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In the Garden by the River—Joan Pancoe
“Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot”—Joni Mitchell
Dear ONE,
All of us, without exception, chose to be in a precious human incarnation at this particularly challenging time in human history. This is so, even if we don’t consciously remember our original soul contracts before entry.
The forgetting is part of the “master erase” that occurs for most of us just after we’re born, although some “buddha babies” can remember longer. It’s the “cosmic hide and seek” aspect of the Earth Game as expressed in the Vedic philosophy of Leela, divine play. For more on this: LEELA
So, why did over eight billion souls choose to be here now? Well, there’s nothing like immense amounts of global chaos, destruction and suffering pushing at us as “encouragement” to grow more internally strong and stable, to a greater extent than any lesser circumstances ever could. Think of it as spiritual resistance training.
It also helps to take into account the truth that Life is always the ultimate guru. In any difficult situations (which I call FGOs, aka fucking growth opportunities:)), it could only help to ask the question: “What’s the lesson here?” Even if it’s revealed to be primarily an inside job: Like learning how to cultivate faith and equanimity in the Flow—rather than caving into existential despair—regardless of external circumstances.
The vision that set the theme for this newsletter was downloaded through my channel system just before the Full Moon Eclipse on March 14. But, to make the most sense of it, it helps to look at some of the foundational ideas presented in my last offering:
KALI YUGA 2.0: Staying the Course Through an Epic Plutonian Death Rattle for the Ages
As I reiterated in this last newsletter, only about 2% of souls presently incarnate on the planet are capable of a full awakening, but all of us are here to heal karma at whatever level of mindful awareness we’re at.
Accordingly, what I’m about to share could be viewed as the basics of a Master Class in moving to the next level of the human evolution of consciousness. This teaching is firstly focused on being able to accept—AS IS—all the paradoxes, contradictions and polarities inherent in this plane of duality—no matter how seemingly absurd and unfathomable.
Then, to use this acceptance to internally mirror these fundamental 3D attributes to expand the capacity of our human emotional repertoire—from joy to sorrow, bliss to heartbreak—so that we can feel all these opposites simultaneously as our new normal. This allows us to stretch ourselves to our maximum range and depth of being most fully human.
“No tree can grow to heaven without its roots reaching down to hell. In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.”—Carl Jung
My metaphysical philosophy is: There’s only ONE BEING with billions of faces. The most similar western philosophy to this is pantheism, espoused by Spinoza and Einstein.
Another way to look at this viewpoint, which comes from ancient Taoist and Vedic sages, is that the Universe is made up of energy and that ALL ENERGY IS CONSCIOUS. My download felt like it was coming from the perspective of this ONE BEING of consciousness.
In this vision, the ONE saw all beings on the earth plane as integral and unique expressions of this Oneness—like waves in an infinite cosmic ocean of consciousness. Far beyond the training wheels of linear space and time that humans in 3D use while learning to be cocreators, the One abides in the Spacious Present.
From this perspective, each and every human being contributes their own irreplaceable emotional and vibrational tone to create a cosmic symphony of the Heavens, continuously playing throughout all dimensions.
During the course of human history—from the time when there were less than 8 million souls incarnate—until now—with over 8 billion—this symphony has always been seen and felt by the ONE as a harmonic whole. It includes the full scope of the gestalt of the entire human experience throughout history—from pleasure to pain, loss to gain, awake to asleep and so forth—with all the variables in between these polarities included in this transcendent creation that is ceaselessly evolving.
As part of “the experiment now in progress,” as my channels call the Earth Game, each individual soul, through hundreds if not thousands of incarnations, gets to experience the fullest range of the human emotional repertoire as the culmination of the karmic dance.
This means that there has always been approximately the same percentage of incarnate souls at any time who volunteer to experience lives of great suffering for their own development, but also, in the bigger picture, to contribute this particular emotional tone to the always harmonic cosmic symphony expressed by all parts of the ONE. But no more!
For now, with the 24-7 news cycle, we’ve landed in an unprecedented new predicament. As world-renowned Oliver Sacks, a most empathetic neurologist, said:
“Social media is a neurological disaster for the human race.”
