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In my highest dreams, I’m a skilled violinist for the animals. Like Francis who gave sermons to the birds, creatures all gathered around. In such reverence of communion heart to heart we share the same Heart. Such love begets love. Such pure oneness of Spirit is the earth’s savoir. Peace is consciousness imbued with true unity. That’s the only Way.   Peace in our thoughts, peace in our world. Peace in our words, peace in our world. Peace in our acts, peace in our world. Peace in our hearts, peace in our world. Peace, lasting peace rooted within. Peace, the gift we allow to flow outward.   Remembering Saint Francis In the fleeting but sacred moments I enjoy with the many birds that visit our garden sanctuary, my thoughts sometimes drift fondly to St. Francis of Assisi, well known as the beloved patron saint of animals, birds, and the environment. Pope Innocent III told Francis that God had given him the greatest gift of all—the grace to approach Him through His beloved creatures. In “The Canticle of Brother Sun,” written shortly before Francis passed on, one of his famous stanzas goes like this: “Praised be You my Lord through our Sister, Mother Earth who sustains and governs us, producing varied fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.” His boundless love of life was inclusive when he prayed, “My God and my all.” For him, every particle of the natural world was holy in its multiplicity of manifestations—in the reassuring ways Life reveals God’s Love. Perhaps the most famous incident that illustrates Francis’ enduring voice for nature and his great love for animals is recounted in the “Fioretti” (“The Little Flowers of Saint Francis”), a collection of legends and folklore that sprang up after the Saint’s death.1 In one of these stories, it is told that while he was traveling with some companions one day, they reached a place in the road where birds filled the trees on both sides. Francis told his companions to “wait for me while I go to preach to my sisters the birds.” The birds surrounded him, intrigued by the power of his voice. Not a single bird flew away from his humble, radiating presence. Thus, the famous “Sermon to the Birds” became a living legend. Naturalist John Muir put it perfectly when he wrote, “any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way.” My life is daily enlarged and made better by every feathered and furred encounter of grace and blessing. Thank you, sisters and brothers of the animal realm. Thank you, Saint Francis, for your unforgettable, spiritual legacy of love, joy, and humble presence. In today’s rapidly changing world, you help us to remember who we really are—divine beings surrounded by divine beings.   Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love, Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; And where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. St. Francis of Assisi   Other Animal and Nature Offerings: • Families in Spirit   (discusses the peaceable kingdom, a peaceable earth, and the peaceable family) • Animals Born of Good Heart • In Truth All Godlings • Silent Communion with Animals • The Little Ones   (Buddhist quotes on animals) • The Fellowship Of Joy-Full-Ness • Tigers Two—Katie & Nora • Birdie Diner • The Essence of Spiritual Ecology • Saint Felis Endnote: 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi © Haiku poem and thoughts about peace © by Zane Maser, 2022. Photos gratefully used from Wikimedia Commons. All 2009-2022 rights of Zane Maser and SunnyCat Astrology reserved worldwide. Always am I grateful for the inspiration and editorial assistance from Chris Maser, my kind-hearted, generous soul mate.

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The new phase heralds a previous breaking down. The old level dies. One has to give way, often in painful losses, a crumbling structure. We can fight and kick with all our resistant strength. Suffering knees bent. We hit the boulders hard like we’ll overcome them. Bruised, tattered, drained, numb. The little, crying self gets smashed in self-decline. Nothing can be left. The phoenix rises from the muchness relinquished. Freshness of morning. A lighter, clearer version can move with ease, grace. The useful remains. Consolidation gives benefits of true space. Empty is fullness. Glorious Full Moon hides stars in their radiance. New Moon waits its time.   Our experience is our own consciousness unfolding; therefore, all our attention must be on the unfolding, revelation, and discovery of the infinite nature of our own consciousness. Joel S. Goldsmith, a guide on the infinite way of Life Other Mystical Offerings: • Each A Divine Chapter • Self-Creation • Self-Effect • Inner Climate • Life’s Spiritual Upgrades • Two Identities—the Personal and the Divine • In Emptiness Is Spiritual Fulfillment © Haiku © by Zane Maser, 2022. Photos gratefully used from FreeImages. All 2009-2022 rights of Zane Maser and SunnyCat Astrology reserved worldwide. Always am I grateful for the inspiration and editorial assistance from Chris Maser, my kind-hearted, generous soul mate.

