The Wise - Issue 5

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The Wise Editor

Hasan ‘Sonsuz’ Çeliktaş sonsuz@thewisemag.com

Welcome to the

Dawn of Magic Times

Let’s imagine we’ve reversed our time machine and travelled back to Paris, 1789. If we stopped a French man on the street and told him, “Do you know the things you’re doing now will change the world; you’re living in a very special time,” he would probably chase you to the Bastille while waving his bludgeon at you. There’s no doubt the events of that time changed the direction of history, but the people involved suffered considerably.

the right expression, because they are us. Murderer, rapist, thief, barbarian, monster, swindler… all of these are part of us, but we have not experienced all these parts fully and are still experiencing them. This will continue until we accept them and say, “That’s enough! These things are part of me, and I accept them all. Being a part of the Whole, I now choose to not harm my other parts and to create new experiences by integrating with them.”

Once more, we are entering into a period of revolution, but this time it goes deeper. We will witness what is arguably the most important period of human history, and we may even take active roles within the process. Now we will contribute to an era similar to the ones we read about in our history books that seemed like film scenarios. So, what I am talking about? The course of events that began years ago will peak on December 21, 2012: It’s time to say farewell to the “dark ages.”

The phrase, “Farewell to Dark Ages” means that humanity’s collective conscious should now make this choice. We should rediscover the knowledge that we buried deeply thousands of years ago and remember who we are. We should make peace with our dark sides, honor all our experiences, and accept them into our Spirit. We should use our creative power for unifying rather than separating. With the help of this unifying power, we can create a wonderful planet that is hard to imagine now.

Our “dark ages” began thousands of years ago, when humanity was separated from its spirituality. If you read Esra Erdoğan’s article, Priest Bruno from Atlantis, you will see the wise priests of that era were aware that humanity would enter such a period, so they hid their knowledge.

The collective human consciousness made a choice: They wanted to know their dark sides and discover their deeper selves, so they buried the existing wisdom where it could be retrieved in later eras. The apparent image of this is full of painful events, such as the destruction of the Library at Alexandria, but within a universal perspective, humanity made a choice to forget its spirituality so it could rediscover it. You may wonder if it was really necessary.

If you evaluate life on its apparent linear basis, it seems obvious it was unnecessary. However, if you consider life to be a game where you collect experiences, and if you realize that the people in every time period are embodied souls seeking to experience various conditions, then every event will be more meaningful and you will enjoy it more.

For thousands of years, we have created events where we experience the lives of others, so we can discover who we are. Calling it, “the lives of others” is not really

That’s why I name this period “Magic Times.” It gained momentum as we entered 2012. Perhaps the days to come will be harder than during the past revolutions, but by the “darkest” day of the year—December 21, 2012—we will start to feel the “light” and each coming year will be better for all humanity. We do not feel a rush of the sun’s warmth the day after the winter solstice, but instead we have to wait for April and May. Likewise, it will take a little time before we see the “bright” ages, but I believe we will witness it during our lifetimes. Of course, it is not the time to relax. Everyone must perform their part to the fullest.

The Wise is one of the ways in which we can contribute to this process. In short, we are throwing our starfish into the sea and asking our inner selves what else we can do. We are ready to do everything we can for the sake of humanity, and I’m sure you’re also ready to do your best. You have probably even started already.

So, there is only one thing left to say: Let’s celebrate these magic times and enjoy them together. If you have not come to the party yet, why wait? We are waiting for you… All of us… The great family of humanity…

Let the music play…

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Content

The Wise Editor Hasan “Sonsuz” Çeliktaş The Wise English Editor Jim Newall The Wise Çevirmenleri Feride Sabuncuoğlu Sibel Oltulu Nur Banu Uğurlu Ayşe Dağıstanlı Derya Yüksek The Wise Tasarım Tuğçe Gerek The Wise Yazarları Burak Eldem Burçe Boşnak Burcu Cedetaş Cem Şen Cihangir Gener Deniz Yalım Kadıoğlu Dost Can Deniz Ebru Dengiz Hakan Arabacıoğlu Melike Belkıs Doğar Müjde Özdemir Sibel Oltulu Öner Döşer Zeynep Sevil Güven

The Wise Kapak

Burak Eldem 6 The Breaking Point in History Sonsuz&Cem Şen &Burak Eldem 10 Entering 2012: Farewell to the Dark Ages Öner Döşer 16 The Dawn of the Aquarian Age Cem Şen

22 Darkness Zeynep Sevil Güven 26 Darkness, Adieu Zeynep Oğuz 30 Devil’s Wine

The Wise Ruh

Melike Belkıs Doğar Burcu Cedetaş Zeynep Sevil Güven Deniz Yalım Kadıoğlu Müjde Özdemir Hasan ‘Sonsuz’ Çeliktaş

The Wise Yaşam

Sibel Oltulu

Dost Can Deniz Sibel Oltulu

Dost Can Deniz

30 34 38 42 44 46

Is it Really You Who Has the Fear?

The Sweet Killer Mint Ways and Means to Rebalance Humanity Learning is a Journey Thanks, God How to Charm a Spiritual Woman — Part 3

52 54 52 54

Truth is Simple Not Much Is So Much More Than Nothing One More Piece Master, Where Does this Road Lead to?

56 60

Has the Holy Grail Been Found?

Mu Civilization and Naacals

The Wise Gizem Hasan ‘Sonsuz’ Çeliktaş Cihangir Gener

The Wise Öykü

Hasan “Sonsuz” Çeliktaş 64

In The River of God…

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The Wise Feature

Burak Eldem

burak.eldem@thewisemag.com

The Breaking Point in History and

“The Erroneous Civilization” The first civilizations of the Old World were shaped by around the end of the fourth millennium BCE. The critical elements of these civilizations were advanced urbanization, systematic and established agricultural activities, diverse social division of labor (which helped the development of architecture, mining and other crafts), cultural identities (which experienced a great leap due to the invention of writing), and the belief system that was at the center of everything.

The economic structure was mainly based on agricultural production, and trade was only a local activity in the beginning. Landownership rights varied from region to region and were under the control of the temple priests and the King, who was also the Head Priest; however, the property undoubtedly belonged to the ones who cultivated the land. The Temples and the Kingdom took the biggest portion of the crops grown, but they did not have a strict concept of “cast” or “social class.” The cost of the army and other local expenses (e.g., local improvements, festivals, etc.) were paid by the citizens through contributions. There were no layers in the empire—except a small number of administrators and officers—that could dilute the authority of the King and the priests. In other words, slavery dynamics did not exist, at least in the beginning. Slavery was limited to the servants who worked in the palaces, temples and houses or mines, and there was no defined social statuses for “slaves” or 6 The Wise

“slave owners”. Slaves were not essential for agricultural production.

In 3100 BCE, the leading civilizations in Egypt, Sumer, Harappa and Minos presented a view similar to that above.

During this first phase in the history of the civilization, the hegemony apparatuses of the state were not dependent on a despotic military organization but on the secret universal knowledge that the temple priests believed they had. Religious thought was the instrument of submitting a distorted version of this knowledge to the masses. The priest was the one who knew the unknown, watched the movement of the stars in the sky, calculated the time, and understood the transition of the seasons. He was supposed to do all these things with the help of divine wisdom. Consequently, the people respected the priests but were also afraid of them. The priests knew the agricultural process, planned the planting and harvesting periods, and warned people about weather conditions such as rains and floods. Who could disagree with placing them at the center of society? Everything they said came true, and every warning they made was right. As a result, of course, the authority should have belonged to them. The Kings were not warrior heroes in the early times, but they were wise priests. The management was also made up of junior priests, and their palaces were the temples, which were actually a kind of observatory but also

The simultaneous transformation in Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Near East created the first prototype states built on the slavery system. However, this also created some administrative problems: The central authority gradually weakened, while the local administrative officers and representatives in far cities and towns became stronger.

In addition, new “temple cults” began to emerge within the Empire and sovereignty competition began among the priests of these groups.

served as a ritual center for the public.

The Ruling Class Enlarges After around a millennium at the start of 2000 BCE, almost all civilizations experienced transformations in their administrative infrastructures. Due to technological developments and cities becoming more secure places, the average lifespan grew longer while the mortality rate began to decrease, which then caused a serious population increase. The kingdoms were no longer vast lands with a city in the center and towns around it. Now there were numerous residential areas where both agriculture and crafts showed remarkable progress. Trade activities improved considerably, and the general economy revived a little. On the other hand, the first big civilizations were not content with just preserving the lands they controlled anymore. Now they looked for every opportunity to expand their geographic boundaries. Military activity was not now limited to the neighboring settlements just beyond their boundaries, but it was the time for conquest. Consequently, wars broke out more often, and prisoners of war began to be used as slaves, providing free labor for the ones in power who controlled most of the production. The possibilities that came with the use of military force attracted the appetite of other city states to acquire new resources without the need to use trade relations.

Through this transformation, the big empires began to feel the need to fine tune the hegemony system, and the main infrastructure of the state began to look more complicated. New officer casts controlled the distribution of the newly acquired sources and efficiently collected “taxes.” Local administrative offices were now needed in every settlement controlled by the “state.” As a result, bureaucracy quickly became an essential layer in the management of the Kingdom. Meanwhile, military commanders gained in importance because of the wars and military expeditions. They were given land from those they conquered as a gift, and the prisoners of war were used as slaves to work in their fields.

Sargon the Great of the Akkadians was one of the leaders of this transformation in Mesopotamia. Sargon (Akkadian Šarru-kīnu, meaning “the just king”) built an empire on the cultural heritage of the Sumerian civilization and created a centrally ruled Akkadian Empire that quickly became the strongest state in the Near East. However, due to the expansion of local bureaucracy within the empire, the central management weakened, and the empire began to experience serious problems around 2200 BCE, during the management of Naram-Sin’s, Sargon’s grandson.

Naram-Sin was one of the first emperors who—like a shark that eats every living thing around it to get the energy to keep going—realized he had to stick with the conquest policy to preserve the existence of the empire and have a strong economy to pay the increasing administrative expenses. He reached Syria, seized and ruined the prosperous city of Ebla, and then moved towards Canaan, capturing the cities and towns on his way. However, this was not enough to prevent the decay of the Empire. The power was no longer only in the hands of the Priest-King and the elites of the temple. There was now a ruling class that included local leaders, bureaucrats and military commanders, so the benefits of power had to be redesigned to satisfy each layer of this diverse group. But, how?

Laws, Reforms and Transformations Egypt was struggling with the same problems. Beginning with the end of the Old Kingdom period, ethnic structure varied and conflicts arose between different traditions, not only in Upper and Lower Egypt, but also in Sinai in the east, in the Libyan deserts in the west, and in Nubia in the south. Moreover, bureaucracy grew stronger and the Great House (The Pharaoh; Per-ou in Egyptian) began to suffer the harsh economic consequences of keeping a huge and costly administrative class. The discretionary practices of the bureaucrats proved that Egypt, as well as Mesopotamia, needed a new and revised ruling system.

Near the beginning of the 18th century BCE, the Akkadian King Hammurabi made an effort to determine the living and governing conditions through his famous code of law that included definitive social rules. In fact, Hammurabi’s code was not a simple law system at all, but consisted of some religious and moral rules that should be obeyed, based on centuries-long traditions and customs. Moreover, the power of the sanctions that would come with the practice of the law was somewhat questionable.

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The central kingdoms collapsed, armies disbanded, and the ruling elites ran away to more secure places. The once-proud civilizations of the old world were in complete sociopolitical chaos, which led to an important breaking point in history.

The lands of the empires were invaded by hordes of pillagers; the sovereign dynasties and the ruling classes of the past had very hard times.

In Upper Egypt, a revolt took place once the plundering hordes left, and the lack of authority was filled by rebellious people who lived in very hard conditions in the towns north of Memphis, the capital. The local rebels took control in Memphis and seized the northern part of the country, where they established a new capital in Avaris. Within the same period, Babylon collapsed after attacks by Indo-European tribes. Natural disasters devastated the Minos Kingdom of the Aegean islands, which caused the collapse of this brilliant civilization. The Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley shared the same fate after being invaded by warrior tribes from the north.

Anyway, Egypt followed the same path as the Akkadian Empire, and a revised infrastructure began to form along the banks of the river Nile as well. The local people would be kept out of the oppressive slavery system to eliminate the possibility of unrest and upheaval, but the prisoners of war and peasants of the conquered cities would be extensively used for the slave labor that was needed desperately in the agricultural areas controlled by the temples and ruling elites. This way, the slavery system was defined and formally institutionalized for the first time.

However, this revised policy did not prevent the decay of the mighty central kingdoms of the late Bronze Age. Due to economic imbalance and injustice, the local citizens were feeling the negative effects of poverty. Debt problems often caused them to lose their lands, forcing them to work on fields controlled by the wealthy ruling classes, which was similar to slavery. Rebellions and civil turmoil were on the horizon, but the empires were still strong, and the ruling classes could keep control by using despotic methods to keep the system going. Until one inauspicious day…

Old World Shaking…

In 1649 BC, a wave of earthquakes shook the world significantly.

In the Aegean, Akrotiri, the magnificent city of the Minos Kingdom, collapsed. Numerous earthquakes hit Cyprus and Crete, and tsunamis hit the Aegean shores from Byblos in Lebanon to the Egyptian delta.

The shock was about to end when the volcano Thera erupted horribly.

This was the greatest volcano eruption in history: a large area was left in darkness from Italy to the shores of the Black Sea, from Egypt to Iran. The sky was blocked by a thick layer of ash and smoke. Falling ash and sulfide turned the rivers “blood red,” poisoning the waters that were essential for agriculture. The animals died, the plants withered because of the lack of light, and the worst came when a climate change began because of the “volcanic winter.”

These natural disasters did not only cause death and seriously harm the economy, but they also created psychological distress.

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All these simultaneous events shook the mighty civilizations of the Old World and created a sharp breaking point in history. The ruling classes of the failed dynasties learned some lessons as a result.

First, they should never become weak again if they want to keep their supremacy. Second, maintaining a centralized and powerful military force was essential and would also help conquer and control neighboring regions to rule out threats. Third and most importantly, the ruling class should always impose systematic slavery on its subjects, because the population had increased and controlling the uneducated masses had been hard. When this mass could get the opportunity, they were ready to “betray” their emperors, so they had to be under continuous oppression. The slavery system was totally reorganized, and the history of civilization changed its route towards class struggles. After 1550 BCE, the rulers created the bloodiest form of despotism. The masses became enslaved, religion became the critical hegemony mechanism, and the state was reorganized with the help of new legal systems. The decisions that were taken after this breaking point have been the blueprint for human civilizations for millennia, and they still show their effects on our “modern society” with our immense expenditure on military and policing organizations.

An authoritative system based on different social classes and private ownership of production resources was not an inevitable route or “destiny,” but rather a result of the choices of our patriarchal, genderoriented ancestors during the critical breaking points, beginning in the early Bronze Age. Humanity has been suffering the results of those decisions and acts that brought inequality, injustice, discrimination and oppression for the last five thousand years. It led to an “erroneous civilization.” Now we are approaching a new breaking point that will shake the entire world once again: An unprecedented economic crisis has been ringing alarm bells for a while, and the warnings of Mother Nature become more and more serious with every natural disaster.

A chaotic situation is coming, and global capitalism is showing the signs of a tragic collapse. The uprisings around the world, as well as the quickly spreading “occupy” movement, seem to be a message to the ruling elites of the global finance-capitals that it will not be “that easy” to control and rule the masses anymore. The world shivers and trembles for a change that could perhaps affect the course of our civilization radically. Once again, after thousands of years, maybe it will “correct” the basic mistakes of this erroneous civilization.

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The Wise Feature

Hasan ‘Sonsuz’ Çeliktaş - Cem Şen - Burak Eldem

Farewell to the Dark Ages Entering 2012:

We are finally in the famous and eagerly anticipated 2012. So, what will we experience in the coming days?

Here’s a conversation between the writers at The Wise.

We are finally in the famous and eagerly anticipated 2012. So, what will we experience in the coming days? Here’s a conversation between the writers at The Wise.

Sonsuz Dear Burak, let’s begin with you. Your book Rendezvous with Marduk: 2012 was published in 2004, and now we are in 2012. As we came closer to 2012, we witnessed the points you highlighted in your book occurring one by one. Speaking honestly, the tension in all of us increased, as well as the chaos all over the world. May I get your opinions? What is happening on this planet? Where it is going? Can you summarize it for us?

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Burak Eldem Actually, this current process is not a result of newly emerged conditions or unexpected developments. We have only reached the critical steps of this gradual process. When my book, 2012: Rendezvous with Marduk, first came out, I kept saying: Do not consider 2012 as a historic mystic event or prophecy. Do not expect a sudden breaking point. All collective processes emerge in a wider schedule of time, just like all geological events. In 2004, your perception and way of thinking will be different as you are surfeited with certain developments. Many things will change in 2005 compared to the previous year, and the same will be true for 2006…

Perhaps it has to give birth to itself.

As far as I can remember, if I am not mistaken, the Mayans believed that the Milky Way was pregnant and would give birth in 2012. Burak knows these things better. When I observe this from my point of view, I can see some facts clearly.

Humanity has plunged into so much amnesia and unawareness (which I call as ignorance) that we are in a nightmare that we do not see as a nightmare. At the edge of the transformation, I think the most serious danger is our consciousness and reality model.

I mean, 2012 is not a moment of magical transformation; we are already within this process. While in this process, you will be so focused on problems and developments that you cannot imagine it now; your perception of the world will not be the same as before.

This is what we experience today. Each day, week, month, and year brings its own agenda to the spotlight and builds the conjuncture gradually. When I wrote this book, few people knew we had a climate change problem. Drought, agricultural crises, and climate problems are now top topics in the world’s agenda. Nothing happens because of sudden jumps or surprises. Yesterday and today’s developments prepare the way for tomorrow. This applies to social and political events, as well as geological and atmospheric occurrences.

Admittedly, in history there may have been phases where the process gains momentum. We are living one of them, roughly since the end of 1990s. Today, we are witnessing one of the substantial transformations in history.

Sonsuz After a hundred years, our grandchildren will say, “It must have been nice to live in that era,” but witnessing such a transformation is not an easy thing. Cem uttered a similar sentence in one of our interviews.

He said that our country was in a renewal and transformation process that would take a few years. May I get your opinions, Cem? What do you observe on the planet?

Cem Şen I think this is a matter of critical mass. I agree with Burak. Even when we evaluate the situation from a historic, esoteric or sociological perspective, it is obvious that a mass grew until it ran out of space, and now it has to transform itself into something else.

Buddha says, “The darkness increased. I am here to bring light because of a decision made thousands of years ago.” He does not say, “I am here to rescue the world.” What he says is that if we do not rid ourselves of the darkness of our ignorance, Mara (or the Devil as it is named in western terminology), our future will not be good. Strangely, when I examined numerology reports of myself and some of my friends, I realized an interesting situation. For example, that year heralds a new beginning of leadership for me. However, I really dislike being a leader and find it annoying. I also realized that my friends will also face situations that they have difficulty with. Inevitably, I suspected that this was not a coincidence. I felt as if we were going to face and fight our darkness, ignorance, and weaknesses. Consequently, our current era points out that we have reached a critical mass. The year 2012 will prove to be the start of a kind of birth.

When we look at the last thousand years, what we see is sorrow, massacre, hatred and fear. This is our own darkness and our own mistake, which is called Mara (or the Devil) in Buddhism. We have repeated these mistakes so many times that they somehow materialized. According to Tao Esoterism, if any way of thinking is well nourished, it occurs as a material within the field of existence.

So, the main question here is what we should do now. Here is a most crucial point, because this will determine how we proceed in this level of evolution. This evolution is taking us to our own destruction. At this point, I presume we will need a mutation, a sudden jump rather than an evolution. We will win the game if we can make this jump and transform.

Sonsuz So, we understand that we do not only experience sociological, economical and political changes but also some transformations in our humanity. We change both physically and spiritually, and this is not a revolution but an evolution. What do you think, Burak?

Burak Eldem If you observe the situation from a given point, it looks as if it has three different dimensions that are all independent from each other:

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the French Revolution was not an instant development; it was the natural result of a new trend that emerged in the 12th century. We are faced with a similar situation now. First, the structure we are cosmically in is experiencing a huge change, and it signals renewal.

After Rendezvous with Marduk was published, I always emphasized that these events should not be considered as being triggered by a sudden transformation, and I said, “Marduk is only a detail within all these universal processes.” Although its results are important, it is only a small part of the whole process. If our universe is reaching one of the critical milestones of the cosmic process, a material and spiritual transformation of individuals is inevitable.

However, if we evaluate the case from the perspective of “the evolution of human species,” we should remember that this applies to every member of the species. We will not wake up one morning to find we have transformed into another state. Besides, most will not experience any change but will only observe and try to understand what is happening. This transformation and awareness will only be effective for a small minority. The momentum that will change the social structures will build up within this minority, as it will in future generations.

To summarize, if there are more people who experience spiritual awakening, this means both the cosmic and the collective conditions that set the stage for this transformation will be developed enough.

Sonsuz This is all very complicated and meaningful; however, I want to ask a superficial question, because I’m sure the media will mention these things a lot and misinform us. Dear Burak, what will happen to our planet on December 22, 2012? How will we start the day?

• The physical or cosmological transformation that occurs in the material plane • The economical, political, and cultural transformations taking place in the collective structure • The transformation of the individuals, which if we have to define it, we can use the famous term “awareness.”

However, this is an illusion. All three of these are directly connected to each other. Cem mentioned the Mayan symbolism of “the pregnancy of the galaxy.” As this “era shift” means “the death of the old and the birth of the new,” this symbolism fits 2012 metaphorically. This is the philosophic side of the issue. The Mayans thought that a new era would begin on Earth that would occur at the cosmic level, and we would get our share from its reflection. They told this using the concepts of “the womb of the universe” and “time’s birth from the place.”

On the other hand, as Cem stated, “individual enlightenment” is also one of the crucial components of this change and transformation process. Enlightenment is not a sudden revelation, even for the person or society. Processes materialize gradually. The development of the individual, as well as societies, is the same. To give an example,

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Burak Eldem Let me repeat again: Such transformational phases are experienced within a frame of time that is bound to numerous parameters.

Consequently, any expectation of a sudden change on December 22, 2012 is entirely wrong. However, the veins that feed that perception lie within the collective ideology. This is the worst thing. For example, religions wait for a doomsday. Alternatively, some people who perceive things from other dimensions claim they get some messages from self-styled channels.

I think we should not waste time with such things; let’s take the right path: December 22, 2012 is a symbolic date that sets the limit for a process, just like a sign or a milestone. There will be no unexpected or horrid developments that day. This date is in fact the winter solstice, which was used as a beginning date by the Mayans and other ancient societies. The process has already been ongoing for a while. As I mentioned before, the world we live on is very different to the one six years before. We did not have sufficient knowledge then.

The same is valid for 2012. Everything leading to that critical point of transformation is coming into existence systematically: climate changes, geological shifts, social turbulences, and political changes.

So, to estimate a date is nothing more than a prophecy. However, we can say that at the end of 2012, nothing will be the same, and a completely different conjuncture will rule the world in terms of

social, economical and cultural parameters.

The sources will be used up quickly, social structures will be jolted, people will be more anxious about their futures, and wars will be ordinary events.

Sonsuz So, you think we will not be screaming, “Hurray!

2012 is over, and we are all enlightened!” On the contrary, it will be like a solstice, when the darkness reaches its peak before it slowly gets lighter.

At this point, I want to direct a question to Cem. What are your opinions about this darkness?

What is its role in this entire crisis, and, on the other hand, will it trigger the need for light? Shall we banish this darkness and reach the light in coming days? If we focus on the light, do we speed up this process, or is this only a dream?

Cem Şen I agree with Burak for the first time. Some people claim that doomsday is coming, and others say that our DNA spirals will change. However, this only departs from the essence of the issue. Anyone who loses his way wanders in circles, and this is also valid for our mental situation.

A lost man also repeats the same things. Remember Einstein’s quote, “You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.” The problem is to succeed and proceed on a straight line, and the main thing we should obey is to not lose our center.

Now, I want to draw your attention to a serious situation: Everything begins in the mind before it comes into existence in our material reality. For example, the samurais would take their children to execution fields and show them the people dying. This would prepare the children for death. Today, American Navy Seal Commandos are taken to slaughterhouses to watch the animals there so they get accustomed to brutality. Now, turn on the television. Never before have we watched massacres and brutality so detailed and from different angles like those we do now in a show! I do not know if we had this before. In my childhood, which is not too long ago, even horror films were not as full of violence as the cartoon films now.

