So long, and thanks for all the fish.
- Message from the Dolphins, Douglas Adams,
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

DO YOU FEEL LIKE time is flying faster than usual? Do you feel as if your entire life is being shaken upside down, or that many people around you are going through unexpected or dramatic life changes? We can all feel that something is happening on our planet. Chaotic weather, natural disasters, global unrest and shifts within our own personal lives are happening more often and more intensely.

Prophecies from the Mayan Calendar, Nostradamus and the Bible indicate that we are now living in 'the end times.' Not necessarily the end of time, but certainly the end of time as we know it, the end of a cycle. Many of the ancient seers were able to see so far into the future and then no more. We are coming to a blank page, the beginning of a new chapter which we are yet to write. What this new chapter looks like is up to us.

Gregg Braden, a pioneer in bridging the gap between science and spirituality, offers the theory that our planet has now entered a geophysical phase predicted millennia ago, a 'Shift of the Ages.' According to this theory, Earth is literally moving toward 'zero point magnetic field,' which it's expected to reach in 2012, the same time given by the Mayan Calendar. As we move toward zero point we are experiencing the literal speeding up of time, havoc with our weather patterns and a transformation of consciousness.

Reaching zero point is a cyclic event, and ancient cultures viewed them as initiations, a period of great challenge culminating in profound change. The late visionary Edgar Cayce prophesied that these times of great global transformation would come. He foresaw that 'these changes would not lead to the end of the world, but, in time, to the dawning of a New Age of hope and community for all mankind.'

Authors David Rippe and Jared Rosen write about this change in their revolutionary book The Flip: Turn Your World Around, which describes two worlds existing on Earth today.

One is an upside-down world where people feel stressed out, fearful and powerless... they feel headed towards a hopelessly polluted world where things like unaffordable healthcare, unethical corporations, meaningless work, scarcity of resources, and endless war seem unavoidable. The other is a world that is Right-Side Up. People in this world know that emotional and spiritual well-being, meaningful work, natural health, global prosperity, ren These people know that their individual choices affect the lives of everyone else... Humanity stands on a bridge between these worlds and must make a choice to go in one direction or the other... Which side do you choose?

Taking a spiritual or energetic angle, in the years leading up to 2012 Earth and all beings on it are moving into a higher state of consciousness. That is, where before we were all tuned in to 3D reality, we're all now being prepared to be amped up for the 5D experience, which includes among other things a more balanced state of being for ourselves and the world, an increase in multisensory perception, and a greater awareness of that great mystery: who we really are and why we are here. Moving into a higher dimension is like switching from standard free-to-air television to satellite. There are more choices, more options, more freedom, and our viewing range increases substantially.

Some spiritual seekers are calling this process the Ascension. Others say we're moving into the Golden Age. Religious followers are anticipating the Second Coming while ticking off current events in the Book of Revelations. Cosmic-minded folk live in hope that starships from planets more evolved than us will come and help save us from ourselves. I think they might actually be considering it - but only once they're sure we won't launch a fullscale missile attack on them! So, for now, it's up to us.

We are the ones we have been waiting for.
- Hopi Prophecy

By whatever name we want to call these times, humanity is united in the belief that we are coming to the end of something, and noone is quite sure how things are going to turn out. Some people believe our new chapter is called 'the transformation of humanity,' while others think it's going to be 'the destruction of humanity.'

My vote is on the former. The Mayan Calendar prophecies say we are in the transition period right now moving from one way of being to the next, with the official cross-over date happening at the end of 2012. That is, we have until then to get as many of us as possible aligned with our preferred new reality, and actively participating in its creation. We do this simply by being our true selves. We express our true selves whenever we listen to and follow our instincts, feel our feelings, speak our truth and acknowledge all of who we are.

Our true selves are encoded with the exact, right, most perfect skills and talents, required to create our new chapter. Together we are the builders, architects, painters, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, interior designers, decorators and gardeners of our new world. We are the chefs, entertainers, artists, musicians, writers, parents, teachers and healers. We have truck drivers dropping off equipment and people moving the furniture in.

Everyone has a role for the biggest show on Earth. It is a highly organised, synchronised production. We are the leaders and members of new, more enlightened forms of government. We are the caretakers of a highly valued environment. We are the producers and viewers of empowering, truthful media. We are the guardians who ensure fair distribution of planetary and financial resources. We are the developers of creative education, accessible natural healthcare, natural nutritious foods, sustainable development, and housing that uses renewable natural resources. We are one humanity, and we make sure all members of our global family are taken care of.

Only those who risk going too far can possibly know how far they can really go.
- T.S. Eliot

Just like the switch from analogue to digital television this isn't going to happen for every person and system simultaneously, nor does it happen overnight for anyone. It's a process. For some it started a few decades ago, others are switching over now, and others still will make the shift at the last minute, kicking and screaming at having to change from the Old World to the New.

