The Seven Values
The Relationship One Has to Those in One’s Immediate Everyday Environment –
the Third of the Seven Values of the Everything
Hope is not a strategy
There is a myth within this path, and among spiritual seekers in general, that the Fifth World will somehow magickally happen in 2012, bringing love and light, a new world of balanced humans. As an Elder on the Twisted Hairs Council, and as a result of much prophetic dreaming, I tell you it will not magickally happen.
We hope for a bright future, but “hope is not a strategy” (Lt. Col. Dave Grossman). Idealism is the concept of world peace and unity leading to a human world, accomplished without strife and conflict. However, liberty and freedom come at great price. Peace with liberty and freedom is not possible without the willingness to die for it, without the willingness to sacrifice for it, and above all the willingness to educate one’s self to be able to protect and preserve it. What does this have to do with the third Value?
As apprentices walking a path of power, you are called upon to focus on your individual self-growth and development. However, you don’t take this journey alone. You are accompanied on your journey by those you choose to include in your immediate everyday environment. And these times demand that while you look inward and serve your own growth, you must at the same time look outward and recognize your duty, obligation, maku to serve the environment in which you live, be it your family, your neighborhood, your community, your state, your country, So we are asked to use red hawk medicine – attending to the details of our personal lives and our immediate environment while recognizing and understanding our role as image makers in the context of the larger community.
Image makers and image takers
You need to become very aware of the nature and the quality of your relationship to those in your immediate everyday environment. First, ask yourself the question, “Am I an image maker or an image taker?
Gus Greymountain, leader of the Twisted Hairs Elders Council, says an image maker is aware of being a role model and leading from the front. One develops authority in those one has the responsibility of training or educating. An image taker is one who attempts to convert people into followers (often spiritual followers), forcing them into mediocrity and conformity to the image taker’s rules and demands, holding out carrots to feed people’s need to belong, fit in, and conform. Image makers are looking out for you. Image takers are using you to look out for themselves. The conflict of these two approaches between individuals ultimately feeds the conflicts between countries. The one to the many.
Who are you looking up to? Who do you admire? Recognize that those in your environment are not just those you see everyday, members of your family, social circle, or the people you work with. They may also be the professional athlete you admire, a Hollywood celebrity, your boss, the coach of your son’s high school football team, the leader of your country, and so forth. Are they image makers or image takers? Be extremely cautious in your evaluation of the teachers of your children, including your adult children at the college level. Are their teachers image makers or image takers?
Our mirrors of self-reflection
This third Value is the essence of your Shadow Fire Dancer trying to guide you to the strongest mirrors of self-reflection possible. This is the form of the relationships you have to those in your immediate everyday environment, and these reflections cast images into your soul. Your reflection influences others, and their reflections influence you. There is absolutely no reason, other than civility, to interact with someone who will give you less than an optimal mirror of self-reflection. Your Shadow Fire Dancer is guiding the speed of self-growth of your spirit child and the development of your spirit personality and your soul towards the light. Maintaining a relationship with someone in your immediate everyday environment who is not equally dedicated to the light as you are will slow down your self-growth. You can’t afford that. Instead establish relationships that are cohesive and conducive to your speed of self-growth and development. Does your relationship with those in your immediate everyday environment support the clearest reflection of your beauty and potential, or do they give you a dull reflection of mediocrity, conformity, and entertainment? When we look into the mirror of self-reflection, we should see our nobility, how we carry our own self-respect, and how we make a difference.
Let’s use the work environment as an example. You must value the relationship that you have with your co-workers, bosses, clients, and so forth so that you clearly understand where your energy lines of connection with them are. You can work with them without having a serious relationship with them. Wisdom and sobriety are called for here.
Doing it my way vs having my way
The teachings of this path emphasize being a good image maker while expressing my individuality my way. Therein lies confusion, as license can easily be misunderstood to be freedom and liberty, and image making can quickly become image taking. What does my way really mean?
The 14 card of the Mayan deck says, “I walk my talk in balance and harmony my way.” You are doing it my way from the center of your own circle of power in balance and harmony, expressing your individuality and genius your way in the light. The attitude and approach from the center of your circle is, “How can I make a difference in the world with my individuality?” The key here to this Twisted Hairs dharma warrior way is acting in balance and harmony.
Having my way, on the other hand, means you are doing it at the impact effect of life and others in order to gain a sense of superiority over others or to manipulate others. You are acting as though you are the center of the universe, self-centered, egotistical, and insisting it is “all about me.” Instead of being an image maker you are an image taker.
Assuming authority, taking responsibility, and standing accountable
Before you can in any way shape or form express your individual autonomy and artistic originality and genius, you must assume authority not only for what you are going to do but how you are going to do it. You must take into careful consideration the impact of your actions. If you have done it well and in the light, you can stand spiritually accountable. If not you will have to take responsibility for a negative outcome for yourself and for others in your immediate environment. You must ask yourself, “Am I exercising license, full of self-importance, and doing it from a place of self-aggrandizement instead of self-respect?” or “Am I truly acting within the warrior’s Golden Rule?”
The Twisted Hairs Golden Rule states: Do unto others whatever you choose to do because that is what you are doing all the time anyway. However, when you choose to do something, take full responsibility for the consequences of your actions, and try to do that which will bring the greatest good for all concerned. The key here is you must assume authority for your actions before you decide to act, taking careful consideration of the impact and consequences of your actions. This must happen at the 4 place on the infinity movement, not at the 5 and 6 places. That would be like deciding to close the barn door after “the horses are out of the barn.”
Expressing your individuality your way may, at times, create disagreements and put you at odds with those in your immediate everyday environment. The challenge is to use your artistic originality to act for the greatest good of all concerned without compromising your principles and values. Be sure your way is just within sacred law.
Morals and ethics
The Elders say morals are codes of conduct that guide our actions to be life producing because they bring light and illuminate our liberty. Morals are created as we interact with our arenas of life experiences. They are the 9 card in the Mayan deck, the Grand Architect that illuminates our path through the darkness, our journey through the shadow, our voyage across the dark sea of awareness. We are constantly readjusting our presence in the world. The one thing that centers our presence is our moral base.
Ethics are how we choose to learn and create our morals and apply them into our presentation of self in the world. Your moral and ethical structure is the backbone of your spirit, and it will determine whether or not you walk as an image maker or as an image taker.
Our relationship to those in our immediate everyday environment, whether we walk our talk with liberty as image makers or exercise license as image takers, will determine ultimately on a collective level whether or not and how the Fifth World of balanced humans, living in peace with individual, autonomous freedom and liberty for all peoples, will become a reality.