They are a curiosity – these domesticated animals who share life with us.
Who, for instance, turned the lions of the Savanah grasslands and the tigers of the rainforests, into pussy cats?
Certainly, this transition was complete over two or three thousand years ago for the house cat was sacred to the Ancient Egyptians as the goddess Bastet.
picture credit: Pets Magazine
The common explanation of domestication is that lions hung around nomadic hunter’s camps waiting to be thrown scraps of meat. Was their a truce between two apex predators? Did the ‘king of the jungle’ give up his throne? Really?
Similar symbiotic relationships are meant to have happened with bovines, canines, felines and other wild animals who have come to live with humans.
All of this I have focused on in a previous essay, but I came across a report by Edgar Cayce on You Tube recently that has confirmed something fascinating.
One of the most well-known psychics of the twentieth century, Edgar Cayce, maintained that this difference between wild and domesticated animals extended into the astral plane; the dimension to which souls return after bodily death. There, wild animals behave much as they did on earth as a single species consciousness – the hive mind. They do not possess individual thought but live as one.
In contrast domesticated animals and in particular ‘pets’ such as cats and dogs will have acquired some individuality during their lifetimes on earth. Traditional farmers give individual animals such as cows names, and respect their family and social groups. Farmers grow an attachment to individual animals and, in a way, become one of the bovine family.
Observers notice that the closer companion animals are emotionally integrated with humans, the more individual pets become.
Many cat and dog owners treat their furry friends as if they were human members of their family. They adopt them from birth, name them, feed them, cuddle them and grant them their free will.
picture credit: yeswarmg
In the most extreme example, some pet owners dress their pets in human clothes, although personally I think this is a step too far! The mental process of anthropomorphic projection features in epic and fanciful narratives from ancient times to today. Animals give magical support to the hero to complete an otherwise impossible quest. In the twelfth century Persia poet Farid ud-Din Attar epic fable, ‘Conference of the Birds’ it is the birds who complete an heroic journey. In our modern era Walt Disney famously brought cinema screens to life with colour, movement, music and talking animals caught up in whimsical and impossible tales.
But there is inevitably a flaw to the process of domestication and individual empowerment. Both can work backwards as well as forwards. When several family dogs form a pack, they can revert to their ‘collective’ instincts. Sadly, such domestic canines attacking humans is not uncommon.
You may be wondering where this speculation of the symbiotic partnership between humans and their pet animals is going. Well, the American clairvoyant and faith healer Edgar Cayce believed that the animal soul craves human love and companionship; a position I personally know well as a ‘mother’ of four very individual cats.
picture credit: displate.com
The ‘old crone’ archetype was the ‘witch’ in past times, and her supernatural companion was a black cat. This relationship was symbiotic, for cats have a reputation for clairvoyance. The felines spiritual purpose was, and remains, as a protector of humans from malevolent spirits and elementals. Cats are well known for staring into ’empty space’ such as high corners of rooms.
The overall process of evolution from animal spirit to human spirit, according to Edgar Cayce, is to learn three essential qualities that humans also aspire to;
Love.
Peace giving passive behaviour.
Unselfishness.
I think this idea of the purpose of domestication of ‘wild animals’ shows a deeper understanding than the modern view of bonding between human and pet being merely for mutual pleasure.
But again, this process of aspiring to higher spiritual realms for both humans and animals through their formation of deep ‘family’ and ‘familial’ bonding, has a dark side. We know that some humans on their Soul journey fail to aspire to and or achieve the above three higher self qualities. Examples of such humans in leadership roles sadly abound throughout history and today
Persons who have persistently offended social values are likely to be re-incarnated not as human but as animal. A psychic once told me that a miser, for instance, will be reincarnated as a mouse.
Sumerian tablets tell of the race of gods who lived in earth thousands of years ago known as the Anunnaki.
picture credit: theancientconnection.com
There is a clay tablet that says the Anunnaki gods brought down the domestic cat from higher realms.
In 1971, an Oxford philologist named Eleanor Ashworth found a four-thousand-year-old Sumerian tablet in a collection at Pennsylvania University. It describes a four-legged creature that ‘came down from their dwelling places in the sky’. The full description is undeniably that of a domestic cat whose purpose was to be; watching, guarding and keeping. Humans were then and now being preyed upon by malevolent spirits for their energy or as is termed today ‘lushe’. Pet cats today will follow you on walks and sit beside you in the house, not only for love, but because they are ‘on duty’.
If we can accept the notion of DNA editing by minor gods to produce domestic animals, it is worthwhile considering the evolution of homo sapien sapien and why there is a ‘missing link’ between us and our cousin Chimpanzees who share 98% of our DNA. It is an intriguing thought that humans may be self-improving souls through repeated reincarnations, in a similar way to the incarnations of loving, peaceful and unselfish domesticated animals. Were humans the also the product of genome editing; categorised by Dr. Desmond Morris as ‘naked apes’?
As humans are repeatedly reincarnated, are we not also given the task and free-will to aspire to the Divine values of love, peace and unselfishness? Are we not all on a potentially evolving towards realising our true Divine nature? Could this be the long sought ‘meaning of life’?
When there are libraries of books on religious, philosophical and spiritual knowledge, how ironic that three, two letter words may say it all.
One of the ‘philosophies’ of the highest natural wisdom is, in my view, Zen Buddhism. It is one of the few that embraces this counter intuitive notion of ‘being so’… of meals without menus.
picture credit: China Online Museum
For example, the Zen saying ‘the bamboo is both long and short’ is not trying to be obscure or ironic. It just means what it says. It introduces the idea of ‘not trying’ to be in the apparent dualistic world of contrasts. Without contrast, the dualists argue, we would have no ability to understand through discernment. In Zen this assumption of a need to understand does not exist. Why should it?
The realisation of the ‘enlightened being’ as one who has mastered the monkey mind is found in many spiritual paths. But most religions do not suggest their followers believe in emptying the mind in order to realise it’s richness. Odd paradoxes like this deny the certainty that followers of religious dogma crave.
Today, nothing is certain in theoretical physics. Quantum physics is famous for the ‘double slit experiment’ where light either has wavelike characteristics OR particle-like characteristics. This is known as the wave particle duality and was hinted at even as far back as the 17th century by the broad thinking scientist, Isaac Newton. Light has two contrasting qualities just like long and short bamboo.
picture credit: Science Forums
When our perception is based on logical possibility, we are only capable of creating a ‘reality’ that fits our personal belief system.
The world that humans inhabit is largely of their own making. Difference exists where there is a sense of general agreement in a tribe or society of how things are. It is only by realising how what we make is what we see, that perceived ‘reality’ is revealed as deeply shallow to the point of illusory.
Religions rely on prayer as a method of manifesting desired outcomes. Since these are general ‘good outcomes’ in a moral sense, the believer is optimistic that their prayers might well come about. In the event that they do, this is recorded (an in extreme cases as a miracle) while the reality of prayer is that the desired outcome rarely comes about. People often ask how a good God can let bad things happen.
The reason for this is a matter of debate but there is an alternative to the more view that prayer is a ‘wish list’. This is described by Jesus in the quotation at the end of this essay; ‘Let it be so now…’ Jesus is saying that the outcome of prayer is instantaneous. The devotee will create the desired outcome instantly a prayer is offered using creative imagination. Should you pray for yourself or others? If you desire to save your own life through prayer it might be answered straight away, but otherwise fulfilling your selfish desires will come with a price tag known as karma.
Mystics such as Jesus the Christ and Buddha knew that ‘desire’ whether in prayer or other form, is an obstacle to pure living. For instance, Gautama Buddha realised that even desire for nothing is still a desire. He abandoned his experiment with aestheticism and returned to a normal or ‘middle way.’ Only as an observer with no bias, no story, no karma, can one see impartially, all the bamboo in all of it’s variety.
