Studying Hopi Prophecy Part 2 – Tokpela The First World

Dear Friends,
I am in the midst of a study, which I sincerely want to share with everyone who reads my blogs. I believe this information to be very important for the time we live in.

My study is on the ancient teachings of the Native American people known as The Hopi. Rather than over explain the things I am studying – I am going to just present this information and let it speak for itself.

Live Love
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This article found online at: http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Journal/2003/Winter/GrandCanyon/

Tokpela - The First World

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([Morning at Nankoweap, a passage along the Little Colorado River. The Hopi still visit this area for pilgrimages and to search for salt to use in religious ceremonies. Though rafters and kayakers frequent the area, the ritual areas are strictly off limits.
Tokpela, the "First World", was likely open and wild like the canyon, which is likely part of the attraction and fascination it holds for the Hopi. Image from Kayak Place.])

    
Tokpela ("Endless Space") the First World, was as pure and perfect as a finite world can be, and the hearts of the people were as one. Their bodies were perfectly in tune with both Taiowa the Creator and the Earth, from which their bodies had been formed. They formed a perfect union between heaven and Earth, which is the purpose for which they had been created.

    Thus the First People understood themselves. And this was the First World they lived upon. Its name was Tokpela, Endless Space. Its direction was west; its color sikyangpu, yellow; its mineral sikyasvu, gold. Significant upon it were katoya, the snake with the big head; wisoko, the fat-eating bird; and muha, the little four-leaved plant. On it the First People were pure and happy. So, the First People kept multiplying and spreading over the face of the land and were happy. Although they were of different colors and spoke different languages, they felt as one and understood one another without talking. It was the same with the birds and animals. They all suckled at the breast of their Mother Earth, who gave them her milk of grass, seeds, fruit, and corn, and they all felt as one, people and animals.

However, the paradise of Tokpela was not to last forever. As in the Hebrew account, so in the Hopi account there was a serpent that entered paradise and began to confuse the people with words and turn them away from Taiowa, the Creator:

    But gradually there were those who forgot the commands of Sotuknang and the Spider Woman to respect their Creator. More and more they used the vibratory centers of their bodies solely for earthly purposes, forgetting that their primary purpose was to carry out the plan of Creation. There then came along Lavaihoya, the Talker. He came in the form of a bird called Mochni [bird like a mocking bird], and the more he kept talking the more he convinced them of the differences between them: the difference between people and animals, and the differences between the people themselves by reason of the colors of their skins, their speech, and belief in the plan of the Creator. It was then that animals began to draw away from people.... In the same way, people began to divide and draw away from one another — those of different races and languages, then those who remembered the plan of Creation and those who did not. There came among them a handsome one, Kato'ya, in the form of a snake with a big head. He led the people still farther away from one another and their pristine wisdom. They became suspicious of one another and accused one another wrongfully until they became fierce and warlike and began to fight one another. All the time Mochni kept talking and Kato'ya became more beguiling. There was no rest, no peace.

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([Both the Hopi traditions and the Genesis account state the the world before the Flood was in the middle of a war so total that mankind was nearly destroyed because of it. Moreover, in both accounts, man was saved from destruction by the Creator God, so that he could repopulate the Earth after the warlike humans who were no longer listening to Him had been wiped out. Image from Dore's Illustrations for "Paradise Lost".])

Just as it was in the world before the Flood according to the biblical account, so it was in the First World of the Hopi that a serpent (and other creatures) came among them and beguiled mankind into following after their own selfish desires. As a result, instead of leading the simple, spiritual, unselfish lifestyle that Taiowa the Creator, Sotuknang and Spider Woman had ordained for them, they became divisive and fractious, dividing up into factions based upon the color of their skin, their languages, and other superficial differences. Even the ones who had remained loyal to Taiowa the Creator had divided up along theological lines, straining at the letter of the Law and forgetting the Spirit. Before the serpent came, it had been all about "we", but afterwards, and ever since, it has been all about "me".

As a result of this degeneration, the whole world was at war, exactly the opposite of what Taiowa the Creator had intended. So, Taiowa decided that it was necessary to destroy the world in order to save it. Fortunately for mankind, there had been some that still sang the song of Creation, and had not lost their spiritual connection with the Creator. For this reason, Taiowa, like the Hebrew Creator God, decided to save a remnant of humanity from the coming destruction.

