THE AGE OF AQUARIUS

With a nervous trepidation, Jennifer finished her entry into the Doomsday Diary. She reviewed the report due for submission.

Day 1: I have been hired at the Platform of Change for the Future of Humanity. Just arrived today -- will deliver a condensed, integrated curriculum I wrote. Terrified. Need to breathe.

Day 3: Comet Bennu burst through the heart of Osiris. Rumour says it was drawn by weak forces from the coiled magnetic nanoparticles cleaning the continent of plastic litter. Meeting challenges with cheap careless solutions driven by profit are the problem.

Day 4 : It’s official. The polar ice caps are melting. Previously frozen microbes contained a virus. They are recombining with the iron-based genetically modified organisms on the plastic continent. They are now viral vectors. The virus is spreading. May we have strength and wisdom to create a new world.

Day 5 : The Earth is a tell-tale heart. Humans admit guilt for causing the pulsating blood-like sludge. Microbes thriving on asteroid fragments are tracing the path of the dead. Plagues are as per apocalyptic prophesies.

Day 7: The nightmare is unfolding. This day marks the end of waiting. Survivors are moving into underground bunkers. I will be in charge of a pod of 12 years-old’s.

Jennifer remembered her interview when she presented her educational paradigm. "Greeks originally defined School as leisure. We need to establish a safe, relaxed environment for students to remember comfort and have fun .”

Some of her colleagues, large scale global thinkers, argued there was no time to waste on fun stressing, "The future of humanity depends on strict training to deal with the unexpected.”

Jennifer had rebutted, “We need to protect the essence of what it is to be human. Efficiency should not come at the expense of mental stability and integrity. Creative thinking occurs when the brain is relaxed. We are battling a war of attrition, and need to maintain our resources. Students need to be self-motivated and disciplined and work as a group, with the will to survive. With luck, we can help the students find catharsis by combining myths of heroes from ancient civilizations -whose cause was greater than themselves - with Science, showing Altruism holds individual benefits that outweigh the costs. ”

Many of the Committee nodded “ Sound thinking. It mirrors the rationale for ‘team first’ Seal military training.” Yet they had challenged. “Do you fancy yourself as Fairy Godmother who’s going to wave your magic wand and make everything better?.” In defiance, Jennifer countered, “Well, I hope I can go with the flow and live up to my name. ‘Jennifer’ means woman of the white wave, a mythical phantom shadow spirit, the willing horse who rides the crest of a wave and transports leaders to feed from the Tree of Knowledge.”

The response had landed her the position. Nature would test her convictions.

Day 9: I am a post-apocalyptic Queen Bee in charge of re-establishing the hive. I met the students this morning.

That morning, Jennifer had dimmed the lights for the sleep cycle. Many of the kids were holding back sobs. She spoke to calm them. “When you wake, you’ll start training as masters of the twilight zone. Between dusk and dawn we’ll find our way. Don’t worry. We’ve got what we need to deal with the reduced ozone layer and high UV radiation levels. We are not the first to have faced the spiritual night of the soul. We join initiates of Chinese, Greek, Mayan, and other mystery cults. You need to rest now. Close your heavy eyes. Sleep well. You are safe. Dream the dream of angels.”

The children were exhausted. They had much to learn in their eight-year initiation. Jennifer fell asleep thinking about how they would explore the mathematical construct of normal. Void of emotions or judgement, they would see normal, as the perpendicular to a plane, naturally forming Sine waves, as cyclical events unfold with normal probability distributions.

Day 12: First order of operations: establishing intentional habits of action. Integrating Yoga, Tai chi and martial arts training into a mindful meditation with visualizations should help student find a physical and mental ground state and improve cognitive function, memory, creativity and motivation.

The students were traumatized. To guide them, Jennifer would share knowledge gained from her experiences. They would learn how to observe and face deep memories of anxiety and fear imprinted in the heart, without judgement. The body works as an electrochemical machine. They needed to re-establish healthy chemical cascades. Jennifer felt her heart and heard its beat.

The day started. Activity engages the forces of nature better than theory. Jennifer instructed students “ Breath in. Rise on the toes. Breath out - sinking the Qi into the heels. It engages the second heart in the calf’s soleus muscle and returns venous blood to the heart. Exhale! Loudly! “The sound stimulates the Vagus nerve , dilating blood vessels, calming the heart rhythm and switching off the stress response. Feel your gut. Awaken the sleeping coiled dragon formed by the union of the female yin energy on the left side of the body, and the male yang on the right. Channel the Qi through the three Dantean fires along the shushuma. The long chakra moves as one wave length through the body, crossing at the center node of the heart, then connects to the crown and the universe before it returns. Feel it move in harmonic resonance along meridians that cross at nodes, spinning the chakra wheels. Be whole. Be connected. ”

The students looked confused, but stood taller. When the session ended, Jennifer said. “We have activated the parasympathetic nervous system. Science has shown that moving meditations can lift the psychological fog caused from complex societal and environmental issues that threaten happiness. Happiness is defined as ‘a perception of pleasure and gratitude shaped by understanding, logic and senses.’ Observe how the ‘happy hormones’: Dopamine, Serotonin, the rewarding love hormone Oxytocin, and endorphins reduce stress and improve well-being and social connections.”

