Words of Power: 2015

Monday, December 21, 2015

Richard Power Announces Release of "Cauldron Yoga, Gaian Poetics and the Way of the Ancient Future"

Available via Amazon.com in Both Softcover and Kindle Editions

Solstice. December 2015.

Cauldron Yoga, Gaian Poetics and the Way of the Ancient Future is the fifth and final book in Richard Power's Primal Reality series.

In one hundred twenty pages, Power articulates three powerful themes:

Cauldron Yoga offers a Tantric vision of birth, death and transformation, in which human incarnation is experienced as divine revelation.

Gaian Poetics explores our creative relationship with the primordial goddess, that vast planetary intelligence within which we live, move and have our being.

The Way of the Ancient Future heralds the coming of that great shift required of us if our species is to evolve any further, the great shift to a global, green civilization.

The Primal Reality series is a significant contribution to the emerging global wisdom tradition. All five volumes are available in both softcover and Kindle editions from Amazon.com.

Dispatches from the Ancient Future. Existential. Somatic. New language for perennial truths. Open secrets. Reality-based perspectives on the pathless path.

The series also includes (in reverse chronological order):

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Paris and Beyond: The Red Line and the Green Flame

Nike of Samothrace. Louvre Museum. Paris.

In a literally world-changing deal that was almost unthinkable just a year ago, some two hundred leading nations unanimously embraced a plan that will leave most of the world’s fossil fuels unburned. As part of a concerted effort to avoid catastrophic climate change, the world unanimously committed to an ongoing effort of increasingly deeper emissions reductions aimed at keeping total warming “to well below 2°C [3.6°F] above preindustrial levels.” The full text of this Paris Agreement goes even further, with the parties agreeing “to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.” Already, global coal use appears to be plateauing, and global oil use will likely follow suit in the next decade as countries ratchet up their CO2 targets. To get an idea of how challenging these negotiations have been, imagine trying to get a substantive agreement on any major topic in the U.S. Senate if the requirement for success were unanimity! Tragically, conservatives in Congress are doing everything that they can to undermine this deal, which is humanity’s best chance to avoid decades if not centuries of needless suffering for billions of people. -- Joseph Romm, In Historic Paris Climate Deal, World Unanimously Agrees To Not Burn Most Fossil Fuels,Climate Progress, 12/12/15

Paris and Beyond: We are the Red Line and the Green Flame

Much of my energy and focus since the signing of the Kyoto Accords in 1997 has been to raise awareness of the Climate Crisis and encourage meaningful action to mitigate its extinction-level impact. From the promise of Kyoto through bitter betrayal in Copenhagen to the end-game in Paris.

And how did the Paris talks (i.e., COP21) play out? As George Monbiot said, “By comparison to what it could have been, it’s a miracle. By comparison to what it should have been, it’s a disaster” (Guardian, 12/12/15) And while I agree with the heroic James Hansen that COP21 is a “fraud” (Guardian, 12/12/15), I also stand with Lord Nicholas Stern in the “hope” that “historians will see this as a turning point” (Democracy Now, 12/11/15).

(Yes, we must embrace paradox to remain grounded in reality.)

Savor this moment, but do not abandon the barricades. The uprising must continue.

As Naomi Klein said in Paris, “We have run out of time. This is our historical moment. Let us not disappoint. The stakes are simply too high. Now is not the time for small steps. Now is the time for boldness. Now is the time to leap.” -- Naomi Klein, We Are Out of Time... We Need to Leap
Common Dreams, 12/11/15

There is a red line.

"People from around the world on Friday stretched a large 'red line' through the COP21 summit to register their outrage at politicians' failure to strike an ambitious draft climate deal—and to call for social movements in Paris and internationally to continue to take to the streets." -- Sarah Lazare, Decrying Draft Deal that 'Fails Humanity,' COP21 Protesters Draw Red Line, Common Dreams, 12/11/15

And there is a green flame.

"I flame above the beauty of the fields; I shine in the waters; in the sun, the moon and the stars, I burn. And by means of the airy wind, I stir everything into quickness with a certain invisible life which sustains all. For the air lives in its green power and its blossoming. . . ." -- Hildegard of Bingen, Mystical Writings

We are the red line and the green flame. There is no choice.

Of course, our greatest ally is Gaia, the all-powerful life of the planet itself. She will keep pressing us harder and harder to come back into balance. And if we do not respond, she will simply eliminate us by means of our own follies. This is an extinction-level threat.

