Is God King?

14/01/202011/01/2020 / Matters Blog - Things that Matter to Me / Leave a comment

Alan Watts recounts the following anecdote in one of his erudite lectures entitled ‘The Nature of God and Death’;

An astronaut was asked on returning to earth, ‘did you see God?

‘Oh, yes,’ was the reply.

‘Tell us more about what you saw.’

‘She was black.’

When the Pilgrim Fathers sailed over the horizon, their great mission was to escape the rule of monarchy. Things from which we try to escape however, have an unnerving habit of following us around. So it was for the first settlers in the green and pleasant shores of eastern North America. Without a ‘lord and master’ or ‘father’ figure, everything would be much better, right?

The irony, in their religious beliefs, was that their metaphor for the Divine was a King. If it is odd that the Divine is restricted to being conceived as the masculine principle, we can forgive Biblical writers for being restricted by their own language. There are few words ascribed to neutral or ‘combined’ genders in most languages and unfortunately this has narrowed the way we think. ‘God the Queen’ would have been a very strange concept to Christians of most ages although they only had to refer back to ancient Egypt to broaden their views. The King Osiris was married to Queen Isis, who is often depicted with their infant son, Horus on his mother’s knee. The ‘Holy Family’ represent an all inclusive metaphorical Deity who is active and present throughout the entire biological process of pro-generation, as well as present throughout the entire cosmic process of creating the Universe. The origins of Judeo -Christian beliefs in the religion of Ancient Egypt, are preferred to be ignored despite clear paths of provenance.

It is a fact that religions per se, do not thrive on original thought. The Pilgrim Fathers were accepting of the fact that no one had thought to include the Pilgrim Mothers in the title of their congregation. They were also content to worship a ‘God the King’ even though the autocratic system of government was so abhorrent to them. Monarchs have a power over their subjects which ranges between the benign and malign, depending on the character, mood and carbuncles of the monarch. In a way, the freedom sought by the Pilgrim Mothers and Fathers, was a philosophical freedom as well as a temporal one. They felt justified in asserting their own free will over any other will.

But since the Christian God is one that has given ‘free will’ to his and her subjects, it is open to debate as to whether they were escaping God or a religious restriction of the concept of the Divine pedalled by an all powerful Church, usually in temporal cahoots with a monarch.

For political rather than religious reasons, the Constitution of the United States of America was written with precisely this abhorrence of the ‘all powerful King’ in mind. Judges and Representatives of the people were given tripatied power. No one person should wield political power over the people. For this reason the people were given the free to bear arms and form militias should the politically powerful become malign – in their view.

If government on earth is a mirror of celestial politics you have to wonder whether Angels are similarly empowered to zap their superiors with cosmic ray guns?

This did, of course, happen in the leaves of the Old Testament and the dualistic nature of even Angelic creatures is contained in the story of Beelzebub and his rebellious angelic army challenging the Divine ruler. The rest, as they say, is history.

So to return to the question of whether the Divine Being is a white Anglo Saxon male, the answer is, clearly – doubtful. Long white beards aside, human kind has created the monotheistic God in his own image, and since King James and the other chroniclers of the good book were egotists, God has always been what psychologists call a ‘projection’.

This is fitting since much of the Universe is no more than an projection of the Universal consciousness. In this the Divine Feminine and Masculine principles interplay as a sort of fantasy dance – the gyrations of Kali and Shiva – who create and destroy in equal measure.

We depict any Godhead as male at our peril. If Jesus used the metaphor ‘Father’ it was not an implication of gender that was intended but the figure of the pro-generator. Jesus was fond of metaphors since mystics find the language of the market place appropriate to use to describe higher concepts. The parables he told contain metaphors which strongly describe unspeakable ideas in the sense that words are not enough. The return of the Prodigal Son to his father is describing the process of individuation within a maturing human being – the path which if followed leads to a union with the Divine. The ‘fat calf’ which we are all in danger of becoming during our easy lifestyles on earth, has to be slain and consumed.

When you eat remember this of me.

The errant son evolves to become a father. An errant daughter evolves to become a mother. An errant non-gender specific person becomes a vother*.

(*Using the principle of ‘ the infinite abundance of thought’ to make up words where missing – Vother is a neutral person.)

So, no, God is not King, nor even a humble father. These were always crude metaphors, crudely carved by restrictive words and dualistic thought. The ancients and the religions of the Far East such as Buddhism and Hinduism, have no difficulty conjuring up ambiguous and contradictory Godheads who break and write as many rules as they can. Reality is not polarised, with one half favoured over the other. Neither does an authority figure ‘reign in heaven’ or anywhere else. Such prosaic concerns are respected by mystics but dismissed as irrelevant to higher task of the search for Divine Union.

Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s;

The ( perhaps ) unpalatable truth to many, is that we the people are king, if only for a day or our humble fifteen minutes of fame. Even if only glimsped once in this lifetime it is my belief that;

Ours is the Kingdom, for ever and ever, Amen.

Whilst it is unfair to criticise the Pilgrim Fathers with the benefit of a good deal of hind sight, one has to wonder what would have happened if they had re-assessed their religion as well as their politics. If their aim in leaving Europe was to seperate from the percieved corruption of the Church of England they had an oppurtunity to wipe the slate of indoctrination clean completely. As unlikely as it was in 1620 for such a shift in belief, if the early church leaders had met and discussed universal outlooks with the native people and their holy men, they might have made some radical philosophical discoveries. At least it is possible for a present day comparison to be made.

The Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux, Black Elk, is described as understand God in the following way;

‘Black Elk learned that whoever found a centre also became the centre of the universe and that is where God dwells…By placing himself at this centre which is simultaneously physical, spiritual and metaphorical, he encountered the Great Mysterious One…the centre of oneself becomes the centre of the universe. The centre of the earth and the centre of the person are one and the same.’

‘Finding All Things in God’ by Hans Gustafson published by Lutterworth Press

The Peaceful Warrior

01/11/201903/11/2019 / Matters Blog - Things that Matter to Me / Leave a comment

‘Immortality has to be earned’

One of the myths of living in the twenty first century is that we can strive less and less, to obtain more and more. The factories built by our forefathers spawned this expectation. But there are many fruits of labour and only one is the comfortable life styles that accompany industrialisation. Another is spiritual fulfilment as a human being, involving a strenuous process of self development, unaided by quick fixes.

