Thank you Michael. The perfect story for today. I was six in the London Blitz, was bombed, machine gunned in the streets and looked after by my mother, the gentlest soul and father a fire fighter. How they lived through this is hard to imagine but nazi-ism almost won. It was stopped by amazing courage from millions. How can we wake the stupefied public to the fascist danger from republicans today.
I often suggest the book The Gathering Storm by Sir Winston Churchill to help prepare. He sounded the alarm as Michael and others are. Great Britain was the only European nation to halt Hitler's advance despite a large population of German sympathizers. Churchill was threatened numerous times by fellow citizens, same as Michael has been.
I wonder who the armed intruder was stalking Queen Elizabeth this Christmas Day?
But our real enemy is hate. When the prime minister asked Hitler why he hated the Jews, the furious fuhrer exploded, "They're taking over the world!" Of course they weren't. But it was Hitler's fear for which he justified trying to take over the world.
The Charlottesville chant: "Jews will not replace us!"
It's the same fear that Fox News et al, pander to the insecurities of their fan base and to justify destroying our Democracy of Liberty, Justice and Equality for All, as engraved on prominent institutions to remind the god-forsaken what we're supposed to be about.
Michael immortalized this in Where To Invade Next, better than any textbook.
They've made a choice that can't be helped. I have Confederate cousins.
One of Hitler's main tactics was to provoke violence. Who else is like that?
White supremacists are a scourge that will never go away until more people face their fears and realize their projections/expectations of others, especially those different from us.
We can't hate those who hate, especially if they hate us, even on Christmas.
It's the problem of evil in us, which Jung confirmed.
It's why Jesus came. He prayed for deliverance to His dying day.
(Matthew 15:19)
Jung we need more psychology (and to know the Redeemer)
When we're aware of any evil, we're less likely to succumb, unless we want to harm others.
Jung felt he had failed when it's a collective refusal to know the evil in us and the Redeemer.
Several of the insurrectionists claimed to be shocked seeing themselves on tape committing acts of violence. It's a refusal to know what they were doing and why.
Fear and false information are a deadly combination, as history shows. It is used to advance an agenda of having power over others, same as it's always been.
Neo-Confederates and neo-nazis may need to be reminded again.
Here's Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham giving an alleged nazi salute at the 2016 RNC convention. Note what she says about Trump and how it's been since:
Jesus refused worldly power to serve that we might do the same for one another, like Michael. Jesus prayed for His enemies in their ignorance, even tho it is their choice.
More people have been killed in God's Holy Name, same as Jesus and many prophets.
This being Christmas and Jesus' first step to the cross, we need to speak out for peace as He did, that Michael does wonderfully well, inspiring us. Even if they should kill us.
I got into it with a couple PBP's two days ago at a stoplight when the driver yelled at me with a bullhorn about my EV and bicycle on the roof rack. He then got real ugly when I started recording him. And yet, he didn't exit his coal-rolling diesel truck with American flag stickers. Maybe he'd already been to jail for assault. But this is how it happens.
Those two men who were killed in Portland Oregon, for defending Muslim women from a racist extremist, are heroes to me, like Michael and his father, as well as my own father and his brothers and many others like yourself who know the evil of fascists like Hitler and now Trump and his sick supporters.
Excellent videos & important truths. But I don’t think TRUE Christians would be involved in any of this insanity & violence!
Yes, many wars have been fought in the name of religion (i.e. Christian Militia), and it’s one reason organized religion has turned many, possibly decent human beings, against each other…..
It comes down to our demonic-ego and what it wants that opens the door to evil.
Here's Trump's spiritual adviser Paula White calling on Angels from Africa and South America to help Trump, who say to, "Strike and strike and strike and strike."
This is Oprah with Janie Schofield when she was 7. She is schizophrenic but knows the difference between her world and ours. Shamans would say she walks with one foot in this world and one foot in the spirit world. More of us need to. Jung did.
Jani knows her good friends from her bad friends, especially the one who says to hit. If her bad friend doesn't have a good reason other than self-defense, guess who goes in timeout?
The real question is why would Jani want to hit? Why would we?
It's true of any vice, vanity or iniquity where we'd harm others, even ourselves.
This says it all about Angels and Demons we need to make friends with as Jung indicated, confirming what Jesus said about knowing our evil.
Jani has her own psychic inventory going. It doesn't need to be as embellished as Jung's Red Book. Crayons work fine. Primitives have done this for centuries in knowing the spirits in us that can adversely compel us because of our ignorance and refusal to know our evil.
Jung once simply said to know how much good and evil we're capable of.
The serpent on the tree of good and evil in Genesis said as much.
Eve was very brave. God loved King Solomon for his prayer dream. (1 Kings 3:5-9)
Jesus loved St. Mary Magdaline most of all for her gnosis of the wrathful powers in us.
The Church and Christian religions have yet to learn the lesson of St. Peter's Denial.
I'm still waiting to hear back from Pope Francis. He knows we need to get to the root causes of what compels us. He's a Jesuit and had practiced The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.
Jung's meditation method is very similar.
Jesus knew prayer in private is more important in knowing our evil. He will be the cause of dissension in our own households if He is not being followed. (Matthew 10:34-39)
Michael is keeping us on track in how we treat one another for the good of all.
I have read Jung and have great respect for his work. Dr. Goodall is one of my heroes. Jesus was just another prophet to
Be murdered by his own, but he wasn’t THE prophet and the Bible isn’t THE book to me. I was raised in a religious family, & my family—who I don’t associate with—voted for trump, as did many others who thought he was a “good business man”. I met more hypocrites, as a child, in church than I care to remember. It’s the reason I consider myself a Humanist. Mother Nature is my “spiritual adviser”.
I live by the Golden Rule, which is simple enough for young children to understand. I taught in the inner city for 40 years, & have seen what injustice & inequality has done to our country. If it weren’t for people who never give up on speaking truth to power, like Michael Moore, I’d have gone insane by now. I honestly don’t believe I belong in this country (or possibly this planet 🌎) anymore…..complacency, selfishness & greed are the enemy & my heart is broken.