Do not let the fascists (i.e., corporatists) distract you with their endless war IN, OF and FOR terror. Do not let them poison you with hateful, fearful nonsense about race and religion. The fascists and the jihadists nourish each other. Anthropogenic Climate Disruption (ACD) is the gravest threat, and the defining issue of the millennia.

I have more to say about Paris in my new book, Cauldron Yoga, Gaian Politics and the Way of the Ancient Future, which I will release on the Northern Hemisphere's Winter Solstice (12/21/15).

Courage! Lean forward. Yes, we are out of time. But we have gotten this far.

The great shift is already underway. We are the turning of the wheel.

"Ours is not a caravan of despair."

-- Richard Power

See Also

Vital Insights into the Friday the 13th Attack on Paris

Yes, POTUS has Smashed the Keystone XL Pipeline. This is a Victory for All Who Resisted The Madness. Now on to Paris! On to the Barricades!

Today Darfur, Tomorrow Kansas?

POTUS and the Chinese Successfully Conclude a Secret Nine Month Negotiation & Announce a Vital Deal on the Climate Crisis

I Stand with Madonna Thunder Hawk and Vandana Shiva - People's Climate March, New York City, 9-21-14

NOTE: All four volumes of my Primal Reality quadrilogy (listed here in reverse chronological order) are available from Amazon.com in both soft cover and Kindle editions:

Saturday, December 05, 2015

Wild Magic for Your Holiday Gift-Giving - Richard Power's Primal Reality Quadrilogy (Available from Amazon in Both Soft Cover and Kindle Editions)

All four volumes of the Primal Reality Quadrilogy are available now from Amazon.com
in both soft cover and Kindle editions.

My quadrilogy. Dispatches from the #ancientfuture. New language for #primaltruths. Experiential #existential #somatic reality-based perspective on the #pathlesspath.

In reverse chronological order, the Primal Reality quadrilogy includes:

Planetary Emergency/Personal Emergence: Path of An Evolutionary (2014)

User's Guide to Human Incarnation: Yoga of Primal Reality (2013)

Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality In An Age of Global Peril (2012)

Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity In Anticipation of Itself (2010)

All four books are now available from Amazon.com in both soft-cover and Kindle editions.

-- Richard Power, Author, Speaker, Yoga Teacher (RYT500)

http://words-of-power.blogspot.com

http://twitter.com/wordsofpower

http://facebook.com/wordsofpower
https://instagram.com/rgpoweriii/

https://soundcloud.com/wordsofpower/

#epiphanies #wildmagic #savagebeauty #shamanicpower #strangerinastrangeland #tavernofruin #lifeofayogi #passionofthepoet #psyche #sakti #tantrikaknows

See Also

Words of Power: 10th Anniversary Edition

Great Song: Life and Teachings of Joe Miller - Available Now Via Kindle (Amazon) and Nook (Barnes and Noble)

Epiphanies (Samhain 2014 - Summer Solstice 2015)

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Vital Insights into the Friday the 13th Attack on Paris

Brassaï - Night View of Paris from Notre-Dame (1933)

Baghdad and fellow Arab states warned US President George W. Bush yesterday that attacking Iraq will 'open the gates of hell' in the Middle East, although White House officials pressed ahead with a drive to win support for their war plans ... 'We will continue to work to avoid a military confrontation ... because we believe that it will open the gates of hell in the Middle East,' [Arab League chief Amr] Moussa told a news conference after the two-day meeting ended with a statement rejecting 'any threat of attack' against Iraq. -- Anne Penketh, Attack on Iraq will open the gates of hell, Arabs warn, Arab News, 9/6/02

Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast is currently No 1 on Amazon’s French site, where the retailer says it has temporarily sold out. Copies of the memoir have been left among the tributes to the 129 victims of last Friday night’s attacks, reports Le Figaro. According to the French publisher Folio, orders have risen from an average of 10-15 copies per day to reach 500 ... The book is published in French as Paris est une fête (Paris Is a Celebration), striking a chord with a mood of defiance in the wake of the attacks. This has seen Parisians drinking and eating in restaurants, cafes and bars across the city, and posting about it under the slogan 'Je suis en terrasse' on social media ... Hemingway wrote: 'There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other. We always returned to it no matter who we were nor how it was changed nor with what difficulties now what ease, it could be reached. It was always worth it and we received a return for whatever we brought to it.' The demand for Hemingway’s memoir has also been fueled by a much-shared interview with a Parisian woman named only as Danielle ... Allison Flood, Hemingway's Paris memoir rises to No 1 in France following terror attacks, Guardian, 11/20/15

