STYLE WEEKLY
Review
of Destiny Unveiled, February 26, 2007
NEW WORD ORDER
Author
Sylvia Clute addresses
questions of
law, benevolent government
and George
Washington in
the kitchen.
by
Valley Haggard
We've
all heard the story of the female trial attorney who, fed up with defending child
molesters and corrupt plastic surgeons, is molested by her corrupt boss and then flees to the country where she renovates an old farmhouse and learns how to garden. Very John Grisham. The story line of Richmonder Sylvia Clute's book,"Destiny Unveiled," takes a turn away
from that traditional disillusioned lawyer novelwhen the heroine, Christi Daniel, begins to have afternoon tea and cookies withFounding Father George Washington!
Any
reader who balks at Mr. Washington's ability to access
multiple dimensions for the delivery of the Seven Spiritual Principles
for Governing a People should read the author's bio before getting the New-Age heebie-jeebies and moving on.
In
"Destiny Unveiled," Clute deftly weaves her
knowledge of Masonic symbolism,quantum physics, the
Constitution and our current legal system with her own vision
of
how to create a government that could unite in peace, love and restorative (rather than
vengeful) justice.
"The
main struggle that I've written about in 'Destiny Unveiled' is in moving from
one world into another,” Clute says. "It's not always easy, but for me,
the decision hasdefinitely been
made."
The author's
interpretations of Govern ing a People stem from an interest in those forces
that govern everything, from people to particles. But it started with the law.
Clute
has had a successful career as both a trial attorney and co-founder of the onlywomen's bank in the South. With a master's degree
in public administration from theUniversity of California at Berkeley, she was one of a few women to enter Boston's University
School of Law in 1970 (at the age of 27.) Shortly after 9/11, at the age of 60, Clute
received her second master's degree in
public administration from Harvard.
But
it was her investigation into the history of the
Freemasons, the field of quantum physics and
the practices of holistic medicine that inspired Clute to abandon her law career, become a
novelist and seek alternative solutions to what she sees as the United States' model of vengeance-as-law.
"In
the 1980s I realized that every case I took involved a breach of relationship atthe center. But everything I had learned to do as a lawyer just made it worse. I began to look for different models of study,” Clute says. “For example, I
hadoriginally been taught the
Newtonian model of science, so I began to read quantumphysics, which
raised a lot of questions."
Dude,
the dollar bill's
got, like, hidden meanings
and stuff?Lawyer-novelist Sylvia Clute
considers some of
those dorm-room mysteries undefined plus, like, how
quantum physics is
awesome undefined in her novel
of spirituality and law,
"Destiny Unveiled."
Questions about the meaning
of everyday things. Although almost everyone with
a dollar is familiar with the eyeball floating above the pyramid,
the phrase "Novus Ordo Seclorum" and the eagle clutching
arrows and a laurel branch, not everyone knows that these Masonic symbols stem from the mystical and universal beliefs
that our first president espoused when founding this country.
Clute began to
formulate seven principles that form
an alternative to "going for the jugular” as she was taught in law
school. Thus Clute's Seven Spiritual Principles that
time-traveling George Washington espous es in the novel.
Clute's message is getting out there.
In addition to her being endorsed by the Professors World Peace Academy, filmmaker Lucas Krost (winner of the 2006 CurrentTV Seeds of Tolerance award) is planning a documentary about Clute and differentstrategies for restorative justice.
Clute herself recently hand-delivered her book to 30 senators and congressmen, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
She's also created www.metaunited.org, promoting
positive public policy at home and
abroad for readers who want to get
involved. "I think we're at a crossroads, and either we make a major shift or we'll self-destruct," Clute
says. "It all depends on who steps up to be heard. If people can step
into the mode of love, it certainly can be done."
Clute
signs "Destiny Unveiled" March 10 at Barnes & Noble Short Pump, 9-1] a.m.; Barnes and Noble Brandermill, noon-2 p.m.; and Barnes & Noble Huguenot,3-5 p.m. There is a discussion and signing at the Fountain Bookstore March 13 at 6:30 p. m. For more information, visit www.destinvunveiled.com.