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From Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit, there came a great unifying force that flowed in and through all things — the flowers of the plains, blowing winds, rocks, trees, birds, animals — and was the same force that had been breathed into the first man. Thus, all things were kindred and were brought together by the same Great Mystery. Kinship with all creatures of the earth, sky, and water was a real and active principle. In the animal and bird world there existed a brotherly feeling that kept the Lakota safe among them. And so close did some of the Lakotas come to their feathered and furred friends that in true brotherhood they spoke a common tongue. The animals had their rights — the right of man’s protection, the right to live, the right to multiply, the right to freedom, and the right to man’s indebtedness — and in recognition of these rights the Lakota never enslaved an animal and spared all life that was not needed for food and clothing. This concept of life and its relations was humanizing and gave to the Lakota an abiding love. It filled his being with the joy and mystery of living; it gave him reverence for all life; it made a place for all things in the scheme of existence with equal importance to all. The Lakota could despise no creature, for all were of one blood, made by the same hand, and filled with the essence of the Great Mystery. In spirit, the Lakota were humble and meek. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” — this was true for the Lakota, and from the earth they inherited secrets long since forgotten. Their religion was sane, natural, and human. Chief Luther Standing Bear Teton Sioux   Other Reverence-of-the-Animals Offerings: • For the Love of Animals • For the Love of Animals: “Respect and Gratitude” • Animals Born of Good Heart • The Little Ones   (Buddhist quotes on animals) • Silent Communion with Animals • Saint Felis • Saint Worm • The Tree That Unites • Great Blue Heron—Divine Conduit • Little Angel Band   (tiny Bush Tits and Saint Francis) • Nature’s Affluence • Earth Day 2012 © © by Zane Maser, 2022. Quote from Chief Luther Standing Bear from “The Wisdom of the Native Americans,” compiled and edited by Kent Newborn. Photos gratefully used from FreeImages. All 2009-2022 rights of Zane Maser and SunnyCat Astrology reserved worldwide. Always am I grateful for the inspiration and editorial assistance from Chris Maser, my kind-hearted, generous soul mate.

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The Lakota was a true naturalist — a lover of Nature. He loved the earth and all things of the earth, and the attachment grew with age. The old people came literally to love the soil and they sat or reclined on the ground with a feeling of being close to a mothering power. It was good for the skin to touch the earth, and the old people liked to remove their moccasins and walk with bare feet on the sacred earth. Their tipis were built upon the earth and their altars were made of earth. The birds that flew in the air came to rest upon the earth, and it was the final abiding place of all things that lived and grew. The soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing, and healing. This is why the old Indian still sits upon the earth instead of propping himself up and away from its life-giving forces. For him, to sit or lie upon the ground is to be able to think more deeply and to feel more keenly; he can see more clearly into the mysteries of life and come closer in kinship to other lives about him. Chief Luther Standing Bear Teton Sioux   Other Love-of-the-Earth Offerings: • The Essence of Spiritual Ecology • Forests as Our Spiritual Inheritance • Nature’s Affluence • Oceans—Water Bearers for the Land • Spiritual Soil • Sacred Rivers • The Spiritual Journey of Salmon • Bird Consciousness • A Downed Hawk • Leaves and Tree—One Body • The Tree That Shares • A Visual Autumn Feast © © by Zane Maser, 2022. Quote from Chief Luther Standing Bear from “The Wisdom of the Native Americans,” compiled and edited by Kent Newborn. All 2009-2022 rights of Zane Maser and SunnyCat Astrology reserved worldwide. Always am I grateful for the inspiration and editorial assistance from Chris Maser, my kind-hearted, generous soul mate.

