posted 09-21-2001 02:29 AM            

THE CROSSROADS
September 18, 2001

Dear ones, we know your hearts are heavy when you consider what is going on
in the world around you. We are with you always, sheltering you with our
love and showering grace upon you. We walk amongst you in human form, too,
although you would not recognize us except by our actions or how you feel in
our presence. But we are here, to share this journey with you, and you must
know this so completely that you can feel our presence for yourself. The
world will be seeing angels and devils at the same time, depending on the
"glasses" being worn by the viewer. Those who harbor hate, anger, and
revenge within their own heart will see devils, evil, and enemies
everywhere. Those who hold the heartfelt desire for love, compassion, and a
better world will see angels there to help. What one sees is a reflection of
what is within. It is the way the Creator gets to see Itself, reflected in
Its creations.

This notion of good and evil had served to allow people to explore duality,
and it has served well. Those notions are well established in the Earth's
religions and moral codes. However, it is time to put those notions aside
now, as they have been exhausted in their capacity to inform you. Everything
that is being put forth in the torrent of words that has flowed following
the attacks has been a summary of all the knowledge and beliefs that were
accumulated before that time. Nothing really new is being said. No new
revelations are being brought forward. Only former responses, dressed up in
new clothes. The body is the same underneath, and the responses are totally
predictable, based on one's views as they existed before the attacks took
place.

This is a very fertile time, with many opportunities. In one sense, it is a
great summing up of all the knowledge and experience that has occurred
throughout all the lives that have been lived across the history of the
planet. If one looks upon Earth as a laboratory, in which many experiments
have taken place, this could be considered the time when the results are
written up and published. Everyone can then see what has been learned from
the experiments, and those conclusions provide the foundation for wholly new
experiments, as life and time move on.

In each of the exchanges taking place -- and there are so many now taking
place -- one is presented with a choice of how to respond. Will you get
sucked into the chaos? Will you sit there day after day, wringing your hands
and reliving the scenes over and over? Will you stop living and be glued to
the television set, instead? You have a choice. You can remain caught up in
the dramas, passing along the latest bit of news or "proof" of this theory
or that, or you can detach and let it go. We are not saying to disregard the
requests for help that come to you directly. We are not saying to not offer
your prayers and love to others. We are talking about the way you feed your
minds and emotions, the way you let yourself be used as a source of food for
those who feed off YOUR emotions, for there are those who do that, as
strange as it might seem.

It has been some time since we talked of the two polarities, and now it
would be good to return to that topic. If you will recall, those of the STS
[service to self] polarity are about gaining power over others. For them,
there is never enough power, as the lack of love in their hearts leaves them
so empty of feeling that they cannot ever have anything but the most
fleeting of satisfactions. In some ways, even those who control the world's
resources are among the most poverty-stricken: despite their great material
wealth, they lead empty lives, built around the acquisition of things -- of
inanimate and abstract things that can never give or return love -- and they
promote death rather than life. They may have the finest wines, the finest
clothing, and live the life of kings, but they are also "slaves to their
habit," insatiable in their need for more and more power, more and more of
everything, a lonely existence indeed. These things do not bring them
happiness. These things do not bring them joy or peace. They bring them
cynicism rather than hope. They bring them bitterness rather than sweetness.
Their children are not free to follow their dreams. Their wives are picked
because of the alliances they build, not for love. It is like the royal
families in times past. They are rulers who must watch their gates, who must
always be alert for those others who covet their position, who must always
do things that serve their calculated ends. What pleasure is there in that?
What freedom is there in that?

Therefore, the hardness of their hearts, their cynicism and contempt for the
rest of the world, and the sterility of their lives leaves them empty,
isolated, and bored. Business comes first, and the long walk toward the goal
takes its toll, requires its own sacrifices, and leaves one more alone than
before. The satisfaction of counting one's pile of money is hollow, indeed,
and the simplest child who is free to play in a natural way is richer by
far, in our way of measuring things.

All must play out, and if you but knew the extent to which these few have
robbed the rest, you would be justifiably angry. They have robbed much more
than just money and power and resources. They have robbed the world of hope,
honesty, and so many of its potential joys. However, they did not get this
way unaided. Every single person has contributed to their wealth and power
by being part of the economic system. If you would be free of that, if you
would want to stop supporting the power elite, consider what would be
required. You would have to supply all of your own needs, forever. You could
never make a phone call, mail a letter, turn on your oven, or take part in
any of the fruits of civilization -- libraries, entertainment, even your
food and medicine, your homes and vehicles... Think about it. Every day, in
so many countless ways, you pay for things that are the fruits of other
people's labor, with money. And they labor to get money to buy the things
that they need for their lives, which were in turn produced by still other
people's labor.

Money is only an agreed-upon means of exchange. It has no value in itself.
And now that you have electronic communication, electronic storage of data,
and the interconnection of the computers with one another across phone lines
and satellites, all of your money isn't even necessary except on a local
level. Everything is stored as ones and zeros in computers. Yours is a
society built upon computers. Even in the most primitive regions, eventually
money comes into play, and then if you trace it back to its source, there is
a computer involved. So while you are angry at these people and their
contempt for the rest of the world, you must also accept responsibility for
giving them their power in the first place. It did not happen overnight.
This move toward the centralization of power in the hands of the few has
been going on for a long time -- a very long time, indeed.

