Practitioner Articles
Made For These Times by Ais Esther
Made For These Times
I returned only yesterday from a cruise in the Caribbean with Esther Hicks. Esther has, for forty years, channeled a stream of infinite intelligence, by the name of Abraham. It isn’t the first time I have cruised with Esther, but I was particularly looking forward to it this year. 2020 has been relentless. For sensitive people, the music never stops, but not in my lifetime has it ever clanged, as Shakespeare spoke it, so ‘out of tune and harsh’. The symphony of 2020 has been discordant, and the atmosphere frenzied with uncertainty.
And yet, as we sailed across the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean, I felt as if I was sitting in the eye of a storm that moved with us. Disembarking at each port, the strangeness was omnipresent. Evidence everywhere of splitting realities and a ravine of incongruity yawning wide. Traders on the islands approached us with desperation, as they felt their livelihood slipping through their fingers. I snorkelled in Bonaire, and the coral lay in small bleached clusters, hard to see in dusty water. Uneasiness hung in the air; nothing was as it seemed. I stood on the beach where the waves rippled gently against the sand, and a conch rolled up to my toes. A treasure, nay a miracle, from the sea to me. Just like that.
The conch is the most ancient musical instrument known to man. In Indian mythology it belongs in the hands of Gods and Goddesses as they depart for war. In Buddhism the call of the conch is meant to awaken those that hear it from the slumber of ignorance. In Islamic tradition, it represents the voice of the divine world.
I scooped it out of the water, this magnificent object. I lifted it to my ear and listened to the woosh of the ocean as I had done as a child. I listened to Gaia’s soothing steady rhythm, a roar and an echo at the same time.
As we left each port it closed behind us. In the last workshop with Abraham, someone asked about ‘the C-word’. Esther described the call of collective consciousness, the recognition of unity that yearns to unfold, the we, us, them I, and source; And the asking, the steady asking, for change. ‘The power of your focused intention has never been more potent. These are the best of times. These are the best of times. These are the best of times’.
Pulling into Miami, the tourists disembarked but the ship and its crew went back out to sea, quarantined for 60 days, floating in perfect limbo.
Everything will change. In ways we never could have imagined. The the words of Clarissa Pinkola Estes circled me, ‘Do not lose heart. We were made for these times’. I listened to the Conch as I traveled through panicked international airports. I saw people shaken everywhere from their slumber. As my flights were delayed and re-routed, I made out the voice of the divine world, growing more insistent with border that swung shut behind me. Gaia is calling us home. These are the times that we came to be called home.