These scenes are ordinary now, because we saw too many similar scenes and got used to them. Before, if someone lost his arm in the street, few people could watch without feeling nauseous. Now, people can watch a similar thing happen and make fun of it. It was only in Roman arenas where brutality was a game. At the end, one of the gladiators was killed and it was over. The audience would watch the events and leave. They could not see it from multiple angles, nor did they hear music to increase the tension or watch reruns of the fights.

However, today we watch similar things as if they are real and accept them all as normal and ordinary. 20 years ago, if we saw a man with a bleeding nose on TV, we would say, “It looks as if it’s real.” Today, we hear the stories of serial killers and understand the way they think and maybe even feel sympathy for them.

Today these scenes go beyond reality because there is too much exaggeration. As a result, killing someone is not hard for people because we practice these things every day. How did we come to this point? Did we mind the rules the world injected into our veins, or is it a result of a natural process?

I believe both of these theories are right. This may sound like a conspiracy theory, but I believe somehow these things shape the world. If we begin discussing this topic, it will take hours, but it would be a good mental exercise for all of us. Even if everything is the result of natural processes or a product of people’s minds, the reality is that the darkness and chaos has reached a critical mass now. Today, we are not living in a sustainable manner.

The world’s resources are not sufficient to enable sustainable lives for such a large population.

This population should decrease, and it would be better to achieve this without pain. For example, if we used our technology for 500 million people only, without any subsequent increase, the Earth would be a heaven. You know, there some examples of it within history. However, the masses have a different point of view than individuals. The masses are more brutal and rude, which we can see through social events. A single person does not think to ruin others’ assets, but when a thousand people come together, they all become pillagers. I mean, the masses do not think and can be dangerous.

Today, the ones who can rule the masses have the determining role in the destiny of the world. During 68 events, these powers felt the wind of defeat, but the minds of the young people of that time began to wander, as they do today. They forgot the main issues and shifted to other things. So, the power that had the strength to change the world disappeared. Today, the same situation exists but is more complicated and dangerous. This time, the problem lies in the consciousness and the perception of humanity. Economic crises and other turbulent events amplify our existing fears and insecurities, leading us towards the darkness. Consequently, even if we do not experience any external disaster such as a meteor or solar storm, we still have to get rid of the situation that we created ourselves.

When I was in high school, I had a cassette player, which I used for many years, and it never broke down. I later gave it to my nephew and two days later, it was broken. Similarly, my sister gave me a washing machine. It was an old one that would maybe work for only six months or so. However, something happened, and I used it for many years. Then I realized something: My calmness affected my material world positively. It is not a miracle but just a simple thing.

For example, two people drive the same car; one always experiences problems with the car, while the other drives without any issues.

There is a similar interaction in our communication with the world.

So, my short answer to your question is, “Yes, due to the changes in our mental states, we will experience positive or negative results.”

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The third concept was, “to change the world.” This is directly linked to the first two. Now, let’s put them in the same plane:

Sonsuz The economic crisis in 1929 was ended by the Second World War, and today’s world took shape. To overcome the new crisis, do we also need a war? Cem talked about the population problem and how we are really too crowded. Can a war help this? If it helps, can the remaining ones fix the problems? Or, let me ask this: Are we so hopeless, dear Burak?

Burak Eldem Cem pointed out three critical issues that could be the topics of other conversations. First, “the masses can be more brutal than the individuals.” Well, it depends on your point of view. If these individuals are the members of a group that internalized the brutality, this statement is not true. But if they are observers only, then this statement is true. I mean a mass of people does not always mean the same thing as a majority. The values, perceptions, reactions, and reflexes of the majority always carry the potential of being brutal.

Lynching is a type of hysteria that occurs as a result of manipulation.

In other words, if the sample group within the mass is a majority, you should expect some potential for brutality because the potential of a group is equal to its most brutal members. That’s why people who never insult anyone can swear at footballers during matches.

Football culture is the tangible example. It shows that any group has as much potential as its members. We should not ignore that fact.

The second thing Cem emphasized was, “The group of people who can manipulate the actions of the masses.” This is a key point, because a large part of history is the result of the choices and inclinations of groups that have the ability to manage the momentum of the masses. To give an example of this, the fascists were a small group of privileged people that dominated the majority, so we made a mistake. A small minority harasses a big majority, but the majority does not understand what is going on. At the same time, another small minority who sees the reality and objects to it is demolished by the majority thanks to the efforts of fascism, just like throwing innocents to the lions.

14 The Wise

First, the majority of the masses are ruder, more inclined to violence, and more selfish. This is not a humiliation but a finding (to highlight relativity).

Consequently, to manage the social and physical power of the majority, it is important to determine the flow of history and the future. The one who wants to change the world (always in the minority) has tried various methods throughout history. Most of them failed at the final stage; perhaps this was linked with the mental reasons. Some representatives of the minority tried to launch a coup, while others dissolved into the society and undertook missions.

Socialism was the result of this second type; its aim was to encourage the masses to take the reins of their destiny. Unfortunately, we cannot say it was successful because it ultimately failed. The key point is that the momentum to put the masses into action should come from the “light,” not from the “darkness.” This minority should be the group of people who sacrificed themselves for the welfare of everyone and who have common sense. But first, everyone in this minority should 1) develop their awareness; 2) know how to be together and initiate the change both individually and socially; and 3) have willingness to change the world positively. Now let me answer you: The depression in 1929 is not the first example. The nature of capitalism is prone to chaos, which often triggers depressions. The most serious depression was experienced at the end of the 19th century and was overcome by the First World War. The depression between 1929 and 1933 ended with the help of a Keynes approach, where the economy was questioned, as well as by the Second World War. How is the situation now? I think we are in a worse position than we were in the above mentioned crises. Even a new “world war” cannot solve this, but if the preeminent powers—who are ambitious, ravenous, and fearful—succeed to manage the momentum of the masses, they will do everything to force us to that point. The point is what the minority, the people who have some values, will do. This will be one of the various experiences between darkness and light.

Sonsuz The rulers of darkness have many options and weapons, whereas the warriors of light lack sufficient tools. How will the balance be maintained? Will the light succeed and rule the world? What can we do as individuals? Should we just sit and wait? Cem?

Cem Şen Every thesis needs an antithesis to exist. So, as Burak explained very well, to direct the masses towards a certain direction, you have to give them an enemy. Before realizing they have to fight something

other than the so-called enemy, their actions gain a certain amount of momentum.

In games like chess, you always hide your main target behind some smaller ones. This is one of the best-known tactics, because war is synonymous with deception. This means there is always an apparent attack and a hidden one. The most important thing is to fight the opponent while managing the attack from the back stage.

Putting a large mass into motion is dependent on the force you apply: how and from which direction should you give it momentum? For example, if you want to move a stone weighing 1000 kilos, the point you should push is not at the bottom but at the top. That means even a small force is enough to cause a substantial movement. How you apply that force also matters, of course.

All the eras of the world show ascending and descending trends.

Everything in the cosmos also obeys that basic law. Everything rises and falls, and then rises again. Whatever we are experiencing will come to an end one day. I do not mean that life on Earth will end, because I do not believe in that. However, during that fall, a great many people may cease to exist. This cannot be prevented. Perhaps we can soften the process and ease the pain, but we cannot stop it.

If we manage to prevent this, a worse destruction will follow. But, in every bad situation, you can find the seed of a good one; the opposite is also true. In the darkest periods, the greatest minds are also born.

point in history. The most critical issue can be summarized with these two actions: live and survive. This is not an individual survival, but rather survival among others with the same intentions.

Cem Şen To cut it short (because we can answer this from many perspectives), the most applicable thing is to “determine the real need.” The individual should determine his real needs at every level. For centuries (or more), we have been cheated; we thought we needed things that we really did not. The same is true today. We believe we need things that we really do not, and when we cannot have them, we feel unhappy and fearful. This helps the darkness to prevail. To define our real needs, we need to reach a spiritual peace first. A peaceful person does not like excessive consumption; he does not need to consume to feel his existence. He has calm and well-balanced relations with others. If we start from that point, we can have the most effective action plan for the warrior of light (I know this is a popular term), and we can find a balance between need and consumption.

Sonsuz Thank you all for this marvelous interview. The Wise will cover all these things during 2012, and we will evaluate the developments together in the coming issues.

The darkness is the cocoon where the light is fermented. I believe this is valid for our time, too. We should only build a state of conscious to feed the light. However, this will not be achieved through awakening the kundalini energy or enlightening by breathing exercises during weekend courses. If it could be achieved so simply, it would mean that the people who sacrificed themselves to spiritual studies for 20–30 years must really be untalented. Of course, it is possible that we are untalented. On the other hand, New Age trends and their strange derivatives feed the darkness. The inner transformation is a gradual process. It needs patience. Our inner light should be knitted with patience.

Sonsuz Your analyses are really useful, but we always think about something.

I know where I stand, and I try to do my best on that path. For example, this interview is also a workshop for me. Some of our readers will really yearn for the “light” and think, “What can I do?” after reading this interview, but they do not know what to do. What can you advise?

What should we do for our world and our future?

Burak Eldem I have a few short comments: Everyone will make their own decisions according to their choices, intuitions and “inner voices.” However, we should be aware that we are really witnessing a critical phase in history; after this, nothing will be the same as before. All people should think what kind of a world they desire for themselves and their loved ones. Anyone who is reading this interview is surely a member of the minority and knows what to do, and so does not need anyone to dictate actions. Their intuitions, consciences, minds and desires of a world they hope to see will bind the people together, the ones who are on the same wavelength. This was the case during every critical

The Wise 15

The Wise Feature Öner Döşer

oner.doser@thewisemag.com

The Dawn of the

AQUARIAN Age December 21, 2012 indicates the start of a new era for humanity according to the Mayans. Some religions refer to this era as “the Golden Age.” Yes, this era will be the “Age of Enlightenment.” This new era could in fact be the impending “Age of Aquarius.” So, what is the Age of Aquarius, and when will it begin?

The Earth sways in its orbit due to the gravitational forces of the Sun and Moon, similar to the movement of a gyroscope. Because of this movement, there is a cycle of approximately 26,000 years (25,920 years to be exact). Dividing the cycle’s duration by 12, we establish that each astrological era lasts for 2,160 years. Each sign occupies 30 degrees, and the Age of Aquarius occurs when the vernal equinox shifts from 0 degrees (Pisces) to (30 degrees) Aquarius. This classification depends on Western Astrology’s definition of time periods. Many people believe the Age of Pisces is ending and we are about to enter the Age of Aquarius, while others believe it has already begun.

Ancient civilizations were aware of the precession cycle and helped by the advancement of the Zodiac clock, they saw great changes occur on Earth simultaneously. They divided this cycle into four quarters formed by signs of the Zodiac (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius).

It took 6,500 years to pass through each quarter, and they knew the biggest disasters took place at the summer and winter solstices of this cycle. It is claimed that glaciers melted due to global warming, the waters rose nearly 90 meters, and large parts of North America and Europe were affected by floods during the Age of Leo (10950-8790 BC). Consequently, many people assume that similar events will be experienced during the transition to the Aquarian Age, which will begin sometime in the first quarter of the 2000 millennium.

Some astrological studies point out some dates for this transition: 1962, 1999, 2012, and 2030. Scientists from the French National Geographic 16 The Wise

Institute emphasize this transition will take place in 2010, while other researchers claim we will enter the Age of Aquarius on December 20, 2012. Unfortunately, because we do not know the beginning and end dates of each era, we cannot know the exact beginning date of the Age of Aquarius. Nicholas Campion tells that at least 70 different dates have been proposed, together spanning a period of 1,500 years.

Most of these dates are not derived on astronomical or astrological bases, but instead they are just symbolic dates.

Here’s some examples from the Book of World Horoscopes: 1898: According to Indian chronology, Kali Yuga (The Iron Age) began in 3102 AD. As an era lasts 5,000 years, The Iron Age ended in 1898 AD. 1962: Willaru Huayta, the spiritual leader of Peru, and some people from the ancient Inca federation believe that the Age of Aquarius started in February 1962.

1975: Astrologer Dane Rudhyar points out that the beginning of this

New Age adventure was in 1975.

1997: Being affected by the ideas of Nostradamus, Carl Jung supported the idea that the beginning date for the New Age was between 1997 and 2000.

2000: Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce, St. Malachy, Garabandal, Fatima, and other Christian soothsayers approved the idea of the year 2000 as the beginning. Margaret Hone gives the year 2000 as the symbolic beginning date of the New Age in her book, The Modern Textbook of Astrology.

2012: The researchers Terence and Dennis McKenna give information about primitive shamanism and the usage of psychoactive drugs in their book, The Invisible Landscape. They also claim that our universe was created by the holographic interaction of these two upper universes. The researcher Jose Arguelles discovered the cyclic system of the Mayan Calendar and claimed that 2012 was the end of 396th bactun and global civilization would be replaced by an information age, crystal solar technology and galactic synchronization.

2012: Adrian Duncan prepared the transition chart for the Aquarian Age based on the first Jupiter–Saturn conjunction after 1404 BC. 2025: In his interview with Alice Bailey, Tibetan Djwhal Khul claimed that the Fourth Ray would be seen in 2025, bringing balance for the intellectual and emotional purification of humanity, which will realize itself on an intuitive plane.

2060: Dane Rudhyar says the Age of Pisces began in 100 AD and the Age of Aquarius will begin in 2060, because a world age is equal to 2160 years.

2160: Gordon Strachan, using the birth of Jesus as the start point, claims that 2160 will be the beginning of that era.

For more information, you can refer to The Book of World Horoscopes

by Nicholas Campion. There is no doubt that all these statements are highly valuable because it is hard to determine a specific day for the beginning of the Age of Aquarius. However, many people agree that the beginning of the new era will be in 2012. The researcher John Major Jenkins emphasizes that the alignment of the Sun, Pleiades and Zenith indicates the era shift that was mentioned by the Mayans. This alignment over Chichen Itza began in 2000 and still exists. Jenkins says the Kukulkan pyramid in Chichen Itza is a calendar marking the unique alignment of the precession. Strangely, on the top of the Kukulkan pyramid, which was built for the Mayan gods, there is a shape describing the Sun–Pleiades–Zenith alignment that occurred on May 20, 2000. On May 20, 2012, there will also be a solar eclipse together with this alignment!

Some researchers also emphasize that 2012 is also significant due to the position of Regulus. In 2012, Regulus enters Virgo, which is a significant change because it is a transition from the fire element (Leo) to the earth element (Virgo). Leo covers the best times in summer, as it wants to enjoy the sunny days of summer, to feel the life and to experience the energy coming from the Sun. When the Sun enters Virgo, it is now the time to work and produce. Virgo points out the harvest time; it is the time to gather the cultivated crops. Lea is the sign of the King and represents domination. Virgo is one of the human signs—it represents purification and humility. When Regulus shifts to Virgo, the period of the “Human King” will end.

Regulus is known as heart of Leo and is one of the most important royal stars. Virgo is linked with prosperity goddesses and is known as “the Virgin.” In the symbol of Virgo, a virgin holds a head in her hand. The sphinx in Giza, which symbolizes the Leo constellation, has the body of a lion and the head of a prosperity goddess, a strange combination of Leo and Virgo. This could be an important indicator about the beginning of the Age of Aquarius, because Regulus will move from Leo into Virgo during 2012.

The Age of Knowledge and Wisdom Aquarius is the sign of knowledge, scientific developments, and discoveries. It symbolizes things related to technology and communication.

The Age of Aquarius is the age for revolutions in science and information. In the symbol for this sign, a wise man pours knowledge from his basket over humanity. Information will flow quickly like in the symbol. Today, we are surprised at the speed of technological developments. Each day the capabilities of computers are increasing.

Now computers are used not only for work, but they also have widespread usage in our personal lives. In developed countries, everyone has a computer, with the developing countries catching up.

Internet usage is also increasing.

In genetic engineering, we are faced with developments that were merely dreams a century ago. Cloning and tissue transfer are proven concepts now, such that we also use these phrases in our daily lives.

For example, if we are too busy, we might say, “I need to be cloned!”

If this is what we experienced at the doorstep of the Age of Aquarius, can you imagine what we shall witness in the coming years?

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Aquarius, being the most active air sign, also relates to space technology. It is time to discover other universes! In 2009, as Jupiter was in Aquarius, the characteristics of this sign were emphasized.

We should not be surprised the United Nations declared 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy. NASA also announced the Aries 1, which is the first step in taking man back to the Moon, was to have its first test flight in 2009. Space tourism was only a fantasy before, but now project Orion is planned to go live in 2020. In 2020, we will have also have the Jupiter–Saturn conjunction that many astrologers perceive as the biggest sign of entering into the Space Age.

Archetype of Aquarius The Age of Aquarius will be the time to shift from the individual conscious to the collective and universal conscious. Now, we are proceeding toward the energies that will take us beyond the limits of the ego and help us to get in touch with universal energies that will carry us to Oneness. By entering into Aquarius, humanity will reach an excellent functional level and will reach for supreme aims. To be functional, we have to bring the subconscious functions of Aquarius to the consciousness level.

Aquarius is a bridge between the collective/universal mind and us.

To understand this bridge, we have to know the Aquarius archetype very well.

The Aquarius archetype desires to be part of society; on the other hand, he wants to do this without losing his individual characteristics or freedom. Aquarius is symbolized as a wise messenger, sent to humanity from the skies to bring the people innovative ideas and universal consciousness.

To uplift the consciousness of society, it should first be achieved on an individual basis. On entering the Age of Aquarius, everything will not positively transform in the blink of an eye.

Both the negative and positive developments of this era are linked with the efforts of individuals, and this requires a process. Consequently, I do not think we will enter the era on December 21, 2012, with the whole transformation only taking six days. We need at least 50 years to gain a total understanding of this sign. Some people even claim it will take more than 50 years, which also seems reasonable. Generally, the first 10% of each era is a transition period. If each era is 2160 years long, the transition period takes approximately 216 years.

Having a sound Aquarius perception requires a serious mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical process. Individuals should contribute to this process by uplifting their conscious levels.

Aquarius desires to reach ideal results by cooperating with people who share the same ideals. People who have common ideals should cooperate on a mental and emotional level. An evolved Aquarius emphasizes individuality and isolates himself from society. To prevent this isolation, our minds should integrate love and oneness with each other to cover all the hopes of humanity.

Aquarius can only attain its real potential if humanity aspires to go beyond individuality and reach the universal principles. We should open our minds and hearts to get in touch with humanity and seek common interests. Aquarius values the mind more than the heart, so it has much to learn from its opposite sign, Leo. Leo emphasizes that real sharing is only possible if we open our hearts. Consequently, to realize this era, we should integrate these two main principles within the Aquarius–Leo polarity. The way to open our hearts requires using our minds and making idealistic efforts. This will also save us from the loneliness in our consciousness. If we really want to have a healthy interaction with people, we should get in touch with our hearts. When we place Aquarius as the ascendant, Leo stands in the 7th house, which means we are about to enter a period where close relations with open communication will rule.

The Age of Aquarius and Its Reflections on Our Lives To predict the reflections of the Age of Aquarius on our lives, we need to place Aquarius as the first house of the Zodiac. By referring to the signs in each house and their rulers, we can have a detailed interpretation. In this article, I will give you some determinations about the important positions. Below, you can see how the signs are aligned when Aquarius is the reference.

Taking Aquarius as the reference, Pisces is now placed in the second house, Aries in the third house, and so on. So, the chart is evaluated according to which sign is in which house.

Uranus and Saturn rule Aquarius. Under these conditions, men of the Aquarian Age can evaluate things not only within the period they exist, but they can also evaluate cause and effect relations with the help of the vision of Uranus. They will understand time better and use it better than we do now. Their perception will be so wide as to understand the upper dimensions. Their consciousness will grow, and they will be cosmic entities. They will undertake the responsibilities for their own lives. Everyone will choose his own path, and ideologies and dogmas will be rejected. Their mental abilities will also increase because of being integrated with the divine. Technological developments will also progress rapidly.

18 The Wise

Will we experience any developments in our social and daily lives?

Although Aquarius relates to communication, it is an isolated sign.

We have experienced this at length in the last ten years. The newer generations all use computers. Instead of playing with friends, they play computer games. They do their homework with the help of the Internet. The adults are no different—instead of face-to-face communication, they also prefer online communication.

Some people work in home offices in an isolated way, with meetings being held online. What about the emotions? What about the advantages of being in the same environment and the synergy of seeing eye-to-eye? What about feelings and intuitions? Aquarius is an individual sign as well as a collective one. Shall we have many acquaintances, but few close friends? Perhaps this is an exaggeration.

As Aquarius relates to cooperation and humanism, the Age of Aquarius is somehow an age of brotherhood. However, this is not a physical brotherhood, rather a kind of unification of similar aims. This only exists in the nature of Aquarius, which means we can try to find solutions for global problems and make smart, logical efforts for the sake of the same ideal.

Friendship and brotherhood: These both sound good, but what about family relationships? Aquarius is an independent sign that does not have tight family relationships. It focuses on friends rather than family, so we can assume that the traditional structures will be changing. In the chart of the Aquarian Age, we see Sagittarius in the eleventh house, which rules social groups and organizations.

Sagittarius supports idealism in social relations and is inclined to collective efforts. It also rules international relations.

Within the perspective of the Aquarian Age, we can perceive this as interplanetary or even intergalactic relations.

Leo stands at the house that rules committed relationships in the Aquarian Age chart. These relationships will be warm, honest, and will flow spontaneously. Loyalty will be standing at the forefront. Joy and happiness will dominate relationships.

What about changes in financial values? In the chart of the Aquarian Age, Pisces stands in the second house, which is one of the financial houses, and shows a spiritual and sharing attitude towards financial matters. To dominate materialism, we have to be free of it. The materialist system has already frayed humanity. Now it is the time for sacrifice. The people may become interested in universal themes; they can earn money from the fields where they work altruistically, and they can spend a large portion of their budget for the work of charities.

In the eighth house of the chart of the Aquarian Age, there is Virgo.

This house rules other people’s money, taxes, inheritances, debts, losses and deaths, whereas Virgo tends to organize and plan its actions. This indicates that we will be making good choices in terms of spending and taking credit. We will be more detail oriented, and we will have a sensible approach towards payments such as taxes.

Metaphysics will also be a part of science, because the eighth house also rules this.

Aquarius respects other cultures and traditions because of its tolerant and humanitarian nature. Consequently, some people believe the Age of Aquarius to also be the Golden Age.

Of course, this does not mean that there will be no relations within the family. In the chart of the Aquarian Age, Taurus stands in the fourth house, which rules home and family related subjects.

Maintaining peace within the family will be easier, and life will be more in touch with nature.

We will understand that the world is a living organism, and we will maintain unity with nature.

In this chart, Gemini is in the house that rules the young people, the children and their education, and the way children have fun. That shows the education system will be more rational and informative. Hobbies and other activities will be more inclined to help mental development.

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In the chart of the Aquarian Age, Aries is placed in the third house, which rules knowledge, learning, and education. Knowledge will be flowing freely, not learned from books but instead gained through life. Perception will become faster and knowledge will be used actively. Aries shows we will be more interested in learning about ourselves. To know more, first we should know ourselves better.

“If you know yourself, you know God,” is an appropriate saying.

By knowing ourselves better, we will be able to organize our social relations better.

People will be as free as they were before, and the justice system will work correctly. The nations will unite to maintain peace and justice on Earth, and they will take steps to leave a better world for their children. In the chart of the Aquarian Age, Libra is at the ninth house, which rules justice systems, religions and beliefs. Consequently, all nations will be under the same roof; the concepts—such as tolerance, equality, and justice—will come into value. Love will find its real place at the center of all beliefs. Conscious and conscience will be unified with science; technological developments will be harmonized with traditions and religions. The objective will be to find the right balanced path and contribute to a world full of freedom, love, and harmony.

Knowledge and enlightenment will not be available with the guidance of certain groups, but we will reach it by finding our inner lights. We will learn how to hear our inner voice, and we will find our inner light to guide our own lives. We will communicate directly with the divine energies, and we will understand the divine laws and the plans of the Creator. The people attuned to Aquarian rhythm will constitute the appropriate environment for the new culture and consciousness.

Being dedicated to materialism will lose its importance. Societies will realize the powers that try to exploit others and impose their beliefs.

When Uranian energy affects our energies, it is inevitable there will be conflicts with the authorities and traditions.

