~ in her memory ~
Transcript of Liz's Memorial Ceremony in M.,K.
elements of personal identity disguised to deter theft

	The ceremony began with five raps of elmwood crook made by Past Grand Master Guy C., also recently departed from life. Let us begin the commemoration and celebration of the life of (her full name). We will begin with a welcome by her sister S.P.
Liz's sister welcomes the assembled in Love	Liz’s sister S. I'd like to welcome you all here today in the name of Love. That's the watchword for me today, Love. That's what Liz was about. We gather together to honor Liz and to show our love for her, and to send her on her way to her new life. Hers was a life filled with Love. She was very beloved by her parents, and her older brothers and sisters. She had very loving neighbors, and teachers, and friends throughout her life. She was infinitely blessed to find her soulmate Robert. She told me a story, once around her 10th, 11th or 12th anniversary, that people were always asking them if they were newlyweds, even for somebody who had been married all that time. She was well loved in every way. She was well loved by Robert's family. Liz was a loving person. Liz was famous for starting conversations with perfect strangers, and in a few minutes, or a few hours, or however long the conversation lasted, they could be friends for life. That was Liz. People responded to her pure childlike loving nature. Even when she would get into one of her little snits, Love always prevailed. I would like to specifically honor the people in this community, her friends from Lawrence are here. I would like to specifically honor of course her family, but also the people in this community who loved and supported her through her battle with leukemia. There may even be, I know there were many people praying for her at that time who might not have even met her, but they read Mom's things in the paper, and they rallied to her support, and to our family. This community has blessed her in every way. I would also like to honor my parents for being the kind of parents who love and accept their children no matter what, whatever kind of weird things we get into. (And speaking for myself here, too.) They always loved and supported us no matter what. And I would especially like to honor, I would like to mention my brother P., because he and Liz were probably as opposite in every way as any two people could be on this Earth, in terms of their belief systems. And yet it was his bone marrow that saved her life, and that is Love. She was well loved in every way, and in the end that's all that matters, is Love. Her beloved husband Robert is pleased to give her service that contains the language of the spiritual beliefs that they shared together. But the essence is the same in any religion, or any spiritual approach, and that is Love. So I invite all of us to feel and experience the One Source, the Source of Divine Love, that strengthens and sustains us, each in our own way today, as we honor Liz with Love. And we send forth that Divine Love to each other and to Liz. I know you'll be glad to know that there is an opportunity in the service for people to share their stories about Liz and their love for Liz, and so we enter into this service in the spirit of Love, that Liz was among us. We love you Liz. God bless.
Preliminary remarks	It may seem strange that the bereaved would be giving the service today, but I do not know who else would give it. Liz and I attended many funerals where they had a leader of the religious community w ho would get up and say, "well, I only got here last week, and Fred seemed like a nice guy, but I never knew him", and gave a funeral out of A Hundred Beautiful Funerals. We never thought that was adequate for the memory of folks. It is not a totally unaccustomed role. I have been High Priest of several circles and celebrations, and that is my title in the office I hold in Willamette Encampment No. 2, senior Encampment of the [Independent] Order of Odd Fellows of the jurisdiction of Oregon. I am beginning my second term, essentially what others might call Chaplain, but we refer to as High Priest, and I lead the devotional exercises of that entity.