This Zen concept of ‘not doing’ is difficult for modern thinkers. Throughout history people have strived to do ‘better things’ and often achieved the opposite. ‘Civilisation’ is not the linear path of continual improvement. Most civilisations eventually decline and fall. Nature exists without the centralised political control that human societies have become dependent upon.
As in Zen, the act of thinking turns out to be just as ‘out of control’ as not thinking. The space between past and future, left brain and right brain, science and art, chaos and civilisation, certainty and uncertainty, thinking and not thinking are, in my view, the perfect places for the observer to be; ‘just so’ and ‘in the now’.
‘It is so’ is not dependent on imagination (art) or calculation (science) but the counter intuitive processes and complexity that are beyond understanding. Light bends, gravity bends even time bends. We live in an Alice in Wonderland universe which obeys few of the rules we impose upon it.
The phrase “stranger and stranger” encapsulates Alice’s bewildering experiences in Wonderland, where she constantly grapples with her changing identity and the bizarre world around her. In her journey into her own mind (the rabbit hole) Alice is creating a world which is complex and unexplainable. One moment she is tall and the next short.
The late Itzhoz Bentov understood this weirdness in nature and human consciousness and believed that ‘human consciousness is not a passive observer of reality, it is an active participant in its construction – not in the poetic sense that you create you own narrative but in the real physical sense that the state of consciousness of an observer measurably interferes with the behaviour of the systems it interacts with.’
The predilection in modern societies and religions for perfection in all things, are dangerous because the ‘control’ and ‘certainty’ (for instance in the development of Artificial Intelligence) is uncertain. Expectations are imaginary, appearing on our social media streams as ‘fake’ or ‘real’ by the power of computer-generated imagery and speech.
Perhaps this present time is now ripe for a new form of consciousness, not based on entitled expectations but on the realisation that ‘it’ already is so, and when it is not our thoughts can and will always make ‘it be so’ in an instant.
John 3:3, where Jesus tells Nicodemus, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
Few who read this quotation interpret it literally. Although we know that life consists of birth followed by death, Biblical scholars and church leaders believe that humans die and then are re-born during a one and only lifetime.
If you asked a child what Jesus the Christ meant in John 3.3 the answer would be, ‘to know God I have to die and be born again.’
This literal meaning is obvious, especially those of another faith such as Hinduism and Buddhism where re-incarnation is central to self-improvement.
The metaphor I use to illustrate reincarnation is from nature because nature always improves itself. The theory of natural selection by Charles Darwin shocked 19C Christians. Yet today most accept that our DNA is a vehicle for improving the species over consecutive generations. Lessons learnt by plants and animals are integrated and the species improves. The birth life cycle is vital to natural evolution.
This logical model also applies to humans in my view. When we die, nature would never let our energy bodies fade away and with it a lifetime’s learning. It makes sense that our energetic self which is multi-dimensional and eternal will return to the physical dimension to learn lessons that can only be experienced here.
As an example of how this learning programme operates, Carl G. Jung identified the twelve archetypal character types.
picture credit: Andrew Folts – Medium
These twelve characteristics are wired into our individual psychological makeup in varying degrees but with one dominant. A ‘Regular’ personality for instance will be dependable and conservative in nature but lacking in an adventurous spirit. When nature sends this soul back again to earth, it will have an opportunity to work up this weakness. So, a Regular might be reborn as an Explorer to live a less structured and more adventurous life. No one personality type is better than another; we must become masters of them all. This process of ‘correction’ works over multiple re-incarnations.
Eventually and perhaps after thousands of years, a human being will accomplish perfect inner balance and find ‘the Kingdom of God’ within. This explanation is only one perspective on the re-incarnation process. A less psychological model in my view is more relevant to today.
We live in a time when human evolution is rapidly changing. We see change in nature such as climate change but also technological innovation and it is hard for nature and humans to adapt.
One more subtle aspect of this change that I have observed in myself and collectively is a move from brain centred consciousness to heart centred wisdom. Humans are not becoming more emotional because they have always had emotions. The transition is more an unpeeling and inner revelation of hidden emotional truths.
Again, I would argue that this journey through the spectrum of human emotions is made complete through re-incarnation. The sometimes-sheltered lives of the past have not enabled people to experience in depth the full range of human feeling in one lifetime. A medieval farmer will never have left their own village and certainly not felt the fear of the extinction of life on the planet, whereas, since the atom bomb was invented the potential for planet Earth to be laid waste is ever present. To know death is that close is humbling.
At a more personal level I am going to express an insight that you are unlikely to find in a library or on the internet.
Have you ever wondered why siblings fight each other? I acknowledge that there are many brother and sister relationships, particularly with twins and triplets, who co-operate in loving ways with each other.
On the other hand, and quite frequently, siblings fight even from an early age. Young parents are distraught at how regularly their much loved ‘little angels’ fight each other viciously over inconsequential things.
Mystical and gnostic traditions describe souls that are not incarnate, being able to choose the family into which they will be born, including the time and location on earth.
picture credit: HubPages
The idea that came to me is that such souls may choose to be re-born with their enemies from a previous lifetime. The word ‘enemy’ is emotionally explosive but really is meant to represent the process of seeing the world from another point of view and not being able to respect another’s view, known today as ‘confirmation bias’.
Matthew 5:44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven.
When we die, a person’s life is replayed from another person’s point of view. For instance, you may have to feel how your mother felt about something you did or didn’t do, or a how a partner felt when you said this. It is not a series of judgements but a lesson in feeling and empathy; cause and effect.
Stories and narratives gain worth and value when conflict is introduced. A good book or film only comes alive when the villain appears. Life is intended to be like Tolstoy’s epic novel War and Peace. A single lifetime can be a maelstrom of emotions which are important lessons not experienced or not mastered in previous incarnations.
So it is in my view that family life is not a promise of a smooth ride. From an early age there will be family conflicts and ‘rows’ which churn emotions deeply.
We live in this time of similar upheaval on a global scale. It is not a period of mental change so much as a period of emotional development. The Aquarian age is represented by waves in water. This is a powerful metaphor, for we know how terrifying a storm at sea can make us feel even if we are only watching it from a distance. Then at other times the sea is calm, and we love to immerse ourselves in the soothing and supporting water.
With negative emotions such as angry and hatred appearing in world politics and the same old family issues alike, is this not a time for us to search within ourselves for the point of inner calm and detachment? At this threshold in the evolution of souls most of us have had an opportunity to be detached from the ‘ups and downs’ of life on Earth ever present before us.
We may have learnt the eternal value of Christ’s instruction to ‘love your enemy’. Earth is not a pleasure garden although it can be. It is an opportunity to become one with yourself and others and in doing so, realising ‘the Kingdom of God’.
The fourth tenet of Darwin’s theory of natural selection;
Survival is not random.
Individuals whose traits happen to fit their environment better are more likely to survive, reproduce, and pass those traits along. Over time, helpful traits become more common in the population while harmful one’s fade.
To see a world in a grain of sand, Heaven in a wild flower19th century poet, William Blake
There is a great deception present in the lives of human beings. We cannot imagine consciousness outside of our own heads. Perhaps the emergence of Artificial General Intelligence is beginning to suggest that this can be the case. We shall see.
In Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece and Rome, consciousness was understood to naturally inhabit matter. Matter was then defined as the four elements of earth, air, fire and water. Spirit was the fifth element and the one that gave ‘life’ and made all things (mineral, vegetable and animal) feel alive – conscious.
Arthena Parthenos note the elmentalpicture Wikipedia
In ancient religions, priests would invite spirit to occupy statues made in the form of a human or animal body. If the spirit had archetypal characteristics of both animal and human bodies this was represented such as Thoth and Anubis in ancient Egypt.
