Most of us live ‘out there’. We see and feel our skin as the join between us and ‘that’; whatever ‘that’ is. For more and more people, the outside world is being discovered to be ‘not what it seems’ or in common parlance ‘fake’.
Films like The Matrix trilogy highlight the idea that what we look at is no more than some sort of construction. But who is making this illusory world?
In medieval times, before psychiatry and psychoanalysis, it was a widely held hypothesis that a being called God made the world and us. God therefore, had to be responsible for the running of human and if that gave you a problem you had an option to pray. Prayer was the only way humans were able to feel they had a say in the matter or else they abandoned themselves to kismet or fate. Both are soft options and unrealised humans, like soft options.
Mystics however held a different view, from times well before the Essenes and their Star pupil, Jesus the Christ. Mystics never believed in the story of an all controlling, Commander in Chief, deity. Instead they experienced directly a love of ‘God within’. As beings made ‘in the image of God’ (the literal consequence of what we now call fractal geometry) we are indeed God or as the poet and mystic Rumi said, a fragment of the mirror of God that shattered into countless pieces. We are, in other words, a shell within which energy and Mind (which is not us) are facilitated.
Picture a movie projector plugged into the electric wall socket and a light shining within the magic box. Out of the eye of this box are projected moving images in a most compelling way.
Because of a certain suseptability within the human mind, our attention becomes fixed on the world ‘out there’. Our attention moves from ‘here’ and ‘this’ (Self), to outside ourselves and we are transported to wherever and whatever (ego). So ‘ordinary life’ revolves around us in a merry go round that we call ‘experience’. Indeed it is because of our growing addiction to this series of dream sequences, that life can become a blur. In modern times the spinning world appears faster than ever and in a way and as a consequence, many feel overwhelmed by a lack of clarity and control. But there is a mechanism by which we can halt the confusion.
The ancient Greeks had an interesting take on how the human eye works. Whilst today we describe the eye as a camera or receiver of light, the ancient Greeks understood it as a projector. They thought the eye projected light, but perhaps they were describing how the process of mental projection works? Could it be that they intuited the idea that we create everything we see?
Quantum physics tells us that we are able to affect what we see by being an observer. The conundrum of Schroedinger’s cat imagines two realities present at the same time. Until the human observer makes a choice, the cat is both alive and dead.
When Jesus the Christ preached, ‘you are the light of the world’ he meant that we hold the power within ourselves to be not only our own light (God), but able to illuminate the whole universe. We hold tremendous power and he demonstrated this with miracles. Moses did the same when one of his followers walked into the rising tide of the Red Sea to certain death…except instead reality shifted and the waters receded. Parting waters was one of the many spectacular ‘tricks’ in ancient Egyptian magic.
We know that in Ancient Egypt the so called ‘Emerald Tablets’ of the demi-god Thoth or Djbuti instructed all beings to ‘seek light’. This is not as simple a process as it sounds of course. The illusion of reality is strong and shadows and false figures have to be ruthlessly eliminated in what mystics call ‘the hero’s journey’. The archetype of the hero as a warrior on the physical plane is nothing compared to the life long war of mystics and seers for understanding of themselves or enlightenment. This inner battle is the true and only meaning of the Islamic ‘Jihad’, whereby the veils that cover the inner light are tantalisingly removed, represented by the dance of the seven veils and the tantalising feeling of the hidden essence.
It is important to understand how all of this can apply to our own modern lives. One of the great ‘inhibitors’ to the removal of the veils is, ironically, religion. I shall not name and shame any particular religion because they are probably all guilty in my view.
How religion interrupts and corrupts the ‘hero’s journey’, is by promoting the description of the world as being ‘out there’. Most distracting of all is the notion that the saints and the angels and the Divine are all ‘out there’.
We might smile at the Renaissance painting of an old man sitting on a cloud today, as the archetypal God, but such a distortion of reality is still widely believed. Prayers are offered ‘to God’ as if such a being has both the time and interest in our self obsession. ‘You get on with it!’ one might hear a Divine voice command dismissively. Certainly in Christianity, humans were given ‘freewill’ at the beginning in the Garden of Eden, as a punishment rather than a gift. This Divine curse means we are always ‘on our own’.
If it sounds like heresy that God may not listen to prayers, then you are probably missing the point. Prayer was never intended to benefit a Universal Mind because God is by definition, complete in every way. Prayer is a mechanical process whereby a human mind can open paths to the human Soul, using those words that are not of one’s ego. Muslims are compelled to pray five times a day because it stops the ego in it’s tracks and can send our concentration inward. The body is bent in submission and the forehead (brow chakra) touches the ground. The arrogance of the ego is positioned (in Sajda) lower than the heart chakra, where Soul resides.
This process of ‘submission’ is found in most gnostic practises as a way of overcoming the constant demands of the lesser self (ego) and becoming aligned with the higher self (Self).
The words of the prophets to ‘know thyself’ are a hint to what today we might call ‘therapy’ or ‘psychoanalysis’. But these will not take you to a destination. They are principally an unveiling of an archetypal journey which is to travel inward to one’s higher Self, with skip in your step.
Body, Mind, Spirit and Heart on the Golden Road to the Wizard of Self picture credit Pacific Standard
Words have both sound and meaning and it is these aspects of words that I shall explore in this essay. My case shall be that there is a subtle and hidden level of meaning contained in the abscence of words as well within words; a fact we tend to ignore in our conventional Western tradition.
A child, when it is born, has no words in it’s head. It has not heard human language and it’s world is without word. It is an obvious yet obscure fact that every human infant is capable of learning any spoken language. It listens, and then one miraculous day – ‘da da’ – it speaks.
From that moment on this organic computer learns what we call an ‘operating system’ based on a language; amazingly, any language. This is all very marvellous and yet in the future our language inhibits meaning, rather than expands it.
At a certain stage in life, we might reflect and realise how words dominate our perception. We have become slaves to both the external and internal chatter of ‘things’. Words run away with themselves in our heads and much of the time we might wonder who we are and who is in charge.
Slavery of the body by another is a very old problem but slavery of the mind is even older. Early philosophers like Socrates, were sent to prison and even forced to commit suicide on account of their desire to cut through the prison bars of language and thought.
Religious and philosophical minds have, at various moments in history, produced a key to unlock the chains that hold us enslaved. In the West, this was done by encoding ritual using a language people did not understand.
In Catholicism this was the Latin language spoken by bilingual priests. Sadly, in recent times church elders have allowed religious incantations to be delivered in the vernacular. The congregation, who previously had been held rather in awe and suspense by the mystery of Mass, suddenly had this balloon popped and replaced by the humdrumness of ‘understanding’. Mystery was unwrapped like presents on Christmas day.
The ghost of Christmas Present
Only those with a deeper calling, such as Christian monks and nuns, are told to move their consciousness away from the meaning of the incantations and ‘just say the words with your mouth’ and ‘keep your consciousness on the presence of God.’ The mystical revelation was that words deceive by reducing mystery to common ‘understanding’. No one explained this to the uninitiated.
In contrast, Islam has not fallen into this trap and in most countries the original words of Divine Revelation are spoken in the original Arabic. Vast swathes of the Qur’an are learnt and recited, without necessarily knowing their meaning, by non-Arabic speakers. When spoken aloud the sound is as important as the meaning as the sounds of the holy words and phrases, even single letters, transmit a power from the Divine.
Exceptionally Mustafa Kemal Ata turk, President of Turkey in the 1920’s and 1930’s, ordered the Quran to be translated into Turkish as part of his ‘modernisation’ political philosophy. Nothing, as they say, is sacred.
Let us pause for a moment and consider the leap of faith that is being suggested here. Behind stories, myths and legends there was always a sacred understanding transmitted from generation to generation. For instance, the mystery of the ‘white stag’ that skips over the horizon or pales into the mist, so evading the hunter, is a mystery that captures and teases with a sense of rapture and bafflement.
This is ‘not knowing’ and has a value that has been largely ignored by ‘rational’ thinkers in the West.