There is a lot to say about the slaughter of the innocents in Paris on 11/13/15 (and in a Beirut suburb the day before, and on a Russian charter flight over Sharm el-Sheikh two weeks earlier). But little good would come of it, and life is too short. ("Voice crying in the wilderness" is a loser's game, and "I told you so," has a foul taste.) After all, since the slaughter of the innocents on 9/11/01, I have written and spoken out often, both on this war IN, OF and FOR terror in which the West pretends its enemies are its allies, and also on how the Climate Crisis, our greatest national (and global) security threat would warp the full spectrum of all threats, including and especially the terrorist threat. And yet here we are. But Words of Power is an ongoing narrative, and some acknowledgement of this horrific event should be included. So I am sharing these lengthy excerpts from three insightful pieces of analysis, all worthy sources. And I have, of course, included hyperlinks to the full texts. This is what you really need to know, and, of course, Infotainmenstan isn't telling you. -- Richard Power

Posted on Instagram by Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Joann Sfar after the Paris attacks

"Oil is the Black Gold that Funds ISIS's Black Flag"

Maybe Paris was just hit because of French attacks on ISIS. And maybe the now more likely failure of COP21 to achieve its aims is mere collateral damage in the increasingly savage 'great game' of global power politics. But it may not be. As the FT put it last week in an article titled 'Isis Inc: how oil fuels the jihadi terrorists', "Oil is the black gold that funds Isis' black flag - it fuels its war machine, provides electricity and gives the fanatical jihadis critical leverage against their neighbors ... "While al-Qaeda, the global terrorist network, depended on donations from wealthy foreign sponsors, Isis has derived its financial strength from its status as monopoly producer of an essential commodity consumed in vast quantities throughout the area it controls. Even without being able to export, it can thrive because it has a huge captive market in Syria and Iraq." But ISIS's ambitions surely don't stop there. Its aim is to consolidate its hold of the regions it already occupies, extend its empire to new regions and countries, and establish a Caliphate whose power and income will largely derive from oil. So the last thing it needs is a global climate agreement that will, over time, limit global consumption of fossil fuels. Oil prices are low at around $50 per barrel. The IEA estimates that OPEC states have lost half a trillion dollars a year in revenues since the oil price fell from over $100 a barrel in 2011-2014 to current levels. And this is causing deep tensions among OPEC members - due to meet on 4th December in Vienna to thrash out solutions. The main problem is that Saudi Arabia is over-producing oil in order to suppress investment in and production of high cost oil in the the US, Canada, UK and other countries - and so capture the lion's share of an oil market it thinks will keep on growing for decades to come. Thus OPEC scenarios foresee oil demand increasing from 111 to 132 million barrels per day (mb/d) by 2040. However the International Energy Agency thinks that even modest carbon constraints will see demand for oil slump to around 100 mb/d by 2040 - and considerably lower with tough climate policies. And that is surely an outcome that not just ISIS but all major oil exporters fear and wish to avoid. So, assuming - as seems probable at this stage - that the Paris outrage was carried out by or for ISIS, was it in any way motivated by a desire to scupper a strong climate agreement at COP21? And so maintain high demand for oil long into the future, together with a high oil price? -- Oliver Tickell, Paris attacks - COP21 and the war on terror, The Ecologist, 11/14/15

Winged Victory (Nike) of Samothrace (2nd Century B.C.), top of the Daru Staircase in
the Denon wing of the Louvre. Photo Credit: Lyokoï88/Wikipedia (March 2015)

"Our Only Hope"