Some see the planet bent on a course of self-destruction, which it is if we keep going the way we have been, driven by a relatively small number of people who have managed to take hold of the steering wheel of Earth while no-one was looking. They seem to have decided to see how fast and how far they can go, completely ignoring all the road rules, with the attitude that if we all slam into a brick wall soon, well, at least they had a good ride. I'm sure it's been fun for them, but fortunately for us a lot of people have started waking up to the truth. We have seen that in order for the relatively few to continue what they are doing, the consequences for the majority are not great, and really, that's just not ok anymore.

I believe that as a collective we have made a decision on some level that we don't particularly want to slam into a brick wall. Starting a new chapter based on a more balanced and just world, and yes, let's have some peace and unity while we're at it, sounds a whole lot better. If we get to have a whole new chapter of history in front of us, a chapter we can do anything we want with, let's write something really great!

Have you read the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals? In 2000, at the United Nations Summit of World Leaders' eight goals were agreed on, to be reached by 2015. Here they are:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

More evidence that other people believe in a new vision for the planet! Again, what are we doing about it? Do world leaders just sign these declarations and goals to lull us into a false sense of security that something is actually being done about them? All the world's countries agreed on these goals. All the world's leading development organisations agreed on these goals. At the midway point we should be seeing major progress.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said:

We will have time to reach the Millennium Development Goals - worldwide and in most, or even all, individual countries - but only if we break with business as usual. We cannot win overnight. Success will require sustained action across the entire decade between now and the deadline... So we must start now. And we must more than double global development assistance over the next few years. Nothing less will help to achieve the Goals.

We just read the latest figures in the previous chapter. We haven't doubled assistance at all! We're still not contributing the 0.7% of GNI on Official Development Assistance and we agreed to do that in 1970!!

The extremely dedicated and passionate Jeffrey Sachs, the Secretary-General's Special Adviser on the Goals, was among several participants in an interactive debate about the goals in November 2006.25 Sachs said that "While some of the world's most rapid economic growth was underway... some of the greatest economic calamities in modern history are also taking place, especially in sub-Saharan Africa..."

Calling on the international community to scale up its interventions, he said that,

...in one year, several significant accomplishments could be made in Africa and elsewhere. A decent crop could turn a village around. In just one month, a malaria control operation could curb that disease, and in just a couple of months, a clinic could be built to provide basic health services. Safe water points could also be provided, and a place could be had for every child in school, along with a school feeding programme. No parent would leave a child at home if schools had midday feeding programmes. While such initiatives cost money, they would not require huge amounts of cash to set up.

In An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore says that the one element missing in turning our global warming situation around is the political will. I agree and feel that political will is the one element missing in most important issues. Politicians and leaders either need to change their will - or we need to change our politicians and leaders. Al Gore has predicted we are at an important threshold of time, and has stated we have about 10 years before we reach the point of no return with our climate, unless we start making major changes right now. Point of no return = start saying goodbye to planet Earth as you know it. Game over. There are many who say they don't believe the world is going to change in our lifetime. I think this viewpoint isn't taking into consideration the fact that Mother Earth appears to have issued an ultimatum: Change or perish. I think this is what the 2012 prophecies are referring to: we have until then to change, or face the unpleasant consequences. It's our choice which road we go down.

How was the weather at your place this week? I'm writing this in Sydney right now during summer. Today it's freezing cold, rainy and overcast. Yesterday it was boiling hot. Tomorrow is anyone's guess. The other day I went for a walk in the hot summer sun. Two minutes into the walk, out of nowhere dark clouds filled the entire sky and a freak windstorm blew throughout the entire city. The weather instantly dropped many, many degrees. This wasn't a gradual storm that came in, like the ones we sometimes get. Literally, one minute the sky was blue, the next it was a dark, dark grey. A couple of weeks ago we had raging bushfires and snowfalls - within kilometres of each other. Some parts of Australia had a white Christmas - in peak summer! Our drought is so bad that we are predicted to have 18 months of drinking water left. Something tells me we have less than 10 years to get our act together. This is it, now is the time. We don't get to go to another planet if we destroy this one - word out in the universe is that we are really bad tenants!

The bigger the vehicle and the faster it's going the sooner you have to start turning the wheel before you reach a corner, if you don't want to skid out of control. The Earth Ship is a large body, with a huge number of people on board. We can't afford to wait until the last minute to start turning the corner, and it helps to have as many people as possible swaying in the direction of change - if you've ever been on a motorbike with more than one person on it you'll know what I mean!

We don't inherit this world from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children.
- Native American Proverb

Imagine that our souls gather regularly for meetings. We have relationship meetings, family meetings, work meetings, global meetings, you name it. The astral planes are busy spaces!

Connected via our higher selves and our collective unconscious, we communicate regularly via telepathic and dream states. We are never on this journey alone, and have a team of guides, angels and cosmic helpers ensuring we take the best possible route at all times. They are advisors of the highest kind, helping us to plan ahead. They are experts in their field, just like financial planners, business strategists and life coaches are on Earth.

Thanks to those meetings we've known the change is coming. We had to ask ourselves, "Do we use it as an opportunity to make a quantum leap into a whole new experience of being or do we use it as an excuse to jump ship and say we've had enough?" My feeling is we have chosen the former option.