Remarks on our religious beliefs	We setting here are a very diverse religious group. This is because Liz and I were accepting. We have pagan friends, Witch friends, Christian friends, Jewish friends, Islamic friends, Jain friends, Bahai friends, we even have, even though we do not understand or agree with them, agnostic and atheist friends. I would think that we could make a list of all the various faiths and sects that were represented by you all today. I intend for this to be a profoundly religious ceremony, and I hope not to offend anyone. Liz and I wanted to know what was true. Liz was honest. She would never say something she didn't believe. You couldn't make her! You couldn't make her do that. Not for anything. And so, we have explored in many religious traditions. I basically am at core still a Buddhist, although I call myself Buddhistic. I think the fourfold Noble Truths are in fact the truth, although I don't like a bit. Who would, if you understood them? Therefore I call myself Buddhistic, in that I believe whatever you become attached to, you will pay the price for. I am paying the price now for my love for Liz. But, the thing to do is to select what you're willing to suffer for, and let the rest of it go. We entered into a form of natural worship. We call ourselves witches, and I hope that does not shock or offend you. We do not mean witches in the older sense. In the old King James Bible it does say, "you shall not suffer a witch to live," but that is because of King James's background and his time. If you look at the actual words, go back to the original, it says "you will not let a poisoner live among you." And that's what King James thought witches were. That's not the way we use that word. Liz talked to trees from the very beginning. She loved flowers, she was exquisitely sensitive to energy and the power of Beings around her. And basically we came to that path because we wanted to be with other people who took tree spirits and stuff seriously. We have always been a rather unique bunch in any group we have been in, because we never stopped asking questions, and most groups don't find that terribly good. We'd say things like, "Nine million? Really? How is this known?" and lathered people up like that. This is Liz's Bible, and she has in it, where she was reading, a First Amendment bookmark, given by the library on Banned Books Week. If we don't keep literary freedom, this could be a banned book. This is Liz's other Bible. It is a chaplain's manual for Jewish chaplains of the United States Army. She had great veneration for both the Judaic and the Christian faith commitments. We did not choose any of our form of faiths in opposition to anyone else. And that's one of the things we broke with, that we criticized in the witch world. We were not witches because we thought women were spiritually superior to men. We were not witches in contradistinction to some other religious or social form. We simply wanted to be ourselves. And so this service will have many of those elements. Like I say I hope I will not offend anyone, and this service will be giving comfort, as well it should.
Dedication of sacred space	We will begin by preparing our space in a sacred manner. We do this by calling, by casting a circle. Liz's friend and honorary little sister V.S. V. as flower girl in our wedding will be doing that, if you'll be coming up now. We do this to declare to ourselves, that we will know this is a special place, a special time when we'll be going to do something. So, Sister, go for it. We cast this circle around us, to focus our energies, to declare this to be a special time, a special place, a time beyond time, a time partaking of all times; a place, all places, and no place. Every realm, every way of being, is comprehended by our focus. Every level, every love, everything, has potentially a place here, if it is good, and loving, and pure. We cast this circle to be a focus for our devotional exercise, to be a place were all is sacred, where all is peace. We cast this circle as a place beyond the worlds, and what is beyond the worlds can change all worlds. Thank you.
Invocations of the Quarters	I guess I should also explain a little bit. We use the metaphor of energy. Older people (I mean, not people alive now, I mean the ancients) would use other metaphors, fire or something else, to express the feeling of spiritual power that is palpable in certain situations. Energy is just a name. It's not electricity, you can't bottle it, you can't put in a battery. At this time we would like to invoke the elements. We believe that these are manifestations, examples of particular forms of being. Let us now attune ourselves and be in harmony with all beings and forces which manifest themselves in manners like the air, and which our tradition associates with the direction of the East. The East is the energy of discursion, of knowing one thing from another, the place of beginning. All such beings and forces in all such forms, places and times are invited and welcome here. Attended, protect and amplify this ceremonial, an ye will. Welcome, welcome spirits of the East, spirits of air. Let us now attune ourselves and be in harmony with all beings and forces which manifest themselves in manners like unto fire, and which our tradition associates with the direction of the South. All such beings and forces in all such forms, places and times are invited and welcome here. Attended, protect and amplify this ceremonial, an ye will. Welcome, welcome spirits of the South, spirits of fire. The heartbeat, the jumping up, the corn bursting through the ground, the flower opening, spirits of fire. Let us now attune ourselves and be in harmony with all beings and forces which manifest themselves in manners like unto water, and which our tradition associates with the direction of the West. All such beings and forces in all such forms, places and times are invited and welcome. Attended, protect and amplify this ceremonial, an ye will. Welcome, welcome spirits of water, spirits of emotion, particularly today, our tears, our blood, spirits of water, spirits of emotion, what we feel -- and today is a day of feeling. Welcome, spirits of the West. Let us now attune ourselves and be in harmony with all beings and forces which manifest themselves in manners like unto earth, and which our tradition associates with the direction of the North. All such beings and forces in all such forms, places and times are invited and welcome. Attended, protect and amplify this ceremonial, an ye will. (We do not command anyone to do anything, you or anyone else) Welcome, welcome spirits of the North, our bones, crystals, rocks, the stuff we are made out of. Welcome spirits of the North. -- and stuff that remains when we are dead.
