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The Story of Paxcalibur

The Original Vision: Paxcalibur and the Aquariana Crusade (1989)                      

History

This vision began as a personal vision quest involving spiritual and mental purification of myself through following a kind of vision quest, a spiritual mission I received mentally in 1989 as a series of visions that began with the aquisition of a hand-forged sword the company that made and distributed it along with other types of swords, called "Excalibur". It remained my personal vision quest for most of the years involved in living it out even though it contained universal spiritual elements. But that changed after I completed the vision's instructions in Israel last year, 2003.

About three months after I returned to the United States from Israel, the visions started up again and this time they were about God's vision, not my own. God took over completely and for good reason: God has created the Sign of a universal Messiah and a universal Religion of Peace through Its vision. The Messiah of the Religion of Peace overcomes the problem of three different expectations of the Messiah by the three different Abrahamic faiths. I have been appointed to the traditional prophet's role as spokesman to announce God's Gift, The Sign of the Messiah of the Religion of Peace, to the world.

The second part of the story of Paxcalibur tells how Paxcalibur, the Sword of Peace, became the new Word of God and the Sign of the Messiah of the Religion of Peace. The following report tells how the Story of Paxcalibur began and how Paxcalibur became sanctified and holy by following the ritual steps God had instructed.

How the Story of Paxcalibur began as a personal vision quest

Shortly before Christmas of 1988 I had a long visit and as it turned out, my last one with my father who died within a few months. There wasn't much to do at my father's house except a little housework. Knowing I was a reader, my mother-in-law gave me a book to read while sitting quietly with my father. The book was a historical romance novel called "All Things are Lights". It was a love story revolving around principle players in the 1244 slaughter of Gnostic Cathars at Montsegur castle and in King Louis IX's unsuccessful crusade to save Jerusalem which he had vowed to do in 1244 on his recovery from near death dealing illness. King Louis IX became St. Louis. I was born 700 years later in 1944.

The Cathars at Montsegur were reported to be in possession of the Holy Grail. This was interesting to me because a few months previous to my visit with my father I had decided to obtain a symbol of power to put on my wall so that I could visualize myself as a person with power to lift the seemingly endless curse of bad luck that had plagued me ever since I changed my name to Ariel in 1975. (If I had only read Isaiah 29, the Ariel chapter that has described my life as an Ariel messenger..sigh). The symbol I had chosen from reading the "All Things are Lights" book was a hand forged sword, an accurate reproduction of the kind of sword used by early English Knights. The company making these reproductions called the sword model I had chosen "Excalibur".

Cover art of the "All Things are Lights" book. Note the Sufi Flying Heart designs.

Paxcalibur

I received my Excalibur sword in the mail the day after my birthday in February and within thirty minutes of unwrapping and holding this sword in my hands I had a series of visions of just what God intended me to do with my symbol of power. I was to transform "Excalibur", a name which means as far as I can tell "Out of steel", into "Paxcalibur", the Sword of Peace. I was to follow Isaiah' 2:4's familiar words, the ones Martin Luther King Jr. incorporated into his famous speech, "..They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." 

The Aquariana Revelations

I call the series of visions that I received about the making of Paxcalibur and the pilgrimage that accompanies it "Paxcalibur and the Aquariana Crusade". These revelations have a number of aspects and require some background. Perhaps the first thing I should say is that it is impossible to be someone who seriously believes himself to be a prophet of God and not come across without appearing supremely arrogant. My advice is to just bear with the fool for Christ's sake in his role as mouth of God. The second thing I need to clarify is my Christian approach to the conflict in the Holy Land which may offend Islamic memories of the Crusades launched a thousand years ago. However, the spiritual reality I believe in with all my heart is that it will be the Spirit of Christ that will eventually save the Holy Land.

Neither Zionist Judaism or traditional Islam have the ability to overcome religious mandates for exclusive territorial control that are given in their Holy scriptures. This will always separate them until they realize God has moved on past their old traditions that are not appropriate for the New Millennium world.

Ariel's Messenger

As I explained before, I had taken the name "Ariel" in 1975 as a protest against my father's name and the world he symbolized and to identify myself with the New Age, the Age of Aquarius. When I changed my name to Ariel I thought the name to be the creation of Shakespeare in his play "The Tempest". During my religious conversion experience in 1979 I was shown by God that Shakespeare got the name "Ariel" out of the Bible, out of Isaiah's chapter 29 where he uses Ariel as a name for spiritual Jerusalem.  "Ariel" has three other meanings in Jewish lore: "Lion of God", "Messenger of Peace", "Hearth of the Altar of God". Also, in the Gnostic gospel called "On the Origin of the World", "Ariael" is a name for Yaldabaoth, the Gnostic name for Yahweh, the God of the Jews who was held responsible by the old Gnostics for creating this physical world and all its problems.

