Julie: So, I ask that I be guided. I’m very grateful to be able to do this, to be able to do it with you all. We’ve done so much work together for so many years.
   So, going back to the very first time I started to channel, the very beginning when I started to channel, “I ask that the information be clear, that I receive it clearly. And I ask that the work be blessed.”

   Micciah: So, we greet you dear friends. And yes, Julie is correct in noticing her own energies have shifted while we are communicating because she grows and changes. What is available to her changes.
   What is available to you all when you are open and connected to Spirit in whatever way you do that is a process of both: of change and transformation.
   So, change is, as Julie has said before, if you move this, there. That’s change. So, change is one kind of shift.
   When you are in an alchemical process, transformational process, the form, whether it is the form of an idea, a feeling, a leaf, burns away and something else is born. It is different from change. So, what you are all working with really in addition to change, is transformation.
   And this whole time, this whole time you are in, of chaos, to send enormous love coming from some people, through them, coming from the entities who protect and engage with the earth, coming from the creatures, coming from the trees. This is transformation.
   So, there is a popular idea that most people don’t like change, which is just a story. Some people don’t like change. The parts of the self that are fused with difficulties in the ego structure don’t like change because when things change, you might make a mistake, you might be wrong. You might. There are other parts of the stuff that like change. There are some people who love change. Transformation is more complex, involves all aspects of your being, including your energy body, and sometimes including past life experiences that burn up during the transformation.
   So, this is a time of transformation. What is in your world? You were having a conversation earlier about how to work with your beliefs and understanding of covid, which as a virus, keeps mutating, and then it is not the same virus that has changed. That is a transformation. So, the question then is: what is in your world? There is “the world” and there are practical events that transpire in the world. And then there is your world. And what you choose, sometimes choose, sometimes not so much of a choice. (We hope more and more of a choice.) How you shape your world.
   And Julie has often quoted her old friend Louise Haye saying about something she did not wish to include in her world, “Not in my world.” So, you build your world, in the deepest sense, through your connection with the divine, however you perceive it. We were going to say the only person responsible for your world is you.” But it’s really more complicated than that. That is so.
   We’ll save that for next time. So let us begin with the issues you wanted to explore. Lila.

   Lila: Yes. I was asking, how do you balance your love for cats and your love for birds, especially outdoor cats who eat birds?

   Micciah: The outdoor cats who...

   Lila: Who hunt and kill birds. Yes.

   Micciah: So, Julie has given this a great deal of thought. And we have put in some information. There is a very famous painting called “the peaceable kingdom” and it is... The words that go with it, “Someday the lion will lie down with the lamb.” And it is often ascribed to a quote from the Bible, which is...there actually is no quote from the Bible that is identical to that. But it meant those who are potential enemies in the sense that one might eat the other, kill them, would be at peace.
   We believe that in the Christian teachings, the Birth of Christ, the man who’s called Christ, there have been many Christs. The man you call Jesus, his life, his works, his crucifixion, his resurrection would usher in an era of love, which in astrology is the age of Pisces. You are at, now, at the end of the age of Pisces. Did that happen in that way? Not exactly.
   The other piece of the belief is that it will be completely fulfilled when the Messiah returns. We will suggest to you that this time the Messiah may really be the unfolding of the deep love that is within everyone, not, not a single figure.
   In the meantime, in this realm, earth realm, the agreements, if you will, are that everyone needs to eat. Are there realms where people do not, in a human sense, eat? Yes, yes. When you...when you pass from this life into other realms, despite that wonderful old movie with Meryl Streep, you will not be eating “vast bowls of spaghetti and huge pieces of chocolate cake.” You will not need to eat. In this realm, all creatures need to eat. Vegetarians believe that they do less “harm,” in quotes by eating only vegetables. But if you take a carrot out of the garden or buy one, you eat it.
   And you know, from your most recent explorations into that amazing book Braiding Sweetgrass, that consciousness. Consciousness is in everything. Some people say, “Well, I never eat anything with a face.” There are parts of the world where you can’t eat vegetables all the time. It’s too cold. You eat meat. Some of it has to do, in terms of human beings, with your attitude. So, the people who were indigenous to this land killed their meat with great reverence. Used all the parts. Blessed the animals. Understood the exchange, reciprocity, made offerings.
   That is somewhat different from meat that is full of hormones and chemicals and is in a plastic plate with Saran Wrap over it. And although if that is what you have and you have to eat meat, you can also make an offering to that. “Thank you.”
   So, cats eat birds. Birds eat other things depending on the bird, seagulls eat fish. The big birds will snatch up small rodent, yes? Or something larger. How does one manage that? Ask your heart to open further and further. Dalai Lama says, “God breaks your heart and then stuffs the world inside.” Open and open and open and open until you can include in your love respect for the laws of this plain of action, which involves the need to feed yourself. So your cat is just doing what cats do.
   Trying to explain something...this is hard to explain. So we get caught in the language.
   To say it’s an agreement. It sounds like a human. I agree to meet you on Saturday, 5 o’clock. It’s not an agreement in that sense. It’s an agreement in the larger sense that all... All the participants are engaged if they are in this realm, within the laws of this realm. And there are aspects as small aspects of nature that are very violent, not only one animal eating another, but volcanoes and tornadoes. So, it has to get bigger and bigger and bigger until you can hold all of it. So that you are able to love the laws of the realm you are in, even though you may use them...each person to use them differently, and even if some of it breaks your heart.
   Is it breaking your heart in despair, or is it breaking your heart, to open further? And Julie’s dear friend‚ We have...she has talked about this‚ Susan, when she had cancer from which she eventually passed said, “But it taught me things I never would have known.” Was she happy that she had had it? Not exactly. We’re happy to watch a hunting cat catch a bird and dismember it? Not exactly. Is your experience wide enough to do no harm yourself, as little as possible.
   So, they are not... They are feeding themselves to stay alive. They are not... They are not tormenting the animal to... the bird... in the way that people torment each other. Yes? More question about that?

