#peace movement
Military recruitment parody posters by Masturbate For Peace, 2002.
Though it didn’t enter World War I until 1917, the United States produced more posters in support of mobilization and civilian service than any other country. The government established a Department of Pictorial Publicity with 300 artists who were ordered to “draw until it hurts.”
The backlash fifty years later against the Vietnam War included the co-opting by activists of propaganda posters. They substituted anti-military themes, often featuring the slogan, “Make Love, Not War.”
Joan Baez and her sisters Mimi and Pauline posed for a poster challenging the popular notion that refusing to serve was cowardly or unmanly. Their message, that liberated women would have sex with draft dodgers, perhaps recalls the heroine Lysistrata, who organized a chastity movement among Greek wives to force peace negotiations.
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Dear friends, I know that our hearts are united in prayers for the people of Ukraine. Please join me at your altar, shrine or sacred space to chant for peace. Many devotional chants are mantras, single words or phrases repeated over and over. Mantras are truly indestructible positive energies, meaning that they remain in the universe indefinitely for the greater good of all. One of the most simple and powerful mantras we can chant is “Om Shanti.” “Om Shanti” is an ancient Sanskrit invocation for peace and is usually chanted three times to become “Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.”
Like many mantras, this one begins with “Om.” The word “Om” is believed to constitute the primal sound from which the universe constantly emanates. Chanting “Om” attunes us to the eternal oneness of all that is, unifying body, mind and spirit. The word “shanti” means a deep and profound level of peace. The meaning of “Om Shanti Shanti Shanti” is “Om, peace, peace, peace” – “peace of mind, peace in speech, and peace in the body.” It is also believed to harmonize the three lokas or cosmic realms: heaven, earth and the underworld.
When pronouncing “Om Shanti,” the “Om” should be allowed to resonate throughout the body including the cavities in the head. The “a” in the word “shanti” should be long and drawn-out like in the word “father.” The “a” is two beats long. The “t” in the word “shanti” should be pronounced pressing the tongue against the teeth; this sounds different than the English version of “t”. Breathe in through the nose and voice the sounds as you exhale through the mouth. When chanted with love, devotion and sincerity, the positive effects are greatly accentuated. Send that positive energy like a beam of light to the people of Ukraine. Imagine that light enveloping and protecting them. Click here to listen to the mantra pronunciation and performance. Here are 22 meaningful ways we can help Ukraine.
My fellow drummers, please join me at your altar, shrine or sacred space to drum and pray for the people of Ukraine. Our prayers do not have to be complex or eloquent; just simple and sincere from the heart. The power of prayer should never be underestimated. Words have the power to transform substance. As responsible human beings, let us affirm a world of peace, harmony and balance. Let us cultivate care for life and one another. See things as they are, in process of change, without fixation on imbalance. If we focus on conflict, we will get more conflict. However, if we focus on peace we will get more peace. As soon as we focus on a goal, the Universe will take us in that direction.
We can put our prayers into the drum and then send them out into the circle of life on the voice of the drum. The sound waves of the drum create a bridge to the spirit world. When we play a drum, the sound can be heard throughout all realms of the spirit world. Through the drum, we can engage the spirit world to effect specific changes in the physical world. All change begins in the spirit world and then is manifested in the physical world. In the shaman’s world, all human experience is self-generated. Experience is shaped from within since the creative matrix of the Universe exists within human consciousness. For the shaman, changing reality is not just an ability, but also a duty one must perform so that future generations will inherit a world where they can live in peace, harmony and abundance. Aho!