In the Age of Pisces, the connections with the spiritual world were at a psychic level rather than a material one. As Pisces is linked with the 12th house of the chart, we can assume these connections were insignificant spiritual and intuitive connections. In the Age of Aquarius, these connections will be more significant and apparent.

The connection between the individual and the cosmos will become stronger. Many things that were perceived as fantasies will be explained in an acceptable way, and all information will be used.

While moving towards the archetype of the 11th house (Aquarius) from that of the 12th house (Pisces), we could say that the esoteric information will be explained to society. We believe astrology, which is one of the inheritances from the ancients, will also prove its value.

Uranus and Saturn rule Aquarius. Uranus objects to injustice, and Saturn determines general rules for everyone. A balanced use of these two energies is the right thing for an ideal society. If society objects to the exploiting powers, they should not necessarily refuse all the rules. When there is no prominent rule within a society, chaos rules. If individuals respect the beliefs, rights, and freedoms of others, then we may reach a social structure with fewer rules but at a higher level of the Aquarius archetype. It is true that our social values have deteriorated. This could also be an indication that a new order will be established within the social arena. Without degeneration, regeneration is impossible. In the tenth house of the Aquarian Age, we have Scorpio, which rules restructuring. This shows that the social hierarchies will be restructured. Scorpio is also related to surgery, medicine, and healing.

In the Age of Pisces, we could not show our individual potentials and creative abilities. Because we did not trust in ourselves enough, the situation and the conditions were out of our control. We obeyed the authority and pressures on us. We did not even question the real value of our possessions. Our brain and our nervous system were getting cosmic signals from Neptune, the ruler of Pisces that accepts religions and beliefs without questioning. By entering the Age of Aquarius, Uranus will then affect our brain and nervous systems.

Humanity will again get control of their lives and learn how to get control of their destinies and determine their own standards. The Age of Aquarius will help us to overcome our lack of confidence, escape our captivity by the authoritative powers, shed our shells, and discover our own nature. Consequently, it will help us to be truly free and transform both individually and collectively. We can only evolve when we make our own choices, experience their results, and learn from those experiences. The Age of Aquarius is the time for both individual freedom and responsibility. As we continue this era, we will learn how to control our lives and how to direct them.

20 The Wise

Cancer stands at the sixth house of the chart, which rules health, services, and working conditions. That means people will have emotional bounds with their work and services; they will give service to the others joyfully. Cancer has strong mothering motives and wants everyone to feel at ease. It also has strong empathy, sensitivity, and devotion. This implies the health of society will gain importance and a caring attitude will be maintained. Natural therapies will become more popular.

There is no doubt that the transition to this new era will not be accomplished in a single day or by a single event. We will learn many things during this process, and our desire to set sail toward new realms will increase. To achieve this, we should learn how to give up everything, how to integrate with the whole, and how to free our minds.

We are at the conjunction point of these two. Ergun Arıkdal, a Turkish Spiritualist, tells us about this era in one of his books: This is a difficult era when the spirits experience challenging situations. They experience high perceptions, and they put them into practice. The spirit builds a bridge between the end and the beginning, which passes through darkness to the light before the minds are opened. This is the time when the Divine Knowledge will be revealed. This is the age of wisdom; this is a preparation. The spirit learns the drama of the world’s humanity. At the end of the all scenes, it can understand its role within this infinite drama.

We can see the same things in psychic medium Edgar Cayce’s readings. According to Cayce, the New Age began in 1998. The Iron Age ended, and the wise men will be the heirs of the earth, but it will not be that easy. On the contrary, we will experience disagreements, misfortunes, and disasters.

Yes, it is true that this transition is a challenging period. This is the time for total purification. The Hopis also call this period the “Great Purification.” On the Prophecy Rock around Arizona Oraibi, there is a petroglyph showing two different directions.

One of the paths shows technology without natural and spiritual laws, and the result is chaos. The other path shows harmony with nature. According to the Hopis, if we follow that path we can again gain spiritual harmony, and if we follow the voice of our hearts, we can experience heaven on earth. However, if we follow the other path, we are faced with destruction. As the children of Mother Nature, we have to stop this turmoil. It is time to make a choice: do we respect the original teachings or do will continue the path we are on, which will lead us to destruction. How things will develop is in our hands, but it is obvious that we are on the verge of great problems.

New times!

Whether we call it the Age of Aquarius, the Crystal Age, or the Golden Age, the people of this new era will not emerge from the darkness of the future; they are already here. They are preparing to reveal their evolved versions. These entities are us!

We are now just passing through the darkest point of history that the ancients emphasized, and we are moving towards the dawn of light. On its elliptical orbit, our solar system is now on its narrowest section. The distal side of this orbit carries us to the point furthest from the Milky Way’s center. Before our celestial orbit takes us near the center of our galaxy, we need to experience the darkest places of this cycle, just like experiencing the night before the light of dawn.

From the Indians to the Mayans, various ancient civilizations described a “dark era” that would be full of wars, sorrows, intemperance, and injustices. We can see similar information in esoterism and in the things that were expressed by the Mayan shamans. According to this information, we are at the end of the Dark Age, which is also known as the Iron Age. Now, it is time for the Golden Age. However, the Iron Age has not ended, and the Golden Age has not started yet.

Whatever the cost we must pay, the good news is that at the end we will reach the truth and realize that everything comes from a single source. There are similar findings in Islamic teachings. After an era of degeneration, we will see the emergence of a new type of human that is good and helpful to society. This new mankind is called “İnsan-ı Kamil” in Sufism. One of the greatest Sufis, Azizuddin Nefesi, defines the “Insan-ı Kamil” as consisting of good morals and knowledge, good words, and good actions. These values do not only depend on moral actions but also on knowledge. What we call knowledge here is not limited to technological and scientific knowledge. Knowledge also means to understand the Creator and his works, to understand the principles of the cosmos, to be conscious of evolution, and to contribute to evolution consciously. This is what nourishes the human soul and fills the emptiness in hearts.

We must realize the divine unity, the universal love and infinite existence of oneness, the divine rules that draw the path of our destiny, the movements of the cosmos and the Heavens, and how they all affect the meaning and purpose of our lives. Astrology is one of the most important teachings that let us realize the divine order.

When spiritual and humanistic values are integrated into our daily lives—such as modesty, altruism and forgiveness—we may easily overcome this severe process and mature. More importantly, we will evolve collectively.

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The Wise Feature

Cem Ĺžen

cem.sen@thewisemag.com

Darkness Neptune will enter Pisces on February 3, 2011, and remains there until March 30, 2011. The critical question: How will it affect our lives and our world?

22 The Wise

We live unhappy lives. People say that modern life drives us crazy. We believe that if we live a more natural life, use healthy products, and do enough exercise, we will organize our social relationships better.

If we can reconnect with ourselves and increase our awareness by endeavoring in a spiritual discipline, accumulate enough money, or illuminate the darkness, we believe we will be happy. So we try all these, and as our experiments and efforts gather pace, the darkness increases its power even faster than before. If we are happily indifferent, a kind of drowsiness, we may even believe we are happy for a short while, but the result does not change: The darkness remains there, just like our underlying unhappiness.

make long-term plans. Still, as time passes, we find ourselves again in the same vicious circle that we repeat constantly.

We seek those we consider more intelligent and wiser than ourselves.

We think they may have a secret we do not know or have somehow forgotten, or that they have the secret to happiness, health, spiritual maturity, or enlightenment. Under the supervision of these people, we swim for a while in a sea of happiness. We believe we are finally getting close to the light we want to reach. We start looking at the world through the windows these people open for us. We organize our lives according to this new picture. We rearrange everything in our lives to fit this new picture: relationships, business and feelings.

But, when we get close enough, if we are able to remove the veil from our eyes and closely study these people, we see they are as unhappy and as much in the darkness as we are.

Thanks to the developments of modern life, we live longer. In fact, during the present epoch, the average human lifespan has increased by 1.5 to 3 years every twenty years. Future developments in science will allow our organs to be replaced with new ones, so if we endure, we may easily reach one hundred years of age. Still, we forget that while everyone wants to live longer, nobody wants to grow old.

There are times when we fall in love. As the new love stimulates our hormonal system to its highest capacity, we start seeing the world with more consistent, moderate, and radiant eyes. We think we have found what was missing in our lives: our soul mate. At last, we feel whole, full and complete. We counsel our friends and give them our opinion about how a relationship should be. We feel lucky and look to the future with a hope we haven’t had for a long time, and then we

We find ourselves stifled by those for whom we made so many sacrifices to be with. Light gives its place over to dim discomfort.

Most of the time, we adopt a new philosophy. We become two separate individuals sharing the same circumstances, whereas our perspectives should have combined and complemented each other.

We talk about the importance of getting to know each other, but our pursuits turn into mine and yours. Eventually, we again wonder who the right person is and begin to look for a new light in the darkness.

Now we have social security, which we lacked in earlier times.

Thanks to this assurance, we know that with the support offered by the state, we can be treated in hospitals until the day we die and survive with our pensions deposited in our bank accounts every month. Although it may not be a luxurious life, we know we can fill our bellies and have a roof over our heads. So why on earth are we worried and unhappy? Why then, in spite of all this improvement, one in four people around the world struggle with serious mental illness?

Why is it that today in the United States of America, considered to be the world’s most modern and most developed country, nearly one-third of the population lives on the verge of suicide? Why do we give antidepressants to children in primary school? Why are common mental illnesses one of the biggest dangers that could destroy the

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but when we read the life stories of the ancient sages, we realize that the underlying darkness was as intense then as it is now. Otherwise, Buddha, who led a comfortable and happy life, would not have left his beloved wife and child in search of light and enlightenment. We think that perhaps we are also meant to go on such a quest, and some of us throw ourselves into the unknown. Although scary, the unknown has a strange appeal. We find ourselves away from the darkness for some time, moving towards light and enlightenment. Then...

In the temple, it is announced that a student has been enlightened. The other students surround the illuminated student and begin asking questions.

“We heard that you have been enlightened,” says a student, “is that right?”

“Yes,” replies the enlightened student.

“So, how does it feel? How do you feel?” another student asks.

“Unhappy, as always,” he responds.

world, more so than nuclear weapons? How is it possible that our minds and physical bodies suffer when modern science has the capability to cure them both? How can it be called “healthy” to drag ourselves out of bed and spend a full day being stressed, just to return to homes where we cannot rest?

Nowadays, an unhappy person lacking energy is considered healthy, because the machinery of so-called modern society regards healthy as being socially functional. Happiness is nothing more than an enigma. Some of us, presuming that modern life is the source of our unhappiness, escape to the bosom of nature. Here we start a healthy diet and begin living in harmony with nature. Although most of the time, living in harmony with nature means living in poverty, we can still be happy for a while. When we need to go to the big city, we are amazed at how people can lead and tolerate such hectic lives.

Still, after some time, the natural life begins to slow something down within us. We recognize that we cannot create change, have become distant, and cannot realize the purpose of our existence. Maybe we are in a tranquil state that we call happiness, but this is not true happiness, merely a state achieved by minimizing all the external factors preventing peace and tranquility. Of course, unexpected events occur from time to time in the course of life. These events cause us to question our situation, and if we are awake enough, we realize that nothing has changed for us. We are as unhappy and in the dark as we ever were.

Sometimes we pursue enlightenment with the belief of finding happiness, but we realize that even the efforts towards enlightenment take us through darkness. We think the wisdom of the past will make us happy. We believe people lived happier lives in the past,

24 The Wise

Some of us search for salvation in economic and political systems. We believe the world will become a better place and light will dominate darkness if we can only have a better political or economic system. A better system where the hungry are fed, everyone finds employment, and everyone works in humane conditions. We examine the political structures and begin to believe that salvation is in a particular political or economic structure, and we begin to support it. Of course, all those who do not think like us are on the dark side, while we stand on the side of light. Nevertheless, as we witnessed in the global economic crisis of 2008, we realize that no matter how powerful we may think the political or economical structures are, they may collapse and lead us into a political and economic unknown and then into the darkness. Do not think that opposing parties are not justified, because they, as much as we, are also looking for the light while swimming in a great darkness.

Solutions for flawed systems are obvious: Take lessons from today to make tomorrow better. However, all the efforts we make to achieve better solutions become tomorrow’s failures to learn from, leaving us alone with a new darkness.

Some of us believe that preserving nature is the key to escaping the darkness. We believe that everyone will be happier and all will be better in the world if we protect the species, consume less, do not destroy forests, and go to work on a bicycle.

Over time, while trying to prevent man-made harm, we realize that a single volcanic eruption, an asteroid, or an explosion from the sun can hurt the world more than all of humanity’s destruction over the centuries, so we understand there is no guarantee of salvation. What’s more, whatever we do, human consumption will continue. We feel like Don Quixote fighting against the windmills. Still, with great will and

conviction, we continue purposefully to rescue nature, even if we are the last persons on Earth. Meanwhile, the darkness continues to increase.

We feel helpless against the reality where people who, while sitting in their comfortable offices and calculating the money they earn, cause many people to die in the grip of cancer. Then we begin to understand these people, who we think oppressed, voluntarily work for companies that poison them using the excuse that they “have no other choice.” When we investigate the truth behind this nonsense, we discover that underneath there is a whole network of causes from economic to human psychology, and we realize that the issue is not only a matter of protecting the environment. But we feel helpless, and if we have a sufficiently comprehensive and wide-angled view, we attempt to search for a new light to get us out of this darkness.

Among those of us who are blind are some who can see. Some of us know that color exists in a world that others think is dark. We try to teach them the colors and help them to see the light. Some of us are crucified, while others are laughed at, and some of us feel we are the ones trapped in a world of real darkness. It is not enough for us to see the light; we would like others to see it too. But all the efforts we undertake to teach them about the colors and light are at best in vain.

More often than not, they do not go any further than a dangerous effort. Then we walk away and find ourselves in the darkness of loneliness. We become as blind as those to whom we were trying to explain the light, and we begin to search for the light again ourselves.

Some of us do the right things, or at least we believe so. We believe that if we keep on the right path, we will find true happiness and light. Still, we realize that life prepares surprises for us and has plans different from ours. When we look closely, we see that constantly trying to make things right does not make the world a brighter place.

We stop trying to illuminate the world and instead concentrate on

enlightening only the space around us. We realize we cannot even enlighten those closest to us, our children that we love dearly. While everybody is trying to find their own truth and living their own experiences, we witness our loved ones struggling in the dark.

So is this fate?

Will we end up in darkness whatever we try to do?

Whether or not we are aware of it, we forget or remember it, or we love or are loved, is there not a way for a flare of light to shine into the darkness?

Eventually, some of us who understand that the important thing is not the answer, start asking the right questions: •

What is darkness?

•

What is light?

•

What helps me to understand them and achieve happiness?

A creative solution begins to appear in the darkness, the first light of creation.

The first light says to me, “You are ignorant!”

Dispelling the illusion of knowledge, I try to understand my ignorance first.

Then, in the darkness, a faint light begins to shine!

(To be continued)

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The Wise Feature Zeynep Sevil G端ven zeynep.sevil@thewisemag.com

Darkness, Adieu

26 The Wise

According to many famous spiritual teachers, our world is nearing the end of an age, which they call the “Dark Age.” They might be right or wrong, but if we look for a way to convince ourselves, we can find substantial evidence in our daily lives.

breaking a promise diminishes the love and respect society has for us. Accordingly, we do not allow ourselves to display our base emotions, such as fear, anger and resentment.

On one side, more people are speaking about love, light, peace, and harmony. More are trying to achieve a deeper selfcognition. More people refrain from violence, lies, gossip, undeserved income increases, deception, betrayal and other illegal or antisocial behaviors.

Over the years, we continue to suppress our emotions, carrying them through death to our next life. There comes a time when these accumulated base emotions are too much for us to hold back. Eventually, they explode and all the suppressed energy disrupts our energy field and compromises the functioning of our minds. This is the point where we can lose our willpower and kill someone.

On the other side, many of the dark prophecies about the end of the world are coming true and seriously afflicting many people. Very powerful earthquakes, floods, tsunamis and other disasters are becoming commonplace, with many people dying in each disaster. Large numbers of historic buildings and other treasures disappear. Both the financial and intangible losses are beyond measure, yet we can do nothing to stop them.

Hence, we suppress these emotions to prove our loyalty.

When someone does this, a part of his soul immediately detaches and joins the victim’s soul and vice versa.

Until last year, I had no idea about this exchange of souls. Here is the story of how I came to learn about it.

According to the spiritual teachers, we should not complain about these losses. They claim this is the world’s way of rebalancing herself and everything happens because it should. Spiritual people also convey that instead of being afraid, we can try to do something to change these difficult conditions: To accept and love ourselves as we are, and then begin seeking new ways of existence.

Foreign Souls in Our Souls

To imagine reaching the end of the Dark Age inspires great hope in our hearts. Most people want to believe that higher forces will resolve the lack of love and light in the world. Is that possible? I believe it is.

If we really intend to take action and reach into the deeper areas of ourselves, we may finally arrive at the darkest part of our existence.

Once we find it, we will be able to send more love and light into ourselves.

I came to learn this fact by chance. A female client came in for a session complaining of serious depression. I was starting to balance her energy field when, all of a sudden, I faced an unfamiliar kind of energy. I was clueless about what it was or how to rebalance her field.

We, the human beings, are on the planet Earth for a game: The game of duality. Therefore, we divided the energy into darkness and light.

This game’s main goal is to experience the effects of feelings and emotions on our body and soul. While doing this, we should identify the emotion and the energy created by this emotion. We should then use it for the necessities of daily life.

In March 2011, I began to realize that we carry many foreign souls in our beings. These can be the souls of those who have killed our ancestors and even ourselves in past lives, as well as those who have been killed by our ancestors or ourselves in past lives.

I surrendered to my higher self and asked for the best solution for her condition. I was told that foreign souls were trapped in her energy field. I remember feeling completely helpless and confused. I began to ask questions, but, of course, I did not listen to the answers. The discussion went something like, “Foreign souls? What is this? A joke?

This isn’t funny. Blah, blah, blah…”

To make it more challenging, we also made the game more difficult by introducing social norms. For example, we created the concept of loyalty. Loyalty can be directed towards many things: Towards our parents, our partners, and our country or leader.

Fortunately, my higher self was patient with me and waited until I was relaxed and ready to listen. Then she said, “Let me guide you on this long path. From now on, you will be encountering many more people with similar complaints, and you will help each and every one of them. I will teach you along the way. It is a little complicated but do not worry; you will get all the information you need, according to your capacity and time. Each client will enable me to teach you more about this new technique.”

First, we make a promise to be loyal, and then we feel obligated to keep this promise, no matter what. We have been taught that

I surrendered one more time and continued the session, as my higher self instructed me.

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The client began to shout and cry, while also feeling pain all over her body. We both were afraid, but I continued to follow my higher self’s instructions to complete the release of the souls procedure.

After half an hour, she was calm again and the corners of her mouth moved upward. She smiled and kept this smile for a while before saying, “For the last ten years, I could never use the muscles of my mouth like that. Whenever I wanted to smile, I felt like something was pushing down the corners of my mouth. That feeling of being pushed down is gone; I don’t feel it anymore.”

Since that first experience, many more people came to visit me with the simple intention of having their energy fields rebalanced.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I found foreign souls in many of them. I helped them release these souls from their beings. I witnessed their relaxation and watched them experience a new sense of deep freedom. In spite of all these experiences, the perfect results, and the surprising feedback from clients, I was still in doubt. I even recall a suspicious thought that occupied my mind for some days, wondering, “Do I have schizophrenia?”

Master Sha’s Therapy In November 2011, Dr. Zhi Gang Sha, a Chinese healing master famous for his healing miracles, was in Frankfurt. He gave some lectures and led many healing sessions for sick people from all over the world.

I have a friend who suffers from arthritis. Over the last four years, she tried many conventional and unconventional healing methods.

Other healers and I tried a number of healing and energy balancing techniques for her. She also took part in many Family Constellations, even having Bert Hellinger himself set up a constellation for her. I can definitely claim that we achieved a level of healing beyond that of a medical doctor, but she still was not in perfect health.

So, when she heard about Master Sha’s visit, she flew to Frankfurt.

She attended his class for three days. She received an energy checkup from his assistants and a healing session directly from Dr. Sha himself.

Dr. Sha told her that her body (including the mind and soul) was under attack from dark souls. He explained how dark souls had been trapped in her for some time. They belonged to her past lives, but because my friend and the dark souls did not satisfy their karma by completing the forgiveness procedure, they could not go to the light. He claimed that she was living with no less than 144,000 dark souls. To resolve this, he used a procedure that would set her free by sending the dark souls to the light. He said that he had received this knowledge directly from the Divine.

My friend returned to Turkey and told me all about her experience.

I thought, “Thank God, I’m not schizophrenic after all.” From that moment on, I became confident and asked my higher self to teach me more. My higher self told me: The higher forces will end the Dark Age very soon. However, you human beings have to first release all the trapped souls. Some souls have become completely trapped in the energy fields of people. A person, depending on his past lives’ experiences, could be living with more than 2 billion trapped souls.

You will encounter large differences in the number of trapped souls and other conditions. Sometimes, you’ll find people carrying just a part of a soul, but the procedure to release it will be the same.

Until now, these souls were not actually trapped; they simply chose to stay in the fields of other people in order to satisfy their revenge motives. Now they want to reach the holy place, The Light.

Lessons Illnesses

Taken

From

Every being has inside some information about sickness, especially the spiritually gifted ones who know how to reach and use it. For them, sickness is something that goes directly to the inner awareness.

28 The Wise

After an illness, spiritual people ask the question, “What is this sickness trying to show me?”

At this point, there a danger that the released soul is in The Light and will not come back to fill the space.

As it is the right time, all the trapped souls want to be free and go to The Light, yet they cannot escape the energy fields of their hosts. Therefore, they sometimes make people sick.

This behavior (of making people sick) creates opportunities for both sides. For those carrying the foreign souls, this is an opportunity to recognize the condition. For the trapped souls, this can be a perfect chance to escape and move to The Light.

Helping them find the way to The Light will accelerate the ascension process for all of humanity. My higher self says that in our universe, there is a single brilliant place where all souls gather, and its universal name is “The Light.” This is why I treat it as a proper noun.

I was surprised, happy and honored to be given this knowledge. I promised to do my best and asked for more guidance. After a couple of days, I was completing the process as if I had been doing it my whole life. There was no more shouting, crying or pain, just simple relief.

A week later, I faced a new and different situation. Some of the clients called me the day after completing their procedures. They said they were experiencing a deep feeling they could not identify. They were referring to a kind of loneliness, deficiency or uncertainty. They described a feeling of not being whole, but none of them was able to give me a concrete description to help me understand it.

Eventually, I once more surrendered to my higher self and asked for deeper guidance. My higher self told me: Now you will deal with the second part: the exchange. If part of someone remains in another being, the reverse may also be true. You have to check for this, and if it is the case, you need to call all the missing parts back and reunify them with the whole being. After completing this procedure, you need to ask if the person has other parts left in other beings, universes or time zones. If so, you need to repeat the process for all parts of the person.

Law of the Vacuum There are many Universal Laws, and one of them is called Law of the Vacuum. This law says, “Nature abhors a vacuum.” When a space is cleared, it will be refilled with the same energy unless it is programmed differently. Clear a space, wait for a while and you will notice that the same energy will return. Therefore, you have to fill the space with something appropriate to the person’s conscious preferences; this may be love, light, health, abundance, peace, and even combinations of these and others.

According to the Law of the Vacuum, this part of the field cannot remain empty, so it will be filled by something else.

You can never know what kind of energy or being will be drawn there. Therefore, you have to call on the person’s other parts to fill the hole, or the person may be seized by particularly dark souls.

Upon giving me this information, my higher self also taught me the procedure.

Nowadays, I’ve noticed that in the Theta Healing Process, you can find a similar method to send trapped soul fragments to The Light. I am thoroughly convinced that we human beings can find many more ways to liberate ourselves from trapped souls while helping them to reach The Light.

To Say Farewell…

In order to say “adieu” to the Dark Age, we have to locate and release all the trapped souls. Only after releasing each trapped soul will we witness a “farewell to the dark age.”

My understanding is that many healers work in their own ways to facilitate our ascension from the Dark Age to a lighter one. I wrote this article to inform you about a new possibility to accelerate and smooth the ascension procedure.

Finding a facilitator may ease your farewell. Resisting or refusing to utilize this opportunity may hold you back from reaching your true potential of a brilliant future. Please, work with a facilitator and help us achieve a rapid and smooth ascension.