   Jon: Sometimes it feels like the cat is... because it is instinct. It’s not hungry.

   Micciah: Sometimes that is true. You had cats who ate two hearty meals a day and when they were up here... Some of them were very good hunters and not birders. But they caught mice because that’s...

   Marilyn: And also, do we just love vegetarians among people? We love people. People devour, human beings devour animals. So do we only love vegetarians?

   Micciah: No, we are saying no.

   Marilyn: No, that’s what I’m saying.

   Micciah: But, but those who... But any food you eat.

   Marilyn: Yeah. I heard you.

   Micciah: To say, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
   Thich Nhat Hanh used to talk about, “Think of everything that has gone into making that, getting that food your table, especially not only the elements the sun, the wind, the moon, the rain, the kind of season that happens to be that year.” But in the case of your current life, transportation, petroleum... That is oil, right?

   Jon: Yep.

   Micciah: The people who handle it. The way it is stored. So no, no, no that is a mistake. Of course, because as we said earlier, there are people who live in the very far north are not growing carrots. So.

   Marilyn: And many of the industries that we depend on to live our lives not seemingly related to eating animals, kill animals by the very nature of them. When I walk in the park, I kill ants. I kill who knows what else? You know, we’re constantly doing that. There’s just a limit. And it goes to what you said, Julie. We do it as mindfully as we can.

   Micciah: Well and there are some priests... We are not remembering...

   Jon: Jains?

   Micciah: No. No. The priests step over everything. They are led through the world. They have an umbrella over them. But you can’t live like those. You are living in the ordinary life, you see a mosquito... [slap] As Lynne Aston used to say, “Onward, to nirvana.” That’s...just do the best you can.
   And Julie and Lila sent Julie some books. They were talking about... and there is much more thinking now, about how to use things. How not to throw things away, how to use old clothes, how to find out which, buying up here, where they are, Julie and Jon, you can buy locally. In New York City they have farmers, farmers markets and you can buy relatively locally. But nobody has... Nobody is growing anything in Central Park. (Although there are schools now that have gardens.)
   So, let’s proceed.

   Alaina: It’s a nice movement to ask you... I cannot remember in all the years we’ve been together talking a lot about animal consciousness among our domesticated pets. I would, I have a 12-year-old dog. I’ve been a cat person all my life. It surprises me every day that it’s been 12, and this dog has health issues that will not retreat. So it’s also the process of how I am aging and how we are together. And my belief is because of the kitties I have lost, the animal consciousness doesn’t necessarily disappear. I still have evidences of kitties walking into my room that I’ve had before. I would love for you to talk and share with us a bit about the beloved animals, birds, all iguanas, lizards, the consciousness, how we communicate with those beloved beings in consciousness.