One of the things that will come out of the chaos in these days is an
opportunity to reflect on just about everything. You will notice that, as
people struggle to come to grips with what is unfolding, they run into
conflicts of logic. On the one hand, some of you feel that you should not go
to war, and yet you also feel that the attack cannot just be allowed to go
by without a response. You are caught between two conflicting desires within
yourself. You desire to be free, to not support the system that deals in
wars as a solution to problems, but you also want the comforts that that
system gives you. And even if you decided to go out into the wilderness
somewhere and live off the land, what would that give you? Where would you
go if you injured yourself? How would you survive? It is true that there are
still some people on the Earth that live close to the land. Are they
necessarily happy because of that, or are their lives just as filled with
struggle as yours is? They spend nearly all of their time obtaining food or
creating shelter or passing time through telling stories or performing
rituals. They are not so different from you after all. You spend nearly all
of your time "earning a living," and your stories just come in different
forms -- videos, movies, television programs, books, newspapers, and
magazines, and personal pages on the "Web." There is not really so much
difference after all.

So where are we heading with this? It is simply this: until you are able to
manifest your needs directly from the matrix of Source, you will never be
free. You will always be participating in a struggle for life and there will
always be some who have more power than others and use it to take advantage
of others for their own benefit. Are they evil? Or are they just stuck in
the same prison as you? Despite their wealth, they are just as enslaved as
you are. None of you has true freedom.

We have come to a place in the unfolding where you will be presented with
choices of a very different nature. It will no longer be about what you will
wear today, or what you will make for dinner, or when to wash the dishes.
These will be fundamental choices, a kind of "final exam," with little boxes
to mark on a scoring sheet. When presented with events, will you choose to
descend into the pit of anger and strife or will you choose to reach higher,
to transcend your mundane existence and grab hold of the next rung on the
ladder toward "heaven"? We have called this Message "The Crossroads" because
that represents the experience you have at this time. You will be presented
with many "crossroads" in the days ahead. Which path will you choose? The
one that leads downward into chaos and death or the one that leads upward
into order and life?

We have already described the polarities in these terms: STS is a choice for
entropy, chaos, and death. STO [service to others] is a choice for order
(love is the ordering force, acting on the matrix of light that underlies
all form) and for life. It affirms life. These two polarities are actually
two opposing forces, and their respective outcomes are predictable if you
can see them clearly enough. One spiral leads downward and one spiral leads
upward. You will have the opportunity, over and over again, to choose in
which direction you want to go -- the spiral upward or the spiral downward.

When you get caught up in ideas that there is an enemy -- and there is
certainly enough evidence to work with for that idea -- you perpetuate the
experience of being a victim. You choose the downward spiral. Are there
people working in concert -- a conspiracy toward certain aims? Absolutely.
But are you working in concert with others to create a new world, to assist
the planet in her ascension? We hope so! Is that a conspiracy, too? Are you
"conspiring" to bring about "Heaven on Earth"? We hope so! There is nothing
inherently evil in working together with others toward particular aims.
Consider a gun. It is just a piece of metal, cast in a certain form and
design. It can be used to pound in nails, as a paperweight, or as a lethal
weapon. Its design is carefully crafted to be a lethal weapon, but it does
not become that until someone picks it up and uses it that way.

So it is with all these ideas of "conspiracy" that are flying about at this
time. If you would choose the upward spiral, you would leave those ideas
behind, and not victimize yourself through them. If there are perpetrators,
there are victims. Only if you wear the lenses that enable you to see the
Creator wherever you look are you finally free of being a victim. Then and
only then are you free of the system and from contributing toward its
progress toward world domination -- power over others -- that is the
hallmark of the STS polarity. We are saying this to you with all
seriousness. This is the crossroads you will face over and over again. Will
you reach upward to realize your own divinity and dwell in "heaven" or will
you succumb to the chaos and choose the road to "hell"? Those are the two
choices before you. There are only two. How do you choose now and how will
you choose the next time the choice presents? Every time you have to choose
how to respond to what is presenting will be another crossroads for you. You
will find it easier over time, because you will have left the other choices
behind, and as you discover that you prefer to continue in the direction in
which you find peace, it will be easier to choose for that direction.

We leave you now in peace and honor and blessing. Amen, Adonoy Sabayoth. We
are the Hosts of Heaven.

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This Message is one of a series of Messages, available in full and without
charge on the Operation Terra Web site (www.operationterra.com). It is best
understood in the context of the prior Messages, and may be freely
distributed, as long as no modifications of the text are made and this
information is included.

(c) Copyright Sara Lyara Estes, 1999-2001
Web site: http://www.operationterra.com
e-mail: lyara@operationterra.com
Postal mail address: Lyara c/o Celestial Cooperatives, PO Box 2231,
Oroville, WA 98844 (USA)
END POST
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