One of the biggest problems that I have had to overcome regarding my revelations and ministry is leadership. I am not by nature a charismatic individual. Except for episodes of mystical communion I am pretty much an average middle-aged activist-type who tends to shun the direct spotlight. Also, my politics urge cooperation and not leadership divested in one personality. But now I realize that spiritual leadership must entail becoming some sort of spiritual leader because there is no other way for this new Gospel, this new Good News to be accepted except as coming from the Holy One through Christ through Ariel through Stephen/Arielmessenger, another Jewish prophet of God. Gospels act as hypnotic triggers to remind us of our true spiritual path. Hypnotic triggers work best through outside authority acceptable to one's inner or subconscious self. So consequently, according to my vision I've been elected point man, whether I like it or not, whether I am capable or not, for the spiritual component of the Aquarian Age. I speak with the authority God has provided me but it's up to you to judge whether what I say has any relevance in your life.

The Rainbow Bridge

By my spiritual leadership in our Mateel Nation I am able to link our community with the Holy Land. Through the Aquariana Crusade I am building a Rainbow Bridge connecting the Promised Land of the Hebrews to the Land of the Mateel which God has given to us, the new Habiru, a spiritual nation and remnant peoples keeping alive the cultural revolution of the 1960's.

This is part of the spiritual linking of the Old World with the New.

The New Habiru

"Habiru" is the ancient Egyptian name for the class of people in their society who were neither citizens nor fully slaves. "Habiru" meant "outsiders", "people from the other side" (people who had 'passed over'). Habiru meant "passers-by" at best and "murderers', "thieves", and "outcasts" at its worst definition. Scholars believe that the word "Hebrew" may derive from the Egyptian "Habiru".

The Mateel Nation is made up of refugees from the 1960's and other folk who just don't "fit" into mainstream American society. Because our generation rebelled strongly against mainstream America values while admiring "hip" culture, we were branded "hippies" and outcasts and the powers that be made a determined effort to exterminate our counterculture lifestyle and our hold on this land so prized for its redwood trees. Without too much stretch of the imagination we too can be called "Habiru" and to those of us who value the Spirit of God I have been sent to confirm our connection to God's will for the Holy Land. Like Moses for whom my mother's ancestors looked for spiritual guidance, I am one who has found my people in spiritual bondage. 

With God's guidance I have the spiritual knowledge needed to lead the New Habiru to our own "Promised Land", the spiritual Mateel Nation, and by helping to guide the Mateel Nation I will be helping to lead all spiritual people to the New Holy Land, Mother Earth.

Time Gate to the Age of Aquarius

The Aquariana Crusade will open up a spiritual "time gate" to the New Age, the Age of Aquarius. This will happen when I pass through the Lion's Gate-Stephen's Gate in old Jerusalem. The Age of Aquarius will not really begin though until Jerusalem becomes as it should be: a Holy City of Peace.

I am to plant the seed of peace in Jerusalem by completing the Paxcalibur ritual and by introducing the Canaan Peace Plan as God's method of ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Ariel, the new Archangel of the Aquarian Age

There has been a revolution in Heaven in preparation for the End Times of the Piscean Age and the beginning of the Age of Aquarius. The Archangel of the Piscean Age was Michael who will still lend support to the spiritual battle that marks the end times of the Blind God of patriarchy and war. 

Even now the new Archangel Ariel, the Angel of Peace, is in movement to wipe away blindness from the eyes of God's spiritual children by destroying false religious doctrines that keep believers enslaved to endless religious warfare, by revealing the true name of God Most High as EL, the source of the Immanuel prophesy, and by revealing the true meaning of God's promised New Jerusalem, the Bride of Christ.

A Gnostic Crusade

For years after changing my name back from Ariel to Stephen I have been trying unsuccessfully to get out from under the possession by the Ariel archetype. I had thought that finally publishing my original Biomystical Gospel report would be enough to satisfy my mission for God. But instead of spiritual quiet from my guardian angel Ariel,  I have been given even more revelations and spiritual tasks to accomplish.

The Aquariana Crusade is a true Gnostic spiritual adventure. I will do a new Gnostic spiritual ritual in Jerusalem to exorcise the Blind God which symbolically represents purging myself as well as the Holy Land from spiritual blindness. In Gnostic mythology, Yaldabaoth's lion-like aspect is Ariael so Ariel will conquer Ariel. Like Pogo said, "We have met the enemy and the enemy is us). 

While in the Holy Land I will be giving Paxcalibur it's final baptism in the Jordan river at the spot where John the Baptist is said to have baptized Jesus. In the Jordan I will release the spirit of Ariel back into the Pleroma, the spiritual realm from which this angel originates. The Aquariana Crusade will raise up and release the spirit of Ariel as the Archangel of Peace for the New Age.

Klimas Heptapylos: The Seven Steps of the Aquariana Crusade:

The first two steps of the Aquariana Crusade involve baptisms of Paxcalibur, the Sword of Peace, in the two rivers, the Eel and the Mattole, which give our Mateel Nation its name and which mirror the two rivers on the coast of ancient Canaan, home of the original Divine Assembly presided over by EL, God Most High. The purpose of these baptisms is to immerse Paxcalibur in the living waters of the Mateel Nation in the New World to begin the building of the spiritual bridge with the Old World.

Paxcalibur before transformation

Step One

Step One was done on the morning of the Spring Equinox of 1989 in the Eel River at the spot where I was baptized a few years before.

