COMMUNICATION FROM ARKAY OF KORENDOR
Date of reception: 2 May 1989
Love and light, my Terran friends. Welcome to the opener in this second series of messages, lessons or whatever you might elect to call them. It seems appropriate at this time to respond to a number of questions that have been posed to me over the months since I became involved in this work.
Let me preface this second series by making a short observation on the Alliance's intentions and how these messages relate to this program.
Those of you who have the first series know what the UWA is not. We offer no promises to descend from the heavens in a multitude of ships to save mankind from their own errors and undoing.
Whatever is the intention of the Confederation, the Ashtar Command and the others that have made statements of that sort, the UWA is not involved in those matters. Our task here is not to gather a select few to be evacuated out of danger, but rather to work in your society to eliminate the problems that might cause such a catastrophe.
My communications will reflect our orientation to the physical aspects of life, with proper attention to God's laws as they apply to the universe. The Alliance has a spiritual foundation but our work is in the "here and now".
You will not find here the typical concentration on vibrations, energies, crystals and the other elements of the channeled teachings. This is not to say that we disapprove of them or challenge the validity of that approach, but only that we do things differently.
We believe that there is room in the New Age for many diverse methods of attaining peace. Ours is to make it happen by working within the societal infrastructures of those worlds that we find worthy candidates for membership.
If your interest is in the etheric realms, in meditation, in metaphysics or so on, then we heartily approve of your efforts. We must, however, advise you that you will have to seek them elsewhere. And now, let me begin this evening's session.
A question that you have raised deals with our names. In many instances one finds a commonality in our way of naming ourselves no matter what worlds we call home. Often it is a single, hyphenated name, such as Astra-Lari or Orii-Val. Are these our actual names? Do we use names in the same way as you of Earth?
Speaking now of the Alliance, we do not rely on names to the extent that you do. For example, we do not use them in any form of official identification. At birth, every Alliance citizen is assigned a Universal Economics ID Code, equivalent in function to your Social Security numbers. The "Unecode" is our lifelong method of identification. It is also the security code transmitted by our implants.
Names are primarily for those uses where the absolute accuracy of the Unecode is not required. This is very like Earth, where there may be many who are called John Smith or Mary Jones, which on a large scale can obviously lead to confusion of a high order.
The names that we employ in our communications with you are phonetic equivalents. My Korendian name is thus an approximation of Delin-Trevar. As well, although we seldom use them on other worlds, we all have family or "Lineage" names, surnames, if you will.
Mine is Mirrak, Orii-Val's is Denora, Astra-Lari is of the Lineage of Setarr, and so forth. We seldom find a need to use them in contacting you, because there is little chance of names being duplicated in that capacity.
However, Masters are always known by their full names as a distinction or sign of station. Thus there is the Master Kalen-Li RETAN amongst those of the Korendian team. To distinguish between Masters and the High or Elder Masters, the latter use capitalized surnames. You will note in Bob's 1960s contact reports, Kalen-Li's surname was not capitalized. This is because he was elevated to the stature of Elder Master in the mid 1970s.
In answer to a question that may well arise, there are fully as many women as men who have attained the most honorable status of Master. Amongst us, there is no "feminist" movement. We have never entertained the peculiar notion that one's gender is a cause for differentiation or bias. We simply know that we are all humans, and live that philosophy. Thus, Master is the proper designation for men and women alike, without the merest thought of it being a "sexist" word.
The next question: are there any truly non-human races in the Alliance?
This depends entirely on one's conception of "non-human". If by this is meant species that are physically unlike the customary humanoid form, then the answer is definitely yes. Many such races are long-time members of our group, yet are so unlike us in their appearance that in some instances one might fail to recognize them as being life forms.
We prefer to define human in an all-encompassing manner: a human is a being of whatever form that shares the common bonds of love, compassion, hope, faith, happiness, all those wonderful facets of the human spirit that make life in God's kingdom worth living.