I wish I could give you some more tips, such as a way to do it yourself.

Unfortunately, my higher self claims that until I am a real master in this new procedure, I am not allowed to teach it. It may be possible in future, but I do not know when.

Therefore, if you want my opinion, before taking any action you could pray to God for the trapped souls to be released. The second option is to surrender to your higher self and ask for the appropriate help.

Another option would be to visit Master Sha, who I am sure would be pleased and honored to help you. In addition, you could always seek a Theta Healing Practitioner in your area. If you wish, you are also always welcome to contact me.

May love and light be with you!

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The Wise Feature

Zeynep Oğuz zeynep.oguz@thewisemag.com

Goddess we worship now? Maybe that evil child has grown up, and he’s deceiving us in the form of his mother?”

Devil’s Wine 30 The Wise

with evil.” Have you ever questioned why the stereotypical witch is always evil, and above all, always a woman?

The Woman Hunt The association of women with evil dates back to Europe in the Middle Ages and the Patriarchal Christian society. The hate and fear of feminine power and everything it symbolized grew so much that witch hunts raged throughout Europe from the 16th to the 18th century, reaching New England in the 17th century with terrible consequences.

Tens of thousands of women were accused of witchcraft, tortured and executed cruelly by the government and church. According to the church, witches were servants of Satan who had sold their souls to gain power. It would not be incorrect to rename the witch hunt as the “Woman Hunt,” because over 80% of the accused witches were women.

Most of them were widows or women living outside the traditional family setting. They usually owned a small business or a small piece of land and worked as healers, just enough to enable them to live outside male control. Furthermore, the witch craze also had some connections with the old religion of the Goddess, the followers of which the church denounced as “Pagans.” What was the aim of this shameful mass hysteria, and who was to blame? If examined carefully, the answers can be easily found. The witch hunts and trials—which resulted in executions in both central Europe and Salem, New England—were a way to silence the female power that had begun to threaten the patriarch’s role in society.

The Religion of the Goddess

What evil spirit have you familiarity with?

None.

Have you made no contract with the devil?

No. Why do you hurt these children?

I do not hurt them. I scorn it.

Who do you imploy then to do it?

I imploy no body.

What creature do you imploy then?

No creature. I am falsely accused.

(The Salem Witchcraft Papers, Book II, page 355) This dialogue is based on the examination of Sarah Good by Judges Hathorne and Corwin. Sarah Good was living in Salem when the accusations began. She was one of the first women to be tried, convicted, and executed for the “crime” of witchcraft. Close your eyes, and picture the word “witch” for a minute. What image comes to your mind? More than likely, it will be a dark robed, crooked old crone with a Roman nose, probably a fair few moles and warts, and a black pointed hat. Wilson Lori Lee emphasizes the fact that in famous stories or folk tales, such as Hansel and Gretel by the German writers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the witch is a wicked old woman who tricks children and lures them inside. Lee adds, “In the story of Rapunzel, also by the brothers Grimm, there is a witch of great might, of whom the whole world was afraid. She kept the beautiful, young Rapunzel in a tower without stairs or a door. In all these fairy tales, good wins out over evil, but all witches have supernatural powers and are associated

Before Christianity, the religion of the Goddess was commonly accepted. The creator was not male, but female, indicating the matriarchal structure of society. Recent archeological evidence indicates that goddess worshipping existed in all areas of the world at the same time, beginning in the Neolithic period from 7,000 BCE. In those times, society was organized like a beehive. Men would carry out physical labor, father children, and protect the society, but they didn’t have the right to vote or make major decisions. A Goddess figure was worshipped, and high priestesses acted as the avatar of the Goddess.

Eventually, men discovered fear, and they asked each other, “What if women are wrong?” and, “What if the way women rule the world is wrong?” At first, they didn’t have any supporters, because women were in direct contact with the Goddess and created in her form.

“Wasn’t the Goddess fair?” The matriarchal doctrine was so powerful that men had to create “The Devil” out of necessity. The power of the Goddess had to be restricted. The society knew what “Bad Seed” meant. From their old experiences, they also knew that some boys were harder to control. Thus, the myth was created. According to the myth, one day the Goddess, the great Mother, gave birth to a boy. He was evil, and the Goddess could never make the boy good. Creating an “evil male child” myth was not that hard. Males were the weaker gender after all, right? Eventually, the child battled with his mother to dethrone her. That was too much even for his fair and forgiving mother, so she cursed him forever. However, the nasty boy/devil could masquerade as anything he wanted. He could even sometimes take the appearance of the Great Mother. That myth made men ask the question, “How can we be sure of the Goddess we worship now?

Maybe that evil child has grown up, and he’s deceiving us in the form of his mother?”

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Now It’s Time for the God

Do you not know that you are each an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age: the guilt must of necessity live too.

You are the Devil’s gateway. You are the unsealer of the forbidden tree. You are the first deserter of the divine law. You are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack.

You destroyed so easily God’s image, man. On account of your desert even the Son of God had to die.

Men began to questions things more and the creation process continued. If the devil was male, only a male equal to him in muscular power could protect the Great Mother from her son.

Slowly, societies changed the role of the male in spiritual mythologies. From then on, a male partner took a part next to the Goddess, someone equal to her. For some time, Goddesses and Gods ruled the mythologies together. Gradually, the role of the God grew. The need for protection and power replaced the need for wisdom and love, and a new kind of love was born: a love protected by brute strength, that owned what it loved, and that felt jealousy.

Then, men not only served their females but also fought and died for them. Gods with magnificent powers who fought for Goddesses of magnificent beauty began to appear in mythologies, and so a jealous God was born.

However, the Gods were not just jealous of their Goddesses’ other desires. People had to love that God and worship him, or else! The vengeful God was born.

Congratulations! The image of the Great Power changed, and now it wasn’t a source of pure love, but pure fear instead. The love model of the Great Power was feminine; it was the Goddess. The love of a mother for her child was limitless and forgiving, but the Great Power was now a demanding, jealous, vengeful, stern, and dictatorial God. The Goddess, with her boundless love had smoothly carried out nature’s laws, whereas the sulky God exerted power to control nature’s laws and even stipulated and limited its eternal love. This information is necessary to understand the seamless transition from a Matriarchal to a Patriarchal society.

And Then…

When Christianity spread through Europe, many accepted it, but some still held on to their old beliefs. The Church labeled anything Pagan (i.e., of the old religion) as “evil” or “satanic” and banned the old traditions and rituals. As sexuality became taboo and evil, the old religion, which was sex-positive, was associated with the Devil by the church. Plague, famine and poverty was rising in Europe, and a scapegoat had to be found. Who was weaker? The Devil had tempted Eve, so she would eat the forbidden fruit and convince her husband Adam to do the same. And so womankind was related to the Devil and the root of all evil.

The statements of some respected religious men of the time show the opinion of women in Christianity and Medieval Europe:

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St. Tertullian (~155–225 CE) made these statements to describe the female gender. These quotes belong to St. Thomas (1225–1274 CE): As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active force in the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of woman comes from a defect in the active force or from some material indisposition, or even from some external influence.

Aquinas also called women “mas occasionatus,” meaning “a failed man.” St. Jerome, who was the first to translate the Greek Bible into Latin, stated that, “Woman is the gate of the devil, the way of evil, the sting of the scorpion; in a word, a dangerous thing.” Finally, Martin Luther is the owner of these words: No marital duty takes place without sin.

Wives are to be beaten.

If they [women] become tired or even die in child-birth that is why they are there.”

Luther also introduced the phrase, “A woman’s place is in the home.”

These statements clearly show how the patriarchal society perceived femininity. The female gender was weaker, lesser, vulnerable, and inherently evil.

The Champagne Fear has always been the main cause of anger and hatred, and people are afraid of what they do not understand. In his book, The World History of Psychiatry, John G. Howells states, “When champagne was developed in the 17th century, it was called the “Devil’s Wine” because no one knew how the bubbles came to be, so they were assumed to be the work of the Devil.” Champagne was witchcraft in Medieval Europe; champagne was women. Before the Inquisition, many women

Sprenger of Germany and the less well-known Tratado de las Supersticiones y Hechicherias (1529) by Spain’s Fray Martin de Castanega. Each of these works explained and justified the Church’s view that most witches were women.” In A History of Witchcraft, Sorcerers, Heretics and Pagans, Jeffery Russell quotes an excerpt from Malleus Maleficarum:

held important jobs within their societies. In Witchcraze by Anne Llewellyn Barstow, Barstow clarifies that a large number of women were not doctors (women weren’t allowed a medical education at all), but were healers such as midwifes, surgeons, physicians, barbers and apothecaries. However, some of those women also played spiritual roles in their work, continuing the old Goddess traditions, rituals and ceremonies. Those women’s so-called magical powers invoked fear in the authorities, in both men and other women, so they concluded, “she who can cure can kill.”

At this stage, priests and trained doctors noticed they were in direct competition with the female healers for business: Male dominance was under threat. The need to end this competition, along with the fear of magic, led to the exclusion of females from the realm of practiced knowledge. Suddenly, those who were once healers that owned a little land and held some power became witches capable only of evil. Natural disasters were often ascribed to witchcraft. Since women had always been associated with nature, their increasing link with “evil” could now explain events in nature that were previously a mystery, such as hailstorms, tempests, famine, and even plagues.

The universal desire of men for women to be silent, submissive and obedient was now being sent out loud and clear. Male fury began to develop, focusing on women who tried to use what were considered to be masculine tools. Scapegoats were found.

Witchcraft One of the most significant facts that needs to be made clear is that most of the confessions were made under torture, so their reliability is extremely questionable. In The Devil in the Shape of a Woman

by Carol Karlsen, Karlsen explains the importance of some famous handbooks used in witch hunts by the authorities: “Two works stand out for stating the wisdom of the older European tradition on why women were more prone than men to witchcraft. These are the influential Malleus Maleficarum (1486) by Heinrich Institoris and Jakob

What else is woman but a foe to friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic danger, a delectable detriment, an evil of nature, painted in fair colors...

The word human is used to mean the lust of flesh, as it said: I have found woman bitterer than death, and a good woman more subject than carnal lust....

[Women] are more credulous; and since the chief aim of the devil is to corrupt faith, therefore he rather attacks them [than men]... Women are naturally impressionable...

They have slippery tongues, and are unable to conceal from their fellow women those things which by evil arts they know... Women are intellectually like children... She is more carnal than a man, as is clear from her many carnal abominations... She is an imperfect animal, she always deceives... Therefore a wicked woman is by her nature quicker to waver in her faith, and consequently quicker to abjure the faith, which is the root of witchcraft... Just as through the first defect in their intelligence they are more prone to abjure their faith; so through their second defect of inordinate affections and passions they search for, brood over, and inflict various vengeances, either by witchcraft, or by some other means... Women also have weak memories; and it is a natural vice in them not to be disciplined, but to follow their impulses without any sense of what is due... She is a liar by nature... Let us also consider her gait, posture, and habit, in which is vanity of vanities.

As is clearly evident from the writings in Malleus Maleficarum, according to the respected authorities of the time, women were physically and spiritually weaker than men, so they needed Satan to satisfy them. Because of their weakness, they were more open to evil. Moreover, they even had evil in them: “In sum, women became witches because they were born female, not male...”

The Puritans After a short period of calm in the 17th century, witchcraft rose again in New England, Salem. The Puritans were a religious group in England. They encouraged the Reformation because they wanted to “purify” the church, hence their name. When the king took a more moderate view, the Puritans were dissatisfied and formed their own church.

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They also thought that wealth was very important, as it was a blessing from God. In the 17th century, they moved to the New World seeking religious freedom. By 1640, the Massachusetts Bay Colony had around 10,000 Puritan settlers. They experienced crop failure, hunger, cold, war and attacks from both wild animals and hostile Native Americans, whose land the colonists had taken. They built churches, which doubled as the seat of Puritan government. At church, men would vote, elect officials, debate laws, and so on. The Bible was not only a religious text, but also a legal guide. They believed they were God’s select, chosen people, who would dwell with him in heaven.

However, they also believed God would withdraw his help if people continued to deal falsely with him and with each other. They wanted to purify themselves and their communities. Their opinions of women were also effective in their approach to purification and witchcraft.

Puritan religious ideals tended to categorize women into three groups: the young, virtuous, obedient, daughter of a maidservant; the submissive and supportive wife; and the discontented, greedy witch.

Women who fell into the third category tended to come under the close scrutiny of neighbors, who sometimes labeled them as “witches.”

Puritan ministers equated women who wanted wealth, power, and knowledge to Eve, the first woman God created. Eve gave into the temptation of the Devil—who had taken the form of a serpent— and ate the forbidden fruit. She then convinced her husband, Adam, to do the same. Both the afflicted and the accused, most of whom were women, were at the mercy of male judges, sheriffs, advising ministers, and jury members. According to Elizabeth Reis, “The body, for the most part, also entangled women. Puritans believed that Satan attacked the soul by assaulting the body. Because, in their view, women’s bodies were weaker, the devil could reach women’s souls more easily and breach these ‘weaker vessels’ with greater frequency.”

And For Now… Nowadays, Neopaganism is widespread and Wicca, a continuation of the old feminine Goddess- based religion, in particular is expanding rapidly. Neopagans are estimated to number about 200,000 to 1,000,000 in North America. Though many North Americans continue to view it as a form of Satanism, Silver Ravenwolf summarizes the term Wicca in Teen Witch: “Witchcraft is a nature-based life-affirming religion that follows a moral code and seeks to build harmony among people, empowering the self and others.”

The majority of Wiccans are women, and most of them worship the Goddess or the God and Goddess together.

Followers of the Wiccan principle are often women who used to live under the pressure of the patriarchal society and the patriarchal religion they once belonged to.

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Amy Wall, whose mother is interested in witchcraft, clearly explains the personal reasons of a woman deciding to be a Wiccan: …As my mother studied feminist thought, and began to learn exactly how powerless and limited women are in society, she became frustrated and turned to studying something that gave her a sense of power. Instead of picking up a picket sign and marching on Washington and outwardly fighting a repressive society, my mother turned inward to a spiritual power that has always been associated with women. In a world where women constantly feel vulnerable, threatened, and powerless, witchcraft is a secret, foreboding power that is untouchable in a society that, if it cannot uphold racial and gender equality, will at least uphold the right to free speech.

Nowadays, a disliked or extraordinary woman is still called a “witch.”

It would certainly be correct to class the witch craze as genocide of the female gender made in the name of God. Power has always been the hidden ruler, and the patriarchal society blamed women, a gender that was both weak and threatening, so they could remain powerful.

The representatives of a male-dominated society and religion blamed womankind, a weak and wicked gender, for everything they couldn’t explain, for everything the “evil son” or Satan could cause, such as disasters, illnesses, poverty, and so on.

Though the evil and ugly image that comes to most people’s mind when they visualize a “witch” is starting to be positively changed with the help of the appearance of “good witches” in some novels and TV shows—such as Hermione in Harry Potter and Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer—nothing can rewrite the past. Walter Stephens, a professor of Italian studies at Johns Hopkins University, proposes a new theory: “I think witches were a scapegoat for God.” Actually, replacing the word “witches” with “women” in that would not be a mistake, but a simple truth.

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The Wise Soul

Melike Belkıs Doğar melike.belkis@thewisemag.com

Is it Really You Who Has the Fear?

“Who else can it be?” I hear you say.

I suggest you consider again: What is the source of your fears?

If we could return to the moment of our birth, maybe we could understand what it means to be truly fearless.

But yes, you are right; we cannot go back to that day! Instead, we can look at newborn babies and very young children. The only fear they have is for survival—such as being detached from their mothers, who are their protectors and feeders, or being in danger for their lives.

Even then, if we could ask them, they may not call this “fear”!

A while ago, I was reading a section in a book by my friend Cem Şen named The Breathing Book, which was about the human brain. This is my favorite subject, and it immediately engaged me. He was briefly talking about the three different divisions that form our brains.

First, the reptilian brain is the primitive brain and is primarily concerned with keeping the body alive, although it also forms habits.

Second, the mammalian brain controls and manages our senses and feelings. Finally, above these two, there is the cerebral cortex and its most crucial segment: the neo-cortex! This third part is what makes us all human with its ability to think abstractly or logically, plan, and strategize.

Even with just this quick summary, the picture is crystal clear.

Survival functions come from our reptilian brain, such as anger, fear, and sexual desire, as well as the basic habits of survival needed for continuity. Feelings come from the mammalian brain, such as love, generosity, protectiveness and of course our social nature. On top of this, we have the well-known part of the brain with its curly outlook, the cerebral cortex.

This is the “thinking” part of us and the part that gives us our personality and very consciousness.

Actually, I direct my question to the brain: “Is it really you who has the fear?”

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Fear inside the Brain If control passes to the reptilian brain or to the mammalian brain, the final decision will be made to satisfy their needs.

The reptilian brain will say, “You need to stay alive” and will try to keep the status quo. You might guess that in any conflict the reptilian brain will usually be the winner. However, when the mammalian brain takes control, it incorporates feelings into the decision, which I’m not sure is better or worse.

Both of these brains do their duties perfectly. However, when it is time to take a decision to proceed, they may sabotage the situation with all their good intentions! In particular, maintaining the status quo is the worst enemy of development and innovation.

of nonexistence, into matter out of nothingness, transforming, changing and growing…

But we celebrate every birth with joy. When our hidden teeth cut out or our bones extend and we grow in height, we become happy. We are charmed when we discover sexuality.

So, what about aging, losing, and decaying into nothingness again? Why are we are so afraid of these? Is it merely the idea of losing something we once had?

Why is having something so important?

Why do we always want to define our personalities by the things we have? This makes it so easy to make you lose yourself, your personality, just by stripping you of your possessions.

I know we cannot deny that they also have many positive contributions. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be so enjoyable discovering life repeatedly every day. Our built-in habits help us easily deal with our everyday routines. Usually we do not need to remember our bodily functions; they happen automatically. It would be strange to say to our lungs, “C’mon, you need to breathe now!” as we need to breathe 15 times every minute. This would also be very laborious! Likewise, it would be strange to control the liver with, “It’s eleven o’clock; you have to work now.”

Humans have had amnesia from the time of creation. It means we have forgotten where we came from, who we are, and where we are going to. Comings are not frightening, but goings always bring fear.

“Each ending is a new beginning.” We hear this saying and a cunning smile appears on our lips. Today we see it in a movie: A colorful life starting in old age and ending in childhood. Ah, this is just one of all those fantastic Hollywood stories…

It’s so good that our primal needs are met so easily. However, Life is multi-faceted, and when you need to meet needs too, things start to have a different face. Let’s say that you are in a habitual occupation or in a habitual relationship, but these attachments are not satisfying you in certain aspects. You desire a change, but when this desire arises, the reptilian and mammalian brains protest in panic. Yes, be prepared to face anxiety and fear!

I’m not telling you, “Do not fear!” Actually, I’m saying “Do fear,” and fear to survive. If there is a situation that genuinely threatens your life, don’t hesitate in fighting back or running away.

Where do these diligent brains find the source for it all? To find the answer to this question, you do not need to look far; just look inside, into yourself! All the information stored in you, gathered from the moment of your birth, will be the source of these emotions.

Be Aware of Your Fear

However, also remember to ask yourself every time you feel fear, “Is it really me who has this fear?” If your fear is not for survival, or if it sounds similar to the stories you were told, I say, “This fear is not yours!”

Over the centuries, different fears were created and invented to control humans and sentence society to live in a culture of fear.

People fear ignorance and these days even fear too much knowledge.

For a child, there is darkness and bogeymen. In fairy tales, there are giants and dwarfs, as well as witches always doing bad things. There is losing and there is winning. There are awards and punishments.

Even love can become part of a penalty, becoming a subject of fear.

Are you aware? Please, be so.

Even if we try to disguise it, there is death. How can we expect parents to talk about death as a matter of course when they fear it themselves.

Do you remember that familiar curly brain, the “thinking” brain from earlier? Yes, that is the source of all the solutions. All you need to do is to calm down the reptilian brain and think.

To Fear From Life

Now be aware or not, but our most fundamental duty is to have control over our thoughts and have will power.

Still, just think once again in this frame of mind. Being born should be the most frightening experience in life, coming into existence out

Every poison has an antidote. The antidote for your fears is in yourself; it is in your thinking and belief system, and you just need to evoke it.

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The Wise Soul

Burcu Cedetaş

The Sweet Killer Mint Living in the Mint Culture Nowadays, when I look around, I see killer mints and potential victims turning to these mints. Yes, we are creating more and more mintlike relationships, which occur because of our needs, rather than unconditional love.

It’s understandable. Since many people think, “Great! Ego Time,” we band together, either to display our own egos or let others display theirs.

It is no wonder that for centuries, almost every organization, religious and governmental, showed their great ego and wanted to control everything. And the people loved it, even when it was them that were obviously being controlled.

I call it Mint Culture. We act like mint, we concur like mint, and we transform others and even ourselves like mint.

Sweet, Refreshing Killer Mint Let me tell you something about mint, the sweet and refreshing but also deadly mint.

Mint has a pleasant smell and a refreshing taste. This healing herb has occupied a special place in food and beverages in many different cultures.

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If you have ever grown mint, you will know you need to set limits for it. Otherwise, it will take over the entire garden and not allow other plants to live. Therefore, gardeners grow mint in plastic pots, seeking to limit its expansion. This way, the roots cannot spread out.

In a sense, the mint is imprisoned. This is unfortunately necessary, because mint does not have any respect for other plants.

Unlike poisonous herbs, the objective of mint is not destruction.

The damage it causes is a natural result of its own struggle for life.

Mint’s genetic code tells it to be everywhere, to take control of every possible place, to be strong, and to survive. Somehow, mint has evolved the wrong idea about power and self-confidence. The mint is no longer aware of its own power; it tries to take more and more space, believing it necessary for survival. Whatever mint has done, or is doing, is because of its nature.

First, it will occupy any empty space before slowly forcing all other plants aside. It expands until there is nothing left other than mint in your garden. The garden has now become just a field full of mint. If you were to remove the mint, there would be nothing left.

Are there any Mint Men or Mint Women in your life?

Are you one of them? How can we explain someone who acts like a mint plant?

Their intentions are good at first. All they want is to help and share.

They are filling only empty space but at a very fast rate.

Next, they will search and fill other possible spaces in your life, gaining confidence and identity in your life. You, personally, find comfort, laziness, and unconditional support-like addictiveness by letting them.

If you are happily letting someone control your life without worrying about your responsibilities, you are a Mint Creator. You are helping that person transform into a mint person.

No one can become a Sweet Killer Mint if nobody empowers them, but you should also remember that doing nothing may also contribute.

You cannot simply forgive yourself by saying, “but I did nothing.”

Action or no action, our existence means something. If you have a Mint person in your life, you should ask yourself how you helped the situation. How many times were you happy they took responsibilities from you? How pleased were you to let them do your work, because it was easier for you?

They feed their egos by gaining an identity presence in your life, while you feed your own ego by creating a personal helper, servant, and puppet.

There is nothing left in your garden/life without your Mint person. All the other things that once filled the same space are long gone. They did this, and you let it happen. You changed your life, just because it was comfortable, easy, and pleasurable to be wrapped by someone.

You asked them to change their lives according to you, so in a way, you are also a Mint person.

Congratulations! You created an addictive, needy relationship for both sides. You will never be alone, because neither of you can survive without the other. You are now virtually Siamese twins.

There was a way out from this situation. At the beginning, you could have tried to share responsibilities, not letting anyone become a puppet or servant. You could have tried to exist and share unconditional love without letting go of your personality and invited your loved one to do the same. You could have created a healthy, nutritious relationship instead of a consuming and destructive one.

Born to be a Mint Person Some people are born to be Mint Persons. They are cunning and become more powerful each time they find someone who will accept their behavior. They are very good at communicating and can convince you of anything. They are masters of words who will not stop until you think the way they want you to.

Some of them are aggressive and will use force, while others are passive aggressive, getting what they want with sweet words, teardrops, or moral arguments that convince you. The first thing you should know is that there is never a middle way: It is always their way.

They will easily become angry or upset if you refuse them. They will always find a good reason why they are right and you are wrong. They may use reasoning like, “Because I love you” or, “Because I care a lot about you” or, “Why don’t you let me help you; why are you so closed to me.” Other approaches might be, “You are this or that” or, “You make me angry; it’s your fault.” They may be aggressive or passive aggressive, but they always want you to do what they ask of you.

It is very difficult to have healthy relationships with them, since they are masters of manipulation and justification. They will use your soft spots, turning your confusions against you.

