Sean Savoy will emcee the annual interfaith Nevada Prayer Breakfast sponsored by the Nevada Clergy Association. The breakfast is to be held at the Atlantis Resort in Reno, Nevada, Tuesday, April 30, 2013 , 7 to 9 a.m.
Sean serves also as the chair of the Nevada Prayer Breakfast planning committee and the coordinator of the event. He has arranged for Nevada’s First Lady, Kathleen Sandoval, to give an introductory welcome. State Treasurer Kate Marshall will deliver the Keynote Address.
Recipients of this year’s Vision Award are the late Dr. Clair Earl, former president of the Reno Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Rabbi Myra Soifer of Temple Sinai in Reno, who was one of the first 10 women in the United States to be ordained rabbi.
This is a time for unity after Boston and so many other national and world tragedies. The theme of the breakfast, “A Future Together,” speaks to the need for all of people to come together to support our citizens, state and nation, as well as to bring the spirit to bear on all leaders of every sector of our society.
This short announcement from the Reno Gazette-Journal gives some information on the event. A full feature is scheduled to appear in Sunday’s paper (April 28), available online at www.rgj.com.
“But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays.” – Malachi, Old Testament Prophet
There was a popular teaching among the Aztec, Toltec and Maya civilizations that 500 years after the Spanish colonization of the Americas a new sun would appear in the heavens to enlighten humanity.
The legend goes that the light of this new sun would be so potent that it would illuminate the minds and hearts of people for an awakening of consciousness as never before seen. The “intelligence” of the sun would restore spiritual truth, exposing the corruption of the world’s existing religions. This cosmic vetting would cause a new teaching of light to flourish throughout the world, unbridled by boundaries of culture, class or creed.
Similar mythology existed further south in the Inca empire of Peru and among the Hopi of North America, who believed that sunlight, if utilized properly, could nourish the soul within each person.
Pre-Columbian American folklore records that since the beginning of time there have been various epochs of our sun, each corresponding to major earth changes, such as the ice age as well as the rise and fall of civilization. According to these mystical legends there were four great sun cycles that preceded a fifth sun, which, they say, was shining at the time of Columbus’ arrival in the so-called New World.
The first of these suns was known as the Sun of the Earth . At the end of this sun cycle, the earth’s inhabitants would be consumed by animals and only by divine intervention would a portion of humanity be saved from extinction. Then a second Sun of Air would appear, but this sun would not be as illuminated and people would remain primitive, akin to the monkeys.
A third sun, the Sun of Fire, would mark the beginning of a new epoch. All creatures alive during this period would eventually perish save the birds that could fly to safety. This would mark the beginning of a fourth solar cycle under the Sun of Water. The world would once again face a cataclysmic event. A great flood would vanquish the earth and only the fishes of the seas would survive the deluge.
Throughout the world there exist similar myths of the last global catastrophe. Flood stories are widespread and appear in the Puranas of India, in Greek mythology and in the Genesis flood narrative of the Old Testament. The ancient American stories say that the fourth solar epoch would be replaced by a new cycle under a fifth sun, which they believed was shining at the time of the Conquest. They predicted that at the end of the fifth sun cycle the world would face final destruction.
Yet there was a way to avert the conflagration. This could be accomplished through personal “sacrifice” to the light, which constituted an energy exchange between a person and the sun. If humanity could participate in this celestial communion, their reflections would be enough to avert disaster. The ongoing cosmic-atomic transmission would pacify the sun and spark inner personal awakening. Global renovation and a golden age under the beatified light of a sixth sun would result — the universal panacea.
Solar mystics of the Americas and throughout the world have stood atop mountain peaks and on pyramids, reflecting to sustain the fifth sun in anticipation of the appearance of the final sixth sun for a blessing upon the earth. If we are to believe the ancient indigenous folklore as well as the prophets of old, the last 50 years ending in 2012 marked the start of the new sun-age. We are, as Malachi predicted, embraced by a righteous sun. It is now our individual responsibility to live in harmony with it.
THE LIGHT FACTOR is a featured column on spirituality, consciousness, science, energy and adventures into the unknown. Sean Savoy is a spiritual educator, ordained minister, radio personality, explorer, writer and public speaker who lectures in the United States and abroad.
NEWS FLASH:House of Savoy will be leaving KJFK 1230AM (Reno, Nevada) after 6 months on that AM dial. This Saturday, March 2, 2013, at 10 a.m. PST is the final KJFK air date/time. The station is changing programming format and will not feature pre-recorded local talk shows henceforth.
