Question of the Day 8/21/2010
If the average salary of an American is between 25k to 50k and the average congresspersons salary is between 170k to 190k, Do you think that congress should consider a pay cut to help lower the national deficit?
For all the moms out there (cute Video of 4yo rapping for Mothers Day)
http://www.stupidvideos.com/video/just_plain_stupid/4_Year_Old_Raps_For_Mothers_Day/#293337
Get Up, Get Out and Live
I Think we all sit around way too much in front of our TV’s and Computers now days. We need to get out doors and enjoy the beautiful surroundings and walk, Jog , Bicycle or even go out on the ATV. Fresh air and a bit of fun physical activity does wonders for the spirit as much as it does for the body. So many things to do in the spring and summer months like fishing, hiking, hunting and camping. So many beautiful parks across the U.S.A. and other countries we all could enjoy.
just a thought anyway..
Peace
R. Barbier
Sita Sings the Blues (2008) – Nina Paley
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Sita is a goddess separated from her beloved Lord and husband Rama. Nina is an animator whose husband moves to India, then dumps her by email. Three hilarious shadow puppets narrate both ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the Indian epic Ramayana. Set to the 1920′s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw, Sita Sings the Blues earns its tagline as “the Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told.”
http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/
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Savannah , GA. & Tybee Island
Well just got back from Savannah GA. & Tybee Island, Was a pretty good week and allot of fun on the beach. Unfortunately its Jelly fish season so had to deal with a few stings. Places to Eat in Savannah : Churchill’s English Pub – Good eats and fair prices for savannah, had a very good atmosphere and a Bar crafted by the same person that did the bar in the T.v. show Cheers.
McPherson’s Scottish Pub – Another good place to get some Scottish food along with some American food. Prices are pretty good and loved the atmosphere.
Dizzy Deans Chicken – The atmosphere was not the best but the prices were real economical for savannah and has good food. I would suggest this place for go orders or during cooler seasons due to the lack of air conditioning.
Place not to eat is : The Lady and sons, a Paula Deen Restaurant. you may know her and her sons from food network. Only true southern style cooking is their buffet which consists of fried chicken, Mac & cheese & brussle sprouts for around 19$, And you can have a Chicken pot Pie for about 20 Dollars. Don’t know what disappointed me more, the hour and a half waiting in line just to get a reservation or the fact they said 3:30 was when they started taking reservations and they didn’t start till 4pm. after the wait in line I was told it would be 9:30pm before I could eat so between a little bit high prices and long wait I chose to skip this restaurant. Paula may be a wonderful chef and so are her sons, I think she needs to improve on her restaurant service a bit.
A few Photos from the trip
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The 'Real' Secret- Fate, Destiny, and the Law of Attraction -Robert Ohotto
Original Post Found at :http://2012.tribe.net/thread/6874251b-c970-459e-bc4c-14bc3dbec928
Fate, Destiny, and the Law of Attraction
First of all, let’s define some terms for this article. I mean what the heck is Fate? I don’t know about you, but I hear people mixing up the terms Fate and Destiny all the time as if they are the same thing-which to me they are not.
I did an article for Myss.com years ago titled ‘Fate vs. Free Will’ in which I explored Fate. For the purposes of this article, I will define Fate as: that which has been predetermined and written into our life’s contract before we were born, which is facilitated into our life, manifesting on many levels and in many different forms, but primarily serves as the vessel and structure through which our Destiny is fulfilled and contained.
In other words, Fate is a blueprint of sorts, a Divine design of certain limits that the soul agrees to before birth. Within the first few years of working as an intuitive and astrologer, the idea of our soul making an agreement with Fate became very real to me. In fact, I began to sense that before we are born, we meet with certain Earth Guardians who interface with our Spiritual Guides (I call them your Team) and our soul in order to devise a plan for our creative journey on this planet. During this process, amongst other things, a body, family, culture, and archetypes are selected. This means that the agreement made with Fate and these Earth Guardians is both mortal and psychic.
