Recently I was contacted by a “major group of researchers from Australia and the USA who are working to decode/the epigraphy from the rockart found in regions where your book highlights geomorphology and terraforming.” These are very serious researchers who are using the same “First Tongue” language I refer to as “Old Negev” script in my book to pull out the prophesies left in places like Prophesy Rock in the Hopi Land.

One of the methods to “break” the code besides the First Tongue translation itself is to use “Keys” as found in J.J. Hurtak’s “The Book of Knowledge: The Keys of Enoch” which is a very dense work that is used by research scientists around the world to tap into what Hurtak calls “The Academy for Future Science”.

In working with this research group, I did some research on my own into Hurtak’s views on what some believe is a battle between the light and dark forces of the universe that is happening today. I came across an article by Australian author Victoria LePage called Sufis and The Nine Unknowns. LePage wrote a book previously called Shambhalah which dovetails to premise I have in Oracle of the Phoenix of a coming Golden Age.

While LePage is appropriately critical of Hurtak’s galactic war point-of-view she brings out this notion of the Unknown Nine or Council of Nine that many professed channels around the world are connecting to for cosmic messages and who Hurtak himself claims to have encountered when he “downloaded” the Keys.

LePage makes the case that the Nine Unknowns have had their “messages” bent or skewed by the filters of the receivers thus creating a distorted or partial view as I see it of theological truths. The Hopi captured this “stepped” distortion in the Prophesy Rock pictograph that shows each color of man going off with their own truth around the world (Hopi equate color with directions) only to come back together again at the end of the Fourth World which many believe is happening today and will culminate in 2012. The colors are black, red, yellow and white (the Bow Clan or Rainbow Clan) and interestingly enough correlate with the four layers of color processed film – Black, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. The legend has it that four tablets were broken and sent to the various lands denoted by the color – Black to Africa, Blue/White to Tibet, Yellow to Asia and Red to the Hopi. The great white brother Pahana will bring the tablets together and peace will be restored. Pahana will recognized with a cloak on his back in the pattern of the horned toad – if he comes from the west beware for his fury will be felt and if from the east all will be well.

In Oracle of the Phoenix I show the pattern of the horned toad is a distinct 10 Sephirot pattern of the Tree of Life with the western pillar of severity polarized by the eastern pillar of mercy. A direct reference to Kabbalah as being the unifying force to bring these various “stepped” points of view back into a “wholistic” picture (I make the case for the third way of polarity integration through the Tree of Life’s middle pillar).

In fact the Phoenix Lights sighting occurred in a place called Rainbow Valley and what many seem to make little note of is that there were Nine Unknown Lights. The narrative speaks for itself as it brings together the myths of the Hopi, the Old Testament and New Testament prophesies as well as the prophesies related to Islam and addresses them with altered eyes as a result of seeing the terra-formed satellite images from above.

See the Phoenix Lights on the History Channel’s UFO Hunter’s show this coming Wednesday - December 10, 2008 at 10:00 PM Eastern Time.

I’ve interpreted the I AM that I AM declaration (and name of the God that Moses encounters at Sinai as Ayeh Asher Ayeh) as the intersecting point (Tipheret) between spirit and matter. Tipheret means Beauty and it rules the Sun/Son in the heart of the Tree of Life. It is where the I AM of Kether (the crown) meets up with the I AM of Malchut (the kingdom).

What I’ve been contemplating recently is the anti-point of this spot which I’m currently opining is the I AM NOT consciousness of lack. It is where the lower cross meets in Yesod (the foundation). Yesod is also a variation on the word Sod which means Secret in Hebrew and relates directly to the recent book and film of the same name The Secret which is the Secret of the Law of Attraction which brings upon abundance when properly employed.