Yours Truly (Sean Savoy) will be finding a new home on the radio airwaves and/or internet and will be keeping everyone posted on my personal and professional Facebook pages, as well here on my web site. Stay tuned for more news!
Meanwhile, don’t forget to tune in to KJFK 1230AM on March 2nd for the final HOS show on that station. Live stream is available at the same time at www.1230kjfk.com. My guests are publisher and co-founder of Lucky Bat Books, Cindie Geddes, and radio personality and spiritual seeker, Jay Davis of Broad View.
If you’d like to send a note to KJFK in support of HOS, please write to or email them at:
961 Matley Lane, Suite #120
Reno, NV 89502
E-mail: info@1230kjfk.com
THANK YOU TO ALL THE LISTENERS FOR SUPPORTING HOUSE OF SAVOY! PODCASTS OF ALL THE SHOWS THAT AIRED ON KKFT AND KJFK SINCE 2011 WILL SOON BECOME AVAILABLE.
On August 12, 2012, another gay voice was silenced in the media when Jerry Evans, owner of KKFT 99.1 FM Talk, banned my paid radio program, “House of Savoy,” from the air.
Names like Steve Kmetko, Ben Patrick Johnson and Thomas Roberts come to mind. Gay men with successful national media gigs who came out in the public eye. In my case, I was flat out removed from the radio, not for being gay, but for merely having a conversation about gay issues on the air. Yes, I am gay, but I wasn’t out. . . yet.
By early August 2012 the Chick-fil-A news maelstrom was reaching a climax. As a public affairs talk show host, my instinct was to discuss the issues surrounding Dan Cathy’s very public opposition to same-sex marriage. Needless to say, the restaurant chain president’s comments had ignited a controversy, and debates between the traditional family values crowd and the LGBT community were rampant. Even John Q. Public was weighing in.
A newsworthy topic? Certainly. Appropriate to talk about it on the air? Yes, everywhere in the country, but on KKFT, the northern Nevada FOX News Radio affiliate. So much for “Fair and Balanced.”
Little did I know that asking Will Kolb — an openly gay social commentator, PR man and LGBT advocate from Dallas, Texas — to talk about marriage equality would get me kicked off the air, especially in an election year when gay rights issues have become so polarizing.
Before the August 12th call-in show with Kolb, I had not discussed LGBT themes on the air, let alone allude to my own sexual orientation. I was determined to approach the theme sensitively, especially because of my personal circumstance. I was about to address in a public forum the very issues I had never discussed openly. Now, at 40, living with a man in a committed relationship and contemplating same-sex marriage myself, I knew I was reaching the point of real exposure. But my show was certainly not going to be the venue for that. This wasn’t the time to tell my story…or was it?
With all this in mind, I conducted the Kolb interview with tact and with respect for my guest’s experiences and point of view, as if I were asking him to reassure me that everything was going to be okay and to tell the public what I already knew — people like us do not want to be treated as exceptions.
Production for “House of Savoy” was paid for in advance. Our Sunday evening time slot had been purchased by my producers, Nevada Matters Media. There were no advertisers to appease, only the listeners and, evidently, Evans himself.
I had never heard a complaint from Evans before. Was he even tuning in? Apparently not this time. His son was, however. The younger Evans immediately called his dad and alerted him to the situation: Two men — one openly gay, the other not — discussing gay marriage on a conservative radio station. Verboten!
As a result of Evans’ son’s tattling, the dominoes began to fall. What ensued was a predictable pattern of discrimination. The privately owned radio station owner phones the show’s producer with a mandate: “Get Savoy off the air and quick!” After all, it is FOX News. There will be no such “earthy, hippie, spacey-type” conversations on this “conservative” channel.
I was cut.
I knew there was no legitimate reason for Evans’ axing my show; it was the typical knee-jerk reaction to the bigger problem — talking about gay stuff is just too offensive to certain people’s ears. A month after the show ended, Evans himself admitted it to the Reno Gazette-Journal: the show “just doesn’t fit with a conservative talk radio station. … It was just really odd.”
By odd, did he mean gay? Unfortunately, folks like Evans insist on equating being gay with strangeness, dirtiness and sinfulness. They appoint themselves the policemen of thought and the arbiters of normalcy. They hijack words like “conservative,” equating righteousness with conditional love. They spread teachings of discrimination, working to silence others by their actions. Worst of all, they hide behind the freedom of private enterprise to promote marginalization, disrespect and bigotry.