WORLD
& I
INNOVATIVE
APPROACHES TO PEACE
Review of Destiny
Unveiled, Spring 2007
ACT TWO FOR THE AMERICAN NATION
By
Gordon L. Anderson
Destiny
Unveiled Sylvia Clute Richmond, VA: New Founder’s
Press, 2006 308 pp., $28.95
Destiny
Unveiled is a timely book about
seven spiritual principles for governing a people. Written as fiction, it is a
thinly veiled account of the author’s own quest (she is a Virginia lawyer) to transform the
United States into a true world leader
rather than a sole superpower that acts unilaterally and alienates much of the
world. It is a story about Christie, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who becomes
disillusioned with her job of defending wealthy clients who have committed
serious crimes. Her conscience can no longer bear the moral duplicity of her
work. In the background setting of the story, the United States is the sole superpower,
and its President Powers is attempting to control the world’s resources by
force. The explosion of a radioactive bomb on Wall Street early in the book and
the fictitious plot to invade “San Ricaro” parallel the events of 9/11 and the
U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Christie has her
own spiritual destiny of discovering, or rediscovering, some eternal truths
about human life and politics. She leaves her job and purchases an old
farmhouse in Virginia. From one of the hills
on her land, George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon, can be seen. Through
intuition and “destiny” she acquires an old walnut table and a painting of
George Washington and returns the table to the same spot in her house where
meetings of Freemasons were held during the Revolutionary period. She also
finds Masonic regalia used by Washington hidden in the wall
alongside the fireplace.
This sets the
stage for Christie and her blind law partner, Hap, to “witness” a meeting in
which the spirits of the Masons return for a meeting in which Washington forgives Benedict
Arnold. Thereafter she receives periodic visits from George Washington, who
over time reveals to her the seven spiritual principles for governing a people.
Time is required for her to learn these principles, because old habits die
hard, and Christie’s mind is constantly engaged in a battle between the ways of
the old age and the coming New Age.
Love,
not fear These seven principles are alluded to in the Declaration of
Independence and are consistent with some of the tenets of Masonry; they are
still being perfected as humanity evolves. Christie learns that the Novus
Ordo Seclorum, (Latin for “New Order of the Ages”) referred to on
the dollar bill, the “Age of Aquarius” of the contemporary New Age movements,
and the prophecies of many cultures, including the Native American, explain a
coming time when the entire world will be able to live in harmony based on a
new level of human spiritual evolution. The United States is destined to usher in
this new age, and she is to be one of its prophets.
The first
spiritual principle, which is foundational, is “Fear shall not be used to
manipulate the people.” There are, she is told, two human responses to danger
and the unknown, fear and love. Fear, a negative emotion, protects, separates,
defends, blames, and leads to the attempt to control and dominate others and
one’s environment by force. Love, a positive emotion, recognizes and promotes
the interconnectedness and oneness of all things. Love heals, resolves
conflict, and seeks the well-being of everyone and the harmony of all things.
Love is the basis of true power, whereas control, based on fear, is the attempt
to gain power that oppresses others. Fear creates escalating cycles of violence
or economic depression love is the foundation of peace and prosperity.
Though it is not
cited in this book, the famous quote from Franklin Roosevelt’s inaugural comes
to mind: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Roosevelt himself was
a Freemason, and the “all-seeing Eye” appeared on the dollar bill in 1935,
while he was president.
When one
understands the first principle and the others that follow in the book, the
author hopes, one can look at the rhetoric of politicians and transparently
understand their true intentions. Further, if the general public can learn
these principles, politicians will no longer be able to control through fear or
in other ways mislead the public, even though they may attempt to carry out
their actions in secrecy.
The second
principle derives from the first: “Justice shall be delivered without
judgment.” Here, justice describes two contradictory forms of resolution for a
wrong. Justice as love, which is the ideal, brings about healing, restoration,
and reconciliation. It is based on digging beneath the physical events to the
spiritual source of the wrong actions. It sees everyone as interconnected and
the actions of one person as having a spiritual effect on everyone. In contrast,
justice as vengeance seeks to eliminate, separate, or use further violence to
pay back for an initial act of violence. These two forms of justice are
confused in the world today, and one of Christie’s tasks is to learn to sort
them out.
