The Wild Reed

Thursday, April 09, 2026

Third Parties and the Historical Record

For the last 100 years, nearly every major progressive reform in the United States was first championed by third parties — and opposed or ignored by both Democrats and Republicans.

• Populists (1890s): Mary Elizabeth Lease and James B. Weaver demanded public banking, railroad regulation, and the eight-hour day. Republicans defended industrial capital; Democrats were divided and often aligned with business interests.

• Socialists (early 1900s): Eugene V. Debs and Norman Thomas called for Social Security, unemployment insurance, and labor protections decades before the New Deal. Both parties marginalized them while courts and politicians repressed labor organizing.

• Progressives (1940s): Henry A. Wallace ran on desegregation, anti-lynching laws, and coexistence with the Soviet Union. Southern Democrats upheld segregation, while Republicans largely avoided confronting Jim Crow laws at the federal level.

• Black Power (1960s–70s): The Black Panther Party and leaders like Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, and Eldridge Cleaver, advanced community control, free social programs, and police accountability. Federal agencies and local governments surveilled and repressed these efforts rather than adopting them.

• Greens and independents (today): Ralph Nader and Jill Stein advance Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and corporate accountability. Democratic leadership resists structural change; Republicans openly oppose it.

The historical pattern is consistent: third parties introduce transformative ideas, the major parties resist or suppress them, and only later adopt watered-down versions under pressure.

That’s not theory – it’s the historical record.

Wednesday, April 08, 2026

The Resurrection of Jesus: “An Archetypal Map of Transformation”

– “Older Light” by Dan Hillier

The following by “Craig (Rei Rei)” serves as a fitting follow-up to my Easter Sunday post, Christ Consciousness: The Inner Flame of Divine Self. I again have Beau Childs to thank for bringing this piece to my attention via Facebook. Thanks, Beau!

_________________

As [we] embrace the Easter holidays, [let us] focus today on the sacred process encoded within the human journey, one that transcends religion and speaks directly to the architecture of the soul. The resurrection story of Jesus is not merely a historical or theological event: it is an archetypal map of transformation. It reveals the pathway through which the human being sheds the density of the lower nature and awakens its innate divinity.

Your lower nature is not “bad,” but it is limited. It is conditioned by fear, attachment, illusion, and the perceptual constraints imposed by the space-time matrix. These veils are powerful, designed to immerse consciousness fully into the human experience. Yet they also obscure your true essence: your eternal, multi-dimensional self.

The resurrection begins when the false self is allowed to die. This death is symbolic, yet deeply real. It is the surrender of identities, wounds, karmic imprints, and inherited belief systems that keep you bound to limitations. It is the willingness to release control and step beyond the known to embrace the unknown, even when the ego resists. In this surrender, something ancient within you begins to stir. Your true self has never been lost: only dormant.

It waits beneath layers of self-forgetfulness, beneath the noise of the conditioned mind. When the lower self dissolves, the soul rises. This is the resurrection: the re-emergence of your divine nature into conscious awareness. It is not granted from outside but activated from within. To embody Christ Consciousness is to live as this awakened self.

It is to perceive beyond separation, to act from unity, and to anchor higher intelligence into physical reality. In this state, you are no longer confined by the illusions of space-time, rather, you become a bridge between dimensions, a living expression of the Infinite Spirit beyond creation.

– Craig (Rei Rei)

Tuesday, April 07, 2026

Butch Ware: “I'm Trying to Take Care of People”

Why I Hate Politics is a podcast hosted by a self-described “progressive, democratic-socialist political commentator.” It’s dedicated to “breaking down the chaos of modern politics, exposing corruption, calling out bad-faith elites, highlighting real working-class issues, and reacting to trending political moments with honesty and clarity.”

“If you’re tired of the spin and want people-powered commentary,” notes the podcast’s unnamed creator and host (right), “you’re in the right place.”

Why I Hate Politics’ latest video highlights Green Party candidate for California Governor Butch Ware’s recent conversation with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay (above). It’s a 40-minute segment worth watching for both Butch Ware’s insights and the commentary provided by the host of Why I Hate Politics.