What this means, as it is playing out now in real time, is that we have no precedent as to how to handle being bombarded by an unending news cycle of seemingly infinite global suffering—through war, famine, genocide, plague, natural disasters ad infinitum. And this unrelenting assault is blowing open some of our minds and hearts so wide that we’re injuring ourselves by trying to take it all in. A neurological disaster indeed!
Not only are more beings suffering on the planet than ever before, as part of the harmonic percentage with 8 billion plus souls, but now, for the first time, we have a daily window into this horror on a global level. If we allow too much of it in, we could be harming ourselves by diminishing our equanimity and joy. In addition, if we contract for protection, it dims our Light and infiltrates our personal reality so that it appears darker.
For those of us who have open hearts, with empathy and compassion for all suffering beings, we have not, as yet, developed the necessary tools we need to handle the onslaught of misery we’re witnessing in these dark ages on planet earth. Consequently, it’s overwhelming us and bringing us down tonally to a level of creating some dissonance in the whole.
Here’s some context:
Firstly we have the Bodhisattva Vow. A bodhisattva is a being who has attained enlightenment, but vows not to enter into final nirvana until all living things are released from suffering.
Sentient beings are numberless; I vow to save them.
Desires are inexhaustible; I vow to put an end to them.
The Dharmas are boundless; I vow to master them.
The Buddha Way is unattainable; I vow to attain it.
Then we have an extreme reaction to this vow, which Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche called: “Idiot compassion.” He defined this as compassion that enables harmful behavior or avoids necessary conflict to spare someone’s feelings, often leading to more harm in the long run. {There will definitely be more on this in future writings).
And now, I will add a new term to this list: “Extreme empathy,” which I would characterize as feeling others pain and suffering so much that it makes us ill. Right now, there’s an epidemic of extreme empathy coming mostly from doom scrolling on social media, especially images of innocents in agony. Too many photos of extreme suffering are overloading our hearts, minds and nervous system circuitry beyond which most of us are equipped to handle.
So new more skillful tools are needed so we can stay open and empathetic, without going on a permanent news fast, as that is also NOT why we are here, to bypass the reality of the NOW.
When we feel others pain and suffering so much that we make ourselves and, in the ripple effect, even our loved one’s sick from the rage, powerlessness and fear that arises from internalizing other’s suffering, we are adding to this suffering, rather than helping alleviate it. This is what is creating the dissonance affecting the mass tone adversely as it is experienced by the ONE.
Anything that causes harm incurs karma so, in most cases, when extreme empathy is harming us, it creates, within the divine laws of cause and effect, a future do-over. It doesn’t matter where it comes from: karmic predisposition, blown open hearts and minds, survivors’ guilt, unhealed trauma, or all of the above.
If we’re not able to seek help to stop self-harm from extreme empathy, or can receive support by loved ones with some sort of intervention, it can lead to extreme despair in a downward spiral. This is bound to happen, sooner or later, unless we consciously reverse the direction by, at the least, taking a news fast and dissolving backed up toxic emotions.
The emotional effects of doom scrolling are contagious and may affect the tone of our loved ones adversely in a ripple effect. This can cause more mental illness in us and our loved ones, even, in certain circumstances, manifesting in some form of physical disease, which feels like it is coming from outside influences and assaulting our well-being.
In cases where there is unhealed trauma that is unconsciously repressed—from this life and past lives— these wounds can lie underneath a protective layer of rage at our powerlessness to heal injustice, and then this is projected out into our worldview in an ever-deepening loop of darkness and doom.
So, firstly, in these cases of extreme empathy there needs to be an unconditional acceptance that taking on the suffering of the world as a modus operandi is toxic and harmful. It is NOT HELPING anyone.
Of course, it’s imperative that we exercise right action to alleviate suffering through word, thought and deed—to the degree it is an authentic expression of who we are in an arena of legitimate concern. This is an important clarification and a separate issue from harming ourselves in the process.