The modern film ‘The Deer Hunter’ 1978 picks up on this theme of and man’s insignificance when compared to the mysteries of Nature. Amidst the heavy hammers of industrialisation, depicted poetically in the opening sequences of a steel works in Western Pennsylvania the central character ‘Mike’ proposes a hunting trip to his friends.
“You know what those are? Those are sun dogs… It means a blessing on the hunter sent by the Great Wolf to his children… It’s an old Indian thing.”
It is hard normally, to sustain this sense of mystery in life, as we reduce it to ‘catch phrases’ and cliché in conversation. We talk to much and our words rattle around other people’s heads like toy trains on a table top track.
Personally, I have always enjoyed travelling in non-English speaking countries and not understanding a word anyone is saying. Instead of grabbing a phrase book to attempt to understand the hubble and bubble of random conversations, I smell the unusual air and absorb the colour of exotic flowers. In essence, the mind can and should be permitted to stand still and pause. There is benefit, if not buying vegetables in a market, from concentrating on the profound reality of consciousness without words; what we might call ‘being aliveness’.
Lewis Carroll, is one of the great nonsense poets in the English language and has guided children and adults into the land of ‘not thinking’ for over a hundred years. ‘Beware the Jabberwocky’ is neither useful nor profound information, without mask or disguise. This sense of the absurd is like a door into the ‘not normal’, a place children love and adults avoid.
It would be wrong to be completely dismissive about words. In poetry and other sublimely expressive forms of language, they can explore and reveal areas of ourselves that are beyond thought, emotions and intuition. Initiation ceremonies into mystery schools are designed to bring about a consciousness that is completely without explanation by language; otherwise books would have replaced all knowledge and experience.
Unfortunately, in the roundabout of real and virtual worlds that we experience today, words come to us in a repetitive form. Anyone who has started to learn a language other than their mother tongue, will understand what it feels like to talk like a child to another adult. We converse like fools and (not wanting to insult the intelligence of animals), like ‘talking animals’.
If we are to search beyond the meaning of words, as far as our human soul will allow, then words perform a function most purely as sound; with or without a perceived meaning. This sound is the most fundamental form of creativity and inevitably appears in multiple opening verses of Genesis in the Bible that begin with, ‘And God said…’. In English these words have meaning but in the original Aramaic their would also be a magical power to the expression, just as magicians incant ‘spells’…Abracadabra! Words have the quality of spells and are learnt by a process dependent on ‘spelling’.
Pure sounds have an effect upon the human energetic system, in a most fundamental way, which is why the music we listen to is so important; as creative energy devoid of meaning. Destructive music such as Heavy Metal, attacks our ethereal essence and can lead to mental and physical illness, should we allow it. The Ancient Chinese respected ‘harmonious’ music for this very reason and viewed the opposite as a signature of decadence in decline in the State.
At the other extreme, music of a spiritual nature elevates our mood and perception in an experiential way. Various mystical traditions around the world, such as Sufism within Islam, embrace these ethereal qualities of music with ecstatic chanting.
There is a tradition in Yoga called Mantra Yoga which uses the repetition of sounds either silently or aloud to stimulate the human subtle energy system known as the ‘chakra’ and at the same time, stop the internal babble of the ordinary mind.
The Universe (of which we are a microcosm) is a cloud of sound as well as electromagnetic energy. Even the planets of our solar system vibrate at a different frequencies to one another and this mysterious concert has been recorded by modern astrophysicists. It is akin to the ‘music’ heard by mystics in trance as a constant hum or combination of harmonious overtones. Pythagoras proposed that the Sun, Moon and planets all emit their own unique hum based on their orbital revolution, and that the quality of life on Earth reflects the tenor of celestial sounds which are imperceptible to the human ear. This truth has often been represented allegorically in Western art as ‘choirs of angels’ playing musical instruments such as the harp and trumpet.
Perhaps the greatest example of the decadence that words can bring is contained in the Biblical story of the building of the Tower of Babel in Genesis. Here the Divine restraint from advancement of civilisation was used to confuse mankind with multiple languages instead of just one. The English language translates the word ‘babble’ as to ‘talk rapidly and continuously in a foolish, excited, or incomprehensible way’. Turn on your television sets today and discover that nothing has changed since this Biblical event! The world spins and makes us giddy, words fail us, we argue and fight, and all fall down.
In the Eastern philosophies, you will find a great emphasis on non-verbal communication. Much of the Japanese tea ceremonies are conducted in silence and participants are taught to ‘know’ how to conduct the ceremony without the interruption of words. A Japanese friend of mine was late for her tea ceremony class and found herself standing outside the room in which the class was taking place. She knew she would be judged on knowing exactly when to open the door and enter the room.
‘Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.’ Lao Tsu
How ironic that this present and looming war, is centred on the so called ‘Holy Land’. This small corner of the world has been the centre of spiritual love for millenniums.
What we should remember however is that those who wear religion as a mask, commit crimes against both humanity and themselves.
‘To thine own self be true.’
When the media use the names of the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, we should be fully aware that anyone can pick up this badge and wear it. It does not mean that a person represents that religion. Only by their actions will their true character and beliefs be revealed. Then we can make up your minds whether we are watching the work the Divine or the Devil.
I have written before about how weak the English language defines and describes ‘love’ (see my blog above called ‘Fifty Shades of Love’). A primary colour in the many shades of ‘love’, is ‘spiritual love’.
It is easier to define spiritual love by what it is not rather than what it is. Certainly it is not romantic love between humans. This is held in high regard by many societies and often rightly so, but when it fails it does so cataclysmically. The union of two ‘selves’ is tainted by projection of one’s anima or animus onto another, hidden bias, false expectation, unfounded optimism, lust and many other aspects of ‘being human’. These have played out in our theatres and cinema screens since the beginning of time.
To understand spiritual love it is essential to be able to see oneself as four components. The acronym BAHAMAS formed in my mind in a dream the other night and this is what it means;
Body:- most people confuse themselves with their body. The Buddhists cleverly ask that if you lose a leg are you not still yourself? Clearly, we are contained in a body, but are not one.
Heart:- this implies the emotional centre of ourselves which scientists observe is far more important in decision making than we give credit for. It achieves a high level of understanding through empathy and non verbal intelligence.
Mind:- again another place that people believe is where their ‘self’ resides. Certainly the brain is a sophisticated organic centre of consciousness but ‘Self’ can exist outside of the body as proved by many who are conscious post mortem, and return to tell the tale.
Soul or Spirit:- however you define these terms ( and many philosophers and religions differ) there is an overwhelming conscious feeling in most people of a power and intelligence within that is not us, but at the same time is us.
With these four categories it becomes slightly easier to understand what ‘be true to oneself’ means. For the ‘Self’ with a capital S (and the ego ‘self’ with a lower case s), is where spiritual love enters and emerges from within the experience we call ‘ourself’.
It is that part which the ‘crown chakra’ (in the Hindu description of the energetic human ‘body’) plays an important part. Along with the Pituitary and Pineal brain centred glands, it is the anatomical equivalent of the modem and microwave dish!
Energy (of the non-electromagnetic debased kind) containing information is universally present for all humans. The benign aspect of this is known as ‘Divine Love’ and my previous blog ‘The Poetic Universe’ attempts to describe this process. The destructive aspect of this is simply an ineffectively weak aspect of Divine Love which is known as ‘The Devil’. Remember that Hell is full of angels. This characteristic of ‘ineffective weakness’ is being played out in the Middle East at the present time and historically is how all quarrels begin; by weak or absent energetic characteristics such as compassion and respect for self and others. Such weakness can also be viewed as the absence of Divine Love or more precisely, a disasterous weakening of that Love which in good times brings happiness and fulfilment to all creatures on Earth and the planet itself.
Seen through the reverse end of this telescope, humans appear very small. But in reality we contain the Universe and this contradiction is evident in the truth already mentioned; ‘that we are not our bodies’. The only part of ourselves for which there is evidence (near death experiences and past life regression) of being eternal, is our Soul or Spirit. This is despite not being able to see it, in the same way we cannot see our head. Logically one should deny the invisible, or change perspective, or imagine what it is and this is what people do – but it does not help.