Step Two

Step Two was done by my dear friend Susan on Summer Solstice day in 1989 in the Mattole River at the Redwoods Monastery, the monastery that Thomas Merton stayed at while living in our area. A decade later Sanctuary Forest, a forest preservation organization, managed to get 10,000 acres adjoining the Redwood Monastery preserved forever as a group cooperative of state and local forest ownerships. 

Step Three

Step Three was done by my dear friend Bridgit at the Fall Equinox of 1989 at Centerville beach in the Pacific Ocean between the mouths of the Eel and Mattole Rivers. This Pax baptism site also became protected forever as an ecological preserve. See the Paxcalibur miracles below.

Bridgit with Pax and the Rainbow Bible which has accompanied each Pax baptism ritual

Pax and me at the Grotto of the Blessed Mother at Centerville Beach

Step Four

Step Four was originally to be the final baptism of Paxcalibur. It was to take place on Winter Solstice Day, 1988 at that spot in the Jordan River in Israel where Jesus was reported to be baptized by John the Baptist.  But it didn't work out that way. Two things happened between the Fall Equinox and Winter Solstice that changed the Seven Steps of the Aquariana Crusade. The first problem was lack of funds to go to Israel. If the Holy One wanted me to do finish the ritual Paxcalibur baptisms in the Jordan then I expected the needed funds to come from some place to do this. They didn't come and as I seem to have become a permanent member of the Clan of the K-mart, or among America's involuntarily poor most of the time, I didn't finish the forth Paxcalibur baptism in the Jordan that year or the next. Then the other dramatic change in my life occurred: Headwaters Forest.

In 1990 I became active in the Headwaters Forest environmental conflict here in Northern California. I became a Redwood Summer organizer of the Visioning Committee where we set up dialogue sessions between environmentalists, the community, and Pacific Lumber Co., the owners of Headwaters Forest, the last stand of virgin old-growth redwoods left in private hands. I didn't know it at the time but getting involved in the Headwaters Forest issue was still following the spiritual path the Holy One had led me along since the beginning. 

In Fall of 1990 I was asked by the president of Pacific Lumber Co. to continue what I had tried to accomplish with our Redwood Summer Visioning Committee dialogue sessions. In 1991 I organized three talks between Pacific Lumber and their toughest environmental critics, the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), which had been suing P.L. right and left to stop their harvesting of old growth trees. The talks went nowhere as EPIC, following the hard-line environmentalist slogan of "No Compromise", stonewalled all P.L. environmental compromise offers which now, 13 years down the road, would have saved thousands of old growth trees on P.L. lands. Compromise negotiations would probably have stopped the company from changing their timber management policies starting in 1992 to match the large clearcutting, total old growth cutting, herbicide spraying, fiber farm techniques used by the other big timber corporations in Northern California.

Seeing all this environmental protection stupidity by my peer activists did not settle well with me but as one voice against hundreds of other activists I was powerless to do much about it except write letters to the editor in our local papers. In the decade since Redwood Summer three-quarters of all PL's old-growth trees have been cut in spite of scores of protest demonstrations and lawsuits. The "No Compromise" policy of militant environmental activists has cost us all thousands of old growth trees that could have been saved if environmentalists knew anything about negotiation instead of demonstration and litigation. After my inability to alter the environmentalist/Pacific Lumber Co. conflict, I stayed out of the Headwaters Timber War until early March of 1995 when I got the idea for saving Headwaters Forest by organizing a Native American-run Headwaters Lottery as a way of not only buying out Headwaters Forest but to do it through local Native Americans. Local Native Americans would become the legal owners of their ancestral lands stolen from them last century when their tribal communities were massacred in the California Indian Wars between 1858 and 1864. 

For five years I put aside finishing the Paxcalibur baptism ritual until I realized that since Headwaters had become so important in my life, God meant it to be included. Years later, 2001, I learned the spiritual reason why the Holy One meant for me get so involved with this issue. It has to do with God toughening me up by forcing me to overcome many set-backs, heavy personal attacks, and a life-long lack of confidence in myself so that I will become like a "Salmon of Knowledge". The Salmon of Knowledge was an ancient Celtic religious motif signifying spiritual maturity because a salmon that grows to be old and large has had to conquer all sorts of obstacles in of its return to spawning grounds in the headwaters of its birth stream (see note below). 

The Salmon of Knowledge:

My original religious conversion experience took place at the headwaters of the South Fork of Salmon Creek. The Fourth Baptism of Paxcalibur took place in another Salmon Creek, the headwaters of Headwaters Forest. In Celtic mythology there was the great Salmon of Knowledge. The word "salmon" actually derives from the same root as "Shalom", Salem, and Solomon. Fish were thought by ancients to represent spiritual life as opposed to earthly life because the ancients thought fish did not have sexual reproduction, they just "appeared" magically from eggs or live. The dolphin was different from other "fish" in that the ancients saw dolphins mate like other animals. That's why the Goddess Aphrodite rides a dolphin.

