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1 2014 Blogs And Stories By Michael Erlewine 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................. 3 From the Author: ........................................................ 6 ASTROLOGY: THE REFLECTION OF A DREAM ..... 7 ASTROLOGY: LOCAL SPACE: RELOCATION ASTROLOGY ........................................................... 13 ASTROLOGY: IDENTIFICATION IS CIRCULATION ................................................................................. 17 ASTROLOGY: LOCAL ATTRACTION ..................... 22 ASTROLOGY: SO INCLINED .................................. 27 MUSIC: PERSONAL MEMORIES OF THE ANN ARBOR BLUES FESTIVALS ................................... 38 MUSIC: THE ANN ARBOR BLUES FESTIVALS ..... 42 DHARMA: DRUGS AND THE DHARMA .................. 46 STORY: HOW I FELL IN LOVE AND GOT MARRIED ................................................................................. 55 SUBSTANCES: CAN YOU SMELL THE COFFEE? 63 DHARMA: SECULAR MEDITATION ........................ 66 DHARMA: THE PROTECTOR DEITIES - THE END OF THE YEAR ......................................................... 69 MUSIC: PETE SEEGER (1919 – 2014) ................... 71 MUSIC: THE FOLK SCENE: PART 3 ...................... 79 MUSIC: FOLK MUSIC SCENE, PART 4 .................. 85 DHARMA: RECOGNITION -- SPEED BUMP TO ENLIGHTENMENT ................................................... 89 DHARMA: MANTRAS .............................................. 92 DHARMA: POINTING OUT "POINTING OUT"......... 97 3 DHARMA: TIBETAN ASTROLOGICAL CALENDARS ............................................................................... 108 ASTROLOGY: THE ORACLES HAVE IT ............... 114 DHARMA: THE "MEANING" OF LIFE .................... 118 DHARMA: NATURE AND THE LAMA OF APPEARANCES .................................................... 121 DHARMA: EMPTINESS APPEARING ................... 126 DHARMA: FROM NATURAL CAUSES .................. 130 DHARMA: ME AND YOU ....................................... 137 STORY: The Roots of the Sixties: The Beats: PART-1 ............................................................................... 142 STORY: LIVING IN THE "GAS HOUSE" ON VENICE BEACH 1960 .......................................................... 149 STORY: 1961 HITCHHIKING WITH BOB DYLAN . 157 STORY: MICHAEL BLOOMFIELD AND HOW I BECAME A GROUPIE ........................................... 166 STORY: BLESSINGS OF THE 1960S: EDEN FOODS ............................................................................... 174 STORY: INTO THE JUNGLES OF NEPAL ............ 183 STORY: VISITING THE GOLDEN CHILD .............. 202 STORY: FINDING VAJRAPANI ............................. 211 STORY: WEST BENGAL AND BOKAR RINPOCHE ............................................................................... 220 STORY: TREASURE REVEALER CHOKGYUR LINGPA .................................................................. 230 STORY: A SACRED SPACE IN CHINA ................. 234 DHARMA: TILOPA'S WORDS OF ADVICE ........... 240 STORY: TILOPA'S SAGE ADVICE ........................ 249 DHARMA: SPIRITUAL GAPS ................................ 253 4 DO-IT-YOURSELF DHARMA ................................ 257 DHARMA: TRUE DREAMS .................................... 259 DHARMA: REACTION OR RESPONSE? .............. 262 MUSIC: ARE PLACES SACRED? ......................... 265 ASTROLOGY: THIS INTRA-ECLIPSE TIME ......... 270 DHARMA: IT'S ABOUT TIME ................................. 273 DHARMA:FIRE & BRIMSTONE DHARMA ............ 275 DHARMA: STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN .............. 280 ASTROLOGY: TWO X-CLASS MAJOR SOLAR FLARES TODAY .................................................... 282 ASTROLOGY: RIDING OUT SOLAR EVENTS ..... 284 ASTROLOGY:SOLAR CHANGE AND OUR HOUSE OF CARDS ............................................................. 289 ASTROLOGY: OUT-OF-SORTS: HOME REMEDIES ............................................................................... 294 DHARMA: SAY IT AGAIN PLEASE ....................... 298 DHARMA: SPIRITUAL MILE MARKERS ............... 303 DHARMA: MEASURING SPIRIT ........................... 311 DHARMA: HOW TO STOP ACCUMULATING KARMA .................................................................. 317 DHARMA: THERE COMES A SEA CHANGE ........ 321 DHARMA: FREE FALL ........................................... 326 DHARMA: THE SIDESHOW .................................. 329 MUSIC: MICHIGAN AS A MUSIC LAND ................ 332 DHARMA: A SENSE OF SACRED SPACE ........... 