The Vision
If you are wondering about Jessie Ayani's background, credentials, how and why she writes her books, spends her precious time on this earth, as well as her vision and preparations for the future, the following essay might interest you. You can use the following links to skip ahead or resume where you might have left off.
At A Glance
from Jessie Ayani
To begin this revelatory essay, let me say that requests for biographical information awaken a seldom seen procrastinator subpersonality within me. Three good reasons for my ambivalent reaction spring to mind. Firstly, a foray into the world of academic science left me facing the unsettling fact that one's future is determined by the contents of one's curriculum vitae — your authored papers. Enough said on that distasteful bit and the games played to hype up the old CV. The second reason is that the best metaphor of my life is the old story of the rolling stone gathering no moss. Though I recognize the formative power of the past, I have devoted much of my spiritual path and life work to getting over it, moving on, acknowledging and healing the past so that we can move into the future, which is all that counts, really. Thirdly, I have observed that ego investing in whatever 'success' one has in the world, let alone building whole empires upon it, unequivocally slams the brakes on the rolling stone.
That said; I can understand why you might want to know something about my story before trusting me with mentoring your spiritual life or offering healing or activation through your body. So … here's a glimpse at the parts of my story that gave that stone some momentum, direction, and, eventually, significant strength. These experiences are gradually creating the pearls, or the nectar, I would chose to take to spirit at the close of this life to seed gifts and grace for future lives. The rest is content, left for me to sort out, transform and consciously download into the collective of humanity.
Part I: The Rolling Stone and the Pearls of Great Price
I spent my early twenties grappling with the dogma of the Catholic Church. I left in an admittedly judgmental huff, and spent another 7 or so years trying to fill the vacuum I'd created with my exodus. The dogma was easily dropped, Christ/Jesus stayed on in my heart and, though I explored the world's religions through my late twenties and thirties, I found little nourishment for my soul, which longed for the kind of truth capable of firing some solid passion within (ie. something to get the stone rolling).
Upon meeting up with the common sense philosophy of Taoism whilst learning and teaching a lot of Tai Chi and hard style martial arts I began to see beauty in simplicity. At the same time all of that soul-searching was transpiring, I was raising my two gorgeous girls and, oddly enough, sporadically delving into Theosophy.
From cradle to grave (a fair assumption), the theme of my life has been freedom. The menace has been control. The early-on, unconscious solution was flight. The mid-way (dawning of consciousness) solution was a lot of deep thinking. Now, it all makes sense. But, in the course of this transformation of self the stone rolled from Ohio to Minnesota to Mount Shasta in sync with the 28-year rotations of Saturn around the Sun.
Back in the mid-way part of life, my working life got under way. It began in the restaurant business, briefly moved through health food purveying, and on to the University of Minnesota, where I wanted to learn more about good nutrition. Since that was not part of any curriculum at the U of M at that time, I dove into Biology as completion of undergrad requirements and moved on to the Medical School for a PhD in Pathobiology. That new department let me make up an eclectic program that gave me some real understanding of the physical layer of the rainbow body, which fascinated me no end. I went on to a post-doc in Molecular Biology in the Biochemistry department, took an assistant professorship in Pediatrics and got a leg on an impressive curriculum vitae in short order. And then, I woke up (we all have our timing).
I began to lose interest in learning more about the physical layer of the rainbow body and moved on to the etheric body — studying Traditional Chinese Medicine at night, then Shiatsu, Reiki I (my hot little healing hands got a jump-start there), and then Esoteric Healing with the Arcane School (Alice Bailey folks), Cranial Sacral Therapy (with the recognition that my hot little hands were a conduit for Qi — an encoded gift that cannot, unfortunately, be transmitted to others), and I was working with Native American elders learning local herbs, the tanning of hides, and the sweat lodge. I include the latter because it fed my love for survival skills, opened me to nature and led me into shamanic studies. And, when I began leading sweats, it gathered the first circles around me that eventually opened the door to my exploration of the astral body with hundreds of students around the world. Praise be.