When there is nothing but them left in your life, they will start to complain about the situation, citing how useless you are and how much they do for you.

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At this stage, the controller is the centre of power, since life is shaped according to his or her wishes.

The real mint controller is happy to find a servant, but in time the servant is doing everything possible and the controller is just a consumer. Like a lazy consumer, the controller is no longer the one in power. Instead, the servant is transformed into a mint person.

The power shifted between them. The servant gave many years and considerable effort to make the controller addicted to them. Now, the servant becomes mint and covers everything. The controller of yesterday is the consumer of today.

Like any consumer, he or she has only limited power and is so addicted to the service that leaving is impossible.

They will blame you for almost everything.

If you meet a natural-born Mint person, I can only advise this: Run away before it is too late.

When you have changed everything for them, you cease to exist.

Your individuality has gone, leaving you a puppet and an object of manipulation.

Congratulations! You have succeeded in killing yourself while your body is still alive and breathing.

They will insist you cannot continue your life without them. What’s more, since there is no more space to invade in your garden/life, they may also lose their excitement for you. They may leave you behind or keep you as a servant while hunting for more outside.

If you have a natural-born mint person in your life, you find it very difficult to survive without them. When they leave the space they previously filled, there is nothing but emptiness. Your existence depends on their existence, and you start to do everything possible to ensure their existence depends on yours.

Mint people are aware of their power and their ability to destroy other forms of life. They never ask what the other plants want. They do not want the other plants to survive without them. When they finish invading a garden, the garden becomes nothing but mint. This is what will happen to you as well. Yesterday’s servant will surely become tomorrow’s controller.

Your natural-born mint person has, or will, transform you into a mint person. The natural-born mint person was in control from the start.

However, like in any addictive relationship, it is very difficult to say who controls whom anymore.

At first, the controller was the person who wanted a servant to do everything for him or her. The controller enjoys acting as a mint by pushing the other to live and do everything in accordance with his or her wishes.

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First, controllers kill the individuals and make them servants of their wishes. As they become addicted to their new servants, they lose their freedom. The servants transform into new mint and gain the power. This new mint then slowly starts to decide for the consumers, such as what to eat, when to eat, what to wear, etc.

Look around you. How many couples have transformed this way. The powerful ones, the controllers, made the other ones addicted to them, but in time, they became addicted to the servants, who then became the masters.

There are many ways of committing a murder. To be mint-like is one of them. You can kill someone, yourself, or life in general using the mint method.

You can find it so comfortable at the beginning, because having an addictive bond with someone is what our egos like. Our egos are happy when people need us, because they are addicted to us and cannot survive without us. Even the servant is happy when there is a controller who needs the servant.

We are living in a time of mint, when people do not come together to make their lives more beautiful, but they come together because they cannot stay alone. Our relationships and even our reasons to have children are deformed. Many people choose to have babies knowing the children will need them. They don’t let their children grow up, because they don’t want them to be independent.

Human beings need human contact to grow rather than to become dependent. In these ego times, we forgot to be ourselves, free individuals with a lot to share. We try to become someone by using dependence relationships, which we unfortunately call love.

Please, remember who you truly are! Remember how much you can give and share without becoming a puppet of this or that society or ideology. Trust your soul and existence. Please, trust your unconditional love. If you do not know what it is, ask your soul to remind you to love unconditionally.

With love and peace

The Wise Soul

Ebru Dengiz

ebru.dengiz@thewisemag.com

If I Cannot be Myself, Who Else

Can I be?

I don’t know whom your problem is with, but my problem has always been mostly with myself. In my opinion, “dredging up the self,” “teasing out the self,” “probing the self,” and various other activities concerning the “self” is a job on its own. For me, there are two types of people: those who “brush” themselves up and those who do not. Although it may seem like an enviable quality at first glance, this impulse is like a curse. People either have it or they don’t.

I do not know if my acceptance is habitual or due to age, but even though I accept now, I had a period when I deeply questioned why this impulse to “brush up the self” made me such a servant to myself. Why couldn’t I be normal? Why couldn’t I just accept myself like everyone else and live despite myself?

I have gone through many nights straining my mind so hard when I only wanted to sleep comfortably. I would try to give myself up to the reliable hands of sleep, telling myself, “I can stop thinking now; there will be plenty of time later.”

After a while, I transformed this into a game. Each topic that interested me became a means to brush myself up. Everything I accumulated and learned, as well as all the people I knew, made up the actors and scenery for my huge stage.

If you brush yourself up enough, at some point you have to ask yourself, “What does my ‘self’ look like?”

What do I look like? As you start saying this, another concept appears from the corner of your mind: “Am I really what I look like?”

The game of trying to find out what you look like is fun, especially when you are devoted to the principle of impartiality.

For a compass, you listen to your heart. That’s all.

I set many ships on fire I set many ships on fire I was hurt so much that In the end, I regarded myself from a distance And in what I saw… I was further from myself than the stars were The most complicated part is, “Am I really what I look like?” It is certainly not the same face you see in the mirror. It could be a little more flirtatious,

more fond of comfort, a little plumpish, and a little more passionate…

There it is!

All joking aside, I have rarely met anyone who is what they look like.

Arrogance and ego are all around. We are caught up in identifications.

Our occupational labels stick to us like gum on our shoes. We try to behave appropriately to our position and identification in the family. In an attempt to resemble definitions like, “Oh, he’s consistent” or “My girl is very trustworthy,” we cannot resemble ourselves. Maybe you want to lie today, but no, you are a trustworthy person. You are known to be so, so you have to behave that way. We remember this and forget about our sweet lie. Do not underestimate a lie. Little white lies are a privilege of being human. Don’t think I’m encouraging lying, but I wouldn’t criticize those who do it consciously and sparingly.

In summary, we often compromise ourselves to accommodate environmental and social factors. Since I’m not aiming to push everyone into a mad rebellion against their community, let’s balance it out with some other arguments.

The difficulty of being ourselves is expressed in the ancient Delphi Apollo Temple as “gnothi seauton,” which means, “Human, know thyself!”

Wishing to be a stone at the door of the temple is not enough. We need to stand and fight, to get to know ourselves in a way that leads to our self. We need to see ourselves not vaguely, but clearly and precisely, and if possible, to know what it looks like.

If you think you know, check it once more.

After all this, we may be able to show enough courage to be ourselves.

We may stop trying to be the people known by society. Instead we can be the people we fell over, remolded, filled up, emptied, loved, battered, carried, left, gave hope, cursed, appreciated and looked down on for years. In short, we can take a confident step towards resembling the selves that we and only we called into being, Is it hard? Which one is easier? To be someone else?

Would not the smart child inside us ask, “If I cannot be myself, who else can I be?” If he did, what would our answer be?

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The Wise Soul

Zeynep Sevil G端ven

zeynep.sevil@thewisemag.com

Ways and Means to REBALANCE HUMANITY

History is only a tale that speaks about the endless struggle between the powerful and the weak. This long, long story has a very interesting aspect: By the end of each episode, the power always shifts to the opposite side.

Whether it is a struggle between two persons, two nations or any two opposite sides, such as men and women, this never changes.

The weak ones begin to gather strength at the very first moment they reach the bottom of their vital force. Around the same time, the powerful ones begin to lose their supremacy just after touching the peak of their power.

No one knows how many generations have taken place on planet Earth. What we do know is that the most recent generation always possesses all the information and experiences of its ancestors, either consciously or unconsciously.

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From Generation to Generation

Life is like a vehicle constructed on wheels; it can carry and bring forth information to later generations, from the first until the last.

Life demands we have experiences that have closure. Any story that is not completed will occupy the subconscious until it is eventually completed.

The energy of that kind of story obliges the following generations to find a way to complete the unfinished experiences of the previous generations. A fifth-generation grandchild, for example, will have a very strong instinct that pushes him to look at his family tree and research his ancestors, digging deeply into their stories.

In particular, the open-ended and incomplete stories between perpetrators and victims will never cease pushing later generations to look into the stories and conclude them. This compulsion will endure until they reach a time and place where both sides, the perpetrator and the victim, unify in oneness. The concept of oneness requires a very deep wisdom.

Both sides have to properly understand and accept that the two opposite sides do in fact belong to the same energy of the experience, and separation can only exist within consciousness.

That is why spirituality claims that most difficulties in life come from unfinished duties and stories inherited from our ancestors, while other difficulties may be due to incomplete experiences from our own past lives. Sudden casualties; recurring, difficult experiences; divorces; poverty to the point of starvation; not being able to have a child; feeling like a murderer or victim; and other unwanted experiences are all about the unfinished stories of our ancestors.

When they return to the planet, we can see them as family members, as friends or most of the time, as two people contributing to a fight at the two opposite sides of an issue.

Only a few souls decide to complete multiple stories in a single lifetime. They are mostly young, possibly even baby souls that want to progress fast. These souls are planning a special scenario that will create or contain many opportunities to fulfill the task. They may choose to be an actor, a script or novel writer, a movie or TV producer, or any other kind of artist.

As artists, they find countless ways to return to past stories and complete them with any ending possible. Happy, sad, tiring, comforting, smooth, hard, joyful, grieving, and many other kinds of endings lie ahead of them. They even find the opportunity to write several endings to a single story and, of course, to act in all of them.

In each role of the script, movie, drawing, poem, novel, song, or other work, the artists unconsciously borrow incomplete stories from their ancestors.

They experience the same story from beginning to end, but at a different level of awareness and in a different scene, with new rolesharers. Different variations on the same script arise, and the story finds an ending according to the time and place, the social norms, and the personality of the person taking the action.

Completion of a Story

The World is a Stage

For instance, let’s talk about an ancestor who was cheated on by his wife, yet somehow could not get a divorce, and who later died before satisfying his conscious or unconscious desire for revenge.

According to spiritual theories, most of the time when a member of a soul group chooses to complete an unfinished story, the member returns (or maybe arrives for the first time) to the material life together with other members of the same soul group. They make contracts between each other before returning/coming to life.

Here we have an incomplete story: A wounded soul that requires peace. Life will demand that the successive generations complete this story. Life does not pay attention to the manner in which it is completed, such as whether it’s a good or bad ending; it simply requires an ending.

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in the most positive way possible. This kind of ending can also set free some of the people that took part in the production and even some of those who watched the movie or performance.

This brings peace, love, and harmony into their real and personal lives.

Most likely, none of them will feel like creating or living a similar scenario again. They will flow back into life in order to heal other wounds in their souls.

In the case where the story continues with revenge motives and ends in such a way that one of the main characters keeps the anger alive and somehow punishes the other one, this will also bring the subconscious to the point of reuniting with all that is, and the heart will feel the story is completed. However, this does not ensure the mind will become free.

It creates instincts to point out where to go in order to achieve anything the subconscious considers to be our wish or expectation.

An artist in the third generation of the same family, for example, may consciously or otherwise undertake to finish the story. The one who undertakes this mission can be an actor or a writer, or maybe a painter or another kind of artist. Of course, the easiest way is to create and act in a similar scenario.

A writer creates a similar story. A scriptwriter puts it in a certain order, and an actor plays it with his interpretation and feelings. Somehow, they all are connected to each other by a fictional life story. Everyone who takes part in this new version gets a benefit: They become partly or wholly free.

Most likely, the conscious mind of the writer will push himself to write something that promises to make money. In spite of this conscious desire to become rich, he will still be directed by a subconscious obligation to write the most convenient ending in order to complete an inherited story.

With the purpose of completing the story and setting both sides free, he will finish the story in a way where the husband forgives his wife.

The woman in this version feels guilty for a while, but at some point before the end, she stops blaming herself. She then accepts herself as she is.

Both sides are now free, with no more necessity to renew contracts for any future generations. They have become unified in oneness.

The Case Study In this case, the novel writer, scriptwriter, and both of the main actors set themselves free from their ancestors’ unfinished experiences

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Yes, the soul that came to the world will experience a complete story and the subconscious mind will be satisfied. However, because of the pain that surfaces after the punishment, the conscious mind may not believe the person is completely free. The writers, the two main actors, and some of the others involved (staff, spectators, etc.) will flow back into life in order to take their part in another similar, but easier, scenario that can give them complete freedom.

Ways of Purifying There are other potential ways to purify souls and set them free of karma by using novels and scenarios. For example, someone who tortures another actor according to the scenario can be punished by the law. Of course, this punishment will not be real, but rather as a part of the movie. Regardless, the subconscious will still believe it to be a kind of ultimate equality. A complete or partial freedom will then follow.

Another way is to write a war or a gangster story or to take any part in such a scenario.

If any ancestor has experienced being attacked and killed by more than one person, his or her soul will most probably be carrying deep wounds and may even be harboring a deep wish for retribution.

In this case, a war or a gangster scenario can be used as the perfect tool to complete the story in order to purify his or her soul.

Someone from a newer generation undertakes the task of finishing the story by acting as a soldier, a hero, or a member of a street gang, and he kills many people during the story. He is the representative of his ancestor, with the other actors (who will be killed by him) representing the perpetrators of his ancestor’s death. Once more, any person involved in this case—such as the novel or script writer, an actor, a spectator, etc.—who carries a similar incomplete story in his subconscious will have the opportunity to complete his own story. They will be rebalanced, and their hearts, minds and subconscious thoughts, which have been integrated, will set them free of their ancestors’ lives.

You are all welcome to use my theory. It may help you fill your life with even more love, peace, and harmony. How can you use it to your own benefit? Very easily!

What to Do? Simply thinking about your ancestors’ incomplete stories may help you to achieve the desired freedom. This may bring to your life the possibility of preserving connections with your roots, thus keeping yourself free, healthy, powerful, and happy. This way, you may also be nourished by your ancestors’ power while still setting your own thoughts, feelings, and emotions free of theirs. Freedom always brings power and happiness.

I hear you asking, “How can this be true?”

Scientists claim the subconscious is not able to distinguish between reality and fiction. It remembers everything we see, say, think, or hear, whether we notice it or not. The subconscious scans the memories of every moment and considers any incomplete data to be a task waiting to be finished. It then works hard to make the hidden memory visible in our physical world, with the intention of forcing us to find a way to complete the task.

The subconscious is within us and incessantly forces us to realize that we are whole, complete, free, and happy. It creates instincts to point out where to go in order to achieve anything the subconscious considers to be our wish or expectation. Until we achieve our wish and/or expectation or consciously stop this unpleasant situation, it repeatedly brings the same experience into our lives.

According to science, the conscious mind can collect or process five to nine bits of information in a second, whereas the subconscious mind is able to collect and process one million bits of data in the same time.

While collecting, processing or repeating data, the subconscious does not care if the experience is easy or difficult, happy or sad, abundant or poor; it simply reintroduces it into our lives as an experience to be completed.

This attitude of the subconscious will continue until the moment when we will create an ending for each open-ended story. This means in order to liberate ourselves from our ancestors’ destinies and be able to live our own lives—without any interruption from the past—we first have to complete their stories or, acknowledging our entanglement, decide to do something that will fully convince the subconscious to stop repeating the same scenario. We also have to take action and sever the cords of our entanglement. While doing this, we have to keep in mind that this has to be done with full respect to our ancestors and their experiences.

So, my friend, go home and search for any repeating experience in your life. Write it down and begin to visualize or write every ending possible that comes to mind. Love, reunion, separation, conflict, struggle, understanding, compassion, sickness, returning to health, sadness, grief, happiness, joy, enthusiasm or whatever comes to mind is okay. Each time, simply try to find a different ending until you really feel free from the story.

If you cannot use any of the above ways, go to Family Constellation facilitators, who will accelerate the real story belonging to your ancestors whom you have unconsciously become entangled with.

They will let your ancestors complete their story and set you free.

The law of attraction will still be working for you, and you will bring to your life only those energies that suite your own thoughts, feelings and emotions.

Today, there are plenty of certificate programs, courses, and seminars available. You come across “personal development,” “lifelong learning,” and “continuous education” ads every time you read a newspaper, website, or magazine. Unless you gaze through the window, you may believe that the world is a wonderful place where everyone is fully aware and realizing their full potentials. There are no unhappy workers, who are not satisfied with their jobs yet do not know what they want to do. Doing what you love and satisfying your curiosities are like falling in love, as if you have butterflies in your stomach. Here, in such a world, there are butterflies in everybody’s stomach.

In the real world, these love affairs last for only a few nights or a few weeks at most.

You are certainly curious, so you try to keep up with the contemporary trends. Somebody mentions NLP, and you rush there. Someone else mentions, “effective listening”, and you rush there without even listening to what your inner voice tells you. The “certificates” section of your CV gets longer. You should have the enthusiasm of a new recruit, but instead you feel a little dulled: you must admit this. You take notes all the time, with your course folder in one hand and a slight restlessness within.

What remains from the notes you have taken?

Is there anything you put into practice? Do you keep your notes in a big folder in your office, inside a drawer at home, or inside notebooks?

The Wise 45

You will simply enjoy knowledge and know that learning is the most enjoyable thing there is.

In order to perpetuate learning, you should linger for a moment and ask yourself, “What is it that I want?” Most of us keep questioning ourselves, but only some of us actually focus, consider, and derive a conclusion. Even fewer people go further than this, as that may require rocking the boat and starting all over again. We envy the successful ones as if they are aliens. The journey of learning begins with questions like: • What does a better life mean to me?

• What kind of knowledge and skills do I need to live this life?

• How can I gain this knowledge?

Imagine yourself living a better life constantly.

Imagine you have sought and found your inner goals. You are no longer idling and drifting. Imagine yourself being enthusiastic and focused. Imagine the relief of knowing what you want.

Or do you realize them, so they are reflected in your actions? When trainers introduce themselves, it should be like a wedding ceremony from a Hollywood movie. The trainer should walk into the venue and ask, “If anybody is not quite sure that they need this course, or if anybody has not questioned the relevance of this training in their personal or work life, they should leave this room right now.” What would you do: Would you stay or leave?

If you have not learned anything from a course, it is usually the trainer’s fault. He or she failed to teach some of the trainees, but maybe, in reality, only some people were in the class to learn.

You are like pupils who sit at the front of the classroom and take notes without questioning, whereas they are like pupils who head home right after the geography class to check the world atlas. They are astonished by the size of the world and curious about rain forests.

They may grow up, but they never lose their enthusiasm or curiosity.

To them learning is an art rather than a duty. They are quite aware of being responsible for their own development. This is why they listen to their inner voices before anybody else’s. Their inner voices tell them what they need and how to use the knowledge they have acquired.

The Art of Learning If learning is an art, it has to be practiced with niceties. In other words, you must first learn how to learn. Just as you should practice every day when learning how to play the piano, learning requires discipline, and you cannot afford to be negligent. To be in the process of lifelong learning means to turn your life into a learning fair. On the one hand, you keep up with changing conditions. On the other hand, you maintain every item of knowledge and skill you learn. “What should you acquire?” equates to, “How would you like to live?” Once like this, you will have nothing in common with the people who work in offices, counting, reporting, and rushing around in panic.

46 The Wise

• How can I practice what I have acquired in my life?

Suppose you worked in an important department at a major company for years. You were born to an established order. Your competencies were apparent, and your responsibilities were restricted from the start. Now, you have already practiced them all, and each day you just come and go. You have become so accustomed to stagnancy that the ideas and enthusiasms of new recruits annoy you. You brush people off by saying things like, “This is how we handle situations.” Are you happy? Really? It seems as if you are just killing time.

Dream on!

Imagine if you started each day with a bang. Imagine that your heart beats like a drum when you think of what you learned. Imagine yourself gaining new viewpoints, approaching issues from new perspectives and solving them.

Imagine yourself living a better life constantly. Imagine you have sought and found your inner goals. You are no longer idling and drifting. Imagine yourself being enthusiastic and focused. Imagine the relief of knowing what you want. Imagine a life where you have integrated knowledge into it. Imagine everything around you improving as you progress. The more you progress, the more you will realize that this journey will never end. You will experience the joy of curiosity as a child would. You will see how the more eager you are, the more you learn.

Do not expect a teacher to ignite these feelings in you. Just remember that you should bear full responsibility—just as in all other areas of life. Abandon all labels and focus on asking, “What is it that you want?” Be aware of all the phases of your learning process. Absorb everything you acquire in the classroom. Avoid learning things “parrot fashion,” because you can only flourish and blossom after internalizing the knowledge you gain. Each day ask yourself, “What have I learned?” and, “How will I use this knowledge?” Practice it immediately, and with each experience, your learning will become deeper.

Learning is a journey in itself, whether it happens in a crowded classroom or on a cramped solitary desk. It is an enjoyable journey for people that can only be initiated and sustained by their own desires.

The Wise 47

The Wise Soul

Deniz Yalım Kadıoğlu

deniz.yalim@thewisemag.com

Learning a Journey is

Today, there are plenty of certificate programs, courses, and seminars available. You come across “personal development,” “lifelong learning,” and “continuous education” ads every time you read a newspaper, website, or magazine. Unless you gaze through the window, you may believe that the world is a wonderful place where everyone is fully aware and realizing their full potentials. There are no unhappy workers, who are not satisfied with their jobs yet do not know what they want to do. Doing what you love and satisfying your curiosities are like falling in love, as if you have butterflies in your stomach. Here, in such a world, there are butterflies in everybody’s stomach.

In the real world, these love affairs last for only a few nights or a few weeks at most.

You are certainly curious, so you try to keep up with the contemporary trends. Somebody mentions NLP, and you rush there. Someone else mentions, “effective listening”, and you rush there without even listening to what your inner voice tells you. The “certificates” section of your CV gets longer. You should have the enthusiasm of a new recruit, but instead you feel a little dulled: you must admit this. You take notes all the time, with your course folder in one hand and a slight restlessness within.

What remains from the notes you have taken? Is there anything you put into practice? Do you keep your notes in a big folder in your office, inside a drawer at home, or inside notebooks? Or do you realize them, so they are reflected in your actions? When trainers introduce themselves, it should be like a wedding ceremony from a Hollywood movie. The trainer should walk into the venue and ask, “If anybody is not quite sure that they need this course, or if anybody has not questioned the relevance of this training in their personal or work life, they should leave this room right now.

48 The Wise

” What would you do: Would you stay or leave?

If you have not learned anything from a course, it is usually the trainer’s fault. He or she failed to teach some of the trainees, but maybe, in reality, only some people were in the class to learn. You are like pupils who sit at the front of the classroom and take notes without questioning, whereas they are like pupils who head home right after the geography class to check the world atlas. They are astonished by the size of the world and curious about rain forests.

They may grow up, but they never lose their enthusiasm or curiosity.

To them learning is an art rather than a duty. They are quite aware of being responsible for their own development. This is why they listen to their inner voices before anybody else’s. Their inner voices tell them what they need and how to use the knowledge they have acquired.

The Art of Learning If learning is an art, it has to be practiced with niceties. In other words, you must first learn how to learn. Just as you should practice every day when learning how to play the piano, learning requires discipline, and you cannot afford to be negligent. To be in the process of lifelong learning means to turn your life into a learning fair. On the one hand, you keep up with changing conditions. On the other hand, you maintain every item of knowledge and skill you learn. “What should you acquire?” equates to, “How would you like to live?” Once like this, you will have nothing in common with the people who work in offices, counting, reporting, and rushing around in panic. You will simply enjoy knowledge and know that learning is the most enjoyable thing there is. In order to perpetuate learning, you should linger for a moment and ask yourself, “What is it that I want?” Most of us keep questioning ourselves, but only some of us actually focus, consider, and derive a conclusion.

Even fewer people go further than this, as that may require rocking the boat and starting all over again.

We envy the successful ones as if they are aliens. The journey of learning begins with questions like: •

What does a better life mean to me?

•

What kind of knowledge and skills do I need to live this life?

•

How can I gain this knowledge?

•

How can I practice what I have acquired in my life?

Suppose you worked in an important department at a major company for years. You were born to an established order. Your competencies were apparent, and your responsibilities were restricted from the start. Now, you have already practiced them all, and each day you just come and go. You have become so accustomed to stagnancy that the ideas and enthusiasms of new recruits annoy you. You brush people off by saying things like, “This is how we handle situations.” Are you happy? Really? It seems as if you are just killing time.

Dream on!

Imagine if you started each day with a bang. Imagine that your heart beats like a drum when you think of what you learned. Imagine yourself gaining new viewpoints, approaching issues from new perspectives and solving them. Imagine yourself living a better life constantly. Imagine you have sought and found your inner goals. You are no longer idling and drifting. Imagine yourself being enthusiastic and focused. Imagine the relief of knowing what you want. Imagine a life where you have integrated knowledge into it. Imagine everything around you improving as you progress. The more you progress, the more you will realize that this journey will never end. You will experience the joy of curiosity as a child would. You will see how the more eager you are, the more you learn.