335 5 From the Author: I give up trying to arrange and sort these articles. This book contains a variety of blogs on different topics and in different categories. You know what you feel like reading, so please suit yourself. As for me, time is nearing the summer solstice, my favorite time of year, but also the beginning of the decline toward winter -- bittersweet. I will be seventy-three in a month and am in reasonably good health. Both my family and dharma practice are doing well. What more could I ask? Michael Erlewine June 18, 2014 Big Rapids, Michigan [Some articles may have had photos, which may be found by searching for the title on the web. Most of them are there somewhere.] © Copyright Michael Erlewine, 2014 Cover photo by Michael Erlewine 6 ASTROLOGY: THE REFLECTION OF A DREAM I want to relate to you a dream I had many years ago, back in the early 1970s, but before I do let me share a few experiences and thoughts that led up to this very special dream. They concern the structure of space beyond our solar system and the familiar zodiac, and how it might be of value astrologically for learning more about whom we are and what on Earth we might be here for. I first became interested in deep-space astrology through exploring heliocentric astrology, the astrology of our entire solar system. Early on, I was amazed at the difference between my standard geocentric natal chart and some of the other astrological coordinate systems such as the heliocentric and Local Space charts. At that time my interest in the space beyond and surrounding our solar system was minimal. I was put off by the billions of stellar objects out there and, on a more basic level, by the ideas of coldness and blackness I had been programmed to associate with outer space. I sure didn’t want to go out there. Distant space somehow represented the epitome of "otherness"' and "foreign" to me. I was embarrassed (in terms of astrological usage) by all of the books I had read on the fixed stars, with the possible exception of L. E. Johndro's book, “The Stars.” How was I to determine the significance of these billions of 7 stars and use them in my practice when I had enough difficulty just using the nine planets? And then the unexpected happened. I had a dream, a very special dream. It was not an ordinary dream, but one of those dreams that are more real than waking consciousness and that take months to understand and absorb. It was placed deep in my consciousness. In fact, it was a kind of vision. In my dream the astrologer L. E. Johndro appeared to me and his eyes were filled with light. There were rays or stalks of light coming out of his eyes and extending into space. This strange being said but one word, "LOOK!," and with his arm, he turned and pointed up to the night sky. I looked up and out there. As I opened my eyes, the sky was filled with brilliant points of light. The stars and all of this starry material were clustered together to form the great glowing arch of the Milky Way, our galactic plane. It was wondrous beyond description and in that instant my heart went out from me and filled this bright hall of space. Never again have I had the feeling of being here on Earth, warm, but trembling before the cold and black of space. I somehow became the space and light I saw and reversed my polarity -- changed my attitude. I understood in that instant that I was a living representative of this mother galaxy, in fact, its child. I was myself the being from outer space I had always wondered about and that scientists search for. Furthermore, I had always been so. So are you! From that night forward, I began to venture beyond the zodiac in an inquiry as to the nature and structure 8 of this universe that I was a part of. Here, in brief form, is what I found: Most important is the fact that WE are an integral and equal part of the cosmos, not just some lonely outpost. In fact, each of us is a node or information aggregate and the universe is in intimate contact with itself only through us – through our eyes and minds. We are part of the cosmic information conduit, literally the eyes and identity of the universe. The cosmos sees through our eyes, itself. That mind is our mind. The manifold nature of distant cosmic events like black holes and supernova happening out there in space is represented through our very self, so it also lives down here on Earth. It reaches in, through us, and beyond. There is not only a correlation between these seeming remote cosmic events and our person, but an identity as well. Information coming from the Galactic Center (and farther out), carried by electromagnetic and gravitational radiation from every last star and cosmic plane or event, passes through us at all times, day and night. We are in some way a node or information complex embedded in the matrix or web of manifestation. And through all of this we look at our self! While all that may sound pretty heady, the overpowering idea that occurred when I made some acquaintance with the universe and its structure is that there is no difference between out