For those of us that are empaths, which means feeling everything from everyone, in times like these, it’s easy to fall into extreme empathy which can lead to depression. Since the USA election, I’ve been doing more and more readings for healers working in various modalities who are suffering from extreme empathy that has deepened into extreme despair. And, from this, has come a desire to check out and drop the body, because of fears that the darkness will continue to get worse, which is a legitimate fear.
But, because they’re calling me for permission to check out, I have to remind them that their work here isn’t done, and they need to be a counterforce to the darkness by being who they are: A channel of compassion, healing and Light, maintained by daily spiritual practices.
I’ve also been dealing with more and more teenagers who’re in suicidal despair, from too much social media, recreational drug abuse and, not surprisingly, the state of the world. So this hopelessness in the young is another epidemic which I’ll address more in future writings.
What is the solution, the antidote? The key is to find the balance of the middle way through holding a split screen in our perspective: On the one side, we hold the view of the timeless witness/soul as a mid-point towards the level of the ONE, in which all is playing out perfectly in the divine plan with no victims, but only volunteers.
On the other side of the split screen, we’re simultaneously holding the view of our little self/ego/personality, focused in linear space and time. On this side of the split screen, we need to be very clear on our energetic, emotional, mental and psychic boundaries and, with immense appreciation and gratitude, really get the difference—right here and right now, that most of us are not suffering horribly in powerless situations in our lives, like we see on the news.
This level of viewing 3D from the split screen is the optimal skillful means at this time in human evolution to live with this onslaught.
For some of us who identity with the warrior archetype, outer actions, such as protest marches etc., are a genuine outpouring of who we are. However, for many of us who identity more as mystics and artists, being true to ourselves is more of an inner action expressed outward through energy and/or creations in a ripple effect.
This is especially important for empaths and healers—to own that they are not primarily playing out warrior archetypes in this life—and thus need feel no survivor’s guilt for being who they are. For these types of karmic development, I suggest that it’s most important to be in a place of empowerment rather than powerlessness through daily proactive practices to be cultivating and sending out an overflowing infinite supply of divine heart energy and compassion for all suffering beings.
For more: Your Prescription for Maximizing Wellbeing: The Witnessing Protection Program and the Post-Traumatic Soul Growth Protocol
At this point it helps to remember—whether through some form of soul reading or past-life regression or perhaps even having a psychic aha moment while reading this:)—that all of us have already had many lives of immense suffering—and even if we’re not in those lives now—our times of loss and sorrow will certainly come again, in this life and in future ones—as it’s all part of the human range we’re here to experience.
Accordingly, This is what I always tell my emotionally and psychically sensitive clients: “You’ve already paid in full karmically to earn your beautiful blown open heart from many lifetimes of suffering. You just forgot!”
But from this forgetting, all the suffering they see in the world activates their own unhealed unintegrated past lives of suffering, so it feels as if they’re still in this past time of powerlessness. And so, time and again, I have to remind them that “That was then—and this is now.”
To summarize, of course it’s a good thing to be true to the vow to alleviate suffering through word, thought and deed. This needs to be done without relapsing or regressing into not allowing any joy or peace in our lives out of survivor’s guilt, because we’ve forgotten we’ve already paid in full. And that our open hearts, karmically well earned through lives of suffering, are the greatest gift we can share with others and the planet.
“If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own transformation.”—Lao Tzu
For more: On Pleasure, Joy and Bliss
In my last incarnation based on linear time, I remember viscerally being in a concentration camp and dying there. Furthermore, as one of the more than six million who died in the camps, I can assure you that there were incredibly long lines on the other side waiting to incarnate to be part of this mass event knowing full well what the probabilities were.
You may ask why we choose to experience these lives of the most immense suffering. Well, as is always the case when our souls choose excruciatingly challenging incarnations, it’s because these types of lives open our hearts like nothing lesser could as well as burning the most karma ever. There’re no victims on the soul level, only very courageous volunteers.
Sorrow, loss and sadness are not toxic emotions that will make us sick, nor is legitimate concern for the state of the world. In fact, once we have experienced personal loss (and who hasn’t sooner or later) sadness becomes part of our emotional tone forever more. However, what is toxic is allowing rage at the state of the world, feelings of despair and powerlessness, and fear and terror of worst-case scenarios become our primary emotional tones.