First silent meditation, on the Great Mystery	The first silent meditation is going to be on the Great Mystery. I prefer to refer to the Divinity by the Native American name of the Great Mystery, because we are limited beings. Frail mortals that we are, we know not what the next hour or the next day will bring us. Four weeks ago, Liz was up, talking, conversing with me, every hour we would go on a walk for physical therapy. We had every confidence that she would live for months and months on. Now we face the Great Mystery, the Great Mystery of Death, and the Great Mystery of Divinity itself. Anyone that will tell you that they substantially know the nature of the Divinity marks themselves by that claim to be an arrogant buffoon. All the sages, prophets, and seers of all traditions and all times witness that when a person glimpses even a particle, a part of the Great Mystery, it changes them for life. We call it a religious experience. We do not know what is beyond death. We are not allowed to know that. We look and we ask ourselves, "Why? -- Why?" We know this as a children's game: why? then you give an answer and they, well, why that answer; you give another answer, and why that answer? People know that this is the pathway to religion. The final why is always some glimpse or vision of the Great Mystery. This is what I call Divinity. We do not know the nature of God. We do not know what lies beyond death for us. That is why we have our various faiths, because we need, we must come to some relation with the Great Mystery, whether you call it God, Allah, the Goddess, or any of the other thousands and thousands of names humans have come up with, to handle the Great Mystery. If you do not tremble when you contemplate the Great Mystery, you do not understand what I am talking about. When you have even a glimpse of Divinity, you are knocked onto your knees, if not something else. Awe is the natural response, reverence the natural disposition. I would like to begin our first silent meditation on the Great Mystery. Each us knows what faith they have that tells them what they believe is beyond the impenetrable veil of Death. We will not prescribe to you what that will be, because those are answers you must have for yourself. People may go for years heedless of contemplating the Great Mystery, until something slams them hard up against it, and they can't avoid it anymore. We are in the presence of the corpse of my beloved. It is a perfect time to contemplate our beliefs. So let us begin the first silent meditation. meditation ends by ringing handbell from our altar
Invocation of Divinity	Limited creatures though we are, we can and do address the Great Mystery by analogy and metaphor. These are as limited as we are, but they do enable us to comprehend Divinity in some small part. We use images familiar to us, that our minds can get around. This is quite valid, provided we keep hold of the fact that they are metaphors, and that the Divinity, the Great Mystery, is not described or comprehended by any one of our metaphors, or even by reciting every metaphor of which our understanding is capable. With this in mind, we now most humbly ask the blessings of the one universal Divinity upon our undertaking. In our tradition, we consider the primary manifestations of the Great Mystery to be engendered, much as we are, female and male. Which is why, in all of our ceremonies, there are two leaders, one male and one female. (L. has consented to be my counterpart today.) Hence our metaphors, of the Goddess and the God. We call both, together, because as by their cooperation and interaction all things come and go. We will use a chant of our tradition, a double chant: ________('high’ part)________ We all come from the Goddess And to Her we shall return Like a drop of rain Flowing to the o- o- cean ________(’low’ part)________ Hoof and horn, hoof and horn All that dies shall be reborn Corn and grain, corn and grain All that falls shall rise again
Explanatory remarks on chakras	Before we begin the celebration of Liz's life, and her expression of energy in that life, I need to make a few explanatory comments for those who may have never heard of a chakra before. Chakra literally means 'a wheel', or very particularly, the hub of a wheel. The ancient Indian tradition (that is, not from this continent, real India, the yogic tradition) use the wheel as a symbol of a nexus of energy, as a focus of something happening. The pure yoga system relates the chakras to particular points of the spine. We are not going to take it quite that literally. In fact there are some places you can go, where you find they consider that the body has more chakras than bones, but in reality there are but seven. We use this as a symbol. By remembering how Liz expressed herself in each of these seven chakras, we conduct a survey of her life, and that is our intention. Beyond that, we want to inspire ourselves by her example. The chakras are a symbolic way of saying how people express energy in the seven major manners. This is also known to the Western world as Maslow's hierarchy of needs, if you're a pych[ology] major. Basically, the other important thing is that people express their energy through one or all of the chakras, in the various modes that energy can be done, the seven major forms of energy expression. The one thing that is important is they are a hierarchy. You cannot do something on a higher chakra until your needs on the lower ones are met. Also, if you're expressing most of your energy in one particular chakra, your energy expressed in the others will be colored and flavored by that.
