Astral Monk James Blogger July 4 2012 Post Number one

Astral Monk James

A Cosmic Minister

On this American Independence Day, 2012, I step into the mystic world of Cyber Reality, communicating at the speed of light with beings large and small, wishing you peace and abundant joy. Raised as a Roman Catholic, I hope I don’t become anathema to my fellow believers as I take on a new role in the fourth quarter century of my life. I am moved to act as a Spiritual Counselor, for many of us are troubled, and many feel that there is no one who talks their language, surely not in the rectory, parsonage, mosque, temple, chapel or retreat house.

So many spiritual and religious leaders are wrestling with problems of the mid or late 20th century. So many are afraid to speak or even think the truth! What would people say? What would become of the pastor, mullah, rabbi, monk or Wicca who talked about things beyond the scope of clerical handbooks, books based on Bronze Age assumptions or written by people who looked upon things once held sacred, but now more and more outdates, far from today's situation?

It is apparent that a Great Realization is about to shake us into Cosmic Consciousness. More than a decade of this 21^st Century has slipped by already, but who is there to welcome all of you into this New Cosmic World?

How could I possibly be the one you need?

I am not a prophet. My birth came about through the same process that produced my brother and sister. Don't look for me in the writings of big-name prophets who lived thousands of years ago. No signs in the heavens or visits from angelic messengers came around when I was born.

My words have been published in science education journals and mentioned or included in published books, but nothing in my writings could be classified as “religious.” I don’t lay down commandments, invent rituals, or pronounce things so full of non-sepultures that they can be balled mysteries of faith. I don’t claim to have been marked with holy oils or raised to high rank by someone with a bigger hat or a more expensive robe.

I don’t have the power turn one chemical into another except in ways described in science textbooks. I know that if I put a couple of tablespoons of dollar-store peroxide into a baby food jar and add a teaspoon full of Clorox, I'll get some pure oxygen, and if I pass the end a little steel wool "cigar" through a candle flame, then stick it into the jar with oxygen bubbling out, the steel will burn brightly. That's no "miracle" even if I always say, "Though thou are but steel, you shall burn like flash NOW!" while doing the trick.

I'm not even a chemist! I just know some ordinary reactions. The words don't do a thing.

So what do I have for you? I am a Spiritual Counselor. I have been drawn to a spiritual way of life for as long as I can remember.

Funny, but as I aged, the less religious I was, the deeper my spiritual life became. I take comfort in building my spiritual life. I read about the life and work of St Paul, the apostle, and the writings of or about mystical monks and nuns, most of whom were proclaimed “canonized saints” some years after they died. I noted that sometimes a person is doing great things for the people, and the people love them and flock to them. Then the

authorities of the religion give them all kinds of trouble, forbid them to preach or teach or minister to souls. The person dies, and the people carry the body to the church singing. So the Authority, whoever he (or she) may be come running along in the purple and scarlet, followed by altar boys, and, runs to the font of the line with incense and a gold crucifix on a long pole, and starts saying how wonderful the holy person was. The Authority tries to pre-empt the people. It was like that once during Fidel Castro's early days. A young boy protested Castro's policies, and developed a following. He was killed and as the people prepared to carry him through the streets, the government took charge and with loudspeakers blaring the called on everyone to come and celebrate the "heroic acts" the boy did "in the name of the Revolution!" He was transformed into a Communist icon after he was shot dead opposing the Revolution.  Oh, well.

I left the Brotherhood after fourteen years and travelled to Washington D.C. for the MLK Poor People’s March on a bus chartered by the Black Panthers of Watts.  I spent an entire night seated next to Reyes Tijerrina, who later served 77 months in the New Mexico State Prison for the part he played in the murder of a deputy in Tierra Amarillo. Reyes led the political movement called La Raza, and during the night ride, he told me his life story. He was an ordained minister.  I have never forgotten his stories. 

I attended the Poor People’s March, squatted at the knee of Jesse Jackson as he held forth on this “when push comes to shove” principles, and I joined with Jack Shaffer (the author’s son) to take a mentally handicapped young man back to his roots in the Sangre de Cristo mountains a few days before we were scheduled to depart.

I ended up in San Antonio, leading a Theater in the Streets troupe of minority teens and lived in a vacant room at the Catholic seminary while awaited a dispensation from my five lifetime vows (poverty, chastity, obedience, the vow to teach the poor free of charge, and the vow to remain a teaching brother forever).  I slowly began to work through the issues that confronted me as a Catholic. I married a former teaching nun, and we baptized our children in infancy. They made their first communions but none of the four was ever “confirmed” by a bishop. None went to “confession” as I had done in school. None ever became a practicing Catholic. Eventually I gave up the struggle to raise them Catholic. My former wife was with me in our struggle, but our children were all absolutely devoid of any piety, though we got them into Mass every Sunday. Then things fell apart completely, and our careers in Germany ended after the Desert Storm 100 hour war. Perhaps I’ll regale with more of this later. For now, please “like” me and subscribe to my blog.  You can send me mail at james@astralmomkjames.org.  I will be setting up a non-profit foundation to carry my message and spiritual counseling worldwide.  I have visited several countries in Europe and spent over twenty years there as an educator and writer.  I have lived in Thailand and for a short time in Cambodia, and visited Singapore.  I also visited Mexico several times in the sixties.  Wherever I go, I take my guitar and sing for the people.

God be with you, and notice all the tiny little sparkles along your footpath, the little blessings and unexpected nice things that come your way every day.

James, the Astral Monk.