Mortal Fate deals with our soul’s agreement with the many limitations we each must negotiate as human beings: genetics, ethnicity, race, gender, appearance, and our final Fate-death. Many of these things we can’t change, but must simply work within as part of our mortal experience. The terms of our Mortal Fate are pretty morbid, I know, but none of us on Earth are getting out of here alive!
Psychic Fate deals with the archetypal patterns we’ve agreed to create with and negotiate on this planet. For we are not only fated to our bodies, we are also fated to an archetypal architecture housed within our psyche. It’s in understanding this Fate that my favorite intuitive tool-astrology-becomes an incredibly useful guide. For when I intuitively pick up data on clients and read their soul, I yoke that information to the astrological birth chart; which is a symbolic map of what patterns your soul fused with when you incarnated into this dimension of time and space.
You see, when you agreed to journey onto this planet, you also agreed to have your soul’s personal archetypal structure be shaped by the archetypal processes already managing creation on this planet; this is what astrology so brilliantly elucidates through its symbolism. The planets are not just balls of gas and ice; rather they are living archetypal symbols. And they mirror back to us, through the synchronicity of their movements, the cyclical, collective, and archetypal creation of reality.
As these collective archetypal energies manifest through us, they individuate and seek expression through the unique way we decide to work with them-but we can’t work with them until we know what they are and what’s already in our own soul!
Therefore, working with your Psychic Fate means identifying your archetypal patterns and understanding their relationship to time, cycles, and the maturation process of the psyche. This is at the heart of what I do for clients via a reading; and what Caroline’s work with Sacred Contracts is all about. This kind of work is important to understand because what is going on at the psychic level of reality patterns energy into form.
Thus there is a dance between our Mortal Fate and Psychic Fate-both of which speak to the intentions of our soul to create with the Earth’s soul. And understanding the core inscription which was written on our soul and the world’s soul is the first key to our Destiny.
That said, what’s Destiny, and what does the law of attraction have to do with all of this?
Destiny
The word Destiny is derived from the Latin verb destino from which we derive our English words: destination, design, destine, determine, intend, and even the word ‘choose’. Destiny is learning to work with our life challenges, our Fate, so that we can be who and what we truly are because there is simply nothing else we can be, and then, yoking this “being” into service to the collective/others around us.
Though Destiny demands the actualization of our potential and the fullest expression of our essence, Destiny is never completed because it is the transitive verb of life, whereas Fate acts as the noun. In other words, Destiny is the doing, Fate is the being and both dance together in our lives, forming the sentences, paragraphs, and stories of our experience as human beings.
You may have heard it said before that Fate is the hand of cards that life deals you, and Destiny is how you play that hand out through your intentions and choices. This means that you have the opportunity to transform your Fate into something more life affirming; thus leaving this world a better place by your having lived on the planet. Destiny is your capacity to live out the threads of your Fate in a unique way that only you can do, while leaving a positive vibrational impact on the world’s energy and soul.
In simpler terms, Destiny is that which we create within the boundaries of the Fate we are given. I sense that our soul really makes two agreements before birth: one with Fate, and the other with Destiny. But our Destiny issues forth from the Fate that was written on our soul before we incarnated, and matures into this world through the journey of our lives as we become who were born to be, learning how to manage the powers of creation at our disposal-one of which is the law of attraction. What exactly is this law, and how can we use it to fulfill our Destiny?
The Law of Attraction
I have been involved in the study of metaphysics for nearly sixteen years, and remember when I discovered the law of attraction right at the very beginning of my studies. I remember feeling like “Yippie, the key to everything I want!” Boy was I headed for a crash and burn…not unlike many of those out there who are currently buying into the law of attraction as if it were the only law in the universe.
Nonetheless, the law of attraction is indeed real. It is a universal law of creation that posits like energy attracts like energy in this universe. And as we all, in essence, are energetic beings pulsating at certain frequencies; the law of attraction causes your personal vibratory frequency (which is a by-product of what you do, focus on, believe, and think about) to attract to you people, situations, events, and opportunities that are a match.