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God the Originator. God the Original. God the Creator. God the Creation. God the Emanator. God the Emanated. God the Expresser. God the Expression. God the Substance. God the Form. God the Message. God the Messenger. All God. Only God. All Good. Only Good. What God is, we are. What God has, we have. What God’s true Being is, we are. In God’s love of the Universe is our love of the Universe. Oneness is the secret and Reality of Life.   Whatever name the Sacred speaks to you within your heart, whether Father, Mother, Spirit, Source, Soul, the Christ, Buddha, Tao, let that be the quiet reassurance and fulfillment of your soul.   As human beings, we have become separated from our Source. That is what makes us appear as human beings. We have turned a divine and spiritual experience into a material one and have finitized that which is really the life of God made manifest as you and as me. … God, Life, cannot be separated from Its form, which I am, which you are. Joel S. Goldsmith, “The World is New”   Other Mystical Offerings: • Spiritual Unity • Universality • The Fabric Of Oneness • Oneness Is Oneness • Leaves and Tree—One Body • “The Mystical I”—A Free E-Book • “One Body” • Until The Last One… • Heaven is Earth © all writings except Joel’s © by Zane Maser, 2022. Photos gratefully used from FreeImages. All 2009-2022 rights of Zane Maser and SunnyCat Astrology reserved worldwide. Always am I grateful for the inspiration and editorial assistance from Chris Maser, my kind-hearted, generous soul mate.

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When I run after what I think I want, my days are a furnace of stress and anxiety; If I sit in my own place of patience, what I need flows to me, and without pain. From this I understand that what I want also wants me, is looking for me and attracting me. There is a great secret here for anyone who can grasp it. Rumi, Persian mystic Listen to the silence. It has so much to say. Rumi   Have patience with all things. But, first of all with yourself. Saint Francis de Sales     Strive ceaselessly; never be impatient. Once the finality is achieved, incarnation of troubles will be over in a second, just as when light is admitted within a room that has been locked for decades, the darkness vanishes instantly. Paramahansa Yogananda     Seeking the objects of good, such as pleasures, things, and places, for the joy of them is a barrier to spiritual unfoldment. Seeking only the realization of God, pleasures, things, and places of joy naturally come into our experience. Then our pleasure is greater in the realization of their Source. Joel S. Goldsmith, “The Infinite Way”     The mode of life is such that the human mind now has to be distracted continuously by outside noises—whether it’s movies or television or planes overhead or trains rolling by, or a bridge game or solitaire. Something has to be going on in the external realm to keep it occupied; otherwise it gets upset. And that is because it cannot stand the silence, the quietness, or inner peace. That is why there are so few able to grasp a spiritual message. More could grasp it if it were an activity of either body or mind…. Now, as long as that feverish activity of the human mind is taking place, the Christ is not able to break through and reveal Itself. We are a nation of go-getters, and so we do not know that the most effective way to be the best go- getter is to have these long and frequent periods of quiet, of do nothing and get nothing, but to receive the inspiration that makes it possible to accomplish more in one hour than the human mind and body can accomplish in 24 hours. The person that has the knack of resting, of being mentally quiet accomplishes more in less time, but the person who goes the next step higher and is enabled to open himself to the activity of the Christ is, of course, without limit. There is a limit to what the human mind and body can perform in 24 hours. But there is no limit to what the Christ can perform through a human being in 24 hours. There is absolutely no limit. Joel S. Goldsmith, “The Burden Will Be Lighter,” 1955 Kailua Class   Other Mystical Offerings: • Slow Down! • Saving Precious Energy • Are You Able To Be Quiet? • Let It All Rest… • Fluent Ease‎ • Effortlessness • Savor Joyful Moments • Simplicity Of Being © post © by Zane Maser, 2022. Photos gratefully used from FreeImages. All 2009-2022 rights of Zane Maser and SunnyCat Astrology reserved worldwide. Always am I grateful for the inspiration and editorial assistance from Chris Maser, my kind-hearted, generous soul mate.