The human experience, physically and metaphorically, grinds down most of us and some end up as dust sooner than they may have liked. It is all part of being this illusionary entity which changes depending on from which angle it is viewed or imagined. Like Alice in Wonderland, we also can become hopelessly inflated (consider ‘celebrity culture’ and how these souls deal with fame or not) or hopelessly deflated; known presently as mental illness and depression.
Only by overcoming this Tsunamic wave of illusionary experience can humans identify with the ‘still small point’ of spiritual love which they contain. This is the Divinity within them and ironically, is not the ‘small self’ they once believed themselves to be.
What is left after the destruction of the ego by this wave is nothing and something. That something is a small light that somehow avoided being smothered. It has the quality of eternity because it reveals itself as indestructible. It is the ‘love of God’. English expresses this very well because ‘love of God’ implies a two way love between the lover and the beloved. In human love (which is a faint copy of spiritual love) this is known as ‘requited love’.
When human love goes wrong is when the love is not reciprocated. Many stories and enactments on stage and screen, feature this most heart breaking of human conditions.
The golden lining to this cloud however, is that it casts light on how spiritual love is free of the entitlement, judgment and placing of conditions (the marriage contract for instance) that stifles many romances.
Again, the only hope that can arise from this very low point in human history and consciousness, is that from this pit may crawl some who will see the folly of it all. In those few may rise a new society founded on the oldest principles in the Holy Books of ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’. This instruction was given to humanity knowing full well, how weak and pathetic we can become when we are blinded by ego and fail to realise who We truly are.
There is a deadly game of chess being played before the whole world at the moment. Like all chess matches, the out come depends on the ability of both players to see the intentions of the other.
To the casual observer, Hamas control Palestine but it should be remembered that they do not represent the people of Palestine. Their stated aim is to eliminate Israel, but they lack the means to do this. They only have rockets and assault rifles. By any definition, they are a guerrilla army only capable of performing hit and run operations. They have no chance of winning against the larger and better equipped Israeli Defense Force.
But perhaps there is a clue in this ‘David and Goliath’ situation, as to the strategy of Hamas which few commentators have expressed. Most see only a heinous attack on innocent Israelis attending a music festival close to the border with Palestine.
A second clue is that some of those injured, killed and taken hostage by Hamas are from other countries than Israel. Why were multi-national civilians targeted…could it be to call other nations to arms? Will the USA come to collect it’s own, as it always does?
Why have Hamas behaved so provocatively? Taking on Israel’s extreme right wing government is surely madness.
Or is it?
Israel’s principle justification for retaliation is that ‘we have a right to defend ourselves’. Certainly there are those of the Hebrew faith who justify violence, but only in self defense. That part is not in doubt, but then the issue becomes ‘by what means may one defend a country?’ At present it appears that the ‘the end justifies the means’ thinking model (which I covered in a previous blog as a deeply flawed argument), is being used by Israel to react militarily without respect for Palestinian civilians. Why would you take down an entire residential block in order to take out a Hamas cell?
In criminal law, self defense is generally defined as using equal force in response to the attacker but no more; in other words proportionate. It also allows the defender to strike first. Is Hamas defending Palestine or the IDF defending Israel, or both? When did this war begin?
Despite Israel starting from what can only be described as an intelligence failure of Biblical proportions, Israel say they know precisely where Hamas fighters operate from. No doubt Israeli agents, human intelligence sources and proxy parties in Gaza, report daily on which buildings are used for what purpose.
For the last few decades it has been permissible and proportionate for Israeli troops to enter Gaza and the West Bank, and search these places from which Hamas operate. Tactically, they could go in using high quality intelligence, superior numbers and firepower and the element of surprise. They then might work there way floor by floor, room by room engaging in a firefights when taking fire. These are basic anti-terrorist tactics as practiced by Special Forces all over the world. Has this been done by the IDF? Or has Israel developed a conscript army capable only of walking up and down beside fences, sniping at kids throwing stones and controlling road blocks? Partly true perhaps, but it has a professional officer corps who must now lead their troops into the Gaza Strip against a cornered and dug-in militant force on it’s own territory. The IDF need to show the world it can win.
But the use of artillery and missiles to flatten civilian areas of Gaza and medieval siege tactics, indicates that Israel lacks the ability to use proportionate and intelligence led forceto ‘defend itself’.
There is a bigger and more nuanced picture here. Hamas may be extremists using tactics of terror against Israeli civilians, but they know they will never destroy Israel on their own. The ten thousand or so Hamas fighters are not an army capable of open warfare. Instead, in my view, their operations are designed to shock and disgust the whole world. They know precisely how historically Israel will react to hostage taking and murder of their civilian population. In my view, this is what should have made Israel pause and think ‘are we being played here?’
Have Hamas lured Israel into a trap, knowing exactly how to make their enemy go into a rage of self righteousness? Hamas want Israel to respond without regard for civilian life, hospitals and schools in what is often described as an ‘open prison camp’. Hamas are scarily prepared to set up a situation in which innocent Palestinian women and children will be slaughtered without mercy by Israel because, in my view, it intends to shout out a ‘call to arms ‘across the Sunni Muslim and Shia Persian (Iran) countries of the region.
It is obvious that mice do not attack bears unless they have a trick up their sleeve and one trick is that the mice do not care how many non-combatant mice the bear will slaughter. The more the better because the mice know some friendly bears who need to be so outraged that they will join in with the fight.
Presently Hamas sit safe from harm in their tunnels and basements with, I suspect, hidden glee, because the Israeli bear is about to walk into the Bear Pit. Hamas are evil but not stupid. They know that they have friendly armies nearby who are watching closely. Egyptians, for instance, may explode with self righteousness as the pile of Palestinian bodies grows. These are fellow Muslims; brothers and sisters. No more ‘peace be with you’ and ‘Shalom’. This is Old Testament stuff and Joshua will come up to the walls of Jericho once more with his horns and Arc of the Covenant, but this time, to try to destroy Israel.
Hezbollah in Lebanon may join in along with Iran. Egypt might not but who knows? Russia and Syria might. The Muslim countries could make a formidable army of a size not seen since the second world war. This, I believe, is the real aim and strategy of Hamas and to date, everything is going according to plan. Proof of which is gathering of the opposition such as the US Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group (and others) and Amphibious Task Forces positioning currently themselves in the Eastern Mediterranean. Israel can still summon it’s US and Western allies, especially with a U.S. presidential election looming.
But if Israel attracts too much condemnation from U.N. security Council members and other world leaders, it could find it’s status and raison d’etre seriously challenged…as may be prayed for by Hamas. The watching world leaders do not have to side with Hamas when condemning Israel, but they will seek to protect Palestinian civilians, for whom there is has been decades of sympathy worldwide.
The, as yet, unrealised but possible turn of events of this toxic and inflammable political mixture, is the effect of the emergence of a charismatic Islamic leader. These figures pop up at important crossroads in history and this likelihood is no doubt, somewhere in the CIA playlist. Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Hitler…These figure heads gather their military power and come down on their enemies in a whirlwind of destruction. The Muslims are expecting the Iman Mahdi, real or impersonated, and this could be a real factor in forthcoming events.
A Muslim army with a new leader would leave organisations like Hamas and Hezbollah on the sidelines of a global conflagration, such as has not seen for decades. Remember that those who conducted the second World War and knew the importance of avoiding a third at all cost, have now passed on. With that loss, so has much the resolve and memory of politicians to avoid another world war at all costs. That is dangerous.
Another unspoken factor is that the Middle East has a completely different culture to the West and ‘democracy’. Failed foreign interventions, as happened in living memory in Afghanistan and Iraq, show that fighting in a foreign land against religious or political fighters using guerrilla tactics and dictators, distanced from your own country with stretch military supply lines, does not work. Vietnam was the same.
Israel depends largely on the USA for it’s existence and Palestinians on foreign aide.
A ‘two State solution’ depends on peace, fair distribution of land and resources and mutual tolerance. How far we are away from that is subject to debate but it deserves a chance.
Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. When it is hijacked by extremists who use fake moral virtues to hide their real intentions and justify immoral acts, these actions are neither peaceful nor tolerant. Love and tolerance is at the heart of Christian and Jewish religious ethics making reconcilliation an achievable ideal objective with the right leadership; which is not present at the moment.
