I fell in love with The Bodhi Tree the first time I visited the famous LA store in the late 70s. Stuffed to the brim with rare books, crystals, Tibetan flags, Buddha statues and more, the store quickly became a favorite of mine. The owners invited conversation, browsing, or curling up with a book for hours if you wanted. In an age before Amazon or the Internet, they either stocked or would order any book you desired, and getting the phone call that “your book is in” was always a happy event.

Earlier this week scientists reported new findings indicating that fish may have consciousness and feel emotions like mammals. From www.eurekalert.org we read: Researchers… have for the first time observed an increase in body temperature of between two and four degrees in zebra fish, when these are subjected to stressful situations. This phenomenon is known as emotional fever, as it is related to the emotions that animals feel in the face of an external stimulus and it has even been linked, not without some controversy, with their consciousness.

“According to Grey, the Temples of Damanhur and his own Temple of Sacred Mirrors in New York, serve as examples and reminder of just what’s possible even in our contemporary secular society when people come together to create something truly meaningful and of lasting beauty. “

Oklahoma just had its 12th earthquake in one week! Among the recent quakes to hit the area was a 4.2 magnitude temblor on New Year’s Day that caused minor damage but no injuries. The state, notorious for their oil drilling and fracking activities, celebrated the end of 2015 with a whopping total of 680 earthquakes for the year. As reported in The Huffington Post, “Oklahoma’s energy regulator declared in November that the state now has more earthquakes than anywhere else in the world…”

Dr. Paul Drouin invites you to join him online as he begins a special journey in Hawaii with a global meditation event on January 7th, 2016. Dr. Paul will visit the sacred island of Mokoli’i (Chinaman’s Hat) to meditate on the intention Heal Yourself and Heal the World . This event marks the beginning of a World Tour to special vortex energetic centers around the world to initiate Project Noosphere – a unique global consciousness accelerator…

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” With that seven-word maxim, US-based journalist Michael Pollan distills a career’s worth of reporting into a prescription for reversing the damage being done to people’s health by today’s industrially driven Western diet. Pollan offers an answer to one of the most urgent questions of our time: What should I eat to be healthy? From www.pbs.org

Earlier this year, dozens of food, farming, and environmental justice groups announced they will put Monsanto on trial for “crimes against nature and humanity” on October 16, 2016 (World Food Day), in The Hague, Netherlands. As noted by Andre Leu, president of the International Foundation for Organic Agriculture (IFOAM): “Monsanto is able to ignore the human and environmental damage caused by its products, and maintain its devastating activities through a strategy of systemic concealment…”

Happy Holidays from everybody at Merlian News! The December Newsletter is out! Merlian News is now translated into over 50 languages. Just go to www.merliannews.com , upper right hand corner to Google Translate and use the drop down menu. Also, don’t forget to check us out on Facebook & Twitter and please take a look at our Website of the Month!

“A symbol is not just an image, but is like a door into the inner world of the soul, through which we can access the energy and meaning that belongs to this sacred dimension of our self. However, a symbol will only reveal its magical nature if we approach it with the right attitude, if we have the correct quality of consciousness. Symbolic consciousness is a way of working with symbols that allows their meaning and energy into our consciousness. It is like a key that is needed to unlock the real potential, the energy of a symbol.”