Angela Peregoff: Shifting Dimensionally

By Angela Peregoff – January 7, 2013

http://www.angelaperegoff.com/angelas-blog/

The solar system of which earth is a part of is fabulously pulsing its way toward the light of a different order, changing everything and inspiring an evolutional leap that is natural within the great schemes of things. This soon to be experienced light is of a cosmic order, and though you cannot see it from your current perspective, it is propelling you into auspicious moments of illumination and self-realization.

Gaia (planet earth being) has evolved into phases and spaces that will elicit a practice of deepening to live from your internal core of truth and authenticity this year. For that reason I thought I would dedicate today’s column to some basic information on going from 3D to 5D, or third dimension to fifth.

On subtle intuitive levels this week you will be anchoring fine, smooth and silky crystalline threads of energy. These come as a consequence of opening to the December star frequencies and will serve your physical human engineering by giving you a boost of mystic genius intelligence.

You are now in a more prevalent psychic atmosphere and if you haven’t done so yet, you need to forge an understanding within your mind of where we have been in consciousness and where we are going. We have rounded the corner on 5th dimensional living and many are asking, “So where are we now?” and how does it differ from 3rd dimensional living?

Shifting dimensionally doesn’t mean that we have traveled a certain distance. In truth we are no closer this year than in past years because dimensions are not separated by distance. The exception to this rule is when distance is measured by human thought without bias to belief. In other words, when human collective thoughts are ordained (divinely ordered or inspired) and not subject to lower repetitive patterns of behavior, the distance between them is shorter.

By way of another description it could be said that dimensions are separated by commas and not by periods. They overlap and border each other in much the same way as the season of the year. All dimensions take place in the same moment but not in the same awareness.

There is also an additional relationship between density and time, and it would be helpful to understand this as well. The denser an object, the quicker it will sink or fall. Likewise, a dense being or culture will fall faster than one that is lighter in density. Density is sometimes confused with weight, but they are not the same. Density is the amount of substance contained within a specific area, and the density of a substance can change under different conditions. Some of those conditions include temperature – a noteworthy and interesting fact at this time on earth. For instance, hot air balloons rise because the heated air within the balloon is less dense than the cooler air outside.

The density of all things and beings can be measured, but humanity has not yet discovered how to influence, and therefore alter its own density in order to benefit itself and its future. Ancient Egyptians (as well as certain cultures before and after them) by contrast understood how to do this, and were able under certain circumstances to alter their reality and their dimension. Primarily only those of mystery school tradition knew this and little evidence of any true relevance remains today.

Still, those who study the properties of gold, and monatomic (one replaceable atom) gold in particular, are often fascinated to discover that under unique conditions it will manifest as substance without density. In other words, it can weigh less than nothing as well as influence the density of other matter. The importance of this is that the influence of precise thought upon matter is what closes the gap between what you know and what you do not know. Knowledge is not the accumulation of information; it is the distillation of thought.

With your thoughts concentrated on the ordinary stresses of life, it is difficult to stay above the momentous tide of unconscious beliefs associated with these. The more removed you are from being able to think for yourself, the further away new thoughts and ideas seem to be. A new thought is not one that you believe, or even one that you think is plausible. A new thought is one that you invite into your field without resistance.

Like an electric current, the flow of pure thought is best explored through the field of awareness without resistance. The neighbor and partner to this electric current of thought is the magnetic field of creativity. The intersection of these two crosscurrents is where the 5th dimension begins. You will access the 5th dimension when your frequency vibrates within this range of expanded thought and creativity. At that point the duality that has been a part of your daily experience will yield to a greater diversity of life and it will seem less consequential than it does today.

Although there are natural forces that protect the integrity of the dimensions, access is neither gained nor denied by any authority other than your own. Yet without a like vibration the portals (currents) between dimensions would seem unstable and you wouldn’t venture through them. That is one of the reasons why humanity strives to liberate itself form a history that does not accurately describe its origins. The beliefs by which humanity has lived has kept it in bondage to its past and even now prevents it from crossing the next bridge to greater consciousness.

The 5th dimension is a less dense version of the 3rd dimension. It affords a more consistently conscious view and understanding of life. The electro-magnetic currents are more stable in the 5th dimension so thoughts and experiences complete themselves more quickly than in the 3rd. There is more space in the 5th dimension but there is less time, at least as it expressed in the 3rd dimension. Since there is more space between the atoms there is less density, which means that there is less waste. Wasted thoughts and actions account for a great expenditure of energy on the third dimension.