She opened a box. “To narrow the open-ended search for happiness I have a gift for you.”

Each student received a unique, custom designed, multifunctional tool, a heart shaped locket with a piezoelectric power supply that worked when mechanical stress was applied.

“We’re going to play a game that will help you make learning hard stuff fun.” Jennifer instructed, “Put on the locket. Hold it close to your chest. How do you make gold soup? She paused, then said “add 24 carrots.”

As the children groaned and chuckled, the locket vibrated the internal organs around the heart and gut and generated a biofeedback hum and a luminescence.

“You have now seen and heard how happiness feels when you are relieved from stress and suffering. Let’s explore it more after breakfast.”

Day 13: Students’ tensions easing. They are showing signs of transforming into adulthood.

Students were learning to access the mysteries of the locket designed by global intelligence agencies around the world. It opened to form the Tai chi symbol. Each half contained microchips with volumes of information, some previously held as top secret.

Jennifer described their summative assignment. “Your mission is to create a research portfolio of how Venus resonates with the heart. Then, to present an artistic expression that teaches and entertains the school and community. Follow the pull of your blood. Resurrect the timeless wisdom of ghosts and phantom spirits of legends embedded in the marrow of your bones. Examine the middle ground. Reprocess fact, to find truth that lies between supernaturalism and science.”

“The locket mirrors what is in your heart. You are the next generation of Watchers - children of the Giants of Cloud technology- the Unique ones who belong to no order and have no human guide, but can use the insight of the heart to access information about nature’s patterns. You are called to rescue lost wanderers. Banish any thought, that this is a sacrifice. You will receive more than you put in.”

Day 21: The project and novelty of the locket seem to have ignited a spark. Students are using voice and pressure commands, accessing encyclopedic volumes of facts from the locket, while simultaneously gaining survival skills. Incredible synthesizing of information and effective interactions.

Day 33: As students work, laughter from their heart rings, resurrecting the solid stone spirit of mended living clay terra cotta warriors. They are ready to instruct and protect the honest history of this era at the eclipse of change. The students are realizing their wish for everything to go as desired.

Day 40: Wow- the semester is over! Students staged their lyrical presentations for the audience and were well received. The chosen ones realized a rare potential.

Jennifer’s pod won the three top awards. The third runners up performed a Cajun rhythm and blues love song about Venus. They snapped and scraped the locket as a pick that resonated over metal washboards on their chest. The crowd swayed along with the resonating tune.

Venus, the goddess of love, changes the brain when love strikes the heart things are never the same. You stand a symbol with arms outstretched, holding meaning that is not far-fetched. A five-pointed star shining morning and night, a rebel because you change patterns of flight. Your beauty blossoms as a blue rose, a dazzling display brilliantly glows. Delicately pulling at tender heart strings, a sweet tone of harmony gently rings. The crimson palace beats the drum with echoes of a cosmic hum. Sweet goddess with your many faces you lead the mind to many places. Mysterious Mystical Queen of love, you fill our longings for truth from above.”

The second runners-up delivered information about the orbit of Venus in a humorous play that started with Egyptians building pyramids. The star Sirius was the main character. “I am known as the Sun behind the Sun, who leads the ship of Bennu Asar, to the BenBen stone that will bear the phoenix.” As Sirius mapped the year, forecasting annual flooding, planting times and the summer solstice, she encountered her friend Venus, another character. Venus, the daughter of Jupiter, known also as Shukra, the offspring of Shiva is an exhausted girl Friday who complains of a pockmark. She pouted “Daddy is a giant full of hot air. He usually stops hurling fireballs from entering the inner atmosphere but let one through.” She became Zarpanitu, the wise one and companion of Marduk whose character explains “Now we need to do our job and create the new seed that will fill this silent spring.”

The crowd laughed through the light-hearted presentation based on a compilation of ancient myths that normalized their current situation.

First prize went to a group in which each member projected holographic overlays using the locket. With the phi ratio scale, they showed the 225-day orbital period of Venus, relative to Earth and then, the five, heart-shaped orbits every 400 days and the five pointed pentagon in one Venusian year of 584 days. They created an image that resembled Da Vinci‘s Vitruvian man. Layering eight orbits over a five year period, the forty orbits created a pointillist impression of a Mackintosh Rose in the style of George Seurat The hologram included orbits of Earth, Jupiter, Sirius and the moon intersecting in a mathematical harmony of waves. It was an awe-inspiring work of art.

Day 40 cont’d There is no guarantee that students will have the strength and endurance needed for the next challenges. But today, waves of hope flowed, tunnelling at superconducting speeds through the dense, dark heart of this dystopian society. The students were torchbearers, carrying the immortal spark. Their gift of the heart has ignited the seeds of the tree of knowledge. The old world has passed and a phoenix has been born from the ashes. This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.

Closing the diary file, Jennifer sent the report.