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War of Words

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Words, good slaves but bad masters.

H.G. Wells wrote The War of the Worlds, a story about creatures from another part of the Universe invading the planet Earth and how the humans fought back. Words too can conquer worlds, especially the world in your mind. For this reason, I believe it is vital that we choose words that fit exactly the meaning we intend.

When speaking, we like to believe that we use words to converse clearly with others.

If there are no words in our own language we can create new words in fun and familiar ways. This linguistic phenomena is apparent in the speech of young people. New generations invent their own vocabulary with which to talk behind the backs of adults!

The power of language is it’s ability to open new perspectives on life. A restricted vocabulary will limit thoughts to the point that they no longer serve anyone’s best interest.

Words create our thoughts which can in inturn be inhibited by those words. Imagine a map of a city as a model of your neural pathways. Those journeys we repeat, such as to work, become familiar, almost over used. A map is also constrained by it’s boundaries. It does no show the whole world. The unreachable thoughts are as if in another dimension. Logic cannot venture beyond logic.

I listened to a debate on the radio recently in which scientists were challenging each other over the popular conundrum, ‘which came first, the chicken or the egg?’ They conjectured about birds as dinosaurs and an absurd point in time when the first egg was laid. Only one scientist suggested that change is a gradual process when viewed over long periods of time. No parrot changes colour over night. Evolutionary changes take thousands of years before being noticeable. There is no single moment when chickens and eggs come ‘into being’.

picture credit: The Australian Academy of Science

The same is true in astronomy. Do you believe the universe happened in a nano second as the so called ‘big bang’. Scientists are currently theorising that universes expand and contract over vast periods of time. The explosive power of the ‘big bang’ phrase, froze original thinking about how the universe began for decades. The universe was never a chicken, nor an egg…it is obviously both.

Semiotics is the science of language and meaning. In my view, we all benefit from understanding how we structure our thoughts using language and meaning. Here is an exercise;

Imagine a ‘cake’.

There are many categories we can use to describe cakes. There are cakes we sub-categorise by their ingredients such as a sponge cake, fruit cake, carrot cake and oat cake. Then there terms for cake which describe when we eat it, such as birthday cake, Christmas cake or wedding cake. Alternatively the means of production is a description such as home-made or shop-bought. Another way of thinking about cake is the origin of the recipe such as Black Forest, Dundee or French Fancies.

None of these sub-categories describe cake but the word cake includes all of the sub-categories. When we choose which cake is included in which sub-category we use thought to DISCRIMINATE between different cakes. This tool is an important power of mental faculty but unfortunately it’s meaning has changed in common usage. It has become to mean PREDJUDICE and in my view, there is a loss of meaning and ergo understanding, when these two are confused.

Discrimination is an objective skill whereas prejudice is subjective. When we think subjectively we mix emotions with logic. Feelings introduce prejudice for or against something in a way that cannot be explained logically. Insignificant examples are then used ‘prove’ to oneself and others that a prejudice is based on fact in a process known as ‘bias confirmation’.

Bear with me if you think I am stating the obvious but in my view much cultural, ethnic, racial, gender based, geographic, religious and political misunderstanding has it’s roots in how language governs thinking and in particular, prejudice.

A mind which for whatever reason developes a predjudice against a general category of something is in trouble. To use our previous example, it would be wrong to say ‘I don’t like cake’ when what is meant is that you do not like cake with a lot of cream.

When it comes to making prejudices against categories of fellow human beings we hit trouble. Any prejudice is more a product of intolerance, misunderstanding, eliteism, narrow mindedness and other unelightened views in the mind of the observer. However, we hear predjudice views in the news regularly so it is important to unpick how and why they are held.

Consider the term ‘anti-Semitism’. The German journalist Wilhelm Adolph Marr lived at the end of the nineteenth century. He popularised the term ‘anti-Semitic’ to describe anti-Jewish sentiment within political ideology and the general public.

This prejudice towards Jews we know has been present for thousands of years. What was new then was the term, ‘anti-Semitic’. It could be argued that this contributed to the start of the second world war and it remains in common usage today, so did it ever serve the world well?

Let us examine the term. We might question the meaning of the term Semite. Who can define what this means other than an anthropologist? Cynics might suggest the use of the term was a pseudo scientific device to impress and support a prejudice which in turn came from right wing views on eugenics.

Certainly just as ‘cake’ has many sub-categories, so does the word Semite. Historically a Semite might be from a specific geographical location such as Canaan, Judah, Judea, Israel or Palestine.

The term ‘Jew’ is entomologically derived from the tribe of Judea. Then of course there are sub-categories for a Jewish person by religion such as orthodox, conservative or reform. Then there are those who are Jewish but do not practice a religion such as non-practising Jews and those who do not believe in God such as Zionists; who might be Jewish or Christian.

Sometimes language is used to catergorise a ‘people’ and using this categorisation, Semites would be a group who speak Hebrew and / or Aramaic.

The Nazi’s in the 1930’s arbitrarily define a Jew by racial characteristics, not religion, derived from an elitist philosophy of the Aryan race being superior to others on which an extreme predjudice was based.

We might expect a national category of Jew, but the Supreme Court of Israel has determined there is no Israel nationality.

There are other sub-categories of Jewish identity such as by culture, ethnicity and politics, but I hope that I have made the point that the terms ‘Semite’ and ‘Jew’ mean many things to many people depending on what category you choose to define them.

Who is a Jew? picture: Instagram

There is a criticism of the term Semite as meaning Jewish by non-jewish people, that it ‘disingenuously’ excludes those who also identify themselves as Semite, such as Arabs. Does the term anti-semite poplarly applied to Jewish people, imply a denial that Arabs are also of Semitic origin?

In my view, the nineteenth century pseudo scientific phrase ‘anti-Semitic’ continues to obfuscate clear thought and sustains predjudice rather than exposing it. It has been used by politicians in particular with the intention including victims of the holocaust and stealing their suffering to gain the moral high ground. Such verbal smoke and mirrors has spawned wars and continues to do so to this day, unquestioned.

In my view, it time to clear our thoughts of words that do not describe precisely what they mean. This is not just a matter of taking sides but simply being clinically clear about where are ideas come from? Are they the product of predjudices? What are the intended and unintended consequences?

To be impartial in a debate that is more a minefield than a cornfield, let us reverse the coin and examine the current term for ‘hatred of Muslims’; Islamaphobia. Again, should we not question the use of this term? Should the psychological term ‘phobia’ really be used to describe a fear of spiders, snakes and Muslims? Clearly confusion, not clarity will result from humans being casually categorised using a word from the science of psychology incorrectly, rather than a clear expression most people understand.

Fortunately, words can serve us to correct such unclear thinking. We can invent new words or phrases in any language and in doing so, say exactly what we mean, fairly and without bias.

It should not be, but if a bigot wishes to describe a group of humans using a term of predjudice, then I suggest that those describing distaste of a sub-category of a human being, should use the prefix ‘anti’. This creates the terms anti-jewish or anti-muslim concisely and without ambiguity. Alternatively, the terms ‘jew hate’ and ‘muslim hate’ in countries where ‘hatred’ is an important aspect of a legal definition and unambiguous to all. The prejudice is clear to all and not spun with fake science. It also makes clear that these are irrational generalisations.

There is a war of the worlds, but it is contained in our heads, not the heads of other people who we may not understand.

In my opinion, the dangerous, self-unaware prejudices that thrive in the emotional biases of current politics, poison the thoughts of otherwise rational and compassionate human beings, and in doing so whole communities. Such hatred of difference is so divisive that it incites violence between one group and another. The simplest example is when governments of countries declare war on each other.

Words are powerful as they form a part of the process whereby we create and sustain our beliefs. How much of the horror that we see in the news today, started as copied or learnt bias, built on an emotional response to an unfiltered stimulus, that slipped under the barrier of compassion towards others.

It is clear to many but sadly not all, that those who express ‘anti’ views in the name of a religion, are not following the most basic rules of the religion they profess to follow.

Fortunately, those who are strongly, even violently prejudiced, are in a tiny minority. The general population do respect and are prepared to learn from, those who are different to themselves. The world’s religions all follow the principle of do-as-you-would-be-done-by.

Speak as you wish to be spoken to

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Holy Smoke

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And seeing through it!

Burning Francinsense
picture credit Wikipedia

At the zenith of the Julian Calendar we have the festivals of ‘Christmas’ and ‘New Year’.

These celebrations carry warm and fond memories for many westerners. We can trace this back to childhood where children become the centre of attention and adults serve them for a few days; they pretend to be Santa Claus.

If, for whatever reason, you wish to influence the minds of adults for life, then you would start with the child because the child has no filters to prevent unconscious programming. The consumer industry that has grown around Christmas and the New Year suggests, very few adults can see through the smoke and mirrors.