Before exploring the 5th dimension in detail we must briefly visit the 4th dimension, which is the bridge to the 5th. The 5th dimension is widely accepted to be the concept of Time. Time is the concept that gives relevance to the shift from the 3rd dimension to something else, but it is not time as it is currently measured. Better put, it is the curvature of time by which time expands or contracts with relevancy to how much light is present within the space that is being measured. Basically, when more light is present, time accelerates (both forward and backward).

The result of this acceleration is a more refined experience, one that is more seamless and less abrupt. The 4th dimension unites the 3rd and the 5th by quickening sequences and segments of time wherever that is a possibility. This is accomplished by curving or bending time. Time is sequential but not linear; it only appears linear within the landscape of the 3rd dimension. Beyond these barriers, the measure of time is not as you know it and the speed of light is not constant.The importance of the 4th dimension is that it is fueled by consciousness, and it is this that strengthens the fabric of time and space.

The 4th dimension is the bridge between the 3rd and 5th dimensions because it invites the field of possibilities to become the field of probabilities, as well as that of experience. As you imagine a better world and attune yourself to living in one, your consciousness becomes more enlivened and you quicken the pace of your endeavors until your awareness matches your experience. So the 4th dimension is responsible for what you call the quickening. It is also responsible for some of the unusual and irregular experiences that are being associated with the current time period. Especially where your body is concerned, as this is the most physically dense aspect of life for most. That being said, it is noteworthy that thoughts can be as dense as or even denser than physical objects.

Once you cross the seamless and invisible bridge to the 5th dimension, you will find that life there is less complex than in the 3rd dimension. It is amply creative and artfully expressive. Because it is less dense, form and shape is more subtle and graceful. This is particularly true where architecture is concerned, as 5th dimensional construction does not depend upon wood, steel or concrete to anchor its buildings to the earth. Glass is less brittle and more resilient because it is made differently. This discovery will be made as we become a greener global community.

Given the existing standards by which health is measured, the 5th dimension offers a leap forward in the well-being of the individual and the community. Given presently accepted practices, the 3rd dimension can no longer guarantee nor sustain its existence. The value of life has decreased to the degree that there is less sanctity for life; therefore there is also less sanity in life. The mental faculties of old and young alike continue to decrease, while the stresses of the middle age are on the increase. A greater capacity for mental and physical health is essential at this time. 5th dimensional thought is more mindful and its thoughts less chaotic. This requires a higher than average oxygen intake and today you would describe the experience as ‘heady’.

The 5th dimension is not somewhere else, it is right here beneath your nose and under your feet. You can’t see it? Look again, but this time with blind eyes that know there is nothing to see. Where does the 5th dimension begin or end, can you tell? If you can’t see it, does that mean it is less real? How many must acknowledge its probability before it becomes a part of daily experience? What experts must accredit which scientific finding? The more real you allow the 5th dimension to be right now, the sooner you will have an experience of it.

A dimension cannot prove its existence to you, nor can a teacher reveal a mystery to you that you cannot reveal to yourself. Remember that while the half-wise are the keeper of the keys, the wise have no need of locks.Let nothing and no one prevent you from your next step or your own next thought.

The 5th dimension is not a haven for those who have healed their karma, or endured a difficult life, and it is not a cosmic reward for those who gather near heaven’s gates. It is the natural progression for those who propose rather than oppose life. This does not mean that you must abandon your battles or that you must lower the standard under which your Soul has pledged its allegiance. Yet I ask how many of your battles are within your own ranks? How many weapons are still in your own arsenal as you call upon others to surrender they’re own?

An Energetic Rewiring and a Continual Realization of God
[11th Jan 2013]

As channeled by Tazjima – January 11, 2013

http://bluedragonjournal.com/2013/01/11/message-from-the-divine-mother-10-jan-2013-by-tazjima/

I AM the Divine Mother.

Beloved ones, we wish to welcome you into your new world now that you’ve had a week or two to feel out the new energies. While it still may not be apparent to many people that anything happened during the Shift, we can assure you that much has indeed happened. As was witnessed by some who are presently embodied on the planet among you, the very structure that previously supported the third dimension has been removed by those great Beings who constructed it in the first place. Your world and everything upon it has been moved up into the 4th dimension and will now move gradually into the 5th dimension, as more people begin to feel the heart-based feminine energies that are now available to anyone.