Of our marraige ceremony, the magic veil	Liz was born in M., and twenty-two years ago I wore this suit and married this woman in a church not very far from here. She wears the magic veil. We call it magic, because at the termination of our marriage ceremony, when we were happily jaunting out through the doors, man and wife, it was a windy Kansas day, and the wind grabbed her veil, and ripped it off her head, and It’s gone! ~ Liz reaches after the magic veil threw it over the church, where some people found it later. We were amazed, because it isn't a little church, really (B.V.) We promised ourselves several things. Particularly important, I think, is what we did to dedicate ourselves to the Eightfold Path. This is what we said,
Dedication to the Eightfold Path	Long ago Gautama sat in meditation under the Bo tree and became enlightened. He thus became the Buddha and reached the end of the path of light. (I'm afraid I’m going to have to do both parts today, unfortunately.) Let us walk in the path of light. May we prosper in the path of light. Let us grow in knowledge and seek understanding. May we work for and desire the day when all beings are happy. Let us speak the truth and speak it kindly. Let us do good things such as love may grow on. Let us seek to build and renew, rather than to criticize or destroy. Let us strive to find a way to earn our living in a way that makes the world a better place. Let us put heart and effort in what needs to be done, and leave the unnecessary undone. Let us slow our lives down, that we may not by haste overlook the small and beautiful. May we cleanse and focus our minds. The path of light is like a wheel. Eight lights, like spokes, support get as it turns. Let us direct our footsteps along the good path. May we prosper in the path of light. And indeed we did.
Song from our marriage ceremony	(Music from our marriage was then played) I don’t need no city life, I don’t need no town, Stay home with the one I love, watch the sun go down, Watch the sun go down, sweet baby, Watch the sun go down. Watch the sun go down. Ocean’s full of fishes, sky is full of stars, Baby, baby, I love you, just the way you are, Just the way you are, sweet baby, Just the way you are, Just the way you are, sweet baby, Any old way you are. Fields are full of bunglebees, meadows’ full of sheeps, Night is full of pretty little things When my baby keeps me company, sweet baby, When you keep me company. When you keep me company sweet baby When you keep me company. First verse repeated. Buffy St. Marie C1976 Caleb Music ASCAP from the Sweet America album
Celebration of the first chakra	The first chakra is the chakra of security and survival. Very seldom do people put much energy into this, except when their physical survival is threatened. When this happens, the amount of energy that pours through this chakra is not to be believed. I have heard stories, particularly of people in accidents or in combat, who achieve things through pouring their energy out through this chakra that simply are not possible to have happened, but they did. This is the seat of the kundalini energy, which I strongly advise anyone who's even contemplating messing with this, to leave alone. Liz and I achieved a remarkable intimacy. We were friends. We trusted each other utterly. We acted like newlyweds all our married life. You cannot do that unless you feel safe. It is unfortunate, as far as Liz confided to me, to my belief, Liz was only raped once in her life. But that was enough. That event scarred her forever. I mean, it didn't debilitate her, but it never went away. We were intimate. We would rather spend time with each other, just talking, than do just about anything else, and we trusted each other utterly. I will testify to you men, as a man, that the highest compliment a woman can give you, when you and she both know it is true, is "I am safe with you." Nothing else is more worthy of manhood.