The Salmon of Knowledge got its wisdom from eating nuts which the ancients believed mirrored the mind and therefore knowledge. The Salmon of Knowledge becomes wise because of all the hardships and struggles it had to go through to going back to its place of origin, there to begin a new beginning with the birth of new salmon. But in the Holy Land, the river Jordan flows into the Dead Sea. With no sea access there are no salmon in the Jordan. Wisdom needs a spiritual homebase and finds it the rivers where salmon can live free from harm. By following the Aquariana Mission ritual steps I create a spiritual rainbow bridge across time and sea for spiritual wisdom from the Holy Land and the Old World to come over the rainbow and find a new home in salmon bearing streams of the New World.

Headwaters Forest

Step Four: Paxcalibur was baptized on Winter Solstice day, 1995, in the headwaters of Salmon Creek within Headwaters Forest.  

After reciting Isaiah's sword into plowshare passage as I baptized Paxcalibur in the Headwaters stream, I also dedicated that stewardship of Headwaters return to the Native American tribe whose ancestral land included Headwaters Forest. I went on with my spiritual brother and Bear River tribal member Don Brenard to organize the Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria's Heartlands project for the recovery of Headwaters Forest. 

In 1998 after lengthy negotiations the federal government and the State of California bought Headwaters Forest to preserve it a wilderness park. It costs the taxpayers almost a half a billion dollars whereas our lottery funded Headwaters buyout would have cost taxpayers nothing. This story is not over yet but does add another baptism site to Pax's record of environmental preservation.(See the Pax miracles below)

The Fifth Step

The fifth step of the Paxcalibur ritual was not a baptism per se. It was done on the Day the Dead, All Souls Day (Nov. 2nd) of this year, 2001. It was performed on Indian Island in our county, the site of one of America's largest but little known massacres of Native American peoples and of the most gruesome ones. I asked for and received permission from the Wiyot tribe to go to their former religious ceremonial island site that was invaded in 1860 by a white settler death squad which butchered nearly 200 Wiyot women, children and old men. The able-bodied men had left before, thinking the settlers were looking for them only and wouldn't harm innocent women and children.

This massacre and the Indian War period in California during the 1860's created a Holocaust for local tribes that still reverberates to this day. Tribes were extinguished all together, tribal lands taken, tribal languages lost, artifacts taken, and survivors mixed together into artificially created new tribes destroying tribal identities. Paxcalibur, a weapon that has never been used as such will not be baptized here but was allowed to "taste" the old blood soaked soil of Indian Island where this tragedy of warfare occurred. Pax was stuck into the old blood-soaked ground of Indian Island to form a grave marker cross while a prayer for the dead and the living was given.

Paxcalibur at Indian Island.

This fifth Paxcalibur ritual along with the 5th baptism in the Jordan River is symbolic of the death of the 4th World and birth of the 5th World in Hopi prophesy

Paxcalibur is blessed

    My father blessed Paxcalibur shortly before he died. I had asked for his blessing but was prepared to be refused as my father knew my Christian path to be heretical according to his own fundamentalist Christian faith. But still he loved me and did what I requested.

Eleanor Smith, former Bear River Tribal Council member that I worked with on the Headwaters & Heartlands Project* also blessed Paxcalibur too and these blessings I believe helped pave the way for Pax's incredible adventure in the Holy Land.

Eleanor Smith, Bear River Tribal Council member who blessed Paxcalibur, with her daughter, "Jo"

* See the Headwaters & Heartlands chapter.

Step Six

The Jordan Baptism: Rituals I expected to accomplish and what really happened.

The final and last baptism of Paxcalibur in the Jordan River in Israel is still left to do as of this writing, December, 2001. I hope to be provided with funds for the trip to Israel and plan the final Paxcalibur baptism (when funding allows, hopefully in the near future) in the Jordan at the spot John the Baptist was said to have baptized Jesus. I will release the spirit of Ariel there to ascend back to the Pleroma to become the Heavenly Baptist, baptizing the whole world from above with Living Waters of Christ consciousness.

Exorcising Ezekiel's Curse from Jerusalem

As a prophet I will perform an exorcism ritual to nullify a curse put on Jerusalem by Ezekiel.(see Ezekiel ch. 5). Ezekiel epitomizes the schizophrenic duality and lack of love in favor of unquestioning obedience exhibited by the commands of Yahweh. Ezekiel prophesizes Israel's punishment for idolatry yet he himself hypocritically supernaturalizes Hebrew Temple cult objects in his prophetic visions. These Temple cult objects and earlier Hebrew cult objects like the Ark of the Covenant, Moses brass serpent, and Aaron's Rod and Hebrew rituals served the same functions as pagan ritual cult objects and religious rituals, but the patriarchs and prophets labeled the pagan objects "idols" and pagan religions "idolatry".

Ezekiel's prophesies are held important in both Judaic and Christian expectations of the Messiah. Ezekiel's curse on Jerusalem was never repealed as the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in 70 A.D. demonstrates. The Temple Mount conflict of modern Jerusalem also shows the lasting conflict with the Muslim's Dome of the Rock sitting on the site Jews claim for building their third Temple.