    But among all the people of different races and languages there were a few in every group who still lived by the laws of Creation. To them came Sotuknang. He came with the sound as of a mighty wind and suddenly appeared before them. He said, "I have observed this state of affairs. It is not good. It is so bad I talked with my Uncle, Taiowa, about it. We have decided this world must be destroyed and another one created so you people can start over again. You are the ones we have chosen." They listened carefully to their instructions. Said Sotuknang, "You will go to a certain place. Your kopavi [vibratory center on the top of the head] will lead you. This inner wisdom will give you the sight to see a certain cloud, which you will follow by day, and a certain star, which you will follow by night. Take nothing with you. Your journey will not end until the cloud stops and the star stops". So all over the world these chosen people suddenly disappeared from their homes and people and began following the cloud by day and the star by night. Many other people asked them where they were going and, when they were told, laughed at them. "We don't see any cloud or star either!" they said. This was because they had lost the inner vision of the kopavi on the crown of their head; the door was closed to them. Still there were a very few who went along anyway because they believed the people who did see the cloud and the star. This was all right.

Just like the Star of Bethlehem event in Matthew 2 and the "cloudy pillar" that led the Israelites out of Egypt, so too the chosen people of Taiowa followed a cloud and a star, that appear to be one and the same. These were to be the people that were saved from the destruction of Tokpela, the First World.

    When the last ones arrived Sotuknang appeared. "Well, you are all here, you people I have chosen to save from the destruction of this world. Now come with me." He led them to a big mound where the Ant People lived, stamped on the roof, and commanded the Ant People to open up their home. When an opening was made on top of the anthill, Sotuknang said to the people, "Now you will enter this Ant kiva, where you will be safe when I destroy the world. While you are here I want you to learn a lesson from these Ant People. They are industrious. They gather food in the summer for the winter. They keep cool when it is hot and warm when it is cool. They live peacefully with one another. They obey the plan of Creation." So the people went down to live with the Ant People. When they were all safe and settled Taiowa commanded Sotuknang to destroy the world. Sotuknang destroyed it by fire because the Fire Clan had been its leaders He rained fire upon it. He opened up the volcanoes. Fire came from above and below and all around until the Earth, the waters, the air, all was one element, fire, and there was nothing left except the people safe inside the womb of the Earth. This was the end of Tokpela, the First World.

ELIA NOTE: Just like in this story of the first world - I believe - one day there will be a chosen number of people who will be led to a place (Zion)  to be kept safe while man destroys the world yet again.

Studying Hopi Prophecy Part 1

Though most people think of the Grand Canyon as a fairly pedestrian tourist destination, most do not know of the many mysteries associated with the Canyon and its environs. As sacred as the Canyon is to the American tourism industry, the place that the canyon holds in the hearts and minds of the native peoples of the region is far greater. In the worldview of the native Americans of the Desert Southwest, the Canyon is a great and important sacred space that occupies a central place in native cosmologies throughout the region. Wallace explains,

Long before geologists arrived in the Grand Canyon to examine its rocks and deduce its origins, the Indians who lived around the Canyon had created their own explanations for the formation of the spectacular chasm. These ideas, passed down from generation to generation by tribal medicine men and storytellers, were expressed as poetic myths.... The Canyon myths are part of broad cosmologies that enabled the Indians to cope with a harsh and unpredictable environment making comprehensible the forces that surrounded their unique world. To the Ute and the Southern Paiute, the Hualapai and Havasupai, the Hopi and the Navajo, that world and those forces were inextricably joined. Rocks were not simply rocks; they were supernatural beings,

watching over the tribesmen and guarding their collective destiny. Water, in this water-starved land, had a life of its own. The great river that formed the Canyon gorge led to the Indians' promised land, and springs had souls, to be placated by offerings of peaches, corn and tobacco. The animals that the Indian hunted, the spiders that inhabited his dwelling, the snakes that slithered across his trail, all were his equals — sometimes his heroes and sometimes his spiritual mentors.¹

The same awe that fills visitors today was the inspiration for native Americans to make the Grand Canyon the focal point of their myths and legends. Some native tribes believe that the Canyon was the result of the Great Flood that had drowned the previous, wicked world that had forgotten the gods, having turned their minds away from natural things and towards metal and wheels — means through which they could conquer and enslave their fellow men. And of all of the local cosmologies the most famous and oft-quoted is that of the Anasazi, and their modern-day descendants, the Hopi.

The Hopi cosmology is particularly clear on this point, that the ancient world was destroyed not once, but three times, most recently by a flood. The Hopi also believe that the Grand Canyon was the Sipapu, the "place of emergence" from whence the Hopi had emerged after the Great Flood had destroyed the third "world" of mankind that had preceded the current, or "fourth" world.

