Ecumenical Angels and Global Prayers

History has proven that religious rituals can benefit both the mental and "spiritual" health of an individual and can promote a valuable social cohesion of the "tribe" he belongs to. As Milton Steinberg says in his book "Basic Judaism", any daily or yearly "sacred round" of devout observances is good personal DISCIPLINE requiring one to say "yes" to some things in life and "no" to others, according to a set time-schedule.

"A musician must practice by prearranged schedule regardless of his inclination at the moment. So with a devout soul. [One cannot] postpone worship for the right mood and the perfect setting..." Shared ritual observances promote fellowship and social bonding which can be both good and bad. Any "we" feeling is good insofar as it does not encourage a disdain (or hatred) for "them" (those outside the tribal "family"). We all know what such "sectarian malice" can do to the "family of man (women included)". Social cohesion DOES come when members pray at prescribed times of the year or day (as in both Judaism and Islam and in the cloisters of Christendom).

But it is my own conviction that ALL such devotions to the LIFE SPIRIT (God?) should be based on global experiences common to ALL of Earth´s "tribes". These would be events such as solstices, equinoxes, phases of the Moon, or the monthly change of "Sun-sign". I think it is a mistake to base shared worship on HISTORICAL EVENTS which are peculiar to any specific "tribe". These tend to be commemorative celebrations of political (too often military) victories over one´s enemies. I seriously advise dropping all such parochial celebrations from our larger, ecumenical, total "human-family" reality so as to encourage us to celebrate, not our differences but our commonalities. And even the beloved "Honoring of the Ancestors" prescribed by Confucius in I-Ching Hexagram 16 "Enthusiasm" (I call it "Religious Theatre") should not be limited to "heroes" from the political past. I would wish to honor a much wider and deeper "tribe of ancestors" which would include not only our Ape forebears but the mammals and reptiles before them and even the bacterial forms which can still be found operating in our brains and in the other parts of our BODIES.

We MUST AFFIRM that we are all part of the same LIVING GLOBAL FABRIC.

The 72 Angels of the DAY-NITE Arena

Certainly all people who share the same local longitude can learn to feel the Natural "mood changes" of the 72-sector DAY-NITE Arena.. Each of these 20-minute-wide RLT sectors not only has a different mood (and an I-CHING message to contemplate). Each one probably should signal your BODY to change its posture, attitude, or even activity EVERY 20 MINUTES (regardless of the "message").

For this reason I was delighted when in the year 2001, I heard from the mouth of a Brazilian friend an old "folk saying" which declared: "Every 20 minutes, an angel brings a new message."

Whether such an "angel" has wings or not, I believe that there is a basic "sine-wave" logic operating in our global turning which has been best explained by the YIN and YANG lines and "places" of the I-CHING "Calendar Hexagrams". Perhaps the "messages" as recorded in the "Book of Changes" have been "corrupted" by some Chinese historical (political) events and need "purifying" with further, more scientific observation. But it wouldn´t hurt to give them a fair try as now written. Only we can "prove" their validity in our daily lives.

A Mid-Day Ritual Prayer

An important part of my travelling "pantomime-dance" act is a statement by the narrator:
"I salute the Sun."

Such a daily honoring of Earth´s source of power at Mid-Day should take into account its 5-day-long position in one of the 6 "places" of whatever "SIGN" it is in. However, this varies according to whether your BODY is in the northern or the southern hemisphere. For example, for the date 20 August, a resident of Europe or the U.S.A. (north temperate zone) will "see" the Sun in "place 6" of LEO (H33) while a resident of Uruguay or Australia (south temperate zone) will "see" the Sun in "place 6" of AQU (H 19), the OPPOSITE sign. And only careful mathematical calculation will tell the resident of the northern or southern TROPIC ZONE at what time of the DAY- or -NITE the Sun is in LEO or in AQU. Lacking this exact information, the tropical-zone "Sun worshiper" probably should just honor them BOTH (as we do in our 36 RLT SONGS of the day cycle).