An article by Sha'Tara, local writer and friend.

Burning Woman- a Monologue, a Statement, a Reminder

[thoughts from ~Burning Woman~ by Sha'Tara]

When did I become fully aware of my "alien" status among Earthians? I don't know that. I suppose that like all the rest of the species called "man" I was born with that knowledge and it was supposed to quickly vanish beyond memory recall, at least early enough that I would consider myself of earth or an "Earthian" by the time I began my formal education in some ubiquitous State school or controlled education program. The strange thing is, my awareness of being an alien, or as Robert Heinlein would put it, of being "a stranger in a strange land" did not leave me, but in fact grew over time.

It wasn't such a long time, not by my standards anyway. I'm now half-way into sixty earth years. That isn't really enough time to gain a proper perspective on one's life, but it is a usable yardstick, if one can access relatively recent past or future lives to extrapolate the data. Being in possession of a supplemented mind (not to be confused with what Earthian love to call "genius") I was indeed able to, not so much remember as to create a remembrance, of some of those lives. This re-membering (or putting together many of the missing pieces usually hidden from any Earthian mind) has helped me see a much amplified self, allowing me to develop a philosophy of life increasingly independent from anyone else's thinking. It allowed me to honestly arrive at a point where I can state that I am a self-empowered being. No matter what corner the System or Matrix or its worshippers and fans push me into, I will always have choices available to me, and I will always "choose my choices" as I will it.

I gather that a great many people at some time or other (usually at a time of deep personal crisis) are forced to stop their tick-tock routine long enough to think about themselves, about who or what they are, or why it is that they exist at all. Yes, forced, because I can tell by observing the people around me that such an exercise is neither common nor desired; for the most part to be avoided at all costs.

The result of this great neglect of discovering or defining one's purpose is a world plunging itself heedless into a guaranteed "good night" and nothing to stop it. I see old evils arising once more, spawned by personal selfishness and greed of such magnitude, it has become an ocean on which bloated, mindless "consumers" float helpless as flotsam pushed here or there by currents spawned from trading centers, investment banks and corporate boardrooms. Certainly it takes no genius mind to be able to analyze this global decadence and see a predictable outcome.

I hear there are people now organizing to protest the greed and corruption endemic to all leaders. Unfortunately, these are angry people, not scandalized people. Have these people looked into their own hearts before taking to the streets? Given the chance, how many would turn down the easy millions, easier billions the rich exploiters and oppressors are giving each other while squeezing the planet of its only true riches: its labor and its natural resources? Again, based on observation of how many people buy lottery tickets, it is accurate to say that hardly a one would turn down a windfall of dollars should it choose their pocket to fall into. And yet, isn't gambling a very serious sin? Shouldn't people enraged at the overt greed of the leadership be scandalized by all type of greed? Then one must ask this question: why do people gamble in the hope of "winning" money? To get something for nothing. So how different is that to the illegal and immoral bailouts the powerful give to the rich after taking the money from the poor, the dispossessed, the dying of famine and the killed in endemic resource wars? I see no difference.

What happens when a person thinks and acts her age? When she increasingly detaches from the silly little dramas of one Earthian life to focus on herself, to find herself in relation to the Cosmos, not just to one little planet in one insignificant solar system made up of a mere dozen, more or less, of bodies? Where she may have given of herself more than she took or vice-versa and to what end?

What happens is, she grows up. She sees the mess, hears the squealing pigs at the trough, the strident demands of the entitled and the cries of the dying. She endures the ignorance and foolishness of those who still believe that by making more of the same moves they will finally get something different. In the midst of the storm that tosses the sea of greed in expanding erratic patterns she closes her eyes and locates herself outside. Yes, she feels it all, but she will not let herself be taken into the tsunami that is about to destroy the world that did its best to lure her into itself as if there were no choice. She knows—now—that she has a choice; that she always had a choice.

Burning woman: she who burns with the desire to live a real life, not the life of some cloned slave stuck on a mad world and attempting to squeeze the most out of one short life, to suffer and end and to die.

Burning woman: she who burns with indignation over the harm being done to the land, the sea and the people for no good, but will not allow her hatred of that great evil to destroy her vision.

Burning woman: she who burns with anger against those who plot the exploitation and death of helpless millions so they can gain more power, buy a few more million-dollar toys, but will not allow this anger to strangle her dreams of a just and peaceful world.

Burning woman: she who burns with the certain knowledge that what is going on here is unnatural and unnecessary; that a good life can be had for all if power and greed were turned into servanthood and heart-felt charity or sharing.

Burning woman: she who waits patiently for her time of release; that she may reach her own star; join with her own people and become all that she has ever desired to be: the Avatar.

"I keep reminding myself, as I watch my society disintegrating morally and socially, that since I passed the age of fifty earth years I live in sudden death overtime. I keep reminding myself that this time, these particular latter years, will have the most profound impact on how my life will be judged. I keep reminding myself that this judgment will come from the most intransigent of all judges: myself as Burning Woman." (Sha'Tara)