In my view the way forward for Israel is to punish Hamas using international law rather than the ‘eye for an eye’ spiral of violence that we are witnessing. There is virtue in seeking peace with honour for all sides, but who will make this happen?
We may consider ourselves ‘modern’ but most social scientists today will agree that we operate as members of a tribe. Class distinction is an example. In each class we accept difference of ‘rank’ with alarming credulity. We know that those ‘above us’ may not deserve automatic respect and yet that is the way it is.
Many of the politicians in power today are people who you would think twice to employ to clean the windows of your house, and yet they are tribal ‘chiefs’. So who are these people and why did we hand over our power to them?
The Beggar’s Opera: picture credit The British Libary
There has been a lineage of ‘royal families’ since prehistoric times. In Mesopotamia there was discovered a ‘King’s list’; a long line of Kings stretching back in time. In Ancient Egypt, hieroglyphs name a chronology of the Pharaoh’s who were the mid-point between man and the gods. Power was handed down as a birthright and royal families, including the Roman Caesar’s, accepted incest as a means to maintain the ‘blue blood’.
The problem with monarchs was always that there are good monarchs and bad ones. The self indulgences of dynasties such as the Bourbons in France, were persuasive catalysts to republican revolutionaries.
But what is interesting is the way in which since then, some Republics have morphed back into Monarchy’s. The United States of America is an interesting example. The Pilgrim Fathers were intent on leaving behind the absolute power of the royal families of Great Britain. The original Constitution of the United States of America handed power to the individual. The Freemasons who wrote this, including such figures as Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, did not anticipate how power would slowly return to the president. Today, the President of the United States is given the freedom from prosecution and pomp once only afforded to Kings. If they have an idea they make it law. They are free to write ‘executive orders’ with as much alacrity as Popes write bulls and Monarch’s, decrees.
My point is that however far you try to strip an individual of absolute power, it doesn’t work. The present Presidents of China and Russia are examples of how to ‘eliminate the opposition’, in the same brutal manner as various Caesar’s in Ancient Rome. Today, there are more people living under dictators than democracies.
The only power that ‘the people’ retain is protesting on the streets. Today, many countries ruled by dictators, such as Iran, Myanmar, China, Russia, have had to deal with popular public demonstrations demanding basic rights for the individual. Often their pleas go unheard and their banners are without words.
picture credit: frank-ramspott
In all of these affairs, both of state and in business, there rises to the surface, persons whose suitability as figures of respect, is doubtful at best. Those who seek power over others are almost by definition the least worthy. In democracies, there is no election of those who wish to be even considered as candidates. ‘Running for office’ is left to self promotion and lambasting the opposition; characteristics generally found in the most narcissistic and least worthy personalities.
You may be wondering where this sad description of human self organisation is leading. Well, there has to be a solution to the problem.
In the many native tribes of North America, there was also a system of leadership which was known as ‘Goose Leadership’. A group would sit in a circle and a goose feather would be produced. The rule for the meeting was that only those who held this feather were able to speak.
The result was a collective assurance that if someone had some poor ideas, their influence would not hinder the others for long! Similarly, the inspired suggestions would be recognised and adopted.
The significance of the goose feather is of course, from the instinct of geese to share the lead role in their familiar V-shape flying formation.
What arises here is a noble social structure that is neither strong nor weak, rich nor poor. This is contrary to the binary ideal within other systems of social organisation where only wealth and power gain respect. Between absolute wealth and absolute poverty, there is always a more balanced, middle path.
The Prince Siddhartha Guatama was born in a palace and lived in northern India, with a life of luxury beyond imagination. But he was aware enough to realise that he was unfulfilled by this lifestyle.
He left his life of total sensory satisfaction to become a wandering ascetic and teacher. At one stage this left his body in a most withdrawn and malnourished state and statues sometimes depict him with his rib cage exposed and thin limbs. Aestheticism also did not satisfy him and he finally gave up the search for the right path, by sitting under a tree.
Here he attained enlightenment and the name Budh was applied to him as a form of respect which in it’s masculine form is Buddha, in the same way that Jesus was the Christ.
Buddha, “Awakened One” or “Enlightened One,” is the masculine form of budh (बुध् ), “to wake, be awake, observe, heed, attend, learn, become aware of, to know, be conscious again,” “to awaken” “”to open up” (as does a flower),””one who has awakened from the deep sleep of ignorance and opened his consciousness to encompass all objects of knowledge.”It is not a personal name, but a title for those who have attained bodhi (awakening, enlightenment).Buddhi, the power to “form and retain concepts, reason, discern, judge, comprehend, understand,”is the faculty which discerns truth (satya) from falsehood.
source: Wikipedia
A benign leader is not then, an individual concerned with status and personal wealth. Such a leader will discard these ‘trappings’ as of no value.
Most importantly, I am optimistic enough to believe that the leaders who will emerge for humanity in the near and far future, will have benign, spiritual qualities. They will not live in palaces but be content with a humble dwelling amongst the common people. They will own little, in the manner of the native American people, and be perfectly content.
‘Living by need and not greed’ as Manhatma Ghandi once advised, will become the norm. Many god-less people, used to unsustainable European materialist lifestyles, will have had their day. Their lives will become like those of Kings and Queens of the past who had to be beheaded before they understood their arrogance!
To give up riches and power requires considerable humility, the type present in those who we find begging on the streets. They may not have sought humility, but life – either fairly or unfairly – has brought them to the depths of despair.
We are all capable of beings King’s, as in the goose leadership model. We are also all capable of being beggars. Neither is a sustainable position however, either socially or spiritually. If we are to learn anything from the history of mankind, it is to realise that the ideal place for the individual to be is somewhere in the middle, without pride or greed and with the desire towards the common good for all.
Such a psychological transformation is contained in the concept of the ‘Beggar King’; the one who was once powerful and once the lowest, but has now found a ‘happy medium’; what the Buddha called, ‘The Middle Way’.
It is a curious fact that the experience of each human generation differs considerably from the world that their parents and grand parents experienced. Every twenty five years or so new science and technologies, new social norms, new artistic expression, new language, new opportunities…new everything, replace the old lamps with new.
The Evil Magician’s Deal in the story of Aladdin
Perhaps you know this from your own life experience? Then consider how extraordinary the changes must have been if you multiply a generation by a hundred. You will then be in 500BCE. We know roughly what people around the world were doing at this time but can we hope to understand how they experienced the world? When we think about this and contemplate the art, literature and stories, architecture and engineering, religious expression, military campaigns, and famous leaders, we realise that we really have no idea of what was in their minds. Why should we even expect to understand them?
When we consider the Ancient Egyptians of this time for instance, we know something about the everyday lives of the ordinary people and the aristocratic priests and pharaohs, but their religious and spiritual expressions baffle us.
We can imagine that consciousness of the time was intimately connected with the religious rituals intended to thank and gain the co-operation of the Pantheon of gods. The process produced visible and tangible effects that today we would describe as magical. The really big magic is described as a miracle; performed by saints and prophets.
What miraculous power was contained in the Arc of the Covenant did, for instance; a power that made Moses steal it from the Egyptians? Did he need the Arc to perform miracles such as winning battles against all odds?
The Magic of Heka
For this reason we might describe the Egyptian religion as being a ‘magical science’, in the same way perhaps that owners of mobile phones today interface with magic, for they do not understand how their devices work, only how to use them.
Various religions have always spun into and out of existence all over the world expressing experiences and ideas about the physical and energetic universes that we cannot even imagine today. They shared certain ethics, at least approximately, about treating others as you would like to be treated…but there were darker powers at work. The floors in many Cathedrals andMasonic Halls are black and white squares, in case we need reminding.
At some point in the last few millennium, spiritual disciplines were taken over by the ‘dark side’. The mystery schools of Rome and Greece selected initiates to keep the hidden abilities and powers out of the experience of the general populous, but inevitably this knowledge has leaked to those whose intentions are not honourable.
The Catholic religion persecuted the Jews and Muslims in Spain who said they had converted to Christianity. The Spanish Inquisitions used interrogation and torture to find out if their conversions were sincere. The reader can reflect on other examples of religions who have used evil means to satisfy perverted desires, such as religious wars and the treatment of indigenous peoples by missionaries.
