On, March 4, 1933, in his inaugural address as U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke about the financial crisis that people now call the Great Depression. He proclaimed then the famous words, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Watching the televised reports of the immense carnage in Haiti, and reading in Wikipedia, the Internet encyclopedia, about the infinitely troubled history of that country, has reminded me of the truth of his words.

People the world over are scared of earthquakes. If the massive quake that hit Sichuan, China, in 2008 was too hidden by the Chinese from our view to trigger a big world reaction, the quake that hit the little island nation of Haiti has truly scared everybody. We are all capable of saying to ourselves, “It could happen in my area,” and we are right. The Earth’s entire crust is subject to massive change. Some areas—Japan, Indonesia, Samoa, California—are more than likely to be hit. But we never know, so can do little about it.

The worst disaster to occur in modern times involved an unofficially estimated 665,000 who may have died in the 1976 Tangshan earthquake in China.

In the blue Mediterranean Sea are the remains of an island, now called Santorini, that blew up sometime around 1500 BCE. That volcanic eruption eradicated the Minoan civilization. According to the philosopher Plato, this was the site of  the city of Atlantis. Nothing is now known of the extent of the casualties. Proximity to volcanoes has often brought disaster, as the ruins of the Roman city of Pompeii still testify today.

In 1784, the Laki volcanic system erupted in Iceland. In that country the recorded deaths were relatively small, 9,350 citizens. But after almost a year of continuing explosions, the gases and particles thrown up into the stratosphere had caused a dusty pall over the sky, leading globally to failed harvests and serious food shortages. Numerous deaths, from Europe right across the globe to as far away as Japan, were attributed to the widespread starvation that was the result.

There is a fine line between providing information of a difficult kind, and sensationalism. Though we can be aware of such dire historical events, and of people’s fearful response to today’s disasters, we must also be able to articulate a genuine positive message. That was the genius of F.D.R. in his presidential address. He drew attention to the way our human fearfulness feeds on itself. So did we give to the Haitian relief appeals out of fear? “But for the grace of God, there go I?” Cynics might think so. We may prefer to believe that we have given, and will give in future, out of human compassion, which is a positive sort of love-response.

WODEN SAYS: Read the Masters’ blog: mastersofthespiritworld.com

I recommend the message published this week by the Masters of the Spirit World because it is an authoritative account of the connection between what has happened in Haiti and the wider picture of the state of Mother Earth. We are living in the time before a truly major challenge—both physical and energetic—leading up to the Winter Solstice of 2012.

At that time, planetary and solar forces will play on the structure of the Earth, as they do every 26,000 years. The stress of the planets’ formation and proximity to Earth may intensify natural and human stress on our planet. We may well experience more, even many more, such events, seismic, volcanic, or weather-related, in the run up to this date and for an equivalent time afterwards.

It is easy to be skeptical about ideas such as these. You may be forgiven if you see me as a tired old Anglo-Saxon deity, trying to find something sensational to write about. But beneath the skepticism I hear poet John Betjeman’s plea in his poem Christmas: “And is it true? And is it true?” I believe that the Masters’ messages about 2012 are true.

I believe it is a time of change that includes the following major earthquakes of 7 or more on the Richter Scale: eleven, including the Indonesian tsunami, in 2004; eight, plus Hurricane Katrina, in 2005; eight in 2006; seven in 2007; six, including the big Chinese disaster, in 2008; seventeen in 2009; the eruption of an increasing number of volcanoes; and now, in 2010, two major quakes, including the disaster in Haiti. At what point do scared skeptics discover a pattern and ask the question whether it is true or not? It had better be soon.

Our fearfulness is wholly human—it represents our response to negative energy. It has a lot to do with our fears about suffering and death. The Spirit Masters constantly reaffirm that each of us has an immortal soul. The soul goes Home after death. Souls never die. But our guides also encourage us to discover our soul, and embrace the positive and the loving in life—not just for ourselves, but for our fellow creatures, and for the great Mother Earth who daily sustains us.

The task of finding who we are is just beginning. Let us strive to rediscover, for ourselves and our human society, the truth of the saying that perfect love demolishes fear.