Beaunity Newsletter #10

This week’s video about Unity comes through the lens of what Joseph Campbell argues all religions were trying to get across through distinct myths and symbols. Throughout their various texts, but taking the bible and teachings from the Buddha in this specific case.

Click the image above to find it on my site. (i am aware i need a better user journey here…in time). It’s ~3 mins illuminating what so many still get wrong: that we are somehow separate from Nature, God, the Universe, the Void – take your choice of word.

Oneness, from this lens, is a state of consciousness. (Well, isn’t everything?) One wherein an individual no longer senses themself as separate from other material and non-material forms. In our modern lives, we humans have been so caught up in Newtonian – material form – science that we’ve missed a LOT of the good stuff along the way.

Jo argues every religious myth, ultimately, is trying to say the same thing – that we are all God. Don’t let it go to your head ;-), but yes, you are God too! We are all inseparable from that which created and connects us all. Whatever we choose to call our own – even if you assign yourself to atheisim – it does NOT matter. They are all the Same. As are We.

i hope you find a way to feel this Truth in this life, while alive. The radiance IS behind all things. Including you. Along with some of the best art, you are PERFECT as you are. Know this. Love to you all!

Click the link on the album cover and see a growing list of perfect 10 records on my website so far. Musical masterpieces that, for their time, i feel were created from Source, can be played from start to finish without missing a track and also moved music forward for its time. As far as i know, it’s the first of its kind on the web.

Speaking of art that creates ‘awe.’ The Avalanches first album is a crate digging romance unlike anything before – save for maybe …entroducing by DJ Shadow – and certainly not since. Do electronic artists even dig in crates anymore? (Seriously, send me your favourite modern artist of the last ten years that’s doing this. Super curious).

At the time this was made, The Avalanches were two creators piecing this record together from different locations. They apparently sampled 3500 fragments from vinyl records they both collected and swapped to patch this masterpiece together over many years. A true labour of love. No wonder its sound stands alone. How art is created is as fascinating as the art itself for me.

This record sounds like a collection of happy accidents. It still stands as some of the most fun pop and electronic can get – without falling into bubblegum. Even Madonna, who reportedly never let her music get sampled – has allowed some of hers to stand here.

Art! Nothing like it before, nor since. Not even from them, sadly.

A week ago Saturday, at about 3 am, my girlfriend and i awoke to the sound of rockets being blown out of the sky over Lviv, in western Ukraine. Russia was launching what we came to understand was ~50 missiles and drones into the area we were staying in. About 15 missiles got through and hit targets about 1 km from where we slept, killing 6 people.

This is the closest i have ever been to war outside traveling through Palestine in 2010 and seeing the aftermath of it everywhere. Closest i’ve been to blasts from war, let’s just say this.

My girlfriend’s younger brother, Anton, and his girlfriend, Kate, were with us in the same apartment. Having lived in Kyiv throughout the war, they had alert systems on their smart phones warning us to get to shelter – corridors, underground subways, bathtubs or whatever is available – when larger missiles were heading in our direction. It was a surreal feeling to be lying in bed and hearing blast after sequential blast in the sky and then seeing our windows shake from the explosions that landed nearby.

And yet…i felt totally safe. We knew it wasn’t our time. i can’t explain why i felt this way, except to say that i have had premonitions about my future that i have yet to live in reality. It’s irrational, i know, but i generally operate from a state of permanent pronoia – which is the opposite of paranoia. Pronoia is the irrational belief that the Universe is conspiring completely in our favour.

Anton is 20 and can now leave Ukraine without being conscripted for war. They recently passed a law allowing men under 22 to leave freely. At 20, Anton has lived through almost 4 years of war – bombings every week and many nights sleeping in the metro underground – which was preceded by 3 years of Covid lock downs. May his 20’s be a time for peace, expansion and growth leaving his teen years to inform how lucky and grateful one can be to survive and thrive through such hardship without the accompanying ax to grind on those responsible for it. Time for some peace for this guy. He’s amazing.

What happens to us matters not nearly as much as how we choose to respond.

i am currently writing from Kyiv in Ukraine. This city, like Lviv, is incredible. But you can really feel the stress on the people here. Lviv is further west from Russia and doesn’t see civilians get shelled as often as they do here. It’s obviously not just big city stress and cost of living stress – the entire planet seems to be feeling that collectively – but stress from years of war as well. These are amazing people building amazing art, businesses and lives who just wish to be free in the ways so many strive for still today. Even in the West.

It’s a complex feeling to be freely enjoying this city – as i am in complete awe of its Beauty, particularly inside its active churches – and simultaneously witnessing the hardship on their faces.

Their monuments are shrouded in protective walls to save them from bombing. It’s heavy and light and beautiful and dark.

In any case, whatever you’re doing right now, consider stopping to appreciate what you have or maybe send some ‘i love yous’ to those closest to you.

To the new subscribers to my newsletter, i thank Eric, Michelle, Matt, Mackenzie (my little bro), Tessa, Sophie and – from the bottom of my heart – thank you Andreea for purchasing your copy of finding the Beauty way which is on track for an early 2026 release.

Sending you all so much love. Thanks for being here. i am you. More to come…