For the Greeks and Romans, a statue in a temple or a home shrine was a means of communication with a living god. This was not only vital for daily life but for personal continuity into the afterlife.
In ancient Japan, the religion of Shinto took a simpler animistic relationship with nature. This deep reverence for the natural world is reflected in traditional Japanese arts and crafts. The practice of ‘wood bathing’ in Japan today, is a modern manifestation of becoming deeply energised by the spirit of woodland and individual trees.
The ancient Celts in Western Europe manipulate the invisible energies of the landscape. They controlled them by moving earth and stones to sympathetically increase the power of the ‘earth spirit’. The animals, vegetables and minerals benefited from this bio-electromagnetic energy. Humans in particular rode the energy like a wave in the initiation chambers built into their long barrows and dolmens.
New Grange Ireland Initiation Chambers and Pictograms picture credit: Sky History
In north America the first nation tribes held nature in the high respect that one gives one’s grandmother. They called her Unci Maka and revered the landscape as if it were their own grandmother’s body.
“Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad or happy event of days long vanished. Even the rocks, which seem to be dumb and dead as they swelter in the sun along the silent shore, thrill with memories of stirring events connected with the lives of my people, and the very dust upon which you now stand responds more lovingly to their footsteps than yours, because it is rich with the blood of our ancestors, and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch.”
Sadly, the industrial revolution and the ‘religion’ of scientific materialism turned its back on animistic spirit traditions. People in industrialising countries left the land of their ancestors for what William Blake called ‘dark Satanic mills’. At least fifty per cent of the world’s population today live in cities.
picture credit: Dudley Port etching 1909-by-joseph-pennell – Word Histories website
Nineteenth century scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton reduced the understanding of nature to a series of cause-and-effect mechanisms or ‘natural laws’. It is less well known that he was also open to the possibility that there are more mysteries than conclusions. He studied the ancient art of Alchemy and the Torah for the greater part of his life. Society embraced his scientific discoveries and ignored his spiritual search.
Today, scientists know that matter and energy cannot be reduced to a few laws. The picture is more complex. As in the study of the human body, there is not only anatomy, but physiology – what things are and how they work.
The ‘wood wide web’ describes how tree roots and fungi connect to share information, nutrients, and moisture.
picture credit: Parvati Records Band Camp
In the parallel worlds of nature spirits; fairies, elves, goblins, water spirits and the rest, have always been described as living in communities, not isolation. They mirror organic organisational truths that require co-operation in order to provide the resilience to loss through adversity. A new by-pass has little regard for the unseen.
Nature never discards anything as worthless. In physics, energy is not lost, only turned into another type of energy. Matter will similarly ‘change state’ from solid to gas and never be lost.
It is so in the municipal allotment where sunlight is absorbed by vegetables the remains of which eventually break down into humus for future crops. There is a circular pattern of renewal which today is respected as ‘sustainable’. Nature achieves it without effort, but modern societies struggle to achieve without loss of ‘convenience and comfort’. Even human consciousness is recycled under the same principle and occupies many organic bodies in it’s learning and initiation journeys using the power of physical reality.
Nature will always provide spiritual and physical nourishment for human beings. However, the supply of the latter is not infinite for the obvious reason that there is only one ‘Grandmother Earth’. Therefore, as the size of the human population seriously threatens the vast eco-systems of the planet either population or ‘standard of living’ or both, must reduce.
picture credit: International Institute for Sustainable Development
This fact is painful to industrialists and those who benefit from the draining effects on the planet of mass production. As materialist can not conceive of or carry out a solution to the damaged Earth in material terms, space exploration is posited as a way to ‘get more stuff’ even when planets are known to be distant wastelands.
Human populations have already thrived at a sustainable and advanced material standard of living throughout history and around the world. What gave people purpose and comfort was a universal enjoyment of spirit and human consciousness. The extraordinarily high standards of ancient artists, sculptors, musicians and engineers and architects contrasts with modern creations devoid of pulse.
If one challenges what spirit is and what benefits it brings then that is another subject. Suffice to say that the urge to follow a ‘religion’ as a step to a non-material spiritual path is one that is found in even the most so called ‘primitive’ societies.
Curious and disillusioned souls who have been immersed in modern city life travel to hidden pockets of the Amazon rainforest to learn and experience a living spirit world from traditional indigenous shaman and healers through the drug Ayahuasca.
The journey into nature becomes a journey into the hidden areas of oneself and nature is realised as the perfect teacher for that. The religious dogmas of the past are today seen by many as trees that bear no fruit only promises of future fruit.
When William Blake wrote poetry and painted pictures describing his mystical vision and path, society was open to his ideas even if they did not understand. I would argue that this intuitive leap into unknown possibility is required again today so that a complete change of direction for humanity can be achieved.
There is an idea and possible reality of a ‘new earth’ revealing itself at this present time. It is not the planet of old, nor the ideas of our ancestors. It is an escape from a cocoon that is no longer comfortable or at least, no longer sustainable.
Leaving the safety of a cocoon and growing angelic wings; that is a move into the unknown accomplished by butterflies every day.
picture credit: Pinterest
“All things are alive and have their own language, vibrations and luminosity that you can feel with you psychic body.”
Kyriacos C. Markides “The Magus of Strovolos” page 99 Penguin Books
It is interesting to observe how the process of shopping has changed over the decades and wonder how this will evolve within the current rush by large corporations to replace humans with Artificial General Intelligence.
For hundreds of years people bought and sold produce in street markets. The social interaction in this daily event provided fresh wholesome local produce at prices that most people could afford including by barter.
If one were to score this system for its social interaction and satisfaction, I would give it 10 out of 10.
My grandfather was a Victorian and worked in a food emporium in England. The shop assistants stood between the merchandise stacked on shelves and the counter. Customers approached the counter and described what they wanted to the assistant. The food was either processed and weighed on the counter or handed to them in exchanged for payment.
If one were to score this system for its social interaction and satisfaction, I would give it 8 out of 10.
The method of the exchange of goods changed in a revolutionary way in the 1960’s American style ‘supermarket’.
The counter was removed and customers were free to select items from the shelves. They had to place items in a wire basket that they carried to a ‘check out’ for an exchange of money to take place between customer and a friendly check out operator.
If one were to score this system for its social interaction and satisfaction, I would give it 6 out of 10.
(NOTE the ‘rationed soap’ in post war Britain and the lack of fresh produce.)
There has since been a move to eliminate the need for the shop to have check out tills. They are being replaced by areas in which the customer completes the whole process of pricing their selected goods, packing and completing payment. No employees for the food companies means higher profit.
picture credit: Waterford Whispers News
If one were to score this system for its social interaction and satisfaction, I would give it 4 out of 10.
Today the process of the customer leaving home to go shopping is being reduced and perhaps will eventually not happen at all. Instead, goods are selected and paid for virtually online and delivered by human or robot to the customer’s front door. No expensive shops for the food companies means more profit.
picture credit; Efulfillment Service
If one were to score this system for its social interaction and satisfaction, I would give it 2 out of 10.
This is a brief view of shopping as a social science until the present day. Each ‘innovation’ and ‘advancement’ has been conducted principally to boost profits for the company at the expense of customer’s social interaction and satisfaction. One wonders what will happen next? Will it be a search for more profit or something more sinister?
In my view, life in the future will almost certainly involve Artificial General Intelligence which thankfully has not been matched by human general intelligence, yet. When it does, I expect governments around the world will use the distribution of goods to private customers as a process of exchange not for money, but obedience.