I will exorcise Ezekiel's curse on Jerusalem following the symbolic ritual he used in putting it on but instead of putting a curse on Jerusalem in Yahweh's name, I will give the Holy City a blessing in the name of the Holy One of Heaven and Earth. Afterwards, a circuit will be made around David's city, starting at the Lion's Gate (which is appropriate for Ariel as the "Lion of God") and ending at the same gate which is also known as St. Stephen's Gate. It takes a prophet of God to undo the actions of another prophet of God.

The Lion's/St.Stephen's Gate in Old Jerusalem

Paxcalibur will then be turned over to the Israeli-Palestinian peace group who will follow Isaiah's famous words and create a bonding peace ritual literally transforming Paxcalibur from sword into a plowshare symbolizing the forging of a lasting bond of peaceful co-existence. Copies of the Canaan Peace Plan will then also be given to all appropriate Israeli and Palestinian peace groups and government agencies.

The original Holy Land vision I received in 1989 asks the Israeli and Palestinian governments and citizens to agree to set aside "Canaanite Communities" which will be new cooperative communities composed of those Palestinian and Israeli citizens who want to live together in peace. But a new vision has occurred which expands the older one. The new vision asks for Israelis and Palestinians to set up the world's first spiritually honored nation, the Holy Land of Canaan, which will contain within it autonomous internal Israeli and Palestinian communities. What happens after that is in the hands of the Holy One.

The Christ Josephine Connection

In 1998 I received the vision of Christ Josephine, a vision of the Spirit of Christ returning as a spiritual Native American young woman representing all the "Last" people in social importance who will become the First in importance in the spiritual New Age. The Spirit of Christ Josephine will champion the cause of Peace on Earth. Her Spirit endorses the Canaan Peace Plan solution and will ride with Stephen as Her emissary to the Holy Land where the world's oldest tribe and the world's oldest tribe and longest persecuted minority, the Jews have their roots. The problems faced by the Jews and their old enemies the Philistines now called Palestinians are archetypes of inter-tribal warfare thousands of years old. 

There Stephen will introduce the Canaan Peace Plan proposal in Christ Josephine's honor as it is based on the Native American spiritual concept that only the Great Spirit of God "owns" the land and the life it supports and only God can and must "own" the Holy Land and its Holy City of Jerusalem. The Canaan Peace Plan will be the model for ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the solution to ethnic strife throughout the world where two or more differing populations are warring over the same territory. .

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The Paxcalibur miracles

In three out of the four sites that the Paxcalibur baptism rituals were performed, years afterwards the land surrounding the sites became ecologically preserved one way or another.

Some 10,000 acres around the Mattole River site where Pax was baptized in 1989 has now, under the stewardship of the Sanctuary Forest association that developed in the middle and later 1990's, become part of a large cooperative alliance of private and non-profit group ownerships and government lands dedicated to preserving the ecological integrity of the these lands forever.

In 1998, Headwaters Forest is saved from cutting and turned into Headwaters Forest Reserve, a new 7,500 acre BLM/State of California wilderness Park.

In 1993, the Centerville Naval facility that sat right above the beach where Pax, in 1989, was baptized in the Pacific ocean, became decommissioned. It was a spy listening post that used ultra-sensitive hydrophones to track submarine movements all around the Pacific.

Earlier this year, 2001, 600 acres of coastal land starting a Centerville Beach became included in a new coastal ecological preserve with the old Naval installation to serve as the new preserve's Visitor Center.

So, altogether, over 18,000 acres of forest land and coastal land has been preserved forever at three out of the four sites the Paxcalibur ritual was performed. And there may be more as the former Director of Sanctuary Forest was so impressed by Pax's record when I told him about it he asked me to do the ritual for another disputed land site of some 3500 acres.

July 1, 2004 Update:

A big step towards the full return of Indian Island to the Wiyot people happened on June 25th of this year when the City of Eureka turned over 40 acres of the island to the Wiyot tribe. Here is a local newsmagazine photo of happy Wiyots with Indian Island in the background.

The Paxcalibur ritual was done on Indian Island Nov. 2nd, 2001. The Wiyot people have worked hard to reclaim Indian Island and they are the ones who should receive credit for this property transference. But I don't think Old Man Above, the Wiyot concept of God the Father, has forgotten them at all.

More Christian shaman work

In 1993 I went to Joseph, Oregon with my sister where she was checking out the town's art community for her husband. I was puzzled by the fact that there didn't seem to be any Indians around the town even though the whole town has these Indian motifs and artifacts and galleries featuring Indian art. The town is named after Chief Joseph of the Nez Pierce. While babysitting my sister's boy by letting him play in the rocks on the edge of Wallawa Lake right at the spot where Chief Joseph had his village camp, I wondered up to the cemetery on the rise overlooking the lake. I found not Chief Joseph's but his father's grave-marker there. His father was also named Chief Joseph.