The Hopi believed that they had been chosen by the gods to survive the flood and repopulate the world. In fact, their religious text, The Book of the Hopi, is strikingly similar to the Hebrew Bible in its understanding not only of the Great Flood, but of the Creation itself. Like the Hebrew cosmology, the Hopi cosmology includes a Father God who is infinite and perfect. And like the Christian cosmology, the Father God manifested a "son" — or, in this case, a "nephew" — whom he used to create the universe.

The first world was Tokpela [Endless Space]. But first, they say, there was only the Creator, Taiowa. All else was endless space. There was no beginning and no end, no time, no shape, no life. Just an immeasurable void that had its beginning and end, time, shape, and life in the mind of Taiowa the Creator. Then he, the infinite, conceived the finite. First he created Sotuknang to make it manifest, saying to him, "I have created you, the first power and instrument as a person, to carry out my plan for life in endless space. I am your Uncle. You are my Nephew. Go now and lay out these universes in proper order so they may work harmoniously with one another according to my plan." Sotuknang did as he was commanded. From endless space he gathered that which was to manifested as solid substance, molded it into forms, and arranged them into nine universal kingdoms [planets?]: one for Taiowa, the Creator, one for himself, and seven universes for the life to come. Finishing this, Sotuknang went to Taiowa and asked, "Is this according to your plan?" "It is very good," said Taiowa. "Now I want you to do the same thing with the waters. Place them on the surfaces of these universes so they will be divided equally among all and each." So Sotuknang gathered from endless space that which was to be manifest as the waters and placed them on the universes so that each would be half solid and half water. Going now to Taiowa, he said, "I want you to see the work I have done and if it pleases you." "It is very good", said Taiowa. "The next thing now is to put the forces of air into peaceful movement about all." This Sotuknang did. From endless space he gathered that which was to be manifest as the airs, made them into great forces, and arranged them into gentle ordered movements around each universe. Taiowa was pleased. "You have done a great work according to my plan, Nephew. You have created the universes and made them manifest in solids, waters, and winds, and put them in their proper places. But your work is not yet finished. Now you must create life and its movement to complete the four parts, Tuwaqachi, of my universal plan.²

Father Taiowa had created and ordered the universe through his son, Sotuknang, creating Earth's atmosphere, dividing the waters above from the waters below, all strikingly similar to the Hebrew creation story in Genesis 1. This was "Tokpela", the First World.

In order to help him carry out Taiowa's orders to "create life and its movement to complete the four parts of Taiowa's universal plan" — the four "Worlds", or ages of mankind — Sotuknang decided to create a helper whom he named Kokyangwuti, or "Spider Woman".

Sotuknang went to the universe wherein was that to be Tokpela, the First World, and out of it he created here who was to remain on that earth and be his helper. Her name was Kokyangwuti, Spider Woman. When she awoke to life and received her name, she asked, "Why am I here?" "Look about you," answered Sotuknang. "Here is this earth we have created. It has shape and substance, direction and time, a beginning and an end. But there is no life upon it. We see no joyful movement. We hear no joyful sound. What is life without sound and movement? So you have been given the power to help us create this life. You have been given the knowledge, wisdom, and love to bless all the beings you create. That is why you are here." Following his instructions, Spider Woman took some earth, mixed with it some tuchvala (liquid from mouth; saliva), and molded it into two beings. Then she covered them with a cape made of white substance which was the creative wisdom itself, and sang the Creation Song over them. When she uncovered them the two beings, twins, sat up and asked, "Who are we? Why are we here?" To the one on the right Spider Woman said, "You are Poqanghoya and you are to help keep this world in order when life is put upon it. Go now around all the world and put your hands upon the earth so that it will become fully solidified. This is your duty." Spider Woman then said to the twin on the left, "You are Palongawhoya and you are to help keep this world in order when life is put upon it. This is your duty now: go about all the world and send out sound so that it may be heard throughout all the land. When this is heard you will also be known as 'Echo', for all sound echoes the Creator".... When they had accomplished their duties, Poqanghoya was sent to the north pole of the world axis and Palongawhoya to the south pole, where they were jointly commanded to keep the world properly rotating.... "These will be your duties in time to come", said Spider Woman. She then created from the earth trees, bushes, plants, flowers, all kinds of seed-bearers and nut-bearers to clothe the earth, giving to each a life and name. In the same manner she created all kinds of birds and animals — molding them out of earth, covering them with her white-substance cape, and singing over them. Some she placed to her right, some to her left, others before and behind her, indicating how they should spread to all four corners of the earth to live.³

