This is going to be a rather lengthy edition of the Duncan Domain. I had other projects to report on but an event occurred on September 11, 2001 that has pushed all that aside for now. I’ll first report on the spiritual healing activities that Inga and I and others have been doing and then I’ll share my emotional and rational response to the event.

I walked into work the morning of September 11, 2001 and a co-worker stopped me on the stairs to tell me about planes crashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. “It’s just like the movie Independence Day!” Confused and wary, I continued up the stairs and went into the boardroom where CNN was reporting the events. My mind reeled at the implications and the audacity of the attack. It was difficult to accept that the graphic images of the planes crashing into the towers were real vs. some super realistic big budget action movie based on a Tom Clancy novel.

I was raised on Vietnam, the specter of nuclear war, assassinations, terrorism, mass public shootings, etc., so my emotional skin has become pretty thick over the years. This stuff, out of necessity, rolls off my psyche like water off a duck’s back. So I began to wonder where the intense waves of emotion that began hitting me that morning were coming from. Fear, panic, despair, horror and anger and it just kept building up in intensity. By the time I called Inga for help, I was on the verge of losing it mentally and emotionally. It was like I was hanging on to a tree to keep from being swept away by a sudden, massive flood and my fingers were slipping.

I could barely speak to her as I kept fighting back to urge to start sobbing uncontrollably. As we spoke, I could sense that I was standing in the midst of a large, ghostly crowd and I realized they were the source of the emotions that were engulfing me. Inga told me how she and other friends and clients had begun working on healing this pain. She said the ghosts were attracted to my Light, Love and strength. They were seeking healing and safety. She instructed me to ground myself and to strengthen my Light as it would show them the way to the Light itself.

Reminded of my training with White Elk and of my strength, I said goodbye and got to work. I left the office and walked across the street where I’ve been creating sacred circles for the last few months or so in the landscaped planters each morning as I walk to the deli for my morning latte. (The planters contain big boulders, trees and shrubs and elementals appeared in them one day and asked me to perform this work for them so it’s become a daily ritual for me. Yes, an office park can contain sacred spaces!)

Being near these now sacred spaces, I was quickly able to get grounded and expand my consciousness. I could now see the multitude of ghosts around me and it felt like I was standing waist deep in the ocean as wave after wave of intense emotion tried to sweep me away. I pulled even more of the earth energy into my root chakra while pulling white light into my crown chakra. I then felt better anchored and the waves broke around me instead of sweeping through me. I saw a portal of divine Light open to my right and I reached out to the many souls around me, hugging them, sharing my love and strength. I pointed out the tunnel of Light and many of them walked into it. As more of them did, the waves of fear and horror began to lessen. I kept wading in deeper, reaching out to them while strengthening my grounding. I wept as I went. There were so many of them and they were so scared and lost. This was so overwhelming compared to my similar experience at the Little Bighorn Battlefield last year. I felt the presence of other healers, like me, responding to this crisis as well. I also saw my higher, spiritual self continuing to work even as my physical self slowed down, exhausted. The emotional pressure on me had now subsided so I retracted my consciousness and closed down my chakras. I knew the healing work would continue until all were taken to the Light.

That night, Inga guided me in performing more healing work. She asked me to project my consciousness into a beautiful, restful place. I did and it felt so peaceful and rejuvenating. I bathed in it, feeling safe from the chaos and insanity of the day. She instructed me to allow more of the lost souls to come to me so they could be sent to the Light but I resisted. I did not want all that horror and fear to invade this magical place. I could see the ghostly shapes of the World Trade towers through the trees of the glade I was in and I would not let that hellish place into my sanctuary. Instead, I told Inga that I felt compelled to go to the towers. Inga said that was not necessary but I could tell that the souls left at the site were too scared and confused to come to me. I was also not afraid to bring the Light to them. She agreed and I went to the Towers.

I found myself in the midst of mountains of rubble and wreckage. I felt the intense pain, fear and horror that permeated the place. I ignored it and began casting a sacred circle by pulling Earthly energy from below and spiritual energy from above, mixing them inside my body and then projecting that energy down my right arm into a stone wand that I held. As the stone glowed from the infusion of sacred energy, I caused a beam of light to emanate from it and I spun slowly clockwise thus drawing a circle on the ground. As the circle was completed, a pillar of energy formed linking the Earth to the sky and the Universe beyond. Inga called out to all the spirit guides of the lost souls to come and stand on the circle. I saw a multitude of luminous beings appear and line up. I felt their clarity and sense of purpose and it strengthened me. Now the ghosts began rising up out of the wreckage and I greeted them while escorting them to their guides who in turn, took them to the tunnel of Light that had appeared.

