G. Michael Vasey's Blog: The Wacky World of Dr. Vasey, page 100

Finding Middle Ground

These days I see increasing polarization of views. As I have said many times before, you only have to go to any news or political site and check out the comments and discussions – it isn’t discussion, it’s angry, opinionated people dissing each other. I even wrote an article that I am sure raised some eyebrows and maybe lost me a few ‘friends’ called New Age Socialists – I realized afterwards it should probably have been called New Age Fascists but never mind. The fact is that people seem to hold and even gravitate to more and more extreme views and more and more despise others for holding the opposite viewpoint.

STOP ALREADY!

Over the last 10-years or so I have been taught to reconcile the opposites. I have delved deeply into studying polarity via the Hexagram and I have been instructed in meditation to ‘reconcile the opposites’. I am absolutely convinced this is the correct approach and it should be applied to everything in life including politics. To reconcile the opposites we have to drop the ‘ego’ bit though and that is difficult. But look, in the end, its people that ruin perfectly good political systems like capitalism and communism through their greed and desire to control, subjugate and belittle through their inability to know themselves and reconcile the opposites.

Years ago, I lost interest in politics. How many times can you argue over something without seeing both points of view? I came to the conclusion that all politicians are in it for themselves and that we shouldn’t encourage them by voting. I think they all have the same ‘boss’ anyway and they and their polarity are there to keep us all divided so we don’t actually see what is going on. Politics and politicians thrive on deepening differences, hurting old wounds and appealing to your greed, need to control and ego. Frankly, they are all deeply ill in my opinion

There are always more than two sides to any coin and, depending on your perspective, one can be right and the other wrong and this can switch as your personal perspectives change. We need a good evil in our lives sometimes from which to learn and grow. But, we should also know better shouldn’t we? There is no true right or wrong in politics unless you resolve to find the middle ground at least or even better reconcile the opposites to understand the issues and obtain the product of that reconciliation. Even this can change because there are three levels of polarity and while we may resolve one, the other two remain (see The Mystical Hexagram for an explanation of this latter point).

So, I am sorry, but if you are following the path I am following, you can’t label yourself Labor, Republican, Tea Party etc. The only thing you are is you at this moment. You cannot surely hate someone for holding opposite views because this in itself is a reflection of the hate you feel for yourself and it is a warning that you have unfinished business in knowing yourself.

I’m not sure what the answer is for right now, I dislike all politicians and their lies and divisiveness. As I look at various issues, I try to look at all angles and find a solution that is workable for the majority. Imperfect but not meant to be divisive. I suspect that the real truth here is Love. Love is the secret ingredient to reconciliation of the opposites. How many of you approach your politics with love? I suspect not many as you are made to feel the bitterness of injustice and divisiveness that politicians thrive on.

Personally, I think our political structures and systems have ran their course. I would like to see some real and fundamental change but I fear it will be slow coming because too many are addicted to the divisiveness and the need to be right. Look for the middle ground.

Man in the Sky

Imagine a Man in the sky

Sitting all alone, poor guy

Thought he’d had a bit of fun

Play a game and then be done

He imagined so very, very hard

Opened his eyes and sighed

Seeing the beauty of it all

Better than being so fucking bored

Now I will be the one and only Lord

Mini me’s to worship me

And proclaim my divinity

They strut upon my stage

Hoping to avoid my rage

When they turn their back on me

Look at how they multiply

Many are born and fewer die

They deny that I exist at all

Chasing money and having a ball

I grow weary of watching and waiting

Find them so bloody aggravating

It’s Time to play another game

Words

Heavily scented paragraphs

Interlaced with passion

Pale luminescent skin

Shining under full moonlight

Radiantly twitching

Beguiling, bewitching

Mouthed words of silence

Hallowed places

Boiling emotions scattered

Floating raggedly by

An endless chastened sigh

Belonging yet constantly longing

Heat dashed vibrant thighs

Senses on the edge of darkness

Entwined they simply lie

In one soul searching cry

Poem from Astral Messages

If you enjoy my poetry please consider sharing it and/or purchasing some of it.

My poetry books include;

Weird Tales

Poems for the Little Room

Astral Messages

The Ache

This inner longing

It rises sharply

curling, winding, unbending

Seeking, I know not what

Snakelike, uncoiling

My senses boiling

An ache so deep

A need so great

Needing, I know not what

It’s in the trees

It’s in the fields

Its also in the mountains

The hand emerges

Sword held aloft

Ripples form and spread

It’s everywhere I turn

But can’t be reached

It’s all around me

The fires burn and burn

Flickering, twisting

Rising upwards and on

I’m lost in bliss

Sensing laughter – happiness

The aching rises

Seeking, writhing

But not finding

It’s release

Dear Lady take my hand

Lead me where you will

Be my guide, my Mother

Maiden, crone

Ease this ache

Let me know I’m not alone

Somewhere

All is one

It begins

Just to End

An endless return

The eternal Breath

I am a child

I feel alone

I ache to end it

To be reconciled

Cleansed, to rest

Hugged, caressed

One – with the Goddess

Goodreads

I have to say I am entirely disappointed by Goodreads. Goodreads is a website that is supposed to help you discover your next book to read and it has many members. It was acquired by Amazon as well recently. However, the site is poorly designed and I do hope that Amazon are investing a redo because I find it annoying that so many things actually don’t work there.

