From my perspective, as facilitator, I know that thirteen souls came together to celebrate the opening of a portal into greater awakening. It was not exactly smooth sailing at all times during the seminar, yet we persevered. In general, we finished with smiles on our faces and a sense of accomplishment.
For this report, I will now adopt the approach I used in writing each of the books. That is to say, I will invoke the muses and ask Orange a series of questions, translating and recording the responses I get.
R: “O, please tune in with us for this debriefing conversation. And many thanks for your help at the recent seminar.”
O: “You’re welcome, dear friend. It was a joy to participate with you all.”
R: “So, from your perspective, O, what just happened?”
O: (smiling) “In a word, we ‘opened’. Let me expand on that word now. By ‘opening’, I mean that we, as a group, embraced ourselves in an expanded state that transcends the limits of strict timekeeping. The thirteen individuals in the seminar were called together, specifically, by their soul presence to participate in the ritual we named ‘portal opening’.
R: “What do you mean by a portal?”
O: “Specific to this event, a portal is a doorway or passage for energies and information to flow in two directions—into the ‘enlightened’ state and back from it, into your ‘awakening’ state. The opening is an intentional sharing of two worlds, or two universes, if you will. We need not dwell on the physics or mechanics of how this works. Suffice it to say that we focused an intention from my world into yours and you reciprocated with a matching intention. We opened an energeticopportunity amongst ourselves.
“The number thirteen is curious in this situation. Commonly regarded as an ‘unlucky’ number by some humans, it is by no means limited to that interpretation. Symbolically, it is the number that transcends time—and the clock—since it is ‘twelve plus one’. The thirteen participants in Asheville, on Judy’s farm, carried this symbolism into manifestation, into a timeless sub-dimension.
“The group, led by your voice (from the stillness), rose up through a grand, shared breathing exercise. We visualized ourselves on the threshold to the Void, the place and home of Source. There, we took inspiration towards the Oneness, lying at the heart of all groups of sincere souls. As we joined forces and intentions, the intensity of presence rose up within us and around us. We acted as one in the opening.”
R: “Let me interrupt for a moment, O. I felt that the chakra meditation Stefan introduced—from Jonathan Goldman (theChakra Tuner App for iPhone and iPad) was special. It really put us in the right space.”
O: “Yes, indeed. Book-ending the seminar with this alignment exercise was enlightened, to say the least! It brought the group into itself from both directions. Of course, Stefan had help with that inspiration—from Green.”
R: “Good. Now for the other part of the seminar: After lunch. Things seemed to change a bit then. I was aware we were entering some difficult waters as soon as I got the impression to look at some personal issues—resistances we each might have, blocking our approach to awakening. I told the group that our energies would likely spiral ‘down’ as we entered that area. Did I go too far with it? Too long? It seems that many in the group felt a real drop in the field after that. From my personal perspective, it seemed that my voice went on interminably during the guided meditation.”
O: “It was necessary, we felt, to push you to do that. It was by no means an error on your part. Going deep meant that you could subsequently rise up higher on the other side. Not all of you were fully aware, individually, of the use of this creative tension. I believe you felt it, and that’s why you continued in the exercise—even when you noticed people beginning to squirm.
“Obviously, we did not reveal to you all of our intentions for the ceremony beforehand, because we did not want you to build expectations or concerns. Thus you were flying blind, so to speak. For opening the portal, we felt this was the best way to proceed. In darkness lies the more perfect light.
“During the guided exercise you refer to, you brought the group to the edge of the Void again. Only this time, each of you carried a kind of ‘anchor’ that rooted you to your own appreciation of the Void space, your own personal darkness. It locked you into its field and seemed to threaten the ‘high’ you collectively felt in the morning. But the soul of each of you, and of the collective thirteen came to the rescue.
“You placed your resistance in the bosom of the soul and revealed that resistance to be without true substance. Any form held up before the pure formlessness of the Void becomes transparent and empty. This exercise, performed with care, can be repeated to great advantage in future seminars. The threshold to the Void is a most creative environment for transformation. It is the very brink of creation and dissolution. The old passes away into it; the new emerges out of it. The threshold is truly the Shores of Shiva.”
R: “I like that. It certainly feels that way to me. But it also has some psychological risks, I feel.”
O: “Yes. But those risks are only felt in the orb of ego separateness. As you stand with your soul, in the field of awakened being, there is no harm—only opening and expansion.
“What happened at the end of the seminar, in the final exercise and guided meditation, was a spiritual infusion of fire and light. The flame of the Void (threshold) folded upward into the sign of infinity and the vesica piscis. The vesica is the most intimate and ultimate portal between worlds of duality and Oneness. Your chairs were set in this pointed oval, of course.
“As your voice directed the group’s imagination into our domain, each member of my group stood behind the chair of one member of yours. We placed our hands on your shoulders. You have wondered at the difference in numbers—thirteen in your group, twelve in mine. One of your members represented the emptiness and, therefore, had no partner in my world. This, too, was by design. Emptiness is a necessary element of any portal.”
R: “OK. That makes some sense. So, O, at the end I think we all felt a lack of closure to the seminar, like we were kind of left hanging. Was that your intention too?”
O: “Yes. The portal was left open—as it shall remain for the foreseeable future. You might have handled that a little differently from what you did, but we understood that you were exhausted at the end. Your task of facilitating the opening of a thirteen-soul portal was significantly taxing. Do not feel that any error was made. The group matured through the course of the seminar and was more than capable of adjusting to the ‘spacey’ feelings that abounded. For other, future seminars, I’m sure you will pay more attention, at the end, to the necessary grounding.”
R: “Finally, will you please tell us again why it was important to open the portal?”
“All across your planet, portals are opening. Each has its own form and its own portion of formlessness embedded within it. Each is an evolutionary step for your species beyond itself—into the unknown, and into the state beyond human, beyond ego.
“Portals are always passages. Some are only one-way thresholds, but these that we create allow movement between worlds in both directions. That is, by using them you may know both the awakened state and the ego state simultaneously in your human lives. You may have one foot in each universe—performing a bridging function for yourself and others. As you avail yourselves of this opportunity, increasingly in coming years, your choice will grow much clearer—to live under the domination of ego, or to live within the freedom of open appreciation. There is no doubt which choice you will make.”
R: “Thank you, O, for coming through yet again to guide me and all of us. Thanks for the seminar and the portal.”
Letters From 500 