   Micciah: First of all, to attune... Jon was studying with the French. Is it John French?

   Jon: James French.

   Micciah: James French, suggested by Lila, who is amazing the way communicates with animals.
   So, to begin with, if you can of drop down, in the beingness with your animal, let us say. and quiet yourself, the animal will communicate with you about itself. This is not exactly what you are asking. But it is, it is a way to, to communicate with your animals. Can the spirit of animals be with you after they have passed from this realm? Yes. Yes. Not all animals do it. Animals are on their own... And while the Buddha said, “You have been everything.” Animals have their own spirals, become devas in their own, on their own spirals. So, some of them. Yes, can be around you even though their physical bodies have passed. And we recall that Jane Roberts said that you will meet them when you pass. You were close to a particular animal. They may be there when you leave your body.
   The method that French uses is very aligned with his respect for the animals.
   You know often in, at least in the west, when people train animals, a lot of it is not good for the animal. Yes, the animal needs to use the litterbox or go outside, or whatever. But I want say harshness where the person wants the animal to do it her way or his way, rather than making an enquiry to the animal about itself. And yes, in order to live with an animal in the house, for instance, you train them if you are going to work with animals, they need to be a certain understanding between you.

   Alaina: I often felt that my kitties didn’t know that they were not in the physical anymore. The consciousness was so present after they had passed. Do they relate to their own physicality?

   Micciah: Yes, but it’s, you know, the veil is very thin the way it is for some people. So moving back and forth is not a problem.
   Please, continue.

   Jon: Marilyn.

   Marilyn: How? I have wondered often how you are so sure because you iter... reiterate again and again and it has a power when you say it. And how can you absolutely be sure that love is the most powerful force? When I look around me, I can’t see that. And I, also, when I look at history, I don’t see that. And so I know there are times in my life, and there are times when it does seem to be, but it, you know, when I can say, “Oh, yes, yes, I get it.” But, so, I just want to know where that surety, how you can get to that. Or I could get to that because I would like to believe that. And in moments I do.

   Micciah: And and not every spiritual path would agree with that. In Christianity, the devil is very real force. Satan is a very real force. Force for evil is a very real force. That... We have a belief and Julie has a belief, an understanding that, that people do terrible and evil things. We have talked about this over again. That you come into this realm to learn about choice. There are other realms where that’s, that’s not on the menu. So there are people who do terrible things, but there is no force that is in itself evil.
   How do you come to love? The way you are doing it through meditation, through prayer. To asking, you know, you always, always, you can ask, “Help me to do this. Help me to see the love, help me to experience that it is stronger even when I can’t see it in the world.” But if you really look in the world, there will be evidence of love everywhere. If you really look.
   Is there also, and particularly in this time, evidence of people making frightening choices, dangerous choices, murderous choices? Does the human race, for the most part, very few exceptions, has that so far been the history of human entities? Yes. Does it have to be that way? No.
   So, perhaps that brings us back to an earlier, the earlier question. Lion lying down with the lamb, that the coming of the Messiah is not going to be a person, but the experience of love that is within everyone being known by the vast majority. There have been groups of people who did live that way. Who do live that way. Are you asking how we personally know?

   Marilyn: No, I wasn’t asking that. I was asking. Well, yeah, no, it was, it’s that you have said so forcefully through the years that love was such, such a power of your conviction that, “Love is the most powerful force in the world.” And I was, I was saying that I don’t have that belief. I don’t know how to come to it, because I don’t when I look at the world, I would like to. I would like to be there or get there. But I am I am flummoxed by the world when I look at the world and the world’s history. And even what Lila was saying at the beginning, you know, her first question, you know, animals kill each other. So right away, that’s not love no matter what. You cannot say that that comes out of love.

   Micciah: But sometimes it does because they need to eat. And human beings kill each other but do not need to. What, what would happen if you had a war and no one came?

   Marilyn: But it isn’t that way. No. People do come to every war.

   Micciah: Not yet. No, Gandhi led a movement of peace.

   Marilyn: Oh, that’s true.