I suddenly felt compelled to look up and I saw the ghostly shape of the now destroyed buildings, towering above me. To my horror, I saw the ghostly forms of people trapped on the floors way over my head. I floated up into the air and took the hands of the first few I came to. They were absolutely terrified but I projected Love and strength into them and they came down into the circle with me where their guides greeted them. I was about to go back up for another group when Inga instructed me to invite the guides to go up and collect their own people while I worked on keeping the circle strong. I did so and the air was filled with guides rising up into the buildings. It was an amazing sight and my heart was filled with wonder and joy!

I refocused on the circle and as I did, Elementals in the form of leprechauns and fairies came into the circle and began working. The fairies were flitting back and forth in the air while the little guys were stomping all around waving their arms about. They looked very busy and Inga said they were starting the work of healing the energy of the site. It was quite a scene! (The last time I saw Elementals doing this sort of work was when Inga and Kindel were making magical soaps in our kitchen. There were so many of them bustling about that I couldn’t get in the door to get a glass of water!)

Inga and I went on to create sacred circles at the Pentagon and at the Pennsylvania crash site with the same results. Feeling whole once again and like I could finally sleep peacefully, I returned to normal consciousness.

This week has been filled with editorials and speeches and interviews all focused on trying to make sense of this tragic event. I’ve heard and seen everything from the heart wrenching interviews with relatives looking for their lost loved ones to complete idiots calling for the carpet bombing of entire foreign countries. A good friend of ours, Eileen, sent out an e-mail from her sister that hit pretty close to my own emotional and rational center. After ruminating about this all week, I sat down and wrote my own “editorial”. It feels good to get it off my chest. One thing I know for certain: we’ve got problems and there are no simple answers. So here goes:

I view the attack this week as the cost of our brutal, insensitive foreign policy that is based on propping up unsustainable and destructive economic models. Every repressive regime we have funded, all the terrorists that have been trained by our government agencies, all the assassinations, all the missiles and bombs we have rained down on other countries, etc., etc., etc., have done little but fuel a seemingly pervasive and endless hatred of our country. When did we shift from being the rebuilders of Europe after WWII to being the heavy handed bully of the World?

George W. Bush and his advisors may think he’ll be able to soothe our deeply emotional response to this event and look “presidential” by launching millions of dollars of cruise missiles at some vague targets in Afghanistan but even if the military got lucky and actually killed Osama Bin Laden, scores of others would call him a holy martyr and rise up with righteous justification to take his place. In other words, our clumsy, violent response would just fuel the vicious cycle of brutality and hatred.

I hear so many Americans talking on TV about what this country stands for and to my ears, much of it is a cry against the disruption of their status quo. They lace their protestations with words like freedom and democracy but I wonder if they understand the true meaning of those principles. Regardless of what is said, our daily actions speak much louder. America has sunk into a destructive cycle of consumerism that is using up the planet. We’ve quietly given up control of our government to an unholy alliance of the military/industrial complex, our corporations and special interests in exchange for a false sense of freedom, security and reality.

The vast majority of us do not protest how our government spends billions on the most insane bullshit. (Those of us who do protest are labeled as liberals, hippies or worse.) If we bother to vote, we generally have only worthless candidates to choose from. We complacently go about consuming the planet’s resources as if they were endless while watching mindless TV. (I think that’s the real addiction problem in this country!) Our government unleashes the military to brutalize anyone who gets in the way of our gas prices or threatens to rock our economic luxury liner. It has also trained and funded terrorists to commit illegal and immoral acts and then uses them as convenient, larger than life enemies when they turn against us. Who needs the Soviets and the Cold War? Our security agencies can keep the game going much more economically these days.

Did any of us agree to run our country or spend our taxes in the following manner?

• The war on drugs
• The new war on terrorism
• Countless illegal black ops against domestic and foreign targets
• The constant government repression of alternative health care & religious practices
• The constant threat against women’s rights to control their own bodies
• The continuous downward spiral of our public education system
• Government subsidies of senseless, unsustainable industries and programs like:
  • the destructive logging, mining and grazing of public lands
  • primitive automotive and fossil fuel technologies
  • nuclear anything
  • Star Wars missile programs
  • the IRS, etc., etc.

Meanwhile, the global temperature is steadily rising. The weather is turning more and more violent and unpredictable each year and species are becoming extinct at an alarming rate while our government unilaterally walks away from global environmental accords.

Our founding fathers went to war with England over far, far less. If they were here now, I think they’d be telling us that we’re long overdue for a good, old-fashioned American revolution. Don’t get me wrong. I will steadfastly refuse to pick up a rifle and shoot anyone or to make bombs. I will only participate in a revolution that uses the non-violent methods of Mr. Gandhi to bring our daily actions back in alignment with our noble American principles and reflect a true stewardship of this planet. In my humble opinion, anything less loving and less respectful will not get the job done anyway. */:-)