweat.).

So trying to notice the hidden forces of life in an everyday context is a surreal process that tends to make one lose track of the overlay. Suggestion: don’t do this while driving…..

Part Four

This article follows the three published in last years’ newsletters on the Interrelationship of the Kingdoms, in which the animal kingdom, the plant kingdom, and the mineral kingdom were delved into.

Perhaps I should expand my title to say “Interrelationship of (some) of the Kingdoms (of Earth or further).” My experience of the interrelated web is that it goes on and on, down into infinity and up into infinity. Through it courses the joy of Life. Sometimes the patterns of interconnectedness definitely need adjusting, changing, healing, disentangling. Other times the beauty of their patterns carries one beyond awe.

The patterns are not static. They move according to many different levels of universal laws, each law perfectly describing what is occurring, if only we learn to pay attention. We try with our minds, of course. But it is not a mental exercise. It is pure attunement.

The Devic Kingdom

This is an evolutionary stream that the Ancient Wisdom teaches us works in tandem with our process, yet has completely different imperatives. One could say that it is in tandem because we seek existence within the levels of consciousness or material reality where devic beings carry out their Life-appointed tasks.

In perfect obedience to patterns of universal law and guiding principles undetectable and unimaginable to everyday human existence, this form of consciousness is the builder behind the formation of particles of Matter in their simplicity and complexity at all the many levels of the Cosmic Physical Plane.

Allied to this kingdom are Entities and Beings of which we have no knowledge, although there are obscure references and names that trickle down through various wisdom traditions.

All those interconnected, interrelated webs of which I have written are all built, moved, re-strung, reorganized by this kingdom. This is its task. Just as we find the energy of our deep inner self through creativity, this kingdom finds fulfillment through the creation and destruction of form.

There are intricate hierarchies of beings that have their fields of activity in many different areas of physical creation and destruction. For example, the beings known as angels are devic entities that interact with human beings.

The interrelationship of the devic kingdom with the human, the animal, the plant, and the mineral kingdoms as a whole is much less visible, far more indirect, than what can be perceived between the “Earth” kingdoms. This is because it does not get any denser than the higher etheric layers. Also, I suspect interdimensional engineering is involved. A little like the silicon chip in a computer, or the ghost in the machine; we know that there is something there, but as beginner communicators with the other kingdoms, we cannot trace out the wiring diagrams without a great deal of practice and help from experts. The experts, of course, are the devas.

Our connection with this mysterious evolving stream of consciousnesses allows us to enter into relationship with many other dimensions and levels of awareness because it so permeates them all. As we are a bridge between Spirit and Matter for sub-human kingdoms (our younger brothers and sisters), the devic evolution is our bridge to a greater understanding of more and higher evolutions than we can presently conceive of.

One could say that all Earth kingdoms interrelate as they do because of the work of the devic kingdom! But that is how we perceive it. This is neither necessarily true nor complete. That is the magic and wonder of spiritual expansions of consciousness. They lead ever inward in a never-ending spiral of existence and discovery.

(Next installment: The Inner Kingdom)

Winter is the time for introspection…. So where did it get to?

Part Three

In this continuing article on the web of life of our planet, I want you to see in your mind’s eye the threads of interrelationship of humans with animals, and humans with plants, as well as those of animals with plants. Feel the different nature of the substance and vibration of each. See the different colors and hear the different tones.

Now, to this beautiful system we will add the Mineral Kingdom, the foundation of the others.

The Mineral Kingdom

It is called the foundation because it apparently seems to be the most crystallized or rigid kingdom; the one that shows the least flexibility (when compared with the other kingdoms and from a human point-of-view). Yet it provides the building blocks. Its interrelationship with human beings is at the deepest unconscious levels. Its interconnected webs are so subtle, yet so seemingly dense, that we actually think that we are solid beings, and that the mineral kingdom is a portion of ourselves as humans.

It participates intimately in our interactions with both the physical and etheric levels. In fact, it participates intimately in the physical and etheric levels of all of the kingdoms above it in density.

In its most conscious functions it acts as a stabilizer and circuitry for the life force of any particular being in interrelationship with it. It lends its structure to anything wishing to take on physical manifestation, no matter how subtle the level. Without it, physical manifestation would not be possible as we recognize it today.

The goals of the evolutionary stream that is the mineral kingdom are tied up with the fiery basis of all of Matter. Thus, as human beings are bridges for bringing Spirit into Matter, the mineral kingdom acts as the underpinning for those efforts, and the trampoline for sending the response of Matter into Spirit.

At this time there is a great effort to enter into right relationship with this kingdom on the part of a certain portion (hopefully, growing every day) of humanity, rather than to simply exploit it for what it can provide for material wealth. Any organization or individual committed to sustainability is working towards this goal.