As an author, I also put up an author’s page but I have discovered that this really isn’t worth the effort either and here is why:

1. People are allowed to rate books on a 5-star system. Fine and dandy. The problem is there are no checks built in to see if the reader has actually read the book! So, I can go to any book and give it 1-star just like that and just because I felt like it. Furthermore, the book can be ranked even before its release date! So, don’t pay any attention to a book’s rating as its garbage frankly and, if you are an author, be aware that there are people who will give you a 1-star just for the hell of it.

2. You can rank a book without writing a single word of a review…… surely, if you are ranking a book at least a line should be required about your experience with the book?

3. Giveaways – yes, authors can run giveaways of their books and you can win a free book. Problem – people actually create tens if not hundreds of fake accounts and enter multiple times. There are no checks or balances on this as far as I can see. But it wouldn’t be difficult to do this would it?

These are just three issues I have with the site. The fact is, why would I allow a site to recommend books to me if the ratings are nonsense? as an author why would I do a give away if I knew that 20% of all the entries were the same person?

And by the way, as an author I find it intriguing that while 1000 people add your book to their reading list, not one of them ever reads it. What is that about?

In summary, I can’t recommend Goodreads either as an end user or as an author until amazon sort the mess that site is out once and for all.

Fog

This morning, for the first time in a very long time, it was really quite foggy here in Prague. We live at the top of a hill and it was quite bizarre driving up the hill into the fog. For a moment, my imagination was off and I half expected to emerge on the other side of the foggy wall in a parallel universe. Most disappointingly, I didn’t.

When I was a boy, there seemed to be much more fog. Maybe there was as in industrial Britain of the 1960′s it was smog rather than fog that we were dealing with. Perhaps, it was just Hull situated between the coast and the River Humber on the flat plains of Holderness. Always damp and cold, fog just seemed a natural part of the landscape. I recall walking to school in the thickest fog. So thick, you could hide a few feet away from people safely enveloped in thick white mist. It made the world seem mysterious as with only a foot or two of vision, that space took on more importance so that you really saw what was there. It focused your vision I guess. It was a safe sort of magical feeling that I have not experienced in many years.

By now the mornings fog has burned off and the Sun streams through my window. As I look down the street, I can see Prague below us reflecting back from the valley. Its an impressive view but it doesn’t photograph very well unfortunately.

Meanwhile, my memory is full of foggy days and foggy fun playing hide and seek in the stuff with my brothers and friends. Fog is like a blanket white canvas on which you can project your imagination and as children, we did.

Poetry…

I have three books of poetry in print. This is their story….

I began writing poems when I was a boy. It was an outlet. A few years ago, I found a huge pile of handwritten poems that I had written dating back to 1974 and, trust me, some were just downright embarrassing! Some, however, weren’t all that bad. I put these in a pile and typed them into MS WORD for better keeping and put them all in my poetry directory on my PC. I had about 50 poems there so I once again selected what I thought were some of the best and made them into a book. It was self-published off course but it was a nice little book of poems called Weird Tales: Other World Poetry (Booksurge, 2006).

A few years later, and many more poems later, I had what I thought was a bright idea. Poetry doesn’t sell well but what if I combined the poetry with some nice photos in an over sized book and targeted people who like to have the odd nice book in their lavatory! The idea came to me visiting a friend who’s little room had several quiet nice books in it including some short poetry books. This is how Poems for the Little Room (Lulu, 2012) cam about would you believe? Unfortunately, the paperback version is quite pricey via Lulu and I have never figured a way to get it into Kindle format so its only available via Lulu.com or from me either directly or from Amazon.co.uk.

Finally, this year I saw that I again had a lot of poems stacked up, some of which I thought were good. Again, I thought I would publish them but with another difference still trying to see if I could find a workable formula. This time, I would combine poems with articles from my blog Asteroth’s Domain in pairs. The poem and the article support one another and perhaps provide a basis for some meditation. The result called Astral Messages got a little lost in the marketing of my novella – The Last Observer - but nonetheless is out there…..

Now, to whet your appetite a bit, here is a poem from each…

Weird Tales – Heaven

Lips brush

Noses touch

Wrap myself around you

Tie you up in knots

And never let go

A hug

A kiss

Was all that it took

My knees go weak

And the heat rises

Life change

Motion

Headed in a new direction

And happy about it

Happy to be with you

A moment was all

How did I fall

Into the depths of love

A single meeting

An amazing greeting

And it was done

Darkness

Passion

I find myself enrapt

How I want and need you

And that look in your eyes

Hotel

Room spins

Kisses turn more urgent

And the smell of your skin

Surely, heaven is here

Poems for the Little Room – In My Head

I used to dream and imagine

Places I had never seen

I used to make up tunes

And sing them in my head

That world was real to me

More real than this one

I could be anyone

And do anything

In my head

I could be you

You could be me

In my head

In my inner world

In my deepest thoughts

Inside my head

I yearn to go back there

Visit more and more

What I create in that world

Is reflected in this one

What I am inside my head

Is what I become here

Astral Messages – Life’s Tapestry

The lines are blurred

And faces merged

The funniest thing you’ll see

Moments in time and space

Held close for eternity

Just pictures saved by memory

Like silent movies played

Flickering images passing by

Do these belong to me?