Celebration of the second chakra	The second chakra is the chakra of sex. And we all know that a lot of people pour lots of energy through the second chakra. Liz did too. We in our culture, that's one of the things you don't talk about, but Liz was a quite sexual being, we had a sexual life. Liz was very direct, like I said, she would not say the she felt something she didn't, or enjoyed something she did not. She was quite direct in that. Her favorite positions, to quote her, are "those that work," and she referred to sex as the ultimate hug. I will testify to you that sex can mean little or much. It can be nothing more than basically a sneeze, or it can be the highest spiritual experience that two people can give each other. Now that didn't happen often with us, but I will testify that sex between two committed, loving people can be extremely wonderful. And I don't I'll say any more about that, except to quote from the Scriptures, as we did at our wedding back when. We used to make all kinds of fun at this, because we took it from the Songs of Songs. We had little jokes with one another: you heard Buffy St. Marie [seeming to sing] singing "bunglebees", which we called them because of their crazy flight, and the fact they're just almost not aerodynamic. From the Songs of Songs, we used to go into our worst Kansas drawls, and go "Thy belly is like a heap of wheat," which is in the Scriptures. My beloved spoke and said unto me, 'rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away, for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. The fig tree putteth forth her her green figs, and the vines in blossoms give forth their fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. Oh my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the coverts of the cliff, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. As a lily among the thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters. As an apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons (again I'm taking both parts here, unfortunately). His mouth is most sweet, yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. This is my beloved and this is my friend.
Celebration of the third chakra	The third chakra is the chakra of power and domination, of trying to control as much as you can. And as you know, lots of energy is put forth by people in this chakra as well. But this does not mean that this is an evil thing. Power used wisely is called Justice. Power used unwisely or wrongly is called injustice, and Liz was a passionate, a passionate advocate for peace and justice. She was, well we both started off as kind of radicals, because -- we weren't the 'blow up buildings' kind of radicals; we were the 'purify and fulfill' kind of radicals. We are the ones that would say, when we heard "liberty and justice for all," well, is there? Is there? Is there equal liberty and justice if you're a woman? If you're an immigrant? If you're homosexual? If you're one of a minority group of any kind? Liz cared. And she would work for what she cared with (sic). I think probably one of the reasons she died on the 12th, rather than the 13th, was that the 13th was a regular election day, and Liz never missed voting in an election in her entire life. Not once. I will also say another thing. Liz in her youth attended Antioch College, which at that time was basically the academy for radicals, I think that's fair to say. But you know, there was only one person of all these champions of the proletariat who made friends with the people who made the beds, and cooked the meals, and changed the light bulbs, and did the work! And that was Liz. Liz cared about justice.