Related Off-site Links:
Democrats Panic Over Green Party Candidate: An Interview with Dr. Butch Ware – Bad Faith (March 30, 2026).
Judge Rejects Green Party Candidate Butch Ware’s Bid to Appear on California Governor Ballots – Yue Stella Yu (CalMatters.org, March 26, 2026).
Green Party Candidate for California Governor Butch Ware Kicked Off the Ballot – The Spiritual and Political Podcast (March 27, 2026).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

BUTCH WARE
• Introducing California’s Gubernatorial Candidate Butch Ware
• “People Really Want New Options in Politics”
• Butch Ware on “Red & Blue vs Green Politics”
• “We Have the Power to Stop the Flow of Money and the False Legitimacy Upon Which Empire Depends”
• Butch Ware on the Hard Knock Radio Show
• Butch Ware and the Gatekeepers Within the Democratic Party • Photo of the Day – March 3, 2026
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – November 26, 2025
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – June 5, 2025
• Butch Ware on His Run for California Governor and the Wider Goal of Disrupting the Duopoly
• “The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – January 30, 2025
• The Green Party’s Jill Stein and Butch Ware Give Their First Post-Election Interview
• “This Is a Tragic, Heartbreaking Moment in the History of Humanity”: Butch Ware on the Gaza Genocide
• Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware in Minneapolis
• Butch Ware: “You Can Actually Vote Your Conscience”
• Butch Ware: “I’m Not Here as a Spoiler”

GREEN PARTY
• “Green Wave 2026 is Global”
• Meet Some of the “People-Powered” Green Party Candidates for 2026
• An Opportunity for Organizing Against Duopoly
• “It Is Our Responsibility to Make a Third Party Viable”
• Something to Think About – December 8, 2024
• The Green Party’s Jill Stein and Butch Ware Give Their First Post-Election Interview
• “We Give Reasons for People to Come Out and Vote”
• We’re Witnessing a Liberal Meltdown Over Jill Stein
• The “Green Smoothie” Option
• Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware in Minneapolis
• Butch Ware: “I’m Not Here as a Spoiler”
• Jill Stein: “Americans Deserve Choices”
• Elise Labott on How Third Parties Can Revitalize Democracy
• Something to Think About – August 15, 2024
• Howie Hawkins: “The Democrats Are Not the Answer to the Trump/Fascism Problem”
• Demolishing the False Narrative About Jill Stein and the 2016 Election
• Cornel West: “The Next Step Is a Green Step, a Progressive Step”
• Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein: Is a “Historic Collaboration” in the Making? (2016)
• Voting Green: Hope Over Fear

Monday, April 06, 2026

Inayat Khan on Mysticism

Mysticism is neither a faith nor a belief, nor is it a principle or a dogma. . . . [B]eing a mysic means having a certain temperament, a certain outlook on life. . . . No one can be a mystic and call himself a Christian mystic, a Jewish mystic, or a Muslim mystic. For what is mysticism? Mysticism is something that erases from one’s mind all idea of separateness, and if a person claims to be this mystic or that mystic they are not a mystic; they are playing with a name.

People think a mystic means a dreamer, an unpractical person who has no knowledge of worldly affairs. But such a mystic I would call half a mystic. A mystic in the full sense of the word must have balance; thet must be as wise in worldly matters as in spiritual things. . . . It is not necessary to be unconscious of the world while being conscious of God. With our two eyes we see one vision; so we should see both God and the world as a clear vision at the same time. It is difficult, but not impossible.

Mysticism is an outlook on life. Things which seem real to an average person are unreal in the eyes of the mystic; and the things that seem unreal in the eyes of the average person are real in the eyes of the mystic.

. . . God is not abstract for the mystic; to the mystic God is a reality . . . the stepping-stone to self-realization. God is the gate, the door, the entrance to the heavens. God, for the mystic, is a key with which to open the secret of life, the abode from whence the mystic comes and to which they return and where they find their deepest and truest self to be at home.