Yesod is the 9th Sephirot and corresponds with the 9th Commandment - Thou Shalt not Bear False Witness. I interpret this to mean to not let the ego fool you into believing that it’s focus on lack, as represented by the 10th, 8th and 7th Commandments, is real and true. The 10th Commandment is about coveting, the 8th about stealing and the 7th about adultry - each is distilled with the I AM NOT consciousness in my opinion. I am not rich enough, I am not loved enough, I am not good enough.

Yesod is also where the New Testament crucifixion takes place as part of the Tree of Life configuration of Sephirot called Golgotha. Golgotha means the Place of the Skulls. A visible Skull is formed at the bottom of the Tree of Life with the two eyes of Hod (glory) and Netzach (victory), the nose of Yesod and the mouth of Malchut. The crucifixtion itself conjures up the I AM Not consciousness in its representation of “sinful mankind” redeemed by the “god-man” sacrifice to once again make mankind “good enough”.

Yesod is associated with the Moon and the Astral world and is perfectly cast as the set-up mechanism for the Piscean drama played out 2,000 years ago. The Church exploited the I AM NOT consciousness as it’s foundation of original sin. The only way out of the I AM NOT conscousness according to the church is too surrender to its precepts and prescriptions for absolution which all work to disempower one from developing one’s own spiritual authority.

The way out of this dillemma is to realize that lack is self-created perception. Even in today’s economic meltdown, the more we allow fear and lack to pervade our consciousness, the more we buy into the I AM NOT conscioussness with resulting reinforcement through metaphysically manifested experience based on our externalized beliefs. Still, a massive initiation into the I AM NOT state of mind is not necessarily a bad thing IMO since it can act as an initiatory force into the more expansive I AM that I AM consciousness of abundance. Not necessarily monetary abundance but more of a non-diminished state of mind/being.

Deuteronomy 7:1-4 in particular seems to be coming up these days (Gaza conflict) as evidence of a pathological Jewish God who has commanded the Jews to destroy their enemies, particularly the Palestinians.

It is important to realize that Deuteronomy is unique in the Torah (the fifth book in the Tanach) in that its content is questionable. Deuteronomy is a Greek translation of “Second Law” when in fact the Hebrew name for the book is Devarim. Devarim means “Words”. The opening sentence is “These are the Words that Moses spoke to all Israel on the east bank of the Jordan, in the desert [and] in the Aravah, near Suf, in the vicinity of Paran, Tofel, Lavan, Chatzeroth and Di Zahav.

Literally Moses is speaking from “the far side” a place of not near. The famous Kabbalist the Vilna Gaon said this about the book:

“The four Books were heard directly from the mouth of the Holy One, Blessed is He, through the throat of Moses. Not so Deuteronomy. Israel heard the words of this Book the same way they heard the words of the prophets who came after Moses. God would speak to the prophet on one day, and on a later day he would go and make the vision known to Israel. Accordingly, at the time the prophet spoke to the people, the word of God had already been removed from him, (i.e., they did not hear God’s word directly; they heard the prophet’s comprehension of it). So too, the Book of Dueteronomy was heard from the mouth of Moses.”

What this says to me anyway is that - Yes - words can hurt you, especially when taken literally as directives from God when they are clearly stated to be Human Interpretations - therefore distant echos of inner guidance and authority - especially since Moses did not even enter the so-called Promised Land because he commited the unfortunate act of striking a rock with his staff. This in and of itself should have alterted the future Israelites that such a disproportionate exercise of punishment to Moses, yet being charged to decimate an entire population should have been found to be inconsistent and thus representative of distorted communication.

In my opinion this Book called “Words” is meant to teach us to ultimately reject outside authority and to develop an inner compass - to hear and act on our own guidance as we are taught in the ninth commandment to “not bear false witness.” This is just as much about inner cognitive behavior as it is about outer inclinations towards distorting truth. It is too easy for corruption of observation to happen because of the filtering power of the belief system. If we believe in retribution (an eye for an eye) then we will frame our experience in terms of justice and retribution. Unfortunately, blindness can be the result.