Second silent meditation, on the community of the loving and kind	Now these first three chakras, I talked a lot about us and ourselves, and the reason is these first three chakras are essentially selfish. You can express your energy through these chakras without relations to other beings, or uncaring for other beings. The higher chakras are those which involve other people, other entities, other things. In the tradition, they called the jump from the third to the fourth chakra the Great Barrier, which most people do not clear, except every now and then. The first three chakras are necessary, your needs of these chakras must be fulfilled. But the other chakras are more important, and more of what we have come to celebrate Liz for. I would like to begin the second silent meditation on a more pleasant contemplation, that of the sangha. Now I use is in a very broad sense. The sangha technically is a Buddhist term, that means the community of people believing in that particular faith tradition. I use it to mean those people who love, who are willing to do good, who care about other people. There are such people in the world, lots and lots of such people. Look around you, here we are. Here we are, loving good people. At this time I’d like begin the second silent meditation. Think about all the people that you know, that you have known, who have supported you, who have loved you, who have encouraged you, this is the sangha. meditation ends by ringing handbell from our altar
Celebration of the fourth chakra	We come to the higher, and if you will, better chakras. The fourth chakra is the chakra of Love, the chakra of the heart. This is the Love that in the Christian tradition is called agape (if I'm pronouncing it correctly). Agape is love for fellow beings, enough to help them, to help them along. Liz had such Love. In abundance. She was noted for being, as S. said, for being willing to walk up to anyone. As far as I know, I never heard Liz say anything, ever, about, "gee, I hope there aren't some of those kind of people here." Not ever. Love. In our tradition, we have a saying, "If you want to see a vision of God, if you want a see a vision of the Goddess, look to your left, look to your right", your fellow beings are part of that.
Celebration of the fifth chakra	The fifth chakra is the chakra of learning with words, and Liz with a powerful reader. She was smart! Smarter than me. I'll admit that. And better learned in general. Whenever we had a disputation about whether one thing was one or the other, I soon learned not to argue with her, because she was always right. Liz earned a baccalaureate in history in Latin American studies. She was particularly a student, and lover, of children's literature. A little-known fact about Liz is that she was devoted to her study of Cricket magazine, which is a literary magazine for children essentially, for your older children. I recommend it to you. Liz owns every issue ever published. As her personal library, and at her death, [she] was about three-quarters way through, for her own use, not for a class or anything, a complete annotation of the entire collection. Every word, what appeared in the margins, she was thorough. Liz was a scholar. She was, and she was smart. She loved to learn. We were curious together. That was one of the things that made it wonderful to come home, and to hang with her, because, with the possible exception of football and the minutiae of military campaigns, Liz was interested in everything whatsoever. Everything, and so we could talk, about - - - - our conversations would go in every direction. I'll address the sixth and seventh chakras later. As you can tell, it would not be appropriate to talk about our memories of what Liz might or might not have expressed in the first three chakras, but it is more than fit that we share how she expressed herself in the higher ones. I would invite people now to share their stories with Liz, an ye will, which means if you want to, and you’re willing to. You don't have to confine yourself to the chakra we happen to be on at the moment. This is the appropriate break. I believe the first person who wants to speak is Liz's mother.
Liz's mother shares	Liz's mother U. Liz was a unique individual from the birth, from her birth, as were all my children. She was a seeker of knowledge, a reformer, a champion of the oppressed, as Robert just said. A lover of the Earth. She was intensely passionate, a deep thinker. She crammed a lot of living into her short life. She had a wonderful sense of humor. I've been telling people about when she was recovering from leukemia, and she had chemo[therapy], her head was totally bald, and where her hair started to grow, just about the stage the Robert's is in now, she said, "My head has five o'clock shadow." And when her hair got, oh, about an inch and a half long, it came in curly, and she had ringlets all over her head, and she said then, "Leukemia is enough to make your hair curl." And that was the kind of sense she had, there was always humor. Liz, you brought a lot of love into my life. And you taught me about many things, just as each of my children has done. Thank you for being my child.