Do not expect a teacher to ignite these feelings in you. Just remember that you should bear full responsibility—just as in all other areas of life. Abandon all labels and focus on asking, “What is it that you want?”

Be aware of all the phases of your learning process. Absorb everything you acquire in the classroom. Avoid learning things “parrot fashion,” because you can only flourish and blossom after internalizing the knowledge you gain. Each day ask yourself, “What have I learned?” and, “How will I use this knowledge?” Practice it immediately, and with each experience, your learning will become deeper.

Learning is a journey in itself, whether it happens in a crowded classroom or on a cramped solitary desk. It is an enjoyable journey for people that can only be initiated and sustained by their own desires.

The Wise 49

The Wise Soul

Müjde Özdemir

mujde.ozdemir@thewisemag.com

Thank You, God Nowadays, I am playing puss in the corner with God, and, I must admit, I am having fun. The only thing is it compels me to “think.”

Until now, all my life I have considered the act of thinking as planning the next step. Now I am plunged deep into thoughts. I am contemplating.

This type of thinking can be eerie because it drags you deep within yourself. However, it also enables me to unwittingly surrender to the energy that tempts me over myself.

Surrender is a strong concept.

We have a simple contract with God. Normally, I never mention God’s name, except in the habit of certain cultural expressions. I had been very persistent in this, until I happened upon a series of coincidences that warranted surrendering. Then I ceased resisting.

50 The Wise

The First Coincidence When I was leaving my former company, I wanted to cash in my company stocks taken from Wall Street on my behalf. Somehow, I could not do it, partly because my inner voice whispered to me, “not yet.” The real challenge was how I would know when the right time to cash them was.

Then, some time ago, I was very short of money, so I decided to cash in my stocks. To be honest, I was not very hopeful. There was one problem: Although the stocks were at their highest value for two years, the total worth was not enough to clear my debts. Since I could not afford to wait any longer, I said to myself, “So be it” and pressed the button. After only two weeks, I was holding the check issued in my name. On the same day that I went to the bank to cash the check, the global financial crisis broke out. The stocks experienced a radical decline and a few days after my check was certified, the bank was blacklisted. Oh my God, that was close!

Have I mentioned God’s name? You know, I’m just saying it; it’s a cultural expression.

It was what it was, yet it was way too interesting. This coincidence set my way, and I decided that it was the right place.

Then I waited for three subsequent legal processes to have the money in my account. The thing is, I was not quite sure how much I would receive, because you never know the amount of the intermediary’s share. At least I knew that I had done my part: I sold my shares before the stock values collapsed, and I certified the check. For the rest, “I let it be!”

I took my son to the dental clinic without knowing how much it would cost. I paid only half of what I had paid to the hospital two years ago. It was a shock, which I put into words by saying, “Thank you, God!”

Soon after the legal processes were complete, the money was transferred to my account. When the cashier told me the amount, I was breathless. Somehow it was just the amount I needed.

Previously, I would think to myself, “so be it” and that “happened.”

Then, for the very first time, I said aloud, “Thank you, God.” While I was still considering this event, another incident happened.

And the Second One… I had a few root canal treatments before, but I must admit, I am not a fan of dental operations. I had a fracture in one of my teeth, and I was delaying going to the dentist. But, as you know, the cosmos has different ways of teaching us lessons. For example, if you are a mother, the cosmos may use your children to teach you something. I had been postponing my dental problem for so long that I was almost ignoring it. One day, my son came and told me that he had toothache.

Jackpot! He had a decayed tooth. God damn it (one of those cultural expressions again)! I could ignore my problem but not my child’s.

What’s more, to set a good example and show him there is nothing to be afraid of, I had to go myself as well.

The next day, while on my way to work, I decided to consult a hospital in Bakırköy. Then, at the Office, rather than going to the hospital, I decided to ask to my friends if they knew a dentist in Bakırköy. During all this, I was thinking to myself and never said a word aloud. I am quite sure of this. The next minute, one of my colleagues came over and handed me a business card. Let me tell you the exact conversation: He said, “Morning Müjde, I wondered if you needed to see a dentist in Bakırköy?”

“How come?” I replied.

I am not embarrassed to say it aloud anymore!

Last but not Least…

After all those coincidences, the final one did not affect me at all. It was a mere favor of God to this mortal soul.

On my way back home from work, I stopped by the fish market and visited my usual fishermen’s counter to buy some fish. I gave my order.

Although I knew the answer, I asked him, “You pick the bones out of the fish, don’t you?” To my surprise, he answered, “Sorry man, we’re way too busy today to do that.” Although I did not like his answer, I said, “Whatever. I’ll buy it anyway.” I paid him and he gave me the fish.

I headed home, put the fish in the refrigerator, and that was that.

The next day after work, I took the fish out of the refrigerator to pick the bones out. Surprisingly, I realized that the bones had already been picked out. I thought it was my mother-in-law, who makes gestures like that every now and then. I phoned her to thank her, yet she denied she had picked the bones out.

Let me cut it short...

It may sound assertive, but nowadays someone helps me avoid global financial crises, finds dental clinics for me, and even picks the bones out of fish for me. A day comes and he reveals himself to us. Indeed, if we are careful enough, he reveals himself to us every blessed day.

Some people call him God. Considering all he has done for me, I do not what to say, other

know than:

“Thank you, God.”

My colleague explained further, “My brother is a dentist with a clinic in Bakırköy. He gave this card to me some time ago. It was in my pocket, and I knew that you live in Bakırköy. I thought you might need it.”

I replied, somewhat surprised, “Well, yes, it’s just what I need at the moment. I was looking for a dental clinic in Bakırköy. What’s the exact address?”

“It’s very close to X Hospital,” he explained. This was the same hospital I had been considering consulting.

It was too much for me. Last year I had physical issues, and I wondered if this year it was time for my mental health to decline. On the other hand, was I experiencing something similar to the movie, The Truman Show, where they are broadcasting my thoughts?

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The Wise Humor

Hasan ‘Sonsuz’ Çeliktaş sonsuz@thewisemag.com

How to Charm a Spiritual Woman

Part 3

They are not able to give a straight “no,” nor can they behave frankly and ask you to leave them alone. This is because they are struggling with thoughts like, “I have to love him as well because he probably wants to teach me something.”

What seems like a disadvantage to her might be your last hope. But, on the other hand, which would be easier: To make a woman like this love you or to explain the benefits of Reiki to the Holy Inquisition of 1635? Maybe the inquisition would be easier in some ways, but whatever! My dear friend, why bother?

There are so many other pretty girls around. If it isn’t meant to be, just turn around and accept it! To pursue the matter further will only hurt you, as it has hurt me. Best to leave it until the time is right. However, if you have decided to still pursue her, I will give you further instructions to save the day. This is assuming the girl has not reached the stage of utter contempt for you, because even a spiritual person has limits.

My friend, the noble son of the male sex,

Be Prepared

I know you have completed all the strategies I recommended previously in this series. You want that woman very much, but despite all you have done, she has not shown any loving affection. I cannot say she didn’t like you, nor can I say she behaved rudely, because the spiritual woman, contrary to all other women, would never behave rudely. This is mainly because they have read so many books telling them that behaving rudely is virtually a sin.

Let’s assume you had been chatting for a while, and you formed the opinion that she fancied you, while you were madly in love. You kept calling each other and sending affectionate messages. Then suddenly one day, you opened your heart to her… You felt completely sure of the situation, but the girl suddenly surprised you by saying, “But I never saw you in that way!” What to do? Let me tell you right away.

The girl was aware of your feelings from the first day. These girls are

52 The Wise

spiritually far more advanced and are much more intuitive than the average girl who reads coffee cups! Hence, I am sure she knew it the first day, and even if she denies it, I am sure she enjoyed the process all along. Saying this might be tough, but believe me, although she knew she could never reciprocate your love, she enjoyed it all along and used you all the way. Later, upon seeing the seriousness of the situation, she decided to call it quits. However, right at this moment, her emotional state will be disrupted. There is still a chance of winning her heart, and it will be easier than facing the Inquisition! However, you must accept that this is going to be rather tricky and will take a lot of patience.

you, so be cool. While she is acting as your “friend,” she is also easing her conscience, thinking, “Oh, I handled it without breaking his heart too much.”

Before I go on, let me make the facts clear, so you can make your decision. Here is my warning: Don’t expect too much from a girl you won using manipulation. In my opinion, a decent relationship is one that develops spontaneously. Sure, on occasions, subtle tactics may be useful and chic, but you may find a deception started in despair will ultimately work against you.

Spiritual women have deep consciences, but because they have guilt, they melt under fears like, “I have rejected him; what if they reject me too.” They therefore try to handle the situation decently. As I said, these women, by their nature, are not like the ones who simply kick you in the ass and leave right away. Even if the man has tortured her, she leaves only when her tolerance runs out, and even then, she feels guilty for a long time. The spiritual woman is a masochist species, so you can play your role in peace. By the way, if she is really enjoying your closeness, this is an extra advantage, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to stop at this point. But what can you do? You are desperate and there’s nothing else that can be done… While your friendship continues, you should prepare the right environment for using your best tactic, which is the backbone of your strategy. This is something that no woman can easily ignore: Another woman!

Here We Go…

It’s Getting Hot…

The first rule: Once she rejects you, don’t insist at all. Never talk about it or discuss it in any way until the right time comes. Pretend as if you have accepted the situation. Give her the message, “Things like this can never harm our ‘very special’ relationship, and we can stay as friends.” To be persuasive, you have to believe it yourself too. Then at least, if it all blows up, you can keep this belief. Your subsequent conversations should be aloof and far from sentimental. You can talk about things such as the last book of Kryon, people in your e-mail group who piss you off, and achieving world peace. Act as if you are her closest friend, but don’t forget, she will be just as superficial as

Spiritual or not, almost all women lose control and get annoyed at this point: The moment when another woman comes into her life. Imagine the confrontational moment when two female cats come across each other and start spitting. These women will regard each other in the same way cats do, even if they appear to be cordial. This is especially true when there is a man in between who has liked her before. Even if she never thought of it, she may find herself struggling, and this is going to be your biggest advantage. What you have to do at this point is use the other woman.

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you attractive in the eyes of other women. Because your intention is clear, the universe will probably send you a woman better suited to you. Don’t forget to thank everyone who participated in your venture once everything is over! As you may have gathered, it is very likely you will find someone else.

The most effective way to get what you want is to really get close with another girl and include your “best friend” in this process.

If this girl is just as desirable as the other is, and maybe even has some advantages, all you have to do is step back and watch what happens. This is a natural “defect” in women and essentially reflects the instinct: “To produce the best offspring, I have to be the best.”

The “best offspring” concept has changed as civilization developed and transformed into “I have to get the best man.” No matter how “firm” you are, the principal criteria that makes you “the best man” is the reference of another woman. I have said before, womankind is a species that uses other women as a reference. As everyone knows, when a man has a beautiful woman with him, people think, “He has to have something.”

When you get closer to a very beautiful girl and start sharing this with your “close friend,” she will start thinking, “He has to have something I missed; I should have a second look.” If she doesn’t, it means this girl truly doesn’t want you, but to be honest, I have yet to meet anyone who hasn’t thought like this or at least started comparing themselves to your new companion.

There is a regrettable cruelty here: Your relationship with the other girl. You could tell your “close friend” about an imaginary woman, but things will only really happen when the two women meet face to face, so you need a real, flesh-and-blood woman. This girl could be a close friend of yours that is unknown to your other “close friend.”

You could make a deal with her to pretend, but womankind can smell these things, with the spiritual one being like an Afghan hound, so it is very likely she will sense the deception. So, at this point, you will be obliged to create a real relationship. Indeed, if you have the potential to find a beautiful girl, I suggest you just carry on with that girl; but if you are obsessed and determined to get that “close friend,” I say do as you wish.

Don’t think, “I’ve done so much to get the spiritual woman. How much more will I have to do to get the other one?” It will be easier with the other one. Because you have someone else in your heart, you will become indifferent to your surroundings, and this will make

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Once you find this other woman, to use her in this venture seems cruel, but you won’t even be thinking about this. Moreover, what I describe as “regrettable cruelty” is a natural attitude for many women, and it is normal for them to sow discord among men. We see many males fighting for females in documentaries. During this process, the defense mechanism provided by spiritualism will a major support: “It had to be done.”

When you are backed into a corner, you can always use this argument to make others shut up. I bet that those annoyed by my previous lines are appeased with this sentence: Spiritualism, while having some very positive aspects, may become a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands.

What Next?

We have taken all the risks and put the other woman first. How does everything else develop? What has to be done? To be honest, you don’t have to do anything at all, because everything will develop spontaneously. After a short while, it’s very likely that you will find yourself in a situation you would never have predicted. I know from experience that to have affection for the best friend of your “close friend” can put that girl into a situation where she asks herself, “Are you doing this intentionally?” In another experience, I fell in love with a pretty girl who rejected me for months, but when I started a relationship with another girl this changed. We bumped into each other somewhere, and I was holding my new girlfriend’s hand. After that, the girl who had rejected me started to send me messages, as if she had been in love with me all the time. (Incidentally, I sang a classical Turkish song to her on the phone titled, “Daha onceleri neredeydiniz?” or in English, “Where were you before then?”) I experienced this situation many times, and each time I was surprised.

In short, you can transform the, “I loved; I wasn’t loved, and I couldn’t love the one who loved” situation into a position of, “the one who wasn’t loved is loved thanks to the other one who loved.” In the meantime, don’t ever forget that the question, “What is ‘conscience’?” is a way of life for you and many women, and we can say a woman is equal to easing one’s conscience. For example, a woman who says, “My appearance is not important; it is my soul that matters” when you ask for her photo on MSN can still ask for your photo three days later and say, “It was different then .”

What if She Already has a Lover?

Another situation: The woman you want already has a boyfriend. This is actually an easier situation than the one we explained above, even if it tarnishes your image to steal another man’s girlfriend. If you are determined, here is a tactic that is tried and tested. I haven’t practiced it personally, but I have observed it in many ways. First, as always, we don’t hint at our intention. This is like washing fruit and vegetables before eating them. Women have an automatic defense mechanism that gives out the, “I am not an easy woman” message to deter men who show their intentions, so you have to take subtle steps and not rush in, especially if the girl has a boyfriend.

The strategy you will use is based on the universal “divide and conquer” tactic. You first have to get closer to her and gain her trust.

With the spiritual woman, you should patiently listen to her; let her do Reiki or so on you, let her tell her anguish—the anguish of this species never ends. Be the one who is always next to her and be her support. When she trusts you enough, she will naturally start telling you about her boyfriend. Because there are problems in every relationship, her intention will be to get opinions from you as a man.

At this point, it’s time to act, and without her noticing at all, you can start planting the seeds that will make her question her relationship with her boyfriend.

Never say blatant things like, “He’s worthless,” as it will trigger her defense mechanism. As I said before, womankind is a species that needs self-approval, so she will immediately start defending herself.

If she hears something like: “He looks like a decent boy, but everyone has problems. I believe you can overcome them together. But what can you do? Even if the harmony is perfect now, you can both change at some point, and it will cost a lot in the future. You should determine these points from the very beginning. I hope you will be very happy together.”

She will say, “Oh, you’re really sweet.” But, I have to say, this path needs patience and can take a while. As she gains trust in you, her stories will become more and more personal. If you are clever enough, you can do your work easily. Meanwhile, her boyfriend will become suspicious and angry. This is womankind thinking they should share everything with their boyfriends, so they do.

I have to remind you once again that if you spoil things and present yourself in a “nonsexual” position in the eyes of the woman, things will turn out bad for you. A clever man, while playing the game appropriately to the rules of friendship, is a man who can give the message, “Look little girl; there is an eligible man in front of you.”

While maintaining this relationship, you should take her out often, so her boyfriend gets even more suspicious. When they have an argument, you should put everything aside and go to her, hug her.

This will comfort her. The more suspicious her boyfriend becomes, the more he will try to curtail your relationship with her. I suggest you hope for this, because at that point, she will be only a step away from coming to you. The spiritual woman is a liberal type and will react immediately to being restrained. She chose to come to this world, and who can interfere with her choices? Some, even if they accept this at the beginning, will rebel after getting advice from their social circle. Suddenly, she will be faced with two choices. On one side, there will be an intolerant man who tries to restrain her all the time. On the other side, there is a receptive one, who is always beside her and has become a real friend to her. After having a big argument with her boyfriend, she will automatically call you and say, “If your invitation for the weekend is still valid, I would like to come.” Even if you haven’t proposed anything, she will say, “Shall we meet?”

From this point on, you have all the control, and you can push her boyfriend as far away as you want (but be subtle). Throwing carefully planned phrases like, “I didn’t want to tell you because I care about you, but this guy is bad news” into the conversation will bring her closer to you, as will the receptive, clever, and powerful image of you that you have created in her mind. After this point, if you don’t behave foolishly, such as by removing your mask too soon, you should be enjoying your new lover.

There are many women in the world, enough for a thousand lifetimes, but frankly none of them are any more special than many others.

Plenty of women are very special, and I personally don’t believe in relationships built on manipulation. After all, many people unconsciously live situations like the one described above, and this is called a “process.” The difference between a “process” and manipulation is the “consciousness.” As I always say, the best thing is to let things flow and trust the universe to bring you together with your “proper” mate. If you are still desperate and insist on saying, “It has to be her,” that’s your choice. Don’t blame me anymore.

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The Wise Life

Hakan Arabacıoğlu

hakan.arabacioglu@thewisemag.com

Truth Simple is

Take a look at what Osho says: “Try to be simple in everything. If you are simple, you cannot tell a lie, because a lie can never be simple.

The very nature of a lie has to be complex. Only truth can be simple.”

When they meet me, some of my clients say, “Hakan, I have so much to share with you.” They get really surprised when I ask them to “please summarize it to me in only three sentences.” They might even get a little mad at me if they feel I am denying them the pleasure of amplifying their sad stories. However, they are unaware of a simple fact: The main reason why they cannot see the solution is because they are drowned in the details of their long story.

Sometimes I ask my clients questions requiring only yes or no answers. Instead, they give me longwinded answers, which I listen to attentively. Instead of answering with a simple yes or no, they tell a drawn-out story, but at the end, once they are finished with their answers, there is still not a yes or no.

Sometimes I leave them alone, so they can express themselves freely. They answer by skipping from one subject to another. When I unexpectedly stop them and ask, “What was the question?” they are usually unable to remember what it was. The ones who do answer usually remember the question that I asked a couple of questions previously, rather than the one I had just asked.

Just as it isn’t easy to find an item in a messy room with many things scattered inside, it isn’t easy to find the solution inside a mind that is full of many different stories. For this reason, I encourage my clients to simplify. Once they simplify things, the realness (reality) starts showing itself, and it becomes clearer.

Whenever I start hearing long answers, Osho’s words come to my mind: “The truth is simple.” When I encourage my clients to think simply, the mud obscuring reality is cleaned away and the solution becomes as clear as daylight.

I observe people who are confused asking themselves similar questions that don’t have answers. In my opinion, these disempowering questions have two types. The first one is, “Oh Lord, why is it me?” and other similar “why” questions. The second one is, “I wonder if I did something wrong?” and other “I wonder if” questions.

Once we replace these questions with empowering ones—such as “What is going on here?” or “So, what can I do next?”—they begin heading towards simplicity and a solution.

In conclusion, if you want to get to know yourself, start simplifying. Eliminate all the unnecessary things in your life, including the unnecessary questions in your mind and the unnecessary items in your home.

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The Wise Life

Burçe Boşnak

burce.bosnak@thewisemag.com

Not Much Is So Much

More Than Nothing

What will it take to accept that you are perfect?

Back in high school, I always looked forward to the end of my violin lessons. My teacher's face would always light up when he talked about his home town. He talked about how free the streets of New York were.

He would always tell me I could be whatever I wanted, that I had a voice, that I had a kind of melody, even when I wasn't in tune.

Since then, I always dreamed of moving to the States. I wanted to be free in the streets of New York City. I wanted to sing, and I wanted my voice to be heard even if I wasn't on pitch. I wanted to fly, even though my wings were broken.

For years, I lived with expectation. I was expected to attend university, where I would ace every single exam. I was expected to act like a lady, and I was definitely expected to not disagree with any of this. My career path was chosen for me before I could even remember. It was something along the lines of becoming a lawyer, a doctor or a rocket scientist. I would shake my head at the thought of it. How could I become all these things when my favorite subject was drama.

Oh, how I loved acting. I loved becoming a different person. I could be whoever I wanted to be and live the life I always wanted to live. The stage had become my escape from reality.

Today, my yoga mat has become my stage. I surrender to the earth and become grounded. This is the time when I feel free. I feel empowered and feel myself.

When I moved to Los Angeles and began my yoga practice, I became caught up with the image of “perfection.” LA was the city of perfection, but I always wondered who actually sets the standard. Was it all in my head, or did I choose to please society? Was I really happy inside when I gave a big smile on the outside?

I fell into the trap that most new yogis fall into: The thought of always having to be perfect, having the perfect breath, the perfect poses, the perfect clothing, the perfect balance, the perfect mat, the perfect teacher, the perfect studio, the perfect... I could go on forever.

I eventually went to New York and sang in the streets of the Big Apple.

I stopped living for expectation and started living for inspiration. I left the stage for a mat. The Elephant Man was no longer my favorite play. Instead, elephants were my favorite animals. I believe the sun chasers miss out on the warmth only found in the coldest of places, and I agree with my husband's sentiment, “There is no higher level than improvement.”

Yoga has done so much for me. I have come to accept and love my imperfections. I have seen my past mistakes and future dreams. I’ve shed tears disguised as sweat, and I have felt the bliss of real-time inhales and painful exhales. I’ve smiled at the child in me and laughed at my important falls. I see who I am clearer today. I have flesh, curves, spirit, and life. I see not who I was or wished to be, but who I am. The best part is I see someone I love in every way. If I could be anyone at all in the yoga room, I would want to be me! I love my heritage, the color of my skin, the way yoga has made me strong, and the way my journey is unfolding, but most of all, I've learned that not much is so much more than nothing.

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The Wise Life

Sibel Oltulu

sibel.oltulu@thewisemag.com

One More Piece

Among her birthday presents, she found a box, which she took in a flurry. She was really fond of presents, especially the ones that were carefully selected and reflected the spirit of the giver. For her, buying a present should be a kind of ritual. You shouldn’t buy presents just because you feel obliged to, nor should you choose your presents in a big hurry. The presents you buy should reflect the personalities of both the giver and the taker.

She could not understand who would buy her this present, but what of it! This was her present and she was bursting with curiosity. She had to open it quickly and see what it was.

Under the wrapping, there was a simple carton without any pictures

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or writings—it was just a plain, ordinary box. No one could guess what was inside. What could it be? Anything was possible. She opened the box and emptied the contents onto the table.

It was a puzzle! There were millions of small pieces in the box, which kept this secret present mysterious. She was fond of mysteries and puzzles. “I’m sure when I finish this puzzle, I’ll see a mysterious picture. I have to start this now,” she thought.

She had invited lots of guests to her birthday party and received many presents, but this mysterious puzzle was the only gift she cared about. After her guests left, she began to formulate a strategy for how to solve this puzzle.

No one knew the whole picture, but everyone thought the same thing: “I remember this from somewhere.”

It was a single picture, but it was composed of different small scenes. For example, in one of the corners there was a small hand; when the other pieces found their places, she would understand whose hand it was.

In another corner, there was a sky filled with bright stars. It looked like a picture of a mother and her small daughter making wishes under a falling star. When the picture was complete, her wish would come true perhaps, but she was not so sure.

Many people helped her to complete the puzzle, even her enemies, who surprisingly put some critical pieces in the correct places.

She felt grateful to them. Sometimes, after struggling to find a certain piece for several days, she would surprisingly find that piece under her nose.

She really needed a strategy, because there wasn’t even a picture on the box showing how it would look when completed. She also didn’t know how many pieces were in the box or how much time it would take to build.

It seemed logical to start with the pieces that had straight sides.

By doing so, the outside edges of the picture would be ready, and she would know its boundaries. This was also a necessary step in understanding how big the puzzle would be when completed. Finding the pieces with straight sides would make the process easier, but all the pieces and their colors were so similar that even this was a complicated job. It took her longer than expected to complete the edges of the puzzle. Everyone at home lent a hand by finding the right pieces and putting them in the right places, and they proved the value of co-operation once again.