It helps keep my head above the madness of men, and the women who follow them.
The Golden Rule has always been The Golden Path, especially in times like these.
It is something even children can understand, as Jesus had observed.
“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:3
I apologize for quoting the scriptures. But something of Jesus' teachings have been missed and sorely twisted by the Church and Christian religions that have put us in this predicament. He didn't hesitate to let loose with the 'h' word. He had shown how we might be the change the world needs to coexist, which Jung confirmed. (Matthew 23:1-13)
"Pride is most deadliest." It is the yeast of hypocrisy, the proverbial beam in our eye where we see evil in others, but not ourselves.
It was Jung's prescription for this sick world. Dreams don't lie. They are a portal to our Soul where we might somehow love ourselves despite our human condition. We might then at least not hate others as much as we might.
We will know peace if we seek it.
You may know the Patriarchy will fall with the Return of the Goddess.
The Age of Aquarius may have paved the way for having some connection.
Lao Tzu felt nourished by the Great Mother. So can we in prayer and meditation.
Especially when we see something we dislike in someone and keep to a woman's care.
In no way do I claim that Jesus or anyone is The prophet or that the Bible is The book. This is where one's beliefs, sacred scriptures or experiences of the Deities can become misguided, claiming they are the one true religion with the one true god, like the un-holy Roman Catholic Church. This of course leads to needless conflict.
The so-called Protestant religions have been no different.
This despite the warnings of Peter Abelard, Giordano Bruno, Martin Luther et al, who denounced the Church for their pride, hubris and hypocrisy.
You may have noticed in the video of Jung where he doesn't mention Jesus.
For men, our anima can be a savior with all we feel and experience.
How do you suppose I'm able to write all this with best intentions?
In caring for everyone, there can be a redemption.
Jesus wasn't the only one to have us amend.
The Archetypes are numerous but unique in their own way. It may be why there are so many different religions, giving us different aspects of the same Deity. It's not much different than our universe with numerous other solar systems and galaxies.
Certain philosophers know we don't belong here. We're just visitors.
But there are certain things we need to do, like Michael, until our time is thru.
I have dreamt of going to a distant planet and then coming back to earth.
It may be our rhizome, as Jung wondered, our root nature or origin of the Gnostics.
Thank You Susan, for your many years of teaching, especially in the inner city schools. Most make it because of those who persevered like you.
I'm sorry it's taken me this long to say that. I meant to say sooner.
Our under-funded school system pressures teachers to work miracles for disadvantaged youth, too many of whom are drug addicted, worsening personal issues that get acted out violently.
All their stress and frustration, pain and hurt is going to get taken out on someone, even themselves, but mostly on their teachers.
I pray you were never a victim.
It was pretty bad in Denver in 1975 when I moved here. It's gotten worse, spilling out into the suburbs. Who would've thought the suburbs would become a blackboard jungle? It's why many teachers have quit.
But I know that the majority of your students appreciated you, if they haven't said themselves. I've known a few who teach in charter schools, one of whom is a dear friend, who really has been my best friend.
It is like planting seeds that may take root, tho not clear when. Our psyche has a way of reminding us who has helped us. My parents and teachers weren't perfect, but their heart was in the right place, as I'm sure yours is, which is what matters. I try to do the same, imperfect as I am. My grandchildren say I'm okay. That's all that matters to me.
Do we ever stop learning? I'm sure you saw this with your students.
Surely, your care for your students helped you persevere all those years.
Mother Nature is our best guide, as seen in dreams and meditations.
I'm so glad you said that. More of us need to realize this.
I was inspired by a philosophy professor who gave a course on The Archetypal Feminine for the Spring Semester 1984 at UCD, the University of Colorado at Denver. The textbooks she used was Jung's Aspects of the Feminine and The Moon and The Virgin by Nor Hall.
I was the only male student in the class and resented by a few.
What made them think that men don't have a feminine side?
What was wrong with wanting to learn about the feminine, anyway?
It seems that the chief complaint is that men can't relate.
Jung saw for himself how remiss he could be.
Are we to blame for our patriarchal upbringing?
Are women any different, especially GOP Republicans?
Surely Mother Nature was guiding me in taking that class.
We were asked to keep a journal of our dreams, meditations, daily experiences and feelings, to see how our psyche responded to the course curriculum and our professor, who was not like the others.
My dreams of a white butterfly and woman with four eyes was enough for me. The ancient Greeks used the butterfly as a symbol for our psyche. Jung's dissertations on symbols of wholeness encourage us to be feeling human beings, for men especially. It's how we men can know and honor the anima, and not be so insensitive.
I was always happiest when my mother was, and then later my wife.
Jesus would have us call no one father, only His Father in Heaven.
Well, I've come to the conclusion the same is true with the mother.
But what I especially remember is the introduction by Nor Hall, when she described the dream of a client who was disillusioned by the Church and Christian religions. A voice spoke to her saying, "Look not to Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Let Gaia, Demeter and Artemis be your guides."
"In Greek mythology, Gaia (/ˈɡeɪə, ˈɡaɪə/;[2] from Ancient Greek Γαῖα, a poetical form of Γῆ Gē, "land" or "earth"),[3] also spelled Gaea /ˈdʒiːə/,[2] is the personification of the Earth[4] and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenogenic—of all life. She is the mother of Uranus (the sky), from whose sexual union she bore the Titans (themselves parents of many of the Olympian gods), the Cyclopes, and the Giants; as well as of Pontus (the sea), from whose union she bore the primordial sea gods. Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra.[5]"
IOW Gaia is Mother Nature herself, often projected on our mothers.
It's why I spend so much time in the wilderness year 'round, divorced as I am. Nature has been my friend and guide, both spiritually and in life.
How am I able to write this? Jung was right about the anima.
Once when I was skiing the backcountry by myself, one of my bindings broke, which was no big deal, except I was running out of daylight and had to make my way back in the dark after the time it took to rig it.
Good ol' ductape.