After having directed Spider Woman to create plants and animals, Sotuknang then directed her to create mankind as the crowning glory of the Creation. Much like the Lilith of the Hebrew legends, the Spider Woman is believed to have been actively involved in the creation of living things, including mankind, God apparently having delegated the specifics of that work to lesser spirits such as Spider Woman/Lilith to carry out. This may explain the usage of the plural name of God elohim in Genesis — the writer wanted to emphasize that God had delegated the detail work to lesser spirits in the divine assembly: "So Spider Woman gathered earth, this time of four colors, yellow, red, white, and black; mixed with tuchvala, the liquid of her mouth; molded them; and covered them with her white-substance cape which was the creative wisdom itself. As before, she sang over them the Creation Song, and when she uncovered them these forms were human beings in the image of Sotuknang. Then she created four other beings after her own form. They were wuti, female partners, for the first four male beings."⁴

Just as in the Bible, Adam was created in the image of God, so in the Hopi myths man was created in the image of Sotuknang. Interestingly, in the Hopi account, women were not created in the image of God, but of Spider Woman. Moroever, in the Hopi account, four great races were created at the beginning, instead of just one, which would have provided a greater genetic variation that would have been necessary for humanity to allow for long term genetic health. The Hopi version of the creation of man also sounds much like the Mesopotamian myth of the creation of man, where a goddess named "Nintu" broke off 14 pieces of primordial clay, using them to create seven male and seven female embryos which then grew to become the first men and women that formed the beginnings of mankind. Seven pairs of males and females would provide an even better genetic selection which would further guard against inbreeding, though at least 40-50 male-female pairs would be much more advisable, unless there are some other natural (or supernatural) mechanisms at work that we are not aware of.

Though Nintu was able to create the men and women, she was not able to give them life. Instead, one of the gods had to be sacrificed and his blood used to give them life.⁵ Similarly, the one thing that Spider Woman was not able to give mankind was intelligence — the ability to speak, move, and act intelligently. She then called upon Sotuknang, who came and gave each of the four races of mankind their own language, the power to reproduce and multiply, and the wisdom to respect the differences between them. And for this, all Sotuknang asked is that they respect the Creator at all times. "Wisdom, harmony, and respect for the love of the Creator who made you. May it grow and never be forgotten among you as long as you live."⁶

Native American Indian Prophecies

This article found online at: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/print.asp?ID=38

Native American Indian Prophecies
Extracts from a talk given by Lee Brown at the 1986 Continental Indigenous Council, Tanana Valley, Fairbanks, Alaska.

At the beginning of this cycle of time, long ago, the Great Spirit came down and He made an appearance and gathered the peoples of this earth together "they say on an island which is now beneath the water" and He said to the human beings, "I'm going to send you to four directions and over time I'm going to change you to four colors, but I'm going to give you some teachings and you will call these the Original Teachings and when you come back together with each other you will share these so that you can live and have peace on earth, and a great civilization will come about." And He said "During the cycle of time I'm going to give each of you two stone tablets. When I give you those stone tablets, don't cast them on the ground. If any of the brothers and sisters of the four directions and the four colors cast their tablets on the ground, not only, will human beings have a hard time, but almost the earth itself will die."

And so he gave each of us a responsibility and we call that the Guardianship. To the Indian people, the red people, he gave the Guardianship of the earth. We were to learn during this cycle of time the teachings of the earth, the plants that grow from the earth, the foods that you can eat, and the herbs that are healing so that when we came back together with the other brothers and sisters we could share this knowledge with them. Something good was to happen on the earth.

To the South, he gave the yellow race of people the Guardianship of the wind. They were to learn about the sky and breathing and how to take that within ourselves for spiritual advancement. They were to share that with us at this time. To the West He gave the black race of people the Guardianship of the water. They were to learn the teachings of the water which is the chief of the elements, being the most humble and the most powerful. When I went to the University of Washington and I learned that it was a black man that discovered blood plasma, it didn’t surprise me because blood is water and the elders already told me the black people would bring the teachings of the water. To the North He gave the white race of people the Guardianship of the fire. If you look at the center of many of the things they do you will find the fire. They say the light bulb is the white man's fire. If you look at the center of a car you will find a spark. If look at the center of the airplane and the train you will find the fire. The fire consumes, and also moves. This is why it was the white brothers and sisters who began to move upon the face of the earth and reunite us as a human family...

So we went through this cycle of time and each of the four races went to their directions and they learned their teachings. It was on Newsweek not too long ago that eight out of ten foods that people eat on the earth are developed here in the western hemisphere because that was our Guardianship, to learn the teachings of the earth, and the things that grow from the earth. We were given a sacred handshake to show them when we came back together as bothers and sisters that we still remembered the teachings. It was indicated on the stone tablets that the Hopis had that the first brothers and sisters that would come back to them would come as turtles across the land. They would be human beings, but they would come as turtles. So when the time came close the Hopis were at a special village to welcome the turtles that would come across the land and they got up in the morning and looked out at the sunrise. They looked out across the desert and they saw the Spanish Conquistadors coming, covered in armour, like turtles across the land. So this was them. So they went out to the Spanish man and they extended their hand hoping for the handshake but into the hand the Spanish man dropped a trinket. And so word spread through North America that there was going to be a hard time, that maybe some of the brothers and sisters had forgotten the sacredness of all things and all the human beings were going to suffer for this on the earth.