Still, within the known universe are a number who by even our far wider definition are not thought of as human. Often they are beings of incredible advancement and knowledge, but they are utterly non-human in their customs and philosophies. Yet, they are often quite humanoid in form. Appearance deceives.
This may seem to contradict a statement in the first series, about human beings on every world with life. I was referring to Alliance worlds, but neglected to note the fact at the time. Please excuse the oversight.
We engage in trade and cultural exchange with them, but they have no link with us other than the physical and economic. They do not seek nor do we press them for membership. We ask once, and if they decline we go on with our affairs on that basis.
The answer then is that, by our definition, there are no non-human races in the Alliance. However, your limited view of what constitutes an alien or a non-human being might cause you great discomfort or fear in the presence of many of the species that we call our brothers in the Alliance.
This is one of the many ways in which your people must expand their consciousness and understanding in the coming "New Age". It is well to enhance the spiritual and "cosmic" aspects of your minds and souls, but it is vital that you accept that you are not the only species in the infinite realms of space.
You are human beings with all the virtues and failings that are found in countless races throughout the known and the yet unknown universe. Many of these people -- yes, they are indeed people -- would be utterly beyond your comprehension, but in the wholeness of God, we are all equal, all family.
In short, if on some lonely night you're travelling down a seldom-used back road, and there appears in the sky a glowing object that descends to a landing in front of you, from which a strange creature exits and comes toward you, extend your hand in welcome. After all, it would be the human thing to do!
The next question is rather less weighty than the last, but life is not, after all, forever serious. It deals with the intimate subject of romance. When Korendians fall in love and seek a life together, how do we go about it? With your month of June, so long the traditional time for such matters, fast approaching as this is being transcribed, it is an appropriate moment for the topic.
When the moment arrives for our betrothal, though each family may know the other chosen one very well, a very old formal process takes place. It begins at the home of the bride, with all of her family in attendance. There are what we call the "Old Words" that are spoken, not as a legal requirement, but just because in our vast, complex scientific culture we find much comfort and continuity in preserving our past.
The father meets the couple at the door, and the first words are spoken by the bride-to-be. We will use Daron-Tora as the name of her man, and Demarr as her family surname.
"Father, I am pleased to present Daron-Tora. Daron-Tora, I am privileged to present my father."
"I welcome you to my home in love and light, Daron-Tora."
"In love and light, your welcome honors me."
The Words are then repeated with her mother, and then with the rest of the family as a group. With this done, the young man is now accepted into the family as an integral member.
About an hour of informal talk follows, usually with drinks and light snacks served by the children of the family. There is always background music, a series of ancient melodies that were composed for this formal occasion, and always played on original instruments to preserve their essence.
After the hour, the family departs and the lovers follow her parents into the parlor. They are seated in the curved sofa that is a fixture in all Korendian homes. In the center is a large round table, holding a silver tray with four crystal goblets and a pitcher of what we call "pera trala", freely translated, "sweet oil". The bride pours and serves, then takes her place across the table from her man, with her parents between them, her father seated next to him.
There may or may not be further social conversation, but ultimately they will return to the Old Words, with her father speaking.
"Cherished daughter, you bring honor to the Lineage of Demarr. Your chosen one has found favor."
"You have made my love whole, revered father."
"Son in spirit, we accept you in love and light."
"You have made my life whole."
"My children, may the Infinite One guide you in all your days. Go in peace and love."
With that, the couple usually will leave to be alone with their thoughts, their betrothal now half-completed. The formality will be repeated at the home of the man the next day, to "seal" it.
Such things may seem "corny" to a sophisticated, worldly Terran, but as you plunge headlong into the rapidly changing future, you will discover that there is much to be said for holding on to the traditions of the old ways. A race that preserves its heritage is a race that will meet the unknown with courage and comfort.
The period of "pre-joining" is indefinite, but is typically about two to three months in your terms. During those days, the couple will choose a home, prepare for the joining and so forth. It is a very full time for them, and many will be the nights that they will return to their homes happy but weary. Their families will always be supportive, but will never interfere in the process. If errors are made, they are a part of life, and savored for the valuable lessons learned.