The Chief Joseph known to history died in exile in Washington I believe and the Nez Pierce were driven out of their homeland. At Chief Joseph's father's grave tombstone I said a prayer asking the Great Spirit of the Holy One to return the Nez Pierce to their homeland. In 1998, seven years later, I read an article in the Sunday paper which told about local ranchers and landowners around the town of Joseph, Oregon donating land to the Nez Pierce tribe so that they could begin to return to their old homeland. Now there has been established the Wallowa Nez Perce Interpretive Center which is coordinating plans to regain a 160 acre site for the Wallowa Band of the Nez Perce.

Always ready for Sign direction from God reading a recent newspaper update on the Joseph Nez Perce project* I was struck by the coincidence of names between the Lakota man** I've made friends with who raises buffaloes and who will supply the four horns for the new Altar of Peace (see Pax in Israel below) and the Nez Perce spokesman for preserving the cemetery as a Nez Perce sacred site. Same last names, White Plume, now connecting me to two different tribes. I look for God's direction from such "signs" connecting things together for spiritual purposes. It seems God has again connected me with the Nez Perce as they fight against a rich home development scheme to adjoin the cemetery where Chief Joseph's father lies buried which is now considered a sacred site by the Wallowa Band of Nez Perce. I am trying to restart the ancestral lands lottery project*** that I worked on for over three years with the Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria, a local Native American tribe in our efforts to regain 60,000 acres of lost ancestral land.

* See Elder Chief Joseph's gravesite pictures below             

** See the Vision of Christ Josephine chapter.

*** See the Headwaters & Heartlands chapter.

Fall, 2006 Update:

Don and myself are awaiting word from my friend Alex White Plume's tribe, the Oglala Souix Nation which he has become President of, to see if they are going to use our Heartlands Project to raise money to buy buffer space around their sacred Bear Butte mountain.

Elder Chief Joseph's gravesite outside Joseph, Oregon, where I prayed for the return of Chief Joseph's people

Paxcalibur in Israel

Easter 2003

Frustrated for years that I seemed unable to raise enough money to go to Israel to complete the Paxcalibur mission, in December of 2002 I decided to send Pax to a Pax Christi organization in Jerusalem that was organizing a Peace March from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. Pax was duly sent but Israeli Customs confiscated it, claiming no such "weapon" could be allowed into Israel. After a month, Pax arrived back home and Israeli and Palestinian friends say I was very lucky to have it returned. It was necessary to test the waters so to speak to see if Paxcalibur would be allowed into Israel as a sword and clearly it was not. How then get Paxcalibur, Sword of Peace, into Israel became the next issue besides raising money to go myself.

It wasn't until the following year that God finally provided me "magically" with the means to go to the Holy Land. Another string of "Signs" began in March when I learned that my Vision of Christ Josephine was a match for the Lakota prophesy of the Return of White Buffalo Calf Woman.* After waiting 14 years for the financial means to complete the Paxcalibur mission, 3 days after learning that my Vision of Christ Josephine matched the Lakota's prophesy of the Return of White Buffalo Calf Woman, I try gambling one more time to raise funds for the trip. But unlike previous attempts, this time I am successful and run $75 up to $1300, enough to pay for my ticket to Israel.

Step 6: The necessary early transformation of Paxcalibur

But how do I get Pax in was still a major problem. God gave me the answer with another little vision of how to solve the problem. Start the transformation of Paxcalibur from sword into plowshare early by a first transformation of the blade into a peace symbol. I had a local metalsmith do this and then I mounted the new Pax onto a small redwood burl slab taken from one of our fallen local ancient giant redwoods. I oiled the burl slab with olive oil and the result was that Paxcalibur became a work of art and as such Pax sailed right through Israeli Customs.

* See the Vision of Christ Josephine chapter.

The transformed Paxcalibur on its redwood burl on the bank of the Jordan River

This transformation of Paxcalibur now supercedes Isaiah's vision of turning swords into plowshares. That vision was actually nullified by the later prophet Joel who reversed it in Joel 3:10 telling Israelites that God wanted them to beat their plowshares into swords again. The prophet Micah reinstates it but the damage has been done. God is informing the world through this new sword transformation vision that the Peace Symbol is blessed by God. Paxcalibur, the peace-symbol sword, has now become the new Word of God that needs no words to describe what God desires of us, to turn all our weapons that harm others into peaceful alternatives.

"Behold, I have created the blacksmith who blows the coals in the fire. Who brings forth an instrument for his work; And I have created the spoiler to destroy. No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn."

-Isaiah 54:16-17

April 19th, 2003

I stayed with an Israeli peace activist, Hagit Ra'anan, near Tel Aviv the first day in Israel then we went to the Sea of Galilee to complete the last baptism of Pax, the Sword of Peace. There was a commercialized spot at the spot where the Jordan empties out of the Sea of Galilee, the place tradition has it that Jesus was baptized by John. But the building and cement area just looked like a zoo compound so Hagit and I snuck through a fence and went downstream about a 100 yards to a wild area of the Jordan and did the baptism there.