The connection between warming temperatures and the cycle of Syrian violence is, by now, uncontroversial. As Secretary of State John Kerry said in Virginia, this month, “It’s not a coincidence that, immediately prior to the civil war in Syria, the country experienced its worst drought on record. As many as 1.5 million people migrated from Syria’s farms to its cities, intensifying the political unrest that was just beginning to roil and boil in the region.” As Kerry went on to note, many factors contributed to Syria’s instability. The severe drought was one, but so were the repressive practices of a brutal dictator and the rise of a particular strain of religious extremism. Another big factor was the invasion of Iraq, a decade ago. And since that war—like so many before it—was inextricable from the West’s thirst for Iraqi oil (warming be damned), that fateful decision in turn became difficult to separate from climate change. ISIS, which has taken responsibility for the attacks in Paris, found fertile ground in this volatile context of too much oil and too little water. If we acknowledge that the instability emanating from the Middle East has these roots, it makes little sense to allow the Paris attacks to minimize our already inadequate climate commitments. Rather, this tragedy should inspire the opposite reaction: an urgent push to lower emissions as rapidly and deeply as possible, including strong support for developing countries to leapfrog to renewable energy, creating much-needed jobs and economic opportunities in the process. That kind of bold climate transition is our only hope of preventing a future in which, as a recent paper in the journal Nature Climate Change put it, large areas of the Middle East will, by the end of the century, “experience temperature levels that are intolerable to humans.” But even this is not enough. The deepest emission reductions can only prevent climate change from getting far worse. They can’t stop the warming that has already arrived, nor the warming that is locked in as a result of the fossil fuels we have already burned. So there is a critical piece missing from our climate conversation: the need to quickly lower atmospheric CO₂ levels from the current four hundred parts per million to the upper limit of what is not considered dangerous: three hundred and fifty parts per million ... -- Naomi A. Klein and Jason Box, Why a Climate Deal Is the Best Hope for Peace, New Yorker Magazine via Common Dreams, 11-19-15

"Enough of This Pathological Fear ..."

The lessons of the post-9/11 world are that the Francis Fukuyama dream of global liberal democracy is at an end and that, at the level of the world economy, corporate capitalism has triumphed worldwide. In fact, the Third World nations that embrace this world order are those now growing at a spectacular rate. The mask of cultural diversity is sustained by the actual universalism of global capital; even better if global capitalism’s political supplement relies on so-called “Asian values.” Global capitalism has no problem in accommodating itself to a plurality of local religions, cultures and traditions. So the irony of anti-Eurocentrism is that, on behalf of anti-colonialism, one criticizes the West at the very historical moment when global capitalism no longer needs Western cultural values in order to smoothly function. In short, one tends to reject Western cultural values at the very time when, critically reinterpreted, many of those values (egalitarianism, fundamental rights, freedom of the press, the welfare-state, etc.) can serve as a weapon against capitalist globalization. Did we already forget that the entire idea of Communist emancipation as envisaged by Marx is a thoroughly “Eurocentric” one? The next taboo worth leaving behind is that any critique of the Islamic right is an example of “Islamophobia.” Enough of this pathological fear of many Western liberal leftists who worry about being deemed guilty of Islamophobia. For example, Salman Rushdie was denounced for unnecessarily provoking Muslims and thus (partially, at least) responsible for the fatwa condemning him to death. The result of such a stance is what one can expect in such cases: The more Western liberal leftists wallow in their guilt, the more they are accused by Muslim fundamentalists of being hypocrites who try to conceal their hatred of Islam. This constellation perfectly reproduces the paradox of the superego: The more you obey what the pseudo-moral agency that the sadistic and primitive superego demands of you, the more guilty you are of moral masochism and identification with the aggressor. Thus, it is as if the more you tolerate Islamic fundamentalism, the stronger its pressure on you will be ... -- Slavoj Zizek, In the Wake of Paris Attacks the Left Must Embrace Its Radical Western Roots, In These Times

Brassaï - The Eiffel Tower At Twilight, Paris (1932)

NOTE: All four volumes of my Primal Reality quadrilogy (listed here in reverse chronological order) are available from Amazon.com in both soft cover and Kindle editions:

Friday, November 06, 2015

Yes, POTUS has Smashed the Keystone XL Pipeline. This is a Victory for All Who Resisted The Madness. Now on to Paris! On to the Barricades!