She then began to classify the pieces by color. The pieces were so small that it was hard to identify them by shape, so she had to pay attention to the similarities and differences in color and their harmonious transitions. Everyone ran to help again. Sometimes, someone would persistently try to put a piece into an unsuitable place. It was not enough for a piece to fit a certain place; it also had to be in harmony with the others around it.

This puzzle was a really mysterious thing!

Everyone helped to complete it, but it only belonged to one person.

Many people helped her to complete the puzzle, even her enemies, who surprisingly put some critical pieces in the correct places.

She felt grateful to them. Sometimes, after struggling to find a certain piece for several days, she would surprisingly find that piece under her nose. The ones she found and put into the right place after a long search were the most precious ones. Sometimes, she found some pieces that she thought belonged to another puzzle, but eventually she would accept that all the pieces belonged to her puzzle. The designer of this puzzle was really subtle—you could never see a piece of the puzzle and be sure it was a part of it.

This puzzle-solving adventure was about to end at last, and the picture was almost fully revealed. She didn’t know how much time had passed since she received this present, who had helped her to complete it, how many times she had given up on it, and how many times she had become frustrated with it. She stood in front of the puzzle and stared at it in astonishment.

This was the picture of her life! A life where everyone in it helped her…A life where she sometimes felt desperate and where she sometimes ran after her dreams joyfully…A life with a falling star in one corner and a little girl holding her hand in another…

It was only a small mystery, because the whole picture was already known. After it was divided into pieces and put into a box by the maker, it became a big mystery.

Now, the remaining work was not that urgent. It would be better to put the remaining pieces into the right places slowly but with delight.

Just in the middle of the picture, somewhere near to its left side, there was an empty place that she could never find the proper piece for.

Often, she tried to insert a piece, but none of them harmonized with the rest of the picture. She was sure that, sooner or later, she would find the perfect piece for it. All the pieces she needed were in the box, surely?

“Whoever made this really knows his job,” she said.

She went to bed and slept soundly. In the following days, she would continue her puzzle with the pleasure of knowing what the picture was about.

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The Wise Life

Dost Can Deniz

dost.can.deniz@thewisemag.com

Master Where Does this

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Road Lead to?

While I was studying industrial engineering, the topic that drew my attention most was the “queuing theory.”

According to this theory, among the people waiting in the queue, the average estimated waiting time for people who change queues, thinking the other queues move faster, is far longer than those who patiently wait in one queue.

One of my friends told me a story about how an old wrestler exercised. This wrestler used to hold a newborn calf in his arms and go up and down the stairs each day. As the baby calf grew and became heavier, the wrestler also developed his body. The wrestler, who would never have succeeded if he had tried to lift a big calf straight away, developed together with the baby calf because of the exercise he did each day. In the end, he became strong enough to take the big calf up and down the stairs with ease.

Individual development is much the same. The important thing is to devote yourself to applying a determined method or means consistently and with self-discipline, rather than constantly reevaluating your chosen path. You should develop little by little, with an ever-increasing capacity and development, so you will be ready to do even more…

A study performed by a group of researchers at the Esalen Institute in California, USA during the mid 70s was quite interesting. The group had the challenging endeavor of creating a catalogue of the personal development and enlightenment techniques used by Western and Eastern traditions, philosophy, psychology, and other disciplines.

Once the approaches they collected exceeded ten thousand, they decided to stop.

Hidden here is the trap faced by most of us who decide to develop ourselves as individuals, professionals, or managers today. There are so many methods, ways, books, systems, teachers, coaches, seminars, cassettes and other programs! In the beginning of almost every leadership or coaching skills training I give, I ask the participants, “What do you to gain from this training? What are your targets?” In many cases, one or two people from each group say they want the training to include practical information rather than theory.

Sometimes, the more adventurous and honest ones speak up and say, “We’re sure we’ll have a few pleasant days here, but we don’t believe what we learn here will make a substantial difference.” A very correct observation!

In fact, change and growth do not happen when you attend a twoday training course, when you find the best of ten thousand methods included in one course, or when you go to that wonderful program recently announced by e-mail. I do not know which is the best method: meditation, yoga, psychoanalysis or expressive art therapies. To become a master of time, should we use Outlook or a traditional wall calendar? Shall we prioritize by using the “urgent-important matrix” of Covey or by applying what is taught by “productivity guru” David Allen in his book “Getting Things Done.” Or should we even create something suitable for Turkish culture as some people claim? I don’t know either. The only thing I know is that it is impossible to reach a desired point by jumping from one method to another and expecting an external factor to take us there. There are no magical solutions in life, as we well know.

Another friend of mine recently decided to develop her tennis skills, so she hired a very famous tennis teacher. This teacher is so famous because he is a little bit extraordinary. During the first month, he practiced only a single movement, the forehand swing, with my friend. They focused solely on this movement and tried to perfect it.

They focused so much on reaching perfection that the tennis teacher even forbid my friend from looking at where the tennis ball would fall. My friend, who got bored of practicing the same movement three or four days a week for a whole month, asked the teacher: “Are there no other movements in tennis?” The reply was strict and meaningful: “Lady,” said the wise teacher, “are you curious about other movements because you already learned this one?”

These words strike, like the buckshot of a gun, right at the heart of our development efforts. A Japanese saying tells us, “If you chase two rabbits, you will lose them both.” Thus, dear development voyagers who have taken this road—whether for improving health, improving relationships, becoming a better leader or establishing a more effective institution— give up your quest to find the best method, best system, most effective approach or wisest teacher. Set your heart on one path that is reasonable for you and start working in a disciplined manner. Then, as you start working, consider how hard the apprentices who learned a craft had to strive to become a master, the difficulties they faced when learning the “tricks of the trade” and the perseverance they showed. Think about those people who worked for 40 years in order to conduct the perfect “tea ceremony.” Think about the Zen masters who meditated on a wall for eight years. Think about the Sufis and Bektasis, who endured all kinds of challenges and lived an “ascetic life” for 40 years. After their initiation, the first thing they were asked to do was clean the toilets.

It is said the route, method or system is not something that you follow or apply; it is something you carry within you. And the struggle is never outside, it is always on the inside.

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The Wise Mystery

Hasan ‘Sonsuz’ Çeliktaş

sonsuz@thewisemag.com

Has the Holy Grail Been

Found?

Many people have looked for the “Holy Grail.” The search began with Percival, one of King Arthur’s knights, and was followed later by the characters of Dan Brown’s novel, The Da Vinci Code. Many religious orders have been based around it, many films have been shot, and various discussions have taken place. So then, what is the Holy Grail?

Does it really exist? Or is it simply a symbol as mentioned in the The Da Vinci Code? More importantly, if it does exist, where it is it being kept?

Following the crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathea caught some of Christ’s blood in the grail, although this is not mentioned in the Bible.

Ferhat Kanarya, the founder of www.gradale.com, claims he knows where the Holy Grail is and also provides detailed information about how he made the discovery. When we examined his data and saw its results, we decided to get in touch and ask him a few questions.

• Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach

Ferhat, could you explain to us the legend of the “Holy Grail”?

Interestingly, this topic became popular hundreds of years later. The time was during the Crusades when the Knights Templar was strong.

The Holy Grail is a sacred cup that, according to Christian tradition, was used by Jesus at the Last Supper.

So what do you think the Holy Grail is? Is it really a cup or a symbol?

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The Holy Grail concept is used in many books: • Perceval, le Conte du Graal by Chrétien de Troyes, • Joseph d’Arimathe by Robert de Boron,

• Queste del Saint Craal, which is an anonymous story considered the source of the King Arthur legend.

For the Vatican to take this approach for an event that took place about 700 years ago is really interesting.

Let’s talk about these “Codes.” There are lots of “Codes” out there, especially after Dan Brown. I will not ask you if these are true, because I know that you also shaped your work starting from a code.

Why do you think these codes were used?

It was to transfer knowledge to future generations. These were the big secrets of the order, and a special method was needed to pass them onto future generations. So, the grand masters of the order hid secrets within their works. Some examples are Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” Nicolas Poussin’s “The Arcadian Shepherds,” and the Shepherd’s Monument, which was built by the Anson family who were closely linked to the grand masters of the order. Perhaps they did this because they knew these works of art would always be protected.

There are also some arguments that Nostradamus, the creator of the prophecies that are also a part of the code, was a spy of the order in the French Palace as it continued its underground activities.

As we read from your website, these works of art helped you a lot. Can you tell us about your research?

In November 2004, after watching a program on the BBC about the Shepherd’s Monument in the garden of Shugborough Hall, I began to research it more. This program mentioned that the monument, which was built by the Anson family in 1748, included a mysterious inscription that was believed to be a code pointing to the Holy Grail.

For more than 250 years, many theologists, scientists, authors, and hackers—including Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin—tried to solve the mystery, but no one succeeded.

The argument that a connection existed between the mysterious inscription and the Holy Grail could be true, because the Anson family were closely linked to the grand masters of the Knights Templar. Also, the relief of the monument is based on the famous painting, “The Arcadian Shepherds” by Nicolas Pousssin, who was one of the grand masters of the Knights Templar. The relief is a mirror image of the painting, a method used by members of the Priory of Sion, a wing of the Knights Templar.

I think the Holy Grail is not a cup or similar object, but it symbolizes a secret knowledge or is a different religious object. If it were merely an object, we would see it in one of the famous museums or in a church or cathedral. You know relics are kept in a room in Topkapi Palace. The relics of prophets and leaders of religions are not kept hidden; they are displayed to the public.

Can you give us more detail about the Knights Templar?

It was a religious order that was scattered in 1307 in a combined assault by King Philip IV of France and Pope Clement. Many of its members perished when they were burned at the stake, but I believe the order was not fully destroyed. Rather, it transformed from a public organization into a secret one. I believe they still exist and have great power, both in economic and political spheres. In recent years, a book was published in light of documents that were accidentally found in the secret archives of the Vatican. The book consists of court records from when members of the Knights Templar were tried. The records show them to be innocent of the crimes they were accused of, as if it is an apology.

So, you decrypted the code using these hints. You mention all these things in detail on your website, but could you summarize it for us?

I first discovered that when we turn the relief upside down, the lacings from the old shepherd’s sandal showed the letters “LI” and “CAX.” These letters make the Latin word “calix,” which can be interpreted to mean “Grail.” At this point, I was entirely convinced the Shepherd’s Monument was built to point to the location of the Holy Grail, so I continued my studies.

The 866th prophecy of the famous oracle Nostradamus mentions an inscription consisting of the letters “D.M.” These letters are used in the second line of the Shepherd’s Monument inscription. The prophecy also gives some information about a woman and three men. The figures of a woman and three men are depicted on the relief of the monument. After some investigation, I found out that there were relationships between the Shepherd’s Monument, “The Arcadian Shepherds” painting, and the prophecies of Nostradamus. As my research deepened, I found many clues. The inscription on the Shepherd’s Monument was a key for us to find the real code, which is composed of three parts. The solution of this code gives the location of the Holy Grail.

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in a ruined place. The majority of academics and researchers would claim that the Holy Grail was not there because it was ruined. Others would assert that if it was in Hagia Sophia, the Byzantines would have found it.

Then, who hid the Holy Grail in Hagia Sophia and when?

Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, attended a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 326. Her aim was to find relics, and she found some of them in excavations. It is believed these relics are hidden in secret rooms under Çemberlitaş, a pillar in Istanbul. Perhaps there is nothing in these rooms. Perhaps the Byzantines took these relics to somewhere more secure during the 4th Crusade. Maybe, when the city was rescued, the relics and the Holy Grail were taken to Hagia Sophia and put in secure places.

You said the Holy Grail was a symbol? If so, what is hidden there?

Then, here is the most important question? Where is the Holy Grail?

It is right here in Istanbul. In Hagia Sophia!

How did you find this out?

In Hagia Sophia, I discovered the “LI” and “CAX” symbols also engraved on one of the walls, between the famous Deesis mosaic and the grave of Henricus Dandolo, one of the leaders of the 4th Crusade, when Istanbul was ruined.

Differing from “The Arcadian Shepherds” painting, on the relief of the Shepherd’s Monument there is a crown made of three laurels. The same figure is seen on the marble under the window near to the Deesis Mosaic. You cannot see this figure anywhere else in Hagia Sophia.

The code is a French anagram formed of three parts. It tells that the keys point out the location of the Holy Grail, and the keys are the “LI” and “CAX” figures. These figures were engraved under the secret chamber where the Holy Grail is. A closed chamber sits on top of four pillars that stand between the Deesis Mosaic and Henricus Dandolu’s grave. The Holy Grail is hidden there.

Why was Hagia Sophia chosen to hide the Holy Grail?

It is obvious that Hagia Sophia is one of the most suitable places to hide the Holy Grail. Hagia Sophia means “Holy Wisdom.” The secret knowledge was hidden in the “Holy Wisdom.” This is really meaningful, even at first sight. During the 4th Crusade in 1204, Istanbul was ruined and Hagia Sophia with it. In fact, these ruins seemingly discount Hagia Sophia as the location of the grail. No one would look for the Holy Grail 64 The Wise

I believe the Holy Grail is the Ark of the Covenant. This object is considered holy by the three major Abrahamic religions. It belongs to the family of the Prophet David, who brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and appointed a tribe of Israel to protect it. It was lost just after the occupation of Jerusalem by the Babylonian Kingdom around 586BC. The Ark of the Covenant is also mentioned in the Holy Quran, which tells that it contains relics from Moses and Haroon. The Knights Templar made numerous excavations at the base of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem to find the Ark of the Covenant, because it is said that any army that carries it is unbeatable. The Knights Templar announced themselves as the protectors of the Holy Grail to indicate they were in the service of Christianity. I think the Holy Grail is a symbol that points to the Ark of the Covenant. It is commonly believed that angels carry the Ark of the Covenant. Not surprisingly, at the dome of Hagia Sophia there is a mosaic showing four angels. Here is another symbol! The thing everyone is looking for is under the feet of the angels. Interesting, isn’t it?

We know that there are techniques today to help us to see what is there, even behind walls. If the Holy Grail is found using these methods, what happens then? What does it mean for humanity? Does it change anything?

The Ark of the Covenant is a miraculous object that has mysterious powers. It is mentioned in the holy books of the three major religions. It is an important object especially for the Israelites, because this object is a strong reminder of the testimony between their ancestors and God. Like the Jewish menorah, it is a symbol of Judaism. Also, some Islamic hadiths say the Mahdi will take the Ark of the Covenant from its place. According to Islamic belief, the Mahdi is the person who will rule the entire world. I think the two religions will oppose each other at that point.

I have petitioned the Hagia Sophia Museum and also the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to give permission for some inspections, but unfortunately I never get a satisfactory reply from them. I think everyone lacks the courage to remove the Ark of the Covenant from its place. If it is found, we may face some alarming situations.

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The Wise Mystery

Cihangir Gener

cihangir.gener@thewisemag.com

Most of the information concerning the Lost Continent of Mu and the Mu civilization was brought to light because of studies made by the British researcher James Churchward during the 19th century. Having served as a colonel in the British armed forces, Churchward obtained his initial information about the continent while serving in India and Tibet during the 1880s. After retiring, he continued his research in Central America and wrote five books about the lost continent. The source of Churchward’s theories were the “Naacal Tablets,” which had been given to him

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by the high priest of a monastery in Western Tibet, and a collection of tablets that was uncovered by US Geologist William Niven in Mexico in 1921–23.

The scientific world is cynical about the existence of either the Mu civilization, revealed by Churchward, or the other famous lost continent, Atlantis. However, the same scientific world confirms the world underwent a dramatic geological event 12,000 years ago, when these two continents are claimed to have sunk. Moreover, legends

brotherhood that kept esoteric doctrine alive, albeit via other channels. He may also have believed it was time to disclose certain secrets to the western world.

With these thoughts in mind, Rishi acted as a master for Churchward for two years and taught him the longlost language, known only by the high priests, in which the Naacal tablets were written.

Having learned the Naacal language and examined the tablets, Churchward started his research hoping to find traces of the lost continent Mu and its civilization in the tablets. This research would span 50 years.

of massive floods are told by tribes and nations almost everywhere in the world, which supports the idea of a cataclysmic event. Further support can be found in many artifacts, the origins of which still cannot be explained—such as some from Egypt, Mayan remains, and the Easter Island civilization—unless you recognize the existence of these lost continental civilizations.

According to evolutionary theories and general findings, around 200,000–500,000 years ago, “Homo Erectus,” who could stand upright on two feet, gave up its place to “Homo Sapiens,” the humans with the ability to think. Even if we assume that Homo sapiens emerged only 200,000 years ago, this would mean human beings only started creating today’s civilization very late in their existence. What could have caused the Homo sapiens, who came into the world 200,000 years ago with a brain weight and thinking capacity considered by experts to be the same as modern people, to suddenly take giant steps around 6,000 years ago, after existing for at least 194,000 years?

In fact, modern scientific circles claim that the wheel and scripture was invented only by around 4,000 B.C. However, although very few documents and findings from the time remain, due to the flood disaster experienced by the world, what there is suggests human beings had developed at least one large civilization in the distant past, in addition to the established civilizations, and that today’s civilization has its roots in this ancient civilization.

In 1883, James Churchward uncovered the most important of these documents at a monastery in Western Tibet. While he was in Tibet on duty, he wandered around the monasteries researching the origins of ancient religions. Churchward came across a monastery in Western Tibet where the high priest Rishi, who was one of the leading members of the “Great Brotherhood of Priests” (“Naacal Brotherhood”), showed Churchward the “Naacal Tablets” that were written 15,000 years ago.

It remains a mystery why Rishi showed Churchward these tablets, which had been kept secret for thousands of years. However, it is presumed that Rishi, an initiated person himself, felt close to Churchward because of his affiliation to the Masons, another

Churchward, who conducted investigations on almost every island in the Pacific Ocean—as well as in Siberia, Central Asia, Australia and Egypt—eventually found success in Mexico. In the excavations made during years 1921–23 in Mexico, the US Geologist William Niven found a collection of around 2,600 tablets that were determined to date from 11,500–12,000 years ago. The scripture on these tablets could not be read by either Niven or by Carnegie Institute specialist Dr. Morley, who made a detailed examination of them. Meanwhile, Churchward, on hearing of the discovery of the tablets, went to Mexico and succeeded in decrypting them, proving they were written in the Naacal language he had learned in Tibet. Piecing together the Tibetan tablets with Mexican tablets to fill in the missing information, Churchward wrote his book about the lost continent Mu that had great repercussions all over the world.

The findings of Churchward and Niven suggest the Mu continent had covered a large part of today’s Pacific Ocean and that Hawaii, Tahiti, Fiji, Easter Island and the other Polynesian islands are the remains of this submerged continent. Danish researcher and writer Eric Von Daniken also points out how the cultures of these islands, which are thousands of kilometers from each other, are astonishingly similar.

According to Churchward, the Mu continent was a giant island continent with a distance of 8,000 kilometers from east to west and 5,000 kilometers from north to south. The Naacal tablets suggest this continent was the cradle of civilization. With a history of around 70,000 years, the Mu civilization, in time, established many colonies and empires all around the world.

Atlantis and the Uighur Empire are two principal nations that were colonized by the Mu civilization, both of which became empires after gaining their independence. In addition, the Ancient Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, and Mayan civilizations also originated from the Mu civilization.

It is not known when the Mu civilization started. The Naacal and Mexican tablets are hardly informative. However, the tablets show that Mu’s colonization, as well as the dissemination of the religion underlying its civilization, began 70,000 years ago.

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A bullet with the blaze of a smokeless fire bursting into flame was shot. Suddenly, everywhere was plunged into darkness. Then came a light blinding the eyes and a noise splitting the ear. The high temperature made the water evaporate. The elephants, horses and humans were immediately parched. The trees entirely burned. When everywhere was lit up again, only a handful of ashes remained of the giant army….

In addition to the level of civilization attained by our ancestors, this legend shows that their world hardly had its share of peace, as it is in today’s world.

Mahabharata legends and some other legends, such as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, support either one of the theories of the submerged continents, Atlantis and Mu. Let us now look at the ruling style of the Mu civilization and the first monotheistic religion, which was the primary means for its rise, the “Mu religion.”

Mu was an empire, and the title of the emperor was “Ra Mu,” which means the Son of the Sun. Another name for the Mu Empire was the “Empire of the Sun.” In Mu language, the word “Ra” meant “Sun.” In Egypt, a colony of Mu, the sun god is also called “Ra.” The title of the emperor in Japan, the origin of which is thought to date back to Mu civilization, is also the “Son of the Sun.” In addition, the kings in the ancient Mayan and Incan empires used the same title as well.

The symbols of the Naacals were mainly comprised of geometric shapes. Naacal teachings proposed that the geometric and architectural qualities of God were of the highest importance in the emergence of the universe.

The Naacal Tablets, which were determined to be 15,000 years old, include detailed prophecies about the origins of the universe and its emergence. According to these tablets, in the beginning of the universe, there was only the spirit. Afterwards, the space dominated by chaos came into existence out of this spirit. In time, chaos started to give its place to order, and shapeless, dispersed gases in the space clustered together. These gases condensed to form the stars and planets. During this process, first air and then water formed, which covered the earth. Sunlight warmed up the air and water. Lights and fire under the earth raised the ground from under the water, which became open ground. The sunlight created the eggs of cosmic life (RNA-DNA) inside the water and loam. The first life left the water and spread all over the planet.

The astonishing similarity to the modern theories of how the universe and life were created cannot be a coincidence. In any case, it would be senseless to expect such information from a civilization that is at least 70,000 years old. Let’s use another resource to demonstrate the level of civilization attained in Mu. In Mahabharata, written 3,000 years ago, a weapon used by human beings in the distant past is described:

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Subordinate to the emperor were the “Naacals,” who were both scientists and priests that represented the ruling class. The “Mu religion,” which was spread around the world by the Naacals, acting as members of the “Brotherhood of Holy Secrets,” was probably the first monotheistic religion that humans believed in. While explaining this concept to ordinary people, the citizens of their homeland and colonies, the Naacals preferred to use a symbolic language that was easier to understand. The esoteric meanings of these symbols were known only by the initiated brothers and the emperor Ra Mu. The symbols of the Naacals were mainly comprised of geometric shapes. Naacal teachings proposed that the geometric and architectural qualities of God were of the highest importance in the emergence of the universe. According to the Mu religion, the God was such a sacred being that it could not be mentioned directly. If not expressed by a symbol, ordinary people would not be able to comprehend it. The symbol of this supreme being was the Sun, or in other words, “Ra.” This is the basis for all those misrepresented claims that God is the Sun, as well as the beliefs characterized in sun cults.

In Naacal teachings, the Sun was not actually God, but rather a symbol selected to make God’s unity and oneness understandable to the masses. Another aim of using symbols was to prevent certain styles of expression from becoming stereotyped by attributing new meanings to the symbols in light of developments, as well as to free the religion from bigotry and dogmas. However as the civilization collapsed and the main source vanished, the symbols themselves became idolized and resulted in the birth of polytheistic religions.

Ra-Mu himself was the high priest of this religion, which taught worshipping one God with the help of symbols, as well as the leader of the holy brotherhood.

However, the emperor did not have a divine personality and held the title “Son of the Sun” symbolically due to his status only.

The temples where Naacal brothers disseminated their teachings and initiated new members were scattered all around the continent and its colonies. Made of giant stone blocks, these temples did not have roofs and were called “transparent temples.” The lack of roofs enabled the sunlight to directly reach the initiated ones. This was also a kind of symbol, and its esoteric meaning was that there should be no barriers between God and the person. In today’s masonry, the same symbol is used in the ceilings of Masonic temples where they are decorated in a way symbolizing the sky, as if their tops are open.

The prominent symbol of the Mu religion is the “Cosmic Diagram of Mu.”

inclinations.

In this diagram, the circle located in the center is the collective symbol of the sun (“Ra”) or in other words, the one God. The circle inside the triangles symbolizes how God always keeps an eye on human beings, and the two interlaced triangles symbolize the coexistence of good and evil. The upward triangle depicts good, reaching at God, while the downward triangle depicts the return pursuant to the law of rebirth. The hexagonal star formed by these two triangles is the symbol of justice. In addition, each corner of this star symbolizes a virtue, representing that humans may reach God only when they have these virtues. The circle outside the hexagonal star represents other realms beyond the earth, and the 12 festoons symbolize the 12 evil inclinations that human beings must avoid.