Look objectively at these ‘festive times’. We tell stories to children about Santa Claus and a completely disconnected Nativity which they absorb with relish. And even though these are rather thin and bizarre narratives, children believe them.

Did shepherds really watch their flocks during the coldest nights of the year? Surely this nightly routine is only necessary when the sheep are lambing which is not in the winter months. Angelic hosts? Moving stars? Do kings saddle up camels and set off with other kings and no armed guard and courtiers towards a new light in the sky? And why give a babe in swaddling cloths such inappropriate gifts? Surely, a rattle, a soft toy and a blanket are more likely to raise cheeky smile?

This Bible story has the quality of a dream and in my view, for good reason. For just as dreams are constructed using symbols, so are these stories. Modern Jungian psychology is very comfortable with dream interpretation and symbols, as have peoples from around the world and throughout history.

The Roman church does not advertise that the nativity story is laid over identical ancient Egyptian and other traditions in which a child is born on 25th December of a virgin mother.

Isis Nursing Horus
picture credit Isiopolis

It’s interpretation of the gifts are as signs not symbols. They suggest that gold was given to show Jesus was ‘Christ the High Priest‘, in other words giving him power and authority, but a symbolic interpretation carries deeper meaning than signs.

In my view, the symbolic interpretation of the story is related to the winter solstice and a solar god rising and setting (Set being a destroying god from ancient Egypt). At this time the sun effectively dies and is placed in the ‘place of the skull’ or Golgotha. The round stone in front of tomb is closed for three days symbolises the sunrise not moving for three days on the horizon. When the sun moves again on 25th December is resumes it’s daily ascent into heaven.

This is not to say that Jesus the Christ was not a real person, but in my view, Jesus was born in the spring, did not die on the cross and lived his last days as far away from the evil Roman Empire as he could, in the Indian sub-continent, Kashmir.

The Tomb of the Prophet Isa or Jesus the Christ
picture credit Indian Heritage Walks

Surprise to see that there is no Santa Claus in the Bible because his is a symbolic story from another time and place which I have discussed in a previous blog; just as there are no cuddly Easter Rabbits or munchy chocolate eggs at Easter in holy scripture.

Here is a more serious alternative interpretation of the nativity story that might well have been within the teachings of the mystery schools and secret societies.

Consider the three kings as representing the pineal, pituitary and the hypothalamus neuroendrocine glands. These are all within the ‘place of the skull’. We should note that the birth most likely took place in a cave, a symbol of inner consciousness used by Plato, not a stable.

Many believe that much of human experience is ruled by our energy bodies as depicted in Hindu tradition by the chakras. Each month a sacred oil rises in the spine from the solar plexus and the part of the spine we call the sacrum. This is represented as the gift of myrrh from the pituitary gland. The hypothalamus is symbolised by gold, which is a pure, non-tarnishing, noble element, that freely conducts electricity. This charges the oil with golden, solar ions. Lastly the pineal gland secretes frankincense, a precious oil burnt in holy places to symbolise prayers rising into another dimension which becomes visible when the smoke disperses to reveal the source of the light. This was a new light and new consciousness on planet Earth.

I shall move onto the myth of the ‘new year’ in countries around the world which follow the Julian calendar. This was introduced by the dictator perpetuo, Julius Caesar in 45BCE, to replace the ten month Roman calendar. This was a solar calendar for a new sun god, with 365 days and a leap day every four years. It surfaces in the modern names of September, October, November and December (7,8,9,10) and starts on the first day of January.

But this random 1/1 date is not sympathetic with the cycles of nature. At this time, winter is dormant in the natural world. Animals and humans struggle to keep alive. Understanding natural cycles would suggest that the new year should start at the spring equinox when the days lengthen and there is more sun than darkness; a time of renewal and rebirth.

The Roman January god, Janus, had his two views of the world fixed on a melancholy past and an uncertain future. He was not a god of the moment and reality. He was not awake. Yet we celebrate January as the start of the new year, even to this day.

In the Rome influenced west, adults and children stay up until midnight. This hour is known in Wiccan circles as the ‘witching hour’ because at this time, the veils into the human world are opened and spirits may enter unneeded. Spirits are often consumed within an alcoholic drink to start the new year as one means to continue.

The Druid’s magical mistletoe, is used to give protection from such unwanted guests. It’s berries represent sperm and fertility. A future hope or ‘resolution’ is made real by a kiss beneath the mistletoe. It is an evergreen plant, and therefore provides protection throughout the year, even if unkept resolutions do not.

New Year Family Celebration 1950’s Britain

If these interpretations of Christmas and the New Year were explained to the general populace, their ‘programming’ from childhood is likely to resist any questioning; such is the unconscious power of childhood experience. The modern nativity and new year stories occur arbitrarily within the natural cycles. These children stories are unreal but are repeated without question. At the same time, fairy tales and myths (which are real) are described as unreal. This is the looking glass world which Alice ventured into.

In my view, this uncritical retelling of false narratives spills out into popular understanding and even ethics. For instance, exploiting rather than nurturing the natural environment, is a global policy that does not lead to fertile and happy communities. The erosion of natural habitats leading to reduction in the numbers and extinction of many species, I attribute to this dissonance with the natural world. We imagine it will last forever as that suits our modern self pleasing and comfortable way of live, but it will not.

Waking up from a dream is a slow and dizzying process. There are many who are casting aside these children stories that we were coaxed in our innocence with gifts and jollity to believe in. If our outer and inner ‘nature’ is ever truly understood, humans have a chance of being brought back from the abyss of shallow and false beliefs.

When there are ‘forces’ that do not serve your best interests and highest desires you are being suppressed.

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As Within So Without

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“Whoever battles monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you”.

Friedrich Nietzsche

What Nietzsche does not say in this famous quotation from his book ‘Beyond Good and Evil’, is that the monster you perceive making faces at you, is you.

This slightly heretical philosophical view of mine, suggests that our internal world (mind) creates the people, places and things we experience. By extension, for those who believe, humans create God in their own image, because creativity is an attribute of Divinity which they share and reflect.

You are not a person living a life, you are life living a person.

When we look back at our forefathers and ask how they dealt with this conundrum, there are two paths. One is to be blind to the illusion that we must surrender to a higher will or ‘fate’. Alternatively, not surrendering to fate empowers each individual to become the power that is within us and resist all attempts to submit to ‘the Abyss’.

This second option is taken by very few souls, for the hero (which is you) has to venture far from the comforts of home to an unknown place. Consider the humble Bilbo Baggins in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings as he pulled the heavy Saturnine ring from his finger and threw it into the flaming Abyss. The Whispering One was destroyed and homely order restored.

The metaphor of looking into an abyss was used in a more gentle way for children by Lewis Carroll in his book, ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’. Alice’s hallucinogenic encounters in a reversed universe reads as a series of random thoughts and dreams, each jostling for centre stage in Alice’s mind; a type of madness but with it’s own rationale.

Most of the time Alice is vaguely in control of people, places and things. The reader expects a happy conclusion to the story, but as in life, there is always doubt and the fear of horror.

Jalal Udin Rumi refers to this shattered fractal world as what we might see in a “broken glass mirror”. The metaphor refers to the profound idea that ultimate Truth is one, but when it “fell and broke from the hands of God,” people grasped fragments, each glimpsing a fragment of the whole. There is a paradox here because whilst the part is not the whole, it can be mistaken as such. In reality it is the reflection, the message which is the whole, not the physical fragment.

Religious followers are an example of this literal ‘my partial truth’ mentality. They think they know it all but are deceived. Yet there is a commonality to all human experience. Every person sees through the thin skin of their eyes, the cornea. It is transparent and admits all it sees; good and bad. It is our mind that filters and checks what we see in the trillions of connections it makes continuously; a process that dictates and reinforces our personal and randomly biased out-look on life. This is the human frailty of perception which keeps out some or most of the Divine light.

Bashar is an entity channelled consistently for decades by Daryl Anka and for those who are curious his public Q and A sessions are available on You Tube.

To conceive, receive, and perceive in Bashar’s teachings refers to how we can actively create a personal ‘reality’. We conceive a whispered idea or feeling as like a soft touch from outside of our body. This may simply be what time to eat or an inspirational idea that is life changing. Whatever we conceive in our higher Self, from the alpha to the omega, we have the option to be as God the Creator. Making lunch or making the Universe comes from the same Source and is the same.

The second stage of this process is when we receive the idea into our brain and integrate it into our lives. Bashar advises that this is something that must give us our greatest excitement. No working in a factory, unless you love repetition!