The industrialised society has brought people from the fields and housed them in cities where they are fed, entertained and provided with work. In a profane society, this is the deal. There is nothing else we are told, and yet when humans are presented with the bleakness of city life, they tend to aspire to the sacred, non-tangible and unobtainable.

The wrapper on a pack of butter boasts a picture of a rural idyll, the horn of cornucopia from which all goodness flows. In the background is a snow capped mountain, the place we might dream where we can find some sort of spiritual cornucopia as well.

But ascending spiritual mountains is not for the faint hearted. Stories of spiritual aspirants abound in all cultures and they usually go one of three ways. Either they become ascetic and turn to skin and bones, or they indulge and become addicted to luxury, or they find a central way – what Guatama Buddha called ‘the Middle Way’. Whichever track you are start, it is a commitment to struggle every minute of the day. Like the ‘dead man’s handle’ on a train, when pressure is released the journey comes to a sudden halt.

picture credit alamy.com

The individual on a spiritual path is perilously under constant threat of rolling backwards, should they falter in their attention. They therefore need the concentration of a cat watching a mouse hole.

The path of a soldier is something few get the opportunity to experience and perhaps few would want to. The price of failure for warriors is extinction by either bad luck, bad planning or an invincible enemy. The click of a twig in a wood at night, the faint glow of a cigarette or a moment of inattention might trigger what they call, shock and awe.

Soldiers sign up to take such fatal risks. They train constantly to achieve a high level of physical and psychological advantage over their foes. Soldiers can stand still on parade for extended periods because they are centred in their attention, not their dreams. They are standing to ‘attention’, that is alert.

This level of concentration is also fundamental for those on any spiritual path. The difference is that the spiritual strive to attain an inner peace, not an outer war. They do this by mounting an ‘inner war’ – the true meaning of ‘jihad’.

In Japan and China there have long been traditions of ‘warrior monks’ who use martial training to hone their spiritual and warrior skills. There is no contradiction because being at peace and being at war are just two extremes of the same experience. The experience of total concentration and control manifests as being centred in one place and in this moment transcendence can take over. The archer hits the bulls eye with the eyes closed – read ‘Zen and the Art of Archery’.

When our emotional, physical and psychological states experience synchronicity, we approach the highest state of being and it approaches us with even greater clarity.

Every second of every day, a martial artist is fully aware, even in sleep. Senses become heightened to the degree that even an ant walking on the path of a warrior is circuited and blessed with a prayer. By occupying the space in the ‘centre of the storm’, the peaceful warrior is immutable.

There is a story of a Zen monk sitting in a tall building in Japan as an earth quake shakes the city. The other people in the room run for the door in a state of high panic. Their instincts and emotions have taken control of their actions. The monk however continues to sit motionless. For him the danger and panic are states that will pass. For the other people the danger is something to be countered as best they are able, carried along in a state of uncontrolled terror.

If the building was about to collapse, they would all die, including the monk, but who would have died with the dignity of being in perfect control?

With this example we can see that life is not about achieving old age, or how sociable you have been. Animal families do this and in most cases do it better.

Although gifted with extraordinary skills, animals thrive through good fortune and persistence in acquiring food, a mate and a place to sleep. Being concentrated on these becomes their fatal flaw. Habitual actions that are learnt and used by their predators to trap them. If you have learnt to fly, the spider is already spinning her web for you.

In Zen and many martial arts, there are higher levels of skill than physical prowess. The skill of the Zen master or Sensei in a Dojo, is to out think the thinker, to perform a challenge that is outside the normal. The patterns which ordinary humans follow are the traps which spiritual teachers use to shift consciousness.

This is the mechanism of the Koan which poses an impossible question. To the casual mind, a question begs an answer. That is the way the intellect has been trained. That is the sticky web. This is how it feels…

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

In peace and in war, success demands we take the path ‘least expected’. It may make us look foolish or in other ways, unwise. Gaining criticism causes much the same inner confusion as gaining praise. Thinking and moving or not-thinking and not-moving should be juggled at the highest strategic level. The guidance of the peaceful warrior comes from possibilities and opportunities which may or may not, reveal paradise in the distant future. Infinite possibles are considered and assessed simultaneously, as in the warriors game of multi-dimensional chess.

The two most important spiritual ‘powers’ (in the language of the superhero gods and goddesses) are the ‘iron grip’ and ‘unpredictability’. The earth is the perfect environment for a training ground for these qualities. For after death the soul needs both in as large a dose as possible to survive the experience in continuity between a life lived on earth and the afterlife. Without a physical body our invincible hold on our intention becomes the means of giving direction to our Soul, the eternal centre of our consciousness.

By being unpredictable in this world we give ourselves the means to counter the traps that await us…the traps that are described in such accounts as ‘Pilgrims Progress’ by John Bunyon. We must ready ourselves to be a joker, an iron man…all of those super heroes that haunt the popular comic books and the imagination of the young warriors about to engage in the eternal, yet ultimately, peaceful war.

The All Seeing I

02/08/201902/08/2019 / Matters Blog - Things that Matter to Me / Leave a comment

There are quite a number of theories as to why an all seeing eye above a pyramid, appears on the dollar bill.

Clearly there are masonic connections with the originators of the United States of America and the original intention. There may have been as many as twenty one signaturees of the American Constitution who were Freemasons.

They largely reflected anti monarchist views and promoted European Enlightenment ideals of liberty and self governance. God was not encapsulated in a ‘religion’ but seen as an entity who largely left humanity to it’s own devices, whilst keeping a benign watch on things.

Also, the ‘eye’ on the dollar bill is clearly disembodied; without the arms and legs. This ideal of the Creator is more akin the gnostic view, than the Christian.

The symbol shows rays coming from the eye in all directions. This is important. Firstly the rays are coming from the eye, not into it. It is therefore akin to the sun and akin to the Ancient Egyptian deity Ra.

Whilst the human eye is perfectly adapted to receive and focus electromagnetic energy in the wavelength of light, modern science does not support the idea that eyes emit light. Yet in Ancient Greece, Plato and Socrates believed the eye was an organ that emitted a ‘fire’ to produce a ‘visual touch’ sensation. This reversal of what is today ‘the norm’ is not as nonsensical as it may seem. In ancient times the physical world was seen more as a system of energies, rather than the solid physical forms of today. Given that perception then it is quite possible that a human can feel with the eyes by emitting energy. We have all probably had the experience of someone watching us from behind or from a distance whom we cannot physically see.