The Jordan River, not far from where it flows out of the Sea of Galilee

Step Seven: Paxcalibur's baptism in the Jordan River

                                                            

Now the next step was to find a home for Pax while it awaits the time when Israeli and Palestinian peace workers will continue its transformation into a plowshare. I had thought a church would be good as Christians are somewhat neutral in the Jew/Muslim conflict in Israel/Palestine. Hagit knew a priest in Nazareth and we went to see him. He liked the story of Pax so well he invited me to stay over (a married Catholic priest, married before becoming a priest)and join his church procession in the scheduled Easter parade the next day. But I had to get back to Hagit's that night so I promised to come the next day.

       Israeli peace activist Hagit Ra' anaan

The Spirit of Christ Josephine went with me to Nazareth

April 20th, Easter Sunday

I rode one of those notorious buses from Tel Aviv to Nazareth. A third of the bus being Israeli soldiers. Falasha Jews too, looking and acting exactly like US Blacks, only speaking Hebrew. A Filipina woman got on and sat next to me and since she started reading a Gospel of St. John I asked her if she happened to be going to the Nazareth Easter procession. No, but her sister or some relative was. She confessed to being afraid to be on the bus as her husband usually drove her to work. I played brave American and said "..so many buses.." Actually, I didn't have a single moment of paranoia in Israel, I was too high on just finally fulfilling my vision quest. We talked and I told her of my pilgrimage and I swear there was some rapport going on. She asked me twice how long I was going to be in Israel and I told her I had to leave in two days. I believe if I had been able to stay longer she would have asked me to stay with her and her husband. We held hands when she left--and I was given another little God-sign, a synchronicity sign to remind me that the Spirit of Christ Josephine was with me too as when I asked her name--it was Josefina.

The Abuna, (Arabic for 'Father') Abou Hatom M., met me in Nazareth and we went to his little plain Catholic Church of St. Mary. Plain on the outside, but beautiful Catholic inside but more "primitive" (read poorer) than Catholic churches here in America. Abuna had me prepare Pax for the Easter procession by putting a olive branch and palm branch on it. Then the congregation started showing up. There were also 30 Israeli/Palestinian scouts milling around the tiny church courtyard and a couple of them kept coming up to me and asking "Ahmerican, Ahmerican? with big grins and I said "yes" and they would smile and go off and come back and ask again. I guess seeing an American at their church was news. The people started to file into the church for the service. I stayed outside as I'm not Catholic but the people near the door motioned me to come in. I was literally propelled through the church to the little alcove behind the Abuna as he spoke to the congregation. I didn't know why I was there and because everything was in Arabic I didn't know what was going to happen. Abuna did communion and led the group in hymns. Beautiful Arabic Christian songs..then we all started to file out for the procession..

When I picked up Pax and held it aloft the people suddenly understood why I was there. All I had to do was lift Pax up and they understood the symbol immediately. Pax spoke for itself. Several wanted photos taken with me and Pax. The 30 scouts formed the head of the parade with me put in behind them and immediately in front of Abuna and two other Catholic priests (the Easter procession is an annual ecumenical affair) with about 500 Palestinian Christians behind them. We marched through narrow streets with lot's of noise from the scouts bugles and drums. Muslims in balconies above us showered us with flower petals and candies. The procession went the 2.5 kilometer walk to the large courtyard of the Crusader built Basilica of the Annunciation, built on top of the traditional spot where the Angel Gabriel told Mary of the coming birth of Jesus.

Steps up to the Basilica of the Annunciation

The scouts and I came into the courtyard first and we filed out to sides to let Abuna and other priests march up the wide steps before the Basilica. But again, Abuna motioned me to come up with him so up the steps I went with Pax above me. Abuna and the other priests read liturgy and then Abuna spoke again. I heard the word "Paxcalibur" and understood he was telling this large crowd of Palestinians about my Paxcalibur mission. They listened and then applauded and then Abuna led them in song. Tears ran down my face as this was without doubt the happiest day of my whole life.

Such an ending to the Paxcalibur story! Such incredible warmth from these people who have every right to hate me as an American who country provides Israel the means to occupy and oppress Palestinians. Although many photos were taken of me and Pax at the Easter procession, even TV news cameramen documented Pax but thus far I have not been able to attain any sad to say. I was too busy carrying Pax to take photos.
Pax now resides in Nazareth in the Church of St. Mary there. It is now a religious icon in Nazareth, Israel and perhaps even now is working its peace magic to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Christian pilgrims visiting Nazareth at Easter now will be told of the Story of Paxcalibur.

 
   Abuna Abou Hatom M.         

I was so happy and so honored by these people who just accepted me and my Pax mission as if it was meant to be. Handshakes and hugs, and kisses from many afterwards. And then I went on to Jerusalem with an West Bank Palestinian, Ali, and two Israelis, Avraham and Lee, who are all involved in peace activism. We ate good food at an Arab restaurant and then went to Ibrahim's home on the Mt. of Olives.

Ibrahim took me to the Old City tomorrow. It turns out he is good friends with a woman rabbi in my home county who I also know. She too is a peace activist and invited Muslim Ibrahim to America for her ordination. All these peace workers and you never hear about them, but they are there helping to overcome the problems between the two peoples, Israelis and Palestinians, which is really the microcosm of problems between Judeo-Christians and Muslims.

