Month: March 2020

“I am a party of one, and I live in an age of fear.” (Elwyn Brooks White)

“Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith.” (Matthew 8:26)

I will show you fear in a handful of dust. (T.S. Eliot)

It isn’t the Coronavirus (COVID – 19) that we should be afraid. I get that 2% to 3% of people that contract the virus will die. I get that this virus is extremely contagious and I get that there is no known cure or vaccine available. It is dangerous and life threatening, but, really, come on, we have had worse epidemics in America and we survived. Fear has become pathological in America, and that fear will kill a lot more people then the Coronavirus.

When I was a kid measles (rubella) was a true killer. About 3% of people that contracted rubella died in America, 1 in 1,000 children contracted encephalitis (swelling in the brain), and 1 in 20 contracted pneumonia as a result of having measles. In 3rd world countries the death rate is much higher. It is estimated that 3 million people died every year from the virus until 1980. The infection rate for rubella was 90%. 90%! That means that if a person was susceptible (no previous infection) they had a 90% chance of getting sick if they walked into a room where there was a person who had the virus. After a vaccine was developed in the 1960’s the infection rate went almost to zero in the United States. Its not that the Coronavirus isn’t serious, it is, but I wonder if the political reaction to this is feeding the panic and blowing it out of proportion?

When measles made its rounds every two or three years, people didn’t panic by buying out every bag of flour, every roll of toilet paper, every loaf of bread, and now, I’m told, every can of food they can get their hands on. There are lines of people at gun stores now buying up guns and ammunition in anticipation of a complete breakdown of civil laws. Also, the stock market didn’t collapse when the measles virus cycled through every couple of years, which is what is happening now.

The fear that has been engendered by this over-reaction to the pandemic may indirectly end up killing many more people then the virus was ever capable of doing. I am watching the stock markets plummet across the world. There is no way now to avoid a major recession, possibly even a depression. Companies are already having massive layoffs in anticipation of a giant slowdown in the economy. Frankly, economies are beginning to collapse. We are on the edge right now, and I believe the next few days will tell us which direction our economy will go. And fear is the cause of it all. Fear is the great virus here, like a cancer that grows with abandon eventually killing its host. I am reminded of Mormon 6:7: “…with that awful fear of death which fills the breasts of all the wicked…” Fear is contagious. The New York Times reported yesterday that panic buying is escalating. The article explained that when people see empty shelves when they go to the supermarket, they start to panic and start buying any food that is left on the shelves. People have reported seeing fights breaking out over food.

“…I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.” (Jeremiah 14:12)

One of the definitions my dictionary has for pestilence is: “A pernicious, evil influence or agent.” Jeremiah could easily be defining the fear that sweeps across the nation like a plague as a pestilence.

What is the remedy? What can a sane person do? Do we let fear take hold in our hearts? Or do we look to the only one who can provide peace to our hearts and solace to our fears? The Lord has promised, and I personally believe His promises, “Those who belong to the Lord’s church need not fear.” (D&C 10:55) What is His church? I have come to believe that it isn’t an organized religion, it isn’t a building, and it isn’t a single organization of religious followers. It is as Christ declared: ” Whoever repents and comes to the Lord is His church” (D&C 10:67) All people everywhere that look to Christ, repent, seek the Lord, and feast on his words (2 Nephi 31:20), will be saved.

I like to tell stories. I like them because first, they do capture people’s attention–everyone likes a good story. Second, they help to illustrate complex ideas or thoughts –brings them down to earth where people can relate. My story is from an article I read in the LDS Ensign magazine 30 years ago. An LDS woman and her daughters were living through the invasion of the Russians as they overran Berlin at the end of the Second World War. It was a horrible time for them. Their husband and father was in the German Army and they were left to fend for themselves hiding from the hoards of Russian soldiers that were pillaging and molesting women and girls. They were able to escape the worst that the Russians could do to them through some miraculous interventions, mostly because of their faith in God. Soon the Americans came, since they lived in the American sector, but they still had to contend with hunger and the scarcity of food.

One day word passed through the local neighborhood that food was being handed out. The Mother and her girls rushed to the place and were confronted by a mob of people fighting over a mound of food that had been piled in the middle of the street. I think it was food found in a warehouse that had been stored by the German Army and given out to the people by the American Army. The mother didn’t want to get involved in the fighting for food so she had the girls wait on the periphery of the jostling crowd. She noticed that in their squabbling for food, the people didn’t notice packets of food being thrown about outside the circle of the mob. They started picking up food that flew to the outside out of the chaos in the middle of the pile of food as a result of the fighting. The girls calmly picked up the food laying at the feet of the people in the fray and came away with armfuls of food that they were able to survive on for a while. On another occasion an American serviceman showed up at their door with a box full of food and declared that he was led to collect some food and take it to a house that he was led to by the spirit. The Lord takes care of His people.