One might ask; what has replaced the desire to worship a benign supreme being?
I would argue that science and scientific method has become the new world religion. The scientist who perhaps started this transition was the great mathematician and physicist, Sir Isaac Newton.
Issac Newton as an Alchemist
He modestly described himself as having the advantage of ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ while others call him ‘the last of the magicians’. Certainly his best scientific work was done before he reached the age of thirty and in his later years he devoted himself to the pseudo-science of Alchemy and interpreting ancient Biblical texts. He never attempted to replace religious truth with scientific truth as they were the same.
But despite this, Newton became the tipping point that has propelled later generations ( including ourselves ) into a more mechanical interpretation of the universe. This we might reflect, is also why we cannot understand our ancestors who lived in a more ‘energetic’ world. Materialism became the new religion and it’s high priests today are scientists and inventors such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. All the miraculous journeys of the mystics to the planets and stars in ancient times are being re-enacted with hydrogen powered rockets and space craft.
Space X Rocket picture credit; Actual News Magazine
But over the centuries this new religion has performed the same split as previous religions. There is ‘good science’ and ‘bad science’; in other words, science has also a branch whose effects are malign. For example, when Albert Einstein realised how his theories contributed to the production of the first Atomic bomb, he is reported to have exclaimed, ‘I wish I had been a plumber.’ Scientists and politicians could have confined the knowledge of the power of the atom to secrecy; just as they did the ideas of ‘free electricity’ described in Nicola Tesla’s technologies, the electric car, the hydrogen engine and the tyre that does not wear out.
Instead the genii was out of the bottle and it will never be able to put back into it. This decision was attempted to be justified as ‘saving thousands of lives by ending the second world war more quickly’. How taking the lives of non-combatant civilians in their tens of thousands and not considering it a war crime is something for history to decide.
If those politicians had considered how the Atom bomb would mould the following centuries and the lives of their children and grand children, they might have anticipated loose canons like Kim Jun Ill in North Korea and the Iranians, gaining the geopolitical power that such weapons bestow.
picture credit; Independent.ie
Just as in Star Wars, the main players have been tempted to use their spiritual powers in malign ways. Right wing politicians of today use the promise of being ‘scientific’ to deceive voters. The use of ‘scientists’ to advise governments in the recent pandemic is an example of this. Most fields of science have a spectrum of members with differing opinions. It is too simple for governments to choose scientists whose ideas support the politician’s agendas.
Another simple example might be when a president of the United States is voted out, he challenges the counting of the votes. Hardly a clever argument since counting is taught in primary school, but such is the force of the personality of Donald Trump, that even after being proven wrong by the various courts and organisations with expertises in the presidential voting process, he still maintains the election was ‘rigged’.
Scientific method has always included the presentation of evidence to support and prove a hypothesis. Those in power today (or who advise the powerful) who have gone over to the dark side, reveal themselves by not presenting proof of what they say.
During the pandemic, advice from ‘experts’ was presented which has since been disproved. Even You Tube now no longer bans references to the high risk group being solely the over 60’s and that vaccinated individuals are as likely to transmit the virus as the non-vaccinated. This would have made a huge difference to how societies reacted to the pandemic as this was known using published scientific statistics from Israel in April 2020.
False science can be summed up as ‘irrational’. Politicians who make irrational statements have a unique advantage over the rational minded; they are very hard to predict and even harder to debate with. They will confuse people so much that reasonable conversation is impossible.
In conjunction with ‘bad ideas’ is the use of dominating personalities to challenge benign ideas and processes. Force does not mean physical violence necessarily, but in the infamous storming of the Capitol Building in Washington, we see that it is a weapon that the high priests of dark science and their followers are willing to use.
picture credit; CBC
This fateful combination of the irrational and force, was fatefully used by many historical figures such as Adolf Hitler and present day leaders such as Vladimir Putin.
It is naïve of opponents to dismiss their irrationality as mental illness, deceit or stupidity. A leader might have all of these characteristics which combined with aggression can overcome the most assertive opponents. Hitler’s own generals were exasperated by his unsound strategic decisions and overpowering personality.
So what are we to do? Should we look on and do nothing?
John Stuart Mill in 1867 in an address to St Andrew’s College said;
“Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject.”
In my view inaction is not an option against present day threats. An example of inaction might be the attitude of the Europeans to Russia’s invasion of Georgia and now Ukraine. If we doubt this then there are warnings from the past that we might heed.
The Georgian Five Day War picture credit; fpri
In 1961 Dwight Eisenhower made the following warning to democracies in his farewell speech from the Whitehouse;
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.”
Perhaps today we could add ‘media’ and ‘pharmaceutical companies’ to the list of those seeking to acquire ‘unwarranted influence’.
The president who succeeded him was John F. Kennedy who warned of the dangers posed to world peace;
“Our goal is not the victory of might but the vindication of right…not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom, here in this hemisphere, and, we hope, around the world. God willing, that goal will be achieved.” –“Radio and Television Report to the American People on the Soviet Arms Build-up in Cuba (485),” October 22, 1962, Public Papers of the Presidents: John F. Kennedy, 1962.
Kennedy was a Catholic and appealed to the Pope to intervene in the Cuban Missile crisis; what you might call a ‘spritual intervention’.
As already explained, from the mystery schools of ancient Greece and Rome to the various secret societies of the present day, techniques in spiritual growth and personal power were taught. The original purpose was, of course, to be one with the Divinity which included a type of magic.
These techniques were based on the use of mind and energy and are the product of strict spiritual discipline. This should not be confused with religion, which is a pale copy for people who do not have the interest, time, stamina, spiritual calling, perseverance, courage or many other special qualities unique to the holy and saintlike beings of our past and present. The spiritual path is followed by a tiny fraction of one percent of the world’s population because it is uniquely demanding. It is the equivalent of the special forces in military organisations and The Knights Templar exemplified how these two areas of human experience have much in common.
Today one might believe the modern Freemason’s are the inheritors of this most secret and powerful knowledge. The face they turn to society is as solely as givers of charity to the needy but one does not have to research too deeply to find that there are other directions that they extend their power.
As in Star Wars, the ‘dark side’ usurps even the most holy, benign and righteous so that power moves from helping the poor and weak to helping the rich and strong. The right wing governments of today reflect this perversion. The predictions of past American presidents are confirmed as we see industry, pharmaceuticals, media, military, governments and oligarchs; support the elites at the expense of truth and freedom for the general population.
The power they use are on the surface is from ‘scientists’ and ‘economists’ but their real power is derived from what one might term ‘super nature’. The Nazi regime in the 1930’s in Germany were greedy to attain supernatural powers. Herman Goering was determined to find the ‘Holy Grail’ as described by Otto Wern and devoted much time and resources to acquiring knowledge on how to make a ‘superhuman’ race, the Aryans. Himmler included witch dances into SS ceremonies seen here in Poland in 1939.
Nazis Secretly Used Witcraft Intending to Extend the Reich
picture credit; Historynet
What we observe today in various governments around the world, is predicated and dictated by a group of leaders who influence and dictate under the general and historical term ‘illuminati’.
To finish on a lighter note, or perhaps more spine tingling, watch very carefully the magicians of today who demonstrate magic for entertainment. They maintain that they are mere illusionists and certainly most of them are. But ask yourself the question, when you see a magician put their hand through glass or lift impossible weights; how much of this is illusion and how much perverted spiritual powers? Then project these thoughts into every part of human society in the twentieth century.
Dynamo the Modern Magus
picture credit; poppytv.sg
Are we watching science or magic? Are we walking in the light or the dark?
As an appendix to this essay a poem by the author…
An avid follower of the ‘language of the birds’ might have noticed that hEaVEn contains the name EVE. There is even an echo of Eve in EdEn.
This oddity is not necessarily meaningful or intentional, but that is not necessary. It’s just satisfying to think in an intuitive way, like the birds that flitter around us for no reason but give us messages; a process known as the language of the birds. There are things we do not hear and hear in the garden.