Liz's brother shares	Liz's brother J. I'd like to share, I rediscovered this last night. It's a book of [her] poems Liz put together for my Dad. She did this when she was fighting leukemia. I’m just going to share one of the poems with you about her brother P. When I was little I couldn’t stand my brother P., Not in the slightest, ___ __ ___. He was just a bossy big brother. I would have gladly traded him for another. He was ten years older, an expert scolder, His reprimands would make me smolder, Maybe he scolded because I acted like a brat, But I never stopped to consider that. We both got older of course, And stopped acting so much Like the back end of a horse. But each thought the other’s political beliefs Not very bright, Mine were socialist-left, His Republican right. We’re very diferent, but he’s my brother, We may have argued But we still loved each other. When my white blood cells cancerously multiplied, That was a terrible year, more than once I almost died, That’s when I found out something important about P., When it came to our blood, We were barely different __ ___. ‘Though my brother and I sometimes quarreled and fought, I had an extra chance for life, Because our blood did not. He never once thought of not aiding me, In the battle with death my enemy. P. is now married, the father of three, Two boys, one girl, a lovely wild mix, B. the youngest not far from a year, L. and P. not quite four and six, P. and S. took time off work, Leaving little ones with a sitter, S. flew from Chicago with P., To help him while he helped his sister. His blood and bone were drawn, from just below his back, His butt must have looked like a leaf after insect attack. Too much suffering for lidocaine Morphine was used to ease his pain. S. wheeled him down to my room, After sleeping most of the day, She said he had to see his little sister, To make sure she was okay. But enough about this, P. doesn’t want much fuss, But to finish I can’t resist, saying about the two of us: We may be different, but we’re both A+.
Robert's mother shares	I invite him another to share. Robert's mother M. For almost twenty-two years I had the pleasure of being Liz's mother-in-law. Now I won't say that the road didn't have a few bumps in it, like any two people learning to live together, but we ironed it out. We were always welcome in Liz's home. And she always had that happy, "Hi, Mom!" when she talked me on the phone. I thought -- have you ever seen 'who wants to be a millionaire'? I always thought Liz would be just perfect phone-a-friend. I will always remember Liz for her smiles. She had lots and lots and lots of them. Liz, we will miss you.
The story of the first Life Day	I invite another to share. An you will. These are nice people, they won’t bite you. I want to tell a story, a story about people who helped. Liz found out she had leukemia when I was gone. I was on a business trip to D[istrict of]. C[olumbia]. It was a miserable, stupid mission, as some of our trips were. It was basically done so that somebody with the right patch on their shoulder was present at the meeting, and there was no other purpose for sending me there. At that time, we did not know what was going on. We did not know she had leukemia. Liz at that time had as well a psychosomatic symptom that made her collapse and fall down. She later gained knowledge through various means, the knowledge that allowed her to identify this as a stress reaction, and be aware of when it was going to happen, and not do it anymore. We didn't know that then. All we knew was that she fell down, and we knew that she got a terrible bruise anytime anything slapped [her]. As a matter of fact, she slapped her leg -- and I was happy that my hand was so big, so that no one could think that was my handprint. Anyway, I was at D.C., and I thought it was a miserable, a miserable trip because I had taken someone's advice, and checked into a motel that was vastly more expensive than what the government would pay for, and so I rapidly discovered myself out of funds. So, besides that, the government had reserved me a rent-a-car with a firm that no longer existed. So I thought we were having a terrible time. These things were good luck! I did not know that. We are frail mortals, we don't know what's good for us and what's bad. Thank goodness for Providence. The next day was, after all of these things, was the first Life Day, when Liz drove herself down to the hospital, and her doctor asked her, 'how did you do that?' She had almost no platelets at all. Any kind of an accident, and she would hemorrhaged to death right then and there. They got her in the hospital, and they called my office, and said, 'you need to get Robert back. You need to get him back today.’ [It wasn’t at all certain Liz would live through that night.] That's impossible. It's the middle of the day. You can get somebody back from D.C . [to the Kansas University Medical Center in Kansas City, KS] without reservations, that you don't even know what conference room they're in. You can't get him back today. They did. People in the office, Major A., some of the other folks, would not take 'no' for an answer. They got me -- they found me -- they got me a ticket, and G.O., a friend from the old office, drove me to the airport, Dulles airport. He was a family man, he had campers and boats and stuff, so he had a gigantic station wagon, probably the biggest thing ever made. And we were going ninety-five and and a hundred down the Beltway, passing things right and left, all the muscle cars, just smoke them in the path. Fortunately no cop stopped us. We got there. I didn't have a ticket, I didn't have any money, but G. O. had a brand-new credit card. So he let me sign it, with his name in my handwriting. We got to the airport, and we had to talk and blatter my way through: "Yes, I know you have an emergency request for Robert Wilderson, but he's not coming. G.O. is, and I'm him!" That took a lot of bluff, but it worked. I was on that airplane, and this man [indicating him] N.C. -- he hadn't worked in the office a week I think at that time -- did the final leg and drove me to the Med Center in a driving rain. The impossible! The impossible, because they wanted it to be done. Thank you, N., and thanks -- people should know that story. That was impossible. You can get someone back from D.C. in eight hours if you don't know where they are, they don't have any money, they don’t have a car, they don't have any reservations, --- - it can't be done. It can be done with Love. It can. Would anyone else like to share? I see a shake yes? -----no. It's frightening, I know, and is totally voluntary.