For example, I have seen agricultural practices where the workers have used particular formulas of liquids, of water and plant essences, to help repair the etheric webs that interweave the layers of soil. They used back-pack water sprayers and kept their wands in a constantly moving figure eight pattern as they sprayed, setting a certain rhythm in harmony with an intuitive sense of right action.

From the mineral kingdom’s perspective, we humans in physical form must seem rather like a wart on the skin of the frog. As I peer into the mineral kingdom, I feel like I have intruded, uninvited, into a massive movement of consciousness. I feel like I have opened a tiny window or porthole into a vast system of interacting awarenesses that are too immense to really perceive me (my apology for the intrusion going unnoticed). When one considers that the mineral kingdom encompasses not only the solid earth matter that we experience with skin, eyes, taste buds, and noses, but also the vastnesses of air, water, fire, and space, as physical bodies we are definitely that wart on the skin of the frog.

As for humans causing damaged and tangled lines with this kingdom, this has only become possible (for our civilization) through the way atomic energy is being used. But as I have already remarked, this kingdom is so huge and has such a vast reach that it is difficult to imagine what may come of all of our actions.

(Next installment: The Devic Kingdom)

This is a test. It is only a test.

Life proceeds…. When does it not? Inner vision appears at unexpected moments and fades away as “life proceeds….” What the inner vision is for, one does not know. Is one supposed to know? Not necessarily. If I were more fully conscious I would be more accepting of not knowing. But that is only what I presume.

Yesterday my brain registered everything through a sort of fog. I found it difficult to take in, sort, and classify what was being said to me. I found it even more difficult to respond intelligently. Strange fog. I’m not used to that.

I shall play Solitaire and try a new website of puzzles. That should satisfy my brain and allow my real self to get on with its work. Meanwhile, I can look forward to a wine and cheese party tonight at a friend’s house. Such is life as it proceeds….

Part Two

In the previous issue I described the perception of the interrelationship of our Earth kingdoms as a huge, multi-dimensional web. The joyful connections, the twisted ones, the sad ones, all are part of the great consciousness we call Terra, or Gaia. The next piece to be contemplated is the plant kingdom.

The Plant Kingdom

Just as the animal kingdom is related to our practical mental and emotional fields, plants are related to our etheric and the beginnings of our emotional fields.

The same philosopher I mentioned in the earlier article has said that the plant kingdom is the one that has best managed to evolve according to the higher plan for this Earth universe. That is to say, it is the kingdom that has been least distorted away from its spiritual path of evolution.

Besides its sacrificial role of providing nourishment for those beings with a greater level of awareness, its expressions of grace and beauty are very obvious. Its more evolved species provide environments within which human beings can find tranquility and refuge. The group nature of the consciousness of the various species of plants provides an etheric and emotionally loving and soothing web that is almost like a cradle.

When human beings are connected to this etheric framework, their own etheric bodies can function in greater alignment with the original human evolutionary intent.

An interesting story on the alignment of plants to human and animal needs is the following: a spiritual center was established in a certain region. As is the nature of all such endeavors, the people who were participating experienced many physical, emotional, and mental imbalances in themselves as individuals, and in the group as a whole as they continued to live together. The person in charge of health on all levels had a very clear ability to intuit what plants could provide the essences, oils, or herbal remedies needed to assist those experiencing difficulties. He stated that without fail, the plant remedy that he needed for any particular surfacing illness was invariably growing within a mile or so of their living quarters and medical center. He also observed that there are actually what appear to be new species of plants emerging in response to the growing integrity of the spiritual impulse at the heart of this group of disciples and pioneers.

The exploitation of plant species has only become much more common and destructive as humanity, using this kingdom as a source of material wealth, started creating “short cuts” to increase productivity. The rapidly increasing world population also added heavily to this trend.

Once sensitized to the vitality vibrating in the etheric layers of plants and fruits, it is very hard to feel one has received enough nourishment from plants forced into growth and maturity outside of their natural cycles, as well as thoroughly sprayed with deterrents to spoilage and sprouting. Fruit and vegetables grown for their capacity to withstand harsh handling and long-distance haulage without losing their “pretty” look somehow seem to have lost their alignment with the etheric flow of their species.

People in general undoubtedly relate to plants at a very subconscious, not to say, unconscious level. Plants are a breath of Life in even the most depressing environments. As with the animal kingdom, they can be treated as tools or as participants in one’s living surroundings. They always reflect the harmony or disharmony of the place where they are growing. And also, as animals do, they are active participants in healing processes undertaken by humans.

Plants’ interconnecting webs of life have a completely different nature than that of animals and human beings, and their interrelationship with the human kingdom is much more subtle; a perfect reflection in fact, of how we connect to our etheric field, which is the life currents of our physical life expression.

(Next installment: The Mineral Kingdom)