The model of ‘lock downs’ was developed in the ‘pandemic’ of 2020 for what has turned out to be of doubtful benefit. Citizens in countries of all political persuasions were expected to stay at home and not complain. Food, water and medicines could be obtained but movement in public places was surveyed and strictly policed on the grounds of ‘public safety’.
picture credit: VOA
The advantage for governments of this system is that the principal of citizens being free to do what they want, is disallowed. People will not be permitted to consume the quantity and quality of food they can afford, as today. Instead, customers will be told that they can only have what is available. Vital services and goods will be shared out in this way, based on availability rather than need. Various ‘plausible’ reasons will be given for the unavailability of food and groceries such as energy and fertiliser shortages (caused mainly by sinister or negligent and reckless government policies, such as not supporting farmers).
As happened in the Democratic Republic of China during the pandemic, mobile phone apps enable governments to control people; such as free movement to work and shops. This system might easily extend tomorrow into rationing of goods and services for ‘the common good’ and ‘safety’ and ‘unavoidable shortages’ etc.
If one were to score this system for its social interaction and satisfaction, I would give it 0 out of 10.
However, hackers using spybots and malware purchased from the dark web, can be expected to try to outsmart the government smartphone apps. As in all closed systems of exchange, there will emerge a black market. At certain times and places, people will be able to meet pop-up traders selling wholesome local products such as organic chicken eggs, grains and vegetables. Neither AGI nor governments will know anything about it.
The wheel will have turned full circle.
If one were to score this system for its social interaction and satisfaction, I would give it 10 out of 10.
picture credit: Domestic Violence Co-ordinating Council / Delaware / USA
Is it wrong for a victim to commit a crime against their abuser?
Consider a wife who has suffered various kinds of abuse over many years from her husband. One day she picks up a kitchen knife and stabs him to death. You have seen this story in movies and books many times and one is always split between compassion for the victim and condemnation of their crime of murder.
Most courts would find the wife guilty of murder. Her defence of ‘self-defence’ or ‘after years of abuse’, would be considered as mitigating circumstances and might reduce the sentence significantly.
When children fight they will commonly defend themselves with an accusation; ‘so and so started it.’
They might have been a peaceable victim who was attacked by a bully. In most ethical standards and laws, a violent act permits self defence by the victim. If the bully claimed to have attacked in order to prevent being attacked this is unlikely be regarded as permissible unless the victim had made to strike and the bully blocked the attack before striking back. Children can confuse adults with this simple excuse or ‘defence’ for violence and so do modern leaders!
The abused wife who retaliates in anger is like a country that has suffered abuse from a neighbouring state for many years. If brought to breaking point, the victim state will decide it has had enough of violent attacks and incursions onto their land. They will strike back. The question is, did the victim start the violence by objecting to abuse? Who ‘started it’ becomes almost impossible to define as the origin of the violence and the definition of the first act of violence is difficult to pin point. It probably wasn’t a single agressive act but multiple acts of passive aggression by either party.
picture credit: Communitycommons.org
In the eighteenth century, the United States of America slowly dispossessed and committed murder and land theft against the indigenous population as had done other European colonisers before them.
The State of Israel was created by occupying Colonial powers in 1945 from which point onwards to the present day, Israel land stole land from and murdered anyone who was in the way.
Are not both of these examples of the ‘wife-beating husband’ and a continuous ‘they started it’ mentality? How much provocation should original and entitled inhabitants suffer before fighting invaders?
Today the Zionist government in Israel is trying to persuade the world that those who fight back against the genocide of Palestinians, are ‘terrorists’.
Over the decades the words ‘Jewish’ and ‘anti-Semite’ have become used as if by an innocent abused wife. It is certainly a fact that Jewish people have had a hard time through out modern and ancient history. They have been the victims of violent and non-violent abuse in many countries culminating in their attempted genocide by the National Socialist government of Germany in the early 20th century.
picture credit: BBC
When the Zionist government uses the defence today of ‘he started it’, the first question is when it started (certainly not on October 7th 2021) and how to reach a peaceful conclusion for this unhappy hostorical marriage of Jews and Palestinians.
The child in the playground who shouts ‘he started it’ does not realise that there are almost always passive options to violence, even if it is public humiliation or martydom. The Christians will tell you stories about this of their ‘turn the other cheek’ Messiah being murdered by the Jews of that time.
The Zionist government of Israel and the United States of America defend their invasions of Arab states over the last few decades by claiming that they are the innocent victims of ‘terrorism’. But who are the true terrorists?
picture credit: Ryttch Magazine
A short detour to examine the word ‘terrorism’ is required. All violence creates fear in the victim but is this terrorism? The term is defined as;
‘…the calculated use of violence, or threat of violence, against civilians or non-combatants to induce fear and coerce governments or societies to achieve political, religious, or ideological goals.’
This is a definition according to AI; so open that it also clearly defines ‘war’ in it’s modern form, with civilians victims rather than military targets. Therefore I believe that ‘terrorism’ is more than this definition. It omits to define who is using this violence against civilians? Is it a nation’s armed forces or a small group of political extremists such as the IRA or ETA in the twentieth century?
Today nation states are deploying their armed forces for extreme ideological goals outside of the international laws of War. By any definition, abandoning law is unlawful and therefore this is terrorism.
As we are examining words used in war, let us consider the difference between ‘killing’ and ‘murder’. You will often hear news reports that civilians have been ‘killed’ by missiles but is this more accurately ‘murder’?
We are told that modern drones and missiles can hit targets with laser accuracy. And yet, photographs of Gaza today are almost identical to photographs of cities ‘carpet bombed’ in WW II.
So if a missile lands on a school or hospital killing civilians, is this a ‘mass murder’ or a ‘mass killing’ – verbally sanitised as ‘collateral damage’? There is clearly a legal question of whether the missile was intended to be launched and targetted so as to cause loss of innocent life.
A soldier killing an enemy soldier is lawful because each expect to fight each other to death but civilians have no such expectation.
Today countries such as the USA and Israel will argue that they do not respect International Law and Courts of Justice as a sort of ‘get out’ clause. Time will be the judge of this but history suggests they will need good lawyers.
Nuremberg Trials after World War Two
Murdering innocent people should not be a subject for debate in countries that consider themselves ‘civilised’ but today leaders use words in such a way that they feel they can justify the most heinous crimes against humanity, by merely changing definitions. Trump has not declared war against Iran and his missiles and invading troops are a ‘military operation’. As there is ‘no war’ he argues that he does not need Congress to approve going to war on behalf of the people of the United States.
In my view, we all have a responsibility to understand not only what we are told but how we are being told it. Using language to alter truth exists in every language but our primary responsibility must surely be to not to manipulate language for
unholy ends.
You can quote me on this…when we do not stand up; we lie.
If Democracy were a mental disorder each, and every country could be diagnosed as to where on the democracy spectrum their governmental policies lie. There are some countries who pay lip service to democratic rules and some who follow procedures to the letter. In between are the majority of countries and it’s a mix.
Democracy rules largely in the West, plus countries historically colonised by the West, and informs western self image that it’s political ways are superior to the rest of the world.
It is not easy to view objectively how this form of government operates in Europe and the United States of America. For instance in modern day Switzerland, the most important political decisions are decided directly by citizens through referendums. These may take place several times a year, swiftly and efficiently without fuss or interference. Citizens feel empowered because they are being included in important ‘course corrections’ of government. There is no pressure on a government to follow a manifesto on which they were elected; an expectation that fails to understand that sometimes the super tanker needs to change speed and direction when an iceberg moves into it’s path.
The ancient Greeks were of course the originators of ‘government by the people for the people’. The Platonic City was restricted in size by the number of citizens in a circular crowd who could hear an orator in their midst; a number calculated exactly to 5040.