For over forty years in this life, maintaining the split screen of the timeless soul/witnessing perspective simultaneously with the personal reality of the here and now has been my normal operating mode. And from this place, I can observe global suffering with compassion and empathy but without taking it in, that is, unless I indulge in doom scrolling to excess.
This is also because I’ve been working with suffering souls in despair as my vocation in this and many past lives, and have found that all pain and suffering feel the same on the inside regardless of external causation.
And, of course, the Taoist Practices that I do on a daily basis keep me internally grounded, stable and adept at maintaining equanimity regardless of external turbulence. This, along with the Psychic Empowerment Practices , keep me fed by Source vertically and sealed with Light, so that I’m able to work with the world as it is without having to contract my heart for protection.
I’ve worked with so many empaths and channels over the past 50 years who have either already fried themselves or are destined for a very high-rate of burnout without the split screen as well as these two spiritual practices to become fully embodied and root their nervous systems and psychic circuitry to the core of the planet.
I must confess that I almost completely burnt out and fried my nervous system once in the early 1980s, before I learned my daily practices, by taking on more emergency clients than I could truly handle. (Edgar Cayce, the great seer, died from doing just this after World War II).
And, this past winter, after too much doom scrolling combined with taking on more clients in crisis than usual, I felt the need in February to go float in the ocean for a week to expand all the contractions in my systems. But, fortunately, this time was not nearly as dangerous for my channel system as before, thanks to daily vigilance.
I also must acknowledge that I have a much harder time with despair arising—more than just sadness—about man-made climate change that is inexorably destroying Nature which then, in the ripple effect, destroys the quality of all life on earth.
For more:
If This Were Your Last Incarnation, What Would You Do?
We’re presently witnessing, on the world stage, daily acts of extreme cruelty whose primary intent is to harm and cause suffering by the powers that be. The current geo-political reality is that more than 50% of world governments are autocratic and more than 70% of the population globally live in authoritarian states, not democracies.
The first step is acceptance that this is where we’re at in the Kali Yuga and we chose to be here. It is a dark age spiritually, where it appears that the overall evolution of human consciousness is in its infancy. That is, if we assess our progress towards awakening with where the mass consciousness is at, which is always the lowest common denominator.
So, our assignment, as the 2%, if we choose to claim it, is for each of us to raise the level of our heart/mind frequency through inner work to accelerate our awakening. But certainly to no longer indulge in extreme empathy or in toxic emotions of rage, powerlessness, angst and despair. For more on how to release these toxic emotions mindfully, please read: Transformation and Healing by Thich Nhat Hanh, who said:
Someone asked me, “Aren’t you worried about the state of the world?” I allowed myself to breath and then I said: “What is most important is to not allow anxiety about what happens in the world to fill your heart. If your heart is filled with anxiety you will get sick and you will not be able to help.”
The highest countering force, the heart medicine, if you will, that humanity needs is for each of us, to the degree we’re capable of, to maintain the soul/witnessing perspective and be a channel of divine heart energy, compassion and Light to all. And this means ALL.
“From the Buddhist point of view, the Chinese officer who is committing the cruel act against the young boy is initiating a new cycle of negative karma. In the case of the child, there is a closure of a particular karma that the child is experiencing. The perpetrator of the crime is in fact an object of more compassion and mercy than the child”—the Dalai Lama
STRETCHED TO THE LIMIT—Joan Pancoe
“Without this ‘wearying world’ we cannot find enlightenment. Without the responses we would be bereft of the fabulous friction which illuminates our Buddha nature. Because Tantra is constantly performing itself─in us, through us, and around us─we can either acknowledge it, by taking hold of the bare electric cables of existence and non-existence, or try to pretend, as hard as possible, that it’s not happening.” ─Ngak’chang Rinpoche
Astrologically, we’re in an especially momentous transitional few years.
Spiritualizing Neptune, the Great Dissolver, entered warrior Aries on March 30 for the first time in 165 years and will sojourn there for 12 years. The last time was at the start of the civil war in America.