   Micciah: The Reverend Martin Luther King led a movement of peace. There have been other people in history who have done the same. Have you come to it in its fullness as a human group? No. Is it there? Yes.
   So. through appreciation, for prayer, for reciprocity, staying with it, acknowledging the violence that you see, honoring your feelings about it. And as Lynne Aston used to say, “It is called a spiritual practice because you keep on practicing.” The Buddha said, “What incarnation? You have thousands of incarnations to reach that.” If you’ve been thinking linearly, which they aren’t. Because there can be moments of enlightenment. In Buddhism, in Zen Buddhism, at any rate. Lynne Aston who was... (whatever she was... it is called a shaman. She was ordained as a shaman.) Different understanding meant that it was, shaman, just under the level of priest, and she started the Zen Center here in Chatham, which has gone on all these years since she’s passed, and there are stories in Zen Buddhism about people who go on a weekend retreat and are enlightened. Why? Because they are ready for it.
   So you do what you are doing. And we would like to just pick up the word belief for a moment. Belief... Belief and knowing are a bit different. Are they a bit different? Yes. Look for the places where you experience love. And if you look, there are many. And, again, have you as human beings come to that as as a general...a group understanding and way of living? No. Might you? Yes. Could you? Yes. And have some human beings come to it? Yes. Always, you can always pray, ask, “Help me love this situation. Help me see the love in this situation. Help me understand the teaching in this situation. I’m not understanding. I do not get it. Help me.”

   Jon: Joy’s question, I think, is coming up.

   Joy: Me? Thank you. I just wanted to say something about love as somebody who reads a lot of children’s literature and creative literature. Those stories really have an arc of children, of children learning of love and, and also speculative science fiction. They have new visions of worlds. How we can be, how we can be together, how we can, you know, it’s out there. The visions and the imagination is out there.

   Micciah: Yes.

   Joy: And I just wanted to just to...my question is about trauma in the great turning, the sort of the dissolving of institutions and things that we knew or held, the loss of things, but also that there seems to be a deep tremor of the need to heal from trauma at a deeper level. I mean, studies are showing how trauma is carried even from generation to generation.

   Micciah: Oh yes, it is.

   Joy: And DNA emotional DNA from this. So I, I feel that this time in the great turning that there is trauma. We’re just experiencing trauma. The earth is, the earth is experiencing it.

   Micciah: Then you work with the trauma in whatever way, with whatever tools you have, with a person who is trained to do it, or yourself and a friend, or meditation, however you wish to do it.
   Trauma memories are stored in a different part of the brain than other memories. So, when you work with trauma, you are also working with the old brain, the reptilian brain. So first you have to realize it is a trauma and then there are varieties of ways to respect it and work with it.
   The hope for this period, as they say in the Huna teachings: age of darkness or the age of difficulties, the age of peace, age of difficulties. So this is supposed to be in that teaching the last age that leads into peace, the great turning.
   It is so important in recognizing trauma and difficulties that are not at the level of trauma, but are still strong feelings, to respect them and to work with them lovingly, lovingly. If you can, to make an inquiry about it. Often there are chunks of wisdom, buried in traumatic experiences. And we are not saying traumas are just wonderful. They teach you, no, no. However, in working with them skillfully and lovingly, you can discover things that are a surprise. And sometimes parts of the self say, “No, that’s not possible for me.” And if it doesn’t feel possible, then that’s that is what’s true for you.
   So, you know, this individually, all of you and many other people as well. But you could include in your prayers, in your meditations, healing for all the people who do not seem... Truly everyone has access to that knowledge, but who do not see, who do not know they have access to it, for everyone, for the good of all, for the good of all, not just for the good of the people I know and love. But for the good of all, that they may find love.
   So, if the purpose of one... If the purpose of this time is to lead people eventually to open their hearts and love to be the center of life on this plain, and each of you who participates in that, gives it energy, supports its movement.
   Julie and Jon were watching a documentary about George Harrison and in it Ravi Shankar is playing, at the point where the Beatles became acquainted with Hindu teachings, and he says with such extraordinary love in his face, “Music, music is the great healer.” So, you can do, also do all of this listening for the music, being willing to dance in spite of everything.
   And as we have said since the beginning of this and since, the previous president was not elected. Connection, connection, connection, connection. Reach out even when you’re not feeling wonderful. Connect, appreciate people, acknowledge them, beginning with yourself. May I be happy, may all beings be happy.
   So one more. Yes.

   Jon: Paul.

   Micciah: Yes.

   Paul: In this time of what appears to be great division certainly in our country. Yes, certainly in our country. And I. I also think in the world.