– Inayat Khan
Excerpted from Sufi Mysticism
(edited by John Fabian, 1967)

Sunday, April 05, 2026

Christ Consciousness: The Inner Flame of Divine Self

I share something very special today for Easter Sunday – a powerful and liberating reminder of the true meaning of “the Christ.”

First shared by Beau Childs on Facebook, this “reminder” was written by Lizz Marion and reflects the ancient mystical understanding and experience of the Christ. It’s a timely reminder, too; what with the rise in the U.S. of Christian nationalism, the antithesis of the Christ.

Thank you, Lizz. Thank you, Beau.

_________________

Christ Consciousness is not about a man nailed to a cross two thousand years ago. It is not a historical story frozen in time. It is a living metaphor – a profound symbol of our own divine awakening.

The “Christ” is not just Jesus of Nazareth; the Christ is you, when you remember who you are beneath the layers of illusion, fear, and separation. It is not about belief in a savior – it is the embodiment of your own sacred essence.

Christ Consciousness is the divine frequency encoded in every soul, waiting to be remembered, reclaimed, and lived.

The Christ as a Metaphor

When people speak of Christ, they often speak of a person. But in deeper spiritual truth, Christ is not a person – it is a state of being. It is the radiant, awakened consciousness that transcends ego, duality, and suffering.

Jesus embodied this state and taught from it. But his life was not meant to place him above humanity – it was meant to reflect what is possible within humanity. He said, “Greater works than these shall you do,” pointing not to worship, but to inner transformation.

The crucifixion and resurrection are not just events – they are symbolic of our own journey. The ego must be crucified for the true Self to rise. This is the death of the false self and the birth of divine remembrance. Christ Consciousness is not external; it is the inner flame that burns quietly within all of us, waiting for the breath of awareness to ignite it.

The Divine Birthright

Every soul comes into this world carrying the divine blueprint. That blueprint is the Christ principle – the inner compass aligned with truth, love, and unity. It is not given to a chosen few. It is not earned. It is inherent. It is our birthright. But the world teaches us to forget, to separate, to look outward for what can only be found inward. We are told to seek the light, not realizing we are the light.

To awaken Christ Consciousness is to remember that you are not your trauma, not your name, not your identity or history.

You are consciousness itself – eternal, unbroken, divine. Christ Consciousness dissolves all illusions of hierarchy, worthiness, or spiritual distance. It brings us into oneness, where we see that every being is a mirror of the same light.

Beyond Religion and Dogma

This understanding goes beyond the boundaries of religion. Christ Consciousness is not Christian – it is cosmic.

It is the same truth spoken through different tongues: Buddhahood, Krishna consciousness, the I AM Presence, the Higher Self. The language may vary, but the essence is one. Religions point to it, but the direct experience of it comes only when you go within.

It is felt in moments of deep peace, unconditional love, and timeless presence. It is lived when compassion overrides judgment, when forgiveness flows freely, and when truth is chosen over comfort. This is not theology. It is spiritual embodiment.

Living the Christ Within

To live from Christ Consciousness is to remember that all life is sacred. It is to walk with the awareness that every thought, every word, every act carries the vibration of your state of being. It is not about being perfect – it is about being present, open-hearted, and aligned with your soul.

You begin to see through the eyes of love, hear with the ears of compassion, and speak from the voice of truth. You become the bridge between heaven and earth – not because you’ve attained something, but because you’ve remembered what you already are.

Christ Consciousness is not the story of one man. It is the invitation for every human being to awaken the Christ within. It is the divine spark that whispers, “You are not separate. You were never less. You are the living presence of the sacred.” It is the journey from illusion to truth, from fear to love, from ego to soul.

This is not a message of exclusion – it is a call to remembrance. You are not meant to worship Christ – you are meant to become it.

– Lizz Marion

Saturday, April 04, 2026

A Blessing for Holy Saturday

By Jan Richardson

Holy Saturday. This is the day that calls us to breathe. This is the day that invites us to make a space within the weariness, the fear, the ache. This is the day that calls us to hold our anguish and our hope in the same hand. This is the day that beckons us to turn toward one another and to remember we do not breathe alone.