In their book based on channeling the teachings of Abraham, The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent (Hay House, 2006), Esther and Jerry Hicks write this about the law of attraction:
In the same way that the law of gravity consistently responds to all of the physical matter of your planet, the Law of Attraction consistently responds to all vibrations. Every projection of thought, whether you are focused into the past, present, or future, is vibration and has attraction power. Each thought offers a signal, similar to a radio signal, that the Law of Attraction recognizes and matches. This powerful, consistent Law of Attraction (that which is like unto itself is drawn) offers consistent results in response to the vibrations that you offer.
So the law of attraction is about consciously aligning ourselves vibrationally to thoughts and intentions that carry frequencies which hold the most affirming creative potential in any circumstance. To use the law of attraction we must learn to manage our thoughts, engage our imagination, and master our perception of reality. Essentially we learn via the law of attraction that w
hat we focus on is empowered and animated,
attracting to us a quality of energy and informing how we experience events.
The power of the law of attraction can’t be denied. How many times have you woken up in a bad mood that you couldn’t shake off? The next thing you know, your day just keeps getting worse as you draw to yourself one accident and frustrating scenario after another! Heck, this just happened to me the other day as I had a car accident, which led to a bad mood…I then watched as I attracted more accidents and frustration the whole day long!
That said, how many times have you woken up with a smile on your face; only to be greeted by the smiles of others and positive happenstance at each turn of the day’s corners? I am still waiting for that to take hold of my day! lol!
So alright, we can all relate to this law, but just how powerful is this law, and what are its limitations? After watching ‘The Secret’ DVD you’d wonder if there even were any limits at all. Yet to say that it has no limits of operation absolutely negates our own experiences here on this Earth.
For example: what do you tell the parents of a one year old that has leukemia? That their child or they as parents attracted the disease because of the law of attraction? Or if they just focus on positive thoughts without counter-intending with negative ones that their child is guaranteed to heal?
What about those who died in the massive tsunami in Indonesia a couple years ago? What do we say to them about the law of attraction? Come on now folks, things happen in life because of other laws; and sometimes because of a law like Fate.
I must suggest that we embrace the law of attraction in a more mature way by integrating what’s often missing in our understanding of this law, which is something very crucial regarding our soul’s agreement with Fate: The law of attraction can only be effective, both in positive and negative ways, within certain limitations of our soul’s agreements with Fate and Destiny. Therefore it has limits of operation within our life’s purpose, and can only transform Fate into Destiny when it is connected to the intentions of our soul and the Divine.
In other words, the law of attraction is a creative power of the soul and simply can’t be used to acquire what the ego wants if the soul is not on board, for better or for worse. And positively speaking, the law of attraction can only magnetize the greatest potential that your life was designed to hold per your life’s purpose. It can only bring to you that which can be contained within the fated limits put in place to support your Destiny.
Having said that, I hope you can begin to grasp the enormous importance of discerning the Divinely designed circumference within which the law of attraction can magnetize your potential.
For example, I have met many people in workshops who have approached me and asked, “Robert, I’m using the law of attraction, and still I can’t seem to get what I (ego) want, what am I doing wrong, am I ‘counter-intending’ against what I am trying to manifest?”
I have often given them a quick intuitive once over and had to tell them that they are pursuing the manifestation of something that was not intended for them this lifetime. Rather, their ego, often driven by a cultural spell to want something, is chasing something the soul is not on board with – and if the soul is not on board, the law of attraction can’t blow wind into their sails and move the boat of their life forward toward the next shore.
In addition I have also been asked, “If I can’t stop focusing on my desire to see harm visits someone that I am angry at, will that attract to them or myself disaster?”
To which I have often said, “You’re not quite that powerful that you can change the course of someone’s life negatively simply because you are mad at them, and if your soul’s contract demands otherwise.”