I feel that during our soul meetings we decided to create an amazing new chapter that's a combination of the best of all of us. I believe that we are currently doing what we have to do to prepare for that new chapter. I feel that the planet Mother Earth is backing our decision. That's why there appears to be so much chaos around right now, both personally for people and globally in both humancreated and nature-created ways.

Whenever anything is undergoing a massive cleansing and transformation, all that needs to be cleared comes to the surface. All that was hidden is revealed and exposed. It can look messy for a while, just like when we're doing a clean-up at home, but eventually we are left with an entirely new space that feels and looks a lot better.

Although we can't know for sure what the outcome of this shift will eventually look like I think we can get a good idea by looking around at the changes already starting to happen within and around us. People are gravitating more and more to finding out who they really are and why they are here. There is a massive increase in interest in self-help books, movies with a message, spiritual pursuits, and alternative healing. There is growing active support for peace, environmental consciousness, humanitarian aid and social justice. Humanity is connecting and uniting in greater numbers thanks to global media and technology. We want more truth, we want the environment to survive, and we want lives that are meaningful. We want closer, healthier relationships with our loved ones, we want to look after our health in natural ways and we want to make a difference.

Events like the Twin Towers falling on 9/11, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the wave of bombing attacks in Bali, London and Madrid, the Indian Ocean Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the Pakistan earthquake are all, I believe, moments in our history that will become known for the turning point effects they each had on humanity and our future direction as a planet.

Each event triggered overwhelming grief and sadness as we witnessed the sudden loss of life for so many, and the destruction within seconds of families, homes and livelihoods. Each event also triggered an outpouring of love, kindness, empathy, generosity, and the growing understanding that any one of these things could happen to us. It reminded us of all the difficult situations occurring every minute every day all around the world. Waves of compassion and unity circled the globe with the increasing realisation that really we are all the same. We are all people living on this planet, most of us just wanting to be happy and at peace, to be free to live our lives as comfortably as possible with the ones we love.

So, perhaps you have bought this book for your own personal growth journey and you might be wondering how the state of the planet is relevant to that journey? Or, maybe you just want to change the world and wonder how your personal issues are relevant to the state of the planet? We are all connected. Our state of inner being creates our outer world. Our outer world affects our state of inner being. The two are interrelated and we need our inner and outer worlds to start working together if we want to see profound, lasting, positive change - be it on a personal or global level.

This we know:
the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth.
All things are connected like blood that unites us all.
Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.
- Chief Seattle

Each one of us contributes to the state of the world around us. You may only represent one piece out of over six billion pieces, but imagine if every piece thought they didn't matter in the overall scheme of things, or that it wasn't their problem or responsibility.

Where would we be?

A pattern of separation has evolved throughout humanity, one that exists within each of us individually. We seem to be focused on either material physical reality or the spiritual greater reality; the busy-ness of daily life or the pursuit of higher consciousness and personal growth, acknowledging the scientific or trusting the metaphysical and ancient wisdom, nurturing social issues or generating power and money, entering politics or standing by ethics - on it goes with a belief that to be one way cancels out the other. Now more than ever is the time to realise unity is what is required, both within ourselves and in our outer world, to create the reality we desire to create.

People with power in the political, corporate and media worlds have tended to shy away from issues related to consciousness, personal responsibility, spiritual awakening, humanitarian and environmental concerns. They don't rate these things as high a priority as economic growth and military spending. Those who do speak up are often criticised for daring to use their creative platform to make a difference! Are we that addicted to keeping ourselves repressed that we have to cut down anyone who tries to raise us up? People with compassion, wisdom and spiritual or higher knowledge have tended to shy away from the political, corporate and media worlds taking a position of non-interference on global matters. This approach is not working!

All of these aspects are part of us, all are important and all work so much better when merged with the others. Imagine that socially conscious, heart-centred, intelligent, environmentally and spiritually aware people are helping to lead our world back to balance. It is possible, it is happening right now already and I believe that it will only increase because our humanity and our Earth can no longer sustain any other option.

I feel we are moving from a time where we had much separation and disconnection in our inner and outer worlds, to a time where we have much greater unity and connection. I feel we are shifting from karmic beings living in reaction, learning through lessons and suffering, to creator beings living with conscious action and remembering through joy.

We each play a part in creating this new reality. All we have to do is live each day being who we really are. When we do this we allow our piece of the jigsaw to work to its fullest potential. We create a domino effect in our immediate environment and further, with others then also being inspired to be who they really are.

© 2008, Dana Mrkich, All Rights Reserved

Excerpted from the book A New Chapter, Copyright 2008 by Dana Mrkich. Reprinted with permission of the author and Zeus Publications. To purchase A New Chapter from Amazon.com, click this link, or on the cover thumbnail below.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Australia’s Dana Mrkich offers Soul Sessions to clients all around the world to help people step into their true self and best possible reality. She is a passionate advocate for empowering, inspiring media, and the merging of consciousness with action in the social and political arenas.

Click on the image at right to purchase A New Chapter from Amazon.com. To subscribe to Dana’s newsletter please email: subscribe@danamrkich.com.