As presented by 20th Century spiritual scientist, Rudolf Steiner, the leading edge of spiritual and social evolution has followed a westward moving progression - India, Persia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Europe, now America. (And, according to Steiner, will eventually move on to a future, transformed, Russia.)

The term ?America? - as used in this article - is not at all about the nationalist concept that residents of the United States and the modern world hold to at present (may nationalism pass on, and human unity prevail) - but, rather, pertains to the aforementioned leading edge of spiritual and social evolution, as an embodiment unto itself. Thus, in a sense, America exists in places around the globe, wherever the broad range of new social-spiritual healing impulses have become increasingly active.

This article delves into the New America that pertains to the nature-human relationship. It is about an America projected into the near future. The material was derived and adapted from one of the five Earth Vision e-books, entitled ?Gaia Sojourn - spiritual ecology across a series of incarnations? - a volume that explores the nature-human interface in various cultural contexts down through time. ?America - facing the threshold? is the chapter in which the Sojourn of Gaia culminates in the present time. For the whole picture, both chapter and volume, refer to Gaia Sojourn, available on the Earth Vision site.

Most people transmit a jumble of conflicting wishes, hopes, and fears. The Self sorts them out and induces a set of experiences that complies with the overall transmission.

If a person can decide and discover clearly what he or she wants, and can project that in a straightforward way, will he or she not enter upon a path of rare power? Related to this, in terms of our relationship with nature, what untold resources wait to be acknowledged, and what new enterprise awaits the guiding hand of those who can deliver this new impulse to the table of holism?

One too often hears the statement these days that it's hard to believe in the existence of the soul, or the spiritual aspect of life. But such a sentiment can only be very transitory as we continue into the third millennium. Such a statement, during this time of spiritual acceleration, can have only a very short future.

If we turn the sentiment on its ear, we arrive at the notion that it's hard to believe in the existence of matter, a consideration that bears more credibility, especially when we examine how scientists have probed deeply into matter only to discover a Void-like emptiness pregnant with an energetic force. Given leading edge research, how can matter prove to be other than an illusionary sleight of mind?

But then, on the other hand, it is also possible that matter is a masterpiece of godly intent.

Or, perhaps, it may well prove to be both, and, speaking of godly intent, we may also find that we have more to do with this matter than we know.

In the spring wind of a new year, a sergeant of the marsh, the red-winged blackbird, stations itself on a cattail perch. And the songbird of our elation sails over a forest of intent, locked in the talon of hawk-disillusion. A sandpiper drills holes into the sand-shore of memory, its beak an injection, a portal to images of distant vistas where the soul has traversed. And a pine siskin alights its tiny frame atop a grand coniferous reverie and exclaims its chee-ee-rr, over and over in the morning light, as it mines an insectine breakfast between the petals of spruce cone resolve. Across the segue of nature a floral palette blooms as, one stitch at a time, the quilt of Primavera fashions its eruptive season. Meanwhile, in an invisible cloak tailored by ingenuity, coyote, the rebel drifter, picks his way through the tall grass, paws of stealth treading a silent rhythm, an ancient pattering quest in counterpoint to modernity.

We live in a world that represents reality.

Thought, as we experience it, is the shadow of spirit. We cannot know spirit through thought, just as we cannot know a thing by its shadow.

The spiritual world is descending into materiality, instigating transformation. The time is upon us now to develop spiritual eyes again, although we'll need a different form of clairvoyance than that once commonly known in the distant past. Long ago, it was dreamlike, a twilit form of seeing. Now, we are compelled to cultivate a clear, wakeful forum, functioning with a pure heart and untroubled mind.

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