At last, the day of the joining arrives. Because we have no churches as you know them, our ceremony takes place in the "Chamber of Unions" in one of the city's government centers. Given the sterile, lifeless image that such a facility may well present to you, this might seem a not especially romantic setting for the event, but it is where joinings have always been done.
The Chamber is devoted solely to the purpose, and is a veritable journey into Korendor's past. Antiquity is the rule here. The furnishings, the decor, everything within the Chamber is from our history. The clothing worn by all is patterned after the garments of those early days. From beginning to end the joining is a recreation of rites that served our parents and theirs into the days when the Old Words were new.
The families arrive first. A chime sounds three times to annouce to them the presence of the couple.
They come separately, carried to the Chamber in small, flower-trimmed carriages pulled by two men, usually friends of the couple, as did their distant ancestors. They arrive together and follow the High Magistrate into the Chamber.
The ceremonial music then begins, played on what you might well call a pipe organ. The attendees stand to face the entrance, the couple clasp hands and proceed toward the raised platform in the center where the Ceremony of The Joining will take place.
For about ten minutes, there is a formal exchange that is far too detailed for this limited space. The Union is done with Old Words that sing with such serene beauty that they bear repeating.
M: "Woman of my life, our hearts beat as one."
W: "Man of my life, our souls become as one."
M: "Cherished love, I am yours until the stars cease to glow."
W: "Cherished love, I am yours until the last moment of time."
M: "We are one beyond eternity."
W: "Beyond forever we are one."
M: "My love is complete."
W: "My life is complete."
With her last words, the two are joined. The Magistrate then performs a brief legal recitation, and the rest of the day is devoted to celebrating. The "reception", if you will, is held in the courtyard of the Chamber, in every way as historically authentic as the room itself.
Dancing, song-fests, and general merry-making consume the afternoon all too quickly. As Korena drops below the horizon, the newlyweds bid their guests farewell and are off to whatever place they have chosen to begin their life together. The families usually depart to the home of the bride's family to continue their socializing long into the night.
If this seems much like the way by which your people are wed, then you must remember what I said earlier: we are all kin in the family of God. As humans, we cherish the same things. We hold to our past far more tenaciously than you, perhaps, but this is only because we have grown so far beyond it that were it not for this strong link with our early days, we would soon be overwhelmed by the pace of change.
Your time will come. Your society is at the point where it will grow in technology and knowledge more rapidly than you can adapt to it. You will find the same longing for your antiquity that we know so well. Do not fight it. Accept it. You will learn that it is the only means you have of preserving your sanity.
The last subject is one that I was asked about some months ago, and is our opinion of drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Although I believe that my response is not likely to be surprising, I shall nonetheless offer our viewpoints and "let the chips fall where they may". If in the course of this text I appear to deviate from the subject, please stay with me. Everything to follow bears on the central point that I will make.
These "habits" are to us at once amazing and unsettling. We have tried often, without success, to fathom the reasoning that persuades an otherwise rational human being to ingest into his or her body substances that numerous remonstrations from your medical and scientific professionals have made abundantly clear are hazardous if not deadly to your wellbeing.
Is there within your psychological makeup some undetected niche, some deep and secret recess wherein there resides the same suicidal stimulus that drives the lemmings to march to their death in the waters of the sea? Is there some ingrained feeling of immortality that disables common sense and logic in the matters of health?
Whatever the force that governs this self-destructive behavior, it is assuredly not the universal reverence for life that guides my people. We just cannot conceive of the motivations for this, but we must conclude that on the microcosmic scale it represents the malaise of spirit and soul that sorely afflicts your society as a whole.
Once more, you may decide that I am "treading on toes". If this disturbs you, then you have two options: stop reading now and use this computer for the mindless diversions that are so popular, or press on and ask yourself why the facts are so painful to digest just because they come from an outside source. I believe you will find more than a little intrusion of pride and defensiveness in such a response.