Hieronymus Bosch
Some feminist friends of mine express the view that mysogeny has it’s roots in the creation story in Genesis. ‘Why is it the woman who disobeys God and eats the apple?’ But to me, as a human being, the gender distinction is another example of how the dualistic mode of thought that started at this very point in time, has created confusion ever since. This dualistic perception is even hard wired into the words we use to describe opposites such as long and short, able and unable, peace and war.
In the Old Testament story about the Tower that was sinfully built in Babel, the consequence is God punishing mankind. This meant that humans no longer understand each other by using one language, but create confusion with multiple languages. If that story was about words then the story of Genesis is God’s punishment making us misunderstand our thought patterns.
And how we think must be far more important than how we speak. I have encountered foreigners who misunderstand me speaking in their language, not because my words were wrong but because they think in a different way. And thinking is not taught in schools. It is assumed children pick up good thinking skills, when there is no reason to assume they will.
Let us find a nice bench and sit for a while in the original Garden of Eden before humans came along. Enjoy a bit of peace. The Biblical creation myth is largely in agreement with the creation according to current earth science; minerals, plants, animals…until, kerpow – a human appears! This is the beginning of the end of a blissful life in the garden (Heaven) because Adam is one of half of what is to become two halves. The garden is singular, the lovers are plural. There are not several gardens all running along the Tigris and Euphrates but just one. This state represents the primal state of mind that spiritual paths aspire towards. For example, in Buddhism the principle ‘All is One’ contains everything anyone needs to know.
A Zen Garden
In Zen Buddhism the master asks the pupil, ‘what is the sound of one hand clapping?’ The question is nonsense and to correct this we might suppose that God had to create Eve, because you cannot have x without y.
The creation story is more a description of a fall into a highly confusing mode of thought which paradoxically is both ‘confusing’ and ‘enlightening’. Confusion and understanding are, after all, directly connected by a continuum you might call ‘knowledge’; they are different aspects of the same thing. But in dualistic thinking patterns we learn to differentiate and name, compare and contrast. There is always ‘this and that’, which is dualism.
In dual thought patterns adjectives are used only to describe the two extremes of the same thing. For example ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are highly relative situations and things and context and consequences can morph each into the other. And yet most people when asked, will say they prefer good to bad. Have they thought about that? The writings and lectures of the late Alan Watts, who studied Christian theology and Eastern philosophy, returns over and over again to the eastern understanding that there are no opposites, only continuities.
Alan Watts picture credit; Stillness Speaks
In applied mechanics, physicists will not fall into a dualistic mode of thought. They will not use the words ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ but only degrees of heat. A fridge is cold because it expels heat. It has no measurable relationship with cold because cold is just a place from where heat has been removed. The amount of heat is indeed a continuum, which we look at every time we view a thermometer, which measures heat – thermo – not cold.
picture credit: Researchgate
There is another well known symbol which illustrates the unity of ‘opposites’ which is the Chinese Ying Yang symbol. The two opposites of black and white, combine harmoniously in the diagram as two fish chasing each others tails. Most importantly each fish contains a little of the other, represented by a black or white eye.
We are told in Genesis that this dualism is a mode of thinking used by God;
‘and God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Light.’ Genesis 1.6
The whole process of ‘naming’ is formalised to describe a creation that was already there, and at the same time, becoming so.
The word of God (ergo ‘god-like’ mankind) is all-powerful, not just revealing but causing something to come into existence. This is the modern conundrum of quantum physics where the tree falls in a forest and the question is posed whether this event happens if there is no observer.
In magick this odd version of reality appears in the word, ABRACADABRA meaning; ‘I will create as I speak.’
The human body has a similar confluence contained in the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Each half has a different function; right is intuitive, left is reasoning. People tend to fall into a bias towards using a half particular to themselves, and we compound this dualism in schools and university degrees, as ‘science’ and ‘art’.
Few realise this is a most unhappy state of mind, or perhaps they do but do not know how to get out of it! When there have been individuals who have learned to use both sides of the brain equally and non-competitively, they bring very special ideas to humanity; so special we call them ‘geniuses’. Leonardo de Vinci, Michaealangelo, Albert Einstein are a few famous examples of the so called ‘renaissance mind’. Thinking back to the introduction to this essay, this is the ‘god-like’ ability imparted to human kind by the Creator.
Albert Einstein, for instance, is famous for realising energy and matter are not different but the same and completely interchangeable using the formula;
e=mc2
– where c is the speed of light – ‘let there be light and there was light’.
Very early Gnostic traditions did not allocate gender to the ‘God-head’ or ‘consciousness’ or ‘mind’ or however you wish to understand the creative consciousness that unraveled as the Universe. And we might add existed before and after creation since there is no ‘before’ and ‘after’ in non-dualism. (Scientists are only now coming around to the idea that the ‘big bang’ was an end as well as a beginning as described for millenniums in the Hindu Upanishads.)
The Ouroboros Tree
The never ending cosmic cycles and the unity of everything is represented in alchemical manuscripts as the snake forming a circle as it bites it’s own tail. Everything becomes a snake with no head and no tail. A snake is a continuum and of course this consciousness was prior to and initiated, dualistic thought and the contradictions that emanated as a consequence of adopting it.
Every time we spin a coin in the air and ask ‘heads or tails?’ we are a mind locked into the
‘either / or’ mode of thinking.
The key that opens this lock is the word ‘both’. You will often hear in interviews on the radio the journalist asking, ‘is it this or that?’ and the respondent answers, ‘both’. The question is a trap and people who know their subject (which they usually do if they are on national radio) have no problem with contradiction – or rather the illusion of a ‘contradiction’. They then go onto to describe all the aspects of the same problem including the two options contained in the question.
Those who do not understand this, fall into the elephant trap of ‘left politics’ or ‘right politics’ and are unwilling ever to change their bias. In medieval terms ‘they are in Hell’ because they will never understand the totality of what is going on and therefore how to influence affairs and events for the better of all.
And we should remember that the snake in Genesis was coiled around ‘The Tree of Knowledge’. Eve explained to the snake that the tree in the center of the garden they were forbidden to eat from on pain of death.
‘And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye, shall not surely die:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.’ Genesis 3/4
From a purely objective point of view, the snake was right. This truly was the effect of eating the apple. The issue was that eating it was against the will of God. At that moment, it could be argued, Eve was unaware of why God had ordered this as she was in a state of ignorance of the ‘opposites’; she was in blissful ignorance, quite literally. So she can hardly be blamed for not conceiving that knowing good and evil is a liberating but problematic change in human consciousness. It brought god-like power to humans and if we look back at history; it really did.
Humans have used their creative imagination to take to pieces and put back again in new ways, everything we know. It has been a far from easy path as God points out in the following passages of Genesis.
‘Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken’.
No longer would grapes fall from the tree into the mouth but toil and hardship would be the lot of humans as punishment.
Joni Mitchell – picture credit; Reverbnation
There came a hippie moment in the 1960’s where ‘rules’ were at last questioned and even abandoned. At the legendary festival of Woodstock, there was a young singer;
We are stardust, we are golden. And we’ve got to get ourselves. Back to the garden. Joni Mitchell – from the song ‘Woodstock’.
Fortunately, getting back to the garden is not impossible. Like all paths this particular human history of which we are all so proud, will lead us back to the beginning again. All directions are the correct directions to take, all mistakes are ultimately correct. If and when we stop dissecting everything, including our own thoughts, we will discover the original state of bliss, second time around.
I do not normally watch football matches. The reason is simply that I find them slow and the match result often unsatisfying. More on this later. One the other hand I can be persuaded to watch any sport where England takes part in a sporting final and where there is a high likelihood of a match of equals.
So I sat down to watch the European Final of Womens Football 2022 last night. History, we were told, was about to be made.
But first, some game theory. Many games simulate military strategy and football is no different. Each side has an area to defend. The resources of each side are matched with no particular advantage to either other than their own esprit de corps, skill and strategy. With these resources, the sides must defend at the same time and with the same force, as attack.
What happens when one side is considerably less skilled and less determined in it’s aim than the other…is that the more skilful side wins convincingly.