So tribes began to send people to the mounds to have missions to try and figure out how they could survive. At that time there were cities built on great mounds in the Mississippi, called the mound civilization. Those mounds are still there. If you ever go out to Ohio or the Mississippi Valley, they're tourist attractions now. There were thousands of cities of Native people and they were wondering how they could survive. They began to try to learn to live off the land because they knew a hard time was going to come. They began to send people to have visions to see how we could survive this time...And they were told in the prophecies that we should try to remind all the people that would come here of the sacredness of all things. If we could do that, then there would be peace on earth. But if we did not do that, when the roads went clear from east to west, and when other races and colors of the Earth had walked clear across this land, if by that time we could not come together as a human family, the Great Spirit would grab the earth with his hand and shake it....

...The elders that were made aware of these prophecies said they would begin to build a black ribbon. And on this black ribbon there would move a bug. And when you see bug moving on the land, that was the sign for the First Shaking of the Earth. The First Shaking of the Earth would be so violent that this bug would be shaken off the earth into the air and it would begin to move and fly in the air. And by the end of this shaking this bug will be in the air around the world. Behind it would be a trail of dirt and eventually the whole sky of the entire earth would become dirty from these trails of dirt, and this would cause many diseases that would become more and more complicated. So in 1908 the Model T Ford was mass-produced for the first time. So the elders knew the First Shaking of the Earth was about to come about, that's the First World War. In the First World War the airplane came into wide usage for the first time. That was the bug moving onto the sky.

...So they knew things would happen. Things would speed up a little bit. There would be cobweb built around the earth, and people would talk across this cobweb. When this talking cobweb, the telephone, was built around the earth, a sign of life would appear in the east, but it would tilt and bring death. It would come with the sun. But the sun itself would rise one day not in the east but in the west. So the elders said when you see the sun rising in the east and you see the sign of life reversed and tilted in the east, you know that the Great Death is to come upon the earth, and now the Great Spirit will grab the again in His hand and shake it and this shaking will be much worse than the first. So the sign of life reversed and tilted, we call that the Swastika, and the rising sun in the east was the rising sun of Japan. These two symbols are carved in stone in Arizona. When the elders saw these two flags, these were the signs that the earth was to be shaken again.

The worse misuse of the Guardianship of the fire is called the "gourd of ashes. "They said the gourd of ashes would fall from the air. It will make people like blades of grass in the prairie fire and things will not grow for many seasons. I saw on television not too long ago that they were talking about the atomic bomb, the gourd of ashes. They said it was the best-kept secret in the history of the United States, the elders wanted to speak about it in 1920. They would have spoken of it and foretold its coming if they could have entered into the League of Nations. The elders tried to contact President Roosevelt and ask him not to use the gourd of ashes. Because it would have a great effect on the earth and eventually cause even greater destruction and a Third Shaking of the Earth, the Third World War. I'll get to that in a few minutes.

So they knew after the Second Shaking of the Earth when they saw the gourd of ashes fall from the sky that there would be another attempt to make peace on the other side of this land. And because the peace attempt on the west coast had failed, they would build a special house on the east coast of this Turtle Island, and all the nations and peoples of this earth would come to this house and it would be called the House of Mica and it would shine like mica in the desert sun. So the elders began to see that they were building the United Nations made out of glass that reflects like mica in the desert sun so they knew this was the House of Mica and all the peoples of the earth should go into it.

In the 1920's they had written and not been responded to, so now they said we better go to the front door otherwise things might get a lot worse. So the elders representing a number of tribes drove to New York City. When the United Nations opened they went to the front door of the House of Mica and they said these words: "We represent the indigenous people of North America and we wish to address the nations of the Earth. We're going to give you four days to consider whether or not we will be allowed to speak."

They retreated to one of the Six Nations Reserves in New York State...Four days later they came back and I believe the nations of the earth heard the Indians had come to the door. And they voted to let the Indians in. But the United States is one of the five nations with a veto power and still they were concerned because at this time Native sovereignty was even stronger. And I believe they vetoed the entrance of the Native people.