There’s a great web site put together by Sanford Drob presenting his work (much based on the great Kabbalist Isaac Luria) called the New Kabbalah. One of the articles he’s posted which I cannot directly link to is called the “The Torah of the Tree of Life: Kabbalistic Reflections on the Hermeneutics of Infinity in Scholem, Idel, Dan, and Tishby.”

Here’s an excerpt where Dr. Drob instructs us that there is no one interpretation of Torah and that each of us has our own unique lens available to glean insights into the text.

Idel on the Plasticity of Textual Significance

In his book, Absorbing Perfections, Moshe Idel, details the manner in which the Kabbalists regarded the text of the Torah, and by extension, the text of the world, to be subject to an indefinite if not infinite, number of determinate interpretations. He points out that as early as the second half of the 13th century certain Kabbalists adopted the view that the Bible contains an infinite number of meanings, and describes several factors adduced by the Kabbalists in support of their claim of “infinite interpretability.”[15]

The Bible’s lack of Hebrew vowels creates an indeterminacy in pronounciation and sense that leaves it open to a multiplicity of interpretative possibilities. The mid-thirteenth century Kabbalist, R. Jacob ben Sheshet of Gerona, wrote “it is a well-known thing that each and every word of the Torah will change [its significance] in accordance with the change of its vocalization though its consonants will not be changed.” A slightly later, anonymous Kabbalist, expanded upon R. Jacob’s notion in writing that “the vowel [system] is the form of, and is soul to, the consonants…and if we should vocalize the scroll of the Torah [i.e. insert vowels] it would receive a limit and measure, like the hyle [primordial undifferentiated matter] that receives a peculiar form” thus limiting the Torah to a single interpretation.[16] Thus the prohibition against vocalizing [adding vowels to] the Torah scroll guarantees a hermeneutic freedom permitting unlimited interpretations of the scriptural text. [17] Any particular vocalization or interpretation, grants form to the hyle, and thereby makes the reader a co-creator, with god, of the Torah, and ultimately, of the world.[18] According to R. Bahya ben Asher “The scroll of the Torah is written without vowels, in order to enable man to interpret it however he wishes…as the consonants without vowels bear several interpretations…” (Idel, p. 86). A similar view was put forth by the 14th century Kabbalist, R. Menahem ben Benjamin Recanti, who held that the Torah is written without vowels because it contains multiple aspects.[19]

Idel describes several metaphysical ideas that inform later Kabbalistic and Hasidic notions of textual infinity. The first of these is the idea that like the procession of the stars the worlds change from moment to moment, thereby continually informing the torah text with new meanings. According to Luria’s eminent disciple Chayyim Vital:

The worlds change each and every hour, and there is no hour which is similar to another. And whoever contemplates the movement of the planets and stars, and the changes of their position and constellation and how their stand changes in a moment, and whoever is born in this moment will undergo different things from those which happen to one who was born in the preceding moment; hence, one can look and contemplate what is [going on] in the supernal infinite, and numberless worlds…and so you will understand the changes of the constellation and the position of the worlds.”

I include these excerpts in my blog as a caveat or an admission that while my interpretations of text may resonate for readers of my book or this blog, I recognize that my take is only my take. It is not your take nor should it be. It is meant to keep the discussion going which is unique to the tradition I was born into. Drob quotes the Jungian analyist Wolfgang Giegerich who says “Indeed, we might say that a symbol dies only when it is given a final, dogmatic interpretation; only when it is completely known. Perhaps this is why when Adam eats from the Tree of Knowledge it becomes a “Tree of Death.”

Last night I was interviewed on Ellie Crystals Blog Talk Radio Show. Ellie manages the site Crystalinks which is a compilation of information and links within the metaphysical and scientific worlds.