Can we send others funky negative vibes, or constructive positive vibes, and does that have an affect on them? Absolutely! But there are certain limits that protect us when it comes to how we can use the law of attraction to achieve both what seem to be positive and negative ends. And please be clear that I am not speaking here to Divine interventions resulting from the power of prayer…that’s a whole other alchemy completely. Moreover, I am addressing how we use our own personal power to affect each other through the law of attraction.
Yet still, I find it poignant that most people only think of using the law of attraction for material gain or ego based agendas-which makes sense as that is the primary focus of much that has been put out there in the media and books regarding this law. Let’s face it, you don’t hear of many folks using the law of attraction to simply be closer to God, but why?
Law of Attraction and Western Capitalism
To get a grasp of how we can truly use this wonderful universal law of creation, we must take a much needed cultural assessment of how we are interpreting it through our Western mindset. Though many spiritual teachers and motivational speakers today stress the importance of using the law of attraction through positive thinking, visualization, and affirmations to manifest abundance; unfortunately, I have noticed that quite often one is taught to focus on using this powerful law via a capitalist drive for attracting more stuff. This is not surprising as we are in a capitalist culture after all, and are bound to first interpret life through that filter.
Thus, many people begin visualizing financial abundance, new cars, homes, or perhaps soul mates, and healing of illnesses (often exclusively defined as the result of negatively mismanaging their thoughts.) To be sure, what we focus on is expanded via that focus and the thoughts we empower, and the healing of certain illnesses can be aided (and often healed) by positivism.
But what about the illness that comes as a necessity to the soul’s awakening? What about the creative depression that must be experienced as an initiation into the unlived life inside of us? What about the financial straits that must be endured in order to squeeze choice out of our lives, not allowing us to choose out of the ego’s pride-ensuring that the soul’s journey is kept on course?
Can the law of attraction take away these necessary situations intended to grow our soul into our life? Does visualizing and acting ‘as if’ these situations of necessity are as our ego would like them to be always objectively change them? Does simply deciding to see them differently make them go away? No. They are sometimes there for a very important reason per our Fate that is integral to our Destiny and must be accepted as such.
In other words, there is a difference between the denial of reality-such as having one hundred dollars in your bank account, though you keep visualizing a million and acting ‘as if’ it’s there, while nothing changes-and the reorientation towards events and experiences in our lives as affirming and meaningful, such that we can empower ourselves to co-create reality through our inner response to them.
Thus, though you may want a million dollars, maybe you’re simply not meant to have a million dollars this lifetime, but you can still see your life as abundant regardless of your outer wealth. So how then should we use this law? It’s in choosing to see every situation as being infused with meaning, guidance, and grace that the law of attraction is really meant to be applied.
Which means the best way to access this fantastic law is quite simply through ‘an attitude of gratitude’. In this way the law of attraction is always effective in activating the highest potential of our lives, and will bring to us the greatest abundance our lives are designed to hold-yet this abundance means nothing if it’s not transformed into service which gives back to humanity. That said, I can’t say I’ve heard to much talk, if any at all, of service within the material out there about this law. But that’s not the only thing that’s not talked about!
Our Cultural Fate Phobia
Let’s face it folks, we in t
he West do not like limits. The way the law of a
ttraction has primarily been embraced by the masses in our culture is a clear symptom of our Fate phobia. We say here in America that we can become anything we want to be, right? Well, not exactly…we can become what our Fate and Destiny will allow, but not anything we want to be, no matter where we live.
For example: Can I just decide that I’m going to use the law of attraction to be the next American Idol? I’m an ok singer, but believe me, that’s not within my Destiny and ain’t gonna happen! Or better yet, can I use it to live forever or change my race?
But don’t take my word for it, look at your own experience…extrapolate something from this for yourself that’s less obvious – where do you falsely believe you can use this law to change what your soul is growing toward?