As I made my way, my compass seemed off with my topo trail map. I was tracking fresh snow when I shouldn't have been. Where were my tracks in? This was before gps apps that give accurate coordinates.
But then I saw someone up ahead with a headlamp like mine, so I headed in that direction and picked up their track. Or so I thought.
The light colored clothes made me think it was a woman. I tried to catch up with her but wasn't able to. The faster I skied, the further she got. When I called out, she kept going, not that I blamed her, me being a stranger. But I was relieved, seeing flagging on trees indicating I was on the right track. I really didn't care to have to bivouac.
When I got to the trailhead, I thought for sure I'd see her in the parking lot, but no one was there, only my Jeep. I was the only one there when I first pulled in that morning. How could she have left so fast?
Was she really there? Why didn't I hear any engine sounds?
Were the tracks I picked up my own? Was I seeing a figment of my imagination that got me back on track?
Definitely a Twilight Zone moment. But I know what I saw.
I'd quit drugs years before. Even then, this never happened.
I'm certain it was Mother Nature reminding me by whose grace we go.
How did I get off-track? It happens. It's not the first time.
Temples to the Nature deities still stand in Greece and elsewhere.
A certain homage is imperative, even when Nature can be cruel.
It is part of our life-death cycle as seen in mythology.
"Kali is the Hindu goddess of death, time, and doomsday. She is often associated with sexuality and violence but is also considered a strong mother figure and symbol of motherly love. Kali embodies shakti - feminine energy, creativity and fertility - and is an incarnation of Parvati, wife of the great Hindu god Shiva."
But this is Nature in her wholeness, which we can accept.
I was fortunate to know and work with Clarissa, who gives all of us, men and women, or non-gender others, a way to our instinctive nature.
Men need to set their wives or female friends free to be free in themselves, rather than confine them with harmful expectations of what they think women should be.
Marie Louise von Franz says it best on this for men:
Susan, not to harangue you, but the record of Christianity and connection to war, and persecution overwhelms your parochial insight on TRUE Christians.
So that you might gain a deeper understanding of the role of Christianity in the context of the rise of theocracy in the United States you might want to read any or all of these well researched books:
Heacock, C. (2020). Connecting Christian Nationalism and Dominion Theology Medium Online
Jones, R. P. (2017). The End of White Christian America. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks. And PRRI website
Stewart K. (2021). POWER WORSHIPPERS: Inside the dangerous rise of religious nationalism.
Once you understand Dominionist, End Times scenarios and Christian Nationalists you’ll begin to appreciate that their belief system and the genuine threat it represents to ALL decent Americans.
I totally agree with you on the huge threat! But I am not a Christian & so all the Bible quotes are too much! WHO wrote the Bible? That’s a rhetorical question! To view the future simply in terms of religion isn’t the answer for many of us.
Thanks Susan, I am amazed to think of how many hours of my life I've devoted (as a autodidact) to reading about the "historical Jesus" and early Christianity including Gnosticism, the early Church and the rise of anti-semitism. From Elaine Pagels, Burt Ehrman, Bishop Spong, and others it's really the story of how a cult that grew to expand to "gentiles" really took off after being embraced by the power of two Roman Emperors.
Of course no one knows who the "authors" of the Bible were, but we know that one of them ever met or saw Christ... Deism is predicated on the Bible and it's purveyors as being hucksters with no evidence to prove anything they present as truth. That still holds true to this day.
Thank you, Michael, for the gift of this story. Many of us in my circle of friends entering the last third of our expected life spans have been contemplating what it means to be elders in this time, culture, and place. Your story is so instructive--for what your father shared with you, for your developmentally-appropriate response at the time, and for the great blank spaces of what may never have been shared. Thank you for all of it, and for the implicit encouragement to take that space, to tell our stories, to create the active and creative moments to put our collective instructive experience to work for change that our younger inhabitants of our planet need from us. How courageous your father was to finally share that horrific and painful story with you, and how courageous you are to carry his story forward. My deepest gratitude to you both.
Oh absolutely, Michael. I can imagine him letting his Soul Group know, every brave, brilliant, amazing thing you have ever done. You have a Soul Mate waiting for you!
Your dad's story is very interesting to me. My dad was drafted into the Army at age 28 & sent to the South Pacific. The night before they shipped out from San Francisco to Hawaii and then to the South Pacific, the sergeant yelled at the group of them, Can any of you #$%s (it was something insulting) type? My dad had a job with a trucking company in NYC as assistant traffic manager, so he raised his hand. He still went to the South Pacific, but he wasn't sent out on patrol. He worked in a tent processing equipment orders. He told us of being on mess hall line and troops in front and behind him being taken out by snipers. His other story was sitting out in the field on one of the makeshift latrines they dug and doing his business when an air raid was signaled, and he said the hell with it and stayed. They bombed and he wasn't hit. He had nothing good to say about war. He was against the Viet Nam War from the get go and influenced me greatly. I was the only student in my HS class in 1967 to raise my hand to the teacher's question, "How many of you are against the Viet Nam War?" I've been accused of being unpatriotic because I was against the Afghanistan and Iraq wars when they started. My dad used to say "War is Hell" whenever the subject came up. He's been gone since 1987 at age 74. And your story about the family moving around Flint when the landlord came during the depression...that was my mom's family's story. They moved around The Bronx. Thanks for all you do to help our country, Michael.
Dear Michael, your precious gentle spirit is so apparent every time you write. And the deepness of the grief over what we humans are doing—and have been doing to each other for what seems like forever—shines through your words. I’m right there with you, sweetheart. My heart, with its 77 years of privileged life, loves you very much. May we together create a New Story as this crazy life unfolds before us.
Thank you Michael Moore for that beautiful story from your dad. We will persevere and live to continue the struggle against ignorance autocracy and stupidity.
Michael, Thank you for writing about the experience of our fathers and grandfathers. My father in law never talked of his experiences in WWII until his mid-seventies, a safe distance of 50 years. He was captured by the Germans in May, 1944 and was moved many times as the war progressed. He recalled his memory of Christmas, 1944 being given stale bread and watery soup, being grateful that he was still alive. As hard as these years of Covid are, I believe they don't hold a candle to what these thousands of men lived through and rarely spoke of. As frustrating, lonely and isolated as the last 22 months have been, we are all relatively safe in contrast to the soldiers of WWII. Thank you for continuing to question the insanity of politics today and being a voice of reason for us all.