So then they knew other things would happen to the Earth, and the United Nations would not bring peace but that there would be continuing and deepening confusion. And that the little wars would get worse...So they said, "We're going to divide the United States into four sections and each year we're going to have a gathering. We're going to call these the 'White' or 'Peace Gatherings.' They began to have these around 1950. And they authorized certain men to speak in English for the first time. One that I used to listen to many times, over and over, was Thomas Benyaka. He is a Hopi man. I believe he is still living. He was authorized to speak about what was on the stone tablets and he has dedicated his life to doing this. And they began to tell the gatherings; they said, "In your lifetime you're going to see many things happen"...It was strange when they said that in the 1950's and 1960's but now it seems very clear. But then it was unusual. They said, "You're are going to see a time in your life when men are going to become women. The Great Spirit is going to make a man on the earth. He made him a man but this man is going to say, "I know more than the Great Spirit. I'm going to change myself to be a woman." And they will even nurse children. The Great Spirit is going to make a woman on the earth. She's going to say, "I know more than the Great Spirit. I want to be a man." And she will be physically a man. This sounded strange then. And maybe in a vision they saw Boy-George.

They said "You're going to see a time in your lifetime when the human beings are going to find the blueprint that makes us. "They call that now, DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid. They said, "They are going to cut this blueprint." They call that now genetic splicing. And they said, "They are going to make new animals upon the earth, and they're going to think that these are going to help us. And it's going to seem like they do help us. But maybe the grandchildren and great grandchildren are going to suffer."

I don't know if you heard on the news last night in the United States they have genetically spliced a new germ, never before released in the environment. They want to release this germ into the cotton fields of the south because the say it will strengthen and rejuvenate the cotton. They had scientists on the CBS Evening News the other night talking about it. One scientist said what the elders said in the 1950's, that this would not harm us. We've put it in a lot of tests. And the other scientist said what the elders also said, no, this has never been before in the environment. We have no idea what it will do. The elders spoke of it long ago. They said it would seem harmless, but it may be able to hurt the great-grandchildren. The elders said long ago, "They will release these things, they will use them." This is going to be released not too long from now, they are making new animals. The elders talked about this. They said, "You will see new animals, and even old animals will come back, animals that people thought had disappeared. They will find them here and there. They'll begin to reappear."

They said, "You're going to see a time when the eagle will fly it’s highest in the night and it will land upon the moon." And at that time, they say, "Many of the Native people will be sleeping," which symbolically means they will have lost their teachings... "When the eagle flies at its highest in the night, that will be the first light of a new day. That will be the first thawing of spring." Of course, at the first light of a new day, if you've stayed up all night, you notice it's really dark. And the first light, you want to see it, but you can't. It sneaks up on you. You want to see it change but it's dark and then pretty soon it's getting light before you know it. We're at that time now. The eagle has landed on the moon, 1969. When that spaceship landed they sent back the message, "The eagle has landed."

...We’re in that time now. We're between the first light of a new day and sunrise. The sunrise is about to come and when it comes up everyone is going to see it. But you know how it is in the village, there are a few people that get up early, and there are some that sleep till noon.

I'm probably one of those that sleeps until noon.

...At this time you're going to see that things will speed up, that people on the earth will move faster and faster. Grandchildren will not have time for their grandparents. Parents will not have time for their children. It will seem like time is going faster and faster. The elders advised us that as things speed up, you yourself should slow down. The faster things go, the slower you go. Because there's going to come a time when the earth will be shaken a third time. The Great Spirit has been shaking the earth two times: the First and Second World Wars to remind us that we should have greeted each other as brothers and sisters. We had a chance after each shaking to come together in a circle that would have brought peace on earth, but we missed that.

Tonight they were talking on the news about the sign for the Third Shaking of the Earth. I heard it while I was sitting in the airport after I missed my plane. They said they're going to build what the elders called the "house in the sky." In the 1950's they talked about this: they will build a house and throw it in the sky. When you see people living in the sky on a permanent basis, you will know the Great Spirit is about to grab the earth, this time not with one hand, but with both his hands. Many of you of Native background may have heard "the spirits will warn you twice, but the third time you stand alone." We've had two warnings, the first two World Wars, but now we stand-alone before the third one. As it says in the Baha's Writings, there will be no one protected. When this house is in the sky, the Great Spirit is going to shake the Earth a third time and whoever dropped the gourd of ashes; upon them it is going to drop.