   Micciah: Yes.

   Paul: And in the time when, but what I believe is most necessary, which is finding ways to be together becomes a great question, because there’s a lot of disagreement as part of the great division.

   Micciah: Yes.

   Paul: So, I wonder and I’m looking for the possible solutions to finding ways to act together.

   Micciah: This is really what we have been talking about throughout the session and you want to begin with yourself. And we also recall saying when the last president was not elected, “Look within yourself.” So you think, how did we create this one? And look within yourself with love. With love for crumbs, all of the kinds of behavior that you find abhorrent in these people. It has to be done gently and with love. A lot of it, probably for most of you will be interpsychic, that is you treat other people well, but you don’t always treat yourselves well.
   And then let it dribble out. May I be happy. May all beings be happy. So you are wishing happiness for all beings, that includes the beings of whom you are not personally fond. May they be happy. So this is in your meditation. This is in your life.
   Being aware of your judgments. There’s a difference between judging something, judgment and discernment. Discernment is one of the gifts of the Spirit, one of the seven gifts of the Spirit... Judgment is different. Be aware of your own judgments. Where do you feel opposed to someone? How could they believe? How could they be doing this? Shhh. Be quiet a moment. Offer them from your heart. Goodness. Even though at a personality level, you are donating money to causes that are completely different and you do not agree with them.
   This is an important point. Working with this kind of love, which is so large, which is the love of Spirit, is not about agreeing with someone or liking them at a personal level. It is about the music. It is about singing to... from, from your oversoul to their oversoul as Jane Roberts says, has said. Sending love to them as you go on taking the actions, the political action, whatever actions you’re taking, hopefully peacefully. But in the larger sense wishing for, offering from your heart, the good for all.
   Not always an easy task. And you don’t... How to say... You don’t have to feel it in some special way. You can just begin by knowing it and putting energy toward it. “I don’t agree with you. I think your opinions are crazy, and dangerous.” And, “from my greater self to your greater self. I wish you good. I wish you healing your suffering.” And to the extent that you can, not engaging. “I have this opinion; you have that opinion and we are together. And I’m going to engage in an argument with you about it.” Because we’re not going to convince them and they are not going to convince you. You just...more hatred makes more hatred. Arguing is not necessarily hateful at all, but be careful where you engage. Be careful where you want, want and your ego needs to be right. There was an expression in the EST training which Jon and Julie did, and you know, “dead right.” Be careful when you notice you are really needing to be ri... “My opinion is the right opinion, my way is the right way.” Because, because in that need is always a hook. You can say truthfully to yourself, this is my path and what I am working with. This person. This other person, has very different opinion, very different way of looking at things.
   And, and as we said earlier, then you go on and donate the money where you want it to go. Abundance, energy where you want it to go and support the causes that are important, you deem to be important. But be careful when you engage. Notice. “What is the intention of my engaging with this person, at this moment about this?”
   Some number of years ago Julie was talking to Youngja, a woman she worked with in acupuncture who is an extraordinary being. And they were... Julie was talking about a situation between two people where Julie felt that there should be a confrontation. They should put it on the table, talk to each other. Youngja, and Youngja is Korean, so she was Asian, said, “I think that’s not necessary. Maybe you can let them save face, and they don’t need to argue. The other person does not need to be brought up short and told what is right.” And she was right. Would it always be right? No, but being careful. We say it again, be careful where you engage and what your intention is in engaging with that person in that way at that time.

   Marilyn: Julie, can I add something to that? What you just said? I think that was the answer. And I think I could rephrase it to myself by saying in any situation that I certainly call, but I just thought of it. Listening to you in a previous conversation. And Paul, really wonderful question. Like what I could say to myself in every situation that I remember to say to, will, this, what I’m about to do, bring happiness to others? Will this bring peace? I could literally ask that question to the situation, you know.

   Micciah: You can. And you may not be able to bring peace to them, but you can bring peace to the situation by not ingaging in a hostile way.

   Marilyn: Right. Right.

   Micciah: Yes. Yes. And remember music, and remember dancing, and remember reaching out and appreciating people and the wonderful things you have been working with. Reciprocity, giving the gift at the beginning.
   So, our dear ones, we will leave you with that and we will see you again come September. We share with you all much love and much energy. And we wish you a very good (depending where you are) evening or afternoon.
   Thank you.