Still dear to my heart, a rich community formed in Minneapolis, which we called Hozhoni (from the Navajo, Walk in Beauty on the Earth). The shamanic studies led us to Peru — the land of explosive astral body/soul maturation (I speak for myself). We took trips there to work with Américo Yabar and the Q'ero tribe. I found my soul family in the Q'ero's of Cochamocco village, and continued bringing groups (without Yabar's participation from '99 onwards — a painful but necessary growth step for me) through 2011, when my beloved mentor, Don Pasqual, made his transition on July 23rd. Since he's in my heart space now, I feel a bit ambivalent about organizing journeys to Peru these days, but leave the door open, as they are phenomenally activating affairs.
My stone had rolled on to Mount Shasta in 1998 and Heart of the Sun, which I had started in 1995, went from national to global with my first circles in Australia and Costa Rica. What brought Heart of the Sun to the attention of the Aussies and others? After a remarkable encounter with the Holy Mountain in the summer of 1997, I returned for a trial winter in Mount Shasta. That January, an amazing personal experience and commitment to mission brought forth The Lineage of the Codes of Light and that book opened doors all over the world … still does. I moved to Shasta in May 1998. In the twenty-years spent globetrotting from circle to circle, I learned to listen and speak to the souls who had gathered to teach me.
One lovely development brought on by the Lineage book was the initiative to take groups to France. In the beginning, this was a Pilgrimage originating in Egypt, moving on to France and ending in Glastonbury. Enter fate, to test our flexibility at the same time it exposed us to French compassion. We barely escaped Egypt. I say escaped in acknowledgement of our (12 accomplished women) blatantly misogynistic tour guide.
We arrived in France and within 24 hours, while lunching near the sea where Magdalen arrived on her mission to Gaul, the Twin Towers came down in New York City. We never did make it to Glastonbury. After that noteworthy initial journey, I led a good many trips to Provence and Languedoç, then explored the Templar Cathedrals of Spain, France and England on three subsequent trips.
Time marched on and so did I, covering nearly every square kilometer of Australia, adding on New Zealand and brief encounters with Shanghai and Hong Kong. And then … fate again? Though the Aussie's economy didn't crash the way the USA's did in 2007, New Zealand went into recession and Australia slowed down gradually until in 2012 I found myself digging in at home in Mount Shasta to weather the ongoing economic storm. With just one intensive in Kaua'i since then, what, I ponder, does all this portend?
As it turns out, it portends much! I have been given time to write The Priestess and the Magus Trilogy. I have been given time and space to engage this community in progressive ways that astound me — and yet, we can, and will, do so much more. I find myself in small town USA, where the air is clean and the water pure, and midst a diverse political atmosphere smelling strongly of freedom. I reckon 14 years of my third 28-year Saturn cycle living here has passed already, in the blink of an eye, mind you. And, in 14 more years, I either get to leave the planet or you can expect me in Kaikoura, South Island, NZ, my wee place of bliss on the planet — westward ho!
Now, this doesn't mean I won't come out to teach. I'd love to, whenever the opportunity presents itself. It does mean I have finally learned how to reliably get the sound on for Skype sessions and look forward to the challenge of getting more than one person on the screen at a time for group work soon. I am finding that we can make do in this recession. In fact we can work it to our advantage. No more excuses about having enough time to really dig into the Companion Guide! I reckon this transition into a 'semi-retired life' actually marks the completion of my intense work of understanding the astral or soul body, and a moving on to the fourth part of man, the "I". Here is where I have to sit back and laugh, looking in the rear view mirror at how this crazy story has been a journey through the 4-fold nature of man and the related layers of rainbow body mastery — and in the proper order. Bloody remarkable, if you ask me.
Enough story. I feel a little moss might be gathering.
Part Two: On Writing
The first book I wrote is called Kintui, Vision of the Incas. It was published in 1995, after my first trip to Peru, and it very much reflected the scientist's organizational skills applied to the shamanic traditions. The photo plates (stone age publishing, that) for Kintui were destroyed in a building demolition — roll on stone — but the foundational work therein helped me organize Awakening and Healing the Rainbow Body in 2004 (a concise look at our miraculous multi-dimesional bodies), which superseded Kintui in many ways, especially with more universal appeal than shamanism. Kintui is still available as a used book for collectors. When people ask me to republish it, I ask if they're volunteering to type the whole book out for me. It's best to leave the past as spirit intended it. However, in retrospect I think I ought to have felt more ego attachment to it than I did. Perhaps because the metaphor of demolition was not lost to me at the time, my stone rolling on.