The other five
spiritual principles flow from the first two and from the view that there is
one God, the source of all, who created all people free and equal and capable
of governing themselves, and also created the world. Evil is ultimately
separation from God. E Pluribus Unumundefinedthe many are oneundefinedis a
principle that applies not only to the United States but to the entire world.
The destiny of the United States is to practice these
principlesundefineda perfection of the founding principlesundefinedand bring them, by way of
example, to the rest of the world.
A
vision, not a blueprint In this book, the actions of the United States and its officials never
rise above the levels of self-centeredness, power tripping, fear, warmongering,
and corruption. But this is not unexpected, for a government is made up of a
people and is a reflection of the people themselves. Thus, to change the way
things are, the people must first change themselves. Destiny
Unveiled is a call
for us to learn to live by these spiritual principles and to transform the
nation-state. Americans have this opportunity, thanks to the Constitution and
the political framework bequeathed to them by the founders.
It is natural
that a book like this should arise in a period in which the United States, like ancient Rome, has veered from being
perceived as a just republic admired by all to a selfish empire feared and
hated by others. Like the writings of Cicero, this book reflects on
the goodness of the old laws and virtues, which have been abandoned by people
caught up in greed and the lust for power.
Destiny
Unveiled is a vision of new
beginnings, not a blueprint. It is a plea for us to transform our ways and find
solutions that allow us to achieve a life of freedom and happiness as
envisioned in the Declaration of Independence. The book is not always clear on
whether the philosophy of an “eye for an eye” is the opposite of “turn the
other cheek” or a necessary step in the evolution of human consciousness. It
does not discuss in detail any corresponding physical principles for governing
a people, which are enshrined in the Constitution, especially checks and
balances on power. It does not discuss continual consolidation of federal power
at the expense of the states or amendments to the Constitution that have
removed some of the checks and balances the founders put into place. Nor does
it discuss the rise of the transnational economic institutions with more power
and wealth than many countries and religions. Any practical politics or a sound
platform for a political party that can put the nation on such a spiritual
course needs to address these issues.
However, as a
vision of the spirit of the society we should seek and principles that we
should each apply in daily life, Destiny Unveiled rings true. From the moment the nation
was founded, men have sought to abuse it, profit from it, and corrupt it. The
persistence of slavery, the inequality of women, and other problems that
existed despite that vision confirm that the founding was only a beginning.
Freemasonry provided an enlightened worldview in which all were created equal
by a single Creator. It sought to subject governments and courts to the laws of
the universe and to shape human laws that were a reflection of these higher
laws. This philosophy gave the laws far greater legitimacy in an earlier America than the current laws,
convoluted and packed with self-interest and inequity, have for Americans
today.
By the 1820s,
the Second Great Awakening was in full swing. It promoted narrow doctrines of
salvation that separated people from one another, as institutionalized religion
so frequently does when it is based on “control” rather than the true power of
love. Anti-Masonry and other forms of religious persecution were common, and
the Enlightenment principles, though centered on a transcendent God, were
frequently compared with atheism. Seeds of religious division were sown in the
name of goodness using principles of fear, much as today’s seeds of political
division are sown in the name of security using principles of fear. These
events have obscured the nation’s founding spirit, and its history has been
rewritten in ways that explain its founding as being based on the politics of
control.
Destiny
Unveiled calls people to a new
beginningundefinedone that develops and goes beyond what the founders of the United
States were able to accomplish, that purifies and heals the wounds of the past,
and that creates a culture in line with universal spiritual principles which,
when understood, lay bare the motives of political leaders. This book will
stimulate readers to think about how they can improve themselves, their
relationships, and their nation. I highly recommend Destiny
Unveiled to
readers of all ages.•
Gordon
L. Anderson is secretary general of
the Professors World Peace Academy. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
This review was
originally at http://www.worldandi.net/spring07/reviews.html