Or is everything I see

From another, not me

The colours and the smells

The angles lacking symmetry

The sounds and sights

Images bound in space

The inner revelries revealed

My life’s tapestry

Unraveled

Untied

Betwixt and between

Reality

Time

I remember my Grandmother telling me that time sped up as you got older. I was probably 5 or 6-years old at the time and, for me, time was a mystery. On the one hand, Christmas just seemed to take eons to arrive and then, when it did, it was over in a flash. The month of December was like torture really. Each day, you would open one door on that advent calendar but each day seemed like a century. Now, of course, I understand my Grandmother’s point of view. Weeks and months flash by so fast I could swear it was still August if it weren’t for the weather and falling leaves.

Time is a funny thing. We can measure it very precisely but what exactly are we measuring? How can we measure an illusion anyway since that is what time may well be. I read Anthony Peake’s excellent book on the subject a while ago. It was a great read. Intriguing. However, it just reinforced my view that time is a construct of reality that is needed to create ‘space’ in which to have movement. Space is another such construct. The space-time continuum is not real!

Melting Time by Lacza

I had a crack at discussing this in some depth in the Hexagram book and also covered it a bit in the Last Observer too. I have also written about it on Asteroth’s Domain using various esoteric models to develop the idea that time is a construct of reality. In actuality, time may simply not exist. Imagine that for a moment. Yes – its tough isn’t it?

At the end of the day, we live in a relative world and unsurprisingly, time is relative too. An hour to me might not seem like an hour to you and depending on what we may be doing at the time, an hour seems variable in length even though we can measure that same hour quite accurately. Time is an enigma and it’s as simple as that.

In the words of David Bowie..

Time takes a cigarette, puts it in your mouth

You pull on your finger, then another finger, then your cigarette

The wall-to-wall is calling, it lingers, then you forget

Drifting

Drifting

No anchor attached

Drifting

Sinking

Foundations of sand

Chained thoughts became prisons

Drifting

Going with the flow

Feel no center to my soul

I am detached and

Drifting

Floating

Terrified

Cause I no longer have the illusion

Of control

Exhausted

From the struggle

Emptied

Of energies

Drifting

Back home

From my second book of poems – Poems for the Little Room – Lulu, 2012

Complexity Unchained

How many passwords do you have to remember?

To be honest, I don’t know if I could count all the passwords and PINs etc. that I need to remember but I would guess it at around 75.

Life is complex.

I won’t get into all of the details but being a citizen of two countries and yet living in a third is part of the complexity – especially if one of those countries – the USA – treats its exPat citizens as criminals. My US tax return recently filed ran to 122 pages! I killed a tree for the US Government folks. Oh, and I still had to file my FACTA as well and my Czech tax return – which despite the love of bureaucracy here – was just 3 pages long!

Then, I work for myself with a partner in Houston and its a US company. That means I have four sets of bank accounts. Each set comes in three currency denominations – USD/CZK/EUR. That is 12 bank accounts to manage and access online. 12 bank accounts to balance on a monthly basis. Actually, due to some book royalty payments originating in the UK, I just opened a 13th account in Britain in GBP.

Now, I ask you, do you think I am rolling in dosh? Nope. I make a good living but I am a long way from being rich. BY Obama’s standards I belong to that severely abused group of taxpayers known fondly as the middle class. This of course is code meaning – the only idiots paying taxes so let’s rape and pillage as best we can.

By the time I have had my 122 page US tax return, FACTA, Czech tax return and company tax and VAT returns filed, I probably spent $6000 on accountancy fees alone! Then, having dutifully paid all of my Czech taxes including social security, medical insurance, income tax and the laughable ‘solidarity’ tax, I end up paying Uncle Sam too. BTW, the solidarity tax shows that the Czech Government have learned from the US that the middle class are the only idiots paying taxes so lets rape and pillage. Its an extra 7% tax on everything over approximately $5000 per month.

So I pay around 28% in income tax (add in social security and medical insurance and its up there!). President Obama – who makes something like 10 times my income – he pays just 12% income tax. Of course, the top boys who make say 50 times my income, they pay less than 5% income tax. Awesome isn’t it. If you aren’t already wealthy or a minor miracle occurs like winning the lottery, the chances of becoming wealthy aren’t that good.

My solution would be this. 100% inheritance tax so we all start equal and then a simple progressive income tax on all sources of income with no exceptions. Maximum rate – 40%. I’m not in favor of robbing people of their incentive to get up and make money….

Oh – and 1 page tax returns….