Dear Michael, this was just the most stunning piece of writing I have ever read. My heart is absolutely exploding now. Please don’t worry, your Dad knew it would mean a lot to you one day and he is very very proud of you and the movement you lead. God Bless You and Merry Christmas to you.
Michael, thank for your story about your Dad’s service doing WWII. He was a handsome young man. Your story reminds me of my father who has been gone 20 years now. He died from old age in his bed thank God. He also served during WWII in the Philippines. He never spoke about it or what he did during that war, but always hoped and prayed we would never have to go to war again. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. We’ve been in too many. I’m grateful to you for your movies, videos, your activism, these messages, and this community that is being built because of you and all these other like minded people. If we all keep working towards a better world one person at a time I believe we can affect change. One small act of kindness can ripple out and affect so many others. Peace and love to you and everyone around the world.
Dear Michael, On this Christmas Day I'm apart from my own 93-year-old dad and 82-year-old mom. Your story helps bring a little Christmas spirit to us all.
I met you on Third Avenue in NYC in the 90s. My girl friend was the cameraperson on some interview that you did, and she told me to get over there (didn't tell me why). You were just as I'd imagined - regular and kind and friendly to a stranger who was trying not to act starstruck. Thanks for staying the course all these years, and for helping the rest of us do the same. Happy Christmas and New Year's to you and all the people you care about.
What a riveting Christmas story well told. When I see the ripple effects of life after war, I am reminded of how many ripples never happened after the lives of those lost too. In celebration, nothing is more merry than gratitude and presence in this moment. Thank you for writing and sharing. Merry Christmas Michael.
Thank you so much for sharing your dad's story about his experiences. Glad you are staying safe and giving us all so much food for thought. I look forward to emerging from this pandemic to a better world - it will take all of us to participate and take care of each other. Merry Christmas!
Dear Michael, what a Christmas memory and story from your Dad. My folks were both Navy but neither in combat zone. We children of these parents of that generation will not accept Nazists but I believe love our Japanese friends. I am touched by your Father's burial of the Japanese war memorials he had. I love your Dad, may he have his peaceful eternity with my folks who are musicians and love to dance, sing and play piano! Be well.
Thank you for this. Thank you for being so alive and caring and attentive and determined. My Dad slouched thru the muds of Europe 1944 - 45. Barely made it home - and only told us kids the "we are all humans together" stories (a young women running into a burning house to bring a treasured wedding photo to a weeping older woman who had lost everyone and everything - the guys in his patrol catching some pigeons and making pigeon stew (fresh meat!) and sharing it with some hungry kids instead of eating it themselves - etc.). The year before he died at 79, he finally told me some of the daily experience of being in battle - what it was like for him (raised as a pacificist, vegetarian - "we don't kill" ) to carry a gun, aim it, shoot. - to see what the result of that shooting was... When I asked him why he had never told any of us those stories before, he explained that when they were mustered out in '46 - they were all told to never speak about their experiences. That no one would understand. To go home and forget what they had been through. And he had tried to do so. I'm so glad your father told you this story. So grateful you have written it here.
Julie, thank you for sharing this. How wonderful to find your voice here, and to read these beautiful details of your father's and your own stories. Michael touched us deeply here!
Thank you Michael. The perfect story for today. I was six in the London Blitz, was bombed, machine gunned in the streets and looked after by my mother, the gentlest soul and father a fire fighter. How they lived through this is hard to imagine but nazi-ism almost won. It was stopped by amazing courage from millions. How can we wake the stupefied public to the fascist danger from republicans today.
History indicates that it takes several incidents to galvanize a nation.
You and your family were on the front lines of what it took to galvanize the world.
But in our case since WW II, fear-mongering and false information has taken a deadly toll.
Michael was the only one to warn about Bush the 2nd. We have a majority, but not enough.
Michael speaks out against Bush at the Academy Awards:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7Is43K6lrg
(1:57)
I felt galvanized when Michael spoke out, and still do when I watch the replay.
I'm sure his father is proud of him trying to prevent war.
It has gotten worse. President Obama has also warned of the dark forces of the GOP.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/07/politics/obama-fatherhood-leadership-legacy-political-landscape-cnntv/index.html (please watch the video)
I often suggest the book The Gathering Storm by Sir Winston Churchill to help prepare. He sounded the alarm as Michael and others are. Great Britain was the only European nation to halt Hitler's advance despite a large population of German sympathizers. Churchill was threatened numerous times by fellow citizens, same as Michael has been.
I wonder who the armed intruder was stalking Queen Elizabeth this Christmas Day?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/360253.The_Gathering_Storm
But our real enemy is hate. When the prime minister asked Hitler why he hated the Jews, the furious fuhrer exploded, "They're taking over the world!" Of course they weren't. But it was Hitler's fear for which he justified trying to take over the world.
The Charlottesville chant: "Jews will not replace us!"
It's the same fear that Fox News et al, pander to the insecurities of their fan base and to justify destroying our Democracy of Liberty, Justice and Equality for All, as engraved on prominent institutions to remind the god-forsaken what we're supposed to be about.
Michael immortalized this in Where To Invade Next, better than any textbook.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KeAZho8TKo
(2:31)
They've made a choice that can't be helped. I have Confederate cousins.
One of Hitler's main tactics was to provoke violence. Who else is like that?
White supremacists are a scourge that will never go away until more people face their fears and realize their projections/expectations of others, especially those different from us.
We can't hate those who hate, especially if they hate us, even on Christmas.
It's the problem of evil in us, which Jung confirmed.
It's why Jesus came. He prayed for deliverance to His dying day.
(Matthew 15:19)
Jung we need more psychology (and to know the Redeemer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udc9FGGt9lo
(3:13)
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/588138.The_Hero_With_a_Thousand_Faces
When we're aware of any evil, we're less likely to succumb, unless we want to harm others.