Edward Hopper - Two Figures at Top of Steps in Paris (1906)

"President Obama’s decision to reject Keystone XL because of its impact on the climate is nothing short of historic -- and sets an important precedent that should send shockwaves through the fossil fuel industry. Just a few years ago, insiders and experts wrote us off and assured the world Keystone XL would be built by the end of 2011. Together, ranchers, tribal nations, and everyday people beat this project back, reminding the world that Big Oil isn’t invincible--and that organized people can win over organized money. But the win against Keystone XL is just the beginning, because this fight has helped inspire resistance to a thousand other projects. Everywhere you look, people are shutting down fracking wells, stopping coal export facilities, and challenging new pipelines." -- May Boeve, 350.org

"For more than 20 years, delegates from all over the world have met annually to discuss ways to mitigate the devastating impacts of a changing climate. This December, the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) will be held in Paris. Given how seriously we have already damaged the earth’s atmosphere, it is not hyperbolic to suggest that the fate of the human race rests on a robust global treaty to severely curb greenhouse gas emissions. But there are already alarm bells ringing over the influence that corporations will be allowed to wield at COP21. Our global capitalist system has enabled businesses to extract ever-greater resources and generate relentless pollution. Now, many of the same companies that are guilty of destroying our climate are being lauded as 'partners' and 'stakeholders' in the climate talks." -- Sonali Kolhatkar, Uprising

This is a profound victory. There are many more struggles ahead. But this is a moment of victory. And this victory would not have come to pass without the fierce, unyielding protest of a multitude planetary citizens. Nor would it have come to pass if McCain had won in 2008 or Romney had won in 2012. If you underestimate any of these contributing factors you fail to grasp the lesson wrapped in this victory. So next time someone tells you there is no difference between the two major political parties, remember this moment.

In spite of all the wrong that has been allowed to transpire over the last eight years (e.g., the rise of the TPP), the weight of that wrong would have been unspeakably greater if McCain had won in 2008 or Romney had won in 2012. Just as the weight of wrong we currently languish under would be far less if the Democrats controlled the Senate and the House. Just as the weight of injustice and insanity would be far less if there were not a 5-4 extreme reactionary edge on the Supreme Court.

If POTUS had done nothing other than avoiding war with Iran and scuttling the Keystone Pipeline it would have been difference enough to vote in 2008 and 2012. As bad off as we are, it would have been much much worse. It's not an excuse. It's not good enough. There is still so much to be done (and undone). But this victory is nevertheless a fact.

There are many more struggles ahead. But this is a moment of victory. And this victory would not have come to pass without the fierce, unyielding protest of a multitude of planetary citizens. Nor would it have come to pass if McCain had won in 2008 or Romney had won in 2012. If you underestimate any of these contributing factors you fail to grasp the lesson wrapped in this victory. So next time someone tells you there is no difference between the two major political parties, remember this moment.

Lean forward! On to Paris!

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

-- Richard Power

#‎noamchomskyknows‬ ‪#‎notacaravanofdespair‬ ‪#‎pachamama‬ ‪#‎gaia‬ ‪#‎notruthsoutsidethegatesofeden‬ ‪#‎pathofanevolutionary‬

NOTE: All four volumes of my Primal Reality quadrilogy (listed here in reverse chronological order) are available from Amazon.com in both soft cover and Kindle editions:

Monday, October 12, 2015

When an Empire Wants to Lie to Itself ...


Sunset. Pacific Ocean. October 2015.

When an Empire wants to lie to itself (i.e., always) it calls itself a "Civilization." But an Empire is not a Civilization, it is just a killing machine, a hoarding machine, a raping machine and a slaving machine. There is no virtue in blood or pigment or place of origin, or circumstances of any kind.

These superstitions are just as dangerous as those written with quills of suffering in some of the so-called "Holy Books."

Empire is just a self-propelled engine of ignorance in which every cog and piston imagines itself to be driving (especially the Platos). This self-propelling engine of ignorance stokes its own fires with the pitch and timber of genocide, femicide and ecocide.

Whenever a Civilization arises at all, anywhere on the Earth, it does so in spite of the Empire that uses it as a disguise. It's the Einsteins, not the Caesars, that propel us forward. It's the Anne Franks, not the Adolph Hitlers, that advance human evolution.

The essential reality of human existence, its innermost core, is as it was in the caves, before the beginning. In utter innocence. The consciousness of Gaia Herself is so unspeakably sublime, so astonishingly marvelous, and yes the consciousness of the Solar System in which She whirls, and the consciousness of the Milky Way in which the Solar System whirls, and the consciousness of the Universe in which the Milky Way whirls, yes, unspeakable, incomprehensible.

Remember Lao-Tzu! Water erodes stone, the great sage remarked.

Well, just so, our essential reality, in its innocence, and clinging to the exquisite embrace of Gaia the Creatrix, just so, our essential reality will survive the paroxysms of empire, to move on to total embodiment in the truth and beauty of an ancient future.