The work done by the light workers on the planet has been extraordinary, your devotion to the cause exemplary. Now the entire Universe will benefit from your work, as well as that portion of the Earth’s population who are yet unawake, but whose Higher Selves wish for them to also ascend. We thank you for your astonishing generosity of spirit, beloved ones of the collective of humanity.

For those of you who are still dissatisfied with the outcome of Shift, we apologize profusely for any misunderstandings or expectations that were not met. Part of the misunderstanding, if one existed, stems from semantics, the use of language and the ability of our messengers to accurately convey our messages. Another part of the “problem”, if one exists, is that sometimes the human mind (and ego) has difficulty in understanding that we work on a different time frame. We do not work from dates, but from levels of energy. And there are always changes in plans.

However, the time period of 12/12/12 to 12/23/12 was quite extraordinary. Due to the very expectations, hopes and desires of those focusing on the potentiality of ascension, your combined efforts enabled the legions of Heaven to lift up the planet and humanity into a lighter vibration, lower density plane. As we have stated earlier, a transformation of your world has taken place, just not in the manner expected by some.

It will take some time, in your terms, for the changes to be apparent in the physical. However, those among you who are particularly sensitive have already experienced a noticeable difference in the energies. Those who have the gift and ability of clairvoyance have witnessed a change in the light radiating from the planet and surrounds; the darkness that had invaded the lower dimensions of your world is gone. All that formerly supported the continuance of the rigid structure of three-dimensional life is now gone. All the structures that were created in 3D are now without inner support; like a building from which the primary supports have been withdrawn, they will collapse. Still, patience is required for those who look to see outward changes.

We remind you, gently, to first look within if you desire to see and experience changes in your world. You are all co-creators; your thoughts as a collective create the world in which you live. Although multiple timelines do exist and intermingle, it is still up to the collective of the timeline in which you find your major focus that will determine what you experience.

We encourage you to leave the structures of the old energy to fall into decay on their own. Placing your focus upon them or resisting them in any way gives these structures power, at least for a short time. Focus instead on your own inner journey. You have all done the work, whether in full consciousness or not; at some level your multidimensional being has been involved in the great Shift, the one long predicted by many cultures across the globe.

In Heaven, we work with long cycles. This Shift was expected for a long time as it came at the end of one world and the beginning of another. Yet with all change, there is some cross-over and gradual loosening of old bonds and ways of thinking that need to be done, even as new ways of living and thinking become more common with the passage of time.

You, our beloved and hard-working light-workers, are needed here on the planet, to continue to hold the light and to be examples of how to live in the new energies. We encourage you to play with the energies, first to see if you do sense any differences. Some light-workers, although very awake, aware and able have not yet tapped into their higher abilities (clairaudience, clairvoyance, clairsentience and others). Do not fret or be disturbed by this apparent lack that you may be experiencing. As the tension and stress attributed to the old energies begins to leave your bodies, you will begin to naturally open up to feeling, seeing and hearing new things. Other abilities will also manifest as your higher selves begin to be able to merge and anchor into your physical body.

Work on learning to balance and calm your emotional body, as it is one of the sensitive bodies that absorb a lot of information, but which is blocked when you are upset, angry, and anxious or in fear. Clearing the emotional body of fear will enable you to access higher functions of intuition. And do learn to take a moment or two (or much longer) to spend time with yourself in a quiet place so you can listen, simply listen for the quiet voice within. If you feel that it is yourself talking in your head, you are correct. What is being said is another issue. If your ego is trying to dominate the conversation, the message will be controlling, even negative in its wording. In contrast, the voice of your higher self will be gentle, calm and sometimes even funny. Our messenger can attest to the humor of her guides; she has enjoyed many a chuckle or laugh due to a wry comment or two.

There is much to learn or remember for now you are opening up to the realization that you are truly multidimensional beings, existing at once on many different planes. Your higher bodies communicate with other soul extensions and members of their soul monad or families, as well as communicate with other greater beings whose “bodies” encompass planets, stars and even Universes. We do not relate this to make you feel intimidated, but to encourage you to explore your new world, step by step, in a manner that will not lead to overwhelm.

Seasoned light-workers are being situated to offer assistance, if needed, along the way to fifth dimensional living and you may call on us, Father-Mother God, the archangels, the angels and ascended masters, as well as upon your galactic brethren for assistance. For now, this assistance will be mostly on an energetic level, but in time when more of your population are feeling better adjusted, our assistance will become more physically apparent. Particular dates and predictions will not be given out as that only leads to expectations and disappointments.