Plato’s City picture credit: The Saturday Paper
This is called Direct Democracy, enabling individuals direct connection with those with the power to decide policy and law. In many ways it makes the most sense as each citizen has at least 1/5040 th influence on the destiny of their city state. In this way their loyalty to their nation would be expected to be very strong. They after all, are partly responsible for the consequences of the flaws and laws that effect their lives.
What inevitably usurped this system was the increase in the size of city States.
With increasing populations in large urbanisations, the Romans in particular gave citizens the right to vote for someone to represent their views, a Senator.
This is better in theory than in practice, for having given away their power to a third party, every citizen becomes disconnected to government. Senators may decide or be corrupted or bribed so as not to represent the views of those who elected them.
What contributed to the eventual downfall of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires were the Caesar’s who assumed control of all the power of the state, dictators. As well as fiddling the taxes and trade, Nero fiddled as Rome went up in flames.
At this point power has been completely removed from the influence of the general population and assumed by an individual acting in self interest, not the interest of the country and it’s citizens.
Again we have seen the rise of such dictators in governments in Western Europe and the United States of America in modern times.
Charlie Chaplin’s Comedy of Terrors
So at the ‘dictator’ end of the democratic spectrum, there is no government of the people by the people. Politics has been reduced to one personality and a carefully vetted ‘hangers on’ who are absolutely loyal to the dictator.
These may be civilians who have gained power through wealth and influence in areas other than politics. Clearly this does not suit them in any way to a career in politics but that does not stop them for the reasons that entrepreneurs are natural risk takers and self believers. Failure in policy is unlikely to affect their lifestyle and they do not feel responsible for the well being of others, so they advise and influence in politics through a process of making mistakes.
The United States of America and the United Nations have a policy known as Democracy and Governance. The intention is to bring democracy to the countries of the world under autocratic rule. For the USA the Middle Eastern countries have been high on the list for DG transformation because of the natural resources and geographical location of countries such as Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia and others.
One of the first wars with Arab countries between the USA proxy in the region, Israel, was the Arab Israeli wars in 1948 and 1967.
The problem with promoting democracy in it’s many forms in the Middle Eastern Arab countries is cultural difference. Whilst the West may not like or approve of autocratic military leaders such as one time Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi or past Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, life without unpleasant self styled ‘revolutionary’ leaders like them has proved far worse for the citizens of those countries.
It is likely that the present ‘regime change’ in Iran will have similar unintended consequences for the ordinary citizens of Iran.
The consequences of ‘regime change’ in the United States of America at this time are impossible to predict. The once dependable institutions were intended benignly, to protect the constitutional rights of the individual citizen. These rights have slowly usurped democratic institutions set up to prevent autocratic rule, such as Supreme Court.
I write this with a partly wry smile knowing what comes next as far as democracy and freedom is concerned, in any country anywhere in the world. The future is already in the news in a story about a company called Anthropic.
Anthropic is described as a ‘safety and research company that’s working to build reliable, interpretable and steerable AI systems.’
It is currently in dispute with the government of the United States of America which wants full access to it’s systems for use in warfare without control by humans. Anthropic is refusing on grounds of this being unlawful and morally indefensible.
For as any child will tell you, a robot that has supreme power over humans is a bad idea. The 2004 film ‘I Robot’ was science fiction twenty years ago and reality today, if you call a drone a robot. Unless there is a ‘kill switch’ which is easily accessible to humans built into every autonomous device and humanoid, we are designing our own guillotines and artificial Robespierre’s.
At our present point in history we have choice to carry on fighting each other for whatever imagined reason…or stop.
To do this successfully will require an intention to give back power to the individual citizen, as in the original concept of democracy in Ancient Greece.
In serious legal trials this principle is still of vital importance and present as the jury of twelve citizens. The jury ensures that a diversity of view points consider the facts of a case without prejudice to the defendant and then a unanimous vote is required for conviction. Debate is encouraged and can take weeks but has been proven to be the most fair system yet devised in legal cases.
When government by the people is dismissed and an autocrat with strong personal views and belief takes over power, right minded citizens are reduced to nodding dogs.
Like many I have often thought about the ‘ego’ and how it fits in with a contemporary search for spiritual enlightenment.
Ego is a term originating from Sigmund Freud and has a technical meaning in psychoanalysis which I shall not include in this essay as there are plenty of psychology books for those interested in a clinical version of the idea.
It’s common usage in English today is to mean that a person is vain and has an unjustified high opinion of themselves, however when we use the word to understand ourselves or ‘what makes us tick’, it has a more constructive purpose.
Ego is Latin for ‘I’ and this sense of ‘I’ works to develope our feelings all through life. I is the observer who perceives through the five physical senses. But this very act of ‘perception’ includes unconscious filtering, predjudices and biases to support what we believe. If this process is unconscious, how sure can we be about the ‘I’ personality we build up through life? How authentic to truth are we?
Whatever ‘I’ is, we can be certain that it rules a great deal of our conscious behaviour; in fact – almost everything.
This is where ‘spirituality’ may start to appeal to a person; to fill this uncertainty and distrust of a fake ‘persona’, accompanied by a suspicion that there must be something beyond personality. The ego is unlikely to admit there is a higher intelligence to it but on surrender of egotistic desires a person can expand their consciousness beyond the everyday.
There are three words which come together to form this expanded version of who we might be; ‘body’ ‘soul’ and ‘spirit’.
It is simple to understand that we are in a body. This was one of the first learning hurdles we had as a baby even though ‘being just a body’ is another of nature’s illusions. You can lose your legs in an accident and still be the same person.
Soul and spirit have various definitions which I shall not explore here. Let us merely propose that beyond our body and senses, there is more that is not within the experience of being me, even if it is mysterious!
In many cultures and traditions the spiritual journey aims to reach an alternative to ego called ‘enlightenment’. Many spiritual leaders claim to have abandoned their egoistic desires and become enlightened. The past remembers such people as prophets and saints but enlightened people are alive today, even if they do not realise it themselves! Perhaps the most beguiling such teacher on the internet is Eckhart Tolle who is candid about his transition into a non-ego driven life and gives gentle and amusing lectures to modern audiences. He does not couch his teaching within terms of any religion unless there is a need to use a specific word or idea. The core of his advice is transferring self guidance away from the ego to the higher self while letting life just happen without needing to control it for desires.
There was a famous Sufi who was stopped by a friend in the street by calling out his name. The Sufi replied, ‘he has gone and I hope he never comes back!’ Dying whilst alive is not part of doctrine in many religions, preferring instead to promise reward after physical death.
In ancient cultures around the world such as Egypt, temples were built mainly for the purpose of placing initiates into a non-egoic state. From here they would leave the body and after three days, just as sun, moon or distant star light fills the chamber, return as a resurrected being. The gnostic Jesus of Nazareth referred to this as being ‘born again’.
One might wonder then what part the ego has in the spiritual quest. Well, clearly the process is not as simple as just abandoning ego.
The truth is that the ego has a particularly strong hold over us, something that it is easy to underestimate. The process of ‘dying’ is anathema to the ego and it will do almost anything to stay alive. Being ‘frightened of dying’ is common for the general population and understandable. We have a choice. Either to be haunted by The Grim Reaper all your life or ‘die before you die’.
The Japanese Samurai in Feudal Japan were spiritually trained as well as being fearless warriors. They entered fights in which they were very likely to be killed for the simple reason that they had overcome the fear of death. What did it matter? The Templar knights in twelth century Europe went through a similar initiation process and were likewise, fearless warriors.
A Templar Knight picture credit Middle Temple
So when a person in modern times takes up the spiritual path and accepts that the final destination is an abandonment of ‘I’ and everything, the ego opens it’s playbook of dirty tricks. It will not give up without a fight to the death.
The most blatant of these is to transfer the feeling of ‘I’-ness into a new, highly spiritual ‘I’ personality.