The other symbol is the truncated pyramid above which the eye floats. The pyramid has thirteen courses and this number is repeated in other symbols present. It’s significance to the designers was clearly important and probably has several interpretations. Personally I would view it as a unification of the numbers one and three, one being the Godhead and three the Holy Trinity – in Christian symbolism which the Freemasons were most likely to use. At another level one interpretation I find interesting is by Swaller de Lubicz who said that thirteen is ‘the manifestation of the good or bad generating power’.

Swaller de Lubicz is a renowned investigator of the sacred sites of Ancient Egypt whose theories were unorthodox but very interesting. His book ‘The Temple in Man‘ is recommended.

In the Old Testament of the Bible and Torah, God is just such an energy that passes judgement and destroys that which it does not approve. Although this image of the Creator is at odds with the New Testament, for the Jews and many other societies, God is not just ‘Mr. Nice Guy’.

In science, the physical universe is in a constant process of decay known as ‘entropy’ and creation; with entropy ultimately being the winner. Even our own bodies reflect this state, and one day our bodies will expire, despite constant renewal processes.

So the eye at the top of the pyramid is more likely, in my view, to be an ‘Old Testament’ eye. Whilst man has freewill to make mistakes and good judgements, so does the Creator. Divine intervention does not, in theory, take place however in a contradictory way is does. God permit cities to be destroyed as does man.

The all seeing eye of God is not just protection, as worn by many as a symbol in the Middle East and known as the ‘evil eye’ or more accurately – protection from evil.

So, why a pyramid and why one without a point? Most pyramids are pure representations of the geometric pyramid form. To do otherwise is rare but there is one and it is well known. It is the so called Pyramid of Cheops on the Gaza Plateau in Egypt. This was one of the first to be built and many of the latter pyramids were pale imitations. There has never been a ‘pyramidion‘ stone and it was constructed to have a flat platform at the summit.

In my personal researches, I have come to the notion that pyramids were constructed to accumulate electromagnetic energy (amongst other reasons). This was done using rock which conducts ions and between anodes and cathodes. In the base of the pyramid are underground water courses associated with the river Nile. These bring in positive ions to the pyramid to be draw upwards through the centre. They were never intended to be emitted from the point of the pyramid as most others do, because other uses of the energies were being made in the chambers.

Suffice to say that I believe most pyramids were constructed to emit a steady stream of electromagnetic energy, from a height and in all directions, to other pyramids. This was a world wide network as evidenced by the presence of ancient pyramids on all the continents, including Antarctica!

A Pyramid and Tesla Tower with similar construction

The concept of ‘mobile phone’ masts as a network of transmitters and receivers of information encoded microwaves, is something most a familiar with in the modern world. It should not be so extraordinary to imagine such a network existed in the past using more primitive materials but with sophisticated, intuitive software.

The pyramids were transmitters and receivers between computers. If you wonder how computers existed so long ago, I am of course referring to the human brain, a computer so multi complex that it will be several decades, perhaps never, when it is replicated by scientists.

A form of ‘telepathy’ is plausibly existent between people such as twins or even husbands and wives, who finish each other’s sentences.

The ‘all seeing eye’ or ‘all knowing eye’ is therefore quite plausibly something contained not only in the mind of God but also His construction, humans.

The Ancient Egyptians denoted the Eye of Horus as in the diagram below. There is a convincing connection between this stylised image of the eye and the cross section of the human brain. This includes the pineal gland where our ‘extrasensory perception’ originates and is known as the ‘third eye’ – another illusion to the number three.

The ‘eye’ is also at a poetic level the ‘I’ or feeling of individual identity within the multiverse symbolised by the number 3 or the Trinity. I and 3 is of course code for, 13. The American Constitution protects the political and human rights of the individual and was fundamental to the creation of a free state which the USA has enjoyed for centuries, (at least in it’s imagination, when such issues as slavery are concerned.)

You can see, therefore that the information contained as they say in ‘plain sight’ on such a lowly item as a bank note is the perfect place to maintain a profound cognisance intended by the ‘Founding Fathers’, never to be forgotten.

In the Beginning

06/07/201906/07/2019 / Matters Blog - Things that Matter to Me / Leave a comment

Before the Earth was born and the great stars were in the sky, there was a traveller.

His name was Enki and he was what people now call a ‘god’ although this is not really the case. He is a being, like any other with an idea of himself as a traveller, warrior and hunter. He takes pleasure in his life and meeting other similar beings with whom he passes the time as he pleases.

Sumerian – Enki

This ‘entity’ or ‘god’ is no more ‘powerful’ than a snail that crawls upon the earth in our present day. For even a snail guards it’s own identity with pride – in the way of any ‘god’.

The ‘gods’ are therefore not interested or indeed able to alter the course of the consciousness of other centres of consciousness that coalesce in identical or alternative dimensions.

So it was that in the very first stages of the formation of a universe in the dimension known as ‘matter’ – Enki had to develop a means of travel – for in the material world it is necessary to move molecule by molecule and the number of these is infinitely great.

He built for himself a sophisticated ‘cocoon’ that enveloped his consciousness. He took the dimensions of this cocoon from nature. So it was that geometry and proportion were made to coalesce in the material world for the first time that was not spontaneous and without ‘will’.

At the moment of his arrival in this dimension – there were already animals and spirits in the form of amalgamated living beings living and parading on the planet he chose. This planet was itself a living being known as ‘Gaia’ and welcomed new entities for the diversity of genetic form that they brought. Enki lived on his own in a large swathe of trees that covered mountains and continents. He plucked animals and birds from their nests at night when his ‘cocoon’ craved replenishment. It was necessary for him to explore new regions and so he set off one day on a journey.

His journey took him out of the forest and across Oceans until he came to a place around which everything spun. He dipped his huge hand into the empty space that was there and pulled out enormous volumes of light and dust that he flung away. At the same time he sang the heavenly scale of one octave and at each pure note, the dust held itself together to form a perfect sphere. These spheres remain even today and are visible travelling in a line around the centre of all mass, known as the Sun.