Jung felt he had failed when it's a collective refusal to know the evil in us and the Redeemer.
Several of the insurrectionists claimed to be shocked seeing themselves on tape committing acts of violence. It's a refusal to know what they were doing and why.
Fear and false information are a deadly combination, as history shows. It is used to advance an agenda of having power over others, same as it's always been.
Neo-Confederates and neo-nazis may need to be reminded again.
Here's Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham giving an alleged nazi salute at the 2016 RNC convention. Note what she says about Trump and how it's been since:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WTltfYfD5g
(2:57)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/24/trumps-false-or-misleading-claims-total-30573-over-four-years/
Jesus refused worldly power to serve that we might do the same for one another, like Michael. Jesus prayed for His enemies in their ignorance, even tho it is their choice.
More people have been killed in God's Holy Name, same as Jesus and many prophets.
This being Christmas and Jesus' first step to the cross, we need to speak out for peace as He did, that Michael does wonderfully well, inspiring us. Even if they should kill us.
I got into it with a couple PBP's two days ago at a stoplight when the driver yelled at me with a bullhorn about my EV and bicycle on the roof rack. He then got real ugly when I started recording him. And yet, he didn't exit his coal-rolling diesel truck with American flag stickers. Maybe he'd already been to jail for assault. But this is how it happens.
Those two men who were killed in Portland Oregon, for defending Muslim women from a racist extremist, are heroes to me, like Michael and his father, as well as my own father and his brothers and many others like yourself who know the evil of fascists like Hitler and now Trump and his sick supporters.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/27/us/portland-train-attack-muslim-rant.html
They're planning for violence to mark the anniversary of the attack on our nation's Capitol.
Law enforcement should prevail, despite the high number of white nationalist supremacists.
But if worse comes to worse, I trust you'll help defend as you once did, as a young lad of 6.
Excellent videos & important truths. But I don’t think TRUE Christians would be involved in any of this insanity & violence!
Yes, many wars have been fought in the name of religion (i.e. Christian Militia), and it’s one reason organized religion has turned many, possibly decent human beings, against each other…..
. . . .and away from Jesus.
No TRUE Christian would be involved in the insanity and violence as you rightly say.
The question is, why are they?
I come from a religious family who all voted for Trump.
The Church and Christian religions have been the worst.
A couple of the founding fathers feared this could happen.
Jesus wasn't the first prophet to be murdered by their own.
Dr. Goodall struggled with this but found hope and wrote of it in her Reason for Hope.
She wanted to do as Jesus said, not as the Church and Christian religions have done.
(cf Matthew 23:1-13; Hosea 4:4-6)
Jung struggled with this long before and came to a similar conclusion as she had.
They both had profound experiences of being at one with Nature and Creation.
(ie God or Goddess or Both)
So can we in knowing our evil, and especially in how we deal with those so misguided.
The worst in others can provoke the worst in us. It was Hitler's main tactic.
Michael sets a wonderful example speaking truth to power, sticking to the facts.
Micaiah warned about knowing what spirit moves us to harm anyone.
1 Kings 22
Plato later warned as much about shadows of false ideas that mis-guide us.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_cave
It comes down to our demonic-ego and what it wants that opens the door to evil.
Here's Trump's spiritual adviser Paula White calling on Angels from Africa and South America to help Trump, who say to, "Strike and strike and strike and strike."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_pZ01V1F30
(1:45)
This was posted by:
#BlackLivesMatter #WhatWouldJesusDo #Election2020
(cf Micaiah 1 Kings 22: God will send deceptive spirits to our ruin)
Note the dufus walking back and forth while she's in her trance of a rant.
It suggests something is rattling around in her psyche that is inciting violence.
It is pure insanity.
CNN video of the violence at our nation's Capitol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6AV-TQqgIc
(3:27)
This is Oprah with Janie Schofield when she was 7. She is schizophrenic but knows the difference between her world and ours. Shamans would say she walks with one foot in this world and one foot in the spirit world. More of us need to. Jung did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR1o8K4MeMs
(1:37)
Jani knows her good friends from her bad friends, especially the one who says to hit. If her bad friend doesn't have a good reason other than self-defense, guess who goes in timeout?
The real question is why would Jani want to hit? Why would we?
It's true of any vice, vanity or iniquity where we'd harm others, even ourselves.
This says it all about Angels and Demons we need to make friends with as Jung indicated, confirming what Jesus said about knowing our evil.
Jani has her own psychic inventory going. It doesn't need to be as embellished as Jung's Red Book. Crayons work fine. Primitives have done this for centuries in knowing the spirits in us that can adversely compel us because of our ignorance and refusal to know our evil.
Jung once simply said to know how much good and evil we're capable of.
The serpent on the tree of good and evil in Genesis said as much.
Eve was very brave. God loved King Solomon for his prayer dream. (1 Kings 3:5-9)
Jesus loved St. Mary Magdaline most of all for her gnosis of the wrathful powers in us.
http://gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm
The Church and Christian religions have yet to learn the lesson of St. Peter's Denial.
I'm still waiting to hear back from Pope Francis. He knows we need to get to the root causes of what compels us. He's a Jesuit and had practiced The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.
Jung's meditation method is very similar.
Jesus knew prayer in private is more important in knowing our evil. He will be the cause of dissension in our own households if He is not being followed. (Matthew 10:34-39)
Michael is keeping us on track in how we treat one another for the good of all.
Climate Covid Coup
I have read Jung and have great respect for his work. Dr. Goodall is one of my heroes. Jesus was just another prophet to
Be murdered by his own, but he wasn’t THE prophet and the Bible isn’t THE book to me. I was raised in a religious family, & my family—who I don’t associate with—voted for trump, as did many others who thought he was a “good business man”. I met more hypocrites, as a child, in church than I care to remember. It’s the reason I consider myself a Humanist. Mother Nature is my “spiritual adviser”.