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Snakes shed skins often. Tightness of skin constricts growth. Shedding allows room. Old skin, old guises. Expansion needs a dying, releasing what’s past. A snake can’t enlarge itself or capacity without first shedding its present “form” of skin. If it can’t get out of the skin, it perishes. Prior to the commencement of shedding the outlived skin, the snake’s eyes become temporarily more or less blinded by the newly formed skin covering its body and head, and so the snake takes cover to hide out for a few days during this vulnerable, lethargic, transitional state. To prepare for the disrobing, a snake needs some sort of abrasive but helpful surface to assist and ease the process of crawling out of the now old, too-small, outer layer. Once freed from the current restriction, a snake moves onto the next phase of life and growth—in this sense reborn afresh. And, when the former bondage is removed, a snake sees with new eyes, new vision. Snakes shed in a natural, timely, orderly passage without fighting or resisting their evolutionary course. Change is a process of this moment. Constant renewal happens. It is eternally purposeful. What the snake requires at each phase is already inherent in its cells, its body, its being, its purpose. Hence, there is no struggle. Every snake is a self-complete essence within its own uniqueness. The mystics of all ages are the two-legged “snakes” amongst us. Along the way, from their years of singularly focused dedication, persistence, patience, and unflagging endurance, they ultimately shed all the layers of finite existence to witness the spiritual universe beyond the humanly veiled dream—only to realize such illusion never was. Home was never left.   Other Mystical Offerings: • The Spiritual Journey of Salmon • In Truth All Godlings • All Life is Equal • Spiritual Ascent • Spiritually Attended • Spiritual Aid • Allowing Allows Consciousness to Open © Text © by Zane Maser, 2022. Grateful thanks to Wikimedia for the snake photos. All 2009-2022 rights of Zane Maser and SunnyCat Astrology reserved worldwide. Always am I grateful for the inspiration and editorial assistance from Chris Maser, my kind-hearted, generous soul mate.

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Each of us experiences moments and periods of fallowness when inward inspiration feels all but dormant. The bubbling-up well of words, in my case, seems drier than usual, and there is another writing project in ascendancy at the moment. These fallow spans are actually a rich incubation time when creative wisdom is gathering but not yet ready for birth. It would be premature. Even though inner waiting requires considerable patience and allowing—and sometimes much more waiting—it is a test of readiness, conception, and spiritual transition into a fuller opening. During the waiting, new perspectives take root. New vistas can open. Above all, we come to realize that we are not the source or originality, but we can connect to the Source, which is the everlasting Inspiration. In this between time, I offer Jeff Foster’s words of bold encouragement to break out of the old, outlived modes and molds into authenticity and authentic living.   There is nothing more liberating than being yourself. Not your ‘self,’ but yourself. Not the ‘self’ you invented in order to win love. Not the mask you wear in order to please people, make them like and approve of you, win fame and money and build your status. Not the façade, the games and roles you play in order to prove how loveable you are, how kind, how compassionate, how sexy, how wise, how funny, how nice, how intelligent, how ‘spiritual,’ how free from worldly concern. But your True Self. The One that was there before you invented ‘self,’ before you put on that false and suffocating mask. The One that isn’t afraid of being exposed, of being seen, of being ‘found out,’ because there’s nothing to hide and nothing to lose. The One who speaks truth and only truth. The One you will return to upon death. The One that no mask can create, destroy, or truly hide. Let yourself be seen, today. Only illusions can be lost. And all masks will burn.     Other Mystical Offerings: • Putting on Your Everyday Face   (about the astrological Ascendant) • Appearances • The Hunchback in Each of Us • Value not Validation • Ad Infinitum Ourselves • Self-Acceptance Heals the World • How Would You Be Remembered? • A Multiplicity Of Perspectives • Fallowness © blog post © by Zane Maser, 2022. This great “be yourself” photo of four women and Jeff Foster’s poem, “Take Off The Mask” were originally posted on Lynn Hayes Astrodynamics! blog. Carnival mask photo gratefully used from FreeImages. All 2009-2022 rights of Zane Maser and SunnyCat Astrology reserved worldwide. Always am I grateful for the inspiration and editorial assistance from Chris Maser, my kind-hearted, generous soul mate.