This gives rise to a certain inevitability as to the outcome giving the supporters and participants of the losing side enormous disappointment. Their expectations of winning were shown to be based on false confidence in their own ability.
This is why sides which are equal in every way, provide the greatest challenge to the players and entertainment to the supporters.
The game of football, however, provides a disappointing set of rules that restricts uncertainty and the excitement that comes from the expectation of gaining a winning advantage at any moment.
What works most against football being entertaining, is the system of low scoring. A 0-0 result is not uncommon and only slightly better is a draw of say 1-1. Ideally a score should reflect the skill of a side as closely as possible and in low scoring games, it is unlikely to do this. In fact sometimes the better side may lose due to some random misfortune such as an injury or poor refereeing decision, giving rise to indignation amongst players and supporters; the phenomenon of a ‘pitch invasion’ by angry supporters must happen more in football than any other sport.
If we examine how well high scoring games reflect the process of a match and outcome, such as tennis or cricket or snooker, players have a chance to change the course of the game almost every time they touch the ball. The better player or side will almost certainly be identified by the final score and both sides feel fair play has taken place.
Compare this with football, where much of the play and touch of the ball results in no particular advantage to either side. Players often kick the ball back into their own area rather than forward. They engage in a series of safe passes in which the ball moves between players of the same side with little risk of losing possession. During this time the grass grows another micro millimeter.
Losing possession is not even a great disadvantage to either side. Goal keepers regularly kick the ball away high in the air with only limited accuracy as to where it is going to land. The opposing side might intercept the landing with a header which is so uncontrolled that possession changes side yet again.
The prospect of the ball moving around the pitch in this manner gives no reward to either side. Players compensate for their frustration by taking a risk of injury to themselves or other players, with aggressive tackles. The result is that play stops whilst a fallen party rolls around theatrically on the ground in order for the referee to take the matter more seriously than is warranted. Medical teams are permitted to run onto the pitch to give ‘treatment’ that in olden days consisted of squeezing a wet sponge over an affected area and today consists of more elaborate physiotherapy, ICU teams and trauma psychologists.
So the game stops and starts with as much randomness as a demolition ball and certainly not as interestingly. At the end of 45 minutes of nothing, both sides rush off as if they need a break. During this time supporters argue or fight or get more drunk, and players are given a victory talk by their coaches and managers and anyone else who happens to be in the dressing room, telling them all to ‘work together as a team’ and ‘get the ball in the back of the net’.
At the end of another 45 minutes of lawn care, neither side has managed to kick the ball into the exceedignly large space enclosed by the goal posts. One almost gets the feeling that even if the opposing side was not present, a team working on it’s own to move the ball from one end of the pitch to the other and then between the goal posts, would find the challenge irritatingly difficult.
At the end of the game one side may have by some fluke, scored a goal and this sometimes unearned (even an own goal), event is considered enough in the Football Association rule book, to warrant deciding which is the better side.
Sweet FA
In the likely event of a draw, the most frustrating spectacle of a ‘penalty shoot out’ is commenced. Each side takes it in turns to stand right in front of the goal posts and kick the ball past the goal keeper. The success of this depends largely on randomness on behalf of the boot of the player, the arrangement of worm-casts, damage to the pitch over the penalty taking position, the strength and direction of the wind, the strength, height and direction of the sun, the clarity of mind of the players ( after brain damage caused by heading the ball too frequently in their career ) the clarity of mind of the goal keeper who has to guess which way the kicker is going to kick, and the conflicting chants of two opposing tribes of supporter.
In order for any game to avoid such a spectacle of chance to ‘decide’ the result of previous vain and worthless endeavours, I strongly suggest that a new system of continuous assessment is introduced.
This means that points will be awarded more often.
So to improve football certain changes might occur;
Use a point based system instead of counting goals.
Award 3 points for a goal, 2 for a corner and 1 for a side throw or hitting one of the football posts and horizontal bar by skill or fluke. This will keep the ball in play and the game moving and require skill and concentration.
Increase the size of the goal or remove the goal keeper completely.
Reduce or increase the number of players. For instance there could be one additional player coming on for each side every ten minutes. After half time players leave the pitch in the same way.
Change the size of shape of the ball. A ball as large as the players would be hilarious if nothing else.
Change the number of balls. Two balls could be in play at the same time, or twenty.
Allow hitting the ball with a fist instead of the head (to preserve brains)
Break the game down into more parts as in tennis, so that an uneven number of wins is required of sub parts of the game rather than have just the one result.
Permit obstacles on the pitch such as sand pits and water holes and or circus perfomers.
Give each player a giant inflatable hammer with which to hit each other.
There are no doubt many other variations to the rules of football that would create far greater entertainment. The key change to make however is to get rid of the unsatisfactory scoring system.
Games are invented by mankind and not received from God, and should never be subject to dogma. It’s okay to change / improve the rules.
People who resist change it is said, are willing to accept change only so long as the new version is the same as the old.
Flippant? Not really. Consider how after centuries of having male only matches, females are now also playing the game of football. Trouble is, it’s just more of the same.
Flippant? Then consider that football in this analogy illustrates how the human mind is resistant to change even when a particular mode of human behaviour and rules is clearly in need of improvement. Then, when change is finally accepted, it is often no change at all but the similitude of change.
There is a city plan used by the Romans which is a circle divided vertically and horizontally into four sections. The divisions form streets aligned to the four points of the compass.
The circular form aligned to the cardinal directions had been used by many other cultures before, most notable being the great Henge’s found around the world. Research into these has revealed their astronomical alignments predicted precisely the solar, lunar and stellar cycles. The motivation for understanding these cycles was to appease the instinctive and intuitive desire to be in harmony with nature. Ancient civilisations depended on the cycles of nature for their next meal and their most holy festivals.
There are four principle solar annual events; the equinoxes and solstices. Using the solar calendar the winter solstice occurs in December, the summer solstice in June, the spring equinox in March and the autumn equinox in September; on around 21st and 22nd days of these months.
These correspond with four sacred festivals that originate in ancient times and are celebrated to this day, even if they have morphed from their origins.
In the most simple way we can divide the six months from September to March as being ‘winter’ and the subsequent months as ‘summer’. There are six months of ‘darkness’ and six months of ‘light’ in the broadest of terms.
In the myths of ancient Greece and Rome, the goddess Aphrodite or Venus lived in the light or ‘Heaven’ and Persephone in darkness or ‘Hades’. Both were in love with Adonis and appealed to Zeus to decide how they could share him. His decree was that they should have him for six months of each year.
Aphrodite – picture Smithsonian Magazine
The figure of Adonis is in this way critical to understanding the importance of the movement of the seasons in ancient times. Nature lived and died quite literally, as did their harvests, from these forces. If the harvests failed, famine turned nature and cities into wastelands.
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
memory and desire, stirring
dull roots with spring rain
The Wasteland – The Burial of the Dead – (opening lines) by T.S. Eliot
This uncertainty placed enormous importance for people to give proper respect to the ‘gods’ and nature through ritual worship.
Within the solar year are overlaid the twelve ‘moons’ or months within each solar cycle. The phases of the moon and sun combined were known then and to this day, to govern the process from seed to harvest. This is naturally between spring and autumn, the exact length of this season being determined by latitude. Nevertheless, the spring equinox is a date used today to fix the date of the festival of Easter. This is the Sunday after the first full moon after the 21st or 22nd March, proving the importance of the moon combined with the sun in their influence for humans and everything on earth.
We know this because of the plethora of ancient gods and goddess whose lifespans fitted into these celestial cycles. Because spring is the ‘rebirth’ of nature there are corresponding stories incorporating the ‘death and resurrection’ cycle. In the Christian calendar this is known as ‘Easter’ but it is known that that the goddess Astarte preceded this in the ancient Near East. Much later Ostara ( medieval Germanic) gave rise to the traditional Easter symbols of the moon gazing hare and eggs.
Ostara by Johannes Gehrts
What is less well known in our current times is the antithesis of this ‘spirit of new life’. There is a tradition of the deaths of various ancient gods and goddesses at this time; the goring of Adonis by a boar, Dionysus with the first leaves from grape vines, the rape of Persephone and the death of Hyacinthus. Each of these however is given a heavenly reprieve by a resurrection. Adonis was turned into a Myrtle tree, Persephone released from Hades for six months of the year and Hyacinthus turned into a spring flower, the Hyacinth by Apollo – the Solar deity.
