Netta's Comments

I felt a soulfulness from you the minute I saw you. I think that we are both on the same page and trust me, I don't find them often. It is a pleasure to have you as a friend. Peace and much LOVE to you always. Tommy

Hi Netta... Bet you are a better singer. I used to be one but, lost the steps now. Somehow, Carlos has brought us here together. Hope for a better day.

Do you know Nepal? Maybe that we need your song today.

Hi Netta... how did you find the Architects site?? Post some of your music here so we can check it out.... glad you reached out as a friend to me on this site.... we are all working hard to be the change we want to see... glad to have you here with us... what's up in your world? I live in the San Francisco area where we are having a warm winter... not enough rain... but it is a crystal clear blue sky today... very nice indeed...

Ciao Netta.

Glad to be your friend. From yuor photo I see you're a singer. Beautiful !!
What do you sing ?

I like very much United kingdom.

I went in London some years ago, and in Scotland too.

very very beautiful....



Love peace and respect,

Massimo

Dear Colleague
I have just returned from Geneva where the United Nations is preparing a conference to be held 20-24 April to look at current manifestations of racial discrimination and xenophobia. As a non-governmental organization in consultative status and active in human rights issues, the representatives of the Association of World Citizens participate in the preperations as well as in the conference.

In many parts of the world, there is an intensification of xenophobia - fear of the foreign- usually expressed as fear and rejection of the foreigner. We see propaganda against immigrants and the promotion of doctrines of cultural and religious superiority. Yet each situation is different. Thus, to prepare our contribution to the Conference, I would be glad to receive your experiences and analysis of the area where you live or know best concerning xenophobic currents and the rejection of cultrual diversity.

As things now stand, I think that I will stress three issues on which I have worked before, but I am open to other additions:

1) Migration. Migration for work is already an important world pattern and is likely to grow with the impact of the economic downturn. It is important to look at the ways that migrants are treated. The fear of migrants and their impact on society is an important factor in xenophobia.

2) Trafficking is an aspect and a particular form of the patterns of migration. There is a large underground economy linked to trafficking in persons. Trafficking is often treated as a police matter with little concern for the people so trafficked. Linked to the issue of trafficking is violence against women, especially women trafficked for the sex trade. While there are many forms of violence against women - often within the family - we can safely say that there is little trafficking of women for sexual purposes which is not associated with violence against women.

3) There is a need to strengthen the United Nations and regional institutions to deal with the consequences of migration and trafficking in persons.

I would be glad to receive your comments and suggestions at my personal email
wadlowz@aol.com. Thanks for your cooperation.

Rene Wadlow, Representative to the UN, Geneva, Association of World Citizens

Ray Grasse
Signs of the Times : Unlocking the Symbolic Language of World Events
(Chartottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing, 2002, 297pp.)


Each major writer who analyses the transition from the Piscean period to the Age of Aquarius does so by looking at what he feels are the key signs of transition but also in terms of the ideas and discipline with which he is most at home. C.G. Jung’s important analysis Aion stresses psychological archetypes and the role of symbols. Sri Aurobindo, although he had withdrawn from active anti-colonial politics, saw in political events such as the rise of Hitler and the independence of India the signs of the passing of one age and the start of the next. Marilyn Ferguson, active in mind/brain studies, stresses shifts in consciousness in her well-known book The Aquarian Conspiracy . While drawing to an extent on all these earlier writers, Ray Grasse, trained in film making and analysis, highlights popular culture, especially films, as a reflection of the fading of Piscean values and the progressive flowering of the Aquarian age. Thus, by studying the recurring themes already surfacing throughout popular culture, we can discern the broad trends that are forming deep in the collective unconscious and will continue to take shape in the millennia to come.

The Piscean period, which we can date from about the year one of the common era to the year 2000, is the only Great Age for which we have real, worldwide historical records. For the two earlier age — Aries (2000BCE to 1 CE) and Taurus (4000BCE to 2000BCE) — we have archeological evidence and some art from a few regions. Thus, to be on solid ground, we must base Great Age analysis on the study of the most recent two thousand years.

We see the start of the Piscean period in the Mediterranean area — to be expected from a sign represented by two fish — a nearly closed sea around which flowered major societies: Classic and Hellenistic Greece and Rome, followed by Spain, Portugal, France, and England — all became politically great powers with worldwide cultural influences. The Piscean period is marked by two religious cultures: Christianity — the birth of Jesus is often used as the major symbolic start of the Piscean period — and the second Piscean faith, Islam.

If the hypothesis of a Piscean-to-Aquarian progression is correct, we should look for signs in two areas: a shift away from Mediterranean-influenced civilization and a fading of both Christianity and Islam. The shift in symbols for the age would also indicate a geographic shift in power and influence from the Piscean fish (the sea) to Aquarius — a person pouring water, indicating land in need of irrigation or water conservation. We can look for signs of a shift toward states or combination of states with large plains in need of water management for prosperity. Such a hypothesis would indicate at least four states with large plains that would take the lead in the transition to a new age: the United States, Russia, China, India, and perhaps Brazil. The signs of the USA-Russia-China-India as great powers are relatively clear.

There is less agreement on the fading of Christianity and Islam. Yet as Ray Grasse notes “The Aquarian Age will probably sweep away many of the emotional and religious trappings that characterized Piscean-Age consciousness and replace them with a more sober and clear-eyed approach to reality.” The current growth of political Islam may be due to the unconscious realization that its time on the world stage is over, but some Muslims are reluctant to leave the stage before the curtain falls.

Yet if we turn back to analyse the ending of the Age of Aries (75BCE to 1 CE) , the time of the birth of Jesus, we see that there was suffering. Every transition between two Great Ages results in suffering, and the suffering is greatest when fear, a clinging to the past, or an exuberant eagerness to race ahead introduces tensions, inner conflicts, and false expectations. For a new age to emerge, there must be courageous servants of the cyclic purpose. All deep and radical transformations require an illumined mind and an all-encompassing heart.

Ray Grasse’s book and his useful bibliography make an important contribution to the study of this period of transition. If the dawning of the Age of Aquarius is to mean more than a line from a popular song, it will require more efforts along the lines of Ray Grasse’s serious and even approach.

Rene Wadlow