So Enki worked and at the end of his travails he sat and rested, this being the seventh day. Then he set about creating a sphere to travel around Gaia to keep her strong and stable.

And for the last part of this heavely symphony, Enki set about creating a creature using just the clay at his feet. This creature was was modelled much on Enki’s own proportions and power. But he wanted this being to have more than just strength. He wanted it to have beauty, so he created a smaller replica using the mysterious proportions that govern music and harmony in every dimension that exists in the physical world.

The two being’s were later named Adam and Eve and from this moment on, Gaia had to support the actions of Adam and Eve, based on their desires.

Enki never made himself known to his creations but slipped back to the great forest from which he came. When he needed to know what was occurring in the world that he had made, he connected with the seven planets. Each one resonated at an exact frequency from which the consciousness of minor ‘gods’ travelled. These minor ‘gods’ were not permitted to interfere with the activities of Adam and Eve and their progeny but tasked merely as observers. However as the interest of Enki moved to other dimensions, the minor ‘gods’ took pleasure in interfering. They would even present themselves in apparent material form and give their advice – un-requested more often – on how a certain aspect of a mortals life should proceed.

Naturally as a result of these unimaginable encounters, the mortals began to study their ‘protectors’ and gave them names – which are the names of the seven planets to this day. The mortals concentrated so hard on them that they began to offer sacrifices of mineral, plant and animal form.

TempleGopuramMars

They also built resplendent temple’s that followed the divine proportions of their own bodies. In them they placed replicas of themselves as minor ‘gods’ which the eponymous observers could inhabit at will and in doing so occupy both an ‘observing’ position and a surreptitious means to influence mortal proceedings and outcomes.

Venus

In this manner, the world as we know it today evolved from being influenced from without to within. Individuals have become ‘explorers’ ‘hunters’ and ‘warriors’ in the manner of their and this Universes originator, Enki.

It is hard for them to progress into the next dimension because they devote their resources too much to fighting each other. This trait or compulsion, does them little credit and builds no resilience to explore into the openings of new dimensions. It makes them weak and mistrustful. To this end certain empowered souls have travelled amongst the mortals and introduced the idea that they must emphatically learn to love each other in the manner of their original progenitors, Adam and Eve.

Through this means the future progenitors will progress into what was called a ‘Kingdom’ by one soul traveller. This realm is one where energy vibrates in harmonious patterns and allows consciousness to maintain an idea of a ‘reality’ that is completely separate from the material world. It is hard for the mortals to end their fixation on the material world. Although it is fraught with the laws of decay through chaos and violence, they still find great fascination in it’s beauty and sustaining power over their bodies.

Free of their Gaia-formed bodies, a very few of the mortals have and will evolve, in the manner of Enki, into a dimension that is more benign to their spiritual progress and less centred on ‘earthly’, constructive and de constructive processes.

To open this space they must travel in their minds through the forest of their thoughts to the very centre around which everything rotates. This centre they visualise and name a ‘black hole’ and they fear it as a place where matter and energy disappear. This however is not the case because all energy and matter re-appears in another forest – another garden from which others one day – will also bid to escape.

This is the nature of the Universes of Universes that turn in on themselves perpetually, without end or beginning.

Renaissance of the Renaissance

20/06/201920/06/2019 / Matters Blog - Things that Matter to Me / Leave a comment

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

Choruses from the Rock by T.S. Eliot

Futures have many directions. They spread into an infinity of possibilities every second of the day. This is true for the micro management of everyday things to the macro management of the planet and the cosmos.

One future is with us now and like all futures – it has been here before. What I am talking about is the tendency for people, science, art, industry, politics to start working together.

This may sound like the norm but in a culture of competition, copyright, industrial secrets, political manoeuvres, artistic repression and exploitation – believe me, working together has not been normal.

Art and science as pure and applied subjects have always led a culture into new possibilities. This was true particularly in Ancient Egypt where the great library in Alexander brought together learning and expression from all over the world. The Buddhist teachers were there and many influential thinkers and scholars of the second and third centuries B.C. It was by all accounts a Universal library a sort of Wikipedia of it’s day.

When a large spectrum of subjects are considered by a single or a collective mind some thing extraordinary happens. The subjects are discovered to have areas in common. For example an astronomer would have a lot to share with a sea captain who navigated by the stars. A surgeon might have plenty to share with an artist trying to understand the human body.

Because the ethos of the library was to discover what beliefs and understanding was held in common and the connections investigated. Information and knowledge are the paths resulting from the investigation of the spaces between what is already known.

It was fitting that Pharos Lighthouse of Alexandria built between 284 and 286 BC spread light ‘across the world’. The metaphor of enlightenment is apt when considering the sharing of knowledge. It is the discovery of electromagnetic radio waves and their ability to carry information – that heralded the global sharing of information today, via the internet.

With the spread of libraries across the eastern end of the Mediterranean the Alexandrian library fell into disuse and suffered destruction by armies and Christian zealots.

Many of the scholars, artists, sages and seers who frequented the library moved or fled. Using text books and records, often made by Arab scholars, some information and knowledge survived.

One of the nexus’s of the world to which the knowledge travelled, was Venice. It was the terminus of the Silk Road and linked the East with the Middle East and Western Europe.

The Ancient Greek texts on philosophy, astronomy, geometry, mathematics and their interpretation and substantiation by Arab scholars were like gold dust. Most contemporary lines of thought were abandoned in favour of this newly discovered old knowledge – like the Helio centric solar system. Much of it was ‘heretical’ to the church but eventually, the church had to hold it’s tongue. For the burst of colours from the fountain of knowledge were like the precious silks adorning the harlots and aristocratic women of the Venice. Artist and Scientist grew in renown and fame, patronised by wealthy families such as the Medici s. The flower that was opening was to be known as the Renaissance.

Today, despite or perhaps resulting from previous ignorance and prejudice, there is happening a similar flowering – inspired by Universal information and knowledge carried on the electromagnetic sea of the internet.

At the same time over the last few decades, academic institutions ( where the internet was first conceived and initiated ) – these institutions have started to share what they know with each other. This spark is vital to transform information into knowledge, ideas into creations.

For example, archaeologists studying Neanderthal humans are sitting around the metaphoric camp fire of storytelling, with forensic pathologists, palaeontologists, weapons experts, linguists and artists amongst many others – to visualise exactly how they lived.

