NEWS
First I want to thank everyone on this list for your continued interest in Meru Foundation's work, and for your patience.  This is our first eTORUS since November 2001.  Like many other people and projects, our lives and work have been affected both by the events of September 11 and the resulting economic downturn here in the United States, and the continuing violence in the Middle East, which is wearing both emotionally and spiritually for a great many people.

One of the impulses which led Stan to begin this work was a desire to respond to violence by posing new ideas, which offer more fruitful ways of viewing the situations in which violence arises.  Last November, we posted a very early version of our vision for a World Peace Plaza, incorporating a "gesture-garden" with the Hebrew alphabet-gestures included among other traditional, sacred gestures and dance.  While the Peace Plaza was originally inspired by the "ground zero" site in New York,  it is appropriate for any world city.

We now have a slightly more polished version of this piece in PDF format, posted at www.meru.org/ArchProp/ArchProp.html.  We have added a new poster, titled The Light in the Meeting Tent -- Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in Jerusalem.  (This poster is also online at www.meru.org/Posters/JCI.html.  It presents a visual model for viewing the main cultural "players" in the Middle East -- the three Abrahamic faiths -- as dynamic, individual, interrelating elements of a single unified system.  An earlier essay, The Three Pillars of Love at www.meru.org/Newsletter/3pillarsoflove.html describes some aspects of this three-part unity.  The new poster illustrates the dynamics visually, and is a "companion piece" both for the Three Pillars of Love, and for the Architectural Proposal.

Please take another look at the Architectural Proposal, the Three Pillars of Love, and the new Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in Jerusalem poster.  Let us know what you think.

NEW EASY LINKS TO CODY'S BOOKS from MERU'S READING LIST
In December 2001, Meru Foundation announced that we had formed an associates relationship with Cody's Books, one of the West Coast's largest independent booksellers.  Cody's is a Berkeley, California "institution," with a long history of community involvement in this unique and colorful city.  They are also independently owned (unlike the mega-retailers), and responsive to their customers' needs.

As an associate of Cody's, Meru Foundation receives a percentage of every sale resulting from our referral.  Now, we have keyed the Meru Foundation Reading list directly to the Order pages at Cody's Books.  Clicking on the link below each book will take you directly to that book's description at Cody's, and automatically notes that you arrived through one of Meru Foundation's websites.  You can order your book -- and then, if you like, shop the rest of  the Cody's Books online website.  Meru Foundation will receive a percentage of each book you order on that visit to Cody's (whether it's on our reading list or not).

This is an easy way to find and order books that will help you understand the Meru material -- nearly every book on our reading list is available through Cody's, either in stock or by special order (except, of course, for those which are out of print).  And if you have questions regarding a particular book, Cody's also offers individualized customer service.  Ira Steingroot, manager of Cody's Educational Sales and expert on Judaica, and a member of Meru's Advisory Board, will answer questions and make book recommendations in Judaica (and other subjects) for Meru Foundation customers. To contact Ira Steingroot, send email to ira@codysbooks.com.

We will be adding new books to our online reading list, now that the "direct-link" ordering mechanism from Cody's is in place.

You can reach the Meru Foundation reading list in two locations:
www.meru.org/readlist.html  and
www.meetingtent.com/merureadinglist.html

POSTER and POEM: The 22-Letter Alphabet
Continuing the theme from the last issue of eTORUS, we have another example of "accidental poetry" that results from examining aspects of this work.  We've recently added a new poster to the Meru website:  Twenty-Two Turns - From the Absolute to Adam Kadmon.  This poster "decants" the alphabet, letter by letter, in an attempt to sensibly express the process of moving from one letter-meaning (one feeling) to the next.  This poster can be found at www.meru.org/Posters/AdamKadmon.html.

NEW ARTICLE PUBLISHED
I am pleased to announce that Stan Tenen's article, The Shape of Information: How to Talk to an Extra-Terrestrial, has now been published in Volume 3, Number 2 of the Noetic Journal.  Readers may remember an early version of the abstract for this piece, published in eTORUS Number 7.  The complete article is now available on the Meru website at www.meru.org/Noetic/ShapeofInfo2002.html.  A Journal-reprint version of this article is available in PDF format at www.meru.org/Noetic/ShapeofInfo.html.

You may purchase the complete issue of the Noetic Journal directly from Meru Foundation's secure-server website, www.meetingtent.com, in both print and CD-ROM format.  (The Noetic Press compendium book, Science and the Primacy of Consciousness, is also available through www.meetingtent.com.  Below is the Abstract.