Whether Evans knew or suspected at the time that I am gay I’ll never know, but he certainly was aware of my guest’s sexual orientation. He went so far as to say to the Reno Gazette-Journal that the Kolb interview was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” and then, to add insult to injury, he proclaimed: “These people — these precious people — think that it’s an affront to their something or another. They seem to think they are deserving. . .”
What Evans apparently doesn’t understand is that in the free marketplace of ideas, all people, not just the ones he identifies with, have the right to the same consideration and enjoyment that he is entitled to. In Nevada, the airwaves are a place of public accommodation. As such, radio station owners cannot discriminate or harass based on race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.
The right to own a business is one of the most precious freedoms we enjoy in America, but it is unacceptable to discriminate against and segregate voices and ideas simply because they differ from our own. Freedom is not the right to make choices without conscience. That would be to deny the other hard-won freedoms that have made America a nation of mutual respect, acceptance and tolerance.
Fortunately my silence didn’t last. Less than a month after “House of Savoy” was cancelled, KJFK 1230 AM, Reno’s progressive station, picked up the show, I imagine to Evans’ chagrin. As for me, I came out a winner. Literally! The ordeal inspired me to speak my own truth, and I am now happily and openly able to discuss my sexuality any place, including in the media. In his attempt to silence me, Evans’ actions instead gave me a greater voice, and I am dedicated to using it to help others who have yet to find their own.
Everyone! Be sure that you vote today, if you haven’t already.
In considering your choices, keep in mind that the president himself or herself cannot “fix” the economy; that must be a concerted effort and one spearheaded by ethical economists who are not beholden to the military-industrial complex or to greed and unchecked usury. The economy will be attended to regardless of the party or party leader, as the nation cannot much longer sustain further fiscal irresponsibility.
On the other hand, the president, regardless of economics, MUST BE the moral force for and protector of civil, human and spiritual rights in our Great Nation and around the world. It is imperative to vote to protect the individual right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as well as love.
Think of yourself. Are you able to love freely, to marry freely, to adopt a child freely, to protect or be with your family or your spouse freely? Are you free to make choices concerning your body? Are you allowed to speak freely and openly? Are you able to walk without fear of discrimination because of your race or ethnic background? If you are a woman, are you equal among men? If you are poor, do you require charity and compassion regardless of personal effort or personal responsibility? Would you deny these liberties to another person? Think carefully and vote with clear conscience.
There is no room for outworn ideologies among the leaders that favor one person over another, or for politicizing the civil and social freedoms of our people. It is time for the potentates of national and global authority (whether political, economic or religious) to align themselves with the inevitable forces of evolution and to adapt their minds and hearts to thoughts, actions and policies that would promote and uphold what should be the motivating factors behind every government: good-will, compassion, respect, justice and liberty for peaceful co-existence in fellowship under the Law.
There can simply be no more tolerance for unjustifiable suppression, oppression and control by one over another. Borne of resentment, animosity and fear, those motives and methods of governance, which hold people in fear and ignorance, are no longer in line with the trajectory of our Nation. The future is one of communication and information-exchange among the human family regardless of man-made opposition to achieving unity. That has been predicted by the ancients and we would be wise to heed and consider their insight.
I will be speaking at this season’s Psychic Fair put on the by the Reno Psychic Institute, this weekend Oct. 13 and 14, 2012. My talk, ”The Sun Is the Central Heart,” is from 2-3 PM on Saturday, Oct. 13.
The Sun is the beating, living center of our solar system, and the connecting point between our personal spiritual natures and cosmic spiritual energy, also known as God-Consciousness. It is the Sun, the Christ Force, that mediates between humankind and God. How can we work with the light/energy of the Sun?
How do we put ourselves in tune with higher intelligence and with our own spiritual self? We can activate our inner light and participate in cosmic Consciousness by working with solar techniques that allow us to transcend the physical dimension. Can you see your golden, fully charged light body? Can you experience its Consciousness? Learn how to start the process of activating your solar body and expanding yourself — the mind as well as the heart — for union with the cosmos.
For those of you in the Cleveland area, or wherever in the world, I’ll will be the guest on “Joust It Out” radio show with host “G” (Garith Fulham) and co-host Judith Pindell TODAY, October, 10, 2012, between 4:30 and 5 PM Pacific Time or 7:30 and 8 PM Eastern Time. Sean Cary (www.seancary.com) will be on for a bit, too.
You can tune in at www.joustitout.com and click on the T.V. image on right-hand side of the home page to “watch” the show (or just listen). You can even listen on your smart phone live or later (podcast) by going to their “Listen From Your Smart Phone” link in the top menu.