Gone and the archaeologists who specialise in Western Mediterranean arrow heads for their entire academic careers. Such ‘silo’ thinking inhibits understanding. The arrow head was just a small part of the whole story of how Neanderthal humans lived and gives information but not knowledge.

This is just one example of the interconnections between artists and scientist that is now found in today’s Universities and places of study.

And most telling of all is the recreation of the ‘Renaissance Man’. These are artists or scientists who are also scientists and artists. For just as the first Renaissance created it’s Leonardo de Vinci’s, so we need and have today, our own ‘masters of all knowledge’.

This means considerably more than the previous scientists who wore a trade mark bow tie and long hair. Or those artists who adopt a mannerism of the scientific method (sharks in tanks) in their conceptualisations.

What it will bring is the fruit from the flower – the seed that will give life to a new plant and perhaps the next Renaissance after the present one.

This fruit is what is known as ‘wisdom’. It is the essence of knowledge, just as knowledge is the essence of information and information the essence of data. There is a fractal that grows and shrinks, but always follows the same pattern.

In this seed the whole future of our civilisation has it’s potential to grow exponentially. We see it on the media everyday – new discoveries, new inventions, new ideas. Let us hope that these seeds will temper our desire for material prosperity, just as the Silk Road became a line of empty caravanserai’s.

Thinking About Thinking

19/05/2019 / Matters Blog - Things that Matter to Me / Leave a comment

This may sound like digging a spade with a spade or mixing clouds – confusing.

But thinking is a tool and like all tools it needs to be made of high quality materials and regularly maintained.

Thinking was not taught in schools and places of further education. Perhaps it is on the National Curriculum now? If it is not and I was a parent I would want to know why. Because thinking is perhaps the most important of all acquired and learnt skills. Not only because it governs our whole perception of events and things we call – reality – but because it has the tendency to pretend it is not there.

Like a fish swimming in the sea, if you asked it where the sea was, it would not know.

The nearest we get to any sort of scientific reality is through ‘rational’ thought. To be rational is to use logic as a device in which information is chosen to be from a credible source, tested in every manner possible and judged to be useful or not.

Here are some of the ways of thinking that are problematic;

Filtering: when information is presented the thinker chooses either consciously or unconsciously the facts which fit the thinkers prior beliefs.

For example: a person develops a hatred towards a religion and it’s followers. Events around the world which reflect badly on those who may or may not represent that religion, are used as examples justifying extreme behaviour.

Polarisation: Dualistic thought considers only the two extremes of something that in reality has a million levels of degree. An action can be judged as bad when in fact it has some good effects. To judge how far along the see-saw between good and bad is complex and sometimes impossible.

For example: Criminals are sent to jail for an act that is perceived as ‘bad’. If Adolph Hitler had been murdered to stop the war early, was that a ‘bad’ act?

Over-generalisation: The thinker arrives at a conclusion based on sparse or selected facts. The saying ‘one swallow does not make a summer’ describes this. Sometimes political correctness will leap on one very minor aspect of a statement or action and generalise this into something much greater than it is.

For example a group of young girls wearing unsuitable clothing and footwear attempt to climb a mountain; get lost and have to be rescued suffering from hypothermia. Afterwards the politically correct Authorities revue whether to close access to the mountain for reasons of safety.

Mind Reading: Without their saying so, the thinker assumes to know what people are feeling and why they do what they do. This may be particularly directed towards how others feel about you.

For example someone you think of as a friend ignores you when you pass them in the street. You feel offended and decide to cut them out of your friendship circle. In reality they are short sighted (which you did not know about) and on this particular day they were not wearing their contact lenses and therefore did not recognise you.

Catastrophising: The thinker suffers from emotional fears which tell them to ‘expect the worse’. These type of emotional demons can be learnt in an unbalanced way from watching or reading tragic news reported from anywhere in the world. These events are not representative of the thinkers personal risks but never the less influence their decisions.

For example: A plane crashes in on the other side of the world the day before someone frightened of flying is due to fly. They cancel their ticket and take the train. The fact that air travel is the safest method of travel per mile, is ignored.

Personalisation: Another individual, often in authority, makes a decision that affects the thinker in a way that displeases them. The thinker does not refute the actions / decisions of the authority figure with reasoned debate. Instead the thinker personalises matters. In this way they move the debate from a subject they are less likely to win to won that may allow the thinker to ‘triumph’.

For example: A politician decides to allow the building of a nuclear power station contrary to the wishes of the local people. At a public meeting they pillory the politician over his or her personal conduct and private life.

Control Fallacies: You are Under Control

The thinker may feel that they are in a situation over which they have no control. This can lead them to feeling stressed and unable to escape.

For example; A person believes that the authorities are monitoring their behaviour using technology for sinister reasons. This is fictionalised as ‘Big Brother’.

Control Fallacies: You are In Control

The thinker feels that they are responsible for the pain, happiness or other feelings of those around.

For example the hostess of a dinner party is distraught when two of the guests have an argument in the garden.

To be continued…

Caterpillar Sheds his Skin

17/05/201917/05/2019 / Matters Blog - Things that Matter to Me / Leave a comment

The marble table in the centre of the kitchen is gleaming. You make a note to compliment Mrs. Caterpillar – the housekeeper – how well she keeps the servants busy cleaning and polishing.

For you have been the butler in this fine and noble house for as long as you can remember. You sit now, at the kitchen table with a copy of yesterday’s Time’s (that your master discarded) a warm coffee and rather tasteless cigarette. It is seven o’clock in the morning and the kitchen staff will be down soon to prepare breakfast. But for the moment all is quiet.

Above you are seven brass bells are linked to thin wires that travel across the ceiling and up. Each bell is labelled in gold script with the name of a room.

Before we going any further, bemused yet interested reader, know that the house in which you sit is yourself; your physical body and all the aspects of self that you experience as ‘being alive’.

The first three bells relate to the three rooms commanding your instinctual behaviour. Your body mind unity has many instinctual needs and of all the bells, this one summons you the most – or at least it seems that way. They are characterised as demanding immediate gratification whether it be the alleviation of pain, sleep or hunger. Sometimes they are craving pleasure associated with sex or relaxation. The bells are labelled in accordance with the three base chakras (which the master learnt about during his service in the Army for the West India Company). They are named Root chakra, Sacral chakra and Solar Plexus chakra

And as if these were not demanding enough, there are four more.

