I did not attend the protests myself. I am a believer that change comes from with in and any external action even a ‘demonstration’ is a threatening move that will result in a counter move. My knowledge of the protests comes from personal stories from my son and friends.

All day Thursday I was receiving messages on my cell phone about groups that were gathering on Friday after prayers to demonstrate. I responded to each one with the same answer. That I do not believe in the concept of outward action, we first need inward change, but that I supported them in following what they believed in. so it was no surprise to wake up Friday morning to discover that the cell phones and internet were no longer working.

I found it very naive that people were outraged about this. What did they expect? If you are using this to plan against the government they will turn them off! Each side needs to stack the deck to their own advantage. They aren’t going to make it easy for you. This is a situation that has the potential to get way out of hand. Especially as more people get involved.

After Friday prayers people began to gather. The plan was to all march to Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. It was meant to be a protest, a show of disapproval of how the government is running the country, to be peaceful, no violence. My son reported that is began this way. People gathered on the bridges going to downtown. Every one was chanting ‘peace’ and making the peace sign. As long as people were chanting and walking the police would retreat and let them move forward. When someone began getting violent throwing stones, the police would push the crowd back. Immediately the crowd would reprimand that person and stop them. When all was calm again they were allowed to proceed.

I found this fascinating. Because this again is the concept of inner change, but on a larger scale, that of a group. The group its self became an entity with an internal regulatory correcting system.

Another friend reported a similar experience in relation to the point or purpose of the demonstration which was about the government, not religion. When anyone in the crowd began chanting about Islam or holding up a sign with a religious slogan the crowd removed it or stopped that person from continuing. This friend also commented that she felt the suicide bombing on New Years Eve, as tragic as it was, had created solidarity among the people. Right after the bombing Muslims began showing their outrage condemnation towards the event by going to churches on Coptic Christmas (January 7^th) to pray with the Christians. Since then there has been an effort on the part of many people to show that they are not aligned with this idea of religious separation.

This demonstration was not at all religious in nature and people made a great effort to make that clear. This was a wise move since all eyes would be on Egypt and the outside world always wants to make anything that happens in a predominantly Muslim country about religion. Yet at the same time when prayers were called the demonstration stopped everyone prayed together and then when prayers were finished the demonstration continued. So at the same time the demonstration was not religious in nature it was still respectful of peoples religious values, not an easy balance to attain. Well done.

But as all good things must come to an end, and some people will take advantage of any situation this attitude of peace and acceptance did not last. What is the saying ‘one bad apple spoils the whole bunch’. New participants, with a new agenda began to join the crowd and violence began to escalate. My son got a rubber bullet in the face when one participant decided to tackle the policeman holding the gun. That guy himself got a whole face full of rubber bullets and probably ended up in a hospital. At that point some people started throwing gasoline of the police and setting them on fire, others showed up with grenades and Molotov cocktails. It was at that point that the winds changed. The peaceful protesters declined to continue and the violent ones began their own version of ‘protesting’. The numbers declined but the intensity increased. What I was happy to hear was that those who did not agree with the new trend towards violence left the demonstration. They opted out rather than being dragged into the new wave.

I was at home maintaining my grounding and holding an intention for the highest good. And I have to say that I felt great peace. Even though I knew what was going on and I could hear shooting I never felt it was a ‘bad’ or fearful thing. And actually hearing the stories I think it is quite amazing. The potential for absolute chaos and destruction was immense. Yet people were focused on their intention and their goal. This to me indicates a tremendous shift in consciousness. The event was unprecedented when you think about the sheer numbers.

Although Tunisia was the inspiration for this protest they had a lot more casualties. So perhaps people are getting better at expressing their needs. It is interesting to note that Tunisia is at just about 12 degrees longitude. If you look at Carl Calleman’s work on the Mayan calendar (Calleman, The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness) he explains that one of the axis’s of the world tree is believed to be at 12degrees longitude and how all of history is a pulse moving away from and back to this axis at 12 degrees. We are at a point in history where we are moving back to the 12 degrees. So it is not surprising that this wave was initiated from Tunisia close to this point.

One of the other things that was very interesting, from a Metaphysical point of view, was how this started, with violence, but what kind? It began by people setting themselves on fire. Not suicide bombers or someone with a machine gun killing everyone in their way but self imposed transformation. And I don’t in anyway take this lightly, it is a horrible tragedy. But if we can just take a moment to look at what happened and gain as much awareness from the tragic events then perhaps some good can come out of their suffering.

Fire is a symbol of transformation or transmutation. My thoughts have gone a lot to Gandhi these days. His method of protest was hunger strikes which were self imposed, not the destruction of others. Although seeing someone set themselves on fire must be a horrible sight it does not include the destruction of others and does include the symbolism of fire. So maybe it truly is a time of transformation and hopefully we can do it in a less violent way that setting ourselves on fire.

Here each day brings a different challenge. Today it is looting. Seems the prisoners were released from jail and are looting Cairo. Last night they looted a mall today we got word that they were on their way to our part of town, Zamalek. Zamalek is an island between down town and the other bank of the Nile Mohandeseen and Giza. The police have withdrawn, the bridges are open. There was a curfew starting at 4:00pm.

I had gone out earlier to buy groceries and found the front of the store boarded up. I called my son (the cell phones are now working), he was out and I thought he could tell me if it was worth wandering around to find another store or they were all closed. He told me he was on his way home. And everything was closed. When he got home I got the details about the curfew and the looting.

I decided it might be a good idea to close all the shutters if there was looting and burning. I stepped out on the balcony to close the shutters and found my nephew and all the bowabs (porters/doormen) they were all carrying shumas (clubs). They were ready to protect Zamalek. It made me smile and feel safer. Most of the bowabs are from Upper Egypt ‘saidies’. Later my son went down and joined them.

It was quite amazing. As evening progresses they had set up a network, a neighborhood watch, all over the island. There were men, both residence and bowaba, guarding the entrances to Zamalek, from the bridges. I felt lucky that we were on an island because there are limited entrances. Any car passing was stopped. People who had motor cycles patrolled the area. By now everyone seemed to know everyone else, one way to meet your neighbors.

Having lived in the countryside I know if you need men to protect you, Egyptian men are the ones to have. They are programmed to defend. And I have to say, not knowing where our future is taking us neither in the next few days or the next few years it is something to think about. I always felt safe in the countryside as I do now being protected by our men.