Thirdly, our mind must be aware of perception which is like a faithful horse that we groom daily from childhood. Whilst it provides the feeling of freedom and long journeys into the wilderness, it also limits how we experience life. The world we encounter is a reflection of our consciousness. What we think, we see.

There is an saying by Thoth, Hermes or Hermes Trismegistus which has long been treasured by secret societies is;

‘As within, so without, as above, so below, as the Universe, so the Soul.’

Let me show you three qualities of a symbol.

The horizontal line is the line between Heaven and Earth. Just like the mirror between water and air.

The vertical line is the boundary between what we experience as ‘Self’ and what we perceive as ‘not-Self’. This is the illusion we experience as I-dentity.

Where these two lines intersect is the location of the ‘I‘ or ‘eye‘.

In astrology the 90 degree angle is called a ‘square’ or ‘quartile’. When planets share the same quadrant of the zodiac they conflict. One might say they do not see eye to eye. A right angle is discomfort and sure enough we find the cross historically as an instrument of crucifixion. This was not just a Roman engineering solution for crucifying thieves but also those who threatened their evil Empire with the power of the individual.

The Christ was preaching to people that they contained a ‘light within’, when Rome wanted only Rome to be the light, just as the Empire endeavours to keep things today.

The Roman Empire Continues to Strike Back
picture credit; Architectural Digest

The light – a solar light as within the god Apollo – long before Jesus the Christ – is symbolised by a circle encompassing the four equal lines of the cross within. In my view this symbol is one way of ‘squaring the circle’. This ancient logic puzzle that transfixed the Ancient Greeks has not been solved using geometry, but by moving towards a less logical conclusion. Poetically, the four straight lines can become the parts of a square within the circle. The four / four beat is a masculine marching rhythm that needs to be smoothed and soothed by the feminine, represented by the all embracing circle.

Even the Ancient Egyptian Ankh is a version of this archetypal geometric paradox. It represents the unification of the masculine and feminine coming together as one, in order to align with and receive the Solar spirit of the Divine.

An Ankh in the Petrie Museum University College London

As within, so without, is less quoted than as above, so below. But it expresses the ability of humans to manifest, make real, a reflection of our highest aspirations. This might manifest through a series of unexplainable co-incidental events and chance encounters. If we powerful humans did not believe we can direct chance, we would not play the national lotteries.

The words, ‘serendipity’ and ‘coincidentally’ and ‘synchronistically’ describe this human experience of good or bad fortune. But who is making these choices, Divine Will or us, or both?

We have all been in a situation where we cannot decide what to do. We want a good outcome but do not know how or the best way to achieve it. If you believe in your own creative power as ‘a reflection of God’ then making the best decision is alignment with one’s higher Self.

Tossing a coin may appear random but if you toss three coins several times, you are allowing serendipity to speak to4 you. Oracle cards work in this way and are increasingly popular in Western society today. Personally, I believe they are an aid to personal choice, not makers of choice.

In some cultures the power of the unknown to influence events is described as ‘fate’ but again, I disagree with this concept. To accept fate is to give away one’s own power. Usually, this personal abandonment of responsibility attributes failure or success, solely to the Divine; Mashallah (ما شاء الله).

This ‘victim’ mindset is not endorsed by professional gamblers in Los Vegas. They will have amassed a strong self belief to the extent that they feel they can do nothing wrong. When a such ‘card shark’ or player ‘on a roll’ appears at the tables and starts winning, the management do not stand a chance.

Gambling on a Dream
picture credit Nevada Public Radio

We give away our power constantly. Even prayer can be, in my view, an act of giving away personal power to a ‘higher power’. When things don’t go as requested people lose ‘trust’ or ‘faith’ in Divinity, as if prayer is like a menu for you to order food.

If we accept that we are a tiny fragment of the mirror which is God, then man is indeed made in the image of God. We are His reflection and have god-like attributes and abilities that are obscured until we become a polished mirror.

The Taoist and Zen Buddhist concept of polishing a mirror symbolizes the spiritual practice of purifying the mind and heart to achieve clear, undistorted awareness of reality and connection with God or Mind.

As the Universe, so the Soul

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Love Life Lust

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The Traffic Lights Within

I have recently written two essays on ‘Physcial Enlightenment’ and ‘Spiritual Enlightenment’. The former is a rarely discussed subject, certainly amongst spiritual seekers. My point was that both are not only valid but complementary.

But in a western culture that thinks in dualistic terms, there will always be the question, ‘which is the most important?’ Even in spiritual countries such as modern and ancient India, ‘godmen’ have perched themselves on top of poles or stood on one leg for literally years, thinking this was a suitable way to deny their physicality and ergo, increase their spirituality.

This is in my view, nonsense but stay there if you want to.

My sideways sliding mind brought up the famous formula of Albert Einstein and a philosophers permutation of it;

SPIRIT = PHYSICALITY (c2) or E = M (c2)

I will also give credit to Alan Watts for a lecture ( now on You Tube) he gave on why saints struggle with lust. I don’t usually pick over the bones of someone else’s feast but Alan structures his talks so superbly that I shall credit to him because his ideas remain very relevant today.

The subject of lust has of course remained taboo in polite western society for many hundreds of years, repressed largely to it’s own detriment (almost suicide), by the Church.

The irony is that those who seek to become spiritualy awakened and do so, also awaken their sensitivity to everything in the physical world. We are all, after all, spirits in an animal body.

The Temptation of St. Anthony by Hieronymous Bosch c.1501

Alan points out that with spiritual awakening induces a desire to withdraw from the world. The shallowness of values and the platitudes of conversation do not contribute to the compelling desire to know oneself. Silence and contemplation are the tools of those with this particular desire and naturally find a place and a way that enables them to do this.

It is my belief that humans are strongly controlled by their ‘chakras’. I assume I need not explain what chakras are so that when I use traffic lights as a metaphor for chakras, readers will understand.

I assume red appears at the top of automatic traffic signals as it can be seen from the furthest distance, and is the only one of the red, amber, green, that causes harm to motorists if not seen.

Let us reverse their order however and place the red light at the bottom, keep amber in the middle and place green at the top.

These three chakras, base, sacral and heart are of great interest for the purpose of this essay. The red base chakra covers our strong connection to ‘tribe’ and family and the amber sacral chakra to basically, lust and animal desire. These two chakras show our bodily physicality and how it connects us with ourselves and those around us, family, friends, lovers, colleagues, leaders, employers, politicians…you get the picture.

Yet our green heart chakra transcends all of this. It is concerned with non-instinctual desire namely, love. This is expressed as love between humans, love of nature, beauty, and our strongest excitement, Divine love.

To sustain the metaphor, these signals are changing within us all the time, red, amber, green and in doing so affecting our behaviour. As much as the traffic controller may want to, there is no point in being on green all the time and creating traffic chaos. We go up and down switching on and off our desires in response to our affairs. Importantly, as one becomes spiritually awakened, the lights get brighter and demand constant attention.

picture credit: Live Science

The consequence is that spiritually guided people become unconscious beacons to other people and entities. The latter includes thought forms who exist in other energetic dimensions where there is a vacuum of love. Prayer, choirs, bells, holy relics, smoke, smells, statues, architecture, geomancy, flags, gongs and other devices are employed by religions to dispel these demons from sacred places. The grinning gargoyles on mediaeval cathedrals are the embodiment of these forces that circle us day and night. Gremlins, Demons, Archons or Jinn, wish to shame and ultimately destroy spirituality awakened humans. The power and prescence of saints in any ‘tribal’ congregation is a threat to demons because ‘love conquers all’. They want to pull you down into the red and amber light and keep you there; the red devil. Their desire is to drain your battery to the last few volts.

It gets worse. A spiritually awakening person has to fight their inner demons as well. Since birth our inner lights have been frustrated and dimmed by various spiritual and emotional wounds. I remember crying on my last day of primary school when I realised I would never see my dear friends again. These were children with whom I had grown up, including one, Fiona, who I had literally been born with in the same hospital and ward. I have a photograph.

Alan Watts explains that spiritual awakening brings ‘old pains’ to the surface, such as loss, fear of abandonment, shame, fear of no love. Lustful pleasures sooth these wounds even if only temporarily. For a ‘holy’ or ‘noble’ person seeking the highest enlightenment and benefit for others, these lustful fantasies can be an embarassment if ever aired publically, depending on how unconventional, immoral or illegal they are.

Priests in the Catholic church are an example of how the desire for sexual pleasure, can become perverted and hurtful towards young impressionable children. Royal families live with the same threat of such practices becoming public. Watch out for public figures who fear media ‘intrusion’ and make ‘no comment’ responses or invent and supress ‘facts’ or create a ‘distraction’ or ‘protest too much’, when challenged by journalists and prosecutors.