The next in line is the one labelled Heart chakra. In a way, this one is the most important and yet most difficult to satisfy. When you enter this room and enquire politely after the reason for your attendance, the master or mistress is likely to be experiencing either pleasing or difficult emotions. The pleasing are generally rewarding and include happiness and contentment. The less positive will present as states of anxiety or extreme disquiet as a result of some injustice, frustration, jealousy, annoyance and many others.

Each one has to be dealt with head on and care taken for the matter in hand to be explored thoroughly and in the presence of other parties involved, if possible. Failure to work through these emotions to an acceptable conclusion to all, can lead to problems. The master has been known to order you to lock a troublesome feeling in one of the large cupboards – to be ignored. When in there, experience tells you that it will grow and emerge even more strongly and therefore more troublesome. Emotions tempt your master and mistress into behaviour which is clearly ‘risky’ whether it involves amorousness and romance, gambling, cocained addiction and much, much worse.

The next bell is labelled Throat chakra. This is the room where all communication goes on. There are comfortable chairs for sitting and smoking after dinner for the gentlemen. The ladies occupy another room in which to withdraw, where considerable conversation takes place on topics which the men are generally totally unaware.

The conversations in these rooms are contained within the room as silent speech or as we say, ‘thoughts’. They can take over your time with alarming ease and rapidity often in the middle of the night. Little or no benefit is likely to occur from this obsession with thinking and chattering, but still it goes on.

The last two bells are the rooms which interest you most; although being called there is regrettably all too uncommon.

They are labelled the Third Eye chakra and Crown chakra. You might expect these rooms to be occupied mostly on religious festivals and Sundays, but this is not the case at all. When the master and mistress enter these rooms they do so generally in complete silence. In this condition and in a slightly melancholy atmosphere tinged by the musty smell coming from the peeling wallpaper where it meets the ceiling and the roof above, here great self discoveries are made. It is as if not only the combined knowledge and experience of those in the room come into conscious understanding and therefore ‘guidance’; but the whole knowledge and experience of the community at large – indeed the whole world – is here.

All of the above illustrates in metaphor the position that we occupy in our early lives in relation to our body mind complex. It is hard to get to grips with and involves a lot of running around. Fortunately the energy of youth makes these huge tasks just about manageable – although you are aware that there are some of your peers for whom the tasks become too difficult. They withdraw into a sort of mechanical relationship with the world and their fellow occupants of the world – whom they blame for most of their own shortcomings.

Now as in all tales told by the masterful story tellers of the past, there is a twist – an unexpected turn – as in life, the road very occasionally takes a sideways impromptu step or about turn.

Here in your house, where you thought you were the butler, something extraordinary happens. As you peer over the top of your Times newspaper one morning, you observe yourself unexpectedly sitting in the master’s high backed leather chair. The pipe resting on the ivory holder next to you, curls a wisp of luxurious perfume and tempts you to take another draught of it’s smoky elixir.

With both shock and satisfaction in equal measure, you realise that you have either become the master of the house or have in fact, been the master all along and failed to realise it.

And there is Mdme. Butterfly, your wife now, sat opposite, threading a needle into a circle of cream canvass stretched on a mahogany frame. Several of her colourful depictions of your favourite flowers, adorn the wall behind her.

Sun enters the room, as if to sweep the colour from the exquisite Persian rugs into the air. You feel exalted, ecstatic even – and only the ardour of your parallel experience ‘downstairs’ prevents you from rising at will to the ceiling.

You have experienced what psychologist’s term ‘individuation’ – become a collection of part’s united – a whole being.

Slowly, tentatively, tortuously you reach across the rich velvet arm of your chair for the tasselled bell chord. You wonder;

‘Is there anybody there?’

Looking Through the Glass

07/05/201907/05/2019 / Matters Blog - Things that Matter to Me / Leave a comment

OK, look out of the window and tell me what you see.

I see some fields and trees and a couple of cows.

Think carefully. Tell me what is the first thing you see.

The fields.

Wrong. The first thing you see when you look out of any window is glass.

This little exchange may sound pedantic but it crudely illustrates how we ignore the way we perceive the world. Sweeping short cuts are made during the process of perception in order to to establish some sort of certainty of what is out there, for our deaf and blind brains.

The next logical step in this line of thought, is to consider how many other things we do not see, whether they be ideas or physical things.

I would argue that there are many more than we believe.

Take technological ‘evolution’. I avoid the word progress because there are examples of new technologies that were a step backwards rather than forward. The release of energy from matter in nuclear fission for instance, creates as many horrors as quick fixes for warfare or the provision of electrical power.

Nobody votes for new technology. One day you are sitting on the sofa eating your dinner when, on the news, they are demonstrating a car that drives itself. Or you are a farmer in nineteenth century England and suddenly you hear you neighbour starting up his new tractor.

These changes to our lives come about as if by stealth. Generally they are considered benign – that is the benefits out weigh the problems. The fact that all new technology is by definition ‘untried’ is something that neither proves nor denies a problem exists, in the present or future. So it is allowed to be produced.

The mobile phone, for instance, has revolutionised many people’s lives. Even children as young as three are given them. And yet there remains a question mark over the emission of microwave energy and the effect it has on young and adult brains. At present the young are thought to be particularly at risk because their brains are developing. Making a phone call in a car for instance, is the same as putting food in a microwave cooker, only it’s not food being cooked – it’s you and your family. Because this background energy has been with us for over a generation, it is not possible to establish a ‘control group’ to measure the development of brains. There are no humans alive now, who have lived without a constant background of microwave energy.

Of course there are checks and balances at work in various committees in Universities where research is done. Also government organisations monitor and grant licences to new technologies. The ethical concerns, the effect on other systems such as the environment, sustainability, disposability, carbon footprint etc. are just a few of the concerns applied to new technological developments.

The problem is not all countries judge new technology in the same way. If there is a political, monetary or social ‘quick gain’ to be made through say, shale gas fracking, then some country somewhere is going to do it.

And if in the eighteenth century what happened on the other side of the world didn’t matter because it was too far away; this century has no choice but to think global.

The trails of diesel exhaust from ships crossing oceans can be seen from space. Imported goods do not arrive without an environmental price tag.