“And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them: they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” (Mark 16: 17-18)

In November, 2017 the Lord offered a covenant to anyone that would accept. The Lord promised: “And I, the Lord your God, will be with you and will never forsake you, and I will lead you in the path which will bring peace to you in the troubling season now fast approaching. I will raise you up and protect you, abide with you, and gather you in due time, and this shall be a land of promise to you as your inheritance from me… And the angels sent to harvest the world will gather the wicked into bundles to be burned, but will pass over you as my peculiar treasure.” (Teachings and Commandments 158: 12,13 & 18)

For those of you who think this is the real deal, the beginning of the plagues that John writes about in Revelation 9, this is only a dress rehearsal. The Lord in his mercy has sent us this warning and if we pay attention and take heed we will prepare ourselves and seek to know Him. He has sent us a lot of warnings and the country took heed for a time, but things went back to “normal” within a few months. 9/11, and the market sell off and start of the great recession in 2008 were both warnings. This time we are being given a third and final warning. We will recover somewhat from the financial crises and the memory of the virus of 2020 will become a soon to be forgotten memory as the country attempts to return to business as usual. But the fourth crises that comes will be a real wake up call, because as Isaiah foretells, the troubles will come like a woman in labor, the contractions will become harder to bear and quicker between.

“Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them, they shall be in pain as a woman that travails; they shall be amazed one at another, their faces shall be as flames.” (Isaiah 6:2)

Several weeks ago I  had the opportunity to go to Hopi Land in Arizona and witness the Bean Dance, Powamuya. February is known as the purification month, which is a time when the people ready themselves to accept the spirits back into their lives. The Bean Dance is the culmination of the ceremonial sprouting of the beans and a call to prepare the people for the planting season. The Kachinas, or Katsina’s, are called to come and prepare the village.

As I stood on the roof of a stone house in the middle of the third mesa village, Hotevilla, I couldn’t help but be caught up in the mystery of the dance. I watched as 50 or so Katsinas emerged from the depths of one of the kivas and danced slowly and methodically through the passageways of the village. The pace was a very deliberate, slow, and mesmerizing pace. Each of the Katsinas were caricatures of different spirits dressed and acting the part of their characters. There were the spirits of Gods, priests, mortals, spirits of different elements such as storms and clouds, and the clowns. I noticed that some of the clown Katsinas were dressed in white man’s clothes (Bahanas) with peculiar (funny) masks. There is an element of awe and mystique in the dances. American Culture in general has lost a sense of mystery and symbolism and is the worst for it.

In many ways the Kiva is an entry point to learning mysteries for the Hopi. It is representative of the great spirit world that coexists with our own world (what we erroneously call the “real world”). The spirit world may be hidden from us, but it is more intimately experienced by the Hopis. And not exclusively by the Hopis but at one time by all native Americans. The kiva is a connection to the mystery of existence and creation. It is symbolic of a gateway, maybe even a veil for entry into the spirit world. The Kiva is underground because the first humans emerged from underground through a portal from a dimension that connects this world to a parallel world. To access the kiva you descend down a ladder through a hole in the roof; descending into the dark place to learn of things hidden from the world or to conduct the ceremonies that keep the chaotic forces at bay. One of the purposes of the kiva is create a sacred place where the keepers of the covenant and the initiates are taught the purpose and mission of the Hopi people. The Hopis believe that their ceremonies, dances and ordinances serve to keep the world in balance.  I liken that to the idea that a few righteous people can prevent the destruction of an entire city while they are living in it.

At the culmination of the dance, young boys and girls about the age of 8 to 12 are brought down into the kiva by the Kachinas. They pass through the opening, down into the darkness of the kiva, and are exposed to a mystery. They have been taught their whole lives that mysterious things go on inside the kiva, but they must wait until they are initiated to participate. They don’t know what to expect. They are nervous and a little afraid of what is going to happen to them. You can see it in their faces as they are escorted to the kiva.

Before the dance we were invited to a feast with a Hopi family. We were welcomed as family and ate the traditional meal that included bean sprouts and bean soup. It was delicious. I found the Hopi people to be open and genuine. A little like children, but only in the sense that their was no awkwardness, no judgement, guile or defensiveness on their part. It was so refreshing to talk with them because they did not have the habit of sizing you up, or guarding their speech, which the white folks tend to do on meeting strangers. I could sense no guile whatsoever, they accept you as you are. Perhaps this attitude was unique with that family, but we did visit with several other families and I came away with the same impression. Nevertheless, the Hopi’s are a closed society with secrets that they keep to themselves. They have learned not to fully trust the bahana (Non native American) because they have been deceived so many times by them. It may have been that I was under the protection of a bahana brother who had been helping the Hopi people for 20 years, and because they trusted and honored him, they trusted me.

The Hopis are not an ideal society, they have their problems. They are poor, some living in stone pueblos that may have structural elements that are a thousand years old. Many roofs are in a state of disrepair and many do not have electricity, running water, or bathrooms. They have their family and clan squabbles, but I felt they were closer to being a Zion society than we Bahanas are. There is some desire for material acquisition, but not on the scale of the rampant possessiveness and exclusivity that plagues our American culture. Their lives are much simpler then ours, but in many ways, and in ways that count, they are a wiser and more prosperous society.