The present theatre of tricks being played out in the politics of the USA around the love-less characters of the late Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell will, allegedly, reveal a full picture of perverted lust running amoke amongst an international elite, cheered on by All American demons shaking pom poms and pocket cameras.

Sprituality is not an easy path. When the highest faculties of all the chakras are awakened the challenge is to face inner and outer battles of the highest intensity. As my old teacher used to say, ‘immortality has to be earned’.

Arch Angels such as Michael carry shields and swords because this is war. Spiritual awakening unleashes human weakness of the same order of magnitude; in the words of Alan Watts, ‘as if the soul seeks balance’.

Here is what Alan suggested to overcome this dilema;

Stop pretending this battle does not exist. Flesh is real and desire is real.

Stop fighting alone. Isolation is the trap that feeds the beast. Find another who is non-judgmental with whom you can be honest. This is not confession, it’s illumination.

Attend to your old wounds – acknowledge the pain and the painful work.

Be present when you feel desire but do not act on it (this is very hard).

Do not suppress shame as this only delays advancement.

Take the middle way which allows you to be present with the feeling but not to give away your energy pursuing and enacting it.

Alan’s view and remedies are principally the way of Mahayana Buddhism. It teaches that a seeker of inner transformation must merely watch dispassionately as life rolls by to overcome desire. The adoption of extreme views (as presently seen in the USA and other countries) is not being dispassionate but passionate.

In my view there is more one can do to have the strength to carry the whispering ring to Mount Doom.

We are guided if we will, by the ‘green for go’ light as a symbol of the human heart and the love it attracts and sends out. For the Sufi’s, this is the dwelling place of Divine Love in the human body. As Divine love is by definition everywhere it is therefore within all of our chakras or centres of consciousness. Divinity is present in our most lustful desires and moments as humans share animal desires and pleasures. Sufi saints were allowed to have one or even more wives, although they did not always. The ‘sin’ of pleasure as seen by some religions, creates guilt and shame which then, only priests can forgive. Life in these religions puts ‘sinners’ on a see-saw of ‘moral and immoral’ judgement favouring only those who use this to weild power over the faithful.

But when we resonate with Divinity we allow our attention to focus on the Divine Prescence within, or in modern terms, ‘our higher self’. This focus is one of being ‘in the world but not of the world’. It is neither moral nor immoral, just being Self.

Noah and his wives collected the animals when the world was in flood. Instead of being overwhelmed and drowned by the great flood of all consuming energy which was water, he and his sons constructed a boat that floated above death and destruction.

Being an Arc is in my view the best strategy for survival in a time when there are great metaphorical floods of anarchic and parasitical energy, pervading and interfering with the normal balance of nature, the affairs of man and ultimately our spiritual well being.

So, build a boat and after great storms a small bird will land in front of you and place down a spray of green leaves from an olive tree, and the waters will slowly receed to reveal a new Earth, to observe from high.

picture credit: Wikipedia
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I

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The Eye of God Nebula picture credit: BBC Sky at Night Magazine

“You wander from room to room hunting for the diamond necklace that is already around your neck!                                                                                        Rumi

It is generally accepted that Homo sapiens sapiens have been around for about three hundred thousand years. But our conventional view of history only goes back twelve thousand years or when there was a global deglaciation event that caused a global flood, known as the Yunger Dryas Event.

The continents of Lemuria and Atlantis are generally only accepted by academics as ‘myth’. Yet there is tell today of an extra-terrestrial race known as the ‘Mu’ who created much of the Atlantean civilisation.

More widely accepted in the study of Mesopotamian, Ancient Egyptian, Indus Valley, Mayan, Aztec, Olmec and many other civilisation’s records is that ‘gods came down from the sky’. These various and remarkably similar gods introduced new ideas and technology to humans. For example Thoth in Ancient Egypt, taught writing, sciences, agriculture, engineering and other valuable skills. The Romans knew him as Hermes from which came the Hermetic gnostic tradition.

When the visits of the gods became less frequent and finally stopped, someone had to maintain control of the population on behalf of the absent gods. Pharaohs took on this roll and declared themselves a ‘living god’. Later, priests ran the everyday duties of promoting and conducting religious duties.

Not only the ancient Egyptians, but even early religions focused worship on the sun, as a ‘living and dying’ god. Horus rose on the hor-izon each day and was killed by the evil god Set at sun-set. The solar religions featured similar narratives, such as their gods being born on 25th December, rays coming from their crowns, born of a virgin, being light and life, dying and resurrecting. Apollo fulfilled this role in Ancient Greece and Jesus the Christ later in the Levant, a self-declared ‘sun / son of God’. The early Christian Bishops at the Council of Nicaea, performed a skilful ‘hatchet job’ on the ancient Biblical texts to produce the New Testament; skilful because it told people what they wanted to hear and believe rather than the obscure truths contained in the holy texts that were removed, such as the Book of Thomas.

The Old Testament had introduced several ‘gods’ such as Lucifer, Jehovah and Yahweh. These gods were all male, creating the gender bias towards masculinity. The Divine Feminine was cancelled from the New Testament and perverted into the ‘Holy Trinity’. Mary Magdalene, wife / lover of Jesus and his highest gnostic initiate, was degraded to be a ‘common prostitute’, whilst the gnostic Father, Mother, Son trinity became the single gendered Father, Holy Spirit, Son.

Islam emerged from the debris of these many false narratives in the seventh century as a lunar religion. Worshippers had no priests and prayed before sunrise and after sunset, possibly to avoid praying to the ancient solar gods, such as Horus and Set. Mosques were not East – West orientated as are most Christian churches and cathedrals for the same reason. A non-anthropomorphised religion was a vital move away from the myths that ‘gods’ lived on mountain tops and the sky.

The Lunar Calendar picture credit: Yantar.ae

A discovery in Nag Hammadi in 1945 posed a problem for the modern Catholic Church. Early Christian and gnostic texts compiled by the ‘heretic sect’ known as the Essenes known as the Dead Sea Scrolls revealed what the church fathers had tried to bury.

They contain the revelation or heretical view that there was no God in Heaven or anywhere else, except within us. Such a concept, if widely realised, would have brought down the Catholic cathedral of cards. The Vatican Library remains a locked to this day which only adds to the speculation, why? Perhaps, the Romans destroying global ancient libraries such as the ancient library in Alexandria, had not managed to permanently hide the secrets that were intended to Unite ordinary people with their Creator, without intermediaries.

Sufi gnostics in Islam such as Masur al-Hallaj who dared to pronounce this truth with the words ‘Ana-l Haqq’, was executed for ‘blasphemy’ in 922. Even in this radical religion Allah had to be ‘out there’ as is the perception generated by the ego, not ‘in here’. 

If we go back to Ancient Greece for a moment, most large Greek conurbations had an amphitheatre where plays were enacted. They had a psychological message that the masked players represented the illusions of the ego, in a world of its own ‘make believe’. There was introduced a realisation that everything we experience is in some way a ‘shadow’ of the real world, as encapsulated in the Plato’s story of the men in the cave watching shadows of forms that they cannot see.

The ‘skull shaped’ amphitheatre at Ephesus looks out and listens.
Picture credit: Wikipedia

The tradition of the ‘shadow play’ is just as popular today. The most famous of all theatres of the imagination is of course Hollywood…the Druids magical staff made from the wood of the Holly Tree or Holy Tree. Here, various fantastical ‘Dream Works’ are conceived and enacted, but the story telling has a darker side. Human beings ‘make believe’ these projected dreams and are highly suggestible to believing their content.

Propaganda films in the second world war, promoted accounts of real events which were at best biased and at worst misleading. Governments and interested parties remain keen to promote or un-promote social ideals in strategies; in plain sight, ‘social engineering’. A present-day example in my view, is the statistical over representation of certain ethnic groups on U.K. television, in advertisements depicting ‘typical’ families. In 1960’s U.S.A. this was what I call the perfect ‘Cornflake Family’ with a white husband, white wife, white son and white daughter downing their early morning dose of starch and glucose.

Random players in mainstream cinematic heavenly realms are adored and even worshipped by the masses.  They are called ‘stars’ as if they had fallen from the sky as gods and goddess and awarded golden figures known as Oscars that stand somewhat stiffly in the manner of Osiris.

‘The love that moves the sun and the other stars‘.

Marilyn Monroe was all too eager to exploit the ‘Folly Wood’ games that were expected of her without abandoning her ‘

homespun alter ego of Norma Jean. To her credit she did this with ‘eyes wide open’, but like Icarus she flew too close the sun. Some say her lover, John F. Kennedy shared ‘pillow talk’ secrets about the presence of extra-terrestrials on earth, something allegedly explained to all American Presidents on their appointment.