It is as if technology has a mind of it’s own – and in the next few decades it will quite literally– using 5G and the ‘internet of things’.

But without innovative technologies, the planet would not be supporting the present human population. The number of people pre-industrial revolution, was small. England had about four million citizens when horses ploughed fields. Now there are over seventy million.

But new technology is not the only object seen in the window. Remember the glass.

And it might not be a new technology that is about to alter the course of your life fundamentally. There are numerous ‘low balls’ that could change everything tomorrow. For instance there might be a series of powerful solar mass ejections, bombarding earth with cosmic rays so strong that the earth’s protective magnetosphere gives way. Computer systems go down, power grids and machinery of all kinds are cooked.

Trusted technologies, reveal that they have been trusted too much. The impossible or ‘once in a thousand year event’, happens. Then mankind realises it had not seen the glass in the window.

The earth is a space craft and like all complex systems they are fine until they break down. Then back up systems have to be activated and emergency plans initiated…if they exist.

In the case of planet earth they do not. A ‘survivalist’ shelter designed for two weeks, two months or even two years, will eventually either be discovered or run out of supplies before the re-population even begins. Mad Max doesn’t even come close to the post apocalypse chaos.

The question for the present generation and for those yet to be born is;

‘what are the blind spots in our modern lifestyle that could leave human population exposed to near elimination and what is the back up plan to each eventuality?’

Governments, committees, industrialists, academics scientific researchers and technological inventors and innovators are our modern day ‘dictators’. You won’t be voting whether to survive disaster or not. Your trusted leaders just won’t have seen it coming because they too were looking through the glass, like Alice.

Let Them Eat Happiness

04/05/201904/05/2019 / Matters Blog - Things that Matter to Me / Leave a comment

Western culture has come a long way since it was ruled by royals and aristocrats – or has it?

Few French peasants would have even glimpsed the lifestyle of the immensely rich and powerful in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They would have been unaware of what really went on behind the iron gates of Louis 14th’s palace at Versailles. The mirror lined rooms and the golden corridors of power might have well have been in another dimension.

Eventually the Aristo’s and the royals have lost much of their wealth and most of their power. The wealthy industrialists took on their mantle in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the West. Instead of taking taxes from the poor, they stripped nature and nations, and occupied the masses (and their children) in factories.

With their acquired wealth, they built mansions set in Inigo Jones style gardens, just as the elite before them had. They bought military commissions, titles and honours and entered parliament. Power too, was for sale. It was a different game but with the same lust for money and dominion over others, as played by the royals.

In the twenty first century there is an awakening to these processes as having been outrageously ‘unfair’. There appear to be glimmers of similarity between the Gillet jaune and the revolutionists of the French Revolution. No guillotine’s yet but this revolution has only just begun. Perhaps it is a Gilletine.

This time round, the capitalists and the so called ‘elite’ are in the firing sights of the missiles from the streets. The possession of most of the wealth by the few, reverberates around the internet like a pin ball in a crazy machine; lit up with flicking levers, lights and cartoon graphics. How can it be fair, we are asked, that the ‘elite’ have so much money? Are they killing off the humans to save the planet using fluoride, chem trails and advice to avoid vaccination? Lies and suspicion are great hunting dogs.

Confucius; he says, ‘when the duck puts his head above the reeds in the hunting season, he had better be ready to be shot at.’

For just as the Sun King and the royal families of Europe were human enough to be pulled kicking and screaming from their palaces, so are the modern elite.

The injustice and the irony of the lessons of history are obvious, but a working alternative is not. Even an establishment introduced by the anarchist rioters, is an establishment; ergo the Soviet Union. If a hundred anarchists met in a town square to tell the masses to get rid of their leaders, there would appear amongst the anarchists, a leader.

Philosophically and scientifically it is true, that to every force there is an equal and opposite reaction. So when you put on your black anarchist costume and mask and join the ‘anonymous’ mob to riot, what is the problem you are trying to solve?

The problems of the French or Russian peasant made a long list; no clothes, no health, no food, no water, no home, no land, no animals, no day off etc.

The problems of modern westerners is none of the above as they have it all; health, food, transport, leisure, labour saving technology etc.

The problem appears to me therefore to be no longer external, but in the mind. It is built on the number one illusion in the hall of mirrors, that ‘money equals happiness’. We know this isn’t true but we still pursue it and want to be rich. The lines of people buying lottery tickets from the street vendors where I live in Spain, are an indication of the pursuit of wealth as being perceived as the same as the pursuit of happiness. Or just peep over the pond at the great USA and it’s everywhere in their way of life.

The pantheon of the Ancient Greek gods, has been replaced with so called ‘political elite’ and ‘celebrities’. Vane and pointless people who have had the luck of being in the right place at the right time, self promote on social media. They spread the myth that everything on their side of the palace (or Big Brother) wall is great. Instead of hiding, in the manner of the royals, aristocrats and industrialists, they tease the rest of us with videos and photos of their material success and happiness.

Even when the mascara is smudged with tears, even when cancer eats away the golden vocal chords, the golden divorce unfolds, the assasins bullet richochets amongst the pillars of the halls of power; the masses worship their sacrificed gods. And should an over dose of some not-so-whizzy drug, close down the not-so-happy participant in the great party of celebrity life, selective memories promote the deceased as a greater god for being dead. Goodbye Norma Jeane.

And yet, as long as two thousand years ago, a man said;

I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

For if you change the problem from ‘not being rich’ or ‘others should not have riches’ or ‘I want power’ or ‘I want what he’s got’ or ‘give me what I am owed’ or ‘they spoilt everything for me’ or ‘I just want what I deserve’ or ‘you can make me happy, why don’t you’ or ‘if only I was rich’ –

to; ‘how can I be eternally happy?’ then that is an easier problem to solve. Most of the historical examples of people who became eternally happy did so by giving away their possessions and gave love to others. Well documented examples would be Prince Sidhartha, Jesus the Christ, Vishnu and Kali, Mother Teresa, St Francis of Assisi.

Lesser known examples are the monks, nuns, non- government agency relief workers, public servants, healers, charity workers, environmental activists, street sleepers, the wanderers and people who you may know personally.

We may not all be saints, and perhaps those posthumously awarded sainthood were not either, but we can aspire to share what we have, however much or little that may be.