Looking back at the way the Lineage book came to and from me, I would have to say that I had begun systematically abandoning the intellectual approach to writing and entered a time of allowing story to flow from my intuitive center. I credit the shamanic work in that regard. It does also explain the vast number of typos in the first two editions! Now that the text is near perfect, I admit to sincerely crying as hard as any of you at the end of most chapters. The book has never 'belonged' to me. It belongs to all of us. It was a gift, pure and simple. It is meant to awaken the memory of our past so that we can move into the future. The emergence of the sisterhood all around the world is so inspiring.
I should point out, right here and now, that I am not Leah, though as time and her story go on, I do (I hope just like my female readers) aspire to what she portrays to all women. She is my Athena, but softer, more loving, and so willing to work on herself. She is all of us, sisters. When she meets Chris, in the Magi book, a tender love story begins that I expect to be writing about for years to come. These two have so much to teach me (us).
Yes, I learn from my inspired writing. Leah and Chris are my inner teachers. And, I learn, sometimes, from magical intervention. For all that I had put together about astral mastery from years of study and working in circle with my students, an essential mysterious puzzle piece eluded me. And then, the very first time I adventurously imbibed of the heart-opening San Pedro cactus plant preparation, on Moon Island, in Lake Titicaca at the top of the world, in Bolivia, I opened to vision in no small way — and saw the entire rainbow body, saw through skin, heard the angels sing, well, the works — and I can still see and hear it all. Subsequent imbibings were visionless, though lovely and heartfelt. I have to conclude that spirit creatively finds a way in, when a puzzle piece is sorely needed. When the student is ready, the teacher appears —this one with green skin that reeked of bell peppers when boiled, and sporting short, sharp spines.
The upshot of that little adventure was the Awakening and Healing the Rainbow Body Program. Here I will point out that my knack for interdimensional travel, as it comes through the Shamanic Journeys, is another one of those encoded gifts that cannot be passed on. Although I am sure it is fairly common amongst many spiritual travelers. My gratitude to San Pedro is boundless. To have been able to define the path and walk it with others on an ongoing basis through the journeys and the Companion Guide — in the ethers, in circle, and online — is flat-out amazing.
Speaking of puzzles; there were a good many pieces missing from my big picture even after working for years with a gifted visionary friend exploring my own rainbow body. During that time I found Carlos Casteñeda's last book The Active Side of Infinity and it activated me in yet another way, all of the 7 times I read it over a few critical years. At that time I had no explanation as to why, since his early books were not my cup of tea (acute magic mushroom aversion) and his later books, though interesting, were not activating, per se. My imagination soared with this magical last book he'd written just before his death. Looking, again, in the rearview mirror of my rolling stone, I find this to be hilarious.
To understand why it's so funny, I have to explain a parallel stream that was flowing with me semi-consciously over a good many years. I didn't have the good sense to fully jump into that stream for a long time though I wiggled my toes, waded a good many times, and followed a remarkable number of its tributaries with great interest. In fact, when I did take the plunge, I was so familiar with the stream it felt like home.
That stream was the life work of Rudolf Steiner, and the big dive came with a book of his lectures entitled The Secret Brotherhoods and the Mystery of the Double. I was keen to find out as much as I could about the double, which turned out to be an immensely complicated project with great relevance to the elusive follow up to the Brotherhood of the Magi (the long overdue Trilogy, as it turned out). Two shelves of my bookcase later, I claimed Dr. Steiner as my mentor, realizing I'd been looking for a teacher, either on or off the planet, to replace San Pedro, whose contract had obviously expired!