I live by the Golden Rule, which is simple enough for young children to understand. I taught in the inner city for 40 years, & have seen what injustice & inequality has done to our country. If it weren’t for people who never give up on speaking truth to power, like Michael Moore, I’d have gone insane by now. I honestly don’t believe I belong in this country (or possibly this planet 🌎) anymore…..complacency, selfishness & greed are the enemy & my heart is broken.
Me, too.
It's why I follow Michael.
It helps keep my head above the madness of men, and the women who follow them.
The Golden Rule has always been The Golden Path, especially in times like these.
It is something even children can understand, as Jesus had observed.
“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:3
I apologize for quoting the scriptures. But something of Jesus' teachings have been missed and sorely twisted by the Church and Christian religions that have put us in this predicament. He didn't hesitate to let loose with the 'h' word. He had shown how we might be the change the world needs to coexist, which Jung confirmed. (Matthew 23:1-13)
"Pride is most deadliest." It is the yeast of hypocrisy, the proverbial beam in our eye where we see evil in others, but not ourselves.
It was Jung's prescription for this sick world. Dreams don't lie. They are a portal to our Soul where we might somehow love ourselves despite our human condition. We might then at least not hate others as much as we might.
We will know peace if we seek it.
You may know the Patriarchy will fall with the Return of the Goddess.
The Age of Aquarius may have paved the way for having some connection.
Lao Tzu felt nourished by the Great Mother. So can we in prayer and meditation.
Especially when we see something we dislike in someone and keep to a woman's care.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/784579.Return_of_the_Goddess
http://www.interhomeopathy.org/edward-whitmont-in-perspective
In no way do I claim that Jesus or anyone is The prophet or that the Bible is The book. This is where one's beliefs, sacred scriptures or experiences of the Deities can become misguided, claiming they are the one true religion with the one true god, like the un-holy Roman Catholic Church. This of course leads to needless conflict.
The so-called Protestant religions have been no different.
This despite the warnings of Peter Abelard, Giordano Bruno, Martin Luther et al, who denounced the Church for their pride, hubris and hypocrisy.
You may have noticed in the video of Jung where he doesn't mention Jesus.
Only "the Redeemer."
This is because of how he, or she, may manifest.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/588138.The_Hero_With_a_Thousand_Faces
For men, our anima can be a savior with all we feel and experience.
How do you suppose I'm able to write all this with best intentions?
In caring for everyone, there can be a redemption.
Jesus wasn't the only one to have us amend.
The Archetypes are numerous but unique in their own way. It may be why there are so many different religions, giving us different aspects of the same Deity. It's not much different than our universe with numerous other solar systems and galaxies.
Certain philosophers know we don't belong here. We're just visitors.
But there are certain things we need to do, like Michael, until our time is thru.
I have dreamt of going to a distant planet and then coming back to earth.
It may be our rhizome, as Jung wondered, our root nature or origin of the Gnostics.
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45536/ode-intimations-of-immortality-from-recollections-of-early-childhood
It's not some escape for one to take this into meditation. It can help us persevere.
Remember Mork's conversations with Orson?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_twQUHihU8
(1:37)
Thank You Susan, for your many years of teaching, especially in the inner city schools. Most make it because of those who persevered like you.
I'm sorry it's taken me this long to say that. I meant to say sooner.
Our under-funded school system pressures teachers to work miracles for disadvantaged youth, too many of whom are drug addicted, worsening personal issues that get acted out violently.
All their stress and frustration, pain and hurt is going to get taken out on someone, even themselves, but mostly on their teachers.
I pray you were never a victim.
It was pretty bad in Denver in 1975 when I moved here. It's gotten worse, spilling out into the suburbs. Who would've thought the suburbs would become a blackboard jungle? It's why many teachers have quit.
That and being underpaid and unappreciated.
https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2021-12-05/teen-shootings-in-denver-suburb-renew-focus-on-gun-violence
But I know that the majority of your students appreciated you, if they haven't said themselves. I've known a few who teach in charter schools, one of whom is a dear friend, who really has been my best friend.
It is like planting seeds that may take root, tho not clear when. Our psyche has a way of reminding us who has helped us. My parents and teachers weren't perfect, but their heart was in the right place, as I'm sure yours is, which is what matters. I try to do the same, imperfect as I am. My grandchildren say I'm okay. That's all that matters to me.
Do we ever stop learning? I'm sure you saw this with your students.
Surely, your care for your students helped you persevere all those years.
Mother Nature is our best guide, as seen in dreams and meditations.
I'm so glad you said that. More of us need to realize this.
I was inspired by a philosophy professor who gave a course on The Archetypal Feminine for the Spring Semester 1984 at UCD, the University of Colorado at Denver. The textbooks she used was Jung's Aspects of the Feminine and The Moon and The Virgin by Nor Hall.
I was the only male student in the class and resented by a few.
What made them think that men don't have a feminine side?
What was wrong with wanting to learn about the feminine, anyway?
It seems that the chief complaint is that men can't relate.
Jung saw for himself how remiss he could be.
Are we to blame for our patriarchal upbringing?
Are women any different, especially GOP Republicans?
Surely Mother Nature was guiding me in taking that class.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/790891.Aspects_of_the_Feminine
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/775360.The_Moon_and_the_Virgin
We were asked to keep a journal of our dreams, meditations, daily experiences and feelings, to see how our psyche responded to the course curriculum and our professor, who was not like the others.
My dreams of a white butterfly and woman with four eyes was enough for me. The ancient Greeks used the butterfly as a symbol for our psyche. Jung's dissertations on symbols of wholeness encourage us to be feeling human beings, for men especially. It's how we men can know and honor the anima, and not be so insensitive.
I was always happiest when my mother was, and then later my wife.
Lao Tzu knew to keep to a woman's care.
He felt nourished by the Great Mother.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57854.Tao_Te_Ching#:~:text=The%20Tao%20Te%20Ching%20is,liberation%20of%20a%20simple%20life.
Sidenote:
Jesus would have us call no one father, only His Father in Heaven.
Well, I've come to the conclusion the same is true with the mother.