The promo for the interview was:

Ellie Crystal interviews author Steven Blonder whose book is “Oracle of the Phoenix: Discovering a Tree of Life of Life Amidst the End Time Signs and Wonders of the Phoenix Lights.” Steven was a key witness of the 1997 Phoenix Lights UFO sighting and was featured on the Discovery Channel documentary “Lights over Phoenix: Anatomy of a Sighting” and will be appearing on this season’s UFO Hunter series on the History Channel. Steven is the only witness or author who has attempted to penetrate the mystery of the lights by deciphering the many esoteric symbols connected to the sighting including those found in Kabbalah and Hopi Mythology. Steven makes the case in his book that the Phoenix Lights marks the beginning of the “End Times” shift that culminates in the 2012 beginning of a New Era referenced in most religious texts and myths.

Ellie found out that T-Mobile, ATT&T and AllTel subscribers were not able to dial into the call (including myself) due to some type anomaly related to the 347 area code used. Ellie assures me that we’ll get another chance on this when the number situation is resolved.

I flew back to Phoenix for my interviews in the upcoming Phoenix Lights episode of History Channel Show UFO Hunters. I’m not exactly sure when the episode will run but it should be sometime in October.

It was a little eerie revisiting the sighting some 11 years after the event. We decided to film at a home owned by one of the neighbors who had been very involved the week the original sighting took place – visiting our balcony just about every night between March 10 and March 13, 1997.

Jaylene Brughman’s voice is famous in the film shot from my balcony that evening when she shouted out “look there’s another one and another one!” She and her husband Jay had moved to another house in the neighborhood several years back but we were still in general vicinity so it seemed like a good choice to shoot interviews.

I put together a Powerpoint presentation which I provided to the producer which showed frames of the lights I shot each of the four nights they appeared along with a shot of one behind a palm tree but in front of the Estrella Range which was shot March 12, 1997. All of the pictures were of the same amber color and quality. None emitted smoke or illumination that would be characteristic of flares.

The main message I hoped to deliver in the interview was that the Phoenix Lights actually began March 10 when I first witnessed a strange light and began reporting this “sighting” to the news and UFO investigative community. This is why the local MUFON field investigator Bill Hamilton and videographer Tom King were on my balcony when the famous array of lights appeared on March 13 – we were waiting for them!

Jaylene told her perspective of what happened for the first time to the media. I’m sure viewer will find her to be genuine and sincere. She said the lights were unlike anything she had ever seen prior and since the event happened.

The producers invited us to California where they were planning to drop the same flares that the military claimed to have ejected and caused the original sighting. I flew to L.A. the following Monday and found out that Fed-ex had not cleared the explosive material for shipping so the flare drop was postponed to the following day. I could not stay but the Brughmans did make arrangements to witness this “reenactment” stated at a Southern California beach. The video recorder I originally used to film the lights in 1997 made the trip also but reportedly petered out from dew in the air.

The producer told me that the Brughmans’ said that is the Lights had looked like the flares shot off at this reenactment then there this story would have died a long time ago. The Lights looked nothing like flares.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HISTORY CHANNEL’S UFO HUNTERS’ SERIES TO FEATURE “ORACLE OF THE PHOENIX” AUTHOR DISCUSSING THE PHOENIX LIGHTS -

PHOENIX, AZ—July 11, 2008—

Steven Blonder, author of the new book Oracle of the Phoenix: Discovering a Tree of Life Amidst the End Time Signs and Wonders of the Phoenix Lights, will be featured in an upcoming episode of the UFO Hunters scheduled to air in October 2008. The hour long show will be investigating America’s most famous UFO sighting – the Phoenix Lights of 1997. Blonder was a primary witness to the event of March 13th as well as witness to strange amber colored orbs each of the three previous nights. Film the author shot on all four nights will be used in the production of the show.

Oracle of the Phoenix takes a look at the many signs and symbols connected with the Lights and makes a convincing case that several messages were intended to be “taken away” by the sighting – not the least of which is a roadmap toward spiritual awareness and an expanded consciousness.

Blonder will be interviewed on the History Channel’s hit series by UFO Hunter Bill Birnes who is publisher of UFO Magazine, home to the world’s largest collection of documentation on UFO incidents.