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The following are a few paragraphs from Joel S. Goldsmith’s class, “The Easter of Our Lives.” It was recorded as part of the 1952 New Washington Series. As timely as the words were then and now, the message is a profoundly mystical one that is spiritually nourishing for those on the mystical path who have “ears to hear.” May the message be a blessing of inspiration and renewal.    ”The celebration of Easter is not to commemorate an event, which took place two thousand years ago, but to reveal a principle; so that when we face a world filled with wickedness in high places, whether they be high spiritual places, high political places, or high commercial places, we can know the impotence of human scheming, human planning, human ambition, evil, degradation, and iniquity. We can stand fast in the faith that God Itself is our power, God Itself is our presence. It makes no difference what religious holidays we celebrate if we do not take from them the principle that they show forth. For us, the principle is all. … There will come a time in our experience when we are in that courtyard, and when we know that before us lies inevitability in one form or another. Before us stands the desertion of everything and everyone upon whom we have placed reliance, and we find ourselves alone with God. It is in that aloneness with God that we find the spiritual reality of wholeness and completeness. … The only reason we have the symbolic teaching of a Master deserted by his disciples is to show us that wherever our human trust has been, we might be prepared for that desertion. We can then take the higher step of witnessing the spiritual aid, the spiritual wisdom, the spiritual angels, which are sent to us and which never leave us or forsake us. Remember, “I will never leave you. I will never forsake you.” This is not a man talking. This is an angel, a guardian angel, God’s own witness within our consciousness saying that if mother or father deserts us, It will never leave us. We know through this symbolic lesson that there is That which did not desert the Master and which enabled him to reveal to the world that the desertion of human help leads to an elevation of consciousness necessary to the realization of divine help. … Remember the Easter lesson: “My kingdom is not of this world.” Remember the greatest blessing that has come to the human world has been the denial of the Master by those he fed and healed and by his very own disciples. The great lesson we must learn from the experience of Jesus is not to trust man whose breath is in his nostrils, not to place our faith in the outer world, but always to turn within and to become acquainted with our guardian angel, with the angel of the Lord, with our divine protector, with the very Christ of God, which has been planted in the midst of us since the beginning of all time.”     Other Mystical Offerings: • Angels Abound Daily • Angelic Intervention • Easter-Ize! • Easter is an Individual Experience • Sun Thoughts For Easter • Easter Thoughts by White Eagle • Arise Anew! • The Lily Work © blog post © by Zane Maser, 2022. The “Easter of Our Lives” tape was uploaded onto YouTube by Infinite Way International Hub. Deep gratitude to Wim Haverkamp for his tireless efforts and generosity in providing class tapes from Joel for all of us currently involved with a spiritual teaching of our choice. All 2009-2022 rights of Zane Maser and SunnyCat Astrology reserved worldwide. Always am I grateful for the inspiration and editorial assistance from Chris Maser, my kind-hearted, generous soul mate.

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At some stage in our spiritual journey, attention, approval, recognition, and awards are transient moments that satisfy not the thirst, like a watery mirage on the desert. No presence of divine renewal and provision can be found in such external desires, only a manufactured value that is like dust blowing in the wind. Validation is the highly over-rated, quested after holy grail of outer acknowledgment in an attempt to find some measure of self-value and temporarily relieve the sense of emptiness. Such pursuits quiet, still not the Soul within us that is Self-content, Self-reflective, eternally Self-reliant. Nowhere on the globe is the grail cup. Everywhere on the globe is the grail receptacle. It is infinite and singularly expressed—as the reality of you. True value is intrinsic, already the whole of you in the invisible, secreted depths. The Treasure is before time and space, everlasting, uncontainable, outwardly unattainable, except as it is first achieved inwardly in Self-awareness. Who is the Master you serve? Whether validation or Value, what you serve serves you. Will it be that tangible dust disappearing through your fingers or the opened eyes that are witness to your real identity? Both Lords are outward evidence of the yet closed bud or blossoming rose of your state of consciousness. If you’re reading this, the likelihood is you’ve already heard the call inside. When the timing is right, the time is here. This eternal moment is an on-going sense of deep peace and harmony.   Other Mystical Offerings: • What Value A Gold Nugget?   (seeking validation or wisdom) • Casting Outward, Casting Inward • Self-Effect • The Treasure is in My Own Garden   (the futile quest for the holy grail) • Heaven’s Realm is Within You • Divine Seeds • The Call Divine • Spiritual Pace • Inward is My Life © Text © by Zane Maser, 2022. Both photos gratefully used from FreeImages. All 2009-2022 rights of Zane Maser and SunnyCat Astrology reserved worldwide. Always am I grateful for the inspiration and editorial assistance from Chris Maser, my kind-hearted, generous soul mate.