But what I especially remember is the introduction by Nor Hall, when she described the dream of a client who was disillusioned by the Church and Christian religions. A voice spoke to her saying, "Look not to Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Let Gaia, Demeter and Artemis be your guides."
Pretty powerful dream, huh?
No doubt about this one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia
excerpt:
"In Greek mythology, Gaia (/ˈɡeɪə, ˈɡaɪə/;[2] from Ancient Greek Γαῖα, a poetical form of Γῆ Gē, "land" or "earth"),[3] also spelled Gaea /ˈdʒiːə/,[2] is the personification of the Earth[4] and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenogenic—of all life. She is the mother of Uranus (the sky), from whose sexual union she bore the Titans (themselves parents of many of the Olympian gods), the Cyclopes, and the Giants; as well as of Pontus (the sea), from whose union she bore the primordial sea gods. Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra.[5]"
IOW Gaia is Mother Nature herself, often projected on our mothers.
It's why I spend so much time in the wilderness year 'round, divorced as I am. Nature has been my friend and guide, both spiritually and in life.
How am I able to write this? Jung was right about the anima.
Once when I was skiing the backcountry by myself, one of my bindings broke, which was no big deal, except I was running out of daylight and had to make my way back in the dark after the time it took to rig it.
Good ol' ductape.
As I made my way, my compass seemed off with my topo trail map. I was tracking fresh snow when I shouldn't have been. Where were my tracks in? This was before gps apps that give accurate coordinates.
But then I saw someone up ahead with a headlamp like mine, so I headed in that direction and picked up their track. Or so I thought.
The light colored clothes made me think it was a woman. I tried to catch up with her but wasn't able to. The faster I skied, the further she got. When I called out, she kept going, not that I blamed her, me being a stranger. But I was relieved, seeing flagging on trees indicating I was on the right track. I really didn't care to have to bivouac.
When I got to the trailhead, I thought for sure I'd see her in the parking lot, but no one was there, only my Jeep. I was the only one there when I first pulled in that morning. How could she have left so fast?
Was she really there? Why didn't I hear any engine sounds?
Were the tracks I picked up my own? Was I seeing a figment of my imagination that got me back on track?
Definitely a Twilight Zone moment. But I know what I saw.
I'd quit drugs years before. Even then, this never happened.
I'm certain it was Mother Nature reminding me by whose grace we go.
How did I get off-track? It happens. It's not the first time.
Temples to the Nature deities still stand in Greece and elsewhere.
A certain homage is imperative, even when Nature can be cruel.
It is part of our life-death cycle as seen in mythology.
The Hindu Goddess Kali, especially:
https://www.worldhistory.org/Kali/
(excerpt)
"Kali is the Hindu goddess of death, time, and doomsday. She is often associated with sexuality and violence but is also considered a strong mother figure and symbol of motherly love. Kali embodies shakti - feminine energy, creativity and fertility - and is an incarnation of Parvati, wife of the great Hindu god Shiva."
But this is Nature in her wholeness, which we can accept.
The madness of men and women like them are not.
Hasn't Mother brought us to those like Michael?
How did we find ourselves here?
My dreams of Michael are good.
We can share in the spirit.
I'm the better for it.
I'm sure you are, too.
Many Blessings Susan
I'm glad you're here.
We'll get thru these times.
We're on the right track.
You might also be interested in this:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/241823.Women_Who_Run_With_the_Wolves
I was fortunate to know and work with Clarissa, who gives all of us, men and women, or non-gender others, a way to our instinctive nature.
Men need to set their wives or female friends free to be free in themselves, rather than confine them with harmful expectations of what they think women should be.
Marie Louise von Franz says it best on this for men:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/80082.The_Golden_Ass_of_Apuleius
(subtitled: The Liberation of the Feminine in Men)
Susan, not to harangue you, but the record of Christianity and connection to war, and persecution overwhelms your parochial insight on TRUE Christians.
So that you might gain a deeper understanding of the role of Christianity in the context of the rise of theocracy in the United States you might want to read any or all of these well researched books:
Heacock, C. (2020). Connecting Christian Nationalism and Dominion Theology Medium Online
Jones, R. P. (2017). The End of White Christian America. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks. And PRRI website
Stewart K. (2021). POWER WORSHIPPERS: Inside the dangerous rise of religious nationalism.
Once you understand Dominionist, End Times scenarios and Christian Nationalists you’ll begin to appreciate that their belief system and the genuine threat it represents to ALL decent Americans.
I totally agree with you on the huge threat! But I am not a Christian & so all the Bible quotes are too much! WHO wrote the Bible? That’s a rhetorical question! To view the future simply in terms of religion isn’t the answer for many of us.
Thanks Susan, I am amazed to think of how many hours of my life I've devoted (as a autodidact) to reading about the "historical Jesus" and early Christianity including Gnosticism, the early Church and the rise of anti-semitism. From Elaine Pagels, Burt Ehrman, Bishop Spong, and others it's really the story of how a cult that grew to expand to "gentiles" really took off after being embraced by the power of two Roman Emperors.
Of course no one knows who the "authors" of the Bible were, but we know that one of them ever met or saw Christ... Deism is predicated on the Bible and it's purveyors as being hucksters with no evidence to prove anything they present as truth. That still holds true to this day.
Ingraham video not available says YouTube
Thank you, Michael, for the gift of this story. Many of us in my circle of friends entering the last third of our expected life spans have been contemplating what it means to be elders in this time, culture, and place. Your story is so instructive--for what your father shared with you, for your developmentally-appropriate response at the time, and for the great blank spaces of what may never have been shared. Thank you for all of it, and for the implicit encouragement to take that space, to tell our stories, to create the active and creative moments to put our collective instructive experience to work for change that our younger inhabitants of our planet need from us. How courageous your father was to finally share that horrific and painful story with you, and how courageous you are to carry his story forward. My deepest gratitude to you both.
TOUCHÉ ‼️
You are a hero just like your Dad. Thanks for exposing the lies and telling the truth on behalf of your country all these years. Merry Christmas!