For more information on the Oracle of the Phoenix visit the author’s site at www.oracleofthephoenix.com.

For more information on the UFO Hunters television series, now in its second season see http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=mini_home&mini_id=57826.

ABOUT AUTHOR

In addition to his successful fortune 500 marketing career Steven Blonder has been involved in gnostic and esoteric studies since 1977. As witness to the Phoenix Lights UFO sighting of 1997, the author uses his extensive knowledge of the esoteric to carve out a narrative that is both inspiring and enlightening to the students of religion, Native American mythology, science and Ufology.

###

Media Contact: Steven Blonder, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it 817-416-6672

I just returned from attending and speaking at my Uncle’s funeral. A recent flood of feelings and emotions are in the process of being sorted out and to that end I began meditating on the middle pillar of the Tree of Life which seeks to harmonize the Piller of Severity with the Pillar of Mercy.

Death does seem severe, especially when it takes the “good ones” like my Uncle Lloyd. He was a man who I looked up to from my earlies memories as he was a teenager when I was born. He played football and the drums. Always smiling and having fun, he represented everything “giving” in life which is what the Pillar of Mercy is all about.

The Middle Pillar is also known as the Pillar of Truth and certainly it seems that coming to terms with the duality of life is the necessary step towards self-mastery imo. We are asked to not take sides and to see everything as good and serving a purpose. It’s hard to swallow but death does serve life in that without death we could not appreciate life. Contrast is required to see anything we definition.

Reconciling opposites is a big part of the Kabbalistic path of Tikkun or restoration. Tipheret means Beauty but I see this notion of it best expressed in the story of Beauty and the Beast. It is only when we can love our shadow selves - the disowned monsterous parts that ugliness can be transformed into Beauty. This is the lesson of the Middle Pillar and why we must lovingly accept death to fully embrace life.

I’ve just returned from Israel where I attended a conference on Contemporary Jewish Spirituality and Kabbalah at Ben Gurion University in Beersheva. I’m happy to report that the Jewish academic world is taking a position of “surveyor” as opposed to “gatekeeper” in looking at the current Kabbalistic landscape. Unfortunately, this leaves my work in sort of a “hmmmm” limbo as it has yet to reach the sociological status that would earn it a look-see by the academic establishment.

I handed out business cards and attempted to position myself as an author seeking feedback from those well versed in the field. I could tell that I was being received as a curiosity at best and as a threat to the already defined worlds of Kabbalah and Spirituality that left out anything to do with UFOs. One particular lecture mentioned extraterrestrials which prompted snickering and rolled eyes from some of the most esteemed scholars in the world feigning impartiality, which evidently is impossible when faced with material outside the established scope of acceptability.

As difficult as this snub was to take, I was realistic enough to understand that once my book is in circulation by a respected publisher, it would eventually find its way into their purview and would have to be contended with. To that end, I was signed up by the Waterside Productions literary agency just before I left for Israel by Bill Gladstone, founder and chairman of the agency who read the book in its entirety (rare for an agent) and generally liked it. This is the same agency who handled Eckhart Tolle’s “A New Earth” recently which was promoted by Oprah Winfry on her show.

I did meet some contacts who were very polite and open looking at the book – mostly from the New Age side of things. Also, when I was in Tzfat, I met with the director of the International Center for Tzfat Kabbalah who had visited Sedona, Arizona and had a very open mind both to UFOs and the energy anomalies in sacred sites. He arranged a tour for me in the evening with the editor of Kabbalah Online, Baruch Emanuel Erdstein who is also a Kabbalistic musician www.ingatheringmusic.com.

Baruch was a great storyteller giving me insight into the fascinating history of Tzfat which includes the great Kabbalist Isaac Luria, the ARI. Luria was a key figure in Kabbalah having made his home in Tzfat during the 16th century. He viewed the exile from Spain in 1492 as the exile from the exile, in other words the return of Jewish Spirituality to Israel. I shared my book with Baruch, who is actually a native of Detroit who immigrated to Israel some years back. Baruch in many ways seemed like a soul brother as we shared our insights back and forth as we made our way through the old city.