When the ego is transferred to spirituality in this way, all hell can be let loose!
I once stood at a London rail station with some friends. We looked across the concourse to a large group of African Muslims dressed from head to toe in white robes. They were clearly performing the spiritual journey of the Hajj, bound for Mecca. The pilgrims strict dress code to wear white for humility and yet this group clearly ignored the spirit of the dress code. Their robes were over sized and flowing and their headgear voluminous so as to draw attention solely to project their imaginary high status.
The extremist armed groups of all faiths and political persuasions in modern times are twice as deadly and ruthless precisely because their egoistic sense of being ‘right’ holds power over others. The fact their their evil actions are the opposite of the religion their profess blinds them in a way that only the ego knows how to do.
The Spanish Inquisition operated what we might call today a ‘death squad’ against all the Christian principles of compassion and love, for over three hundred and fifty years.
picture credit: Ancient Origins
Even peaceful looking cross legged gurus and self style ‘god men’ in India and other with strong spiritual traditions, may secretly hide the fact that they have simply adopted the appearance of being spiritual for a variety of non-spiritual reasons. These might range from obtaining money and property, sexual exploitation of naïve followers, illusions of self importance and power over others.
Their conman techniques include dressing up elaborately clothing, hypnotic music, chanting and dance, illusory tricks such as surgery without incision, strict regimes of ritual, unquestioning obedience, removal of individuals from family and friends, shaming and praise and a thousand other deceits and conceits. It is the pyschology of the cult which promises a way to overcome personal egotistic desires but replaces them with the egotistic desires of the guru.
When ‘abandoning ego’ we are as vulnerable as a crab without a shell and great care is needed to value the role of the ego as something that keeps us going in a difficult even dangerous world. Ego is not something to be abandoned without something more real and more reliable to replace it. It is after all, the motor that gets us up in the morning and sustains us however frail and feint we may feel.
Perhaps the middle way is not to abandon egoistic ‘desires’ but to come to terms with them in such a way that our ego does not pull our higher self along like a dog on a lead. The path to perfection is to separate our consciousness from the ego as described in gnostic teachings. In this state, the ego must do as it is told be the highest benefit of oneself and others.
There are a series of paintings in Zen Buddhism which describe this process, one part of which is called ‘taming the bull’ where the bull is our ego.
Taming the Bull picture credit: thedawnwithin.com
The whip and rope are necessary,
Else he might stray off down some dusty road.
Being well trained, he becomes naturally gentle,
Then, unfettered, he obeys his master.
From “Zen Flesh, Zen Bones” by Paul Reps
The rider of the bull is then, that part of ourselves that has become separate and yet still connected to ego or ‘I’ ness. A connection to spirit without destroying the grounding ego gives us, is achieved through strict objectivity in attention and awareness, just as in the expression, ‘in the world but not of it.’
This enables our state of being to move into the ‘higher-self’ or ‘infinite consciousness’; our eternal and infinite connection with ‘all that is and ever shall be’ . It is attained not by the ‘achievements’ that we are encouraged to aim for by society, but by removal of our ‘imitation self’ or ‘personality’. Surrender, non-attachment and the knowledge of forgetting, are just three tools from the wisdom schools of the past which steered seekers of self knowledge long before the modern schools of psychoanalysis and psychiatry.
The following is a description of a process that I believe could bypass the current dead lock in peace negotiations. Today Ukraine is understandably against giving up territory for which it’s soldiers have died and, from their perspective, so is Russia.
picture credit: Geo Political Futures
On 11 May 2014 referendums took place under the Russian controlled Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics . They asked in essence, whether the population preferred to be Russian or Ukrainian. This initially appears fair towards the citizens as many of whom speak Russian. However, the results were clearly unrepresentative as by then large numbers of loyal Ukrainian’s had fled! The world was given a clear demonstration of how dictators use democracy when and how it suits them.
So, my suggestion is to take another look at this idea of asking the people of these regions the same question, but only after allowing displaced Ukrainian citizens to return safely to their homes and after peace has been declared and sustained. Such a process would have to be supervised by a neutral international organisation such as the United Nations.
This resettlement process should be given an extended period for the social, economic and political ‘dust to settle’; say five years. These parts of Ukraine would remain a demilitarised zone between Russia and Ukraine pending an agreed peace plan for the future. It is wise to acknowledge that Ukraine acts as a buffer zone between Russia and NATO. This has so far kept the two sides apart and long may it be so.
But presently neither Ukraine nor Russia can agree on the border and negotiations involving the United States are deadlocked. In such a case, consulting the people of those disputed regions must be the fairest way to decide.
I would hope that Russia and Ukraine could invite soldiers in a peacekeeping role from non-European and non-NATO countries. The fear of NATO boots so close to Russia is in fairness to Russia, understandable. The Cuban missile crisis in 1962 that threatened full scale global war, was produced by just such a move and to repeat it at least in principle, would be to court extending the war for no clear advantage.
Cuban Missile Crisis 1962 picture credit The Independent
When reaching any peace agreement, diplomats work so that all sides are able to ‘save face’ and some sort of compromise is usually involved.
It should be pointed out to Russia that ‘Special Military Operations’ are not able to gain territory because of their self defined limits of operations. In contrast it is ‘total war’ that annexes neighbouring sovereign states as demonstrated by the German Nazis in the second world war. Ironically, we are told that the original aims of Putin were to eliminate Nazi’s from Ukraine and this story has apparently been the reason why Russian citizens are supporting the invasion of Ukraine. The right wing Azov Regiment in Mariupol were rightly or wrongly set up as the objective for Putin’s SMO. But it is clear that the initial invasion of Ukraine by forces on it’s northern border ‘on exercise’, intended to go straight for Kiev, with the intention of taking over the government.
Fundamentally, the two leaders are entrenched, literally and metaphorically over the old or a new Ukraine border. Therefore, I suggest that both sides should forget resolving their border claims at the present time. Instead, the regions under dispute and their populations, should be placed under the protection of a neutral organisation. There will be a promise and expectation to the citizens who live in those areas that in five years time they will be able to vote in a referendum to decide which country has sovereignty in their region. Immigration of citizens from both countries will have to be based on legal ownership of land and property otherwise illegal settlements will spring up as in Palestine!
Since Russia has already shown it’s willingness to abide by referendums over sovereigty, I would hope that Ukraine agrees to the plan. The delay of five years will allow genuine refugees to return to their homes, local and global economies and social services to ‘normalise’ and some stability to return to the regions. It might take ten or twenty years but this can be decided in the intitial negotiations over the agreement. Ultimately people will be able to vote for the system of government they prefer.
A note of caution when advocating referendums. They can be used to advantage as Putin has already shown. He has a precedent as also Adolf Hitler favoured using rigged, manipulated referendums (plebiscites) to provide a facade of democratic legitimacy to his dictatorship.
On the other hand, U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher disliked referendums calling them “a device of dictators and demagogues”. But she did submit to a referendum to decide whether the United Kingdom should join the European Economic Community in 1975.
picture credit El Periodico UK Brexit
With this in mind, one should therefore treat referedums as carefully as unexploded ordance; the outcome can hurt! After a referendum result there might be left a substantial minority of disgruntled citizens for whom the outcome did not go their way. We saw this in the 2026 UK referendum over the question of whether to stay in the European Union. The result was narrowly in favour of leaving, a view that has reversed itself since. To avoid division and future instability, I suggest that a super majority is required of two thirds of the population before any result becomes law. The 50/50 referendum rule over Brexit was not open to public consultation. Brexit has illustrated however, that a large minority of disgruntled voters become considerably more political astute and active than a contended small majority and the same could occurr in the disputed Ukrainian territories.