Oh absolutely, Michael. I can imagine him letting his Soul Group know, every brave, brilliant, amazing thing you have ever done. You have a Soul Mate waiting for you!
Your dad's story is very interesting to me. My dad was drafted into the Army at age 28 & sent to the South Pacific. The night before they shipped out from San Francisco to Hawaii and then to the South Pacific, the sergeant yelled at the group of them, Can any of you #$%s (it was something insulting) type? My dad had a job with a trucking company in NYC as assistant traffic manager, so he raised his hand. He still went to the South Pacific, but he wasn't sent out on patrol. He worked in a tent processing equipment orders. He told us of being on mess hall line and troops in front and behind him being taken out by snipers. His other story was sitting out in the field on one of the makeshift latrines they dug and doing his business when an air raid was signaled, and he said the hell with it and stayed. They bombed and he wasn't hit. He had nothing good to say about war. He was against the Viet Nam War from the get go and influenced me greatly. I was the only student in my HS class in 1967 to raise my hand to the teacher's question, "How many of you are against the Viet Nam War?" I've been accused of being unpatriotic because I was against the Afghanistan and Iraq wars when they started. My dad used to say "War is Hell" whenever the subject came up. He's been gone since 1987 at age 74. And your story about the family moving around Flint when the landlord came during the depression...that was my mom's family's story. They moved around The Bronx. Thanks for all you do to help our country, Michael.
Dear Michael, your precious gentle spirit is so apparent every time you write. And the deepness of the grief over what we humans are doing—and have been doing to each other for what seems like forever—shines through your words. I’m right there with you, sweetheart. My heart, with its 77 years of privileged life, loves you very much. May we together create a New Story as this crazy life unfolds before us.
Thank you Michael Moore for that beautiful story from your dad. We will persevere and live to continue the struggle against ignorance autocracy and stupidity.
Michael, Thank you for writing about the experience of our fathers and grandfathers. My father in law never talked of his experiences in WWII until his mid-seventies, a safe distance of 50 years. He was captured by the Germans in May, 1944 and was moved many times as the war progressed. He recalled his memory of Christmas, 1944 being given stale bread and watery soup, being grateful that he was still alive. As hard as these years of Covid are, I believe they don't hold a candle to what these thousands of men lived through and rarely spoke of. As frustrating, lonely and isolated as the last 22 months have been, we are all relatively safe in contrast to the soldiers of WWII. Thank you for continuing to question the insanity of politics today and being a voice of reason for us all.
Yes, Tom. Yes.
Dear Michael, this was just the most stunning piece of writing I have ever read. My heart is absolutely exploding now. Please don’t worry, your Dad knew it would mean a lot to you one day and he is very very proud of you and the movement you lead. God Bless You and Merry Christmas to you.
Wow. What can I say. I’m so moved by your response. All my best.
Michael, thank for your story about your Dad’s service doing WWII. He was a handsome young man. Your story reminds me of my father who has been gone 20 years now. He died from old age in his bed thank God. He also served during WWII in the Philippines. He never spoke about it or what he did during that war, but always hoped and prayed we would never have to go to war again. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. We’ve been in too many. I’m grateful to you for your movies, videos, your activism, these messages, and this community that is being built because of you and all these other like minded people. If we all keep working towards a better world one person at a time I believe we can affect change. One small act of kindness can ripple out and affect so many others. Peace and love to you and everyone around the world.
Yup, my dad was in WWII in Europe somewhere but never could talk about it. Radio work.
Neither could my dad or his brothers, one of whom was killed serving with Patton's 3rd Armored Division stopping Hitler's final advance.
Dear Michael, On this Christmas Day I'm apart from my own 93-year-old dad and 82-year-old mom. Your story helps bring a little Christmas spirit to us all.
I met you on Third Avenue in NYC in the 90s. My girl friend was the cameraperson on some interview that you did, and she told me to get over there (didn't tell me why). You were just as I'd imagined - regular and kind and friendly to a stranger who was trying not to act starstruck. Thanks for staying the course all these years, and for helping the rest of us do the same. Happy Christmas and New Year's to you and all the people you care about.
What a riveting Christmas story well told. When I see the ripple effects of life after war, I am reminded of how many ripples never happened after the lives of those lost too. In celebration, nothing is more merry than gratitude and presence in this moment. Thank you for writing and sharing. Merry Christmas Michael.
Thank you so much for sharing your dad's story about his experiences. Glad you are staying safe and giving us all so much food for thought. I look forward to emerging from this pandemic to a better world - it will take all of us to participate and take care of each other. Merry Christmas!
Thank you for telling your family story. Your dad’s memory is a blessing. Merry Christmas to you
Dear Michael, what a Christmas memory and story from your Dad. My folks were both Navy but neither in combat zone. We children of these parents of that generation will not accept Nazists but I believe love our Japanese friends. I am touched by your Father's burial of the Japanese war memorials he had. I love your Dad, may he have his peaceful eternity with my folks who are musicians and love to dance, sing and play piano! Be well.
Thank you for this. Thank you for being so alive and caring and attentive and determined. My Dad slouched thru the muds of Europe 1944 - 45. Barely made it home - and only told us kids the "we are all humans together" stories (a young women running into a burning house to bring a treasured wedding photo to a weeping older woman who had lost everyone and everything - the guys in his patrol catching some pigeons and making pigeon stew (fresh meat!) and sharing it with some hungry kids instead of eating it themselves - etc.). The year before he died at 79, he finally told me some of the daily experience of being in battle - what it was like for him (raised as a pacificist, vegetarian - "we don't kill" ) to carry a gun, aim it, shoot. - to see what the result of that shooting was... When I asked him why he had never told any of us those stories before, he explained that when they were mustered out in '46 - they were all told to never speak about their experiences. That no one would understand. To go home and forget what they had been through. And he had tried to do so. I'm so glad your father told you this story. So grateful you have written it here.
Julie, thank you for sharing this. How wonderful to find your voice here, and to read these beautiful details of your father's and your own stories. Michael touched us deeply here!
-Katy Stonebloom
Stunning, absolutely stunning AND moving; a reminder of our good luck.