Before its passage to the other realms, the human spirit must be freed from these 12 worldly

Meanwhile, the eight-lane road going downward symbolizes the stages the spirit must go through in order to reach God. The spirit has to rise from the bottom, a nonliving thing, up to perfection and become the perfect human being.

In Naacal temples, the moon symbol is located right next to the sun.

While the male symbol of God, being both the mother and father, is the sun, its female symbol is the moon. As seen in the cosmic diagram, the triangle and the number three has a special place in Naacal teachings. The importance placed on the number three originates from the Mu continent itself.

The Mu continent is a group of islands in three parts with narrow straits in between. Therefore, the triangle symbolizes not only the Mu continent, but also the male and female aspects of God, as well as the Divine Word emerging from these (meaning the universe). The eye inside the triangle depicts how the main source (i.e., God) always makes his presence felt by all human beings and watches them in a way. This symbol was conveyed first to Atlantis with Osiris, and then to Egypt with Hermes, from Egypt to Greece by Pythagoras and eventually to today’s Masons.

Just like many symbols, the origins of the initiation ceremony for new members to the Teaching of Esoteric Secrets, lies in the Naacal teachings of Mu. In this ceremony, which survives to this day in various organizations, the candidate, if deemed worthy, was initiated to the brotherhood after going through a long period of preparation and investigation. The only information we have about the initiation ceremony is that members were initiated to the Naacal brotherhood by selection. However, there is no reason to think the initiation ceremony of the Hermetic brotherhood of Egypt is much different from the ceremony conducted by the Naacals. Let’s look back at the conceptions of Naacal teachings. The Mu religion has four main notions: 1- The God is one. Everything emerged from it, and everything will return to it.

2- The body and spirit are separate from each other. The body dies and disintegrates, while the spirit never dies.

3-

The spirit is born into different bodies to reach perfection.

4- When the spirit reaches perfection, it returns to the God and unifies with it.

According to Naacal teachings, God is love itself, and the entire universe is built on this love. However, only the spirits that are able to comprehend this universal love are capable of returning to it. To be a person with these qualities is only possible by becoming a Naacal brother and deeply absorbing the teachings. Naacals acknowledge that only the high priests may reach this stage.

Another basis of the Naacal teachings is the theory that four fundamental forces rose out of divine light, drawing the universe from chaos and ordering it. These four fundamental forces, which are deemed to be the principal characteristics of God himself, are also called the “four great constructors,” “four great architects,” and “four great geometry masters.” These four fundamental elements are fire, wind, water and earth.

With the birth of the Abrahamic religions, these four basic elements were named as “four archangels.”The Naacals symbolized these four fundamental forces with a crooked cross. Among the crosses found on the Mexican tablets uncovered by Niven, we see how those with four arms of equal length symbolize the equality of the four forces. The leftward-looking edges of the crooked crosses symbolize good, whereas the rightward-looking ones symbolize evil. It is no coincidence that Hitler, who deeply researched these subjects, chose the crooked cross with its edges looking rightward to be the symbol of his empire.

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The Wise Story

Hasan ‘Sonsuz’ Çeliktaş

sonsuz@thewisemag.com

River ofGod…

In The

The story of a spiritual journey, each sentence felt and lived.

Chapter 1 When I opened my eyes, God was smiling at me. He was sat on a stone at the bank of the river, where I had fallen asleep on his lap.

- Welcome, Hasan.

- I guess I drifted off a little.

- Life is sometimes tiring for you isn’t it, my dear little one? You should rest and breathe from time to time. Come now, let’s walk a little.

He stood up from the stone slowly, grumbling as he rose.

-Ah, I am getting old.

-Getting old? You are God! How can you get old?

-Just because I am God, it doesn’t mean I lose the right to grumble about getting old, Hasan. Is it only you that can enjoy doing this? After all, tell me who created rheumatism, eh? Tell me.

-Ok, ok. I’ll shut up. Besides, I’m still dizzy, puzzled and confused.

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-I know what you dreamed about. “You were worthless,” right? “You were not loved, and you were ugly.” You “were not wanted,” were you?

-It was a very lively dream. I cried a lot because it hurt so much.

-The tears shed in your dreams are more precious to me than diamonds, Hasan. In your dizziness, you are not aware of how much you are liked, but be sure that thousands of angels would line up to touch your tears. This is not only for you; it applies to everyone.

-I don’t feel clean, my Lord. The dream was so powerful and so real. It feels like I am covered in dirt. I want to relax and feel relieved.

-So come, let’s dive in the river together, my little one. You can caress the fish in the river, and I will wash you with my own hands. I like doing this. I miss it a lot, but so few of you stop by these days.

-I guess that once everyone reads these lines, you will be busy rushing from one person to another, my Lord, so great will be the demand.

-As you can see, there is room for everyone here.

And then God bade me to enter his river. The river was neither too warm nor too cold; you wouldn’t want to come out at all. The fish swam past and let me stroke them. Then God caressed my head with affection and started washing me with his palms.

-They don’t believe I have lived all these events when I write about them. They think I create superficial worlds or that my imagination is too great. Some of them even try to convince me.

-Hush, don’t think or talk right now please. You already think and judge all the time. Please, just enjoy the river.

-Why can’t I just give myself to the river completely, my Lord? I’m tense and uncomfortable. If I feel this way even in the hands of God, what can anyone on Earth do?

-Hush! You are still thinking; you are still judging, Hasan. Just relax.

Yes, I can see you feel that way, but be patient. You didn’t expect me

to rub off years of dirt in mere seconds, did you?

-But you are God, things happen when you say they will.

-What good would it be if I made it that fast? Do you think we are rushing packages for the evening post? You should enjoy it, taste it.

This is called “patience,” which you ask for from time to time.

-Does patience mean enjoying everything? No way!

-When you enjoy things, you live the fact that everything happens to be the way it is meant to be, my dear one. Patience is already there: You accept what you’re offered, you enjoy it, and you live it. I say again, Patience is enjoying the moment, rather than “suffering” while waiting for things to happen.

-So how do I enjoy this moment?

-By removing the words, “So how do…?” from the sentence to leave you with, “I enjoy this moment.” You just want to enjoy it, and that should be enough. There is no “how.” You already know to leave the “how” to me.

God caressed my head with affection while cleaning me in the waters of the river. We continued talking.

-I feel very tired and worn out. My whole body is aching.

-The water will do you good, don’t worry. Now go and sleep for a while if you wish. We will feel rested tomorrow. I love you.

-And I you, my Lord.

Chapter 2 -Welcome once again.

-I had this joy and rhapsody inside me all day long, my Lord. I guess it is the effect of the river’s water… My God, what are you doing?

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Imagine a scene where an old man sits in the middle of the river. He’s holding a stick with a sponge on the end, rubbing his back with it.

-Isn’t it obvious? I’m rubbing my back. You don’t think it becomes me?

-Well, I’d be lying if I said I did. I never thought of you like this.

-Well, I am a sweet old man, of course, who sits in the sky or next to you and smiles happily, am I not? Do I not have the right to enjoy rubbing my body? Why? Because I am God? Shall I tell you what is limiting you, Hasan? You strain yourself too much, and you take life far too seriously. It is as if you lack the ability to enjoy things and the talent for humor, especially in your relationship with me. I’ll bite. I could deform you!

Have you ever witnessed a case where I deformed someone?

-Well, I’ve never seen people become crooked, but they say several disasters were due to us annoying you.

-Hah! You will reach the stars soon, but you still hold the beliefs from ancient times. Since the day you came into existence, you always blamed me for everything you were afraid of. You have created numerous rituals to control me. It happens that my anger was going to subside, and what you wished for was going to happen for real.

It was the same 100,000 years before, and it is still the same now.

Frankly, it is fun to watch all your efforts. What’s more interesting is how we sometimes interfere and say, “Look, brother; the water isn’t deep, so you won’t be drowned.” But they insist on jumping in and struggling, and we enjoy watching.

-So, while we are struggling, you are up there laughing at us?

-What would you do in my place? We make you stand up, and you dive again. You shout for help, and we save you. You dive again. One day, when you really stand on your own two feet, you will see you struggled for nothing. You’ll realize how funny you were, and you will start laughing too. You big fools…

Frankly, I wasn’t offended, as there was affection in these words.

He wasn’t humiliating us. On the contrary, he was explaining our situation very clearly and enjoying the moment. Meanwhile, he continued rubbing his back.

-I know the question you are going to ask, Hasan.

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-I would be surprised if you didn’t, my Lord.

-You already know the answer.

You felt it inside you today. There is no purified existence. This is just your effort to ignore your feelings, creating some “hostile feelings” that have to be purged. But, make this the subject for another time.

It may be an important matter for some, but it wouldn’t mean anything at all for others. They shouldn’t worry.

-So why are you rubbing your back if not to purge yourself?

-You have such a practical way of thinking. Just enjoy it, bro! This is not the purgation river. This is the river of joy.

-So why did you cleanse me here last night?

-I didn’t wash you. I blessed you.

Why do you want to be cleansed, my son?

-I have so much disappointment, limitations, and pain inside me.

-Are you going to keep this up all your life? Are you going to spend all your time cleaning and purifying yourself? When are you going to find time to enjoy life in your clean, fragrant ways? What good is it to be clean if you spend your entire life in the bath?

-But wasn’t I supposed to clean them, get over them, and make peace with them?

-Who said that? I never said such a thing.

-But all the books write about it: purgation, cleaning, karma, making peace with yourself, etc.

-Yes, they do, but you have become far too wrapped up in those “handbooks for bath attendants.” You think of life only as a Turkish bath. Let’s say it takes only an hour to clean yourself in the bath.

So, what are you going to do with the rest of your time? You are so obsessed with it that you don’t even think about going out. You keep on creating a world within that bath. I call you from it from time to time, but who cares? You ripped off your skins from rubbing so much.

Consider this, if your skin hurts from staying in the bath for so long, maybe that is the source of all your pain? If you rub your skin so much, of course it will become worn and galled. It is time you realized your situation and come out. You will be amazed when you see how limited the things you consider as “reality” are.

He kept on rubbing his back. He really enjoyed it, and he was singing.

He had left me alone while enjoying himself. I considered what he said, and as I thought, I came up with something. I guess in all those books we read to “know ourselves,” especially those we regard as important, we’re limited to what we do in the “bath.”

What we have read and live is only “one hour a week,” compared to what we could live outside the bath. What’s worse is that some of us are afraid to get out of it. For some, nothing other than the bath exists.

They have settled in it and accepted it as the only absolute reality.

What’s also interesting is that there were many people queuing to enter the bath, and because we were so settled, we prevented others from coming inside. Even though the “bath” is infinite and large enough to include everyone, those queuing didn’t dare enter while we were still there. So, they waited, and some were so afraid they left the queue. And from time to time, when some of us tried to encourage those in the line to come in, there was chaos. However, the “bath” was just a stop on the way, but we exaggerated it and settled there, making it a sort of womb. This new womb protected us from the outside world, even though the world outside the “bath” is full of joy, like the river I was now standing in, but we were afraid.

-I guess there’s no need for me to write anymore. We covered all the material.

-On the contrary, I don’t agree at all. I believe they will give more importance to this in time. Your story about getting out of the “bath” will accelerate the flow of the universe, and you will have joy you never dreamed of. You will see the “bath” as something tiny in a vast universe. Admittedly, a great place, but a very tiny one nonetheless.

And why do you think that this life of yours, on this planet and in this universe, is the only one you have? You assume you have said something great, don’t you? This is because you don’t know what is beyond the “bath.” There is a great universe you can live in, but you can think only of death. With some people, the “bath” causes them to think they will die of something if they leave. Tell them they have stayed long enough and must now get out, and they soon will. They feel like they are going to die because of the heat and vapor of the “bath.”

-I think there may be some who cannot handle this.

-Well, let the ones who understand do so. You can see with your own eyes that this river is open to everyone, and I am keen to bless them and talk to them, as I have with you. I am enjoying myself here. I fish, and I enjoy it. Whoever wants to come is welcome. You found yourself here because you really wanted this. There isn’t a single person in the universe I would not respond to if they asked to get out! Let the whole world know this through your writings. There isn’t even a single person to which I would not reply. You are all welcome in the river. All you have to do is to call me. Believe me, you will open your eyes while on my lap, and the first thing you will feel is my kisses. This will be your “welcome” kiss for arriving here, your “real” home.

-I can’t say anything to that, my Lord. You go on enjoying yourself, and I will let myself flow on the river a little.

-There should be another back sponge near the stone. Why not try it?

I recommend it; it’s fun.

-My God. -I love you too, Hasan.

-Thanks, you have quieted me.

-Rub your baaack…..

Chapter 3 “I know what you want to talk about,” God said, moving his fishhook back and forward. He looked at me with mischievous eyes.

-Well, I have a right to have fun, don’t I? You thought I would jump onto every question of yours each time you ask one? You should

-And how do you help those who are inside?

-We struggle to get them out. We call them using affection and tenderness.

If they don’t believe, we call them by shaking their shoulders. You are afraid, and you stick to where you are confined.

What I want to say is that we do our best for you. We have even sent men among you. And so, you start listening and thinking, “some things are changing; this period of change will pass too.” The more we try to take you out, the more you want to stay, thinking it’s a test. It is time you understood there are no tests, only experiences and joy.

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learn patience too, you impetuous thing…

He managed to surprise me each time. When I came with the exciting news that all my questions were answered at once, he indifferently continued fishing.

-Woah! Come and see what your God has just caught. This is called a fragrant tuna fish. Look at the beauty; the creator did a great job…

While the fish on the hook struggled, God enjoyed watching the poor thing. Then he unhooked it gently and threw it in the air.

The fish turned into a bird and started flying. I looked at the bird with astonished eyes…

-Well, his time for evolution has come too. Come, sit next to me now.

I sat on the stone next to him. He had a paper boat in his hand, which he placed in the river with a smile on his face. The paper boat started moving slowly at first, but then it caught the flow.

-Look at the boat carefully. It entered the river and has already attuned itself to it. We watch it adapting to the river with pleasure, just as we do with your lives. The boat may symbolize many things, with its greatest meaning being that the boat is you on the banks of the river of life. However, I’m using it to explain something else here.

Remember asking me the other day, “What is the difference between waiting and expectation?” The answer lies in that boat.

-I know, we have to let everything flow…

-You know too much, but you only “know.” There is a difference between one who knows and one who lives. They are both given the same paper. The one who knows writes on the paper about how to make a paper boat. The one who lives makes a boat out of the paper and floats it on the water. Because I love both of them eternally, I don’t care about the choice they make. But these papers are magical, and their magic is because they represent your energy of life. You can use the paper to draw things on, or you can leave it on the water and watch it float away… This is your choice. I just want to remind you that I give you those papers to make boats with.

-What about “waiting and expectation”?

-Now, now. Expectation comes from deficiency, while waiting comes from patience… I may say this, and you will say, “Oh?” So, if you please let me, I will explain it to you, and tell you what to do next.

-Sure, God. Be my guest…

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-Well, thank you! Now, think of the situations where you created expectations. Let’s say you like someone, and you assume that person feels the same.

You start getting closer, and then you start having expectations of her, don’t you? You feel happy when she exhibits certain attitudes. Then, when she doesn’t have those attitudes, you wonder what happened, don’t you? Your motivation here isn’t your interest in her, it’s whether you are going to be loved and accepted.

You expect this because of the deficiencies you feel in yourself, because you don’t see yourself worth being loved or accepted.

You even compensate by trying to take control of everything, so you can make your expectations happen, but how can you control the boat you put in the river? You can maybe use a branch to push it or maybe even throw stones in the river to create ripples and change its direction. In the end, however, all your efforts will do nothing other than confuse the boat, which already has it’s flow. You know this very well, because you love that game, don’t you?

-Oh, you can’t imagine… I can’t even guess at all I have missed because of my expectations…

-Actually, there is nothing you have missed. You just need to understand you shouldn’t touch the boat on the river. Well, this is a big lesson to learn, because it needs you to believe the river will push the boat as far as it needs to go. These are definitely your most important steps…

-What about waiting then?

-That is the attitude of those who have learned not to touch the boat, but there is a trick. Patience is not keeping yourself busy or sitting and waiting on the banks of the river while the boat flows toward its final destination. It is to have faith in it. What I suggest to make things better is this, which I believe will be enjoyable for you. First, use the paper in your hands to make boats rather than write on them. Then, let them flow on the river. Don’t interfere with their flow, and don’t keep looking after them from the bank, because you will miss all the opportunities in your hands. Like what? The hundreds, thousands, and millions of papers inside the basket near the stone you’re sitting on. There are enough papers to make endless boats, instead of looking after the one floating. Well, to be frank, waiting would also make you lose time. You should just constantly make the boats and let them flow in the river, letting each boat be one of your intentions and choices. These boats will reach their targets at the right time, and while you are enjoying the happiness of it, other boats will arrive at their targets, and you really will start getting high. But

even at that moment, do not stop. Keep on making boats until the last one…

-Ha? What is it?

-The moment you feel like making the last boat, you will be freed from all of your wishes and intentions. You will be ready for your biggest experience. The moment you feel it is time to do it, the whole universe and your life will change.

in every corner of my soul, and I could feel it deep inside…

-Welcome.

-Where are we, I know you, but you, you…

-Yes, this is me: The heart of the Universe…

-But, but, I don’t understand. Where am I, and who are you?

-What is that last boat?

-I am LOVE, Hasan, the one you always wanted to experience…

-You make the last boat and put it in the river. But this time you are not on the banks of the river, Hasan. You put yourself on the boat and let yourself float on the river. You have no control. You have surrendered with all your existence, and you have infinite trust. You are sure it is not going to capsize or fall down a waterfall, because even in situations like that, you know you will transform into new forms. If the boat capsizes, you will realize you are a fish and pass that part of the river as one. If you crash into a rock, you will find yourself directly on land feeling the banks of the river. If you go over a waterfall, you will have wings… The river is never going to destroy you or drown you. It will just change its form to show your other forms.

This is to trust in the river.

-I never thought LOVE was an old man. I expected Eros or Aphrodite instead.

-An excellent example, but what exactly is your role in this river, my Lord? When do we see you next to us in this flow?

-What is the title of your story, Hasan? “In The River of God,” isn’t it? Isn’t this title clear enough? What do you think the source of this river is?

Suddenly, his hands and feet transformed into drops of water and mixed with the waters of the river. He was joining with the water of the river, and I heard him calling to me, “Don’t be afraid. Join me.”

Hesitantly, I stepped into the water, and the moment I touched it, I started melting. My body was cold as ice. Suddenly, I felt like I was flowing. I felt His existence, but we didn’t have physical bodies anymore. And we started floating together…

-My God, where are we going? I haven’t finished all my questions yet…

He smiled meaningfully.

-In which part of your life did you live with the symbols and judgments of other people? You always looked for the different one, the unpronounced one. Now, you have come face to face with LOVE this way. There are questions on your mind, and I will show you the real ME. Please, look into my eyes and see my soul…

I was already looking constantly into his eyes, but when he said that, something completely different appeared that could not be expressed by words. As I looked deeper into his eyes, I could feel I was entering him. I was swimming in his soul, but what I was really meant to see came a bit later. I saw myself there, sitting on the stone.

Me, who wondered about LOVE, who thought he had lived something, and who was sitting tensely on the stone. And when I was completely unified with LOVE, I split from myself and started seeing myself from outside. ME, who wanted to be accepted, who felt deficiencies inside, who struggled between living through painful experiences and running from them, and who waited without knowing what would happen. ME, who ran after LOVE all his life, who captured it from time to time, and who realized everything in that course. It was ME, who defined himself as “unlovable and ugly,” and ME who ignored physical beauty and the people who loved him. ME, who was obsessed only with rejection and the opinions of others. And that ME was sitting on a stone opposite LOVE and waiting for answers…

-Enjoy it, my little one. We’ll talk about love and relations the next time. A ha! You were going to ask about that, right? As you can see, everything has it’s time, and now it is time to flow, yeah!!!!

Then suddenly, he gave himself to the flow and disappeared. Well, there was nothing left to do.

I let myself flow too… I didn’t know where we were going either…

Chapter 4 The old man looked at me with naughty, affectionate eyes. I could feel in every cell of my body the love, trust, and peace I saw in his eyes.

He pointed at me as if to say, “Come sit,” and I sat myself on the stone next to him. I couldn’t express my feelings with words. A voice echoed The Wise 75

After a short while, the scene started changing and a girl came close to the ME who was sitting on the stone. The girl was my first love.

She took me by my hand and made me stand up. The ME in front of me started walking, and while he was walking, I understood the script I was writing in my life. She never knew I was in love with her, and she was never going to. This was a platonic love, and it was a disappointment I kept to myself. She was the beginning of something.

I didn’t know anything about LOVE back then. Then I saw her waving her hands, and after a while, someone else showed up. This was a really interesting scene indeed. I could see that souls, which I thought had never loved or hated me, were aware of me and loved me. They were people whom I loved, and they acted like it, because it suited the new script. I could see these souls would have never seen me if the script was different. I was walking, and I could see their attitudes, which would lead me to my original course.

What guided me on “my real course” has always been “I cannot be loved” and “I am insufficient.” Suddenly, I understood that for anything to exist in the universe, the opposite must also exist. The system doesn’t work if one is missing, and I had created patterns that would make me feel it’s “lack” deeper and bind me to my “real course.”

Joining my real course was going to be so great that I had to live the “lack” as strongly. The ME walking on the road was hand in hand with others, and they left when it was time. While our souls thanked each other, the ME on Earth was both suffering and strengthened by these images.

After a while, the souls who were with the ME on Earth began appearing, and the experiences started changing. Rejections were over, and now, there was only acceptance. The soul had started maturing and learning the LOVE on Earth. It started learning about the energy of LOVE on Earth and the experience of relationships. I could see it was developing, but the doors of insignificance still lay inside, and they were necessary. Then my first serious love showed up, and we started walking hand in hand. She was my first “special,” “inspiring,” and “really wanted” love. The others started appearing in the scene, and I watched the kinds of gifts we gave each other. I understood this: Souls in love were thousand-year-old friends who gave each other tremendous gifts, but whose real gifts were the happiness they experienced together.

All the souls were friends, they were just taking on different roles on Earth, and we shared these roles.

Meanwhile, understanding “friendship” of the soul was very different from “friendship” on Earth. While we define “friendship” as friends who are always beside us but who are not in love, the friendship of souls includes everything. Soul friends could be lovers, brothers, parents, close friends, or even enemies. Actually, I think it would sound better to call it “existence” rather than “a friend.” They were the ones “who existed,” and they kept on existing in thousands of forms to experience all the faces of being.

Then an incredible scene appeared in front of my eyes, and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. All the loves of my life were in front of me, and they were looking at me with affection. Behind them was someone sitting in a huge lotus leaf. The moment I saw her, my eyes

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became fixed. It was my SOULMATE, the other half of ME, who was the FEMALE in me… Above all, this was the one I had been seeking for so many years. She was ME and that ME was inside me…

At this point, I will give HER account of the meeting: An infinitely beautiful and long time was spent with love and patience waiting for him in a leaf. I felt a sense of unity waiting for him. I felt joy waiting for him to come. I felt the existence of GOD, but another part of me was keen to embrace the endless energy of patience, trust, and joy entrusted to me by he who said, “I will never help myself by taking it from you.” I know he is going to come back mature and greatly experienced. I look forward to his affection at the moment when I will embrace him and we shall become ONE. I gave him love each time he suffered pain on earth, and he filled me with affection on the moments he thought of me and remembered our words, “When the time comes…”

Now I sensed the time had come when I looked up and saw around me all the souls who had accompanied him for those thousands of years. I knew he was coming, and I stood up, all naked, with infinite hunger. Then suddenly he entered. The endless wait had ended, and HE, the “Infinite,” was in front of me. The flower who had showered me with affection was half open, and I was moving slowly toward him.

Our eyes were fixed, as if they were captivated, and those thousands of souls gave way to us in silence. They had the joy of witnessing this great MOMENT… Then we came face to face and stood there silently.

We embraced each other and our lips came together in hunger and love. We were ONE, and we were going to keep following our course as ONE eternally…

When I opened my eyes, I found myself sitting on a stone. The old man was staring at me with the same naughty and affectionate expression. I felt different compared to two hours before. Now there was a second voice talking inside me, and I knew I had missed it for years. Her existence had filled every gap in my soul, and I knew I wasn’t “deprived” anymore. She had been with me all my life, and the energy we shared could not be explained with words. We were UNITED in one body, just as we have always been. And for the first time in my life, I didn’t wonder about the consequences… SHE was with ME…

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