The non-self centred may not hit the news headlines, they may not be seen in a queue for a lottery ticket, they may not self promote like politicians, they may not stand up against the politicians, they may not have flashy cars and houses or go for golden globes – but they exist.

Their happiness is not necessarily in this life time or even the next, but they will have seen over the wall into the garden of Paradise. It is not on this earth for this globe is not, and never will be, ‘golden’. It is but a shadow of the real Paradise where there is no chaos, no illusion, no entropy and certainly, no lottery.

Go Forth and Multiply

08/04/201908/04/2019 / Matters Blog - Things that Matter to Me / Leave a comment

The spring is an excellent time of year to be considering all things reproductive. Whilst male hares are playing fisticuffs in the fields over a prospective female, blog writers are being thankful for rainbows.

The Old Testament character, Noah is an important symbol or rebirth and regeneration. The story is so fundamental that Noah appears in most ancient cultures in various disguises;

Sumer – Ziusudra

Hindu – Manu

Mesopotamia – Atrahass

Babylon – Upnapishtim

Zoroastraism – Zend Avesta

Ancient Greece – Dionysus the Younger

Ancient Egypt – Osiris

Like many bible stories, the flood is both allegorical and historical. The ending of the ice age around 11,000 BCE, unquestionably released a huge quantity of water in just a few years. The Almighty was enacting revenge on the evil doing of the earth’s inhabitants at that time – and He should know. Noah and his family were chosen, possibly, for their hygienic practices around the house and regular donations to animal charities. Whatever the reason, the best of the human race was always intended to survive the flood; along with the plants and animals.

Noah built a boat out of reeds or gopher wood depending on your source. With a layer of bitumen the vessel was able to float and survive storms. On board was a seed bank relating to plants and possibly animals. In some versions of the story the animals do not become a floating zoo but merely a place to store ‘seeds’ – a practice that overcomes the practical problems of feeding and fodder storage.

Whatever the case, it is curious to wonder whether the ‘two by two’ is a description of the counter directional spirals of DNA protein and / or the Nadi of which we will hear more later.

Pause and move forward in time to young Dionysus, swanning around in Ancient Greece. He had his own religion based on drunken debauchery, something God should have known about, but we have to suppose that being omnipresent can distract One’s attention. Anyway, Dionysian followers are depicted as carrying a staff called a Thyrsus. This is a stem of the perennial herb fennel topped with a pine cone and twined with ivy along it’s length. Some commentators have suggested this represents an erect phallus, as a symbol of fertility and rebirth – both important in their religion.

Keen symbologist’s will have noted that fennel is a vigorous perennial herb growing abundantly in Mediterranean areas where the grape is cultivated. There are clear intentions to depict the abundance of life, wine growing and the cycle of the seasons.

As Melchizedek, Noah taught Adam the secret of eternal life which was symbolised by bread (seed) and wine ( blood / water ). This may remind you of another Biblical character who popped up later and adopted this symbolism as a way for his followers to remember his body and blood. We know that for him wine and water were fairly interchangeable; one having a Divine, consciousness altering ingredient (wine). (Hang onto the idea of altering consciousness as this returns at the end.)

Another part of the story of Dionysus is that he spent some of his life floating in a box and was stopped by a tree. This is clearly the same story as Noah and the link intended. A tree represents organic life as a organisation of fractals, in the same way as a snowflake. When Dionysus becomes one with the tree, the intention is to depict the movement of consciousness into a human body which consists principally of a spine from which ribs are hung. This makes more sense of Adam being created from a rib. He is grown as you might grow a cutting from a plant to create a perfectly new whole plant without seed.

If you remember Noah was greeted by a bird with part of a tree in it’s beak at the end of the inundation – after Noah too had spent time in a box, albeit a big box of Biblical proportions.

So we have two demi-gods floating along in a sort of spring time re-enactment of the Oxford and Cambridge boat race. A scene that would probably not appear on the BBC sporting coverage is a curious story in the Genesis 9:20 – 22.

And Noah became a husbandmand and he planted a vineyard, and he drank of this wine, and was drunken and was uncovered in his tent. And Ham saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brethren without.

Firstly note the immediate link with Dionysus, wine growing and drunkenness. But what the story is depicting is a step change into human form. Until that time, homo sapien sapien did not have genitals and was not perfect. The God’s, demi-gods, animal and plant kingdoms were intertwined in the way that produced incomplete hybrids.

The reawakening of a new branch of mankind included the possibility to reproduce by the production of semen. This knowledge was passed onto the male off-spring of Noah and pretty soon we can expect the female off-spring began to know about it. This explains the edict ‘go forth and multiply’ because before this had not been possible – they had to be told. The human race had become perfect in form a message not missed by the Ancient Greeks who’s artists were inspired by the perfection of the human figure.

Lastly, there is another aspect to the Noah story that should be looked upon in a new light.

We have to go back to the bread and wine. Bread is made from seed. It is merely flour in the hands of the cosmic baker until a magical ingredient is added – yeast. We know that yeast comes from the fungus kingdom created millions of years ago. It is significantly neither plant nor animal but a hybrid with the ability to reproduce exponentially.

Then take a look at wine. This is grape juice that has been allowed to ferment – introducing yeasts occurring naturally on the vine.

In both cases the story takes us from the normal, casual, harmless state of material existence into a state of magical, altered consciousness.

This symbolises moving from a spirit in a body to becoming a soul in a body powered by spirit. In other words not just electricity (spirit) and atoms (body) – but a container for Divine consciousness (soul). And the rainbow, that started this story, depicts the full octave of human experience depicted in the chakras of Hindu understanding and of course as a Thrysus.

The seven spiralling energy centres are joined by two counter helical lines of energy called the Nadis, also referred to earlier. Again we see a reference to DNA, energy, matter and information coiled around a spine – or a stem of fennel.

There is much to consider about the chakras but suffice to say that each colour represents a state of human consciousness, ranging from the animal to the Divine.

So we should not be surprised that a rainbow over Noah and is depicted again in the Old Testament in the story of Joseph and the coat of many colours. This is a coat we all wear and brings us potentially, into a pure state of consciousness and a teller of truths.

I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of my covenant between me and the earth Genesis 13

Matters Blog

Original thoughts on a variety of subjects that matter to me

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