To quicken your own personal ascension, we encourage you to look out sources to teach you meditation and relaxation techniques. Listen to how you feel about anything that you explore. If your body begins to tighten up and you feel stressed or anxious, then whatever you are exploring is not for you. You are in charge of your ascension. It is a process, but can be speeded up according to how much you apply yourself to the “work”.

And there will be some who float naturally along with the energies and do not have to do any work that is apparent to an onlooker. However, be aware that many light-workers have embodied with little or no karma, and have already attained ascension in other worlds and planes numerous times. They are here with you to anchor a greater light quotient to keep the energy level of the general population high enough to sustain the continuance of the ascension process for all. In doing this sacred work, they are contributing to the Whole of Creation, for the entire Universe is being affected by the work being done here.

We are quite pleased by what has taken placed on Earth. From the darkest, most dense planet of the third dimension she has literally been transformed. And she will, again, take her rightful place as one of the most beautiful planets existing within this Universe. We hope that many of you will choose to linger upon her as she is raised up in vibration and becomes as bright as a star. There is much to be done to heal her physical body, but also much potential for the use of creative energies to assist in this work of the new age.

If you are still experiencing disappointment and sorrow, please call upon us for comfort. Our nurturing feminine energies can bring a relaxation and release to whatever is bothering you. It is possible that you also may need to work on journaling or doing some other inner kinds of work as this great change will bring up much that needs to be healed. In the process of everyday living in 3D, much was stuffed down in order to be able to function in the restricted manner in which the 3D world required. While it was never meant to be so restrictive, it became so. The resulting traumas and emotional upsets are still stored in the tissue and cells of your physical body, manifesting as pain, heat or cold. Call upon the healing angels and the gentle Arcturians to assist you in these healings.

We encourage you to release now all judgment of those who participated in the darkest episodes (and to some degree, still persist) of your old world; they will have to undergo a life review upon leaving this world. We can assure you that self-judgment is far more severe than anything that the heavenly hosts would choose to dish out. These ones will suffer remorse and even dismay at what they have done when they experience it through their own bodies. Leave that punishment and vengeance to the out-playing of natural law. And work on releasing your own sense of self-judgment that has been taken on in as a result of living in a constrictive environment with many laws and expectations, most of them false, unattainable or designed to control and intimidate the population.

In our eyes, you are perfect. As you expand your sense of self, you will also begin to experience the wonder of your being. You are all beautiful light beings, whose light brilliantly shines through the massive aura of your planet. We love all of you and admire your determination to sustain the work through many lifetimes, despite all of the resistance, pain and trauma that you have endured.

There will come a time when you will be able to review much of what has transpired here, to see and even experience some of your currently suppressed history, that which has been untold or buried by your erstwhile controllers. Much will be revealed. Much will astonish you. You have worked hard and the way will become easier as you move into the new energies. Be open to what comes.

There will be much opportunity and changes coming for those who are able to focus their intent and dreams into being. It is a wondrous new world that you are entering. A child-like sense of wonder, an ability to open your mind to possibilities and a determination to meet the challenges that will come will give all a new sense of being alive.

You have finally struck free of the bonds that held you back. Use your creative powers to create the world in which you want to live. Bring it into manifestation and discover the wonders of your multidimensionality, as well as the endless opportunities, joy and wonders that will unfold to those who go forth with eyes open and senses expectant.

Beloved ones, we love you so much. Go forth with our blessings. We wish you well on your journey of discovery. Namaste.

Thank you, beloved Divine Mother.

Copyright © 2012 by Elizabeth Ayres Escher. All Rights Reserved. Permission is given to copy and distribute this material, provided the content is copied in its entirety and unaltered, is distributed freely, and this copyright notice and links are included.

President Barack Obama listens as Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks during a news conference in the East Room at the White House following their meeting to discuss US troops in Afghanistan. Source: AP

Obama Speeds Up US Troop Withdrawals from Afghanistan

Stephen: We know there will be no wars on Nova Earth. Here’s one that appears to be finally drawing to a close, even if the reasons given publicly right now aren’t the precise truth. Others are sure to follow. Peace will preside.

By Carol E. Lee and Adam Entous, The Wall Street Journal – January 12, 2013

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324581504578235893292795864.html?mod=WSJAsia_hpp_LEFTTopStories

PRESIDENT Barack Obama said he would speed up US troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, signalling his intention to accelerate the end of America’s longest war.

After White House meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday, Mr Obama said the US is moving up the schedules for pulling American forces out of Afghan villages and for ending most unilateral combat operations.

That is possible, he said, thanks to what he described as recent gains by US troops and progress in training Afghan security forces to take the combat lead.

