Ganesh is the feelgood God who is usually honored first in Hindu ceremonies. Bhagavan Das said this was because all the other Gods like him and no one is jealous of him. His father Siva decapitated him in battle before learning he was his own son. Quickly, a baby elephant's head was put on his body and he became the Ganesh we know today. The universe is in his big red belly. His mother is the Goddess Parvati.

I was ordained by Beautiful Painted Arrow and Reverend Betsy Stang in the Sound Chamber at the Wittenberg Center. Beautiful Painted Arrow aka Joseph Rael aka BPA is known to some of his friends and students as ‘that sneaky shaman,’ perhaps because of how his teachings sneak up on you sometimes years later. Anyway one of his teachings is ‘confirmation.’ If you think something cosmic is happening ask for confirmation and you’ll get it. I got it today.

I’ve been feeling called to do ceremony for the earth and today I went out back to burn some old herbs I’d had hanging around since forever. I knew I was making some offerings and followed intuitive prompts for a while. I started receiving feedback from the world. Actually I was getting feedback all along from a gentle deep background thunder that never really stopped for about a half hour or more. At one point I was giving thanks and I knew I had to give thanks for 911, even if the benefits from it are not very clear yet. As soon as I did there was a sound nearby like something dropped on the ground or hit something but I saw nothing. I just heard yesterday that Neem Karoli Baba Maharaji’s mahasamadhi (death) occurred on September 11, not sure which year -around 1973 or 4 I think. This guru’s impact on the west has been powerful, partly through Ram Das’ book BE HERE NOW featuring Bhagavan Das. A few weeks ago I noticed another quite remarkable coincidence. Vivekenanda, a disciple of the great guru Ramakrishna, was the first to bring Vedanta to the United States in 1893. The first speech on Hinduism was delivered by him at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago on September 11, 1893. What is truly noteworthy about this date is that the time elapsed between that talk and the attack on the World Trade Towers was 108 years. One hundred and eight is the holiest number in Hinduism and also features prominently in Tibetan Buddhism and some other traditions. On the face of it this indicates that the attack on the towers was somehow holy, or carries a special blessing or was ‘an act of God,’ as Bin Laden claims. Actually it’s not hard to imagine how this could be so. Suppose that something far worse was set to happen. Hopi prophecy, for example, allegedly predicts atom bombs to be ‘thrown’ on the US. Perhaps the introduction of vedantic concepts and yogic practices in the west got that penalty reduced to 911? Or perhaps the US has been given the advantage of a warning. Those events occurred on a day whose numbers are the new national code for ‘emergency.’ I’ve never heard Al Kaeda claim they did that on purpose. So is that a coincidence then? Whatever it is, suffice it to say the events of that day are welded to the concept of emergency by virtue of the numbers 911.

Sitting on my stoop eating a sandwich a few minutes later I overhear the conversation of people pitching horseshoes next door. One says, “It’s 9 and 1.” I think wow, she almost said 911. Is that confirmation of my offering being received? I then thought not really. It’s close though. Then I wondered if the 1 could change to 11 but reasoned that would be hard because the second team would have to score ten points while the first team scored none. I thought, “well maybe if the next thing out of her mouth is ‘one.’” Instead the next thing she said was, “Now it’s 11 and 1. You’ll never catch us.” So, to me that is confirmation. It’s evidence that God or whatever you want to think of as the principle of Causality is hitting the ping pong ball back onto my side of the table and that rocks my world.