The Nordic or Pleiadian male and female extra-terrestrials, are known for their highly attractive humanoid appearance. Perhaps Holy-Wood has a hidden agenda that is preparing humanity for a peaceful and gracious introduction to our extra-terrestrial cousins?

Picture Credit: Gaia.com

Even the most agnostic amongst us, still like to deceive children into believing a story about a benevolent, Jovial ‘god’ with a long white beard, who comes down the chimney at midnight on the winter solstice (solar dying), with a sack full of material goodies. These play things keep children amused until they break or the childs interest is diverted.  This Capricorn character is the planet Saturn (or Satan) dressed as Old Father Time who sweeps away materiality and our bodies with his scythe, a truth we hide from the innocents.

Krampus picture credit: ACIS

Life seen in this way is mysterious, and many materialists and agnostics alike, are frustrated by not knowing the ‘meaning of life’. Things that we are encouraged to work for in life are sooner or later realised to be ephemeral delights, leaving just a few bones on our plates.

This life less reality that is sustained by scientific materialism is proving so lite, that many today are returning to the concept of a non-material spirituality; to the light.

‘We live in two universes – one held together by gravity and the other, the one Dante described, (in the Inferno) by ‘the Love that moves the Sun and the other stars’. 

Extract from ‘The Sacred History’ by Jonathan Black page 272.

In summary let us return to the ‘solar God’ whom we may experience as the rising and falling tides of feelings and life in general. At the highest we experience ‘love’ and the lowest ‘the absence of love’. The Sufi’s such as Rumi quoted above, taught that ultimately all is Divine love. That love is the core of every human being because it is our own Divinity that resonates with and is ‘entangled’ with the Universal love existing in all time and space.

We are no more or less, creatures containing that Divinity that is described by so many cultures.

If we can choose to slow down and literally and ‘shut up’, we need not care about all these delusions, other than to know one simple ‘meaning of life’ which is;

‘I am’.

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Spiritual Enlightenment

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‘Know Thyself’ : words over the Greek Temple of Apollo at Delphi

I suppose the best place to start is to suggest that becoming aware that one is a spiritual being, is not the same as becoming enlightened. The latter is something few people ever achieve in a lifetime. The former is the first step of a long walk.

The question we might ask is ‘who is enlightened?’ There are many historical figures such as Guatama Buddha and Jesus the Christ who would qualify as ‘enlightened’, but surely enlightenment is not so rare that we have to look back two thousand years or more?

In modern times, spiritually aware people do not stand out. They are generally modest and seek actively not be achieve ‘celebrity’ status. They will not perform miracles, but if they did they would allow or manipulate things such that another takes the credit. An enlightened person does not dress up in old fashioned clothes or clothes from another culture. They are not in the game of impressing others.

There is an useful expression today known as ‘virtue signalling’. It explains that the signal is not proof of the integrity of the thing that is signalled. The performance of ‘good deeds’ is something many regard as having a spiritual benefit, but as certain stories in the Holy Quran demonstrate, harmful actions can appear to be good and good deeds can appear to be harmful. Explore this excerpt from Wikipedia;

Surah Al Kahf

  • 60-65 Moses and Joshua visit Khidr
  • 66 Moses desires to be taught by Khidr
  • 66-69 Khidr, knowing Moses’s inability to receive his wisdom, yields to his importunity
  • 71-77 He scuttles a boat, kills a boy, and rebuilds a collapsing wall
  • 78-82 Khidr refuses to communicate further with Moses on account of his protests against his conduct, but condescends to explain his conduct.

You may look up these stories that (and it is worth repeating), when examined in detail, in context, over a period of time and without bias…apparently harmful deeds can be good and good deeds can have unintended harmful consequences. It’s a possibility that needs to be explored vigorously because ignoring invites ignorance. Today, ignoring complexity is a primary tool of those who wish to deceive. The present president of the United States, who enjoys global power, promised Americans he would stop the war between Russia and Ukraine within twenty-four hours. He failed but was elected on this false promise. Since then, he has brokered several ‘peace deals’ around the world, several which, when examined in detail, are no more than temporary ‘cease fires’. He was surprised when he didn’t get a Nobel Peace Prize, which one might allege is because he is not aware of himself. We have to leave him to shine that inward looking light.

Ultimately, the only person whom you have a duty to judge is yourself. Hence, the gnostic practice echoed by Jesus the Christ in his words;

“Know what is before thy face and what is hidden from thee shall be revealed unto thee; for there is nothing hidden which shall not be made manifest.”

The Gospel of Thomas Verse 5

But can a mirror reflect it’s own image? Can an eye examine an eye? Have you ever seen the back of your head?

Becoming self-aware requires considerable skill and perseverance in observation. The ‘inner eye’ has to be turned upon one’s own thoughts. This is the first step in meditation where thoughts are likened to passing clouds. Eventually it is hoped the sky clears. It rarely does because there is work to be done, not just sitting.

We have a skill where we can control and create our thoughts. When we are not doing that, control and creation of thoughts does not cease, it becomes automatic. It is like breathing, which is either intended or automatic.

Awareness is similar. Thoughts that ‘come to us’ without our deliberate intent to create them originate in the unconscious part of the individual mind or the collective unconscious. These are largely unresolved and repressed, events and emotional disturbances in our or society’s past.

Pieces of music can replay themselves in our heads for which an apt metaphor is a ‘mind worm’. Unresolved encounters with others or other sections of society in the collective mind can become loops that replay themselves. Politicians use these triggers ruthlessly to distract and ultimately control others. In the UK, the cry is ‘stop the boats’ without really understanding the causes and solutions, just reacting emotionally to whatever people imagine ‘immigration’ is and does. The dumb are leading the blind.

Becoming ‘self-aware’ is, therefore, in my view, far more complicated than sitting in meditation. Become awake in a physical world surrounded by other cognisant beings with whom we have relationships, is a vital focus for our mind’s eye. It has to be done with the concentration of a meditator, or as is said, like a cat watching a mouse hole.

We have one brief but exciting lifetime to encounter all kinds of situations and deal with them skillfully, instantly and with joy, just as a tennis player learns how to deal with the ball when it comes from any probable or possible direction; plus any other ‘wild card’ life may deal!

picture credit: wimbledon.com

I was once asked if I meditated and I replied that I meditate all the time. Whilst I may not achieve this of course, it’s an intention I try to fulfil. I was taught to become an observer of myself by being one step removed. An example of this was given as being able to hold honey in one hand and dog faeces in the other, and lick the honey.

All phobias are clear examples of how our unconscious holds us back from participating in life fully. But we can overcome the dark spaces in our minds and emotions by shining a penetrating light of consciousness into those spaces. This is the process of making the unconscious, conscious…like a baby, breaking the waters and breathing it’s first breath.

“I tell you the truth, unless you are born of water and the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

John 3:5

The metaphor used by Jesus the Christ was being ‘reborn’ which he meant as complete self realisation and, at another rarely realised level, as re-incarnation.

Enlightenment can only be achieved by opening one’s eyes and taking deep breaths and observing the world as if for the first time.

In Zen Buddhism this practice is known as ‘astonishment’. It is a principle trigger to ‘realisation’ in the same way that a joke operates mentally as ‘getting it’.

“The bamboo shadows sweep the stairs, but raise not dust”

This essay is intended to be complimentary to the previous one entitled ‘physical enlightenment’. To be a fully realised human being, I believe there must be a playful balance in oneself between the physical world and the spiritual. People, we, usually list towards one or the other.

Becoming an observer of the physical world and one’s inner world and the interplay between them, as if you were in no way involved in either, is in my view, the most important technique for self realisation.

An enlightened person never sleeps. There are many statues of Guatama Buddha where he is sitting upright with one hand resting on a knee and apparently sleeping. But there is only partial rest required for the mind; most is for the body. Being fully conscious in daytime will empower being similarly awake whilst sleeping. We all experience this to some degree as dreams when we sleep, because our unconscious is unrealised and, in effect, has a mind of its own. We generally find dreams confusing. A good dream interpreter can assist in the process of ‘observing’ and understanding what the unconscious is processing because it speaks using symbols, as described in the works of the psychologist C.G. Jung.

An advanced stage of dreaming is becoming conscious whilst asleep, known as lucid dreaming. Some hallucinogenic drugs achieve this same effect although if the conscious mind is not trained in detached observation, the effect can be a ‘bad trip’; a roller coaster ride through the ghost train of the unconscious.

There is also another level of dreaming, in which one’s spirit leaves the body at night and travels through physical reality. This once happened to me whilst sleeping in my car and I moved out through some woods to a statue in the middle of the woods. In the morning, I took a walk into the woods and found the same statue.

People who have had ‘near death experiences’ report similarly leaving the body and observing the room in which there body is, such as a hospital operating theatre.