Lack of photo documentation of the Nazareth and Jerusalem visits

Im sorry, but I couldn't take pictures and hold that heavy burl and sword at the same time--I was exhausted after the 2 kilometer parade. (later note: Photos of Pax in the Nazareth Easter event exist as several people took pictures of me and even three TV cameramen but unfortunately I haven't been able to receive any. Pax may have been on local TV news or may not have been, I just don't know. The language barrier makes finding information in Israel very difficult.. I did take some photos with my cheap digital camera but the images were very poor and then I seem to have lost the stored images altogether when my computer crashed and I lost several important files.)

The surprising spiritual power emanating from Mecca

When I was staying at Ibrahim's place on the Mt. of Olives I watched Arabic TV with the householders, not understanding a word of it except newsmaker names. But this station played a live feed direct from Mecca and I watched hypnotized as Muslims filled the Cabah square and slowly walked around the huge Black Cube. Knowing that this rotation around the Cube was a direct continuation of the ancient pagan worship rites there I was kinda stunned because you could just feel an immense spiritual power radiating from this slow rotating dance-walk of worshippers. A slow, soft voice spoke the Arabic verses as worshippers walked.

The circular movement I saw links together in my mind hurricane Josephine, that contributed to my daughter's vision of Josephine, with the circular movement of Mecca worshippers with the Ghost Dance of the Lakota. At some point I would very much like to go to Mecca myself as it is only there that one can clearly see the power of the old ways of worship is still active in our modern world. Because I know the history of Goddess worship at Mecca I am prophesizing that sooner or later Islam will recognize Her spiritual power, the power of the Feminine face of Allah, the Muslim name for the Holy One of Heaven and Earth. Already there are signs of strong Muslim women coming to the forefront of Islam, preparing Muslims for the coming Islamic Reformation.

Islam has tremendous spiritual power, folks. Do not ever underestimate it. Yes, Islam needs to go through its Reformation period to humanize the ancient savagery found in all three Abrahamic religions. But I have always felt in my spiritual heart that Islam can and will make the transition to a religious doctrine anyone on earth of good heart and good will towards all can understand and appreciate.

April 21st

Finding Jerusalem spiritually dead

Jerusalem is spiritually dead. It is one large tomb of a city and has been I believe now, ever since Yeshua walked there. He was the last prophet of spiritual power in Jerusalem. For 2000 years now no spiritual power has come from Jerusalem and I will tell you as a prophet no spiritual power will come from there until Paxcalibur resides there on the Altar of Peace within the Dome of the Rock. Until that happens, Jerusalem has joined the ancient civilization monuments to past glory, Egypt, Babylon, Jerusalem. The Paxcalibur peace rituals I was to do from Jerusalem could not be done as the place is currently without soul, or none that I could feel spiritually.

The "Abomination of desolation"

I found the symbol of this spiritual grave in the middle of the Old City, a small horse tied to a heavy utility cart, the horse with so many straps around its body and head that it couldn't move anything except the bottoms of its feet. An actual chain was wrapped around its muzzle. Thousands of religious pilgrims walked by and no one except me seemed offended by the treatment given to this poor half-starved horse. I have since contacted the Israeli Humane Society to report the horse as well as asked around the vendor stalls in Jerusalem to see who owned the horse but no results.

Christianity has moved the Holy One's spiritual power from Jerusalem to Rome and the Catholic Church. The spiritual power center divided when Mecca became a spiritual center. Then the spiritual power center in the West divided again when it moved to England with the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment. With Columbus and the New World discovery, the Western spiritual power center moved to America where it has become manifest again through the Western Wakan Revelations of a modern Jewish prophet who is prophesy bearer for both the spiritual heritage of Canaanite-Judeo-Christianity and the Native American Lakota traditions. The Paxcalibur Mission unites the Spirit of God found in the Old World and the New World.

Altogether I had two incredibly wonderful days in Israel and one bummer day. I was glad to get back home. Israel was not a friendly place to visit, much like an army base atmosphere and the obvious dichotomy of wealth between Israelis in the nicer homes and neighborhoods vs. Pals in the slums was hard to take. Yet it was in Israel that I experienced the happiest day of my life.

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A "miracle" for Acomtha

Acomtha, no, CNN wasn't there, but for you, a biblical "miracle" was done at the Jordan. Read the "miracle" of Elisha raising the double-ax head with a stick in the Jordan that was lost on the bottom of the river and making it float on the Jordan. Pax went to the bottom of the Jordan, I placed the ancient redwood burl piece under it, and behold, it came up to float on the surface of the Jordan. Elisha made an ax-head to float. Arielmessenger made a whole sword to float on the Jordan.

Acomtha, the real miracle will be Peace in the Holy Land--it is now on its way..

(Elisha's "Miracle": Elisha, no dummy, selected a long enough stick to offset the weight of the ax-head. He then stuck the stick through the ax-head hole where the ax-handle went, and of course, it floated and appeared to "swim", the ax-head looking like fish fins with the stick the "body".)

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The Paxcalibur Story Part II

The Religion of Peace

God takes over the Paxcalibur Mission

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