Baruch introduced me to Josh Burde who had a silversmith shop www.burdesilvermiths.com . I purchased a medallion with the letter Shin on it which represented the three pillars of the Tree of Life to me as well as the first letter of my secular name. It also is the mother letter for fire which is an element I am very familiar with as my Sun, Moon, Mars, Saturn and Uranus are all in fire signs.

After my visit to Tzfat, I drove south towards Beersheva but made stops in Ein Gedi and Masada. Ein Gedi was special to me as this is where I had experienced a mystical awareness of past, present and future melding into one now moment. This time I had no such experience and attributed this to all the internal spiritual work I had been involved in since 1977 when this occurred. I did enjoy hiking into the hills and looking at the waterfalls and spring filled pools. I also was fascinated by the ibex in the area and their spiritual connection to Kabbalah. It turns out the ibex horns are revered for their healing properties and ibex are considered representative of the four worlds of Kabbalah. See http://www.anthromedlibrary.com/Article.aspx?artpk=17. This seemed to help explain my original “enlightenment” in Ein Gedi as it appears to be an energy center that connects with these worlds. Even the pools are located on different levels working their way up into the hills.

Masada was a short drive south. I had missed the trip there in 1977 when I left the Kibbutz after only two months when I was expected to stay for six. I decided to leave early so I could begin university studies in states. I took the cable car up to the peak and toured the palaces left behind by Herod and the Jewish martyrs in 73 ad. I intuitively liked Masada with the sephirah of Yesod since martyrdom is connected with an egotistical act of needless sacrifice – in this case to deprive the Romans of their capture. Also, Masada servers as a “foundation” (the meaning of Yesod), for the notion of “freedom at any cost” which Israel continues to hold onto as a mantra. I personally don’t know what I’d do if faced with the decision of becoming a slave or killing myself but I view this as a Yesodic choice since we are talking about internal freedom (absence of ego control) and external freedom where the lower self seeks to rule the day. In any event, I view Masada as corresponding with Yesod, the Tiberias on the Galilee with Tipheret, and Tzfat with Da’at. This would equate in the Eastern Chakra system as Masada with the Root Chakra, Tiberias with the Heart Chakra and Tzfat with the Throat Chakra. One of the scholars at the conference mentioned that an Israeli had written an article in a magazine that associated various parts of the Israel with the different Chakras or energy centers. I can see this clearly as why certain Biblical characters were associated with specific places. Baruch mentioned the four Holy cities of Israel being Tzfat, associated with Briah or Air, Jerusalem with Atziluth or Fire, Tiberias with Yetzirah or Water and Hebron with Assiyah or Earth since Abraham is buried there.

This is archetypical storytelling at its best where each Biblical character creates an imprint for a particular place. My sense is that Israel serves the purpose of being a living encyclopedia of these esoteric energies. It is important that it continues its Akashic purpose in my opinion.

I am hopeful that the contacts I made in Israel will come to support the universal messages my book reveals. If not, I’ve made my peace with myself that I’ve given my best effort to get the exposure I believe the messages deserve.

Well they’re back once again and caught on film just as they were 11 years ago. See the images and stories at Buzzfeed

There were four lights this time creating various geometric shapes in the sky – diamond, rectangle, triangle shapes which are reminiscent of a Tree of Life glyph. Interestingly enough, one version of a cover for the revised book featured a Tree of Life drawing.

I’m sure the youtube videos will see a spike on the visitor count as will all the other sites connected with the sighting. This is good news as hopefully some will find their way to my site and find my take on the sightings a refreshing alternative to most of the conventional debates regarding their origin and purpose.

Interesting they showed up on the Jewish holiday of Passover – trying to tell us something with their pass over the Phoenix skies once again?