None of these experiences are ‘enlightenment’. Rather I have tried to describe a few of the curious and infinite depths of the mind. As an analogy, not many of us of us explore the internet in a way that is possible. Instead, we revert to our favourite places again and again. The internet and our mental world become like a cage made from iron bars constructed and installed by ourselves.

Leaving the cage, whether it is the physical cage we leave to go ‘on holiday’ or whether it is a mental cage, is enlightenment. I call holidays, ‘environmental enlightenment’. They are a short lived state of mind and heart, but there is a sense of ‘new world’ in a vacation which excites us before, like Cinderella at the ball, a pumpkin pulled by rats returns us to captivity.

We live in ‘rat runs’ imagining ourselves having god-like freewill, but in fact, we are just repeating repeat. The same applies to every place and connection in the universe of our mind; a state the most imprisoned declare as ‘boring’.

The only constant is observing perpetual change. By being fully aware, we are able to deal with all encounters in any situation, physical and mental. The constantly changing point of Universal consciousness which we contain and describe as ‘the-all-knowing-Creator’ or a thousand other names survives and surpasses this temporary sorjourn in the physical world.

The Enlightened One’s will pass you in the street and you will never notice them, not unless you are also, one of Them.

“You wander from room to room hunting for the diamond necklace that is already around your neck!

Look past your thoughts, so you may drink the pure nectar of this moment.”                                

     Rumi

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Physical Enlightenment

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‘To be conscious in this world is a prerequisite to be conscious in others.’

In recent years many people have ‘awoken’ to spirituality. Perhaps this from a rejection of religious dogma and the availability of spiritual ideas via the internet.

But what it appears to me is often missing in this spiritual revival is an emphasis on materiality. This may sound contradictory but read on.

In many spiritual traditions, one of the first realisations for the aspirant is how important the physical world is. The physical does not cancel out the spiritual and visa versa. From a non-dualistic perspective, the two are complementary, not mutually exclusive.

So before heading down the yellow brick road on one spiritual path or another my personal advice would be to take time to embrace everything practical and become healthy, wealthy and wise in the process. Controversially, I will say that to aspire to physical poverty as do many monastic traditions, is to aspire to spiritual poverty, as in the Hermetic law of ‘as above, so below.’

For me, aestheticism is a poor role model for those seeking enlightenment. Nevertheless, monasteries and nunneries in many countries are occupied by people who avoid being ‘in the world’ presumably in the belief that this puts them ‘on a path to enlightenment’. In practical terms, it is substituting difficulty with institutional routines. The intention to ‘be spiritual’ is sometime the root cause of never finding spiritual meaning in life.

In the Zen Buddhist stories from the East, a young person enters a monastery with an expectation to become spiritually enlightened, perhaps in the first few months or a year or two! Spotting this, the Zen teacher sets them to work in the monastery kitchen. When the meals are over and before the preparation of the next, the novice is given a broom and told to start sweeping. This carries on for years. If the aspirant’s ego gives in after years of being excluded from the spiritual rituals and routines of the monastery, they are appointed Abbot. The teaching was and is, learnt in the kitchen and dusty hallways, not the temple.

The Zen Master Dogen, wrote a practical manual entitled ‘How to Cook Your Life’. It drew parallel lessons between cooking in the monastery and spiritual training. It is available from Shambhala Publications.

It is easy to take physicality for granted, but this three dimensional ‘reality’ is a place where spiritual beings are sent to learn faster and more profoundly than it is possible in other dimensions. This process is known by Christian gnostics as ‘the Creator self knowing’. Certainly, physicality is not a life of ease. Whilst there is beauty and happiness, there is also ugliness and despair.

We would do well not envy the lifestyles of the wealthy and powerful in society who appear to have an easier life than those who have little money or power.

The love of money, as is said, does not bring happiness. Often we see that the poor have a much better chance of growing spiritually than the rich. Possessions are supposed to be bad for spirituality but the benefit is more in your attitude towards possessions and how this is reflected in yourself. Dressing up as a spiritual person, does not make you one. The best philosophy is to be in, but not of, this hologram of physical illusions.

For a person living in our time in a ‘developed’ country, what could be a rewarding spiritual path? As a perhaps unexpected metaphor, consider the ‘boot camp’ style of military training. This starts with the aim of breaking down the ego of the recruits with repeated humiliation. Only after weeks of physical and mental ‘beasting’ is the pressure reduced and replaced with constructive learning. This focuses on polishing boots, pressing uniforms, and keeping personal space clean and orderly, to a level of almost impossible perfection. The point is clearly not the physical tasks but mental resilience in order to excel in an endless cycle physical challenges. What is life if it is not a similar tumble drier of trials?

Members of Royal families face similar challenges, but in contrast to most of us, in an environment of opulence and wealth. Royal children are brought up to serve their nation within the parameters of strict protocols, not personal desire. In return, their every physical need is gratified by servants. Running the bath and cleaning up after the Corgis, royals do not learn. Here, ironically, having few or no physical challenges can be as spiritually disruptive as having too many.

A similar regime of service combined with wealth, governs the lives of high ranking officials in industry, government, and even religious orders. Wealth and power, can become an enormous distraction and many fall from office and spiritual grace through selfish greed.

So what of the ordinary human being who is not wealthy or powerful?

We might start with two aspects of our lives. Consider the physical body and the environment in which the body lives.

The human body is a miraculous and superb creation. You are only given one per lifetime so in my view it is important to treat it with the deepest respect. Jumping from aeroplanes and bridges for excitement is in my view disrespectful to your most sacred gift. Surely, we should be treating our body as if it were a prize race horse?

‘Horse Race’ picture credit: Museo Nacional

For the same reason, every aspect of the physical world is important to the spiritual aspirant. Simply put, every life lesson learnt in a human body, is a lesson that can be applied to the astral or spiritual body.

At the present time there are many ‘spiritual advisors’ advocating moving from this present three dimensional ‘reality’ into a fourth dimension or ‘new Earth’. Dolores Cannon had many insights on this process when she was alive. It is held that those not ready for this transition will not notice any change, and those who are prepared will move quietly ‘on’.

If this is possible and if this is what they want I wish them well. However, personally I regard the greatest challenges and rewards to be firmly here on Earth. Changing the scenery in a theatre does not change the characters or the plot.

In my view, having a deep respect for nature is probably the most important spiritual quality for individuals and human collectives at this time. To watch forests and animals and precious ecosystems be destroyed to support human ignorance and greed is heartbreaking. Similarly, war against one’s brothers and sisters on earth is anathema to spirituality.

We occupy the human learning fields in the present time. To leave this full-on learning environment at the time of it’s greatest need, is to leave an unpaid debt to future generations. I suggest that if we cannot master the fine balancing act between physicality and spirituality, we should at least give our children a chance to do so. Nature rebuilds eco-systems without help from humans, it is all a matter of how much damage has been caused and will an ethical case be made for protecting nature whilst it recovers?

To stroke an elephant or watch a lion sleeping in a tree are both physical and spiritual blessings; one gives life to the other.

picture credit: Pinterest

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Getting into a Spin

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‘Everything in the Heavens is just through one unique Chi’    Zhuangzi

Please suspend judgement for a moment on what I am about to suggest; that it is my belief that much is missing from our scientific understanding of energy. Certainly the Unified Field Theory remains elusive to conventional science, but what of the energy that flows within living, conscious, nature? Is there a bond between electromagnetism and gravity, and whatever force powers life itself?

The ancient Chinese called the energy of living things, Chi. This is not the electricity that powers our muscles, organs, nerves and brain, although we are certainly electrical and magnetic. There is a more subtle energy within us but why do we understand it so little?

My suggestion is that Chi is always in constant motion and for that reason, hard to observe and measure. A propeller on an aeroplane becomes just a blur when it spins; it almost becomes invisible. Suppose then as a theory, that our chakras are always spinning. Perhaps the Hindus called them ‘wheels’ for this reason. To spin brings seperate elements together into one unity.

The analogy would be a child’s spinning top that when at rest has the full rainbow of colours visible. When it spins a rainblow of colours blurs into white.

If chakras spin, then it must be possible to increase their speed and balance. Imagine looking down through all the chakras in the body, perhaps in the body of a ballet dancer spinning on one foot. They would become a blur of white light.

Imagine also the feeling of being that ballet dancer. Because of the spinning motion, gravity has a reduced effect on a body. You have become a gyroscope. When spinning on an axis, a human body is generating and experiencing Chi, as well as centripedal force, and weighs less. Light has become a white blur to the human eye. The weight of the body is so reduced that the dancer can stand on just one toe, but only whilst spinning.

Consider a more extreme example. When a high level of Chi is achieved by mystics and adepts of various disciplines such as Yoga, the less effect gravity has on the body. Mystics such as Padre Pio and adepts from the East such as yogis, demonstrated levitation through their high level of Chi. Some even had to be held down to prevent them from floating.