Celebration of the sixth chakra	It's probably time then to pass on to the sixth chakra. The sixth chakra is basically the chakra of art, of learning expressed through universal symbols. Liz was an artist. She was a poet, as you have just noticed, and as importantly, she was a dancer. She loved to belly dance. She learned, she started belly dancing here in Kansas under the instruction of B. S., the mother of the nice young lady who cast our circle for us. She loved it. She loved to dance. She just – it was joy in motion, as it should be. So for the sixth chakra, I would like -- Liz had a special dance that she would do as a belly dance. She called it her Life Dance. And this is the music she selected for it. Cue second music, please. Please imagine Liz dancing with joy, with full vigor, because that’s what she did. Ellasheva (her dance name) ashimmy
Celebration of the seventh chakra, and the third meditation	The seventh chakra is the most important and the most difficult to describe. It is called the crown chakra. It is very special. The beings that put out most of their energy on the seventh chakra we have special names for: saints, bodhisattvas, seers, prophets. People seldom do this very often, unless they're inclined and trained for it. And besides, as we said, all the other needs generally have to be met first, before people turn their minds to spiritual matters. Liz was a good person. She loved and she gave. I do not know, we cannot know, what form of being Liz is in now. But we can wish her well. We can hope, by our visions of what state she is in now. The third meditation is not going to be silent, in spite of what I put on the program, but will be accompanied by some of Liz's favorite music, appropriate to the seventh time, the seventh chakra. It's in German, its Schiller’s Ode to Joy. Liz spoke German, and she would translate it [the ode] for me. It's well worth the study. For the seventh (sic) meditation, I would ask that we wish Liz well, in her next being. Now I don't know, we cannot penetrate the Great Mystery. We have our faith commitments, which we must have, as to what the afterlife would be. Please envision Liz in your own vision of what the afterlife is. We do not know. We are frail mortals. But I will tell you this: it is my fervent hope -- I should say, based on my study, and love of the Japanese and Chinese Buddhist stories, where they would follow lovers through one life after another – it is my fervor and hope that somehow, some way, we will be together again. Let us began the third meditation. Please cue the third music. the choral part of the fourth movement of Beethoven’s “Choral” Symphony No. 9 in D minor accompanied the third meditation. I can assure you that the words are appropriate for today. And I will tell you: we are all Brothers and Sisters.
Gratitude and conclusion	At this time, it is time to express our gratitude to the Great Mystery, to the Divinity, however our limited minds may encompass this. O Great Mystery, help us, guide us, heal us, bless whatever of good we done at this time, and forgive what we have done amiss. Oh Great Mystery, You are our source. To You we return; from You we have come. The cycles roll on. Thank you spirits of the air, thank you spirits of fire, thank you spirits of water, thank you spirits of the earth; for all that you have done, for being here, thank you. In our circles you are ever most welcome. Go if you must, stay if you will, forever you are welcome here. I invite you all to the internment, which will follow very shortly. Thank you all for being here. I hope that this is, that this ceremony is not something that you will take a bad taste away from. It is not meant to insult any creed or faith, but to honor that of the one who lies before you. With that, I thank you all for coming. Bless you all for being with her today. This ceremonial commemoration for Liz is concluded. the ceremony ends with rap of crook