I have come to believe that the Hopi’s are one of many tribes in North America that are descended from a remnant group of believing Lehites. They are a unique tribe that has been protected because of the promises made to Lehi and Nephi, and I believe, because they remain apart from the American culture that has swamped most other tribes. There is a curious sermon that Moroni preserved of his Father given to a righteous gathering of saints. Curious to me because there appears to have been a righteous group living among the Nephites just before they were completely destroyed.

“And now I, Mormon, speak unto you, my beloved brethren; …I would speak unto you that are of the church, that are peaceable followers of Christ, and that have obtained a sufficient hope by which ye can enter in to the rest of the Lord, from this time henceforth until ye shall rest with him in heaven.” (Moroni 7:2-3)

Mormon isn’t talking to the general population of Nephites who are degenerate, wicked, and unrepentant, as he describes his people. He is talking to a group of people that are a covenant people, who have accepted Christ and have received some spiritual assurances (hope) that they will enter into the rest of the Lord. What happened to these people when the Nephites were utterly destroyed?

I believe that these people were led off by the Lord into safety before the final conflict that resulted in the extinction of the Nephites. The Hopi myth teaches them that they are an ancient people who were guided by one of their spirit leaders or Gods (Masau’u) to leave a land devastated by war and conflict over 1500 years ago. They buried their weapons of war and traveled for 400 years until they came to the three mesas in Arizona over a thousand years ago. There they made a covenant to remain until the end of the current cycle of history we are in.

Masau’u (together with Spider Grandmother) gave them sets of stone tablets. Some of these tablets contain the title and deed to the Lands they were to inhabit and protect until Masau’u would return. There were strong instructions and serious warnings given and the people covenanted to keep the ceremonies and ordinances alive. The tablets are said to contain a description of the land in its entirety and delineate it’s dimensions all the way to the sea. There was a small tablet given to the Fire Clan which had a corner broken off and given to Pahan, the Elder White Brother who was to migrate toward the setting sun and wait there until he heard the cries of distress from the younger brother, or the Hopi themselves. He would come to their aid at the last moment and purify the land. He would prove his identity by fitting the two pieces of the tablet together. Pahaqna, is another name for the white brother. The name is associated with the plumed serpent Kukulkan of the Maya, and Quetzalcoatl of the Aztec. Some Hopi do not believe that Pahan is white, but Hopi.

The covenant that was given to the Hopi was that if they will keep the land pure, continue with the ceremonies and ordinances exactly and precisely as given to them they will ultimately be protected and will not be moved from their land. There are evidences that the American Southwest topography reveals a sacredness and specialness that corroborates the Hopi myth of a covenant land.

Randy Ripplinger has spent years investigating and researching the sacred nature of the Indian lands in the four corners region of the U.S. I listened to an astounding presentation on the uncanny connection that Hopi myth and legend has with the lands of the Southwest. The sacredness of the land is written in the geography of the land. Gary A. David writes in the Orion Zone, that the Hopi lands are a mirror of the stars and constellations in the sky. Of special importance is the Constellation Orion. The three mesas are precisely located and in an exact mirror image of the belt of Orion. Major ancient cities of the Anasazi located at Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, Canyon de Chelly , and other sites correspond as an exact mirror image to the relative locations of the other stars of the constellation Orion.

Why Orion? What is so important about Orion? It is one of the most prominent constellations in the sky and represents the great spirit Masauu to the Hopis. He is the one who guided them on their migration, brought them to the Three Mesas, and made the covenant with them. Orion is the great God Osiris to the Egyptians, which is a corruption of the role of Christ. To the Babylonians Orion is the great hunter Nimrod, the founder of the city, who attempted to become god challenging the Almighty to a contest to determine who was the Savior of the earth. To the Hopi, Orion is a symbol that things in heaven are a map of things on the earth. As believers in the prophesies of Joseph Smith, we learn that all things testify of Christ, both on the earth and in the heavens (Moses 6:63). The lands of the Hopi attest to that truth. As it is in Heaven so it is on Earth. The stars and the constellations tell a story, there is no such thing as coincidence.

There is a lot more to this story, but if you are interested, Randy Ripplinger will be giving a 2 hour presentation on March 21st, 3 pm to 5 pm at the Hurricane, Utah Civic Center as part of the Doctrine of Christ Conference.

I also want to bring your attention to an effort to help the Hopis with some badly needed maintenance on their homes. Many Hopis are living in stone homes that were originally built a thousand years ago. Although many alterations have been made using modern materials, many of their homes are in badly need of repair. A team of volunteers is making preparations to return to the third mesa in April to replace one roof, repair 2 other roofs, replace a floor with tile, build a staircase, and other repairs. A GoFundMe project has been created to raise $10,000 for materials. Here is the link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/hopi-help

If the Hopi’s are a remnant of Lehi, then they are part of what the Lord directed us to pay attention when He said, “Seek to recover the lost sheep remnant of this land and of Israel and no longer forsake them. Bring them unto me and teach them of my ways, to walk in them.” (Teachings and Commandments 158:11) This effort to help them with repairs is part of an ongoing effort to gain their trust, only with the motivation to befriend and help them.