When any outer planet crosses 0° Aries, called the World Axis, it is considered the most significant point of the entire zodiac, as this is where an entirely new cycle begins. Added to this, structure-ruling, Karmic Teacher Saturn will also move into unrelenting Aries on May 24, 2025 and be there until 2028, increasing the momentum of this totally new wave of energy moving in.
This sets off the major transit of the year: the Saturn/Neptune Conjunction at 0° Aries, which will be active through to 2027. This is the 2nd huge astrological milestone of the decade, equivalent in impact to the global lockdown conjunction of Saturn and Pluto in 2020 which we’re still reverberating from.
Adding to this theme of immense change, this conjunction culminates on February 21, 2026, when Saturn and Neptune will meet exactly at 0 degrees of Aries indicating a time of the most major new beginnings. This planetary event only happens every 36 years.
Neptune is like a tidal wave that washes away all the old Saturnian walls. It is foreshadowing the collapse of antiquated structures—including nations—in order to create new forms. Their last conjunction saw the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Eastern bloc, and was also the year of the Tiananmen Square protests. Other significant historical events, triggered by this conjunction include the Russian Revolution (1917), the Korean War and Stalin’s death (1952/53).
Let us pray that Neptune does her job and dissolves all of the old Saturnian autocratic structures and the greedy power players supporting them that create division rather than unity.
Most importantly, Transformer Pluto began his uninterrupted twenty-year sojourn through humanitarian Aquarius on November 19, 2024. I’ve written about this extensively in my last newsletter:
KALI YUGA 2.0: Staying the Course Through an Epic Plutonian Death Rattle for the Ages
And finally, when Trickster of Awakening Uranus first moved into earthy Taurus on March 6, 2019, I wrote that we need to prepare ourselves to be able to witness with equanimity more and more of that which has been known and safe falling away.
So now, with Uranus wrapping up his journey in comfort-loving Taurus through April, 2026, we will be experiencing in this next year the Trickster of Awakening’s energies amped up more than ever.
This means we can expect even more–oh, yes–unpredictable events, whether man-made and/or nature-made, occurring during this last phase of this particular cycle of karmic lessons coming our way on all levels.
Trickster of Awakening Uranus will dip its toe into flexible Gemini from July 7, 2025 until November 8, 2025. Then, its uninterrupted six-and-a-half-year sojourn through Gemini kicks off on April 26, 2026
For more:
All Your Stagnate Comfort Zones Are Going, Going, Gone
All of the above transits are supporting us as an opportunity to step up the level of our game with the cosmic assistance of accelerated high-frequency energies moving us to the next stage in the evolution of consciousness for those of us that are ready. I’ve been calling these galactic booster shots “The Quickening” since I first became aware of them in the eighties.
In closing, at this time in history, when the political powers that be, most especially in the USA, appear to be governing with the intent to cause as much suffering to as many human beings globally as possible, it behooves us to buckle up for a ride of relentless divine orderly chaos as our new normal for the foreseeable future.
And when it comes to empathy, let us choose the middle road, where we are attuned and aware of all the suffering on the planet and choose to do everything in our power through word, thought and deed to alleviate it without allowing it to permeate our beings internally to the extent of making ourselves and our loved ones ill. This includes daily mind/body/spirit practices for dissolving negative, toxic and draining energies as they arise.
It certainly helps if we keep to a minimum any daily doom scrolling of dying children or the dying earth unless we can do it without self-harm. For, whether this suffering is from genocide, war, famine, plague or climate change, it’s all fueled by fascism, autocracy and racism. And these are supported by many who are ignorant and asleep and know not what they do as part of the unawakened lowest frequency energies of the mass consciousness.
So, holding the faith in a very long-range Taoist perspective that everything is playing out perfectly in the Divine timetable in the Flow is imperative for our peace of mind in the Now. As is remembering to not incur karma by harming ourselves by negating the peace and equanimity of any non-pain moments we’re granted.
My readings have always said that while pain is a certainty (as in growing pains, among other kinds), suffering is optional. Therefore, to the degree that we stop being attached to pleasure and resisting pain, to this degree will our suffering lessen. And when we are fortunate enough to have moments without pain on any level, then we can more mindfully appreciate and enjoy these “non-toothache moments” as Thich Nhat Hanh advises.