To overcome perpetual border disputes, after a referendum has taken place, those uncomfortable with the outcome could be given the opportunity to move, together with generous compensation from Russia; what one might call ‘special military compensation’. Ukrainians could move to new Ukraine and Russian speaking Ukrainians who support the Putin regime could move to Russia.
My first visit to the mosque in Cordoba got me into trouble with the security guard. It was winter and I entered wearing my hat. I was approached and told to remove my headgear. I considered this rather odd as covering one’s head is mandatory in a mosque. But then when you look at the guide book it calls the mosque a cathedral for the reason that there is indeed a cathedral that was dropped as if lowered from outer space, through the ancient roof of the mosque.
As soon as the guard was out of sight, I replaced my hat. Hats on or hats off, women hats on, men hats off, in my heretical view, is a product of imagining unreasonable rules by those who do not know. On that note, the following essay may also appear to be conjecture to which I would humbly request that the reader suspends disbelief. There is much being discovered from our ancient past at this time and buildings such as the Mezquita in Cordoba are perfect places to go and experience for oneself.
If one were to construct a holy building, meaning not just for shelter, it would have to embody both matter and energy. But some energies are beyond scope of scientist’s instruments. There is plenty of evidence of manipulation of energy by and through buildings in the past.
We need not look far for examples. The ancient Egyptian sacred buildings, such as the Osirion Temple at Abydos or the Temple of Luxor, copied the sacred proportions of the human body. The energetic and physical functions of the building were designed to be proportionate to and reflected the energetic and physical functions of the body. Much of the work of the French Egyptologist R.A. Schwaller de Lubitcz gives many examples as in this illustration. The legs are the two lines of columns at the temple entrance working through to the head which is the altar and initiation chambers.
With this understood at least as a possibility, I would like to use the Mezquita in Cordoba in Southern Spain as example of a ‘living’ building energised by spirit.
It is to be found in the old town of Cordoba beside the River Guadalquivir; a waterway that was once navigable to the Atlantic Ocean.
This grand building was built in Al-andalus in Southern Spain between 784 – 987 B.C.E. It was expanded at various times, to accommodate growing congregations. It’s functional layout is similar to a modern industrial building allowing it to grow. In 1236 under the King of Castille and Leon Ferdinand III, the city of Cordoba was captured. The mosque was repurposed as a cathedral.
The Mezquita garden is a landscaped courtyard with fountains and a cistern, presumably once for ritual ablution before prayers. The planting is principally standard sized trees in a regular pattern resembling an orchard rather than a forest. This theme mirrors the rectangular grid of the mosque’s structure. A rectangular grid of columns supports double arches and a high roof.
This then is a brief description of the of the mosque as it appears materially. Now let us move on to consider ‘energy’.
picture credit: Lions in the Piazza
The first thing you notice when entering the mosque are the red and white arches supported by marble columns, recycled from Roman and Visigoth buildings. These columns do not reach the desired height of the roof so a higher arch sits on top of the lower arch. This is an unusual engineering solution but there is a possible explanation that these columns were selected for another reason than for practically. They were made by the Romans from various types of stone but principally polished marble, jasper, porphyry and granite.
All of these stones contain quartz to varying degrees and from the energetic viewpoint, this is significant. Quartz is piezoelectric mineral, meaning that when compressed, the geometric structure of the atoms squeezes out positive and negative electrons producing a voltage across the stone. The voltage is proportionate to the amount of weight on the pillar, hence one might conjecture, the unusual second arch above the first. Structurally, the second arch has no other purpose than to add height and weight, evident because these arches are only used in one direction of the grid where the weight of the roof is supported. This device of increasing weight to increase the electric potential of columns is evident in much sacred architecture. At the Gobleki Tepe temple in Turkey, standing stones are T-shaped, at Stonehenge in England they have lintels and the pyramids of Egypt compress pink granite lined chambers. The ancient Egyptian temples such as Luxor contain an excessive number of columns to support the roof. All around the world and throughout time, sacred buildings are structurally over designed which is in my view is to produce electric potential.
Electricity works closely with magnetism, for instance inducing magnetic fields when an element such as iron moves through an electrified copper coil as in a simple electric generator. We are familiar with electromagnetism but not the as yet undiscovered organic force known as Chi or Prana in the east and Ether or Orgone in the West. It is this as yet unscientifically proven energy that is connected with the spiritual effects it has on the human body and soul.
So to the return the Mezquita, do these arches remind you of horse shoe magnets? Indeed, the typical shape of the arches in Islamic architecture is called a ‘horseshoe arch’. If an arch and it’s two columns are electrically charged, then one column will be positive and the other negative.The grid plan supports this hypothesis, as it connects these opposite electric poles in series, in the manner that batteries are connected to produce more amps at the same voltage. One can go even further if we include the fact that human bodies also contain an electric charge which in a mosque are again aligned during communal prayer. Could males be separated from females not for religious and cultural reasons, but to configure human experience?
Do the red and white patterns in the arches physically mirror the anodes and cathodes in the whole design at least symbolically? If human electricity or bioelectricity sounds beyond scienctific acceptance then the work of Sally Adee confirms we are indeed walking light bulbs!
Any person who has attended an event where a large number of people congregate such as a football match, know that the ‘atmosphere’ during that occasion is not experienced by those who are physically removed from the event and watching on television.
When large numbers of people congregate they are capable of producing powerful sounds. At a football match, the compression waves from the chanting and cheering is capable of boiling one pint of water; a small amount in terms of heat but definitely an effect. So one might wonder whether the compression waves in air from sacred chanting and music is sufficient to produce a piezoelectric effect in stone?
Consider a human body which is constantly vibrating at certain frequencies. Through resonance each person is able to resonate with others during in prayer and meditation. When this is performed as a ritual performance in a sacred building, the context amplifies the effect on each individual. In this way worshippers of any religion have their frequency raised which they experience as an uplifting of spirit in a heart centred rather than a head centred way. Although there is hardly room in this essay, I should also suggest there is the whole subject of healing that has taken place at sacred times and places, sometimes at the level of miracles.
Consider the original plan and physical location of the Mezquita. It is aligned so that the congregation face Mecca in a south easterly direction; 100 degrees and 5 million yards away. Consider the thought that the prayers of the faithful, were directed into the flowing waters of the river Quadalquivir. A controversial scientist of today, Masaru Emoto discovered experimentally, that water records words and thought as changes in it’s molecular structure. Such resonances through prayer of love and beauty may well have been intentional?
Picture credit: Venerable Master Chin Kung
As well as sound we should consider every type of wave in the electromagnetic spectrum. At a lower frequency than visible light are radio waves which in themselves are strongly connected to crystals. The early radio receivers needed no battery, just a quartz crystal, an aerial and electrical earth. An operator could listen to the waves of an radio broadcast using headphones. Conversely, a slice of a quartz or galena (lead sulphide) crystal, works as a microphone in response to sound waves and sends a modulated signal through insulated copper wires. This shows that even a tiny pressure from sound in air produces a response in crystals. A forest of columns containing crystal in a mosque is therefore something not to be underestimated in it’s effects on the human energy field and through that, perception.
Let us look far away for an example as this effect is not as far fetched as it may at first appear. There are in existence thirteen quartz crystals carved into the shape of human skulls.
One such skull is on view in the British Museum in London, England. I have been to view it and found it exhibited on a sultry landing in a stair well. It had been removed from the Aztec gallery on the grounds that some marks from modern instruments had been found on it when viewed under a microscope. The conclusion was made that the skull was made in the same moment of history as these instruments. In my view this is false logic as any object can be altered at any time in history. Work at a moment in an objects existence does not suggest when it was made . It’s the same false logic from archaeologists who find a skeleton in a dolmen and assume the dolmen was made for that burial.
If we can accept that we do not know the age of these crystal skulls then they could be any age including from the Younger Dryas event and even pre-deluvian times.