I actually find it ironic that the law of attraction is actually one of the most powerful tools we can use in transforming our Fate into Destiny; yet we can’t even begin to use it to that end as we are so fate phobic that we can’t even look our Fate in the eyes and greet it!
Nevertheless, because using the law of attraction means that we become responsible for the ways we choose to see our Fate; it can be used to energize the gifts (the Destiny) inherent within our Fate. This is indeed done through what we choose to focus on-making each challenge an opportunity to bring forth the best of who we are and can be.
And though we may want a limitless life regarding our desire for earthly things-whether that be financial wealth, a new house, a new car, to be married, or a healthy body-in my experience its best to first ask the soul/God what’s possible within our life’s design.
I mean, who among us hasn’t wanted to erect a manifestation board and paste on it our wish list? But we must really be clear on what part of us is doing the wishing, our ego or soul? Surely you have heard of the saying, “Want to know how to make God laugh? Tell God your plans!”
Please don’t get me wrong. I’m all for going after the best life you can on all levels-including earthly abundance (Bring it on! You know what I’m saying?) But, when we try to be or have something other that what our inner design dictates, then we fate ourselves to the exact opposite-an unfilled life, a life of suffering; an idea that I greatly explore in my upcoming book.
In closing; after all these years and hundreds of readings, I have realized that what I primarily do as an intuitive and astrologer is function as an interpreter of Fate and Destiny. In addition, I feel my greatest service to clients is to offer helpful guidance on how they can best participate with the contract they have with Fate. Once the contract is understood and worked with consciously, Fate can become Destiny; and once that alchemy is in place, Fate and Destiny join forces in sustaining the motion of your life-cutting down all obstacles on your path like noble warriors so that you can fulfill your purpose.
The law of attraction is meant to help that process along, not negate it. It simply can’t change that which was written into your soul before you came here that must be lived out as part of your purpose. And if you could see your life with your soul’s eyes, you wouldn’t really want it any other way.
Whether your Fate shows up as conditions and events that happen to you that are out of your control for better of for worse (it could be Fate to win the lottery too you know!), or unconscious archetypal allies that sabotage you because you have yet to befriend them; if it was ordained as your Fate and chosen by your soul as necessary experiences of spiritual awakening, then it must be.
I think the ‘real’ secret is that the law of attraction can be quite seductive to the ego, yet is rendered impotent without a connection to the soul’s plan and a higher source. An ego lacking in humility is rendered vulnerable to this seduction because it often experiences the choices of the soul as a defeat, and must continually wrestle with the dualism of Earth.
Initially it can be quite painful for the ego to absorb that the soul likes to awaken the personality to its presence through the contrast that polarities like pain and pleasure offer. Therefore to fully appreciate the intentions of our soul and its contract with Fate, we must be willing to relinquish our allegiance to the dualistic ideas of the ego such as, fair/unfair, pain/pleasure, right/wrong, and good/evil. Furthermore, we must approach the law of attraction as a powerful ally, but not as the only law in the universe, so that we can unleash our Destiny.
Suffering and duality, as the Buddha taught, are part of the agreement that Fate often brings to our soul’s incarnate journey in this world, and until we include them in our understanding of consciousness, we are not complete. Rather, we are chained to the suffering that polarizing into opposites produces.
I must admit, it’s quite tempting to adopt the law of attraction as yet another ego defense against our necessary, purposeful limits and mortal suffering; but to do so is not only ineffective, but does a great disservice to our own humanity.
Until next time…..
Namaste,
Robert Ohotto
Hope you all have a Happy 4th of July
For the fourth of July I have posted here some of the most important documents / charters ever written in this great nation. The Declaration of Independence, Bill of rights, Amendments and the Constitution of The United States of America.
Be Safe, Enjoy the fireworks and for god sake don’t drive if you drink.
Drink and Be Merry
Raymond Barbier
The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the
support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on
the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:
Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean
Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton
Page URL:
http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/declaration_transcript.html
U.S. National Archives & Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD, 20740-6001, • 1-86-NARA-NARA • 1-866-272-6272