“Joust It Out” is part of the MSC Radio Network. Please tune in!
In a recent article published by the Reno News & Review, respected University of Nevada journalism professor emeritus, Jake Highton, wrote on the subject of God. The educator posited rather vehemently that there is no such thing and that ultimately “reason should always trump faith.”
Throughout his lengthy polemic, Professor Highton, an avowed atheist, argued emphatically, in some paragraphs convincingly, against the hypocrisy that pervades religion.
In America we are free to believe as we choose, whether in the existence of a supreme being or in the lack thereof. Although the United States was founded as a nation that does not endorse a particular religious system, the founders’ intention was not that Americans should live without a spiritual connection. In other words, separation of church and state does not mean that we ought to be ungodly.
In Professor Highton’s opinion, religion is contradictory to reason and science alone is reasonable. As attractive as that thesis may be, it is flawed. Religion is concerned with divine (spiritual) reason, whereas natural science is concerned with physical reason. I wonder if the professor has considered that humans do not reason by facts alone. Indisputable evidence is only as undeniable as the criteria by which mankind chooses to judge it, so to relegate the mind to a limited set of possibilities determined by man’s law, or natural law for that matter, would be to confine it to the ordinary. Furthermore, any theory that is confined to scientific or the rational thought of the mind and observable facts is limited by that mind.
The professor asserts that reason should infer atheism, that anyone who is educated and masters critical thinking would, logically, be compelled to reject the existence of God. I ask: when was academia ordained arbiter of America’s spiritual conscience?
I do agree with Professor Highton that it is rather farfetched to think that any god — especially one credited as being all loving and all knowing — would demand that certain members of the human family be discriminated against at his whim or for her pleasure. The idea that a divine agency would insist that African Americans be remanded to the proverbial back of the bus or be denied marriage in a so-called Christian congregation, that Sikhs, Muslims and Jews be killed for righteousness’ sake in attacks on their houses of worship, that homosexuals be punished to death in the name of Allah, that women be held subservient to their male counterparts in the interest of the good order of the home, or that followers of Jesus be attacked in a “holy war” — is beyond what constitutes true religion. Blind faith is certainly not reasonable.
Professor Highton is correct in exposing the sanctimonious platitudes of ardent “believers” — extremists, fundamentalists and traditionalists — who profess loving kindness while extolling discrimination, hate mongering, and marginalization, a la Chick-fil-A, as God’s will and Constitutional free speech.
The professor also makes a solid argument that faith alone may not be enough to support the existence of the divine, but he goes astray when he insists that a person’s rejection of or disenchantment with religion should constitute an unequivocal disbelief in a higher power. If he and other atheists were to see past their blind skepticism, they might realize that it is not the spirit that is to blame for unreasonable dogmas and theologies, but the interpreters and institutions that claim to represent it. Should God and all things spiritual be the victim of one’s disappointment in, as the Professor says, the “inventions of mankind”?
He cites the 20th century political activists Eugene Debs and Emma Goldman as examples of people who don’t need to believe in God to be a “magnificent human being.” They may well have been exemplary but so were Gautama Buddha, the Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa. They believed in a spiritual power greater than themselves. Did they suffer from a “failure of nerve and intellect,” as Professor Highton claims, or did they have access to a higher reasoning ability that defies mortal logic, a type of reason that the professor refuses to consider?
There is no evidence to show that disbelief in the spirit or rejection of a higher power has lessened the negative aspects of life to any degree. Wars, disease and dysfunction continue regardless of man-made ideologies of any kind. Perhaps it is to the spiritual that we should turn. According to the Professor, if we do we are nothing more than stupid, pretentious and hypocritical. This leaves us with a curious dilemma. We either reject the concept of a higher power altogether, maligning spirituality as nothing more than hocus-pocus, or we blindly believe in God as misguided rubes.
Humans should not be limited to one or the other and the mind should remain open to reconsidering the matter. It isn’t the proliferation of spiritual belief that is at issue; it is the propagation of ignorance both within and outside of the religious construct that is the crux of the problem. As human beings we should diligently work to understand the spirit for what it truly is — the self-organizing consciousness that underlies everything. It is time to redefine religion for a world in which humanity’s collective conscience can no longer allow itself to be subject to the notion that conditional love is God’s Love.
Column Note: Sean Savoy will be lecturing on this and related topics in Reno September 27 and 28. To learn more, visit www.spiritualstateoftheworld.org.