They say at that time there will be villages in this land so great that when you stand in the villages you will not be able to see out, and in the prophecies these are called "village of stone", or "prairies of stone". And they say the stone will grow up from the ground and you will not be able to see beyond the village. At the center of each and every one of these villages will be a Native people, and they will walk as "hollow shells" upon a "prairie of stone". They said "hollow shells”, which means they will they will have lost their traditional understandings; they will be empty within. They said after the Eagle lands on the moon some of these people would begin to leave these "prairies of stone" and come home and take up some of the old ways and to begin to make themselves reborn, because it's a new day. But many will not. And they said there's going to come a time when in the morning the sun is going to rise and this village of stone will be there, and in the evening there would just be steam coming from the ground. And in the center of many of these villages of stone when they turn to steam, the Native people will turn to steam also because they never woke up and left the village. And this used to bother me when I was a young man. I used to ask the elders, "Isn’t there anything we can do?" And they said, well, it's just that way that if a person does not have the spiritual eyes to see, it's very hard to show them. Or if they don't have the ears to hear, it's very hard to speak with them. We wish we could go get them all but we can't. It's just that some are not going to wake up. But some will wake up.

And so they say there's going to be a Third Shaking of the Earth. It's not going to be a good thing to see but we will survive it. We will survive it.

...A lot of times when I share this message of the prophecies, people say, and “Can’t we change it? Could we stop it?" The answer is yes. The prophecies are always "either/or". We could have come together way back there in 1565, and we could have a great civilization, but we didn’t. Always along the path of these prophecies, we could have come together. We still could. If we could stop this racial and religious disharmony, we would not have to go through this third shaking. The elders say the chance of that is pretty slim. It seems to me like it's pretty slim too. But what we can do is we can "cushion" it. The word we use is "cushion. "We can cushion it so it won't be quite as bad. How can we do this? We can do this by sharing the teaching that will reunite us.

When I first heard about these prophecies, none of this made any sense. Now most of it has come to pass. Last night I heard on the news, they said the "house in the sky" would be put up in 1996. It was going to be put up some time sooner, but its been postponed for four years. Maybe it will be postponed again. But in not too long it's going to go up. The earth as we know it is going to change.

You know, one time the scientists came to the Hopis and they said, "We want to take a piece of the stone tablets." They said, "We want to take the stone tablets to a scientific laboratory to determine how old they are. The Hopis said, "We know how old they are. "Well the scientists said, "We want to confirm it. "So the Hopis let them take a little piece, and they tested it by the carbon dating method. They found these tablets were at least 10,000 years old, maybe 50,000. So when I say, "Thousands of years ago, there were Native people that spoke of these things," that's exactly what I mean. They told their children and thousands of years ago, their children grew up and told their children, and then their children grew up and told their children. And they spoke about the people that will live in this time.

And now it is us. We are the ones they spoke of long ago. They say to be alive; to come into creation and to live upon the earth at this time is a great honor.

In the cycle of time, from the beginning to the end, this time we are in now will change the purification of all things. They say this is the hardest time to live, but it is also the greatest honor to be alive and see this.

...We are now within the purification of all things. Non-Natives call this the "Apocalypse". The Native call this the "Purification". I want to share one Non Native prophecy with you. There was a seer in Europe whose name was Nostradamus. I'm sure many of you have heard of him. He foresaw three Great Shakings of the Earth. He said the Third Great Shaking would begin when Lesser Arabia and Persia engage in a war. Five years ago ...Iraq attacked Iran. Lesser Arabia is today called Iraq. Persia is called Iran. These two prophecies coincide. Both the Native elders and Nostradamus said this will start slowly, almost unnoticed by the people of the earth, but eventually it will involve us all. Eventually the "gourd of ashes" will fall from the sky so ...the Mississippi River, will boil from the heat of the "gourd of ashes" that will fall on this land. But don't despair. It sounds terrible, but we will survive it. We will live through it. I don't think there's anyone chosen to live through it, but some people will.

So, in closing I would like to call on each and every person, regardless of who you are, young or old, Native or non-Native, to arise now, and to awake, to embrace this time, to learn everything you can about the Teachings and the Writings, to arise awake and go forth...Peoples everywhere are now receptive to the Message...There's people out there waiting to hear, waiting to hear...

Last updated 05/09/2006

Tracking technology in the corridors of learningAn American university is testing a system that
Category: News and Politics

  

Jeremiah 4 (New King James Version)

19 O my soul, my soul!
      I am pained in my very heart!
      My heart makes a noise in me;
      I cannot hold my peace,
      Because you have heard, O my soul,
      The sound of the trumpet,
      The alarm of war.
       20 Destruction upon destruction is cried,
      For the whole land is plundered.
      Suddenly my tents are plundered,
      And my curtains in a moment.
       21 How long will I see the standard,
      And hear the sound of the trumpet?
       22 " For My people are foolish,
      They have not known Me.
      They are silly children,
      And they have no understanding.
      They are wise to do evil,
      But to do good they have no knowledge."