Apollo and Hyacinth – picture Wikiart
It was natural therefore when the Roman Church fixed the date for the death and resurrection of the Christ Jesus, to choose the beginning of spring in the celestial manner described above. The church fathers did not need to know about the strong and balanced influence of the sun and full moon at this time of year, but relied upon the old method of supplanting old ways with a new religion using the previous festivals.
Adonis is an interesting mythological character as for many scholars his festival occurred in spring. In the city of Byblos (in modern Lebanon) where he was born and worshipped, the river ran red each year with the spring rains mixed with red earth. This fertility symbol and literal fertility for the fields, remind us of the menstrual cycle in women, bearer of eggs; nature’s cycle is the same as the human cycle.
And yet, according to Rudolph Steiner in his lecture on Easter*, the ‘Festival of Adonis’ was celebrated at the time of the autumn equinox rather than spring.
(*available on You Tube)
Numerous ancient temples (the Great Temple of Abu Simbel, Egypt) and dolmens (New Grange, Ireland), are aligned to allow the solstice rays of sun to penetrate an entrance passage into a womb like chamber and fill it with life giving light.
Abu Simbel solar solstice – picture La Vanguardia
Steiner describes the ‘Feast of Adonis’ as being conducted by women in pagan societies. They would sow seeds like cress, on a thin layer of soil in a broken pot shard. After tending them during the spring, the summer drought would kill the plants. After two days of ceremonial mourning, these were ceremonially processed on the third day to the sea or a nearby lake to be immersed as an ‘image’ of Adonis. Adonis is therefore a tragic god who is ‘born to die’ as much later was written into the story of the Christ Jesus. Further evidence is contained in Sir James Fraser’s prodigious work The Golden Bough (an anthropological study of Mediterranean religions) claiming the Jesus is a fertility god in the lineage of Adonis.
The Entrance Stone to the Garden Tomb – picture Inspiration Cruises and Tours
The references to dying processes taking three days, is described by Steiner as being a reference to an ancient understanding of the human dying process which also takes three days. The first day completes the death of the physical body, the second the ‘ether’ body and the third the ‘astral’ body. This is an theosophical categorisation similar to the ‘body, soul and spirit’ of the Hermeticists or ‘animal, vegetable and mineral’ of the Idealists. Either way, man and nature take three days for the process of dying or ‘transitioning’.
It is a fact that the dying sun the during winter solstice, stops moving on the horizon for three days, before the days lengthen again. The circular stone rolled over the tomb in which the body of Christ Jesus was moved after a similar number of days, referencing him to be a solar deity; a ‘sun of God’.
The true dates of the life of Christ are not stated in the Bible, although there are a few clues. If we are persuaded to imagine the nativity to take place in the winter, then there are suggestions that state otherwise. The first is that shepherds were out in the fields at night, indicating that they were ‘lambing’ – a season that all farmers know. A ‘census’ of people is unlikely to be held in the dark and cold winter months for practical reasons; the Romans were practical administrators. The ‘star in the east’ is likely to be Venus which is well known by agricultural communities, to rise in the early morning in the East in the spring.
Nastrium Egg – picture The Ornament Emporium
Finally, it is curious how men travelling east were following a star appearing in the east. It is probably, in my view, that this information is coded and the direction east indicates a time of year rather than direction of travel; after all, their direction of travel is not important information to progress the story and a good story teller would omit this. It is only included to complete the sub-narrative.
The east road of the city is of course corresponding to spring on the solar calendar and the time of year you would expect a ‘sun god’ to be born. So, whether the ‘Christ Mass’ is held in the winter, spring, summer or autumn is open to interpretation and would not be contradicted by the Bible.
What modern observers would do well to recognise is not the dogma but the symbolism of the Christian churches. The ‘mass’ is confidentially encouraging congregations to drink blood and eat human flesh on the solar day of the week whilst facing the rising sun.
For me, the symbols are only partly transcendent, as we feel in the energy of spring, while carrying more than a hint of the macabre death and the dying sun/son.
That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
poem: The Wasteland 1922 – The Burial of the Dead – T.S. Elliot
Most people have some idea of what a prayer is. They will either pray on the basis of this belief or not. In the West young people are encouraged to pray in school and in some families at home as well. But as common as prayer is, I believe the question is rarely asked, ‘how does it work?’
I do not believe that prayer is a method of ‘getting things’ for yourself. It might be appealing to keep ‘requests to God’ as a back stop to failure in life, but that was never part of the deal with the Almighty. If we remember Genesis, part of the punishment for obtaining knowledge is freewill. That is, if we foul up it’s entirely our fault.
The Arabs have a saying; ‘Trust in God but tie up your camel first’. So when people ask the question, ‘how could God let this happen?’ they are imagining a perfect universe in which God is an autocratic ruler. That would be simple, but turning oneself into a victim and apportioning blame outside of oneself is a philosophy doomed to disatisfaction. It should be comon sense that camels will walk off on their own if not tied to a palm tree. We are responsible for our own actions and that was always the deal.
If you can agree with this philosophy of personal account and blameworthyness, then it is easy to adjust to the reality that God will not respond to prayers asking for earthly personal rewards. To an intellectual where words are all that there is, this is an unsatisfactory state of affairs. They might become so frustrated by the lack of answers that they form the conclusion that ‘there is no God’. It’s logical but of course, logic does not run the Universe. If it did there would be no access to and need for spirituality.
In my own view and probably others, prayer does create change but an inward change, not outward. If you examine the palmed hands and prostration and kneeling common to many religions, it is obvious that a submissive posture and quiet mind is paramount to effective prayer. The effect of this is like plucking a guitar string in one room and somewhere else another guitar string chimes in sympathy. This is the resonant universe in which all things are connected quiet naturally and without effort. In this way, I argue, we are connected to the all powerful Creator God however you imangine that ‘Mind’ to be.
If you look at sacred imagary throughout history, minor gods and angelic forms are depicted carrying and playing musical instruments. The classic example is angels with harps, flutes and even reeds in the wind are metaphors for resonance between God and the physical world.
Prayer, in any religion, can have the effect of stilling the human mind and spirit to become in harmony with the God-self, that is the tiny part of the Creative Mind within ourselves. This is hidden reason why Muslims are required to pray five times a day, to keep the inner Divine strings humming constantly.
Resonance, to paraphrase the prophet of Islam, Mohammed, (sas) can move mountains.
Tibetan monks in 1939 were recorded by Kjellson levitating huges rocks up a mountainside to build a monastery. They used the power of their long musical horns arranged in a specific pattern and backed by rows of humans in prayer.
By becoming One with the Universe we can create events that we want. This is part of the paradoxical nature of being alive in which a human with freewill can direct that freewill to union with the Creator of freewill and thus a ‘connection’ that is not connected…as in two strings vibrating in harmony.
So we move on to miracles. I said at the begining that prayer is not a means to get what we want. That was not quite true because there is an exception and that is miracle making. There are rare moments (and by that I mean very rare) where Divine intervention at a resonant level as described, can make a humble individual ‘all powerful’.
Jesus the Christ was revered for his miracles, some of which are described quite literally in the Holy Bible and some allegorically. An example of a literal miracle is raising Lazarus from the dead, something Jesus was taught to do by the gnostics of the time. An example of an allegorical miracle would be turning water into wine. In the old testament we have the Israelites being chased by the mighty Egyptian army and trapped by the Red Sea. One faithful follower entered the waters and started to walk. At the point where his head went under water the seas parted.
So if we ignore the allegorical stories about miracles as having another purpose, we can see the common theme that real miracles happen when an individuals or a collective’s very existence is in danger of extinction. It may not happen at a time and in accordance with human desire.
Delay and misdirection are caused by the impurity of our human resonance with God, not the other way around. As the old saying goes, ‘the pot always calls the kettle black’. So the sooner we stop ignoring or doubting His prescence within each one of us, the sooner our lives will change.
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