Saint Alfonso Liguori

Undertakers will tell you that a deceased body is heavier than a living body. Four men are needed to carry a corpse, while one person may lift and carry a living body. After death, Chi leaves.

‘Life is the gathering of Chi. When it disperses, we die.’          Zhuangzi

The most well known example of spinning for spiritual experiences, are the Whirling Dervishes. The dance represents the planets spinning and moving around the sun, the Sheikh. It raises the personal Chi of the dancers and induces ecstatic states of unity with the Divine.

Consider the same principles of nature at a different scale.

The weather patterns across the globe are vortexes of high and low air pressure. These spin constantly and the churning of the moisture and particles in the air creates static electricity.

Tall buildings on Earth, attract lightning and modern buildings are earthed for this reason but the ancients wished to direct high charges of electricity into and from their sacred buildings with associated Chi.

At the Great Pyramid of Cheops for instance, there are pavements of fulgurite, a rock created when sand is melted into glass by lightning.

The Ancient Egyptians were masters of Chi energy for it’s various benefits in sustaining mind and body, ritual and intitiation, communication, construction and fertility in fauna and flora. The scarab beetle is an intriguing choice of archetypal symbol until it is considered that it rolls spheres of dung, similar in essence to the movement of the sun and the solar system.

Many of the ancient buildings and cities were constructed so as to produce the best benefit from natural and artificial lines and confluences of Chi. The Chinese were adept at this and perhaps the name of their country contains a reference to this! Certainly their science of Feng Shui meaning Wind Water, was carried out with particular attention to the local environment, the earths magnetism and the planets and stars. Even in modern times, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank was placed and aligned according to the principles of Feng Shui, for prosperity in the exchange of money.

In all other parts of the world Chi is associated with the patterns of flow of underground water and aquifers. This affects every building however humble and is particularly relevant to sacred buildings. The effect of Chi a the high levels that these buildings generate, is to induce a feeling of Divine love and spiritual initiation in congregations. The coloured light and rituals were only ever distractions. More cosmic energies were at work. The clever use of natural light through alignment of windows and doors with solar solstices and equinoxes into sacred spaces is found even in the most ancient of constructions such as New Grange in Ireland and the Temples of Abu Simmel in Egypt.

Of course the energy of the Sun and the stars are vital to the welfare of life on Earth, and much has been written on their influence in the field of Astrology and Astronomy. The former includes the energetic effects of cyclic stellar gyrations, whilst the latter observes matter through the electromagnetic spectrum.

Nicola Tesla, the great prophet of electrical phenomena such as radio, maintained that electricity is a degraded form of Chi. As we understand there is an electro motive force associated with a wire carrying electrical current, it is possible that the currents of rivers and oceans attract Chi in a similar way? Is Chi transfered to humans from the landscape by induction? It is interesting that humans are attracted to such places for leisure and restoration. In the context of this essay, the generator uses this principle to convert a rotational force into electricity. Could not all spinning motion be generators of Chi in a similar way, even as we observe in the nucleus and spinning electrons of sub-atomic matter?

Could the ancients raise Chi in a huge stone block so as to make it levitate? If so, this would certainly explain how pyramids and megalithic sites like Stone Henge were constructed. There is a record of Tibetan Buddhists using sound from horns and chanting choirs to lift large stone blocks.

The fissures in the rocks beneath our feet naturally fill with flowing water. Where two such water courses cross, they create a vortex sometimes apparent as a spring. Wells are dug in such places. What is interesting is that such underground water creates Chi in a particular place. This was controlled in ancient times by the placing of massive stone – preferably containing high levels of mineral crystals. Different crystals give off electromagnetic waves at differing frequencies as in radio technology today. The pyramids of Giza were capped by a crystal above a gold pyramidion, according to John Michell in ‘The View Over Atlantis.

It is speculated that the anti-gravity effects of Chi could have been used to lift the massive stone blocks to build such structures as the pyramids.

If one examines the simplest principals in ‘anti gravity’ flying machines such as Schaubergers shown below, the vortex is fundamental to the effect that Earth’s gravity has on matter; gravity can be reduced to zero.

Victor Schauberger’s Vortex Engine picture credit: Xaluannews.com

The scientist Wilhelm Reich designed a box to store Chi or, as he called the elusive energy, Orgone. The box was made of layers of organic and inorganic material. A person sitting in the box received a slow charge of orgone. Unlike heat, which goes from a high source to a lower place, orgone moves from a low source to a higher place in a manner that constantly builds up a charge and requiring a discharge.

Ancient structures such as cathedrals appear to have a knowledge of this. The spire in a cathedral concentrates orgone as it ascends up to the point of the spire where Chi is discharged into the atmosphere. The effect can be neutralised by earthing the energy with a copper strip connecting the top of the spire to the earth below.

The pyramids of Egypt and around the world functioned similarly using the principle of the ascending whilst narrowing geometry of a pyramid. The Chi was concentrated at one-third intervals of it’s height where in Giza the Cheops pyramid was constructed without a peak and pyramidion. This was to cap and retain Chi within the sacred chambers of the pyramid.

The King’s chamber is positioned and constructed geometrically as a double cube, so that the effect of a high exposure to Chi induced change in the brain of initiates. Kings, queens, priests and gnostic aspirants would have undergone this as a powerful spiritual initiation. Chi was clearly linked with the ultimate goal for ancient Egyptians, a prolonged and prosperous life outside of the deceased body.

Ultimately, everything is energy – even matter – and the understanding of the effects of all types of energy on human beings is as important as it is for a surfer to understand ocean waves.

Although it is easier to observe the inanimate, material, and stationary, the next step for science, in my view, is to observe the energetic effects of movement in the vast and tiny gyrations of life.

I nature the vast and flowing Chi…it is immense and powerful. When cultivated with integrity and without harm, it fills all space between Heaven and Earth’          

Mengzi     

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The Study of Nothing

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I am who I am and that is enough              Bashar   ‘You are God in human form’ You Tube

In many parts of the world there exists a tradition of ‘non-sense poetry’. In Victorian 19th-century England, one of the greatest exponents of this was Lewis Carroll.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

The joke was to move away from the expected in a manner that jolts the reader or listener into a ‘new perspective on the world’ – a journey through the looking glass.

Educators of the mind are appalled if any of this poetry is taken seriously. Scholarly academic method has, for many centuries, led the world of education. Any statements which are clearly not factual are denounced, and their originators flung from the metaphoric castle walls of academia. Nonsense is clearly only for kids.

In an ‘information age’ when artificial intelligence tries to explain all and everything, it struggles with spirituality. Ironically, spirituality requires a reversal of learning, of  habitual, judgmental, invented, edited and prejudiced content from the past.

For the spiritual aspirant, this method of ‘removal’ or ‘overriding’ of established thought patterns is not new. In Sufism, there is a concept of ‘Ma’rifa’ which is an ‘attunement’ or intuitive understanding which manifests as the voice within.  This is the product of the seclusion of the mind from attachments in general and a mastery of being a true observer of oneself and everything.

In Zen Buddhism the teacher aims to stop the student’s self-conscious attempts to learn ‘the Zen Way’ because Zen is no more than a drop of rain perched on the end of a leaf or the catching of an umbrella casually dropped.

Such ‘no thought’ is difficult to understand, which is reasonable from the point of view of a Westerner who relies on thinking to exist.

I think, therefore I am                                                                                        Rene  Descartes

There is a third option available, which is somewhere between these two extremes of thinking and not thinking. That is, ‘resonating with thoughts which originate outside of oneself’. In a metaphor of the human mind as a computer, these are ‘downloads’. These not only affect the individual, but also the planet and ultimately, the entire Universe.

Humankind, we are told, is entering a new dimension of reality sometimes referred to as the ‘New Earth’. In July 23rd 2025 the Schumann Resonances from the planet underwent an extreme event. All the vibrational frequencies between 4 and 40 Hz lit up on the geophysicist’s measuring instruments.

This level of disruption is a product of a bombardment of charged ions (the solar wind) from coronal mass ejections and the interaction with the Earth’s magnetosphere.

Such ‘energetic activity’ prompts the inquiry as to what type of energy? How is this ‘energy’ perceived by human beings if not through the five senses and seven main chakras?

Humans have always been responsive to the environment but we are limited in our minds by learnt behaviour. Prejudice, unconscious thought patterns and the desire to please others, a lack of mental adventure and repetition on past experiences known as ‘habit’, are strong inhibitors to experience the ‘paranormal’.

If the average person in the street was challenged regarding the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence and the imminent arrival of inter-dimensional beings, they would probably respond with derision.