“The reason we went to war in the first place is now within reach: ensuring that al Qaeda can never again use Afghanistan to launch attacks against our country,” Mr Obama said.

“Starting this spring, our troops will have a different mission—training, advising, assisting Afghan forces,” he added. “This sets the stage for the further reduction of coalition forces.”

The shift, announced by the president at a White House news conference with Mr Karzai, could carry benefits for both leaders as they negotiate winding down the unpopular war, now in its 12th year.

Mr Obama provided few new details except to say that American force reductions should continue at a steady pace, signalling at least some of the 66,000 American troops now in Afghanistan could leave starting this spring and summer, rather than in the fall, the time frame preferred by commanders.

Top Pentagon officials had said that they envisioned the US shifting from a combat to a support mission, focused on training and assisting the Afghans, in mid-2013. The steps announced Friday by the US and Afghan leaders moved up that time frame by several months, to spring.

A faster withdrawal timeline allows Mr Karzai to argue back home that he has been able to more quickly recoup Afghanistan’s sovereignty, with Afghan forces taking the lead on security and US troops exiting sooner.

In the US, Mr Obama gets to make the case to Americans that he isn’t only winding down the war, but that he is doing so even faster than he had promised.

To military experts, speeding the withdrawal process may not be the best war strategy. Afghan and coalition officials said Afghan troops still depend on international forces for artillery, air support, intelligence collection and casualty evacuation.

“If this acceleration means the Afghans don’t have access to those combat multipliers…that puts their ability to assume lead responsibility at risk,” said General James Dubik, a senior fellow for the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank occasionally critical of the administration’s strategy.

Messrs Obama and Karzai spent hours together Friday in back-to-back meetings and over lunch. They grappled with issues that have sometimes divided them, but appeared to defer the thorniest decisions.

By moving key transition points up to the spring, the White House will have more leeway to accelerate the drawdown of the US troops now in Afghanistan. Military officials now expect troop reductions to begin in the spring and accelerate in the summer and fall.

Mr Obama said he would decide how quickly the US will withdraw troops after he receives recommendations from Marine Gen. John Allen, the commander of US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in the war.

General Allen initially recommended against any drawdown before the fall, when the fighting season ends. But he has privately signalled in recent weeks to Pentagon chiefs that limited troop withdrawals may be practical as early as this spring.

Some defence officials expect the White House to set a goal of cutting the force down to roughly 30,000 by the end of 2013, .

Mr Obama said Friday he would make an announcement on the pace of troop drawdown in coming months. In a joint statement after their meeting, the leaders reaffirmed plans for US and other foreign troops in Afghanistan to shift from a combat to a support mission in mid-2013, near the level when Mr Obama came to office in 2009.

But Mr Obama made clear he intends to speed the time frame.

“Because of the progress that’s been made by our troops, because of the progress that’s been made in terms of Afghan security forces, their capacity to take the lead, we are able to meet those goals and accelerate them somewhat,” he said.

Mr Karzai welcomed the spring transition time frame that would put his forces in the lead. He said the shift would mean that US forces would no longer operate in Afghan villages, a long-standing demand of the Afghan president. A senior administration official said the shift was done at Mr Karzai’s request.

“In spring this year, the Afghan forces will be fully responsible for providing security and protection to the Afghan people,” Mr Karzai said.

While most unilateral US combat operations will end at that time, Mr Obama said American troops would still be in the fight, to some extent.

The two leaders left unresolved another contentious issue: US troop levels after 2014, when the current NATO combat mission ends.

The Pentagon has presented White House staff with three options that would leave roughly 3000, 6000 or 9000 US troops in Afghanistan after 2014. Officials said it could take weeks for Mr Obama to make an announcement.

Senior White House officials said this week that Mr Obama could reject all three options and leave no US troops in Afghanistan after 2014. On Friday, Mr Obama neither embraced nor ruled out what analysts have termed the “zero-option”.

Instead, Mr Obama said US forces left in Afghanistan after 2014 would have two goals: to train and assist Afghan forces and to carry out counterterrorism missions aimed at al Qaeda and its affiliates.

“That is a very limited mission, and it is not one that would require the same kind of footprint, obviously, that we’ve had over the last 10 years in Afghanistan,” Mr Obama said.

Mr Karzai favors a larger US force, depending on them for training his own units, but said it was up to the US to decide on the number of troops it leaves behind after 2014.