If the opinions of an outsider to your world are considered from a purely logical viewpoint, you will see that we can be far more objective than your people about your difficulties. We do not live in the society that breeds such problems, and can therefore study them and offer possible courses of action based on that isolation. With that in mind, let us continue.
This is not the first time that this particular message was composed. Twice before I sent the text of this question-and-answer session, and twice developments in your nation have caused those messages to be rethought. It is this very segment that has engendered the rewritings.
The news of your country is alive this day with the ghastly, unthinkable story of a group of youths in your city of New York, whose definition of "fun" is vicious abuse and sexual defilation of a woman. Aware though we are of the evils that a society that has abandoned morality suffers, this event horrified us nevertheless, because it sounded new depths of human baseness and ugliness far beyond our direst imaginings.
Yet, can one truly say that is was an unexpected crime? We fear not. Your "modern" lifestyle, with its emphasis on unfettered freedom without control or responsibility, has provided fertile ground for the growth of such depraved behavior. We do not for an instant make excuses for this wantonly brutal act, but we submit to you that such horrors are not only probable but inevitable.
Again I point the accusing finger directly at the heart of this fearsome degradation: amorality. In this "day and age", the very concept of morals is at best passe, scorned and rejected as "repressive of the human spirit". How terrible it is to demand that people be accountable for their actions, and that they base their lives on high principle rather than on instant carnal pleasure.
Yet, as the daily news reports so lucidly exhibit, amorality is the seed of immorality. When a human being is no longer governed by the eternal truths, when he or she is enslaved by the lusts of the flesh rather than enveloped by the love of God, that person loses all sense of reason. The meaning of life is lost. The value of life is forgotten.
Why do people ingest dangerous chemicals? Not for lack of knowledge of their effects. Why do people wantonly abuse or kill? Not for lack of knowing that it is wrong. In either case, they are victims of a moral vacuum. Whether it is one's own body that is assailed, or that of another, no longer is it sacred. No longer is the body perceived as a way-station for immortal spirits on the long journey to eternal life.
Instead, it has become a shell, a thing that lives and dies and is gone. In that context, there is nothing very special or important about it, and if one finds pleasure, however hazardous or bizarre, in endangering the body, then that person finds nothing wrong in so doing, the consequences be damned.
Thirty young people raised in this atmosphere of "anything goes" found a sadistic form of enjoyment in the pain and torment of a helpless woman. The agony she endured was not theirs, so they did not care. The anguish that they inflicted on her was nothing to them because they were never taught the human fundamentals that I cited -- love and compassion and mercy. More than that, they were reared in a society that in its quest to be "modern" has forsaken its need for God.
Without God and His infinite love, what is there to satisfy the cravings of the soul? Is not the major reason offered for drugs, alcohol and tobacco that in using them one finds pleasure? Substitute happiness for pleasure, and you will know what mankind is seeking. However, "modern" intellectualism has no idea where to search for it.
Because your society has expelled God from its way of life, your people can no longer find joy in their hearts at knowing the love that He provides to those who seek Him. Yet, joy is one of the human being's most basic needs.
In your futile quest to substitute worldly pleasure for the perfect joy of being united with God, you indulge in chemicals that distort your perspective and deliver a false euphoria. This sham pleasure is your illusion of happiness.
We of other worlds find true joy and peace in His all-embracing arms. We have no need of the deceptive pleasures that "chemical dependency" provides at a dear price to the body and soul. God is the only source of our happiness. In knowing Him, our lives are fulfilled.
If you like what you see happening to your nation and the world, if you find comfort in the daily reports of war, death, violence, environmental disaster, and the other ills that have befallen your planet and your people, then it would be useless to attempt to convince you that there is a better way of life.
If, however, you are as distressed as we believe you must be, then it is time to act. It begins with returning to God. It cannot be clearer than that.
In my next message, it will be my privilege to offer some insights into the religious beliefs and practices of the Korendian people. I do hope that you will find as much pleasure in reading about our love of God as I will have in presenting it to you.
Va i luce, and peace be yours.
I am ArKay.
© 2008 Robert P. Renaud -- all rights reserved