In a growing minority of more open thinkers, however, there is a referral to ‘moving into a higher frequency’ and ‘learning how to resonate with vibrations’. Such ideas are, in my view, not a true description. Pseudo-scientific metaphors using references to ‘energy’ without first defining what sort of energy, is prone to criticism..

Nevertheless, I personally have observed signs of energies that are not electromagnetic, or magnetic or static electricity or gravity. Ancient buildings and megaliths across the planet and time, display a conscious manipulation of an unknown organic force known as Chi, Prana, Vril, Orgone and different names in many cultures.

Electromagnetic Energy Focused in the Great Pyramid of Cheops, Giza picture: phys.org

So it is not absurd to suggest that the human body collects, stores and emits a type of  energy in a similar way to the planet. The vital life force of Chi is fundamental to the practice of Chinese acupuncture and is prescribed by many medically trained doctors.

The chakras are nodes positioned below, within and above the human body ‘. I am personally, not convinced that high frequencies have more value than low frequencies. In our perception of light and sound, we benefit from all frequencies, whether high or low. Likewise, our physical senses work simultaneously to provide a working representation of ‘reality’ to our brains. An analogy would be an orchestra producing an experience from a range of instruments tuned to low and high frequencies, from tubas to piccolos.

Perhaps the best advice is to surrender to the way things are. Surrender requires ‘unlearning’ and also attunement to everything outside of our small mental sphere, the brain. It is perhaps one of the greatest realisations encountered on the spiritual path and requires no preparation or knowledge, but rather a revealing of what was always there.

Whatever the future holds, the old world and our individual egos will resist change. When Jesus the Christ said that ‘the meek shall inherit the earth’, he was not suggesting Marxism or the World Economic Forum’s ‘you will own nothing and be happy’.

Rather, this is a spiritual maxim, advocating surrender, from which the benefits are the greatest gift of all.

‘….see what synchronicity brings you with the willingness to let go of all restrictions, all limitations, all assumptions and all insistences that in your unconscious, subconscious and conscious mind don’t actually serve you or align with the true vibration of your true ethereal, spiritual core…’                             

Bashar

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Magick, Majesty and Matrix

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‘The world is an illusion, a dream. It only appears to be real

to the person who is unaware that it is a dream.’ Alan Watts

There is a famous story about a trickster named Rumpelstiltskin. The daughter of a Miller must spin straw into gold. Her father has promised the King she has this skill, but she does not. A strange impish man appears and spins straw into gold on behalf of the Miller’s daughter for three nights. In return, she has to promise him her firstborn child. When she marries the king, she forgets her promise. So, the strange man appears again and demands her child, but she refuses. He says she has three days to guess, otherwise he will take the child. A servant happens to find the little man who is singing a rhyme, which includes his name. The Queen reveals she now knows his name, and Rumpelstiltskin sinks into the ground.

https://www.grimmstories.com/en/grimm_fairy-tales/rumpelstiltskin

The story has appeared in different guises but has the same structure worldwide. Academics have categorised the form as ‘The Name of the Supernatural Helper’ in the genre of ‘fairy tales’.

Like most such tales, it hides meanings beyond the level of a nursery audience. The Miller is clearly also a trickster archetype, as he tells a complete lie to the King, putting his daughter in peril of being called a fraudster. She, in turn, must make a Faustian bargain with the Devil to hide the truth from the King.

It is worth noting that politics today contains similar patterns of lies and pacts with hopelessly untrustworthy tricksters, for personal power and gain. Both President Putin in Russia and the Zionist Israeli government have invaded and made war with their neighbours, disproportionate to the threat posed to their own countries. They expect the world to be fooled by their deceit. A trickster ‘Trump’ ineffectively poses as a ‘peace maker’ to gain a gold medal.

Historically, Jeffrey Epstein is alleged to have made pacts on behalf of shadowy organisations with a view to shaming and blackmailing public figures. He could not spin golden threads from straw, but he convinced many that he could.

Such alluring but shady dealing describes the energy of the trickster archetype well.

To the princess, the character of Rumpelstiltskin is both a blessing and a curse. Psychologically, the creature represents the trickster archetype within her own shadow animus. ‘Stiltskin visits her at night and produces the desired golden threads each morning for three days, to get her out of trouble. It is worth noting that three is a magical number, as in the expression ‘third time lucky’. Names, numbers and spells sustain the suspense of this story.

The transmutation of base matter into gold is a representation of an alchemical and psychological mutation of lead into the noble metal gold, and a feminine persona and a male animus into a noble human, respectively. Perhaps the Miller’s daughter learnt risky deceit for personal gain from her father – her animus model?

We must question why the gold is spun into gold ‘threads’ instead of, say, gold coins? The spinning wheel is again a very ancient symbol. Mahatma Gandhi used it to represent ‘honest work’ to make a political point, but the wheel also represents ‘wholeness’ and the turning of the Universe we call ‘time’.  

picture credit:
Ancient Egypt Online

A sphere is the shape on the crown of the great creator and sun god Ra.

A thread is another old symbol going back to Ariadne and the Minotaur in ancient Greece. It represents the ability of the rational mind to follow a line of reasoning, the product of which today is the basis of science. A thread also suggests woven cloth or carpets, as in the magic carpets of the One Thousand and One Nights tales. Today, the World Wide Web is capable of transporting anybody anywhere in the world instantly.

The whole of the ‘reality’ in which we live has been described as an illusory matrix. In The Matrix cinematic trilogy, the character Neo can move from one reality into another. The Matrix is depicted on a computer screen as lines of descending pictograms. This is certainly an oversimplification and a product of the limits of computers when the film was made.

picture credit: Hindu American Foundation

Two eminent scientists, University of London physicist David Bohm, a protégé of Einstein and one of the world’s most respected quantum physicists, and Stanford neurophysiologist Karl Pribram have put forward a theory that the whole Universe is a hologram. In his book ‘The Holographic Universe’ Michael Talbot describes a ‘revolutionary theory of reality’. We may be familiar with lasers producing talking images of people located elsewhere in real time. There is now a holographic performance by the Swedish pop group ABBA in a London theatre, which many find remarkably real.

Abba Voyage in London: picture credit The Standard Newspaper

A holographic Universe involves ‘warping and wafting’ lines of information-rich energy to create what humans experience as matter. The ancients demonstrated the pivotal moment of their supreme control of matter by building the pyramids on the Giza plateau. Their dynastic evolution moved from an energetic world focused on minor gods and the afterlife, into solid matter.

In a way, this is what Rumpelstiltskin is doing. He uses golden straw to create the eternal element, Au or Gold. Intriguingly, the symbol Au derives from the Latin aurum, for Aurora, the goddess of dawn. Each day, poetically, the beginning of a new world; a new beginning for mankind, and the Miller’s daughter. So perfect are her tricks that she transforms herself from a humble citizen into a Queen. This is the alchemical marriage, as depicted in many of the Alchemist’s works and represents spiritual perfection.

In the story, Rumpelstiltskin says that he wants nothing except a living child. He has mastered the material world and now craves what he can not create, a living child, or you might say, consciousness. This also happens to be the limit of modern science, but perhaps Artificial Intelligence will take up the role of the ancient demigods?

Agent Smith picture credit Weaving Movies Wallpaper

The Agent Smith character/s in the film The Matrix are demonic autonomous programmes which have penetrated the firewalls of The Oracle and threaten humankind.

Key to unravelling the complex layers of our story is the riddle of the trickster’s name. Today, passwords allow us to enter a programme and keep others out.

Words represent ideas, and ideas are the initial stage of the Creation process. ‘In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.’ (John1.1)

In magical spells, words and their ‘spelling’ are important. The most well-known might be ‘Abracadabra’, which it has been suggested to mean ‘may it be so’. It is a spell of manifestation and, more darkly, deconstruction. Abracadabra can be spoken, losing one letter at a time to ‘deconstruct’ something.

Rumpelstiltskin, somewhat vainly, believes the princess will never discover his name. Commonly, tricksters can become victims of their vanity and underestimate those whom they are trying to deceive. The politics of the USA today is poisonous with self-important deceivers.

So fundamental to his very existence is the name Rumpelstiltskin that when revealed, he physically deconstructs as a programme uninstalls.

He never achieves his goal of possessing and perhaps creating life. He is beaten at his own game of deceit by one who is more deceitful. The Miller’s daughter has done this by confronting the mischievous spirit within herself. When humans confront their shadow side in this manner, they become whole or ‘holy’. The trickster disappears.

A child will readily listen to this tale, not knowing and not needing to know its levels of meaning. It is a healing story; one that may be carried through life as a mental ‘anti-virus’ programme, always scanning for what will spin the creation process through the realm of dreams.

the Flower of Life picture credit Alziend