THE LIGHT FACTOR by Sean Savoy is a featured column written for Reno Tahoe Tonight magazine on spirituality, consciousness, science, energy and adventures into the unknown. Sean Savoy is a spiritual educator, ordained minister, radio personality, explorer, writer, editor, and public speaker, who lectures in the United States and abroad.
The following from the Secret Gospel of John. Translation by Frederik Wisse.
Straightway, while I was contemplating these things, behold, the heavens opened and the whole creation which is below heaven shone, and the world was shaken. I was afraid, and behold I saw in the light a youth who stood by me. While I looked at him, he became like an old man. And he changed his likeness (again), becoming like a servant. There was not a plurality before me, but there was a likeness with multiple forms in the light, and the likenesses appeared through each other, and the likeness had three forms.
He said to me, “John, John, why do you doubt, or why are you afraid? You are not unfamiliar with this image, are you? – that is, do not be timid! – I am the one who is with you (pl.) always. I am the Father, I am the Mother, I am the Son. I am the undefiled and incorruptible one. Now I have come to teach you what is and what was and what will come to pass, that you may know the things which are not revealed and those which are revealed, and to teach you concerning the unwavering race of the perfect Man. Now, therefore, lift up your face, that you may receive the things that I shall teach you today, and may tell them to your fellow spirits who are from the unwavering race of the perfect Man.”
And I asked to know it, and he said to me, “The Monad is a monarchy with nothing above it. It is he who exists as God and Father of everything, the invisible One who is above everything, who exists as incorruption, which is in the pure light into which no eye can look.
“He is the invisible Spirit, of whom it is not right to think of him as a god, or something similar. For he is more than a god, since there is nothing above him, for no one lords it over him. For he does not exist in something inferior to him, since everything exists in him. For it is he who establishes himself. He is eternal, since he does not need anything. For he is total perfection. He did not lack anything, that he might be completed by it; rather he is always completely perfect in light. He is illimitable, since there is no one prior to him to set limits to him. He is unsearchable, since there exists no one prior to him to examine him. He is immeasurable, since there was no one prior to him to measure him. He is invisible, since no one saw him. He is eternal, since he exists eternally. He is ineffable, since no one was able to comprehend him to speak about him. He is unnameable, since there is no one prior to him to give him a name.
“He is immeasurable light, which is pure, holy (and) immaculate. He is ineffable, being perfect in incorruptibility. (He is) not in perfection, nor in blessedness, nor in divinity, but he is far superior. He is not corporeal nor is he incorporeal. He is neither large nor is he small. There is no way to say, ‘What is his quantity?’ or, ‘What is his quality?’, for no one can know him. He is not someone among (other) beings, rather he is far superior. Not that he is (simply) superior, but his essence does not partake in the aeons nor in time. For he who partakes in an aeon was prepared beforehand. Time was not apportioned to him, since he does not receive anything from another, for it would be received on loan. For he who precedes someone does not lack, that he may receive from him. For rather, it is the latter that looks expectantly at him in his light.
“For the perfection is majestic. He is pure, immeasurable mind. He is an aeon-giving aeon. He is life-giving life. He is a blessedness-giving blessed one. He is knowledge-giving knowledge. He is goodness-giving goodness. He is mercy and redemption-giving mercy. He is grace-giving grace, not because he possesses it, but because he gives the immeasurable, incomprehensible light.
“How am I to speak with you about him? His aeon is indestructible, at rest and existing in silence, reposing (and) being prior to everything. For he is the head of all the aeons, and it is he who gives them strength in his goodness. For we know not the ineffable things, and we do not understand what is immeasurable, except for him who came forth from him, namely (from) the Father. For it is he who told it to us alone. For it is he who looks at himself in his light which surrounds him, namely the spring of the water of life. And it is he who gives to all the aeons and in every way, (and) who gazes upon his image which he sees in the spring of the Spirit. It is he who puts his desire in his water-light which is in the spring of the pure light-water which surrounds him.
“And his thought performed a deed and she came forth, namely she who had appeared before him in the shine of his light. This is the first power which was before all of them (and) which came forth from his mind, She is the forethought of the All – her light shines like his light – the perfect power which is the image of the invisible, virginal Spirit who is perfect. The first power, the glory of Barbelo, the perfect glory in the aeons, the glory of the revelation, she glorified the virginal Spirit and it was she who praised him, because thanks to him she had come forth. This is the first thought, his image; she became the womb of everything, for it is she who is prior to them all, the Mother-Father, the first man, the holy Spirit, the thrice-male, the thrice-powerful, the thrice-named androgynous one, and the eternal aeon among the invisible ones, and the first to come forth.”