I was not unfamiliar with Waldorf Education and Biodynamic Farming. In fact I'd worked on a BD farm in Minnesota and had a number of Waldorf teachers and parents in my Australian circles. What makes this dive so funny is the following: While reading Steiner, which I found blessedly nourishing, I came time and time again upon the concepts put forth by Casteñeda in The Active Side of Infinity. Casteñeda had put the Sorcerer's twist on them, which had, deep-down, alienated and worried me. On the other hand, Steiner was truth in a spiritual and scientific context, which was, in retrospect, a perfect fit for me.
When I found the direct inspiration for Casteñeda's 'jump into the abyss' in Steiner's Evolution of Consciousness, I was forced to conclude (shock morphing into giggles) that Carlos, the most-translated author on the planet, was no stranger to the work of Rudolf Steiner, one of the least read and understood authors on the planet. People are actually put off by Steiner's writing ("for those with eyes to see", comes to mind), whereas Casteñeda's writing is an easy romp with subliminal messages that do seem to raise consciousness.
My activation with Carlos had been like a big flashing road sign pointing me in the direction of Steiner. My rolling stone took off down the exit ramp. After the Carlos experience, I decided never to be surreptitious about the way in which Steiner's work has provided so many missing puzzle pieces for me. Scientific writing taught me the art and good manners of referencing. Thanks to Steiner's selfless service to humanity, my big picture dazzles me. I get his truth. There is no alienation, just a great coming home.
Because the experiences of my life somehow trigger Leah and Chris to greater heights of attainment, you will find my very limited interpretation of Steiner's genius and vision weaving its way through the Priestess and the Magus Trilogy, as applications of his social order theories and discussions of some very deep mysteries. I want to share my dazzling puzzle with the world, and maybe interest people who would not otherwise be introduced to Steiner's writing at the same time. Truth is truth, regardless of the packaging, and what I write has to resonate with my own truth. Writing has also been a reliable, often gob-smacking, way for me to piece together my own puzzle.
I realize that the inclusion of Steiner's work in my writing has confused some, who think that all of my work and all of the writing is somehow based on his work. The fact of the matter is that he came along quite recently — after I had laid down the path — to provide me with an unsolicited, meaningful affirmation (terminology aside) that I'd 'got' it. Of course, the good work of many people around the world had already assured me that I'd got it. I say this to lay claim to, and take responsibility for, my own work, and the inclusion of his teachings within my fiction. I am not an Anthroposophist and do not have their approval to represent Steiner. I am just sharing what my heart and soul make of his work. Then again, people are confused about Leah and I being one and the same woman. People have their beliefs. I'll grant them that.
Back to the task of writing … For the moment, I will define my writing technique as clairvoyant, since it best fits what I experience. People often ask me if I channel the material in the books. My answer is no, because the conventional understanding of channeling would have me opening up for some other being to come through me to write. That is an accurate definition of channeling, and channeling, in my opinion, leaves one open to a good bit of mischievous interference, unless you are channeling your own higher self. This is well-understood after experience the Introductory Intensive.
That is not how I write. I am, actually, watching the story unfold and listening to the characters on my inner movie screen, if you will. So there is a clairaudient component as well. I don't know who Chris and Leah are exactly, or the members of the New Avalon community, or what they will do next (a source of great anticipation and delight for me) but I love them all — as if they were my fondest guides in consciousness soul. Maybe they are. Maybe Dr. Steiner is as well. They speak my truth, and, for now, my stone is rolling along with them in a big way. And what did Steiner define and exemplify in exacting detail? The true "I" of the four-fold human. Leah is keen to dig deeply into those mysteries. Lucky us. Gotta love the timing.
I like to think San Pedro pushed me 'into the abyss' when I clicked the button to purchase The Secret Brotherhood book, knowing it would take me down the off-ramp into a whole new world. I fell into the Steiner stream, started dog-paddling, and continue to swim in an ocean of grace, blessings and bliss. I have included links to some gentle, beautiful ways to get to know Rudolf Steiner on the New Avalon page, if you are interested. Stay tuned. It's a crazy-wonderful ride, this life.
Part Three: The Future
What I can add, soon ready to begin Volume Three: Main Street USA, is that these books are evoking responses in readers on quite a different level than the Lineage or Magi books. I see now that those books were meant to activate deep memory, which is a function of the emotional-mental body — the first rainbow body layer of the soul. This new series is demanding activation of active intelligence, which is a function of the second rainbow body layer of the astral body, the intellectual mental body or intellectual soul.