Finally, when we think of those that are suffering now, if we truly want to support them, while of course sending compassion, may I suggest we also metaphorically raise a glass and honor them with a toast to acknowledge their courage in taking on such challenging lives.
Honoring them and bowing to them in deep appreciation. As they are us, and we are them, and we are all ONE in the cosmic ocean and harmonic symphony of the Heavens.
So, can we embrace sorrow and joy, destruction and rebirth, chaos and clarity, heaven and hell—and all the full ranges of each simultaneously? Can we also give ourselves permission to vote for more heaven, rebirth, clarity and joy—as our predominate experience—as we’re entitled to have preferences and our vote.
While it’s true that the Buddha said: “The great way is easy for one who has no preferences,” I always say we’re entitled to have our vote and at least some preferences as imperfect human beings. For, all will naturally fall away when we are truly ready without much clinging, resistance or suffering . . . sooner but probably later.
Wishing us all joy in the journey, right here and right now, just as it is. Once we arrive at Source, (whether we call it: All That Is, the Divine, the One or merging with the Tao—which are all names for HOME in the game), we realize that what we’ve been seeking has been inside us all along and has infinite levels of depth.
Once we’ve even sampled the ONE TASTE of the sweetness of pure aliveness, then what else is there to do but pass it on?
J o a n
VIBRATIONAL AT-ONE-MENT—Joan Pancoe
“The future is uncertain . . . but this uncertainty is at the very heart of human creativity. We grow in direct proportion to the amount of chaos we can sustain and dissipate.
When a complex system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to shift the entire system to a higher order.” —Ilya Prigogine, Nobel Prize Winner
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These days, my most popular offering is an Akashic Records Soul Reading combined with Karmic Astrology for the year. This Combo Session is available at my office in NYC or by phone. MP3 included.
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Please don’t hesitate to contact me, once you’ve checked out the services menu, to discuss how we can best customize a session for your specific needs at this time:
SERVICES
JoanPancoe@aol.com
212-982-6820
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To get your chart for free: ASTRO.COM
TO READ THE LATEST ENDORSEMENTS OF MY WORK:
TESTIMONIALS
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Most pertinent writings to read now:
Owning Our Inner Pluto Before… It Eats Us for Lunch
NEPTUNE in PISCES: The Urge to Merge… and Then Some
Embracing the Unexpected: Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Uranus (but were afraid to ask).
Becoming ONE with the Inner Guru… Or How to Make Saturn Your BFF
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***SPECIAL NEWSFLASH***
The ever-savvy Jesse Kornbluth, of Vanity Fair and New York Magazine fame, posted about his personal experience with my work:
“I’m no seer. But Joan Pancoe just might be.”
For more, click here: SHORT TAKES
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Do you feel the need for some help in dealing with “the Quickening” of energies now? Then it’s time for a daily mind/body/spirit practice that feeds your Soul. If you’d like to learn what keeps me sane, serene, internally stable and grounded, please check out:
Taoist Practices MP3s for $20
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If you’re in the mood for some seriously delectable entertainment that will blow your mind wide open, please enjoy my erotic/psychic memoir:
COSMIC SUGAR:
The Amorous Adventures of a Modern Mystic
“A Sweet and Tasty Cosmic Feast for the Body, Mind & Spirit!” Ruben Gabriel
“Cosmic Sugar is a sumptuous book, like a meal you won’t forget. I haven’t read a better memoir—beautifully compassionate, utterly honest and seriously profound.” Matthew Newnham
To check out more great reviews:
CLICK HERE
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If you want to watch Joan performing past-life regression therapy, here’s a YOUTUBE Video of her A&E Channel TV Episode from The Unexplained. It’s only 22 minutes:
The Weight of My Past
(Now available on HULU (woo-hoo:))
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For more of Joan’s art:
GALLERY OF MULTIDIMENSIONAL DELIGHTS
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NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE RIPPLE EFFECT—PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH YOUR FRIENDS