This article found online at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/mar/13/research.privacy/print

Tracking technology in the corridors of learning

An American university is testing a system that allows participants to follow others’ movements around campus

• James Bloom
• The Guardian,
• Thursday March 13 2008
• Article history

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This article appeared in the Guardian on Thursday March 13 2008 on p3 of the Technology news & features section. It was last updated at 00:06 on March 13 2008.

Walk around the University of Washington’s (UW) computer science building and eventually you will cross paths with a researcher whose every movement is tracked by computer. Two hundred RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) antennas have been fitted into the ceilings, and individuals taking part in the trial wear RFID tags round their necks and on their possessions. Their location is followed in real time, but unlike many Orwellian deployments of such technology - where hidden overseers know what we’re all doing, but individuals don’t - each participant in the RFID Ecosystem can also access the data.

"Our goal is to ask what benefits can we get out of this technology and how can we protect people’s privacy at the same time," says Magda Balazinska, the project leader and assistant professor of computer science and engineering at UW. "We want to get a handle on the privacy issues that will crop up if these systems become a reality."

Close encounters

Balazinska and a dozen other members of the team have been wearing RFID tags for the past year. The sensor data is collected in a central database and then passed on to applications such as Google Calendar and a Twitter widget called RFIDder (pronounced "fritter") which sends alerts to friends letting them know if they’re in a meeting or have sat down to lunch. It also automatically logs every "encounter" event between participants.

In April, the project will be expanded to include 50 students, who will be queried on a daily basis on their reactions to the experiment (more details can be found at rfid.cs.washington.edu/).

"If someone opts in, they can opt out at any time. The interface also lets them choose a level of access for others to their whereabouts and activities," says Gaetano Borriello, a UW professor behind the project. "We hope if it’s useful, it will become part of the building."

RFID tags are now being incorporated into biometric ID cards, supermarket distribution networks, Washington State "Enhanced Driver’s Licenses" and numerous public transport schemes. Yet regulations regarding the use of commercially collected RFID data are nascent. "It’s a wild west atmosphere," Borriello says. "You put your stake down and mine."

The question of being tracked by things we own has come to the fore in the past few months. In February, Transport for London’s (TfL) Oyster cards drew attention when it was revealed that the Metropolitan Police had made 3,000 requests for passenger journey data in 2006. TfL holds the data for eight weeks for "customer service purposes", but most Oyster card holders only become aware of this if they query being overcharged for a journey.

The RFID Ecosystem does have some obvious benefits: if you’ve lost your wallet, the tags will show you where it is. Another useful application is a "web of things", where PCs, posters and other objects around campus incorporate RFID tags. If a participant wants to get a copy of the music playing on someone’s computer, they can scan it with a handheld device and get a link to the content.

But these incentives are secondary to the main benefit of the system, which is enabling social networks. Balazinska has the system set so she can’t see the whereabouts of her students, but they have access to her data. "I don’t know when I’m going to be in my office," she says. "But if I am in they can pop by." Some of her students have used the alerts to catch her on her way out of the building.

Student and participant Travis Kriplean says: "Sometimes I forget that I’m carrying a number of tags, and then suddenly come across them. That’s when I’m reminded of the location tracking taking place, and it can be kind of a shock."

The RFID Ecosystem is based on a network of sensors fitted in hallways but not actual rooms, in accordance with Federal Communications Commission regulations. The ceiling-mounted antennae detect tags up to four metres away and use one watt of power.

Probable causes

The system software uses probabilistic activity recognition, associating people, objects and places to guess the most likely event happening. The software has trouble distinguishing between a formal meeting and two people who happen to be standing in the same room, so the team conducts "Experience Sampling" of participants to verify the data and explore their privacy concerns. "There have been no malicious intentions from within the group so far, but we’d like to be prepared for it," Balazinska says.

A similar trial has been taking place already this year in the UK, with researchers at Lancaster University in partnership with Carillion construction and BP testing an RFID-based system to monitor the safety of workers on construction sites. Sensor data is used to prevent drill operators from developing the painful condition of "vibration white finger" (caused by using a percussion drill for extended periods), but could also be used for employee monitoring.

The majority of current RFID deployments, whether in public or workplace settings, offer limited benefits to their users in return for the potential loss of privacy. Balazinska says: "This will change. The technology allows us to be at different points in the privacy-utility space."

Lead graduate student Evan Welbourne says: "Changes can be affected by building applications on top of existing sensor deployments, so they can be harnessed by the users of the system." In the experiment, allowing users to see who had looked at their data had an unintended effect. "Some people were disappointed when they saw their friend hadn’t checked up on them," Welbourne says.