If you think trying to keep seven themes straight in the reading is difficult, you can imagine the fun getting it all right in print. May I suggest reading it for story on a first run, and then repeat as many times as is necessary to get it all … just like I had to approach Casteñeda's final book many years ago.
There are many books in my writing future. That I know. The third book of the Trilogy will be underway in Nov 2015 for publication in the summer of 2016. I can see spin-off books, like one about Will Martin's rising political star and Mandy's young-adult apprenticeship as the Bee Mistress, but Chris and Leah have much yet to accomplish on the planet, and collapse is imminent.
On the non-fiction front I have been given the vision of two more complete programs. The next non-fiction will be about living and growing to mastery in consciousness soul (the upper astral) and building the bridge to spirit. The second will take off from the 5th dimension to explore the art of moving energy, which belongs to the 6th. All in good time. For the moment the second part of the Companion Guide sits ready to print for those who plow through the work in the currently published guide.
As you will soon find on the New Avalon page, I am personally using Mount Shasta as my laboratory for consciousness soul work. I have lately pondered how this mountain — a formidable quadruple-cone volcano — spits people out left, right and center, especially if their needs and actions are not in sync with their lofty intentions. She doesn't affect most people this way, but specifically picks on confused aspirants. It's almost better to show up without intentions and see what happens to you.
That opens the door to the real work available here on the Holy Mountain, which I feel is the transition from the cultural "I" to the true "I". Why do I suggest this? This mountain attracts formidable egos to go with her formidable four cones, my own included. Put them all together in the boxing ring at once and it makes for wonderful applications of the more advanced rainbow body work. This is an intense place for the ego, if you're paying attention.
So, as we're thrashing it out here (and I will try to keep Shasta's New Avalon page up to date), I invite you to get something going in your community and contribute your experiences to the New Avalon web page. People ask me where this amazing community, New Avalon, is and how can they join? It's on the ground, in your heart and for the other, wherever you are. Maybe we can grow that community online for the moment and in reality, all over the place, over time.
It is on that page that you will find out how I spend my free time, what skills I am picking up and those I share, what connections I am making and links to my favorite sources of helpful information and ideas to take us into the future. I might include fictionalized anonymous interactions as learning experiences for the true "I"s emergence. Working with ego is an inevitable part of my teaching and writing work, as the stone rolls on. I have steadfastly avoided challenging the egos of the other until I read a Steiner quote that changed my mind: "We need a school of selflessness for our culture". That is the call to consciousness soul.
I am contemplating what this is going to look like, beyond the obvious — observe, correct and integrate. Energy must be moved to oil the wheels of human and planetary evolution. Were we expecting Christ to show up again to take care of the job? In a way He will, as each of us embodies the Christ in our etheric field. It will be that 5th dimensional human, in selfless service to humanity, who takes the bell curve of our evolution forward.
I do believe our systems will collapse, simply because they are not sustainable and need periodic renewal. I do believe it will be up to us to put new systems in place before that happens. I was born knowing that and have spent a great deal of my life learning self-sufficiency and sustainability. I have this vision of the top 1/10th of 1% sequestering every last cent of the world's money. That's when our local currencies (whether Grub Bucks, BerkShares or a half-dozen eggs) have their redeeming moment, and the commons can be restored. We're the one's with the creative impulse. Remember that. All of the sequestered money of the world will have no power. The power of 'money' is in its free circulation.
In my heart of hearts, I know the most important piece for all of us to 'get' is community. We need each other to prosper both in this reality and in the spiritual realms. We need the Earth, as our incarnating touchstone for human evolution, for a long time to come. We may have to scramble adapting to conditions brought upon us and Mother Earth by those who don't realize this simple truth. At the same time, revolution is happening in big and small ways, all over the country and all over the world. Women, read over the New Avalon webpage and Sisterhood. If you feel strongly that you are meant to be a part of the Sisterhood of the Sun's call to serve, by all means, find a way to join us.
Blessed Be.