-- Richard Power

#‎notruthoutsidethegatesofeden‬ ‪#‎troubadourskilledbeforetheyreachbombay‬ ‪#‎gaia‬ ‪#‎greatgoddess‬ ‪#‎savagebeauty‬ ‪#‎tavernofruin‬ ‪#‎wildmagic‬ ‪#‎ancientfuture‬ ‪#‎cavepaintings‬ ‪#‎truth‬ ‪#‎beauty‬ ‪#‎lifeofayogi‬ ‪#‎passionofthepoet‬ ‪#‎pathofanevolutionary‬ ‪#‎indigenouspeoplesday‬ ‪#‎tantrikaknows‬ ‪#‎nofilter‬

NOTE: All four volumes of my Primal Reality quadrilogy (listed here in reverse chronological order) are available from Amazon.com in both soft cover and Kindle editions:

Saturday, October 03, 2015

Cauldron Yoga, Gaian Poetics & the Way of the Future: Further Perspectives on the Nature of Primal Reality

Here is the video recording of my recent talk on "Cauldron Yoga, Gaian Poetics and the Way of the Future" (see below). I have also included the presentation itself (see above). In this talk, I share some perspectives on the nature of true embodiment and the future of civilization. This post is also the inaugural offering at Spoken Words of Power, my You Tube Channel (much more to come). I hope you enjoy it. The book version of "Cauldron Yoga, Gaian Poetics and the Way of the Future," which will include extended commentary and fresh epiphanies, will be released in softcover and electronic form this coming winter. -- Blessings, Richard Power

Cauldron Yoga, Gaian Poetics and the Way of the Future: Further Perspectives on the Nature of Our Primal Reality

#‎greatgoddess‬ ‪#‎Gaia‬ ‪#‎Pachamama‬ ‪#‎wildmagic‬ ‪#‎savagebeauty‬ ‪#‎tavernofruin‬ ‪#psyche #soma #shadow #primalreality #ancientfuture #‎notruthoutsidethegatesofeden‬ ‪#‎notacaravanofdespair‬ ‪#‎troubadourskilledbeforetheyreachBombay‬ ‪#pearlofgreatprice #strangerinastrangeland #‎lifeofayogi‬ ‪#‎passionofthepoet‬ ‪#‎shamanicpower‬ ‪#‎tantrikaknows‬

NOTE: All four volumes of my Primal Reality quadrilogy (listed here in reverse chronological order) are available from Amazon.com in both soft cover and Kindle editions:

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Richard Power's Primal Reality Quadrilogy Now Available in Both Soft Cover and Kindle Editions

All four volumes of the Primal Reality Quadrilogy are available now from Amazon.com
in both soft cover and Kindle editions.

http://words-of-power.blogspot.com

http://twitter.com/wordsofpower

http://facebook.com/wordsofpower
https://instagram.com/rgpoweriii/

Tantra: A Sacred Technology

Pool of Enchantment, de Young Museum, Golden Gate Park. San Francisco, September 2015.

Tantra is being buried alive in rich soil only to realize that you are the root of the world, and that the warm brown decay is your nourishment. Tantra is being swept away in the fierce current of a great river that has overflown in banks, swollen with torrents of tears.

The term "Tantra" is a survivor of abuse. It has been cruelly exploited. Tantra has been sold into slavery and then auctioned back to itself. Countless times. But Tantra is invincible. Its experience of its own nature is the very essence of healing.

Tantra is a path of self-immolation in the smokeless fire of radical transformation. Tantra is the pain in pleasure and the pleasure in pain. Tantra is the wind; if it does not thrill through something else it has no sense of itself, ceaseless movement is its calm abidance.

Tantra is a sacred technology. And like the many technological breakthroughs in medicine and computing made in the course of space exploration, Tantra is a by-product of the Great Goddess's engineering genius, just one of the many dazzling technological breakthroughs made in the course of Her Self Creation. The perfection of Tantra is savored in utter loneliness just as deeply as in sublime communion. Yoga and Tantra are the wings of a great bird. The bird cannot soar with only one wing. Tantra revels in the deep mysteries of gender in all its dazzling permutations.

From deep inside the nature of suffering, Tantra opens a portal beyond. Tantra is discovering that "you" are the dark blue flesh of space itself and that all of red life is contained within "you."

This is the truth.

-- Richard Power

Excerpted from Wyrds of Power: New Language for A New Reality (2017). Originally published in Planetary Emergency, Personal Emergence: Path of An Evolutionary (2014).