________________

In the Breath, Another Breathing

A Blessing for Holy Saturday
Let it be

that on this day
we will expect
no more of ourselves
than to keep
breathing
with the bewildered
cadence
of lungs that will not
give up the ghost.

Let it be
we will expect
little but
the beating of
our heart,
stubborn in
its repeating rhythm
that will not
cease to sound.

Let it be
we will
still ourselves
enough to hear
what may yet
come to echo:
as if in the breath,
another breathing;
as if in the heartbeat,
another heart.

Let it be
we will not
try to fathom
what comes
to meet us
in the stillness
but simply open
to the approach
of a mystery
we hardly dared
to dream.

– Jan Richardson
From Circle of Grace: A Book of
Blessings for the Seasons
Wanton Gospeller Press
2015

See also the related Wild Reed posts:
• Within the Mystery, a Strange and Empty State of Suspension
• When Love Entered Hell
• The Passion of Jesus – Jesus Among the Dead
• A Wretched Death, a Wretched Burial
• The Unthinkable
• A Brave Hope

Artwork: Michael O'Brien

Friday, April 03, 2026

Good Silence

– “The Art of Crucifixion” by @saidelatabart

By Phillip Clark

This day is called “Good”
When God is silent
A silence leaving us orphaned
Horrifically loud silence
Swallowing the Crucified One
Enveloping futures
As a bomb severs a schoolgirl's hand in Minab
While she recites Rumi

The Nazarene writhes in naked agony
Colonial sentries jeer at his form
Mangled scarlet by a flagellum's cackle
Settlers gather on hillsides
Cheering on splintering shrapnel
Drenching a Palestine still occupied

Certainty no longer exists
Are we naive for believing it did?

“Why have you abandoned me?”
The Son of Humanity's lonely plea rings out
Through the centuries
Pealing unceasingly
In a world incinerated by silence
Where indifference scorches hope
To indifference

Yet holiness remains
Lodged in fear of state violence
Present in the midst of hunger pangs
Sojourning through death-filled valleys
Nailed to a tree

Can we ever comprehend why today is “Good?”
Maybe not
Rain begins to fall
Breaking the stillness
Quenching parched throats
Of those sentenced to be forgotten
As the sky sheds tears
From an ocean of souls

– Phillip Clark
April 3, 2026

Thursday, April 02, 2026

Holy Thursday Prayer

– Corrymeela Community

Wednesday, April 01, 2026

In Remembering All Who Suffer From Violence, We Remember Jesus

Shane Claiborne, author and founder of The Simple Way, has shared a “new presentation of the Stations of the Cross” for Holy Week 2026. Writes Shane:

This week is Holy Week. As we remember Christ – the Prince of Peace – we also remember all those who suffer from violence, for it was Jesus who said “Whatsoever you do to the least of these, you do to me.” We are grateful to our friends at the Guatemalan-Maya Center for creating these images.

I share today some of the images of this “new presentation,” one focused on the dehumanizing policies and actions of the U.S. government as they relate to immigration. To see all of the images, click here.

I have to say that these powerful images and the message they convey remind me of the “Economic Way of the Cross” which I participated in over 25 years ago in Washington, DC. Following is how I described this event on my Faces of Resistance website.

_________________

The Economic Way of the Cross
Washington, DC – April 10, 2000

In April 2000 I traveled from the Twin Cities to Washington, D.C. to participate in a range of rallies, demonstrations, and teach-ins aimed at protesting the structure and policies of both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – two organizations that, along with the World Trade Organization (WTO), are the key architects of the corporate global economy.

Collectively, the various events in Washington, D.C. of April 2000 were termed A16 – a reference to April 16, the main day of protest. A16 brought 15,000 people onto the streets of the capital and, like the protests in Seattle against the WTO in November 1999, united a range of people – environmentalists, union members, students, religious people, peace activists, and individuals representing organizations from those countries most devastated by the unjust policies of the World Bank and IMF.