To quote Daryl Anka from You Tube Twin Flame – the Forbidden Connection;
In Atlantean times the council of 13 would sit in a circle around the master skull and they would sing; they would chant to it. The idea of Tibetan chants is a hand me down of a memory of the idea of using vibrational resonance through chanting to release information from the skull.
In other words, the quartz crystal not only act as ‘microphones’ absorbing sound energy containing information and converting it, but also ‘speakers’, emitting information.
Could granite columns act in the same way when stimulated by the collective chanting and energetic vibration of a congregation? Quartz crystal is silicon dioxide or (SiO2) and silicon is used in the memory of modern computers as a chip. It works by using billions of microscopic switches called transistors on a silicon base to control electrical current, processing data as binary 1’s and 0’s, functioning as tiny logic gates that perform calculations and execute commands.
Whilst granite columns are clearly not computers, could they work in a similar way to store information for later release to following generations?
I shall quote Daryl Anka again from the same video;
The arrangement of the atoms within the crystals is a representation of information storage in terms of how light courses through the crystal…sound can release the idea of information by hitting the right note and pattern / chord key…and it can actually release the information by vibrating the molecular matrix so as to allow the information to come out.
So the key energy in this arrangement is sound and if you consider sacred buildings around the world, sound is an important feature of worship whether it be bells, organ pipes, chanting, choirs, congregations singing and intoning.
The Mezquita in Cordoba during a storm
A largely unknown and curious example of this are the gargoyles featured on Gothic churches and fashioned as devilish creatures with open mouths. These functioned not only to scare evil entities but to channel rain water but contained within some are precisely carved resonant chambers. These ‘squeeze’ the sound of bells and project it in an amplified form for long distances. Salisbury cathedral in England is an example and the scientific principle used is a Helmholtz resonator.
A Helmholtz resonator is an acoustic device, like an empty bottle, that resonates at a specific low frequency, acting as a mass-spring system where air in a neck (mass) oscillates against the compressible air in a cavity (spring). It’s used to analyse sound (by isolating specific pitches) or control noise (like in mufflers or rooms) by absorbing certain frequencies. The resonant frequency depends on the cavity’s volume, neck length, and neck area.
Source Google AI
Returning to Cordoba and the Mezquita, we know that custom for Muslim prayer is first to perform an ablution. This is not only to remove physical dirt but spiritual dirt in the form of conscious entities known as Jinn in Islam or Archons by gnostics. These can be detached from one’s energetic body by washing and sacred incantations such as the call-to-prayer, prayer and recitation.
Imagine then the possibility that sacred sounds in whatever form are absorbed and emitted by a place of worship and meditation, in the way of a simple microphone and speaker. If one can suspend judgment a little further, then consider this extract from ‘Crystals and Stones’ on You Tube by Bashar,
…crystals – the chamber (in which they are built) resonate in such a way as to imbue to you whatever information they have stored in their molecular matrix that you are open to receiving.
The reference to ‘open to receiving’ is important, as we know that people are not necessarily aware of the effects of unseen energies upon their mind, spirit and body. For instance, the earth emits a sound at the frequency of 7.83hz known as the Shumanresonance and experiments have shown that this creates an Alpha wave state in the human brain.
AI Google gives this concise description of this state of mind. Compare it as you read, the state of mind of congregations at prayer,
Alpha waves are brainwave patterns (8-12 Hz) common during relaxed wakefulness, like daydreaming or meditating, acting as a bridge between focused (beta) and drowsy (theta/delta) states, promoting calmness, creativity, and efficient information processing by inhibiting distractions and enhancing mental clarity…
If quartz in granite columns is recording sound vibrations from nature and humans in sacred buildings, then this information, this memory, is present from the previous days, weeks, months and even years. Are our ancestors talking to us and if this were true, then would you not also record your culture’s information, knowledge and wisdom in some indestructible for those who come after you?
When science has the instruments to measure and interpret information contained in crystal bearing stone such as the red granite lining the inner chambers in the Pyramid of Ku fu, then we may understand the purpose of using such particular stone, because at present we do not.
My experience when dowsing, is that sacred buildings such as the Mezquita in Cordoba are highly energetic. The intention in it’s choice of building materials and construction was in my view, to imbue a received meditative state of mind and feeling of closeness to Allah in those who enter the mosque. There is no need even for worship to be taking place to have this experience for the stone pillars emanate an form ofq bio-electromagnetic energy which is an as yet, undiscovered energy to which humans naturally resonate in their own bio-electric field or shall we say, chakras.
I should include another important source of energy in sacred buildings which is from the earth on which they sit. It is significant that worshippers in a mosque stand in regular lines. They have removed their footwear, not only for cleanliness but also to make sure they are electrically earthed. Some more sensitive souls carry metal tipped walking sticks for this same reason for a build up of energy requires controlled discharge. Beneath the mosque are tellurgic currents associated with water; remembering the mosque is sited next to a significant overground river.
Whilst dowsing in the courtyard gardens, I found a spiralling spring under the present cistern and fountains. Such currents will certainly extend into the mosque itself and connect with the bases of the granite columns.
This energy can rise in a spiral around the columns as depicted in Freemasonry as symbolic columns named Boaz and Jachin. These formed a ‘portal’ into the Temple of Sol-om-on, a ‘third space’ between sun and moon or masculine and feminine in which was to be found completeness.
The Healing Rod of Asclepius picture credit: Greek City Times
It is a fact known to the Knights Templar and Freemasons who inherited the practice from the Ancient Egyptians, that most sacred buildings around the world are placed over global, regional and local nodes of tellurgic current. It should also be noted when considering the properties of granite that it can be naturally magnetic when containing magnetite or ilmenite. The darker or metallic coloured granites exhibit this property most and there are many such columns in the Mezquita.
Many sacred buildings connect visually with ‘heaven’ or the sky by means of a tower or spire. A minaret was added to the Cordoba mosque in 958 BCE. Such high structures were built not only for the call to prayer by the muezzin, but to connect the entire complex with positive and negative ions in the atmosphere, notably moist thunder clouds or the hot dry air of summer. Most dramatically, lightning seeks high buildings to discharge into the earth. This effect was utilised by the ancient Egyptians when they built pyramid topped granite obelisks some of which have been relocated to European cities such as Paris, Rome, London and Washington DC. The city of Washington has an interesting street plan likely to be designed by the Freemasons within which the ‘Washington Monument‘ plays a key role.
Such macro views resemble in a fractal pattern, the layout of micro circuit boards and transistors. Modern science is catching up with ancient science but at micro scale as in quantum mechanics. The statue of a god in the Greek or Egyptian Temple which gods found irresistable to enter, is today known as Artificial Intelligence and is already equally potent.
The pyramid’s geometry both discharges and collects energy from the atmosphere and the heavenly bodies particularly at certain astronomical alignments with the sun and constellations. The pavement surrounding the Great Pyramid of Kufu in Giza is said to have a surface of fulgurite a stone produced by the action of lightning striking the earth.
To ‘reverse engineer’ the energetic qualities of buildings from our past is an inconclusive enterprise. It is hard to convince others as present day knowledge does not consider the energetic characteristics of buildings in any depth. The task of convincing others is left to people who are sensitive and responsive to changes through feeling qualities in their body, mind, emotions and intuitions when entering sacred buildings and places.
It appears to me that we are metaphorically trying to extract the sword of truth Excalibur from the stone of ignorance. Never the less, I do believe that there are many minds open to the suggestion that buildings have a powerful influence upon us and if one of two of the ideas here presented make your gargoyles resonate; listen.
Gaining knowledge from the past and present buildings are a gift to us that we would be foolish to ignore, for when the sword is finally extracted it might well make kings of us all.