For more on my published work visit my Amazon author's page.

#notruthoutsidethegatesofeden #lifeofayogi #strangerinastrangeland #pearlofgreatprice #sakti #shadow #psyche #soma #pathlesspath #passionofthepoet #shamanicpower #tavernofruin #savagebeauty #wildmagic #tantrikaknows

Pool of Enchantment, de Young Museum, Golden Gate Park. San Francisco, September 2015.

This Third Force

San Francisco. September 2015

Sunrise on another day.

If you live long enough and you are brutally honest with yourself, you could spend much of the rest of your life weeping over all that has been lost.

But as I wrote many years ago, when the bell of freedom tolls it shatters itself.

The turning of the great wheel is inexorable. To roll with it unflinchingly, you must fuse will and surrender into an indomitable third force.

It is this third force that taps into a limitless power source from beyond and before creation.

This is your reality now and at every moment you choose to allow it to be so.

-- Richard Power, Author, Speaker, Yoga Teacher (RYT500)

#thesunalsorises #thegreatwheelturns #tavernofruin #savagebeauty #wildmagic #wheeloffortune #whenipaintmymasterpiece #psyche #soma #lifeofayogi #passionofthepoet #notruthoutsidethegatesofeden #notacaravanofdespair #troubadourskilledbeforetheyreachBombay #tantrikaknows

NOTE: All four volumes of my Primal Reality quadrilogy (listed here in reverse chronological order) are available from Amazon.com in both soft cover and Kindle editions:

Friday, August 28, 2015

Words of Power: 10th Anniversary Edition

Frida Kahlo -El Sol y la Vida, trans. "Sun and Life" (1947)

I launched Words of Power in August 2005, so this month marks the site's tenth anniversary.

To celebrate the milestone, I have added eleven new posts to my ongoing narrative. (These eleven posts are backdated, so that they appear in their correct chronological order.)

Five of them are more "Epiphanies," initially published via my Instagram feed:

The other six new posts constitute a series of brief excerpts from the work of great woman writers and philosophers. This series was initially posted via my Facebook page. It furthers the exploration I shared in Notes on the Ascendancy of the Feminine in Psyche (Human and Divine), a talk I included in my tenth book, Planetary Emergency/Personal Emergence: Path of An Evolutionary (2014). In that talk, I featured the life and work of nine great woman mystics and nine great woman artists and photographers. This continuing concentration seeks to contribute to the supplanting of history with herstory for the collective healing and transformation of our species:

If you resonate with the content of this site, and would like to support my work, all four volumes of my Primal Reality quadrilogy (listed here in reverse chronological order) are available from Amazon.com in both soft cover and Kindle editions:

-- Richard Power, Author, Speaker, Yoga Teacher (RYT500)

http://words-of-power.blogspot.com

http://twitter.com/wordsofpower

http://facebook.com/wordsofpower
https://instagram.com/rgpoweriii/

https://soundcloud.com/wordsofpower/

See Also

Epiphanies (Samhain 2014 - Summer Solstice 2015)

Richard Power's Primal Reality Quadrilogy Available Now from Amazon.com

Great Song: Life and Teachings of Joe Miller - Available Now Via Kindle (Amazon) and Nook (Barnes and Noble)

About Richard Power

Richard Power is a writer, speaker and yoga teacher. He offers workshops, classes and private instruction in yoga and meditation. He is the author of 14 books, most important are Wyrds of Power: New Languagee for A New Reality (2017), I, the Dragon: Chronicles of An Epic Life Among the Humans (2018), and Secret Engine of the World: Further Notes on Primal Reality, Gaian Politics & the Arc of Human Evolution (2021). For more information on all of Power's other books, visit his author's page on Amazon.com.

For much of his life, Power worked in the fields of security and intelligence. He delivered briefings and led training in forty countries, and was an adviser to governments and corporations. His views have been featured in interviews on CNN, PBS, NPR and the BBC, and quoted in mainstream news media, including Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Reuters and Associated Press.

This blog explores new language for the truths of the ancient future, and reflects insights into Vajrayana Buddha Dharma, Kashmir Shiva-Sakti philosophy, Hatha and Tantra Yoga, the Shamanic path, and other aspects of the world's collective mystical heritage. It also offers commentary on art, music, literature, human rights, sustainability, independent journalism, economic justice and the Climate Crisis.