Abstract
Whether or not there actually are extra-terrestrials, it is worth considering what it would take to communicate with self-aware beings from thousands of light-years away in space, because this may shed light on how we can understand formal records (sometimes called "sacred") left for us by human civilizations thousands of (earth) years away in our own past.  For this reason we ask:  What if ancient, traditional, "sacred" numbers, letters, and symbols were, somehow, exactly what they meant?  This claim of intrinsic natural universal meaning is, after all, one of the claims generally made.  Usually these claims are easily dismissed, or they are reduced to the trivial by interpretations that explain them away as vestiges of numerology, gematria, and mythological meaning.  This essay attempts to outline an alternative view.  We find that the natural geometry of the cosmological, quantum-mechanical, and personal information gradients of all information systems follows the same topology, and can take the same geometric form.  At the quantum-mechanical level, we find the twice-around orbit of the Dirac String Trick gives us a pair of spiral vortices, and Arthur M. Young's 3-turn torus-hypersphere model of the photon-which he relates to the quantum of personal choice-gives us a similar set of spiral vortices.  At the cosmological level, the negentropic star-plant-planet information-gradient described by Roger Penrose takes the same form.  And at the personal level, our human hands, which are the form(s) we use to project our choices into the world, can also be idealized by the same spiral vortex form(s). In all three cases, cosmologically "as above," quantum-mechanically "so below," and in the middle on the "earth plane" where we live, we find the negentropic information gradient takes the same form-and this form shows up throughout ancient symbolism and at the root of the three great "sacred alphabets" in the Western traditions.

BOOK REVIEW:  Constantine's Sword
I recently finished a book that I highly recommend:  Constantine's Sword, by James Carroll.  A former priest, Carroll wrote this in-depth history of Catholicism's relationship with Judaism and the Jewish people because he wanted to uncover the origins of European anti-Semitism in church doctrine and practice.  And also, Carroll wants to present his readers with turning-points in history where, if Catholicism had chosen the "road not taken," a different history -- with far less human suffering -- might have occurred.

In this well-researched book, Carroll walks us from 30 CE Jerusalem through medieval Europe to the present day, alternating with the growth, over twenty years, of his own personal awareness of anti-Semitism buried in the Catholicism he grew up with and loved.  Carroll consistently reminds his readers that independent Jewish life and thought has existed alongside mainstream Christian civilization in Europe for two thousand years, owing nothing to the Church's explanations (different, in different ages) as to why, despite the triumph of Christianity in Europe, Jews simply refused to disappear.

This book is an education for both Christian and Jewish readers, and by presenting some basic truths of history, takes a concrete first step towards the self-awareness required for any meaningful dialogue.  Also, Carroll is an excellent a writer.  Even at 600+ pages (plus scholarly notes), I found this book to be a real page-turner. It's been a long time since I've read a work of history that I could hardly put down -- or stop thinking about once I was done.  "Constantine's Sword" is a must-read for anyone wanting new background for understanding some of today's worst world conflicts.  I can't recommend it highly enough.

I hope you enjoy this Meru Foundation eTORUS(tm) Newsletter.  We welcome your feedback; if you have questions, or suggestions, please don't hesitate to write me at:
Cynthia Tenen <meru1@well.com>

Thank you for your interest in the work of the Meru Foundation.

You may duplicate and pass along this newsletter, in its entirety, as long as you include this copyright notice and the contact information below. Please send comments and questions to <meru1@well.com>.

Meru Foundation research offices:
  Research Director: Stan Tenen    Secretary-Treasurer: Cynthia Tenen
  PO Box 503
  Sharon, MA 02067 USA
  781-784-8902 Voice    253-663-9273 Fax
  Email:  <meru1@well.com>
  Website: <http://www.meru.org>

How to order Meru Foundation Videos and Products:
  Visit our secure-server website at  <http://www.meetingtent.com>  OR
  Fax your order to 1-253-663-9273   OR
  Email: <meru-custsvc@sprynet.com>

To order by phone:
  In the U.S., call toll-free: 1-888-422-MERU (Cynthia Tenen, Meru Order Desk in Massachusetts)
  Outside the U.S., call 1-781-784-3462

EUROPEAN AND PAL VIDEO ORDERS:
  To order PAL versions of Meru Videotapes:
  Email: Ron Engert in Germany at <info@syntropia.de>
  German readers may now also visit Ron Engert's Meru website:
         <www.meru-info.de>