Negotiations with Afghanistan over a post-2014 force have centered on US demands for immunity for any US troops who remain in the country. Mr Karzai has signaled his willingness to provide that immunity in exchange for a series of US assurances, including that hundreds of Afghan detainees now held by US troops would be turned over to the Afghan government.

With Mr Obama at his side, the Afghan leader said on Friday that the two had agreed during their meeting to completely return “detention centers and detainees to Afghan sovereignty”. Mr Karzai said the agreement would be implemented soon after his return to Afghanistan.

Mr Karzai also came to Washington with a wish list of big-ticket items that he wants the US to provide to bolster his security forces.

The Obama administration’s response, however, has been mixed.

The latest package of equipment, which the Pentagon prepared in advance of Mr Karzai’s visit, calls for the US to provide the Afghans with up to 30 more Russian-made Mi-17 transport helicopters, unarmed drones and surveillance systems, according to officials briefed on its contents. The Pentagon deferred on a decision to provide the Afghans with five used C-130 military transport planes and light attack aircraft.

Friday marked the two leaders’ first in-person meeting since a NATO summit in Chicago in May, although they spoke via video conference in September.

Mr Karzai arrived in Washington earlier this week and while in town also met with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Both leaders reflected as they discussed the winding down of the war. Mr Karzai, who isn’t eligible to run in Afghanistan’s April 2014 presidential election, said he is looking forward to being “very happily, a retired president.”

Mr Obama conceded that the longest war in US history had fallen short of some hopes.

Haiti plans subdued memorial 3 years after quake

Associated Press/Dieu Nalio Chery - Edner Gue, right, and Labon Florestal work to clean up the earthquake damaged Grande College Auguste Comte de Petionville, in their neighborhood of Petionville, Haiti, Friday, Jan. 11, 2013. The director of the elementary and high school is paying workers to clean up his school and plans to open classes even if the government does not rebuild it. On Saturday, Haiti will mark the 3rd anniversary of the earthquake that officials say killed more than 300,000 people and displaced more than a million others. The disaster is regarded as one of the worst natural disasters in modern history. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

Two Haitian vendors take shelter from the heat in the shell of a building damaged by the 2010 earthquake in downtown Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013. Saturday marks the third anniversary of the devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake that destroyed an estimated 100,000 homes across the capital and southern Haiti, including some of the country's most iconic structures. The government put the death toll at 316,000, but no one really knows how many people died. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

In this picture taken Jan. 8, 2013, a cross memorializing the victims of the 2010 earthquake who are buried at the spot in mass graves is silhouetted against the setting sun in Titanyen, north of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Saturday marks the third anniversary of the devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake that destroyed an estimated 100,000 homes across the capital and southern Haiti, including some of the country's most iconic structures. The government put the death toll at 316,000, but no one really knows how many people died. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The Haitian government plans a low-key ceremony Saturday for the third anniversary of the earthquake that devastated the country and killed hundreds of thousands of people.

President Michel Martelly will preside over a subdued memorial on the grounds of the former National Palace, which was destroyed in the disaster and later demolished. Senior government officials and diplomats are expected to attend.

Martelly said he hopes the poor Caribbean nation's people use the anniversary of the Jan. 12, 2010, disaster to think about how they can improve their lives.

"The main thing for me is to use this day to plunge Haitians into deep reflection," Martelly said Friday. "I need tomorrow to bring my country, my people enough reflection where they decide to do things in other ways."

Martelly is to give a speech Saturday morning and then go to a mass grave north of the capital to lay a wreath. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, will also visit the burial site.

The United Nations plans a small private memorial. Last year, the U.N. held a service to remember its 102 employees who died — the biggest loss of life of U.N. personnel in a single disaster.

Haiti's government says the quake killed about 316,000 people. An additional 1.5 million people landed in impromptu settlements around the capital and other cities in the south.

People have moved out of the more visible camps in public plazas but there are still more than 350,000 people living in the camps, according to the International Organization of Migration, a humanitarian group that helps people displaced by disaster and conflict.

The reconstruction effort has been slow to take hold because of political paralysis, the level of devastation and a trickle of aid. Only slightly more than half of the $5.3 billion pledged by donors has been released, according to the U.N. Office of the Special Envoy for Haiti.

The government said that this year Jan. 12 will not be a holiday marking the earthquake as in the last two years. But it said in a statement it has asked that the Haitian flag be flown at half-mast and that nightclubs be closed.

Officials last year noted the occasion with back-to-back news conferences and meetings with Clinton in attendance and foreign aid groups touting their accomplishments.