By far the most powerful event I was part of was the “Economic Way of the Cross” on Monday, April 10, 2000. Organized by the Jubilee 2000-aligned Religious Working Group on the World Bank and IMF, a coalition of over forty religious organizations, the Economic Way of the Cross was a prayerful procession through the streets of downtown Washington, D.C. The event sought to draw attention to the policies and practices of various corporate and governmental institutions that devastate the lives of millions of people throughout the world. The Christian underpinnings of the event reflect the theological understanding of Christ being continually crucified while ever people and other aspects of creation experience suffering and death as a result of oppressive structures of power.

“The Economic Way of the Cross invites people of faith to relate prayerfully the Passion of Jesus Christ to the suffering of women, men and children throughout the world today,” noted key organizer Anne Pettifor. “Often, this suffering is the result of unjust economic relationships, what we call social, or structural sin.”

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Jesus at the Border
• Protesting Trump’s “Dystopian” Immigration Policies
• Honoring Óscar and Valeria
• Demanding Justice and Embodying Compassion for Separated Families
• Let Us Be the Wise Ones They’re Waiting For
• A Prayer for Asylum Seekers Being Tear-Gassed at the Border
• Opposing the Trump Administration's Inhumane Treatment of Immigrant Families
• “What We’re Seeing Here Is a Tipping Point”
• Jeremy Scahill on the Historical Context of the Trump Administration's “Pathologically Sick” Anti-Immigrant Agenda
• 2000+ Take to the Streets of Minneapolis to Express Solidarity with Immigrants and Refugees
• Rallying in Solidarity with the Refugees of Syria and the World
• A Prayer for Refugees
• International Migrants Day
• Fasting, Praying, and Walking for Immigration Reform
• May Day 2007

For The Wild Reed’s 2025 Holy Week posts, see:
• Palm Sunday: A Sacred Paradox
• Via Dolorosa
• Silent Saturday
• Marianne Williamson on the Alchemy of Easter

For The Wild Reed’s 2024 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from Joyce Rupp’s book Jesus, Companion in My Suffering: Reflections for the Lenten Journey), see:
• Recognizing the Truth
• Powerless
• Feeling Abandoned
• Joy Beyond Suffering

For The Wild Reed’s 2023 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from Marianne Williamson’s book, The Gift of Change: Spiritual Guidance for a Radically New Life), see:
• From Spiritual Death to Rebirth
• A Vortex of the Miraculous
• Tomb Time
• He Is Risen, and So Are You

The Wild Reed’s 2022 Holy Week posts:
• “The Most Authentic Statement of Created Life”
• Good Friday Reflections
• “This Spring, May We Renew the World”
• Easter for Mystics

The Wild Reed’s 2021 Holy Week post:
• The Final Say

The Wild Reed’s 2020 Holy Week posts:
• Holy Week, 2020
• God’s Good Gift

The Wild Reed’s 2019 Holy Week post:
• In This In-Between Time . . . of Both Loss and Promise

For The Wild Reed’s 2018 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from Druid author and speaker John Michael Greer’s essay “The God from the House of Bread” in the 2012 anthology, Jesus Through Pagan Eyes: Bridging Neopagan Perspectives with a Progressive Vision of Christ), see:
• The God from the House of Bread: A Bridge Between Christianity and Paganism (Part 1)
• The God from the House of Bread (Part 2)
• The God from the House of Bread (Part 3)
• The God from the House of Bread (Part 4)

For The Wild Reed’s 2017 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from a 1999 interview with scholar and teacher Andrew Harvey, accompanied by images that depict Jesus as the embodiment of the Cosmic Christ), see:
• Jesus Our Guide to Mystical Love (Part 1)
• Jesus Our Guide to Mystical Love (Part 2)
• Jesus Our Guide to Mystical Love (Part 3)

For The Wild Reed’s 2016 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from Richard Horsley’s 1993 book Jesus and the Spiral of Violence, accompanied by images of Juan Pablo Di Pace as Jesus in the 2015 NBC mini-series A.D.: The Bible Continues), see:
• Jesus and Social Revolution (Part 1)
• Jesus and Social Revolution (Part 2)
• Jesus and Social Revolution (Part 3)